Chapter 438: The Truth? Merisa?

"I was the one who helped Razeal escape that day." Marcella said it without emphasis, without lowering her gaze, and as the words settled into the air she released her hold on Nova’s blade, her fingers sliding away from the steel as if the weapon itself no longer mattered, her posture returning to stillness as though she had simply set something down that had been in her hands for far too long.

For a second, Nova did not react. She remained exactly where she stood, sword still raised, her eyes fixed on Marcella’s face as if waiting for the sentence to correct itself, to reveal itself as something else, something less absolute, but it didn’t, and the meaning of it began to sink in piece by piece, not all at once, but enough to fracture the certainty she had been holding onto since the moment she stepped into this hall.

"...What did you just say?" she asked, and this time her voice was not sharp with anger, but caught somewhere between disbelief and something far more unsettled, as if her mind refused to fully accept what it had heard.

Because that one sentence did not just stand alone. It connected backward.. into years of questions, into that night, into everything that had followed after. One of the deepest regrets they carried was not only what they had done to him in that moment, but what had come after, what he had endured outside their reach, the pain, the suffering, the unknown stretch of time where he had been alone, unprotected, and they had always believed that part had been out of their control, that they had lost him without understanding how, that he had slipped through something that should have been impossible to slip through, and that helplessness had been one of the things that ate at them the most. If they had known where he was... if he had remained within their reach... if they had been able to keep him safe even after everything else... then maybe, just maybe, things would not have gone so far.

And now Marcella was standing here, saying it had not been some unknown accident.

It had been her.

Selena took a step back unconsciously, her eyes widening as she stared at Marcella, her thoughts running through that same chain, connecting what she had just heard with everything she had believed before..

"...You..." the word came out faint, almost incomplete, because she did not yet know what to attach to it accusation, confusion, or something else entirely.

Nova’s expression hardened again, but it was no longer the same rage as before it had shifted into something more unstable, something that could not decide whether to lash out or demand answers, and in the next instant she moved, the sword lifting again, this time pressing directly against Marcella’s neck, the edge resting just against the skin as her teeth clenched tightly.

"...You betrayed us?" she said, each word forced out through that tension, "all of us?"

Marcella did not move. She did not raise a hand, did not shift her stance, did not even angle her head away from the blade; she simply stood there, looking at Nova with the same steady gaze, as if the threat itself was something she had already accepted the moment she chose to speak.

"Why?" Nova demanded, her voice rising now, cracking through the restraint she had been trying to maintain.

"Why did you do that? Did you not know what that meant? Do you even understand what happened after that?" her grip tightened on the sword, the edge pressing slightly harder against Marcella’s neck, though not enough to cut, not yet, "We thought he was dead... we thought we lost him... we didn’t know where he was... and all that time.." her voice broke, anger and pain colliding in a way that made it difficult to separate one from the other, "WHY? WHY DID YOU NOT TELL US?"

Marcella did not answer immediately.

She held Nova’s gaze without flinching, her expression unchanged, and when she spoke, it was not to explain, not yet, but simply, "Calm down."

The words landed flat against the intensity of Nova’s state, not dismissive, but firm in a way that refused to be pulled into her chaos.

"TELLL MEEEEE!" Nova shouted, the restraint snapping entirely now, her voice echoing through the hall as her entire body trembled with the force of it, refusing that calm, refusing any attempt to slow down, "WHY?"

"I won’t."

Marcella’s reply came just as plainly, just as steady, and that refusal struck harder than any explanation might have, because it denied Nova the one thing she was grasping for in that moment.

Nova’s eyes widened, fury flashing again, "You think I won’t make you?" she said, her voice dropping lower, more dangerous, "Tell me... or I will take it from you myself... I will tear it out of your memories if I have to."

Marcella’s gaze sharpened slightly, not in threat, but in clarity, as she looked directly into Nova’s eyes and asked, "And will that change anything?"

The question landed differently.

It cut through the immediate heat of the moment, not enough to extinguish it, but enough to disrupt it, to force a pause where there had been none.

"He hates all of us," Marcella continued, her voice still even, not accusing, not harsh, but stating something that none of them could deny, "And he has reason to."

There was no defense offered with that statement. No attempt to lessen it.

Just truth.

