Chapter 470: The Best For All
Chapter 470: The Best For All
"Its... alright..." Celestia let out a quiet sigh and placed her hand gently on Selena’s shoulder, trying to comfort her. Selena had completely broken down by now.
Her one trembling hand covered her mouth while her body shook uncontrollably. Tears kept falling no matter how much she tried stopping them. Her breathing had become uneven as little broken sounds escaped through her fingers. Her shoulders trembled harder with every passing second as if she had finally reached her limit and all the emotions she had been holding inside for so long were pouring out at once.
Honestly, out of everyone affected by that incident... Selena had been hit the worst. After all, she had only wanted something simple and innocent. She had wanted him to love her and wanted to love him in return. Yes, she had chosen the wrong path. Yes, she had made mistakes and ruined things badly. She knew that better than anyone. But her intentions had never been bad. She had never wanted to hurt him, never wanted to destroy him. Somewhere between fear, weakness and selfishness, things had simply gone wrong.
The others at least had something they could hide behind. They could tell themselves they did not know the truth. They could say they acted that way because they were innocent and unaware of what had really happened. They could tell themselves that they had only reacted according to what they saw. But Selena... Selena had nothing. No excuse. No reason. No one to blame except herself.
Because she did it.. and she always knew what was truth and not.
She knew she had stayed silent. She knew there had been moments where she could have spoken, moments where she could have done something, moments where she could have stopped things before they got worse. But every time fear had stopped her. Fear of concequnces. Fear of losing everything. Fear of watching things change.
So she remained quiet and that silence slowly became something heavy around her heart. Day after day the guilt only became worse. Every time she remembered his pain, remembered his eyes, remembered what happened because of her choices... her chest felt like it was tightening.
Because the person who had suffered that pain was someone she loved.
And she had lost everything that day.
Now she was finally standing here after revealing everything. Honestly, before today she had truly believed she would lose everything again. Her respect, her dignity, her image... everything. Because a Saintess was supposed to be pure.Truthful. Someone people put their faith in. Someone others looked at with hope. Saintesses were not supposed to make mistakes. Not supposed to lie. Not supposed to be selfish. Not supposed to be so.. human. People wanted them to be like angels... or gods. Perfect beings standing far above everyone else.
But Selena was not perfect.
She had lied.
She had hidden things.
She had sinned.
At worst some people could even call her a traitor.
She had prepared herself for that possibility. Prepared herself to be hated. Prepared herself to be thrown away. Maybe even killed. Her fingers slowly tightened as those thoughts crossed her mind again. She had imagined strong believers attacking her in anger. She had imagined the Church abandoning her. Discarding her. Punishing her.
But none of that happened.
Instead, when she slowly raised her tear-filled eyes and looked down, she saw people on their knees. Some had lowered their heads completely while praying quietly. Some were crying. Some looked ashamed. Some looked filled with regret. Not because they hated her... but because they hated themselves. Because they regretted what had happened. Because they were praying for forgiveness. Praying for her happiness. Praying for Razeal and finally recognizing him for who he truly was while regretting the way they had looked at him before.
They just showed how much people really loved her.. more then she had ever known.
Selena stared at them with shaking eyes while her lips trembled harder. This... somehow hurt even more. Because she could feel it. She could feel their love. Real love. Pure love without conditions. No matter how much she had acted confident before and said people loved her and would forgive her... deep down she had never truly been sure.
Maybe she had simply forced herself to believe it. Maybe she had just been lying to herself again. But now seeing all this with her own eyes, seeing people still accepting her and loving her after hearing everything... she simply could not believe it.
"D-Don’t..." her voice cracked weakly as more tears escaped her eyes. She shook her head while crying harder. "D-Don’t..." People slowly looked toward her with soft eyes.
"I don’t deserve this..." Selena cried as her voice broke apart. "Hkh... I... I am a bad person... I hurt people... d-don’t..." Her tears flowed straight into her mouth, leaving behind that familiar salty taste. "I don’t deserve this..."
She truly could not accept it. Not because she hated them, but because she hated herself.
Celestia quietly watched from beside her and let out another small sigh.
Selena really was too soft. Too sensitive. Too kind. She had always been like that. Even when they were younger. Even when people praised her and loved her, Selena always carried everyone’s pain as if it was her own. Celestia turned slightly and looked at her from the side. At her shaking shoulders. At her red eyes. At her face covered in tears.
Then her own eyes softened slightly.
Honestly... Selena deserved this.
Because this was who she truly was.
