“You saw it, right? This is the truth I’ve been hiding, Xion Edvein.”

“……”

Xion didn’t say anything. He simply looked at her in silence.

Eunice clenched her jaw.

“You still don’t get it? I—”

Her voice trembled slightly, but she pushed through.

“I approached you from the start just to use you!”

It felt like stabbing herself right in the heart.

She couldn’t breathe. Her chest ached like it was being torn apart.

But she couldn’t stop now.

“Being close to you—a royal—was the fastest way to get near the Artificial God Project. That’s all there was to it.”

It was true.

The beginning of their relationship was nothing but calculation.

Choosing him, getting closer—it had all gone according to plan.

But—

She hadn’t expected warmth to creep into emotions that were supposed to remain cold.

That a relationship built entirely on strategy could be colored by something real.

Xion had always quietly offered his presence.

And in that quiet, like a drizzle soaking the earth, her feelings for him had begun to seep in—so slowly she hadn’t even noticed.

Until one day, she realized she was drenched.

That’s when it started—

The guilt. The unbearable weight of deceiving him.

Her fingers trembled ever so slightly, but Eunice tightly clenched her fists.

She prayed Xion wouldn’t notice that small shake.

Yes. This is how it should be.

Even if this ends everything between them, even if he never looks at her kindly again—

She didn’t want to lie to him anymore.

And then, Xion finally broke the long silence.

“…Eunice. Did you really think I didn’t know?”

Her heart sank.

…He knew? From the beginning?

That she had approached him with an agenda? Since when—?

“Did you think I let myself be fooled, all this time, without realizing anything?”

His voice, once calm and steady, now carried a faint tremble.

For a moment, Eunice thought—maybe—he was shaking too.

And it wasn’t just her imagination.

His gaze was trembling.

So full of emotion that it couldn’t be put into words.

He paused for a long moment,

as if showing just how long he’d held back these words alone.

Then, quietly, he said:

“…At first, I knew.

I knew you had a goal. I knew I was just a tool to get there.”

Each word pierced her like a thorn.

“But even so… it felt strange.

If all of it was fake, then why—why did it all feel so real?”

He looked straight into Eunice’s eyes.

“When you smiled, when we walked together,

when you stared out the window and talked to yourself—

All of it felt genuine to me.”

His voice was soft and low, but the emotion within was anything but light.

“…So now I have to ask.

Eunice, was there even one moment—just one—

when you were truly sincere?”

He added, almost like a final whisper:

“Because for me, there wasn’t a single moment I wasn’t.”

Eunice’s eyes trembled.

His words were so simple—so painfully sincere.

Without saying a word, tears slowly spilled down her cheeks.

Biting her lip, she lowered her head and instinctively clutched at her chest.

What had started as a mission, a calculation, a manipulation—

was now something else.

There was love.

A feeling she hadn’t even admitted to herself.

As those moments flashed through her mind,

her chest ached with a bittersweet sting.

And then—Xion silently pulled her into his arms.

Her shoulders trembled as she stood frozen, unable even to sob aloud.

He held her gently, yet firmly.

Burying her face into his chest, Eunice whispered with a shaking voice:

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Xion… I never meant for it to turn out like this… I lied to you… and I just… I’m really, really sorry…”

Xion softly patted her back and replied:

“You don’t need to apologize.

I knew everything, and I still chose to love you.

That was my decision—and I don’t regret a second of it.”

At those words, Eunice finally broke into quiet sobs,

her tears soaking the warmth of the only embrace she never deserved—

but needed the most.