Scars of the Past and Shadows of the Future

Elisa's casual remark, light as a feather, brushed against Leon's heart, yet it stirred immense ripples in his muddled thoughts. He jolted awake from his semi-conscious comfort, forgetting even the pain of his wounds, and blurted out instinctively, his voice sounding somewhat abrupt due to his urgency:

"What did you just... say?"

Ripples spread across the water. Elisa's eyes remained closed, as if her soft whisper had truly been a hallucination brought on by Leon's severe injuries. The steam from the hot spring veiled her delicate yet indifferent face in a fine mist of water droplets, making her resemble a motionless crystal sculpture even more.

Leon's heart pounded rapidly, a mixture of anticipation, anxiety, and an indescribable sense of grievance surging within him. He had transmigrated, inheriting this body and all its messes, yet he knew very little about the original owner's true relationships, especially the actual past with his fiancée, with whom he spent his days. His memories were fragmented, tinged with the original owner's strong subjective biases—mostly of possessiveness taken for granted and an arrogance that implied Elisa "couldn't resist and had to accept." But Elisa's words just now had pierced through this false facade like a needle.

He waited a few seconds, seeing Elisa offer no response. A stubbornness flared up within him. Enduring the dull ache in his chest and abdomen, he pushed aside the water with his hand and moved slightly closer to Elisa—though still maintaining a considerable distance, no longer at a dead angle facing each other.

"Elisa," he spoke again, his voice softening but carrying an undeniable seriousness, "I thought I heard you say... that I'm not as annoying today?"

He stared intently at her face, not missing any subtle shift in her expression.

Elisa's long eyelashes fluttered, and she finally opened her eyes slowly. In the misty water vapor, her violet eyes seemed to have lost some of their usual cold detachment, gaining a profound depth that was hard to fathom. She didn't look at Leon, instead gazing at the milky white surface of the water, watching the magical petals gently swirl.

Silence descended once more, broken only by the faint gurgling of the hot spring and their shallow breaths. Just as Leon thought she wouldn't answer and was about to give up questioning, Elisa's clear, cool voice finally rang out, calm and unwavering, yet each word distinct:

"You heard correctly."

No denial! Leon's spirits lifted, and he immediately pressed on, "So... you mean, my past self was very annoying?"

This time, Elisa turned her head, her gaze falling directly on Leon's face. There was no anger, no resentment, not even contempt in her eyes, only a pure, almost objective scrutiny, as if observing an interesting magical phenomenon. This gaze made Leon feel more ashamed than any intense emotion could have, because it implied that, in Elisa's heart, the past "Leon" wasn't even worth her investing much emotion in.

"What do you think?" Elisa didn't answer directly, instead throwing the question back at him, her tone as flat as if she were asking about the weather.

Leon was momentarily stunned by her question. He opened his mouth, and fragments of the original owner's arrogant, overbearing, womanizing, frequenting of pleasure houses, and relentlessly pursuing her with a sense of entitlement, uncontrollably surged forth. His face flushed and paled instantly, a mix of embarrassment, shame, and the stifled frustration of taking the blame for the original owner making him wish he could sink to the bottom of the water.

"I..." he began with difficulty, his voice dry, "I... know I did a lot of scummy things before. To many people... including you."

He lowered his head, looking at his blurry reflection in the water. That face belonging to the "scoundrel Leon," now etched with embarrassment and regret. This wasn't an act; it was his genuine feeling as a transmigrator with a modern soul, reacting to the original owner's actions. "Maybe... it was more than just 'annoying'." He gave a self-deprecating twitch of his lips, feeling the wound begin to ache faintly again.

Elisa watched him quietly for a few seconds, seemingly a little surprised that he would admit this. She shifted her gaze away again, looking towards the rising steam, as if recalling something.

"Noisy, selfish, like a young beast that could never be satisfied and was always causing trouble," she began to list, her tone still flat, as if stating an experimental record. "Mistaking Teacher Marguerite's kindness for indulgence, treating the Hohenzollern surname as a shield for reckless behavior. Your mind seemed to be filled with nothing but alcohol, gambling, and trouble."

Each evaluation was like a small hammer striking Leon's heart. Although it was the original owner being criticized, he felt it as keenly as if it were himself, sharing the fate of this body.

"You would sneak into my room at night," Elisa continued, a barely perceptible fluctuation finally appearing in her tone, not anger, but a deep sense of helplessness and... resignation. "Not because of any deep affection, but simply because you were afraid of the dark, and my presence could calm you. You never asked if I was willing, nor did you ever think there was anything wrong with it. To you, I, Elisa Windsor, your fiancée, was more like... a privately owned item with a special function. An item that could help you sleep."

