*Starting Scene*

Yuki stands at a decent distance from Bel with her right hand upon her hip as her eyes coldly stare the machete-wielding adult down while the change to her being remains. Many seconds of silence go by until the teenager peers at her outfit after facing towards Bel since she was situated sideways for a bit, gives off a disgusted look while releasing a mild scoff and grovels. "I swear, this crap taste the other me has tortures the shit out of me...! Like, come on!" Yuki pulls onto her dress via her left hand, aggravation adding in at the same time. "Do I really HAVE to wear this?! I get it! I'm a freaking princess, but do I NEED to dress like one?!" The pink-haired girl tilts her head rearward to gaze at the ceiling. "Seriously!"

Bel interrupts Yuki's rant with seriousness portrayed. "Hey! Quit your bitching about your get-up and focus! What the fucking hell happened to you?!"

Yuki gawks at Bel while skepticism takes form. "What do you think?"

Bel becomes quiet, compliments of Yuki's inquiry confusing him.

Yuki promptly answers her own question with a straight face as she maintains her grip of her attire. "Puberty."

Bel's overcome by surprise. "Oh! So that's it!" He then almost falls over to his left due to instantly realizing what was wrong with Yuki's statement, quickly regains his balance amidst spreading out his legs a little and shouts in anger after tightly clenching both hands into fists, "Hell no!" Bel hurriedly composes himself while emanating a stern demeanor before clearing his throat via his closed left hand covering his mouth and resumes his attention upon Yuki as soon as he lowers it. "You said something involving the OTHER YOU having crap taste. Explain what that means."

Yuki's eyes narrow with blandness resonating. "It doesn't matter." The dame suddenly tugs at her dress with enough force to make it completely rip, turning it into a mini skirt as she keeps her vision locked on Bel. "Just know that you're in for a fate worst than death."

Bel sneers at Yuki's declaration and is fairly annoyed. "Is that right?! This coming from a pathetic, puny girl who was begging for me not to break her wand a minute ago!"

Yuki harshly rebuttals following the chick stomping her right foot so hard onto the floor that the heel breaks off. "Clearly, you're a moron." She powerfully plants her left foot too so she can remove the opposing heel and tosses away the ripped part of her outfit. "Because you're ignoring the plain truth staring right at you... I'm no longer that pitiful twerp you were beating earlier."

Rage mixes into Bel's expression while large sums of heat generates from his person. "Prove it then!" The dark-skinned character swiftly dashes towards Yuki with impressive agility, and as he's on the verge of drawing near the princess, pulls out his machete again to cut down at Yuki via a single-handed, downward slash.

Yuki sternly speaks without diverting her concentration from Bel. "Frost Wall."

A thick wall of blue ice rises out of the landscape in front of Yuki as it blocks Bel's blade with nothing chipping off from it whatsoever. In conclusion, the brown-eyed male grits his teeth thanks to growing frustrated, embeds his left hand onto the ice blotting his path while continually retaining possession on his machete with the other. After that, heat's depicted focusing upon the spot where Bel's hand is poised as the spell gradually begins to melt, invoking a content grin from the blonde. "Like I said. You're merely a weak, little girl."

Yuki puts her left hand onto Bel's right forearm after haphazardly appearing beside him and asks with no alteration to her composition, "Are you sure about that?"

Bel's consumed with disbelief while viewing Yuki out of the corner of his eyes. "What?!" His right arm rapidly commences to be plagued by a vast quantity of ice expanding from Yuki's limb is resting, forcing an awestruck gasp out of Bel prior to frantically retracting his arm to break the blue-eyed female's grasp. Not much after that, Bel forges sufficient separation to check his afflicted appendage, sees it fully frozen and quickly strives to deteriorate it by producing heat from it, however, is taking a long time to do so while thinking in horror, "What's fucking going on?! I'm pushing my body temperature to over 200 degrees, but the ice ain't melting!"

Yuki confronts Bel as she slants her head backwards in a smug manner. "Do you finally understand? I'm not Yuki, you fool." The Spellcaster takes a step forward. "Yuki IS what you said. She can't do anything significant without me or someone holding her hand..." Yuki advances further. "But me, I'm not like her at all."

Bel snaps his head to Yuki with astonishment radiating and stutters, "T-Then... Who the fuck are you?!"

Yuki stops right ahead of Bel amidst exhibiting a sinister smirk. "I'm Yui."

Aggravation immediately explodes while Bel hastily grabs Yui's forehead via his left hand. "The fuck are you spouting?!" He navigates his right arm to the side, despite its petrified condition, and aims to cut her head off. Sadly for him, the attack is rendered useless thanks to his machete unexpectedly freezing in a blink of an eye with a second wall of ice rapidly protruding from the floor to shield Yui as the muscular man's weapon shatters on impact.

