"So she is your mom?" Veronica asks me once I return home with my mother, thanks to the tremendous speed of her dragon. My mom, however, is the one who answers for me instead of letting me answer for myself.
"Yes, I'm Yoimiya's mom. I think I remember you, elder witch. Weren't you the one who stole the forbidden scroll from the Queen's library?" Veronica looks all flustered as soon as Ariel brings up something from the past, which, based on her reaction, is true since nobody innocent starts sweating that much.
"I believe that's all in the past, ehehe! I've paid for my crimes already." Veronica answers in such a tone that I can't help but think she is so guilty she can't even claim denial at this point. I mean, how serious could stealing a forbidden scroll be?
"Mom, I met her down in a cave where she was held captive by slave traders. She is only fourteen. What are you on about?" My mom does hear me out, but her reaction only tells me she doesn't really care where she was before but where she is now, apparently being my best friend.
"Darling, Veronica here is not fourteen, and if she became a slave, it was because she tried to evade the LAW! Isn't that right?" Veronica shakes a little as soon as the accusation drops, only giving me glances back and forth between Mom and me like she expected me to say something for her, but what could I do?
"Please, Miss Ariel, I am good friends with the new princess; I believe she will pardon my crimes and let me be her guardian for a while longer along with you." Veronica's statement only serves to confuse me even further; I mean, if Veronica did something so profound that Mom wanted to arrest her, then now I wanted to know the scroll's contents.
"Woah! Hey there! What's going on?" I ask them both, and they look at me with my mother saying the following to Veronica: "Should I tell them, or should she hear it from you?" Veronica only looks down and finally opens her mouth to reveal the truth about why she had been so mysterious about her nature in the first place.
"Listen, Yoimiya, I. I am not a young girl like you. I am a 200-year-old witch who stole the scroll of rejuvenation. Most of my power was greatly reduced from using that spell, but I reverted to the body of a young girl, as you can see now. I am sorry for not telling you."
My little world constructed around the fact that Veronica was just an innocent little girl who hid her past because maybe she was too hurt to speak about it because of all the rape and other things that happened to her finally shattered into a thousand pieces inside me.
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I felt angry and betrayed. I mean, how could she not trust me to tell me the truth from the very start!? How could she keep on lying this whole time, pretending to be a naive little stupid girl when she was older than my mother this entire time!? Why keep acting naive just to keep up a lie!? Why do it to me!?
I felt enraged and angry beyond belief, but still, I said nothing. As I began to remember what Veronica had done for me, I couldn't help but calm down and even reduce my pain from the betrayal she had done. "Why did you lie to me? Didn't I do enough for you to trust me!? I trusted you with my life!"
Veronica looks away, ashamed to have her little truth spilled by my mother, who honestly did us a favor since lies only pile up and become bigger and bigger the longer you keep them on, so much so that in the end, you will even forget what the original lie was.
"Answer me, Veronica! Why did you lie!!?" I ask Veronica again, who still isn't brave enough to look me in the eye and give me a straight answer. I instead get a very soft "I am sorry, I'll leave if you want me to," Veronica's answer only fuels my anger, but I again calm down, trying not to get things out of proportion.
"I need to go for a walk, Mom; feel free to take your dragon to the stables and feed it some nice food." With Veronica not being brave enough to give me the answer, I simply chose to walk away and think about it on my own; I didn't want to seem impartial, but being cruel to her didn't feel right either.
Soon enough, I simply pulled away with the help of spatial hooks again, pulling me back toward the place where I had fought Lord Auri just a couple of miles outward. My heart was confused and hurt, yet I didn't understand why I felt so conflicted.
On the one hand, I wanted to believe that Veronica hid the truth from me because she felt ashamed of her actions, which is a good thing for criminals to feel. If a criminal does not feel shame for the crimes, then that tells you they haven't really redeemed themselves, but on the other hand, why not tell me once I earned her trust?
Had I not done enough for her to trust me with it? Had I not saved her life multiple times and also showed her how comprehensive I could be? I didn't understand why she would keep lying and acting all naive! That's what pissed me the most, she lied to my face and my soul! To my heart and my intelligence! She raped my intellect!
No bigger betrayal and pain can happen to one's soul than to be toyed around by a lying prick who dances around with a false truth, thinking that you're so stupid and so dumb that you will never know. The pain I felt was greater than the one I felt when Julius beat me up; it was as if a thousand needles had torn my heart apart; it hurt so badly.
Yet, I did not wish to hurt Veronica but to let it go. Rancor is not suitable for your soul, and to be honest, we can't really afford to lose a Witch in times like these, so I would just have to let it go and move forward, probably not with Veronica so close to me, but I would have to forgive her eventually just not yet.
The wound from the betrayal was still too fresh for me to close it up so quickly. No matter how virtuous I was, I couldn't just forgive them like that, not yet.