Chapter 359: Question

Inside the floating shadow sphere, there was no light at all.

For any human, it would have been absolute nothingness an endless, suffocating dark where sight itself ceased to exist. But neither of the two trapped inside were human anymore. For Razeal and Merisa, the darkness was irrelevant. Their vampiric senses pierced through it effortlessly, outlining each other with painful clarity, every expression, every tremor, every tear impossible to hide.

Merisa didn’t react to the sudden isolation. She didn’t question the shadow cocoon, didn’t resist, didn’t even look around. Her entire attention was fixed on Razeal. On his face. On the way his jaw was clenched so tightly it looked like it might crack. On the way his shoulders were tense, his fists trembling at his sides, as if he were holding himself together by sheer force alone.

Tears continued to stream down her cheeks, drifting weightlessly in the water before dissolving into nothing. She wasn’t sobbing loudly. There was no dramatic breakdown. Just silent, continuous tears, born from a place too deep for sound. She didn’t wipe them away.. Didn’t bother hiding them. She was far beyond that now.. not that she could

Razeal, on the other hand, was still furious with himself.

The shame burned hotter than the anger he had just unleashed. The embarrassment gnawed at him relentlessly. He could still hear his own voice echoing in his head, screaming, accusing, breaking apart in front of everyone. Acting weak. Acting like a child. Letting emotions spill out in the most humiliating way possible.

His fists clenched harder, knuckles whitening, veins standing out sharply beneath pale skin. His whole body trembled.. not from fear, not from exhaustion, but from the effort it took not to explode again.

Idiot, he cursed himself. Weak. Pathetic.

He hated this more than anything. Hated the fact that he had let anyone.. her especially see that side of him. That he had proven, even for a moment, that those wounds were still there. That they still mattered.

Slowly, deliberately, he drew in a deep breath.

Then another.

Then another.

At first, it felt useless. His chest was tight, his thoughts chaotic, vampire emotions usually flaring higher the more he tried to suppress them. But strangely.. unnaturally they began to settle. Not vanish, but quiet down. The storm inside him didn’t rage louder; it receded, little by little, like waves pulling back after crashing too hard.

He frowned slightly at the sensation.

This wasn’t normal?

Normally, trying to calm himself only made things worse, emotions amplifying until control slipped completely. But now... they were easing. The burning pressure in his head dulled. The violent throb behind his eyes faded too

He didn’t understand why.

And right now, he didn’t care either..

He lifted a hand, pressing his fingers briefly against his forehead, shaking his head once as if trying to dislodge lingering thoughts. The headache that had threatened to split his skull moments ago was already fading.

When he lowered his hand, his gaze settled back on Merisa.

She was still there. Still crying. Still trembling faintly, overwhelmed by everything crashing through her guilt, regret, sorrow, amplified beyond human limits by her new vampiric nature.

Razeal stared at her for a long moment.

He had brought her here for a reason. Not for comfort himself nor for reconciliation. And certainly not to listen to apologies or just see her crying and regret.

There were things that he still needed to know. Things that had eaten at him for years. Questions that never stopped whispering in the back of his mind, no matter how far he ran, no matter how strong he became.

And now, for the first time, she couldn’t evade them.

She couldn’t lie to him, She couldn’t escape.

The thought was ugly.. That he wanted answer from her even though he doesn’t care about what happened.. He knew that. He didn’t like acknowledging it. But the urge to finally know.. to rip open the past and look at it without illusions.. was stronger than his disgust.

Still, when she continued crying silently in front of him, something twisted unpleasantly in his chest.

"Stop this drama," he said coldly, his voice sharp in the suffocating dark. "No one’s believing you and no one here gives a fuck."

Merisa flinched as if struck.

Her eyes widened in shock, pain flashing through them as his words landed. For a split second, disbelief overrode everything else. Did he truly think this was fake? That she was pretending?

"I.. I’m not.." she tried to say, panic creeping into her voice as she rushed to explain, tears blurring her vision further. "Razeal, I swear, I, "

"I don’t care," he cut in immediately, his tone ruthless. "Stop the crocodile tears." He didn’t even let her finish the sentence.

