20) A contract with Beako?

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{3rd Pov}

Subaru was absolutely flourishing with his new restaurant business, and the oven product being an instant hit only made things better.

Just on the first day of opening, he had already earned the equivalent of several Lugunican Gold Coins—a profit margin that would make any ordinary merchant choke on their own spit.

He was grinning so hard that it almost seemed like, given another inch, he might end up plotting to burn down the entire city simply out of sheer excitement.

It was the type of grin that belonged only to someone who believed they were on the verge of becoming the richest man alive.

And honestly?

Subaru did feel like that.

He had never once imagined that on his very first day he would earn enough revenue to not only pay the salaries of every single employee, but also cover the cost of all raw materials, manufacturing, and labor used up until now.

Normally, a new business would bleed money for months before even daring to dream about profit.

But Subaru?

He was already in the green.

His imagination instantly began to run wild.

In his head he saw himself sitting on top of a literal mountain of gold coins, casually swimming through them like some deranged dragon, basking in endless wealth and luxury.

However, just as he was about to imagine himself diving face-first into the golden ocean, reality harshly slapped him across the face.

He still had a long way to go before he could ever achieve that point.

Long-term stability, brand growth, market monopoly, product expansion, security of resources, employee loyalty—he had barely scratched the surface of what he needed to become an actual powerhouse.

But that didn’t stop him from grinning like a madman.

Because for the first time in his life, Natsuki Subaru was winning—and winning on his own terms.

‘At least I’ve established myself in this city,’ Subaru thought, nodding to himself with a satisfied little smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

The business was stable, the name had spread, and the money was finally flowing in the direction he wanted—toward him instead of away from him for once in his miserable life.

His gaze casually drifted downward toward his shadow.

On the surface, there was nothing unusual about it—just an ordinary silhouette cast by the lighting of the sun.

But Subaru knew better.

He knew that beneath that flat patch of darkness lurked something that could distort entire landscapes, end armies, and warp fate itself.

The Witch of Envy was always there, silent, patient, a single word away from manifesting into reality.

‘Man… I really got to resist calling her again,’ he grimaced internally.

Even though he despised Satella, hated her existence, hated how she clung to him like a cursed parasite—he couldn’t deny the intoxicating thrill that came with summoning her.

It was like summoning the final raid boss at the very start of the game just to bully the tutorial mobs.

The sheer unfairness of it all felt so damn satisfying.

Even if Subaru wasn’t a hero—hell, even if he was the furthest thing from the concept—at least he had the Demon King on his side.

Or more accurately, the Witch.

A walking apocalypse.

A living catastrophe.

His own personal doomsday weapon bound by obsession and affection twisted beyond reason.

In other words: peak isekai protagonist nonsense.

And Subaru was absolutely here for it.

As Subaru whistled brightly on his way toward the restaurant for his daily inspection, his steps had a noticeable bounce to them.

Life was finally going in the direction he wanted.

He no longer needed to stand behind the counter like some desperate beginner praying for customers; the cooks, waiters, and cashiers he trained were more than capable of handling the day-to-day operations.

The Pleiades Restaurant practically ran itself now.

Which was good—because Subaru had bigger fish to fry.

Specifically, he needed to roll out new products.

Recently he’d been obsessing over a design for a mechanical sewing machine.

The idea had struck him as obvious: if he could revolutionize cooking with the metal ovens, then garment production should be his next battlefield.

Clothing in this world took far too long to make and was annoyingly expensive considering how basic it looked.

Mass-produced clothes meant profit—absurd, world-bending profit.

However, the execution was proving to be a nightmare.

Subaru had read and watched enough back in his original world to understand sewing machines conceptually—how the bobbin system worked, how the upper thread looped into the lower thread, how the needle punctured the cloth in a continuous rhythm.

That was the easy part.

Translating that knowledge into a physical blueprint using medieval-era standards?

That was like jumping from assembling a Lego set to drawing the blueprints for a space shuttle.

Every time he sketched a design, he almost immediately spotted another flaw.

Either the rotation mechanism was off, or the gears would jam, or the threading line would tangle, or he’d realize that the manufacturing process required to make it work didn’t exist yet—or if it did, it’d cost more than an entire noble estate to manufacture.

The difference between making an oven and making a mechanical sewing machine was like the difference between making a wooden chair and designing a magical super-weapon powered by ancient dragon souls.

One was simple.

The other was complicated enough to make Subaru’s brain leak out of his ears.

Still, he refused to give up.

If he’d managed to tame the Witch of Envy and survive multiple deaths, then figuring out one oversized needle shouldn’t be the thing that defeated him.

