Chapter 334 -: 333 I would have killed you.

"Huh?" Rosalina blinked, her black eyes trembling with confusion before his question finally sank in. A look of disbelief spread across her face, followed by amused exasperation. "After all these years, that’s the first thing you ask me?" she said, placing a hand on her hip. "My age? Don’t you know I’m already taken?" Leon immediately waved both hands in denial, his usually composed expression breaking apart as embarrassment crept across his face. "N-No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that..." Rosalina couldn’t hold back a quiet laugh. "Relax. I was only teasing you." She smiled before adding casually, "It’s because I’m thirty-one years old now." The smile on Leon’s face froze. "...What?" His blue eyes widened in genuine shock as he stared at her, trying to determine whether she was joking. "But... how?" he asked after a long pause. "Weren’t we the same age?" Confusion filled his voice. He had known Rosalina since they were children. Although they hadn’t spent every day together, they had grown up during the same period, attended many of the same noble gatherings, and there had never been any age difference between them. Yet the woman standing before him calmly claimed to be ten years older. Beside him, the emerald-haired girl also looked stunned by the revelation. Her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to ask something, but in the end, she quietly remained where she stood, watching the conversation unfold in silence. Rosalina merely chuckled at their reactions. Walking past them toward the edge of the lake, she crouched down and dipped her makeshift wooden bowl into the clear water before standing again. "It’s a long story," she said while watching the water settle inside the bowl. "Not just me. Julius is thirty-one as well." She glanced at Leon over her shoulder. "You could say... we skipped ten years." The amusement in her voice slowly faded, replaced by obvious resentment. "You remember that bastard, Crypian?" Both Leon and the green-haired girl visibly flinched at the mention of that name. The girl’s face paled almost instantly, her fingers unconsciously clutching the edge of her dress, while Leon’s expression stiffened. "Well..." he answered after a brief silence. "I can’t exactly say I’ve met him personally, but I’ve heard plenty about him." Rosalina noticed the subtle coldness hidden beneath his calm voice but chose not to comment on it. "Julius and I tried to kill that bastard," she said with a sigh full of frustration. "But I swear that damn thing was blessed by fate itself. You wouldn’t believe the kind of ridiculous luck he had." A bitter smile appeared on her face as she remembered everything that had happened. "When Julius was about to split him in half with an axe, a massive boulder suddenly fell from a ceiling that practically didn’t even exist. Then, when it was my turn to finish him, the ground beneath my feet collapsed without warning, and I fell straight through it." She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "And even after using a spell that stole ten years from both our lives..." She lowered her gaze toward the bowl of water in her hands. "...we still couldn’t touch even a single strand of his hair." Her grip tightened around the wooden bowl. "The worst part was that the bastard himself was as weak as an ant." The resentment in her voice was impossible to hide. Leon could only offer an awkward smile. He had no idea how to respond to such an unbelievable series of events. The princess, meanwhile, had grown even paler than before. Every mention of Crypian seemed to make her increasingly uneasy, though she still refused to interrupt. After allowing the silence to linger for a few moments, Rosalina let out another sigh before deciding to change the subject. "Enough about that." She looked back at Leon with genuine curiosity. "What are you two doing here?" Leon released a long, weary breath. "It happened... about a month ago, I think." He glanced around at the endless forest surrounding them. "After arriving here, I completely lost track of time, so I can’t be certain anymore. Still, I think it’s been roughly a month." Rosalina silently waited for him to continue. "We were staying at Duke Galo’s estate because of... certain matters. We spent the night there, but sometime after midnight..." He hesitated briefly before looking at Rosalina. "You’ve heard about the recent assassinations, haven’t you?" Rosalina gave a small nod. "I have." Leon continued. "That mysterious assassin attacked the duke’s estate. Everyone fell into complete chaos as people tried to escape. We managed to flee, but outside the estate there was another group waiting for us." His brows furrowed as he recalled that night. "I think they were human assassins. Their target wasn’t the duke..." His eyes drifted toward the young woman standing beside him. "They were after Princess Sylviana." "The situation became impossible to control, so we escaped by jumping off the edge of Duke Galo’s territory." He laughed bitterly. "And somehow..." "We ended up here." Rosalina’s gaze slowly shifted toward the emerald-haired girl once more. "So..." "So your name is Sylviana." The moment the name left her lips, countless scattered memories finally connected together. Now she understood why the girl’s face had seemed so familiar. Princess Sylviana. One of Crypian’s women. One of the names Julius had personally written onto his list. One of the people he had sworn he would kill alongside Crypian himself. Rosalina quietly studied the princess. Under that calm, unwavering gaze, Sylviana grew increasingly uncomfortable. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her shoulders gradually shrinking as though trying to make herself appear smaller. Tiny beads of sweat formed across her forehead despite the cool breeze drifting over the lake. Rosalina’s eyes then moved toward Leon. His expression was complicated. Although he had remained beside Sylviana throughout the conversation, the concern in his eyes was mixed with unmistakable distance. His attitude toward the princess was polite, yet noticeably colder than one would expect from someone risking his life to protect her. ’Should I kill her?’ The thought surfaced naturally in Rosalina’s mind. If Julius had been standing here instead of lying unconscious inside the hollow tree, there would have been no hesitation. One of Crypian’s companions had appeared directly before them. Her fingers tightened slightly around the wooden bowl. Sylviana instinctively took another half-step behind Leon. Rosalina watched her for several silent moments before a faint chuckle escaped her lips. "You’re lucky," she said, looking directly into the princess’s frightened eyes. There was no smile on her face. A faint trace of killing intent quietly spread through the air. "If Leon wasn’t standing here..." She held the princess’s gaze without the slightest hesitation. "...I would’ve killed you on the spot."