I'd Give Up The World For You

Daisy was furious at Juliet's accusations toward Leo but it was impossible not to wonder if there was some degree of truth to them. She knew he was a fire mage and that was his most closely guarded secret. He wouldn't have told her about that. 

She also knew about his alias, his eyepatch, Daisy saving his life, and that he wasn't from Mirea. She definitely had some sort of otherworldly information since he was such a private person that he wouldn't even tell certain things to his wife…which made a lot more sense if he truly was out for revenge. 

Leo wasn't very forthcoming about his past. She knew his family was dead and that he had loved them very much but he never told her how or when it happened. Or why he showed up at her farm on the brink of death, bloody and suspicious of her motives for helping him. 

She had always thought he was so paranoid about people finding out about his looks or his powers because they would be obvious to whoever he was running away from. But if Juliet was telling the truth about what happened it was so much worse. 

The sole survivor. His entire country destroyed. Seeing his family die in front of him when he was only twelve. There weren't a lot of details but they painted a horrible picture. 

If he truly was the only one who survived a massacre like that…and he had a rather unique appearance…whoever had done the destroying could easily recognize him and try to kill him. That shouldn't be a problem if he hid far enough away so there was a high probability that he intended to meet the culprits sooner or later. 

Juliet insisted that his heart was full of revenge. And honestly? Who wouldn't want that after going through something so horrific? 

Daisy already knew Leo had killed in the wars. If he was planning revenge against the people who did that to everyone he ever knew and loved she couldn't truly fault him for it. Her issue was with everything else Juliet said about him.

Bloodthirsty. Madman. Villain. Psychopath. He wasn't any of those things!

He was a gentle soul, if a deeply wounded one. They had found solace in each other for that reason though his past seemed to be much more traumatic than hers. Poor Leo. She never would have imagined something so awful happening to him and she couldn't even talk to him about it because she would have to reveal her source. 

She didn't want to do that. Finding out he was nothing but a character in a story—a villain no less—would hurt him. 

Daisy couldn't deny the high probability that he was out for revenge. A lot of things made more sense in hindsight like his training with the mercenaries despite having to do his farm chores and completely wearing himself out. And joining another country's military claiming to want fame and fortune while simultaneously hiding from someone. He would need fame and fortune to gain allies that could help with his plan. 

Leo's unwillingness to tell her exactly what his goal was contributed to that theory as well. He said he wanted to make the world a better place…getting rid of someone who committed genocide would certainly do that. 

But who had done it? It had to be someone important in Mirea for him to bother climbing the ranks of the military. 

She didn't condone violence without reason but she also didn't think Leo would ever do what Juliet said. Killing indiscriminately…killing innocents…he would never. He couldn't. That wasn't in his nature. 

Her husband loved deeply so it made sense that he would want to avenge everything he loved and lost but she didn't think he would hurt anyone uninvolved. Not with how much he cared about the people around him. Why else would he constantly worry about the safety of his military friends? 

Juliet was wrong. Maybe he had been like that in the book but—and she might be prideful for saying this—he had met Daisy. 

Leo had told her how much he needed her multiple times throughout the years but only now was she realizing exactly how much. She had saved him from becoming the worst version of himself. 

Being alone with no one to rely on, no fun, and no love while grieving and full of thoughts of revenge could twist a person. Especially an impressionable child. But that hadn't been what happened since she fell into this world. 

He had grieved and he had most likely been working on his revenge this whole time but he had also done something the original character wouldn't have expected. He fell in love. 

Her husband was the one person who had ever truly loved her and he did so deeply. Desperately. As if she was his lifeline. That made a lot more sense now knowing what he had been through. 

Leo wasn't bloodthirsty. He didn't like fighting though he was good at it. The whole time he had been away at war he had wanted nothing more than to come home. And he had made sure that everyone under his charge was able to make it home as well. 

Daisy had loved him through his grief and prevented that much from happening. He wasn't a madman either. He acted much like anybody else in this world. 

He was smart too. Smart enough to become the youngest lieutenant colonel the military had ever seen. Though now she wondered exactly how shrewd and calculating he was in order to make that happen…or if he had gotten lucky. 

She sighed and set down her shears. What was she supposed to do with this new information? The very thought of her sweet Leo burning the world to the ground was preposterous. 

Confronting him about it wouldn't work. It might be best to ignore it since she believed in him and knew he wouldn't hurt anyone who hadn't hurt others first. 

So that was exactly what Daisy did. They were set to eat dinner with the Conrads that evening and she acted as though Juliet hadn't come along and dropped a bomb on her. It wasn't too hard considering she was able to dismiss most of what was said as utter nonsense. 

She watched Leo throughout the night and he talked to his friend the way he always did, though she noticed his restlessness from the past few days continued. It had started the day of the tournament…when Juliet said she saw him do something and Daisy had cut her off because she didn't want to hear it. 

That couldn't so easily be dismissed as nonsense. Even now the men were talking about the tournament and how one of their friends had won. 

It all seemed normal on the surface but given the context of what she had been told it became more suspicious. Leo's enemy was someone high up in this country. Her money was on the king. The best way to take down a king was to infiltrate his castle, which the winner of the tournament would be able to do as a royal guard. 

Daisy didn't want to think about whatever they might be planning. All she wanted was to live peacefully with the one she loved. She couldn't stop him if he was up to something since she couldn't confront him about it. 

Besides, she had promised she would always have his back no matter what. No one was about to punish a king for war crimes. If that was what he was determined to do she was going to have to find a way to accept that. And she did know her husband; he would only do what he had to. 

No one that wasn't directly involved in the slaughter would get hurt. She trusted him. 

At the same time her heart ached for him. He had been through so much at such a young age and couldn't tell anyone. All those days they spent playing games during the harvest he had been grieving such a tremendous loss!

Leo had been struggling so much and yet he clung to her and the silly things she did. No wonder he fell in love with her and refused to pick anyone else even after finding out about her age. 

Daisy had helped prevent his moral compass from warping when he was a desperate child. He wasn't destined to destroy the world. The choices he had made up until this point were his own. Juliet didn't control him.

Neither did she, though she likely had some degree of influence on his choices. But that was because he cared about her not because she was forcing him to do things. He still had the ability to choose whether or not he wanted to do things he thought would make her happy. 

The story didn't dictate his actions. Leo wasn't a villain! He was a real and complicated person with a tragic past but that didn't make him evil. He wasn't what Juliet said he was.. If there was one thing in this world Daisy was sure of aside from his love for her it was that. No one could change her mind!