As Subaru pushed through the bustling market street—dodging merchants, stray demi-human kids, and a cart piled comically high with cabbages—someone suddenly shouted his name with enough force to cut through the noise.

“Subaru!!”

He stopped dead in his tracks.

That voice… he recognized it instantly.

Turning sharply, his eyes landed on a certain pint-sized spirit wrapped in the same fancy frilly dress and twin drills he remembered all too well.

“Beako?” Subaru muttered, eyebrows folding together.

“What the hell are you doing here… and how did you even get out of the mansion’s library?”

Hearing him call her name, Beatrice practically exploded with excitement.

“Subaru!!” she squealed—louder, happier, and infinitely more emotional than he had ever heard her before.

She sprinted toward him with all the desperate power her tiny legs could muster, drills bouncing as though they were trying to propel her faster.

But she never reached him.

Before Beatrice could crash into Subaru, something unseen snapped tight around her ankles and wrists.

Her body jerked mid-stride and suddenly she was suspended in the air—arms and legs immobilized as if caught by invisible chains.

She blinked in shock, feet dangling a few inches off the ground, eyes wide and offended.

“W-What in the world—!” she sputtered, staring down at herself as if gravity had personally betrayed her.

The crowd around them gasped, some whispering about magic or curses, while Subaru just stood there with a blank, slightly exasperated expression, already knowing exactly what had grabbed her.

Subaru then narrowed his eyes looking in her direction, suspicion pouring off his face as he stared up at the tiny floating spirit who was currently trussed up like a marionette by invisible limbs.

“Beako, why the hell are you here?” he demanded, voice flat and wary, hands shoved deep into his pockets like he was trying to restrain the urge to throttle something.

Beatrice kicked her legs uselessly in the air, drills wobbling with each frustrated wiggle as she tried to break free from the unseen grip pinning her arms and ankles.

At first she looked more offended than fearful, chin lifted and lips pursed like someone had just denied her pastries.

But then her expression shifted—her eyes widened a fraction as recognition dawned.

“T–This is the Authority of Sloth, I suppose!” she blurted, voice trembling with surprise.

The moment those words echoed down the street, a few nearby civilians froze mid-step. Heads turned.

People stared.

Whispers stirred through the passing crowd—confusion, curiosity and that particular brand of city gossip that Subaru hated more than taxes.

Subaru’s eyes went wide.

“Oi—Beako! Lower your damn volume!”

Invisible Providence shot forward and clamped over her mouth like a spectral gag, muffling whatever else she was about to blurt out.

Her eyes bulged with rage at being silenced so abruptly, but Subaru didn’t give her the chance to retaliate verbally or magically.

He scanned the area quickly—several merchants were staring directly at Beatrice, noting how she hovered a foot off the ground like some kind of expensive magical ornament.

A few kids pointed excitedly.

Someone whispered the word “witch” with a bit too much interest for Subaru’s liking.

That was enough for him.

He clicked his tongue.

“Alright, nope. We’re not doing exposition on a public street.”

Without giving her a choice, he pivoted sharply and dragged her—still floating stiffly like a possessed doll—toward a narrow alleyway tucked between two storefronts.

The crowd parted to get out of his way, half stunned, half terrified, and utterly clueless about what the hell they had just witnessed.

Beatrice, silenced and suspended, flailed indignantly as Subaru hauled her into the shadows of the alley—away from prying eyes, wagging tongues, and any more accidental lore drops in the middle of a marketplace.

Once Subaru released her, Beatrice dropped onto the cobblestone with a startled yelp, landing flat on her rear.

Finally, he let her go—though not before coating both of his hands with several layers of Invisible Hands.

These spectral limbs coiled tightly around his wrists and fingers, reinforcing them with raw strength and acting as a makeshift defense.

At the same time, multiple other Invisible Hands drifted behind him like silent sentries, poised to strike and tear her apart if she tried anything suspicious or if he decided she needed to die.

The moment she was released, she collapsed to the floor, gasping for air and momentarily stunned.

Subaru, narrowing his eyes and clearly not amused by her sudden intrusion, asked in a low and demanding voice, “Now tell me what you’re doing here… and why you came after me in the first place.”

Beatrice stared at him with visible shock, her usual composure slipping for a brief instant.

She hadn’t expected this.

The fact he possessed two Sin Authorities left her completely at a loss.

Initially, she had assumed Subaru had merely acquired a different Sin Authority from a Witch Factor—some anomaly she couldn’t identify and most likely related to one of the Witches.

