Chapter 198: Truth [1]

"I don’t care about any of that. I just want to know the truth. Please, don’t hide it from me anymore..."

Her eyes dropped and her hands tightened at her sides.

"I’ve already lost Leon..." Her voice grew quieter. "And I think you understand how much he meant to me. You know what happened between us, don’t you? You know how dearly I..."

She stopped, unable to finish. After a moment she looked up at him again.

"Please..." Her eyes begged him. "Just tell me the truth."

Alden stayed silent for a while. He studied her face, looking for even the smallest sign that she might change her mind. But all he saw was the grief she had been carrying and her determination to finally understand the past that had haunted her for so long.

At last he sighed.

"...Fine, Lady Aurelia."

Her eyes widened a little.

"But you should prepare yourself. You might not like what you’re about to hear."

She nodded. Alden took a breath.

"It all started when Leon left the Calyndor Palace."

He paused.

"To begin with, leaving the palace wasn’t entirely Leon’s decision. Arvendis was the one who set everything in motion."

"...What?" Aurelia stared at him. For a moment she couldn’t understand what he had said. "Arvendis did...?"

"Yes." Alden’s face grew serious.

He then laid out everything what the Advisor had confessed: the political marriage, the harsh reality that Leon was a distraction, and the bitter truth that if Leon truly cared for her, he had to cut all ties and disappear forever.

Aurelia watched him in stunned silence, her face contorting with disbelief as the reality of his words hit her.

His voice turned colder.

"The advisor told Leon that he should forget you completely, never speak to you again, and never even look at you. He was told that leaving you was the only way to prove he really cared about you. That it was for your own good."

Alden let out a bitter breath.

"And Leon believed him."

The words hung in the air between them. Aurelia didn’t move. She stared at Alden like the ground had vanished under her feet.

"He... believed that?" Her voice was barely there.

Alden nodded.

"Instead of asking why he had to abandon someone he cared about, Leon accepted that leaving would make things better for you. After that, he left Calyndor and eventually came to the Astern Kingdom."

Aurelia’s eyes trembled as that exact moment flashed before her.

"Is this about what we’ve talked near the fountain?" She had rushed forward, grabbing his sleeve as tears already spilled down her cheeks. "I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have gotten frustrated! Please! I take it all back!"

Leon had reached over, gently taking her wrist to lift her fingers off his cloth.

"Please. Move aside." His voice had been terrifyingly flat.

"You’re really leaving?!"

"Yes."

"Then look at me! Look at me and tell me why!"

He hadn’t. He kept his face turned away, staring straight ahead as if looking at her would cost him everything.

"Leon." Her voice had cracked into something desperate and ragged, her hands scrambling to find his. "Please don’t go."

When he started moving toward the door, her arms had wrapped around his waist from behind, clinging with every ounce of strength she possessed. Pressing her face against the firm broadness of his back, she trembled violently.

"Please. Don’t leave me."

He had frozen in place then. His entire frame went rigid, his jaw locking tight, but he still refused to turn around.

"I can’t live without you," she had sobbed against his shirt, her words breaking apart with every breath. "I wanted to tell you for so long. I kept trying to find the right moment..." The hot sting of her tears soaked right through his clothes. "I love you, Leon. I’m in love with you. So please... please don’t leave."

For a second, the silence hung heavy between them. She had prayed for his arms to turn around, for his hands to cup her face, for anything.

She had looked up at him through a blur of tears, searching his closed eyes and stoic profile. "Don’t you feel the same way?" Her voice had barely held together. "Don’t you have anything for me?"

Leon had stood there with his eyes shut tight. He took a single breath in, then let it out slow.

Then he opened his mouth.

"I’m sorry."

Her breath hitched in her throat.

"But..." He forced the words out, cold and agonizingly deliberate. "I don’t feel the same way."

The silence that followed was the worst thing she had ever endured.

Her hands went completely slack. Her grip loosened, and the trembling in her arms simply stopped as if something vital inside her chest had surrendered and died.

"You don’t," she had whispered. It wasn’t even a question. It was just the sound of a heart breaking.

Leon said nothing.

Then her legs had given out.

She went down to the cold stone floor, all the strength drained out of her at once. Wrapping her arms around herself, she curled into a ball as the sobs tore through her.

"Leon..." she had wept against her knees, barely able to breathe. "Please..."

He didn’t stop. He stepped right past her.

She watched his back recede down the corridor, his footsteps heavy and unyielding, stepping past her as though she were nothing.

"LEON!"

Alden didn’t soften the truth. He told her what he had learned from Leon’s memories. How Leon had been pushed away from the place he once called home. How he had carried the weight of that choice. How much pain he had gone through while trying to convince himself that leaving Aurelia was the right thing to do. Leon had never complained about it openly. He had never asked for anything back. He had simply carried those feelings with him and tried to build a new life while burying the past.

And now Aurelia was finally hearing the price he had paid.

By the time Alden finished, her face had gone pale. Her knees gave way and she dropped to the floor.

"..."

Alden’s eyes widened and he knelt beside her right away.

"Lady Aurelia?"