Before long, Gojo and Felt were sitting in Roswaal's room.
"The Holy Gold Coins promised to Lady Felt should arrive in the next day or two."
"Rem, Ram, I'd like the two of you to set out for the mansion now."
"Once the funds arrive, bring them back with you."
Felt had expected Roswaal to want something more dramatic. Money arrangements hadn't been on her list.
"Huh. Thought it'd be something bigger."
"The coin's fine. A little late doesn't hurt anyone."
"Besides, with everything going on, you've got enough on your plate."
She could be thoughtful when she wanted to be. This particular mess had nothing to do with Roswaal, after all.
"My thanks for understanding, Lady Felt. The situation came on suddenly, and I hadn't arranged for enough staff."
"With Ram and Rem gone these next few days, the hospitality may fall somewhat short..."
"It's fine."
Felt waved it off breezily. "I could go fetch it myself, honestly. Saves you the trouble."
With Reinhard at her side, she didn't have to worry about safety. And Gojo would be here to keep an eye on Subaru's end.
"I couldn't possibly trouble Lady Felt. The fault lies with my own poor hosting. Had other matters not consumed me beforehand, it would never have come to this."
Roswaal shook his head and turned down the offer with a polite flourish.
"Fine, have it your way. I'll sit tight for a couple more days. Not like I've got anywhere else to be."
Felt let it go.
"Lord Roswaal..."
Ram looked at him with a flicker of worry as the departure loomed.
"It's fine. Don't worry about me."
He smiled at her, reassuring.
"There's nothing to fuss over. I'm safe here. With Lady Felt and her people around, none of you need concern yourselves."
Ram didn't answer, but the worry in her eyes didn't quite go anywhere.
Meanwhile.
Gojo was listening to all of this with a cold little laugh running through the back of his skull.
The others might not have pieced it together yet. He had.
Roswaal was sending the Ram and Rem back to the mansion now for one reason, and it wasn't a good one.
Earlier, this man had reached out to Elsa and paid her to slaughter everyone inside the mansion.
Do the math. Two sisters heading home. Holy Gold Coins due in transit. The timing lined up.
Which meant.
Roswaal wasn't sending them to collect money. He was sending them to die by Elsa's blade.
It made no sense to Gojo.
He'd spent enough time around Ram and Rem by now to read them clearly. The loyalty both of them carried for Roswaal sat plain on every gesture, every word.
Two women that devoted didn't turn traitor.
And yet.
Roswaal was willing to throw them away all the same.
No reason. No warning. A normal person would never see it coming.
But here it was, happening.
With the gold business settled, Felt wasn't inclined to linger.
Ram and Rem started gathering their things.
The group left Roswaal's and headed for Emilia's room.
Subaru was standing watch at the door, face drawn, staring at the little house with helplessness written all over him.
Reinhard spotted the others returning and spoke up.
"Lady Felt, was there something important?"
"Nah. Just clearing up a detail with Roswaal."
She waved a hand. Nothing close to the truth.
Subaru caught sight of Gojo and hurried over. He grabbed Gojo's arm and started pulling him toward the little copse of trees nearby.
"Hey, hey. What're you doing?"
"Drag me around like this and people are gonna get the wrong idea."
Gojo let himself be hauled along, muttering the whole way.
"Kill me."
Once they were out of earshot, under the trees, that was the first thing out of Subaru's mouth.
Gojo's head started to ache.
"Please, Satoru. Kill me."
When Gojo didn't answer, he repeated it with dead serious conviction.
"Hey. Something wrong with your head?"
"This isn't an emergency. Emilia's not dying. She's got psychological damage, that's it."
"Give her time and she'll come back. You really think this warrants a redo?"
Gojo's brow drew tight as he looked at the kid.
Every other time Subaru had used Return by Death, it had been because the world forced his hand. This was him trying to trigger it on purpose. And the reason for it was hard to swallow.
He'd admit the obvious.
Subaru cared about Emilia. Deeply.
But caring shouldn't look like this.
What Subaru was doing now bordered on deranged. She'd recover on her own with a little time. He was willing to throw his life away and reset reality just to skip the wait.
"It's not the same."
"With you here, dying's nothing to me. Just a blink. I'm back in a heartbeat."
He shook his head, voice rising.
"But right now, every minute, Emilia's in there suffering. I can't stand watching it."
"I want to save her. I'm the only one who can save her!"
His eyes burned with conviction.
"Going by your logic, next time she scrapes her knee, you'll kill yourself?"
"She has a bad day, you kill yourself?"
Gojo dragged a hand through his hair, exasperated.
His partner's particular brand of lovesick was breaking some part of his worldview.
"As long as Emilia's happy, nothing else matters."
The words came out flat and fast. No hesitation.
"What do you mean nothing else matters."
"Maybe you don't matter to you, but what about me?"
"You die, and I get dragged into the reset with you. At least consider how I feel about it."
When reasoning failed, Gojo pivoted.
