Chapter 87: The Truth in the Hall

By morning, the whole country was talking about Apex Guild.

Rosalind did not hold anything back.

In a public statement released through WHA channels, she laid out the illegal experiments connected to Apex Guild Master Leonard Valen.

She provided footage. Documents. Proof. Enough hard evidence that the government could not ignore it and the public could not dismiss it as rumor.

The reaction was immediate.

Apex Guild’s reputation collapsed almost overnight. For years it had stood as one of the strongest private guilds in the country. Now its name was tied to secret experiments, missing hunters, and a dragon incident that had shaken Ashford City.

Rosalind made one thing clear in the same address.

"Not every member of Apex Guild was involved in these experiments. Ordinary hunters and staff will not be treated as criminals without proof."

Still, the damage was done.

WHA announced plans to take temporary control of Apex Guild operations. A new guild master would be appointed after a full internal search was completed.

Anyone found connected to Leonard Valen or Dr. Adrian would be removed and investigated. Until that process finished, Apex Guild would remain under government supervision.

There was a practical reason too.

For the last twenty-five years, Apex had contributed to dungeon gate clearance across multiple regions. Shutting the entire guild down at once would create gaps no one could fill overnight. Control first. Clean-up second.

Then Rosalind dropped the second major announcement.

A new SS-Rank awakener had been confirmed.

Roxanna Sterling.

The public reaction was even louder than the Apex scandal.

For the first time in a hundred years, a healer had broken past S-Rank into SS. Social media exploded within minutes.

News channels ran her name on every major headline. Clips from the Ashford rescue drones catching her healing through smoke and wreckage spread from phone to phone until half the country had seen her face.

Roxanna became famous almost overnight.

Politicians wanted meetings. Guild leaders wanted alliances. Private companies wanted contracts. Interview requests flooded WHA offices before noon.

Articles used words like "miracle healer," "historic rank," and "the woman who saved Ashford."

Her face was everywhere.

Videos. Photos. Breaking news banners.

Far from the cameras, in a dim rented room that still smelled of old alcohol and anger, a man crushed his phone in his hand.

The screen died with a sharp crack.

Glass bits bit into his palm. He did not seem to notice.

"Bitch thinks she’s superior now," garrick muttered. "One rank jump and the whole country is kissing her feet. I’ll show her what she still is."

Across from him, another man leaned against the wall and laughed under his breath.

"Calm down. Fame makes people stupid. She already sent you the divorce notice, right? I heard that much."

Darrick’s jaw tightened.

"She can send paper. Paper doesn’t mean she’s free."

The other man smirked.

"If you do what I said, you’ll get her back under control. Money. Pressure. Old ties. Women like her always come back when the shine fades."

Garrick turned, eyes cold and ugly.

"I don’t need your ideas. She’s still under my control. She just forgot it for a while. I’ll remind her myself."

He looked down at the broken phone, at Roxanna’s face still frozen on one cracked corner of the screen, and smiled without warmth.

"Let the country cheer. When I’m done, she won’t be smiling on any channel."

Back at the Hale estate, the noise of the outside world felt far away.

Everyone was gathered in the main hall.

Sofas had been pulled into a loose circle. Tea sat untouched on the low table. Kassia sat beside Daemon, her hand holding his tightly, as if letting go might send her back into the dark months she had just escaped.

On Daemon’s other side sat Victoria. Sana and Roxanna were nearby. Evelyn watched from her seat with the calm attention of someone who had already decided she would hear every word.

Daemon looked at each of them once.

Then he turned to Kassia.

"You need to prepare yourself for what I’m about to say," he said quietly. "It might hurt you."

Kassia’s fingers tightened around his.

"But remember this," Daemon continued. "I am still the same Daemon you knew before those eight months.

I’m still your Daemon. Some things in my life have changed. You deserve to hear them from me, not from someone else later."

He paused.

"I thought about waiting. I really did. But if this truth reaches you from anyone but me, that would be wrong."

Kassia looked around the room.

At Victoria.

At Sana.

At Roxanna.

Something in her eyes said she already had a rough idea of what was coming. Still, she wanted to hear it from him.

"I’m listening," she said.

Daemon took a slow breath.

"After you left, my life didn’t stay empty. I met Victoria. At first, our marriage was arranged. There was no love in the beginning, only duty and a shared need to survive what life put in front of us.

Later, something real grew between us. Not because anyone forced it. Because we chose each other when it mattered."

Kassia’s face did not change much, but her grip on his hand did.

Daemon’s voice stayed steady.

"Sana came into my life after that. Not as a replacement. Not as a shadow of anyone else. She stayed when things were uncertain.

She trusted me when she had every reason not to. What we built came from honesty and a bond that neither of us took lightly."

Sana stayed quiet, eyes lowered but calm.

"And Roxanna," Daemon said, glancing toward her with care. "She entered my life through healing, patience, and a heart that kept giving even after the world had already taken too much from her.

She matters to me. Not because of rank. Because of who she is when no one is watching."

The hall was silent enough to hear the soft shift of fabric when Kassia adjusted her seat.

Daemon faced her fully.

"There is more," he said. "And this part is harder to believe, but it is true."

Kassia looked up.

"I have a System," Daemon said. "It appeared in my life after everything changed. It guides my growth, my skills, and the path I’m walking now. Through that path, I also found another world."

Victoria’s eyes moved to Kassia, watching her reaction carefully.

"Another world?" Kassia whispered.

"Yes. It’s called Virendal."

The name settled into the room like a stone dropped into still water.

"It’s not a dungeon," Daemon continued. "It’s a living world. Older. Stronger. Full of bloodlines and power that Earth can barely understand.

I went there. Sana and Roxanna were there with me for a long time. Victoria will go too when the time is right. That place changed all of us."

Kassia stared at him, trying to hold the size of what he was saying.

"So while I was in that cage," she said slowly, "you were... in another world?"

"Part of the time, yes," Daemon answered. "And part of the time, I was still searching for you here. Both things are true."

Kassia’s voice came out smaller than before.

"And all of them... they are your...?"

"Yes," Daemon said. "They are bound to my life now. Not as strangers. Not as temporary people. As women I care for, protect, and stand beside."

He did not look away.

"I am not asking you to accept everything in one second. I’m not asking you to smile and pretend this is easy.

I’m telling you because you have the right to know who stands around me now, and why they are here."

Kassia looked down at their joined hands.

Eight months ago, she had walked away thinking she was protecting him.

She had returned to a world where other women had already stepped into the empty space she left behind not as enemies, not as thieves, but as people whose hearts had already grown into his life.

Her chest rose once, hard.

"I need a moment," she whispered.

Daemon did not let go of her hand.

"Take it," he said. "I’m not going anywhere."

Outside the estate, the country was still drowning in news about Apex Guild and the new SS-Rank healer.

Inside the hall, none of that noise mattered.

The only truth that counted was the one Daemon had finally placed in front of Kassia the System, Virendal, and the women who now shared his life and the silence that followed it.