Chapter Text
Subaru’s eyes flew open, his chest rising and falling like he’d just run a marathon. Cold sweat clung to his forehead, but the weirdest part wasn’t the sweat. It was the fact that… he felt naked. Not physically naked—more like soul-naked. Vulnerable. Exposed. And there was nothing around him. No ceiling, no walls, no floor. Just an endless void stretching out in every direction.
“What the hell…” he muttered under his breath, voice echoing like it was swallowed by the dark. “This has gotta be a dream, right? A different type of sleep paralysis? No, wait—” He twitched his fingers. He could move. His arms flailed experimentally in the air. “Okay, not paralysis. Good. That’s… good.”
The silence pressed down harder than any blanket. No sound, no light, nothing but the soft thump-thump of his own heartbeat in his ears and the faint whisper of his breath.
“Hello?” His voice cracked. It sounded small, lost, like a kid calling out in a tunnel. “Anybody here?”
And then—
“Please, I save my family…”
Subaru froze. The voice wasn’t his. It was a woman’s voice. Soft, strained, desperate. He spun around, trying to find the source, but the void didn’t change. Just black, endless nothing.
“Hello?!” he called again, louder this time. “Who said that? Lady, where are you?”
“Please, I save my family…”
Her voice came again, the exact same words but heavier, like a prayer being repeated by someone on the edge of breaking.
Subaru swallowed. His palms were clammy. “I—uh—look, lady, you’re seriously creeping me out right now. Who are you? And… and where the hell even is this place?”
“I’m Louanna Astrea…”
“Louanna…” he echoed under his breath. He blinked. “Astrea… Doesn’t sound Japanese. Man, my subconscious is throwing out some high-level RPG fantasy names tonight.” He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck.
But the woman didn’t laugh. Her voice cracked instead. “Please save my baby… and Heinkel… and Father…”
He stared into the void, searching for her, but still saw nothing. “I—wait, what? Save your baby? Who the heck is Heinkel? Who’s Father? Lady, you’re giving me like, zero context here!”
Her voice trembled. “Please, I see no way of returning so I asked Od to send someone as capable as the Sage to save my family…”
“Od?” Subaru blinked, tilting his head. “The hell is Od? Who’s the Sage? Man, I didn’t know my subconscious could cook up lore this detailed. Like, bravo brain. Bravo. You’re outdoing Skyrim right now.”
“Please!” she pleaded, her tone sharpening like a dagger’s edge. “I do not have much time! Promise me you shall save them!”
He raised his hands defensively, even though no one was in front of him. “Whoa, whoa, hold on! I don’t even know who they are! What am I supposed to do, just—jump into a video game world and hope for the best?”
Her voice cracked harder. “Please!”
Subaru hesitated. Even though he was confused out of his mind, something in her voice—the desperation, the raw emotion—cut through his panic. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Alright… alright, fine. Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but—hey, I’m a gentleman, okay? So… count on me, Astrea-san. I’ll… I’ll do what I can.”
There was a pause. The air seemed to still, if that was even possible in this void.
“Thank you…” her voice softened, trembling like she was crying. “Now I can rest in peace…”
“Wait, what?” Subaru’s eyes widened. “Rest in peace? Lady, what do you—”
“Tell Reinhard and Heinkel that I love them… and Father too…”
“Reinhard?” Subaru repeated. He was pretty sure he’d never heard that name before, but couldn’t place it. “Wait, hold on! Don’t just—”
But the void trembled around him like glass about to shatter. Light began to gather, faint at first, then blindingly bright, spilling in from nowhere.
“Huh?!” Subaru flinched, throwing his arms up to shield his face. “Wait, no, don’t do the anime light thing yet! I still have like a million questions!”
The brightness grew, swallowing the black. It wrapped around him like a tidal wave, burning away the nothingness.
“Stop! Stop! I’m not done here!” he yelled, trying to step back, but there was no ground beneath his feet to step on. “Lady Astrea! Louanna! Whatever your name was—what the hell do you mean by save your family?!”
Her voice was a whisper now, distant, fading. “Please… save them…”
“No, don’t fade out on me like some dying NPC!” Subaru shouted, his voice cracking. “This isn’t some cutscene where I just get handed a quest with zero explanation! I need details, dammit! Who’s the baby? Where do you even live?!”
