40: Perfect Opening
Time passed little by little.
Finally, Subaru put down what he was working on and took a sip of the coffee beside him. Looking at the thick notebook titled Plan to Save Reinhild in front of him, an unprecedented sense of confidence welled up in his heart.
[1. Prevent Heinkel's poisoning incident.] [2. Minimize casualties within the mansion.] [3. Reduce casualties among the villagers, and make sure Reinhild doesn't have to personally deal with the beastified villagers.]
Subaru double-checked the three most important objectives.
Then he stood up and stretched his body before walking toward the door with big strides.
"It's 3 PM. Alright then, let's begin this loop."
.
.
.
The meeting location was the familiar reception room (the one where he had met Roswaal). Upon entering, only Reinhild was present.
Subaru guessed that was probably because etiquette lessons had already started, so Felt wasn't there to back him up.
But by this point, Subaru was no longer shaken by such minor changes.
"Subaru? Are you alright?"
"Ah, sorry, sorry. How should I put this… almost dying really makes you appreciate the value of life. Or maybe it's just the feeling of seeing a familiar face in a strange place."
Subaru hurriedly wiped away his tears, cursing himself internally for being so pathetic, while delivering the line he had prepared just in case.
"I truly apologize. Even though I was there, something like that still happened… But you survived thanks to Ferris's help."
"I'll be sure to properly thank him later. Now then, Reinhild, you said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Yes, please sit down. Actually…"
Reinhild began speaking the lines Subaru could practically recite from memory by now.
But even familiar words, when paired with the girl's spirited expression, brought Subaru indescribable joy and a renewed sense of attentiveness.
"So to me, you are a benefactor.
Take your time to think about your reward—anything within my ability, I will make it happen.
No, I swear I will make it happen.
If you don't want to participate in the royal selection, you can leave after receiving your reward.
But Lord Roswaal, Lady Emilia's supporter, will come to see you in the next couple of days, so you'll probably have to wait a bit."
Now that Reinhild was finally asking about Subaru's request, Subaru once again reviewed everything in his mind, checking for any omissions.
The lower his demands, the higher the favorability from the mansion residents; the higher his demands, the reverse was true.
Currently, Subaru had three options:
Pretend to be a victim of the Witch Cult using the witch's miasma. This would not only lower suspicions about him but would also allow him to receive the protection of a high-tier combatant.
However, because the people in the mansion were generally good-natured, his actions might be limited. Moreover, the one sent to guard him would most likely be Leander.
While Subaru liked Leander, his necessity in the plan was low.
One reason was that Leander needed to wear heavy armor to unleash his full combat power. Though he was fast at short distances, his long-distance speed was quite lacking.
Upon seeing him in full armor, enemies would likely flee quietly, making it unsuitable for preemptive strikes.
Most importantly, neither Lust nor Ram—those Subaru could reliably encounter—seemed beatable by Leander.
The worst-case scenario was Reinhild choosing to guard Subaru personally.
Since he had already agreed to Roswaal's request to handle follow-up matters, this would likely repeat the fourth loop.
In that case, all Subaru could do would be to share intel about the Witch Cult with the girl—but she would win even without that information.
The servant route from the third loop. Although this didn't collapse, due to Subaru's suspicious status, he'd likely get paired with the guide-version of Eileen.
And while Reinhild's kindness would still give him some freedom, his activity range would be quite restricted.
Unfortunately, although Eileen was a necessary combatant, she alone wasn't enough to break the deadlock.
And choosing the servant route would cause invisible walls between Subaru and the others in the mansion.
Within a week, Subaru couldn't guarantee those walls would be broken.
So, Subaru made up his mind.
"Reinhild, just so you know, I plan to squeeze out as much as I can if I find an opportunity."
He used a playful tone to ease his own tension.
"I understand. So, what is it you want? As things stand now, I won't refuse any of your requests. I swear it upon my sword. So, Subaru, what do you want?"
Looking at Reinhild's sincere and solemn vow, Subaru smiled.
"I only have one wish—hire me to work in this mansion."
"Subaru, are you sure? It might sound weird coming from me, but I should be able to fulfill most other requests for you."
Suppressing the joy in his heart, Subaru furrowed his brow as if troubled and took out his smartphone, placing it on the table.
"This is that mysterious 'meteor.'"
"Yes, actually I've found that it's out of energy. This meteor is very special. It can't be recharged directly and needs magic ore to replenish its power. It's very useful to me. If possible, I'd like you to get some magic ore for me, Rein-chan."
Reinhild picked up the batteryless smartphone and fiddled with it.
Subaru sighed in relief—just as he had suspected, Reinhild didn't currently have a Divine Protection capable of detecting lies.
This was expected, since Divine Protections seemed to have a cooldown, and she'd likely used it during morning questioning.
When meeting high-ranking individuals, the girl would probably cancel any offensive Divine Protections, so it made sense that Reinhild, after handling Felt's affairs, didn't currently have it.
"I understand. Leave it to me. I'll get it to you by this weekend."
Subaru struggled to contain his excitement, though a smile still crept up on his lips.
After all, he had lied by saying the phone was a time-type magic tool.
Subaru knew that such tools were not only rare but had another key trait: they consumed absurd amounts of energy.
And with Reinhild's personality, she would surely prepare enough magic ore to match the scale of the supposed reward—likely a massive quantity.
Reinhild would probably gather magic ore from across the nation.
In that case, either she'd preemptively purchase the ore that an unknown force would've used to attract the White Rabbit, or she'd discover that some unknown force was madly buying up magic ore.
As the royal guard of the kingdom, Reinhild would definitely investigate the situation.
After all, magic ore can be used as explosives.
Even in the first case, it would still work in Subaru's favor. The White Rabbit had stalled Reinhild for a long time during the earlier loops, and because of that, the northeast region of the territory had suffered heavy casualties.
If the ore hadn't been diverted, Reinhild likely could've defeated White Rabbit in under ten minutes, drastically reducing casualties among the villagers.
Most importantly, this would shorten the time it took for Reinhild to return to the mansion—greatly reducing deaths there as well.