A soft-hearted girl. Kind. Gentle. Someone who worried about others even while she herself was drowning. Someone warm enough that people naturally wanted to protect her.
It was just sad that she had messed up too.
But still...
Celestia lowered her gaze slightly as her expression grew complicated.
At least Selena was better than her.
There was a difference between them.
Selena had done what she did because she wanted Razeal beside her. Because she loved him and wanted him to stay with her.
But Celestia...
Celestia had gone along with everything because she wanted him gone.
Because she wanted him away.
Because of her own selfish desires.
Both of them had been selfish.
But there was still a difference between the two.
And Celestia knew that better than anyone.
Celestia slowly let out another sigh, though this one felt different from the ones before. The heaviness inside her chest still remained there, the guilt still remained there, and the complicated feelings twisting around her heart had not disappeared, but somewhere among all of that something lighter had finally appeared. Relief. It was small, almost too small to notice, yet it was there.
Slowly, without even realizing it herself, the corners of her lips lifted slightly.
Her eyes quietly moved across the Grand Plaza beneath them, looking at the countless people still kneeling on the stone ground. Some had both hands clasped tightly together in prayer, some had tears falling from their eyes, and some were still looking toward Selena with pain and worry in their expressions.
But among those prayers, among all those voices trembling with emotion, she could also hear another thing now. She could hear his name. Razeal. People were praying for him too. Asking God to bless him. Asking for forgiveness for him. Regretting the hatred and curses they had thrown at him for years. Regretting the words they had spoken so casually toward a boy they never even knew.
Celestia quietly watched that scene and felt something warm spreading slowly through her chest. For five years that name had only carried filth. Disgust. Hatred. People called him a monster without hesitation. People looked at him as if his existence itself dirtied the place he stood in. Children repeated rumors without understanding them. Nobles laughed. Citizens cursed him.
The Empire had built an image of a disgusting person and forced a young man to carry it all alone. And now, for the first time, people were beginning to see him differently. They were regretting it. They were trying, in their own way, to ask forgiveness for the things they had done. Celestia slowly lowered her eyes, looking toward the ground beneath her feet while that small smile remained on her face.
"He deserves at least this much..." she murmured quietly to herself. Her voice was almost impossible to hear beneath the sounds of crying and prayers.
Slowly she closed her eyes. So many emotions had appeared inside her today that she honestly no longer knew how to separate them. Regret. Sadness. Pain. Relief. Guilt. Especially guilt.
Because unlike Selena, Celestia knew that her own reasons had not been innocent.
Selena had wanted to keep him beside her. Wanted his love. Wanted him to stay with her forever.
But Celestia... Celestia had wanted freedom. She had wanted him gone. Wanted to break away from him because she did not want him in her life anymore. She had looked at him and seen chains around herself. And because of that selfishness, she had accepted a lie. She had watched him lose everything and stood there silently. Slowly her lips tightened.
"I regretted it... Raze..." she whispered inside her mind. The words never reached outside. She simply stood there and allowed herself to feel this moment for what it was. No titles. No image. No expectations. No pride. Just herself. For the first time in years she felt strangely light. Strange enough that it almost made her uncomfortable. Yet... not unpleasant. Not at all.
"Maybe..." she thought quietly, "...it isn’t such a bad feeling... to stop trying to be perfect."
Far away from the center of the crowd, leaning silently against one of the giant stone pillars surrounding the Grand Plaza, Nova remained standing with her eyes closed.
Unlike everyone else, she had not moved from her position even once. She had simply listened. Listened to every word Selena spoke. Listened to every confession. Listened to every prayer. But her fist had tightened so hard that veins had slowly appeared beneath the skin of her arm. Her body trembled slightly, though whether it came from anger, relief or pain even she no longer knew herself. Her little brother’s image... finally. Finally it was becoming clean again.
By tomorrow, maybe by the next day, this entire Capital would know the truth. Then after that the Empire would know. Then neighboring kingdoms. News like this would spread like wildfire. People would repeat Selena’s confession.
People would repeat Celestia’s confession. People would finally know that he had been innocent. That he had never done any of those things. That the monster they hated never truly existed. A small breath escaped Nova’s mouth. She was happy. Truly happy. But at the same time she was not happy at all. Because this was not justice.
Not even close. Her eyes slowly opened, revealing a coldness that immediately swallowed away whatever warmth had been there before. This was merely what he deserved.
Nothing more. His name had been returned.
That was all.
His dignity had been returned.
