Memories of Old

Chapter 28: Confessions and Grief

Chapter 28: Grief and Confessions

England called up the room once more. Though I took a step away from Prussia, I still stayed by his side.

Germany, who'd been in some kind of pain throughout the entire scene, sat down in one of the chairs. He had a look of shock on his face, though the pain that had been apparent earlier was fading. Before I could ask him what was wrong, Prussia marched right up to France and punched him so hard he fell to the floor. The resounding CRACK told us that his nose was broken.

The room went silent. Nobody dared to move for fear of invoking the albino's wrath. Germany stared at the scene in a mixture of shock and relief.

"I had no idea—" France said, but Prussia cut him off.

"Do you really expect me to believe that?! Why?! WHY DID YOU KILL MEIN BABY BROTHER?!" He screamed, tears leaking from the corner of his eyes. Spain looked like he was caught between a rock and a hard place.

"I... I don't—"

"Wait." Romano suddenly cut in. "Let me ask him."

"What do you mean?" Prussia's eyes narrowed as he looked at my twin.

"Veneziano and I have a unique ability. His is that his gut instinct is never wrong. As you've seen twice, now." He paused, gauging the room's reactions. "Mine is that I can always tell when someone is lying." He leveled a steady gaze on France. "Say it one more time."

"I... I didn't know... I really couldn't remember anything until we saw the memory." France stuttered, looking Romano in the eyes.

"..." Romano stared for a moment, and the room shifted in discomfort. "He's telling the truth. He really had no idea."

The anger in the room seemed to dissipate, not completely, but enough. Prussia sank down to the floor, anger spent.

I sighed; my shoulders sagged in defeat. "I can't hold this anger against you anymore, France. I may not forget... I may not ever trust you again... but I... I forgive you." I walked over to him, using a mild healing spell to fix his broken nose. It was hard to say it. Even harder to mean it. But after all that shit I went through in Hell... How could I not, on some level, forgive this man for what he did?

Yang and Luciano looked on impassively. I could tell by Luciano's clenched fists that he wasn't as forgiving as me. After all... 1P France was also the reason Veryl was dead.

"I think... I think he'd subconsciously blocked the memory." China guessed, looking at France as he quietly cried.

"I'm sorry!" He sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I was only trying to protect you!"

"Wait... What do you mean?" Germany spoke up, kneeling down in front of the nation. France opened his mouth several times, only to close it again, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Bitte... Why did you kill mein twin brother?" Germany's eyes shone with hurt and a guarded gentleness I hadn't seen since before Acel's death. His voice held no anger. Only pity and sorrow. He just wanted to understand why his brother's death occurred.

"I... I'd been heading over to Prussia's house to visit him... I figured that even if we were at war, we were still friends and I could still visit him as Francis..." He started, gratefully taking a cup of tea that England offered everyone in the room.

"I remember overhearing a conversation he'd had with his boss at the time..."

Prussia's eyes widened as something clicked into place. "Oh, no..."