Concurrently, Yui remarks in a taunting way, "I don't know why you can't wrap your head around it after all I've told you. Perhaps I should demote you from a moron to an imbecile."

Eventually, Bel's left hand starts to slowly freeze similar to his right arm as he's profoundly startled by that and hurriedly lets go of Yui while retreating farther back. Having done that, the black-eyed individual gawks at his right limb while attempting to thaw it out with his ability until fear overruns him and thinks, "It isn't working either! But it wasn't much that was frozen, so why?!" A solemn attitude envelopes Bel and mutters, "I'll go full power in that case!" The disciple promptly cocks his head skyward prior to releasing a loud yell with a huge amount of heat expelling from his constitution, almost instantly dissipating everything that had been frozen in the dinning room and even caused the two ice walls Yui crafted to melt.

After witnessing that, Yui cocks her head left with a severe lack of emotion. "You should be grateful to that power boost you got from that thing you mentioned previously. Devil's Circuit, correct? If not, there wouldn't have been any way for you to free yourself." She straightens her head's angling. "Though, it makes no mayor difference."

Bel unites his hands to briefly crack his knuckles, mounting his concentration toward Yui in the process. "Don't get too bigheaded, princess. I'll admit, you're stronger after becoming taller and growing those tits." He commandeers his arms to the side while spreading his legs out again as tenacity surfaces. "But now you made me serious, and that, was a GIANT mistake!"

Bel's entire body then brims an intense wave of heat that vastly overwhelms the room, making it feel reminiscent of a sauna.

Amazingly enough, Yui doesn't bat an eye to the grand escalation in temperature, shuts her eyes until abruptly traveling towards Bel with the same kind of velocity Dante's capable of, stations herself a few inches from the dark-skinned character and reopens her eyes to gaze into Bel's. Before Bel had the slightest chance to react, the pink-haired girl slaps both hands onto opposite regions of the adversary's face. "As I stated..." The dining room's temperature rapidly drops as fast as it had climbed with a snowstorm resuming while nearly everything in there totally freezes within several seconds. This includes King Trost as Yui has forgotten about him since she's presently immersed in taking Bel down and persists her speech. "No... Mayor... Difference."

Meanwhile, Bel senses that his face is freezing from the interaction prior to swiftly clutching Yui by the wrists while striving to break them via both hands to escape.

Yui simply counters through effortlessly petrifying both of Bel's limbs in an instance due to their contact with each other.

Rage quickly encompasses Bel as the lower half of his person begins to freeze also, forcing him to yell, "You think you got me beat, you fucking brat?!" He hastily produces the full extent of heat he can possibly muster in the attempt to melt away the ice slowly overwhelming his constitution, however, to no prevail as that didn't even decrease the progression of Yui's magic and is engulfed by terror. "No! This is beyond real! I have my body temperature at 500 degrees! That's my max!"

Yui grins. "Is that for a fact? Then I significantly overestimated you after seeing you killed off the help." The teen closes her eyes amidst deeply inhaling. "Of course..." Yui sets her sight back onto Bel with vague skepticism portrayed. "I could've done that blindfolded, and trust me, there were plenty of times I was tempted to do precisely that."

Bel's anger spikes. "Fuck you! Do you know who I am?! I'm the leader of the Burn Troop! I've murdered hundreds of people without breaking a sweat! Don't you look down on me, especially with Devil's Circuit giving me so much strength! A man like me will not lose to you!"

Yui responds in an uncaring tone. "Blah, blah, blah. And you call yourself a man." She then picks up the pace to petrify Bel's entire being, ultimately resulting in her confronting the disciple who's now encased in ice with a distraught expression established. Not long afterwards, Yui detaches her hands from Bel and momentarily observes him with dull eyes before heartlessly landing a right kick upon his midsection.

Due to that, Bel falls backwards until colliding with the frosted floor and shatters into countless pieces throughout the area.

In the meantime, the indoor blizzard doesn't cease, which is very dangerous for Yui's father considering he's at risk of becoming trapped in ice. Unfortunately, Yui fails to notice as her eyes gradually scan her surroundings following Bel's death while depicting all the frozen bodies of those her opponent murdered and thinks, "They deserved what they receive, didn't they, Yuki?"

Suddenly, a young man's voice barely echoes from behind Yui because of the loud wind the snowstorm's creating while saying in a sad method, "You already know the answer to that question."

Yui immediately swings herself accordingly to face the direction of that comment's origin as the blizzard unexpectedly subsides to reflect the bewilderment emanating from the blue-eyed dame, permitting the two to better hear one another talk. "You're... Dante, right?"

