During the events of the Theater of Despair, there had been one person whose feelings had been overlooked for the most part.
That would be Beatrice.
Beatrice, the great spirit, had been Subaru's partner since the events of the Sanctuary.
Prior to that, Subaru's and Beatrice's relationship could not be described with simple words. It was difficult to categorize.
From a superficial point of view, anyone would say that their relationship was one sided on Subaru's part. However, if you asked someone closer to the two of them, it would be a different story.
With a closed heart, Beatrice rejected anyone who dared to grow intimate with her. A prime example of this could be Ryuzu and, of course, Natsuki Subaru.
Beatrice's only mission in life was to wait for that person. A person who had not appeared in the four hundred years she had been alive, thus making her unable to leave the Forbidden Library.
This led to her having only one wish in life: death.
The pact forged with Echidna had sealed her future, a dark and lonely one. That person had never existed, though Subaru did not tell her this directly.
After Subaru discovered this, he made a decision. He would not make a contract with Echidna, the Witch of Greed and Beatrice's mother. He would make a contract with Beatrice, liberating her from the hideous future Echidna had prepared for her.
Subaru ran back to the mansion, dealt with the assassins, and entered the Forbidden Library, where Beatrice, as always, sat facing the door.
If he would not grant her wish, what was the point of anything he had to offer? Subaru had denied being that person multiple times. She could not leave until that person arrived.
That was when it happened. That day, in the Forbidden Library.
"I'm taking you out of here, Beatrice. I'm dragging you out into the sunshine, where we'll play until your dress is caked utterly brown with mud."
"Stop getting thrown around by a blank book and a four hundred year old promise. Be the one who chooses what you want to do, Beatrice."
"Are you stupid? After everything I've said, you still don't get it? I'm not thinking at all to die with you. I'm here to drag you out without you dying."
"Tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that too. It might not be four hundred years, but we can spend our days together. It might not last for eternity, but tomorrow, and in this present, I can treasure you."
"Rather than fear a goodbye that might someday come, live with me in a definite tomorrow. I'm weak, but I'm still aiming so high. If we're together, you'll be so busy fussing over me you'll stop having time to think about being bored or lonely."
"You'll live forever, and the time you spend with me might only be a microsecond for you. So I'll carve it into your soul. My microsecond."
"That Natsuki Subaru was a man who, even through eternity, was too vivid to ever fade to sepia."
"Choose me, Beatrice."
And thus their story began, as spirit and spirit user. Beatrice was finally freed from her curse and stepped out of the Forbidden Library at last.
The decision was not an easy one to make, but it was her decision, and she would live with it until the end of her days.
Since she left the Forbidden Library, Beatrice's behavior took a drastic turn. The usually cold Beatrice became more sociable with the people of the camp, making good friends with people like Otto Suwen or Petra Leyte, which would have been deemed unthinkable back then.
All of her joy was thanks to one sole person, Natsuki Subaru, and now she was seeing that person get tortured in front of her.
Death after death, the cycle seemed to never end. The Natsuki Subaru who appeared like the invincible superhero that had conquered the White Whale and defeated various Sin Archbishops…
Where was he?
He died pathetically every single time, in awful pain, bathed in his own blood and screaming for help.
How could she have not noticed? It was logical after all. He had a broken gate and little magical power. Of course he would not be able to defeat Elsa on his first try. It was unthinkable.
The more she thought about it, the more her heart ached. It took him three deaths to defeat Elsa. Then how many times did it take until he defeated Sirius or Petelgeuse?
How many tries did it take him to convince her to leave the library?
If it turned out even she had killed Subaru, what would she do?
She would break their contract, right? The problem was whether she would be able to do something like that.
A simple apology would not be enough, but what else could she offer? She was nothing without him, yet it was clear that even without her he was still amazing.
Inside her head, she was already assuming the worst possible scenario. She would disappear, signifying that she was the next killer. She started thinking of all the moments when that could have happened, sailing through her memories.
Nothing. She could not think of any moment where she would end up killing Subaru. Every scenario she thought of either simply was not realistic or did not have any basis to actually occur.
However, not even that was enough to grant her a sense of security.
Subaru is getting killed, and I'm thinking about myself. How truly selfish I am, she thought.
That was when she noticed that, next to her, Emilia seemed to be in an even worse state of mind than her.
Her eyes reminded her of something. Emilia's expression was familiar to Beatrice. She used to see it every day.
For years, she had had the same feeling Emilia was having in that instant.
The feeling of wanting to die.
The least she could do for Subaru at the moment was helping her, or so she believed. Therefore,
"Don't you dare go there," Beatrice pleaded.