Mother?
Rosalind's lips twitched. This was the exact same scene when they met in the past except... Dorothy was with Victoria in the past.
But now, there was no Dorothy.
At that time, Rosalind felt extremely grateful for the opportunity to call that woman her mother. She complied and even felt very happy to do so. But now, after what she had been through in the past, she started to wonder what was the motive behind Victoria's actions.
Victoria Foster-Lux used to be the heir of the Foster Family, a well-known family of merchants. She met the current patriarch of the Lux Family and the two fell in love. Soon enough, they gave birth to Dorothy. However, the previous Patriarch, Rosalind's grandfather, insisted that they give birth to another child for the Blessing.
Obviously, the patriarch at that time wanted to make sure that there will be another child to receive the Blessing. After all, being a firstborn doesn't guarantee that they will inherit the Blessing of the Goddess.
It was completely random.
So, the patriarch asked Victoria and his son to have another child. Sadly, they discovered that Victoria could no longer give birth to another baby. Everything would have been fine if the patriarch didn't insist that Rosalind's father, Martin Lux, take another woman to birth a second child.
As the one who received the Blessing for his generation, Martin felt the pressure from his father and soon accepted a concubine — a lowly maid that they could easily get rid of after giving birth.
Sadly for them, the second child — the one born from the maid was born with black hair.
"Why are you still standing in there? Aren't you going to greet your mother?" Victoria asked as she tried to hide the disgust in her eyes. "Come, give your mother a hug."
Rosalind faked a gentle smile. To her surprise, she started tearing up. This wasn't because she was happy or sad. It was because she was infuriated — so infuriated she was tempted to burn the woman from the inside out.
However, it seems that Victoria took this as a sign that Rosalind had missed her as she pulled Rosalind towards her. It felt like a warm gesture except Rosalind knew that this was all fake. Everything was fake.
"Mother — " Rosalind uttered. She gave the woman a tight hug as she debated against crushing her to death. Rosalind was confident she was capable of doing that because of her Blessing. "Wahhhhh— " Rosalind started crying, she couldn't help it. If she wanted her revenge, she had to act like the fool she was when they sent her to this place.
"I have missed you. I have been waiting for you to come back. I missed you and my father and my older sister. I missed everyone!" Rosalind's voice was so loud as she made sure to give the ugliest expression she could muster.
She wanted to see how long can this woman could maintain her kind, motherly act. Would she be able to maintain that altruistic expression if Rosalind showed her a really rather unpleasant, crying face? Would she be able to hug Rosalind?
Just as she expected, Victoria's hand tightened around her. It was as if the woman wanted to crush her just to stop her from crying.
"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…. Mother! How could you leave me here? It has been five years since I last saw you and I— "
"Shhh… there — " Victoria forced the words out of her mouth. She looked uncomfortable, but still had to maintain a gentle expression.
Commendable, Rosalind thought inwardly.
"Now— Now— stop crying and let your mother see your face. My poor child. The bear must have frightened you so much."
Rosalind eyed Milith, who was crying not far away from them. A bear, huh? She couldn't help but praise her maid's memory.
She had told Milith to use this reason in case they got separated in the mountains. A bear is an animal that has received a curse in the past. It loves to prey on humans and enjoy their flesh. It's a very large scary looking creature that only a well-trained knight or someone who received the Blessing of the Goddess could kill.
If she used this as a reason why they were separated, no one would doubt her. Humans who encounter a beast like that would panic and run away. Can anyone really blame her for trying to survive?
"You — Go and get new clothes for your master!" Victoria said. "Serve her tea."
Milith got up.
"Tell me what happened," Victoria said after making her sit in a chair.
Of course, Rosalind took this opportunity to wail while retelling her story. She told Victoria how she got lost and wandered around. When she saw another monster, she was frightened to death and she fainted.
When she woke up, she ran and ran and fell asleep somewhere. Then she ran again until she arrived here. The story didn't actually make any sense, but Rosalind was nothing but a weak, inexperienced young miss who could only cry from the trauma of what happened in the forest.
In the end, Victoria gave a helpless sighed and told her to rest. She was going to take her back to the capital and they are going to depart after she recovers.After entering Rosalind's room, Milith quickly turned to her.
"Young lady! I really— "
"Shhhh — " Rosalind stopped Milith from talking. She narrowed her eyes at the maid as she gestured for her to get a piece of paper.
The walls of her room were thin, and Victoria brought some knights. In the past, some knights used a method that would make their senses sharper than a normal human's. Meaning, they could hear better, smell better and even see better than some magicians and humans around.
Because of this, she has decided to be careful around them. She just couldn't risk it.
Milith gave her a piece of paper and she immediately thanked the maid for her quick wit. Then she wrote some instructions to the maid, one of which is for Milith to ignore Rosalind's antics from now on. After reading her note, Milith met her gaze. Understanding flashed in Milith's eyes as she nodded.
Then the two of them used a candle to burn the paper, making sure that their conversation remained private.
Now that she was hell-bent on making some people suffer, she is going to start picking her own allies. Right now, she wasn't too sure if Milith could be trusted, but she had no other choice.
Milith had proven herself useful, but people change. Rosalind could only trust her own instincts… for now.