Hello there! For those of you who Immediately read this story and were wondering, I'm not dead! I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to take this story, and I don't always write the fastest so expect updates and new chapters to come out as I think of where I want this story to eventually end up. I'm hoping to release new chapters a lot sooner than it's taken me to write this one, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and if I don't like the way it's written I end up re-writing the whole thing. If you like the story, just be patient and I will continue to do updates as frequently as I can. As for now, enjoy the new chapter!

"You don't need to try and fix things by yourself anymore, Subaru" Ram spoke slowly and softly, as if she were attempting to calm a deranged animal. "There's no reason to be so harsh on yourself…" she continued to squeeze him tighter as she spoke, letting the sentence trail off. For what seemed like forever, the room was silent enough to hear birds chirping softly in the early morning sun.

Still holding his arms to his side, Ram slowly swiveled Subaru around until he was facing her. She spoke solemnly, "After all, I….". Choking on words she clearly could not bring herself to speak a second time, the memory still fresh in her mind. It was at that moment that Subaru finally saw it. What he must have looked like right before he ended himself with that cup.

It was something greater than sadness or agony. He wasn't quite sure there was a human word to describe it. The once sturdy and seemingly unfazed by anything girl he had come to know looked so…fragile. Like a beautiful piece of mosaic glass the moment before it would shatter into millions of shards, never to be entirely whole again. It was at this point she had finally given up what was clearly an attempt to stop him from resetting any further.

Subaru felt Ram's grip begin to loosen, as he worked his way to an upright position, leaning against the bed's headboard. "Subaru…...I….." she remained motionless where he had left her, laying down on her side staring at the spot where his head had been resting. He lifted her up until she was at his side, leaning against him for support. Turning to the distraught girl, he slowly pulled her towards him, positioning her so that her back was against his chest, and his head was nestled atop hers.

"Above all else, I know what it truly means to suffer" he spoke with a gentleness that only one other person had ever truly seen. "Ram, please forgive me… I never thought this curse could drag somebody else down with me." Unsure of what to say next, Ram filled the empty air "I'm so sorry... for everything…" She struggled out between loud sobs, gasping for air. "This should have never….never happened to you…." he spoke out of anger and sadness-Subaru could feel it. He was blaming himself again. "STOP IT!" In a flash, Ram turned around and hit him. Hard. Hard enough to send him spiraling to the floor.

"OUCH! OI! What was that for!?..." Subaru hadn't noticed until now. Ram looked unusually pale-even for an Oni. He paused, and suddenly the answer hit him like a heavy bag of bricks. "What day is it, Ram?" Subaru mumbled out from his clearly less than fully functional mouth. No response. It wasn't until he took a good look outside that Subaru noticed that the mansion was in serious disarray. "Ram," he spoke in a low hushed tone, "how many days have I been out?"

Trauma instantly rushed over the girl's face, as she collapsed from her kneeling position on to Subaru's bed. "Hey! Ram! RAM! SOMEBODY, PLEASE COME HELP ME!". He was panicked by this point, lifting the girl from where she fell and darting out of his bedroom like a bolt of lightning. Subaru wasn't always the most physically fit person. Despite this, due to the amount of adrenaline coursing through his body, he was carrying the currently incapacitated maid as if the weight was merely an afterthought.

Suddenly he paused, tracing back his steps and preparing to open the last door he had disregarded just a few seconds ago. "Only one way to find out… Please hold out, Ram!" he begged, unceremoniously kicking the door open, causing a certain drill loli to jump from her seat and scream. "How dare you treat this entrance to the Forbidden Archives in such a manner, I suppose!" Beatrice, the resident and guardian of said magical room scolded the boy.

