I Have 10,000 SSS Rank Villains In My System Space-Chapter 394: Sofia And Razeal

Back in Levy’s shop~

The quiet room suddenly rippled as a shadow stretched across the floor. The darkness gathered for a brief instant and then collapsed inward. In the next moment, three figures appeared where there had been nothing before Razeal, Sofia, and Maria, whose unconscious body was still cradled carefully in Sofia’s arms.

The air inside the shop felt strangely calm compared to the storm they had just left behind.

Razeal stepped forward into the room first. As soon as his feet settled against the wooden floor, he let out a slow, controlled breath. It wasn’t loud, but it carried the exhaustion of someone who had just dragged himself out of an emotional battlefield. He ran a hand briefly through his hair and shook his head slightly to himself, as if clearing lingering thoughts that still tried to cling to him.

He didn’t say anything.

Not to Sofia.

Not even to Maria, whose condition had started this entire confrontation.

For a moment, he simply stood there with his back to Sofia, his gaze lowered slightly, lost in whatever thoughts were still echoing inside his mind.

Sofia noticed immediately though she didn’t interrupt him immediately..

Instead, she moved quickly but carefully toward the counter table inside the shop. Her movements were gentle now.. far more delicate than the fierce composure she had shown earlier.

She leaned forward and slowly placed Maria’s unconscious body down on the table.

Maria’s breathing was faint but steady.

Sofia adjusted her position slightly, brushing a few loose strands of hair away from Maria’s face. Her fingers briefly hovered near Maria’s neck as she checked her pulse again.

Stable.

No immediate danger or anything..

Satisfied, Sofia straightened slightly and finally turned her attention back toward Razeal.

He was still standing in the same place.

His posture wasn’t tense anymore, but it wasn’t relaxed either.

"So.. Are you fine?" she asked quietly.

Her voice was calm, but her eyes studied him carefully.

Razeal though didn’t respond immediately.

Then he nodded once.

"Of course," he said.

Slowly, he turned to face her.

Their eyes met.

For a brief moment, Sofia tried to read his expression. But as usual, Razeal didn’t show much. His face remained mostly neutral, though there was a faint heaviness lingering behind his eyes.

Sofia folded her arms lightly.

"Well... those bitches are really..." she began, spreading her hands slightly in frustration as she searched for the right word.

Her lips twisted.

"...so..."

"Disgusting," Razeal finished flatly.

Sofia nodded immediately.

"Yeah.. That." She said it though honestly she knew that word but it wasn’t quite right enough to describe them so she was searching for better.. But anyways she can’t embarrasse him now can she? So she went with it anyways..

She watched him quietly for another second before continuing.

"Well, don’t worry," she said, stepping a ome step closer to him with a confident smile. "I’ll take revenge for you eventually."

She tilted her head slightly.

"Honestly, I would’ve taught them a lesson right there already... but this place..." she sighed and gestured vaguely around the room.

"It’s weird."

Her brow furrowed.

"The environment here is completely different from what I’m used to. My powers feel... off." She rotated her wrist slightly as if testing the flow of energy in her body. "Everything behaves differently.. My control isn’t as sharp yet. I mean i am feeling like fish out of water.."

She gave a small, annoyed smile.

"Give me some time to adjust though."

Her eyes glinted slightly.

"And I promise you... next time I see them, I’ll really fuck them up..."

Despite the aggressive words, Sofia’s tone wasn’t angry. She was deliberately speaking lightly, almost teasingly. Her goal was obvious she was trying to lighten the atmosphere.

She had seen how close Razeal had come to losing control earlier.

Anyone who had just exposed years of trauma like that would still be emotionally raw.

So she was just trying to steady him.

Trying to ground him.

But Razeal didn’t immediately respond to her attempt.

He simply looked at her.

Silently.

His eyes studied her face for a moment longer than usual.

Then he spoke.

"Leave that."

Sofia blinked slightly.

"Can I ask you something?" he said.

Her curiosity rose immediately.

She tilted her head slightly, though she nodded without hesitation.

