In an instant, the brambles surrounding Rosalinda twisted violently. The thick vines contracted sharply. Then, without warning, they split into several branches and extended in all directions. They quickly covered a wide area around her, forming a threatening vegetal wall.
The attack was brutal and difficult to avoid. The branches sliced through the air with a high-pitched whistle, ready to lacerate anything in their path.
Yet Nox did not move a single centiter.
He stayed there, perfectly still, arms slightly spread. He simply watched the brambles rush toward him, and a slow smile appeared on his face. His eyes shone with a strange, almost greedy gleam.
The brambles hit him full force.
They tore his skin with disconcerting ease, ripping his shirt in several places. The thorns carved several deep gashes across his torso and arms. Blood imdiately began to flow along his skin, forming thin red lines on his chest.
Nox raised his head and took a deep breath. His shoulders trembled slightly, as if the pain gave him genuine pleasure.
"...It’s so refreshing," he said in an almost dreamy voice. His face twisted with excitent, a mixture of suffering and ecstasy crossing his features.
However, Rosalinda’s reaction was completely different from what one might have expected.
Her expression changed instantly. The anger that had inhabited her face since the beginning of the fight vanished as if it had never existed, and panic took its place in a fraction of a second. Her eyes widened when she saw the blood running down Nox’s skin.
She rushed toward him without the slightest hesitation, almost shoving the brambles out of her way. She looked like a worried wife who had just seen her husband seriously injured.
"My love, you’re hurt," Rosie said, imdiately taking over. Her voice trembled slightly at the sight of Nox’s blood dripping onto the floor. "Don’t worry, I’ll heal you."
"Man, I love teasing her so much ~, seeing her personality switch... It drives crazy for her,"
Her hands rose at once, her fingers almost brushing the wounds without touching them. A halo of soft light appeared around her fingers, a warm golden glow that contrasted with the darkness of the room. The light settled gently on Nox’s injuries.
The skin closed rapidly under the effect of the magic. The gashes disappeared little by little, the tissues reconstructing as if ti were reversing. A few seconds later, no trace of the cuts remained, as if they had never existed.
anwhile, a few ters away, the others watched the scene with completely bewildered expressions.
Julian narrowed his eyes, desperately trying to understand what was happening in front of him. He watched Rosalinda heal Nox with incomprehensible tenderness, then watched Nox accept the care as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"I love teasing you so much, darling," Nox said with a smile.
Then he heard the word that made everything flip.
"Darling?!" Jasper tilted his head in incomprehension.
"But what the fuck is this shit?!"
Julian literally exploded. His voice echoed throughout the entire room, even covering the sound of the remaining falling debris.
His gaze went from Rosalinda to Nox, then back to Rosalinda. He shook his head, as if trying to dispel a hallucination.
’Wasn’t she the enemy? The one who kidnapped Norah? The one they ca to confront?’ Kaiser thought.
From the beginning of the fight, Julian had clearly felt sothing strange. Nox wasn’t fighting seriously. He wasn’t trying to kill, nor even really to hurt. He was playing, dodging just enough to avoid being hit, attacking without real intent.
Julian suddenly turned his head toward the other two.
Jaspers and Kaiser were also looking for an explanation. They looked at each other, shrugging, but their expressions clearly showed they were just as confused as he was. Jaspers crossed his arms, waiting for an answer.
The answer finally ca from Nox himself.
He had already noticed their presence for a while, his ears having caught their footsteps in the rubble.
"So you finally ca," he said casually as he walked toward them.
Behind him, Rosalinda followed almost trotting, her hands still surrounded by light to continue closing the last small wounds that had escaped her first healing.
Jaspers didn’t like situations he didn’t understand, and this one clearly exceeded his comprehension.
"Start by telling us what the hell this ans," Jaspers said in a sowhat irritated voice. "We ca to save your sister and eliminate the enemy, right?"
Nox simply shrugged, as if the question was secondary.
