Chapter Text
The candidates for the throne were riding through the streets in a dragon-drawn carriage. It had been some time since they all had been together, and after recent events, it was decided they would all get together for a girl’s night out. Emilia was partly one to organize the event; after getting closer to the candidates, Emilia wished to hang out with them more. Crusch was happy to accept the invitation. It hadn’t been too long since her memories had returned, and the effects of the cursed blood were removed from her body–thanks to Subaru, of course-and she was in the mood to hit the town. Felt was always happy to hang out with Emilia but tried to get her to forgo inviting Priscilla, believing the crimson princess to be a buzzkill and a few more choice words. Emilia, however, was having none of that and asked her new friend anyway. Priscilla accepted the invitation on the grounds she gets to pick the place, which Anastasia protested. In the end, both girls agreed to disagree, and Crusch was the one to decide on their night-time destination.
It worked out this way because they were all in Lugunica simultaneously due to royal selection mumbo jumbo, and when they were all alone, Emilia sprung the idea on the four. Anastasia agreed, believing that if she could get the other girls drunk, she could gain some valuable intel. Felt was the one to suggest no knights aloud. Emilia questioned the girl, but Felt said, “Reinhard is such a party-pooper that he would get in the way of our fun!” Emilia agreed; she knew Subaru would be bummed out, but liked the idea of it being girls only. Priscilla didn’t care either way, nor did Anastasia. The three girls dressed up for the occasion and set out for the town despite their knights’ collective protest.
“Damn, I thought Reinhard would never let me leave!” Felt sighed with relief, “He is like a parent. Can you believe he asked for the information of the place?” Felt said to Emilia, who was seated next to her.
The girls rode in a lavish dragon-drawn carriage to their destination. Emilia was practically bouncing in her seat, excited to spend time with her friends. She also wanted to invite the four of them over for a sleepover but didn’t want to push it.
“Reinhard is just reeeaaally concerned about you; Subaru said the same thing too.” Emilia giggled at the comparison.
“Mr. Natsuki can be one to worry; I am happy to hear of his knighting; he has earned it from what I have heard.” Crusch seated across from Emilia, and Felt sat with her arms crossed and one leg over the other; the stoic girl was enjoying her time and could relate as well, relaying to Emilia and Felt how Felix practically begged to go with her. Ultimately, Wilhelm had to pry to the poor kitty from Crusch’s ankle.
“How much longer until we get to the restaurant? Mine self is quite parched.” Priscilla was sitting next to Crusch, fanning herself.
“Are you always this annoyed?” Felt asks her.
“Mineself is always in a state of serenity; I am curious if you are always this loud, commoner?” Pris smiles at Felt, who argues with the girl, causing Emilia to have to break them up.
“What was the restaurant called again?” Anastasia questions.
“Sir Victor’s Lugunican Winery and Food, it is a well-established restaurant that I used to venture to before the royal election.”
“Oh, I didn’t take ya for a boozehound Crusch?” Felt laughs at the idea of Crusch drunk.
Crusch laughs, “Oh, I know my limits; I won’t be getting too drunk.”
Emilia pouts, “Aww~ don’t be a stick in the mud! We are here to have fun, remember?”
Crusch raises an eyebrow. “Oh, I have heard you were quite the drinker, Miss Emilia; I take it you plan on having more than one?”
Emilia blushes at practically being called a drunk, “Well, Subaru said I shouldn’t drink too much, so maybe just one or two, maybe three…”
Felt narrows her eyes, “Oh, so you need permission to drink? And here I thought Big Bro was the one you kept on a short leash?!" Felt, laughed, and shot Emilia a thumbs-up, "Well, I plan on drinking, so don’t worry, Emilia, we will drink in solidarity!”
Emilia hugs the girl, and then her eyes go wide, “Wait! Short leash? Subaru isn’t a dog?”
Priscilla laughs, “Mineself believes the reference flew over her head, but if you were to offer that foolish boy the opportunity to act like your dog, he would take it.”
Felt laughed, “For once, I agree; I bet Big Bro is into weird shit; he does have more dresses than I do!” Felt and Priscilla laughed together; Emilia was happy to see them getting along, albeit at Subaru’s expense.
“Come on, you two, enough about my knight. Though Subaru is a little eccentric, I think it is cute he would want to be my dog.” Emilia’s words only brought out more laughter.
