Novel Full Chapter 367: Obvious Truth
Chapter 367: Obvious Truth
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{Outside The Projection}
{End Of Volume Seven: The Fall Is Here}
“…”
“…”
“…”
For a long, long moment…
Nobody said anything.
The air was suffocating, as if someone had thrown a blanket over the entire hall, wrapped it around their necks, and squeezed, squeezed, and damn squeezed.
Their eyes were wide as could be, their mouths hung open, jaws stiff, frozen halfway through gasps, screams, and curses that never made it out. Even the old trolls who never missed a chance to put their chips in stood utterly speechless.
“…Huh?”
Then it started, a small whisper.
“Wait… wait… that’s… that’s what a Sultan sees?”
It spread fast, a panicked realization.
“No… no, no, no, that can’t be right…”
“That… that can’t… that’s not… that’s not in any books…”
Men tugged at their own beards, as if yanking at them would help their brains understand; those without any just shook their heads, their hands trembling, faces pale.
The women weren’t doing much better, rubbing their skin, pulling on their clothes, and checking for those lotuses in a panic, even while instinctively knowing that they weren’t there.
“Is that how they kept the Fallen at bay?”
Huda’s lips followed after the crowd’s.
“…Is that how Uncle protected us?”
She couldn’t believe it.
But it was true.
Undeniable.
And it explained everything.
Every action she found weird.
Every time he did something no one understood.
Sultan was a title that held more than just renown. A lot more.
It held a connection to a higher power, perhaps even the True Sultan ’Himself.’
Maybe even IT… a being none of them could dare remember.
After her input, the wave grew louder.
All until Roya, out of all people, sighed.
A sigh so loud it almost slapped the hall.
She didn’t even try to hide the roll of her eyes.
“YES. Yes. Congratulations. You’ve all finally caught up to reality.”
Her eyes scanned their faces while she spoke, unable to hide her repulsion.
“It only took all eight days of the projection for your tiny brains to put two and two together.”
Many grumbled while looking at her still kneeling figure, side-eyeing her, but most had shame creep over their faces, forcing their heads down.
The shame was not enough to stop a most important question from coming up, however.
“So… so that Title… Sultan…”
The scarred woman was the first, her hands clutched tightly.
“…It’s really not just… not just a Title, is it?”
Roya stared for a few moments, letting the weight of silence suffocate the woman for a few painful seconds before answering:
“Obviously… it’s a contract. A noose wrapped around the throat of the one who sits on the Golden Throne… A noose tied to something… someone. Someone so high above your comprehension it should terrify you.”
Many shuffled back, their palms and backs beginning to sweat.
…They, of course, knew who this “someone” was.
The entire world knew.
And they didn’t want anything to do with ’Him.’
Never again would they like to hear ’His’ voice.
A thought that, surprisingly, wasn’t shared by all.
Roya’s words confirmed Huda’s thoughts.
It was… it really was “The True Sultan…”
She now understood why every Sultan in their family was… unusual.
Yes, everyone who reached the Mithqal Divine Rank had a quirk or ten, but the Sultans were worse.
Her uncle was a prime example of that, and her older brother was even worse.
“’He’ made everything worse.”
Standing not so far behind her, the silver-bearded man unconsciously followed up with a nod, his voice barely above a breath:
“The one whose throne is… Hell.”
Roya’s gaze turned to him.
“Oh, look. Somebody’s been paying attention. I may not need to explain everything after all…”
At her second sarcastic remark, murmurs snapped through the crowd.
Her earlier bite could’ve been chalked up to arrogance, but not this, not like this…
Noor joined them in their surprise, as did the rest, looking at Roya with the same wide eyes.
Setting aside Sinbad and the Lady, only Azeem seemed cold, and he stared her down.
Yes, he stared down, for he was on his feet, muscles bulging.
“You… You knew about this? All this time?”
Roya blinked at him, deadpan.
“Yes.”
He threw his arms wide.
“THEN WHY DID YOU LEAD THE COALITION?!”
They trembled.
“IF YOU KNEW… IF YOU KNEW THAT THE SULTAN WAS KILLING THE CORRUPTED, THEN WHY?! WHY DID YOU STILL GO AGAINST HIM?! WHY DID YOU RALLY THEM ALL AGAINST MY LORD?! WHY DIDN’T YOU—”
“BECAUSE I DIDN’T CARE.”
She snapped back while standing up, preparing herself to meet an attack.
“What? Did you really think I didn’t know about the Fall?”
Her eyes turned to Huda, Layla, Safira, Noor…
“Did you really think I didn’t know that he was saving us all? That with every village he took off the face of the world, a river of Fallen was gone? That if not for him, Fam Iblis as we knew it would’ve never been? I might be useless compared to him, but even I know things…”
Until finally, her eyes landed on Zafar.
