Free Web NovelChapter 414: I Hate Her
Marina continued, and I noticed she had not taken her tea cup from the small table since she had placed it there.
It sat untouched, the steam still rising from its surface, as if she had forgotten about it entirely.
Her hands were clasped in her lap, her fingers interlaced, and her gaze remained fixed on the distance as she spoke.
"She raised me and Deva in a human kingdom," she said, her voice carrying a weight that had not been there before. "I watched her toil for us both for many years. She worked tirelessly, sacrificing her own comfort and her own desires to ensure that we had everything we needed.
"She was a high-class courtesan—one of the most sought-after and respected in entire kingdoms. And because of her position, she had serious wars started out because rulers wanted her for themselves. Kings and princes and lords fought over her, waged battles and truly spilled blood, all for the chance to possess her."
That... was not something I had expected to hear when I had asked about Marina’s mother.
"Her line of work was what made myself and Deva live high-standing lives in the society," Marina continued, her voice steady and composed. "We never wanted for anything. And even got us educated. She was the best mother a child would ever ask for..."
Awwwwnnn!! Ain’t that nice?!
Motherly love and stuff; a woman who sacrificed everything to give her children a better life, who worked in a dangerous and demanding profession just to ensure that her daughters would never know poverty or hardshi—
"But..." Marina cut off my moe mode sharply, her voice turning cold and distant in a way that sent a small chill down my spine.
She was looking at small monsters that were playing at the high canopies overhead—tiny creatures that darted between the branches, their forms barely visible against the darkening sky. "I hate my mother very much."
Mhm... I kinda suspected we were going down this route, to be honest.
The way she had spoken about her mother had been too perfect, polished, and too carefully constructed. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
There was always a but lurking beneath those kinds of stories, a shadow that the light could not quite reach.
But okay, I am still all ears.
I waited on my stool, cradling my tea cup in my hands, and waited for her to continue.
"..."
Wait, so Deva is also very old, then?!
If Marina and Deva were raised together, and Marina had been alive when Queen Irina was still queen, then Deva must be just as ancient.
Lulu and the others were right, after all.
That meant her whole "I am underage" act was even more ridiculous than I had thought.
She was literally centuries old, pretending to be a child to avoid uncomfortable situations.
I made another mental note to confront her about that at some point.
Marina continued, her voice flat and unreadable: "Mother gave us everything we needed. Everything except attention. We were schooled by the best teachers, we learned a lot of things about this world we live in, we learned about magic and different arts besides the Amazonian ones mother made us learn. We also had the best clothes and the best food, we went to high-class events and were recognized as high-standing people.
"But that was it. Mother gave us that, but she herself was distant. She was never there. She was always working, entertaining, and always attending to the needs of her clients and patrons. She was a ghost in our lives: present in what she provided, but absent in who she was."
"B-But..." I interjected, unable to stop myself. "Don’t you think that was a way she was saying she loved you guys very much? By giving you everything she could, and making sure you never wanted for anything? Some parents show love through action rather than words or presence."
"More than gold and silver, more than any riches," Marina finally looked at me and squinted, her emerald eyes boring into mine with an intensity that made me want to look away. "A small child values the love and warmth of their parents above all else. If they do not have that, the gold and silver do not seem as glittering as others view them. They are just... things. They cannot replace a parent’s embrace. They cannot fill the emptiness that comes from... feeling unwanted."
Ugh, I was silenced.
I could not come up with a follow-up to that.
She had spoken with such conviction, such raw honesty, that all my carefully constructed arguments crumbled in the face of her truth.
I could only sit there, mute and humbled, and let her words wash over me.
Well... In terms of loneliness... She had it way better than me: I never really knew the people who birthed me, and I was rejected by my relatives.
Don’t wanna spoil the mood with my own gloomy past, so let’s shut up. She’s the star of this arc!
Though, I can more or less understand her mother’s standpoint.
She probably was not thinking her children should be so involved in her line of business.
Not just the sex working part, but more like the entire politics of it — the danger, the intrigue, and the constant maneuvering that came with being a high-class courtesan in a world of powerful men.
She would have wanted to protect her daughters from that world, to shield them from the darkness that came with her profession.
If she was too chummy and clingy to her kids, they might inevitably want to be what their mother was.
They might idolize her, imitate her, and follow her into a life that was fraught with peril and compromise.
By staying distant and keeping herself at arm’s length, she was perhaps trying to ensure that her daughters would choose a different path — a safer and better path.
Just a speculation, though. I could be completely wrong.
But sitting there on Marina’s balcony, with the morning air cooling my skin and the weight of her words heavy in my chest, I found myself hoping that I was right.
Because the alternative—that Marina’s mother had simply not cared enough to be present—was too sad to contemplate.
Impossible, actually. One won’t invest so much in children if they didn’t love them.
