6kv Chapter 468: The Real Face Of Saintess
Chapter 468: The Real Face Of Saintess
"...I chose the easiest path."Celestia’s fingers slowly tightened.
"I used him."
Silence followed.
Not ordinary silence.
Not the kind that came when people simply had nothing to say.
This was the kind of silence that came when words themselves stopped making sense.
A child somewhere in the crowd blinked and looked up at his father with confusion. Several nobles stared blankly toward the platform as though they had misheard something. A church believer frowned deeply, his lips parting slightly before closing again.
No one spoke.
No one knew how to.
Because the Imperial Princess had just admitted to using someone.
Using Razeal.
For years, people had known him only as a disgrace, a shameful stain upon the empire, a weak man whose name brought disgust and ridicule wherever it was spoken.
Yet now...
The very people who had stood against him were standing before the entire empire and saying something completely different.
The minds of the people below seemed to stop.
They simply stared.
Then Selena slowly stepped forward.
Immediately, every eye shifted toward her.
The movement happened almost naturally.
Instinctively.
Even people still struggling to understand Celestia’s words found themselves looking at Selena.
Because no matter what happened, no matter what confusion existed within their minds, there was still one thing that remained unchanged in their hearts.
Their Saintess.
Selena remained quiet for several seconds.
Very quiet.
The wind lightly brushed through strands of her golden hair as she stood there at the edge of the platform. Her eyes slowly moved across the sea of faces below her.
Thousands of people.
Thousands of expressions.
People who loved her.
People who admired her.
People who had traveled great distances just to catch a single glimpse of her.
Then her eyes slowly lowered.
"...I had lied too."
Her voice was soft.
Very soft.
Yet somehow every person heard it clearly.
No magic amplification was needed.
No one missed those words.
Not when the entire Grand Plaza had become so silent.
Tears had already begun gathering in her eyes.
Small droplets forming slowly at the corners.
"He never touched me."
Her lips trembled slightly.
"He never forced himself on me."
"He never harmed me."
The tears finally escaped.
One small drop slowly rolled down her cheek.
Then another.
"...That was a lie."
Her voice had become heavy.
Painfully heavy.
And suddenly at those words
The atmosphere changed.
Not through noise.
Not through movement.
But through feeling.
A strange heaviness spread across the Grand Plaza.
Because this time people understood exactly what she meant.
And they did not want to.
Far below the platform, someone unconsciously took a step backward.
A woman covered her mouth.
An old man simply stared with widened eyes.
"...Saintess?"
The whisper came from somewhere in the crowd.
Confused.
Shaken and.. Almost frightened.
Then another voice.
"S-Saintess..."
"No..."
"No, that... that can’t..."
The whispers began spreading.
Not loudly.
Nobody dared raise their voice.
Only broken sounds escaped from people who looked as though the ground beneath their feet had suddenly disappeared.
Because they could not understand.
Their Saintess...
Lied?
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
Their minds rejected it immediately.
But their eyes betrayed them.
Because they were looking directly at her.
Looking at her trembling lips.
Looking at the tears falling from her face.
Looking at the pain within her eyes.
And something inside their hearts tightened painfully.
Because Selena looked hurt.
Actually hurt.
A middle-aged church believer stood among the crowd staring blankly.
Years ago, Selena herself had once healed his son from a deadly illness. He still remembered kneeling before her and crying while thanking her over and over.
He remembered her smile.
Remembered her telling him softly not to worry.
Remembered feeling as if a miracle had appeared before him.
Now seeing tears falling from her eyes...
His own eyes slowly reddened.
"No..." he whispered weakly.
Nearby, an elderly woman covered her mouth with trembling hands.
Further away, several young girls who had grown up idolizing Selena stared with wet eyes.
One had already begun quietly crying.
Not because of the confession.
Not because of the lie.
But because Selena herself was crying.
People had built Selena into something larger than a person long ago.
A symbol.
A symbol of purity.
A symbol of kindness.
A symbol of light.
And symbols were not supposed to shake.
Symbols were not supposed to cry.
Symbols were not supposed to stand before everyone and confess their sins.
For a moment reality itself felt wrong.
Several people honestly thought they were dreaming.
A strange dream.
A terrible dream.
Because seeing the Saintess standing there with tears running down her face felt almost horrifying.
Even some Platinum Holy Knights standing nearby had lowered their eyes beneath their helmets.
Nyla stood behind Selena completely frozen.
Her pink-framed glasses reflected the light as her widened eyes stared toward Selena’s back.
She had seen Selena happy.
Seen her tired.
Seen her silent.
Seen her working endlessly until late nights.
But she had never...
Never seen her like this.
"...Your Grace..." she whispered without realizing.
