novelraw Chapter 434 434: Get Out!
Chapter 434 434: Get Out!
Seraphina's POV
I sat alone in the living room of the Ashwyn house, and for the first time since I arrived in Varynthia, I felt something close to real fear settle deep in my chest. The servant who had escorted me there had been polite, almost too polite, but the moment she left and the door clicked softly behind her, the silence that followed made everything feel a lot scarier than it should have been.
The room itself was beautiful in a way that was hard to ignore, with wide windows that let in light, elegant furniture arranged perfectly, and decorations that all seemed to follow the same theme of snakes and curved shapes, but none of that mattered to me in that moment because all I could think about was what I was about to say when Yura walked in.
I leaned forward slightly where I sat, my hands resting on my knees as I tried to steady myself, my thoughts running faster than I could properly sort through them. I didn't know how to start this conversation, and the more I thought about it, the more complicated it seemed. Part of me wondered if I should pretend that I didn't know anything, if I should act like I had only come to pay respects because I believed what the school had said, but that didn't feel right.
It felt dishonest, and after everything that had happened, the last thing I wanted to do was lie about something as serious as Yuna's death. At the same time, I didn't know how Yura would react if I walked in and told her straight away that I knew the truth, or at least what I believed to be the truth.
What if there was something I didn't understand? What if there was a reason they had kept everything quiet? The thought made my chest tighten, and I found myself staring at the floor for a few seconds, trying to calm down enough to think clearly.
Before I could come to any decision, I heard footsteps coming from the direction of the staircase, and my head snapped up almost immediately. My heart started beating faster without me even realizing it, and I straightened slightly in my seat as I waited. When I finally saw her, I couldn't stop the surprise that washed over me. It was Yura, but at the same time, it didn't feel like the same Yura I had known back in school.
The girl I remembered had always blended into the background, barely noticeable unless you were actively looking for her, and she never seemed to care much about how she looked or how people saw her, but the person walking down those stairs now was different in a way that was impossible to ignore. She carried herself with a different kind of authority, her posture straight, her appearance composed, and there was something about her presence that made the room feel smaller.
For a brief moment, I felt something close to relief, even a bit of admiration, because it was clear that she was doing well in her own way, but that feeling didn't last long. The moment our eyes met, the expression on her face made it very clear that whatever I had expected, it wasn't going to be a warm welcome. Her brows were already furrowed, her lips pressed into a tight line, and as she got closer, the anger in her eyes became impossible to miss.
By the time she stopped in front of me, the tension between us was so thick that it felt like I could almost touch it.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice stern and filled with anger, and it caught me so off guard that for a second, I didn't even know how to respond. "How dare you show up here?"
I blinked at her, completely taken aback by the hostility in her tone, and I slowly pushed myself up from the couch so that I was standing in front of her. "Yura… what are you talking about?" I asked, my voice softer than I intended because I was still trying to process her reaction. "Why are you so upset? Why can't I be here?"
She let out a short scoff, the sound filled with disbelief, and she shook her head slightly as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you serious right now?" she said, her voice rising just a little as she looked at me like I had just said something completely ridiculous. "Are you really that stupid that you can't even begin to imagine why you wouldn't be welcome here?"
Her words stung more than I expected them to, and for a moment, I just stood there, trying to understand where all of this anger was coming from. I hadn't expected her to be happy to see me, but I hadn't expected this either. I let out a slow breath, trying to keep myself calm because reacting emotionally wasn't going to help anything.
"I came here because of Yuna," I said finally, forcing myself to stay focused on why I had come in the first place. "I only found out a few days ago what happened to her, and I…" I paused for a second, my throat tightening slightly before I continued. "I heard what the school said. That it was a suicide, and I came here because I wanted to offer my condolences, but also because I needed to tell you something important."
Yura didn't react the way I had hoped she would. If anything, her expression became even colder, her eyes narrowing slightly as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I couldn't care less what you have to say about my sister," she said flatly, cutting me off before I could even finish. "So how about you turn around, go back to wherever you came from, and never show your face here again?"
For a moment, I just stared at her, the seriousness of her words sinking in slowly. I could feel the frustration building inside me, mixing with the confusion and the hurt, but I refused to let it show too much. I didn't come all this way just to be dismissed like this.
"No," I said quietly, but firmly enough that it made her pause for a second. "I'm not leaving."
Her eyes narrowed further at that, clearly not expecting me to push back. "Excuse me?" she asked, her voice colder now.
"I'm not leaving," I repeated, this time a little more clearly, even though my heart was still beating faster than it should have been. "Not until I say what I came here to say."
There was a brief silence after that, and for a second, it felt like the entire room had gone still. Yura stared at me, her expression unreadable now, but the tension in her posture made it clear that she wasn't happy about this.
"You really don't know when to stop, do you?" she said after a moment, her tone quieter but still filled with irritation.
I shook my head slightly. "This isn't about knowing when to stop," I replied. "This is about the truth."
She let out another scoff, but this time, it sounded more like she was trying to dismiss me than anything else. "The truth?" she repeated, almost mockingly. "And what exactly do you think you know about the truth?"
I hesitated for a fraction of a second before answering, because this was the moment I had been thinking about ever since I got here. There was no point in holding back anymore.
"I know that Yuna didn't kill herself," I said, my voice steady even though my chest felt tight. "I know that what happened to her wasn't an accident, and I might have an idea what really happened."
The words stayed in the air between us, and for the first time since she walked into the room, Yura's expression changed in a way that I couldn't immediately read. It wasn't anger, not exactly, but it wasn't calm either. It was something else, something deeper.
But before I could say anything more, she looked away from me, her jaw tightening slightly.
"I told you," she said after a moment, her voice returning to that same cold tone as before, "I don't care what you think you know."
I stared at her, disbelief creeping in. "How can you say that?" I asked, my voice rising slightly despite my efforts to stay calm. "This is about your sister. Don't you want to know what really happened to her?"
Her reaction was immediate, and this time, there was no mistaking the anger in her eyes. "I said I don't care," she snapped, her voice sharper now, louder than before. "So stop talking like you know anything about my sister or what happened to her."
I felt something twist painfully in my chest at her words, but I didn't back down. I couldn't. "You're lying," I said quietly, the words slipping out before I could stop them.
That made her freeze, and for a second, neither of us moved, and the silence that followed felt like it would choke us alive.
"You do care," I continued, my voice softer now but still firm. "You just don't want to hear it from me."
Her expression hardened again almost instantly, like she had put a wall back up around herself. "You're done," she said coldly, pointing toward the door without even looking at it. "Leave. Now."
I didn't move, and for a moment, we just stood there, facing each other, both too stubborn to back down.