The knighting party lasted throughout the night, resulting in many people not waking up until noon the next day.

That included you, and what woke you up was the sweet scent of baked deliciousness.

When you rubbed your eyes and stretched the drowsiness out of your body, you noticed that Frederica was standing at the end of the sizable bed with whatever it was that smelled so good.

"(Y/N), I am sorry to bother your rest, but I believe that you would enjoy these honey crisps while they are still warm." Frederica did a small bow, and then she set a plate of the crisps on the bed stand to your right.

Picking up the plate and grabbing the warm food with your hand, you took a bite.

As soon as your teeth sank in to the baked good, your whole body relaxed, and you smiled in ecstasy. This honey crisp was light and fluffy, and the honey made it the perfect amount of sweet. Seriously, how did the food here taste so good?

After swallowing your first bite, you said, "Thanks for the brunch, Frederica! It's the perfect way to start off any day!"

She smiled at the compliment. "Thank you, though I do not know what 'brunch' is."

"Well," you explained, "It's when you eat something for breakfast and lunch at the same time. Mix up the words, and you get brunch!"

Frederica chuckled slightly at the foreign phrase and its explanation. "You and Subaru-sama surely do use odd words." Making sure that this didn't come off as an insult, she added, "But of course, that trait is endearing."

You nodded while eating the warm honey crisp. "Yeah, where I come from, people have a lot of different words and phrases, so you'll hear me and Subaru use them every now and then." 

Remembering your cover story, which said that you and Subaru used to live in a town just outside of Lugnica, but moved out before it was destroyed, you made a safe answer to Frederica's comment.

The maid made an 'oh' expression, and bowed. "Now that I have given you 'brunch', I will attend to my other duties." She giggled when she said 'brunch', and that made you smile too.

Bowing your head in thanks, you replied, "Thanks for the food, and I'll see you later!"

With that, Frederica walked out of the room.

'Hey Echidna, you there?'

'Of course I am. Even if my physical body sleeps, my soul never rests.'

This was Echidna, who used her telepathic link provided by the black pendant around your neck to talk to you while you were not in her Tea Party. 

'(Y/N), I was not going to tell you this, but please note that my current residence is not named as my tea party.'

'Wait, what?'

'It is called my Castle of Dreams. I had originally ignored your incorrect assumption, but it was beginning to slightly irritate me. And while we are on the topic of incorrect names, the book that you call a Gospel is actually referred to as a Tome of Wisdom. The book that Subaru owns is a Gospel, but it is a cheap imitation of my creations. Similarly, I have made the mistake of calling my creations "metias," as you do. I actually named them "meteors," as they are like shooting stars, granting one's wishes.'

'If I was wrong, why didn't you let me know?'

'I had no obligation to do so.'

'Is that so... Well, I was actually wondering how you got Elsa and Meili to come to this mansion.  You never did tell me how you did it, so I wanted to ask you about it.'

Echidna scoffed.

'The very first thing I did while having a physical body for the first time in over four hundred years was searching for those girls. I exhausted my body and nearly died several times to find them, and you neglect to ask me about that process until several days after the deed? How shameful. But with that said, I will gladly indulge you with this information. After almost burning myself along with the forest and killing those aggressors, I traveled towards the general direction of the mansion that you burned down. Surely, the two females did not stray too far away considering that they were now contracted under you, so I intended to search that area. After a day of tiring travel, I finally arrived in the designated area. Once there, I unleashed my true form for a few moments before hiding it once again. I did this to attract the Bowel Hunter, as she would be interested in disemboweling a strong opponent, who would almost be guaranteed to have attractive innards. Just as I planned, she arrived with the smaller girl, and before she could harm myself, I revealed that I was also contracted to you. As I gave them directions to the new location, I made sure to persuade them to keep my existence a secret from all others. And you know the result.'

'... You know, you like to talk a lot.'

'You are the one who asked me to reveal the details of my exploit! There is no need to complain.'

'As the great Saitama-sensei once said, try to keep it twenty words or less. Try it out. Summarize what you just said.'

