The wind whispered across the rooftop, soft and mournful, as if echoing the silence that had stretched on for hours. Three won stood on the tiled peak of a modest house, their gazes locked on the small shop several ters away.
"Mother," Nova finally spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, strained by concern and frustration.
"You know... if you want to see him, you can just go and talk to him directly. You’ve stared at the sa brick wall for eight hours. I can see you want to see him. Just go."
The woman in front of her, imperial-straight posture and eyes the color of dark athyst, did not budge.
"Go ho if you’re bored, Nova. I never ordered you to stay," The words were flat, clipped, commanding.
She didn’t even glance at Nova. Her piercing, royal purple eyes remained locked on the small shop’s wall, as if waiting for it to speak. Her long hair, the sa deep royal hue, cascaded over her shoulders. There was sothing cold about her tone, almost severe but it wasn’t forced. That was simply who she was. The kind of presence that didn’t need to raise a hand or voice to command a room.
Power radiated from her without effort. So imnse that even the air around her felt charged with command.
If not for the concealnt spell she’d cast around them, half the capital’s nobility would already be kneeling on the street below, wondering why one of the empire’s pillars was loitering in a low rchant district.
Because this woman was none other than risa Virelan, current Matriarch of the Virelan family.
The second-strongest being in the entire world.
Known by all, just beneath the Empress herself.
"I didn’t an it that way, Mother..." Nova said quietly, a conflicted expression crossing her face. "I’m just saying you could talk to him. I know you want to. You’ve been watching him for the last 26 hours. You haven’t even slept..."
Her voice cracked slightly.
"And now, you’re just... staring at a wall. You’re not even looking at his face. Just... the wall. I an... you could at least look at him. Why are you restricting even our ability to.." She caught herself and paused, lowering her head. "It looks odd, Mother..."
Then, after a long pause, her voice dropped even softer, and sothing like defeat weighed it down.
"...Are you alright, Mother?"
But no words ca.
Just the whisper of wind brushing past them.
Nova’s eyes lingered on her mother’s side profile her sharp jaw, unmoving lips, the faint crease between her brows. She saw how tightly her mother’s fists were clenched, trembling slightly from the pressure. Her entire arm quivered.
Nova didn’t know what was happening. But she knew one thing for certain. She hated it.
Whatever it was that was gripping her mother... she despised seeing her like this. Yet there was no one she could lash out at. Not her mother. but even herself.
She didn’t know why... but sothing about yesterday incident filled her with an uncomfortable storm of emotion. She was happy, yes, extrely happy but at the sa ti, she felt utterly sad. Conflicted. Heavy. Unstable.
She doesn’t know why was that..
But many ss of feelings swirled inside her, and she couldn’t even begin to put a na to any of them.
Desperate for so clarity, she turned to the third woman standing quietly beside them.
She, too, had violet hair and eyes, her features sharp and composed, wearing a square pair of glasses and a uniform matching the family crest in deep purple and silver.
The loyal shadow. The one who always stood next to her mother in silence. Their eyes t. Nova searched for sothing guidance, reason, permission. But the woman rely blinked slowly behind her glasses, offering a subtle tilt of her head.
Stay silent.
Nova let out a slow, exhausted sigh. The pressure was getting unbearable.
"...How about I go talk to him again?" she offered softly, her voice fragile yet hopeful. "Maybe his anger has cald down a little now..."
Still, risa didn’t respond. Her eyes hadn’t moved from that damn wall.
The silence felt louder now.
Nova sighed again, this ti defeated.
She wasn’t even sure if she was offering to go because of concern, guilt, or the need to run away from this suffocating rooftop. She just wanted sothing to move. Anything.
And silence lingered as for how long, no one could tell until it was suddenly broken by the very person who had remained quiet all this ti.
"He only ate apples last night," risa murmured suddenly, her voice almost a whisper, like words escaping from the edges of thought. "And he’s been sleeping on trees just outside the forest... even bathing in the side river."
Her words were quiet, but they struck like stones dropped into a silent pond. Nova, standing nearby, suddenly turned her face sharply to the side. Her fists clenched unconsciously at her sides, knuckles whitening. The air shifted slightly, charged with an unspoken tension.
"...Seems like it’s just routine for him now," she muttered, her voice low but taut, the words bitter as if they scraped her throat on their way out. "As if he’s used to it... like it’s nothing." Her eyes, colder than usual, flicked toward the distance, trying not to show too much but failing.
"No one in the empire must’ve ever given him anything," Nova added, her voice sharp but distant, her expression composed yet raw beneath the surface. Her composure held but just barely. Her pale eyes shimred like ice with barely veiled guilt and fury, emotions raging behind a calm façade.
risa’s Emotionlessly asked. "I gave orders to the entire R.A.V.E.N.S squad yesterday. Did they find out where he ca from? His past... or where he’s lived all these years? He had an admission letter. Soone must’ve given it to him. From that place, maybe we can trace him. There must be a way, right?" Her voice not showing any emotion or feelings as just being totally composed.
Nova shook her head slowly, her voice distant. "He sohow got a noble kid from a border family to write him a recomndation letter. As for how he did that... it’s still unknown. Even after checking the boy’s mories, the team only found out that the kid was made to write the letter... without even knowing who he was doing it for. He never learned Razeal’s real identity."
"So it’s still unknown... after all this ti?" risa’s voice was almost ghostlike now emotionless, quiet, as if talking more to herself than anyone else. "Even with all our intelligence?"
Silence.
Not a single word echoed back. Just the stillness of unresolved thoughts and the weight of too many unanswered questions. The kind of silence that stretched ti, where even the wind seed hesitant to interrupt.