“But nooo, no no. You were too busy destroying his statues! Crying about those he killed! Even taxes! Ha! Just anything! Always moaning about the Sultan like he’s the most evil being ever recorded in history!”
They returned to Huda.
“You hypocrite! Not once…”
Her cold voice was seething.
“Not once did you stop and ask yourself…”
Huda trembled beneath her piercing gaze, more tears leaving her eyes.
“Maybe he isn’t corrupt… Maybe everything he did was for a reason…”
Roya shook her head, venom in every word.
“But no… no. Your every ’why’ shared one thing.”
Venom that knew exactly where to hit.
“His madness.”
With that, the weight of the world fully crashed into them.
And Huda…
Huda had it the worst.
Her tears dried up.
She… she didn’t speak.
Instead, she, still on the ground, scratched even harder at herself.
Her fingers dug in, no longer trying to dig out her guilt; it was buried too deep, but something else.
An answer, perhaps… some excuse to relieve the storm she felt.
She left red streaks behind, patches of skin, and bleeding—
“Huda, stop!”
Those words fell on deaf ears.
She didn’t listen; she didn’t even notice what she was doing to herself.
Layla, the one who called her, the one who was held back by her camp, who was told to allow her to grieve, grew a bitter smile, one that bloomed like a poisoned flower.
Her eyes shimmered with something far deeper than sadness.
It was pain, and…
Relief.
The kind that only came from finally knowing.
Finally knowing, confirming that her husband—her strange, cold, distant husband—was never the monster the world believed he was.
He had never once lied to them.
She just never believed.
Not once.
Only now… only when it was way too late.
Her face wore a smile, but her heart was cracked.
Safira, who was the only one right next to Huda, patting her even as she tried to peel off her skin, slowly took her eyes away from Roya, whom she had been staring at all this time, and then turned them to Noor for a quick glance.
She was still frozen, her mouth hidden under her veil, but her eyes were wide in disbelief.
It seemed that, though they’ve had an alliance, it was only skin deep.
More than two hundred years, yet Roya never shared this information.
And as smart as Noor was, never did she reach this conclusion.
Either due to a lack of information, or well, simply not wanting to.
Her mind may be predisposing her to see him as the villain, deluding her into not seeing the truth.
Her fellow student, Zafar, didn’t seem all that shocked by the news.
Much like Layla, Safira, and the hypocritical Huda, he believed that Malik was misunderstood, that he had never done what they’d written, and that the Sultan was always the hero he wanted to be.
Zafar was sure of that; otherwise, he never would’ve come to the hall and kneeled.
Now, he stood behind Azeem, one hand gripping his shoulder tightly.
A silent plea: Don’t move… not yet. Let’s wait.
And Azeem listened… barely.
His breath shook with fury, but he didn’t move.
Even now, he didn’t want to go against Sinbad, his brother.
It was hard, so very hard not to let go and just kill.
Kill everything around him; make them feel his pain.
Guilt wasn’t what he felt; he wasn’t Huda and the others; he simply followed his Lord’s orders, even if they had ended with his death.
He felt ashamed.
Malik was his Lord.
The man he kneeled to.
The man he loved and submitted to.
After Sinbad, Azeem thought himself the closest to him…
Only now to find out that the secret he once doubted was all but confirmed by one of their enemies.
Yes, Roya, whom he most despised, was sure of Malik’s actions, and yet Azeem, one of his own, held doubts at the end.
Doubts that Malik exploited, making him walk on his own wife’s death, imploding those feelings into a want for revenge.
He both failed and succeeded in his want, but…
It didn’t matter anymore. No, it didn’t matter at all.
Those in the hall didn’t know what shame meant.
It made him tremble.
Made him angrier at himself than Roya.
Zafar was much the same, though of course, for a different reason, one known all too well.
Sinbad seemed calm right now; perhaps he already knew what Roya did, perhaps his people themselves supplied her with information. Either way, that meant that since he didn’t allow them to fight her earlier, when he was undoubtedly mad, he definitely wouldn’t allow it now.
This grabbing of the shoulder…
Zafar didn’t know.
He didn’t know if he was stopping Azeem or himself.
It made no difference anyway, for he didn’t have time to find out.
“Hehe…”
“…HEH.”
“HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!”
Huda started laughing.
“P-PLEASE!”
Screaming…
“BROTHER, PLEASE.”
Maybe both.
“PLEASE DON’T HATE ME!”
Her body trembled violently, and with a loud cry—
“MAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLIIIIIIIKKKKKK!”
Everything around her exploded.