Meanwhile, in the separate dimension where Noctus resided, Adrian had no clue about any of the struggles that his sister and soon-to-be formally ex-fiancé were going through due to his absence.
The morning after Rosy and Adrian formally joined the Resistance, Adrian woke up alone in their tent. Both Rosy, and the body of the unknown, failed assassin were gone, as well as all of Rosy's gear. Exiting the tent, Adrian asked around about Rosy's current location and eventually learned that she'd left the camp, headed towards the forested area to the west. The gate-guard that'd informed him of her location had warned him to stay far away from that forest, but Adrian'd ignored him.
He finally found Rosy in a clearing just out of sight of the camp, hidden by the trees. She was doing basic exercises with her sword. Over the two days that they'd been travelling, she'd done this at least once per day away from Bastion's prying eyes. Now, she was doing it away from the Resistance's eyes as well. 'Her martial arts really are something incredible!' Adrian thought, not for the first time. Every single motion was smooth, wasting zero motion and zero energy. All of her inertia went straight into her attacks, transferring into the next motion in the process. No matter how much Adrian trained, this was real martial arts, and he didn't see himself ever matching it.
"Can I help you?" She asked, stopping her motion. She casually swung her sword into its sheath, which was another point of reference for how high spec her dexterity was, since she didn't even need a moment to line the sword up before accurately sliding it into the sheath.
"Just watching the show." He joked, making her smirk, "But seriously, you've got incredible skills, Rosy."
"Forged through hell. Do you want another lesson?" She asked, "Our last lesson got cut a little short..." Her smirk turned wry, remembering their previous 'lesson.' It hadn't been too useful for instructing, since they'd been forced to drop the actual 'instructing' part of the lesson when they'd realized that it was a trap.
"You're still hurt, you know. Didn't anyone tell you that you'll just hurt yourself more if you exercise right after getting injured?" Adrian reminded her. In the trap, nearly half of Rosy's body had been covered with third degree burns. Though she'd had her battle-shirt replaced with a similar-looking inferior copy when they'd gotten their stuff back after speaking with the resistance leaders, her back must have still been covered with barely-starting-to-heal wounds. She honestly probably shouldn't be standing, much less exercising. Even with her incredible pain resistance, there was no way that she'd be capable of training Adrian, as far as he figured it.
"I know a bit of healing magic, and vampires already have an increased healing factor. I'm not in perfect health yet, but moving around isn't going to kill me." She explained. Seeing Adrian's doubting expression, she turned around and lifted up her shirt a little bit. Compared to the black, horrible burns that Adrian remembered, her back had healed considerably. It was still covered in really painful-looking scabs, but even a normal person would probably still be able to move around with that level of injury.
"That still looks really bad, though." He told her.
"It's just pain." She shrugged, putting her shirt back down, "Even if I reopen it, it'll heal within a week or so. I don't even scar."
"Still..." Adrian didn't like the idea of that. Rosy's injury was something that would cause a normal soldier in Uriah's army to be eligible for permanent retirement, but she was acting as if it was just a papercut or something. It didn't sit well with him.
"I'm an assassin, Adrian. People try to kill me all the time. It'd be wrong for me to take that lightly. Polishing my skills under any situation is my duty." Adrian understood where she was coming from. He'd felt the same way growing up. His duty was to his people, and his compensation was a royal's lavish lifestyle. Taking his duty towards his people lightly, not trying his best to live up to the importance of his place in the world, would make all the wealth and attention that they'd spent on him worse than a piece of garbage.
He'd spent his entire life thinking that way, pushing his mind past its limits to keep up with the harsh lessons that he'd been put through, memorizing data and connecting it to real applications, learning basic psychology... All to ensure that everything that had been spent on him wasn't a waste. Meanwhile, Rosy'd been through so much worse.
Just to keep up appearances... to survive, Rosy'd needed to kill. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives had been reaped by her blade. Every single one of those lives was a sacrifice, to keep Rosy going. No matter her path, she had a duty to those lives. A duty to keep going... to be the best. Unbreakable, and she'd never dare take that duty lightly.
So, she'd keep going. If she was injured, she'd shrug it off. If she was captured, she'd bite her own arm off if she needed to in order to escape. She didn't live for herself anymore. Adrian, more than anyone, knew what a heavy burden that path was.
Understanding the reason for Rosy's mentality, Adrian wasn't going to argue with her. He understood what it was like to live for someone other than yourself, after all.
"I get it. Please teach me martial arts." He asked her. She smirked again. Honestly, Rosy's opinion of Adrian up to this point varied. She knew that he wasn't a normal person. He was a good prince, with a strong will. Unfortunately, he was also incredibly naive in her eyes. He believed that there was always another way to do things. He'd never seemed to 'get' the idea of sacrifice, at all, but she realized that she was wrong. The reason behind his actions was duty, and she finally realized that he was entirely willing to sacrifice himself, unflinchingly, for that duty.