"Now is not the time! Beatrice, Ram is in serious trouble and I have no idea what the cause is. Hate me for all I care, but right now, I need you to help me save her!". Beatrice had never seen the boy quite this disheveled before. He had nothing on but his sleep wear, and his hair was a nightmare to say the least. "Alright, I suppose... I will do my best to treat the girl, I suppose." The small drill loli placed one hand over Ram's horn, and set herself to the task at hand. "She's completely drained of all her mana… what could have caused this, I suppose?" Beatrice shook her head in confusion before looking over to Subaru. "There's nothing that I can currently do for her, I suppose…" she flatly stated.

"I need to know, Beatrice… how long have I been asleep for?" Subaru was dead certain he had woken up the first night of each reset. However, the boy had never seen the girl in such a state. He watched her seemingly lifeless body as she unconsciously breathed in and out. Anxiety gripped him from head to toe as he prayed for Ram's safety.

Beatrice simply stated "It's been almost a week since you woke up. Bubby and Emilia have been worried sick about your safety, but not as much as the red-headed demon maid, I suppose." Subaru felt sick to his stomach, and immediately he knew that unfortunately due to his actions, Ram was in serious danger right now. He had no clue why it had taken him so long to awaken this time, since basically every other time he had Returned by Death he awoke instantly. 'Maybe I had overdone it' Subaru thought to himself, 'and my body had forced me to recuperate whether or not I wanted it to.'

After all, he was relentlessly resetting himself over and over in futile attempt to save her sister Rem. He had no idea what kind of repercussions that would have on his body; especially not when overlapped with the repetitious deaths and fatigue. "She refused to leave your side until you woke up, only eating when we brought her food. The only time she ever left was to use the restroom. I didn't know the two of you had gotten that close, I suppose…..."

Subaru grabbed the loli by the shoulders, and looked at her dead in the eyes. "Please, Beatrice…. If you can't fix this, tell me what needs to be done and I will do it. Anything at all!" he spoke in a hushed scream. He was desperate to find another way to solve this problem other than Return by Death. Subaru would do anything to prevent making her experience another one of his or her deaths first hand.

Beatrice paused slightly, thought to herself for a moment, and spoke evenly "Well, I'm not entirely certain why she has no mana. I know she doesn't have a horn, but she usually has mana despite that." The guardian mused to herself, before Subaru wondered aloud "What would cause her to have mana if her horn is how Ram takes it in? Why would today be the day that her mana ran out, and not some other day? Can you think of anything Beatrice?"

She was unsure, and after a modicum of processing, spoke these simple words. "I could bind your gate to hers… I suppose" These words piqued Subaru's attention, and without hesitation, he asked "How would that help us in this current situation? Please, tell me how this can fix Ram. I'll try it, whatever it is." Subaru spoke with a gentle fear that ate away at his mental state as the thought of Ram's potential death and the possibility of resetting himself… again. Either choice would lead to heartache for the young maid, but this was the final outcome of his recent actions. Beatrice nodded, and began her explanation. "What I can attempt to do is allow your mana gate to feed into hers. Then her body can function again without being deprived of mana, I suppose."

"Furthermore," Beatrice continues with a solemn look upon her small face "please know, Subaru, that connecting your two gates is similar to binding your two lives together, I suppose. If you die, she will lose her mana source and eventually die with you. I need to know that you understand what that means, I suppose." Subaru nodded, and spoke with his gaze fixed on Ram's seemingly lifeless body. "I realize that I'm responsible for two lives…. Actually, it's been made clear to me already that I'm responsible for much more than just that. All I care about is that Ram is awake and well again. Let's do it."

Beatrice chanted a small incantation under her breath, pausing only long enough to give Subaru instruction. "Lay the young maid on the floor, gently I suppose. Subaru, I need you to lie on the ground next to her and close your eyes. Once I begin, know that what I'm attempting to do here is no small feat, and has never been attempted before, I suppose." Subaru did as instructed, closing his eyes and asking "You're saying that what's being attempted here has never been tried before…?" The head of the library responded in short "No, I suppose. This is…. Something Betty has come up with as an emergency plan of sorts, I suppose."