However, the very fact that Subaru was openly using the Sin Authority of Sloth, and that he had done so after personally killing the former Sin Archbishop of Sloth, made one thing undeniable: Subaru had been the one to seize and absorb the Witch Factor of Sloth for himself.

That part was already obvious.

Yet even with that established, Beatrice had always assumed that Subaru possessed some other Sin Authority prior to acquiring Sloth’s.

As for which one it was, she neither knew nor had bothered to investigate too deeply at the time, chalking it up as another abnormality surrounding him that she would eventually figure out or simply ignore depending on circumstances.

When Subaru eventually gained his first authority, she hadn’t thought much of it either, because in her mind that still didn’t explain the existence of the second authority.

But the more she reconsidered the situation, the more it made absolutely no sense.

If Subaru already had an authority beforehand, how in the world could he suddenly possess another one on top of it?

To her knowledge—and based on centuries of accumulated information—an individual could only host a single Witch Factor at any given time.

Housing multiple Witch Factors was supposed to be impossible, outright contradictory to how the system functioned… unless.

“Hey! Beako, why the hell are you spacing out and keeping quiet?” Subaru snapped, impatience creeping into his voice.

“I’m asking you something. Why the hell did you come here in the first place?”

He looked tense, already imagining the worst possible scenarios in his head, and his tone made it clear he wasn’t in the mood to play around.

Beatrice snapped out of her thoughts, forcing herself to shelve the entire topic of Subaru possessing two different Sin Authorities for another time.

She took a small breath, steadied herself, and finally spoke.

“B-Betty is here to meet you… or at least that is what Betty believes, I suppose!”

“Meet me?” Subaru shot back, rolling his eyes with visible irritation.

“Yeah, right. That’s a lie and a bad one.” He jabbed a finger directly at her as if accusing her of a crime.

“Out of all the people in this damn place, you’re the one who never wanted to see me. Every time I visited your stupid enchanted library, all you ever did was kick me out the second I got close. Don’t try to act friendly now. I’m giving you one last chance—tell me why you are actually here or get out of my sight.”

His words were blunt, lacking even the slightest trace of sympathy or warmth.

They hit her harder than she expected, and for a moment she simply stared, unable to comprehend that Subaru—her “that person”—was speaking to her in such a cold and dismissive way.

“Betty has been waiting,” she finally managed to say, tightening her jaw and forcing confidence into her voice.

“For four hundred years, Betty has been alone in that library. Completely alone. Betty waited and waited for her ‘that person’ to arrive, and the book finally said that you are that person. So Betty is here to make a contract with you!” As she spoke, her hands balled up into fists, her knuckles turning pale as she tried to keep her voice from shaking.

Subaru’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“That person… four hundred years? You’re not making any sense right now,” he muttered, visibly annoyed yet also curious.

“But considering the fact that you immediately identified the ability I used as a Sin Authority, I’ll listen for the moment. However, I’m putting a condition on this—if I hear you out, then you’re going to explain the Witch Factors to me in return.”

His tone made it clear this wasn’t a suggestion but a deal he expected her to accept.

Betty’s eyes flickered with a faint light upon hearing that.

She was aware that Subaru had been betrayed during his time in the Capital, so while his cold behavior toward her stung, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

She had mentally prepared for some form of harshness before she even approached him.

Taking a deep breath and steadying her voice, she began recounting her past—how she had been created by the Witch of Greed, and how her existence was directly tied to the Witches.

Subaru suddenly raised a hand and cut her off mid-sentence.

“Hold on, hold on! You’re saying you were made by a freaking Witch? And you’re telling me there were more of them besides Satella?” His expression twisted with shock and disbelief.

“Yes,” she answered with a quick nod, as if stating a fact that should have been obvious.

“Betty’s mother and the Witch of Envy are not the only Witches. In fact, during the time Betty’s mother was alive, there were supposed to be eight Witches and one Warlock in total"

Her tone was matter-of-fact, as if reciting historical data she had memorized over centuries, even though the information sounded insane from Subaru’s perspective.

Subaru absorbed the information silently, his gaze sharpening as he examined Beatrice with newfound interest.

It hit him all at once that she wasn’t just some stubborn, grumpy spirit trapped in a dusty library; she was practically a walking archive of hidden history.

If he played this right, she could answer countless questions that had been gnawing at him ever since he discovered that the Witch of Envy shared the exact same appearance as Emilia.

Acknowledging the value of what she knew, he motioned for her to continue.

Beatrice did so, explaining how Echidna, the Witch of Greed, had personally entrusted her with an important task.

