Isaac stared at Celia for a long moment after hearing her words. He didn't scold her or tell her not to make jokes like that. Instead, he quietly pulled her into a hug.
"H-Huh? What are you doing? I told you I'm not sad," Celia stiffened in surprise before trying to pull back slightly, her eyes still red.
"It's fine. You can stop worrying about everyone else. At least for now," Isaac said softly.
Celia froze in his arms. The words reached somewhere deep inside her, breaking through the wall she had been trying so desperately to maintain. The tears she had barely managed to hold back spilled over again, and this time she couldn't stop them.
Isaac understood what she had been trying to do. She had never meant those words seriously. She was only trying to ease the heavy atmosphere because she hated seeing everyone around her weighed down by painful emotions.
No one had taken offense to her joke. Instead, everyone looked at her with concern, understanding why she had reacted the way she did. They already knew that the dream Celia experienced wasn't simply something she watched from afar.
The emotions she felt back in that dream didn't disappear after she woke up. Every joy, every loss, and every regret stayed with her as though they were memories from her own past. That was one of the reasons her affection for Isaac had increased so suddenly back then.
Hearing Catherine speak about the events that happened after her dream ended made her feel as if she could feel those memories too.
Celia buried her face against Isaac's shoulder and cried without trying to hold herself back anymore. She didn't speak or apologize. She simply let herself cry while Isaac remained there with his arms around her.
Isaac gently tightened his embrace, silently reassuring her that she wasn't alone. He didn't think comforting someone always required words. Sometimes simply staying beside them was enough.
While quietly comforting Celia, his gaze drifted toward Catherine. She stood where she was with her usual composed expression, showing no obvious sign that anything was wrong.
Isaac knew better than to believe that calm face.
She had experienced everything firsthand. Even if she looked perfectly composed now, there was no way the Trial hadn't affected her. The difference was that Catherine had already pushed those emotions down before anyone else had the chance to notice them.
He didn't like that.
If possible, he wanted Catherine to cry the way Celia was crying now. Bottling everything up only made the pain linger longer. Unfortunately, he already knew how she would answer if he asked whether she was alright.
She would simply smile and tell him she was fine.
'I need to spend today with both Celia and Sis,' Isaac thought.
His eyes lingered on Catherine for another moment before returning to Celia.
'For now, I'll stay with Celia. I'll talk to Sis later when we're alone,' he thought.
He wanted to help Catherine immediately, but this wasn't the right time. If she was going to open up at all, it wouldn't happen with everyone watching. She would only lower her guard when they were by themselves.
..
Catherine's POV
Catherine smiled faintly after noticing Isaac's worried glances.
Even while comforting Celia, he kept looking over at her every few moments. He probably thought he was being subtle, but she noticed every single glance.
It made her happier than she wanted to admit.
Knowing that he was worried about her despite everything else happening warmed her heart. Even after hearing about another version of himself, his first instinct was still to make sure she was alright.
But...
She wasn't sure she could tell him everything that had happened inside the Trial.
She hadn't even told Master everything she had experienced.
Her eyes shifted toward Emily. Emily's gaze moved back and forth between Celia and Catherine, unable to decide who worried her more.
Catherine quietly lowered her eyes.
'Yes... I shouldn't tell them everything,' she thought.
Some truths served no purpose except causing pain.
She already believed the Trial had shown her another reality rather than a fabricated illusion. Somewhere, perhaps a parallel world had existed where events had unfolded differently and every choice had led them toward tragedy instead of happiness.
This world wasn't that one.
Here, Isaac was alive. Emily smiled every day. Their family still existed. Catherine refused to let memories from another reality destroy what they had here.
She would tell them enough to prepare them for the future. The rest would stay buried.
Leaving out uncomfortable details wasn't difficult for her. She had spent years hiding her true thoughts behind a calm expression. Compared to everything Mother had taught her, telling only half the truth was easy.
Once Celia's crying finally quieted, Isaac looked toward Catherine.
