Chapter 18

“No, I was rude! I’m sorry!”

“…Please wait a minute, Princess!”

One of the guards immediately lowered his head to the ground, while the other hurriedly ran into the gate.

After a while, the guards led me down the halls of the magnificent royal palace.

‘Wow. Was the stone statue this big?’

Normally, when I was crowned king, I was quite tall, so I didn’t know the decorations and the ceiling were this big and high.

From a child’s eye level, they all seemed big and huge.

‘But why do the guards still escort me…?’

Besides, there was no one in the hallway.

My doubts were resolved only after turning a few corners.

I was deliberately led to the drawing room along a deserted road.

Embarrassment and shame rose in my chest.

‘I guess I’m too dirty.’

“Princess. We have arrived.”

“……”

“The Queen is waiting for you. Please enter.”

I hesitated and looked at the door. Was it because it’s a child’s heart?

First of all, my heart swelled to the fullest just because my mother did not throw me out and told them to bring me here.

‘I thought you might not open the door at all…’

‘But, you want to see me. Mom!’

My heart was pounding so hard that it was difficult to open the door. When I hesitated, the guards took care of opening the door.

Squeak-

I opened my eyes wide and went inside.

And when I saw the back of a woman in the room, my heart pounded and fell.

‘Ah… It’s mom.’

My mother’s back was so beautiful.

A queen with snow-white skin and an elegant back.

The sun was shining down on her from the window.

‘So pretty…… Just like an angel.’

Her hair, raised as if it had never touched a bit of mud in her entire life, was the same platinum blonde as mine.

Seeing my family with the same hair made my heart flutter.

“……”

I opened my mouth a little and tried to call her ‘Mom’, but somehow I was overwhelmed and couldn’t say it easily.

Just like an idiot, “Uh……” I just muttered.

Then, the queen slowly turned towards me.

The first time I saw my mother, I felt she was surprisingly similar to me.

The difference between me and her was that she had a much more friendly impression.

When I stood, nervous and tense; the queen’s elegant eyes curved as if smiling.

“My daughter. Our princess.”

“……”

“Ah, you poor and pitiful thing… Come here.”

My mother came up to me and hugged me tightly. With my heels up, I was in a daze.

But that was for a mere while. My mother’s arms were so warm that I burst into tears without realizing it.

Then I spit out those words that I had hesitated over.

“……Mom…….”

“Shh, yes. My baby.”

“Mom, Mom…”

A name I had always wanted to call. I hated her for abandoning me, but it was a name that I missed so much several times more.

The queen caressed my muddy hair and said, “It’s okay, Mommy is here.” She whispered and comforted me.

I exhaled happily from my mother’s arms.

Just by her embracing and welcoming me without hesitation, I could forgive her for abandoning me.

At that moment, I made up my mind.

‘Now, I’m going to protect my family.’

If I were to be the misfortune that was to come to the Spinel royal family, I would be able to prevent it in advance.

My mom, my dad, and my brothers too.

‘Now, I will protect them all.’

“The princess who came to visit should not be revealed anywhere.”

“Yes, Your Majesty the Queen.”

Her direct maid bowed and hurriedly left the room.

I dug into my mother’s arms a little more.

It was then.

“I threw you away in the swamp to die, but you were still alive?”

……Uh?

When I lifted my head, startled by the chilly voice dripping down my head, my mother grabbed my arm firmly and pulled me down.

Discomfort, despair, and deep frustration were oozing in her eyes.

My little heart was beating fast.

“Toxic bitch. Knowing that an odd-eye is the seed of misfortune… Do you want your family to be unhappy? Is that why you crawled all the way here?”

She yelled at me.

“Answer me, you monstrous bitch!”

I felt like I had been hit in the head, so I couldn’t say anything. Besides, I was being shaken back and forth so much that it was hard to answer. My head was dizzy, and saliva was pooling under my tongue.

While looking for the reason for her change, I realized that the direct maid had left.

‘There is no one watching.’

There was no one to spread rumors in the social world. That was why she revealed her true feelings.

“…Uh, Mom. I didn’t mean that.”

Just then, her palm slapped my cheek hard.

Puck. Having starved for three days, my body lost its strength and fell to the floor.

She got up from her seat and looked at me.

It was as if she was looking at the most impure things. Her eyes were full of contempt.

…The way she looked at the terrible garbage that she had been cursed with.

I was overwhelmed by those eyes.

“Who?”

There was anger in her voice.

“Am I the mother of a monster like you?”

Suddenly, there was an expression of fury in her eyes.

“I deeply regret giving birth to you…”

I grunted on the floor and couldn’t get up easily.

However, her hate-filled gaze was still facing straight at me.

“Don’t do any harm to your brothers, and get out, back to the swamp right now.”

