"What do you mean?" Viktor asked with knitted brows.
"She never really betrayed you even though I tried to persuade her a lot," Oben said in a distant tone.
"Wh...What did you just say?" Viktor asked in a confused tone though he remembered flashes of memory where he had seen Sae slipping outside in the middle of the night to talk with a man at times.
At that time, he had already begun to suspect that Sae was probably working against him and even having an affair on the side. Only after Nyissa told him that she had a brother, Viktor realize that Sae was meeting up with her brother and not having an affair.
He also understood why she was meeting up with her brother, especially now that Oben said he was trying to persuade her.
"She already knew what you were before marrying you. At first, she planned to kill you by seducing you and marrying you to let your guard down, even if it meant sacrificing herself to get justice for her family. But then, as time passed with her being your wife, her heart began to waver. I never noticed at that time, even though she was coming up with many excuses whenever I told her to kill you. But one day, she asked if a vampire could die by a stab to the heart with an ordinary knife. At that time, I thought she was just being curious and said no, even though I had given her a magical knife to kill you. And she did stab you but with an ordinary knife which obviously didn't affect you at all," Oben retold the actual events that took place, which only left Viktor in a state of anguish.
"But...why? Why would she do something stupid like that?" Viktor couldn't help but ask in a pained tone as he looked at Sae fighting Borin.
He also suddenly remembered the ill-fated day when Sae tried to kill him by stabbing his heart and when replaying that moment in his mind, he remembered that she was smiling though only now he realized that it was a woeful smile.
"Isn't it obvious? Because she never expected to fall in love with you for real. Falling in love with her most hated enemy made her feel intense guilt towards her dead family and me, who was still trying to make plans to kill you for vengeance. In the end, she felt that she couldn't continue to live with you since it would mean betraying her own family, though, at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to kill you as well. So she decided to do something that wouldn't necessarily betray any side."
"No…" Viktor buried his face in his hands as he clutched his head, feeling a burning sensation in his chest.
Nyissa's eyes softened seeing Viktor like this, and also, at the same time, she felt sorry for not only him but also her grandaunt, who took such an extreme measure out of love.
She had no idea why she was feeling this sad as well and wondered if it was because her own family member was involved.
However, her fingers were still meticulously drawing over Viktor's back.
Viktor felt a heavy, dull pain throughout his body with a constant ache in his heart. He never thought he would have misunderstood Sae to this extent.
He wondered why he never noticed these cues at that time or whether it was because he never knew the truth.
He was sure if he knew what she was up to, he could have stopped everything that had happened.
Viktor slowly removed his hands from his face, only to have his thoughts clear when he saw Sae suppressing Borin singlehandedly.
He didn't know why but he felt like holding her hand and giving her an embrace.
"Oben...I am really sorry for what I did to your clan but please...let me out of here. I know you don't want to continue what you are doing," Viktor asked as he looked at Oben to see if he could make him change his mind considering the things he had told him.
Even though Oben seemed like he didn't care about anything, Viktor felt that he still at least cared about Sae and his clan, considering how he tried to persuade Nyissa to leave as well.
But for some reason, it seemed like Oben had his hands tied, and Viktor couldn't make sense of it.
Oben answered without turning his head, "I am sorry too, Viktor. I can't let you or anyone else who chose to stay, leave. It doesn't matter what I want to do since all I can do is this."
'Shit…' Viktor gritted his teeth, seeing that persuading Oben was a no-go, and he knew even if Sae defeats Borin, Oben would definitely intervene, and considering how Oben was a powerful shaman, especially during his time, he couldn't tell who would come out on top.
"Aaagh!!" Borin howled in pain as Sae stabbed his stomach with her radiant longsword, making blood gush out from his wound as he stumbled back.
Sae was finding it troublesome to deal with Borin since no matter how many fatal wounds she had given him, all those would heal on their own after a time.
"Sae...you really think I would let you, his wife, kill me?" Borin said with a clenched jaw as he raised his heavy hammer into the air and struck the ground, "Esteemed One...Please grant this lowly slave a fraction of your divine power," As he said this, he even knelt onto the ground like a slave praying to his master though there was nobody else in this place, making Viktor wonder to whom he was praying.
Sae frowned and immediately rushed towards Borin to stop him, but a large dark ray of orange light suddenly burst into the building from the skies, covering Borin within it while sending Sae flying towards the other side.
"Sae!" Viktor shouted in worry but let out a sigh of relief as he saw her getting up and looking at him with a reassuring look.
The column of dark orange light soon disappeared as thunderous laughter came from within, "Hahaha, the Esteemed One favors me! Come....it's time I put an end to all of your measly lives."
