My Ruin to You - Chapter 235

It was a much earlier return than anyone had anticipated. While everyone unanimously predicted victory, many had prepared themselves for a protracted war, worried about the desperate last stand of the Carnoc army, which had lost its capital, and the nearly twofold difference in troop numbers compared to their own forces.

However, the tilting tide of battle had broken the enemy’s morale, and their depleted stamina had gnawed away at their will to fight. Furthermore, there had been a decisive opportunity for victory that those left behind in the encampment knew nothing about.

“The Grand Duke has returned!”

The lookout who first spotted the returning procession shouted loudly, then blew the horn.

The news of the Grand Duke’s return spread like wildfire through the encampment. In the healing center, gasps and cheers rippled through the air like a wave. Not only the Manifestors, but even the injured soldiers lying on their cots clapped their hands in joy. Roseline, who received the news while in the midst of a mana cast, was so startled she made a mistake she never usually would. She cast a protective shield instead of healing mana on a knight; it was a small mercy, at least, that it wasn’t a mana type from a completely different affinity.

“What are you standing there dazed for? Aren’t you going?”

Malsen, who had been grouped with Roseline again after returning to Runzak, poked her arm.

“There are too many injured right now. I’ll go later,” Roseline said, forcing a smile.

When she first heard the news, a surprising sense of joy had made her feet twitch, but while a deployment ceremony was one thing, a return to the encampment wasn’t a formal event, so greeting him wasn’t standard procedure. Only the knight officers would be present to receive the Grand Duke.

The thought of standing awkwardly among them made her cringe. But others thought differently.

The young ladies buzzed with excitement, urging Roseline on, and Merrick and the knights were giving her pointed looks. So persistently did they fuss that Roseline was practically pushed all the way to the encampment’s entrance. The officers who had arrived early welcomed her and guided her to the very center spot.

“He’s coming,” Merrick said. He, too, seemed moved by the Grand Duke’s return, his voice slightly more buoyant than usual.

Roseline, standing under the intense sunlight, shaded her eyes with her hand and looked where Merrick pointed. As the towering flag drew closer, Valen’s figure leading the steel-gray wave came into view. The cloak of the man sitting proudly atop his warhorse fluttered, and the emblem engraved on his armor glittered dazzlingly in the light.

“Sound the victory drums!”

Boom, boom, boom.

Around the time the three drum echoes shook the ground, the steel-gray procession entered the encampment.

“Whoa.”

Valen, at the lead, pulled on the reins. As the horse came to a complete stop, the knights who had come to greet him bowed their heads in unison, placing their hands over their hearts.

“We greet Your Highness, the Grand Duke. We congratulate you on your victory, Your Highness!”

Following the lead of the encampment commander, the knights raised their voices. Standing among them, Roseline glanced around, then mumbled, “Congratulations on your victory, Your Highness,” bowing her head slightly. Valen, who had been gazing for a moment at the white robe and pink head that stood out conspicuously amidst the plate armor, dismounted. Then, from among the many gathered to greet him, he walked straight up to Roseline, stopping three steps away.

“It’s been a while,” he said, looking her over carefully.

“We greet Your Highness, the Grand Duke. I congratulate you on your victory.”

As Roseline bent her knees slightly in a curtsy, a soft laugh escaped him. Roseline, who had been staring at the military boots at the edge of her vision, slowly raised her head. Valen, with the scorching sun at his back, was blinding, making her expression instinctively contort. The perceptive man moved aside, blocking the sun for her, and only then could Roseline get a proper look at Valen.

Suddenly, the day she had reunited with Valen in the ruined Marquisate came to mind. Frankly, it wasn’t a good memory. However the process had unfolded, she now knew the full result, so those memories could never become beautiful nostalgia, and because of that, she had tried relentlessly to forget them.

Yet, for some reason, the memory of his bloodshot eyes meticulously scanning her from head to toe, as if checking for any wound or cut, and his hands clenched tightly on the reins, now clawed its way back. Perhaps because the way she was looking at him now was no different from how Valen had looked at her then.

“Have you been well?”

It was only after hearing his voice, laced with laughter, that Roseline met his eyes.

“Huh? Ah, yes, I… well…”

“What a pity. I haven’t been.”

“……”

“My judgment was impaired. I left something behind.”

Valen spread his arms toward Roseline, who was standing there dazed.

“I missed you, Roseline.”

It had only been days. Not even a full year, not even a month. Yet, it felt strange, as if they had been reunited after a long separation. Perhaps it was because she had come to understand the worry and anxiety of the one left behind.