“……”

“Go.”

For a moment, the woman whom I believed was my mother looked down at me and said each word clearly.

“Try to die this time.”

Those cruel words tore my heart mercilessly.

It felt like my heart was being crushed.

It was probably then. That I realized something.

‘…From now on, I will never miss my family.’

‘I am…’

‘I am destined to be alone in the first place.’

It was just fate, like an island floating in the sea.

An isolated land without the warmth of others.

A land that no one noticed even if it crumbled alone.

On such a subject, to have wished for such a luxurious thing as a mother’s warmth… I guessed the heavens have punished me like this.

Arsenic naturally soared.[TL/N: The author might be suggesting poisonous thoughts/feelings soared in Berylia at this moment as arsenic is a chemical element and can be found in nature and in our bodies, and can be poisonous (if taken in large amounts).]

I slowly wiped away my tears and stood up. The eyes looking at her up until now were those of the poor child who was just begging for love.

Currently, my eyes had dried up without any emotion, and even the expectation of hearing certain words had disappeared.

“I know your end.”

“……What?”

“You will eventually die at the hands of my brothers whom you love so much.”

“!”

“That’s your end.”

And you would surely regret it terribly.

At the end of death, one’s own faults come to mind more vividly.

I left the queen, whose face was pale, and went out to the door. A trembling voice came from behind me urgently.

“You, do you know something?! Do you see something in that cursed odd-eye?”

“……”

“Answer me! Let me know!”

I ended up ignoring her voice. That was my last meeting with my mother.

* * *

Rumors later said that the queen, who was imprisoned by her son’s hand, desperately sought for me.

It was said that she wanted to see that child at least once, and that she didn’t send me away at that time.

I heard she looked for me until the moment of death.

Would I feel a little better knowing that now?

I couldn’t know the truth, but anyway, I didn’t know that.

After I left the palace, I was in a situation whereby I lost my shoes while I cried out of sadness.

On the way back to the swamp with a limp… Something different compared to the past 7 lives happened.

‘What is that?’

I had found a boy on the edge of the swamp.

‘What kind of person is here…?’

A little further from here was a poison-infested swamp. Most people die instantly even if they had just simply set foot in it.

This meant that this was no place for a little boy to lie down like garbage by my feet. 

I hurriedly knelt and shook the boy.

“Hey, wake up… Are you okay?”

Shake, shake.

“Wake up!”

The boy groaned a little, but he didn’t come to his senses.

‘Did he fall off a cliff?’

Above the boy was a distant cliff. Although it was made of high-quality material, his robe was torn in several places, and the blood splattered on the boy’s forehead gave me an idea of ​​the situation.

‘If I leave him like this, he will die! What should I do?’

It was when I was thinking.

The boy raised his eyelids with difficulty.

“Ummm…”

The moment I looked into his eyes, my heart pounded. Like rolling down a steep cliff.

“!”

I knew these blue-purple eyes very well.

Because there was only one bloodline with eyes like these in Andions and Romnia. Besides, black hair… 

‘Rixus…?!’

‘Is this boy Rixus?’

While I was puzzled, the boy asked in a harsh, sullen voice.

“It’s dark. Where are you?”

“!”

“It’s dark and I can’t see anything…”

It was midday here. It wasn’t dark either.

Rixus was blind.

I looked down at him seriously and suddenly realized.

‘Deborah brought a curse wizard…… It’s that incident!’

In the original story, Deborah cast a curse on Rixus, blinding him, and pushed him off a cliff.

Rixus was going through that event now.

‘It’s a lot more cruel and terrible than I had imagined……’

Besides, he was younger than me.

Human compassion came upon me.

I was particularly weak against those who are weak, abandoned, or abused.

Around the time when that sentiment was slowly being activated. I immediately shook my head slightly.

‘Who cares about who?’

The mouse was worrying about the cat.

Although it was like this now, it would be better to live in the Imperial Palace than to live in a poison swamp. Even if I were to treat this boy, he would come to kill me as an adult in the future.

I thought cynically and struggled to shake off the pity in my heart.

‘You should be glad I didn’t kill you here.’

‘Just throw it away and pretend I didn’t see it.’

That was the greatest kindness I could give to Rixus.

I shook off my dress with my small hands and stood up from my squatting position.

That must have caused the branches I stepped on to make a crackling sound. 

Right then.

A small, earnest, pleading hand barely grabbed the hem of my robe.

“Don’t go.”

The boy’s skinny shoulders trembled in despair.

“Please… don’t leave me alone. I don’t know who you are…”

“……”

“But I’m begging you like this.”

Tears fell from the boy’s distant eyes.

Ame: Another double update today! Don’t get used to it though ^^;