Chapter 889: Belle's Warning

“Well, as you can see, Christina, Amael,” Belle said, glancing toward the group of Falkrona grandchildren a short distance away, “those wonderful cousins of yours have been spoon-fed with a golden spoon since they were children. So now you know exactly what you’re going against.”

Christina couldn’t help but giggle.

“Yes, Aunt.”

She glanced briefly toward the quartet.

Erionne, Aiden, Jordan, and Edgar were standing a short distance away, still talking among themselves.

Rose had already wandered back toward them.

“Rose.”

Erionne called out to the little girl.

Rose immediately turned her head.

“Come here.”

She quickly followed Erionne.

“Bye,” Rose said shyly, waving toward Christina and Amael before hurrying after the others.

Belle smiled as she watched the little girl run off.

“Aunt.”

Christina’s voice interrupted her.

Belle turned.

The cheerful expression on Christina’s face had disappeared.

She now looked unusually serious.

“Can we speak?”

Belle’s smile faded slightly.

She already knew what Christina wanted to discuss.

There was only one person she could possibly mean.

“Of course.”

Christina looked toward Amael.

“Can you wait here, Amael?”

Amael nodded.

“Sure.”

Christina then followed Belle away from the living hall, moving toward a quieter part of the estate where they could speak without the others overhearing.

She had asked Amael to stay behind with purpose.

She wasn’t entirely sure what her brother thought about Edward.

Amael had been strangely quiet whenever the subject came up.

And considering that Edward had been Amael for a while, Christina wasn’t sure how he would react if she began speaking about him openly.

It was better to talk to Belle alone.

Once they were sufficiently isolated, Christina finally spoke.

“Aunt Belle… about him…”

“Edward?” Belle said.

Christina hesitated before nodding.

“Yes… Edward.”

She took a small breath.

“Is it really him?”

Belle looked at her for a moment.

The mixture of hope, fear, guilt, and longing reflected in Christina’s amber eyes made her expression soften.

“If you’re asking whether he is the same person who spent that entire year with you…”

Belle paused briefly.

“Yes.”

Christina’s eyes widened.

“He is.”

“He’s simply in his real body now.”

For a few seconds, Christina couldn’t say anything.

Her lips parted slightly.

Her eyes trembled.

“T-That’s…”

A thin layer of tears began to form in her eyes.

“Then… he’s alive.”

Belle nodded.

“It is complicated to explain, but yes.”

Christina’s eyes immediately brightened through the tears.

“Then can I speak to him?”

Her voice became more eager.

“Can I see him?”

Belle’s heart sank slightly at the sight of her niece.

She wished she could simply say yes.

She really did.

If it were that simple, Belle would have already arranged the meeting herself.

But Edward was no longer the same person Christina remembered.

“Christina…”

Belle gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Edward is different now.”

Christina’s smile slowly faded.

“He isn’t the same Edward you remember. He’s carrying yes memories from before… and among them… those memories of Sancta Vedelia aren’t exactly good ones.”

Belle spoke carefully, not wanting to hurt her.

“You understand that, don’t you?”

Christina lowered her head.

“I… know.”

Her voice trembled.

“I should have understood him better.”

A tear finally slipped down her cheek.

“And in the end… I abandoned him when he needed me.”

Her mind returned to those final moments in Central Vedelia.

The image of Edward, the helplessness at the end.

The things she had said and failed to say.

The way everything had ended.

“I should have been there.”

“Christina…”

Belle gently patted her shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

She truly was. Belle didn’t know every detail of what had happened between them, and she wasn’t going to pretend she did.

“But Edward doesn’t seem to want anything to do with—”

She stopped herself.

Christina’s expression became bitter.

“With us.”

She lowered her gaze.

“He hates us, doesn’t he?”

Belle’s expression became complicated.

“I don’t think so.”

Christina looked up.

“At least… he has nothing against you.”

Belle had seen Edward’s attitude toward many people. She knew what genuine hatred looked like.

What Edward felt toward Christina wasn’t that.

It was something else.

Something quieter.

He simply seemed unwilling to involve himself with them again.

It wasn’t hatred, it was distance.

