Back To Empire

A soft breeze drifted through the beautiful garden, carrying the faint fragrance of rare blossoms. The pond one of the most sacred and protected places in the whole empire.. Only some very influencel people can come and go here.. The pond glimmered under the soft sunlight like a polished mirror. Its surface reflected crystal-clear water lilies, delicate white blossoms, drifting petals, and slender, graceful branches arching over the water in a peaceful curtain of shade.

The stone path leading toward the pond was immaculate, every slab washed and polished daily. Moss grew only where it was allowed, forming soft green borders that looked almost hand-painted. Nature and order blended into a serene paradise.

And into this gentle scenery…

Selena walked.

Her steps were slow, almost hesitant, like the world weighed down each motion with invisible chains. She looked as if she were floating rather than walking divine, elegant, graceful but there was something fundamentally wrong in her movements today.

Her golden eyes, normally carrying a sacred glow, were dim and clouded with exhaustion. Shadows clung under them, betraying sleepless nights. Her usually serene expression was tightened with internal conflict, her thoughts clearly a battlefield of their own. Even the aura of a Saintess could not hide that she was mentally suffocating.

She seemed lost in thoughts so deep that the world around her blurred at the edges.

Her fingers lightly brushed her robes as she walked, almost absently, as if grounding herself from drifting too far into her own mind.

She was on her way toward the pond, perhaps seeking peace…

But peace did not come.

Atleast it didn't plan to be with her.. atleast not today.

Because from behind one of the tall trees bordering the path, a woman stepped out leaning casually against the trunk with folded arms, as though she had been waiting there for a long time.

Her presence was sharp, elegant, and breathtaking.

"Hey… long time no see, Sela."

The woman's voice was soft but carried an ease that came from long familiarity.. familiarity very few in the world could claim with Selena.

Her platinum eyes, eerily identical in beauty to Selena's golden ones if not more, reflected a quiet amusement. Her platinum hair shimmered in the filtered sunlight, falling behind her like a silken waterfall. Even leaning lazily against a tree, her presence was overwhelming noble, ethereal, and impossible to dismiss.

Celestia.

One of the very few who could call Selena by her childhood name.

But Selena didn't stop walking or reacted or even look at her.

She simply let out a tired exhale, her shoulders dropping slightly as if yet another layer of weight had been added atop the rest.

Celestia watched her with a small, almost helpless smile.

"You know… it's been five years since we've been ignoring each other." Her voice carried a softness that contradicted the sharpness of her presence. "At least talk to me. And I know this is the moment you need someone to talk to the most."

Still, Selena didn't pause or acknowledge her.

She didnt let even a flicker of emotion cross her face.

Celestia sighed dramatically loud, exaggerated, like she was making sure Selena heard it before pushing herself off the tree trunk.

Then she began following behind Selena, matching her pace with light steps.

"Heyyy," Celestia called, her tone sliding somewhere between teasing and pleading. "Listen to me. I'm serious this time."

Selena finally spoke, but her voice was cold, drained, and distant.

"I don't want to talk about anything, Celestia. Leave me alone. I would be very thankful."

Not once did she turn to look at her.

Celestia sighed slightly.

"How about," Celestia said, "I tell you the reason why I lied back then? Why I didn't clear his name even when I could have."

Selena didn't stop.

"You think I don't know?"

That made Celestia slow down for half a step.

Selena continued walking toward the bench near the pond, her voice growing heavier with each word, as if she had repeated these thoughts to herself too many times.

"Razeal might not have guessed it," she said softly, "but I always knew. You were never happy about the engagement. About him being tied to you. About the idea of you having to marry him."

Her golden eyes lowered, lashes trembling faintly not from sadness, but from tired resignation.

"You lied because you didn't want that. Because you didn't want to be bound to him. Breaking the engagement was your goal from the beginning."

Selena's footsteps slowed as she reached the circular clearing at the end of the path.

She approached the white stone bench overlooking the vast, still pond. The light shimmered over the water, reflecting her weary form in ripples.

She lowered herself onto the bench slowly, letting her hands rest on her lap. Her gaze remained fixed on the pond before her its calm surface a stark contrast to the chaos swirling behind her eyes.

Celestia paused mid-step.

For a long, quiet second she simply stood there, Selena's words hanging in the air like a heavy stone dropped into still water rippling outward, slow and painful.

"…I didn't know you understood me this well," Celestia finally murmured, her lips curling into a faint, humorless smile. "Guess you knew me far better than I ever gave you credit for. Besides my mother… no one else has ever been able to figure me out."

Her platinum eyes softened for a moment, a mixture of guilt and nostalgia flickering beneath their cold clarity.

"And yes," she added quietly, "I already apologized to Razeal. I even told him the real reason I did it. I made a mistake back then.."

"Stop."

Selena's voice cut through her words sharply.

Not loud. But sharp enough to slice straight into Celestia's chest.

Selena's hands trembled where they rested on her knees, fingers interlocked so tightly her knuckles whitened. The gentle Saintess always soft-spoken, always patient sounded nothing like herself.

