""

Sara shakes her head, sitting at the edge of the river in front of Pogtopia. Nia and Niki are both there as well, Tommy and Tubbo running around somewhere nearby.

"What is?" questions Nia.

"Wilbur."

Nia purses her lips, nodding. She has noticed it, too. Wilbur has stopped caring about nearly everything. All he wants is chaos.

She wouldn't say Wilbur is mad or insane, though it might seem like that. He's just slowly slipping off the edge, balancing between what is right and what is wrong. It has come to the point where he doesn't care whether he's considered a villain or a hero. As long as Manburg is gone.

"I honestly— I didn't think losing L'Manburg would do this to him." Sara averts her gaze to the river, biting the inside of her cheek. "Wilbur— he really believed in L'Manburg, and I believed him, too."

"What are you trying to say, Sara?" Niki questions with a raised brow. "L'Manburg can be saved."

Sara shakes her head. "I don't think it can." She dons a rueful smile. "L'Manburg died with Wil's faith in the country."

"But L'Mamburg isn't just Wil—" Niki argues.

"You're right. It's not. It's us as well. But, Niki, Wil is the reason we all even came together," Sara laughs, thinking about it. "If it wasn't for Wil's arrival at the SMP, I'd probably side with Dream in any upcoming wars because of George. I— I fought against Tommy during the— uh, during the Disc War, Niki. The only reason I'm here . . . is because of Wilbur."

"What does that mean, then?"

Niki cocks her head to the side, staring into the river. She gazes at Sara's reflection in it rather than looking the red-haired woman in the eye.

"I— I don't know. I genuinely don't— I don't know." Sara sighs defeatedly.

"Personally, I think you should let him blow up Manburg," says Nia nonchalantly. "I mean . . . I'm not a fan of what's going on here—" Nia points at her head— "when it comes to Wilbur, but . . . he does have the right idea."

"Of course, you do. You're a— you're an anarchist." Sara runs a hand through her hair, sighing in defeat. "Both you and Technoblade are."

"So you are listening to what I say," Nia remarks, a proud smile on her lips.

"I don't understand," says Niki, glancing between Nia and Sara. "Do you two just . . . want to destroy L'Manburg?"

"Yes."

"I don't know." Sara shrugs. "It's the easier option."

"Easier isn't always right," says Niki.

"But freedom from government and tyranny is."

"Tyr— what? Wilbur was never a tyrant," Niki defends the ex-president.

"Maybe he wasn't. But who's to say that Schlatt stealing the presidency from him isn't the only reason he didn't become one." Nia stares into the river, watching the fish swimming with the stream.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain," comments Sara, remembering a quote she heard somewhere.

"Exactly." Nia nods, splashing her feet in the water with pursed lips.

"I just fear this might be happening to him either way."

Nia walks through Eret's castle, reviving her memory of the whole place. Honestly, she'd expect somebody to be here — Eret, at least — but the lack of human presence doesn't bother her all that much.

It gives her the opportunity to roam freely and look through the enormous castle. Its walls, towers, the courtyard. Many things are new here, like the tainted colorful glass for example.

She makes her way to the room that used to be her bedroom. It hasn't changed much since, and it surprises her.

The room looks the exact same way it did when Nia disappeared. It is literally untouched, almost like the room has been forgotten about. Yet there is not a single trace of dust.

"I'm guessing this was your room that I'm keeping clean," says a person from behind Nia.

She turns around abruptly, coming face to face with a man shorter than her, but with a beard, wearing a red flannel shirt and jeans.

"Who— what?"

"I just don't think I've ever seen anyone else come inside this room, and you're the first person to appear here," he says with a shrug.

"I'm H Bomb, by the way. You can call me H."

"I— I'm Nia," the woman introduces herself, still caught off guard.

She didn't even hear anyone sneaking up on her. She needs to work more on her awareness of her surroundings.

"Nice to meet you, Nia! I think I've heard of you before . . ." H says, narrowing his eyes at the princess in thought. "You were here at the castle before, weren't you?"

