Chapter 25: Anastasia vs Crusch (Patreon)

"Young lady, are you all right?!"

Only then did Mimi come dashing over — she took her duty to protect her lady very seriously. Anastasia waved a hand at her. "Not a problem in the world, nope. Let's go, Mimi. Little me is in an awfully good mood right now, you know?"

She turned, taking Mimi's hand, and as she left she shot Subaru Natsuki a cutesy wink. Those deep blue eyes seemed to hold all the warmth and softness of a clear blue sky, and at the same time an incomparable, distilled cuteness, as if every adorable thing in the world had been poured into them at once.

Especially as she turned — her fox-fur scarf swaying, her long purple hair gorgeous — even her retreating back carried a delicate, fragile charm that made you want to keep watching until she was completely out of sight.

From the opening volley of her counterattack to her exit, she'd handled everything with effortless ease, timing every line to perfection. Felt had been thoroughly silenced, never once finding an opening to interject, left glaring daggers at Anastasia's retreating figure, practically fuming.

Why had it gone like this?

She was clearly the one who'd started it with barbs, clearly the one who'd struck first — her jabs and snide remarks at Anna had come far more often, far more frequently, and with far worse content than anything Anna had thrown back. And her attitude had unquestionably been the nastier, more excessive one.

So why, after all that, did it feel like she was the one who'd lost?

The sting of defeat was so strong…

"There, there, don't worry. I'm not going to ditch you just because I made a new friend."

Subaru Natsuki quietly let out a breath of relief, reaching out to pat the head of a very obviously deflated, thoroughly defeated Felt, who was drooping like a wilted flower.

He understood — he understood completely, since he'd always been popular with kids. He'd seen this kind of thing before: some children got jealous and picked fights when they worried another kid might steal away their kind, big-brotherly favorite.

With that past experience, he understood it all. Felt really was just a kid, after all.

It was precisely because she was a kid that she'd get this kind of worried. She hadn't realized that Anna was nothing like her at all — Felt was his little sister, someone he thought of as family. Anna was a friend. There was no situation where anyone could "steal him away."

Felt bared her little fangs, and with that reassurance she grudgingly softened a bit, though she still hissed venomously, "Liar! Look at how much that fox-spirit witch was practically drooling over you!"

"Well, uh…"

What could he do about it, though — Anna really was cute from head to toe, and even her outfit was the cutest of the cute!

"That was me sizing up a business partner, okay? Yeah, that's it, exactly that. I've got my own pace, I wasn't the least bit charmed by her — I was scoping her out for weaknesses, gathering leverage, staying sharp. See?"

Subaru Natsuki mumbled, testing the waters.

This idiot was lying, but it was a well-meaning lie — he could no longer pretend he had nothing to do with Anna, and he wasn't about to shut the door on a good girl who was already becoming his friend. So he offered an excuse so flimsy a three-year-old could see through it.

"…Hmph. We'll see how you behave from now on. I'm not forgiving you yet!"

Felt crossed her arms, grumbling under her breath, her pretty face slightly flushed, and reluctantly folded away her dragon-hackles posture.

She knew it, of course — she was the one being unreasonable today. But even so, this idiot still went out of his way to indulge her. In the past, only Old Man Rom had ever treated her like that — no, actually, even Old Man Rom wouldn't let her act this spoiled and unreasonable.

Anna, hmph!

So what if she was some replacement, so what if she was cute, so what if she was a scheming little flirt!

Being cute, being sly — what good does that do you? Do you even understand family bonds and real affection? If you think you can waltz in and take great Lady Felt's place, you're twenty thousand years too early!

She grumbled on like a little piglet, about to march out of the shadowed alley back onto the street, when Subaru Natsuki, caught off guard, blurted dumbly, "Uh, wait, didn't you still have a secret to tell me?"

"Idiot—!"

Nyeh nyeh nyeh!

Felt clapped her hands over her mouth, pulling a gleefully mocking face, eyes practically rolling back. "I only said that to annoy that fox-spirit! You actually wanted me to tell you? Ugh, so dumb. I hate that sneaky cat, but I'll admit she had a point about that — no matter how close you are with someone, you've got to keep your own cards and secrets safe from prying eyes. Don't you get that, idiot?"

This idiot — he really would have insisted on hearing it, and she really wouldn't have told him anyway.

If he had to dig to the bottom of everything, had to know every last detail, wouldn't even let her keep one little secret — she might as well just slit her own throat.

"Argh, you're scolding me again!"

Warmth spread through Subaru Natsuki's chest. He honestly wouldn't have minded Felt knowing — but being treated like this… yeah, his affection for Felt, like that of an older brother for a little sister, was definitely the real thing.

Speaking of which, he'd been completely baffled at first, but then it clicked for him.

Back when he'd been mistakenly electrocuted, hadn't the notebook burned pages to compensate him? That compensation had granted his soul absolute freedom — immune to any tampering or restraint.

Assuming Priscilla's mysterious ability to curse someone with bad luck from a distance required influencing the target's soul, or at least required first locking onto the target's soul remotely, then it made perfect sense why he alone seemed immune to her.

Before, he'd figured this ability was useless flash with no substance — it didn't extend his lifespan, didn't add an ounce of combat power, just looked flashy for show.

Now it seemed that was a massive misjudgment.

This ability might well be a hundred times, even a thousand or ten thousand times, more useful than he'd ever imagined!

Still, never mind that for now — the day was still young. Best to keep playing around with Felt a bit longer.

—Except Felt didn't seem to be in the mood to keep playing anymore.

After grumbling her way through ignoring Anna's departure with a bit of petty spite, Felt grew troubled again as they walked down the street. "Hey, if that Crusch person really is in cahoots with the Council of Wise Men to shake us down for bribes, what do we do?"

They couldn't fight — the gap in strength was too vast, resistance would be pointless.

But paying up? She'd rather die than agree to that. It was absolute garbage — you ignore us when we're dirt poor, don't lift a finger to help, and then the moment we've got some money, you come sniffing around demanding bribes and taxes? Where's the justice in that?

"Then we take her down!" Subaru Natsuki said without a second thought. Young men were naturally hot-blooded, and besides, he was a man walking the road to kingship — how could he step aside for corruption like this? "When the time comes, I'll knock this Crusch person flat with three punches, leave her corpse rotting in some field, make her kneel and confess her sins!"

"——? What in the world do you mean, you two? What has Crusch done to you? Has Crusch committed some offense against you, to earn such towering resentment?"

Whoosh!

A head of green hair, startled and bewildered, utterly baffled — Crusch Karsten happened to be walking by at that very moment!