Chapter 1233: Reasoning
After leaving Pakart's room, Hesta felt as though something was buzzing in her ears. The corridor was so quiet that only her heartbeat remained.
She kept swallowing.
Hesta was relieved that the conversation had ended early. In those few dozen minutes, she had repeatedly thought of something Ligo had once mentioned: Pakart had forgiven the person who killed her son and had actively sought a reduced sentence for them. Yet after being released, that person had committed another crime, using even crueler methods than before.
—I thought your child's death, and the murder of another innocent person, would have taught you a lesson... I didn't expect even that wouldn't be enough?
The words had nearly reached Hesta's lips, but some instinct forced her to remain silent. At least before she could no longer hold herself back, she had already closed Pakart's door behind her.
Good thing she hadn't said it.
She had come here to understand Pakart. If, at the end of their conversation, she had needed to wound the other woman just to restore her own sense of balance, she would have felt that she had lost in some way. As for whom she had lost to, or what exactly she had lost, Hesta could not yet figure it out. But she did not want to put herself in that position—especially not when she did not want Pakart to notice the turmoil in her heart, though it had probably already been laid bare.
Hesta stood alone against the wall for a while, waiting for the intense emotions to slowly fade with time.
She had thought she could already discuss this matter calmly with others, as if she could play the role of an absolutely impartial outsider... but apparently, she still could not.
Perhaps she never would.