Chapter 79: He Is Lying, Isn’t He?
With ragged breaths and a heartbeat so rapid it could almost be heard, Amelia’s body froze. At that critical moment, she waited in sheer anxiety for the jade pendant to ignite with its light and repel this sudden danger... but nothing happened!
The pendant did not activate!
A wave of pure panic struck her small mind: ’Why?! Have I fallen into a well-laid trap? Or did some stupid error cause its protection to suddenly fail?’ A suffocating fear seized her, leaving her on the verge of screaming at the top of her lungs for any assistance, entirely unable to think of any movement to free herself from his grip on her wrist.
Yet, amidst this overwhelming chaos of terror, a trembling, weak, and desperate voice pierced her ears:
"I... I am sorry..."
Amelia’s tongue went numb. The words were a far cry from the horrifying scenarios her mind had spun; she had expected sadistic mockery, or a treacherous cry along the lines of "It is time for you to die, Empress!" or "Finally, you have fallen into my grasp!" She had anticipated words fitting of a despicable traitor who had come to finish his dirty work and confirm her fears.
But he said "sorry." What did this word even mean now? And what was he even sorry for?
Roger continued, his gasps mingling with the dust of the earth as he clung to the last threads of his consciousness: "I am sorry... so very sorry... Everything that happened, I regret it... I tried so hard to play the part of the villain everyone wanted me to be. I tried to be ungrateful for your grace, to be wicked and heartless to prove to myself that I was evil to the core... but I regret it... I am truly sorry because... because I could not save you on that day!"
Those words fell upon Amelia’s heart like freezing water. She tried to construct a wall of harshness, muttering inside her mind: ’These are just cheap, cliché words... Lying costs traitors nothing!’
She convinced herself that he was trying to exploit her emotions and plead with her to extract her greatest secrets, or perhaps to learn how she had returned to life. But what followed from Roger’s words was the most bizarre and shocking of all:
"I was brutally beaten and constantly threatened by them... They coveted your legendary magical techniques and drooled behind your back. I could not stop them or stand in their way because fear paralyzed my very joints... I was the weakest among them! They told me arrogantly that you wouldn’t care about my fate even if I were killed, because in your eyes, I was merely a weak, worthless insect... They said that if I did not cooperate with them after I uncovered their plan to betray and circumvent you, they would kill me first. And after they eliminated you, they would hold me responsible for your blood and spread rumors among the public that I was your accomplice in all your alleged crimes!"
Amelia stood at a terrifying crossroads. Should she believe this carefully woven nonsense designed to justify an unforgivable betrayal? Or should she turn her back and leave him to his fate like any vile conspirator? Was it not absolute folly to fall victim to the tears of a liar?
Yet Roger did not even possess the luxury of feigning strength. His hand held her wrist weakly while his face was pressed to the dirt, completely unable to raise his head to look into her eyes from the sheer weight of shame and exhaustion:
"I swear to you... I tried to tell you! I tried in every way possible to scream that they were coming to betray you... but every single time, I felt as though my mouth had been sealed with an invisible lock and a black magic had choked my throat! I was not acting back then... I swear to you by all of existence that I tried!"
Amelia nearly screamed in his face, labeling him a blatant liar; she remembered with absolute precision that in her past life, she had examined him with her magical eyes and caught no trace of a binding spell or a silence curse on his body. Surely, he was spinning cheap lies now to save his skin!
But Roger continued in a broken voice, as though reading the violent doubts within her mind: "But... I am still wrong and sinful... Even if it was beyond my control and the influence of some magic prevented me, I am still a despicable, cowardly wretch who remained silent in the face of truth. I know that my mere survival to this day is a sin in itself... I know it well, and I swear to you that I know... I do not deserve forgiveness at all."
Something shook deep within Amelia. The expression of cruelty on her childish face receded, giving way to a heavy bewilderment. She took a step back and said in a tone she tried desperately to keep stern and dry:
"You... you are definitely lying! Do you have a single shred of tangible proof for what you are saying? If you do not have proof to establish your innocence... I will leave immediately and let you die!"
Though her inner intuition whispered of his sincerity, his panicked features in the memories of her past life stood as a barrier; she had been told later on that his panic and fear were merely a "flawless act" to deceive her at the last moment and distract her. Above all else... her stolen thesis! If he truly felt guilt, why would he steal her scientific endeavor and attribute it to himself?
Roger’s lips twitched with a desperate, lifeless smile as he whispered: "I have no proof, my Lady... I possess nothing to prove my innocence before you... and I know full well that you hold a double hatred for me because I falsely claimed to have written the exam questions you formulated in the past... but the truth is stranger than that. I did not intend to steal them out of a desire for fame; I received a letter from your current father, Cain, stating that he was searching for a competent magic teacher for his young daughter. I was in dire, critical need of that opportunity to escape the hunt and assassination attempts of my fellow senior disciples! They are planning to sell the entire Empire to external factions, and the country is currently teetering on the edge of absolute bankruptcy!"
He caught his breath with extreme difficulty before continuing, tears washing over his dusty face: "I was not a brilliant teacher, and I did not possess sufficient knowledge to instruct the daughter of a great mage like your father... So, I found no choice before me but to cling to those old drafts of your questions and theories that you used to present to us in the past, gripping them as my last chance of survival. And I could not tell a soul that those sciences belonged to you... because if I dared to speak the truth, or strayed from the script that forces everyone to believe you were merely a tyrant who relied on the efforts and sweat of her disciples to ascend... they would have killed me at that very instant!"
At that last word, Amelia felt a cold shiver run down her spine... ’A script? A tyrant who ascended on the sweat of her disciples?’
The pieces of the puzzle began to piece together in a terrifying and unexpected manner within the mind of the little Empress, while Roger gasped out his final words beneath the faded lamp.