Chapter Text
Things are so much easier when he remembers everybody else has only one life as well.
'You make it sound like a bad thing,' Reinhard says, amused, and Subaru realises he's said it out loud. 'But knowing our own mortality makes the lives we live more precious.'
There is something else in his tone, though. Subaru doesn't learn that until later, when he faces Crusch and Wilhelm van Astrea on the negotiating table, but he's not quite there yet. He owes the knights an apology (Reinhard two, and his thanks as well), and many other people along the way.
And Emilia. Definitely Emilia. And Puck as well, even if things hadn't worked out like the great cat-spirit had planned.
They need to talk, but before that he needs to quell the current threats and they're two-fold and he's racing against the clock and his own lack of allies on this road.
He knows, though, that most people won't help someone when there's nothing to be gained in return. Reinhard is a rare breed, or perhaps that's his desire: to save all.
Subaru's desire is to save Emilia, and that's all, and he doesn't have much to trade for her life but Roswaal has, and Subaru has Rem and her knowledge and experience, and Julius who'll poke holes into every failing plan until he's got a foolproof one to carry on, and Reinhard who'll lend his sword to save the lives on the road despite being sworn to another candidate, and Puck who in his own way believes Subaru can protect the one thing that makes his lonely eternal life worth living for.
'All right.' He grins. 'Let's go save the world.'
'And what does the world have to do with Emilia-sama?' Julius asks dryly. 'Except that you're that heads over heels in love with her.'
'Well, Puck will destroy the world if she dies, and he looks just about powerful enough to do that.' Though who knows if he'll succeed.
Hopefully they'll never reach that point again. But if they do, the witch's hands will pull him back in time again.
His last resort. That's all. He'll value every life because he can't guarantee they'll come back. But at the forefront of those is still Emilia, because she's the one he's chosen to centre his world around.