I Have 10,000 SSS Rank Villains In My System Space

Chapter 390: Razeal and Selenas’ Confrontation

And Razeal looked at Selena’s tear-streaked face for several long seconds before a visible sigh left him, slow and heavy, as if it had been sitting in his chest for months. He shook his head faintly, not in denial but in something closer to weary disbelief. He didn’t respond to her trembling “hey.” Or her “Okey” He didn’t mirror her smile. He simply watched her. And despite himself, something twisted inside him at the sight of what she had become. Her eyes once bright, steady, innocent, Pure almost stubborn in their warmth were now hollowed by guilt and sleepless nights. There was trauma there. Self-blame. A kind of sorrow that didn’t look temporary as if It looked lived in. And that unsettled him more than anger ever had. He had told himself he never wanted to see her face again. He had repeated that conviction so often it had felt absolute. But now she stood in front of him, visibly broken, and instead of satisfaction, he felt something dangerously close to pity. Which irritated him even more.

Selena saw the sigh. Saw the faint shake of his head. Her heart clenched at the subtle gesture. She opened her mouth. “I..” The word died in her throat. There were too many places to begin. With apology? With explanation? With confession? With regret? Every starting point felt insufficient.

Razeal shifted his weight and slid his hands into his pockets, forcing a posture of indifference even though he didn’t fully feel it. He took a few slow steps toward her, measured and controlled, until he stopped at a deliberate distance.. close enough to speak without raising his voice, far enough to maintain a boundary. His eyes stayed on her face. “You know one thing, Selena?” he suddenly said quietly, and the tone lacked its earlier bite. It was almost tired. “I’m such a fucking idiot that I’m still feeling this bad looking at what you’ve turned yourself into.” His jaw tightened slightly. “Even after what you did to me.”

The admission surprised even him. He hadn’t intended to say that. He hadn’t intended to admit weakness, especially not to her. But the words came anyway, dragged out by the uncomfortable truth that no matter how much he wanted to erase her from his mind, he couldn’t erase the years before everything collapsed. They had grown up together. He had seen her laugh, argue, defend him, compete with him. He had never imagined her looking this defeated. And seeing it now felt wrong in a way he couldn’t categorize.

Selena’s lips trembled harder. “I… I know,” she whispered, her smile stretching painfully as if she were trying to hold herself together with it. Tears slid freely down her cheeks. “But you aren’t stupid.. You’re… you’re just innocent… And.. And beautiful. You’ve always been. Since we were kids.” Her voice cracked, and she let out a broken breath. “I know that.”

Celestia, who had not interrupted despite everything still unresolved between her and Razeal, slowly turned her head to watch the exchange. She stood quietly, absorbing every word. She knew this conversation mattered in a way her own argument did not. She wanted to speak. Wanted to reclaim his attention. But she didn’t. Instead, she turned slightly away and discreetly wiped at the corner of her eye when moisture threatened to spill. No tear fell but still.. She would never allow that. But the sting remained.

Razeal’s gaze hardened again, though not as sharply as before. “So what do you want now?” he asked genuinely and this time there was a thread of sarcasm woven into the question. “Looking for me? Wasn’t what you did already enough?”

Selena shook her head repeatedly, tears still falling, the motion small and helpless. For several seconds she couldn’t answer. It was true.. she had done it. She had stood there and accused him. She had watched everything unravel. There was no denying it. But she inhaled deeply, forcing air into lungs that felt too tight to function, and finally lifted her eyes to meet his directly.

“I’m here to tell you the truth,” she said, her voice steadier than her shaking hands suggested. “The real reason I did that.”

Razeal made a face of visible irritation. “I already told you,” he began, rolling his eyes faintly, “I don’t care what the fuck it was..”

“I did it because I wanted to marry you.”

The words came out in one breath, rushed and desperate, as though if she paused even slightly she would lose the courage to say them. Her eyes squeezed shut immediately afterward, as if bracing for impact. Tears escaped beneath her lashes.

Silence.

Complete… Utter… Silence

Razeal blinked.

Once.

Twice.

His expression emptied entirely, sarcasm erased, irritation suspended mid-thought. “Huh?” The word slipped out before he could stop it. “What?”

Confusion replaced everything on his face. Genuine, unfiltered bewilderment. He stared at her as though she had just spoken a foreign language.

