Chapter 101: The Truth Of Us
Chapter 101: The Truth Of Us
—DAMIEN—
"...What?"
The word barely escaped my lips.
I heard myself speak, yet it didn’t even sound like my own voice.
Everything around me seemed to fall unnaturally still. The wind that had been drifting across the balcony only moments ago suddenly felt cold enough to seep beneath my skin, and the silver leaves dancing beyond the palace walls blurred into meaningless shapes.
I stared at Aria without blinking, convinced I had simply misunderstood her. There was no other explanation. I had fought my way to cross this kingdom, prepared for war, defied the Empire itself, and risked countless lives to bring one woman home.
Surely... surely I hadn’t heard her correctly.
’...That woman... was never me... It was Celia.’
The words echoed inside my head again and again.
And again.
Every repetition drove another crack through the reality I had believed in.
"...No."
I shook my head before I even realized I was doing it.
"You’re mistaken."
My voice sounded calm and almost detached.
Because if I allowed myself to believe even a single word she had just said...
Everything would fall apart.
Aria lowered her gaze, and for the first time since we met again, I noticed how exhausted she looked. There was grief in her expression, but there was also guilt. An unbearable amount of guilt that no one should have been carrying alone.
"I wish I were."
"No."
This time I answered more firmly.
"The woman I knew..." I swallowed hard, struggling to keep my breathing steady. "The woman who smiled at me... argued with me... The woman whom I scolded whenever she acted like an idiot..."
A thousand memories flashed before my eyes all at once.
Her glaring at me because she climbed through her bedroom window instead of using the door.
Her laughing so hard she nearly fell out of her chair after beating me in another argument.
Her rolling her eyes every time I reminded her to act like a proper noble lady.
The warmth in those eyes whenever she looked at me.
"...was you."
"It wasn’t."
"It was."
"It truly wasn’t."
Something inside me snapped.
A hollow laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it.
"...This isn’t funny."
"I’m not joking."
I clenched my hands into fists. "Then tell me this is another misunderstanding."
I took a step toward her before I even realized my feet had moved.
"Tell me this is some elaborate lie. Tell me you’re confused. Tell me..." My voice broke despite every effort to control it. "...tell me none of this is true."
Aria looked at me with tears quietly gathering in her eyes.
"I cannot."
The silence that followed felt heavier than anything I had ever stood upon.
I couldn’t hear anyone breathing.
Couldn’t hear the wind.
Couldn’t hear my own heartbeat.
All I heard were those two words.
’I cannot.’
Sebastian finally spoke. "When."
His question was sharp and direct.
Aria slowly lifted her gaze toward Sebastian, confusion briefly flickering across her tear-filled eyes.
"...What do you mean, Your Grace?"
Sebastian held her gaze steadily, his expression as composed as ever despite the turmoil hidden beneath it.
"When did this happen?" he repeated. "When did you disappear... and when did Celia take your place?"
For a long moment, Aria remained silent. Her fingers intertwined tightly before her, the slight trembling betraying the emotions she was desperately trying to suppress. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft and carried the refined restraint expected of a noble lady, yet every word was weighed down by lingering regret.
"...It began on the night after our engagement ceremony."
The answer struck all four of us like a silent blow.
Aria lowered her eyes, unable to bear the expressions directed toward her.
"At the time... I had already lost the will to continue living." A faint, sorrowful smile crossed her lips, though it held no trace of happiness. "I was consumed by despair, resentment, and disappointment in myself. I believed there was no future waiting for me." She paused as tears slowly slipped down her cheeks.
"I had long known that my father had another daughter. He had concealed the existence of his beloved’s child while showering her with the affection he never once gave me. He loved another woman far more than he had ever loved my own mother, and I knew it was only a matter of time before he would bring gus other daughter into the estate."
She let out a quiet, bitter laugh.
"At first... I convinced myself that it did not matter. After all, what was one more sister? I believed I could endure it as I had endured everything else." Her gaze slowly lifted to Sebastian, and a wistful smile appeared upon her lips.
"Then I met you, Your Grace."
