Noah let out a chuckle, which prompted Mia to send a curious gaze over to him. By all accounts, this was terrible news. None of them were currently emotionally fit to move. This wasn't really an occasion to laugh.

"Sorry, Mia, it's just that when everything was going perfect for a year, I should've guessed that something was up."

At his resigned words, Mia couldn't help but empathize. The past year had been dyed red with the blood of their enemies as well as their own and consequently had been full of physical pain, but they had been having the time of their lives together. Mia leaned back on the bed she was on and looked to the ceiling as she spoke in a tired tone, following a sigh.

"You know, Noah, you might've already guessed it, but the mostly fun party that was the past year didn't come to an end just recently due to our defeat. Turns out, the 'heavenly kings' we fought were only knight-level demons."

"What?"

Mia parroted everything Princess Elara had managed to get out of the traumatised Evan. The only part Noah wasn't conscious to hear was the shocking inference that Empress Seti had made, but he still listened to what Mia had to say, since his own memories were somewhat hazy, what with him being severely physically and mentally drained at the time.

By the time Mia was done, Noah couldn't help but feel utterly empty inside. Letting out a similar tired sigh, he lay down on his bed and bit into the cold bread on the platter that was beside his bed when he woke up. It was at this time that Princess Elara emerged from within Evan's bed drapes, probably having finished feeding and consoling him.

"I understand your concerns for the future, which may look bleak at the moment. I can't do much, but me and Evan had been planning to officially get married following the defeat of the Demon Lord. Well, getting approval for marriage might be difficult in these circumstances, so me and Evan will probably be eloping."

Despite the shocking news, neither Mia nor Noah had the mental energy to actually be affected by the news.

Stolen story; please report.

"Where to, though?"

"Nothing's set in stone yet, but we've been considering the relatively more underdeveloped and safe Xipil Kingdom, where we might find some peace for Evan's recovery. Where might the two of you go?"

The woman in love responded instantly to Noah's question that he had asked while staring at the ceiling and munching on the piece of cold bread. Clearly, she had already put a lot of thought into it. Her response drew silence from Noah and Mia for a full minute. Noah eventually spoke up.

"If we're done with all this hero stuff, I think I'll just retire. Maybe become a farmer."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Personally, I'm looking forward to downing several dozen gallons of vodka daily."

"But what about Emma, though?"

After Mia agreed with what Noah planned to do, he suddenly realised that they had a comatose member of their party.

He sighed. As much as he hated it, he could not stop his brain from thinking of Emma as a headache. As much as he wanted to so that he could just live his life in peace now, he couldn't just leave her. This was not just because she was one of the four most valuable people in this world to him, but also because she would not have been in this state if she had not strained herself to get them to safety.

As an illusion master, casting an illusion on her would be a tall task. Despite this fact, the Demon Lord had done so effortlessly, which effectively rendered her illusions useless. Towards the end of their fight, or rather, encounter, since what happened could not be called a fight with the Demon Lord, with her primary weapon robbed, the only way she could help was by pouring her mana into Evan's magic seal that he drew before collapsing inwards in fear, which had the effect of healing their wounds.

Even though everyone else collapsed in fear and despair towards the end, only Emma held on despite literally not even being conscious. Even when she was the weakest among them, she was the strongest. She was truly a remarkable woman, even if Noah would never tell her that to her face.

What crushed Noah was the thought that he would never be able to do so, even if he wanted to. The thought that she would never wake again... He hated having to even fathom the thought. Following this line of thought, what he had to do was quite simple. He would wake her up, and to this end, his destination could only be one place. But if he had to go, he would rather do so with a friend.

"Mia, wanna come with me? I think I might try doing something about Emma."

Noah's words made Mia visibly flinch. Whatever she was going to say, she clearly was not happy with herself about saying it, fidgeting around and fiddling with her fingers even as she did so.

"Emma's important to me. She really is. She really is, but I don't think I have it in me right now to be productive, Noah. I just… I can't. Just not right now. I need to think about things alone, especially about..."

Her words began to trail off, but her gaze, which lingered on her stump, gave her thoughts away. This was no place Noah felt comfortable intruding into. Sighing, he turned his head that he had lifted to look at Mia and Princess Elara before letting his head fall back to the pillow and his gaze come to rest on the ceiling.

"Guess I'll be bringing Emma with me to the Haldor Kingdom, then."

And so, it was decided that the four former heroes, after being together since their arrival slightly over a year ago, would now part ways.