Re:Zero Prequel: Bonds of Ice

Re:Zero Prequel: Bonds of Ice (Ｒｅ：ゼロから始める前日譚 氷結の絆) is a limited edition short story that was included in Re:Zero BD 1.

On the 23rd of November, 2018, there was an anime adaptation announced that will adapt the novel as an OVA. For more information regarding the anime adaptation, see Re:Zero OVA 2. On April 2nd, 2020, a manga adaptation was announced.

Chapters

 * Prologue: Four Greats and an Outsider
 * Chapter 1: Called by You
 * Chapter 2: I'm Right Here
 * Chapter 3: If It's for You
 * Chapter 4: I Can Become Anything
 * Epilogue: The Meaning of Happiness

Characters

 * Emilia
 * Puck
 * Melakuera
 * Muspel (mentioned)
 * Chap
 * Zarestia (mentioned)
 * Odglass (mentioned)
 * Roswaal L Mathers

Prologue
The prologue introduced the four great spirits, who were all born as lesser spirits who then became quasi spirits, spirits and finally great spirits. It introduced the "Arbitrator", Melakuera; the "Slasher", Zarestia; the "Stone", Muspel and the "Sacred Beast", Odglass. Finally, it introduced an outsider who possessed the same amount of power as the four great spirits, but yet was not one of them. That outsider was the Beast of the End.

Chapter 1
In Elior Forest, Emilia got up from her bed and went about her daily routine. Her daily routine consisted of first wiping away the snow and frost that accumulated on the ice statues where her fellow elves were frozen. Following that, she went out to map the layout of the forest.

After she met up with Puck, the two of them ventured out as they had noticed signs that a group of men had entered into the forest. They found the men on the snow-road pushing a cart uphill. Emilia confronted them, warning them not to go any further as the road ahead was extremely dangerous. Meanwhile, Puck hid in a grove of trees watching on. The men sneered at her interference, and the ringleader, Chap, threatened her with a crossbow.

The situation escalated, and Emilia fought Chap and his men, resulting in her victory after Puck caused the crossbow string to snap against Chap's face, severely wounding him. The men quickly abandoned the site, leaving behind the goods they were trying to smuggle into the forest.

Emilia got Puck to make her an ice sleigh to carry the goods, to later trade at a village on the outskirts of the forest. With the goods hauled back to her home in the forest, Emilia continued with her daily routine.

Meanwhile, Puck wanting nothing to do with her mapping the forest, instead materialised in an area of the forest that had been invaded by one of Melakuera's eyes. He destroyed it before it could take flame, leaving behind only a morose echo as he realised what this meant for Emilia.

Chapter 2
After a few days, Emilia and Puck went out to mine for glintstones in an area of the forest which had an abundance of it. After she pried out enough glintstones from the rocky veins, Emilia and Puck headed to the village to trade them.

She entered the village, with Puck keeping back by the trees. As soon as the villagers spotted Emilia, they ran from her, hiding in their houses. Emilia continued on and went to marketplace to exchange her goods with the only person who treated her kindly. An aging old man who wore a bandana around his head. The man gave her some new shoes as well as food, and in addition, Emilia gave him the goods she'd seized from Chap and his men before along with the glintstones. After she's completed the trade, she leaves the village feeling like she's being watched.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Chap was recovering from his injuries in the same village, watching Emilia leave. One of his subordinates turned up with news. He gave the subordinate commands to prepare the cage, and his subordinate obeyed. Chap plotted revenge against Emilia.

A few days later, after receiving a warning from Puck to now let her Flowers of Ice bloom no matter what, Emilia headed back in the direction of the snow-road. Once she reached an area near it in her efforts to map the forest, she saw wheel tracks nearby that looked as if they had been concealed on purpose. After investigating them, she stumbled on an ambush set by Chap and his men.

After Chap tried to get Emilia to enter into his cage, so he could sell her in a slave market, using the villagers as potential hostages, a fight broke out. Chap had brought along the Orthrus Demon Beast, and he set it on Emilia. As the fight went on, they intruded on the Snow Blight Demon Beast's territory in the north of the forest. Thus, they were attacked by it, resulting in many deaths. In a desperate bid to kill it, Emilia used her Flowers of Ice to drain its vitality from it. Though she succeeded in killing it, she did not have the power to stop it, or control its range. Thus, it started to drain away the vitality from Chap and his remaining men too. Before they could die, Puck materialised and put Emilia to sleep so to stop the ability.

