They reached the gates of the manor, a floating gray modern building with white stripes was above the endless white that surrounded all the place.
Beatrice and Subaru were the first ones to arrive, normally they would be holding hands, but Subaru was too shy to take her hand and Beatrice was still thinking this guy was not Subaru.
The others followed from behind.
Beatrice led the way for Subaru, even though he clearly stated that he wanted to be the one to place the first step inside.
She opened the door and stumbled by a wide corridor. There were 6 doors on the left, one in the middle of the right wall, some signs, and most importantly, a white glass board extending from their position to a sign near the single right door.
She started by reading the signs of the left doors, a picture of a simplistic human figure in a blue background with text between parentheses under it wrote, "male" and the other signs almost the same thing but pink background and the text said "female".
"It seems like these are restrooms." Subaru noted.
She turned around and looked at the single door of the right wall. The door itself was just like the other ones, painted wooden. But above it was a sign, "⟨Re:Zero⟩ is airing here."
She looked at the other two signs, but they were just empty.
"Is that the name of my anime? Isn't it an isekai though? What title is that?"
"You can read that–?" Beatrice had turned to look at Subaru who red the Japanese characters, but then the voice from before coughed and the sign glowed.
In that instant she could read it, "Re zero? What does it mean, I suppose?"
"I have a few guesses, but all align with the idea of going back something. And as all lame isekai title's go, I bet that's my power!"
"As if you could have such power, perv-Barusu." Ram took a step in, observing the surroundings.
"That nickname will stay for a while, will it not?" Subaru talked to himself, Ram smirked and said yes.
"Let's enter already, in fact." Said the little girl annoyed tugging his sleeves.
Subaru took one of the handles and Beatrice the other one, they opened the door and it led them to a room with basic decorations.
Some red carpets indicating the path, a few plants, modern ceiling lamps, some bean bag like seats, a big wide rectangular mirror, and the cherry on top, the room had a feeling of two layers.
Subaru left Beatrice's side and inspected the seats, "Bean bags, really? Who watches anime on those?"
Beatrice, unlike Subaru, went to the wide mirror. She inspected for any signs of mana, but there wasn't any. "Doesn't seem like this is a mītia, so if not from this where are we watching the thing he wants us to watch, I suppose."
"Do you gotta end most of your sentences with ''I suppose'?" Subaru asked the loli.
Unfortunately, Beatrice ignored him.
He sighed and sat on the bean bag, he would be lying if he said it was uncomfortable.
But then, the seat transformed itself.
"What the—?!" Subaru yelps, scrambling back from the transforming beanbag as if it were a wild animal. His eyes widened, darting between the gaming chair and the spot where the beanbag used to be. "It... it changed! It actually changed! How...? Is this... magic?" He breathed heavily, a mix of awe and fear evident in his voice.
"What is it, imposter?" Beatrice turned to Subaru. Her eyes widened at the strange object Subaru was sitting on.
She saw a black chair that was strange to her, it had a more stuffed shape. Subaru sat on it again.
"What is this chair you're sitting on?" She asked, going near him.
Subaru takes a look into the previous bean bag and jumps out of it, "The bean bag transformed into a gaming chair! How!?"
To test that the bean bag transformed into that, she sat on the bean bag next to the weird chair Subaru addressed as "gaming chair".
She sank into the bean bag and slowly it transformed itself into a wooden stair-like seat. "It was more comfortable before, I suppose."
But when she left the seat she was in she recognized it as the wooden chair she sat in the Forbidden Library.
Beatrice hummed in thought as her eyes straightened.
The others entered the room, their reactions were almost the same as Subaru. But Roswaal and Otto were also straight going to the wide mirror.
Before they reached, Beatrice sat on her "chair" and alerted them, "That's not a mītia, I suppose. I already checked, it seems like it's just a regular mirror."
Otto nodded, Roswaal admired the mirror a little more. He watched closely in the mirror, but an unexpected deadpan came from him. He shook his head and sat in one of the bean bags, with his usual unreadable behavior.
One by one, they sat in the seats.
In the bottom left row, Emilia sat near Subaru. Her seat transformed into a small sized version of the guest room couch.
Frederica followed Emilia and sat near her, even though she wanted to sit near her brother, she thought her lady might need her the most. Her seat transformed into an everyday chair.
Otto and Garfiel, together, sat in the bottom right row near the others. Garfiel's seat mimicked Subaru's, but it wasn't nearly as similar. Otto's seat transformed into the driver's seat of an earth dragon carriage.
Roswaal and Ram, however, sat in the upward right row near the wall, distanced from the others. Roswaal's seat was transformed into his office seat. Ram's seat mimicked Roswaal's.
Rem was standing on the ramp, unknown where to sit.
Before she could make a decision, a blonde human using an interesting ear apparatus, entered the room.