Echidna was silent for a moment, as if deciding whether she should play along or not. The outcome was clear, as she actually started to give a summary.

'I made my way towards the burnt mansion and briefly revealed my true form. This attracted the girls, and I told them where to find you while also telling them to hide my existence.'

You couldn't help but crack a smile when she gave the summary in a dead voice. Obviously, this went against her character, but she gave it a shot anyway.

'You see? That was way shorter, and I still understand what you were getting at! It might have been a little over twenty words, but it was a huge improvement over the hundreds of words you were saying before!'

'Tsk. You are definitely trying my unlimited patience, a feat that I considered impossible.'

'Well, you're going to have to get used to this. I'm a dude who got isekai'd into this world, so I'm going to be tough to handle.'

'It better be worth my dedication and potentially my intelligence to be contracted to you for the rest of your life.'

'Well, I'm pretty much an anime protagonist at this point, so I probably won't die for a while. But if I do, it's probably going to be in an epic battle, a heroic sacrifice, or I somehow become a villain. And only one of those seems likely, and it won't happen for a while unless my luck is as trash as those people in Another.'

'Is that another anime series?'

'...Did you just make a pun?'

'Pun? What is that? I was simply asking a question.'

'Well, its kind of hard to explain, but puns are jokes that use a play on words. Just like how I just mentioned Another, and you asked if I watched another anime.'

'Ahh, I see now. What is the purpose of such a-'

"(Y/N), are you up?!" Subaru barged into your room without warning. He was wearing his track suit again, but it was wrinkled from the neglect that it had been facing during the past day.

You sighed. "If I wasn't, I definitely am now. Don't you know how to knock?"

Subaru flashed a wild grin. "Hey man, I won't judge if I see you whacking off someday. You gotta do what you gotta do."

You threw one of the harder pillows at him, successfully hitting him in the face. This made Subaru take a step back, and Echidna has something to say about it.

'See? Even your acquaintances cannot deal with you without repercussions.'

'Uh, he was making a joke and I just used violence to get back at him. That's perfectly normal.'

While you and Echidna were communicating, Subaru's contracted spirit, Beatrice, came into the room. At half of his height, the twin-drilled spirit softly kicked him in the shin. "Stop bothering everybody, I suppose. And Betty is tired of following you everywhere, in fact."

"Well then," responded Subaru, "you can play with Petra while I do some grown-up stuff. How about that?" He teased Beatrice, knowing full well that she wouldn't mind playing with Petra, but her pride and affection for him would not allow her to agree.

"Gwahmayouah! Betty doesn't want to leave Subaru, and she doesn't want to play with that girl, so stop threatening to leave me with her, in fact!" Beatrice stomped in frustration, and you watched their exchange with patience.

Subaru gave Beatrice a head pat to calm her down. "It's fine, Beako. I know how you think, so don't worry about me leaving you with Petra." In a mumbled voice, he added, "But you'd still have fun with her, so..."

Before Beatrice could bite back at Subaru, you interrupted them. "By the way, why are you in my room? As you can see, I'm almost done eating, so I was pretty comfortable before you barged in."

Subaru's eyes regained a sense of urgency that they had temporarily lost. "Oh yeah! We just got a letter that pretty much says that we're going to meet up with Crusch and some other important people at the Flugel Tree so that we can discuss the results of the Whale subjugation and the fight with Sloth."

You bolted upright, and everything went dark for a second as your body caught up with itself. "What?! I was going to send a letter to her, but I get one before I can send it?! When is the meeting?"

Subaru scratched his head. "Hehe... about that..." He sweat dropped. "It's tomorrow at noon."

Your jaw opened wide. "WHAT?! We need to leave tonight if we want to make it on time! And it's already noon, so we need to get everything ready now! Why in the world did they send this to us to close to the meeting time?!"

"Well," Subaru speculated, "It probably didn't help that we moved mansions without really announcing it to anybody in the kingdom."

"Oh yeah... That'll do it."

Time Skip

A few hours later, everybody in the mansion was bustling, either cleaning up from the party or preparing to leave for the Flugel Tree.