“I don’t think Edward hates you,” Belle continued. “But I think he’s decided that he doesn’t want to return to the relationships he had with you.”

Christina swallowed.

“I understand.”

She wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes.

“I understand that he doesn’t want to see us,” she hesitated. “Or… see me again.”

Her voice became quieter.

“But at least, Aunt…”

Christina raised her pleading gaze toward Belle.

“I just want to speak to him.”

She clenched her hands together.

“I want to do it properly this time. I want to apologize properly. Not like before.”

Belle stared at her for a moment.

Then she smiled softly.

“You really do care about him, don’t you?”

Christina nodded.

“When he died… I felt completely lost. I thought I had lost him forever. I was grieving, and I didn’t know what to do.”

She took a shaky breath.

“But now that I know he’s alive…”

A small smile appeared through her tears.

“I feel like maybe I still have a chance.”

She looked toward Belle.

“I want to tell him how thankful I am.”

Christina lowered her voice.

“And I don’t think of him as a stranger. I never did.”

Belle nodded slowly.

She could understand.

Christina wasn’t trying to force Edward back into her life.

At least, Belle didn’t think she was.

She simply wanted one chance to speak to him.

To apologize.

To thank him.

Perhaps to finally say the things she had failed to say before.

“I won’t be there when you speak to him,” Belle said.

Christina’s expression faltered slightly.

“But you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see him now,” Belle smiled. “You’re both going to be attending the same academy, after all.”

She gently patted Christina’s head.

“If you want to speak with him, then reach out to him yourself.”

Christina stared at her.

“Really?”

“Really.”

Belle smiled.

“And…I’ll speak to Edward too.”

Christina blinked.

“I’ll ask him to hear you out.”

Belle couldn’t promise that Edward would accept her.

She couldn’t promise that he would return to being the person Christina remembered.

But she could at least ask him not to shut the door completely.

Her niece deserved that much.

Especially after carrying all that guilt for so long.

Christina’s eyes softened.

A genuine smile finally returned to her face.

“Yes.”

She nodded.

“Thank you, Aunt Belle.”

Belle nodded.

Christina was about to ask something else when footsteps sounded behind them.

Belle turned first.

Alea and Kleines were approaching.

Kleines’ expression was already suspicious, his eyes moving between Belle and Christina as though he had expected to find them speaking about something they were not supposed to discuss.

“What were you talking about?” He asked.

“Edward,” Belle replied without hesitation.

Kleines’ face darkened.

“You…”

He narrowed his eyes at his sister.

“I told you not to speak about him to my family.”

“Your family does not appear to share your opinion, dear brother,” Belle said coolly. “Christina wishes to speak with him.”

“Christina, you cannot—”

“I wish to speak with him,” Christina interrupted. “I will speak with him if I want to. You cannot stop me from doing that, Father.”

Kleines looked at her with visible frustration.

“You do not understand,” he said, stepping closer. “He is dangerous.”

His gaze hardened.

“I showed you the kind of man he is. I showed you what he has done.”

“You did not show me Edward,” Christina replied. “You showed me someone else.”

“Someone else?”

Kleines’ voice rose.

“That night, you were there. You saw it. The purple flames burning thousands of people across Centra Vedelia. Whose doing do you think that was? It was him. He killed them. And there were children among them.”

Christina’s expression faltered.

For a moment, she did not know how to respond.

The images Kleines had shown her remained clear in her mind: purple fire spreading through Central Vedelia, people screaming, buildings collapsing, bodies disappearing beneath flames that did not behave like ordinary fire.

It had been horrifying.

And no matter the circumstances, she could not easily erase the thought that innocent people had died that night.

Belle, however, did not look away.

“I will not judge Edward’s method,” she said. “But I will not let you pretend you do not understand what happened either.”

Kleines turned his cold gaze toward her.

“Those people were under the Blood Moon Spell,” Belle continued. “You know what that meant. They could not be brought back. They would continue living only to feed the spell, killing others until their bodies finally failed.”

Her expression became more severe.

“The records do not even mention what happened to those who were captured while under the Blood Moon Spell. They certainly do not speak of anyone being cured or freed from it.”

Belle’s lips tightened.

