CHAPTER 253: CHAPTER 252 - THEY DESERVE THE TRUTH.

The wind whispered low through the trees, brushing leaves like a warning sigh as the last stragglers of Raven’s group gathered at the clearing.

Faces were drawn and pale. No one spoke. They didn’t need to—tension swirled around them like a thick fog, pressing on lungs and tightening throats.

Even Graye, normally bouncing with too much energy and too little tact, stood stiff, fists clenched at her sides, and Alex, who always said dumb things when he shouldn’t, had his mouth shut.

Lia stood at the center, her leafy disguise forgotten, her body trembling like a branch in a storm.

She hadn’t run. She hadn’t screamed. Not yet.

Raven, arms crossed, stared at the ground.

Jessy broke the silence. "So... what do we do now?"

No one answered.

Everyone turned toward Raven, expecting him to tell them what plan he had.

Suddenly, Lia stepped forward.

Her eyes, usually so composed, were wet with unshed tears. "Raven..." Her voice cracked. "Can you... Can you save her?"

The name stuck in her throat, but she forced it out.

"Can you save Myria?"

Raven looked up, but he didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.

Because he didn’t know what to do.

"Tell me," she continued, stepping closer, "if you can do something. Anything. Please. If you know so much about this ruin, then you must know how to save her!"

Her fingers curled into his coat, clutching him. Her whole body was trembling now. "You always know things! Things you shouldn’t know! You’re always one step ahead! So tell me how to stop this!"

These actions earned a reaction from the group, some of them ready to hold Lia down, but Raven raised his hand and stopped them.

He then looked into her eyes.

He saw everything there—her desperation, her fear, and the weight of two weeks she had spent without sending a word to her parents.

He could tell that she was merely unable to hold back her emotions and that she, who had a loving family worrying about her safety back at home, just wanted to save them.

However, he didn’t know what he should do.

"It’s not that simple," he replied.

"What does that mean?" She demanded, louder now. "What does that mean, Raven?!"

There was a flicker in his eyes.

"You owe me this!" She cried, her grip trembling. "I’ve done everything you’ve asked—I followed your lead, I never spoke back to you, I ignored my family’s situation and stayed by your side—because I trusted you! But now you’re still keeping things from me?! You won’t even tell me what I need to know?! Is this what I get for trusting you?!"

Her voice broke. "Is this what I get for believing in you?"

Raven’s breath left him in a slow, bitter sigh.

He could see the others’ reactions, their expressions.

Selena was frowning, her shadow twitching behind her as she stared at Lia.

Clara was ready to step forward, calm and careful—but she didn’t interrupt yet because Raven had asked her not to.

Siris remained silent, but her cold expression showed how she didn’t like the tone Lia had.

Graye looked unusually serious, arms folded under her armor-clad chest.

Cluckles, standing beside Nibbles, ruffled his feathers.

"Cluckles... understands heartbreak."

Alex whispered, "Damn..."

Jake remained silent. Watching.

They weren’t looking at him or asking him anything because they all trusted him, but so did Lia.

Everyone in his group believed in him. Yet Lia was now asking these questions.

So, Raven knew that although everyone believed in him, they would all, at one time, have a moment like Lia.

None of them had ever asked Raven anything about him. They expected him to tell them whatever was necessary.

That was how it had always been.

However, Raven was aware that there were questions deep in their minds as well.

Even if they never said it out loud, all of them had wondered:

How did he know what he knew?

Why did he always seem one step ahead?

People who didn’t know better would think that Raven had a secret organization under his command that could gather all this information, but not this group—especially not the group that had been with him since he was less than eight years old.

Clara, Jake, and Alex—these three had been with him the longest.

There was nothing about Raven present that they didn’t know.

Yet, they didn’t know how Raven could somehow always be a step ahead of every problem.

So, as he looked deep into Lia’s eyes, peering past the rage, insecurity, and doubt, all he saw was a girl crying for help.

What he saw inside was Lia, who didn’t know what was happening with her sister and if that little girl was even alive, trying to reach out to Raven for help.

Then, he closed his eyes.

Thinking back on everything—especially the reason behind everything that was happening.

Then, as his eyes opened, Raven exhaled slowly, not in frustration but in surrender.

"You’re right," he said quietly, almost too quietly. "You do deserve to know."

The stillness shattered.

Everyone leaned forward, just slightly.

Raven looked around at them—the warriors, the fools, the killers, and the warlords-to-be.

These were people who had followed him into death and madness. Who had laughed beside him, bled for him, argued with him, and trusted him.

Even when they didn’t understand.

The thing was, they always had the right to ask for this explanation.

The fact that they didn’t was already more than Raven could ask, so now, it was time to give them what they deserved.

The truth.

"My name is Raven," he began, voice steady, "but I wasn’t always the Raven you know. I come from another world—one where this place, this life, this story—was a novel."

Silence.

Pure. Deafening.

Lia blinked, confusion fighting panic.

"A novel?" Rufus repeated blankly.

"Like a book?" Alex tilted his head. "With pages?"

Cluckles narrowed his eyes. "Cluckles is... intrigued."

Raven nodded slowly. "I read it. From the beginning to a certain point. I knew how things were supposed to unfold—who lived, who died, and what happened when."

Siris frowned, tilting her head. "So... we’re... fictional?"

Raven paused.

This was what he feared—the reason he never told them about all this.

Existential crisis.

If one knew they were part of a fiction, they would start thinking about whether they were even alive and if they had a will of their own.

Raven feared it for them, so he never told them.

But now that he had told them, he wouldn’t let them fall into doubt.

"No," he replied firmly. "You’re real. Everything here is real. But the version of this world I read was... wrong. Twisted. Cruel. It wasn’t even an end, but it was already a tragedy. So when I died in my old world and woke up here, I made a choice."

He looked up, eyes burning with quiet fire.

"To make the story better."

It wasn’t his choice at first—he had to do it—but now, he wasn’t doing all of this for plot points.

The way he was telling them about his past—it might even make the story worse, but he was willing to take that risk because he cared more about them than the story now.

No one spoke.

It took a moment before anyone could breathe again.

Lia’s hands were shaking now. "So... you knew about the ruins. About Myria. From the story?"

Raven nodded. "But the ruin... was never explained fully. The only thing known about it is that it was a prison. And that no one can survive there. Not even the protagonist."

Lia collapsed to her knees.

Clara knelt beside her, wrapping her arms around the princess.

Selena, quiet, stood behind Raven, her hand slipping into his without words.

Siris did the same. Her eyes, however, didn’t leave Lia.

Rufus sat on a rock, scratching his head. "Okay, so... our lives are a rewrite of a bad novel?"

"Basically," Raven said.

Jessy crossed her arms. "And your goal is to make it a good one?"

Raven met her eyes. "One where no one dies meaninglessly. Where people like Myria don’t vanish without a chance. Where you all get to live—not just survive."

Cluckles stepped forward. "Then Cluckles asks—what do we do now, O Rewriter of Fates?"

Nibbles raised a new sign: "Time to flip the page."

Lia looked up at him. Eyes wet. Hands clenched.

"I’m sorry," she whispered. "I... didn’t mean to—"

"You had every right," Raven said, kneeling. "And now, we go save your sister."

Everyone stood a little taller.

A little closer.

Because now they understood.

This story was no longer someone else’s.

It was theirs.