Wolgarm Incident

The Wolgarm Incident is an event that took place within the week following the arrival of Natsuki Subaru to the world. It was the primary conflict of Arc 2.

As Subaru started working at the Roswaal Manor as a butler, Meili Portroute received orders to stir chaos in the area around the manor and Arlam Village. This led to the kidnapping and cursing of the Arlam Villagers' children. Realizing the danger, the servants of House Mathers left for the forest outside the village to resolve the matter.

In the end, though Subaru received numerous curses from the Wolgarms and they were forced to retrieve Rem, who had gone on a rampage against the witchbeasts, the Wolgarms, who had been manipulated by the assassin's Divine Protection, were annihilated when the Margrave returned to his Domain. However, they failed to capture the assassin.

Background

Loot House Incident

In the Kingdom of Lugunica's Royal Capital, Subaru, who had been summoned to the world and learned of his strange power of Return by Death, had gotten himself involved with the conflict in the Loot House, where he, alongside Emilia, Reinhard van Astrea, Felt, and Rom, were forced to fight off the assassin Elsa Granhiert. Though they managed to succeed, Subaru received a heavy injury while defending Emilia, and as a result of this and the fight prior, Emilia decided to return to Roswaal Manor with him, both to treat his injuries and to ask him about his intentions.

Meanwhile, Elsa, who was forced to retreat, met back up with her partner, Meili, where she had to have her wounds patched up. After Elsa retrieved clothes from someone she killed, she and Meili, with the help of a part of one of Meili's witchbeasts, managed to escape from the Royal Capital. However, Meili revealed that she had received an order from Mother, telling her to cause havoc in the area around Roswaal Manor.

The Search for the Curse Arts User

Following Subaru's arrival at the manor, he was healed. His presence caused disturbance for Rem, who could smell the scent of the Witch on him, and for the Great Spirit Beatrice, she was annoyed by the commotion he caused, which led to her playing a prank on him. When Subaru awoke in an unfamiliar room, he fell prey to her prank but saw through it rather quickly, and after entering the Forbidden Library and interacting with Beatrice, she knocked him unconscious by draining his mana.

However, his awakening after meeting Beatrice became his checkpoint. Having gone through a few loops, his knowledge had expanded: he knew how to cast Shamak, discovered the effects of a Bokko Fruit, learned the basics of how to read and write the world's language from Ram, experienced the sensation of a curse, found himself on the receiving end of Rem's, and even Ram's, hostility, came to understand that the scent of the Witch on him was the same as what was exuded from the Witch Cult members, discovered one of the penalties of trying to reveal his power, and the kindness of the twins in his time of fear. Coming to realize that the residents of the manor were in danger, Subaru became a butler for Roswaal Manor.

Thanks to Emilia calming his panicked mind, Subaru was able to properly research curses. Understanding that the user usually needed to touch their target, he and Rem went to the village, where he repeated events and let all the people who had touched him prior do so again so he could figure out who the curse arts user was. Afterward, as he returned from the village, Roswaal was dressed up and ready to leave, leaving the care of everyone to Subaru. Later that night, when he spoke to Beatrice again, she revealed the curse came from a bite on his hand, which he had received from a small puppy near the village. With the curse dispersed, he went to speak with the twins, and with Rem, they went to the village to take care of the problem.

Meanwhile, having seen the puppy run into the forest, the children of the village chased after it to bring it back, and afterward, they blacked out.

Battle

The Search for the Children

After arriving in the village, Subaru and Rem discovered the villagers awake and looking around for the children of the village, all of whom had vanished. Thinking that it might have been associated with the puppy, Subaru led Rem and a villager to a fence, where they discovered that the barrier around the village had been tampered with. As he and Rem left to find the children, Ram, who arrived in the village later, took care of fixing the barrier, deciding to make sure that no faults were found overnight. A short while after crossing the fence, they found most of the children in an exposed area, having each been cursed. One of the children, Petra Leyte, told them that the girl with blue hair was taken deeper into the forest. Trusting Rem to take care of the children and letting her know that he understood why she did not trust him, he informed her that he would take go to quickly retrieve the girl and was hoping to see Rem catch up.