Dante lightly smiles with sorrow overflowing, standing at the currently opened doorway that Yuki had difficulty passing through earlier since Bel heated up the doorknob to an extreme degree, but is clearly not an issue anymore by Dante's mere existence in the dinning room. A second later, the Caucasian inserts his left hand within his pocket while mildly contorting his head to the right as he contains his attention onto Yui. "Yup... And you're Yui."

Yui rapidly blinks out of confusion and alarm. "H-How did you know who I was?!"

Dante commences to casually walk towards Yui upon fixing his head. "Well, I can hear people's thoughts. Of course, it's limited to what a person is thinking during that period. Someone's subconscious is normally outside my range. So, right now Yuki's thoughts aren't available, although I knew about you from when I first met Yuki. She was so afraid and angry."

Yui's eyes widen from astonishment. "Then... You know...?"

Dante reaches Yui while the pair are roughly a meter apart and nods. "I do. It's always bothering her. The loneliness of being treated as a monster for something that isn't neither your or her fault."

Yui becomes horrified by Dante's unpredictable words before the indoor snowstorm comes back with even more power. "No!"

Dante grimaces a bit from the harsh air expanding from Yui in addition to the snow vastly flying around. "Wow, you're pretty strong." He smirks with his eyes shut.

Yui's behavior doesn't alter as she recedes a tad while thinking, "What's wrong with this guy?! Why does he act that way?!" The teenager then recollects Yuki's brief experience with Dante both in the King Trost's Throne Room and at dinner, causing her to faintly blush as she thinks after lowering her head to gaze toward the frozen landscape, "He's r-really different... H-He's not l-like anyone... We've met." Yui feverishly shakes her head with her eyes closed to snap herself out of her thought process and gives off a determined conduct while thinking, "No! He ISN'T! Everyone fears me when they discover the truth! It's due to me existing that no one can be happy! They all hate me!"

Dante unexpectedly draws his right hand forth to gently tap Yui's left cheek with his fingertips, provoking the dame to hastily bring her head up to instill her focus onto the green-eyed individual, and kindly looks into her eyes. "Well, I don't."

Yui's quickly dumbfounded while gingerly asking, "You... Heard me?"

Dante cheerfully nods as he's vaguely effected by the intense cold from the blizzard while some small sections of his body and clothing have frozen, including the appendage extended towards Yui's face. "Yup. I've learned a lot from you about the two of you. You're the part of Yuki that retains all the sorrow and pain. The Yuki who'd gladly scream out her feelings without restriction and protects her weaker self, despite maybe being a little too mean. Your name fits you well, even though it's such a sad one..." He trails off to temporarily glimpse to the right until redirecting his concentration toward Yui with a sincere demeanor. Following that, Dante removes his right hand from the blue-eyed chick and puts it down to his side, paying no mind to it having froze. "But it's still a good name. Just as good as Yuki."

Yui's stunned with the indoor snowstorm stopping yet again, however, this time is for sure. Right after that, the pink-haired character moderately reverts to her usual physique with tears forming in her eyes as her dress is now a tad big on her because of it stretching out to fit Yuki's previous state. Simultaneously, the Ice Wand Bel crushed in two has magically repaired itself while resting on the continually petrified terrain that's near the Burn Troop leader's destroyed corpse as Yuki questions with a hint of disbelief, "Really...?" She sniffles.

Dante answers with no hesitation whatsoever. "Yup."

A delighted smile immediately appears on Yuki and inhales out of joy with her eyes drying up.

*Scene Change*

With the assault from Enshin's Disciples concluded, the next day arrives while nearing noon as Ilya presently resides in Yuki's bedroom. The white-haired beauty has been unconsciousness since her victory over Quinton as she's lying atop Yuki's blue, queen-sized bed via her person facing the decorative ceiling, common to one of royalty. Plus, Ilya's to the right of the sleeping blue-eyed girl, who's on her side and inadvertently confronting the Velkry native as the two are mostly covered by the bed sheet. After a while, the young lady commences to awaken from her slumber before witnessing the etchings embedded onto the ceiling with her vision momentarily blurred until attaining enough visibility to see the words "One Father, One Mother, Three Daughters" and the statement "Equals A Wonderful Family" right below them.

That leaves a big impression upon Ilya as she sustains her concentration a little more prior to switching it toward Yuki, persisting her sleep, and eventually thinks with realization setting in, "Hold on. Why am I-?"

A man's voice resounds from the Ilya's left, disrupting her thoughts, with a caring tone. "Oh, you're up."