No one spoke for what felt like forever. Until..
"...Maybe I should have broken the family rules back then," risa said suddenly, her voice still void of emotion, yet so full of aning. "At least then... I could have been fully sure. If he was telling the truth or not."
Nova finally broke, her voice coming fast and sharp, "Mother, you’re still stuck on that? It wasn’t your fault. Why are you still thinking like this? You did nothing wrong.."
"We did everything a family should do. Our duty was to teach. If a child strays... it is the family’s responsibility to discipline. The punishnt he received was what was deserved... right? Right?"
Her words hung heavily in the air.
"But he never admitted guilt," she continued after a pause, her eyes narrowing as if fighting back sothing deep. "Even after the punishnt. He kept saying he didn’t do it. Again and again. What if... what he said was true? I still can’t get that out of my head. What if he really was innocent?"
Her voice didn’t waver. It was too calm. Too composed. The kind of voice that only cos from years of living with guilt that never fades. "To this day, I regret not using ’that’ just because of the rules..."
At that nova looked away.
"It’s not like we didn’t try everything," Nova argued. "We went to the Church. Even called upon the True Spirits of Faerelith. They declared him guilty too."
She turned her head slightly. "We used Luminus Light... the empire’s truth magic. Even summoned one of the dragonwevr honest dragons to judge him. Every top-tier thod available in the empire every one of them found him guilty."
"Even the Imperial Princess," Nova added quietly, her voice hollow. "She used her special eyes. Her verdict was the sa."
"Maybe he really was guilty, Mother," she added after a beat, though her voice lacked conviction. "Maybe... we just have to let it go. He already received the corresponding punishnt. We did everything we could. At that ti, we couldn’t have done better... I rember how much it broke you."
risa didn’t reply imdiately. Her gaze remained fixed on the wall in front of her, as if trying to see beyond ti itself. "...I still feel like we should’ve trusted him," she said, softer now, almost fragile. "Just once...Maybe i don’t know"
Nova clenched her jaw, her voice rising suddenly, unable to stay silent. "Do you think I wanted this? That I wanted to believe he was guilty? I wanted to trust too but everything... everything proved him wrong!"
No one replied. The silence after her words felt like a judgnt in itself.
Nova bit her lip, hard.
"I’ll talk to him," risa said at last, softly, like a decision made long ago finally spoken aloud. "After the duel."
"...We’re letting the duel happen?" Nova asked, blinking in surprise.
"If my son has chosen to go through with it, then let him." risa closed her eyes. Her voice was like steel wrapped in velvet. Final.
"But he’s too weak, Mother..." Nova said, shaking her head in disbelief. "Even He himself practically given up. Sleeping all the ti, barely even trying to train. He’s... he’s not even trying anymore." Her voice cracked slightly. "It’s like he’s never had hope."
"And you know," Nova continued, hesitantly, "since birth... he never was able to.." but her voice faltered. She couldn’t bring herself to say it. The words vanished before they reached her lips.
"I don’t care about the duel or not," risa said firmly. "If he has decided to do it... let him. I will not stop him."
"But Mother, he’ll get hurt. He will!" Nova stepped forward, her voice nearly pleading now. "What if.."
But she didn’t get to finish.
A sudden gust of wind swept across the rooftop, sharp and cold, carrying with it a ripple of tension. From the shadows, a figure erged cloaked in deep violet. He knelt silently at the rooftop’s edge, head bowed, waiting.
risa didn’t even glance at him.
"Send my words to the Dragonwevrs," she said, her voice low and calm, yet sharp enough to cut steel. "If anything happens to him during the duel, even by mistake... their entire family might as well vanish along with that mistake."
The words sank into the air like a curse.
"...Yes, Matriarch," the kneeling figure replied in a voice no louder than the breeze, laced with absolute reverence.
But just as he was about to vanish into the shadows again, risa’s voice echoed once more, colder this ti like the final frost before a storm.
"Also... send warning to all Dukes," she said, each word deliberate, deliberate like falling stones. "And to the Church."
The figure paused, listening.
"If they’re thinking of banding together... to fight for what they call their ’rights’... let them know Virelans will declare war on all four of them on the spot."
As she spoke, the air around her grew still, unnaturally still. It wasn’t just the wind that stopped it was as if the very world held its breath.
"And let them understand this," she added, eyes half-lidded but burning with silent fire. "Even if they stand united Dukes, Church, and their loyal hounds their chances of victory... will always remain in the negatives."
The finality in her tone was absolute. She wasn’t threatening.
She was stating a truth.
The crouched shadow didn’t flinch. He didn’t even question her words. He simply gave a silent bow acknowledging the gravity of her command and vanished into the wind, as silently as he had co.
The rooftop was quiet once more.
risa stood still, gaze unwavering, eyes locked on the sa distant wall as if it held all the truths she never got to hear. Her expression didn’t change. But a whisper escaped her lips a whisper so soft, only the breeze heard it:
"...Maybe it’s enough. Maybe he’s suffered enough."
Her voice cracked just slightly at the edges.
"...He never deserved this much."
Nova stood beside her, her face unreadable. There was no flicker in her eyes, not even as her mother spoke of declaring war on four of the ten most powerful forces in the world.
"...Mother," she finally spoke, her voice low but clear. "What if the Imperial Family intervenes?"
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then risa turned her head slightly, not even bothering to look at her daughter directly.
"They won’t dare."
"Or, if they do... They are welco to try putting their hands in Virelan’s feathers too."
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Sigh... Sorry, guys, I’m late today. It was a hard day for since I was in an extrely bad mood. Sigh... Well, yeah, I just took Drop out after coming to my last year in college.
Anyways thanks for readin lova ya~
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