"I..."
The word left Maria’s mouth but went nowhere after that. The rest refused to follow. Her throat tightened, and for a mont she simply stood there, unable to continue. What Razeal had said lingered heavily in the air between them, and the worst part was not the accusation itself.. it was that he wasn’t wrong. Every point he had made struck too close to the truth. Her face flushed despite herself, heat rising to her cheeks as embarrassnt mixed with frustration. She hated that he could see through her so easily. Hated that he understood parts of her she herself preferred not to acknowledge.
Her lips pressed together as she shook her head quickly, denial surfacing even as her expression betrayed her discomfort. "Yes... what you said is true," she admitted at last, the words forced out through clenched teeth. The admission clearly cost her. "But there was never any agenda behind coming with you."
She lifted her chin slightly, forcing a strained smile onto her face, trying to make the words sound casual, less vulnerable than they truly were. "I ca because I wanted to. That’s all."
The sentence sounded simple, but it cost her more than she expected. A strained smile ford on her lips, fragile and awkward, as though she herself didn’t know whether she wanted him to understand what she ant or pretend not to. There was embarrassnt in her eyes, hesitation too the strange conflict of wanting to be seen and fearing it at the sa ti. She hoped, sowhere quietly, that he would understand without her needing to say more. But she also knew him well enough to expect the opposite.
And that was exactly what happened.
Razeal’s expression didn’t change. Not even slightly. No surprise, no curiosity nothing. His gaze remained flat, detached, as though her confession carried no weight at all. "I don’t care," he said simply. "Whatever the reason was, you’re not needed. So go." His voice held no anger now, only finality. He turned away from her and began walking toward the door, already ending the conversation in his mind. "I don’t have ti to waste on this... Go ho. As for that trust you showed back then... keep the demonic heart. Keep the power you gained from by being with . Consider it paynt."
He lifted a hand slightly in a casual wave, not even bothering to look back. "That’s where it ends. You go your way. I go mine."
And.. Maria froze where she stood.
For a second, she couldn’t move at all. She simply stared at his back, the aning of his words sinking in too slowly. Then all at once, the realization struck. He was serious. He was actually leaving her behind. Not arguing? Not testing her? Ending it?
Her expression changed abruptly, the color draining from her face. Sothing close to fear surfaced raw and unguarded. The idea of him walking away, of this being final, hit harder than she expected. Her eyes trembled slightly as panic crept in before she could suppress it.
"Wait... stop," she said, the words coming out uneven. "You can’t just do this. I can still be useful to you. I’ve gotten stronger after everything that happened.. you know that.. Right?" Her voice grew more urgent, eyes fixed on him as if sheer will alone could make him stop.
Razeal only lifted his hand slightly again, dismissing the words without turning around.
That small gesture snapped sothing inside her.
"Hey ..wait!" Her voice rose, sharp and desperate now. "I said WAIT! AT LEAST LISTEN TO !" The shout tore out of her before she could restrain it, echoing through the room louder than she intended.
The desperation broke through fully now, the restraint she usually held over herself gone. Her voice echoed loudly through the room, raw enough to make even the mont feel suddenly unstable.
And that finally made him stop.
The sudden shout caught him off guard more than the words themselves. He paused mid-step, genuinely speechless for a second, as if trying to understand why she was reacting this strongly. Was this really necessary? The intensity of it felt excessive even to him.
Genuinely unsure why this had escalated so far. Slowly, he turned back, looking at her with quiet disbelief. "Alright," he said, patience thinning in his voice. "What is it?"
Maria’s breathing had grown uneven, her chest rising and falling rapidly as adrenaline faded into uncertainty. Now that he was looking at her again, she realised she hadn’t actually prepared anything to say. She just hadn’t wanted him to leave. The words she needed refused to form. "I..." she started again, only to falter.
Razeal’s irritation surfaced openly this ti. "Do you have sothing to say or not? You’re wasting ti."
The impatience in his voice made panic spike again. Seeing him already losing interest, already preparing to turn away, pushed her further. "Wait.. I do, I have sothing," she blurted quickly, raising both hands slightly as if trying to physically stop the mont from slipping away. Determination and fear mixed in her expression, uncertainty clear in the way her fingers trembled. She wasn’t even sure herself what she was about to do or even if it is the right ti to do this?.. only that letting him walk away like this felt worse than whatever ca next.