Ilya hurriedly steers her head to the left and finds King Trost's sitting beside the bed in a chair while wearing a new attire, however, has the same color scheme as what he wore previously. After that, curiosity envelopes Ilya as she steadily positions herself upright to not wake Yuki, placing both hands over the bed sheets and her lap. Suddenly, a baffled expression overcomes the light-skinned female thanks to remembering the battle from last night and promptly bends toward the king while blurting out, "The fight! What happened?!" Ilya frantically searches the confines of the quarters. "Where's Dante?!" The dame returns her sight to Trost. "Is he alright?!"

King Trost rises from his seat while issuing Ilya a nervous grin and tries to calm her down with both arms extended towards the hazel-eyed person. "Relax, Ilya. He's fine."

Ilya does as she's told, fixing her posture somewhat and simply stares at Trost.

Trost briefly peers over Ilya to check if the teen's outburst disturbed Yuki, and luckily, it didn't. Not much afterwards, the pinkish-haired man reverts his attention to Ilya with a composed behavior as he begins to explain. "The fight with Enshin's Disciples has ended with a victory for us. We wouldn't be in this room otherwise."

Ilya lowers her gaze to watch her hands while softly uttering, "You have a point there." She elevates her head to lock eyes with the king and shows a hint of worry. "How did it conclude?

I'm kinda' foggy on the details." Ilya deviates her focus to the side. "I barely recall defeating that guy with the weird hair."

King Trost calmly reply, having pulled his head back a bit. "You mean the fellow named Quinton. We have him captive in a jail cell stationed in the city with several other disciples who survived." He shifts his vision to behind himself without maneuvering his body. "Dante said that it would be a good idea to use them as an example, so possible threats will comprehend that they may suffer a similar fate."

Ilya delivers a confused look toward Trost as she slants her head to the left. "Imprisonment?"

Trost answer with minimal emotion present. "That... And dead. Like those I had to order to be disposed of outside Icela."

Shock rapidly overruns Ilya until emanating a sorrowful personality with her head hanging and thinks, "I can imagine that from Dante. Unlike me, it seems he has no qualms killing people." Her eyes narrow with disdain replacing her demeanor while thinking, "Or maybe he doesn't see anything wrong with it. I'm not sure how he really consider stuff yet."

While Ilya wallows in her thoughts, Yuki starts to stir before awakening and groggily sits up from being tired as she sets her sights onto Trost. Right after, the princess' eyes widen out of glee thanks to the presence of her father. "Daddy!"

Trost merely smiles at Yuki with his eyes shut.

In the meantime, Yuki rushes out of bed through its bottom end as she travels around the corner to meet Trost and embraces him with her face buried into his torso while happily crying, "You're okay! I thought you were going to die just like mommy, Hana and Akemi!" Tears gradually well-up in the Spellcaster's eyes while containing them closed.

King Trost gently hugs his daughter while viewing her with an apologetic attitude. "I'm sorry to have concern you, my dear Yuki."

Ilya temporarily observes the pair from behind Yuki with a content smirk prior to casually getting out of the bed and talks in a polite method. "Pardon the interruption, but you haven't informed me of Dante's whereabouts?"

Yuki swiftly pulls her head from the king's torso to snaps her concentration toward Ilya with bewilderment for a second until bringing it back to Trost. "That's right! Where is he?! Is he well?!"

King Trost cocks his head skyward as he lets out a hardy laugh after shutting his eyes again. "You too, huh?!"

Confusion establishes itself upon Yuki and tilts her head to the right.

Trost implements his attention onto Yuki once more before lightly motioning his head to his left. "He's outside." The adult commandeers his sight towards the window that's over there. "I believe he should already be done."

Ilya's fairly curious while inquiring in a low volume, "Done?"

Afterwards, Yuki and Ilya journey towards the large window as they discern, what was formerly a battle ground, is now a gathering place for nearly four dozen people who are heavily

clothed to endure the cold while the terrain had miraculously been repaired. This leaves the duo awestruck prior to the blue-eyed girl shifting her focus toward her father. "What's going on? Why are there so many people present?"

King Trost rebuttals with a small quantity of sadness displayed. "How about we head down and see why?"

Yuki optimistically smiles amidst nodding. "Sure!" She then dashes around Ilya since the chick is between her and the exit.

Urgency overtakes Trost as his eyes widen substantially. "Wait a moment, Yuki!"

Yuki halts, gripping the doorknob via her right hand, while making eye contact with King Trost as mild intrigue is demonstrated. "What is it, father?"

Trost gives Yuki a nervous smile. "I think... It would be a good idea if you change first."