Nova’s grip faltered slightly.

For a moment, she said nothing. Because she knew it.

She hated hearing it, but she knew it.

It did not matter who had done what first, or how things had unfolded step by step at the end of it all, the result remained the same, and that result was something none of them could undo by simply uncovering more details.

Her breathing slowed, just slightly, her chest rising and falling more evenly as she took in a deeper breath, and though the anger had not vanished, it had lost some of its blind direction, becoming something heavier, more grounded, harder to act on impulsively.

"Then explain WHYYYYY," she said finally, her voice quieter now, though still strained, still tight with everything she was holding back.

Marcella exhaled softly, and this time, she answered.

"I did not take him away to disappear," she said, her tone measured, deliberate, each word placed with care, "I took him to a safe place. Somewhere prepared in advance. Somewhere he could stay until everything here calmed down... until you, him... all of you... could face each other again without things collapsing the way they did."

Selena’s eyes flickered, the words reaching her differently now, no longer filtered through pure guilt, but through something more complex.

"I made sure he had everything he needed," Marcella continued, "protection, resources, a way to live without being hunted or harmed... it was never meant to be permanent."

Nova’s expression shifted again, the anger giving way to confusion, "...then what happened?" she asked, the question no longer shouted, but demanded in a different way, needing to know, needing to fill the gap that still remained.

Marcella’s gaze lowered slightly for the first time, not in avoidance, but in acknowledgment of that gap.

"I returned here," she said, "to keep watch... on both of you." Her eyes flickered briefly toward Selena, then back to Nova, "And when I went back to him..."

She paused.

"...he was gone."

The words settled heavily.

"It was not part of my plan," she added quietly, "I did not intend for him to disappear completely. I only intended to give him time... and to give all of you a chance to reach a place where things could be resolved without breaking further."

"I tried to find him.. But wasn’t.. I dont know how he did that either.."

Silence followed again.

But this silence was different from the one before.

Nova’s hand trembled again, but this time the tremor was not fueled purely by anger something else had entered it uncertainty, doubt, the beginning of something she had not allowed herself to consider before.

Slowly, almost without realizing it, she lowered her sword.

The blade dropped from Marcella’s neck, her arm falling slightly to her side as her shoulders loosened just a fraction, the tension no longer held in a single direction.

Marcella saw the shift in Nova the way the tension in her shoulders had loosened just enough to show that the blind edge of her anger had dulled, even if it hadn’t disappeared and she let out a quiet breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, her hand lifting slowly as she placed it gently over Nova’s head, not in restraint, not in control, but in something far more familiar, something that had existed long before all of this broke apart.

"I know how you feel," she said softly, her voice carrying none of the authority she usually held, only a tired honesty that came from carrying the same weight for far too long, "And I don’t know... how to help any of you... or even myself anymore. There are no right answers left in this situation nor any no clean way out of it." Her fingers rested there for a moment before falling back to her side, her gaze lowering briefly as if searching for something that simply wasn’t there, "But all we can do now... is stay standing. However broken that might be."

Selena stood a little distance away, her hands clenched loosely at her sides, her gaze fixed somewhere between the floor and Nova’s back, unable to meet her eyes fully, unable to look away either, because the sight in front of her Nova standing there like this, shaken, hurt, unraveling felt like something she had personally carved into existence with her own choices. She swallowed, her throat tightening as the weight of it pressed down again, heavier than before now that everything was laid bare.

"...sorry," she murmured, the word coming out quietly, almost too quiet to belong in the room, but it was all she could manage, all she felt she had any right to offer.

And she meant it in a way that went far beyond that moment. It wasn’t just for what had happened now, or for the confrontation, or for the sword raised at her it was for everything. For every lie she had told, for every time she had stayed silent when she should have spoken, for every moment she had allowed Nova to care for her under false belief, to stand beside her, to protect her, to trust her, all while Selena carried the truth that could have shattered that trust long before it reached this point. She didn’t resent Nova for attacking her she didn’t even consider it unjust. If anything, she thought she deserved worse.