"You treated me with kindness. It was the first time in my life that I genuinely believed someone cared whether I smiled or cried. I treasured those moments more than I ever admitted." Her voice quivered slightly before she continued. "But one day... I overheard a conversation between you and my father. The two of you were discussing the possibility of ending our planner engagement so that you could marry my half-sister instead."
She lowered her head again, unable to hide the pain that memory still carried.
"In that moment, I felt as though the last precious thing I possessed had been taken from me. I had already lost my mother, my father’s affection, and the warmth of my own home. I could not bear the thought of losing the one person who had ever shown me genuine kindness."
Another tear rolled silently down her cheek.
"So, for the very first time in my life, I became selfish. I demanded something from my father. I begged him to allow our engagement to proceed." A faint, self-deprecating smile touched her lips. "He granted my request... but I failed to realize that forcing such an outcome would only make Your Grace resent me. From that day onward, every desperate attempt I made to hold onto you only drove you farther away."
She took a slow, unsteady breath.
"I felt as though I had already lost before our marriage had even begun. If I remained your fiancée, I feared I would spend the rest of my life becoming another version of my mother... a wife who was tolerated but never truly loved. Yet if I broke the engagement myself, no respectable nobleman would ever consider marrying a woman whose reputation had already been stained by arrogance and scandal."
Her shoulders trembled slightly as she forced herself to continue.
"I believed there was no path left for me. Whichever future awaited me seemed destined to end in misery."
She drew another slow, trembling breath before continuing.
"...Therefore, I made a grievous decision."
Her hands tightened until her knuckles turned pale.
"I consumed several forbidden potions with the intention of ending my own life. My body collapsed that very night, and I believed... that would be the end of everything."
We were all silenced by her confession.
Aria closed her eyes briefly before opening them once more.
"However... when I regained consciousness, I discovered that although I remained within my own body..." She paused, her voice faltering ever so slightly. "...I was no longer the one controlling it."
A frown formed upon my face before I could stop it.
"...Then where were you?"
"I cannot answer that with certainty," she replied quietly. "Even now, I struggle to understand what truly occurred. I only know that I never truly left my body. Somehow... Celia and I became connected."
She hesitated, carefully searching for words capable of explaining something that defied all reason.
"Our thoughts, our memories, and even our emotions occasionally reached one another, though never completely. There were moments when I could feel her confusion as though it were my own, and there were moments when fragments of her thoughts reached me without either of us intending them to."
Her eyes gradually lost focus, as though she were reliving those endless silent days.
"It was not sleep," she continued, shaking her head gently. "Nor was it death. I remained fully conscious throughout everything that transpired. I could hear every conversation held around me. I could see every person who entered my room. I witnessed every decision Celia made, every smile she offered, every hardship she endured, and every tear she tried so desperately to hide."
Her voice softened until it was scarcely above a whisper.
"I simply could not move."
A single tear slipped silently down her cheek.
"I could neither open my eyes nor raise a finger. I could not speak to warn her, nor could I thank her for protecting the life I had already abandoned. I was nothing more than a silent observer imprisoned within my own body, condemned to watch another person carry burdens that had once belonged to me."
She turned toward the chamber where Celia now lay unconscious, and an expression of profound gratitude settled upon her face.
"Despite everything... she never once cursed me for the life she had inherited. She never resented me for the circumstances into which she had been unwillingly thrust. Instead..." Her voice broke despite her efforts to remain composed. "...she devoted every single day to preserving the life I had already surrendered. She restored my dignity, defended my honor, and gave me a future I no longer believed I deserved."
No one spoke.
No one could.
I stood frozen where I was, unable to reconcile the impossible confession before me with everything I had believed to be true.
Sebastian slowly folded his arms across his chest, though the slight tightening of his jaw betrayed the his own guilt. His gaze remained fixed upon Aria for several long moments before he finally spoke again, his voice calm but noticeably heavier than before.
"So..."
He allowed the single word to linger between us.
"Everything that happened after our engagement ceremony..." His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as countless memories seemed to replay behind them. "...every decision, every conversation, every smile... all of it belonged to Celia?"
Aria smiled genuinely this time and answered, "Yes, and all of you have been in love with her all along. That is the truth of us."