And without consciously meaning to.. without even fully realizing it he invoked his authority.

The air shifted.

Something deep and instinctual snapped into place.

Merisa’s mouth closed instantly. Not because she chose to stop speaking. Because she couldn’t continue.

Her body obeyed before her mind could protest, the command sinking into her blood, her bones, her very existence. She froze mid-breath, eyes widening further in horror as she realized what had just happened again.

Razeal frowned slightly as he watched it

happen.

So it really works like this, he thought.

Yet even as her voice was silenced, the tears still didn’t stop?

They continued to fall, relentless, silent, each one heavier than the last. Her shoulders trembled faintly, her chest hitching with shallow breaths she couldn’t fully control. The sorrow in her eyes didn’t lessen.. if anything, it deepened, unrestrained by words now denied to her.

Razeal stared at her, irritation flickering across his face.

Tch... He had known this already, but seeing it in front of him made it clearer. Progenitor authority wasn’t absolute in every sense. He could command actions. Silence her voice. Stop her from attacking him.

But he couldn’t erase what she felt. He couldn’t command her emotions and all. As Villey had said she could resent him. Hate him. Mourn. Regret. Those things were beyond direct control.

But again he doesn’t care the only one thing truly mattered to him.

That she couldn’t harm him, betray him or even act against his survival.

Everything else... he doesn’t need to bother about. At least, that’s what he told himself.. So he let her be.

"Honestly," Razeal said after a long silence, his voice low and strangely even, "I still can’t understand why I don’t want to kill you."

He lifted his gaze slowly, eyes settling on Merisa without hostility, without warmth.. only a flat, analytical calm that was somehow more unsettling than rage. The shadowed space between them felt heavier with every word.

"I mean... I know I’m making excuses for myself," he continued. "I know I keep telling myself reasons why I don’t want to kill you all as why I can’t make up my mind to do it."

His lips pressed into a thin line.

"Or maybe," he went on, almost thoughtfully, "it’s just that my body still knows some shame. Maybe some natural instinct that screaming it’s wrong to kill a mother?"

The word mother sounded tasteless coming from him.

"Which is funny," he added quietly, "because you never felt any shame when you did all that to me."

Merisa’s eyes trembled.The words slid into her chest like blades, each one precise, deliberate. She wanted to deny it, to scream that it wasn’t true, that she had felt everything but her mouth wouldn’t open. Even if it had, she doubted she could have found words strong enough to undo the damage.

Razeal didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. His words were steady, deliberate, sharpened by distance rather than anger.

"But then again," he said, exhaling softly, "if I wasn’t like this... what would be the difference between me and you?"

He tilted his head slightly, as if genuinely considering the question.

"I’d just be the same," he concluded. "And even thinking that makes me sick."

His gaze hardened.

"I would never want to be like you."

Merisa’s breath hitched soundlessly. Her eyes widened, her body trembling despite her inability to move. The words struck deeper than any blow.

Razeal looked away for a moment, as if organizing his thoughts, then continued.. his tone growing colder.

"Maybe," he said, "if I didn’t have this way of taking you down... if you hadn’t cornered me, restrained me, forced me to submit more... maybe I would’ve seriously thought about getting rid of you."

He turned back to her.

"Not out of hatred," he clarified. "But to protect myself. To make sure you wouldn’t be a problem anymore?"

The calmness with which he said it was chilling. His eyes sharpened, a dangerous calm settling in.

Merisa’s pupils shrank. Her body shook more violently now, the implication sinking in. Would he really? She never took those word’s seriously but.. Now hearing him say.. These words in these calm and finally.. Something couldn’t help but seem to crack deep inside her.

"Hah..." Razeal let out a short, humorless breath. "I’m really becoming a monster, aren’t I?"

He stared at nothing for a moment.

"Before all of this," he said slowly, "if I had even thought something like that... I would’ve been disgusted with myself. I would’ve asked what kind of monster thinks about killing his own mother."

His gaze dropped to his hand.. bringing it into his field of vision. Pale fingers.

Now it was trembling faintly.

"But now?" he said, voice steady. "Now I understand something."