But there was no answer. The void dissolved completely into white, the brightness so intense it made his eyes sting. He tried to blink, but it was like the light was behind his eyelids too.
“Crap crap crap! This is way too real to be a dream—” Subaru felt his heart hammering like a drum, his pulse in his throat. “Okay, think, think, think! You’re in a weird void, some ghost lady just gave you a side quest, and now you’re getting… what, teleported? This is how guys in light novels end up isekai’d, isn’t it?! Oh god, I’m gonna get isekai’d naked, aren’t I?!”
His voice bounced off the white nothingness. There was no longer even a sense of direction—up, down, left, right all blurred into one. He felt like he was falling without moving, like gravity had been turned off.
“Wait! I didn’t even agree properly!” he yelled again, flailing his arms, panic rising in his chest. “I just said count on me because you sounded sad! That wasn’t a contract, right? Right?!”
But the light only intensified, growing warm now, searing against his skin. His ears rang with a high-pitched hum, drowning out even his frantic breathing.
“Louanna! Astrea! Whoever you are! Don’t just dump me into some fantasy mess with no tutorial! I’m not even good at games anymore!” His voice cracked into a half-scream, half-laugh. “I’m literally just some loser from Japan! I don’t even have powers! I can’t—”
The hum cut off like someone flipped a switch. The light surged one last time, swallowing everything.
Subaru’s last thought before it took him completely was a frantic, ridiculous one.
“I didn’t even get to save-scum this time!”
And then—nothing.
The void was gone. The woman’s voice was gone. The sound of his own heartbeat was gone.
Only the white remained, swallowing him whole.
Subaru felt like his entire body had been flayed alive by a thousand sharp blades. His nerves lit up like fireworks, and his lungs fought to even drag in air as he screamed his throat raw. His voice tore out of him, jagged, desperate.
“What the hell! What the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hellWhat the hell—!”
It was endless, spiraling, his panic looping as if repeating it enough times might bring logic back into his world. His throat ached, but it didn’t stop the trembling in his chest, the cold sweat drenching his back, the phantom sting of needles crawling away only to return in waves.
Finally, his cries sputtered out into shaky, ragged breaths. He clutched the blanket around him like it was his only shield against the madness, dragging it up until it nearly smothered his face.
“Damn,” he panted, pressing his forehead against the fabric, “what the hell kind of dream was that? I’ve had bad dreams, but—dammit—that… that was new game plus level painful. Who dreams about getting tortured by needles? And why… why does it still feel like it’s real?”
He squeezed his eyes shut, inhaling deeply, then let them open slowly, waiting for the familiar walls of his dingy little room back home in Japan. But his eyes adjusted to something else.
Something very different.
The room was glowing with light, sunlight spilling over walls that were carved and painted far beyond anything he’d ever seen in person. No posters, no clutter, no second-hand futon. Instead, vast walls adorned with pale colors, tapestries, gilded frames. And the bed—good lord, the bed wasn’t a bed. It was practically a field. Vast. Soft. Draped in sheets that probably cost more than his entire life savings.
Subaru sat up slowly, hands shaking. “Wh-where am I…?”
As if the world was eager to add fuel to his panic, the enormous dual wooden doors at the other end of the room—doors he definitely didn’t remember his room ever having—slammed open with a thunderous crack.
He nearly jumped out of the oversized bed, blanket clutched to his chest like a lifeline.
A figure burst into the room, gasping as though she had seen a ghost.
“It… it can’t be…”
It was an older woman, late fifties, gray hair tied into a neat bun, her entire body wrapped in a crisp, formal western maid uniform. The kind of get-up Subaru had only ever seen in anime and fancy European dramas.
His jaw dropped. “Wait. Wait, no way—did I… actually get isekai’d?! No, no, no—holy crap, this would explain everything though. The pain, the dream, the—everything! Okay, okay, calm down, Natsuki Subaru. Calm down. Maybe… just maybe you can slap yourself and this will all go away.”
Without hesitation, he smacked himself across the cheek.
“Ow!” His head whipped sideways, and the sting blossomed across his skin.
