Chapter 337 -: 336 Complex emotions.
Rosalina stood silently beside the bed, her eyes fixed on Sylviana. Leon, standing a short distance away, watched with the same unwavering focus.
The timid, flustered girl from only moments ago had vanished completely. Once she began treating Julius, every trace of hesitation disappeared from her face, replaced by an expression as calm and emotionless as polished stone.
Her emerald eyes remained fixed on the wounds before her, her breathing steady, her movements precise. It was as though she had become an entirely different person the instant she picked up a blade.
Her hands moved with remarkable confidence, guiding the small knife across Julius’s battered body with delicate precision.
She carefully reopened several wounds just enough to clean away dirt, dried blood, and tiny fragments of debris that had become trapped inside.
Every motion was controlled, neither too fast nor too slow, as if she had repeated the same procedure thousands of times before.
Whenever she finished cleaning one injury, she immediately stitched it closed with astonishing speed before moving on to the next without wasting a single movement.
Rosalina found herself genuinely impressed. She had spent her entire life mastering the arts of combat.
Whether it was the sword, spear, dagger, or countless other weapons, she could wield them all with terrifying skill. Yet those talents meant little here.
The same hands capable of ending lives with flawless precision lacked the gentleness required to preserve one.
She had done everything she could for Julius over the past several weeks, but compared to Sylviana’s careful techniques, her own methods suddenly felt crude.
Watching the young healer work, it was difficult to believe someone so young possessed such mastery. If Sylviana claimed she had devoted at least a decade to studying medicine, Rosalina would have accepted it without question.
Her gaze lingered on the petite healer as Sylviana began stitching a deep wound near Julius’s elbow.
The thread passed cleanly through flesh without the slightest tremble, each stitch evenly spaced and perfectly aligned.
For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, Rosalina suddenly felt a little uncomfortable watching someone else care for Julius with such familiarity. Shaking the strange feeling aside, she shifted her attention toward Leon instead.
He wasn’t watching the treatment anymore.
His eyes rested quietly on Sylviana, and the emotions written across his face were far too complicated to describe with a single word.
There was tenderness that refused to disappear, lingering affection buried beneath years of silence, but mixed with it was bitterness, anger, regret, and something that resembled quiet acceptance.
Seeing that expression, Rosalina couldn’t suppress her curiosity any longer. With a small sigh, she established a mental transmission between them.
[Hey... what happened? You were the one who made me curious about these things in the first place. You were always bragging about that strange tingling feeling whenever you talked about her. So... how did she end up falling for that bastard?]
Leon visibly flinched as Rosalina’s voice suddenly echoed inside his mind. His eyes instinctively darted around the room before he realized where it had come from. Once he understood, he simply released a tired sigh.
Rosalina kept her eyes on Sylviana instead of looking at him, patiently waiting for his answer.
She had known Leon since childhood. They first met during a royal ball years ago after he had been adopted by the Fairyborn Empire’s current emperor.
The emperor’s beloved wife had died giving birth to Princess Sylviana, and rather than remarry, he chose to raise Leon as his own son, intending for the two children to one day marry and rule the empire together.
Sylviana had always been timid and gentle by nature, while Leon possessed the confidence and resolve needed to stand beside a ruler. It had seemed like the perfect future.
Back then, Leon had been hopelessly in love with the princess.
In fact, he had been the very person who introduced Rosalina to the concept of romantic feelings.
She still remembered him proudly rambling about the strange warmth in his chest whenever he saw Sylviana, describing it as a tingling sensation he couldn’t explain.
Rosalina had found the entire conversation confusing. Even as a child, her emotions had always been muted.
After her mother’s death, they had become even duller, leaving her feeling detached from almost everything around her.
She had believed she simply wasn’t capable of experiencing such feelings.
Then Julius had entered her life.
Little by little, that same indescribable sensation Leon once spoke about had begun growing inside her whenever she was around him. Only then had she understood what he had meant all those years ago.
Which was precisely why she couldn’t understand how the very person who had once spoken so confidently about love had ended up having his heart broken.
Leon remained silent for several long moments before finally replying through the mental link.
[...I don’t know.]
His gaze never left Sylviana.
[She decided to enroll in the Royal Arcane Academy because she wanted to study healing magic. I stayed behind in the empire... maybe that was my mistake. Maybe I should’ve gone with her. After she returned... she wasn’t the same anymore. She kept talking about a man named Crypian. Then I found out she had fallen for him.]
His expression darkened.
[The worst part wasn’t even that. It was that she didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he already had countless women around him.]
He paused briefly before continuing, his mental voice carrying obvious frustration.
[His Majesty tried everything to make her reconsider. He told her that Crypian was nothing more than a slut who went around collecting wives as though they were trophies. There was even an invitation sent across the kingdoms announcing his marriage... and do you know what happened? He married four women at the same ceremony. Four! I still don’t understand how something like that even works. Every single one of them looked completely happy with the arrangement.]
Another bitter sigh escaped him.
[I honestly don’t understand it. Do they not have any self-respect? How can someone willingly share the person they’re supposed to love? I can’t even imagine letting my partner have other partners. And somehow... all of those women act like the perfect wives. It’s beyond me.]
Rosalina quietly nodded as she listened.
Truthfully, she had asked herself the exact same question more than once. How could so many women accept something she found utterly revolting?
The very thought made her skin crawl. If Julius ever dared to entertain another woman, she would personally break every bone in his body before locking him somewhere no one else could ever reach.
If he somehow remained stubborn despite that, there were countless other solutions she could think of. She could simply eliminate the other woman in front of him.
Or better yet, force that woman to marry someone else so Julius would never even consider looking at her again. Whatever method she chose, the outcome would remain the same. No woman would ever touch Julius except her.
And she had absolutely no doubt Julius would react even more violently if their positions were reversed.
In a strange way, that was exactly why they suited each other so perfectly. Neither of them could tolerate sharing the other with anyone else.
To Rosalina, that was what a proper relationship should be.
Those women surrounding Crypian simply didn’t understand the meaning of belonging to one another.
She could still remember the shameless words one of them had spoken while standing beside that self-proclaimed guardian of love. Even now, recalling the conversation filled her with disgust.
Letting out a long, quiet breath, Rosalina turned toward Leon. For the first time since the conversation began, genuine pity appeared in her eyes. She gently patted him on the back before sending one final mental message.
[...Take care of him while we go take a bath, alright?]