Chapter 23

Rosetta nodded and waited for Cassion’s answer.

She observed his stunned face after she spoke.

While silence stretched between the two, the men chasing after Cassion, one by one, turned their attention to Rosetta.

“And who the hell are ya?!”

“Hey, lady, you know this fella? You’re wearing a cloak, too, huh? Did you two get a matching pair? Huh? What kind of cloak is that even?”

The men joked amongst themselves below her.

“Why are you so far away? Come play with us, huh, lady?”

And it was unfortunate that they only spoke words that weren’t truly funny, yet they giggled even more.

Her golden irises coldly looked at the men, then she shifted her gaze back to Cassion.

It seemed like she cared about only Cassion.

“Answer me. I’m asking you if you want me to help you.”

This question proved that supposition. The men, who realized that they’d been ignored, turned red in the face.

“You there—you didn’t hear me?!”

“Come down here. Huh? You’re not coming down?!”

Their rough words now flooded the air.

Yet Rosetta’s gaze stayed on Cassion as their eyes met.

The man who huffed at Rosetta changed targets and turned back to Cassion.

“So you two know each other. What a pair you are for riling people up, huh? Okay, I got it. She’ll come down once you’re all bloody, right?”

As he cracked his knuckles, the large man approached Cassion.

When one person’s target changed, the rest followed suit and turned their attention to Cassion once more.

The sound of them cracking their joints filled the air.

Rosetta watched the situation from above, fiddling with a folding fan she brought with her.

Cassion hadn’t said anything yet.

He just looked at Rosetta without a word, then turned towards the men.

His eyes, covered beneath the shadow of the hood, were closed.

Like a prisoner waiting for his death penalty.

‘I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking.’

The largest man there snatched Cassion by the collar, the man’s hand almost the size of a pot lid. He lifted his other hand.

It was clear that if he were to be hit by that hand, he would instantly be covered with bruises.

But then Rosetta herself, with her hand on the fan, gradually slowed to a flutter.

Then, it stopped for a moment.

“Ha.”

A quiet, dry scoff rang out.

That’s right. She lost. What was on her lips was a smile of defeat.

As if it couldn’t be helped, Rosetta smiled sardonically when she stood on the rooftop.

“Alright. I lost.”

And as she rose to her feet, several pairs of eyes turned towards her.

Among them, Cassion’s gaze was also on her.

He stared at Rosetta, his closed eyes opening wide as he looked at her.

He looked flustered.

Or perhaps vexed.

But who cares?

She couldn’t understand what went on behind Cassion’s gaze.

Rosetta shrugged once and jumped off the roof, towards the ground.

Despite jumping from quite a high place, she landed lightly, just like a cat.

The men were speechless. And so, an inevitable silence stretched before them.

No one expected for her to come down from the roof in that way.

“From now on, I’ll help you.”

Rosetta’s hushed whisper resounded throughout the quiet space beneath the night sky.

“So don’t forget about it this time.”

The smile on her face was incredibly beautiful.

Rosetta waved the fan lightly, hanging precariously by her fingertips.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Then, the fan opened wide with the sound of air being cut.

It was a sound that brought them all back to the present.

“What are ya… How could’ja jump off from there unscathed?”

“She’s human, right? Or… Is she a mage…?”

With the men murmuring amongst themselves, they discussed Rosetta’s identity.

They didn’t seem to remember what golden eyes meant.

This was a good thing for Rosetta.

No, it would be better if it could stay like this forever.

She flapped her fan as though it was a butterfly’s wing, then approached the men.

She walked so gracefully, yet there was no following sound of her footsteps.

In no time, she appeared right under the chin of one man, who didn’t notice it.

“Huh?”

The man who belatedly discovered Rosetta made a dumbfounded sound.

And when Rosetta smiled brightly, the man smiled along like a fool.

At that moment—

The man was definitely looking at Rosetta. But when he blinked, he was suddenly staring at a wall.

It wasn’t until he had blinked several times that he realized… the intense pain underneath his chin.

“Aaargh!”

The man rolled to the ground, holding his jaw.

Rosetta had taken a swing at the man’s chin.

‘I knew it. It hurts a little when fighting with a human’s body.’

When she was using this strength in the second round, she was a mix between a transcendent being who had obtained enlightenment and a normal human.

As she expected, there was a huge difference in using this power between a noble young lady’s body and a body that was far more superior than that of a normal human’s.

While Rosetta was immersed with these thoughts, the group of men who saw one man roll on the ground started rushing one by one.

“You think I’ll let this slide?!”

After she folded her fan, Rosetta hit the neck of the person standing in front of her with the same fan.

The man who was properly hit at his vital point collapsed without even screaming.

“…You, what are you?”

