"I-I… I sometimes truly wished… sniff… You never told me the truth. B-Because losing you like this hurts far more than being fooled."

Those words… those literally fucking words… hit his heart deeper than any wound he ever felt before… like he wanted to strangle himself for manipulating her.

Seeing his tears, Delphine trembled… it broke her heart even more… knowing she was hurting him… she wanted to stop… she really did her best, but he pushed her… again and again, so she had no choice.

She hated that she was the reason he cried, yet she hated even more that he forced her into this corner.

At this moment, Delphine realised… she could never have wanted him to be sad!

No matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, her heart rejected the idea with painful clarity.

Even if he lied… even if he manipulated… her love was still above them! That love refused to die, no matter how wounded it became.

Honestly, she didn't want to confront it… neither her heart nor him… just leave it as it was… she would be fine with that.

Pretending would have been easier... Silence would have hurt less.

Just as she was about to leave, deciding to stop this from breaking further…

"I… I saw a vision," Aether muttered as he rubbed his fingers and stared at her blankly, his voice cracked with exhaustion.

"During the first time I visited Pyra Empire… the Heart Game showed me the future possibilities of what will happen to the ones I love. It didn't feel like a warning… it felt like a curse waiting to happen."

Delphine frowned. She didn't know this before… even though it hurt her to know he was still hiding something, she decided to listen. Her chest tightened, bracing for something she wasn't sure she wanted to hear.

Aether gulped his wet throat and said, "I never told this to anyone… nobody knew this happened to me… the Game showed me what would happen if those women were to know what I was doing…"

Delphine was slightly surprised to know it was possible as she tilted her head with slight curiosity. "What… happened?"

Aether blinked, still staring at his hands that pinched each other as he said, "They… they either tried to kill each other or… kill me along with their suicide. Their faces… their screams… it looked real. Too real to dismiss."

Delphine blinked, slightly surprised… that felt unreal. A shiver raced through her spine as she tried to imagine such a vision.

Killing each other… even him? That didn't make sense.

None of them were capable of something so extreme. Were they?

What the heck?

Her thoughts tangled in disbelief, yet fear crept in quietly.

Was he lying again?

The doubt surfaced automatically, born from the past she tried to forget.

But his subtle expression and trembling said otherwise… he was telling the truth that he didn't share with anyone until now. His vulnerability carried a weight she couldn't ignore.

Delphine then frowned as she realised something.

"Did I… kill you and suicide myself?" Her heart almost stopped for a second just hearing the question come out of her mouth.

The thought alone made her feel sick.

There was no way she would do something like that!

Not to him.

Not to herself.

Just because she knew the truth, she would kill him and end herself? That sounded impossible, unthinkable.

No way!!!

Her mind rejected it instantly, yet a faint dread lingered—because if the Game showed it, something inside her feared it could happen under the wrong circumstances.

"Haha…" Aether let out a hollow laugh before lifting his head as he looked into her eyes, saying, "I would have been glad if you did. At least then the pain would have ended there, instead of stretching like this inside me."

Delphine's expression slowly turned into a frown. "What do you mean? Why would you even say something like that?"

Aether gulped as he wiped his tears before saying, "You… you left with our child. Somewhere I could never… never reach… no matter what I did or how hard I searched." He shuddered, the memory clawing through him, making his chest tighten until he struggled to breathe.

"…" Delphine turned silent as she blinked and hummed softly… as if a small part of it made sense to her in a painful, uncomfortable way she didn't want to voice.

Aether continued, "Others didn't do that… except you. Nobody else walked away carrying something so precious.

I couldn't accept it, so seeing you leaving me… is the most painful thing I have ever felt. I… I…" His eyes shook a bit, and he nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I lied… I manipulated… I had to; otherwise, I would never see you again. The fear of losing you with our child… I didn't want it. I couldn't handle it, so I—"

"You hid it to keep me from going away?" Delphine finished for him.

Aether slowly nodded. "That's the only path I could see… the only one that didn't end with me standing alone and helpless."

Delphine blankly stared at him, trying to read his face, trying to see if he was acting or… actually telling her everything from his soul.

"But that's just a game… a mind-manipulating game, right? Something meant to mess with you."

Aether shook his head. "It's real… I felt it, and—"

"Okay, I get it. You feared that I would leave you alone with our child, so you wanted to hide things from me. Is that correct?"

Aether nodded.

Delphine took a deep breath, her chest rising slowly. "Then why did you tell me? If you decided that I would leave you… Then why the fuck did you tell me the truth?"

She was confused… he could have told her the damn truth from the beginning or… shut the fuck up until the end.

This middle breaking point made no sense to her heart!!

Aether lowered his eyes.

"Guilt… seeing your happy and lovely face that held nothing but love and giving... I couldn't handle it. While others knew the truth, the burden eased for a moment, but at the same time, seeing you made it double… triple. The pain grew too much. Tricking you even though you love me… I… I… I am sorry." He bowed his head again, shoulders shaking slightly, unable to force out the next words stuck inside his throat.