According to her, Echidna had created the library and placed Beatrice within it, commanding her to wait endlessly and guard the vast collection of forbidden knowledge housed inside.

Beatrice’s mission was to remain there until the arrival of the individual who would inherit all of Echidna’s accumulated knowledge and become the successor she had supposedly predicted.

That individual was referred to as “that person,” a title Echidna had never further clarified.

The more Subaru listened, the more uneasy he felt.

The situation became progressively stranger and more intriguing with every detail Beatrice shared.

His suspicion grew alongside his curiosity, and he found himself genuinely surprised at just how deep this mysterious connection ran.

‘Did this Witch of Greed already know I would end up being teleported into this world centuries later?’ Subaru wondered, an involuntary shiver running down his spine as the thought surfaced.

The more he considered it, the more disturbing the possibility became.

He had already learned, sometimes violently, that nothing in this world was off-limits. Reinhardt van Astrea existed as undeniable proof of that—a monster wearing human skin and moving around as if the rules of reality didn’t apply to him.

Then there were flying whales that devoured memories, magic performed like it was normal, and invisible hands capable of crushing people without leaving a trace.

Compared to all of that, the idea of prophecy or divination didn’t seem outrageous.

But the notion that someone had not only foreseen his arrival, but had possibly made decisions and set plans for him four hundred years before he was even born… that made his stomach twist.

The idea was unsettling to the point it made him feel cold.

Subaru chose not to interrupt and stayed silent, letting Beatrice continue.

Eventually, she reached the part of her story involving their first encounter—how she had met him within the library and had tried to keep him at a distance, pretending she didn’t care while secretly hoping, deep down, that he might finally be the one she had been forced to wait for all those centuries.

Finally, she reached the point in her account where Subaru had left for the Royal Capital during the Royal Selection.

According to her, it was at that very time that her book—Tome of Wisdom—which had long since stopped giving her any clear instructions, suddenly provided a definitive answer.

It declared that Natsuki Subaru was, without any doubt, that person she had been forced to wait for.

From there, she explained how she spent an entire week waiting for his return, expecting him to walk into the library at any moment.

When he never showed up, she became frustrated and anxious.

Later, she learned about everything that had happened to him in the Capital, and the news enraged her to the point she almost killed Emilia out of sheer desperation and confusion.

It was only that after being stopped by Roswaal that her Tome of Wisdom, directed her to Subaru’s actual location.

Following that command, she secretly traveled across the world—leaving the library for the first time in centuries—just to reach him.

Subaru’s face tightened as he processed the implications of what she just said.

Whoever this Witch of Greed was, or perhaps more accurately the Tome of Wisdom itself, had somehow predicted or calculated every single move he would make.

Every step he took, every action he made, all of it looked like pieces placed on a board long before he ever arrived in this world.

He bit down on his thumbnail sharply, teeth scraping against his nail with irritation.

His voice didn’t immediately leave his mouth, but the anger in his eyes said enough.

He hated the realization that he was being manipulated yet again—this time by an entity he didn’t even properly understand or know the intentions of.

Was he just a chess piece all along?

The more Subaru examined that possibility, the more everything felt overwhelmingly screwed up.

Every time he believed he had gained control over his own life, some larger force or unseen hand came crashing down and reminded him how little his choices actually mattered.

The idea that his entire existence in this world might have been predetermined four centuries ago made his stomach twist with disgust.

By this point, he was chewing at his thumbnail so aggressively that his finger had already begun to bleed.

Beatrice noticed it instantly and panicked.

“S-Subaru! You’re bleeding!” she shouted, her voice cracking from the sudden alarm.

Only then did Subaru register the sharp sting running through his hand.

He glanced down and saw that he had chewed an entire nail down to raw flesh, leaving a slick smear of blood trailing from the wound.

He tasted iron and blood on his tongue, realized that he had gotten blood in his mouth, and immediately spat on the ground in disgust.

Beatrice rushed toward him without hesitation, closing the distance at once.

She grabbed his hand, pulled it closer to inspect the injury, and began channeling healing magic with a tense expression, muttering under her breath as she worked to close the small but messy wound.

Subaru’s Invisible Providence—which had crept dangerously close to Beatrice’s body, no more than a few inches away from snapping her neck or ripping her apart—froze in mid-air.

He let out a slow breath, realizing just how close he had been to killing her purely out of reflex and paranoia.

The hands hovered for another second before retracting slightly, as if obeying an unspoken command.

Then, an entirely different expression formed on his face.

A grin—sharp, unsettling, and undeniably malicious—spread across his lips.

His eyes held a cold gleam, as if daring the world to throw something even worse at him.