“What the… Crazy…”

One time could just be a coincidence, but if the number of times an incident happened reached more than two, it wouldn’t be a coincidence anymore.

Didn’t those two men just go down at a single blow to them each?

The atmosphere quickly got heavy with tension.

Except for Rosetta.

“If I were you, you should have gotten a head start instead of swearing at me.”

Rosetta, who gently closed her eyes, slowly faded from their sight.

This time, the two men who rushed from her front and back suddenly couldn’t see her.

Rosetta waited for the right time, then—swooped down and hit her opponent’s waist in front.

After the man staggered while clutching his side, Rosetta grabbed his neck of that man and pulled him towards the man behind her.

Tak!

‘Huh, so your heads are solid.’

One of them fell to the ground, while the other stumbled.

Rosetta approached the one who stumbled and slammed him into the wall.

Then, she turned to the man who fell to the ground and kicked his head. It wasn’t long until he lost consciousness.

Four of them left.

After that, the succession of events went on similarly.

* * *

“Uuugh…”

Rosetta stood along amidst the middle of groaning men who had collapsed to the floor.

She was a little out of breath, but that was all.

As she fanned her face to alleviate the heat rising in her body, she was elegant and picturesque as usual.

“You… Really, what are you.”

The same moment that the violent commotion had settled down, Cassion—the forgotten instigator of the said commotion—leaned back against a wall and spoke.

As he leaned back, it was clear that he was unstable on his feet.

Looking at his shaky legs, it seemed difficult for him just to stand.

‘People would think that you’re the one who fought.’

Rosetta thought this offhandedly, then answered with the same tone.

“I am Rosetta Valentine. Just how many times are you going to make me introduce myself?”

Cassion looked at her as though she had grown two extra heads, but he slipped to the ground with a soft groan.

“Haa…”

The sound of his rough breaths proved that he was at his limit.

His head was going around in circles, and his whole body was so hot that it felt like he was being burned alive.

It was getting difficult for him to ascertain whether the liquid flowing out of his waist was blood or lava.

And it felt like his sight was gradually blurring.

Rosetta observed Cassion for one moment, then approached him with a relaxed stride.

Cassion looked up as he sensed someone above him.

And he saw the sky, where clouds were beginning to subside.

Up until he could see a few weakly glimmering stars above.

His gaze on the sky gradually shifted to Rosetta, who was now right in front of him.

The woman’s shadow swallowed him.

Her cascading hair glistened in the moonlight.

Cassion stared quietly at Rosetta, then laughed heartily.

He could still see how she gracefully moved and beat up all those men.

“If I knew you’d be this strong, haa… I would have asked for your help right away.”

Rosetta narrowed her eyes.

“What nonsense are you saying?”

“I mean it literally.”

“Then… Is that why you didn’t answer me earlier? You’re afraid I’d be weak—that I’ll get hit by these guys?”

“If only one person gets hurt until they’re satisfied, there’s no need to increase the number of victims for no reason.”

It sounded like he was stating the obvious.

Rosetta’s lips, which had risen faintly, gradually drew back into a straight line.

‘He’s this kind of person originally then. Then how did he turn into a villain?’

He ran away because he was suspicious of his surroundings.

He gasped and continued to struggle in a body that was in critical condition.

Nevertheless, he didn’t ask for help because the other person would be in danger.

It was laughable, this kindness.

Really. How could such a person be considered a villain?

Rosetta could remember him from the original novel.

An unfortunate villain who tried to use Alicia as revenge against Leo, but he eventually sympathized with Alicia.

A poor man whose life was threatened twice by his family after only attempting—and failing—to strangle Leo’s neck once.

“Is it that? The place with the biggest wound?”

With her fan, Rosetta pointed to Cassion’s side.

His eyelids, which fluttered with difficulty, opened laboriously.

“What?”

She stared at Cassion silently, then reached down to pick something up without saying anything in return.

It was a piece of lumber with its end broken off sharply.

Cassion stopped breathing for a moment as he watched the woman’s movements with a blurred gaze.

“Right now… what are you doing.”

With a scratchy voice that seemed to have struggled to get out of his throat, his words trembled.

His hazy vision gradually became clearer.

Inside his head, it felt as though he had been hit with a typhoon.

To the point that even the boiling heat within his body subsided coldly.

“Now—I’m asking you what you’re doing right now.”

Betrayal.

Despite it being irrational, he felt a strange sense of betrayal rising within him.

Perhaps it was because the night air felt so cold.

Perhaps it was because of the languid woman’s expression right now.

Or perhaps…

“Is this the place that hurts the most?”

Perhaps it was because the broken end of the jagged wooden plank faced him without him knowing why.

It was a sense of betrayal that he himself couldn’t understand.