Chapter 28：Till We Meet Again

Something warm ran down the dagger to Rosalind's hand and spilt onto the ground. She fell back in horror at what she had just done, the same moment Vincent's body dropped to the ground after the gunshot.

The man looked at the dagger and then at Rosalind, blood coming out of his mouth as he grinned.

He dropped the gun and, moving like a machine, pulled the dagger out of his stomach, somehow making a deeper gash. His eyes and smile still on Rosalind as he bent down to her, his blood staining his hands, clothes and the ground.

"This is great, isn't it?" He grabbed her face with his blood-soaked hands, wiping them on her as she struggled to pull away.

How is he so strong? He's hurt.

"I am your first kill, aren't I?" He gave a loud throaty laugh and kissed her with his blood-soaked lips. Rosalind felt bile rise to her throat as he did this. "Now. Now, you'll never forget me. I'll be with you always."

With those words and a satisfied look on his face, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he also fell on the ground, dead.

Rosalind unsteadily made her way to Vincent, wiping her lips with her bandages, her legs feeling like jelly as she fell several times before she could make it to him.

"Vincent. Vincent." Rosalind shook him and tried to help him up but with the bullet hole passing straight through his head, there was no way he survived that.

Rosalind let out a deep breath as she closed his startled eyes, praying he is in peace.

Seeing the bloodstains all around her and on her, remembering what she had just done, she screamed in frustration.

"Rosalind?"

Rosalind flinched hearing her name, tears and hiccups and gasps came uncontrollably as she tried to explain what had just happened.

"I-I didn't mean to kill him. It was a mistake. HewasabouttoshootVincentbutthenhewasstillabletoshoothimandtherewasnopointtomekillinghimanywaybecausI-"

She was enveloped in a warm, comfortable embrace as Adriel said, "It's ok. It's ok. It's ok. I'm here now. I'm here."

"Where were you? What do I do now?? How could you just leave me like this? How could you?? I needed you." Rosalind cried as she clung onto him.

"I know. I know."

"Don't you dare leave again like that." She scolded him, sobbing into his arms.

Adriel only looked at the path behind her silently, a sad look on his face.

I'm sorry.

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"Have you seen Rosalind?" Titus asked everyone he met but they all shook their head. They were at a tent in the farthest end of the camp, where the fire hadn't touched before it went off.

The fires suddenly died down but it already cause so much damage to the troops and the supplies that by the time it died down, they almost had nothing left to salvage. And just when they were about to begin their counter-attack.

If the ambush was disastrous, this was a catastrophe. Almost everyone got injured and they lost more than half of their supplies.

"You're looking for Rosa?" Louis ran to him from treating a patient with half his face burnt off.

What kind of fire was that? It burnt all it touched and didn't go out no matter what they did. And where did it come from?

"Yes. You saw her?" He asked her, looking a little desperate. "I've been looking for her from the time the fire started and I still couldn't find her."

"I couldn't find Vincent too either." Louis pulled him to an empty chair and made him take his shirt off. He was burnt all along his left arm to his chest.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about this?" She scolded, applying ointment on it.

"It's not important at the moment, you all still have so many patients to look after." He shrugged.

"Don't move. Lieutenant, you are one of the most admired men here. If you told these men to get up right now and fight, they'll do it without a second's hesitation. So, you can't be this injured and ignore it because it's a guarantee that you will collapse and when you do, who will the men look to?"

Titus looked at all the men and women in pain, being treated by nurses and doctors that ran back and forth with medicines and bandages.

"There is some truth in your words, doctor. But I know my men, they'll survive even without me." He paused for a while. "Do you know the number of deaths?"

"Four people died, which is a surprise with how severe the fire was. But most of them have suffered fourth-degree burns and isn't looking too good. They're not going to survive for long but we're trying our best." Louis said sadly, feeling helpless.

"We just keep losing more men. What's going to happen to the rest of the war spots when the frontline is like this?" Titus sighed, as he looked all around him.

