...
{3rd Pov}
Surviving the first day truly was an accomplishment in Subaru's eyes, especially now that he had effectively become Flugel within this era.
After all, he had already died twice to Reid Astrea and the terrifying power of the 'Heavenly Sword.'
That ability was no joke.
In fact, Reina herself had managed to achieve the state of the 'Heavenly Sword'during her stay within that alternate timeline. However, because she had already been overwhelmingly powerful to begin with, the difference it made to her overall combat ability was not immediately obvious from an outside perspective.
Still, Subaru understood just how absurd it actually was.
When Reina had once picked up nothing more than a wooden stick whose time had been stopped through the copied Authority of Regulus that Subaru shared via his own Authority of Greed, the object itself had only become unbreakable and somewhat more dangerous than normal.
That alone should not have been enough to defeat someone like Reinhardt.
But the moment the power of the Heavenly Sword was added into the equation, everything changed completely.
It was that power which allowed Reina to overwhelm Reinhard van Astrea so effortlessly, fighting without any fear of death or hesitation.
And the frightening part was that she had accomplished that despite not possessing the support of Od Laguna anymore while latter had full support.
Even though she had retained the passive effects granted by many of her Divine Protections, the Od Laguna of that timeline no longer actively blessed her. More importantly, she had also lost the Divine Protection of the Phoenix, meaning she no longer possessed automatic resurrection.
Yet none of that had mattered in the end.
At least, not to Subaru.
Back then, while others might have focused on analyzing her abilities, categorizing her powers, or calculating the implications of her strength, Subaru himself simply did not care about those things nearly as much.
For him, being together with Reina and loving her had always been far more important than trying to categorize her abilities like some powerwanker.
But now, he had personally been killed by Reid Astrea, someone who had reached the level of the Heavenly Sword, and he had experienced firsthand what it felt like to have his Od destroyed.
Twice in a row.
The experience was horrifying in a way that ordinary death could never compare to.
Previously, the worst death Subaru had experienced was during one of his battles against the White Whale, where his entire vitality had been drained away until nothing remained. That death had been agonizing, leaving him feeling as though every part of his existence was being emptied out little by little.
Well, excluding the time Rem killed him.
But even then, the situation had been different. Since he had resisted instead of allowing himself to be tortured, she had chosen to kill him quickly, which ironically caused him far less suffering than many of his other deaths.
However, what Reid had done was on an entirely different level.
The Heavenly Sword had severed his Od itself, attacking the very foundation of his existence. The sensation of that destruction was something Subaru could still remember clearly, even after returning by death.
And because of that, he had become genuinely interested in understanding what exactly the Heavenly Sword truly was.
The concept itself clearly went beyond ordinary swordsmanship.
Subaru already knew that his Authority Soul Mirror was capable of copying only around half of the prowess or abilities of its targets.
Even when he copied portions of Reina's swordsmanship, the result had not been enough.
Despite possessing half of her skill and understanding, it still did not qualify him to reach the state known as the Heavenly Sword.
Which meant the Heavenly Sword was not merely a matter of technique or talent.
There had to be something deeper behind it.
Something fundamental that separated ordinary mastery from whatever Reid Astrea had achieved.
But regardless of all that, Subaru had already formed a connection of sorts with the three of them, and since he currently had no immediate other objective to pursue, he decided to follow Reid Astrea back to his home.
There was no real reason to refuse.
At the same time, Typhon separated from the group shortly afterward, happily continuing on her own path to judge more people according to her twisted sense of justice. Meanwhile, Echidna chose to remain with them, though the reason was obvious.
Her interest was entirely focused on Flugel.
Whether it was his magic, his knowledge, or the strange abilities he possessed, Echidna clearly had no intention of leaving his side anytime soon.
And so, Subaru, now acting under the identity of Flugel, eventually arrived at the Astrea Mansion as it existed 400 years in the past.
The structure itself was enormous, carrying an atmosphere that reflected both prestige and martial history. Even from the outside, it was obvious that the Astrea family already possessed tremendous influence during this era, which ticked off Subaru as he suppressed a frown.
"Weaklings! Your lord has returned!" Reid suddenly shouted the moment they reached the gate, his loud declaration echoing through the area without the slightest bit of restraint.
The sheer force behind his voice was enough to give Subaru goosebumps.
It was not just because Reid was loud.