“Tell me, Priscilla, does your knight wear a leash when you two are alone?” Crusch asks with a mischievous grin.
Priscilla chuckles to herself, “Al would if I asked him to like every good dog, but I would have to disagree with your implication; Al merely entertains me; I harbor no romantic feelings for the oaf.”
“Ok, you two, let’s save this juicy talk for later at the restaurant when we had a few drinks.” Anastasia ropes the two girls in, wanting to keep the intimate conversations for after dinner.
The girls arrived at the restaurant and were seated immediately in a private section of the restaurant that had previously been reserved by Crusch. The group had ordered food and ate it together over light conversation topics and several drinks. After their dinner, more drinks were ordered, and strangely enough, they kept coming. Pretty soon, the girls’ party entered the territory of a total rager, and soon they were completely wasted. Anastasia, now drunk, had forgotten her goal of extracting valuable information that could help her in the race for the throne and instead started to pry into more personal details. Emilia is her first victim.
“Sooooooo~ *hic* Emilia~, tell me, how far have you and Natsuki gotten?” Anastasia said with reddened cheeks.
Emilia was downing more wine and looked towards the questioning Anastasia with confusion. “I don’t know, uh Subaru…is a dunderhead, but he is a good boy. What was your question again?” Emilia slurred her words when she answered her.
“I was sayin’ have ya guys ya know…” Anastasia made a crude hand gesture. Emilia stared blankly, her eyes widened, and she knew immediately what Anastasia was implying.
“OH! Yeah, we did that!” Emilia said with an air of smugness.
The other three drunk girls looked surprised, “What!? N-n-no way! You and that commoner performed the act of… um…” Priscilla, red in the face and reeking of alcohol, rubbed her temples, “... shit, what is the word?”
“It’s fuck, you bimbo….” cut in Felt, who had just turned the legal drinking age in Luguinica, being the first of the girls to get plastered.
Emilia heard the word, and her face turned beet red, “What!?! F-F-F-F…..you mean like ....” Emilia looked embarrassed and looked around; she leaned in close to Felt and said, “coitus?”
“That’s the word!” Priscilla shouted. “Not that crude commoner word, fuck!” Priscilla said and smirked at Felt, who shrugged and poured herself more liquor.
Crusch, too, was very drunk and slurred her words while she talked to Emilia, “You and Mr. Natsuki?” Crusch looked lost in thought. “How was it?”
Emilia turned redder, “I didn’t! I thought Anastasia meant hand charades! Subaru is really good with his hands!” Emilia pouted.
“Oh, I bet he is….” Anastasia quipped.
Emilia sighed, “You’re mean, Anastasia! Subaru and I don’t have that kind of relationship!”
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Elsewhere, Subaru was braiding Beatrice’s hair when he sneezed onto the girl's head,
"HEY! Watch it, I suppose!" She yelled, turning to give Subaru a nasty look,
"Sorry, Beako!" He said and finished putting the girl's hair into french-braids.
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Back at the restaurant, Emilia was currently lying on Priscilla’s lap. “Priscilla’s lap is sooooo soft; no wonder Subaru likes lap pillows; I bet he would like your lap, too!” Emilia said to the girl, who chortled.
“My divine thighs have that effect on most men!” Priscilla said as she patted Emilia’s head.
Opposite the two, Crusch and Anastasia were discussing where they got their shoes while Felt had passed out, only to be woken up by Emilia, who saw the girl sleeping.
“Wake up, Felt! No quitters here!” Emilia then proceeded to pour liquor on the girl’s face while Priscilla laughed hysterically.
Felt shot up. “Hey, big sis! What gives!?” She yelled. All the girls laughed loudly at the sight of Felt trying to fend off Emilia, who had decided to tickle the girl in her protest.
It was then that the establishment manager decided to throw out the royal candidates for disturbing the restaurant’s other patrons.
Outside, the girls were stumbling around. Priscilla’s hair was disheveled, and she was currently holding a drunk Felt under her arm who had the growing urge to vomit. “Fuck this place!” Priscilla said and turned to face the restaurant, “Have a taste of my divine finger!” Priscilla flipped the restaurant manager off, who had his arms crossed and shook his head.
“We need to take this party somewhere else; I suggest another bar nearby.” Crusch offered.
“Yea, uh, where though? I’m not from ‘ere.” Anastasia said, who was being propped up by Emilia.
“WAIT! I got it!” Emilia said. The other girls turned to her, “Got what?” Crusch asked.