“That means they likely died in prison. Or the authorities ended their lives quietly, then chose not to record it.”

She had heard the accusations thrown at Edward.

That he had burned Sancta Vedelia.

That he had slaughtered innocent people.

That he was nothing more than a monster who had appeared from nowhere and brought death wherever he walked.

Belle did not care much about the way the world chose to portray him.

Not when she knew more of the truth and no either when she had heard Edward’s own explanation.

“He ended a deadly spell,” Belle said. “While you were standing by and waiting for the right opportunity to backstab him, Kleines.”

“We would have found another solution,” Kleines said “There is always another solution. Killing thousands of people is not a solution.”

“They were lost!”

Belle’s voice rose sharply.

The sudden force of it made Christina go still.

“And there was no time,” Belle continued. “People were dying by the minute. Central Vedelia was overwhelmed by those consumed by the spell. You wanted to capture them one by one while they continued slaughtering everyone around them?”

Her eyes burned with anger.

“While more innocent people died? While more children died?”

Kleines said nothing.

Belle exhaled slowly, forcing herself to calm down.

“It was painful,” she said, her voice quieter now. “I am not defending it as something good. It was tragic. It should never have happened.”

She looked directly at him.

“But Edward did not kill those people for pleasure. He did not do it because he enjoyed causing pain, no matter how desperately you want everyone to believe that.”

Her words became cold.

“He did it to end the spell. To save the people who had not yet been taken by it. And the fastest way to stop it was what he did.”

She paused.

“Within minutes, it was over.”

Kleines stared at her.

“I see,” he said bitterly. “He has completely entered your mind, has he not?”

Belle smiled but there was no warmth in it.

“What were you doing, Kleines?”

His expression changed faintly.

“What?”

“I am asking what the hell you were doing while Central Vedelia suffered beneath the Blood Moon Spell.”

Belle took a small step closer.

“Surely someone as righteous as you was busy saving those people. Surely you were desperately trying to find the cure you now insist must have existed.”

Kleines fell silent.

Belle’s smile disappeared.

“That is what I thought.”

She shook her head slowly.

“You are a hypocrite too.”

Her voice carried disappointment rather than rage now.

“And the list of reasons for me to be disappointed in you continues to grow.”

Kleines’ eyes darkened.

“So does mine, Belle. Since he took over Amael, death has followed him everywhere. Elona. Thomen. And everyone else who suffered because of him.”

“Do not dare speak about them.”

Belle’s glare turned harder.

“Someone who hid from his own family all this time has no right to speak their names.”

“I had my reasons,” Kleines replied.

For the first time, anger entered his voice.

“And I do not need to prove my love for my family to anyone. Anyone who threatens them is my enemy.”

“Edward is not your enemy unless you make him one yourself,” Belle said. “But I am warning you, Kleines. Do not provoke him.”

Kleines scoffed.

“I thought I had finally gotten rid of that monster,” he said. “But he is back.”

His gaze shifted briefly toward Christina.

“Do you think I can sleep peacefully knowing someone capable of killing my family is alive and well?”

“You are creating scenarios inside your own head,” Belle replied.

Then she looked toward Alea.

“And you believe all of this too?”

Alea had remained silent until then.

Her expression was complicated.

There was pain in her eyes.

“I…”

Alea’s voice trembled slightly.

“Kleines showed me Amael. He was different, Belle. He did not feel like my son.”

Her hands tightened together.

“I saw him kill us. I saw the things he did afterward.”

“And Kleines showed you those visions,” Belle said.

Her disappointment became more visible.

“And you believed them?”

Alea looked at her.

“You believed those images Kleines showed you over the Amael who had been beside you at that time?”

Belle’s voice softened, but only slightly.

“You know, he had just lost Elona and Thomen. He thought he would finally see his real family again. He thought he would be able to return to the people he loved.”

Belle’s eyes narrowed.

“And you shattered that hope because you believed some vision, some image, some nonsense Kleines decided to show you.”

“I know.”

Alea’s voice broke.

“I know, Belle. I should not have believed it. I should have trusted these images.”

She swallowed painfully.

“But it was difficult for me too. I…I did not want to lose any more of my children.”

