Chapter 6: Get Out
When the King, who later became Rihannan’s partner and husband, went on an all-out investigation, one originally launched on a premeditated investigation to capture the power of the Queen, Count Alessin was instead caught. At the time, the young King, who’d just started dealing with state affairs, was full of spirit and vigour to do all he could do to escape the shadows of his mother during the converging clean-up.
Both the young King and Queen weren’t in a good relationship despite sharing the same blood. The Queen, who should have been King by nature, did not easily let go of her power during the converging clean-up process which was a major obstacle for the young King who’d just began his statehood affairs.
That’d also been the reason he was hostile towards Rihanann from beginning to end, except of course, their first meeting.
The sole reason?
Rihannan was the Queen’s relative and goddaughter and holds blood relations to the Crichton forces he’d been trying to drive away.
Though the truth of the matter was his overt friendliness when they’d first met. It seemed like the blossoming of a new relationship, but soon as he found out Rihannan’s true identity did he change. Since then, he’d always look back at her with a grimace and an outsider.
“Which side are you on? Me, your husband, or the Queen?”
Rihannan, recalling his cold piercing voice, pressed her lips together. It’d be nice to be able to choose a side, but it was impossible. The Queen was like a mother to her, replacing the loneliness in her heart when her late mother passed away, and the young king was a man who’d already taken her love and heart from their first meeting.
And Rihannan understood.
She understood the feelings of the Queen who could have been King herself, but gave it up for her son, and she understood the son’s miserable feelings of being crushed under the shadows of his mother who had more power than him, the king.
Rihannan tried to solve their failing relationships and mediated in between the two, but the more they struggled, the worse it became.
But looking back, there was one thing she never understood. At one point he raised his hands to punish Count Alessin when ambitiously carrying out the tax investigation. With his arrangement, numerous nobles were caught in his trap, Count Alessin included.
So why then did he stop in the middle?
“Welcome, Count Alessin!”
The door suddenly opened and Count Alessin appeared.
Rihannan moved her leaning body against the railing of the stairs and moved a step forward. But her steps was only so little. Unlike her previous life, she neither rejoiced at her father’s return nor did she hurry down the stairs.
She stood at a higher position than the Count, quietly watching him walk in holding the hand of a little girl near her age.
“Greetings, Count Alessin. This kid…”
The Count smiled brightly while handing his coat to the old butler.
“She is my child. I had no choice to leave her outside back then.”
“Yes? What…?”
The old butler’s eyes widened in astonishment, and soon afterwards, looked towards Rihannan.
He saw her standing on the stairs, alone.
Rihannan looked at him with sad eyes.
The old butler’d always served the mansion for as long as she could remember. He was always fair and impartial. With fair judgment, he’d take a look at Count Alessin’s misbehavior. Eventually, a few years later, the Count kicked him out of the mansion without a letter of recommendation.
He ruined the old man’s life.
The old butler’s face, who quickly grasped the situation, turned white. He cast a sympathetic look at the young and innocent Rihannan while she watched the scene from the stairs trying to sort things out.
“Count, you’ve just arrived. Let us go and…”
“Rihannan, come down here. Let me introduce you to your sister!”
Count Alessin called Rihannan, who at this time, was on the stairs. He didn’t care to hide his gushing feelings.
Rihannan, with her white clothes and silvery long hair had a pale face. She looked haggard and small like she hadn’t eaten much since the death of her late mother.
“I told you to come down here. This is Leticia, my daughter and your sister. For certain reasons, she had to live outside, but she will live with us together in this mansion from now on.”
“Get out.”
“What?”
Rihannan coldly looked at the Count.
“Get out of my house, father… along with your daughter.”
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