Chapter 191: And now, everything has changed

The windmill, the meadow, the breeze, and Emilia holding back her hair so it wouldn’t be tossed about—all of it, in Natsuki Subaru’s eyes,

formed a scene so striking it left him unconsciously stunned.

Every time Emilia mentioned someone Subaru knew, his brow furrowed a little more, and his heart sank further.

Maybe, in that other world, the version of himself hadn’t lived a life worth envying after all.

Betty hadn’t been saved because of it—and that was something he simply could not accept.

And Otto, and Garfiel—the three of them, the so-called unbeatable Iron Triangle, had just… broken apart? Unforgivable!

Subaru bared his teeth, refusing to accept the fact.

But Emilia’s account wasn’t finished yet.

She pressed both hands to her chest and spoke to him softly.

“And… in that dream, I relied on you so much, Subaru. Really, really a lot!”

“Of course! I mean—I’m not saying relying on you was a bad thing!”

As if something suddenly occurred to her, Emilia hurried to explain, flustered, before her voice dropped low again.

“It’s just… since you once told me I should have my own thoughts, I figured you probably didn’t like it when I depended on you too much.”

“So it hit me all at once—relying on you so heavily in that dream, that wasn’t right of me.”

Emilia didn’t wait for Subaru, who looked like he wanted to say something, to speak. She was afraid that if she paused, he might misunderstand her even further.

So, nervously raising her voice, she pressed on, rushing through everything she wanted to say at a breakneck pace, as if reciting a spell.

“Of course, there’s another reason I think that dream-me relying on you too much was bad—I left everything to you, so much that we never even got the chance to go on a date together.”

“Normally, all I could do was handle part of Roswaal’s territorial duties on his behalf, so that once you pushed me onto the throne, I could become a good queen.”

As she finished speaking, Emilia unconsciously clenched her fists.

She’d lied—or rather, she’d hidden part of the truth.

The reason they never went on a date wasn’t because she’d dumped everything onto him. That had nothing to do with it.

The real reason was simply… that there was no longer room for her in his heart.

She could tell it wasn’t that he’d stopped liking her—it was that something else, something heavy and oppressive, had filled up his heart instead.

From where she stood, she could see it every morning: the moment he woke, that exhausted look would flicker across his face, like he was about to shatter but was forcing himself to keep it together, putting up a brave front.

He hid it well, but it wasn’t strange that she could still see through it.

Because back at the manor, she had been the one to see through his mask first, to comfort him with a lap pillow, to pull him back from the very edge of collapse.

She had always been so attentive—back then, still fiercely independent, she’d found her own way to help him.

But later… after she failed the Third Trial of Sanctuary, she came to rely on him completely, and even when she noticed him cracking under the strain, she looked away, helpless to do anything.

How lazy of her, truly!

Emilia sighed softly, passing that judgment on the version of herself from the Greed dream.

“Don’t sigh like that! You should be smiling right now, Emilia-tan!”

Just then, Emilia suddenly heard, right beside her ear, Subaru’s voice—full of energy and sunshine—offering encouragement.

But… smiling? Why should she be smiling right now?

Emilia blinked, dazed, unable to make sense of it for a moment.

But Subaru, on the other side, seemed to have already guessed her confusion. Before she could even ask, he boldly reached out and took her hand.

“Because those were just dreams. And dreams are all they’ll ever be!”

“Now I get it. What Emilia-tan thought about in those two dreams—it must have been something like this scene right here, huh?”

Subaru held Emilia’s hand and led her slowly toward their planned destination—the flower bed in full bloom. They climbed a small rise, and from there, the two of them looked down at a whole field of flowers blooming in every color below.

“And now, everything’s changed,” Subaru said, turning to look at her, his voice full of feeling.

“Mm! And most importantly… it’s now,” Emilia answered, nodding firmly.

“So then, my lovely lady, would you care to view the flowers with me?”

Subaru tucked one hand behind his back, bowed slightly toward her, and extended his other hand with gentlemanly flair, inviting her forward.

Emilia slipped her arm through his without hesitation, her eyes bright, and nodded hard. “Mm! Of course!”

Together, the two of them walked down the little hill and into the sea of flowers, laughing and teasing each other, playing around.

When they’d finally tired themselves out, they sat side by side on a clear patch at the center of the flower bed, watching quietly as the wind swept over the flowers, flattening them in great waves, and then, once the gust passed, watching them spring back up again like the tide rolling back in.

“Subaru, can I ask you for something?”

Emilia lay back on the grass, relaxed, her head resting right beside his, nearly shoulder to shoulder.

“Hm? What is it?”

Subaru turned his head at her words, and the instant he did, he found himself looking straight into Emilia’s eyes—she’d turned to face him at almost the same moment.

They were so close now that he could feel her warm breath against his skin, constantly.

Subaru’s sharp eyes caught the faint blush spreading across the tip of her lovely elf ear, creeping quickly upward.

But even with such an obvious blush, Emilia made no move to turn away or flee.

She simply held his gaze steadily and made her request.

“Subaru, please help me grow.”

“I don’t want to become like I was in that dream, always relying on you, always pushing every burden onto your shoulders!”

“I want to help you too—whether it’s something sad, something painful, or something hopeless, I want to share it with you!”

“I—I want to become someone you can lean on too!”

That last line, Emilia shouted out with her eyes squeezed shut and her face burning red.

She probably felt that spouting such big words when she still couldn’t do any of it was embarrassing.

Watching her like that, Subaru couldn’t help but find it faintly funny.

After all, Emilia was the type of girl with remarkably thin skin. But that was fine—his own skin was thick enough for the both of them!

As the eternal, immortal broke who feared neither man nor devil, he’d once stood before dozens, even hundreds of dignified onlookers and shamelessly declared himself Emilia’s knight, without so much as blinking!

Looked at that way, the two of them actually complemented each other rather well—opposite personalities balancing each other out.

Still, just now, Emilia had gotten one thing a little wrong.

Gazing at the adorably bashful Emilia before him, Subaru felt his heartbeat quicken on its own.

But just as he was lost in the sight of her, Emilia—who’d just shouted that line with her eyes shut—suddenly opened them, as though she’d sensed something.

It made Subaru wonder, for a second, if his heartbeat had gotten so loud that she’d somehow noticed how his heart was racing.

But the next instant, seeing the depth of affection swimming in her eyes—so intense it looked like tiny beating hearts were forming in her pupils—he understood.

At a moment like this, it was generally the man’s job to take the initiative.

So Subaru didn’t hesitate any longer. He reached out with his right hand, cupped her burning cheek, and gently guided her closer, little by little.

The distance between them closed swiftly.

Until, without either of them quite realizing it, their eyes fell shut, and their lips met and pressed together completely.

They lay there on their sides in the grass, feeling each other’s warm breath, savoring the taste of each other’s lips, for a long, long moment.

Suddenly, the wind picked up again, stronger this time than any gust before it.

Countless petals were torn loose from the flowers in the bed, some of them scattering down onto Subaru and Emilia, as though the whole world were blessing them this way.

The rest of the petals were swept up by the fierce spring wind, spinning as they rose higher and higher into the sky, drifting farther and farther away…