“We go to the slums! I bet there is a bar there, Priscilla, ask Felt!”
“I will! Hey, gutter rat! Know of any bars in the slum?” Priscilla had dropped the girl to the ground with a thud. Felt rubbed her butt and looked at Priscilla, “Hey cunt! Watch it!” Felt growled.
Priscilla took her fan out, pointing at her, “Direct us to a dive bar in the slums! We need to take this party elsewhere because this place suuuucks!” Priscilla emphasized the word sucks and directed her distaste to the restaurant again.
“Dive bar? Yeah, we can go to Ye ol’ rat’s cellar .” Felt suggested, which caused Priscilla to snort and start laughing at the name.
“Yes! Let us be off!” Emilia pointed ahead and ran towards the slums.
“Wait! You moron!” Felt said and stumbled after her. The other three girls followed close behind.
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It was late midday when Emilia woke up and took in her surroundings. Emilia found herself in a strange hotel room that looked like a battlefield. Emilia yawned and looked beside her, only to see Crusch Karsten sawing logs. Emilia lifted the covers and found that Crusch was wearing virtually no clothes. Emilia, confused by this, got out of bed and proceeded to trip over the dress she was wearing.
“Why am I wearing Priscilla’s dress?” Emilia questioned. Emilia looked around and found Priscilla sleeping on the floor, wearing the white dress with purple accents she had worn the night before. Priscilla was spilling out of the dress, which caused Emilia to blush a little. Emilia walked past Priscilla and but had to double-take when she saw Felt cuddled up next to the girl wearing a suit of armor.
Emilia would not have recognized the girl if it weren’t for the fact the helmet had been removed. “Awww, they look so cute,” Emilia said and stumbled to the bathroom. She tripped over several items as she went. Emilia entered the bathroom and sat on the toilet. While she sat there, she looked at the bathroom, like the hotel room; it, too, looked like several bombs had gone off. Holes were punched through walls, and the words, ‘Anastasia was here bitch ,’ were painted on the ceiling. Emilia stood up and flushed the toilet. She inspected herself in a nearby mirror and gasped.
“Gah! What happened to my hair!” Emilia had at some point cut her hair short into a bob, and had died it blue. “I look like Rem! Wait? What is this…” Emilia’s narrowed her eyes but then they went wide when she saw that she had pierced her nose. A rustling noise came suddenly from behind the shower curtain, causing Emilia to squeak in surprise. Emilia crept to it and slowly moved it to the side.
Emilia gasped when she saw Anastasia lying under the blanket with some random guy.
“What? A-A-Ana-” Emilia backed away but tripped over her dress and landed on her butt. Anastasia stirred and sat up, covering herself as she did so. Anastasia yawned and looked at Emilia, who was as pale as a basement-dwelling ghost. Anastasia looked confused and looked down. She screamed suddenly when she saw some randomly buff guy sleeping beside her in the bathtub.
The random dude snored and turned, pulling the cover off Anastasia, who, to Emilia’s surprise, was wearing a weird leather outfit. Anastasia looked at her clothing and back at Emilia. The merchant queen’s face was the epitome of embarrassment.
“Um, Good morning Miss Anastasia…” Emilia said.
“Good morning, Miss Emilia…” Anastasia responded.
The bathroom door opens, Crusch walks in and goes to the toilet. Her eyes were barely open, and her hair looked like a rat had slept.
“What time is it?” Crusch asks, looking at Emilia and raising an eyebrow. “Emilia, what happened to your hair?”
Emilia shrugged, “I don’t know, uh, do you like it?” She said,
Crusch looked at her momentarily, “Eh, it’s ok.” She goes back to looking at the walls and looks at Anastasia, who looks at her worriedly.
“Uh, what are you wearing?” Crusch asks her.
“I don’t know,” Anastasia says and stands up.
Emilia and Crusch cover their mouths in surprise and embarrassment.
“What?” Anastasia says. She looks down and sees that she has a phallic-shaped object strapped to her waist. Anastasia can only gasp as she looks towards the strange buff man next to her, who is entirely naked. The blood rushes from her face, and she stifles a scream.
Anastasia looks at Emilia and Crusch, “What the fuck happened last night?!”
Emilia and Crusch look at each other and shrug their shoulders.
“Well, either way, let’s change and get out of here before someone sees us,” Anastasia says.