Below the platform, more people slowly shook their heads.
"No..."
"She must be blaming herself... for nothing."
"There has to be some misunderstanding..."
"Saintess would never..."
They wanted to reject it.
Desperately.
Because accepting this meant accepting something else too.
If Selena was speaking the truth...
Then what about Razeal?
That thought entered people’s minds.
And many immediately pushed it away.
No.
No.
No way.
Anything but that.
Because if this was true...
Then for years
For years
They had all hated someone innocent.
Selena slowly looked over the crowd again.
She saw confusion.
Saw pain
Saw disbelief.
Saw people trying desperately to reject reality.
And strangely...
That hurt more.
Much more.
Because nobody looked at her with hatred.
Not yet.
Those who loved her deeply felt pain not because of the crime itself
But because she was hurting.
Their first instinct was not judgment.
It was to reach toward her.
To tell her to stop.
To tell her she did not need to cry.
To tell her everything would somehow become alright.
But no one moved.
No one could.
They simply stood there beneath the platform and watched silently as tears slowly fell from the eyes of the woman they had always believed stood above pain itself.
"Stop crying, Your Graceee... whatever happened, itsss fineee!"
The voice suddenly rose from somewhere within the crowd.
For a moment it startled everyone.
Heads instinctively turned.
A young church believer stood there among the masses, tears gathered in her own eyes as she looked toward Selena on the platform. Her face had reddened and she was wiping her cheeks clumsily with her sleeves, but more tears continued escaping anyway.
She was crying too.
Not because of the confession.
Not because of the lie.
She simply could not bear seeing Selena cry.
Around her, many people looked toward the girl before slowly lowering their eyes.
Because strangely...
No one thought she was wrong.
No one scolded her for speaking out.
Because many of them had been thinking the same thing.
Stop crying.
Please stop crying.
Some church believers had already lowered their heads. Some women were quietly wiping tears from their eyes. Even several men stood there with reddened eyes and tight expressions, avoiding looking directly at the platform.
The pain they felt was strange.
Confusing.
Because what Selena was confessing should have made them angry.
Should have made them feel betrayed.
Yet looking at her standing there with trembling shoulders and tears quietly falling down her face...
They could not.
Not right now.
Selena heard the voice.
Her eyelashes trembled slightly.
But she did not look toward the crowd.
She did not look at the people calling out to her.
Slowly, she lowered her gaze and looked at her own hands instead.
Those same hands had healed people.
Saved people.
Blessed people.
Hands people called holy.
Yet today she looked at them differently.
As if finally seeing them properly.
As if finally allowing herself to stop carrying everything inside.
Because today...
Today she was letting it all out.
In front of everyone.
Without hiding.
Without protecting herself.
Without worrying about consequences.
For him.
"...I was selfish."
Her shoulders trembled slightly.
The words came quietly.
Almost weakly.
"I thought..." Her lips shook faintly. "...I don’t know."
A bitter smile briefly appeared before disappearing just as quickly.
"At that time... maybe I was simply a foolish person."
Her voice grew softer.
"...I just thought if I didn’t do it..."
She suddenly stopped.
Her breathing paused.
The next words seemed difficult to force out.
"...Then maybe he would never stay beside me."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Not heavily.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Small tears falling one after another without her even trying to stop them.
Then she spoke again.
"I loved him."
Those words left her mouth softly.
So softly that many people thought they had heard wrong.
"I loved him then." Her eyes slowly closed.
"...I still do."
The moment those words fell
Nyla’s eyes widened completely behind her glasses.
Her lips slowly parted.
Her mind had already stopped working long ago, but now it felt as though someone had struck her head directly.
Loved?
Still do?
She stared at Selena blankly.
Because suddenly...
Many things she never understood before started appearing in her mind.
The long periods of silence.
The lonely expressions.
The nights Selena remained awake staring outside windows.
The way she avoided speaking about certain things.
Nyla slowly covered her mouth.
"...Your Grace..." she whispered weakly.
Beside Selena, even Celestia became still.
Her eyes slowly shifted toward Selena.
She looked at her crying face. At the tears running quietly down her cheeks.
At the pain she had hidden for years.
Then Selena spoke again.
Her voice spread across the Grand Plaza.
Heavy.
Shaking.
Filled with regret.
"I accused him of trying to force himself on me..."
The crowd froze further.
"Because.. I thought..." Selena continued with difficulty, "...I thought if I did that... our parents... his family and my family... would try to hide such an incident."
Her breathing had become uneven now.
"...Because it would bring shame to both families."
She lowered her head slightly.
"And then..."
"...They would be forced to break his engagement with Celestia."
Her fingers tightened together.
"Because breaking it normally was almost impossible."
