LinieBaru: ObsessionIF: 04 (Patreon)

I had said that I would be uploading like 2/3 times a month; it's not even been 30 days and we already have 4 chapters.

Subaru sat on the stool in front of the bed and looked at Stark for a long time without speaking. The morning light came through the window and touched the side of his face. She watched the way it rested on his skin and the way his eyes stayed half closed from the lack of sleep. She wanted him to understand that the feeling inside her chest was real. She wanted him to see that every choice she made now pointed toward him and only him. The problem was that she could not speak about the loops. Every time the words started to form in her mind something cold and invisible grabbed her heart and squeezed it until the air left her lungs. The pain forced the words back down. She had tried once during the night and the squeeze had left almost left her dead but she had refused to give in and spoke. No one can force her to not share their sweet moments with Stark.

She leaned forward a little and spoke in a quiet voice.

"Stark, I really really love you. What can I do to prove it?"

Stark stared at her with a blank face for several seconds. Then his expression shifted into a wide goofy smile as if he had just won a large bag of gold coins in a village lottery. The smile stretched across his face and made him look almost boyish despite the bandages and the chains.

"It is easy. Break your horns."

Subaru blinked once and then again. "My horns?"

"Yes, of course. Frieren says demons brag about their horns and mana. So if you really love me, you will do this thing anyways, right? That is of course you can do, if only."

He kept smiling in that same goofy way. Inside his head he was certain she would refuse. No sane demon would cut off the source of their pride and power just because a human asked. Even a demon who seemed a little unhinged still clung to those horns. He expected her to laugh or to change the subject or to get angry. He waited for the refusal that would prove she was still the same creature who had fought him in the forest.

Subaru considered his words for a long moment. She looked at the way his smile stayed fixed on his face and the way his eyes watched her with quiet expectation. The idea of cutting her own horns did not frighten her. The horns belonged to the body she had woken up inside. They were not part of the person she had been in her old world. If removing them would make Stark believe her then the choice felt simple. She smiled back at him and the goofy expression on his face disappeared in an instant.

"Of course I will. If that is what you want."

Stark sat up straighter against the wall. The chains rattled as his body tensed. He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. 

Subaru lifted one hand and a short beam of blue light appeared in her palm. The thing looked like a small sword made of pure light. It measured about eight inches from the hilt that formed in her fingers to the glowing tip. Dense mana radiated from it in warm waves that filled the space between them. Stark had never seen anything like it. The light hummed with a soft sound and the air around it felt charged.

Subaru closed her eyes and prepared for the pain. She moved the short lightsaber in one smooth motion toward the base of the horn on the left side of her head. 

The glowing edge touched the hard surface and began to—

Stark watched in absolute horror. 

The chains on his wrists suddenly felt too light and too fragile. Something inside him snapped. He did not think about the metal or the magic that held it. He simply pulled with all the strength left in his arms and the wall behind the bed frame cracked open with a loud crash. Pieces of stone and wood fell to the floor. The chains broke free from their anchors and the loose ends swung around his wrists like heavy bracelets.

He lunged forward and grabbed her wrist with both hands. The force of his grip stopped the lightsaber before it could finish the cut. Only a shallow groove marked the surface of the horn. He held her arm so tightly that her fingers opened and the glowing blade vanished at once.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Stark yelled at her.

Subaru stared at him with wide eyes. “I… I must prove it to you… that I really… love you.”

“It's okay! I believe you!”

The sudden stop left her breathless. 

Then her eyes filled with tears that spilled down her cheeks in thick streams. She dropped the empty hand and threw both arms around his neck. She hugged him with all the strength in her body and cried against his shoulder. The sound of her sobs filled the room. Hot tears soaked into the fabric of his shirt and the bandages underneath. Her whole body shook against him.

Stark sat frozen with his arms still half raised. He had no idea what to say. The moment did not feel like a trap set by a clever demon. It did not feel like an enemy trying to lower his guard. It felt like someone whose mind had cracked in places he could not see and whose heart had broken in ways that left her willing to destroy the very things that made her strong. He could feel the wetness of her tears and the desperate way her fingers clutched the back of his shirt. He let her stay like that for now. His own breathing came hard from the sudden effort of breaking the wall. The loose chains hung from his wrists and clinked softly every time he shifted.

In the corner of the room the priest had been watching the entire exchange with growing panic. When the wall shattered and stone dust filled the air his legs gave out. 

Seriously? What's going on? 

His eyes rolled back and he fainted straight to the floor with a dull thud. Neither Subaru nor Stark paid him any attention. She kept crying into Stark's shoulder and he kept sitting there with his arms loose at his sides while the morning light continued to move across the broken stones on the floor.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘ 🫀 ⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Stark had arrived at the conclusion that this demon named Subaru was indeed in love with him or at least she believed with every part of her mind that the feeling she carried was love. The broken wall in the other room still showed the force he had used to stop her from cutting her own horns and the way she had cried against his shoulder afterward left little room for doubt about how deep that belief ran. 

Currently they sat in the kitchen of the church around a plain wooden table. The priest occupied the chair across from Stark and looked extremely exhausted and sad. Dark circles marked the skin under his eyes and his hands rested limp on the table surface as if the weight of the last day had drained every drop of energy from his body. 

Subaru stood near the counter with her back mostly turned toward them. She had conjured a set of strange tools with her magic. Metal pans that heated themselves without fire appeared in the air and settled on the counter. A long blade that never needed sharpening hovered near her hand until she grasped it. Small containers of ingredients she had gathered earlier floated within easy reach. She moved between them with focused attention while she prepared something she claimed would prove she came from another world.

