EDITED.
"They tried to crush me beneath their lies, but now I rise, as the embodiment of wrath, ready to carve my justice from their bones."
~
LOUISA WIPED her lips that kissed Ser. Chandler's own.
"Disgusting" She stated.
Arching her brows, "So why did you kiss him?"
"I was simply trying to prove something." She replied sincerely as she sat down on the chair.
Throwing her head up, she stared at the ceiling and thought of how to enact her plans.
"What happened at the banquet?" Nanette asked once more.
Taking a breathe, she sighed inwardly and massaged her temple. The night was both stressful and annoying. What an amicable combination. "I slept with Ser. Chandler".
Nanette went silent as she stared at her daughter, hoping she would laugh and wave it off as a poor joke. But as the seconds went to minutes, she knew she was serious, and it wasn't some sort of terrible joke.
"Why?" she asked calmly. "I didn't know you had feelings for that boy"
Boy?
To Nanette Van-Rensselaer, Ser. Chandler was a boy, a kid, a man child to word it appropriately. Because there are some things he says and does that genuinely make her question his intellectual.
"I thought Luella was in love with him, and I wanted to take him away from her, like she did to my position as the heiress of the dukedom."
Nanette bit her teeth on the bottom part of her lip as she thought of how Luella had stolen her daughter's position as the real heiress of the dukedom. She had tried everything to make her late husband see the light, but it was as though his eyes and ears were blocked by something.
'Luella needs to go'.
"And did it work out?" She asked after pulling herself out of her thoughts.
"Oh, it would have worked out perfectly fine if, and only if that cloaked, masked stranger man didn't show up"
"The same man that boy was stressing about?"
"Yes. That man." Louisa nodded, sitting up to explain what happened better.
"He suddenly barged into the room like he owned the place and punched Ser. Chandler in the head any time he said something he didn't like." She explained, "Which was a lot".
Nanette didn't look a bit surprised at the fact that Ser. Chandler was beat up by someone because of his foolishness.
"That explains the bandage around his head." She nodded, acknowledging the bandage she saw wrapped around his head.
She didn't care enough for him to ask him about it when she saw him.
"Then he insulted me. He didn't use honorifics. He lifted me up by my neck, and when I tried to attack him with my shadow magic, he easily countered it like it was nothing. Look, I also hurt my ankle." Louisa whined like the little girl she was to her mother as she lifted her dress, exposing her swollen ankle.
Anger dawned on Nanette's shoulders at the realization that her precious daughter had gotten hurt in the process of fight some loose maniac.
"Describe him for me"
"Well… That's the thing. He was covered from head to boots. Hooded cloaked, black face mask, his hood covered his eyes, he wore gloves, and the cloak was long enough to cover his entire large frame".
"Then we will just have to ask Luella." Nanette declared, her eyes strained on her daughter's swollen ankle.
Her perfect daughter, that was clean and beautiful with no blemishes, went to a banquet and came back with a swollen ankle? Not under her watch.
Louisa, her daughter, would be perfect. From skin to skills. She would learn the dukedom bloodline magic, and she would be the most perfect wielder in the history of Van-Rensselaer.
Her name would be written in the books, and she would be known by her children's children. Her name would override Luella's name, and history would believe Louisa Van-Rensselaer was the only daughter born into the Van-Rensselaer dukedom during that time.
Nanette's daughter, Louisa.
Her only daughter Louisa Van-Rensselaer would be the only heiress to the family's name and not an outsider.
"I don't think Luella knows the strange man. After all, she called him Mr. Stranger. So I am sure she doesn't know who he is."
Nanette sighed before speaking again. "I will call the Physician to check on your leg, and I will also send spies to overlook what Luella has been doing for the past few days."
Louisa nodded, and a soft smile played on her lips. She knew her mother would always be her number one supporter.
'A mother's love is always the best'.
"So what is the thing going on between you and that kid"
Louisa's brows furrowed in confusion as she wondered what kid she was talking about, but then it clicked.
Ser. Chandler.
"Gross, that is a disgusting assumption you would have for me"
"Well, you were shamelessly locking lips with him here so, it is a given I assume such a thing"
"I just thought to use him for my gain in breaking Luella, but it seems she does not love him."
"Of course she doesn't. He is a foolish child who needs to be rebirth to have his brain developed again." Nanette insulted.
She stood up from her seat as she arranged the paper she was working on before she had run downstairs because of the chaos that ensued between the children.
"Honestly, it would be humiliating and sincerely beneath Luella to fall in love with such an idiotic child. And that's just putting it mildly".
Louisa only shook her head as she listened to her mother insult Ser. Chandler. She neither planned to defend him nor plead his case. After all, she didn't care or even like him.
"So why didn't you stop me before I went along with my plan of merging them together?" Louisa accused.
"Because I thought you had some genius plan," Nanette answered, looking up from her paper document. "But I guess I was wrong and overestimated you"
Louisa rolled her eyes as she heard her mother's words. Her mother was still sharp toothed, as always.
"I want to get rid of Luella," Louisa stated. The room went silent, and Nanette stared at her daughter.
A smile slowly formed on the mother's lips.
"I thought you would still want to play petty, mindless games with her" Louisa crunched her brows as confused lines appeared on her forehead.
"I have already planned to get rid of her"
"How soon?"
"Will tomorrow be fine?"