Danico really thought he might have found someone who understood him. After years of travel, the notion that perhaps he could stay in one place for more than a month or two appeared in his mind. He thought he could finally open his heart to someone, but as usual, it was nothing but false hope.

He was meant to wander around with no place to call home.

“Danico,” The prince said slowly. “Why don’t you explain what happened here?”

“Your highness, what is there to explain?! It’s clear as night and day!”

“Faris, be quiet!”

The knight snapped his mouth shut. The prince, who was his childhood friend, was rarely angry at him. At most he would scream and shout like a spoiled princeling whenever he lost a game at their little hideout in the woods, but he never raised his voice towards him in anger. 

He glared at the bard.

“Danico, please,” the prince said softly.

The bard sighed and murmured, “I really thought this world would be different.”

Danico knew the prince would believe him if he explained himself, but what was the point? They were never going to see each other ever again. The mage had paid his due and Danico just wanted to leave and rest. His mana usage was starting to get to him.

“I’m sorry my prince,” Danico said with an extravagant bow and a small smile. “It’s best if you forget about me.”

With that final goodbye, the bard pushed himself outside the window.

Mikhail widened his eyes and rushed to see where the bard flew off to. If he could see the direction Danico vanished, he could search for him and clear the misunderstanding later on. As long as he was the prince, he would do everything in his power to find the bard.

What he didn’t expect was for the bard to continue falling. 

Danico gave the green rose a chaste kiss and let go just as a rift through time and space appeared and swallowed him whole. The familiar darkness was a welcome sight after the bright light of dawn.

Mikhail rushed to the door, but Sir Faris blocked him. “Sir, you must fulfill your duty!”

“Screw duty! I need to find him!”

Faris, who saw the same thing the prince had, shook his head. “Forget the bard, your future is here with the princess.”

“No!” Mikhail yelled.

“Yes!” Faris yelled back.

“No!”

“Goodness sake, we’re not five anymore! Just give the princess a peck and then we can go and hunt down your bard!” the knight yelled in exasperation.

Mikhail sighed and stomped like a petulant child to the princess.

“I’m sorry princess, please excuse my actions. It’s to break your curse,” Mikhail muttered while he cradled the princess’ face. He gave her a quick peck and waited for her eyes to open, but nothing happened.

“Well, it looks like I’m not her prince charming,” Mikhail said with a roll of his eyes. “You give it a try, Sir Faris. Perhaps you’re more her type.”

“Me? No- I,” he stuttered.

“That won’t be necessary,” a soft voice said.

A fairy in green walked in, her long dress dragged across the floor sweeped dust around. Her fiery red hair almost reminded Mikhail of his mother and brother. Following the small fairy was another who reminded Mikhail of freshly fallen snow. It was the fairy from his second trial.

“You’re the fairy I fought before,” Sir Faris said.

“Indeed I am. Good day to you, Prince Mikhail and Sir Faris. I am Avis and this is my sister Caela.”

“And you’re the fairy from my trial,” Mikhail said while he addressed the white fairy. “What happened to you?”

He barely recognised her. Her once blue hair that matched the summer sky turned pure white. Her skin that used to be a healthy peach color was as pale as a corpse and her eyes looked as if they lacked pupils, but clearly they have turned into a milky white color. If it weren’t for her blue dress, he would have not recognised her at all.

“Ask that bard of yours,” she spat in anger.

The shorter fairy held up her hand to stop her from starting a tirade. “Sister, not now. We need to explain something more important. But first, we need to clear this place of filth.”

She gestured at the corpse and her shadows moved to form a wildling. Mikhail tensed as he watched the shadow creature open its mouth wide and drag the charred remains of Mage Cian into the darkness.

He did not dare ask what happened to the third fairy. He could tell with how cruel Avis was towards Mage Cian’s corpse that he had killed her sister.

“The thing is, none of you can save the princess, because none of you completed the trials,” she said softly.

“Please clarify,” the prince said. “I clearly killed the dragon, I even managed to earn myself the title of dragon slayer.” He opened his palm and a rose appeared to show them the proof.

“Indeed you have,” the fairy said as she and her sister walked to the princess. “But you did not pass the second trial.”

The fairy caressed the princess’ face and looked at her with the eyes of a saddened mother. “If only we could enter the tower while the dragon was alive,” she said softly and kissed her forehead.

The prince looked away at the touching moment and stared at the fairy he fought in the second trial with a confused blink. 

Caela shook her head. “I didn’t pass you. I passed the bard and you tagged along with him as he was led to the third trial.”

“And I didn’t fight the dragon,” Sir Faris muttered.

“Exactly,” the red fairy said. “None of you passed the trial except for the bard.”

“Can’t I just retake the second trial?” The prince asked. “I’m willing to fight again.”

“That’s not how this works. With the death of the dragon, there is no one who can complete the trials now. Our world is doomed unless we find the bard to break the princess’ curse.”

Sir Faris held up his hands. “Wait a second, the world? That’s a little dramatic don’t you think?”

“Have you humans not noticed? The Rose Garden is growing faster by the day!” Caela said with a roll of her eyes. “One day the garden will cover the whole world and doom everyone with the curse! You must find that bard.”

“That could be difficult,” Mikhail said. “He was swallowed by a dark mass. I don’t know which direction he flew towards.”

The sisters looked at each other in worry. 

“It is as I feared,” Avis said. “The bard is not part of this world anymore.”

“What do you mean? He can’t be dead, right?”

“Of course not,” Caela replied. “He’s probably just prancing around in a different dimension.”

“Pardon?”

“You heard that right, little princeling,” Caela said with a grin. “Your boyfriend is a dimension hopper who doomed our world. Congratulations, don’t forget to invite me to your wedding in the afterlife.”

“Caela,” Avis said in a warning tone. “Please forgive my sister, your highness. She’s still young. However she’s not wrong. It will be incredibly difficult to find the bard in the countless dimensions out there. If only we have something of his.”

Mikhail looked away, “I do have something from him.”

“What, his cu-”

“Caela!”

“Sorry!”

“It’s a lock of his hair,” Mikhail said.

“Why do you have that, your highness?” Sir Faris who had been quiet this whole time asked drily. It couldn’t be the prince and the bard were seeing each other behind his back at the camp after all, right? He was sure they didn’t have any physical relationship until now.

“We used it to fight against the dragon, alright?!”

“Sure.”

Avis coughed, “In that case we must make haste to meet with the archmage and see if he can help.”

There weren’t a lot of people around with the title of an archmage, and the only one Mikhail could think of was an elven man traveling around the world.

“You couldn’t possibly mean Archmage Vogel, right?” Mikhail asked.

Avis sighed. “Sadly yes,” she said while trying to hide her frown.

It was a known fact, fairies and elves hated each other’s guts. They repeatedly fought over the magical forests and beasts, oftentimes dragging the humans in their wars as pawns to be played with.

“The only other fairy who could be powerful enough to help us out would have been the sorceress who cast this curse around the princess in the first place,” Caela pointed out. “I’d rather eat nails than ask her.”

“It is not like it matters whether we ask her or not,” Avis said as softly as ever. “That person has long since passed on. She cursed the princess as a final petty revenge against the queen of Stachel who chose the king over her.” 

“A scorned lover is certainly nothing to joke about,” Mikhail muttered.

“Hey, prince,” The previously blue fairy said roughly. “Tell that bard of yours he better run as soon as he kisses the princess, otherwise I’m going to break his kneecaps, cut off his balls and feed it to the wildlings.”

“Why do you hate him so much?” Mikhail asked with a wince at the description.