Selena forced herself to open her eyes again. They were red, swollen, but unwavering now. “I thought… I thought if you were seen as wrong person,” she said haltingly, “if the empire believed.. No if the empress beleived you were unstable and not worthy… then she would definitely push you away from Celestia and break of that engagement which were to be impossible to break if not. That you would finally be free..”

“I thought… I thought when that happens.. I could make that arrangement of yours with myself.” Her breath shook. “I thought if I destroyed your reputation… And mine be dirty same with you.. Then at last when everything be done.. I could step in and say i want to be with you.. and to stay beside you and…”

Razeal’s brow furrowed deeper with each word.

“I was selfish,” she continued, voice breaking. “I was terrified of losing you. I thought… if I did that… then you would have no choice but to choose me.” Her lips trembled violently. “I wanted to force fate.”

The absurdity of it hung in the air.

Razeal just stared.

For the first time since this confrontation began, his composure fractured. The cold detachment, the sarcasm, the hardened edges all of it gave way to raw bewilderment. His brows drew together sharply, crimson eyes widening just a fraction as he processed what she had just said. Forced to marry her? That had been her reasoning?

The sheer absurdity of it clashed violently with everything he…

Even Sofia, who had been standing a short distance away with Maria unconscious in her arms almost slipped as the words settled in the air. She actually staggered half a step back, tightening her grip instinctively so Maria wouldn’t slip. For a second she forgot about Maria’s condition entirely. “Whaaa…?” she muttered under her breath, then coughed sharply as if something had gone down the wrong way. Her blue eyes widened, darting between Selena and Razeal. She had expected many things but definitely not that absurd, reckless, childish confession. The sheer stupidity of it hit her like a physical blow.

Razeal looked at Selena again, slower this time, as if hoping he had misheard her. His crimson eyes locked onto hers, searching for hesitation, for some crack in her resolve that would reveal this as panic-driven nonsense. But she opened her eyes and held his gaze despite the tears pouring down her face.

“I… I love you,” she said, voice trembling but clear enough to cut through the silence. “I always loved you. That’s why I did it. I… I.. I’m sorry i just…” Asnd a the last word left her mouth, tears spilled freely down her cheeks, no longer restrained.

Razeal just stood frozen. The shock was not subtle it was total. His expression emptied completely, as though his mind had short-circuited. For several seconds, he did not react at all. He simply stared at her, trying to reconcile what she had said with everything he had lived through.

Slowly, mechanically, he turned his head toward Celestia as if seeking confirmation that he had not misunderstood. Celestia met his gaze and, after a moment’s hesitation, gave a slow, silent nod. Her face carried its own complicated mixture of sorrow and resignation.

Razeal looked back at Selena. This time, reality began to settle in. And when it did, it did not settle gently.

It detonated.

What the fuck?

The thought exploded inside his head so violently that it felt almost physical. His jaw tightened, then loosened, then tightened again. His breathing shifted, no longer steady. All the elaborate explanations he had constructed over the Years.. the conspiracies, the betrayals, the political manipulations, the spiritual influences? collapsed in an instant. He had imagined grand schemes. He had imagined hatred. He had imagined divine interference, revenge, power plays. He had even suspected her father forced her to do this after learning about what had happened to her mother. He had assumed something massive and complex had been behind the destruction of his life.

And now.. this? Fucking this?

This stupid, absurd, simple reason?

Because she loved him?

Because she wanted to marry him?

The sheer absurdity of it felt like an insult layered on top of every wound he had endured.

He moved before he consciously decided to. The distance between them vanished in two sharp steps. Selena did not even moves just stayed there.. To accept whatever he would wants to do.. He Suddenly grabbed the collar of her dress with both hands, gripping tightly not enough to choke her, but enough to express the storm raging inside him. His emotions were no longer neatly contained.

“What the fuck?” he demanded, his voice rising, cracking with disbelief and fury. “Is this is fucking bullshit? Are you fucking joking with me?” His grip trembled slightly not from weakness, but from the overwhelming surge of anger and confusion. “What the fuck is this?”

He released her abruptly, shoving his hands outward as if trying to physically push away the reality she had just given him. His chest rose and fell faster now.