Yuki's quite confused until gazing at her outfit and instantly becomes bright red as she finally notices that she continues to wear the dress from last night with all its tears, revealing too much for the pink-haired dame's taste, especially in her private areas. Following that, the chick releases a distraught scream before running to a closet on the opposing section of her bed as she rummages through all of the different clothing with a bent posture while frantically speaking. "I can't believe it! Someone of my caliber mustn't be seen in such a way!" Yuki abruptly straightens herself while reverberating a fearful gasp. "Oh, my God!" She turns sideways to aim her vision at King Trost with her left foot towards him. "Did Dante witness me in this state?!"

King Trost bluntly nods. "Certainly. He's the one who tucked you both in bed." An embarrassed composition engulfs the man while planting his left hand behind his head. "I actually regained consciousness a mere two hours ago."

Yuki brims exasperation prior to hastily reverting her attention to the closet as she resumes her search. "Oh, no!"

Ilya  giggles out of amusement while thinking, "What's wrong with her?" She soon veers her sight to Trost with concern, staying near the window as her posterior's toward it, and politely comments, "By the way, how are you? You mentioned that you awoke earlier." The white-haired teen diverts her focus to Yuki and takes into account the condition of the female's attire. "Judging from Yuki's dress, something happened to the two of you." Ilya gives the king a depressed look. "I apologize for not being there to protect you."

King Trost waves off Ilya's worry with his right hand after resting his concentration toward her and smirks. "No need. You did what you could." Tundra's Ruler puts his hand down as he decides to show the injury he acquired on his midsection from the frontal area to Ilya while totally bandaged. "Plus, it would've been much worse than this." Trost returns his vision to Yuki. "I owe it all to my little girl for my survival. The initial blow was meant to kill me if she hadn't quickly shut it with her magic." He chuckles with his eyes closed. "To think, what cursed her ultimately saved us."

Ilya fails to understand, however, doesn't let it bother her too much as she faces the window and thinks, "We're all just fortunate to be alive, I'd say."

*Scene Change*

Not a lot of time transgresses until Yuki selected a dress she felt was suitable, having a new pair of heels to go with it, while the outfit is mostly like the one she had on before, but wields yellow stitching. In addition, the young lady's again wearing her tiara that had somehow found its way into the closet from the dining room, where it fell during the battle.

Because of that, Ilya considers the whole dilemma that Yuki went through to be unreasonable, however, let it slide as the two girls and Trost arrive at the spot which is packed withed while it isn't too cold outside thanks to the new barrier the king made not long ago. Then, trio cautiously journey within the crowd while Ilya and Yuki couldn't help registering that many were shedding tears or heavily crying as the blue-eyed individual doesn't possess much trouble traversing the snowy area, despite using heels due to her being accustomed to doing that. Soon enough, the three of them reach the front and discover Dante sitting upon the snow-covered terrain via his legs folded together while intently staring at a giant, grey stone presently planted into the exact center of the facility as he's overrun by tiny debris of dirt.

An instance later, Yuki and Ilya key onto the multiple names written on the stone while the pink-haired character recognizes them, invoking the memory of the shredded bodies Bel created in the dinning room, as she faintly asks with her eyes widening out of astonishment, "This is... A gravestone, isn't it?"

Ilya barely overhears Yuki while quite surprised after veering her sight towards the right so she can depict the tiara-endowed dame prior to navigating it back onto the stone and whispers, "So that's what it is..."

King Trost positions himself to Ilya's left with his eyes set on the gravestone. "Indeed. It's to honor all the innocent and valiant people who died." He glances at the others around him. "These are their loved ones, comrades they worked with and folks they knew from Icela. They're here to pay their respects."

Ilya shifts her gaze to Trost as she nods with a sad grin exhibited. "That was a wonderful idea."

King Trost promptly motions his head towards Dante's vicinity. "It was his idea. He even gathered and buried them here, spending the entire night cleaning up where they passed." He does a quick scan of the surroundings. "That includes fixing the damage he caused to the landscape."

Ilya immediately snaps her attention to Dante, radiating a dumbfounded personality in the process. "Really?!"

Yuki glimpses at her father with an awestruck behavior until deviating her focus to Dante and thinks, "He did such a thing... For people he didn't know..." She then remembers numerous details involving her past, mainly the manner she was treated by the deceased as that causes Yuki to tightly clench both hands into fists, while thinking with anger emitted, " For sure... I wouldn't have." Yuki lowers her head while glaring at Dante's backside as she thinks, "Why do such a thing for those people...?! They brought me suffering...!"

Randomly, Dante raises his dirt-stained right hand since he didn't want to get his gloves dirty while the lad examines both it and the clouded sky as he ignores the plain fact that snow is gradually piling atop the new barrier.

Seeing that action makes everyone switch their concentration to Dante as they quietly await what he'll do next.