Not a dream.
But before he could fully digest that horrifying truth, something else hit him. His mouth. The way his teeth felt against his tongue. The alignment of his jaw.
He poked at his upper teeth with his tongue, eyes widening. “W-wait a sec. My premolar—where’s the incline? Why does it… feel different?!”
And even worse, the taste lingering in his mouth was strange. Off. Not just morning breath bad—alien.
“What happened to me—gah?!”
He didn’t even get to finish. The maid bolted forward, skirts swishing, and before he could react, she was at his feet, grabbing hold of his legs with trembling hands and bursting into tears.
“My Lady! You’re… y-you’re awake!”
Subaru blinked. “Lady? Who? Me?” He pointed a finger at his own chest, disbelief painted across his face. “I’m no lady, baa-san, you need glasses—wait, hold on…”
His own voice.
That wasn’t his voice.
High. Soft. Feminine.
The same voice from the dream.
He froze, eyes darting wildly. Something shifted across his chest when he shivered. His eyes dropped lower…
The gown. Not his pajamas. A long, elegant nightgown, draped across a body that wasn’t his. His hands rose—slender, smooth, pale hands, trembling as if they weren’t his own.
He pressed them against his chest.
Softness.
Fullness.
His breath stopped.
“No… no way…”
Before his brain could stop his hands, they darted under the blanket, frantic, desperate for proof.
The maid tilted her head, utterly confused. “My Lady…?”
Subaru’s fingers trembled. The void where something should be.
“G-gone…”
His high-pitched voice cracked as panic surged through him. “It’s gone! My… my—”
He jerked his head toward the mirror standing tall on the dressing table. His heart sank.
The reflection that met him wasn’t Natsuki Subaru. It was a girl. No—a woman. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his entire life.
Silken hair kissed by sunlight, cascading in waves. Blue eyes so radiant they seemed almost holy. A delicate face, perfectly balanced features, lips like petals.
Subaru blinked.
She blinked.
His eyes widened.
Her eyes widened.
He clutched his mouth with both hands.
She did the same.
And then—
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
The scream tore through the room, rattling the golden frames and echoing down the corridors like a banshee’s wail.
The maid flinched, then rushed forward in a panic. “Lady Louanna! Calm down! Please, calm down! I know you’re confused, but it’s going to be alright—”
Subaru struggled, kicking at the blanket as the maid threw her arms around him, crushing him against her chest. His new, weak limbs flailed uselessly against her grip.
“I just woke up in a strange room, in strange clothes, with strange people—I don’t even find my dic—uh, sword, and now I’m a woman?! Somebody explain this to meeeee!” His voice cracked at the last word, hysteria dripping off every syllable.
The maid only held him tighter, tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks.
A thud at the doorway startled them both. Subaru twisted his head to see an old man, stooped with age, in a neat butler’s suit. His hands shook as he fell to his knees, eyes glistening.
“Grim!” the maid cried out, voice cracking. “Send a message to Ferris-sama at once! Our Lady needs treatment! And inform the lords…” She turned her face toward Subaru—toward the woman in his body—with a reverence so deep it made his stomach knot.
“Tell them that Lady Louanna, the matriarch of the Astrea family, has returned.”
The butler, Grim, choked on a sob and nodded. “At once.” He wiped his tears clumsily with the back of his sleeve and rushed away, steps staggering but fueled by emotion.
Meanwhile, Subaru was still pressed into the maid’s chest, shaking like a leaf, his head spinning.
“This is a mistake,” he whimpered, voice muffled. “I don’t even know who Louanna is. I don’t even know what an Astrea is. I’m just—just Subaru! Just a random guy! I don’t—”
But the maid only rocked him like a child, whispering words he didn’t understand.
Subaru’s mind reeled.
Holy crap. Holy crap holy crap holy crap.
This wasn’t a dream.
He wasn’t Subaru anymore.
He was her.
Louanna Astrea.
And everyone believed it.
His hands clutched tighter at the fabric of the maid’s uniform as his chest heaved.
He didn’t even know her name.
And yet, the weight of her tears on his skin made him realize—
He had just inherited a life he knew nothing about.
And it was already too late to stop it.