"Did Razeal really try to rape Selena?"

Nancy's voice cut through the still air like a blade. Her eyes narrowed, locking directly onto Riven.

She wasn't even sure why she asked the question. The words had just… slipped out.

Maybe it was because Razeal arrogant, cold, and irritating as he often was.. had saved her when no one else had. Maybe it was because he had been the one to tell her about her supposed fate, the one who spoke of destiny as if he had already seen its ugly face.

And now, with Riven mentioning Razeal's rebellion.. how defying fate had supposedly made his destiny worse she couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it. Something twisted and hidden beneath the surface.

She didn't even know why she expected Riven to know the answer. He was a Preserver, a being beyond mortals, beyond human politics or personal grudges. Still, her heart had already asked the question before her mind could stop it.

Riven paused at her words. His serene expression faltered for just a second not in hesitation, but in quiet acknowledgment.

He looked at her silently, his white eyes calm, reflecting the garden's faint light.

"What?" Nancy's tone dropped low, sharp and dangerous as she frowned. "Answer me.."

Riven's lips closed briefly. His smile didn't vanish, but it shifted softer now, touched with something that almost looked like sorrow.

Finally, he opened his mouth and said quietly,

"No. He didn't."

Nancy froze.

Her breath caught for a moment, her body stiffening.

"What?" she whispered, her voice thin, her mind trying to catch up with what she'd just heard.

Riven's calm tone continued, unchanging, his expression steady as he spoke. "He did not try to rape her. Razeal was accused falsely."

He didn't sound apologetic or conflicted only factual. It wasn't confession or defense. It was simply truth.

Afterall Riven couldn't lie. A Preserver existed to uphold the balance to tell truths that even the gods would hesitate to speak.

It's his duty to guide everyone, and it's not like he ever lied about this. He's aware.. so why would he lie? Would the situation or fate change because of saying this? Yes, maybe. But in the end, it would still be fate. No matter what happens in between, it would lead to the same outcome.

And he knows this secret might not stay hidden forever. Lies... no matter how big or well buried always come out eventually.

Nancy just stood motionless.

Her mind reeled, trying to comprehend the weight of those words.

It wasn't that she cared deeply for Razeal ..no, she didn't. He was someone who always kept his distance from her, from her family. He was cold, detached, often cruel with his words. He didn't seek friends with her family, nor did he ever pretend to.

But that didn't change what he had done.. he had saved her.

And now, the thought that someone like him.. someone who had risked everything to help her had been living under a lie this enormous for years…

That the entire Empire, the nobility, even the Saints themselves had turned against him because of a lie.

Her heart sank with a strange, bitter heaviness.

He was the son of the Virelan family.... one of the most brilliant and intelligent houses in the world. And yet he had been destroyed by deceit. And the worst part ..the thing that made her feel truly sick was how easily it had worked... Virelans being played by a lie?.. Just how laughable and embarissing that was..

Five years.

Five entire years, and the truth had never surfaced.

And Selena.. the Saintess of the Empire.. had been the one to speak the lie?

The one everyone trusted.

The one everyone believed without question... All pure, kind and innocent?

Even Celestia, the Imperial Princess, had vouched for it.

The thought hit Nancy like a wave. How deep did this go? Was it conspiracy? Manipulation? Or was this, too, the cruel working of the fate Riven spoke of?

She wanted to scream at him, to call him a liar but the strange, instinctive certainty inside her wouldn't let her. She knew he couldn't lie. That much, her soul accepted even when her mind refused.

And Riven kept speaking, his voice gentle, almost regretful.

"He did not try to rape Selena," he said again. "She lied."

"She lied," he repeated softly, his tone devoid of anger, simply explaining. "But you cannot blame her entirely. It was her role ..her thread in the grand weave of fate. This was the balance returning to him."

He looked away briefly, eyes distant. "Razeal's purpose is far grander than you or anyone could yet understand. But in trying to twist that purpose, in trying to defy his fate, he brought this upon himself. His rebellion demanded consequence."

He shook his head lightly, his expression calm once again. "This was never written in his destiny. It was born from his defiance."

And that ..that was it.

The sound came before Nancy even realized what she had done.

Slap!

The sharp crack echoed through the still garden.

Riven's face turned slightly from the impact, her hand connecting hard against his cheek.

He didn't move to stop her. He didn't even flinch. He simply let the strike land, his head tilting gently to the side with the force of it.

Nancy's chest heaved, her palm stinging. She stared at him.. with pure disgust.

"How disgusting are you?" she spat, her voice trembling with restrained fury.

Crackkk!

The sky tore open with a blinding flash, lightning streaking across the heavens like a furious god's whip. The sudden roar of thunder rolled through the garden, rattling the air.