A while after Puck chased the surviving men from the forest, Emilia woke up and remembered what had happened. She hurried to the village to make sure they were safe, but she was greeted by the marketplace owner, who told her they did not want anything more to do with her. The reason was because some flowers of ice had bloomed as far as up to the village. Upset by this, Emilia complied and never returned back there again.

Meanwhile, in the Mining City of Ganacks, Chap was trying to persuade his superior to give him more men to once again try and capture Emilia. After some talk, Puck showed up and threatened Chap to make sure he never tried to exact his revenge again. As a result, Chap was cut off from the organisation by his superior.

After this, Puck reunited with Emilia. After he was caught up with what had happened to her at the village, Puck suggested they should leave the forest. Emilia refused. Instead, Puck decided to teach her about how to make contracts with micro-spirits, so she could defend herself when he wasn't around. As Emilia leaves off ahead, Puck once again spots one of Melakuera's eyes. He destroyed this one too, vowing he would not let any harm befall Emilia.

Chapter 3
After Emilia woke up from her recurring nightmare where she partly recalled her first meeting with Puck, Emilia headed out to get on with her daily routine. This time she intended to explore the northern part of the forest, as previously it was a no-access zone due to the Snow Blight's influence.

Meanwhile, as Emilia set about to do that, Puck headed to the southern area of the forest where Melakuera had intruded with one of his seven divisions. Melakuera had turned up as he had sensed great power that threatened the balance of the world having come from the forest. Exterminating the source as arbitrator of the world was behind why he had started to burn the forest. Despite all of that, Puck managed to persuade Melakuera to retreat from the forest successfully for the time being.

On the other side of the forest, Emilia ran into a Guiltylaw. But before she was forced into a confrontation with it, a mysterious viscous black liquid called the black water engulfed the Guiltylaw and dissolved it. Emilia managed to retaliate with the help of her new micro spirits and froze it, chipping off a piece to show Puck back at her home.

When she arrived back, Emilia showed Puck the piece of black water she had brought back. Puck immediately identified it for what it was, and told Emilia she had not defeated it. As if to prove his point, the black water unthawed itself and tried to attack Emilia. However, Puck re-froze it and crushed it into a 2 centimetre ball, before then crushing it into tiny pieces.

Puck set out to find the remaining black water by teleporting to the spot. He came back a little while later, and reported that he had managed to track down the black water Emilia had frozen and destroyed it. However, there was bad news. He had caught glimpses of more black water around the forest, and he heavily advised Emilia to not go anywhere near the northern part of the forest.

Emilia disregarded Puck's advice out of fear of the black water spreading to where all the frozen elves were, and to save the forest. She continued to fight various black water patches, but the amount was seemingly endless.

Meanwhile, Puck returned to the southern side of the forest to confront Melakuera again, fearing that the latter had caused the spread of the black water, which was the kurohebi's poison that had frozen 100 years ago.

Melakuera declared war on Puck, having learnt what had transpired between Emilia and the men that operated in Ganacks. Melakuera's intent was to kill Emilia, whilst Puck's was to protect her. The two started to fight, destroying the southern side of the forest.

As the fight pressed on, Emilia found herself surrounded by black water. A red micro-spirit appeared out of nowhere and guided Emilia to a lake in the forest. The lake was frozen, and had a black hue to it. Before realisation hit her, the lake erupted, spewing out a mass of black water which was referred to as the great black water towards Emilia.

Chapter 4
After its initial onslaught, Emilia fought with the great black water, making sure its attacks didn't touch her. Eventually, after a long fight, Emilia managed to freeze the great black water and shatter it into smithereens. However, in the process, she felt herself losing control of her powers. Thankfully, her micro-spirits funneled her uncontrollable power onto one spot, which resulted in not a lot of harm being done.

In the middle of her relief, Emilia had a flash of her old memories triggered by her encounter with the black water. However, a searing pain stopped her from viewing more than that flash. Immediately after, a scorching heat devastated the lakeside she was on. Emilia was spared from complete incineration by her micro-spirits who sacrificed their lives for her.

