12 In the Astrea Manor. Mordred’s thoughts

Reinhard gently smiled, but then he saw Mordred looking at him.

"Reinhard, I have the first order for you," Mordred said, face full of seriousness.

Reinhard's blue eyes flashed as his expression turned serious. "Yes, Mordred-sama? I will do my best to fulfill it!"

"Prepare me dinner! But not just a normal meal, I want a feast worthy of a king!" Mordred said, grinning.

Reinhard stared at Mordred speechlessly.

"I'm just joking." Mordred chuckled, looking at Reinhard with a smile. "But not really, I really am hungry. Let's hurry up."

Reinhard smiled and also quickened his footsteps.

Emilia innocently forced a smile and did the same, walking faster. 'Mordred is a strange person, just like Subaru…'

Thinking about something, Emilia looked at Reinhard at one point and curiously asked, "If it isn't wrong to ask, Reinhard-san, why is Mordred-san giving you orders?"

Reinhard smiled and answered, "It's because I decided to support Mordred-sama in the Royal Selection, Emilia-sama. From now on my allegiance as a knight belongs to him."

Emilia looked at Reinhard with a surprised expression on her face. Reinhard, the Sword Saint, took a side and chose to support Mordred, and so soon at that?

…

Mordred, Reinhard, Emilia and the unconscious Felt soon got onto an earth dragon carriage in the city, not chatting much along the way.

During the silent ride Mordred thought about many things in regards to what just happened, thinking why the Witch of Envy would love him and suddenly not Subaru.

Because of the anime that Mordred watched and a single Re:zero fanfiction that he read, he was biased from the start when he came to this world in thinking that Subaru was definitely the one loved by the Witch, while he himself was there only to assist him or he was some kind of added side-character. In that very same fanfiction that he read, the Original Character that accompanied Subaru would then gradually lose his powers that he received from the Witch because he didn't do his job properly, making Mordred previously quite apprehensive about abusing the looping ability and even allowing Subaru to die the first time.

However, his assumption turned out to be incorrect.

Mordred thought of many things, but unfortunately he had too little time and there was currently chaos in his head after all that had suddenly happened, so he was unable to come to a proper conclusion on all this. In the end, he was only a casual watcher of the Re:Zero anime and reader of the novel chapters, and not some kind of lore master.

There was one thing that kept buzzing in his head though - the fact in the novel is that Emilia and Satella have a very mysterious connection, and Satella even claimed that Subaru saved her and they had a past together.

'There are many theories and some people speculate that Emilia is the future Satella. At one point Emilia came back in time to save Subaru after having integrated with the Envy Witch factor and partially going insane. She would give him Return by Death to save him and perhaps create some kind of loop,' Mordred thought.

It could be that because of Mordred's existence and actions that he would take or took, the present and the future was not meant to be the same that he expected based on the Re:Zero anime, and he somehow had gained the affection of Satella.

'Is Emilia really the future Satella?' Mordred thought and looked at the depressed silver-haired girl at his side. Emilia and Satella definitely had a connection, but he had no way of knowing what kind. A rather safe assumption that he thought of was that perhaps becoming Emilia's guardian or lover somehow means receiving the Witch's love in some way.

After a while, Emilia glanced back at Mordred absentmindedly for a moment, before she cast her gaze downwards, her expression riddled with shame and sadness. She was clearly greatly bothered by Subaru's death.

Seeing how Emilia seemed to be in a visible strong need of comforting, unknowing why, at one point Mordred took her hand and looked at her in assurance.

At that moment Emilia was in such a fragile state that she didn't seem to mind when Mordred took her hand and held it. In her childish innocence, after sending him a brief glance, she only seemed glad and grateful.

The feeling of holding Emilia's delicate and soft hand caused Mordred to feel a bit self-conscious. He had to admit that Emilia's hand was truly perfect and he really liked the feeling of holding it, feeling his heart heat up. Although he had nothing to base it on, he thought that perhaps Emilia wasn't as bad as he previously thought.

When the carriage finally arrived in the House Astrea manor, Mordred and Reinhard with Felt disembarked, while Emilia was to continue her journey elsewhere with some guards assigned to her from the House Astrea.