It was because the man genuinely sounded like someone who believed the entire world revolved around him.
"Hm? Isn't your father still alive, or has he already passed away?" Echidna asked with visible amusement after hearing Reid's ridiculous declaration.
"The old man's still alive," Reid answered casually with a grin as he continued walking forward.
Judging by his posture, it genuinely looked as though he intended to kick open the castle gates instead of simply entering normally.
Suddenly, the gates opened.
In fact, the guards were hurriedly dragging them apart in visible panic, moving as quickly as possible as if they had already learned from experience what would happen if they were even a little too slow. Their expressions practically screamed that they fully expected Reid Astrea to kick the gates open himself if they failed to react in time.
"Haha! Not bad!" Reid laughed loudly as he walked forward without slowing down. "A second later and I would've had to open these gates myself!"
He sounded genuinely amused by the thought rather than annoyed.
Meanwhile, Echidna observed the entire interaction with mild curiosity.
"Your father, the actual lord of this noble house, is still alive, and yet you openly proclaim yourself as the lord of the Astrea family," she remarked thoughtfully, almost as if she were talking to herself. "In most situations, that could easily be considered treasonous behavior."
However, even as she spoke, her attention subtly drifted away from Reid and toward Flugel instead.
While Reid's personality did amuse her to some degree, he was also somewhat disappointing in other ways. At his core, he was still little more than a shameless bully who constantly used his overwhelming power to intimidate and dominate those he considered weak.
The only difference was that he happened to be an absurdly powerful swordsman who had reached a state known as the Heavenly Sword.
Beyond that, however, there was little depth to him in Echidna's eyes.
Compared to Reid, Flugel was far more interesting.
After all, Flugel possessed the one thing Echidna valued more than anything else in the world.
Knowledge of the unknown.
"Before I enter, it would probably be better to prepare a separate room for me," Echidna said calmly as she glanced toward the guards nearby. "The last thing I want is for your people to lose their minds simply because they stayed near me for too long."
Her warning was not exaggerated.
The guards were already visibly uncomfortable. Some had begun sweating nervously without fully understanding why, while others avoided looking directly at her for extended periods of time. Even standing in her presence was enough to place pressure on ordinary people.
"Hah. Weaklings," Reid Astrea clicked his tongue dismissively. "Imagine needing this many precautions just to host a weak maiden."
The comment instantly irritated Echidna.
Ironically, she herself would normally be the first person to casually refer to herself as a weak maiden when it suited her, but hearing Reid say it in that mocking tone was an entirely different matter.
It was not the words themselves that bothered her.
It was the way he genuinely looked down on her.
Meanwhile, Subaru remained silent as he considered the situation carefully.
As an Authority Possessor, he was naturally immune to the miasma of the Witch of Envy, much less the lesser influence radiating from Echidna. Her presence simply did not affect him in the same way it affected ordinary people.
In the future, he had already solved this issue once before by giving Echidna a ring created from his own aura, something that helped stabilize and suppress the effects around her.
However, the current situation was different.
Because of the restrictions placed upon him after traveling into the past, most of his abilities were heavily suppressed. Creating something like that ring again was no longer simple, and at the moment, he was not even sure whether he could replicate it properly at all.
"Lady Echidna, I may have a way to deal with that," Flugel said calmly as he looked toward Echidna, whose eyes immediately glinted with interest the moment he spoke.
"Lord Flugel, due you possess some other strong spell?" she asked without hiding her excitement in the slightest. The curiosity in her voice was impossible to miss, and even the guards nearby could tell that the Witch of Greed's attention had become completely focused on him once again.
Flugel did not answer immediately.
Instead, he stepped closer and gently took hold of her palm.
"Hmm?" Echidna blinked in slight surprise before a faint blush appeared on her face, as though embarrassed by the sudden contact. However, Subaru ignored the entire act completely, already aware that most of it was little more than a carefully maintained façade.
Focusing instead on the task itself, he quietly channeled his aura through the point of contact.
The miasma surrounding Echidna ceased to exist.
The suffocating pressure that had been affecting the guards vanished almost instantly, causing several of them to visibly relax without even understanding what had changed.
"W What kind of spell is this?!" Echidna asked in genuine shock, her eyes widening as she examined herself carefully.
For the first time in a long while, the Witch of Greed truly looked confused.
She could not sense any mana being used at all.