Of course his head would go insane at that revelation. Who wouldn’t? To discover that the chain of suffering, exile, humiliation, and trauma he had endured stemmed from something so painfully irrational so childish in its simplicity was maddening. It wasn’t just anger. It was betrayal compounded with absurdity. It made everything feel meaningless.

Selena stood there, tears streaming freely now, hands trembling at her sides. “I… I’m sorry,” she whispered again, her voice barely audible. Looking at him like this.. seeing the damage in real time only made her cry harder.

But Razeal barely registered the apology.

“What the fuck!” he shouted again, turning abruptly and gesturing toward Celestia with a sharp, frustrated motion. “She went with a lie because she didn’t want to marry me and you did that because you fucking wanted to marry me?” He spun back toward Selena, incredulous. “What is this? A fucking joke?”

His voice carried not just anger, but genuine disbelief. The symmetry of it was grotesque in its irony.

“You accused me of a fucking rape,” he said, his voice dropping lower but becoming far more dangerous. “Just because you wanted to fucking marry me?” The words tasted bitter even as he said them. He wasn’t stupid; the moment she confessed, he understood her intent behind the accusation. She had created a situation where marriage would be the only solution.

That realization made him feel even more unhinged.

For so long, he had viewed her as the pure enemy in that moment. Cold. Calculating. Willing to destroy him for reasons he had assumed were cruel or strategic or whatever. And now he was being told that the motive had been twisted affection.

And somehow, that did not make it better.

It made it fucking worse.

Because it reduced his suffering to something that felt trivial and absurd.

Razeal ran a hand roughly through his hair, pacing half a step away before turning back again, still unable to accept it. “You fucked up my life because of that?” he demanded hoarsely.

Selena reached out instinctively, her hand lifting slowly toward him. Not to defend herself. Not to justify. Just to calm him she couldn’t see him like that.. “Razeal…” she whispered.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” he snapped instantly, jerking his arm back before she could make contact. The rejection was sharp and immediate.

Of course this was a natural reaction. Who could stay composed when discovering that the devastation of their life had stemmed from what felt like a tragic, almost laughable impulse? It wasn’t simply anger at her. It was anger at the senselessness of it all.

Celestia watched from behind, silent. She understood his reaction. Anyone would lose control hearing that. But even so, a sad frown formed on her face as she observed him unravel like this. There was pain in seeing him so shaken, even if she knew he had every right to be furious.

The air felt fractured.

Selena slowly lowered the hand she had reached toward him, drawing it back inch by inch as if even that small rejection physically hurt. Her fingers trembled before curling into the fabric of her dress, clutching it tightly near her waist as though anchoring herself to something solid. She was breaking down now.. not dramatically, not theatrically but in a way that looked frighteningly real. Just seeing him like this, eyes burning, voice shaking with anger and disbelief, made her feel as though she were watching someone standing inside a violent storm with no shelter. He looked ravaged not by her words alone, but by everything that had followed them.

She opened her mouth once. Nothing came out. She swallowed and tried again. The second attempt caught in her throat. Her breathing was uneven, chest rising too quickly, fingers digging harder into the cloth of her dress to keep herself upright.

“I thought I knew,” she finally whispered, her voice hoarse from crying. It came out fragile, stripped of all pride. “I thought I knew what you wanted because… because I thought you were like me.” Her eyes lifted to meet his, searching desperately for some trace of the boy she once knew. “You always stayed. You never left my side when I was scared. When I was fragile innocent.. Dumb.. Needed.. understood me even when I didn’t want to show it.” Her lips trembled. “You.. you looked at me like I was… like I was your whole world.” Her voice softened further, almost breaking. “And.. You became my whole world.. I just couldn’t imagine myself living without you..” She swallowed painfully. “I thought if I forced everything into one direction, you would just… accept it. Accept me.”

Razeal let out a slow breath through his nose. It wasn’t explosive anymore. It wasn’t shouted. It was colder than that. “Accept you?” he repeated quietly. “To fuck my everything up?”

The cruelty wasn’t loud. It was precise. Each word cut cleanly.