"Don't worry. Later on, when you're gone, dying won't be easy for me. I won't be doing this whole bit very often."
"So you're only asking to die now because of me?"
"I only think of you as someone trustworthy, that's all."
Subaru was relentless, and Gojo had no interest in becoming an accomplice here.
If things had genuinely been dire, sure, he'd help.
But not for this.
Helping now would set a precedent. Down the road, the kid would reach for death at the drop of a hat.
More than that, Subaru's thinking was drifting toward something extreme. The kind of extreme that treated his own life like spare change.
Gojo hadn't dated anyone either. He still knew this wasn't right.
"No. I'm not doing it."
He shook his head, firm.
"But what if the save point drifts later, or what if Emilia carries this scar for the rest of her life..."
"Don't go spinning hypotheticals. Remember your own state a while back? Worse than hers right now. Look at you now."
"Emilia's a person, not some flower you're keeping behind glass."
"You think she'd be happy if she knew what you were trying to do?"
His voice had gone heavier than usual.
"If you keep pushing this, I'll knock you out and let you rest."
Subaru heard him. He knew he wasn't going to budge his partner on this, not tonight.
His shoulders dropped. Every ounce of spark drained out of him.
"You won't? Emilia's..."
"No."
"And don't get any ideas about sneaking off and doing it yourself. I'll tell Reinhard and Betty. They'll watch you around the clock."
Gojo closed every door he could.
"Sit tight. Wait for her to heal."
"And don't forget what we actually came here for."
"Until that business gets handled, Emilia's going to keep running into things like today, over and over."
That one landed.
Because when Subaru thought about it, Emilia's condition tied back to Roswaal one way or another.
"I hear you."
His focus shifted at last. To Roswaal.
"Good. Let's head back."
"Emilia's off-limits for now, but someone needs to stay close..."
With the suicide plan deflated for the moment, Gojo felt the weight of the whole conversation in his bones.
"What did that idiot want?"
Betty drifted over as Subaru walked back toward Emilia's room.
"What else. He wanted to die."
"Over Emilia?"
Betty had him pegged in a second.
"Who else would push him this far."
"Foolish of him."
"Agreed. Took me a while to talk him down."
"Otherwise, give him enough rope and he'd be offing himself every other week. Getting dragged through that cycle doesn't sound like a good time."
"Though you know, your little arrangement probably buys you more lifespan than anyone else around."
Betty's mouth curled, enjoying herself.
"Enough nonsense. I've got no interest in that kind of empty time."
"Speaking of. The Sin Archbishop of Lust is taking her time getting here. Slower than I figured."
"Maybe Elsa and her lot aren't actually that important."
"Possible."
While they talked, Ram and Rem climbed into a dragon carriage and rolled out along the road, heading away from the Sanctuary toward the mansion.
Gojo yawned.
"I'm going to grab some more sleep. You and Reinhard keep an eye on Subaru. Don't let that idiot do something impulsive in a weak moment."
"Don't worry. He won't get the chance."
A day passed, quick and quiet.
Subaru sat with Emilia the whole time and got nowhere.
She stayed curled around her knees, sealed inside her own world.
At the rate she was going, a full recovery would take days.
There wasn't much Subaru could do about it.
Gojo wouldn't help him die. He'd steeled himself to do it on his own, worked up the nerve, and Betty had walked in at the worst possible moment.
Nothing left but to do as Gojo had said. Wait. Let time do what it did.
Night fell.
Everyone in the village slipped into sleep.
And in that quiet, a small bird started shrieking urgently at a particular window.
Meili stirred in a haze, opened her eyes, climbed up to peer at the bird, and snapped fully awake in a single breath.
She tumbled out of bed and half-ran, half-crawled to Gojo's door, pounding on it.
"Big bro!"
"Big bro, wake up, quick!"
Gojo's senses picked her up the moment she'd approached. By the time she got out the second call, he already had the door open.
"What is it? Something wrong?"
"Is your mother here?"
"Yes!"
"Mother's almost at the Sanctuary. Shouldn't we start getting ready?"
On the way into the Sanctuary, Meili had stationed small animals around the perimeter to watch for her mother's arrival.
And here they were, earning their keep.
The signal had worked.
"So she's here."
Gojo's expression didn't shift.
"Got it. Don't panic. I'll go tell the others."
He patted her shoulder and went straight for Reinhard's door.
"Reinhard, get the villagers out of here. Take them somewhere hidden and safe."
Fresh from sleep, Reinhard didn't yet know what was happening.
Felt, who'd been woken in the process, remembered Elsa and the rest of it, her eyes brightening.
"She's here?"
"Yeah."
"Finally. Now we get a show."
Felt was already nudging Reinhard toward the door.
The two of them had scouted the village top to bottom the other day. They knew every house, every lane.
For someone of Reinhard's caliber, moving fifty Demi-humans to safety wouldn't even be a warm-up.
"Understood."
Reinhard nodded and started preparing to move.
"Don't let them make too much noise. Knocking them out is fine if you have to."