Chapter 335: Kindness
(Time-Stilled World, Desert Plateau, Leo’s POV)
Leo stood motionless for a moment, his dagger still faintly sizzling with dark flames, as the two women lay unconscious before him.
His gaze drifted between them—the silver-haired captain who had tried to save her comrade despite being broken herself, and the younger girl, Della, whose blood-soaked robes clung to her frame.
’Do I just leave them here? Or do I help them?’ he wondered, his fingers twitching with indecision.
He had no obligation to them.
No connection, nor any particular reason to save them.
And yet... something kept him from simply walking away.
Maybe it was the old dragon’s words about karma, and how one should strive to spread good in this universe.
Or maybe it was just a whim, but Leo decided to help them survive, if only for a couple more days.
*Sigh*
With a sigh, he crouched beside Della, slinging her limp form across his shoulder with practiced ease before carefully laying her down next to her captain.
Their breaths were shallow, but steady, as they seemed to be stable and alive for now, despite being unconscious.
’I should feed them a few healing potions...’ Leo thought, as he reached for the mana storage ring around his neck, before pausing mid-way, as he realized that wasting his own personal resources on strangers was beyond stupid.
Instead, he turned away from them and walked toward the battlefield, where the rest of their squad lay cold and lifeless.
By now, their bodies were half-buried in the sand, with fingers still curling around weapons they were never going to use again, as Leo scoured them methodically—stripping belts, unfastening spatial pouches, checking boots and inside coats, as he looted everything he could find.
*Click*
*Rustle*
Within minutes, he had gathered a small pile of mid-grade healing potions, stamina potions and mana potions, a thousand days worth of field rations, half a dozen chocolate bars, a thousand or so mid grade mana stones and even a few dozen ice grenades.
He pocketed most of the items, stuffing them into his spatial pouch and inner storage ring, leaving behind only four healing potions and a wrapped ration bar on the outside.
Then, he returned to the unconscious girls—kneeling beside the silver-haired captain first, as he uncorked one of the healing potions and slipped a hand beneath her neck, lifting her head like she weighed nothing at all.
The captain’s body hung limp in his hands, offering no resistance—motionless and delicate, like a shattered porcelain doll, as tilting her head back with clinical care, he pressed the vial to her parted lips and slowly poured the potion past her soft jawline, guiding each drop with measured precision to avoid even a trace of spillage.
However, since he was no expert in nursing, some of it still inevitably dribbled down her chin, staining her collar, but most of it made it down her throat in shallow gulps.
Once finished, he let her head rest gently in the sand and moved to Della, as he repeated the same process.
Wrist under her hair. Potion to her mouth. Controlled pour. Shallow breaths.
He watched them in silence, arms unmoving, fingers smeared with potion residue, as the wind stirred the blood-stained sand around them.
However, as he nursed and cared for them, something within him stirred, something foreign and unusual, as he felt an uncomfortable feeling growing inside his chest.
It wasn’t attraction, nor affection, just... warmth. A kind of quiet, aching warmth that hadn’t stirred in him for years.
And then he saw her— Amanda.
Not as a memory. But as a presence.
Like she was standing here before him, with her kind and vibrant eyes looking at him with the biggest smile on her face.
*Hahaha–*
Her laughter rang in his ear.
The curve of her smile, played in front of his eyes.
And he could almost feel the way her fingers used to brush his cheek when she thought he was asleep.
As that sensation hit him harder than any blade.
He hadn’t thought about her in years—hadn’t let himself think. Yet here, in the middle of a cursed world, cradling two unconscious strangers, he found his mind drifting back to the girl he once swore he’d never leave behind.
He didn’t know whether it was grief, nostalgia, or just the simple cruelty of memory, but it clawed at his ribs like a dull blade.
As he could do nothing, but force himself to swallow it down.
’Not now,’ he told himself. ’This isn’t the time.’
The scent of blood in the air thickened, it clung to his nostrils, metallic and heavy, mixing with the heat of the desert and the whispering winds that carried too many unseen dangers.
’Sandworms can come here at any moment—’ Leo thought, desperately trying to distract himself from the memory of Amanda, as he forced himself to think about other topics.
He scanned the horizon. The dunes were still for now, but staying here meant asking for trouble.
Hence, without another word, he stepped forward and bent down once more— hoisting Della over his left shoulder, and the captain over his right, as he decided to bring them to safety for now.
Their combined weights still felt nothing to him compared to the weighted vests Major Hen made him wear at Rodova, as he began to walk once again.
He didn’t know where exactly these two ladies wanted to go, however, he assumed that they were here to complete the same mission as him, and hence he kept moving west towards the mountain ranges, which was the path to reach Castle Bravo.
If the two didn’t wish to continue with the expedition, they could walk back after they woke up, however, for now they came with him, as he tried to figure out why he was increasingly losing control over his emotions these days?
Ever since he had gained the passive ability [Monarch’s Indifference], he had almost never had such an episode.
However, as of late, he felt as though he had grown more and more sensitive again..... and as if, [Monarch’s Indifference] had been slowly failing him for some reason.