Because Nova had never been cruel to her. Never distant. Never anything less than someone who had taken responsibility for her, who had stepped into a role she didn’t have to, simply because she believed it was right. Selena could still remember those small, quiet moments the way Nova would check on her without making it obvious, the way she would intervene without drawing attention when something went wrong, the way she had always been there, steady, reliable, like an older sister who had chosen her, not by obligation, but by care. And every time that had happened, every time Nova had shown that kind of warmth while believing in a lie that Selena had created, it had left a mark. Not something visible, not something spoken, but something that had slowly built inside her until it turned into this into a guilt so deep it felt like it had no bottom.

She remembered that day clearly. The day Razeal had appeared again after all those years, when everyone believed he was gone for good, when the world they knew had already moved on from him, and yet he had come back, standing right there, alive. And even then, even in that moment where Nova had wanted nothing more than to bring him back, to have him alive and safe, she had still asked him to apologize first.. to Selena. She had drawn a line for Selena’s sake, not for her own pride, not for control, but because she believed Selena deserved that much, because she believed in her innocence, in the story she had been told, in the version of truth Selena had created. That memory stung the most, because it showed just how much Nova had been willing to do for her... while standing on a foundation that was never real.

And now that foundation was gone.

Nova didn’t respond to Selena’s apology. Not because she was ignoring it consciously, but because it didn’t reach her at all. It was as if Selena’s presence had been pushed out of the space Nova was occupying, not by intention, but by the sheer weight of everything else flooding her mind. To her, Selena might as well not have spoken.

Selena lowered her head slowly, her gaze dropping fully to the ground now, her shoulders curling inward just slightly as that silence settled over her, and she accepted it without resistance. It felt appropriate. If anything, she thought she didn’t even deserve the chance to say sorry, because apologies implied that something could still be mended, and she didn’t believe that anymore.

"...You’ve met him?" Merisa’s voice broke through the quiet, steady but carrying a heaviness of its own, as she rose slowly from her chair, her movement controlled, deliberate, her hand brushing briefly over the place where Nova’s sword had pierced her chest earlier, the fabric still torn even though the wound beneath had already closed, a silent reminder of what had just happened. She exhaled once, as if steadying herself, before looking directly at Nova, "I can see it on your face."

Nova’s eyes shifted toward her.

Merisa continued, her tone measured, not dismissing Nova’s state, but not yielding to it either, "I understand what you’re feeling. More than you think." She paused for a moment, as if weighing her next words carefully.

"That day... I hated myself more than anyone else could have. I wanted to undo it, to take back every word, every decision, every moment that led to it. I replayed it over and over, thinking if I had chosen differently, maybe things would have turned out another way."

Her gaze didn’t waver.

"But you need to understand something," she said, her voice firming slightly, not in anger, but in conviction, "hating me for it is fine. If you want to blame someone, blame me. I can accept that."

his time.

Merisa took a slow breath, her expression settling into something resolute, something that had clearly been decided long before this moment. "But.. What I did..." she continued, "I do regret the outcome. I regret where it led. I regret the pain it caused all of it." Her eyes flickered, just for a second, a glimpse of that regret surfacing before being steadied again. "But the decision itself?"

She shook her head once, slowly.

"I would make it again."

The words landed without hesitation.

Merisa didn’t look away. "If that day happened again," she said, her voice calm, unwavering, "I would act again. Maybe better. Maybe with more control, more foresight... but I would not leave it undone."

Nova’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of anger returning, not explosive this time, but sharp, focused wven confused.. But she just silently listened.

"Yes," Merisa answered, without hesitation, without softening it, "because what I did... was not out of malice. It was not out of selfishness. It was not to destroy him." Her gaze held steady on Nova, "it was because, in that moment, I believed it was the right thing to do."

"And.. And end of it.. It was Right."

There was no apology in that statement.

Only what she believed.

And that belief stood there between them, not as a justification, but as something that refused to bend, even now, even after everything that had happened.

"And I told him the same thing," Merisa continued, her voice steady, though there was a faint strain beneath it now, something that hadn’t been there before, something that had begun to surface ever since Nova walked into the room with that look in her eyes.

"I told him exactly this... that what I did, I believed was right. And yet..." she paused, her gaze shifting slightly, not away from Nova, but not entirely fixed either, as if recalling the moment with a clarity she hadn’t allowed herself before.

"I also told him... that I forgive him now. That whatever he had done... I was willing to let it go." Her fingers curled slightly at her sides, "I even asked him to come back."