"Sure," she said. "What is it?"

Razeal’s gaze remained fixed on her.

"I’m curious," he said slowly. "Why did you trust me when I said I wasn’t guilty?"

Sofia frowned slightly.

"I mean," he continued, "trusting someone after seeing proof is one thing."

His eyes sharpened slightly.

"But you believed me before that.. When maria, my mother and that newspaper and almost everything.."

He studied her face carefully.

"I mean.. That part still confuses me."

Sofia didn’t hesitate.

"Because I believed in you," she answered simply.

Her tone made it sound obvious.

Razeal’s expression didn’t change.

"And why did you believe me?" he asked again.

He took a slow step forward.

"I mean quite frankly... I’ve never done anything particularly impressive for you."

Another step.

"I haven’t saved your life. I haven’t sacrificed anything major for you."

He was standing very close to her now.

"There’s nothing I can remember that would logically give you that level of confidence in me."

His eyes searched hers.

"So why?"

His voice lowered slightly.

"Why would you believe me so blindly?"

Sofia watched him approach without moving.

Then she smiled.

"Because I love you," she answered softly.

It was said as naturally as breathing.

The small smile on her lips carried no hesitation.

But Razeal didn’t stop.

"And that brings me back to the same question," he said quietly.

He was standing just half a step away from her now.

His eyes locked with hers.

"Why would you love me?"

His tone wasn’t mocking.

It was genuinely confused.

"What did I do that made you love me?"

He shook his head slightly.

"I honestly can’t remember doing anything worthy of that."

Sofia studied his face for a moment.

"So you’re telling me... you need reasons to love someone? I think that’s what you’re misunderstanding, my dumb little husband. Love is an unconditional thing." She suddenly whispered as at same time she put a hand on his shoulder.. While saying..

"And why exactly do you think you are someone who can’t be loved?" Sofia asked softly, her hand still resting on his shoulder. Her voice wasn’t accusatory; it was gentle, almost patient, as if she were explaining something obvious to a stubborn child who simply refused to see it. "You are," she continued quietly. "So stop looking at yourself like that, will you? Try looking at yourself through my eyes for once.. Maybe you’ll understand."

The words were simple, but they struck somewhere deep inside Razeal.

Just a moment ago, he had been standing there with a faint, curious smile.. half amused, half skeptical treating the conversation like an intellectual puzzle he wanted to solve. But now, hearing her say that, something inside his mind stalled.

Huhh?

His eyes widened slightly.

It was the subtle reaction of someone who had just heard a sentence that didn’t align with the rules he had believed his entire life.

Because for him, love had always come with conditions.

That was the only version of love he had ever known.

Love depended on worth.

Love depended on value.

Love depended on whether you were useful, respectable, successful, obedient capable of meeting the expectations of others.

If you failed those expectations... love vanished.

That was the logic he had always used to explain everything that happened to him.

He had lived his entire life with that belief carved into his bones.. And Obiously seen it vanish too because of that.. Literally..

They abandoned him because he wasn’t good enough.

They betrayed him because he failed their expectations.

They judged him because he wasn’t worthy of their trust.. Maybe if he was better they woulve worked harder to judge him?

And slowly, over time, he had built the same rule inside himself as well.

Love had conditions.

But Sofia’s words contradicted that rule completely.

And because of that, his mind almost short-circuited.

He blinked once.

Then again.

His head tilted slightly to the side as he looked at her, genuinely confused now.

"It doesn’t need any reason," Sofia continued calmly, watching his reaction with a faint smile. "That’s just what love is. It simply... just happens."

She shrugged lightly.

"What do you think I love you for?" she asked playfully. "Some complicated reason?"

She tapped his shoulder lightly.

"No.. I love you because I believe you’re my soulmate. The love of my life."

"Yes, I believe those things. But that belief itself didn’t come from some checklist."

Her voice softened slightly.

"Nor need any proof."

She tilted her head slightly, studying his face.

"Love is personal thing," she continued softly. "You don’t need to give anyone the reasons for why they should love you."