"I'll see you later, Emilia," Mordred said with a gentle look as he bid his farewells.

"Em. Thank you again, Mordred-san. Since you already have a place to stay, is there maybe something else that you wish for from me?" asked Emilia, standing in the entrance of the carriage. She felt that no matter how she felt, she had to repay her debts.

Mordred thought for a moment and then stretched out his hand toward Emilia with a light smile. "Yeah. I don't know many people in Lugnica, so my wish is to be your friend, Emilia. It wasn't that much trouble for me, so don't worry about repaying me!"

Emilia appeared surprised and completely puzzled once again for a long while. Seeing the sincere and frank expression on Mordred's face, her expression brightened as she lightly smiled and took Mordred's hand. "Okay! Then we will be friends from now on, Mordred! But I still believe that I have to do more to repay you for saving my life and reclaiming my insignia."

"Sure, then let's worry about it on another day,' Mordred lightly said.

Soon Mordred and Reinhard separated from Emilia and entered deeper into the Astrea Manor

"Mordred-sama, saving Emilia-sama's life and reclaiming her insignia is no small matter. As long as you keep the entire incident a secret, Emilia-sama, as well as Roswaal-sama by extension, will be forced to owe you a great favor," Reinhard said seriously as they walked. Mordred couldn't waste this chance in his campaign, simply asking Emilia to be his friend! He continued, "Roswaal-sama is the most powerful mage in the Kingdom of Lugnica and he's the one who supports Emilia-sama in her candidacy…"

"I know, I know. But that girl's friendship is the best thing that I could ever ask from her anyway," Mordred said honestly with a light smile.

Reinhard looked at Mordred a little taken aback. Is Mordred the lustful type? Truthfully, he didn't even know that much about him!

"Mordred-sama, are you maybe interested in Emilia-sama?" Reinhard asked.

"What? No way. What got you the idea?" Mordred said, but his voice gradually died down as he spoke, seeming to be thinking about something.

Reinhard only pursed his lips.

Coughing, Mordred continued, "Reinhard, there are only two sure ways to eliminate your enemies completely. One is to put them six feet underground, and he other is to turn them into your friends. Anyway, I'm tired of all this drama. Let's go eat."

'Like hell I would be satisfied just with friendship!' Mordred secretly thought. He was only waiting for Roswaal to get here to milk him from benefits.

"You're right, Mordred-sama," Reinhard said with a smile as followed up being Mordred. He then asked curiously, "Mordred-sama, the dining room is not this way."

"Okay, then lead the way."

…

After Mordred eventually got to the dining room, Reinhared left to assign things and left Mordred by himself. Because of that Reinhard wasn't able to see the spectacular sight of his Lord devouring dishes after dishes like a starved shark, causing all the servants to be speechless.

After eating a huge dinner, Mordred was soon brought to his new room in the Astrea manor.

The room that Mordred got was certainly something worthy of a fantasy world; it was spacious, had a large bed and was decorated in an exquisite manner, as fitting for an important guest.

"Nadia will be your personal maid for now and also show you around the manor, Mordred-sama. She is also skilled at hairstyling as you asked for," Reinhard introduced a slightly tall young blonde girl in a maid uniform.

"Nadia greets Mordred-sama." Nadia bowed courteously. "If Mordred-sama needs anything, he can simply ring the bell at the side of your bed and Nadia will come to attend to you."

"..."

"Mordred-sama, is something the matter?" Nadia asked nervously as she saw Mordred staring at her.

Mordred shook his head. "No. It's just the first time I meet someone who is addressing themselves in third person like this."

"Does Mordred-sama not like it?" Nadia asked.

"No, I don't mind. I quite like it actually. Anyway." Mordred then glanced at Reinhard. "Reinhard, I need you to do something."

At the same time he took out his Nokia 21 Pro from his pocket.

"What is it?" Reinhard asked curiously as he watched the rectangular black block with a dimmed-down mirror.

Mordred held a button at the side and it soon turned on.

Then a nokia jingle suddenly sounded out and an animation of two hands joining together appeared on the screen.

Both Reinhard and Nadia pulled back their heads in surprise.

"Interesting, so it's a meteor," Reinhard commented.