"Damn, I forgot about the authority of gluttony. Rem, come here." The unknown person said directly to the blue haired maid in the middle of the ramp.
She looked at Otto and Roswaal, they were looking at who entered the room.
'He looks young… Get a hold of yourself, Otto! A complete stranger enters the room, demands Rem accompany him, without explanation? Something doesn't feel right. I need to assess the situation before we proceed any further.'
"Hold on a moment," Otto interjects, his voice firm but measured. "Before Rem goes anywhere, I believe some clarifications are in order." He turns towards the newcomer, his expression a mix of caution and determination.
"Are you RM, the one responsible for bringing us here? You offered no explanation for your actions, and no reassurance for Rem's safety. Why should we trust you?"
The blonde teen ignored, his gaze direct at Rem.
'Again!? Where's my respect…' A single tear was forming from the merchant's eye.
She looked at the two again. Otto wasn't sure what the girl wanted, but Roswaal responded.
"Hmm, a curious proposition," Roswaal murmurs, tilting his head slightly. "Very weell, proceeeed. I'm quite eager to seee this 'special case' of yours."
Otto was taken aback, "What!? How can you trust this random guy out of nowhere like this?"
Roswaal coldly replied, "Indeed," Roswaal drawls, a sly smile playing on his lips. "If our memories serve us correctly, this young lady is but a stranger to us." He paused and gazed at the bottom right row, "That is to us except Subaru who visited her."
Subaru, watching the scene, stayed silent. What was he supposed to do when he does not know anything, he thought.
"Therefore, her participation in this should bear no consequence, wouldn't you agree?" He casts a knowing glance towards RM, a silent challenge hanging in the air.
Otto glances at Roswaal, his eyebrows raised in question. 'Roswaal-sama, I implore you to reconsider. This situation is fraught with uncertainty. We cannot blindly follow this stranger without understanding their motives.'
RM saw Roswaal glancing at him, but sighed and spoke, "Allow me to correct your opinions on Subaru. It was fun at first, but now it just feels bad. That guy is Subaru."
He continued by pointing at him, "The reason he does these strange acts and addresses is that; he is from the past. Subaru himself obviously understood that, but for some reason he didn't explain it to you guys yet."
Looking at Beatrice he said, "He is Subaru, and not an imposter. So you all better have that in mind. And also, even if you don't want to believe me, you will understand once the show starts."
He walked to Rem and took her arm, "The same special case will happen with her, just give me a moment."
RM walked to Rem and Otto quickly spoke, "I propose a compromise," he suggests, his voice regaining its diplomatic tone. "Allow us to accompany Rem. We can observe your 'special case' and ensure her safety. This way, we can all be reassured of your intentions–"
"No. Negated. If I wanted I could force you all to watch this, but I'm taking the neutral route." He clearly bluffed, there's not only one but two incredible magic users in this room. Plus, Garfiel.
Rem went with him almost forcefully.
"If I can believe this other world nonsense, I suppose." She said looking at the mirror.
—Snap, a sound came. And afterwards a wave of power crossed the room.
Ram immediately jumped out of her seat, Roswaal's eyes widened a little with the information on his mind.
The others also were caught by surprise of what happened.
Rem slowly enters the room again, Rem's eyes widen slightly as she takes in the unfamiliar surroundings. She scans the faces, her gaze lingering on Subaru for a moment.
Recognizing the ones in the room, for the first time after she woke up, she smiled. "I'm back."
Ram ran to her sister, "How could I have forgotten you!"
They didn't cry, but hugged each other.
Rem looked around and asked, "Where are we?"
Subaru didn't want to, but he jumped out of the seat and pointed at her, "Well, could we just start already! I think that all the clues on what's going on have been placed…"
Rem takes a hesitant step forward, then another. Her eyes are fixed on Subaru, her expression a mix of hope and uncertainty. She reaches out a hand, as if to confirm his presence.
"Subaru–kun..." Rem's voice breaks, tears streaming down her face. "I... I did not die!" She rushes towards him, burying her face in his chest, her sobs muffled by his embrace.
"Woah! I just got flashbacks!" He looked at the loli, "Though this time I can actually be happy."
Even though being a shut-in, Subaru saw her sobs and started patting her slowly. In his mind, he was shouting that he never did something like that, giving props to being a protagonist.
"Subaru–kun… I'm so glad… I'm so glad you're here…" she whispers, her voice barely audible.
She cleaned her tears with her hand and went back a little, "Subaru–kun, what happened?"
Subaru explained in his comedical care-free way. "Long story short, kidnapping followed by edgy ROB, followed by misfortune, followed by revelation we are watching my anime, followed by this room, and finally followed by your sudden change in attitude, blue maid–san!"
"You're being weird Subaru–kun, why did you call me blue maid?" She seemed a little disappointed in being called a maid by her hero.
