HERALD OF STEEL

“…. did you not dislike the Pasha? I remember you wanted to annul the engagement when you turned eighteen.”

The young princess very subtly frowned at her mother’s reminder of this, trying very hard not to crease her eyebrows in such a public setting.

As a royal princess, she had been taught very strictly about such etiquettes, and she would never dare appear so inelegant.

Yet, it took just one look at how she was clenching her fair, small fist against the expensive silverware to know her true thoughts.

“Ro… Royal Mother, I was simply foolish. Please do not bring it up.” The recently turned sixteen year old finally chimed in a low voice, lightly heaving her still blossoming bosom to calm herself down.

The underlying meaning was clear- she no longer wished to separate and wanted her mother’s help to deliver the message.

“…..” And understanding so, Lady Parthia first turned to give her precious daughter a gentle look, appearing as if she was very proud of her.

Yet in reality her heart hid an ocean of complications as this brought up all of last night’s memories. And suddnely the pain in her pink tips flared up, her newly gifted ‘jewelry’ there felt so heavy and the warm, fresh gift still inside felt so ‘wrong’.

In fact, her whole body felt hot and flushed as all the places the crops had hit and left a mark once began to glow with heat and pleasure.

Once, Lady Parthia was constantly worried about her precious daughter finding a suitable suitor after breaking away from Alexander- a woman who ‘divorced’ her husband on her own was viewed extremely negatively by society.

Yet now, a part of her wanted exactly that! Even if it meant leaving an eternal stain on her daughter.

Because the alternative… was too shameful for the elegant lady to even think.

As a mother, she would lose all respect in her family if it ever got out she was sleeping with her daughter’s husband. Lady Parthia did not think she could live with herself if she ever got found out.

But at the same time, the sinful pleasure was too sweet for her to also abstain.

Given all that had happened just the night prior, she knew deep inside that she would agree whenever he called her to bed… no matter the circumstances.

In fact, just imagining all the things he might do to her made the heart flutter a bit.

“Did Pasha Alexander really not take you?”

But finally bringing her attention back to the present, the lady quickly sought to reconfirm her daughter’s status, posing with skeptical eyes.

And this gaze was half genuine because a part of her still did not buy Alexander’s claims.

Lady Parthia thought he was just saying so to woo her as she reasoned,

“I heard he is quite lascivious, dear daughter. He and his wives apparently do not hide their activities, and even many of the manor’s maids were not saved from his claws. So has he not really…”

“…..No, he has not!” This time the young princess’s heart was unable to contain her anger, as she spat out uncontrollably, breaking many of her table etiquettes.

“Royal mother, I swear I am unbroken! He does not even look at me! No matter how much I try!” The ‘pitiful’ girl then cried with a very aggrieved look, desperate to make her mother believe. She appeared very wronged and even seemed ready to ‘show her curtain downstairs’ to prove her innocence.

“…..” While Lady Parthia hearing this felt a sudden bout of elation at her daughter’s confirmation, much to her own shame.

Suddenly that taboo act felt a little more palatable.

Hence, to engage her own desires, the Tibian queen tried to subtly deter her own daughter from pursuing this, curving her lips and musing, “So if he has not touched you… could it be that he is not interested?”

“…..” The sixteen year old maiden was so caught off guard by this that she found it difficult to quickly reply.

In her mind, her mother should have been the first one to fully support her. She had been trying to get her to like Alexander for some time now.

Hence for her to suddenly tune now…..

“No! I refuse to believe Alexander can resist me!” The proud princess then at last spat, her eyes by now turned sharp and blazing, “As you already said Royal Mother, he lays his hands on every maid and whore that lands in front of him. So if I cannot do this…. are you saying I am even worse than them? *Snort*! No way!”

“…”

As Princess Camelia flicked her small nose up into the air in deviance, Lady Parthia felt a slight ripple in her heart, for she thought she just saw a lot of herself in her youngest daughter.