"I don't want to hear anything more," she whispered, her throat tightening. "We betrayed him, Celestia. We betrayed him.. and thats the fact."

Her golden eyes finally lifted, and the pain inside them was enough to make even Celestia flinch.

"There is no explanation that fixes what we did," Selena continued, her voice quivering with tightly-controlled emotion. "None. Telling him your reasons doesn't undo it.. if anything, it disrespected him even more."

Celestia opened her mouth to respond, but Selena didn't stop.

"When you said it," Selena said, her voice cracking, "he must have thought you felt relieved. Or satisfied. That you wanted the engagement broken. That it was something good for you."

Her breath hitched.

"What do you think he felt when he heard that? Shame? Confusion? Hurt?"

A small, broken laugh escaped her lips.

"He trusted us. He trusted you. We were supposed to be his friends the people he relied on the most.. You were literally supposed to be his wife one dayy.. You even have any idea what that position means? You shouldn't have told him. And apologizing? What is that supposed to do now?"

She lowered her head again, her fingers clenching into fists on her lap.

"We destroyed his life."

Her voice dropped lower.

"No… we ruined his whole life."

She inhaled shakily, the frustration rising uncontrollably.

"And then you apologized? What does that even mean now? An apology after all that does it fix anything? Does it heal anything? Or is it just you easing your own guilt?"

Her tone trembled, anger and helplessness mixing into something raw and painful.

"You don't understand, Celestia. You don't understand what we did to him. You don't understand how much it hurt him. Or maybe you do and you still did it anyway."

She shut her eyes tightly, forcing down the tears stinging them.

"So no," Selena whispered. "Don't call it a 'mistake.' It was betrayal. And we can't rewrite it."

Silence stretched between them, thick and suffocating.

For a long moment, Celestia simply stared.

Then she stepped forward.

And she stood directly in front of Selena, her shadow falling over the Saintess, blocking her view of the tranquil pond entirely.

Her voice, when she spoke, was firm almost defiant.

"You're wrong."

Selena's eyes lifted slowly.

Celestia looked down at her with a complex expression one that held guilt, regret, and something stubborn beneath it.

"I didn't betray him," Celestia said quietly. "I wasn't trying to hurt him. I wasn't trying to… destroy him."

She shook her head.

"No. I never wanted that. I never could want that."

Her voice lowered, trembling faintly.

"I made a mistake.. an enormous one. One that cost me someone I cared for more than I realized. But I never betrayed him. I was stupid, childish, selfish… yes. But betrayal? No."

Her hands curled slightly at her sides.

"And apologizing.. doing that was something he deserved from me. At the very least."

Selena clenched her teeth.

Celestia continued.

"I didn't want to tell him. It wasn't easy. I regret that moment every single day of my life. But he deserved the truth. I owed him that much. He deserved to know the truth."

She exhaled slowly and looked down at Selena, noticing something that made her chest ache how lost she looked. How hollow. How tired.

She had seen Selena upset before, hurt before, even furious before… but never like this.

This was the Selena who was breaking quietly.

A silence settled between them before Selena spoke again, her voice barely audible.

"So… what did he say?"

Her tone carried a fragile hope, the kind that shatters easily.

The kind she already knew the answer to.

Celestia's expression tightened. She turned her face slightly away, unable to meet Selena's eyes for a moment.

"He said… he hates me."

"And will always hate me."

The words lingered heavy and sharp.

Selena's breath trembled.

"…Hates you," she whispered. "I see. He told me the same."

Her golden eyes dimmed further, the sadness in them almost suffocating.

Celestia slowly turned back toward her.

And for the first time since everything happened, she let her emotions spill raw, unfiltered, and painfully honest afterall.. Selena and her.. They going through same thing and can understand what each other of them feels.

"You know what's funny?" she said softly, almost laughing at herself. "I have everything in this world. Everything a person could want. I never lack anything."

Her voice wavered.

"And nothing has ever bothered me. Not a single thing in my life ever mattered enough to shake me."

"Except when he said those words."

She said that calmly her eyes lowering.

"It felt… strange. Wrong. Like something inside me cracked and I don't even know what that feeling is. I've never felt something like that before."

She shook her head.

"I don't expect anything from anyone. Ever. But he… I always had expectations from him. I wanted him to think well of me. To look at me without disappointment. To trust me."

"And hearing that from him… hearing him hate me… I never imagined that would happen."

"I know I deserve it. I know every piece of this hurt is my fault."

She looked toward the pond, her eyes reflecting the shimmering water.. Calm and stable.. But very deep hidden beneath many thing's.

"But it hurts," she whispered. "Not because he hates me. But because my actions led him there."

"Because one of the most precious people in my life… had his world destroyed by my own hands."

Selena let out a dry, broken laugh at her words. Not the usual sarcastic scoff she usually used.. not even close. This laughter sounded as if it was squeezed out of a deep fracture inside her chest.

"Heh… sadness?" she said, voice hoarse, trembling around the edges. "What do you know about sadness, Celestia?"