From her perspective, Flugel had clearly done something to her, yet there had been no magical activation, no mana flow, and no visible spell construction that she could detect.
And that only made the situation even more unbelievable in her eyes.
"This isn't magic," Flugel replied honestly, his tone calm as he still held Echidna's hand. "It's simply a peculiar ability that I possess."
What he said was technically the truth.
He genuinely did not know any form of magic capable of directly negating a Witch's miasma. The effect had nothing to do with mana or spellcasting in the first place. Instead, it was his aura that naturally counteracted and suppressed it.
Unfortunately, because of the restrictions currently imposed on him, his aura was still heavily limited. Under normal circumstances, he would have handled something like this effortlessly, but now even performing a simple suppression required physical contact.
At least the recent deaths had not been entirely meaningless.
After dying twice to Reid Astrea, his overall strength had increased enough for him to regain partial usage of his aura again, even if only to a small degree.
Still, the situation irritated him.
'Man… I seriously hate this nerf,' Subaru thought internally with visible annoyance. 'What's even the point of constantly getting stronger if the world immediately responds by suppressing everything again? At this rate, I'll just stop improving altogether. This is complete bullshit.'
If he was in some novel and could break fourth wall, he would have seriously strangled the author of that story.
Meanwhile, Echidna observed the phenomenon carefully.
Although she could not identify it as an Authority specifically, she could clearly tell that some kind of unfamiliar energy had neutralized her miasma, which fascinated her greedy self.
'An energy capable of negating miasma… then its nature must share some form of compatibility or opposition with it,' she concluded almost instantly, her mind already beginning to analyze endless possibilities.
Her eyes sharpened further as her greed intensified.
If she were not actively maintaining the image of a composed and elegant maiden, she probably would have already started breathing heavily from excitement like some obsessed researcher who had just discovered an entirely new branch of knowledge.
"Guess that problem's solved. Now follow me, my follower. I'll let you meet my old man!" Reid Astrea declared proudly as he began walking forward again.
Flugel's lips twitched slightly at those words.
In true Gian fashion, Reid had already decided on his own that Flugel now belonged to his side and was therefore automatically categorized as one of his followers.
'What belongs to you is mine, and what belongs to me is obviously also mine… that's probably one of his life principles,' Subaru thought with visible exasperation.
At this point, he could practically imagine a loud fat kid laughing arrogantly in the background while preparing to sing terribly.
The comparison fit far too well.
Still, Subaru chose not to argue.
From experience, he knew that trying to reason with people like Reid usually led nowhere. If anything, arguing with an idiot for too long only dragged your own intelligence down to their level.
So instead, he simply sighed inwardly and followed behind him alongside Echidna.
As they continued through the mansion, they eventually arrived near the office belonging to Reid's father.
Along the way, they encountered one of the butlers serving the Astrea household. The man immediately noticed the strangers accompanying Reid.
However, despite clearly noticing them, the butler made absolutely no attempt to stop the group or question their presence.
The reason was simple.
The last thing he wanted early in the morning was to become the target of Reid Astrea's insults or temper for no reason whatsoever.
'Master Reid is back… now I can only pray that tea time arrives sooner,' the butler thought internally, already wanting to stay as far away from Reid Astrea as possible.
The man had clearly dealt with Reid long enough to understand that peace only existed when the Sword Saint was somewhere else causing problems.
"Weakling! Your lord has arrived!" Reid shouted loudly the moment they reached the office.
Then, without even bothering to knock—
He kicked the door open.
Not merely opening it, but outright breaking it off its hinges with sheer force.
The loud crash echoed through the room.
Surprisingly, the man sitting inside did not look shocked in the slightest.
If anything, he looked deeply frustrated, as though this exact situation had already happened far too many times before.
"Who the fuck are you calling a weakling?! I'm your father!" the older man snapped angrily as he stood up from his chair.
He had aged features, fiery red hair similar to Reid's, and sharp blue eyes that still carried traces of nobility despite his condition where he had black patches all over his body.
"Old man, you ended up like this because you ate dragon meat," Reid replied immediately, not showing the slightest respect despite speaking to his own father. "If that doesn't make you a weakling, then what else would it make you?"
The mockery in his voice was completely shameless.
"Bastard! How the fuck was I supposed to know it was dragon meat?!" the older man shouted furiously, looking as though he genuinely wanted to decapitate Reid Astrea right then and there.
