“Your Majesty, what do you think of Via?”
“Via Shirleyford?”
The empire’s Emperor Gustav was walking in the palace corridor, conversing with the minister beside him.
“Yes, although she and Sophie are both Sylvia’s daughters, she hasn’t inherited even half of Sylvia’s talent, and in the Holy Land’s third test, she couldn’t display any holy power.”
The minister explained to the emperor.
“For this result, the people are extremely disappointed, and many have begun to question why the Holy Land continues to tolerate Via. They all believe that such a talentless person absolutely cannot become a saintess.”
“Indeed, compared to her excellent sister, this younger sister is truly an inferior defective product,” the emperor commented.
“Your Majesty, should we consider pressuring the Holy Land to make them give up on Via—”
The minister’s suggestion wasn’t finished when, in front of him and the emperor, a young voice sounded.
“Father!”
Stella had finally found her father. With a face full of anxiety, she ran over, blocking Gustav’s path.
She hurriedly saluted the emperor.
“Good afternoon, Father!”
“Is there something?”
Gustav’s attitude was cold, as if he wasn’t willing to say even one more word to Stella.
“Father, Mother is sick, and very seriously.”
“So what?”
Gustav’s voice had no fluctuation, as if he heard something with no relation to him at all.
Stella’s body trembled.
She had thought her father didn’t know about Mother’s condition, so he hadn’t visited.
Now it seemed that might not be the case.
“Father, won’t you really go see Mother? On her sickbed, she’s always been thinking of you!”
“I still have many things to handle.”
“You… this is really heartless!”
Stella was very puzzled.
Clearly, her mother loved Father so deeply, but why was Father unwilling to respond to Mother?
Her mother had always been waiting for Father’s visit.
It didn’t even need much; perhaps just one meeting could fulfill Mother’s wish.
“Is there anything else? If not, you can leave.”
“I…”
Stella’s mood became very complicated—aggrieved, angry, confused… Although she wanted to release all these emotions, considering her mother’s situation, she still lowered her head to Gustav.
“Father, Mother’s illness is really very serious. Please allow the royal physician to go and treat Mother.”
“You’re delaying my matters just for this?” Gustav seemed slightly displeased. “Alright, I’ll send the royal physician later.”
“Thank you…”
Stella told herself not to act on impulse, but she was still a child after all. Thinking of the various cold shoulders her mother received daily, she couldn’t hold back and asked that question.
“Father, since you don’t love Mother, why keep her in the palace! You can’t possibly not know how much grievance she’s suffered!!”
“Humph.”
Gustav snorted coldly, throwing out a sentence that shattered all of Stella’s illusions.
“I just fulfilled her foolish wish, that’s all.”
“Why…”
Stella knelt by the sickbed, looking at her mother’s pale wrist, her expression almost collapsing.
The royal physician still came one step too late. Due to the illness, Ileya couldn’t be saved and left this world, abandoning her child.
“Queen Consort Ileya was really too weak. I’ve done my best. I’m truly sorry, Princess Stella. Please accept my condolences.”
After apologizing to Stella, the royal physician just left a sentence that didn’t even count as consolation and departed.
In the room, only Stella and Ileya’s corpse remained.
This cruel reality was just as Kaiso said: even if her mother left this world, besides herself, no one would care.
“Mother…”
Stella grasped Ileya’s cold hand, tears bursting forth, flowing down her cheeks and dripping onto the ground.
Her mother would never speak to her with a gentle voice again.
She couldn’t accept it.
Even if Mother was discriminated against by others, she never harbored resentment, but always held a kind of expectation, waiting for the emperor’s arrival.
But until the moment before death, not only did she not see Gustav, even she herself wasn’t by her side.
After losing this closest kin, Stella felt she had lost all her concerns, as if becoming a lone boat floating in the dark sea.
She didn’t know the meaning of continuing to drift, and at any time, she might sink into the bottomless sea, disappearing forever.
Her psychological defenses were shattered.
The carriage was loaded with large and small luggage boxes, leaving the Saint Luo Empire’s imperial capital.
The wheels rolled, heading toward the distant horizon.
The young blue-haired girl sat in the carriage, watching the imperial capital gradually recede from her view.
After Ileya’s death, she was hastily buried. Stella had no reason to stay in the palace, so Gustav used the excuse of training his daughter to send Stella to the south.
Anyone with eyes could see that Stella was driven out, already far from the royal family’s power center, probably hard to return.
To exile an heir to the throne without committing any fault, if on someone else, might cause considerable controversy.
Only on Stella it wouldn’t, because no one would stand up to speak for her.
Powerless, she could only be forced to accept such a fate.
But could this really make one resigned?
No.
Absolutely not.
She thought of the palace people’s cold eyes, other princes’ mockery, Father’s indifference…
A seed was quietly planted in her heart.
“I’ll come back, Mother. Please wait.”
Stella’s gaze changed, for the first time showing a resoluteness mismatched with her age.
“You shouldn’t depart as a neglected queen consort. This is really unfair to you. In the future, I will definitely make everyone remember that your identity should be the mother of the Saint Luo Empire’s next emperor.”
“Mm…”
Stella felt sunlight on her face. She opened her eyes and found it was already early morning.
She stretched lazily and sat up.
“Was I dreaming again? I actually dreamed of childhood matters…”
Although recalling the past made her heart quite dissatisfied.
But turning her face, seeing Via who hadn’t woken yet, her mood improved a lot.
This girl who shared her plight but didn’t choose to give up, still struggling by any means.
“We might become a community of fate, Via.”