And where is Rosalind?

"Doctor!" A nurse ran to Louis in a panic, "The new doctor just brought in two bodies, you might want to see this."

"New doctor? Adena?"

Titus and Louis looked at each other and ran to the front of the tent, while he wore his shirt, to see Adena carefully lay the bodies down on the ground, Rosalind beside him, covered in blood and an empty look in her eyes.

"Rosalin-" Titus stopped in his tracks with Louis as they saw the blood on her then the bodies on the ground.

"Vincent?" Louis whispered, seeing the bullet hole on his head.

"What happened to her hand?" They drew their attention to Rosalind, seeing her exposed arm.

"Is the nurse ok?"

Rosalind's gaze went all around the tent, to all the injured and this was just one of the tents with the injured in it and she felt a fresh wave of tears come to her eyes.

Their cries of pain flooded her ears and she had to go back outside to try and gain her composure, Adriel and Titus following after her.

"Rosalind. Hey, Rosalind." Titus grabbed her arm to stop her. "Are you ok? Are you hurt? You're not wearing your glove."

"Ikilledhim." She mumbled, still not facing him.

"What was that?"

"I killed him!" Rosalind looked at him, her face burning just like her chest but she refused to break down again.

"Hey. Rosalind, it's ok. You did a good job. How did you kill him?" He smiled proudly at her but quickly stopped when he saw her expression.

"I killed a man, Titus. A man. And even after I killed him, I couldn't save Vincent. He was the cause of those fires and his death didn't lessen the causalities. You know, with every day that passed, I've begun to realize how useless I actually am." She smiled sadly, looking to the ground.

Titus pulled Rosalind into his arms, burying her in his embrace.

"I'm not good with words, nor am I good with expressing myself so this is all I can do. You're not useless, you didn't do anything wrong. You've always tried your best at everything you do. You're good, Rosalind. You're good." He patted her back as he kept repeating that over and over again.

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"There has to be something I can do, Adriel." Rosalind walked back and forth in the tent, she was supposed to be resting but she couldn't.

Titus and the other generals that were still able to move were having another meeting while Louis and some other nurses and men went to burn Vincent's body and bury the other men's too.

Rosalind wanted to help but they wouldn't let her, especially not Louis.

"If you care even a little bit about me and what I say, you will go rest," Louis told her that when they came back to work.

"I'm sorry about Vincent, Louis. I-"

Louis held her hand up to silence her, "Don't apologise. Vincent died protecting you, do not demean his death. Vincent always told me that a good way to go would be to while helping someone." She smiled down at her, tears and pride glistening in her eyes. "He lived a good life and died as he wanted to. He lacked nothing, Rosalind. Do not feel sorry for him, ok?"

"Yeah, Rosalind. Were just happy that at least one of you made it out alive." Ralph smiled at her with his tired, bloodshot eyes, patting her in the back as he got to work.

Rosalind wanted to join the cremation but she couldn't bear the thought of seeing him burn after seeing him get shot, so she just watched the smoke rise to the skies, saying her final farewell to him. They didn't have long either because they had to hurry to work.

"There is something you can do," Adriel replied from his place in the corner, hesitantly.

"Really? What is it?" Rosalind asked him, hope slowly rising in her.

Adriel shook his head and sighed.

"What's wrong, Adriel? You look like you saw a ghost." Rosalind teased, but his expression is making her nervous. "Adriel? What is it?"

"The spirits are willing to heal every injured person in this camp as well as provide assistance but you'll have to give up your gift from the spirits."

Rosalind instinctively touched her hair, still hanging loose and sweeping the ground. She has yet to wash up or even get out of her clothes, caked in dried blood.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"You know the gift the spirits gave your family?" He asked.

"Yes? That's what we tampered with to get this slightly corrupted knowledge I have now."

"Yes. It's because we tampered with it that they are mad, but your bloodline is the only way they have to connect with the physical world. So, if you are willing to give up your gift, they are going to be able to restore the connection properly again."