The people going with you are Subaru, Beatrice, Emilia, Otto, Garfiel, and Roswaal. At this meeting, Otto was going to be announced as the Emilia camp's official Minister of Internal Affairs, Garfiel was going to be announced as the official head of the camp's military affairs, and the knighthood of both you and Subaru was also going to be announced.

Beatrice was going because she wanted to stay with Subaru. Obviously, Emilia was coming along because she was a Candidate, and Roswaal was only going to keep up public appearances. It was agreed on that nobody would leak news about his schemes so that the reputation of the Emilia camp would not shatter.  If it became known that Emilia's benefactor betrayed her, then the small chance of her even getting a few votes would disappear.

So now, everybody who was going on the trip (except for Roswaal) was eating dinner, which was a delicious broth that settled in nicely from the beginning. 

"Hey, (Y/N)?" Emilia asked after wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"Yeah?" You turned your head to face her, and so did Subaru for some reason.

"You said that you were going to make something to fight the Witch Cult, right?" When the half-elf saw you nod your head, she continued. "Then you can officially announce that and make plans for that at the negotiations tomorrow. Does that sound good?" Even though it was worded as a question, her newfound confidence didn't make it seem like she was unsure of the right decision.

With a thumbs up, you said, "I was thinking the same thing. I'll have to come up with a name for it during the ride, but I think that I have a better idea of what I want to do with that organization. I'll go over the details tomorrow, but if any of you guys have any suggestions or advice, I'll be happy to hear it."

Otto raised his right hand while setting his spoon down with another. "Do you have plans for funding?"

With a shrug, you answered, "I can just have people donate stuff. Who doesn't want to help the people who are dedicated to destroying the Witch Cult?"

Subaru and Garfiel seemed to agree with this, but Otto slapped his forehead in disbelief. "(Y/N)-san, getting donations is not a bad thing, but there is no way that you can operate solely on them! I would recommend-"

"I got it! I can sell some original inventions, and I can make a whole business out of it! I knew that my idea was a good one! Thanks, Otto!" You smiled wide in excitement while Otto looked lost.

"N-no, what I was going to say was-"

The merchant was interrupted again, but by Subaru this time. "That's a great idea, and I can help too! I have so many ideas! We've already made that wheelchair for Rem, so the sky's the limit on what we can make with stuff and magic!"

Defeated, Otto went back to eating his meal while everyone else immersed themselves in conversation. 

Before you could completely finish, two more people came into the dining room. 

"Ara ara~ you didn't think that you would be leaving without us, did you?"

It was Elsa and Meili who entered, and the latter was holding onto was seemed to be a plushy of Reinhard.

"Wait, you want to go too? Do we even have enough space in the dragon carriage?" Not only would it be risky to bring the Bowel Hunter to a negotiation right after you turned her to your side, it might not be physically possible to bring those two along in what was already going to be a cramped carriage.

"Yes, there's plenty of space," grumbled Otto.

Elsa smirked and Meili beamed. "So," the mabeast user said, "that means that we can go with you, riiiight?!"

"Well..." You looked around the room for some help, but all you got was nods from Emilia and Subaru. Beatrice didn't seem to care, and Garfiel shrugged while Otto ate his food.

'Just do it.'

'Really? You think I should? What if they are forcefully taken away or something?'

'(Y/N), did you not tell them that they are safe with you? You claimed that you would be able to protect them, even from their "Mama", so act on that promise. In this world, promises are very important, so do not make one if you do not intend to follow it through.'

'Thanks, Echidna. You helped me make up my mind.'

After the pause, you finally answered Meili's question. "Of course! Did you two already eat?"

With bright eyes, Meili shook her head and jumped up and down, her excitement clearly showing. "Yaaaaay! I've never been somewhere for fun!"

You glanced at Elsa with worry and she shook her head, answering the question that was asked and the one that remained unspoken.

Frederica brought food for the two new females, and both of them enthusiastically finished their meal. 

"Mmm!" Elsa wiped her mouth with her hand with a creepy smile on her face. "This reminds me of blood, but with a different flavor! So thick, so warm, so-"

Meili smacked her as everyone else leaned away from the Bowel Hunter. When she said things like this, they remembered why she was a feared person. Just because she was on their side now didn't mean that her morals were the same as theirs.