There was a quiet weight behind those words, not loud, not dramatic, but present, as if they carried more meaning than she was willing to openly express. "I asked him... not as someone above him, not as someone judging him... but simply as..." she hesitated for the briefest moment, "...as someone who didn’t want things to end like that."

Her lips pressed together faintly before she exhaled, "But he refused."

Silence followed for a second, but Merisa didn’t stop. "I tried," she added, more firmly this time, as if needing to establish that fact, not just to Nova, but to herself as well, "And I will try again. Because no matter what happened... I am not going to leave it like this."

Then her gaze returned fully to Nova, sharper now, more direct. "So you don’t need to hate me for this," she said, her tone gaining a subtle edge of conviction, "because what I did... I regret parts of it, yes. I regret how it turned out. I regret the consequences." Her brows drew slightly, "But regret does not mean the decision itself was wrong."

She took a step forward, closing the distance just a little, her presence steady despite everything that had already unfolded. "Try to put yourself in my place," she said, her voice firm but not raised, "if it had been your son... if he had done what Razeal had done that day... would you have done nothing?"

Merisa continued, pressing the point with quiet insistence, "Or lets say.. that day if I had stepped back... and told you to be the one to responsible for him instead... Whatver to punish him or not.. would you have not?" Her gaze didn’t waver, "Would you have said no? Would you have let him go without any punishment?"

A brief pause.

"I don’t think you would have," Merisa said, her tone lowering again, calmer, but carrying a certainty that came from years of living by her own principles, "because you know... at that time, with what it was... there was no other choice."

Her expression hardened slightly, not in anger, but in resolve. "Maybe the way I did it was wrong," she admitted, "Maybe I should have handled it differently... but the act itself?" She shook her head once, "he deserved punishment for what he had done. And you know that."

The room had gone completely still by the time she finished speaking.

"So.. Don’t do this to me," Merisa added more quietly now, her gaze lowering briefly to the sword still in Nova’s hand, the same sword that had pierced her moments ago, the dried blood still marking its edge, "I am your mother. No matter what happens... don’t forget that. We are family.."

There was no anger in that statement. Only something heavier. Something more personal.

"I’ll forgive you for this," she said after a moment, her voice softening slightly, "because I understand what you’re going through. I truly do." She lifted her eyes back to Nova, "But if you keep going down this path... it won’t bring you peace. It will only drag you deeper into your own pain."

And then she fell silent.

The hall seemed to absorb that silence, stretching it thin and cold across the space between them.

Selena’s eyes remained closed, her head still lowered, her hands trembling faintly at her sides. She couldn’t lift her gaze, couldn’t bring herself to look at any of them anymore. Every word spoken felt like another weight added to something already too heavy to carry. If disappearing had been an option in that moment not escaping, not running, but simply ceasing to exist she would have taken it without hesitation.

Marcella stood still as well, her posture unchanged, but her eyes had dropped to the floor, her expression hidden behind the reflection of her glasses. She inhaled quietly, steadying herself, but she said nothing. There were no words left that could fix what had already broken.

And then

Nova suddenly laughed.

It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t wild. It was something far sharper than that short, dry, and filled with disbelief, with bitterness, with something that bordered on mockery. Her shoulders shook slightly as the sound escaped her, and she brought a hand to her forehead for a brief moment, shaking her head slowly as if trying to process what she had just heard.

"...You still don’t know?" she muttered, her voice uneven, her lips curling into something that wasn’t quite a smile, but wasn’t entirely rage either.

She lowered her hand and looked up again, her eyes now carrying something far more dangerous than before not just anger, but clarity mixed with contempt.

"You actually still don’t know..." she repeated, almost in disbelief.

Her gaze shifted sideways, landing first on Marcella, whose eyes lowered even further under that look, and then to Selena who seemed to shrink in on herself the moment Nova looked at her.

"What?" Merisa frowned, her expression tightening slightly as she noticed the shift, the tension, the way both Marcella and Selena avoided her gaze entirely. Something in her chest stirred not fear, not yet but a quiet unease. "What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice more cautious now.

Neither of them answered.

Selena’s head dipped lower. Marcella remained silent.

