Back in Levy’s shop~
The quiet room suddenly rippled as a shadow stretched across the floor. The darkness gathered for a brief instant and then collapsed inward. In the next mont, three figures appeared where there had been nothing before Razeal, Sofia, and Maria, whose unconscious body was still cradled carefully in Sofia’s arms.
The air inside the shop felt strangely calm compared to the storm they had just left behind.
Razeal stepped forward into the room first. As soon as his feet settled against the wooden floor, he let out a slow, controlled breath. It wasn’t loud, but it carried the exhaustion of soone who had just dragged himself out of an emotional battlefield. He ran a hand briefly through his hair and shook his head slightly to himself, as if clearing lingering thoughts that still tried to cling to him.
He didn’t say anything.
Not to Sofia.
Not even to Maria, whose condition had started this entire confrontation.
For a mont, he simply stood there with his back to Sofia, his gaze lowered slightly, lost in whatever thoughts were still echoing inside his mind.
Sofia noticed imdiately though she didn’t interrupt him imdiately..
Instead, she moved quickly but carefully toward the counter table inside the shop. Her movents were gentle now.. far more delicate than the fierce composure she had shown earlier.
She leaned forward and slowly placed Maria’s unconscious body down on the table.
Maria’s breathing was faint but steady.
Sofia adjusted her position slightly, brushing a few loose strands of hair away from Maria’s face. Her fingers briefly hovered near Maria’s neck as she checked her pulse again.
Stable.
No imdiate danger or anything..
Satisfied, Sofia straightened slightly and finally turned her attention back toward Razeal.
He was still standing in the sa place.
His posture wasn’t tense anymore, but it wasn’t relaxed either.
"So.. Are you fine?" she asked quietly.
Her voice was calm, but her eyes studied him carefully.
Razeal though didn’t respond imdiately.
Then he nodded once.
"Of course," he said.
Slowly, he turned to face her.
Their eyes t.
For a brief mont, Sofia tried to read his expression. But as usual, Razeal didn’t show much. His face remained mostly neutral, though there was a faint heaviness lingering behind his eyes.
Sofia folded her arms lightly.
"Well... those bitches are really..." she began, spreading her hands slightly in frustration as she searched for the right word.
Her lips twisted.
"...so..."
"Disgusting," Razeal finished flatly.
Sofia nodded imdiately.
"Yeah.. That." She said it though honestly she knew that word but it wasn’t quite right enough to describe them so she was searching for better.. But anyways she can’t embarrasse him now can she? So she went with it anyways..
She watched him quietly for another second before continuing.
"Well, don’t worry," she said, stepping a o step closer to him with a confident smile. "I’ll take revenge for you eventually."
She tilted her head slightly.
"Honestly, I would’ve taught them a lesson right there already... but this place..." she sighed and gestured vaguely around the room.
"It’s weird."
Her brow furrowed.
"The environnt here is completely different from what I’m used to. My powers feel... off." She rotated her wrist slightly as if testing the flow of energy in her body. "Everything behaves differently.. My control isn’t as sharp yet. I an i am feeling like fish out of water.."
She gave a small, annoyed smile.
"Give so ti to adjust though."
Her eyes glinted slightly.
"And I promise you... next ti I see them, I’ll really fuck them up..."
Despite the aggressive words, Sofia’s tone wasn’t angry. She was deliberately speaking lightly, almost teasingly. Her goal was obvious she was trying to lighten the atmosphere.
She had seen how close Razeal had co to losing control earlier.
Anyone who had just exposed years of trauma like that would still be emotionally raw.
So she was just trying to steady him.
Trying to ground him.
But Razeal didn’t imdiately respond to her attempt.
He simply looked at her.
Silently.
His eyes studied her face for a mont longer than usual.
Then he spoke.
"Leave that."
Sofia blinked slightly.
"Can I ask you sothing?" he said.
Her curiosity rose imdiately.
She tilted her head slightly, though she nodded without hesitation.
"Sure," she said. "What is it?"
Razeal’s gaze remained fixed on her.
