"I was afraid Ellegaard might have killed you without even asking questions. She’s... explosive when something is really serious," Jeanne said, settling down beside the bed with her back against the wall.

She stared ahead, trying not to look at Mitsuki to keep the conversation feeling natural.

Meanwhile, Mitsuki raised his forearm and held it in front of his eyes.

"Yeah, I know, strangely enough. I guess you also know who I really am."

"Well, after seeing you absorb the Ash Curse of all Axorhibis, it would’ve been weirder if I hadn’t figured it out. And, you know? At first, when I saw you standing there in front of us, looking creepy in the rain, I was too confused. I couldn’t believe that the man we protected turned out to be the reason the whole world is so afraid."

"When you put it that way, I really do sound like the greatest villain of all time."

Jeanne laughed.

"Yeah, you’re right. But then I thought: that’s Mitsuki! He’s dying! We have to help him! And I ran to you to ask Ellegaard to save you, but she..." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"She wanted to let me die, I guess. I don’t blame her. If I had the chance to stop the destruction of my world without doing practically anything, that would be a luxury."

"You already know how she is. I asked her to help you a couple of times until she agreed on one condition. She wanted to talk to you face-to-face and ask you some questions. If she decided you were dangerous, she’d kill you on the spot."

"I’m not dangerous. I guess that’s why I’m still alive."

"Nah. I think you just left her speechless. I don’t know what you said to her, but it worked pretty well."

"...I didn’t say anything special, just what I was thinking at the moment. I didn’t even try to make excuses. I just accepted it right away."

"I see..."

Silence. The rain outside was still heavy, but not as violent as it had been when Cinderella died.

"Tell me, Mitsuki, how do you feel?"

He thought about it for a moment. Strangely enough, he didn’t feel anything at all.

"Fine, I guess," he said. He raised the upper part of his amputated arm and lightly waved the stump. "Although now I’m missing an arm. How am I supposed to hold my shotgun?"

"You still have one arm, so you’ll manage until you find a way to regenerate the other one."

"Yeah, sure..."

Mitsuki sighed.

’Regenerate... Maybe I can. After all, I have no idea how I ended up whole again after the Master of Cinder beat the hell out of me. Maybe it’s just a matter of time. Besides, I haven’t checked the system. What kind of crazy surprises are waiting after the update and after defeating Cinderella?’

"Jeanne, I want to ask you something."

"Hmm?"

"It’s about the people who were with me. How are they? How’s Monar?"

Jeanne looked at him with a slight smile.

"Are you worried about them?"

Mitsuki lowered his arm and met Jeanne’s green eyes. For a second, he held his breath, but he cleared his thoughts and nodded.

"Without them, I would’ve died for sure. The least I can do is hope they’re okay."

"Okay... Marco and Azel are fine. They’re resting in the house next door right now. They’re completely exhausted and have been asleep for two days. Monar is a bit more complicated. At first, he was on the verge of dying, but Ellegaard saved him. Still, it’ll be hard for him to recover his eyes and his hand, since he used witchcraft."

"Witchcraft... Is that bad?"

Jeanne nodded.

"When a warlock sacrifices something as an offering to a corrupted entity, it’s almost impossible for them to get it back. Monar will probably stay blind forever, and he might never recover his hand."

What terrible news. Mitsuki let out a heavy sigh, knowing that much of this was his fault—and the fault of the title "Prince of Misfortune." If it weren’t for that, they might never have awakened the dragon, and in turn, they might never have ended up in this kingdom.

"I see. I hope Monar wakes up soon. I want to thank him for his sacrifice. Thanks to him, we’re all still alive."

"I get that, but I don’t think you should worry too much. Monar, the Lord of Green, is quite well known on this side of the world as an incredible sorcerer. It’s possible he’s used that kind of witchcraft before and managed to recover what he sacrificed."

"Let’s hope so."

It was more than clear that Monar was a brilliant mage. He had been a key piece throughout the journey and the wise man who guided them all the way to the end.

After that, silence returned to the scene, as Mitsuki felt he already knew everything he needed to know and had nothing else to talk about with the princess.

She, however, had much more to say. With a somewhat troubled expression, she spoke:

"There was something else I wanted to tell you. It’s about the night we left you behind."

Mitsuki listened attentively. Jeanne continued.

"I can’t deny that I agreed with Ellegaard’s way of thinking, but not with her actions. Even though I wanted to stop her, Aslan made me understand that it was something you needed in order to realize things. Ever since you started training, no matter how tired you were, you never stopped. Ellegaard saw that as something bad, because even she knows you need to rest."

She smiled bitterly.

"So she came to the conclusion that something was wrong with you; the way you were doing things was going to get you killed at any moment. And it was confirmed when you said you didn’t care if you died, that you still wanted to come with us."

"So that’s why, huh... Now it makes some sense."

"Yeah. So she knocked some sense into you, Witherbark-style. And, well, she beat you up."

"A beating that hurt so much it made me question my place in the world."

She laughed.

"And I see that instead of making you come to your senses, it just pushed you to throw yourself headfirst into danger."

Mitsuki smiled.

"Of course. That’s just how I am. You can’t tell me what to do because I won’t listen."

"At least that’s something we have in common. No one gets to decide for us."

Even if that sometimes turns out to be extremely dangerous. Now that everything had gone well, they could laugh about it, but... what if things had gone wrong? That was why that tsundere elf had been right.

Meanwhile, Jeanne slowly moved closer to the bed. Once she was near, she knelt down and rested her arms on the mattress, then placed her chin on her forearms.

Mitsuki looked at her curiously, and she smiled at him like she always did, but in the end...

"Mitsuki... I feel like you’re someone different..."