Simultaneously, a mild smile etches itself onto Dante and softly remarks, "Life and death are always entangled with one another. Today, a bunch of people were lost for no good reason. That's a terrible tragedy. I sincerely do hope you all are in a better place currently." His eyes dull while drawing in a minor breath. "On behalf of your loved ones and everybody who'll miss you... Take care."

Even though none of Dante's speech could be heard, the spectators contained sufficient compression over the significance of his gesture as many expressed their sorrow in full while others remained silent and watched the big gravestone.

In the Ice Spellcaster's case, Yuki couldn't sustain her rage anymore, compliments of realizes how much the dead mattered to the visitors, while becoming quite depressed with her hair shadowing her eyes from visibility.

Several minutes pass by before Ilya, Dante, Yuki and Trost decided to go back inside following the last few visitors departing to the city. Once the quartet entered the first floor, the blonde sees a chainmailed male stationed to his left corner as a solemn demeanor rapidly arises and inquires without removing his sight from the man, "Is there a place I can bathe and wash my clothes?"

King Trost gives Dante an intrigued look at first prior to discerning that the human continues to be blanketed by dirt as he confronts him . "Well, every guest room has its own, although where the wash is performed resides at the main bath Yuki and myself utilize that's there." The adult points his right hand towards the same direction Dante's viewing, but more towards the opposing end.

Dante contentedly smirks at Trost with his eyes shut. "Thanks." He commandeers both his arms to have them to raised toward the sides after reopening his eyes. "I'm gonna' clean my clothes, if you don't mind. They're really messy and there's someone I know who would have a problem with me neglecting that." Dante delivers a teasing grin toward Ilya via turning his head left.

Ilya's promptly flustered by Dante while gingerly gritting her teeth amidst thinking, "Smart-ass." The hazel-eyed individual crosses her arms, attempting to relax, and closes her eyes. "Great! You stink anyway!" Ilya veers her head away from Dante while opening her right eye to retain it upon him. "No one wants to be around you smelling like that!" She peers at her outfit with a slightly snobbish attitude demonstrated. "Considering we're on the subject, I'll also get mine wash."

Trost politely intervenes. "Then, Dante will take his clothes to wash first and you go after." He veers his focus to Yuki, who's toward his left. "Why don't you lend Ilya one of your dresses? At least until hers is clean."

Yuki groans as she emanates an annoyed behavior before releasing a loud sigh with her head cocked back. "Fine...!" The girl turns to travel around her father to the stairway. "Come on, Ilya. I don't know if I got anything that'll fit you, but it wouldn't hurt."

Ilya's baffled at Yuki's conduct and then instills her gaze upon Dante. "Didn't predict that. Was that her being nice?"

Dante nonchalantly shrugs. "I guess so."

Yuki abruptly yells out from the beginning of the stairway while glaring at Ilya in a sideways pose with her right hand resting against the wall, "Hey! Hurry up! I'm not gonna' wait forever!"

A scowl instantly appears on Ilya as she grovels, "That darn brat..." She inhales profoundly prior to exhaling to calm down and starts walking toward Yuki. "Okay, okay. Just take it easy."

Yuki issues Ilya a dull personality until quickly turning away to view the stairway again with slight irritation noted. "Hmph!"

After seeing the two girls scale the stairs, King Trost happily sets his sights onto Dante, striving to constrain his amusement. "You better get going. I don't know how long those two can survive each other if you aren't around unless they're unconscious!" He chuckles.

Dante replies with a carefree demeanor. "It'll be okay. They have to get used to that, no matter what."

Curiosity immediately brims from Trost. "How come?"

Dante slants his head to the right amidst closing his eyes and delivering a cheerful smile toward King Trost. "I'll explain later. Actually..." He repairs his posture with his eyes sustained upon the adult. "There's a request I wish to ask of you." Dante takes a step reward as he begins to steer himself away from Trost. "That'll help you understand why I said that." The blonde then walks towards the chainmailed man.

King Trost briefly stares at Dante as he's a bit bewildered by the green-eyed individual's attitude before deciding to head toward the upper floors while not  considering Dante's reason for going over to the guard, instead of the original intent of washing his attire.

Soon, Dante casually reaches the man in chainmail and stands two meters from him. "Hello, there! You remember me?"

The crossbow-wielder merely observes Dante with confusion radiating until recalling last night's battle while making an expression of realization following him snapping his right hand's fingers towards Dante. "Yeah! You're that guy who made the grave for the deceased!" He lowers his right appendage.

Dante lets out a short laugh prior to nodding as he temporarily deviates his vision from the man. "True, although that's not what I'm referring to." The Caucasian reverts his attention to the chainmail-wearing character.