Then she leaned back slightly, folding her arms with a playful expression.

"Actually, think about it," she said. "If I wanted you to fall madly, madly and madly in love with me... what exactly would I need to do?"

She started counting casually on her fingers.

"What would make you love me?" she continued. "My beauty? My fame? My attitude? My intelligence? My brilliance?" She began counting off the possibilities on her fingers. "Kindness? Money? Strength? Reputation? Or maybe you’d want me to do something dramatic for you?" She raised an eyebrow slightly. "Bring you flowers? Write you letters in blood? Give you gifts? Prove my devotion somehow

Her brows lifted slightly as she looked at him

As she spread her hands.

"Would that make you love me?"

Razeal didn’t answer.

Because he honestly didn’t know.. Sounds so stupid to him.

Sofia continued, still watching him carefully.

"I mean think about it," she added after a moment. "There will always be someone better than me."

She gestured casually toward the world outside.

"Someone stronger. Someone prettier. Someone richer. Someone smarter. The world is huge. There are billions of people out there."

Her tone was casual, but the point was deliberate.

"And the same applies to grand gestures," she said. "What if someone else could do those things better than I could?"

She looked directly into his eyes again.

"So what then?" she asked quietly. "Would you stop loving me and love them instead?"

She tilted her head again.

"That’s not love."

Her eyes sharpened slightly.

"That would just be... fulfilling conditions." Her fingers tapped lightly against his chest as she spoke.

"It would be a transaction? A negotiation? Or maybe even manipulation?" She gave a small shrug. "But it definitely wouldn’t be love."

She tapped his chest lightly with her finger again.

"And conditions can always be replaced by something better."

She paused before finishing quietly.

"That’s the exact opposite of love."

Razeal stood there silently, listening.

Her words moved through his mind slowly, like pieces of a puzzle rearranging themselves.

He had never consciously examined the idea before, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

Take the simplest example.

A mother and her child?

The child is not necessarily the smartest person in the world.

Not the most beautiful.

Not the strongest.

Not the most accomplished.

Yet to the mother, that child is everything.

Why?

Because love does not evaluate worth like a contract.

The child does not have to fulfill conditions to be loved.

The child simply is.

And because of that existence alone, the love exists too.

That is love.

Unconditional.

The same way a kid would never look at his mother and thought of her as ugly, no matter how the world might have judged her. To him she had always been beautiful because love had shaped how he saw her.

That logic could not be explained with numbers or reasoning.

It simply existed.

Razeal’s mind turned slowly through those thoughts while Sofia watched him quietly.

Finally she spoke again.

"So yeah," she said softly.

"You don’t need to do anything for me to love you."

She gently placed her palm against his chest where his heart was beating.

"Because I just... love you."

She shrugged lightly again smiling softly..

"And that’s all there is to it."

The simplicity of it was almost overwhelming.

The words were simple.

But the meaning behind them struck far deeper than she probably realized.

Razeal just stood there.

Silent.

For the first time in a long while, he didn’t have a response ready.

Because no one had ever said those words to him like thist before.

Just... love?

For a moment, his mind went completely blank.

Then something strange happened.

His vision blurred slightly.

He blinked once.

Then again.

The shop around him seemed oddly unfocused.

He frowned slightly.

Why was everything suddenly looking blurry?

He blinked again, looking directly at Sofia’s face as if trying to clear his vision.

Then the realization came.

No way...

Razeal stared at her for a moment longer, still slightly confused by the unfamiliar sensation.

Then he let out a small breath.

"...Figures," he thought quietly.

"Must be because.. God doesn’t love me."

"I mean.." Sofia had been about to continue speaking, ready to explain more patiently to this stubborn husband of hers who seemed incapable of understanding something as simple as unconditional love. Her lips had already parted, the next sentence forming in her mind, when suddenly she stopped mid-word.

Her eyes lifted toward his face.

And then she froze.

For a moment she thought she had imagined it. Her brain needed a second to process what her eyes were seeing, because it simply didn’t match the image she had of him.

