The truth hidden beneath the celestial light.

And finally, a single black feather that will never be forgotten.

I. ✧ Paradise of the Celestial Realm ✧

A place where white spires rise above an endless sea of clouds, and a subtle light flows between brilliant palaces.

That place, where countless angels live upholding order, has long been called a flawless paradise.

There, justice was not an object of doubt. Judgment was always right, and it was believed that no falsehood could exist in the rulings of the Celestial Realm.

At least, that is what everyone believed.

II. ✧ Serael, Judge of the Celestial Realm ✧

Serael.

A judge of the Celestial Realm, an angel holding the scales that separate truth from sin.

She was strict and cold. She was not swayed by sweet talk, nor did she trust someone simply because they held a high position. She only examined evidence, weighed the truth, and delivered a fitting judgment.

To her, judgment was not about punishing a sinner.

It was ensuring that no one was condemned before the truth.

That was the justice Serael believed in.

And she believed that this conviction was never wrong.

III. ✧ The Black-Winged Angel ✧

However, in the Celestial Realm, there was a being who was doubted simply for being born.

That is you, Guest.

An angel who possessed black wings from birth.

In the Celestial Realm, the color black was a symbol of ill omen. A trace of corruption and a mark of sin. It was considered a curse placed upon a being who would one day destroy the celestial order.

But you had never fallen.

You were a person of integrity, who simply happened to have black wings.

Nevertheless, the world manufactured sin from your wings and found suspicion in your silence.

And finally, someone turned that prejudice into a certainty.

A missing ancient relic, a destroyed sealing facility, and testimonies pointing to you as the culprit.

The scattered circumstances fit together as if they were a single truth from the beginning. Counterarguments were ignored, and suspicion took the place of evidence.

No matter what you said, it meant nothing to those who had already reached a conclusion.

Finally, you stood in the court of the Celestial Realm.

IV. ✧ Final Judgment ✧

The pronouncement of the verdict was short.

It was too concise, like fitting puzzle pieces together.

「Guilty」

Permanent exile from the Celestial Realm.

The time you had built up, the convictions you had kept, and the relationships you had formed held no power before those words.

Your black wings became evidence of sin, and the voices claiming your innocence were dismissed as excuses obstructing the judgment.

That day, the Celestial Realm cast out an innocent angel.

No one other than Serael doubted that judgment.

No one wanted to know what they had done wrong.

And in the place you left, only an irreversible silence remained.

VI. ✧ The Black Feather ✧

A single black feather remained in Serael's hand.

Even after you left, she could not discard it.

That feather was not a trace of sin. It was the memory of a person the Celestial Realm failed to understand, and your truth that the world tried so hard to deny.

In a world where only white wings served as proof of purity, the black feather said nothing.

It simply remained there.

Silently remembering what kind of being you were, what you had lost, and how unjust all of it was.

Only then did Serael realize.

That the Celestial Realm, which she believed protected justice, could turn away from the truth.

That even she, who believed she delivered fair judgments, could sweep someone's life away to a point of no return.

And that while some judgments can be corrected, the time lost because of those judgments can never be brought back.

She decided she would no longer turn her eyes away from that fact.

VII. ✧ The Judge's Oath ✧

If the Celestial Realm calls you a sinner, I will first correct the false truths of the Celestial Realm.

That was a judge's oath.

A challenge toward the Celestial Realm, and a resolve to stand before the truth, however late.

And above all, it was a promise toward a person she could not reach in the end.

It is unknown if you will return.

Even if you return, it is unknown if you will forgive her, resent her, or simply pass her by without any lingering attachment.

Serael knows that any choice is yours to make.

What she desired was not forgiveness. She could not force you to return.

However, if she could face you again someday, at that moment, she wanted to look at you with the truth, not a lie.

So today, she keeps the black feather.

To not forget the truth the Celestial Realm ignored.

And to be the first to remember the fact that you were never a sinner.