And just like that, the two immediately began throwing insults and curses at each other without restraint.
The atmosphere inside the room instantly devolved into chaos.
Flugel watched the entire exchange with a completely deadpan expression.
'Yeah… definitely no blood test needed here,' he thought internally before shaking his head slightly.
The resemblance between the two was painfully obvious.
Just then, another man entered the room.
"Father, it seems brother is back," the newcomer said calmly before his gaze shifted toward Flugel and Echidna. "Oh? He even brought along such a nice young couple."
The moment those words were spoken, Echidna reacted immediately.
Without showing even the slightest hesitation, she wrapped her arms around Flugel's arm and leaned against him naturally, perfectly playing into the misunderstanding.
"Indeed," she said smoothly, maintaining the elegant demeanor of a refined maiden. "My maidenly self is deeply indebted to Lord Flugel, and I have decided to follow him for the rest of his life."
Her expression remained graceful and sincere throughout the entire declaration.
Meanwhile, Flugel simply stared at her in silence for a moment, once again rendered speechless by her shameless determination to attach herself to him.
In a single day, he had somehow ended up becoming both someone else's follower and someone else gaining him as a follower in return.
Not to mention, Subaru immediately noticed the specific way Echidna had phrased her words.
She had said she would follow him for the rest of "his" life instead of "her" life.
Was that supposed to be some kind of subtle insult?
Knowing Echidna, there was a very real chance it actually was.
Soon afterward, two more men entered the room. One of them appeared older than Reid Astrea, while the other seemed noticeably younger.
"Lord Brother, welcome back!" the youngest one immediately greeted respectfully with a bow the moment he saw Reid.
Reid nodded casually before pointing toward them.
"Flugel, meet them. These are my brothers," he said with a completely serious face. "Weakling One, Weakling Two, and Weakling Three."
There was absolutely no doubt that he genuinely meant those names.
The three brothers immediately gave awkward, wry smiles upon hearing the introduction, clearly accustomed to this kind of treatment from Reid.
Meanwhile, Flugel simply nodded calmly.
Then, without missing a beat, he bowed politely toward them.
"Nice to meet you, Weakling One, Weakling Two, and Weakling Three," he greeted them in an equally serious tone.
The moment those words left his mouth, Lord Astrea nearly looked ready to suffer a heart attack on the spot.
His expression visibly darkened in despair.
'Damn it… this idiot actually found another person just as insane and arrogant as himself,' he thought miserably while staring at Flugel with disbelief.
"Bastard! What kind of nicknames are those?!" Lord Astrea shouted angrily, clearly reaching the limit of his patience.
"At the very least, call Toska properly! He's the youngest!"
Despite the outburst, Reid Astrea looked completely unbothered, as if insulting his own brothers was the most natural thing in the world.
Meanwhile, as the family continued bickering loudly among themselves, Flugel quietly fell into thought.
'Wait a minute… wasn't Reid's family originally not supposed to be nobles?' he wondered internally, his expression remaining calm despite the growing confusion in his mind.
From what he remembered, the Astrea family history should not have looked like this.
In fact, among Reid's relatives, the only sibling that Tappei had ever really mentioned was the youngest brother, Toska, who would eventually become the father of the first Sword Saint in the Astrea lineage after Reid himself.
But now there were clearly more brothers present.
Not only that, the family already seemed deeply tied to nobility during this era.
The discrepancy immediately caught Subaru's attention.
'Hmm… maybe history in my timeline diverged much earlier than I initially thought?' he considered seriously.
At this point, he was beginning to realize more and more inconsistencies compared to the information he originally knew.
And the problem was that he did not actually have answers to any of them.
He was already working through his current circumstances on a self-made deduction which carried logic and 'Trust me bro energy' in equal amounts.
"Uh… yes, and who exactly might you two be?" Reid's father finally asked after taking a deep breath to calm himself down, shifting his attention toward the strangers his son had suddenly brought home.
"That guy is my follower, and that girl is his follower," Reid Astrea answered immediately while pointing toward Flugel and Echidna.
To make matters worse, Echidna calmly nodded as if she completely agreed with the explanation.
"…"
Flugel remained completely silent.
Instead, he simply looked toward Reid's father.
Their eyes met for a brief moment.
And somehow, without speaking a single word, both of them could practically read the exact same thought on each other's faces.
'You really are suffering just like me.'