After the death of her micro-spirits, Emilia realised that the attack came from the red micro-spirit who had led her to the forest. The micro-spirit started to take the form of a man, and Emilia recognised it as being Chap. Chap had made a contract with Melakuera to exact his revenge, whilst the latter had made it so he had a way to penetrate deeper into the forest.

After some talk, the two started to fight, however without her lesser spirits, Emilia struggled to control her powers and Chap had the upper hand. The more the fight progressed, the more Melakuera took over of Chap's body. Emilia discovered that it wasn't just Chap that wanted to kill her, but Melakuera too. She learnt that they regarded her as a half-witch and furthermore that she was a half-elf and not an elf which she had believed all this time. Emilia desperately asked Melakuera what sin she had committed that she would be condemned to extermination. However, Melakuera did not have an answer for her. He merely said that her existence was a sin.

Just as Melakuera was about to eradicate her, Puck materialised and put himself between Melakuera's attack and Emilia's body having already killed the division in the southern part of the forest. Puck and Melakuera fought each other, and Puck managed to crush this divisions' Od too, killing another one of Melakuera.

After the fight, Emilia tried to ask Puck about whether he knew about her being a half-witch. However Puck firmly denied that she was a half-witch, saying she was just a half-elf, and it didn't mean she had cursed blood. However, before they could discuss it more, a searing ray of heat traveled towards Puck and engulfed him.

Melakuera's five remaining divisions materialised into the forest and attacked Puck. The attack penetrated right into Puck's Od, and he started to disappear from the world. As he disappeared, Puck bellowed at Melakuera, telling him he had no right to make Emilia suffer like this. However, Melakuera was resolute and told him that Emilia's existence was a threat to the world, implying he had witnessed the same issue many many times. He mentioned that history was a spiral, and this same mistake had been repeated many times throughout. When Puck realised that discussion was useless, he decided to make a contract with Emilia, breaking his old vow.

Melakuera was forbidden to interfere with the sacred dialogue that occurred between the contractors. He stood down, and Puck and Emilia successfully formed the contract. Whilst he retreated for the time being, Melakuera thought back on his origins, remembering the boy who was his namesake. He remembered the time he had spent with him as a micro-spirit, and his pledge to protect his prayers, which resulted in him becoming the arbitrator of the world.

Jerked out of his recollections, Melakuera wondered why he had recollected this after so many long years. He surmised that his end must be near. And almost as a call to that, Puck appeared in star-beast form, the mana he had received from Emilia from contracting her had saved his life. Puck easily dispatched of 4 of 5 of Melakuera's divisions, leaving only one.

Puck once again tried to appeal to Melakuera, this time joined by Emilia. However, though Melakuera acknowledged their names and their resolve for the first time, he would not abandon his own resolve. The two of Puck and Melakuera cast a final attack aiming for the destruction of the other. Puck's attack won out, and eradicated Melakuera from the world.

A short while after, Emilia and Puck admired the sunset after their battle. Emilia had finally remembered her nightmare. She remembered that the nightmare was actually when she met Puck for the first time, and realised it wasn't a nightmare after all. After Emilia told Puck she regarded him like family, like a father, Puck replied that he would refer to her as his daughter from now on. The two of them huddled against each other watching the sunset feeling closer to each other than ever before.

Epilogue
Seven years after the defeat of Melakuera, Emilia woke up in her home in the tree trunk's hollow. After she wiped the ice statues of their frost and snow, she realised she had finally completed her map of the forest. Emilia reminded Puck that it was the anniversary of Melakuera's defeat, and they should head out to clean his gravemarker. Emilia mentioned that it seemed that Puck was getting more and more forgetful as the years went by. However, when Emilia went back to her home to get ready for that, she found that a strange man was waiting for her behind the door.

When the man mentioned that it was an honour to meet the Witch of Frost who resided in the forest, Puck lost his temper and attacked the man.

Following half a day of fighting, the man, who introduced himself as Roswaal L Mathers and Emilia managed to convince Puck to stand down. Eventually, Roswaal got Emilia to take hold of the insignia used in the Royal Selection. The gem shone, and Roswaal managed to convince Emilia to leave the forest by mentioning that he would reward her by giving her a means to free the elves from their ice. Puck respected Emilia's wishes, and the two of them followed Roswaal to a dragon carriage waiting for them outside the forest, onto their next adventure.