"I’m curious," he said slowly. "Why did you trust when I said I wasn’t guilty?"
Sofia frowned slightly.
"I an," he continued, "trusting soone after seeing proof is one thing."
His eyes sharpened slightly.
"But you believed before that.. When maria, my mother and that newspaper and almost everything.."
He studied her face carefully.
"I an.. That part still confuses ."
Sofia didn’t hesitate.
"Because I believed in you," she answered simply.
Her tone made it sound obvious.
Razeal’s expression didn’t change.
"And why did you believe ?" he asked again.
He took a slow step forward.
"I an quite frankly... I’ve never done anything particularly impressive for you."
Another step.
"I haven’t saved your life. I haven’t sacrificed anything major for you."
He was standing very close to her now.
"There’s nothing I can rember that would logically give you that level of confidence in ."
His eyes searched hers.
"So why?"
His voice lowered slightly.
"Why would you believe so blindly?"
Sofia watched him approach without moving.
Then she smiled.
"Because I love you," she answered softly.
It was said as naturally as breathing.
The small smile on her lips carried no hesitation.
But Razeal didn’t stop.
"And that brings back to the sa question," he said quietly.
He was standing just half a step away from her now.
His eyes locked with hers.
"Why would you love ?"
His tone wasn’t mocking.
It was genuinely confused.
"What did I do that made you love ?"
He shook his head slightly.
"I honestly can’t rember doing anything worthy of that."
Sofia studied his face for a mont.
"So you’re telling ... you need reasons to love soone? I think that’s what you’re misunderstanding, my dumb little husband. Love is an unconditional thing." She suddenly whispered as at sa ti she put a hand on his shoulder.. While saying..
"And why exactly do you think you are soone who can’t be loved?" Sofia asked softly, her hand still resting on his shoulder. Her voice wasn’t accusatory; it was gentle, almost patient, as if she were explaining sothing obvious to a stubborn child who simply refused to see it. "You are," she continued quietly. "So stop looking at yourself like that, will you? Try looking at yourself through my eyes for once.. Maybe you’ll understand."
The words were simple, but they struck sowhere deep inside Razeal.
Just a mont ago, he had been standing there with a faint, curious smile.. half amused, half skeptical treating the conversation like an intellectual puzzle he wanted to solve. But now, hearing her say that, sothing inside his mind stalled.
Huhh?
His eyes widened slightly.
It was the subtle reaction of soone who had just heard a sentence that didn’t align with the rules he had believed his entire life.
Because for him, love had always co with conditions.
That was the only version of love he had ever known.
Love depended on worth.
Love depended on value.
Love depended on whether you were useful, respectable, successful, obedient capable of eting the expectations of others.
If you failed those expectations... love vanished.
That was the logic he had always used to explain everything that happened to him.
He had lived his entire life with that belief carved into his bones.. And Obiously seen it vanish too because of that.. Literally..
They abandoned him because he wasn’t good enough.
They betrayed him because he failed their expectations.
They judged him because he wasn’t worthy of their trust.. Maybe if he was better they woulve worked harder to judge him?
And slowly, over ti, he had built the sa rule inside himself as well.
Love had conditions.
But Sofia’s words contradicted that rule completely.
And because of that, his mind almost short-circuited.
He blinked once.
Then again.
His head tilted slightly to the side as he looked at her, genuinely confused now.
"It doesn’t need any reason," Sofia continued calmly, watching his reaction with a faint smile. "That’s just what love is. It simply... just happens."
She shrugged lightly.
"What do you think I love you for?" she asked playfully. "So complicated reason?"
She tapped his shoulder lightly.
"No.. I love you because I believe you’re my soulmate. The love of my life."
"Yes, I believe those things. But that belief itself didn’t co from so checklist."
Her voice softened slightly.
"Nor need any proof."
She tilted her head slightly, studying his face.
"Love is personal thing," she continued softly. "You don’t need to give anyone the reasons for why they should love you."
Then she leaned back slightly, folding her arms with a playful expression.