“Tell me something, Beatrice…” he said in a deceptively calm tone.

“Who’s the strongest Witch out of all of them?”

Beatrice, who had just finished sealing up the wound on his finger with healing magic, blinked once and looked up at him.

She didn’t need to think about it.

Her answer came out immediately and without hesitation.

“That would be the Witch of Envy. She is the strongest, without question. Even Mother, who was overwhelmingly powerful, and all the other Witches combined couldn’t compare to her strength.”

“I see,” Subaru muttered, a small smile forming on his face. Inside his head, however, his thoughts were moving rapidly.

‘So in RPG terms, Echidna basically has a Divination Class. Someone who specializes in gathering information, predicting events, and using manipulative tactics mixed with long-term traps. The fact that Beatrice accepted Echidna’s words so blindly and stayed locked in that damn library for four centuries, waiting for “that person” without ever questioning who that person was supposed to be or when they would show up… that alone proves how terrifyingly good she is at manipulation.’

The more he considered it, the darker his thoughts became.

‘Did Echidna already know I would eventually be able to control or restrain the Witch of Envy? Maybe she did. Maybe that was the entire point from the beginning. If she can control me, even indirectly, then she would gain control over the subdued Witch of Envy as well. And even if that isn’t her main goal, she’s definitely planning something massive.’

Subaru’s expression stiffened as he followed the logic to the end.

‘This isn’t coincidence. This isn’t random. She calculated everything, from Beatrice waiting for four hundred years, to me stumbling into that library, to me ending up here… She’s not just an information hoarder—she’s a strategist who plays on a board stretched across centuries.’

Subaru glanced back at Beatrice, who had just finished tending to his injured finger with careful precision.

As he watched her work, he was reminded of what she had said earlier—how she had come all this way for the sole purpose of forming a contract with him.

That detail stirred a whole different line of thought.

He wouldn’t deny it: at first, his reaction to her arrival had been mostly anger.

A part of him suspected she had been sent by Emilia or by the others, maybe as some attempt to track him down or drag him back.

Out of everyone in that mansion—aside from Rem—Beatrice was probably the only one he would hesitate to immediately attack.

Even if it was only for a split second, that hesitation was still there, and that alone made her appearance suspicious in his eyes.

But now, the situation looked very different.

The entire picture became clearer as he pieced together everything she had revealed.

This girl had not come on Emilia’s orders, nor anyone else’s.

She was just as much a victim as he was—someone caught and manipulated by the Witches.

Created by the Witch of Greed, forced to obey the commands left behind centuries earlier, locked in a library to wait endlessly for a future that was never explained to her. A

ll of it was done for some unknown purpose, for desires that belonged to someone else and not to Beatrice herself.

‘Of course, I can’t completely rule out the possibility that she’s still loyal to the Witch of Greed and that this entire emotional story is just another layer of deception,’ Subaru admitted to himself.

‘But both my instincts and my reasoning are pointing to the other conclusion—that she’s just another pawn, another victim, someone trapped in a role she never chose. Especially considering she came here to make a contract with me.’

Subaru understood the weight of that.

Contracts weren’t trivial.

In this world, they carried authority, restrictions, power, and consequences.

Subaru had already learned how terrifying contracts could be in this world.

He held authority over the most dangerous entity alive—the Witch of Envy—because of nothing more than a reckless contract she had made on pure impulse.

Even now, he still didn’t fully understand how he had managed to fulfill the absurd chain of conditions that allowed such a contract to take shape.

The fact that the Witch of Envy had taken the role of a servant in that contract only emphasized how unstable and unpredictable the entire situation had been.

That was exactly why Beatrice seeking a contract held such weight.

If she truly intended to form one with him, then betrayal wasn’t part of her plan.

Under a proper contract, betraying the other party became either outright impossible or required a loophole so obscure that even the creator of the terms might overlook it.

Subaru wasn’t naive, though.

He still considered the possibility that Beatrice could be aware of some loophole or hidden clause.

It was equally possible that everything she said from the beginning had been an act—some elaborate tactic crafted by the Witch of Greed to manipulate him more effectively.

However, one particular detail kept his conclusions grounded and prevented him from spiraling into paranoia.

If Echidna—the Witch of Greed—was truly as confident and all-knowing as she appeared, then why hadn’t she confronted him directly?

Why go through Beatrice, the Tome of Wisdom, and centuries of indirection?

The answer fed into the most important point: Echidna was cautious because she didn’t want to risk directly clashing with the Witch of Envy.

For Subaru, that alone validated everything.

