The Return Of The Exiled Villain

”Ugh...”

After passing out, the next thing that Gray noticed was the ceiling.

It was not the guest room in the mansion.

The beams here were darker, banded with pale formation light, and the air smelled of crushed moon-lotus and boiled iron.

”The infirmary...?” he groaned, looking at his upper boy.

Someone had stripped the ruined coat off him and left his chest wrapped in stiff, cold bandages that pulled when he breathed.

He turned his head.

The princess was in the chair beside the bed.

Her spear leaned against the wall, and her hands were folded in her lap as if she had been waiting the entire time.

There was still a dark stain on the front of her robe where his mouth had been, meaning that she hadn’t changed clothes.

Gray stared at her for a second longer than was usually polite.

”...You are still here.”

She looked up at once, then tried to pretend she had not been watching him. chest.

”You collapsed in the ring,” she said. ”The inspectors wanted to put you in the common ward with the other broken ones. I told them no.”

”That is not an answer to why you are sitting there.”

”It is the only answer you are getting until you drink this.”

She lifted a cup from the side table and held it out.

The liquid was black-red and steamed faintly.

”Urgh... fuck.”

Gray pushed himself up on his elbows, winced when the bandages caught his ribs, and took it.

”Gulp...”

He drank, and instantly frowned in disgust.

It tasted like blood and mint and something burnt?

”How long?” he asked.

”Six hours. You started breathing like a person again after two. You did not wake...” Her eyes flicked to his mouth, then away.

”The physicians said that technique you used took more out of you than the wounds. They asked me what art it was. I told them I did not know.”

Gray set the cup down.

”You do not know.”

”I do not know,” she repeated, and the irritation in it was thin.

”That is the problem. I asked you in the yard how you hide from Archdukes, and you smiled at me like I was a child. Then you put a sword in the sky that made even the Headmistress... a person that my grandfather respects look twice. Then you fell on me in front of one hundred new students and three hundred ruined ones. So I sat here. If that offends you, you can limp back to the guest room yourself.”

He watched her hands.

They were folded too tightly.

”I didn’t say that it offends me... I was just... surprised.”

”Why? Because I am a princess and you are a mere incubus?”

”Because you looked at me in the alley like I had stolen something from you, and now you are guarding a bed.”

Her face instantly flushed at his words, but she did not deny it, nor did she try to explain.

”Drink the rest,” she said.

He did.

The burn settled into his bones and made the next breath surprisingly easier. The medicine was working quite quickly.

”Did I kill anyone?” he asked.

”No. The wards held. Vael’Zira would have taken your head in the ring if they had not. Surprisingly, you threw them out of the ring and lit enough necklaces to empty the crater, causing exactly one hundred participants to be left. You are one of them. Congratulations. You are officially a problem the academy now has to house.”

”And you still let me stay in your house.”

”I already said you could. I do not take that back because you made a mess of the floor.” She paused.

”The west wing is still sealed. Do not wander, as even my steward is afraid of you now. That is inconvenient.”

Gray’s mouth moved toward a smile and stopped when his split lip reminded him it was a bad idea.

”...You caught me there.”

”You fell. There is a difference.”

”You teleported.”

”I was close.”

”You were across the ring.”

The princess looked at the window. Academy towers showed through it, black against the later sky.

”If I had let you hit the stone, the physicians said your ribs would have gone inward. I had already walked you through the gate. I was not going to explain to my house why the guest I brought died of his own landing.”

”That is a very practical way to say you did not want me dead.”

”Do not put words in my mouth.”

”You put me in your arms, and I’m only describing the scene.”

She sharply turned back to him, and her soft features quickly regained their coolness.

”Are you teasing me?”

”A little,” Gray nodded with a faint smile.

”I woke up, and you were here. I expected an empty room and a bill.”

”There is a bill. You bled on a robe that costs more than your sword.”

”I will replace the robe.”

”You will not touch my wardrobe.” She exhaled, slower. ”How much of that sword was you, and how much was whatever you are hiding?”

Gray looked at the ceiling.

