A week passed.
They camped in the garden outside the castle. It was a strange place. Beautiful flowers grew everywhere. Fruit trees provided food. A clear stream offered fresh water.
No attacks came. No demons. No monsters. Not even the maids bothered them.
"This doesn't make sense," Lyriel said one morning. "Why aren't they killing us? We're enemies. We came here to assassinate their Queen."
Pinky had no answer.
His wounds healed. His strength returned. On the seventh day, he picked up his sword and walked back to the castle.
Lyriel followed, begging him to stop. He didn't listen.
He found the Queen in the same place. Throne. Ice cream. Romance novel. As if she hadn't moved in a week.
He attacked.
He lost.
Lyriel carried him back to the garden. She healed him. He rested. He recovered.
He went back.
The cycle repeated. Week after week. Month after month.
Three months in, Lyriel snapped.
"THIS IS INSANE!" She stood in front of him, blocking his path to the castle. "You've fought her over twenty times! You haven't landed a single hit! All you do is get beaten and I have to drag you back and heal you for days! We should be DEAD by now! The only reason we're alive is because she doesn't CARE enough to kill us!"
Pinky stood still.
"Knights have been coming here for a thousand years," Lyriel continued, tears streaming. "Hundreds of them. The strongest warriors humanity has ever produced. They all came here and they all DIED. What makes you think you'll be different? What makes you think throwing yourself at an impossible enemy over and over will accomplish ANYTHING?"
He bit his lip beneath his mask.
He didn't know how to explain. Couldn't explain, even if he could speak. This was all he had. This mission. This purpose. Without it, what was he? What had his entire life been for?
But Lyriel's words burrowed into his mind.
Why was the Queen so strong? The village had sent knights for a thousand years. Surely some of them had been as strong as him. Stronger, even. Yet none had succeeded.
Why didn't she attack them? He had tried to kill her. Multiple times. She had every right to end him. But she didn't. She just... let him go.
Why was he still alive?
He stood up and walked past Lyriel. Toward the castle. Again.
She screamed in frustration but followed anyway.