It was as if the cosmos itself had been offended a direct answer to what Nancy had just done.

After all, slapping a Preserver… was no different from striking at the very fabric of divine order.

Yet Riven didn't flinch.

The faint red mark still burned faintly on his pale cheek, but his calm, unchanging smile remained. He simply tilted his head and let out a soft sigh, as though the storm above was nothing but distant noise.

A few meters away, under the shadow of a large oak tree, the young woman with long brown hair the one who had been sitting quietly during the entire conversation flinched violently.

Her eyes widened as she saw Nancy's hand connect with Riven's face.

She immediately covered her mouth, suppressing the startled gasp that almost escaped. For a moment, she wanted to stand up to run toward them, to demand what was happening.

But she stopped herself.

For some reason, she couldn't hear what they were saying. No sound carried from where they stood it was as if an invisible barrier surrounded them. But even from a distance, she could see their faces clearly.

Nancy's expression was pure fury. Riven's calm, unwavering, almost amused.

The brown-haired woman frowned deeply. "What's their relationship?" she muttered under her breath. "Why would she slap him like that?"

Her mind raced. "Did Riven do something wrong? Or… oh gods, was that his ex-girlfriend or something?"

The thought made her frown harder. "Or did h.. no, he wouldn'.. did he try something with her?"

Her hands tangled into her hair in irritation, scratching her scalp as she bit her lower lip.

She wanted to intervene, but something ..some strange, instinctive force told her to stay still. So she stayed, silently watching, unable to tear her eyes away.

Riven finally broke the silence, his voice calm and almost weary.

"It wasn't me who did it," he said quietly. "Nor was it I who spread it."

He turned his gaze back to Nancy, unbothered by the lightning still grumbling faintly above them. "I never lied. I never tried to manipulate anything. Everything that happened, happened by fate's design."

He spoke softly, but each word carried weight. "All I did was speak the truth. And for that, you call me disgusting?"

His white eyes gleamed faintly, reflecting the streaks of lightning above. "Tell me. What is so disgusting about truth?"

Nancy's lips curled with disgust as she glared at him.

"There's nothing for me to explain about why I slapped you," she said, her voice low, trembling with anger she barely contained. "Just know that you deserved it."

Her tone sharpened, every word cutting through the still air like shards of ice. "You disgusting piece of shit."

Riven simply stared at her, silent and serene. The faint curve of his smile never faded, and somehow that only made her angrier.

She could feel her pulse pounding in her ears, her heart hammering beneath her ribs. The calm way he accepted it.. the patience, the detached understanding.. it made her feel sick.

Because in his eyes, she wasn't even a person right now.

She was just another part of "the order." Another story playing out the way it was meant to.

And that made her blood boil.

He spoke of fate and destiny as if they were gods.. as if everything, even pain and injustice, were divine.

Talking like Razeal's tragedy.. his destruction was somehow his fault, as if fate was a fair executioner instead of a cruel manipulator.

To her, it wasn't divine. It was cowardice hiding horror behind pretty words.

She thought of Razeal then ..the cold, distant man who never asked for help, who fought everyone and everything alone, and yet had still saved her when no one else could.

And this… this man dared to speak like it was his fault.

Nancy's disgust deepened. She turned sharply on her heel, her hair flicking over her shoulder, refusing to look at him any longer.

She didn't care if he was divine or immortal. She didn't care if lightning struck her down the next second. She was done.

Riven didn't move to stop her. He simply stood there, hands folded loosely behind his back, smiling faintly as he watched her turn away.

But after taking two steps, Nancy stopped.

Her voice cut through the silence, calm but sharp as frost.

"I won't end up like him," she said.

Riven's smile didn't fade. "Won't you?"

Nancy didn't look back yet. "No," she said coldly. "Because now, I know."

She turned then ..slowly, deliberately her ice-blue eyes meeting his white ones head-on.

"Fate, destiny, or whatever you call it.. it'll pay if it dares touch my life again."

Her voice was steady now, no tremor in it ..only promise. "I don't care what you or your cosmos think. If anything tries to twist my path… it will regret it."

The air around her began to shift.. the temperature dropping sharply as frost crept over the grass.

"Tell your precious fate not to interfere with me," she said. "Because I'm not Razeal. I'm not soft like him. I won't let fate ruin me and just… walk away."

She took a step forward, the ground cracking faintly under her foot as her mana flared. "If anyone, or anything, tries to manipulate my life.. I will make it pay. Whatever it takes."

Then she tilted her head slightly, her glare sharpening. "And that includes you."

Her voice was low now, deadly calm. "Stay away from me. Because if you ever interfere with me again…"

A sharp pulse of icy energy exploded from her a freezing aura bursting outward, coating the earth in frost and the air in mist.