“Agreed, I need to go wake up Priscilla. She is wearing my clothes.”
Crusch and Anastasia raise their eyebrows. Crusch looks around the bathroom and back at Emilia, “Um, where are my clothes exactly?”
“Yeah, I have to find mine too,” Anastasia says.
The girls leave the bathroom. Priscilla and Felt are still asleep; neither had moved since Emilia had woken up.
Emilia walks to the girls, bends down, and whispers, “Hey, you two, we need to leave.”
Priscilla slowly opens her eyes and looks at Emilia, “My divine self requires five more minutes.” Priscilla covers up her head, only to quickly sit up and look at Emilia with surprise.
“Why are you wearing my dress?” She says and looks down at herself. “Why am I wearing your dress?” Priscilla asks this but gets no answer.
Priscilla looks at Felt next to her, who is still sleeping peacefully. Priscilla stares at the girl, “Who’s armor is that?” Emilia thinks momentarily until the answer comes to her.
“Oh! That must be the naked guy's armor in the bathroom!” She says, proud of her deduction skills.
“NAKED GUY!?” Priscilla shouts in surprise.
Felt stirs next to her, “OUCH! Shit, my head is killing me!” Felt rubs her head and sits up. “Damnit! Will someone stop that clanging?”
“Uh, Felt, you are the one that is clanging,” Emilia says to the girl, who looks at her outfit in confusion.
“Um, Big Sis, whose clothes are these?” Felt asks for clarity.
“The naked guy in the bathroom.” Emilia answers,
“Right. Of course. WAIT! WHO?!” Felt shouts with surprise.
“Keep it down, you two,” Crusch says as she stumbles around the room, looking for her clothing.
Priscilla and Felt look at a half-naked Crusch, who searches around for her clothes. When Crusch turns around, the three girls shriek,
“C-C-C-Crusch!” Emilia says, with her hands over her face,
Crusch turns to look at them, “What is it exactly?”
Priscilla starts to laugh, followed by Felt, growing annoyed Crusch stands to meet them,
“What is it exactly? Why are the both of you laughing?” She asks, and looks at Emilia, who still looks surprised,
“Uh, well–”
“Well, what?”
“You got a….tattoo…” Emilia trails off,
Crusch takes a step back. “There is no wind of untruth, but still, please tell me you’re lying.”
Emilia looks away, unable to make eye contact, redness permeates her face,
Sweat starts to form on Crusch’s brow. “Emilia, what do I have, and where do I have it?”
Felt snorts, “It’s on your lower back!” She continues to laugh, “You got fuckin’ Big Bro’s name tattooed above your ass!”
Priscilla and Felt laugh even harder; Crusch looks like she just discovered the white whale crash-landed on her house. She looks at Emilia,
“Emilia, I-I-”
“You can’t have him! Sorry, Crusch, but Subaru is my knight!” Emilia goes to stand and walks but falls forward, tripping over Priscilla’s dress.
Priscilla and Felt continue to cackle like drunk hyenas,
Crusch falls to her knees, “I can’t believe it. What happened?” She looks around the room.
Priscilla and Felt start to stand,
“Well, I think it’s time we blow this place; I feel sorry for the poor bastard who has to pay for the damages!”
Felt looked around at the demolished hotel room; surprisingly, the place was pretty swanky. Nothing like the inns in the slums.
“Uh, where is this place? This doesn’t look like a typical inn found in the slums.”
“Does it matter? We are probably in some hotel in the wealthy Lugunica district.” Priscilla moves to Emilia,
“Emilia! You may remove my clothes at once!”
Emilia stands, “Sure, I can’t walk in the dress anyway.”
The two start to remove their clothes and redress themselves. While Emilia continues to dress, she looks at Priscilla’s finger,
“Priscilla! Where did you get that ring? It is reeeeaaaally pretty! Did you have it on yesterday?” Emilia asks. She pulls up her top and straightens her clothes, attempting to even out the wrinkles.
“What are you talking about?” Priscilla asks and turns around, indicating for Emilia to zip up her dress,
“The ring, you dunderhead! It’s on your left-hand ring finger!”
Priscilla looks at Emilia, then her hand, her eyes widen, and she looks at Emilia and then at Crusch, who is wearing the biggest shit-eating grin,
“Well, well, it would seem Priscilla here got married at some point,” Crusch says, and starts to laugh,
“Married?!” Emilia shouts, with stars in her eyes,
Priscilla has turned ghostly pale, “This! This is some farce! You two were plotting something!”