Seeing the tears beginning to gather in Alea’s eyes, Belle’s expression softened.

After Connor’s death, of course Alea had clung more tightly to the children she still had.

Belle could not imagine what it must have felt like for her.

To see a vision of her family being slaughtered.

To see people she loved dying one after another.

And to see it all done by someone wearing her son’s face.

“That was not him,” Belle said quietly. “That was not Nyrel.”

“Nyrel…?”

Christina looked toward her, confused.

“His real name,” Belle answered.

Then she returned her attention to Alea.

“The person you saw in those visions, or whatever Kleines showed you, was not Nyrel inside Amael’s body.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Did he even look remotely like that man of these visions Kleines showed you?”

Alea did not answer.

“Nyrel was different from your son,” Belle continued. “I will not deny that. But he was never that cruel.”

“He lost his parents and his sister when he was only seventeen. Do you truly believe someone who had already suffered through that kind of loss would willingly do the same thing to another family?”

Alea’s expression shook.

Christina was silent too.

They had heard fragments about Edward’s original life. They had heard him speak briefly about another family; his real parents, his sister, the people he had lost long before he entered this world.

But Belle’s words made it more real.

Nyrel had been alone.

For years.

“He had no one,” Belle said.

Her gaze lowered briefly.

“And when he finally found hope again, when he found people he could love and consider family, that was taken from him too.”

She looked back at Alea.

“That was when he was forced into Amael’s body. He did not enter it willingly.”

Belle’s expression grew colder as she turned toward Kleines.

“It was difficult for him too. He suffered more than you understand and he certainly suffered more than you did over Elona and Thomen’s deaths, Brother.”

Kleines’ face did not change.

“Telling me that will not change anything, Belle.”

Belle held his stare.

“I do not know what happened to you,” she said. “I do not know what you saw either but the person you showed Christina and Alea was not Nyrel. You were manipulated too.”

Kleines’ eyes narrowed.

Belle continued before he could interrupt.

“And it seems whoever did it obtained exactly what they wanted from you.”

Her expression became faintly bitter.

“Then they threw you away.”

“So now you are siding with him?” Kleines asked coldly. “Despite everything he is capable of?”

“I told you already, Kleines.”

Belle’s gaze hardened.

“And I will repeat it once more.”

She stepped closer.

“Take this as real advice from your younger sister, someone who still has at least a shred of care left for you. Do not provoke him.”

She said the warning in a clear tone.

“I do not think I will be able to stop him if he decides to kill you.”

Alea stiffened.

Christina’s eyes widened slightly as well.

They understood the seriousness in Belle’s tone that she was not exaggerating.

She was not trying to frighten Kleines for the sake of winning an argument.

She truly believed Edward could kill him.

And worse, she believed that if Kleines pushed him too far, Edward would not hesitate.

Belle turned toward Alea.

“I am serious, Alea. Keep your husband in check.”

Her expression softened slightly, though her words did not.

“He is not the Edward you knew before.”

For now, Edward did not care much about Kleines.

He did not view him as a meaningful threat. He was not actively seeking revenge, nor did he seem interested in spending time thinking about him.

But Belle knew Edward’s opinion of Kleines was terrible.

Kleines had already placed himself on a list of people Edward would kill without hesitation if they became too troublesome.

If Kleines provoked him again…

If he pulled the wrong string, said the wrong thing, or attempted something foolish against Edward or those close to him…

Edward would kill him.

And Belle feared that moment.

Despite everything, she could not hate her brother enough to want him dead.

The same was true of her family as a whole.

That was why she was warning Kleines.

If he wanted to hate Edward, then so be it.

If he wanted to remain bitter, suspicious, and trapped in whatever fear had been placed inside his mind, Belle could not force him to change.

But she wanted him to hate Edward from far away, not near him. Not loudly enough to make himself a target.

Belle exhaled quietly.

Then she looked at Alea one last time.

“Alea,” she said, “I think you should speak with him too.”

A faint, sad smile appeared on her lips.

“You are afraid of something you should not be afraid of. And I know you do not feel good about how things ended.”

Alea looked at her.

Belle turned away.

Then she began walking off, leaving the three of them behind.

Alea watched her go in silence.