He lowered his hand and looked directly at Merisa again, his gaze deep and unsettlingly clear.

"This," he said quietly, "is the monster I created to protect the child inside me."

Her tears fell faster.

Her tears came harder, faster, shaking her entire form. The pain in her chest became unbearable, as if something vital were being torn apart thread by thread. Hearing those words.. from him, from the child she had broken felt like an arrow driven straight through her heart and pinned there.

A child, she thought. he was just a child.

She tried to speak again, desperately, her lips parting slightly

To deny it.

To apologize again.

To explain.

But her body still wouldn’t obey her. Her authority over herself was gone, stripped away just like everything else. All she could do was look at him, drowning in regret.

Razeal didn’t seem to notice.. or didn’t care.

"Well, whatever," he said flatly. "I don’t care anymore."

Then his eyes sharpened.

"But there’s still one thing I can’t put down," he continued. "Something my mind keeps circling back to. Something my body keeps screaming for an answer to."

He stepped closer, the darkness swallowing the distance between them.

"I’ve thought of thousands.. maybe millions of reasons for why it happened," he said quietly. "Why you did what you did. How it happened? What pushed you? An explanation that i maybe deserves?"

His jaw tightened briefly.

"Not that I care now," he added. "But I still want an answer."

His gaze bored into hers.

"Someone else already disappointed me with theirs," he said, his voice dropping another degree colder. "And I don’t know how I’ll react if you do the same."

For a moment, a memory surfaced in his mind.. Celestia’s face, her words, her casual apology. Sorry. I just didn’t want to marry you? Out of all the reasons he had imagined political pressure, manipulation, fear, coercion.. that had been the one she gave.

It had made everything feel meaningless.

His suffering? His humiliation? His ruined life?

All for something that small thing..

He paused for several seconds, eyes unfocused, then returned his attention fully to Merisa.

"I tried to believe you didn’t do it because of rules," he said slowly. "That you were ignorant. Or emotional. Or scared of the Imperial family?"

His lips twitched.

"But now that I think about it... that sounds stupid."

His eyes hardened again.

"I can understand children thinking like that," he went on. "I can understand weak people. But you?"

He tilted his head slightly.

"How can you be that stupid?" he asked calmly.

Merisa flinched.

"Even if you didn’t care about me," he continued, voice steady and merciless, "you should’ve cared about your family’s reputation?"

He gestured faintly, as if dismissing something obvious.

"You let others decide for you? Judge for you? Act in your place?"

His gaze narrowed.

"You.. of all people who are so prideful? So arrogant? So confident?"

He shook his head slowly.

"I never thought you could fall that low? Its hard to believe."

He took another step closer, eyes burning now not with rage, but with incredulity.

"Afterall at the very least," he said, "you should’ve confirmed it yourself."

His voice sharpened.

"You offend the empress over trivial matters many times?" he continued. "Even your own daughter offended her and nothing happened"

He leaned in just enough for the words to feel suffocating.

"And that time," he said quietly, "you didn’t even have a little bit of courage?"

"To make sure she was even telling the truth?" Razeal said quietly, his voice stripped of anger, stripped even of contempt. "You could’ve done it your way too?"

His crimson eyes never left Merisa’s face.

"I’m sure you had methods," he continued. "Ways to deal with Celestia. Even to offend the empress as to not destroying your family’s reputation. You’ve done worse for less?"

The words were not accusations anymore. They were observations cold, precise, almost academic.

"I don’t believe," he went on, "that you were so afraid you couldn’t even try something that small?"

Merisa’s body trembled faintly.

"And even if not that," Razeal added, tilting his head slightly, "you still had the strength to search Selena’s memories at very least?"

His gaze sharpened.

"If you had asked," he said, "no one would’ve dared refuse you. Not her family or anyone. So don’t tell me you couldn’t?"

His tone never rose.

"Not my memories," he continued. "Not Selena’s. Not even trying to confirm whether Celestia was lying or not."

A faint, bitter curve touched his lips.

"You never trust the Imperial family before?" he said flatly. "So don’t insult me by pretending you trusted them then."

"And as for you being scared to see me do it?" he added, voice thinning with disbelief. "Please."

