Her grip on his arm tightened unconsciously.
"I don’t know when it went wrong," she admitted. "But you need to know that what I showed you wasn’t what I felt." Her voice softened, almost breaking. "I don’t hate you. I never had and i never could."
Her eyes trembled slightly as she looked up at him.
"Also i didn’t co with you because of any agenda.or whatver you are thinking" she continued, the confession coming faster now, as though once begun it couldn’t be stopped. "Yes... I lied. But I lied because I wanted to stay close to you. I wanted to see if you had changed. If you were still... the person you once were. Not the person everyone said you beca."
She took a small step closer, closing the distance between them.
"I just wanted to be near you," she said quietly. "There was no other reason."
"And.. What exactly are you trying to say?" Razeal asked as the crease between his brows deepening. Her eyes were fixed on him with an intensity that made him uneasy, her fingers still trembling faintly around the pendant. The weight in her voice, the way she had stepped closer, the way she had spoken about disappointnt and importance it all circled sothing he couldn’t quite grasp.
He genuinely did not understand what she was building toward.
Maria swallowed once. The hesitation that had held her back for so long snapped.
"What I’m saying is..." Her breath hitched, but she forced the words through anyway. "I love you."
The confession landed like an explosion in the room.
And... Razeal stared at her.
"Huh?"
He blinked, as if waiting for his mind to correct what his ears had just processed.
"Umm....What?"
He stepped back instinctively, the movent abrupt enough that Maria’s fingers slipped from his arm. The sudden distance between them felt sharp. Disorienting.
"You?" he said incredulously, a disbelieving half-laugh escaping him. "Sure... No way."
The disbelief wasn’t subtle. It was written weirdly across his face shock first, then rejection. Of all the outcos today could have delivered, this was not one he had prepared for.
"This is just fucked up," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "What next? Riven turns out to be a woman and wants to marry too?Sure.. No thanks.."
The sarcasm ca fast, reflexive, almost defensive.
And
The room felt strangely still after that. The air between them seed heavier, charged with sothing volatile. Maria looked down at her now-empty hand for a brief mont the one that had been holding his arm before lifting her gaze back to him.
Her face had changed. The desperation had deepened into sothing more fragile. Hurt.
"Wait," Razeal said quickly, raising a hand as if to slow everything down. "First no." He pointed at her.. "Second you know I’m married, right?" Then his finger shifted toward the cracked wall where Sofia had stord out monts earlier. "She just walked out of that door."
His hand moved back toward Maria, his tone sharpening. "And third you expect to just believe you?"
The condescension in his voice wasn’t subtle. It wasn’t even intentional. It was just utter defensive disbelief.
Maria flinched.
"Hey no, don’t.." she rushed forward a step, her composure fraying. "You don’t understand."
"Understand what?" he shot back.
"Our past," she insisted, her voice rising despite herself. "If you rembered.. if you actually rembered you’d know."
She took another step toward him, fear creeping into her expression as if she were watching sothing slip out of reach. "Let explain it. Let tell you what happened between us."
And at sa ti.. Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed inside Razeal’s mind.
[Sigh... what she’s saying might be true, host. I can’t restore your erased mories. But if you want, I can show you what I observed from my perspective. It might help you understand sothing.] Villey’s tone carried quiet caution.
Razeal just paused there for a second as hearing both Maria’s and Villey’s words at once.
But again he just shook his head in sa instance without a fraction of hesitation.
"No need," he said flatly.
Maria froze. "What? Why wouldn’t you.. You should at least.. " she began, stepping forward again.
He lifted his hand sharply, stopping her mid-step.
"It’s not important."
Her face changed instantly.
"It’s not important?" she repeated, disbelief cracking into anger. "It’s not important?"
Her composure shattered.
"It is important!" she shouted, voice breaking. "It’s important to !"
Her hands trembled as she clenched them into fists. The restraint she had been clinging to shattered.
"I just fucking told you that I love you!" she shouted, the words tearing out of her. "I told you I love you. I told you the truth about my real feelings and you don’t wanna listen?"
"Even after the fact that you forgot like fucking everything or just pretending not to rember?" she continued, emotion spilling over. "I still had the decency to tell you! To explain! And you still won’t even hear outttttt?"
Razeal didn’t interrupt her this ti.
"Looooook at eee!!! I’m still here!" she yelled, her composure breaking completely. "I still love you after all this ti! I went with you to the sea. I beca a criminal to the Empire because of you! I risked my life my future my everything just for you..!" Her chest heaved with every breath. "I still did even after fucking knowing what you.fuckingg are!"
"Obviously you won’t know why I fucking love you!" she cried. "It’s because of this."
With a shaking hand, she lifted the pendant up. The tal caught the light as it swung between them, a small, fragile thing against the weight of their history. Her voice climbed, raw and trembling. "Because this fucking ant sothing. Because we fucking ant sothing."
Her voice echoed against the damaged walls, raw and uncontrolled now.
She let out everything she was holding don’t know for how long with all the emotions she burst out with.. Though Razeal only heard what exactly he should or she shouldn’t have saud.
"And.. What I am?" he repeated quietly as his eyes narrowed looking at her with tilting his head to side.