The food she she was cooking was unlike anything this world produced yet. She mixed flour and water into a soft dough that rose higher and lighter than any bread Stark had seen in villages. She sliced vegetables into thin pieces that kept their bright color even under heat. A piece of meat sizzled in one of the self heating pans and released a smell that mixed savory and slightly sweet notes in a way no local cook managed. Over the finished bread she planned to spread a thick white substance she had created by combining eggs and oil with a few drops of something sharp that made the priest wrinkle his nose from across the room. 

The entire process filled the kitchen with scents that felt both familiar and completely new. Stark watched her work and felt a strange mix of curiosity and caution. The tools she used hummed with quiet mana and the precision of her movements showed a skill that did not belong to any demon he had fought before.

While she cooked Stark turned his attention to the priest and tried to start a conversation that might give him useful information.

"Um, so, where is this place?"

The father did not answer at first. He wiped sweat from his face with the edge of his sleeve and kept his eyes fixed on the table as if looking at Stark might bring more trouble.

Subaru glanced over her shoulder and raised her voice. "He asked you a question!"

The priest shook hard enough that his chair creaked. Stark felt guilty for putting the man in this position again. The poor fellow had already fainted once and spent hours under constant fear. Still the information mattered.

The father swallowed and spoke in a trembling voice. "A-alt woods. It is a village in Alt woods."

Stark raised his eyebrows in genuine surprise. "Wow really? That is so far away from Graf Garant's Domain."

Subaru looked back at them with a smug expression that lit up her entire face. "Of course I had to carry you away to some safe place."

She returned to her cooking but the pride in her voice lingered in the air. Stark processed the distance. Alt woods lay many days of travel from the places he knew. The journey on foot would have taken weeks yet she had flown him here in a single night. The thought of that strength mixed with the memory of her tears and made the situation feel even stranger.

He decided to push a little further while she still seemed willing to talk. "I have a question, Subaru."

She kept stirring something in a pan but answered without turning around. "Yes?"

"Why was Graf Garant's domain unsafe for me?"

Subaru paused in her work and looked at him as if he had asked the most obvious question in the world. For a brief second Stark felt the old tension return as if she might attack him for sounding foolish. Instead she replied in a calm tone that carried complete certainty.

"They would take you away from me. I had to."

Of course she would think that way. In her mind the entire domain and everyone who lived in it existed only as a threat to the bond she had decided to form. Frieren and Fern and any other ally became obstacles rather than help. The idea that people might search for him out of care never entered her thoughts. She saw only the risk of separation and acted to prevent it. Stark understood the logic even while he disagreed with every part of it. The same focus that made her willing to cut her own horns also made her willing to drag him across half the continent without asking what he wanted.

She finished the last steps of the cooking and carried a plate to the table. She set it down directly in front of Stark. The dish looked like a very soft piece of bread split open and filled with a careful arrangement of cooked vegetables, a tender piece of meat and a thick layer of that strange white substance spread across the top. Steam rose from it in gentle waves and the smell made his stomach tighten with unexpected hunger. 

He felt skeptical about eating something so unfamiliar. The white substance especially looked odd and he could not identify half the vegetables. At the same time the way Subaru stood beside the table and watched him with intense expectation left little choice. If he refused she might decide the refusal meant rejection of her feelings and the results of that decision could turn dangerous for everyone in the room. 

He lifted the soft bread with both hands. The texture felt tender under his fingers almost like it might fall apart if he squeezed too hard. He brought it close to his mouth and forced himself not to think about poison or hidden magic. He took a careful bite.

Time seemed to stop while everyone stared at him. The priest leaned forward slightly as if waiting for convulsions or foam at the mouth. Subaru held her breath and kept her eyes locked on his face.

Stark chewed once and then again. His eyes widened. The priest tensed and thought this must be the moment the poison took hold. Instead Stark swallowed and spoke aloud in clear surprise.

"This is very delicious."

The words hung in the kitchen air. Subaru's face transformed with pure happiness. A bright smile spread across her features and she clasped her hands together in front of her chest as if the praise meant more than any treasure. 

The priest slumped back in his chair with a mixture of relief and lingering fear. Stark took another bite and found the combination of soft bread savory meat crisp vegetables and the creamy white substance even better the second time. The flavors blended in a way no campfire meal or village inn had ever managed. He finished half the portion before he remembered the man sitting across from him.

Stark looked at the priest and made a simple suggestion.

"You should try some of this. It really is good."

Subaru's happy expression changed at once. She shook her head firmly and spoke with sharp possession in her voice. "No. I only made it specifically for you. Only for you. Not for anyone else."

The priest raised both hands in a quick gesture of refusal. "It is fine. I do not want to eat. Truly. I am not hungry."

Subaru glanced at the priest with a slight frown as if the refusal itself offended her even though she had just forbidden him from tasting the food. She said nothing more but the small shift in her posture showed the offense clearly.

Stark decided not to question the matter any further. Who knew what might happen if he pushed and she decided the priest had insulted her cooking or her right to decide who received the meal. He continued eating the rest of the dish in silence while Subaru returned to the counter and began cleaning the strange tools she had conjured. The priest stayed perfectly still in his chair and stared at the table surface as if it might offer some escape from the situation. 

The kitchen remained quiet except for the soft sounds of Subaru putting things away and the occasional clink of the loose chains that still hung from Stark's wrists. He finished the last bite and set the empty plate down. The taste lingered pleasantly on his tongue and for a brief moment the entire strange day felt almost ordinary. 

Then he looked at Subaru's satisfied expression and remembered how close she had come to cutting off her own horns that morning.