Selena shook her head violently, tears flying from her lashes. “No. No, I never thought it would go that far. I thought… I thought your family would scold you. Maybe suspect you for a while. I thought I would step in and say I forgave you. That I would marry you to ’protect my honor.’ Since it would be between both of us…” Her voice fractured. “And then it would be over.. I.. I didn’t think…” Her chest hitched violently. “I didn’t think they would exile you. I didn’t think they would brand you like that. Punish you like that. Treat you like.. like filth. I didn’t think you would disappear. I didn’t think…” Her words dissolved into uneven sobbing.

“You didn’t think?” he said flatly.

Not shouting. Not accusing with fire.

Just stating it.

Each repetition of that phrase felt heavier, more exhausted than angry.

Razeal ran a hand slowly down his face, fingers dragging across his jaw, over his mouth, as if trying to ground himself. His posture shifted slightly, the tension in his shoulders visible but controlled. When he spoke again, his voice had lost most of its sharpness. It was lower. Weighted.

“Do you know what it’s like,” he said, not looking directly at her at first, eyes drifting somewhere past her shoulder as though replaying something distant, “to walk through your own family halls and feel every gaze change?” His jaw tightened faintly. “Your own family not believing you? To see disgust where there used to be trust and love?To hear whispers that you’re dangerous? Filthym” His voice lowered further. “Disgusting?” His throat worked as he swallowed back something bitter. “Do you know what it’s like to start wondering if maybe they’re right?”

Selena’s body stiffened entirely. Her tears did not stop, but she forced herself to listen. “I…” she began weakly. “I..”

“I started doubting my own fucking memory,” he continued, cutting across her incomplete words. His tone wasn’t loud.. it was hollow. “I kept replaying that day over and over in my head. Wondering if I missed something. If I misunderstood.. If I deserved it.” His crimson eyes finally snapped back to hers, sharp and painfully clear. “You made me question my own fucking sanity. Just because I fucking believed you that much. How could it be, right? If you said it, it had to be true.”

The implication lingered unspoken—but it was there.

And that was what broke her composure entirely. She pressed her lips together to stop the sob that clawed its way up, but it escaped anyway, shaking her shoulders. She had wanted him desperately once; now she could barely stand under the weight of what she had done to him.

Behind them, Celestia stood silently. She had moved no closer. Her hands hung at her sides, but her nails dug lightly into her palms. For once, she did not interfere. did not defend herself, did not speak.. This was not her place to speak. This was no longer about pride or rivalry. This was about damage.

“I was selfish,” Selena admitted, forcing the words out despite how they scraped against her throat. “I was jealous of her.” Her gaze flickered briefly toward Celestia before returning to Razeal. There was no hatred in that glance now.. only acknowledgment. “I was terrified you would choose someone like her.” Her voice wavered. “She didn’t deserve you… She didn’t even love you as much as I do.” The confession sounded almost desperate, almost childish in its rawness. “I thought if I acted first, I could secure you before you drifted away.” Her breathing became uneven again. “I thought I.. i..”

“Stop this fucking explanation,” Razeal snapped, his voice no longer controlled, no longer measured, but tearing out of him like something that had been locked behind his ribs for far too long. “You’re still not fucking getting it.” The restraint he had been barely holding onto cracked in that instant, and the anger that surged out of him was not wild or theatrical.. it was raw, shaking, visceral, the kind that comes from wounds that never closed properly. “Do you know what happened that day?” he demanded, his hand slashing through the air as if cutting the memory open. “My own fucking family didn’t believe me. My best fucking friend.. the one I grew up with from childhood accused me. My fiancée judged me guilty in front of everyone. Declared it. Like it was fact.” His jaw trembled, not from weakness, but from the effort of containing something that wanted to rip free. “They dragged me into court and stamped ’rapist’ on my name in front of the entire empire. I was kicked out of my own house. My own name. My own mother called me disgusting. Looked at me like I wasn’t even her son anymore.”

“Then they fucking took me to the public venue,” he continued, voice growing rougher, lower, but somehow more violent in its steadiness. “Made me stand there while thousands of eyes judged me. Whispered?Spat? Called me filth?” His lips curled slightly, not in a smile, but in something bitter. “And then I was given a hundred of lashes. In front of everyone. By my own sister.” His voice cracked at that point, just for a fraction of a second, and that fracture was more devastating than all the shouting. “The one person who should’ve protected me. Who should’ve believed me. And she swung the whip.” His crimson eyes burned as they locked onto Selena. “And then my fiancée broke the engagement publicly. In front of the empire. And after all that? They forced me to kneel. To touch your feet. And apologize.. For something I didn’t even fucking do.”