He took a slow step closer.

"What’s heavier to you?" he asked quietly. "Fear... or your family’s reputation?"

The question hung between them like a blade.

"It’s not that you couldn’t," he continued. "It’s that you didn’t."

His eyes narrowed.

"It’s like you never wanted to see the truth," he said. "Or maybe... you wanted me to be guilty. Whether I was or not?"

Merisa’s breath hitched.

"So tell me," Razeal said. "Why didn’t you?"

He didn’t give her time to answer.

"Was it the people inside your head?" he asked calmly. "The ones who never wanted me in the family?"

Merisa’s pupils shrank.

"Was I just a stain?" he continued. "Untalented. Weak. A shame you could finally remove once you guys had the proper excuse?"

"Or was this your chance?" he asked. "The moment you’d been waiting for?"

He leaned in just slightly.

"Let me guess," he said. "This was their idea too, wasn’t it?"

Silence crushed the space between them.

"You did all of that because of them," Razeal said softly. "Or tell me.. what was the real reason? Am really curious."

His gaze hardened further.

"Because I don’t believe you’re stupid enough to ignore evidence you could’ve seen without effort," he finished. "It’s more like..."

He paused.

"...you just didn’t want to see it."

The words landed with terrifying finality.

"No.." Merisa spoke instantly, her voice breaking as soon as it escaped her throat. "No, that’s not.."

She stopped herself, panic flashing across her face.

"That’s not it," she said again, faster now, desperately, as if speed alone could erase what he had already uncovered. "I would never.."

Her words tangled over one another as she spoke, shock bleeding through her expression.. not just at the accusation, but at how much he knew.

How did he know about the voices even?How did he know about the council?

He hadn’t even awakened the Virelan bloodline.

And yet?

Razeal’s lips curled into something almost like a smile.

"Ah," he said softly, with unmistakable sarcasm. "You didn’t deny it."

His gaze cut deeper now, disappointment burning behind the calm.

"So there was a reason," he continued. "And here you were, acting righteous. Acting heroic."

He shook his head faintly.

"You’re such a hypocrite?"

The word wasn’t shouted. It was placed.

"So," he said, eyes boring into her, "what is it? Also don’t dissapoint me.. Hope its grandiose enough.. Atleast i be little satisfied."

Merisa’s face contorted.

"No," she whispered. "Please.. don’t."

Her head shook frantically, tears spilling freely as panic overtook her. She tried to turn away, but her body refused to obey. Every instinct screamed at her to stay silent.

"Don’t make me say it," she begged, voice trembling. "Please.. I begg you.."

For the first time, she resisted.

It was subtle.. but unmistakable.

Her body strained against the vampiric authority, muscles locking, breath hitching. She fought with everything she had, her will grinding against the blood command like bone against iron.

Razeal noticed immediately.

His eyes narrowed.

She can resist?

Not fully.. but Still.

Fear carved itself clearly across her face now. Not fear of him.. but fear of what she was about to say.

The realization only sharpened his resolve.

"Tell me," Razeal said.

This time, the command carried weight.

His crimson eyes flared.

The authority surged.

"Argh..!" Merisa cried out, her body jerking violently as the resistance collapsed. Tears poured from her eyes as her voice was forced free, dragged from her throat against her will.

"I.. I just didn’t want to see it!" she sobbed. "I was scared..!"

Her voice broke completely.

"I didn’t want to see something like that ever again!" she cried, shaking uncontrollably. "I was afraid..!"

Her words dissolved into sobbing, her chest heaving as the truth ripped out of her piece by piece.

"Why?" Razeal asked sharply.

The question cut through her breakdown like a blade.

Merisa choked, shaking her head desperately.

"Because of your father," she whispered.

The moment the words left her mouth, her resistance spiked violently.

Blood trickled from her ears.

Her body convulsed as she tried to stop herself, every ounce of her will slamming against the command. Her lips trembled, eyes squeezed shut as she fought desperately.

"I didn’t want to.." she sobbed. "I didn’t..!"

Blood seeped from the corners of her eyes now, dark streaks trailing down her cheeks as the internal conflict tore her apart.

Razeal froze.