"Actually, think about it," she said. "If I wanted you to fall madly, madly and madly in love with ... what exactly would I need to do?"
She started counting casually on her fingers.
"What would make you love ?" she continued. "My beauty? My fa? My attitude? My intelligence? My brilliance?" She began counting off the possibilities on her fingers. "Kindness? Money? Strength? Reputation? Or maybe you’d want to do sothing dramatic for you?" She raised an eyebrow slightly. "Bring you flowers? Write you letters in blood? Give you gifts? Prove my devotion sohow
Her brows lifted slightly as she looked at him
As she spread her hands.
"Would that make you love ?"
Razeal didn’t answer.
Because he honestly didn’t know.. Sounds so stupid to him.
Sofia continued, still watching him carefully.
"I an think about it," she added after a mont. "There will always be soone better than ."
She gestured casually toward the world outside.
"Soone stronger. Soone prettier. Soone richer. Soone smarter. The world is huge. There are billions of people out there."
Her tone was casual, but the point was deliberate.
"And the sa applies to grand gestures," she said. "What if soone else could do those things better than I could?"
She looked directly into his eyes again.
"So what then?" she asked quietly. "Would you stop loving and love them instead?"
She tilted her head again.
"That’s not love."
Her eyes sharpened slightly.
"That would just be... fulfilling conditions." Her fingers tapped lightly against his chest as she spoke.
"It would be a transaction? A negotiation? Or maybe even manipulation?" She gave a small shrug. "But it definitely wouldn’t be love."
She tapped his chest lightly with her finger again.
"And conditions can always be replaced by sothing better."
She paused before finishing quietly.
"That’s the exact opposite of love."
Razeal stood there silently, listening.
Her words moved through his mind slowly, like pieces of a puzzle rearranging themselves.
He had never consciously examined the idea before, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
Take the simplest example.
A mother and her child?
The child is not necessarily the smartest person in the world.
Not the most beautiful.
Not the strongest.
Not the most accomplished.
Yet to the mother, that child is everything.
Why?
Because love does not evaluate worth like a contract.
The child does not have to fulfill conditions to be loved.
The child simply is.
And because of that existence alone, the love exists too.
That is love.
Unconditional.
The sa way a kid would never look at his mother and thought of her as ugly, no matter how the world might have judged her. To him she had always been beautiful because love had shaped how he saw her.
That logic could not be explained with numbers or reasoning.
It simply existed.
Razeal’s mind turned slowly through those thoughts while Sofia watched him quietly.
Finally she spoke again.
"So yeah," she said softly.
"You don’t need to do anything for to love you."
She gently placed her palm against his chest where his heart was beating.
"Because I just... love you."
She shrugged lightly again smiling softly..
"And that’s all there is to it."
The simplicity of it was almost overwhelming.
The words were simple.
But the aning behind them struck far deeper than she probably realized.
Razeal just stood there.
Silent.
For the first ti in a long while, he didn’t have a response ready.
Because no one had ever said those words to him like thist before.
Just... love?
For a mont, his mind went completely blank.
Then sothing strange happened.
His vision blurred slightly.
He blinked once.
Then again.
The shop around him seed oddly unfocused.
He frowned slightly.
Why was everything suddenly looking blurry?
He blinked again, looking directly at Sofia’s face as if trying to clear his vision.
Then the realization ca.
No way...
Razeal stared at her for a mont longer, still slightly confused by the unfamiliar sensation.
Then he let out a small breath.
"...Figures," he thought quietly.
"Must be because.. God doesn’t love ."
"I an.." Sofia had been about to continue speaking, ready to explain more patiently to this stubborn husband of hers who seed incapable of understanding sothing as simple as unconditional love. Her lips had already parted, the next sentence forming in her mind, when suddenly she stopped mid-word.
Her eyes lifted toward his face.
And then she froze.
For a mont she thought she had imagined it. Her brain needed a second to process what her eyes were seeing, because it simply didn’t match the image she had of him.
A small line of moisture had slipped from the corner of Razeal’s eye.