”If I say I do not know what you are talking about, you will probably throw the cup at me.”

”I will.”

”Then I will say this...”

Gray sat up a little, and seriously looked at the princess.

”The monument wrote Peak Saint because that is what I let it write. The puppets wrote intermediate because I did not want a perfect mark drawing the wrong kind of professor.”

The princess didn’t seem too surprised by his words, nodding to herself.

”...Still, that’s not the answer I wanted,” she pressed on.

”It is the answer you get while I can barely sit,” Gray refused nonetheless.

She was quiet for a while.

”Vael’Zira asked me if you were mine,” the princess said.

Gray’s eyes came back to her.

”What did you tell her?”

”I told her you were under my roof for the exam. I did not tell her you were mine. I am not that stupid. If I claim you in front of an Archduke, every house that hates Crimson Moon will aim at you to hurt me, and every house that wants Crimson Moon will aim at you to use me.”

”And yet you sat here for six hours.”

”I sat here because you used an art that eats the person swinging it, and I wanted to know if you were going to wake up as yourself or as that empty-eyed thing from the crater.” She leaned forward slightly.

”Which one am I speaking to now?”

”The one who can feel his ribs,” Gray said.

”The empty one does not sit in beds and drink medicine.”

”Good.” She sat back.

”I disliked that face.”

”You disliked it, or it frightened you?”

”Both. Do not make me repeat it.”

”Vessa?” he asked.

”The short one with the violet hair? She passed, and also tried to come in here twice. The guards at the door told her the princess was present, and she called them cowards and left a bag of steamed buns. They are on the table... though they are terrible.”

Gray glanced at the bag.

”Riven failed the bone.”

”Yes. She is still angry about it. You can deal with your street friends when you can walk.”

”They are not...” He stopped.

”Fine.”

The princess picked up a cloth, dipped it in a basin, and held it out.

When he did not take it immediately, she clicked her tongue and moved the chair closer herself. She wiped the dried blood from the corner of his mouth with a care that did not match her tone.

”Hold still. You look like you tried to eat the ring.”

”I thought about it.”

”Do not be funny while I am cleaning your face. It makes this worse.”

”Worse for whom?”

”For me,” she said, and then looked annoyed that she had admitted it.

”People saw me holding you, and they will talk about it... ’The incubus who walked in with the Crimson Moon Princess, who tore a hole in the exam floor, who fainted in her arms.’ I will have to hear that sentence for months.”

”You could have left me on the sand.”

”I already told you why I did not.”

”You told me a practical reason. There is another one.”

Her hand paused at his jaw.

”You used that mist on me,” she whispered.

”Then you looked at me like I had attacked you. I have been turning that over since the alley. I still do not like you for it. I also do not like the idea of you dying in a hole I walked you into. Those two things can exist at the same time. I am allowed that.”

Gray did not apologize.

”The mist is gone,” he said.

”What you do next is yours.”

”I know what is mine.” She finished with the cloth and dropped it in the basin harder than necessary.

”You will stay in this bed until the physician says you can stand. Then you will return to the mansion. Then you will tell me, in a room that is not full of academy ears, what that sword actually was.”

”And if I do not?”

”Then I will assume it can kill you from the inside, and I will treat you like a weapon that might go off under my roof. I would rather treat you like a guest who keeps dangerous secrets and has the sense to warn the person feeding him.”

He studied he for a moment.

Under it, she looked tired.

”Are you caring about me?”

”Do not.”

”You are still here.”

”That is not the same sentence.”

”It is close enough.”

She stood, finally, as if sitting any longer would confirm him.

”I am going to change this robe. The stain is starting to look like a... declaration. There is a guard outside. If you try to leave before the physician comes, he will put you back in the bed, and I will allow it.”

”Princess.”

She stopped at the door without turning.

”Thank you.”

”Do not thank me in an infirmary. It sounds like you’re saying your last words...” She glanced back, just once.

”Sleep. If you use that empty-eyed art again before your bones close, I will break the other ones myself.”

”That is a very caring threat.”

”It is the only kind I have.”