His chest rose and fell sharply. “Do you know how that feels?” he asked, but it wasn’t a question seeking an answer it was a blade pressing into her conscience. “To know no one trusts you? To feel like you’re unnecessary? Not need? Replaceable? Like the entire world turned its back on you in one day? To feel powerless? To feel like you’re nothing? Like you are just disgusting?” His voice dropped to a whisper that felt more dangerous than the shout. “Do you know that? Tell me”

Selena could barely breathe. She shook her head instinctively, tears pouring without restraint now. She remembered that night. She remembered his face. The hollow look in his eyes when the first lash struck. The way he didn’t scream. The way he didn’t beg. The way something inside him seemed to dim with each crack of the whip. She had seen it. She had known. But standing here now, hearing it from him raw, unshielded.. was different. It was unbearable.

Behind him, Celestia jist lowered her gaze to the ground. She remembered too. Every second. Every decision. The judgment she had delivered publicly.. The way he had looked at her in that moment.. not with hatred, but with something.. Disbelief. And that image.. she had carried that image privately ever since.. Never able to forget it..

“Do you even know how many times I wished I had actually died that day?” Razeal suddenly added, voice sharp again, pointing directly at Selena as if accusing not just her but fate itself.

And just as he said that..

The air seemed to have froze.

Selena’s head snapped up, eyes wide with pure visible horror.

Selena’s eyes widened in horror. “No…no no..” she breathed, barely audible.

Even Celestia, who had kept her head bowed in sorrow, suddenly heard his words. Her head lifted at once as she looked at Razeal’s back. He wanted to kill himself? Because of me? Her eyes filled with horror, and a tear slipped from her platinum gaze.. the very tear she had once sworn would never fall as she stared at him from behind..

No.. he didn’t..

“You know what?” he continued, words tumbling faster now, control slipping further. “I fucking tried to kill myself. Thirteen fucking times. Thirteen.” His voice echoed in the empty space, no longer controlled, no longer guarded. “Like what did I have left? You took everything? Family? Reputation? My world?My name? My future? Everything.. What was I supposed to hold onto?”

The number seemed to hang in the air like a blade.

“Thirteen?” Selena’s breath hitched violently, chest rising too fast as if the air itself had become too thin. “No..no… no..” She staggered back half a step, eyes wide, face pale. Tried to kill himself? Because of her? Thirteen times?

Behind him, Celestia felt the world tilt. Her vision blurred. He tried to kill himself? Because of me? Because of what we did? The thought struck so hard it felt physical. Her lips parted soundlessly. A tears slipping.. down her cheek.. unnoticed at first, breaking the silent vow she had always kept. She didn’t even realize it had fallen. Her platinum eyes trembled as she stared at his back.

“No… no… it can’t be…” she whispered to herself, shaking her head as though rejecting reality could undo it. But the tremor in his voice had not been fabricated. The pain had not been exaggerated.

She took a step forward. Then another. Slowly. Carefully. As if approaching something fragile and shattered. Her hand lifted slightly, trembling, wanting to reach for him but unsure whether she had the right.

Selena, meanwhile, stood frozen in horror. “You… you didn’t…” she whispered brokenly, shaking her head repeatedly, tears blurring her vision. “You didn’t… please tell me you didn’t…”

But Razeal didn’t soften. He didn’t retract it. His face had changed now.. less explosive rage, more something dark and exhausted. “Every time,” he said more quietly, “I kept thinking maybe it would be easier. Maybe it would stop hurting.” He let out a hollow laugh devoid of humor. “But even that didn’t work. Even dying didn’t want me.”

The weight of that sentence crushed the air around them.

Selena pressed her hand over her mouth, sobbing openly now, unable to contain the sound. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know…” she kept repeating helplessly, as though ignorance could erase consequence.

Celestia had closed the distance enough now that she stood only a few steps behind him. Her hand hovered near his shoulder but didn’t touch. She was crying openly now, silent tears slipping down her face. She had promised herself she would never cry in front of anyone. That promise shattered the moment she realized the magnitude of what he had endured.

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