A small line of moisture had slipped from the corner of Razeal’s eye.

Just a little.

Just enough to catch the light.

Salt water?

Sofia’s entire train of thought halted instantly.

Her mouth opened slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but the words never came out. The surprise hit her harder than she expected. In all the time she had known him, Razeal had never looked like someone who cried? Not even close. If anything, he always seemed like someone who had forgotten how too..

And yet there it was.

She stared at him, stunned.

"Ummmm..." was the only faint sound that escaped her lips.

Meanwhile, Razeal had already noticed the shift in her expression. The way her eyes had widened. The way she had gone silent.

He blinked quickly.

Then once more.

Ah.

Right.

Shit..

The realization hit him a second later.

His brain immediately moved into damage control.

"Oh... I should check if Maria is fine or not," he said abruptly, his voice coming out a little too fast. Before Sofia could react or comment on anything she had just seen, he had already turned and walked past her toward the counter table where Maria’s unconscious body was lying.

It was such a sudden change of topic that Sofia stood there for a second, mouth still slightly open in surprise.

Then a slow smile spread across her face.

She turned around to look at his back as he walked away.

"Ahhh... haa..." she murmured quietly under her breath, her eyes soft with amusement and warmth.

He was hiding it.

Of course he was.

But she had seen it.

And that alone made her smile.

How cute.. My little bad boy.. Ahahahaha She said in her head..

Razeal stopped at the counter and looked down at Maria’s unconscious form. He leaned slightly closer, studying her breathing, her condition anything that would justify his sudden escape.

Behind him, Sofia watched his back with quiet affection.

She was absolutely not going to let that moment go to waste.

So she took a step forward.

Just one step.

Her plan was obvious: get close enough to see his face again.

But the moment her foot moved..

"Thank you."

Razeal spoke suddenly.

His voice stopped her immediately.

Even though he didn’t turn around.

Not even slightly.

It was almost as if he was deliberately facing away so she couldn’t see his expression while he said it.

Sofia paused..

"For what?" she asked curiously.

As a small, sweet smile had already formed on her lips as she looked at his back.

"For trusting me," Razeal said.

His voice sounded different this time.

Not cold or distant as it always is...

Kinda sounding warm and thankful underneath..

And something else too.

Relief.. Maybe

"No one had trusted me before you," he continued quietly. "No one."

He paused briefly.

"Not even my own family."

The words lingered in the air.

The words were simple.

But the weight behind them was unmistakable.

Sofia’s smile softened.

"Well of course I trusted you," she replied casually.

"I mean... obviously," she said casually after a moment. "I saw it in your eyes."

She folded her arms lightly as she spoke.

"You know when you love someone, you can read their face and eyes no matter how much they try to hide things?"

She shrugged slightly.

"At least... that’s what my mother always told me."

"She used to say that when you look into someone’s eyes, your heart knows the truth before your mind does."

Her expression turned playful again.

"So I just believed my feeling when I looked at you."

She spread her hands dramatically as if presenting a grand revelation.

"And look! Turns out my assumption was completely right!" she declared proudly.

She nodded to herself proudly.

"Totally right. See? My instincts never fail me."

Razeal listened quietly.

After a brief pause he spoke again.

"Hmm."

"Yeah... thank you," he said again.

This time, there was even a faint chuckle at the end of his words.

She smiled at that..

Though suddenly.. she paused thoughtfully for a moment, studying his back.

Sofia blinked.

The sound surprised her slightly.

But her curiosity wasn’t satisfied yet.

She tilted her head.

"For only that reason?" she asked.

Razeal didn’t answer immediately.

Several seconds passed.

He still didn’t turn around.

Sofia could almost imagine him thinking.

Then finally..

"Maybe...?" he replied.

The uncertainty in his tone was so obvious that Sofia completely lost control.

A laugh burst out of her mouth.

"Awwww, my little baby," she said in an exaggerated teasing voice as she began walking toward him. "Why does that voice sound so whimpery?"

She leaned slightly closer as she approached his side.