Her hand moved toward the neckline of her dress, hesitating for a fraction of a second before slipping inside, searching for sothing she had kept hidden close to herself. The motion wasn’t graceful; it was hurried, nervous, driven more by desperation than intention. Her eyes never left Razeal’s face, watching him carefully, afraid that if she delayed even a mont longer he would turn away again and this chance would disappear with him.
The room fell quiet except for the faint sound of her unsteady breathing..
And.. Razeal froze the mont he saw what Maria was doing.
For a second, he simply stared, completely caught off guard. His brows drew together slightly, confusion settling across his face as he watched her hand disappear beneath the neckline of her dress. The movent itself wasn’t what unsettled him.. it was the hesitation in it, the tension in her fingers, the way she seed to be bracing herself for sothing far more serious than the mont appeared to demand. It made no sense. His mind instinctively searched for explanation, already anticipating so misunderstanding or any strange assumption could even begin forming in his head, Maria’s hand erged again.
And this ti, she was holding sothing.
A necklace.
The pendant caught the light faintly as it swung between her fingers a deep purple stone, almost unnaturally rich in color, set within delicate talwork that suggested age and care rather than ornant alone. It looked important. Personal? Sothing that is kept close rather than worn openly.
Razeal looked at it, waiting for recognition to co.
Nothing did.
His expression shifted from confusion to mild concentration as he studied it more closely, searching through mory out of habit. The color, the shape, the faint aura lingering around it.. none of it triggered anything familiar. He felt no recognition, no emotional response, nothing that suggested this object held significance to him or why should be stop after seeing this? or why she thought taking it out would change his head. So he looked Confusedly at her.
And across from him, Maria watched his face carefully.
At first, there was expectation in her eyes. A fragile anticipation, as though she was waiting for a mont that had already played out countless tis in her mind. But as seconds passed and his expression remained blank, sothing inside her visibly faltered.
The realization hit her slowly.
He didn’t recognize it.
Her fingers tightened around the pendant, and the breath she took trembled before she could steady it. Tears gathered in her eyes almost imdiately, spilling over before she could stop them.
"You... don’t even rember this?" she asked, her voice breaking despite her effort to keep it steady.
The disappointnt in her tone wasn’t quiet. It was heavy, layered with hurt and disbelief, as if sothing she had held onto for a long ti had just shattered in front of her. She had expected many thing’s from him.. But not this. Not even recognition?
Razeal blinked, taken aback by the sudden shift.
Her reaction made no sense to him. She had shown him an object he had never seen before or at least, one he couldn’t rember and now she was crying as though sothing irreversible had happened. His confusion deepened, his expression turning almost helpless in its honesty.
"I... don’t," he admitted slowly, unsure what else to say.
Maria’s shoulders trembled.
"How...?" she whispered, her voice unsteady, disbelief turning into sothing closer to despair. "How could you not even recognize this? How could you...?"
Her words broke apart as sobs forced their way through. The tears ca freely now, her composure collapsing entirely. She looked devastated, as if the ground beneath her had disappeared. The pain in her expression wasn’t exaggerated or dramatic it was raw, imdiate, the kind that ca from losing sothing she thought was certain.
Razeal stood there, increasingly unsettled and confused.
He didn’t understand what he had done wrong. From his perspective, nothing had happened. She showed him sothing unfamiliar, and he failed to recognize it as Obiously he shouldn’t. Yet her reaction was far beyond disappointnt. It was the kind of grief that followed betrayal.
For a fleeting mont, guilt stirred uncomfortably in his chest. Seeing soone cry like that in front of him triggered an instinctive discomfort he didn’t like acknowledging. But confusion outweighed it. He wasn’t foolish enough to ignore what her reaction implied. No one broke down like this over sothing aningless. She had expected him to know. Expected it with certainty.
Which ant... he should have?
His gaze returned to the pendant, frowning slightly now. He searched his mory again, more carefully this ti. Nothing surfaced. His mory had always been sharp especially after everything he had beco. He didn’t forget things easily. Certainly not sothing capable of causing this level of reaction atleast.
So why was there nothing?
"What’s... going on?" he muttered quietly, more to himself than to her.
The dissonance unsettled him. He didn’t like gaps he couldn’t explain.
For a mont, he considered forcing the thought aside. It wasn’t necessary to dwell on it. If he didn’t rember, then it simply wasn’t important enough. That would have been the easier conclusion.