The Witch of Greed’s reliance on manipulation, plans, and roundabout methods rather than brute dominance implied that the Witch of Envy was indeed the strongest Witch.

If she wasn’t, someone like Echidna would have confronted the issue head-on instead of treating Subaru like a game piece on a board set four hundred years in advance.

If the Witch of Greed was truly as calculating as she appeared, then there had to be a reason she wanted Beatrice at Subaru’s side.

The question wasn’t just why Beatrice wanted a contract, but why Echidna had designed things so that Beatrice would be compelled to seek him out.

A normal contract between them would only restrict Beatrice’s actions and undermine Echidna’s own long-term schemes.

In other words, it made no sense—unless the contract served a different purpose entirely.

‘Unless Echidna has some method of observing Beatrice directly… and she’s just using Beatrice as a surveillance tool to observe me,’ Subaru realized.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, another chill crawled down his spine.

The layers of planning involved were far deeper than he originally assumed, and it terrified him to think that he might still be under someone’s microscope without knowing it.

(A/N: Damn it, he’s starting to consider Echidna scarier than Echidna herself believes she is.)

“Beako,” Subaru finally said aloud, drawing in a long breath before speaking with a serious tone, “I want to ask you something. Why exactly do you think I’m your ‘that person’? We didn’t even know each other before I stumbled into that library, so the idea doesn’t make sense from my side.”

Beatrice puffed out her cheeks slightly and crossed her arms with a small huff.

“Because the Tome of Wisdom said so! I suppose!” she declared, sounding oddly proud of that reasoning—as if the matter required no further explanation at all.

“Other than that? You don’t have any solid reason, right?” Subaru pressed, expecting her to get flustered, panic, or at least look unsure.

That was the reaction he anticipated and counted on.

Instead, Beatrice looked almost insulted by the suggestion.

There was no confusion, no hesitation—just confidence.

“Betty has seen other signs in Subaru that only Betty’s contractor could possess!” she declared, puffing out her chest slightly as if presenting evidence in a courtroom.

Then she continued, in a tone that suggested her logic was obvious, “For example, despite Subaru meeting Betty for the first time, he tried to make Betty leave the library, tried to make her happy. That was something only Betty’s promised ‘that person’ was supposed to do. And—” she pointed at him with a tiny finger, “Betty’s Subaru also has extremely powerful Spirit Affinity. Strongest Betty has ever seen, in fact!”

Subaru’s eyes shot wide open.

The words slammed into his head so unexpectedly that he didn’t process them at first.

Spirit Affinity?

He had Spirit Affinity?

That didn’t make sense.

Nobody ever told him that. Not once.

'What the fuck?!' His brain practically screamed the question as his thoughts scrambled.

‘Don’t tell me my damn class was Spirit Summoner from the very beginning! That would explain why both my physical and magical stats are complete trash!’ Subaru thought, stunned.

He had already forced himself to accept that he didn’t get any cheat skills when he came to this world—nothing like super strength, god-tier magic, or broken abilities.

Just endless pain, suffering, terrible luck, and the ability to die repeatedly.

Yet now, out of nowhere, someone told him that he actually did have a cheat skill—except it wasn’t the kind he expected, and it was one he had never even realized existed.

He had been walking around clueless the entire time.

How was he supposed to even react to that?

Was he supposed to be happy?

Angry?

Embarrassed?

Maybe all three?

It honestly felt like his entire life in this world had been one long, extended joke at his expense.

‘Wait—no, it literally has been a joke,’ he corrected himself, mentally replaying every ridiculous situation he had ever been dragged into.

He let out a long sigh before turning his attention back to Beatrice.

“Hold on, hold on!” Subaru said, waving his hands as if trying to stop the conversation from sprinting ahead without him.

“When you say Spirit Affinity, do you mean the same thing as making contracts with spirits and then growing stronger together until they can go around destroying the freaking Demon King or something?! I want to confirm I’m not mixing up terms here!”

He spoke quickly, wanting to make sure he wasn’t misunderstanding or exaggerating what she meant.

“Betty’s Subaru is correct,” she said with a firm nod.

“Spirit Affinity refers to the talent for Spirit Arts and the natural ability to form contracts with Spirits. When a Spirit Arts user forms a contract with a Spirit, both sides benefit. Spirit magic is inherently much stronger than normal magic, and the user can utilize that strength to fight, protect, or fulfill whatever needs they have. In return, the Spirit receives accelerated growth and becomes stronger at a far faster rate than they would naturally.”

Then Beatrice’s lips curved upward into a smug smirk, and she added with obvious pride, “Although Betty is an artificial spirit, Betty is one of the strongest spirits in the entire world. And Betty is also the strongest Yin Magic user, in fact!”