Nia nods. "I came to visit Eret."

"Oh, he told me about that! Yeah!" H Bomb grins, remembering the conversation.

"They don't remember me."

"I— I heard about that, too. I'm— I'm sorry for that."

H Bomb averts his gaze to the ground, approaching Nia and entering her old bedroom. He looks around, stopping by the filled bookshelf.

"You've been cleaning my room?" Nia questions with a raised brow, cocking her head to the side.

"Yeah, I, uh— I found this room when I was first looking around and it was— it was really dusty, and I needed to kill time, so . . ."

"I don't even live here anymore."

Nia shakes her head, though a touched smile sneaks its way onto her lips. She watches H Bomb stand in place with his hands dropped by his sides, not really knowing what to do.

"I— well . . . maybe you'd want some of your old things back?" says H Bomb, pointing at the chests that probably still have some items inside.

"I guess I could look through them." Nia shrugs. "Do people usually come to the castle freely?"

The princess looks at the man before approaching her chests and opening them. They hold her old clothes and her old diamond equipment. She even finds the outfit she first got to the SMP in. It's a pastel purple gown with many tears and dirt stains, because she never bothered to clean it up.

"Most of the time, yes." H Bomb nods. "The Prime Path leads to it, and it's easier to walk through the castle than around it to get to certain places."

He eyes the gown that Nia is holding, acting like he's not intrigued or in any way curious of who Nia actually is.

"You can ask about it, you know?" says Nia knowingly.

The corner of her mouth lifts in a smile. She watches H Bomb in the corner of her eye, seeing him avert his gaze to the ground and rub the back of his neck, discomfited.

"I just— that looks a lot like a wedding gown," H Bomb comments, pointing at the dress.

Nia chuckles and nods, standing up with it. There's a mirror in the room, and she walks to it, holding the dress up to reminisce of the times she wore the dress. She still keeps an eye on H Bomb, except now she can see him in the mirror.

"It is a wedding gown," Nia affirms, her smile slowly turning into a frown.

"What happened?"

"I fled before I could even be put in front of the altar."

H Bomb's lips part. He wants to say something but cannot find the right words to form his sentences. Instead, he just gapes at the woman. She clearly doesn't have good memories of the wedding.

"H! Here you a— oh," Eret calls after the man, coming inside the room, only to spot H Bomb and Nia.

She's still looking at herself in the mirror, picturing the whole outfit with the tiara that lies unused at the bottom of her ender chest.

"Hello, Eret," she says.

"Nia." Eret nods at the princess.

"I'm honestly surprised you never got rid of these things," Nia shares her thoughts aloud, finally turning around and throwing the gown onto the made up bed.

"Well, I, uh, I didn't know whose things these were, so I just— I left them as they were," says Eret, "I think I even forgot about this room for, uh, for a while."

Eret rubs the back of their neck, giving a thin-lipped smile to Nia. He looks around the bedroom, noticing Nia has opened several chests and gone through some of the things.

"That makes sense, I guess," Nia nods. "I don't really want to intrude, so, uh, if you want me to leave, just say the word."

"You're— you're not intruding at all," says Eret instantaneously, shaking his head.

He's genuinely intrigued by the woman as he figures this must've been her room from when she used to live in the castle.

"Actually, I— I think you should stay for dinner," the king suggests. "I think that could be, uh, cool. I think it would be beneficial for me to talk— to talk about the current situation between Manburg and Pogtopia."

Nia raises an eyebrow at him, staying quiet for a moment, making the entire situation awkward. Though eventually, she does speak up, smiling.

"I— sure!"

She puts the gown back into a chest, starting to clean up the slight mess she made. Eret scratches the back of his head, pursing his lips.

"Y'know, if these are your things, you can just keep them. I don't really need it . . ."

"Oh, right . . ."

H Bomb glances from Eret to Nia, giving the both of them weird looks. He probably doesn't want to stay for dinner if that's how awkward the two of them plan to be.

"I think this is my cue to leave."