Joanne had been watching him for a while now. Eli could sense her gentle gaze.

She sat still, studying him with an expression of concern and curiosity. The orb glowed steady between them, with Irene’s silence filling the chamber as she waited for him to speak.

Eli lifted his head.

"M-My Lady, I know this is a big ask. I understand exactly what I am putting on your shoulders. I feel the same way. I also want to save Lady Navia’s legacy and everything she’s built. But... your safety is the most important to me."

He paused.

"I cannot put you in a situation where I might lose you... my Lady."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Joanne uncross her arms and stand up from her chair. She picked up her cup of coffee she had brought in earlier.

"I’ll leave you guys to it."

She gave Eli a light nod and walked out of the chamber, shutting the door behind her.

He sat alone in the chamber now, the orb’s amber glow the only company left.

The silence between them felt heavier without Joanne in the room.

"Elise..." Irene murmured. "You say you want to protect me. But have you considered how I feel, hearing those words from the person I want to protect just as much?"

Eli’s breath caught. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He had never thought about that. Of course it was a two-way street. Just as he wanted to protect her, she wanted to protect her closest friend, too.

He didn’t want to imagine the sadness in her eyes if Elise died. Irene had endured enough loss.

"My Lady..."

"I started counting the days again."

"...The days?"

A sigh echoed.

"Yes. Before my mother’s passing, you often left the estate to work with her. I would count the days until you both came home. It became a habit of mine."

She paused.

"And then my mother passed, and the counter stopped. You stayed by my side after that, every single day — morning and night — so I stopped counting. I did not have to anymore."

The amber light pulsed gently.

"This is the first time in two years I have had to count again, Elise. And I hate it. I despise every single day I add to that number, because the last person I counted days for... I lost her."

Her voice held steady, but barely. Eli could hear the small quivers hidden underneath the calm.

"So when you tell me you cannot put me in a situation where you might lose me, understand that I am already in that situation. You plan on staying and fight off the cultists? How can I sleep knowing you might not come home?"

Eli’s throat tightened. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

He sat there, staring at the orb. For the first time since arriving in this world, Eli had no clever response, no room to wiggle out. Irene had asked him something so simple and honest. He could only owe her the same.

"...I don’t know how to answer that, Irene."

The orb was quiet for what felt like an eternity.

Then Irene spoke, her voice had shed its elegance, and the raw ache beneath finally bled through:

"...Will you be safe, Elise? Can you promise me that you’ll come back to me?"

Eli swallowed hard.

"I will... Yeah, I will. I promise you. I never intended to stay here."

He meant every word he said, even though it might just become a lie. There was no guarantee of his survival.

Truth be told, he wanted to sprint back to the estate and hold Irene for dear life, forgetting every heroine just so he could protect his savior.

But Eli couldn’t bring himself to abandon them.

Ravi, whose grandmother reminded Eli so much of the kind old people he used to spend his hospital days with. His chest ached every time Nella smiled at him. He might love his new life, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t miss the friends he left behind.

Ravi, who had her whole life ahead of her — a third-year elementalist, top of her class, with a talent most mages would spend decades chasing. She had so much left to become, yet the game erased all of it off-screen.

And Cyllene, who gave her life for her students in a side story that left Eli staring at the ceiling, rethinking life choices for a couple of days.

He hadn’t even met her, heard her voice, or even seen her face outside of a screen. And yet she was somewhere in this academy right now, walking those halls, teaching her classes, completely unaware that the Red Moon was going to tear through everything she loved, and that she would die trying to stop them.

And then there was Juli.

Eli didn’t need to say much about her. She would never die on his watch.

The orb then echoed her voice.

"...Then I will trust you, Elise. I will stay at the estate, like you have instructed, and wait. But this is the last time I let you go so easily."

A faint, tired smile crept across Eli’s face.

"You call this easily, my Lady?"

"Compared to what I wanted to say? Yes. Consider yourself lucky I didn’t order you to come back."

Eli closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

"...Thank you, my Lady."

"Do not thank me. Just come home."

The orb’s amber glow dimmed slowly, pulsing one last time before it settled into a faint, sleeping light.

Eli sat there for a while, alone with the absence of Irene’s voice, before he finally stood and pushed the door open.

Joanne was standing at her desk, flipping through a stack of papers as usual.

She glanced up toward the door.

"Finished?"

Eli rubbed his eyes and stepped into the office.

"Yes."

Joanne studied him for a moment, then set her papers down.

The brewer across the room suddenly floated towards her in a straight line and tilted when it reached a clean cup. After pouring a fresh cup of coffee, Joanne slid it across the desk toward him.

"You look like you need this."

Eli walked to the desk, took the cup, and sat down. The warmth seeped into his palms, easing the tightness in his chest just a little.

"...Thank you."

Joanne eased into the chair across from him, her gaze turning toward the map.

"Now, let’s get to main point."