Mordred looked at Reinhard with pursed lips. "By meteor you mean tools that contain magic and can be used by non-magic users, right?"

"Yes, these are meteors." Reinhard nodded.

"Well, it's similar, but this device doesn't actually use any magic. It operates on electricity. There is no magic here, it's science!" Mordred announced with a light smile.

Reinhard and Nadia visibly had no idea what Mordred was talking about.

"Anyway. Here." With a flash of the camera, Mordred took Nadia's picture. He then showed it to Nadia.

"This is Nadia!" the girl called out, touching her face in surprise when she saw herself on the screen.

Mordred chuckled. Why did he sort-of expect such a response?

"Mordred-sama, what did you do?" Reinhard asked.

"Hehe. I captured her soul," Mordred said seriously with an evil grin.

"Ah?!" Nadia's expression turned ghastly. She took a step back and nearly tripped herself, looking straight out frightened to the core.

Seeing that the girl's reaction was far too much, Mordred quickly waved his hand, saying, "It's a joke! I'm just joking!"

When Nadia seemed to have calmed down, Mordred said, "This device has countless functions, but most of them are useless here. Anyway, you could say that I just froze a moment in time, but that would be saying too much. I simply instantly painted a picture of what was in front of my 'phone'. I can take and store thousands of such pictures on it and even record moving scenes with sound. Then I can browse these pictures any time I want."

"That's an amazing meteor, Mordred-sama!" Reinhard commented in amazement.

Nadia also appeared shocked.

Mordred smirked, but then he pursed his lips and said, "Yeah, but I can't replenish its power source in this place, so it won't last long. Reinhard, look, that's how you use it."

He then showed Reinhard the screen of his phone and aimed the camera at a part of the room, showing Reinhard how he clicked a circle on the screen to take a picture.

"You aim the phone at what you want to take a picture of and then briefly and softly press your finger on the screen on this circle to 'freeze a moment in time'. Try it," Mordred explained and then gave Reinhard the phone, aiming to guide his finger

Smiling, Mordred expected Reinhard to be like a grandma that has her first contact with technology - awkwardly holding the phone and pressing the buttons clumsily, but to his surprise - Reinhard immediately took his phone into his hand in a proper manner, aimed it at Nadia and took a picture of her by easily pressing his thumb on the screen, making it seem effortless and natural as if he interacted with modern technology for years.

"..." Mordred was somewhat dumbfounded.

"Did I do it right, Mordred-sama?" Reinhard asked innocently.

"Yeah," Mordred said. After a moment, he collected himself and his expression went normal. He said, "Right, next I need you to take many pictures of my hairstyle. It will be useful to replicate it during important occasions and ceremonies to make me look more high-class."

Reinhard looked at Mordred for a moment. He was a little puzzled by Mordred's request, but he still did as Mordred said, going around in a circle and taking Mordred's pictures.

At this moment Mordred had two elegant braids running at the sides of his head and connecting to the ponytail that was bound with a red cloth, adding regal air to his appearance. He predicted that it would be useful to replicate this exact hairstyle during important events to make him look more noble, but there was naturally no way that he could ever pull it off himself.

Making such a hairstyle might be simple for someone who has experience dealing with long hair, but Mordred simply wanted to take pictures of himself to ensure 100% that his Mordred hairstyle could be perfectly replicated in the future by someone. At this moment Mordred planned to take a bath, so his hairstyle could be ruined.

As for taking some pictures - Mordred could also do it himself or not even bother, but he just wanted to take this chance to surprise Reinhard and show off what science and technology from Earth is capable of. Subaru was dead, so Mordred didn't plan to hide his Earth knowledge, as useless and limited as it was.

After Reinhard finished, Mordred was quite satisfied with the result and turned off his phone to preserve the battery.

Reinhard soon left the room. Nadia then undid and styled Mordred's hairstyle a few times to memorize it, and then led Mordred to the bathing room. The girl seemed to be wanting to help Mordred bathe, but he chased her away, wanting some alone time.

Sitting comfortably in a large warm bathtub akin to a jacuzzi by himself, Mordred let out a long sigh.

He looked at his reflection in the water, he looked at his new body and then looked at the walls of the fantasy styled room that he was in.