Lady Parthia remembered being similarly adamant about marrying Perseus despite her coming from a relatively low noble family and all the challenges it posed.

Although that same memory now desperately hurt her.

While on the other end of the table, the young princess was not done yet, as announcing her determination, she suddenly lowered her head and, craning her head forward, whispered right next to her mother’s ears,

“Besides mother! You will not believe this… but that Alexander is even more lecherous than you have heard. He is even having a relationship with Lady Nanazin! That’s right, even though she is the queen and married! How scandalous!”

“…” Widening her eyes, there was an intense undertone of disdain and disbelief as if the sweet maiden was unable to believe the rumor even now.

Such affairs were naturally seen as very immoral by Tibian society, and Camelia very clearly judged the couple harshly for their pruriency.

An act that unknowingly hit the opposite lady like a punch to the gut, letting her become too occupied to respond quickly. She was busy trying to calm the tumultuous tsunami that was raging in her guilty heart.

Because Lady Parthia knew perhaps even better than anyone else just how ‘scandalous’ that affair was.

She was one of the closest witnesses.

Thus looking at her daughter’s limpid, innocent eyes full of both scorn and juicy intrigue, the regal mother suddenly wanted to quickly bury herself and never show herself.

“No… no way! Do not go spreading such rumors without proof, Camelia.” She subconsciously forced out a chime of denial, although the tone of her voice and shifting eyes really gave her away.

Just remembering the things the ‘scandalous couple’ had done to her just the night before very much unsettled her.

Hence it was good her daughter could have never in a million years guessed the real reason for her mother’s reaction, and just thought it was just Lady Parthiawas being too pure.

So lowering her voice even more, she drew closer and hissed,

“No mother, it’s true! It’s true! I swear! This is not Tibias… the nobles here are truly… Oh, how scandalous! I even heard them…doing it yesterday night!”

“…!!!….” Camelia did not know, but as soon as she said those words of exclamation, a thunder of terrible shivers ran straight down her mother’s spine to the point the regal lady felt almost faint.

“Wha… wha.. what? Yesterday night?” She stammered out instantly, her eyes almost threatening to spill over.

Her brain refused to even entertain the possibility of the meaning as her beating heart felt cold and lifeless.

“Yes! When I was going past Lady Cambyses’s room, I heard… I heard Lady Nanazin…. I heard her screaming… so many….!” The young princess quickly pressed on at first, however as she went on, she suddenly found it quite a bit of effort to follow up her words.

She originally wanted to explicitly detail the screams and shouts she had heard, yet now found herself growing too red to actually finish it, only slightly lowering her head.

While on the opposite side, Lady Parthia currently felt like she had just been sent to the afterlife, as half her soul left the body.

Her gut told her it was not Lady Nanazin that her daughter had heard screaming. There was really only one person yesterday who screamed like an animal in heat.

“What were you doing there?” Hence she almost shouted in alarm, unable to control herself.

It was such an intense reaction that initially stunned the young Camelia, unable to reply. She thought her mother was being angry for seeing such ‘filthy’ things.

“Calm down Royal Mother. I just wanted to see you,” She thus quickly cried to try and placate her.

Yet, unbeknownst to her, the confirmation of her presence only fueled Lady Parthia’s anger, letting off great sparks of fury towards her.

Now, Lady Parthia was not really angry at her daughter.

She was just an innocent party in this.

The one whom she was mainly angry at was Alexander, who had promised her complete secrecy regarding the act. So for her to be found out so quickly….

On the other hand, the poor princess naturally did not know any of this and, as the only one currently present, found herself as the unfortunate scapegoat, made to bear the whole brunt of the attack.

Thus she desperately tried to explain herself,

“Royal Mother, please do not be mad. I just wanted to meet you one more time before going to bed. But once I heard those noises and noticed the guards by the door, I immediately went back. I saw nothing! Promise!”

“Oh, by the way, w

here did you sleep yesterday? Did they move you to a new room?”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!