Arrogance practically leaked off her words like steam from boiling water.

It wasn’t subtle—she was bragging without restraint, and she knew it.

Subaru, still trying to piece together how Spirit mechanics actually worked, began asking about how Spirits grew and how their rank or strength was classified.

Beatrice grew visibly pleased the moment he showed interest, instantly switching into lecture mode.

She eagerly explained how Spirits were categorized into four distinct stages: Lesser Spirits at the bottom, then Quasi Spirits, followed by True Spirits, and finally Great Spirits at the top of the hierarchy.

She made sure to include, with way too much enthusiasm, that she herself was a Great Spirit.

And she didn’t just mention it once—she repeated it for what felt like the millionth time, as if Subaru might forget or fail to properly acknowledge her greatness if she didn’t remind him constantly.

“So… let me get this straight,” Subaru said, eyebrows knitting together.

“You’re telling me I’m supposed to have the highest Spirit Affinity out of everyone you’ve ever met?” His voice carried more confusion than pride.

Beatrice nodded without hesitation.

“Indeed. Higher than that Puck’s Emilia, or anyone else for that matter! I suppose!”

For a full second Subaru just stared at her, stunned.

Higher Spirit Affinity than Emilia?

That didn’t even sound remotely possible in his head.

Emilia had a contract with Puck, and Puck was such a terrifying monster during the Witch Cult's attack that Subaru thought he was seeing a natural disaster, not a spirit.

“Hold on,” Subaru said again, struggling to process.

“Then how does that compare to that Spirit Knight?” He deliberately avoided saying the man’s name—mostly because the mere thought of him irritated Subaru to no end.

“You mean Julius Juukulius?” Beatrice asked plainly.

“Betty heard he only has Quasi-Spirits. So he is not that great, I suppose.”

Subaru blinked, stunned by how casually she dismissed someone who was considered a prodigy.

Julius was praised as one of the strongest individuals in Lugunica, a man so competent that even Knights envied his talent.

But according to Beatrice, he didn’t even have a True Spirit—much less anything close to her level.

That meant Julius might have significantly lower Spirit Affinity than Subaru.

Subaru—who had spent the entire time in this world believing his stats were garbage-tier, who thought the only special thing about him was dying repeatedly and suffering like a punching bag the universe enjoyed hitting.

'Then why the hell did no one ever tell him any of this?!', The frustration boiled in his chest.

It was as if everyone had been walking around with cheat sheets while he was playing the game on blindfolded hard mode.

When Subaru finally voiced his frustration out loud, Beatrice simply tilted her head, looking genuinely puzzled.

“Betty thought Subaru already knew, I suppose,” she replied, as if the matter should have been obvious to anyone with a functioning brain.

Subaru resisted the urge to bash his forehead against the nearest wall until unconsciousness kicked in.

Instead, he sucked in a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

‘Whatever. What’s done is done. I guess for someone like me who got thrown into a different world with zero tutorials, zero explanations, and zero manuals, this kind of stupid situation was inevitable.’

He mentally accepted the stupidity of his circumstances—again.

Beatrice, however, wasted no time returning to the main topic.

“Now! Will Subaru form a contract with Betty?!” she asked with sudden enthusiasm, practically bouncing on the spot.

“Let’s form a contract right now, I suppose!”

Her eyes gleamed, and she looked like she was barely holding herself back from lunging at him, hugging him tightly, and rubbing her face against his chest like some ecstatic cat.

If anything, the only reason she didn’t immediately cling to him seemed to be the lingering stench of Witch Authority that clung to his body like a cloud.

Ahem.

Subaru fell silent for a moment and actually evaluated the situation instead of impulsively agreeing.

Forming a contract wasn’t a small decision.

On one hand, he didn’t want a potential mole for the Witch of Greed sitting right next to him, breathing down his neck, observing everything he did, and possibly reporting it back through some unknown method.

On the other hand, Beatrice was clearly just another victim in all of this nonsense—forced, manipulated, and pushed around by Witches just like he had been.

That twisted sense of shared suffering created a kind of camaraderie, and Subaru understood more than anyone how fragile someone could become when left alone too long with no hope.

If he refused, she might break just like he once had.

“Fine,” Subaru finally said.

“I’ll form a contract.”

Beatrice’s whole body jolted as if she were about to leap into the air from excitement—until Subaru immediately added, “But it’ll be on my terms.”

Her enthusiasm crashed instantly.

She straightened herself and tried to act dignified about it.