Mordred silently thought in his heart, 'I really am in this world, there is no denying it. I am also no longer the same person, I really am Mordred Pendragon in both body and spirit. I have all this strength and even Return by Death. I don't know what kind of world I am in and why, but I must do my best to grasp this opportunity!'

The powers that Mordred now had, especially his time defying ability and immortality, caused him to feel very anxious. He was not afraid of the challenges or pain that might await him, but a part of him feared that all of it would be suddenly taken away from him.

Although Mordred preferred to be casual and deal with things in a straightforward manner, he was still quite perceptive if he cared enough to use his brain. After all that happened, he had thought carefully of many things while inside the bathtub and had some ideas.

Mordred originally thought that he was summoned to this world by Satella the Witch of Envy, while his Heroic Spirit transformation was also caused by her, but perhaps that was all wrong, just like his assumption that Subaru was definitely the fated Loved One.

Seeing how Mordred even received Lugnica's Language knowledge and other information that a Heroic Spirit would get from a Holy Grail, Mordred felt that he could have come here through different means - likely someone used a Holy Grail.

In the first place, Mordred felt that he was quite naive in his assumptions.

When thinking about all this, Mordred recalled a scene from the Witches' Tea Party that was not included in the anime, seemingly as if to prevent the anime watchers from catching up too quickly. In that scene Satella claimed that the reason she loved Subaru was because she had a past with him - she said that Subaru showed her the outside world, that he held her hand when she was scared and that he kissed her when she was lonely; she said that he saved her.

Looking at the simple fact that Subaru didn't seem to have Return by Death, but Mordred did, it would be a logical assumption that the one who had a past with Satella in this world was not Subaru anymore, but perhaps him! It is most likely that Subaru does not have Return by Death simply because he never 'earned it' by saving Satella, whether it was in the past, future, failed loop or something.

Unlike in the novel, in this world there was Mordred who had his knowledge of the Re:Zero story, as well as quite high strength and perhaps importance to the world's fate due to his status as a Royal Candidate. Whoever Satella was, if during the 'first summoning' Mordred had met her, then he could have surely intervened in the established development if he realized some things.

He was definitely far more 'capable' in 'saving Satella' than Subaru!

Especially if Mordred actually liked Satella, then he would definitely fight for her! No matter what pairing her fictional version had in a story that he once read on Earth, he would do what he felt.

As for Subaru still being summoned here, a similar question could be asked as for why was Al summoned? Al was also a transmigrator and was not loved by any witch, but he was still summoned to have some sort of use. In the first place, believing that Subaru was summoned by Satella, because she was the one who gave him Return by Death, is a very silly and illogical thing to do; correlation does not imply causation, and it could, in fact, rather be seen as an counter-argument given that they should have somehow met first.

At that moment Mordred slowly suspected that Al, Subaru and him were likely all summoned through various other means, all to participate in some kind of plan.

Perhaps Emilia wasn't the future Satella, but Mordred still couldn't help but wonder as for what kind of connection the two half-elf girls had, two rare and unique girls that shared all - appearance, personality and voice. If as a person Satella was just like Emilia, then could it be that Mordred actually end up with Satella/Emilia in the past or the future instead of Subaru, while Subaru perhaps died due to having low strength, being schemed by others or to set off a certain flow of events?

Mordred couldn't completely reject this possibility and it bugged him; perhaps it was due to his intuition.

He waved his hand across the water surface absentmindedly, creating a wave. Because of how Emilia was portrayed in the anime he was previously quite annoyed by this foolish girl, but what if?

'Emilia is no longer just a fictional character for me. She has incredible potential, is kind and incredibly charming. Perhaps I should at least give her a chance…'

Eventually, Mordred had finished bathing and returned to his room. Slowly, he had somewhat accepted the fact that he was the one loved by the Witch of Envy and had Return by Death, and Subaru was… just there it seemed, dying a seemingly meaningless death.

Mordred had already rejected the possibility of Subaru having come back in time in another timeline, because he knew how Return by Death works in the novel and there should be no alternate timelines in this world. There was only a slim possibility that both him and Subaru somehow have Return by Death and the same return line-up.

However, it was still the same evening when Mordred suddenly got the news - Subaru's body disappeared.