"But, that doesn't make sense. If I cut my hair, I cut all connections with them. How will they restore the connection?"

"... With your death. They will erase your entire existence and it'll be like you never existed. No one will have any memory of you anymore. You'll just, disappear."

"I refuse then." Titus burst into the tent, fury in his eyes. "Hasn't she been through enough?"

"But, Titus. What about your injured men? So many of them are not going to make it through the night." Rosalind answered.

"We'll think of something." Titus stubbornly replied.

"Look, they are drawing closer. The strategy you made is flawless, you just need the men and you do not have the time." She answered back.

"So you're just going to sacrifice your entire existence for this?"

"You're willing to risk your life for this. Isn't this the same thing?" Rosalind walked to him, placing her hand on his cheek. "What would you do in my situation?"

"… I don't want to lose you like I lost everyone else." He mumbled, leaning into her hand.

"The thing is," Adriel spoke up, "Rosalind isn't going to die the moment she cuts her hair, because of the deal she made with me and according to the conditions, and other spirits can't interfere. Until she is killed or she reaches the limit, she'll be fine. If she cuts her hair now, she'll just lose connection with the spirit world."

"Then let's do it." Rosalind declared.

"Fine." Titus sighed, and took out the dagger from the sheath at his side with the gun, "Sure nothing will happen to her? And that they will keep their promise?"

"Yes. We take our deals very seriously." Adriel took the dagger from him while Rosalind sat down on a crate, putting all her hair to her back.

"How long do you want your hair?" He asked, smiling a little. "You know, when you were younger, I wanted to cut your hair so much because you never knew to comb it and it looked like a bee's nest every time I saw it."

"I've only ever had long hair before. Maybe I can try short now?" Rosalind said, smiling with him. "I don't like to do anything with my hair. I hated it at the time."

"Sure." He chuckled, "No matter what I did, I couldn't get you to do something about your hair."

Adriel bunched up her hair and held the sharp end of the dagger to her hair, just at her neck.

"Take care of yourself ok, Rosalind?" He whispered to her as the blade cut clean through her hair, the gold strands falling off her scalp and sparkling like sprinkles when they hit the ground.

They stared at the long hair on the ground as it turned into thousands of fireflies, lighting up the tent and the outside world as they made their way to the tents with the injured in it. Every person they land on healed in a matter of seconds.

Some landed on Titus, healing the injury he had instantly.

"It's working. You're healed too!" Rosalind jumped on him happily, as he caught her in his arms.

"Adriel. Its worki- Adriel?!" Rosalind got down from Titus's arms and turned to see him slowly fade away the fireflies that remained and quickly rushed to his side.

"W-what's going on, Adriel?"

"Remember? You severed your connection with the spirit world and I am a spirit." He smiled gently at her.

"Why didn't you tell me that this will happen?!" She shouted at him, trying to touch him but she couldn't.

"Rosalind." He touched her face but she felt nothing on her skin, willing her to calm down, "If I had told you, would that have changed your opinion?"

Rosalind stopped and looked at him, smiling sadly, "No."

"I raised you well then. You were a gem to take care of and I love watching you grow to be the strong woman you are now. Never change, ok? You are my greatest joy. And, even if you can't see me, I'm always looking after you."

"Will I ever see you again?" She asked, trying to feel his hand on her face but she could only see it, not feel anything.

"At the end of your journey, I'll be there. Until then, Rosalind." He waved at her, smiling brightly.

"You've been the best friend and family in place of my parents. Thank you so much for everything you've done for me. I'm sorry for everything I've done wrong. Thank you." Rosalind tried her hardest to give him a happy smile as her tears streamed down, but she could barely manage it as her lips quivered.

When the brightness disappeared, only Rosalind and Titus remained in the tent with the quiet and the darkness in the air.

Rosalind collapsed to the ground, crying her eyes out as the emptiness in her heart grew. She felt a little warmer in Titus's arms but the stabbing pain in her chest refused to go away.