Tears slowly fell from her chin.
"And after that..." she whispered painfully, "...he would be forced to marry me instead."
The words struck the crowd like stones thrown into still water.
Shock slowly spread through faces.
Many simply stared.
Unable to react.
Selena continued speaking.
"...I thought after the marriage was complete..."
"...I would explain everything."
"...I would tell him."
"...Tell both families."
"...Tell them why I did it."
Her voice slowly weakened.
As if even she herself could now hear how selfish and foolish those thoughts had sounded.
As if hearing them spoken aloud made them uglier.
Made them real.
"...I thought everything would somehow become alright."
Silence.
Nothing followed.
No one spoke.
No one even moved.
Because now...
They understood.
Truly understood.
Not just what happened.
But why.
And somehow...
That hurt more.
Beside her, Celestia quietly stared at Selena.
Her eyes softened.
Looking at Selena’s crying face, she could finally understand something she had missed all those years ago.
She really loved him.
She loved him so much that she became desperate.
Desperate enough to become selfish.
Desperate enough to hurt him.
Desperate enough to destroy everything.
A sad smile slowly appeared on Celestia’s face before disappearing.
How had she not seen it before?
How?
Maybe if had seen it things would have been different.
Maybe not completely.
Maybe they still would have suffered.
But perhaps...
Perhaps she could have stopped things from reaching this point.
Perhaps she could have stopped everyone from being destroyed by that incident.
Her eyes slowly lowered.
But regrets were useless now.
Far below them, the crowd stared in complete silence.
Even the whispers had disappeared.
People slowly looked at Selena with changing expressions.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Just disbelief.
Pain.
Confusion.
But rather .. Understanding.
Her Saintess... loved him?
The thought spread silently through the crowd.
People looked at one another, then back toward the platform, then toward each other again.
Disbelief remained on many faces, but something else had begun appearing now too.
Understanding.
Not complete understanding.
Not acceptance.
Just enough to make things complicated.
Because before this, many of them simply could not understand why Saintess would lie at all.
That part had felt impossible.
Saintess? Wanting to harm someone?
Saintess? Intentionally destroying someone’s life?
No.
They could never picture that.
The woman they knew spent her days healing strangers and helping people she had never met. She smiled gently at children, comforted grieving families, and treated nobles and commoners no differently.
That image and today’s confession refused to fit together.
But now...
Now they had heard the reason.
Love.
A foolish love.
A desperate love.
People lowered their eyes quietly.
Because suddenly the situation no longer looked simple.
Many of them remembered their own younger days. Their own mistakes. The foolish things they had once done because of jealousy, fear, desperation, or love.
People make mistakes.
People became selfish.
People did foolish things when emotions clouded their minds.
Even if it was hard to believe Saintess could love someone to that extent...
Even if that person happened to be Razeal...
She was still human.
She had been young too.
And young people often made stupid decisions.
A few people quietly sighed.
Such a sad mistake.
Such a terribly large mistake.
No one moved.
No one whispered anymore.
Because they had suddenly understood something.
This was not some political gathering.
Not an execution.
Not punishment.
Not power.
Not status.
This was simply.. just
Two people standing before the entire Empire and tearing themselves apart.
No excuses.
No hiding.
No protecting themselves.
Only truth.
Selena lowered her head further.
Her wet eyelashes trembled slightly.
"I know..." she said quietly.
Her voice had become softer now.
"I know every one of you will probably still love me."
"I know many of you will still try to understand me after hearing all of this."
Small painful smiles appeared on some faces below.
Because she was right.
Even after hearing everything...
Many of them still could not bring themselves to hate her.
Not immediately.
Not when she stood there crying before them.
Not when she looked so broken.
But Selena slowly shook her head.
"...But what I did to him..."
Her voice trembled
"...Was wrong."
She slowly closed her eyes.
"Completely wrong."
"No matter how young I was."
"No matter how naïve I was."
"No matter how foolish I was..."
Her shoulders shook slightly.
"...It was wrong."
"It was all my fault."
"It was all wrong." Tears slowly rolled down her cheeks.
"So wrong."
She pressed trembling fingers against her own chest.
"I am not a good person."
"I am a sinner."
"I am not all light and kindness..."
"...Not pure."
The words seemed painful for her to say.
Because for years she had heard people call her holy.
Call her perfect.
Call her a blessing.
Yet now she stood there destroying that image with her own hands.
"If..." she whispered weakly, "...if it had only been a mistake... then maybe things would be different."
She slowly raised wet eyes.
"Because after I said those words..."
"After the consequences came..."
Her voice cracked.
"...I didn’t come forward."
"...I didn’t clear his name."
The crowd stiffened.
Selena continued.
"I let the lie become truth."
