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“My birthday’s coming up!” Subaru announced. “Guess how old I’ll be turning!”
“Ooh, uh, is it thirteen?” Emilia guessed.
Ram almost rolled her eyes at that. Emilia was terrible at guessing ages.
“No, actually, fourteen!” Subaru corrected.
Ram nearly dropped the plate she was holding. “Barusu, tell me that was a joke.”
“What? No, why?” Subaru said, looking over at her.
Ram squinted at Subaru. He was quite tall, so maybe that’s what had thrown her off, but if she tilted her head, she could see it. Despite his height, he had a squishy baby face, and wide eyes, and awkward legs and elbows like he was still growing into himself. The longer she looked at him, the more sense it made.
“Oh Od,” Ram muttered to herself. “You’re actually serious.”
“What?” Subaru said.
“You’re supposed to be Emilia’s knight, but you’re not even old enough to drink yet!” Ram said, wanting to shake him. “You’re younger than Garfiel! Barusu, why didn’t you say anything?!”
“I thought everybody knew!” Subaru protested. “I mean, Emilia always called me a kid often enough…”
This was true enough, but Subaru had always heavily protested, saying things like ‘I’m not a kid!’ and ‘Don’t act like I’m that much younger than you!’ Ram wasn’t sure why she’d taken his words so seriously. In retrospect, they were clearly the words of a kid trying to look grown-up, not an adult defending their dignity.
“Never mind,” Ram said, pressing circles into her forehead.
This was fine. This was- fine. The Pearlbaton triplets had been vice captains of the Iron Fang despite being below fifteen, and some knights like Theresia and Wilhelm van Astrea had started in their youth. And, just because he wasn’t an adult didn’t necessarily diminish his accomplishments against the White Whale and Great Rabbit, which would be enough to get anyone knighted.
This was… Fine.
Ram could at least try to convince herself of that.
“That just explains a lot about you… tiny Barusu,” Ram finally said.
“Wha- hey!” Subaru said.
Julius was visiting the Mathers domain when it happened. He’d been sent on business from the Anastasia camp, and while everyone was kind enough to him, he noticed a somewhat frigid attitude from Lady Emilia herself, pun not intended.
When most everyone else had left, except for her and Subaru, Julius gave her a bow and decided to ask what was wrong. “Lady Emilia, I apologize if this is too forward, but did I offend you in some way? If I did, I won’t hesitate to apologize.”
“Ah, it’s what happened at the Capital,” Emilia said, shaking her head. “While I understand that the feud was between you two and Subaru and not me, I just can’t approve of you beating up a little kid like that.”
Julius blinked. Does she really see Subaru as a child? That was kind of sad for Subaru.
“Emilia, you can’t call me a little kid in front of him!” Subaru said. “I’m a knight now! Please respect me as a man!”
“Sorry, Subaru,” Emilia said. “You’re my knight now, so I’ll see you as an adult. But back then you weren’t a knight, though!”
“If I may, for all of Subaru’s attitude, he is not a child,” Julius said, feeling oddly compelled to defend Subaru. “He’s- what, eighteen?”
“Fourteen,” Subaru said flatly.
“What?” Julius choked.
“But I’m a teenager, so don’t treat me like an elementary schooler!” Subaru said, puffing out his chest. “There’s a difference!”
Julius needed to take a minute to internalize this information. Suddenly, everything about Subaru made so much sense. The immaturity. The childish energy and eccentricity. The one-sided crush on Emilia. And Emilia’s strangely maternal attitude towards him.
“...In that case, I apologize,” Julius managed to say.
Subaru huffed. “Don’t bother! If you’re just going to pity me because of my age, then you can keep your apologies to yourself!”
“Still, now knowing this, publicly beating you was going too far,” Julius said, shaking his head, feeling a twinge of guilt for breaking Subaru’s arms and legs. That had been a lot even when he’d thought Subaru was a rude adult, rather than an unruly tween. “If I’d known at the time, I would have dragged you to your parents for a talking-to instead.”
Subaru almost choked at how mild the new ‘punishment’ Julius came up with was compared to the treatment he’d originally gotten. A talking-to? Really?
“I don’t have parents right now, asshole,” Subaru said, turning up his nose. “And you got across the message just fine as it was. Things turned out, didn’t they?”
“I suppose they did,” Julius said.
Their familiar banter returned, and Julius realized that it was still Subaru, just… with some additional context for his behavior. Though, the guilt was new.
Otto was drunk.
“Subaru~” he slurred, grinning. Subaru sat next to him, sipping water.
“Subaru… you should have somethin’ to drink, I still have some left,” Otto managed, gesturing vaguely to the half bottle of wine he hadn’t yet consumed. “Join the fun-n!”
“Sorry, but I can’t,” Subaru said. “I can’t drink.”
“Why?” Otto said, looking at him with plaintive eyes.
“I’m under fifteen,” Subaru said. “That’s the drinking age here, right?”
“Woaah,” Otto said. “Subaru’s a kid?”
“I’m not a k-”
Otto hugged Subaru around the middle. “I’ll protect youuu,” Otto said in a sing-song voice, snuggling Subaru. “You’re so cuuuute.”
Subaru sighed. He hugged Otto back. “There, there, Otto. But I’m cutting you off. No more drinks for you!”
Otto scowled at that, but listened.
Reinhard felt like he was holding glass.
He’d never felt that way about Subaru before, but now knowing what Subaru’s age was, suddenly everything about him felt ten times more fragile. The situation wasn’t even that serious, Subaru had offered to train with him while the Felt Camp came over, and had tuckered himself out in his futile attempts to keep up with Reinhard. Now, he was napping in Reinhard’s arms, and Reinhard was petrified that he would break him.
“Subaru,” Reinhard whispered, trying to wake him up. Subaru only snuffled in his sleep and curled into Reinhard’s warmth further.
Reinhard had always wanted a little brother. But he’d also known that it was probably for the best that he didn’t have one, because he was so strong that by playing with them he’d probably only hurt them. But now, it was almost like he had one, because he had Subaru, and he was so, so scared to hurt him.
So Reinhard stayed still. Very, very still, muscles stiffly locked in place.
When Subaru woke up very sleepily an hour later, Reinhard let him know he’d only been asleep for a few minutes.
Subaru laid across a pile of books, sighing loudly. Though Beatrice would never have put up with such behavior in her library, this was the Miload Mansion library, and so she didn’t care if books were damaged.
“Why do you sigh so loudly, in fact?” Beatrice asked. “Aren’t you excited to see your friends from the Crusch Camp, I suppose?” He usually was.
“Yeah, but I bet Julius told Felix about my age, so now everybody’s gonna know I’m fourteen,” Subaru said. “And then they’re all gonna be weird about it.”
Beatrice had known about Subaru’s age the longest, outside of Emilia. He’d mentioned it while rambling in the library once, as was his habit, and Beatrice had absolutely no idea that this was a shock to anyone until Subaru had told her that everyone reacted with comical levels of surprise.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Beatrice asked. Subaru looked at her questioningly. “You like your ‘pranks’, don’t you? This is just the biggest prank of all, I suppose.”
Subaru’s mouth turned upward. “You know, you’re right,” Subaru observed. He started grinning. “Everyone’s faces were pretty funny when they learned.”
Beatrice closed her book. “Let’s go see their faces then, I suppose. It’s about time for them to arrive.”
Subaru grabbed Beatrice’s hand, and together, they left the library.