Leon's heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand, a suffocating discomfort washing over him. He couldn't imagine what Elisa had felt, night after night for the past few years, tolerating such intrusions and demands from a person like that. That cold, objectified feeling was far more hurtful than any scolding or beating.

"I'm sorry," Leon looked up, his gaze sincere as he met Elisa's eyes. The three words were spoken with unusual gravity. "For all the... troubles and annoyances I caused you in the past, I'm sorry. I know an apology is far from enough, but... I am sincere."

Elisa seemed taken aback by his solemn apology and turned to look at him again. This time, her gaze held less scrutiny and more inquiry. She looked at the genuine remorse and seriousness in Leon's eyes, his demeanor so different from before, and a faint flicker of confusion crossed her violet eyes.

The Leon before her seemed... different from the arrogant, self-centered scoundrel in her memory. It wasn't just the methods he used in the duel today, but also this current posture of willingness to lower his head and admit his mistakes. This wasn't like him.

"Apologies are meaningless," Elisa averted her gaze, returning to her usual cool demeanor. "What's done is done. The engagement was arranged by the families, and your... habits, I have adapted to. It's just a part of life, like meditating or studying magic every day, a predetermined process."

Her words still sounded indifferent, as if drawing a clear line. But Leon keenly detected a subtle difference. She no longer spoke of "inability to resist and having to accept" in a completely passive way, but rather said she had "adapted" and it was "a part of life." This slight distinction meant that although she disliked it, she had found a way to coexist with the situation, a way that perhaps contained a sliver of resilience.

Furthermore, she hadn't denied the "sincerity" of his apology, only saying it was "meaningless." This itself was a softening of her stance.

Leon's heart stirred slightly, and he gathered his courage to ask the most crucial question: "Then... if, I mean if, my future self is no longer... annoying like before?" He stared intently at Elisa, his heart involuntarily racing. "If I'm no longer so noisy, no longer so selfish, no longer treating you just as... an object. Could our relationship... possibly become different?"

Asking this question took almost all his strength. It wasn't just inquiring about a possibility, but casting a probing stone towards his connection with this world and his future path. Elisa, this girl whose fate was so closely intertwined with his, her attitude might greatly influence his subsequent choices.

Elisa fell silent again. The heat of the hot spring swirled around her, her profile appearing somewhat hazy. She remained silent for a long time, gazing at the water's surface as if contemplating a complex magical formula.

Time ticked by, and Leon's heart sank bit by bit. Just as he was about to give up, thinking his abruptness and excessive hope would only be met with deeper silence, Elisa spoke again, extremely softly and slowly, her voice so low it almost dissolved into the sound of the water:

"Who can predict the future?"

She gave neither a definitive answer nor a blunt denial.

She simply raised her eyes, her violet eyes looking directly into Leon's for the first time with such clarity, as if trying to pierce through the surface and see the seemingly different soul within.

"At least," she paused slightly, uttering words that made Leon's heart pound, "today, you weren't someone I wanted to avoid."

With that, she stopped looking at Leon and slowly rose from the hot spring. Water droplets rolled off her silken robe, outlining the beautiful curves of a young woman's burgeoning form. She stepped out of the pool, without looking back, and walked directly towards the changing screen, leaving behind only a cool, resolute back and a faint, lingering scent.

Leon remained alone in the warm spring water, Elisa's final words echoing in his ears.

"Not someone I wanted to avoid."

A very simple evaluation, not even a compliment. But coming from Elisa, who had always been indifferent to him, this was already tremendous progress! It was like a faint but real light illuminating his heart, which had been shrouded in gloom since his transmigration.

This meant that change was possible. He didn't have to bear the stigma of "scoundrel" forever; he had the opportunity to change how others viewed him, the opportunity to redefine his relationship with Elisa and with this world.

Although the road ahead was still fraught with thorns, and the mess left by the original owner was still troublesome, Leon's heart now held a small flame named hope.

He leaned against the edge of the pool, closed his eyes, and felt the hot spring water nourishing his injured body, as well as the faint scent soothing his restless soul.

"I won't go back to the past," he told himself silently in his heart.

Whether for survival, or for... that phrase "not someone I wanted to avoid," he had to, and would, become a different Leon von Hohenzollern.

And that unconventional "victory" at the Old Knight Training Ground, along with this conversation by the hot spring, might just be the true beginning of all change. The deep waters of the Imperial Capital were destined to be stirred by him.