Subaru exits the graveyard to find the surroundings engulfed in deep black shadows. With the sudden appearance of the Witch of Envy, everything is swallowed up by darkness. After Garfiel rushes in to save him, Subaru tries to find a way to get them out of danger, but the Witch of Envy is relentless in her pursuit. Subaru finally offers himself as bait to stall her so Garfiel can intercept and attack, but he’s helpless against the Witch of Envy, and everything continues to be engulfed by her shadows.

Liliana gives the performance of her lifetime to help Priscilla defeat the Sin Archbishop of Wrath.

Emilia seeks the aid of Regulus's wives in dethroning the little king once and for all.

While the others deal with the other Archbishops, Subaru puts his plan to stop Regulus into action.

Subaru thinks long and hard about how Regulus's Authority should work...

Wilhelm finds himself face to face with his beloved wife who died years ago.

At the order of the council of elders that manages Lugunica in the king’s absence, Wilhelm and Felix visit Roswaal’s mansion as emissaries. Emilia is required in the imperial capital right away, so Subaru asks her to take him along. Emilia tells him this won’t be a pleasure trip, but a push from Rem and Roswaal ends in her agreement, so Emilia and Subaru head to the capital. Now all of the candidates to be Lugunica’s next king are gathered, and the royal selection is underway.

After being badly wounded by Elsa, Subaru somehow survived and awoke in the mansion of Margrave Mathers, in the Kingdom of Lugunica.

As Emilia joins Priscilla, Crusch, and Anastasia in a meeting of the royal selection participants, Reinhard enters the hall with Felt. According to a new prophecy seen on the Dragon Stone, there are five priestesses with the potential to be the kingdom’s next ruler. Reinhard announces that Felt is the fifth priestess, meaning it’s time to formally begin the royal selection, but Felt refuses to have any part in it.

Subaru wakes up in front of the appa shop once again. Feeling boxed in on all sides due to his own lack of power to change the situation, he seeks the help of others. First, he seeks the help of Crush, who flatly declines any further involvement passed her contractual obligation of healing Subaru. His requests to Anastasia and Priscilla similarly go unanswered despite his pleas. Having wasted too much time, Subaru decides to at least try to get Emilia away from Roswaal’s mansion as early as possible. He then takes a dragon car back home with Rem.

Subaru is shown several visions of events previously unknown to him during the second phase of the trial. When he feels as if he’s worn away to nearly nothing, the one to stir him is the one who loves him more than anyone else…and is tougher on him than anyone else. When he awakens to see Echidna extending a hand to help him, he tells her he’ll never accept it. Then the Witch of Envy appears, clad in a veil of darkness, and extends her hand to him as well. Subaru refuses again, screaming that he’ll solve everything on his own without any of their help.

After completing the final trial, Emilia emerges from the graveyard into a blizzard heavy enough to block her vision. The people of the Sanctuary and the villagers of Arlam huddle together behind a giant wall of ice, created to shield them from the bitter cold by none other than the great spirit who was once contracted to Emilia. When Emilia touches the ice wall, something flows into her from within it. With a nod of acknowledgement to the voice she hears, she finally takes action.

Subaru now lives and works in Roswaal’s mansion, working with Ram and Rem, and finally getting Emilia to agree to a date with him. But the day of their promised date never comes as Subaru keeps going back to the day he first awoke in the mansion. He’s confused at the thought that he Returned by Death despite having no memory of experiencing anything deadly, but he’s determined to repeat his previous actions up to the point of fulfilling his promise with Emilia.

After being attacked by someone the first time, sliced open by Elsa the second time, and stabbed in the back by punks the third time, Subaru should have been dead, but found himself back where he started in the same parallel world every time. He finally realizes he’s acquired the power to go back to the time and place he started from, which he calls “Return by Death.” In hopes of changing the fate awaiting Felt, Satella, Old Man Rom, and himself, Subaru takes off for the fourth time.

It’s supposed to be his own room, a place he’s supposed to be used to seeing, but Subaru can’t shake the feeling that something is off. He’s overcome by an indescribable sense of uneasiness, but being caught in his father Kenichi’s armlock shakes it away. Subaru is stunned, but retaliates with a wrestling move of his own. As the two of them carry on, Subaru’s mother, Nahoko, informs them that she’s hungry and they should all eat breakfast together.

When Roswaal happily tells the story of how his romance with Echidna began 400 years ago, Beatrice rebukes him for casually calling it a “romance.” Ryuzu interrupts to comment that Echidna saved her, as well. The one thing these three very different people share is their gratitude toward Echidna. But their days spent in both amicable and argumentative conversation about Echidna are brought to an end by one man’s arrival.

With the battle against the White Whale now over, the mercenary force setting up the blockade of the road comes back, Julius at the lead. His arrival gives rise to mixed feelings for Subaru, but after Julius sincerely thanks him for ridding the world of the monster, Subaru finds it in himself to apologize for his past behavior. The group now looks forward, ready to enter the Mathers domain…

Subaru heads to Roswaal’s mansion in hopes of finding out what’s going on there and how he can fix it. He has Frederica and Petra evacuate to Arlam Village to protect them from Elsa’s attack, then heads to Beatrice’s forbidden library. He tries to get Beatrice out of the library, but her wishes don’t align with his plans, and their discussion goes nowhere. Then, against all logic, Elsa finds her way into the forbidden library…

Frederica is gradually backed into a corner by Elsa’s attacks. Then Garfiel rushes to the scene with a silver shield on each arm. The siblings’ reunion after so many years is cut short when Elsa’s knife violently clashes against Garfiel’s shield. Meanwhile, Subaru heads to the forbidden library where Beatrice is. She’s surprised when he enters the library and tells her that, after she spent 400 years there under a contract that might as well have been a curse, he’s going to get her out.

Otto and Beatrice battle Gluttony, the last of the Sin Archbishops terrorizing Priestella.

Subaru’s first day at the Roswaal mansion begins for the third time. The first time, he grew weak and died of unknown reasons in his sleep, and the second time, he was killed by an attacker. The sound of chains that he heard as he died the second time replays in his mind, waking him in a terrified, cold sweat. He has no idea what the killer is after, let alone who it is, so he makes a plan to leave the mansion on the fourth night and watch for the attack to happen.

Subaru’s first day in Roswaal’s mansion begins for the fifth time. Determined to save everyone this time, he makes it a point to keep his best smile on his face in order to earn the trust of the mansion’s staff. But although he works his hardest to make them like him, his body begins to have trouble keeping up with his heart’s intentions. Soon Emilia is unable to bear the sight of him struggling any longer and takes an unexpected action…

Subaru risked his life to save the children from a pack of Ulgarm, but he was so powerfully cursed that there could be no saving him. Even Beatrice is unable to undo the complex web of curses on him, and says he’ll grow weak and die within half a day. The only way he can survive is if the entire Ulgarm pack is defeated, but time is not on his side. Subaru is ready to give up when he learns that Rem has gone into the forest by herself…

“I just wanted to protect her. That feeling wasn’t a lie. Where did I go wrong?” Rejected by the one who meant more to him than anything, Subaru is still unable to recognize that he may have done something irreversible. He then finds out that some disturbing movement has been detected within Roswaal’s domain, where Emilia and the others are. He’s certain that he can save them somehow, so in spite of Rem and Crusch’s opposition, Subaru makes his way back to Emilia…

To save Emilia, Subaru approaches Crusch to negotiate the formation of an alliance. His terms are a bit difficult for Crusch to believe, but she can see that Subaru isn’t lying.