Beatrice on his side replied nonchalantly, "Apparently he is Betty's Subaru from the past, I suppose. He also is apparently from another world."
"What? What do you mean Beatrice?"
And as like most of this narrative is going, obviously, something happened after Rem spoke.
The mirror began displaying not a reflection, but instead a black image, pitch black.
"Oh? Is it starting!?" Subaru energetically leaned forward to sit on his gamer chair.
'This is it… my anime. My… Anime! I'm excited! But I also have to admit that it does feel… dreamy… But, who cares!? One of many shut-in dreams happened to me! In the future though, but… it happened!'
"What do you mean he is from the past Beatrice?" Unlike Subaru, Rem, still lost, did not want the narrative to continue. Just great.
Frederica spied her brother over her shoulders and then she also saw Rem looking at Beatrice's seat with jealousy. 'It seems Rem is quite drawn to Subaru–kun. I suppose it's only natural, considering their shared history. But I also sense a hint of... longing in her eyes. Perhaps she wishes she could be closer to him.'
Frederica glances at her brother, who seems perfectly content in his seat next to Otto. 'And Garf... well, he's always been a bit oblivious to these things.'
A gentle smile touches her lips. And so, she thought it was a good seat change.
"Rem," Frederica says softly, "would you like to try my seat? It's quite comfortable, I wouldn't mind sitting next to my brother for a while."
"Sure!" She beamed a little smile.
She gestures towards the empty seat beside Emilia, her expression warm and inviting.
'I'm sure Emilia-sama wouldn't mind. And it would give me a chance to catch up with my brother.' Frederica rises from her seat, a subtle sense of satisfaction in her eyes.
And after that, Frederica sat on the bean bag right next to Garfiel. Rem took the now empty seat near Emilia, and that seat transformed again into something else, this time, the dining room chair… for some reason.
Everyone stopped talking and finally let the narrative continue.
Now that the introduction of the cast to this place has ended, RM on his layer pressed the right arrow key. This caused the wide mirror on the viewing room to start a video.
Re:Zero trailer.
Black screen with title at the center: Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-
"That'll be 363 yen."
The black screen becomes a scene set in a modern convenience store, Subaru and a cashier as the characters. Subaru searches his wallet.
Most of them watched with awe at the screen, they didn't recognize anything on it.
"Where is this?" Emilia asked no one in particular.
"You guys don't have convenience stores? So it must be a medieval world."
Beatrice turned to her Subaru, she didn't want to believe in other world travel. "What is it?"
Subaru punched his chest with pride, "It's the best place for broke people like myself, it is a generic store that is all over the country and there will always be one next to your house."
They nodded at his statement. "Like a merchant store?" Emilia asked.
He scratched his chin, thinking on how to make medieval people understand, "Yeah, but the items are more general and there are more of them in the same design across the entire country."
The scene was paused and two vertical lines adjacent to each other in a gray circle background stood in the middle of the screen. It started when Emilia spoke moments ago.
Roswaal however, found it particularly interesting that the screen froze, "Why isn't it going anymore, is it ?"
Subaru looked at the clown and answered with his theory, "Judging by how there's the pause sign in a gray circle in the middle of the screen, RM is pausing the anime when we speak."
"Interesting…" Roswaal grins.
"Perv-Barusu is actually smart, I never thought he would even come up with an answer."
"That's cruel you know!" He got up from his seat and pointed at Ram.
Subaru got teleported to his seat afterwards.
"I can't stay out of the seat? Lame if you ask me." Subaru crossed his arms.
He takes his wallet and the camera closes up into his hand, where he finds a ten yen coin. "Oh, a grooved-edge ten."
"What is that? Why did ya seem surprised Captain?" Garfiel asked, wanting to learn more.
Seeing the scene Subaru searched his pockets, he grabbed his wallet and searched for the coin. "Um… It's just like a rare coin. But it'd be pretty sick if I had one."
Otto peaked at Subaru's wallet, seeing that his money was more papery. It was hard since Beatrice was in the path, and she didn't seem to care about what Subaru was doing, more intrigued by what's on the mirror.
"There's no Giza 10 here. Maybe I lost it?" Subaru finished searching his wallet, no grooved-edge coin was found. Of course, after all he already spent it.
The scene changes to the outside of the store, Subaru walks outside.
All of them were shocked by the difference this place Subaru is in from their kingdom.
"That's… different, I suppose." Beatrice spoke with interest, maybe… just maybe, he is from another world.
"Expected, I guess." Subaru mimicked Beatrice's speech pattern.
Beatrice side-eyed Subaru, "Are you mocking me, I suppose!?"
A car passed as he stopped before the road cross. Subaru looked both ways before moving.
"What was that!?" Rem watched a metallic object running in the street--
[end of my drafts]