Subaru attempts to buy the insignia from Felt and return it to Satella before Elsa arrives at the loot house… but Satella arrives before the negotiations are complete, and Elsa still attacks them.

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 laments that he could not do anything or save anyone, and has no options left. Exhausted, he suddenly takes off running at full speed as if he’s made a decision…

Having reached a place he can’t return from, Subaru realizes just how much he has been given and how little he can do to repay any of it. After remembering what he must do, he says goodbye to Kenichi and Nahoko and heads to the school. Steeling his resolve, Subaru opens the door to the classroom, where he’s greeted by Echidna in a school uniform. When Echidna says he arrived much sooner than she expected, Subaru responds that she looks good in the uniform.

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…

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.

The missing Emilia was in the graveyard all along, her lost memories beginning to return due to Puck’s disappearance. Confused and losing heart over the realization that she’s forgotten such important memories, she tries her hardest to convey her feelings to Subaru. When the two of them leave the graveyard, they’re awaited by Garfiel, who’s been battered and beaten by Otto and Ram. He tries to prevent the Sanctuary’s liberation by closing off the graveyard himself, but Subaru won’t let him have his way without a fight.

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.

After witnessing an unrealized present, Emilia completes the second trial and begins the third and final one. Ram and Puck are fighting their hardest to stop Roswaal. Each of them is doing it all for the sake of realizing their own goals. The battle between Garfiel and Elsa at Roswaal’s mansion is also growing more and more intense. As Subaru is being chased by a guiltylowe, he declares that it’s time to make use of his unparalleled knowledge of the modern world and lures it into a closet…