Subaru sat upright for a moment "So what…. Currently, what you're trying to do is basically unheard of in this world…?" Beatrice nodded her head. "Betty is going to attempt to use my Door Crossing magic to directly link your gate with hers, I suppose. Since your gate is so damaged already, and this is dangerous enough as it is, Betty will use your gate's mana to keep the spell running; while feeding her gate at the same time, I suppose." Subaru's eyes widened for a second, realizing the lengths it would take the librarian just to perform this ridiculous feat. He lay back down next to Ram on the floor. "Okay then, we don't have any more time to waste. Just do your best, Beatrice."

The small drill loli nodded her head to the room before continuing the incantation. It was indistinguishable to every other person but Beatrice as the magic was set in place. Even the girl herself was unsure whether or not it was going to work, but despite her awful attitude towards Subaru she had never failed to assist him despite his relentless nagging. He was beginning to feel bad for shouldering so much of his plans on Beatrice's assistance, but Subaru was well and truly out of options. Well….. Return by Death was his normal go-to for solving problems since before this, he was the only one who had to suffer.

But now… the girl who had forgotten about her sister was just forced to live out his suffering, and come to the horrifying truth of Rem's condition. About how everyone but Subaru had forgotten her, including her one and only sister, and how the boy she repeatedly berated for being lazy and useless had saved the two of them on multiple occasions. It couldn't have been easy, after all this is what became of him after living out each scenario over a long period of time, but Ram didn't have the luxury of taking in each experience as it came.

He had unknowingly brought her under his curse through means he still didn't understand, and now he was selfishly trying to throw the burden of the entire world unto himself. Subaru had completely forgotten to think about how it would have made him feel, where he to take her place. Yet the world unjustly and cruely forced her to relive the nightmarish pain and suffering he had gone through. All of these relentless thoughts plagued Subaru's mind as he waited for Beatrice to give him another instruction, or for Ram to suddenly wake up and hit him, embrace him….. Do something other than lie on the floor, defeated by an act of selfishness that he had unknowingly committed.

"Beatrice….. I don't want to rush you, but I'm a little nervous down here….. What's happening?" Subaru was beginning to feel tears streaming down his cheek, as his mind was stuck replaying the worst outcomes in his head. To console the young man, Beatrice spoke her incancation a little louder, enough to indicate that she wasn't done. Subaru could hear her speaking aloud now, in a language that he couldn't understand. So the young boy waited….. And waited….. An Excruciatingly long amount of time before Beatrice finally spoke in language he could understand. "It's done, I suppose. All we can do now is watch her condition and wait while she recovers, I suppose."

"Beatrice… I hate to be the one to ask this, but how long do you think it'll take for her to recover..?" Subaru turned to the librarian for an answer, but found none on her face or in her words. "To be honest, I don't know, I suppose." Never were things so unclear to Natsuki Subaru than in this moment. He was even more lost in his head and trauma than before, and was in a rage to get some answers as soon as possible. Subaru hurried over towards the exit, before pulling the large and ornate doors open. "Just where are you going, I suppose?! You make this huge deal about saving the maid girl, and then you want to leave her here with me, I suppose?!"

Subaru looked back at the irate drill loli with sad, anxious and angry eyes. It immediately quelled any anger and emotion in Beatrice's voice as Subaru made no effort to hide his emotions. "I'm entrusting Ram to you for now… Until then, there's nothing I can do here, correct…?" Beatrice shook her head back and forth wordlessly, as she could see the intensity and mixed feelings radiating off from Subaru. "Ah… Then, in the meantime…. Roswaal seems to know quite a bit of information….. I'm going to have a short chat with him while Ram's condition hopefully improves. Once I'm done with that…." He turned around and left the door to the forbidden library wide open. "I'll come back and take Ram back to my room unless you have any objections. In the meantime, Beatrice…. Please watch over her for me."