Seemingly pleased at my reaction, she continues, “I come from Wind Manor.”

She says, as if speaking to herself.

“I was sent here to establish a position of power within this Kingdom. We had a new leader, one who advocated for the Manor to plant its seeds in each Kingdom, instead of remaining detached from the world.”

“My orders were simply to achieve a rank of Marquis in this Kingdom; I could have easily achieved that by becoming a private guard for a noble of high standing and accruing some achievements for myself.”

She lets out a sigh at this point.

“I chose the Duke’s manor, as it would be easier to prove my worth on the battlefield. Eventually, I did get hired as the personal guard of the previous Duke. I even managed to save him from an Assassin once when he was in a dire situation, one that forced me to bring out my true abilities, earning great merit.”

“However, it also came with subsequent troubles. Your father was merely the youngest son at that time, but he was keen eyed. He noticed instantly during that event that I was from Wind Manor, and approached me, threatening to expose me if I didn’t aid him in becoming Duke.”

“Eventually, even after he became Duke, I was still being threatened by him though…”

She laughs mockingly at herself.

“He promised his full cooperation only if I became his wife, and Wind Manor and the Duke house would be joined by marriage. If not, he would expose this to the King, potentially jeopardising all our ‘seeds’ in other Kingdoms as well, causing their deaths.”

“I threatened him with his life, but he said he didn’t mind mutual destruction. I still remember those crazed eyes. Those were the eyes of someone who has neverending ambition. Someone who would never stop until he had absolute power. Those were the eyes of a madman.”

Shuddering slightly, yet expressing hate, mother continued, “I promised my cooperation. At this point, I had to… for my comrades… for the Manor...”

She sighed remorsefully again, laughing after.

“And now… after all this, I’m going to die thanks to him as well… this is truly laughable…”

She laughs mockingly at herself.

I keep quiet throughout all of her words. Her story is tragic, but I can’t bring myself to cry for her. I’m not related to her. If anything, I feel only remorse. Remorse for lying to such a pitiful woman, one who has gone through so much, who only found some solace in her role as a mother, yet her only son turned out to be replaced by a stranger.

I feel remorse at the fact that while I think this way, the thought of revealing everything to her never came up. Just excuses. ‘She would be more heartbroken if she knew.’ ‘It’s better to die blissfully while living in a dream.’

I’m a wretched person. Truly. I still haven’t told her about the partial antidote too. Deep within, I wanted to have her die, using the fact that the 2nd wife poisoned her to my leverage, eliminating her sons’ chances, at the same time securing my succession.

Even now, I’m not thinking of sparing her because of her past. I’m only thinking of sparing her because it may gain me a foothold within Wind Manor, and more importantly, if the Duke is truly as she says… the successor spot has little meaning…

My goals were centred around me obtaining the position of Duke as leverage. If father truly has such ambition and scheming in him, the position is certainly something I should avoid like the plague. He wouldn’t give up his position even if Hell freezes over.

“Qiu Xue? Qiu Xue?”, she calls repeatedly concernedly.

Only then do I break out from my stupor.

“I’m j-just so shocked…”, I say, stuttering.