Clarissa Beheads The Villainess

Epilogue

Ten years since Clarissa's royal pardon...

"So what brings the queen and her beloved over to our humble inn?"

"Shut up Clarissa, we've already been here thrice this week."

It's been a few years since Freya's coronation, and Clarissa's become really close friends with the royal lovers long before that. The past decade she's lived the peaceful life she longed for, working at the inn and enjoying every day with the rat family. Only Astaroth was missing. Every now and then she still lamented his absence and longed to hold him in her arms again.

"Hello Clarissa! We brought jasmine tea!" Eka holds a still steaming hot teapot, her hands protected by white gloves. "I hope you aren't tired of seeing our faces yet."

"I'm more than tired of seeing that one." Clarissa glances at Freya.

"That's not how you talk to your queen!"

"In here you're just Freya."

"Tsk." Queen Freya Golden rolls her eyes and Eka giggles.

"Freya! Eka! Come inside." Josie greets, scurrying out of her room. She had bags under her eyes from taking care of her babies, rat litter of seven. Not even the help of her older children, husband, and Clarissa was enough to keep her from ending up sleepless.

"I want to see the babies!"

"Sorry girl, they're sleeping." The mother rat replies.

"Aw, ok."

The four ladies join each other at the largest table inside the inn and have tea paired with biscuits Peter quickly prepared. Whenever he cooked and baked the smell of his creations wafted throughout the inn, and no stomach could deny the craving. Especially Clarissa who gained a considerable amount of weight after living comfortably with Peter's family.

She put down the blade for good.

"So you know how I was having our army go through rigorous training for our siege to the Bronze kingdom?" Says the queen, shoving a cookie in her mouth before continuing. "They suck! They'll all lose their heads and not even kill a mosquito! If we can't defeat the Bronze kingdom what more with the Silver Kingdom? Fighting is like their specialty! And so I was thinking."
She looks at Clarissa for a really long time, pleading eyes. "Can you please teach me to be an assassin? So I can behead king Bronze and queen Silver myself!"

"King Silver you mean, they recently passed the crown to the silver queen regents' son." Eka adds.

"Same thing. So will you?"

"I... Don't think I can Freya, sorry." Clarissa's eyes fail to meet the queen's. She shifts in her seat, not wanting to think about her past.

"No no I'm not asking you to fight anyone, just teach me."

She twists her neck to each side awkwardly like a child trying to say no. "Hngg."

"Think of it as a favor for a friend, not a demand from the queen."

"Fineeee." She sighs. "But if you want actual fighting experience you're going to have to train with someone else."

"Yay!" Eka and Freya clap. "Good enough for me! So when can we start?"

"Later? We can start the very basics."

"Perf-"

"Clarissa!" They all hear the door burst open and fall down with a loud thump. A familiar deep booming voice accompanied.

"Hey we just had that door repaired!" Josie screams. "Just after my babies chewed the door down last week."

All of them rush to the entrance, a fiery haired man stands there with a young boy holding his hand. The child had a warm brown skin tone, brown eyes, and wavy brown that faded into the same fiery orange as the man's. Lowering their gaze they see a giant burn scar at the kid's neck.

"Vixen?" Clarissa nearly chokes on the cookie she plopped into her mouth before coming to see what went so wrong for the door to give up this soon. "This is- this is definitely your child with Katherine."

"Huh!?" Peter, Josie, and Freya gasp with eyes open so wide it looked like it would fall out of their sockets.

"W-who are they?" Eka asks in whisper.

"I'll explain later." Clarissa replies.

"He really is the spitting image of the both of us. Already six but he's not a talker."

"What brings you here then Vixen? Had a spat with the wifey?" Asks the mother rat.

Vixen's eyes narrow at the counter, and he looks back at his kid. "Katherine lost her mind. His burn isn't an old wound."

"I can tell. Go put your kid to bed and we'll have a chat, the boy looks tired. We have plenty extra rooms."

Vixen follows Josie to one of the vacant places for him and his kid to stay, Peter and the others stand in place silently waiting for them to return.

"Sorry if I've unsettled all of you."

"It's fine Vixen." Clarissa looks at the man who once stood strong and sturdy, and sure of himself. Now he looks like a withered up tree in a desolate forest. His eyes were tired, his muscle has disappeared, starved and pitiful to look at. "What happened to you these past ten years?"

"It would be cruel of me to say I messed up choosing to stay with Katherine considering I have a lovely son now, but Clarissa. I messed up."

"Oh no..." Eka's soft heart ached listening to him.

"We didn't have a good relationship ever since. Things only went downhill and she just reached her limit I guess. Tossed boiling water at my son and took her own life after that. It all happened so quick." Vixen gets on his knees. "Please let us stay here, Josie. I will do all that I can to ensure my son will have a safe life starting now."

"Get off your knees Vixen, that's embarrassing." Josie's ears twitch. "Get a job and pay rent, I'll make it extra cheap for you and your kid. Unless Queen Freya has something better in mind for you."

"I don't run a charity." Freya replies. "Though I do feel bad." I did create you after all. She thinks. "I'll pay your rent for a year, and for this door you've destroyed."

The man gets back up on his feet. "Thank you so much."

"Or you join my army and I'll get you your own nice, lofty house."

"Join your army...?"

"Yes, I intend to take over the two kingdoms. So what will it be?"

"I will join your army, your highness."

"Perfect, we'll have at least one competent warrior. That's a start." She says sarcastically. "You're seriously passing up an opportunity to go on a thrilling adventure Clarissa."

Clarissa steps aside and looks at everyone standing before her. As if she could feel Astaroth, Orias, and Katherine standing with them, she shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath.

"I'm happy with the life I have now."

Is the story over?
Perhaps... Unless?

---

I

hope you enjoyed this story! I do intend to write a spin off series if this one does it well haha.

Thank you for making it this far! Till I write again!

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- Keira | MissApparition
2023