"Elsa, you need to read the room! Why do I have to tell you to stop when I'm younger and you're older?! Mou, I wish that you would act your age!" Meili pouted, and this lightened the room back to what it was before. It would seem like the two "sisters" were not entirely insane, and they had a refreshing relationship with each other.

And so the hour before departure lapsed quickly with a warm atmosphere. After a long series of hard-won successes, who wouldn't be glad to have some time to have fun with their friends, both old and new?

As the setting sun's rays painted the darkening sky with a faint red, the people traveling to the negotiations  were on the Miload manor driveway, loading onto the dragon carriage being pulled by Patrasche.

Otto sat in the driver's seat, as he would be steering Patrasche for the duration of the trip. He claimed that he slept long enough after the party that he could pull an all-nighter, so he was left with that task.

Sitting with your back towards Otto, you found yourself with Elsa and Meili sitting on your left and right. There was enough space in the carriage that they weren't pressed against you, but they were close enough that you might bump each other with your elbows.

On the left side of the carriage sat Garfiel, all by himself. He tried not to look bothered, but the slight curve of his lips betrayed his feelings. He didn't want to be left alone in this new world outside of the Sanctuary, but he would not complain about it.

To the right side was Subaru, Beatrice, and Emilia. Currently, Beatrice was on Subaru's right side and Emilia was on his left, but it wouldn't be surprising of Beatrice ended up on top of Subaru over the course of the ride.

"Is everybody ready?" called Otto, who was finished reining up the ground dragon.

"What about Roswaal?" Emilia asked, even though his character was one that everyone felt disdain for. This proved just how pure her heart was.

"Tsk. We c'n leave with't th' bastr'd. Who cares 'f he ev'n comes?" Garfiel growled.

"Noooooow, I don't know how I feel about that comment, Garfiel-kun." Roswaal's voice seemed to come out of nowhere, but he was actually flying down towards the seat next to Otto.

Beatrice humph'd. "Betty doesn't care about how you feel, I suppose."

"I want to argue with you," Subaru started, "but I can't really disagree." He then directed his voice toward Roswaal's direction. "Remember, you're coming along to keep your public image good. Don't be fishy when we get to the negotiation, or this effort will be in vain, just like your schemes!"

You smiled at that last part, and Roswaal remained silent after Subaru's remark.

"Well then..." Otto nervously announced, "It seems like we're all here, so we will go now..." He pulled Patrasche's reins, and she began moving.

As the carriage smoothly moved forward, you turned to Meili, who was holding a toy Reinhard. "So, Meili, where did you get that? I didn't know that people sold Reinhard dolls anywhere."

She shook her head and pointed at Elsa. "No, she made it for me! I love playing with dolls, so she knitted this for me!"

"Elsa... knits?"

Elsa chuckled. "Ah yes, I picked this skill up when I was a child, and when I cannot contain my excitement about a person, I knit a doll of them. After my defeat by the hand of the Sword Saint, I could not stop thinking about him, so I made that doll and gave it to Meili. Soon, I may even make one of you!"

 This came across as cute but creepy at the same time, which actually describes Elsa as a whole. 

Subaru, who heard this conversation, butted in since he was trying to get more comfortable with the Bowel Hunter. "I can sew pretty good, so we kind of have something in common! Maybe we can start a line of dolls... no, then we'd have to... but then again..."

Beatrice jabbed Subaru with her elbow, which stopped his muttering. "It is annoying when Subaru mumbles about nonsense, in fact."

Subaru turned towards her and started to pat her head. "Is Beako feeling lonely? Natsuki Subaru shall give you one hundred head pats to make up for it!"

Beatrice squirmed in fake protest, and Emilia giggled at Subaru's antics.

As you watched this display, you felt a nudge. Looking to you right, you saw that Meili had something to say. "You won't do something like that to me, right? It looks super uncomfortable and embarrassing."

"Actually, it's supposed to be comforting and make you feel good." You