Chapter 171: That Great Spirit Named Betty! Could She Be Rem's Romantic Rival?

"Tch — quit getting in my way, Subaru!"

"You hate these people, don't you? So why stop me when I try to kill them?"

Zarestia muttered on, words that nobody — Natsuki Subaru included — could make any sense of. But she didn't dwell on it for long.

"Fine, then. Subaru, I'll just take you with me first and sort out the rest afterward—"

Her attacks had gotten her nowhere, and her eyes went cold in an instant. Killing intent surged in them as she dropped out of the sky, and at a speed that even Elsa, holding the front line, couldn't track, she swept straight past her and bore down on Natsuki Subaru and Betty.

The gap between them shrank with every heartbeat.

With Zarestia's face swelling larger and larger in front of them, Natsuki Subaru and Betty raised their hands again, on the verge of shouting "E.M.M" to slip into another layer of space, immune to being seized or held.

And that was the moment a desperate cry tore out of the sky behind them.

"Lady Tia — please, stop!"

"Don't hurt Subaru!"

That voice. Achingly, impossibly familiar.

Zarestia's hand, already stretched out before Natsuki Subaru and a hair's breadth from fisting the front of his shirt, locked rigid in the air.

For the first time, something helpless and endearing broke across her exquisite face, and the flutter of her lashes betrayed the panic underneath.

"Eh? I… I wasn't trying to hurt Subaru, Rem…"

Natsuki Subaru heard her say it — Zarestia standing frozen in front of him, lifting her pale throat to gaze at something in the sky at his back.

She must have been looking at someone, the way she spoke, blank and lost.

A moment later, with her older sister Ram's help, Rem came down out of the sky and touched down steadily on the ground.

The instant her feet found the dirt, she turned to Zarestia, eyes brimming with tears.

She had only shouted because fear had gotten the better of her, terrified that Subaru was about to be hurt.

And yet — Lady Tia had truly stopped!

That was proof. Proof that Lady Tia's attack on Subaru was nothing but a misunderstanding—

Honestly. The first time they met, and now again — why did Lady Tia always have to come charging in headfirst and cause a mess like this?

Rem walked toward Zarestia, step by irritated step, paying no mind whatsoever to the savage winds churning around her.

And just as she had expected, no matter how wild and unruly that wind was, the moment it came near her it turned gentle as a lamb.

Not because Rem possessed any special power, of course. Simply because the wind's mistress, Lady Zarestia, had no desire to harm her.

Which was itself the proof — proof that Lady Tia thought of her and Subaru as family, that she loved them—

Rem came to a stop in front of Zarestia and watched her duck her head, hiding like an ostrich from the scolding she knew was coming.

But Rem only laughed, a small, helpless sound. She took Natsuki Subaru's hand in one of hers and Zarestia's in the other, and drew all three of them together into an embrace.

"H-hey… what are you doing! Careful, or I'll kill you, you know?"

Caught utterly off guard by Rem's move, Zarestia stiffened, then went red in the face and snapped it out with all the prickly pride she could muster.

"Rem…"

Hauled into a three-way hug without warning, Natsuki Subaru was, frankly, lost.

Sure, both of them were the sort of beauties you rarely saw in this world — but at the end of the day, he had absolutely no idea who that scantily dressed, long-legged, white-haired, enormously endowed Great Spirit even was!

Ah… though, now that he thought about it, he wasn't exactly losing out here, was he?

Natsuki Subaru shut his eyes and left the whole business to Rem.

If Rem knew her, there probably wouldn't be any need to fight.

And he had always been a firm believer in high-value, low-cost solutions to trouble!

So for now, he would enjoy… er, rest for a bit.

"Lady Tia… it really is Rem's Lady Tia! We've finally met again!"

Tears spilled down Rem's face as she murmured Zarestia's name, the threat from a second ago apparently forgotten entirely.

"Guh — guuuhhh!"

Zarestia, understanding at last that her threat had landed on Rem with roughly the weight of playful whining, deflated and let out a noise of pure, grudging defeat.

"Yeah. We finally met again, Rem. Truth is, ever since I ran into that boy of yours — that Rigel guy — I couldn't hold back how much I missed you two. I wanted to come find you."

"And then, out of nowhere — I opened my eyes again, and I was back here, in the past."

Zarestia looked down at Rem, a full head shorter than she was, and then over at Subaru on the other side, eyes closed, doing who knew what.

Whatever the case, the pitch-black killing intent roiling in her gaze as she looked at the two of them hadn't dimmed in the slightest — yet buried deep beneath it was a tenderness and a love that not even murder could cover over.

"But why did Lady Tia raise a hand against Subaru? That's the one thing I won't let you gloss over!"

The mood took a sharp turn. Before Zarestia's eyes, Rem puffed up with indignation, her gaze turning dead serious as she pressed the question.

"What reason could there possibly be for Lady Tia to do such a thing?"

Interrogated by someone who was as good as family, Zarestia felt more than a little hard done by, and rushed to explain.

"Because — right now is before you and Subaru went off to that town over in Kararagi, isn't it?"

"And from what I heard, Subaru wasn't happy with his life here. Otherwise he'd never have fled this place and settled down with you in the city near my nest, would he?"

Rem had nothing to say to that.

Because she could not tell her the truth behind why Subaru had run from this place. Even with family, some scars weren't so easily peeled open and put on display.

Zarestia paused for half a second, stealing a glance to confirm that Rem wasn't arguing, and then, reassured, carried on.

"So — once I found Subaru here, I decided I'd carry him off! And while I was at it, carry you off too, Rem!"

"Then we all go back to Kararagi together, back to that city near my nest, leave behind every annoying person and thing in this place, and live happily side by side, just like we used to!"

The longer she talked, the brighter Zarestia's eyes shone, as though she were already imagining that life, already aching for it.

"Absolutely not! Betty and Subaru can't be separated. We're a single pair, partners for a lifetime!"

Betty, who had been stranded off to one side at a complete loss, unable to wedge herself into the little circle of that three-way hug, burst out with it the instant she heard.

"Oh-ho! Shorty, I had no idea you and Subaru were that close."

Zarestia eyed Betty sidelong, arms folded, her gaze roving back and forth between the little spirit and Natsuki Subaru.

She looked small enough, but Zarestia could feel that her true form was a Great Spirit as well, which meant her age couldn't be judged by appearance at all.

And the way she had thrown herself in front of Subaru just now, ready to die for him — surely she didn't have feelings for him too?

Don't tell me — a rival for the affections of the Rem of this era?!

Zarestia's eyes went wide at the thought.

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