"Someone isn’t crying, is heeee?"

Her grin widened.

"Awww... does my baby want mama to give him some milkkkk?"

The moment the words left her mouth..

Razeal froze.

Then he slowly lifted a hand and facepalmed.

Hard..

The teasing tone was so over-the-top that it was impossible to take seriously.

He swore he had never experienced this level of secondhand embarrassment in his entire life.

"This is so stupid," he thought internally.

Of all the reactions he could have imagined, this was the worst possible one.

It was so so ridiculous that arguing with her about it would only make it worse.

So he made the wise decision.

Ignore it..

Completely..

So he shifted his attention deliberately away from Sofia’s ridiculous commentary and focused on something else instead.

Maria.

Focus on Maria.

That was definitely safer.

He looked down at her unconscious form again.

The moment his eyes settled on her again, his expression slowly changed.

The light embarrassment faded.

A small frown appeared.

His gaze narrowed slightly as he examined her condition more carefully.

"Villey...? Why is she not awake yet? Didn’t you say she’d be fine?" The question came out almost flat, but the expectation behind it was obvious. From what Villey had said earlier, Maria should have been perfectly stable by now. At the very least, she should have regained consciousness.

Inside his mind, the familiar voice responded almost immediately, smooth and calm as always, carrying that annoyingly refined tone that never seemed to change no matter the situation. [Umm... yes, she is fine. But she cannot wake up so easily, host... You see, she was stopped in the middle of her evolution... So...]

"What?"

"Didn’t you say she was alright when I asked you earlier?" he demanded internally, his mind sharpening with suspicion as he replayed that earlier conversation. He distinctly remembered asking about her condition, and Villey had answered that she was fine. So what exactly was this new explanation?

Villey, however, remained as unbothered as ever. The voice echoed again in Razeal’s head with polite clarity. [You asked if she was fine, and I answered that she was fine. Which is correct. She is not in danger. Nothing harmful is happening to her body. However, because the imperial authority forced her unconscious during the middle of her evolutionary transition, the process itself has been interrupted. That interruption caused instability within her system. Therefore, naturally, if you want her to wake up, you must first resolve the incomplete evolution.]

l"You... fucker..." he muttered under his breath, the curse barely restrained. The irritation was obvious. Villey hadn’t technically lied.. but the way he twisted explanations and delivered information piece by piece was infuriating. Razeal lifted a hand and rubbed his temple, exhaling through his nose as if trying to suppress the urge to argue further.

"You really love playing with words, don’t you..." he thought bitterly. Still, the irritation faded quickly once he reminded himself of the most important part: Maria wasn’t dying. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t immediately fatal.

That alone eased some of the tension in his chest. He lowered his hand again and looked back down at her carefully. From every sense he possessed.. mana perception, instinct, even the faint supernatural awareness that had come with his vampiric nature there was nothing wrong with her that he could sense ofcourse.. Her body felt stable. No chaotic energy, no corruption, no spiritual damage. If anything, she seemed calmer and stronger than before. That alone was reassuring.

But the explanation still made absolutely no sense.

Finally, Razeal asked the obvious question. "What evolution exactly?" His tone carried genuine confusion now, and the thought running through his mind was even more blunt. Evolution? What the hell did that even mean in this context?

He was utterly confused, tilting his head slightly as he stared at Maria’s still form. "What is this, some kind of video game mechanic?" he thought sarcastically. The idea felt absurd.

"What exactly is she evolving into? A Magtron? A Charizard? Some kind of legendary monster or something?" The absurd comparisons popped into his mind automatically, because that was the only framework where the word evolution actually made sense. In reality, the concept felt ridiculous. Evolve mid-battle like creatures leveling up in a game? What is he? A protagonist? No he’s not.. Its someone else.. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became.

There was a brief pause inside his mind. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Before finally.. Villey answered.

[Well... into an Original Sin.]

The words landed like a stone dropping into still water.

For a second Razeal didn’t react at all. His brain simply... Paused.

"Come.. Again??!"

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