Chapter 182

Chapter 182

An indescribable expression crossed the Queen’s face. It looked like exhaustion, or perhaps something else entirely. She closed her eyes for a moment and let out a soft sigh.

Once her boiling blood had cooled, all that remained in her body was emptiness, and the numbness that followed the fading of some violent emotion.

She glanced at Maria, shook her head, and spoke in a drifting voice.

“No, Maria. I don’t know anything. I have nothing to say.”

Maria said nothing. Stubbornly, she refused to look away, her icy gaze fixed on the Queen’s face.

Only then did she suddenly realize that two fine lines had appeared at the corners of the Queen’s eyes at some point.

Perhaps too many things had exhausted her recently. Or perhaps they had been there long ago. Maria had not looked closely at her face in a very long time.

“At first, I thought it was you,” she said. “Although you may think I’ve forgotten, my memory began very early. You once spoke to the mirror in front of me. I was still very young then.”

The flesh on the Queen’s cheek twitched strangely.

“Back then, you were fairly good to me,” Maria said. “I thought you really were my mother. I trusted you so much that, when I learned the truth, it made me look like a complete and utter fool.”

“So the reason you were once so kind to me was because you felt guilty toward my mother? You wanted to make it up to me, to soothe your own restless conscience?”

“Oh-” The Queen let out a sound that might have been a groan or a sob. She lowered her head and buried her face deep in her hands.

“Maria-” Her voice was full of pain. “Please, don’t say any more.”

Maria held her back perfectly straight and looked down at her with lowered eyes.

“I’m asking you-begging you-to let me know the truth,” Maria said stubbornly. “My mother died the moment I was born. I never even saw her once. I have the right to know the truth.”

“This is only a pitiful daughter wanting to know her mother’s true identity… Please-” Her voice softened. “It’s actually very simple, isn’t it? She trusted you. You should tell me everything.”

The Queen remained motionless, like a statue.

A long time passed before the Queen’s hoarse voice finally sounded in the vast bedroom.

“Yes. You’re right. You do have the right to know the truth.”

The Queen raised her head. Her eyes were suspiciously red.

Maria stared at her doubtfully-had she been crying?

“Your mother, Cecilia…” A pained look appeared on the Queen’s face, as though merely speaking the name caused her unbearable agony. “I want you to know that she was the kindest, gentlest Woman in the world.”

Maria’s heart felt as if it had been kneaded in an instant, a sour ache flowing through her entire body.

She stared fixedly at the Queen.

“If that’s true, then why did you do that-”

The Queen did not answer her question. Her gaze fell on Maria’s face, and for an instant, she looked dazed. In her eyes appeared a softness like the tender flesh inside an oyster shell.

“Your guess was right. Before Cecilia became Queen-her name was Aphro.”

Maria closed her eyes for a moment. There was a certainty in her, as if she had expected this all along, yet for some reason, there was not the slightest joy in her heart at learning the truth.

She felt tired, heavy, numb, and even, inappropriately, a little like laughing.

But when she tugged at the corners of her mouth, she could not draw out even the faintest smile.
“How did you know…” she asked. “Did she tell you?”

The Queen was silent for a moment. “She bought me from the side of the road.” A flicker of hatred flashed through her eyes. “My father was addicted to gambling. He actually wanted to sell his own daughter-

“Yes, I was useless for anything else, but I did have a decent face. I could fetch a good price.”

Maria frowned slightly.

“But perhaps I should thank him. If not for him, I might never have met your mother.

“She was the gentlest, most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She bought me, and then she set me free. But I refused. I knew nothing. I could do nothing. The only thing I wanted was to stay by her side.

“So she took me back with her, and I became the Maid at her side.”

Her voice was thick with longing.

“You really do look like her, Maria.” The Queen looked at her, yet somehow seemed not to be looking at her at all. “But then I saw your eyes-exactly the same as that man’s. I hate him. I hate him for having the most wonderful thing in the world and still not knowing how to cherish it!”

“And what did you do?” Maria looked at her. “You betrayed her!”

“I did not!” the Queen shrieked. “I would rather have died! I would rather die than do that!”

“Then why did you do it?”

“The King deceived your mother with sweet words.” She spoke through gritted teeth. “He approached her under an ordinary identity, won her heart, and coaxed her into believing he would only ever love her for the rest of his life. But after she married him, she discovered that he already had a child!”

Fire seemed to blaze in the Queen’s eyes. “Your mother wanted to leave. But for that man, she had left her own friends behind. She was afraid she would not be forgiven, so she didn’t dare turn back.

“I was her only friend in the Royal Palace. She told me everything about herself, including her identity, the Magic Mirror she had stolen, her love, her hesitation, her pain-everything.”

Maria’s throat felt as though it had been blocked. The tightness was unbearable. She opened her mouth and let out a pained moan.

It was as if she could feel, in her mother’s place, all the pain and tears she had endured in this Royal Palace.

“Later, she had you.” The Queen’s voice paused for a moment. “She had never been so happy, Maria-she loved you so much. Before you were even born, she already loved you.

“But precisely because of that, she hid it from me. If I had known, I would never have let her give birth to you.”

Maria looked at her uneasily.

“You grew inside her body and absorbed all her power. A Witch’s child will always be a daughter. Your growth drained her life force.

“Perhaps Witches truly are evil. They are born to take a person’s life away.”

The Queen spoke in agony.

On the one hand, she could not stop herself from hating the person who had taken Aphro from her side. On the other, she truly loved the only connection Aphro had left to this world.

Maria felt an uncontrollable wave of nausea.

She wanted to vomit. Her stomach cramped, and pain surged up from deep within her body, a pain that seemed to spill out from her very soul.

“But your mother loved you so much. She held my hand and asked me to take good care of you.” The Queen looked at her with pity.

“I could not refuse her request.”