"I will never forgive you, Rosanna Castus. Not in this life, or the other — you'll rot in hell along with your bitch of a mother and your bastard commoner father. If you're lucky, then you'll meet that little brother of yours too, but I doubt an angel like him would end up in the same place as you. It was already a miracle that the two of you had to share the same blood."
-Viola Adelais and Rosanna Castus, Secret Route
***
'She's my idol.'
Leo stared at everyone in the hallway, wondering if they had all heard the same thing. Beside him, his lady looked just as dumbfounded, her mouth forming an 'o'.
This was a dream. It must be. Of all the things Rosanna Castus had to say about his lady in their past lives, referring to her as 'idol' was tantamount to Viola actually considering Rosanna as a friend.
In short words, impossible.
Unaware of Leo's inner turmoil, Rosanna made no move to retract her statement. With her face still red, she spoke, "Miss Viola's safety is my business. I can't just let those lowlives embarrass her in front of everybody."
The words were spoken with so much vitriol, that Leo had no choice but to believe them. If he was being honest, Leo only heard about his lady being bullied — and nothing about what happened to Rosanna. When he found out that his lady was inside the office, he immediately thought the worst — that his lady had finally snapped, causing the events of their past lives to repeat once more.
He had promised he would never let his lady go down that road again, even if he had to walk that road himself.
Hearing Rosanna's response, however, didn't provide him with anything substantial. Was this another ploy? Was she purposefully getting into Viola's graces just because Leo rejected her offer? Could she have known that he and Viola had a fallout, so now she was splitting them up as a form of divide and conquer?
If only the people around him knew how much exactly was Rosanna Castus capable of, they wouldn't blame Leo for thinking all these things. He wouldn't put it past her to play this whole business of saving Viola as a farce, especially if it got her the empathy she needed. And it WAS working: first, she got the Crown Prince's obstinate royal guard to actually take her side.
Acting all pitiful with her head hung low...Leo wouldn't fall for such tricks! He was better than the others! The girl in front of them was no damsel; she was a rose filled with thorns!
But even then, no matter what her motives her, she was still able to save his lady when Leo couldn't. This was a massive blow to his pride, but for his lady, there was nothing he wouldn't endure.
And so against his will, Leo finally relented:
"Someone please tell me. What did they do?"
Nobody answered. Instead, they all turned to look at Rosanna. Her face was burning red, and Leo was now beginning to realize that it wasn't out of embarrassment.
"Nothing," Rosanna Castus glared at him as if noticing his stare. "Spoiled brats like them are all bite and no bark. Like hell I'll let them do anything!"
"They were after me," Viola suddenly cut in, voice low.
It was the first time he heard his lady sound so despondent. Somewhere around them, Vincent shot Leo a pointed look, as if to say, 'I told you so'.
Rosanna turned to Viola. "But they started it—!"
Viola shook her head, "Well, I probably provoked them at some point. I gather I just didn't know since I've always been with…" his lady snuck a glance at Leo, then cleared her throat. "You know. I don't exactly have a good reputation."
Leo tried to pretend his heart didn't break a little at that. His lady wouldn't even save his name.
"I didn't even know she was your friend," his lady had said, the morning after the whole mess of Rosanna being captured. "You didn't have to pretend otherwise, you know."
Since discovering Leo and Rosanna's "friendship", his lady had begun to distance herself from Leo. She insisted that Leo try not to stick too much to her and that he go and enjoy his time at the Academy. Being a servant shouldn't stop him from living his life, she said, and he should take his opportunity to meet new people.
'You're not just my servant. You're my friend. I want you to be happy.'
…so she says, but his lady didn't know that Leo was the happiest at her side. He tried to tell her that he couldn't really care less for others, but his denial seemed to convince her that they definitely needed to go their separate ways. Something about not taking advantage of Leo's loyalty, and that he'd already indulged her too much by following her all the way here. But Leo begged to differ.
In fact, he wanted to beg and differ — so much that he almost divulged his whole reason for following Viola. Which was a disgrace on his part, because if he managed to keep mum about it for lifetimes, why the hell was he losing control now?
"But my lady, you're the second-best student in our batch! You come from a good family!" Rosanna burst forward, taking Viola's hands. Her eyes seemed to burn with an invisible fire. "You're smart, you're beautiful, you work hard…I don't understand…"
Viola's cheeks flushed at Rosanna's words. "I-It's not that impressive…"
Leo had worked very hard to praise his mistress. He'd been saying the same thing his whole life — across different lifetimes, even. And yet, he had never gotten her to act this coy and abashed.
Who would've taught that all it would take was a few words from her sworn enemy?
What's worse, Rosanna didn't seem to be joking. There was a passion in her words that Leo recognized all too well — and that was how he could tell she was being genuine.
Leo didn't know what to feel about that. All his life (or lives, rather), he'd prided himself as his lady's sole admirer. He'd always wanted the world to be more aware of his lady's finer attributes, but now that it was, Leo found himself clenching his fists. They were too late.
"You should hear what the other students say about you, Miss Castus." Viola removed her hands from Rosanna's grip, laughing sheepishly. "I know I said you came from a disgraced family before, and I'm deeply sorry for that. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. Clearly, anyone of your background had to come from a distinguished household."
"Are you talking about the Maures?" Rosanna scoffed, "They're not distinguished at all."
"But your parents—"
"I can't remember," Rosanna shrugged. "I only have my little brother, my lady. Everything else doesn't really matter."
Leo froze. The Rosanna he knew had an unflinching obsession with her family's disgrace — there wasn't a single lifetime where everyone who dared talk ill about them wasn't punished or exiled. Although this was easily overlooked with her tendency to get wrapped up with questionable men, mentioning her family was a surefire way to get on Rosanna's bad side…and Leo spoke from experience.
The Crown Prince, the rich tycoon, and the judge's son — Rosanna made them all look like saints when she sent the nobles of Dolossa down to the gallows. It didn't matter how much these men rushed to her aid and acted vengeance on her behalf, for there was nothing worse than Rosanna enacting revenge for herself.
"You should meet him one day, my lady!" Rosanna squawked. "I promised I'd meet new people, and if you'd like, maybe you can drop by, you know…as…"
Her voice trailed off. Leo imagined that she was struggling to hold in various unsavory adjectives to describe his lady. He never believed in any gods, but if there was one, he prayed that Rosanna would at least slip her words, finally taking off that stupid mask once and for all.
"Friends?" Viola offered.
Leo almost choked on the air. In his mind, he could see their past lives playing out at full speed — a long history of grudges, trials, and pain…all about to end in a single word.
"My lady," Leo tried to intervene, "You shouldn't—"
But his lady had already grasped Rosanna's hand, smiling.
"I'd be delighted to," his lady said, much to Rosanna's embarrassment. "Consider it as my way of thanking you for what you did today."
Leo and Vincent shared a look, both not expecting this development. The royal guard sighed.
"Well, now that we're all friends, perhaps I can go back to my dorm now and report this to His Highness. Any objections?"
'Me!' Leo screamed inwardly, slowly losing his grip on reality. The foundations of this world were built upon his lady and Rosanna's enmity; Viola needed to hate Rosanna so that Leo could hate her by extension. Now that they were 'friends', where does that leave Leo?