Chapter 7: Great Rebellion, Second Empire... (Patreon)

"Huh?"

Subaru Natsuki was practically on fire with enthusiasm, but Felt just sagged, shoulders drooping, staring at him with a flat, done-with-this-nonsense expression.

"Hey, mister, do you actually get what's been happening here? I came to pick a fight with you. A fight, not a confession, damn it! Why are you acting all warm and motherly like you're trying to win me over?!"

"I know that." Subaru blinked, pounding his fist into his palm, more confused about why Felt was hesitating at all. "You never actually went through with it anyway, so what's the problem? Come on, do it already—I can't wait!"

"Subaru Natsuki's path to conquest starts right here, right now!"

"What kind of conqueror lets himself get pushed around like some pushover..."

Felt laughed weakly. She really had lost this one. Honestly, this guy was just a soft-headed idiot who was way too easy to take advantage of. She wanted to scream some sense into this naive fool—thinking like that would get you killed in this world.

This world was cruel, after all.

But looking at his ridiculously stupid, grinning face, she found herself, for some reason, just huffing along with him, and actually starting to seriously consider his outlandish proposal.

"You said you want to remake the slums. How exactly?"

"Heh heh heh, that's a trade secret."

Subaru got all mysterious, acting like he was worried about eavesdroppers through the walls, and waved Felt closer. Half annoyed and half amused, she leaned in anyway, pouting, ear tilted toward him. "What is it? If this turns out to be a bust, I'm going to beat you black and blue!"

"Magic tricks. That's the secret."

Here it comes—my favorite thing, showing off in front of an audience!

The corner of Subaru's mouth curled up so far it was almost a manic grin. The thought that he was pulling off a classic power move made him swell with satisfaction. Finally, he'd get to enjoy the good stuff. Cliché, sure, but you had to flex when you got the chance!

What was the point of coming to another world if you didn't get to show off?!

Felt tilted her head, puzzled, looking every bit like a confused kitten. "Magic tricks?"

"I've got a whole hand of good cards to play. Once I teach everyone in the slums, this place is going to become the one and only city of magic in the entire world. After that, the tips will just come rolling in, however much we want. Heh heh, just you wait and see!"

The past three days had been spent running all over apologizing and repaying debts, but as a side effect, Subaru now had a pretty solid grasp of the royal capital as a whole.

Magic existed here, sure, but almost nobody made a living off it, and the variety was limited. Earth, on the other hand, had thousands of years of magic tricks refined and reinvented over and over—stuff that was basically unknown territory here.

Mysterious. Novel. In other words, it had huge entertainment value and rarity.

And Subaru knew every single one of those tricks.

Because online, plenty of famous magicians ran accounts where they broke down the principles and even the full execution of all kinds of tricks, walking their audiences step by step through learning and practicing them.

Subaru, who loved obscure knowledge, had of course watched every single one of those videos. And naturally, he'd also memorized all sorts of trivia about star signs, their puns, their symbolism, and everything in between.

Of course, a magic show could never do without props and an assistant. An assistant could be trained—but you couldn't fake props. The moment Subaru thought of this weak point, he tensed up. "Hey, speaking of which, is there anyone around here who's good with their hands, who can make all sorts of handmade props?"

"—Not my problem!"

Felt let out a faint squeak. Subaru's leaning in close had brushed against her ear, which was already ticklish from the breath of his words, and now it went completely red, the color spreading a little into her cheeks too, like a faint sunset glow.

Small as she was, Felt tilted her head back to glare up at him, stamping her foot hard, grinding her teeth, her sharp gaze sweeping over him as if she were sizing up exactly which of his major arteries she wanted to sink her teeth into.

"What do you want?" Subaru flinched like some browbeaten housewife, clutching his neck and stumbling back in fright.

"Hmph!"

Felt tossed her head with a cold snort and, in the end, let him off the hook, spinning around and walking off.

"Eh?" Subaru's head drooped, dismayed. "Where are you going?"

Don't tell me you've abandoned our shared dream of making the slums great again, Felt!

Felt glanced back, shooting him a vicious glare. "I already said we need to find someone good with their hands. Why are you just standing there like an idiot? Seriously, what a waste of however many years you've been alive!"

Ugh, what a troublesome, prickly kid.

Subaru scratched his head. Still, troublesome as she was, she was genuinely cute. Among kids her age, she was pretty much top-tier. He had a soft spot for good kids who weren't actually bad at heart!

Er, though Felt probably didn't really count as a kid anymore.

Seeing that Felt was clearly starting to cooperate—even taking the initiative to lead the way and find someone—Subaru happily hurried to catch up. Behind him, Ton, Chin, and Kan trudged along the whole way, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, saying nothing, dutifully playing the role of loyal underlings.

No way around it—neither Subaru nor Felt was someone they could afford to provoke. Best not to rock the boat.

As for where they were headed next, the three of them had a rough idea. The main reason Felt commanded so much respect in the slums, aside from her own skills, was that she ran with Old Man Rom.

Old Man Rom's skills were well known, plain for everyone to see—famously good with his hands.

Still, was it really possible to turn the slums into someplace great?

Chin and Kan and Ton exchanged a look. Even with Subaru's terrifyingly effective information network, this particular thing seemed like something no amount of intel could actually pull off.

If turning the slums around were really that easy, then—even though the upper ranks of the Kingdom of Lugunica had their share of vermin—there were still a few decent people, like Duke Karsten, who genuinely cared about the common folk.

If it could actually be done, someone like Duke Karsten would have done it long ago. There was no way she'd have just turned a blind eye to the slums.

Well, fine, they'd just wait and see. The moment Subaru face-planted on this one, they'd seize the chance to stir up a full-blown rebellion, overthrow the tyrant Subaru once and for all, and long live freedom!

Before long, Felt arrived at her usual fencing spot, exchanged three passwords with Old Man Rom, bared her little fangs in a fierce grin, and led Subaru inside.

Ton, Chin, and Kan, each lost in their own thoughts, dutifully lined up outside the door to stand guard. Small-time thugs at their level didn't even have the standing to set foot inside Old Man Rom's territory.

And besides—big rebellion or not, as long as they were still Subaru's underlings for the moment, they had a job to do, and they were going to do it right!