The fellow's eyes narrow out of suspicion. "What are you talking about?"

Dante hurriedly closes the gap to have his face an inch from the chainmailed human's and portrays a mischievous aura. "I know about that little remark of yours concerning Yuki yesterday, and frankly..." His eyes become cold. "I didn't like it one bit."

The man abruptly remembers, pausing for a moment, while an image of Dante's appearance at the battlefield enters his mind and recollects the harsh words the chainmail-endowed person uttered about not caring if Yuki were to die. Nervousness then plagues the individual as he tries to defend himself while raising both hands onward to calm Dante down since he has an idea of what young male's capable of. "N-N-Now, let me explain!"

An evil grin creeps on Dante. "Oooh! I'll be sure to love this! Though make it very believable! It wouldn't be any fun if it's something stupid!"

Receiving Dante's warning, the guard attempts talking, however, is haphazardly cut off via an ominous tone from Dante as no signs of him joking are visible. "Never mind. I heard every possible excuse you thought up in a second! All that did was PISS ME OFF! For you, death's most befitting!"

The chainmailed adult gasps profoundly before echoing a horrid wail throughout the entire castle, grabbing the focus of the other men in chainmail who are currently cleaning up what's left of their posts and the small buildings that were heavily damaged. Simultaneously, Trost barely heard the distraught cry while ascending the stairway, but swiftly brushed it off due

to thinking that it was nothing as he continues his journey. Not long after, a few of the crossbow users ran towards the castle to investigate the source of the scream as they promptly got their answered once they entered. Following that, the men are baffled at witnessing their comrade having been totally stripped of his clothing while left dazed atop the floor.

At the same time, Dante's contentedly smirking inside the washing sector beside the bathroom while rinsing his outfit with soap, including his gloves, and sits ahead of the wash while only dressed in a small, red towel that encompasses his waist. During that, the wavy-haired lad peers to the right to depict the chainmail and inner clothing lying there as he chuckles. "I sure scared the crap out of him." Dante redirects his attention to his attire, not taking much to finish doing his laundry as he lets it dry on a clothesline to take a bath until they're sufficiently dried. Eventually, the green-eyed gentleman puts on his clothes while still a tad moist to save time and goes up to the king's Throne Room with his gloves in his right rear pocket. Once he arrives, Dante sees Trost waiting for him with Yuki and Ilya as the white-haired teen holds an intricate, blue dress in her arms while showing discontent because of it not suiting her taste.

Not much later, Ilya exits the quarters as King Trost asks Dante what he wanted to discuss, however, first navigates his concentration toward Yuki in a composed manner. "Can you permit us a minute, Yuki?"

Right when Yuki was preparing a reply, Dante intervenes amidst putting his left hand into his pocket. "It's fine. I actually need Yuki to hear my request. I believe it'll really be up to her in the end."

Trost and Yuki are equally intrigued as Tundra's ruler sits upon his throne, inquiring with a hint of caution in his voice, "What do you mean?"

Dante smiles. "Simple." He shifts his sight to Yuki, who's towards his right while stationed next to her father. "Tell me, Yuki. You've been here your whole life, right?"

Yuki plainly. "Yes. I've never left."

Dante exhibits sincerity. "Would you want to?"

Surprise overtakes King Trost while thinking, "Is he...?"

Yuki elevates her eyebrows as she views the ceiling. "Would I...?" She resets her vision onto Dante. "Why do you desire to know?"

Dante tilts his head to the left with skepticism displayed. "Do I really need to declare it?"

Trost delightfully smirks and thinks, "He is!" The pinkish-haired guy snaps his attention toward his daughter. "Yuki."

Yuki issues King Trost a curious look until registering her father's demeanor while greatly astonished and hastily resets her focus to Dante afterwards. "Wait a second! Are you...?!"

Dante joyfully nods. "Yup! Obviously, Ilya and me aren't gonna' stay here much more since we've already accomplished the mission's requirement. In all honesty, I think it'd be a lot of fun if you and Yui were to join us."

Trost's shocked by the mentioning of Yuki's other self as he leans forward with both hands planted on the armrest. "Dante! Did you just say-?!"

Dante swiftly interrupts King Trost without taking his eyes off Yuki. "I did. And I meant it. I'll be blunt, I've been thinking about asking you this from the second I saw you at the window."

Yuki lightly turns red and stutters, "Y-You n-notice me?!" The blue-eyed female points her left hand towards the large window that demonstrates the giant wall's entrance. "From all the way over there?!" Yuki frantically shakes her head with her eyes briefly shut before implementing her vision to Dante while drawing both hands to her chest as they're closed into fists. "Hold up! You decided at that time without comprehending a thing about me?!"