That was all. His truth had been returned. That was all. But people had taken more than that from him.
They had taken years from him. They had taken his life apart piece by piece. They had taken things that could never truly be given back.
Her fist tightened again.
Every single one of them deserved punishment.
Then suddenly a figure appeared beside her without warning. A man wearing a deep purple uniform appeared on one knee beside her with his head lowered respectfully. His voice carried almost no emotion when he spoke. "Captain... important news."
Nova slowly turned her head toward him.
Every emotion disappeared.
Warmth disappeared.
Relief disappeared.
Only coldness remained.
"...You found my brother?" she asked quietly.
And somehow, despite how calm her voice sounded, the man suddenly felt pressure crawl up his back.
"My apologies, Captain. All of our divisions are still carrying out the mission you assigned. However, his whereabouts still remain unknown." The man kneeling on one knee spoke without lifting his head even once. His voice remained calm and flat, almost empty of emotion. Years of training had long since taught him to suppress unnecessary reactions while reporting information.
"I came to deliver different intelligence. We received confirmation that House Rock has fully mobilized and launched an attack on Denvaar Kingdom. Intelligence reports also confirm that the Pillar Head himself has deployed."
Nova’s eyes did not move.
Not even slightly.
The man continued speaking beneath that suffocating silence.
"We remain unaware of the reason behind the sudden deployment. All foreign intelligence units stationed within Denvaar Kingdom have gone silent. We received the final reports only hours ago." He paused briefly before continuing in the same flat tone. "All of our spies inside Denvaar Kingdom have been eliminated. Initial reports suggest they were killed by an unidentified group of Great Saints."
Silence followed.
Heavy silence.
Nova simply stared ahead.
Her expression had not changed at all.
Not even by a little.
No anger.
No surprise.
Just reaction.
But somehow that made the atmosphere around her even colder.
The kneeling man suddenly felt sweat slowly forming across his back beneath the dark purple uniform.
Because he knew.
He knew very well.
This expression was dangerous.
Very dangerous.
If Nova had shouted, if she had shown anger openly, perhaps it would have been easier.
But she wasn’t doing that.
Instead, she was calm.
Far too calm.
"...I had ordered all operations, all duties, and every other mission to be left aside," Nova suddenly spoke. Her voice was quiet, almost soft, but the moment the words left her mouth, the kneeling man’s shoulders stiffened immediately. "I had only asked for one thing."
Her eyes slowly shifted toward him.
Just one glance.
That was all.
Yet the pressure suddenly became heavier.
"I asked you to only focus only on finding him."
Her voice remained steady.
"Are you perhaps unable to understand my orders?"
Cold sweat immediately rolled down the man’s back. His breathing almost stopped for a moment.
Fear which he was prepared from start.. crawled into his chest.
Because he could feel it now.
Bloodlust.
Very faint.
Very controlled.
But enough to make his body instinctively scream danger.
He lowered his head further.
"...No, Captain."
Nova looked at him silently for several seconds.
Those few seconds felt much longer.
Much heavier.
Then she finally spoke again.
"Leave every operation."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Every mission."
"Every duty."
"Every assignment."
"Focus only on finding him."
Her voice was still calm.
Still quiet.
Yet somehow every word felt heavier than the last.
Then slowly she lowered her gaze toward the kneeling figure beneath her.
"And.. Make sure..." she murmured quietly, "...I do not have to repeat myself next time."
The bloodlust behind those words was controlled perfectly.
The man felt his throat go dry.
"...Yes, Captain."
His answer came instantly.
There was no hesitation.
No delay.
Even though fear had already spread throughout his body, years of discipline held him together.
His voice did not shake.
His expression did not change.
Only the sweat hidden beneath his clothing betrayed him.
The moment the words left his mouth, his figure disappeared from the place entirely.
Leaving behind complete silence once again.
Nova remained standing beside the pillar.
Alone.
The sounds of prayers and crying still continued somewhere far away inside the Grand Plaza.
But she no longer paid attention to any of it.
Her eyes slowly lowered.
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Sorry for missing yesterday, guys.. really sorry.. it’s just that I had to go to college because my friend needed help with admission too.. and I went on my bike.. and fucking hell, 45–50°C heat.. absolutely got fucked up.. came back home and got sick..
Literally slept at 4 in the evening.. and woke up at 11:47 today.. I swear.. and I’m still sick, sigh..
Sorry guys, idk.. I usually don’t get sick, but when I do.. it hits hard..
Thanks for understanding, guys.. love ya all ❤️
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