Clarissa Beheads The Villainess

[46] At Last, Royal Pardon

Clarissa Wains, thrice enters the castle through the front gate with no malicious intent like a normal person.

The king has summoned Clarissa as her blood proved to be the cure, and now she sits quietly surrounded by clerics prodding her skin. It wasn't a comfortable and fun experience, but a royal pardon would be nice if it meant she got to go back to living in the Golden Kingdom without being hunted.

The castle's medicine hall swarmed with clerics that were recently called back into the castle after being sent out to help townsfolk. They all marveled at the opaque blood and hastened to watch the lucky few that got to draw blood from the lady.

"About three more vials and you will be done for today. We'll have you back in three weeks for the next collection." Says Kristopher, swirling the scarlet blood in the vial.

"Three more? I'm already feeling dizzy." She mumbles in a small voice. Her body begged to lay flat and doze off, but her mind persisted till the end. The head cleric holds water by her mouth, tipping it over for her to drink. "Thank you."

"Make sure to eat proper meals and drink plenty of fluids until we see you again. I expect you'll be coming back here every couple weeks for a while."

Clarissa nods her head.

"I wonder why your blood is so special though. Who could've thought the cure to this crude disease is this lady's blood? Are you some ancient being? Child of a dragon?"

"Why would a dragon have a human child." One cleric comments.

"Do you question magic, Sven?",

Sven shakes their head. "It is in our best nature to question everything." Kristopher pulls out the last vial, the two clerics proceed to feeling it up and Clarissa was looking corpse-like.

"Kristopher sir, I think we've drawn too much from her."

"She's fine. We'll draw less next time."

"I think... I'm starting to see things." Clarissa whispers, but no one hears her. She sees Astaroth walking towards her, getting on his knees and bowing.

"Don't do that Astaroth, get up please. Get up."

Astaroth lifts up his head. "Smile for me, please!?"

"I can't... I can't smile."

He gets up, a ghostly hand tracing her jaw. "Try."

"I can't..."

"Sven she's fine."

"No she's mumbling something!? Look at her! "

Kristopher glares at Sven then looks at Clarissa who is frozen still.

"I'm not lying! She was just mumbling to herself!"

"Alright! We're done." He shoves the last vial at Sven and picks up Clarissa into his arms, taking her to bed. "Clarissa Wains? Do you hear me?"

"I couldn't smile for Astaroth..."

"Who? Just go to sleep for now." She is put down and immediately dozes off. The head cleric returns to his workplace where the other clerics were still scrambling around like mice with the vials in their hands.
"I can't believe that's the woman to have beheaded Freya countless of times. She doesn't seem like she'd hurt a fly."

"You think so? I think she gives off the eyes of an ancient warrior who is addicted to battle." Sven replies. "Pretty eyes, but scary. Very scary."

"I enjoy seeing scary faces like hers. Not Freya's, the princess is just crude."

"I think there's a charm in the princess' crudeness though."

Kristopher cringes at Sven. "Weirdo. Get back to work."

~~~

Clarissa Wains, three months later, is once again at the throne room standing before the king, princess, and an audience for her royal pardon. It's been three months of visiting the castle to have her blood drawn and each time wasn't a memorable moment but Kristopher and Sven became somewhat her new friends.

She's also spent more time around Freya and Eka, no word on things with Katherine and Vixen. Not like they mattered much to her after she got driven out of Orias' castle. But those two were an interesting development in her eyes.

"Absolutely Golden, young lady! Thanks to you, my kingdom is saved from this almost two year long disease that took the lives of too many of my people." King Golden says dramatically. "As promised, you are no longer an enemy of the crown, and you have a place within the castle walls."

"Thank you, your highness." Clarissa lowers her head. "However I wish to continue living at the inn where I've been staying these past months."

"Really? At that rundown place?"

She nods her head, resisting the urge to comment on how he just insulted the inn. Well, it wasn't like he was lying though. The inn could really use a renovation.

"As you wish. Instead I will pay you gold! An amount large enough to feed a hundred men till death!"

"Father the crown is in debt now remember?" Freya whispers.

"We will recover quickly." He whispers back to her and clears his throat. "Take note of that daughter! Gold for Clarissa Wains."

"Yeah whatever. We'll have the gold sent straight to the black-snake inn within the month." The princess rolls her eyes. "Thank you for saving our kingdom, Clarissa Wains."

"I did what I should, Princess."

The audience claps briefly. Kristopher, also in the audience with Sven takes a glance at each other, the latter knowing what Kristopher is about to say.

"I'm going to miss her." The head cleric says quietly. "Too bad she isn't going to stay."

"It's not like she's moving kingdoms away sir, you like her or something?" He nudges Sven's ribs with his elbow. "O-ow!! What's up with that?"

"I don't have time to romance women in this line of work. Neither do you Sven."

"Obviously for me, because I don't romance women I romance men."

"Ugh."

"You're so sassy."
The two get up to leave before the rest of the audience does so. For them it's back to work, and less work now that the plague has vanished. Or at least they hoped it vanished.

Upon leaving the throne room Clarissa finds Josie and Peter waiting outside, expecting some sort of news. The two stare at her intently not saying a word. Josie had a handkerchief prepared in her hand.

"You two came to pick me up."

"No, we came to say goodbye." Peter replies.

"Goodbye?"

"You're moving into the Golden castle aren't you girl? It's way better than my old place."

"No..." Clarissa shakes her head. "I chose to stay with you guys."

Josie & Peter glance at each other, their tails intertwining, and Josie puts away the hanky. "Is that so?"

"Lets go home Clarissa."