Dante nods again. "Yup. I'm a good judge of character. You're definitely someone I want around." He wholeheartedly smiles as his eyes are shut. "Both of you."

Yuki's stunned with her jaw slightly hanging prior to diverting her concentration to King Trost. "Father?"

Trost delivers Yuki an assuring grin. "I have no objections. Understand that the outside world is dangerous though. You can either choose to stay here and live peacefully... Or experience the world with a couple of interesting people." A glimmer of sadness adds to his constitution. "Nobody will try to force you like in the past."

Having listened to King Trost's statement, Dante keys onto both Yuki and her parent's memories of a period when the pink-haired girl was little as the civilians of Icela rioted about sending her away due her being the source of the endless snowfall in the country, even though they already knew her leaving wouldn't alter anything involving the climate. Their overwhelming hatred simply consumed their logic at that point, agitating the blonde for several seconds until he managed to regain his composure as he kindly smiles at Yuki. "He's right. I really hope you say yes, however." Dante chuckles.

Yuki blushes as she glimpses at Dante and then drops her gaze to the floor while mentally contemplating her decision. "Should I?" She peers toward Dante without lifting her head and thinks, "He wants... Both of us..." Yuki lightly bites her bottom lip while feeling embarrassed while thinking, "No one other than my family had ever accepted me in such a way... I... Don't want to bid farewell to this person yet, so..." A big grin etches itself onto Yuki as she raised her head to properly make eye contact with Dante amidst sincerely uttering, "I would love to!"

Trost quickly experiences an overwhelming sense of happiness while getting to his feet as he thinks, "Yes... This is for the best. It's exactly what the two of them need to move on." The king promptly talks to his daughter without hesitation, hoisting his left arm forth in the process, "Go! The world awaits you, my dear Yuki!"

Yuki hurriedly establishes her attention upon her father and contentedly nods. "Okay!"

King Trost's personality doesn't falter as he veers his focus to Dante after putting his limb down. "Please be sure to take good care of her, alright?"

Dante gives Trost a thumbs up via his right hand, possessing it beside his face. "Will do."

*Scene Change*

Ilya gawks at Dante from disbelief while wearing the dress Yuki loaned, which is pretty tight on her bust, as the duo are situated in front of the pink-haired chick's room. "Are you serious?!"

Dante nonchalantly nods. "Yup."

Ilya grabs Dante by his shirt and relentlessly shakes him. "You can't just go recruiting a princess of a country to travel with us! You don't even have the Royal Council's consent!"

Dante laughs with his eyes shut as he's continually being shook. "Oh, well! What's done is done!"

Ilya increases her action's speed while closing her eyes with her head lowered. "Don't take this so lightly!" She abruptly stops shaking Dante to instill her vision toward his eyes as a frustrated behavior forms. "You'll be doing the explaining once we arrive at Velkry and I WON'T be bailing you out if things get bad!"

Dante gently grabs a hold of Ilya's hands with both of his appendages, presenting a determined smirk. "I'll handle everything."

Before Ilya could let out another retort, an ominous feeling plagues her as she feels somebody angrily staring at her, looks to her left since that's where Yuki's bedroom door is located and sees the princess glaring at the hazel-eyed beauty while having on a different blue dress with light blue stitching this time. This causes the teenager to become quite confused due to not knowing why Yuki's like that until noting that Dante's gripping her hands. In conclusion, Ilya's very flustered and frantically pulls her hand from Dante's grasp while putting them behind her posterior with the white-haired girl's head dropped to hide the light shade of red that arose.

Dante inserts both hands into his pockets with a carefree demeanor radiating. "You prepared?"

Yuki's attitude instantly switches prior to joyously nodding at Dante. "Uh-huh!" She fully opens the double-doors of her room while revealing over a dozen bags filled with clothing and hair appliances as she extends her right hand towards the luggage. "This should be good, right?"

A dull scowl appears on Dante and Ilya as they say in unison without even batting an eye, "No."

Yuki's caught off guard by the pair's response while hastily commandeering her concentration to them. "Really?!"

A couple hours pass before Yuki painstakingly decides to only take a few things in a medium-sized, rectangular, blue purse with tiny, decorative diamonds along the edges while carried around the teen's right shoulder as Yuki's clearly upset by the fact that she's forced to leave so many of her stuff behind. In the meantime, Ilya's white dress has dried entirely as she couldn't restrain herself from portraying her delight of wearing her preferred style again. With that, all three are soon on their way out of the castle's walls following a heartfelt goodbye between Yuki and King Trost inside the yard as the next challenge for the trio is uncertain to them, however, they're fairly confident that not everything will necessarily be bad.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...