"I'll end you too."

Her draconic aura rippled through the air.. a powerful, terrifying force that sent a chill across the entire garden. The brown-haired woman gasped from under her tree, her breath misting in front of her.

Riven simply stood there.. unmoving, unfazed, his expression almost fond as he watched her.

When she was done, he only smiled.. small, knowing, and infinitely calm.

He didn't speak. He didn't argue. He simply shook his head gently, as though watching a child declare war against the sky.

Nancy exhaled sharply, shaking her head once as if to dismiss his very existence.

Without another word, she turned around, her ice-blue eyes hard and resolute.

Behind her, a pair of crystalline wings unfurled immense and radiant, sculpted from frozen air and shimmering mana.

With one mighty flap, she lifted from the ground, the frost beneath her shattering as she ascended.

Within seconds, she was gone.. a streak of blue and white vanishing into the darkening clouds, leaving only the echo of thunder behind.

Riven watched her disappear, still smiling faintly. The lightning had stopped. The storm quieted.

And as silence reclaimed the garden, he whispered softly, almost to himself..

"So begins your rebellion, Nancy Dragonwevr."

"What happened between them?"

Arabella's voice was low, sharp with concern as she hovered high above the academy gardens, suspended in the morning air.

Her piercing crimson eyes narrowed, fixed on the scene below. From her vantage point, she could still see her daughter Nancy ..storming off, her icy wings unfurled and shimmering as they carried her away into the darkening sky.

And below her, standing beneath the trees, was the boy with snow-white hair and eyes like pale starlight.

"Did Nancy have something to do with him?" Arabella muttered, brows knitting together. "Who is this boy?"

It didn't make sense. Her daughter had gone through something horrific only days ago she should've been resting, healing, gathering herself. Not flying across the Empire to meet some strange boy in a secluded garden… and certainly not slapping him across the face.

The memory of the act.. of Nancy's hand connecting sharply with the boy's cheek replayed in her mind, igniting a strange mix of confusion and irritation.

For Nancy to react that way, there had to be something serious between them.

Arabella didn't know the boy, didn't even know her daughter knew someone like him. That alone was enough to make her frown.

And yet.. even more infuriating she couldn't hear a single word of their conversation. Not one.

For someone of her level, that was impossible. She wasn't just any woman; she was Arabella Dragonwevr ..Duchess of the Cindervale Territory, one of the most powerful beings alive, her senses honed beyond mortal limits.

And still… nothing. Silence.

"What is this…?" she whispered under her breath, her frown deepening as her crimson gaze narrowed on the white-haired boy.

He stood there quietly, smiling. The mark of Nancy's slap still faintly reddened his cheek, and yet he didn't look angry or even remotely disturbed. If anything, there was something… unsettling in that calm smile.

"Why is he still smiling like that?" she muttered. "As if nothing happened…"

Her instincts flared. The boy was dangerous. She could feel it.. a subtle, otherworldly pressure that wasn't mana, nor aura, nor Something she couldn't identify.

For a split second, she considered flying down to confront him. To demand answers.

She shifted slightly in the air, preparing to descend..

And then, suddenly, he vanished.

Just like that.

Right in front of her eyes.

Her breath caught, her eyes widening in disbelief.

"What..?"

No movement. No mana fluctuation. No distortion in space or energy. One moment he was there, the next he was gone.

"How?" she whispered, genuinely stunned.

Nothing in her long life had ever escaped her sight before. She'd seen beings that could shatter mountains, entities that could erase armies but nothing had ever disappeared from her perception. Not like this.

Her instincts screamed. Something wasn't right.

But then suddenly

"Greetings."

The voice came from directly behind her. Calm, Gentle and Effortless.

Arabella spun around instantly, crimson energy flaring in her palm, distance widening between them as she faced him.

The same boy stood there.. floating in the air just a few meters away, white hair swaying gently, his expression untouched by hostility.

Her heart pounded once sharp and heavy. She hadn't even felt him move.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice cool and firm, though her eyes flickered with wariness. This cant be any 16 year old.. That is for sure?.. Someone taking over body of 16 years old? She was just wondering when..

The boy only smiled, raising a single hand in a polite gesture.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he said softly, voice steady as the wind itself. "I am Riven… the Preserver."

He inclined his head slightly, as though in greeting to an equal. "One of the three Supreme Gods."

Arabella froze.

For once, her mind went blank.

"Huh…?"

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Thanks for reading, guys phew! Writing on a keyboard is really tough 💀. Took me like two extra hours to finish this chapter, but hey… if I've gotta learn, I've gotta learn.

Still, I don't think it's too bad for just one day of practice. I'll get there eventually.

Thanks for reading, and thank you all for the support and love.. always. ❤️

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