It was a night that would change everything. Within the grand halls of the Akatsuki manor, the lady of the house, Lady Olivia,with her striking white hair and piercing blue eyes, went into labor.
The air was heavy with anticipation, and the soft glow of candlelight cast dancing shadows on the walls.
"Just a little longer, my lady. The moment is almost here," the midwife, a seasoned woman named Eliza, assured with a comforting tone, her eyes focused on the task ahead.
She gently wiped Lady Olivia's forehead with a damp cloth, offering what solace she could in the midst of the intense pains.
Lady Olivia writhed as the pains of labor overwhelmed her. The midwives, led by Eliza, worked frantically to assist with the delivery. Finally, a loud wail broke the tense silence of the birthing room, filling the air with a mix of relief and anxiety.
"It's a boy, My lady!" one of the midwives announced, holding the squirming infant. "You did well, my lady!"
"Oh, My baby!" Lady Olivia's voice trembled with a mix of exhaustion and joy as she beheld her newborn son. She reached out to touch his tiny fingers, her eyes brimming with tears of overwhelming emotion .
Just as the midwife picks the child from Queen Olivia and moved to clean the child, her smile faded as a look of concern crossed her features. "where's the stigmata? Shouldn't it be there?" The midwife's voice cracked with worry, breaking the tension in the room.
Stigmata, the symbol of being blessed by the gods and a powerful indicator of potential. Where it should have been glowing upon the infant's skin, there was only flawless, unmarked flesh.
"My Lady?...." Just as Eliza, the midwife, was about to voice her growing unease, the heavy doors swung open with a resounding thud.
King Aiden swept into the room, his fiery red locks and piercing red eyes marking his regal demeanor with urgency and concern. "Well? What news?" he demanded impatiently, his eyes searching the room for answers.
At the midwife's hesitant look and the stark silence that followed, understanding dawned on Queen Olivia's exhausted face. "No…" she whispered in dread, her voice barely audible over the hushed whispers of the attendants.
The midwife, her expression weighted with sorrow, bowed her head. "I'm afraid the child bears no Stigmata, My lord and My Lady."
"What?", King Aiden's face reddened in fury. "A worthless son with no stigmata in this family?!, Ain't no way" he roared. "You have failed me for the last time, woman!" Turning to the guards, he spat, "Take the abomination away. It is no heir of mine.
"What? You can't do that", she shouted.
"You've given birth to a child with no stigmata. This is unacceptable, a disgrace to the Family of Akatsuki. If other nobles find out that the Akatsuki family has given birth to a child with no stigmata, it will cause troubles for me as a king and for our family's reputation,"
"No, My....Son...!!!" She shouted in tears and desperation.
The king's face darkened, and he spoke, his words sending shivers through the room, "He is not my child anymore. Guards execute that rant."
Lady Olivia found her voice then through her tears. "Please, he is still our son! Aiden, have mercy—" But her pleas fell on deaf ears. As the guards ripped the crying infant from the midwife's arms, Lady Olivia's anguished wails echoed throughout the manor walls.
Lady Olivia's body had gone numb after the ordeal of labor, but the pain in her heart far outweighed any physical suffering. As the guards seized her newborn, her maternal instincts kicked in with ferocious intensity.
"No!, Please" she screamed, finding renewed strength to lunge forward from the birthing bed. But her limbs trembled, barely able to hold her weight, and she collapsed to the floor in a crumpled heap.
The guards towered over her prone form, unmoved by her tears staining the marble tiles. On the ground, Lady Olivia grasped desperately at the leg of the nearest man. "Please, I'm begging you! He is my son." Her voice grew hoarse from sobbing, throat raw with anguish.
But King Aiden showed no mercy. His scowl deepened at seeing his wife prostrated in such a lowly state. "Enough foolery," he snapped, impatience lacing every syllable. "Take the cursed thing and dispose of it, before its taint spreads further."
Lady Olivia's cries grew hysterical then. "My baby, my baby!" She stretched her arms out in vain, fingers groping the empty air where her newborn had been only moments before. His piercing wails echoed in her mind as the guards' footsteps receded down the hall, an excruciating dagger in her mother's heart.
All traces of royal decorum had fled - her body was wracked with guttural sobs that shuddered through her entire frame. But King Aiden remained cold, his lip curled in distaste. "Your purpose was to bear a proper heir. You have failed."
"None of them had been born with this family's abilities and now you gave birth to one with no stigmata such a disgrace, argh".
With that cruel dismissal, he turned briskly on his heel, leaving Lady Olivia broken and alone on the bloodstained floor, fingers clawing uselessly at the space where her son had been torn from her arms. Her despairing howls of anguish rent the stifling silence, the final cries of a mother's shattered soul...
As her cries echoed off the bare walls, Lady Olivia's mind reeled with anguish. All she could see was her darling boy's sweet face, his tiny fingers grasping at the empty air as he was carried away.
"My son, how could you?" she whimpered through gulping breaths. Her body shook not just with sobs but with unrestrained rage - how could you treat an innocent infant so cruelly? This child, who had done nothing to deserve such a fate.
Deeper still stirred the familiar ache of disappointment. Once again she had failed in her duty to provide a heir, seemingly unable to give King Aiden what he so desired. But this precious baby's worth far outweighed any gilded title. He did not choose to be born thus - it was simply his fate, for which he did not deserve punishment.
And so she wept not just for her son's harsh sentence, but for the state of her loveless marriage. For a family that valued status over humanity, decency over unconditional love.