Uncle's Past III [LEON]

“Rosaria, can you tell me about yourself?”

She stiffened. Her eyes widened in sudden panic. A flicker of hesitation flashed across her pale face.

“You don’t have to tell me if you are that hesitant”

She stared at me for a long moment.

Then, she nodded.

She slowly reached for the pen and paper I had sat beside us. Her hands trembled slightly as she began to write.

The pen moved carefully and deliberately.

“I was born into a noble family… in the kingdom across the border. My father was a noble, my mother was not.”

“Because my mother wasn’t of noble blood, I was considered illegitimate. Still, my father… he loved me. He didn’t care about any of that. He always protected me. He made me feel like I belonged, even when the others looked at me like I was a mistake.”

“Even though I was born mute, he never treated me differently. His love was… enough. My mother, though… she changed. When I was little, she would hold me and sometimes smile. But as I grew older, she began to withdraw. I never knew why. I’d try to reach her, but she would turn away.”

“As Father’s health declined, he couldn’t protect me anymore. Others in the family… they never liked me. When he died… they didn’t even let me see him. I couldn’t even say goodbye.”

A single drop of tear slid down her cheek.

“I wanted to see his grave. I wanted to see my mother one last time. But they exiled me.”

She stopped writing.

I don’t know if she didn’t know or if she was pretending to ignore that her family even tried to kill her.

Something emerged within me. I don’t know what it was but I wanted to help this girl.

"Rosaria… do you want to visit the places you wished to see?"

Rosaira widens her eyes.

“If you want to go there then I shall help you get there”

Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she quickly wiped them away, but they kept coming, no matter how hard she tried.

I stayed silent.

After a while, she composes herself and writes “Can you take me there?”

I nodded

So, we decided to depart to her kingdom. The journey would take about one week.

We faced multiple hurdles during our travel. Monsters, bandits, and assassins. Yet, I never let any harm come to her.

Our bond was growing deeper too.

After a week of travel, we finally reached the place she mentioned.

A shabby slum area. She leads me to a shabby hut. She knocks on the door. No answer.

The door was open and as she opened the door. Someone answers from inside.

“Who in the world is it? Disturbing me out of nowhere?”

A woman answered our visit. Clad in ragged cloth, hair was a tangled mess. Her eyes landed on Rosaria.

Rosaria widens her eyes. It was like she had found someone who she lost for a long time time.

“Rosaria…” she spat the name.

Then, her brows furrowed and her lips curled in contempt. “You useless garbage in the name of a daughter. Why are you here now?”

Rosaria froze.

“You useless mute. Do you even know how much I hated you?! You stole everything from me! All his love and attention, it was always you. And now that he's dead, and the family’s tossed you out like the mistake you are, you crawl back to me? Pathetic.”

Rosaria flinched.

I stepped forward with anger flaring in my veins but didn’t lash out. I turned to Rosaria,

"Rosaria, Let’s go.”

Her eyes filled with pain and disbelief.

She turned and ran.

I followed, keeping pace as she fled from that place.

After reaching a safe distance from the ruined meeting with her mother, her steps slowed.

“Rosaria”

She turns to me with disbelieving teary eyes.

Then, I raised my hands slowly, forming an “O” and “K” with my fingers. Then pressed my fists together, knuckles touching pointed softly. I sliced one hand into the other then dragged both index fingers down the cheeks, mimicking tears. I tapped my chin and shook my head then gestured outward, away from them, before tapping my chin again with a firm face.

“It’s okay. I'm with you. So, please stop crying. You are not at fault, it's them who are wrong”

Her breath hitched. She was, stunned. And then… the tension in her shoulders eased. That simple attempt to speak her language was enough to reach her.

Then, we walk to her father’s grave.

She kneeled and prayed for a while.

She stands up.

We walked away from the graveyard slowly. After putting some distance, I stopped.

“Rosaria…” I turned to her.

She tilted her head slightly.

“I don’t know when it started. Maybe it was how you followed me without saying a word and still spoke so much.”

Her eyes glistened.

“I love you, Rosaria, I want you to be my wife. Come with me to our estate. No one will ever hurt you again. I promise that.”

A stunned silence fell between us. And then tears rolled down her cheeks. She tried wiping them quickly but they flowed faster than her trembling hands could chase them.

And then she nodded.

I stepped closer. She looked up at me with such gentle certainty that all doubt vanished.

In the quiet magic of the moment, our lips met. It wasn’t dramatic or fevered. It was soft, pure, like two pieces of a puzzle finally understanding they belonged together.

The following days felt brighter. We decided to travel back toward my estate, a place I believed would now be safe. I was hopeful. My brother had already taken his rightful place as the Marquis, and I believed the tides of political greed had long settled.

My world felt alive in ways I hadn’t experienced before. Days with her were fuller, softer, and filled with the quiet joy of companionship.

But peace has a cruel tendency to be temporary.

One afternoon, while traveling through a forest clearing, we came across an injured horned rabbit. I was about to move on because creatures like this were common prey in the wild but Rosaria knelt beside it with eyes full of concern.

“Rosaria, we should go.”

But she cradled the creature gently. Her kindness was her nature.

And then, the air shifted.

I sensed it too late.

Rustling surrounded us. Shadows slithered between trees. The smell of foul magic filled my lungs. I turned quickly, weapon already half drawn but it was too late to avoid the trap. Arrows cut through the air. I blocked the one aimed at her, knocking it away.

Goblins emerged, grinning wickedly. Dozens of them. They hissed in excitement, But more alarming were the three humans among them.

One of them stepped forward, “Did you think you could leave and enter our kingdom with her without any consequences?”

He pointed at me.

“Rosaria, get behind me.”

I didn’t wait for them to make the first move.

The clash was brutal. I moved through the goblins like a storm. They fell one after another. The humans joined the fray, but even they faltered under the weight of my fury.

“She’s not yours to torment anymore!” I roared.

Their confidence shattered. One tried to run. I didn’t let him.

Just when I thought it was over, a dark mist coiled through the trees.

I turned and there… standing calmly was a necromancer.

Around him, the dead began to rise. Skeletons, liches, even death knights clad in rotting armor. It was an army fit to raze kingdoms.

Rosaria stepped closer. I stood between her and the nightmare ahead.

My grip tightened on my blade.

No matter what came… I would not let them touch her.

I struck first. They came at me like a wave, unrelenting. My arms burned and my body ached.

The necromancer never moved.

He watched me.

He waited.

And then…

A sharp gasp.