Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 721: Lie [2]

I had the perfect opportunity to lie my way out of the situation.

It was clear to both of us that the voting had been rigged. If I just said that it was her brother who had done all of this, then I could make it seem like I had, in fact, voted for her.

There’d also be no way for her to truly check if I was lying or not.

In the end, the situation would resolve itself like that, and everything would return to normal again.

I understood that.

And yet…

“I didn’t vote for you.”

I still went ahead and told her the truth.

Seeing the shift in her face and the rising tension in the room, I didn’t regret my decision.

Her previous words had made me reflect more on myself.

I was a lie.

Everything about me was a lie.

She wasn’t wrong.

I… knew she wasn’t wrong.

It was just that I had only fully grasped this concept myself after she had said it to me.

Why did it take so long for me to get it?

Perhaps it was because I didn’t want to acknowledge it myself.

…Or maybe because I didn’t care enough to think about it.

‘Maybe neither are wrong.’

In the past, I was so hell bent on doing anything and everything to achieve my goal. To see Noel.

To see that he was safe.

But now that I had met him, I… no longer had the same goal.

I didn’t really have a goal.

There were many things that I wanted to do, but no real goal.

However, just because I no longer had a goal, that didn’t mean that I didn’t need to push forward. It didn’t mean that there weren’t things that I wanted.

There were quite a lot of things that I wanted.

And of all those things, what I wanted the most was to stop being a lie.

I nodded quietly.

“Yeah, I lied.”

In a way, saying these words felt liberating.

Perhaps I wasn’t ready to share everything, but for the sake of myself, and to stop future misunderstandings, it was best that I came clean on certain things.

“…I was a different person back then. I didn’t really care about how people viewed me, and I didn’t care about lying. I was like that. You of all people should know how I was back then.”

“…..”

Aoife remained quiet.

I didn’t know what her thoughts were, but I knew that she was thinking about the past.

“You of all people should be aware of the fact that I’m not the same person as I was in the past. I regret lying to you back then, but I was a different person back then. I lied because I didn’t care, and I’m.. now coming clean because I care.”

I looked directly at her.

Our gazes met in that moment.

I could see that she was truly looking at me.

“Let me repeat. I didn’t vote for you. I indeed faked my own death, and I… am indeed not the real Julien. I am a lie.”

I paused, feeling my breath momentarily slip away from my mouth.

When I finally felt the air come back to me, I swallowed quietly before continuing.

“…But just as much as I am a lie. I am also real.”

I extended both of my arms.

“Everything that we’ve gone through. From the times when I’ve made fun of you, to the times when you’ve made fun of me, to the times when the two of us acted together. None of that was fake. That was truly me, and I know you’re aware of that. I… may be a lie, but I’ve also stopped wanting to be one.”

Yeah, these were the right words.

My head bobbed up and down unknowingly.

“You’ve asked for the truth, and I’ve said it. You need someone to vent your anger and resentment; here I a—”

Bang!

“….!?”

Halfway through my words, I felt a fist smack me against the side of my face. It wasn’t powerful, and it didn’t hurt that much, but as I looked at the one who had given me the punch, with her head lowered and red hair covering her face, I remained standing where I was.

“More…?”

“Plenty more.”

She raised her hand again.

My lip twitched.

“On second tho—!”

Bang!

Another fist against my face.

It still didn’t hurt.

“Okay, let’s just…”

Bang!

She smacked me again.

“That one hurt. Please sto—!”

Bang!

Another fist smacked me again.

They really didn’t hurt at all. I knew that she wasn’t giving it her all.

But I still pretended to be hurt.

Because… Even though she was hitting me, I could see that she was smiling with each hit that she was giving me.

I quietly sighed to myself as I stared at her.

I felt a massive pang of guilt when thinking about how I knew who was responsible for her father’s and her brother’s deaths. I wanted to come clean in that regard, but I didn’t know how to.

I thought about telling her about the Inverted Sky and how her father was just a puppet to them.

…And for a moment, I almost told her everything.

But…

Bang!

I couldn’t.

Not because I didn’t trust her or thought that she didn’t deserve the truth.

But because I knew how she was.

This was also the main reason why I had never told her in the past.

It wasn’t because I just didn’t feel like telling her, or because I wanted to be secretive.

Far from it.

I just knew that…

From the moment I told her the truth, she’d try something stupid in her rage. From either trying to confront them directly, to perhaps even trying to join them.

‘I have known her long enough to know.’

Even if I were there to stop her, I couldn’t be with her all the time. I couldn’t be there to babysit her and make sure she didn’t do something stupid.

