The woman’s mouth opened in shock. "What...?"

Rosalina’s sword....Mary drove straight through her throat from behind.

Blood poured out in a hot rush, spilling down her elegant neck and onto the cold stone floor.

Rosalina stood right behind her, holding the blade steady. Her face stayed cold and sharp, like ice that had never melted.

She twisted the sword just a little, sending fresh waves of pain through the woman.

"Did you really think you could scheme against us without us noticing?" Rosalina asked.

Her voice came out low and full of killing intent, but a sharp edge of sarcasm dripped from every word.

"How naive. Is this what all your long years taught you? Bloody bitch?"

The woman’s eyes grew wide as dinner plates. They wavered with confusion. Dark blood bubbled from her mouth and trickled down her chin.

She could not understand how this had happened. Just moments ago, she had cut Rosalina’s soul free with the Soul Severing Sword.

She had watched the white fog drift out and form into a small body. So how was the girl still alive?

How had she appeared right behind her, sword in hand, without a single sound?

"How...?" the woman muttered. More blood spilled with the word. Her legs felt weak.

Her mind started to blank from the sudden loss of blood and the wild shock.

She stared into the empty air in front of her, as if the answer might appear there like a ghost.

The air in the room started to distort, like heat rising from hot stone. The ground trembled lightly under their feet.

From the cracked floor, Julius stepped out slowly, dust and faint light swirling around him.

"My my... so I was right," he said. A wide grin spread across his lips, and a wild, almost fanatic spark lit up his face.

He rolled his neck with a loud crack. "You were after my Rose after all, huh?"

The woman’s eyes widened even more, still stuck on the sword through her throat. Blood kept bubbling from her mouth as she tried to speak.

"But... how did you know?" Her voice came out weak and shaky, full of confusion.

She could not make sense of any of it. She had been sure she killed them both.

Yet here they stood, alive and in control, with her own blood dripping onto the floor.

"It was quite obvious actually," Julius replied, stepping forward with that same confident grin.

The gown wrapped around him had slipped a little during his entrance, loosening at the front and revealing part of his wide, solid chest.

Rosalina frowned hard, her cheeks flushing with clear discomfort.

She kept her grip tight on the sword buried in the woman’s throat.

"Oi, cover yourself properly," she snapped, her voice sharp but carrying that familiar edge.

"Don’t you dare show your body to others." As she spoke, she gave the sword a quick twist, sending fresh pain through the woman to keep her distracted.

Julius blinked and hurriedly pulled the gown back into place, covering his chest and stomach.

Even now, with everything going on, Rosalina was still acting like her usual self.

He decided not to push it or flaunt anything, especially not in front of her.

A small, sheepish smile replaced his earlier wild grin as he adjusted the fabric properly.

Tsk... Rosalina clicked her tongue, looking a bit grumpy.

"That’s the problem with having a handsome boyfriend," she muttered.

"You just need to gatekeep him all the time!"

She bit down on her tongue right after, cheeks still warm, and turned her full focus back to the sword buried in the woman’s throat.

Once Julius had fixed his clothing and pulled the gown tight around his chest, he smiled again.

The wild grin from earlier returned, softer this time. "So, where were we?" He stroked his chin slowly, thinking.

"Ah, right. It was quite obvious actually."

He repeated the words with a light chuckle and flexed his wrists, loosening them with small, sharp movements.

"You were giving us hints from the get-go," he said.

His voice stayed calm but carried a clear sarcastic edge, like he was enjoying the moment.

All his suspicions had first sparked when the Lone King’s male voice suddenly revealed the invincible path inheritance right in front of everyone.

It might have been because she somehow felt that the time path inheritance wouldn’t be a great temptation for Rosalina like in the original TST where Rosalina hadn’t entered the tower.

That single slip was the first crack Julius noticed. It had planted the seed of doubt in his mind, though back then it still wasn’t enough for him to feel completely sure something was wrong.

But Julius’s suspicions had grown even stronger when Rosalina found that human finger inside the stomach of the time-rewinding purple wolf.

That was the moment he became truly cautious. In the original novel, all the students who had died in the tower had been sent back safely.

This time, none of them returned.....they found that human finger inside. The difference hit him hard, and from then on he moved more carefully.

Rosalina had also pointed out that this tower was no ordinary place.

It would need at least a Transcendence level spell caster to create something like it. Those words made his caution grow deeper.

Julius walked slowly in front of the woman, his steps calm on the cold stone floor.

He stopped right where she could see him clearly, even with the sword still buried in her neck.

"At the eighth floor, we got some interesting news..." he said.

He did not need to speak the next part out loud. Both he and Rosalina already knew what it meant.

Cryptian’s system suddenly stopping was the biggest red flag. It almost never happened.

Julius figured the Lone King had sensed he could regress, so she decided to get rid of him early.

She must have done something to lock his system away. Still, it was not enough.

When he and Rosalina tried to kill Cryptian, the boy’s luck kicked in at the last second and saved him.

In the end, though, the key to the eleventh floor slipped from his hands.

Julius thought quietly to himself, ’This wasn’t luck... It was all part of her plan.’

He tilted his head slightly, looking at the woman with real curiosity. "However, what I don’t understand is..."

His voice stayed soft but carried a sarcastic bite. "Why did you choose Cryptian as the successor and not Rosalina, when you wanted her body so badly?"

He had already guessed part of the reason. In the novel, Cryptian had entered the eleventh floor but came out almost right away.

And after going through everything now.....It made sense now. She and Cryptian must have formed some kind of agreement in the book.

"And that agreement was probably about Rosalina."