Delphine sniffed her nose while rubbing her eyes. "Even then… It's just guilt… not that you needed me to know, right? You didn't think of what I would feel, only what you couldn't carry anymore."

"…" Aether parted his lips, but no words came out… then he smiled forcibly.

"Yeah, I am selfish. I did it because I couldn't stand the weight anymore... not because I thought you needed the truth. And somewhere I feared you might know it by your visions too... Yeah, I am truly a selfish man."

"…" Delphine's eyes trembled again as her vision turned blurry. She averted her gaze from him. "I see… It's all about you in the end. All about how you feel and not me." She clenched her fist tightly… biting down a trembling breath and nodding her head.

"If… ahem, if you didn't see those visions… would you have told me everything?"

Aether hesitated for a second before shaking his head. "I don't know… I honestly don't know what kind of man I would have been without that vision beating sense into me."

Honestly, he didn't know. If he hadn't seen those visions… the Heart Game literally changed his heart and the way he saw things… who knew what kind of effect it left on him afterwards.

He might never have told the truth to anyone… maybe not even to himself.

He might told the truth to everyone?

He might… just left everyone?

Maybe he would have walked away from everything if fear twisted him differently… maybe he would have destroyed everything while trying to protect it.

Delphine looked at him, "So, it's the game's fault now?" Her voice carried irritation, confusion, and a bit of exhaustion.

Aether smiled weakly, shaking his head,

"No, it's no one's fault… other than me. I am sorry, Del. I truly am sorry for not telling you this before… I should have trusted you instead of hiding behind excuses."

Delphine raised her eyebrows before humming… There was a tense silence that pressed between them like a wall neither knew how to break.

She didn't expect this revelation… as she glanced at Aether… at that time, he was just a lost soul, he didn't have a definite goal, just moving on his own, doing what he thought was necessary to survive emotions he didn't understand.

Just a reckless man with no responsibility or consequence, someone who acted before thinking, someone who believed results mattered more than the truth.

He really grew up… not physically but mentally. It's been almost a year since they met, yet it felt like decades of change squeezed into months.

From a boy to a man… in just a year.

From a reckless, cunning boy to… a cunning, responsible man who carried too much weight on his shoulders.

Delphine chuckled weakly, "Now… I feel like a villain, don't I? Treating you like this… hurting you… even though you didn't have much of a choice… your other beloveds would surely point at me and shout at me, wouldn't they? They would call me heartless."

Aether shook his head.

"Please… I know those girls think less of me since I didn't accept you like others…" Her eyes turned sour.

"Maybe my love is not as great as theirs… that's why I'm being bitchy about all of this… even though those women were better and greater than me… ahaha… if anyone hears this, they would belittle me, wouldn't they?

They would say I don't deserve you."

Aether shook his head, "Please stop. You are not… You are Delphine… the woman I chose… please don't erase yourself like that."

She clenched her fist, her eyes shook,

"You lost my trust, Aether… you lost it! I… I couldn't even trust you again… see, even now… part of my thoughts are wondering if this is all a lie.

A grand manipulation I couldn't understand… I… I utterly fear it!!" She bit her nails with a confused and lost expression… as if her mind was spinning faster than she could breathe.

What if he was lying?

What if he was trying to manipulate her again?

What if… he broke her heart even more?

What if she never healed from this?

She was scared!

She was literally scared of him!!

Scared of the power he had over her feelings.

"I am not like other g-girls to accept it… I don't know… why am I like this? But this is who I am… I cannot change for anyone… not even for you," as she stared at him deeply, feeling exposed and fragile,

"… I… I am scared of you."

"…"

Aether saw her fear and loneliness… he could feel it. She trusted him more than anyone in this world, and he broke it… and now he couldn't even step near that place inside her heart.

The distance felt painful!!

She was scared and alone… And he was the cause of it.

Aether stared directly into her… "What should I do… to earn that trust again? What should I do to build our relationship back… please tell me, I would do anything. Just give me something to hold on to."

"…" She gave a small, "Will you abandon them… for me?" Her voice cracked with a mixture of hope and fear, desperate yet afraid of her own question.

"…" Aether's lips trembled furiously as his eyes averted from her longing eyes, "I… I cannot do that… not for you or for them! I… I am sorry again. I can't betray them… and I can't lie to you either."

She smiled, yet her lips never curled up, "I-I… I don't know, once it's gone it's hard to get back."

Her voice sounded like someone speaking through a fading heartbeat.

Aether bit his trembling lips.

Delphine took a deep breath, closing her eyes before saying with hollow eyes,

"Let's stop this, Aether… let's… end this."

The words hurt her, but they came out anyway.

"…" Aether's breath halted, "W-Why?" His voice cracked, as if he already knew the answer but couldn't bear to hear it.

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