I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love - Chapter 21
“Honestly.”
Receiving deep contact purification from a fourth-rank, not even Arvina. If his mother Marcella found out, she would faint on the spot.
“That would be something to see.”
Though she had once been a maid, she cared about bloodline more than anyone. Determined, she seduced the Grand Duke of Castion and miraculously gave birth to Gerard, a first-rank Awakened.
Until his abilities manifested, the two of them had endured every bit of contempt and ridicule in that household. If she had lived quietly, accepting the money given to a concubine and keeping her place, no one would have bothered them.
But Marcella’s endless ambition and her attempts to act like the true lady of the house made her a target.
No matter how often she was mocked for having tainted blood, she never even blinked in reaction to it in public. But when she was alone with Gerard, the resentment she had suppressed would pour out.
Amid curses that sounded like she was coughing up blood and broken sobs, she was always steeped in despair.
“Gerard… you must succeed. You must save your poor mother.”
To Gerard, his father was nothing more than a name. His mother was his only family. The love Marcella poured into him soon became shackles.
The tearing cries and bitterness that echoed every night drove into Gerard’s ears like nails.
“The Madam is calling for you.”
At the voice from outside, Gerard roughly brushed his thumb over his split lip and left the room.
Marcella, her hair swept up with a red ornament, greeted her son with a bright smile. It was a beautiful smile, fitting for a woman who had seduced a Grand Duke despite her low birth.
Even when endless insults were thrown at her within the grand ducal household, no one dared to criticize her beauty.
“You’re here? I heard you had a hard time because of your rampage rate.”
“It’s not serious enough to worry about.”
“You don’t even go out to the field as often as before.”
“Do you want me to return to the field?”
Marcella smiled gently.
“It’s a pity. His Majesty promised me that a new title would be granted not to ‘Castion’, but to ‘Nobile’.”
It was Marcella’s family name. She wanted to break away from Castion and obtain an independent title.
It was not that she felt attachment to her surname. She simply wanted to erase the stigma of becoming a forced noble after getting pregnant as a maid.
Marcella wrinkled her nose slightly and tapped the desk once.
“Still, I can’t send my injured son back to the battlefield.”
“What is it you want to say.”
“A marriage proposal came.”
She pushed the opened letter toward Gerard.
“It’s the princess of the Kingdom of Sovana. I went to meet her. She is beautiful and wise. I’m sure you’ll like her as well—”
“I won’t.”
The smile that had remained on Marcella’s face twitched.
“Gerard.”
“Your son’s abilities are unstable, but you’re not the kind of person who would pull me out of battle for a trivial reason like that. I thought it was strange. Turns out you had somewhere else to sell me.”
“You would become royalty, Gerard. Do you know what that means?”
“You can enjoy that yourself. I’m not interested.”
Marcella’s expression hardened viciously. Taking a deep breath as if to suppress her anger, she tilted her head once, then suddenly grabbed the ink bottle and hurled it. With a sharp crack, black ink splattered everywhere.
“Do you know how much humiliation I endured just to raise you properly?! How dare you—!”
“Was it truly for my sake?”
One corner of Gerard’s mouth twisted.
Consumed by anger, Marcella shoved her chair aside, stood, and seized him by the collar.
