"Between you and me, I prefer the stench of wilted roses."
-??? to Leonardo Cassius, Secret Route
***
At first, Leo only knew about "her" from his lady's heated rants.
The first time it happened, Leo was still a servant stuck with his station in life, never venturing too close to his mistress, but never too far out of reach. Convinced that he would end up causing trouble instead of helping her, Leo had stayed behind at the mansion while Viola studied at Cyrilla Academy, where she only came home during winter breaks.
However, because he was closer to the young lady than most servants, he had the privilege of sending letters to his lady and getting one back, which was how he learned about the girl named Rosanna Castus. A nuisance, his lady had called her, even going as far as calling her names. She was "gold-digger" when Viola was in a fair mood, "attention-seeker" when the mistress was feeling down, and "bitch" when his lady had reached her limits.
According to his lady, Rosanna Castus was actively out to make her life miserable, purposefully stealing the spotlight and the attention of Viola's beloved, the Crown Prince Damian Vespera. Her natural talent, Viola accused, was nothing more than a manipulative streak disguised with a pretty smile, as Rosanna Castus allegedly had the entire Academy wrapped around her fingers.
"It's disgusting," one of the letters read. "She even made friends with that boy from the Mirandes. Then there was another boy in our class, Sebastian Verde, who refused to talk to anyone except for her. All the other girls didn't see anything wrong with this. It was as if she had everyone bewitched."
Leo had assured his lady not to worry, because to him, she would always be the most charming, beautiful, and smartest girl out there. This only seemed to anger Viola Adelais even further, and they ended up not talking for months until Leo had to take matters into his own hands and sneak into the Academy himself.
There was no fanfare. One day, Leo had simply donned his cloak, mounted the fastest steeds the Adelais has to offer, and headed towards the Academy with a pack of his lady's favorite pastries shuffled in a bag. If anyone asked, he would say that he only wanted to make sure his lady was doing okay, and not because he missed her terribly.
He didn't even plan to meet her. He was only supposed to check on her, drop the snacks in front of her dorms, and leave.
But all of that went down the drain as soon as he saw his lady walking down the pathways of the Academy's rose garden, talking with strangers she never spoke to him about. Her face was animated — her cheeks were flushed, and she was laughing in ways that she hadn't with Leo before.
Watching her right then, bathed in the golden light of the afternoon, Leo wondered if he had been overreacting. All of a sudden, he felt stupid in his travel-worn clothes, and even more embarrassed at the beat-up pastries that he'd brought on a whim. Lady Viola had wanted friends for a very long time — he shouldn't ruin this for her.
He almost caught his lady's eye because of this, as froze where he stood like a lost dog. Leo immediately turned to the nearest hedge and hid among the foliage.
"Who are you?" A voice asked, scaring Leo out of his wits.
He clutched the hood closer to his face instinctively, preparing to make a run for it. The owner of the voice immediately caught him by the strap of his bag.
"Let go!" He struggled to get his bag back, yet the owner of the voice seemed to have an iron grip, despite their thin wrists and doll-like arms. "I promise I'm not here to cause trouble—"
"I asked you a question," the person forced him to turn around until he was standing face-to-face with a white-haired girl with clear blue eyes. She wore Cyrilla Academy's uniform, except her head was drenched with an unknown liquid, dripping down in her white blouse like mud.
Leo thought she was rather pitiful — if only she wasn't gripping him by the collar on one hand, with his bag on the other.
"Are you a stalker?" The girl asked again, shaking him. A moment of understanding seemed to dawn on her as the hood fell off his face.
She followed his line of gaze. "You—are you related to Lady—mmph!"
The girl didn't get to finish her sentence as Leo clamped her mouth shut. On the other side, his mistress had stopped in her tracks, seemingly having detected the commotion. It didn't take long before she and her new friends went back on their business.
Leo didn't know why his chest deflated at that — did he, perhaps, hope his lady would notice?
It doesn't matter, he thought. I'm not even supposed to be here.
He turned his attention back on the girl, who at some point had stopped struggling and just slumped in his arms. She was thinking so hard that Leo could almost see the gears turning in her head.
Leo frowned. "There's no point reporting me if that's what you're planning. I don't even go here."
The girl didn't answer. Instead, she simply tapped his hand. It was only that he realized he was still clamping her mouth shut, along with keeping her hostage. He immediately let go and watched her inhale a lungful of air.
"N-not planning to."
Good.
"Forget you ever saw me," he said, fixing his hood. "And in return…" He glanced at her soaked clothes, then at the telltale bruises that we forming on her knees and elbows. So even well-off people have them too.
"You can have whatever's in that bag," he said instead, finally turning away. The pastries in there were all beaten up anyway, and if the girl didn't like them, she could throw just throw them anytime she wanted. Better than serving his lady substandard goods.
A few days later, when he finally got back to the Adelais, Leo would discover that his lady finally wrote back to him, telling him how her situation at school slowly got better and how she found new friends along the way. In the same letter, she also detailed how she finally settled the score with Rosanna Castus — by dumping a mug of hot chocolate over her head.
A cold feeling washed over Leo as he read his lady's words: "You should've seen it! I finally managed to wipe that stupid smile off her face. Now she'll have to think twice before sucking up with the Headmaster and the Crown Prince!"
It was one of the many letters she would send accounting for Rosanna Castus' abuse in Cyrilla Academy, as many tales of bullying and harassment followed. And Leo, instead of burning those for his mistress' safety, would keep them all stashed in a box containing his priceless treasures — because he was but a simple man who cherished everything that Viola Adelais gave him.
That was his first mistake.
In their first lifetime, those letters were used to condemn Viola Adelais into exile, stripping her of status as a noble and revoking her entry into the empire of Calix. Furious at his lady's fate, Leo begged to join her, citing himself as an accomplice. Surely there had to be some culpability in enabling her crimes, right? But the jury spared him for some reason, saying that he couldn't have done anything to stop her given his status as a servant.
Since then, Leo spent the remainder of his life searching for his lady, hearing tales of Rosanna Castus' rise in power as he traveled all over the empire. He heard that she eventually married the Crown Prince, much to the dismay of her long line of suitors. They held the grandest wedding in all of the four continents, attended and envied by all. Meanwhile, Leo had never heard any news or found any trace of Viola.
On his dying bed, he wondered how things could have turned out differently. If only he had killed Rosanna Castus right then and there, could he have spared his lady from a bad ending?
***
As if the world heard his musings, he was granted another chance to live with all the memories of his previous life intact.
His lady still picked him up in the water-clogged streets of Rumpia. They still played however much they can. His lady still fell in love with the Crown Prince. She still attended Cyrilla Academy, where she met and hated Rosanna Castus with all her heart. Leo warned her that this was no good — that a time will come and Rosanna Castus will return the favor tenfold, with all the power this world can provide.
"Now you're taking her side?" His lady screamed, throwing away pastries that Leo had meticulously prepared. This time, he had come to visit her properly, instead of sneaking around like a rogue. "I'm your master! You're supposed to serve me!"
In the end, the jury was right — the bullying continued regardless of what he said about it. Viola Adelias amped up her harassment, dragging the Castus family name along with their eldest. Due to some deviation, Rosanna Castus ended up marrying Oswald Mirande, the rich tycoon, and this led to the downfall of the Adelais, whose assets were sequestered bit by bit to the bank. Viola and her family fell into destitution, and when the household contracted a rare disease, no hospital came to their aid thanks to the influence of the Mirandes.
Leo was the first to go. On his dying bed, he watched as his lady cried over him, asking the world how they ended up this way. He didn't have the heart to tell her, I told you so.