Just a little.
Just enough to catch the light.
Salt water?
Sofia’s entire train of thought halted instantly.
Her mouth opened slightly, as if she wanted to say sothing, but the words never ca out. The surprise hit her harder than she expected. In all the ti she had known him, Razeal had never looked like soone who cried? Not even close. If anything, he always seed like soone who had forgotten how too..
And yet there it was.
She stared at him, stunned.
"Ummmm..." was the only faint sound that escaped her lips.
anwhile, Razeal had already noticed the shift in her expression. The way her eyes had widened. The way she had gone silent.
He blinked quickly.
Then once more.
Ah.
Right.
Shit..
The realization hit him a second later.
His brain imdiately moved into damage control.
"Oh... I should check if Maria is fine or not," he said abruptly, his voice coming out a little too fast. Before Sofia could react or comnt on anything she had just seen, he had already turned and walked past her toward the counter table where Maria’s unconscious body was lying.
It was such a sudden change of topic that Sofia stood there for a second, mouth still slightly open in surprise.
Then a slow smile spread across her face.
She turned around to look at his back as he walked away.
"Ahhh... haa..." she murmured quietly under her breath, her eyes soft with amusent and warmth.
He was hiding it.
Of course he was.
But she had seen it.
And that alone made her smile.
How cute.. My little bad boy.. Ahahahaha She said in her head..
Razeal stopped at the counter and looked down at Maria’s unconscious form. He leaned slightly closer, studying her breathing, her condition anything that would justify his sudden escape.
Behind him, Sofia watched his back with quiet affection.
She was absolutely not going to let that mont go to waste.
So she took a step forward.
Just one step.
Her plan was obvious: get close enough to see his face again.
But the mont her foot moved..
"Thank you."
Razeal spoke suddenly.
His voice stopped her imdiately.
Even though he didn’t turn around.
Not even slightly.
It was almost as if he was deliberately facing away so she couldn’t see his expression while he said it.
Sofia paused..
"For what?" she asked curiously.
As a small, sweet smile had already ford on her lips as she looked at his back.
"For trusting ," Razeal said.
His voice sounded different this ti.
Not cold or distant as it always is...
Kinda sounding warm and thankful underneath..
And sothing else too.
Relief.. Maybe
"No one had trusted before you," he continued quietly. "No one."
He paused briefly.
"Not even my own family."
The words lingered in the air.
The words were simple.
But the weight behind them was unmistakable.
Sofia’s smile softened.
"Well of course I trusted you," she replied casually.
"I an... obviously," she said casually after a mont. "I saw it in your eyes."
She folded her arms lightly as she spoke.
"You know when you love soone, you can read their face and eyes no matter how much they try to hide things?"
She shrugged slightly.
"At least... that’s what my mother always told ."
"She used to say that when you look into soone’s eyes, your heart knows the truth before your mind does."
Her expression turned playful again.
"So I just believed my feeling when I looked at you."
She spread her hands dramatically as if presenting a grand revelation.
"And look! Turns out my assumption was completely right!" she declared proudly.
She nodded to herself proudly.
"Totally right. See? My instincts never fail ."
Razeal listened quietly.
After a brief pause he spoke again.
"Hmm."
"Yeah... thank you," he said again.
This ti, there was even a faint chuckle at the end of his words.
She smiled at that..
Though suddenly.. she paused thoughtfully for a mont, studying his back.
Sofia blinked.
The sound surprised her slightly.
But her curiosity wasn’t satisfied yet.
She tilted her head.
"For only that reason?" she asked.
Razeal didn’t answer imdiately.
Several seconds passed.
He still didn’t turn around.
Sofia could almost imagine him thinking.
Then finally..
"Maybe...?" he replied.
The uncertainty in his tone was so obvious that Sofia completely lost control.
A laugh burst out of her mouth.
"Awwww, my little baby," she said in an exaggerated teasing voice as she began walking toward him. "Why does that voice sound so whimpery?"
She leaned slightly closer as she approached his side.
"Soone isn’t crying, is heeee?"