He asked carefully, "Can you tell us what happened after that? Did I really..."
He couldn't finish the question.
Catherine understood exactly what he was afraid to ask.
"No. You didn't kill Celia. I didn't kill her either," she answered quietly.
A small wave of relief spread through the room.
Isaac looked confused. "Then how did your Conqueror Trial end?"
Catherine remained silent for several moments.
She slowly took a deep breath before letting it out again. Even thinking about those memories caused a familiar ache to spread through her chest.
That Isaac had suffered more than anyone in this room could imagine.
Whenever she remembered the path he had walked, it became difficult to separate that version of him from the one standing in front of her now. The thought that things could have turned out that way if circumstances had only been slightly different was enough to make her heart tighten.
"Sis?" Isaac called gently.
His voice pulled her back to the present.
Outwardly, her expression hadn't changed at all. Years of training allowed her to hide every trace of hesitation, even when her thoughts were in complete turmoil.
Still, she needed time to compose herself, and speak. If Mother had seen her hesitate like this, she would've considered it unacceptable, and punished her. Personal emotions were never supposed to interfere with speech or judgment.
"If you don't want to talk about it now, then you don't have to," Isaac said softly.
"No... that's not it." Catherine slowly shook her head.
The truth was that she didn't want to remember any of it. If forgetting the Trial had been possible, she would've chosen that without hesitation.
But she couldn't—wouldn't—keep everything to herself.
Everyone deserved to know at least part of what had happened. More importantly, they deserved to know how far Isaac had been willing to go to protect the people he cared about.
"You became much stronger. Knowing that you didn't have much time left before the Corruption overtook you, you threw yourself into training and hunting monsters every chance you got. Your strength grew incredibly fast. During all of that time, you never stopped protecting Celia," Catherine finally said.
She deliberately used Celia's name instead of Catastrophe. That was how the Isaac from that world had always seen her.
"You stood against Florathi. You opposed the Pale Knights, and anyone else who tried to capture Celia or force her under someone else's control," Catherine said.
She paused briefly before continuing. The next part was much harder to say because it revealed just how stubborn Isaac had been. Even now, she still wasn't sure whether she should admire that determination or resent it.
"The System could revive fallen Catastrophes. Everyone knew that. But you refused to let Celia die. You were worried that the System wouldn't truly bring her back. You thought it might simply create another Celia with the same memories instead of reviving the real one," Catherine said quietly.
The room became completely silent.
No one could confidently dismiss that possibility. The System had always been capable of things no one fully understood. If it really recreated someone from scratch, there was no way to prove whether that person was the original or only an identical copy.
Catherine continued, "So you refused to take that risk. Even if everyone else believed the System would revive her properly, you didn't gamble with her life."
She lowered her gaze for a moment before speaking again.
"You fought over and over again. You kept fighting until your body began to fail, your soul was damaged, and even your mind started breaking apart."
Her voice grew noticeably quieter. "I tried to intervene several times, but you never listened to me."
Catherine took a slow breath before forcing herself to continue. Every sentence pulled another painful memory to the surface, but stopping now would only make it harder to continue.
"After that, a lot more happened. The Thousand Year Stampede arrived, and our Sector failed," she said.
Isaac's expression stiffened. "Our Sector... failed?"
Catherine nodded. "Almost everyone died. Only a few people survived."
The room remained quiet after those words.
No one interrupted because they all understood what those few sentences implied. A failed Thousand Year Stampede wasn't simply a lost battle. It meant the complete collapse of an entire Sector and the deaths of countless people.
"You survived, and you managed to keep Celia alive through all of it. Years passed after that. Eventually, you managed to strike a deal with one of the Devil Kings," she said.
"A Devil King?" Isaac's eyes widened immediately. Even in Selene's Trial, he had only meet a Saint from Hell, a chosen of a Devil King.
Everyone else reacted as well.
Avery's surprise was perhaps the most obvious. She had remained calm through almost everything Catherine had said until now, but even she couldn't completely hide her expression this time.