"...Tell me what?" Merisa pressed, her tone sharpening just slightly, her eyes moving between them, searching for something, anything that made sense of what Nova was implying.

Nova let out another short breath of laughter, this time harsher. "They didn’t tell you?" she asked, her voice laced with scorn, "they’ve been sitting here... knowing everything... and still didn’t tell you?"

Merisa’s gaze snapped back to them again. Still nothing.

The unease grew.

"...tell me what?" she repeated, slower this time.

And then Nova’s expression changed completely.

The last trace of that bitter amusement vanished, replaced by something raw, something furious, something that had been held back until now and was no longer contained.

"That you were wrong."

Her voice cut through the room, sharp and clear.

"That she lied."

Selena flinched.

"That he was innocent."

The words didn’t just land.. they struck.

"And that you punished him anyway."

Nova’s voice rose, not into a scream, but into something far worse controlled, burning, each word deliberate, each one filled with a rage that had finally found its direction.

"That.. You fucking punished him... for something he never did."

In the same motion, her arm moved. The sword left her hand.

It wasn’t thrown like a normal weapon. It was released with intent, with precision, with force far beyond what the eye could follow. The air itself seemed to split as it cut forward, the sound barely registering a sharp, tearing screech as it shot toward Merisa’s forehead in a straight, lethal line.

Time seemed to slow for a fraction of a second.

Merisa’s eyes lifted as her eyes widened. "What... did you just say?"

The blade never reached her. As before it could complete that final span of distance, before it could bury itself into Merisa’s forehead with the force Nova had put behind it.

Merisa instinctively moved as her hand rose into its path.

But.. The impact never came. Instead, the sword met her fingers, caught cleanly between them as though it had been meant to stop there all along, and in the same instant something within her control slipped, just for a fraction of a moment, as Nova’s words echoed through the room.

The pressure she applied was not measured, not deliberate it was reflexive, driven by something deeper than intent and the weapon, an SS-ranked blade that should not have yielded so easily, fractured under her grip with a sharp, brittle crack, the sound cutting through the silence like something final.

The metal split, lines racing across its surface before it broke apart completely, fragments falling from her hand in uneven pieces that struck the floor one after another with dull, metallic sounds, scattering across the polished ground like remnants of something that should not have been so easily destroyed.

Merisa didn’t even seem to register what she had just done as if the words that had just been spoken had reached deeper than she had allowed herself to show.

Her eyes were fixed entirely on Nova.

Wide. Unmoving. Searching for something anything that would allow her to dismiss what she had just heard as nothing more than another outburst, another attempt to hurt her, another distortion born out of anger. Because that was what it had to be. It had to be a lie. It had to be something twisted, exaggerated, misunderstood. Because the alternative..

No.

That wasn’t something she could accept.

Nova watched her reaction and something in her expression shifted again, not softening, not relenting, but deepening into something harsher, something edged with a cruel clarity. A slow, humorless smile formed on her lips, the kind that didn’t come from amusement but from the certainty that what she was about to say would break something that could not be put back together.

"Yeah..." she said, her voice low at first, almost conversational, but laced with that same biting scorn, "You should’ve read her memories."

Her hand lifted, her finger pointing directly toward Selena, who stood there with her head bowed, shoulders trembling faintly under the weight of everything that had already been exposed and everything that was about to be dragged fully into the light.

"Because I did."

There was no hesitation in her tone. No doubt.

"And guess what?" Nova’s voice rose slightly, the bitterness surfacing more clearly now, "He was right."

Selena flinched.

"He didn’t try to rapeee her. He didn’t do fucking anything."

The words came faster now, sharper.

"It was all a lie."

And then the restraint snapped.

"IT WAS A LIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"

The shout tore through the hall, raw and unfiltered, carrying everything Nova had been holding back since she had learned the truth. It wasn’t just anger it was betrayal, it was disgust, it was the kind of realization that rewrites everything you thought you knew and leaves nothing stable behind.

"No..." The sound came from Merisa, but it barely resembled her usual voice. It was quieter, strained, almost disjointed, as if her mind hadn’t fully caught up to what she had just heard. Her head shook slowly at first, then more firmly, the movement growing more desperate with each passing second.

"No... you’re lying."

She said it again, more forcefully this time, as if repetition alone could make it true.