Her grin widened.
"A.. does my baby want mama to give him so milkkkk?"
The mont the words left her mouth..
Razeal froze.
Then he slowly lifted a hand and facepald.
Hard..
The teasing tone was so over-the-top that it was impossible to take seriously.
He swore he had never experienced this level of secondhand embarrassnt in his entire life.
"This is so stupid," he thought internally.
Of all the reactions he could have imagined, this was the worst possible one.
It was so so ridiculous that arguing with her about it would only make it worse.
So he made the wise decision.
Ignore it..
Completely..
So he shifted his attention deliberately away from Sofia’s ridiculous comntary and focused on sothing else instead.
Maria.
Focus on Maria.
That was definitely safer.
He looked down at her unconscious form again.
The mont his eyes settled on her again, his expression slowly changed.
The light embarrassnt faded.
A small frown appeared.
His gaze narrowed slightly as he examined her condition more carefully.
"Villey...? Why is she not awake yet? Didn’t you say she’d be fine?" The question ca out almost flat, but the expectation behind it was obvious. From what Villey had said earlier, Maria should have been perfectly stable by now. At the very least, she should have regained consciousness.
Inside his mind, the familiar voice responded almost imdiately, smooth and calm as always, carrying that annoyingly refined tone that never seed to change no matter the situation. [Umm... yes, she is fine. But she cannot wake up so easily, host... You see, she was stopped in the middle of her evolution... So...]
"What?"
"Didn’t you say she was alright when I asked you earlier?" he demanded internally, his mind sharpening with suspicion as he replayed that earlier conversation. He distinctly rembered asking about her condition, and Villey had answered that she was fine. So what exactly was this new explanation?
Villey, however, remained as unbothered as ever. The voice echoed again in Razeal’s head with polite clarity. [You asked if she was fine, and I answered that she was fine. Which is correct. She is not in danger. Nothing harmful is happening to her body. However, because the imperial authority forced her unconscious during the middle of her evolutionary transition, the process itself has been interrupted. That interruption caused instability within her system. Therefore, naturally, if you want her to wake up, you must first resolve the incomplete evolution.]
l"You... fucker..." he muttered under his breath, the curse barely restrained. The irritation was obvious. Villey hadn’t technically lied.. but the way he twisted explanations and delivered information piece by piece was infuriating. Razeal lifted a hand and rubbed his temple, exhaling through his nose as if trying to suppress the urge to argue further.
"You really love playing with words, don’t you..." he thought bitterly. Still, the irritation faded quickly once he reminded himself of the most important part: Maria wasn’t dying. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t imdiately fatal.
That alone eased so of the tension in his chest. He lowered his hand again and looked back down at her carefully. From every sense he possessed.. mana perception, instinct, even the faint supernatural awareness that had co with his vampiric nature there was nothing wrong with her that he could sense ofcourse.. Her body felt stable. No chaotic energy, no corruption, no spiritual damage. If anything, she seed calr and stronger than before. That alone was reassuring.
But the explanation still made absolutely no sense.
Finally, Razeal asked the obvious question. "What evolution exactly?" His tone carried genuine confusion now, and the thought running through his mind was even more blunt. Evolution? What the hell did that even an in this context?
He was utterly confused, tilting his head slightly as he stared at Maria’s still form. "What is this, so kind of video ga chanic?" he thought sarcastically. The idea felt absurd.
"What exactly is she evolving into? A Magtron? A Charizard? So kind of legendary monster or sothing?" The absurd comparisons popped into his mind automatically, because that was the only frawork where the word evolution actually made sense. In reality, the concept felt ridiculous. Evolve mid-battle like creatures leveling up in a ga? What is he? A protagonist? No he’s not.. Its soone else.. The more he thought about it, the more confused he beca.
There was a brief pause inside his mind.
Before finally.. Villey answered.
[Well... into an Original Sin.]
The words landed like a stone dropping into still water.
For a second Razeal didn’t react at all. His brain simply... Paused.
"Co.. Again??!"
----
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