"Ah yeah, Norah is fine..." Nox added, pointing toward the girl resting farther away, lying on a flat surface.
They all turned their heads in the indicated direction.
Norah was indeed there, lying on the desk where Julian had placed her. She seed to be sleeping peacefully, her breathing calm and regular.
Then Nox added calmly, with the sa nonchalance as if he were presenting a dish at the table:
"And... let also introduce you to my girlfriend."
He gestured vaguely toward Rosalinda behind him.
"..."
For a full second, no one spoke.
Then they all reacted at the sa ti.
"WTF?!" they answered in unison, their voices blending into an explosion of shock.
The silence fell again imdiately, even heavier than before.
Nox sighed lightly while running his hand back through his hair.
He took a few minutes to explain the situation to them.
Little by little, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place in the minds of the three n.
Rosalinda had not kidnapped Norah because of hatred between dark elves and Yggdrasil, nor even for any kind of revenge.
She had done it... out of morbid jealousy. She couldn’t stand another woman being close to Nox, even if it was his sister. And Nox did nothing to reassure her, preferring to tease her... And in the end, it was Norah who paid the price.
When Julian understood this, he passed a hand over his face while closing his eyes. He massaged his temples, as if to soothe a sudden headache.
"You’re telling that the cause of all this is just a lovers’ quarrel?!" Julian said while holding his forehead. His voice was a mixture of disbelief and exhaustion.
He had trouble believing what he had just heard.
But at that mont, a movent caught their attention.
Norah had just moved. She had already been awake for a good while, she had simply chosen to take a little more ti.
She slowly opened her eyes, her eyelids blinking several tis to adjust to the light. She sat up slightly, supporting herself on her elbows, visibly still weak.
"Norah! How are you?" asked her boyfriend.
"I feel a bit ashad, Julian, you did all this for while..."
"Hm? While what? You should rest, Norah, after—"
"No, now that we’re not hiding anything anymore, Julian..." Her voice was a little fragile.
Everyone turned toward her.
Julian imdiately approached, his features softening when he saw she was okay. He crouched beside her, placing one hand on the edge of the desk.
"Yes, tell , Norah," Julian replied, his voice becoming softer as he waited for what she wanted to say.
Norah took a deep breath. She seed to hesitate for a mont, her eyes quickly scanning the faces around her. Her fingers tightened slightly on the edge of the desk.
Then she spoke.
"I may have already sucked Kaiser off."
"..."
"..."
"..."
No one moved. Even the wind seed to have stopped blowing through the cracks in the wall.
"Oh... the dog..." Jasper snickered.
"Huh?"
Kaiser raised his hands in a defensive gesture, stepping back.
"Wait, man, I swear it’s not true! I’ve never even spoken to her!"
*Fink!!!!*
A slash of frost shot out behind him without warning.
The attack crossed the air at blinding speed, a blade of icy aura shining with bluish light.
Kaiser reacted imdiately, his reflexes taking over. He leaped powerfully to the side, landing in a roll to avoid the attack.
The aura blade passed through the air exactly where he had been standing a second earlier and struck the wall behind him with a dull sound. The stone shattered, sending debris flying across the room.
"Son of a bitch! How dare you touch my girl?!" Julian roared, beside himself.
He was already advancing, sword raised above his shoulder, ready to strike again. His knuckles whitened on the handle of his weapon.
Kaiser retreated quickly, raising his hands even higher. He desperately searched for the right words. But who would believe that bastard Kaiser... His reputation as a womanizer preceded him.
"Julian, it’s a misunderstanding, he doesn’t even know. And it was for research!" Norah said hurriedly.
"Research that wasn’t conclusive anyway," Nox comnted while embracing Rosalinda.
But Julian didn’t want to hear anything.
He launched another attack, more powerful than the first. The aura around his sword shone intensely.
...
In the arid desert, one could see Kaiser running in zigzags to avoid the attacks of the enraged Julian.
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