But Maria’s reaction made that impossible.
Soone else, however, might know.
His expression hardened slightly as his attention shifted inward, toward the presence that had watched everything alongside him since the beginning.
"Villey," he called silently within his mind. "Do you know what’s going on here?"
There was a brief pause.
Then the familiar voice answered.
[So you finally noticed.]
Razeal’s frown deepened.
[So of your mories were destroyed by your mother.]
The words landed heavily.
For a brief mont, his thoughts stalled completely. Destroyed? The idea felt wrong. His mory was not sothing easily tampered with not anymore. And yet... the absence he felt now suddenly had shape. A missing piece rather than simple ignorance?
But before he could question further, Villey’s voice continued, calm and detached as ever.
[And before you ask why I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t my responsibility. You were supposed to discover it yourself. My role is to train you, not to guide every step or interfere in your personal matters as am not your babysitter you see.]
The tone carried no apology.
[And not to say what she did was best for your developnt anyway.]
Razeal’s eyes grew colder after hearing Villey’s explanation, though nothing about his expression outwardly changed. The reaction remained internal, contained. If anything, his face beca calr, the kind of calm that ca when sothing unsettling was deliberately pushed aside rather than resolved. He had long understood that the system guided him, shaped his direction, adjusted what it considered necessary for his growth. Manipulation was not a new concept to him. Priorities, control, outcos those were things he had learned to accept without wasting emotion on them.
But still, the idea lingered.
Destroyed mories?
His gaze narrowed slightly as it returned to Maria and the deep purple necklace trembling in her hand. He was supposed to recognize it. That much was obvious now. Her reaction alone made it undeniable. Which ant there had been sothing between them sothing significant enough for her to expect recognition without explanation. Childhood? A shared past? The thought felt foreign and uncomfortable, like trying to rember a dream that refused to take shape.
And the system had known.
He didn’t dwell on it. Not yet. There were too many unanswered questions, and forcing aning from absence rarely produced clarity. If sothing had been erased, then the absence itself was intentional. That ant it could be examined later.
Right now, Maria stood in front of him, breaking apart.
Her attention remained fixed on the pendant, tears falling silently as her shoulders shook. She looked smaller than before, the strength she usually carried stripped away entirely. Whatever this object represented to her, it had been the last thing she was holding onto and his failure to recognize it had destroyed that hope completely. She didn’t even seem aware of her surroundings anymore, lost sowhere inside her own grief.
Razeal frowned faintly, thoughts still moving through his head, trying to connect fragnts that refused to align.
But just as he was
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
The wall exploded inward.
Stone and dust shattered into the room with a violent boom, the impact ripping through the silence and forcing Razeal’s attention away from his thoughts instantly. The force of it sent fragnts scattering across the floor, air rushing inward as debris collapsed where the wall had once stood.
Razeal’s head snapped toward the disturbance, his expression sharpening imdiately, instincts taking over before conscious thought could follow.
Though maria atill didn’t react.
She remained where she stood, eyes lowered to the necklace in her hand, as if the outside world had ceased to exist. The sound, the destruction, the sudden intrusion none of it seed to reach her through the haze of her sorrow.
Before the dust could fully settle, a voice cut through the room.
Cold.. Controlled and very Dangerous.
"Is what this says true?"
The temperature of the room seed to drop with the words.
Through the drifting dust stood Sofia.
She had entered by force, the broken wall behind her framing her silhouette. In one hand she held an old newspaper, its edges crumpled from how tightly she gripped it. Her eyes were fixed entirely on Razeal now, no amusent left in them, no warmth. Only sothing sharp and restrained, like anger held just barely beneath the surface.
The headline was visible even from where he stood.
An accusation.
Razeal attempting to rape soone.
Razeal’s gaze moved from her face to the paper in her hand, taking in the words without visible reaction. His expression didn’t change. No denial, no irritation, no surprise. He simply looked at it.. just staring back at her calmly..
The contrast between them was stark. Sofia’s presence radiated tension, her posture rigid, shoulders tight, as if she had flown here faster than thought itself. Whatever she had read, she had not taken ti to process it quietly and had co straight back.
"Is this true," she repeated, her voice lower now, colder than before. Each word carried weight, as though she was forcing herself to remain composed while waiting for his answer.
The room fell silent again, but this silence was different from before. It wasn’t heavy with sadness or regret. It was sharp, expectant.
----
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