บท 19: The Death Of Riya
After dinner, Iris went to Riya's courtyard. She was eating dinner as well. But after a glance at the dishes, Iris immediately frowned in disgust. All the dishes were horrible! Not only was there not a single descent dish, the present ones were all overcooked and greasy. After cursing her father fifty times in her heart, Iris moved to the kitchen to cook her mother a meal.
After choosing the ingredients, Iris started to chop the vegetables and turned on the stove. While her cooking skills weren't the best, she was still decent.
After some time, Iris had made three dishes. She made congee, porridge rice, curry and soup for her mother. Looking at the finished dishes, she nodded in satisfaction. She promised herself only to ever cook for her mother in the future.
Little did she know, she would be breaking that promise in the near future.
Iris started to put the dishes on a serving tray to bring them to her mother. Just as she was about to put the bowl of soup on the tray, her hands paused. She then became absent-minded staring at it. Suddenly, as if possessed, she flung her hand at the bowl hard, and it fell to the ground and shattered in pieces! All the soup splattered across the floor.
"Ah!" The maids shrieked at Iris's sudden movements, but the girl herself started to quiver slightly. Putting her hand down, she reached for a piece of the broken bowl. Doing that, she clenched her hand and the shard dug deep into her palm. A trail of blood flowed down her hand onto the floor, dyeing it red.
She looked at the blood. Then, just like the blood, her eyes turned dark red, haunting and terrifying, as if they were dyed in someone's blood too. She looked like a real demon, so much so that the maids backed away.
At that moment, Iris's thoughts were only focused on a distant memory.
She was sitting on the prison ground, shivering from the cold.Her eyes were already dull and lifeless, but as if she hadn't suffered enough, the beautiful Empress, Aria came to her prison cell. Looking at her disheveled appearance, she smiled brightly, "Iris, how does it feel, losing everything? You must be very surprised, right? But, alas, nobody cares for your feelings, your existence was always so insignificant. Nobody would care if you weren't alive, right?" She laughed at her.
Iris dragged her weak body to stand up and treaded over to Aria. She stuttered weakly,"W-why...?"
"Why? Why we did this to you? Because you were a fool! You were easy to manipulate! You were the perfect chess piece for my happiness, the perfect support for my everything! From the start, you were nothing. From the start, you existed to make me happy. For my happiness, you had to give up your everything, your status, your family, you husband, even your mother that you oh so loved!"
"What...?" Iris staggered back in shock.
"What are you so surprised about? That we killed your mother? Yeah we did kill that bitch, so what? She was just as useless as you, getting so easily poisoned! You know what, it was a bowl of soup that sent her to her death! What's more, it was a slow, painful poison! Till the end, even in the most pain, she kept calling your name, begging you to live well! Hahaha! What a joke! I kept laughing at her, seeing that. Didn't she know that her daughter was the same as her, a useless pawn meant to be sacrificed? That's exactly what happened!"
Thud!
"No...no...this isn't real. This can't be real...Mom.." Iris fell to her knees. Staring at the ground, her eyes became wet with tears. Only Aria's laughter blended in her ears.
Thinking back to her past life, Iris clenched the shard harder.
In her last life, her mother was poisoned to her death, a few days after coming back.
She always thought that it was an assassination, that her mother was stabbed. But it was only later that she found out that her mother was given poisoned soup, by Libera and Aria's scheme! Looking at the soup, her eyes flashed with an intense hatred and desire to kill.
Sensing that her emotions were getting out of control, she quickly breathed in to calm herself.
There was still time before the poisoning.
She had to make preparations as soon as possible.
This time, her mother won't die
She absolutely will not let her die!
Going back to her mother, she served out the foods she made.
As the mother daughter pair ate their foods, they chatted warmly with each other. All the problems of the worlds were forgotten as they spent their time in happiness. Iris spoke badly of her father every now and then, so that her mother could grow to hate him more and more.
She told her mother about the competition, about the hunts and the nobles and about the seventh prince.
Riya asked her, "Do you fancy the seventh prince?"
A feeling of emptiness took over Iris as she shook her head.
She did once dare to love. She dared to believe in the impulse to love.
Yet, where did it take her? How much pain and heartbreak she suffered, how much it hurt, did anyone know?
Sometimes, fate doesn't allow you to be happy. Leon and her, maybe fate abhorred the idea of giving her love. Of having her be loved and love back.
Maybe, she was never meant to be happy.
Maybe, she would forever be alone, in her darkness.
Between Leon and her, there were misgivings, enmities, indifference. Yet, it all led to a cruel betrayal.
Love?
Love is nothing but an illusion.
An illusion that shatters when you hit the wall, leaving only pain and regret.
"Iris?" Riya called out when she suddenly fell silent.
"Yes mom?" She responded.
"Why didn't you make soup today? I see every dish, but soup?" She asked confusedly.
Iris lowered her head to hide the darkness in her eyes.
"I hate soup."
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