Supreme Spouse System.

Chapter 475: Alina!!

Alina!!

For the tiniest fraction of a second, Aden’s calm collapsed. It didn’t show—merely a flicker, a stiffening at the corner of his mouth—but Leon caught it. And in that moment, the untouchable knight, the perfection of calm, showed something vulnerable beneath. A shadow of doubt.

Nova leaned in marginally, her voice cautious, as if reluctant to disrupt the tension between them. "Leon... what do you mean by ’mask’?"

He didn’t reply to her. His eyes remained fixed on Aden—unflinching, analyzing every breath, every spasm, as if he was reconstructing a truth long hidden.

"Your denial," Leon stated softly, his tone calm but electric, "it seems contrived. As if a person is telling themselves they still hold to a part that is already breaking down.

Aden’s jaw flexed. A hint of strain crept into his words. "I don’t know what you’re implying, Victorious Leon. But your mind seems to wander far from the negotiation."

Leon’s lips curved, faintly amused. "Oh, I’m not wandering," he murmured. "I’m finally seeing clearly."

He stepped closer, each movement deliberate and heavy with meaning. The moonlight caught the edge of his golden eyes, making them gleam with a quiet intensity. "You’ve been speaking as Aden—the loyal knight, the idealist—but every word carries something that doesn’t belong to him."

Aden’s breath caught. His fists clenched slightly at his sides, tense, revealing the pressure hidden under his armor. "Too much of riddles," he growled, the voice slicing through the evening air. "Speak your mind."

Leon leaned in just far enough for his voice to be low—low, quiet, but with the gentleness that made it all the more lethal. "You don’t back down. do you, Miss Alina?"

The name hit like lightning.

All halted. The campfire hissed once and remained silent. The groans of soldiers died away into quiet. Even the breeze appeared to freeze, suspended mid-air between the shattered pillars of the ruins.

Nova’s eyes went wide in shock. Her mouth opened, but nothing escaped. Captain Black froze, breath stuck mid-way in his chest. Vice Captain John’s head spun around towards them, his face contorted with shock.

And Aden—no, Alina—remained transfixed. Her body frozen in place, her pale face as white as snow. The world spun on its axis as the truth ripped through the stillness. Her lips opened, but no words emerged—only the shudder of one who had been beheld for the first time in far too long.

Leon did not stir. He did not have to. His eyes did all the cutting. Peaceful, unadorned, relentless. He saw through her—the armor, the stance, the careful restraint—and glimpsed what was true under the pretense.

Moonlight caressed her cheek, outlining the gentler contours that had been overlooked for so long: the gentle bend of her jaw, the sleek angle of her neck under the light grime and soot. Features always present, but no one ever ventured to look. Now.

Leon’s voice spoke again, soft but cutting enough to hurt. "Tell me," he said, leaning just a little bit closer, "are you still going to stand there as Aden... or are we finally talking to the real you?"

Alina—Aden—could feel her lips quiver, betraying the maelstrom of fear, defiance, and weariness churning within her. She took a ragged, unsteady breath, her ribs heaving like a bird caged, and her gaze wavered to the soldiers standing at the periphery of the courtyard, their silence stretched as taut as the air that surrounded them. She willed herself back to Leon, despite every nerve protesting, and the heavy weight of unspoken lies bore down upon her chest, unyielding and massive. Each beat resonated like a drum through the emptiness that stretched between them.

Nova’s hand flew up to her lips, shaking as incredulity coated her whisper. "She’s... she’s a woman..." The phrases were so delicate, so close to being whispered away on the wind, yet they held the shock that no one had the courage to speak. They hung in the air like the slightest electric tension, attracting eyes and hearts in a magnetic force toward Alina.

Leon’s eyes never left hers. His golden eyes, quiet and unblinking, pinned her with the patient ferocity of sunlight piercing smoke. There was nothing cruel there, nothing judgmental—only a ruthless, unflinching comprehension, the sort that observes everything even when the world refuses to see.

You played the mask well," Leon answered, his voice even, measured, ruthlessly calm, like steel in silk. "But even the best masks will snap when pushed too hard." There was no blame, only statement—but every word sliced through the mood like a blade slowly being pulled from its sheath.

The night clung around them, thick with the smoky smell of iron and acrid smoke, the specters of charred wood and spilled blood adhering to all rocks. It was a heavy, almost choking closeness, as if the universe itself drew breath and waited for the inescapable to happen. The soldiers stood transfixed, unable to move forward or away, stuck in the pull of the moment.

everyone’s heart raged like a storm, her pulse a desperate drum against the cage of her ribs. The courtyard, charred and bruised, fell away into unimportance. The smoke rising above the stones, the dark stains that disfigured the ground—these all dissolved into background. There was nothing remaining except the two of them: the king who had witnessed too much, and the knight who had concealed too long in plain view.

Alina’s jaw hardened, teeth digging into her lower lip as her muscles tensed, a silent vow of preparedness—preparedness to fight, flee, disappear into the darkness. And then as suddenly, the flame went out, leaving her eyes red, frayed, tormented. "You." The single word was a whisper, rough with years of concealment, deception, survival. Every syllable held shards of pain and anger and the thin wires of a self buried too well.

The night was not over yet. It was just beginning, creeping, a slow, perilous beat that threatened more disclosure, more accounting. Around them, the air trembled with unspoken words, unshed tears, and the taut, brittle tension of a world on the brink of shattering.