And.. Maria froze. The anger drained from her face, replaced by sudden horror. She realized what she had almost implied what she had let slip in her desperation.
"No... I didn’t an that." Her voice softened instantly, panic edging into it. "That’s not what I ant."
Razeal watched her for a long mont before speaking again.
"Hmmmm." The sound left him quietly, almost thoughtfully. There was no mockery in it this ti only a strange detachnt.
"Well... that’s exactly why it doesn’t matter," he said at last.
"I don’t want to know what happened in my past," he continued, his voice steady, almost clinical. "Between you and , or with anyone else. Because it doesn’t change anything right now." His eyes stayed on her, unblinking. "Whether you loved or not.. Why should it matter today?"
The calmness in him felt unnatural against the storm she had just unleashed.
"Look at you," he added, gesturing faintly toward her. "Maybe I could have listened. Maybe I should have accepted your love proposal if you had truly believed in ... if you had believed that I didn’t do it. Because I really didn’t."
He tilted his head slightly
"But you didn’t."
"So now.. If I learn what happened between us," he went on, "All it will do is make feel worse...Because then," he continued calmly, "I’d have to accept that soone who supposedly loved still thought I was capable of that."
"And if we didn’t have sothing," he added, "then the answer to your proposal is still no. So either way, what changes?"
The bluntness of it landed without cushioning.
"So why should I deliberately walk into that?" he asked quietly. "Why should I dig into sothing that will only make regret it? It’s logical not to."
Maria stared at him as though he had struck her.
"What are you saying?" Her voice cracked despite her effort to steady it. "You’re telling that just because I reacted.. because I did that it doesn’t matter to you? That I’m supposed to just believe you and act like you didn’t? When you fucking actually did it? And now you’re trying to turn it on ?"
"And I just said," he cut in calmly, "I didn’t."
Razeal only shook his head slightly.
She stared at him..
"You still aren’t believing ," he continued evenly. "So it’s irrelevant."
"You did do it!" she exploded. "And we both know you did it! So what’s the point of this? If you don’t care about the past.. if you don’t like then just say so! Say you don’t want ! But don’t stand there and lie to my face or hide behind this!!?"
"I told you already," she said, her voice trembling but loud. "I don’t care if you did it. I forgive you. I’m willing to give you another chance." She pointed at herself, almost violently. "I’m not even asking you to love back. I just... I just want to co with you. That’s all."
"And as for whether you did it or not..." she laughed bitterly, shaking her head. "Everyone knows. There isn’t a single piece of evidence proving that you didn’t do it. Not one. The only thing saying you’re innocent is you.. just your own fucking words. You really think thats a fucking proof that you didn’t? And anyone would beleive it?" She was shouting now, the sound echoing against the fractured walls.
Razeal thiugh just shrugged.
"Well," he said evenly, almost thoughtfully, "did you see what I just saw?"
He gestured faintly over his shoulder with his thumb.
"Because soone just did believed .. Just because I said so."
"So, obviously."
"That’s because she’s fucking naïve," she snapped. "An fucking idiot. Who believes sothing like that? You think a rapist is going to say he’s a rapist? That’s fucking ridiculous."
The word hung in the air between them.
Razeal’s expression did not change imdiately.. But slowly
He raised one eyebrow slightly and looked at her.
Silently.
Maria felt the weight of his gaze press against her.
"And you know what?" she burst out again, unable to stop herself now. "I don’t care. Keep it. Keep all of it."
Her voice broke as anger tangled with pain.
I just want to let you know.. because you should care," she said, stepping closer again despite herself. "Because soone like soone who knows what you did.. is still willing to forgive you."
She hit her chest with her fist lightly, as if emphasizing the point.
"Is willing to follow you. To beco a criminal no.. An enemy in the empire’s eyes, The churchs eyes, the fucking whole worlds eyes just because of you.. Is ready to leave everything behind for you."
Her eyes were blazing now, tears finally spilling over.
"I’m even ready to risk my life for you, and I’m still loving you even after everything you’ve done. And you’re still rejecting just because I didn’t believe in you? You said?"
The words were sharp, jagged.
"Don’t you think loving you despite knowing what kind of monster you are is greater proof of love than just blindly believing you didn’t?"
The accusation was brutal and.. Unfiltered.
The room seed to shrink under the weight of it.
"Anyway," Maria choked out, wiping at her tears angrily, "Go fuck yourself."
She pushed past him, her shoulder brushing his arm roughly as she turned toward the door.
"I was wrong," she muttered, voice breaking. "I shouldn’t have cared."
She took several steps before stopping abruptly, as if rembering sothing.
" And also fucking take this," she spat, turning back sharply.
As she pulled her hand back and threw the purple pendant hard against the floor between them. It struck the ground with a sharp tallic crack and slid across the wood until it ca to rest at Razeal’s feet.
The small object glead faintly in the dust.
"If you don’t even rember," she said through her tears, "why should I keep it?"
Silence followed.
Maria turned away again, shoulders shaking, and began walking toward the broken wall without looking back.
Razeal remained standing where he was.
His gaze lowered slowly to the pendant resting near his boots.
He did not bend to pick it up.
He did not call her na.
He only stood there, staring at the small object that carried a history he had chosen not to know while the echo of her words lingered in the fractured room.
---
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