Arthur's [Point of View]
Across from me was the only woman fate never meant for me. Her throne of sins gleamed like a crown of iron and I knew she was already lost.
The sword in my grip trembled not from weakness but from the terror that I might not strike at all.
For one heartbeat, I almost let the sword fall...almost chose her instead of the world. But the crowd's roar chained my hand and fate demanded the blow.
I was only the executioner chosen to carry it out.
She said she chose to be the villain but she was wrong.
No...villainsmilesthrough the sword that takes their life.
No, she was never the villain.
She was the sacrifice.
They will call me a hero, they will sing of my strength, my triumph and my righteousness.
But what do they know?
What do they truly celebrate?
That I murdered the only woman who ever loved me enough to destroy the world for me?
Theanswer cuts deeper than any sword.
I hated her...or at least I forced myself to.
Because hatred was easier to live with than the truth…that I loved her more than the destiny that chained us, more than the woman fate declared as mine.
As the sword buried itself in her heart, I heard no cry, no plea.
Only silence.
Only hersmile, crueler than any wound.
Her eyes once the stars I built my future upon...now stared back at me with a serenity that broke me in ways the sword never could.
She smiled as though death was her choice, as though being branded a villain was a crown she would wear proudly.
And I...the coward gave her that ending.
How cruel, that in her final breath she wore peace while in mine lived only ruin.
The people cheer because they are blind.
They think the villain has fallen and that the world has been saved.
But I know the truth...I was the one defeated.
The crowd roared my name, hailed me as their savior yet I could not turn.
They must never see that their so-called hero was nothing more than a broken man who killed the only woman he ever loved.
So let them praise me.
Let them chant my name.
Let them write their lies into history.
I will not correct them.
I will not speak her name.
Because the truth is too cruel for them to bear—too cruel even for me.
It is a bitter pill to swallow, knowing I killed her so they could have their peace.
And for that, I paid the heaviest price.
I lost her.
I will never forgive them, I will never forgive myself.
The world may call her a villain. But I..I will carry her as my only salvation, my only sin.
If I must play their hero then so be it but in the silence of my own soul, I will remain nothing more than a man who loved his villain too much to let her live...and too little to save her.
In the end, the hero did not choose the one he loved, he chose to save the world.
Because that is what it means to be the hero.
⸻ ✦