"…I really wasted my whole life, didn't I?"
Natasha looked down at the empty glass in her hand with a self-deprecating smile. Her cheeks were flushed from the wine, and a few strands of hair had slipped loose from behind her ear and fallen across her face.
"Master…" Dante opened his mouth to say something after seeing that she was getting more emotional and more drunk.
"No, let me finish," she said, pouring herself another glass without even looking. Half of it splashed onto the table. "I spent my whole childhood training. My whole youth fighting. And when I finally got strong enough to do something, that bastard took it all away from me."
"I had to give up everything just to get my freedom back and take my revenge." She let out a small laugh.
"I told myself it was fine. I moved to the normal world and sent my people out to search for anything that could fix my body. I was confident I could make a comeback if I just waited long enough."
"I was confident I could fix your condition too before you found out…"
She brought the glass to her lips and drank it in one go.
"But look at me now. My realm is falling. My body is breaking down. And now even my youngest student wants to leave me…" Natasha's voice choked at the end and her body started trembling. "I-it's all my fault—"
Before she could finish, Dante pulled her into his arms. She didn't even know when he had closed the distance between them.
"It's not your fault, Master," Dante said in a comforting tone. "None of this is your fault."
'It's all that son of a bitch author's fault for making you suffer.' he thought.
"You don't have to blame yourself. You did the best you could in that situation," he added.
As Dante's words reached her ears, the emotions she had been holding back for years started to crack, and tears began forming without her control.
At the same time, Natasha came back to her senses and realised she was getting too emotional. 'No, don't cry. You can't look weak in front of your student…'
But Dante's next words broke her defenses completely.
"You can lean on other people sometimes. You don't have to do everything by yourself," Dante said, pressing her face against his chest with his hand on the back of her head. "And more importantly, it's okay to let your feelings out…"
With that, Natasha broke down completely, crying her heart out in his arms. She didn't even remember the last time she had cried, but now the tears just wouldn't stop.
"I was acting like a brat today. Just forget about everything that happened," he said with his hand on her back.
"If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be living in the slums. You gave me a better life than I could have ever asked for…" Dante sighed, looking down at the woman in his arms.
'I really overestimated myself, thinking I could sit through her whole story without flinching.' Dante shook his head internally.
This was very different from reading letters on a screen, after all.
****
After a long while, Natasha finally stopped crying, but her emotions were still a little out of control.
'Oh my god, how am I supposed to face Dante from now on? I really bawled my eyes out like a baby.' she thought, as the embarrassment started creeping in. 'The dignified master I built up all these years is really gone…'
However, she soon remembered there was something she had forgotten to do.
Apologizing to Dante. Even though she had her reasons for doing what she did, that still didn't excuse her.
"Dante, I'm sorry for hiding things from you," she said, her voice broken from all the crying. "I was just being selfish and too much of a coward to face you…"
"So please, forgive me!"
"And I promise, this time I'm really confident. I will definitely fix your condition!" Natasha added in a flustered tone.
She obviously couldn't tell him she had a system, and he wouldn't believe her even if she did.
More importantly, if she could fix her mana circuits, she would go out and search for cures herself. Of course, for that she would need to cultivate back to her previous peak realm, or at least Soul Bonding. Treasures like the Phoenix's Tear weren't exactly sitting around in some random cave or buried underground.
Having gotten no response from him, she couldn't help but get flustered, especially since he was still hugging her.
"Umm, Dante, I'm fine now. So can you let go of me?" she said, her ears a little red.
Still no response from him.
Seeing this, she got confused and tried to move out of his arms.
Just as she did, Dante's head dropped onto her chest without any other movement.
"HUH!?" Natasha got scared and immediately looked down at him.
Seeing that he was still breathing, Natasha let out a small sigh of relief. "Phew, he's just sleeping."
"Wait, was my apology a waste of time then?"
'No, it wasn't.' Dante thought, his face pressed against her milkers with a smile on his face like he was having the best dream of his life.
As for why he was pretending to be asleep, it was all for Task 3.
His original plan was to forcefully throw up, then let her clean him up and change his clothes, which would get her used to seeing his naked body.
But with so little time left, he figured he'd go with something else.
'Actually, thinking about it again, it's better to show off my body later once I've put on some muscles. The impact will hit way harder that way.' he nodded internally, agreeing with himself.
'Alright, let's wrap up this final task fast. I'm dying to see what reward I'm gonna get!'
[Triggering Task 3]
[Chain Mission: Save Dante (3/3)]
[Task 3: Princess Carry Dante to his bedroom and…]