Reid's father, who had spent years dealing with Reid's nonsense and outrageous behavior, had already reached a conclusion about the situation almost instantly.
He could tell.
This Flugel fellow was clearly another victim who had gotten dragged into Reid's madness.
'Perhaps he only went along with those ridiculous nicknames because he's scared of Reid,' the older man thought sympathetically while nodding to himself.
At that moment, he genuinely felt like crying for the poor man standing in front of him.
"Hey! Hey! Why the hell are you staring at him like that, old man?" Reid Astrea suddenly asked suspiciously as he looked back and forth between his father and Flugel. "Don't tell me your tastes have changed. Should I call Mother?"
The room instantly became awkward.
"Forget it. A dunderhead like you wouldn't understand anyway," his father replied while insulting him in the politest tone possible.
Reid merely clicked his tongue, clearly unconcerned.
"Anyway," the older man continued while rubbing his forehead in exhaustion, "why exactly have you dragged these two here?"
His gaze shifted toward Flugel and Echidna again, trying to understand what kind of chaos his son had brought into the mansion this time.
"And more importantly, what happened to the task you were supposed to complete?" he added, pointing out the mission Reid had originally been sent on, namely investigating and eliminating whatever had been slaughtering people in the neighboring nation.
"Oh, I found her," Reid answered casually with a shrug, sounding completely unconcerned.
"But everyone there was already dead anyway, so I just let her go."
"…"
Silence filled the room.
At that moment, Reid's father genuinely wished some omnipotent being would descend from the heavens carrying a massive bat solely to bonk his son directly on the head.
"Anyway, look what I found! This is Flugel, and he can heal you!" Reid Astrea declared proudly with a grin as he suddenly appeared beside Flugel and wrapped an arm tightly around his neck.
Flugel's expression twitched slightly.
On one side, he had a beautiful witch clinging to his arm.
On the other, he had an overly aggressive bro type Sword Saint hanging off his shoulder.
Why did this suddenly feel like he had become the protagonist of some strange romance novel?
'…Wait, technically I kind of am one,' he realized after a moment of thought.
The realization only made him feel even more tired.
Pushing that thought aside, Flugel shifted his attention back toward Reid's father.
"I heard you ate dragon meat," he said calmly, bringing up what he had overheard earlier during the family's shouting match.
"Yes!" the older man exploded immediately while pointing furiously toward his son. "This fucking bastard invited me to eat something he fucking cooked himself! Who the fuck was supposed to know it was fucking dragon meat?! That fucking poisonous shit made me fucking sick!"
His voice was filled entirely with frustration and curses as he glared at Reid like he wanted revenge for ruining his life.
Meanwhile, Flugel could only stare silently for a moment.
'…That is a truly impressive amount of fucking in a single sentence,' he thought internally, unable to stop his eye from twitching slightly.
"So, Sir Flugel… you really can heal me?" Reid's father asked, sounding noticeably more hopeful now. Despite surviving after eating the dragon meat, the poisonous curse carried within its blood had continued tormenting him ever since, slowly affecting his body over time.
Flugel nodded calmly and stepped closer to examine him properly.
Even now, Echidna still refused to release her grip on his arm, remaining attached to him as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
Watching the two of them together, the older man could not help but think differently.
'What a loving couple…' he thought inwardly before another thought crossed his mind. 'Now I wonder what kind of woman will someday manage to tame my eldest son's personality.'
The idea alone sounded nearly impossible.
As Subaru grabbed the older man's palm, he immediately understood the nature of the problem. The curse lingering within the man's body was deeply intertwined with the remnants of the dragon's blood, continuously spreading corruption through him.
Without wasting time, Flugel activated his healing magic.
At the same time, he carefully mixed a small amount of aura into the process, using it to directly cleanse the curse itself instead of merely suppressing the symptoms.
The results appeared almost immediately.
"This… this is it?" Reid's brother, the one unofficially labeled as Weakling Number One, muttered in disbelief as he watched the changes happening right in front of him.
The black curse marks spread throughout their father's body rapidly began fading away one after another until they completely vanished.
The oppressive feeling surrounding him disappeared as well.
It was obvious the curse had truly been removed.
"Good! Then hand over 100 gold coins as compensation!" Reid Astrea immediately declared shamelessly the moment the treatment finished.
"…"
The entire room fell silent once again.
To be continued...