Celestia looked at her sharply, but Selena didn't even give her a chance to respond. She kept going each word heavier than the last.

"All you ever did was… nod your head. Say yes. Say no. Keep your expressions pretty and perfect." Her lips curved painfully, trembling. "And I.. I was the one who started all of this… from my own hands. Every damn piece of it."

She shook her head at her own bitter irony, the laugh this time sounding like a choked sob disguised as humor.

"You don't know how it feels," Selena said softly, staring down at her own trembling hands. "You don't know what it's like… to watch someone crumble right in front of you. To watch them fall apart in pieces. And when you finally, finally try to help… they dont even accept it."

Her voice dropped lower.. so weak it felt almost fragile.

"I tried to heal him when he was injured," she whispered. "I tried to. And he rejected me."

Tears gathered at the corner of her eyes, clinging but refusing to fall yet.

"He refused my healing, Celestia. Do you… do you understand the level of hate someone has to carry to reject even help that could save their life?"

A shaky breath escaped her.

"He has foreverine metal carved into his skin… those hurtful words engraved into his body permanently."

Her hands curled tighter, nails digging into her palms.

"And I know" her voice cracked "I know he knows that I am the only one in this world who can erase those marks. That I can heal scars like those. That I could… remove them."

Her lips quivered as she spoke, the pain clear in every syllable.

"He knows. He knows one word from him… and I would do anything. Anything for him."

Finally the first tear fell.

"But he didn't ask. He never will ask. He would rather die with those scars… than request my help and i know that."

Her voice turned faint, hollow.

"You really don't know, Celestia. You don't know the kind of person he became… because of me."

Selena's whole body trembled. The memories were knives plunged into her chest, pulled out, shoved back in, and twisted.

"You weren't there when I went to that ruined church," she said, her voice beginning to crumble. "You weren't there when I saw where he got those scars… when I saw what he did to them."

She inhaled sharply, but it only made her voice shake more.

"You didn't see those people. The ones who tortured him before."

She shut her eyes tightly as the image returned vivid, horrifying.

"And you didn't see the revenge he took."

A cold silence fell between them.

Selena swallowed, her voice barely steady.

"He tortured them," she whispered. "Every one of them. Slowly. Piece by piece. He ripped their hair off by force… ripped their skin from their bodies… removed their eyes… their organs… and he made sure they stayed alive. Just so they could feel pain."

Her words shook with disbelief, grief, guilt.

"Can you imagine Razeal doing that? The Razeal we knew? The boy who vomited at the sight of blood?"

Her voice broke.

"He became that because of me."

Her tears fell harder now, dripping from her chin onto her trembling hands… onto the stone beneath her feet.

"Do you know what it feels like," Selena whispered, "…to know you broke someone you cherished? To know you shattered them into someone who hates everything including Himself?"

She let out a choked sob.

"And now… because of me… everyone hates Him."

She laughed again short, broken, hopeless.

"And you know what? At least you apologized to him. At least you told him why you did it. I…" Her voice cracked completely. "I don't even have the strength to do that."

She covered her face with both hands as the tears spilled uncontrollably.

"I don't have the strength… I don't know how to even start… I don't know how to face him. I just… don't."

For a moment, Celestia stood absolutely still, watching her friend come apart completely.

Then quietly.. slowly she lowered herself down into a crouch in front of Selena.

Her movements were gentle, deliberate, as if approaching a frightened, wounded creature.

She took Selena's trembling hands in her own.

"Hey… hey," Celestia whispered softly, her platinum eyes warm despite the pain inside them. "Calm down, idiot. You don't need to cry like this."

She squeezed Selena's hands firmly.

"I don't know why you did what you did," Celestia admitted, her voice soft but unwavering. "But I trust you. I trust you more than I trust myself when it comes to anything related to Razeal."

Selena's crying slowed for a moment, her breath catching.

Celestia continued, her grip steady.

"I… for once… could betray Razeal. But you… you could never. I know that. You two were the closest out of all of us. Back then… no one was closer to him than you."

Her voice dropped lower.

"When everything happened, I truly thought someone must have manipulated you. Controlled you or even forced you. I even checked. But… no one was there."

Selena jerked her hands away weakly, shaking her head as tears continued to pour.

"No," she whispered. "I was selfish. It was me. All of it was me. No one forced me. No one made me do anything. I did it all on my own."

More tears fell.

"I know exactly what I did. Why I did it. And I know I was the reason.. my reason my choice ruined his whole life."

Celestia didn't let her escape. She caught her hand again, firmer this time, making Selena look up.

"Selena," Celestia said, her voice soft but unshakeable. "If you truly did it… then I am sure you didn't have bad intentions. You must have believed you were doing what was best. You are not someone who could hurt him out of cruelty."

Her platinum eyes softened further.

"You can't betray him. You are not capable of it. I know who you are."

Selena trembled, tears falling again, but this time her gaze softened still shattered, but no longer completely alone.

Celestia held her hand again, refusing to let go.

----

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.