“Betty has no problem with that! Subaru may add any terms he desires. Even if Subaru desires Betty as his bride, Betty has no complaints, I suppose,” she said, cheeks reddening slightly.

Subaru’s eyebrow twitched violently at that.

He glanced at her and then at himself, mentally comparing heights.

Sure, she was four centuries older than him, but she still looked like a twelve-year-old girl.

There was no universe—no timeline, no multiverse, no dimension—where he was going to marry someone who looked like a child.

(A/N: All fanfic authors shipping Petra and Meili with Subaru: Hehe)

He could practically imagine the look of profound disappointment and judgment on his parents’ faces if they ever found out he had done something like that.

The thought alone was enough to make him grimace.

“However,” Beatrice added quickly, as if remembering something vital, “Betty must be Subaru’s only Spirit! In fact, that is Betty’s only condition, I suppose!”

Subaru didn’t even hesitate.

“No. I can’t agree to that.”

Beatrice recoiled as if stabbed.

“Why?!” she complained loudly.

“B-Betty waited for four hundred years… Why can’t Betty’s Subaru accept one simple condition after all that?!”

Subaru let out a long, tired sigh.

Then his face hardened into something far more serious.

“Look, Beako… you know I’ve been betrayed before. You know what happened to me in the Capital and after. Somehow, I got stronger. But just because I got stronger doesn’t mean the threats disappeared.”

His tone dropped, weighty and sober.

“There are still enemies out there—powerful ones. If I’m going to survive, I’ll need every advantage I can get. And now that I know I have this Spirit Affinity nonsense, not using it would be suicidal.”

“Betty is strong!” Beatrice immediately countered, voice rising defensively.

“Betty can protect Subaru!”

Subaru didn’t raise his voice—he didn’t need to.

“Can you defeat Reinhardt?” he asked plainly.

Beatrice froze.

Subaru continued, not giving her time to escape the question.

“Or the Witch of Envy?”

Silence.

Beatrice’s confident glare collapsed instantly, and she looked down, unable to answer.

The reality of the comparison was too overwhelming to deny.

“Scratch that,” Subaru corrected himself.

“Can you defeat the Great Rabbit or the Black Serpent? What about the remaining Sin Archbishops? Or the entire Witch Cult?” He listed them one by one, each name weighing down the conversation like a stone.

Beatrice lowered her gaze and stayed quiet for a few seconds, clearly trying to gauge her own capabilities.

“With the mana Betty has stored… Betty could take on one enemy at a time, I suppose,” she finally admitted.

Subaru didn’t let the statement hang.

He immediately pressed the weak point.

“Exactly. One enemy. But if multiple come at us at once, we’re dead. Game over. No do-overs.”

Beatrice bit her lip.

Her eyes glistened, turning moist with frustration.

“B-Betty has been thinking about you every day… waiting for so long… does Betty not deserve to at least be Subaru’s only Spirit?”

Subaru paused, then replied without dodging the question.

“You do,” he said honestly.

“But answer something for me, Beatrice.” His voice dropped, heavy and direct.

“Do you want to live with me? Or die with me?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Beatrice froze as if struck.

Her breath hitched.

The meaning behind his question finally reached her—if she insisted on being his only spirit, if she limited his options and potential allies, then what she was really asking was for the two of them to face the world alone.

That path only had one conclusion, and it wasn’t survival.

Her first instinct was to say something reckless like, ‘Either way is fine,’ because she genuinely meant it.

But she stopped herself.

The words crawled up her throat and then died there as she actually thought about what Subaru was asking—what it implied, and what it would cost.

“I-I see,” Beatrice whispered, voice trembling.

“Even if it hurts Betty, if it is for Betty’s contractor, then Betty can make compromises, I suppose…”

She puffed her cheeks and pouted, trying to act stubborn even as her hands shook.

Then she stepped closer and grabbed onto Subaru’s sleeve tightly, refusing to let go.

“However! Subaru must promise that Betty will be Subaru’s number one Spirit! In fact!” she declared, stamping the condition down as if carving it into stone.

Subaru didn’t hesitate.

“I promise,” he answered, firm and direct.

Beatrice’s composure broke instantly.

Tears welled up and started pouring down her cheeks as she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him.

She didn’t bother hiding her crying; she just clung to him desperately, as if afraid he would vanish the moment she loosened her grip.

Subaru didn’t push her away.

He wrapped his arms around her small frame and held her close, rubbing her back slowly to calm her down.

He didn’t need to say anything—the embrace was enough.

After four hundred years of waiting, loneliness, confusion, and despair… Beatrice had finally reached her destination.

To be continued...