Her gaze snapped toward Selena.

Selena felt it before she fully lifted her head the weight of that gaze, heavy, searching, demanding. For a moment, she couldn’t move. Her body resisted it, her instincts telling her to stay still, to stay hidden, to avoid what she knew was coming. But she forced herself anyway. Slowly, painfully, she raised her head, her eyes meeting Merisa’s directly.

There was no defense in them.

No attempt to deny it.

No attempt to soften it.

Only guilt. Raw, unguarded, undeniable.

Her lips parted slightly, trembling, before the word finally came out quiet, fragile, but clear enough that it left no room for misunderstanding.

"...sorry."

That was all she said.

And then she closed her eyes, unable to hold that gaze any longer, her head turning slightly to the side as tears slipped free, trailing down her cheeks without resistance. She didn’t try to wipe them away. She didn’t try to explain. She didn’t try to justify anything. There was nothing left to say that could make any of this better.

Merisa’s breath hitched.

Her lips parted, but no words came out. Her mind tried to form them tried to piece together something, anything that could counter what she was seeing, what she was hearing but it failed. The certainty she had carried for so long, the belief she had never once truly questioned, began to crack under the weight of something far more real than denial.

"This... no...no.. No.. Nahh.." Her voice faltered, breaking apart before it could form into anything coherent.

Inside her, something shifted violently.

For years she had held onto a single, unwavering truth: that what she had done that day had been necessary. That it had been right. That even if it had been harsh, even if it had caused pain, it had been justified. She had built her identity around that belief, anchored herself in it, used it to move forward without hesitation or regret.

But if that belief was wrong.. If the foundation itself had been false

Then everything that followed from it...

Her mind recoiled from the thought.

Instinctively, almost reflexively, something in her consciousness pushed back, constructing barriers, rejecting the implication outright. It wasn’t a conscious decision it was something deeper, something protective, something that refused to let the full weight of that realization settle in all at once.

She couldn’t accept it.

She couldn’t.

Her gaze shifted again, this time to Marcella.

Marcella stood there, her eyes closed now, her face turned slightly away, as if she couldn’t bear to meet that look directly. She had known. She had known for a long time. And yet... she hadn’t said anything.

"Marcella..."

Merisa’s voice was quieter now, almost pleading without intending to be.

Marcella opened her eyes slowly, but she didn’t meet her gaze. She lowered them instead.

That was enough.

The last piece.

The final confirmation.

And the fear that had been building quietly inside Merisa finally surged forward, no longer held back, no longer contained. It wrapped around her chest, tightening, constricting, making it hard to breathe.

But.. Nova didn’t care.

"She lied about Rape," she said, her tone cold now, stripped of the earlier volatility, replaced with something far more cutting, "So that it could lead to her and Razeal marrying, to cover that kind of shame and incident."

Nova spoke cruelly, pointing her finger at Selena.

Selena’s body trembled more violently at that, her hands curling into fists at her sides, but she still didn’t speak.

Merisa’s vision suddenly blurred for a moment.

"So everything would fall into place the way she wanted."

"You are the reason why he hates me.. Its because of.. YOU.."

And just as nova said that.

Something broke.

A wet, choking sound escaped Merisa’s throat as her body jerked slightly forward, and a moment later she coughed, a sharp, violent motion that forced something up from deep inside her chest.

Blood.

It spilled from her lips, dark and sudden, staining the front of her clothes as it hit the floor in uneven drops.

Her eyes lost focus for a second, widening, hollowing, as if the world in front of her had shifted into something unrecognizable. Her breathing became uneven, quick, shallow, as her body struggled to keep pace with the collapse happening within her mind.

She was wrong?The thought surfaced, faint at first, then louder.

She was wrong.

Everything she had done..

Everything she had believed.. It had all been built on a lie?

And that realization didn’t come gently. It tore through her, ripping apart the structure she had relied on for years, leaving nothing stable behind to hold onto.

Her hand lifted slightly, trembling, as if trying to grasp something in the air that wasn’t there.

Her breathing quickened further.

She had punished him?

Not because he had done something unforgivable?

But because she had believed something that wasn’t real?

Her eyes shook, unfocused, as the weight of it settled in fully for the first time.

She... had Wronged him?

——