After separating from Rem, he found Meili unconscious by a log. However, he was ambushed by a fully grown Wolgarm. Wrapping his jacket around his arm to protect it, he blocked its pounce and impaled it on a broken limb on the log. Despite this, he found himself surrounded by the rest of the pack. As they pounced, Rem appeared to protect him, and the two proceeded to escape. When the puppy, the Boss Wolgarm, caused the earth beneath them to attack, Rem pushed Subaru out of the way, exposed her horn, and attacked the Wolgarms. As Subaru saw Rem about to be attacked from behind, he set Meili down and pushed Rem out of the way. Though she almost pulled him with her, because of the scent of the Witch, she hesitated, and Subaru received numerous bites from the Wolgarms. After she killed them, he blacked out. While pleading for him not to die, Rem grabbed Subaru and Meili, and she retreated to the village.

The Recovery of Rem

With everyone returned to the village, the children had their curses removed. However, in Subaru's case, though Emilia was able to heal his injuries, the curses were too numerous, meaning that they could no longer be removed. With the only solution to save Subaru being to slaughter the Wolgarms that bit him, Rem immediately went to the forest, her horn exposed as she went on a mad and desperate rampage against the witchbeasts. A short while later, Subaru awoke to Emilia sleeping near the bed he was using. According to Puck, he had been injured from the Wolgarms. After getting out of bed, he went to check on the children, who were still asleep. However, he soon spoke with Beatrice, who informed him of his predicament with the curses. Though he calmly took this in stride, after hearing of Rem having gone into the forest, Ram, having overheard, prepared to chase after her, and Subaru decided to go with her. Shortly before going into the forest, the children, who had woken up, gave him good luck "gifts", and one of the villagers lent him a sword.

After traversing in the forest for a while and Ram using her Clairvoyance, killing wild Wolgarms as they attacked, they realized that they were no closer to finding Rem than when they entered the forest. Deciding to bring the Wolgarms and Rem to him, Subaru touched on the penalty of his Return by Death, increasing the scent of the Witch. By doing so, his scent became attractive to the Wolgarms, and they started chasing after him. Ram, who fought them off, quickly exhausted her strength, and Subaru ran off with her, eventually coming to a cliffside, where they fell, the sword snapping after Subaru attempted to stop their fall with it. Thanks to Ram using her magic, they were able to cushion their fall. Soon after, they found themselves surrounded by Wolgarms, and soon after, Rem appeared, having lost her sense of reason thanks to her horn having been exposed for so long. This led her to attack them alongside the Wolgarms. However, as Rem was being overwhelmed by the Wolgarms, Subaru used his penalty to attract their attention, giving Rem the chance to kill more of them. After being informed that he needed to attack her horn to return her to her senses, he threw Ram at her to distract her, and though he missed his shot when he tried to hit her horn, thanks to the Boss Wolgarm using its magic to fling him in the air, he was able to hit her horn with the broken sword and knock her out.

After retrieving Rem, he and Ram made their escape with her toward the village. After Rem woke up and cried for failing him and Ram, he gave her a headbutt and scolded her for it. Entrusting Rem's safety to Ram, Subaru used himself as bait to allow them to escape, and he came across the Boss Wolgarm, which had grown in size and taken its proper form. Having eaten the Bokko Fruit that the kids had given him as one of their "gifts" and using Shamak, he stabbed the witchbeast in the throat. However, it didn't finish it off, and as it was about to kill Subaru, Roswaal returned, igniting and killing all of the Wolgarms in the area and effectively preventing Subaru from being able to succumb to the curses. After Subaru was jumped by Rem, who was grateful that he survived, he fell unconscious from his wounds.

Aftermath

Following the attack, Meili escaped through the forest, having ordered the surviving the Wolgarms to retreat and avoid destruction. As she ran, Elsa, who had been watching from a distance, caught up with her to assist in her escape. Though frustrated by it, Meili was made to be held by Elsa as she ran far from the Mathers Domain. After a while, having gotten some distance, Meili eventually stopped Elsa, as they had been surrounded by witchbeasts. Stopping Elsa from killing them, Meili decided to tame the witchbeasts, intending to rebuild her numbers before the next time she received orders.

Meanwhile, the next day, Subaru awoke, Rem at his side. Because of the incident, she had been forced to face her guilt for both Ram and what had happened to Subaru because of her mistrust in him. However, as Subaru spoke with her, he was able to free her from her guilt and inferiority complex, leading to Rem falling for Subaru and becoming devoted to him. As for Roswaal, he was informed by Ram that the one responsible for controlling the witchbeasts, one of the children, the Witchbeast User, had escaped, and Roswaal had associated the attack with being a result of being involved in the Royal Selection. Providing Ram with mana through the spot she lost her horn, he informed Ram that he would be busy for a while.