While Priscilla threw a tantrum with Crusch laughing at her, Felt was removing her armor,
“Yo Crusch, I found your clothes.” Felt calls to her, realizing she was wearing Crusch's outfit; Felt looks at the ring on her left hand, “What the hell is this ring?” She asks herself,
Priscilla looks at her with absolute terror; Crusch and Emilia cover their mouths.
Anastasia emerges from the bathroom, having located her clothes and poofy hat. The girl looks at the three shocked ladies with a raised eyebrow,
“What the hell are ya four doing? Hurry up and change so we can split!”
They look at Anastasia, “What is it?” she asks,
Emilia points at Priscilla and Felt. Both hadn’t said a word,
“Uh, Priscilla and Felt got married,” Emilia says,
Anastasia stares, “What?”
“It is true, at some point during the night, Priscilla and Felt were married.” Crusch concurred.
Anastasia shook her head. “Ok, we’ll deal with that later! Right now, we need ta leave, like now!”
“What about the naked guy?” Emilia asked,
“Fuck the naked guy!” Anastasia replied,
"Apparently, you did." Crusch said,
"Ana did what!" Priscilla and Felt shouted in unison,
"Enough about the naked guy!" Anastasia quickly yelled, leaving herself gasping for air.
Anastasia took a deep breath, and calmed her nerves, "Look we need ta go! We can sort all this out later!"
Crusch nodded, “Yes I agree, I need to see Felix about removing this embarrassing tattoo.”
“Tattoo?” Anastasia asks,
“HEY! Subaru’s not embarrassing! He may be a dunderhead, but even in tattoo form, he is a good boy!” Emilia defends her knight’s name,
Anastasia looks at Crusch, “You got Natsuki-kun’s name tattooed on you?” She asks, and starts to laugh,
“That is neither here nor there!” Crush was red with embarrassment and attempted to change the subject,
Felt and Priscilla finished changing and were standing by the hotel door.
"Yo, how long are you morons going to stand there! Crusch hurry and put on clothes so we can go!" Felt yelled,
"Uh, right." Crusch put on clothes, and left the hotel room.
Once they left the hotel, they froze as they surveyed their surroundings. All around them, snow was falling.
“Where the hell are we?” Felt asked,
“This is…” Crusch started to speak,
“What?” Emilia asked,
“Gusteko….” Priscilla finished,
Emilia’s face turned pale, “What! How?” She asked,
“I guess we partied a little too hard last night?” Anastasia asked,
The girls started to walk down the streets. Several turned to look at them.
"Uh, I think we should get off the streets and figure this out. We sorta stand out," Emilia mentioned,
"Yeah, yer right, there's a coffee shop over there, lets go and get breakfast, and come up with a game plan."
Anastasia pointed to a coffee shop called Gusteko Coffee Co. an aptly named establishment.
Once they entered the coffee shop, they found a table and sat down. A waiter came by, looked at them with a sideways glance, shrugged and took their orders and left,
None spoke as they tried desperately to figure out what had happened. The weight of their current situation had started to manifest, and worry had settled in. Anastasia sighed and looked out a window; a boy was selling papers across the street. Anastasia narrowed her eyes and started to get up from the table,
“Where are you going?” Emilia asked,
Anastasia didn't respond and left the restaurant. Outside, she crossed the street, ignoring all traffic, and purchased a paper. She stood staring at the front page and slowly turned back to walk toward the coffee shop. Once she had entered, she threw the paper on the table and slumped down. The other four girls leaned over to read it. Their jaws dropped instantly.
In big, bold letters, the words:
All five Royal candidates go missing!
The four of them stared at the paper for what felt like hours; their situation had become unimaginably worse.
“Apparently, we have been gone for over a week now….” Anastasia says,
The other girls look at her. Fear had started to overtake them,
“That’s impossible. We would have remembered something!” Crusch says, trying to comprehend the illogical situation they had found themselves in.
Priscilla rubs her brow, “Well, no matter, let’s be off at once. We can sort out what happened later.”
“But can we eat first?” Emilia asks, “I’m reeaaally hungry.”
Priscilla looks at her, “Yes, we can eat first.”
The waiter returns with their food as the five girls prepare to dig in.
Elsewhere, a search is underway, as the girls’ knights and their respective camps work tirelessly to find them. Praying for their safety.