"How awful," said Emilia, still holding Beatrice's hand.
The screen had finally stopped playing the loop. Rem had tortured Subaru, and Ram had dealt the final hit. The atmosphere was tense; no one moved from their seat.
"Now what? What can we do with the two? They murdered the boss."
Garf was the only one who dared to ask what everyone was thinking. Was it correct for Rem and Ram to continue to stay with them? Could they even trust the twins anymore? The fact that Subaru didn't even get a chance to at least understand why he was being targeted—that was what hurt the most to watch. The insensitivity the sisters had shown was scary, to say the least.
"My dear~ maids must have noticed something was off about him. Let's let them talk first, and then you can make your decision. Before you say anything, remember that the mansion is my~ property. If you want them away from your life, you will be the one leaving the mansion."
Roswaal was clear about his position. The maids would not be losing their jobs. For Roswaal, they were needed for reasons other than cleaning the mansion. Roswaal would be using Rem and Ram to eliminate Volcanica, but no one in the room other than him knew that.
"Even after seeing this!? Whatever! It would be nice to live in a place far away from you!" Garfiel responded.
"Relax, Garf. This isn't your decision to make." Otto grabbed his shoulder and whispered in his ear. "I know how you might be feeling, but Emilia is the one who has the final word."
Now then, what would Emilia decide? She wasn't exactly known for her leadership and decision-making abilities. Furthermore, it was usually Subaru who was there to aid her, but right now she was separated from him.
"I don't think this is the time to decide that, I suppose. Emilia is not in a well enough state to be making important decisions right now," Beatrice dictated.
What the little girl spirit had stated was true. One quick glance at Emilia was enough to arrive at that conclusion.
Emilia was quiet, with her head down. One of her hands was being held by Beatrice; the other was holding Puck's magic relic. Emilia's eyes had a reddish color, which showed that she had been crying. If you paid enough attention, her body was faintly trembling. Not even when the conversation had landed on her did she raise her voice.
On the same seat as her, far to the right, were Frederica and Petra. The little girl had both her arms wrapped around her senior maid. Frederica was covering her ears so she didn't hear anything. All of the crying and mental exhaustion were taking a heavy toll on Petra; it was only thanks to Frederica covering her ears that Petra had fallen into a deep slumber.
The room once again went dead silent, simply waiting for the next loop to start. Maybe, if they were lucky, this would finally be the good one—the one all of them remembered, the correct timeline, where Subaru didn't have to die.
As they waited, a sudden noise disrupted the silence. Everyone's gaze went to where the sound had come from. Two people had reappeared in the room after being sent away, but no one celebrated their return. The room went dead again, all eyes set on the two.
"Rem!"
Those were Ram's first words after coming back. She was right next to her sister, who had a great amount of blood on her face and remnants of vomit around her mouth.
"Why are you looking at us like that!?" Ram looked around the room, eyes full of discomfort and distrust. "Help me with Rem!"
Ram grabbed her sister's head and placed it in her lap. With a handkerchief she had in her pocket, Ram started cleaning her mouth first. It was easy to tell the vomit was recent; the blood, however, was not.
"Hey!!" Ram shouted at them again. "What are you doing standing there, Garf!? Help me out here!"
But Garf had no words for her. He simply looked away.
Ram checked her sister's vitals. Rem was still alive, thankfully. She let out a deep sigh of relief. Gently, she caressed Rem's soft face; finally, they had reunited. By looking at the injuries, Ram could tell they were most likely self-inflicted. She believed Rem had been in the same situation as her, in a room alone with Subaru. That would be too much for her to handle. The important thing was that they were back together, and nothing would ever move them apart again. What was bothering her now was—
Why were they ignoring her? Why wouldn't they help Rem? Why were they—?
That was when Ram understood what was happening. All of them had seen the loop too. They saw her sister torture Subaru, ripping his ankle apart and slashing his throat. They didn't trust her anymore. Only Roswaal smiled at her from the back row.
"I see... I can't blame you."
In absolute silence, everyone watched as the red-haired twin cleaned the blood off her sister. The cut on her head was smaller than she expected. It took some effort to clean everything up due to the blood being dry by the time Rem got to the main room.
Once she had finished cleaning her sister's face as best as she could, she gently placed her in a princess carry position. Ram walked up the rows, arriving at the third one, where only Roswaal was—the only person who didn't visibly reject them.
She carefully sat down next to her master without letting go of her sister.
"Don't you think we're terrible people, Roswaal-sama?" asked Ram.
"Nonsense. That in the video~ was not the you right upon me. Even if it was, I'm sure you would have had your own reasons to do that."
Ram didn't need more. If Roswaal accepted her and the rest of the world hated her, she wouldn't try to fight back against the world
Feeling a bit better, Ram started looking at the screen. A new loop had started, one that, once more, she did not recognize.