"I let everyone believe it."
Her breathing had become uneven now.
"Even when his image was ruined..."
"Even when everyone started looking at him like a monster..."
People slowly lowered their eyes.
Because many of them remembered.
Remembered hearing his name spoken with disgust.
Remembered joining those conversations.
Remembered throwing insults.
Remembered judging someone they had never truly known.
Selena’s tears continued falling.
"Even when people called him disgusting..."
"Even when the whole Empire hated him..."
"Even when he was punished..."
Her fingers slowly tightened.
"He had lashes struck across his body."
"Painful wounds."
"Scars."
"Scars he didn’t deserve."
Some people unconsciously looked away.
Others stared at the ground.
"...He was rejected by people he loved."
"...Broken by them."
"...Thrown away by his own family."
"...Hated by everyone."
Her voice nearly disappeared at the end.
"...And all of that..."
"...was my fault."
Absolute silence.
"...And I hid this truth..."
"...for five years."
Selena lowered her head completely now.
Her tears dropped onto the stone platform beneath her feet.
"If I was really pure..."
"If I was really good..."
"...I would have spoken back then."
"I was scared."
"I had reasons."
"...But none of them shouldve matter."
She shook her head weakly.
"It is still my fault."
"I hurt the person I loved."
"The person who never deserved any of this."
Her shoulders trembled.
Then finally
"He was innocent."
The words echoed softly.
"He always was."
Another tear fell.
Then another.
Selena slowly lifted her face toward the countless people staring at her.
And with trembling lips, she finally said
"He is not a disgusting..."
Her voice shook.
"...rapist."
"He is not disgusting..." Selena said softly, her trembling voice spreading through the Grand Plaza. Tears still rolled quietly down her cheeks, but she no longer tried wiping them away. "He is... a pure... lovely... and beautiful person."
Her words came slowly.
Not because she was searching for something to say.
But because every word carried memories.
"The gentlest person I have ever known..." she whispered. "The person I myself wanted to become more gentle and more kind because of."
Her fingers slowly tightened over her chest.
"The person I love the most."
Silence.
Nyla, standing behind her, stared at Selena’s back with widened eyes.
"My Grace..." she whispered unconsciously.
For years she had stayed beside Selena.
Years.
She had attended her daily life, watched her smile at people, watched her spend sleepless nights working for others, watched her quietly for very long time.
But never
Never had she known that Selena had been carrying all of this alone.
And hearing those words about Razeal...
Hearing Selena describe him herself...
Nyla became quiet
She ignored the confession for a moment.
Ignored innocence and guilt.
Ignored everything else.
Because something else had caught her thoughts.
Gentle.
Pure
Beautiful?
Those words had come from Selena.
From the Saintess herself.
Nyla had never met Razeal personally.
Only heard Rumors.
Disgusted whispers from people.
Stories of a weak, shameful man.
Stories that painted him as ugly inside and out.
Yet Selena was speaking of someone completely different.
Someone warm.
Someone kind.
Someone worth loving.
For the first time in her life... Nyla quietly wondered
What kind of person was Razeal really for to be describe by such words by saintess herself?
Then Selena suddenly turned back toward the crowd.
Her wet eyes looked over the countless people standing beneath the platform.
Thousands of faces.
Thousands of eyes looking back at her.
"...And I..." Selena started, her voice shaking slightly. "...I am not standing here today just to tell everyone this because I wanted to remove the guilt from my own heart."
She slowly shook her head.
"No."
"...No."
"I did not gather everyone here for myself."
Her eyes lowered briefly before lifting again.
"I told all of you this because..."
Her lips trembled.
"...Because I wanted all of you to understand him."
Her tears fell again.
"So you all can stop hating him."
"Please..."
The word came out weakly.
Almost breaking.
"He doesn’t deserve any of it."
"He isn’t who I made him look like."
"He isn’t who all of you think he is."
Selena pressed trembling fingers against her chest.
"Please..."
"I beg all of you..."
"Just look at him for who he truly is."
"Don’t judge him through my lies."
"Don’t judge him because of what I said."
Her voice finally cracked.
"He deserves love too..."
"...Please."
And then she cried just quietly.
Like someone who had finally reached the point where holding everything inside had become impossible.
Below the platform
The crowd remained silent.
But their faces had begun changing.
Some were in complete denial.
Some simply shook their heads slowly.
"No..."
"No, something is wrong..."
They rejected everything entirely.
Because love sometimes refused truth.
Sometimes people held onto what they wanted to believe even when reality stood directly before them.
Others looked betrayed.
Not because they hated Selena.
But because something inside them had broken.
A middle-aged man looked down at his hands.
"You were the one person I thought was pure..." he whispered quietly.
——-