The sun had begun to rise as many of the people had seemed to leave throughout the night to go home. Dante suddenly awoke from his sleep, drowsy from the celebration the night before. He looked around to see many of the people had finally left, but next to him laid Terra and Xavien, who seemingly had knocked out around the same time as him. He slowly rose up and looked around once more, there were some stragglers from the night before, seemingly wasted like never before. He stood up on his feet and stretched, letting out an exasperated yawn. Rita walked into the main tavern hall with a loud yawn herself before noticing Dante doing the same. The two caught one another's eyes and let out a laugh together.
Seemingly working on Rita's schedule for all of those years caused him to adjust to her cycle of sleep and work. She walked over to her usual station before pouring two glasses of apple cider, which so happened to be Dante's favorite growing up. He walked over as she slid him a cup, in which he caught in his hand and they shared a drink with one another. Dante slammed down the cup happily as the sweet and tangy taste of cider got him in a good mood, especially after all that happened the night before.
He wiped his mouth as Rita took his cup and hers and began to wash them behind the bar, Dante looked at her once more, remembering the words she said and her actions from last night. He reached up to feel the ponytail still in place, he was shocked to see it stayed in during his sleep, considering he's known himself to be a wild sleeper. She then slowly went into the back before coming back with some ingredients.
"You're making breakfast?"
"Yeah, can't send you all off without something in your stomachs."
"Wait…sending off? Shouldn't we-"
"I already sent for a carriage to take you and the other two directly to the kingdom. It wasn't too hard."
"Today!?" he yelled as the sudden burst of noise woke the two on the ground. Terra was drowsy as she tried to open her eyes but seemingly kept failing to do so, while Xavien sat up and pushed himself off of the ground to stretch. They were surprised to realize they had stayed over for another night and weren't in beds. Though they quickly noticed Dante and Rita conversing at the bar.
"Good morning Dante, Miss Rita." Xavien said as approaching, Terra followed groggily after him as she held the blanket that was placed on her closely. Her hair seemed to have messed itself up through her sleep which caused Rita to laugh to herself for a moment. She then gently laid her hair down into its usual look for her as she slowly began to wake up.
"I've called for a carriage to take the three of you back to the kingdom, so that there'd be no issues in returning home. I'm sure you all are raring to get outta here." she said as she chuckled to herself. Xavien bowed quickly before speaking.
"Thank you for taking good care of us, we will be sure to return the favor tenfold someday for your kindness!". This caused Rita to smile as she reached over and locked his head under her arm once more, laughing in the process as he struggled to be let free from her grasp.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure to make use of ya someday! You've got some magic that I wanna learn about, so drop by sometimes sprout, you and your friend here are welcome as friends of my Dove."
"Rita, you seriously gotta stop handling people like that."
"I'll do what I want, thank you."
Xavien continually tapped to be let go before she finally did and everyone shared a laugh with one another. Xavien adjusted his collar before speaking once more.
"Really, it's appreciated that you've taken care of me and my friend here for the past few days. Though we know our intrusion has caused some trouble for you all."
"I'm really sorry about that…" Terra said as she bowed her head sincerely. She felt bad over the course of all of the events since she knew the conflict that occurred with the adventurers happened because of her and her title within the kingdom. Rita gave her a pat on the head before turning away to begin cooking.
"Don't worry about your little pretty head. If anything, we should thank you both. We took care of some bad people, and this all helped me let go of my leash on the kid, he's ready for whatever's gonna come to him at this point." Rita said as continuing to work on their breakfast, Terra smiled as she picked up her head to look at the others.
"We shouldn't have too much trouble getting into finding you somewhere to stay…just thinking about everything really gets the brain going!"
She paced around for a second before turning back to him and continuing her onslaught of questions.
"So, are you excited? You're finally getting to see what it's like out there!" she jumped excitedly at the statement, knowing that it was something he seemingly had looked forward to during their many talks throughout the past few days. He seemed to begin pondering before answering her question.
"There's just so much out there that I don't know about…it's kinda nerve-wrecking." he began to scratch the back of his neck, showing signs of anxiousness in the moment before Terra reassured him.
"Don't worry too much, we will figure things out for sure. All we have to do is get you enrolled in the academy so that you can stay in the campus quarters like we do." she continued until something seemed to strike her mind in the moment, not thinking too clearly on the situation.