She was going to do it.

I knew she was.

That’s why I couldn’t tell her the truth.

She wasn’t ready for the truth.

Bang!

Another fist hit me on the face.

This time, I didn’t say anything. She probably noticed it too, as her head slowly raised and our eyes met again. Her eyes were red, probably from the fact that she had just cried.

I looked at her and opened my mouth.

‘Hey, what if I were to say that your father was part of a massive cult and that he was just a puppet that my brother killed? How wou—’

I stopped myself.

I really couldn’t find it within me to tell her the truth.

In the end, the only words that I managed to utter were a measly, “You feeling better?”

“Mhm.”

Aoife nodded, her head lowering as her hand also lowered.

“…Better.”

“Good.”

I pretended to massage my face while looking at her.

“In that case, I’ll take my leave for now. I know that you’ve got a lot to think about. However, please don’t take too much.”

Pausing by the door, I looked at her one more time.

“…I’ve already got a lot of calls from the other candidates about me joining them. If you don’t hurry up soon, they might just manage to hook me. I’m not a very hard man to please.”

I pinched my hand and made a money sign while raising my other hand.

“If you know that I—”

“Go away. Go.”

“Tsk.”

Seeing her shoo me away, I clicked my tongue and opened the door.

“I wasn’t kidding. I’m really easy to woo. With just enough money, I may just end up sleeping with any—”

“Go!”

I clicked my tongue again and left the room.

As I did, I couldn’t help but smile.

Though she tried to hide it, that smile… she couldn’t hide it from me.

It felt good to know that she was doing better.

Really good.

But…

The smile quickly wiped off my face.

‘Did I really make the right decision? Should I have trusted her more?’

***

“Pftt.”

Holding onto her mouth, Aoife tried her best to suppress her giggle.

However, thinking back to what had happened, she couldn’t help but find herself laughing.

It felt as though a massive weight had been lifted off her chest. Indeed, she was aware of the fact that something was wrong with the vote. She had also been aware for it a long time ago that something was off.

But at the same time…

She also felt that the vote held a lot of truth to it.

Her acting wasn’t great.

At least, not compared to the other candidates.

She was only there due to nepotism.

The voices told her that she didn’t deserve a single vote. The voices also told her that she was lucky to be there.

The voices…

‘Liar! Liar! He’s a liar! Don’t believe anything that he says! He’s a liar! He’s lying!’

Aoife’s face flinched as the voice whispered in her mind again.

She clenched her teeth and shook the voice away.

“Stop! Stop…!”

Her head ached.

Feeling the constant whisper in her mind, she struggled to stay standing as she sat on the bed while clutching her head.

‘He’s lying! Why did you let him go? Kill him before it’s too late! Kill him before he lies to you again!’

“No, stop…!”

Aoife gritted her teeth.

“…I’ve always known that he was a liar. This is something that I’ve known for a very long time. I never really cared if he lied or not. I just… wanted to vent. I needed someone to take my anger on… I…”

Aoife clenched her teeth with even more force, the guilt from her actions sinking deep into her chest.

“…I needed to be selfish.”

Thinking about it.. Her actions had been extremely selfish.

Indeed, she had never cared for Julien’s lies. She had known all along that he was a liar. She also knew all along that there was something wrong with the voting system.

It was never the lies that bothered her.

They never did.

What bothered her was the world.

Everything.

It felt as though everything and everyone were against her. It had always felt like this to her.

Be it young or old.

To her… the world just seemed to be against her.

It felt as if every gaze was laced with silent judgment. Like they all saw her as incompetent, naive. A failure dressed in royal silk.

She managed to keep her thoughts hidden in her mind.

But it all came crashing down the moment the two most important people in her life died.

In that moment, she desperately needed an outlet to vent.

Because… if she didn’t, she was afraid she’d turn mad.

And Julien just turned out to be the best outlet.

It was all thanks to him that she felt better.

It was now time for her to stop dwelling on the grief. At the very least, it was time for her to stop allowing the grief to take over her mind completely.

‘You’re going to regret this! Listen to me! He is dangerous! He needs to be gotten rid of! You’re growing a cancer next to you! You—’

“Silence!”

Aoife shouted at the top of her lungs, the voice in her head stopping.

The surroundings turned quiet in that moment as Aoife stood up from the bed and took several deep breaths.

Turning her attention towards the mirror that sat in the corner of the room, she looked at herself before looking back at the door.

“Alright.”

She nodded.

“…I’ve got this.”

Slapping her cheeks, she moved towards the door.