Chapter 177 - The Next Step (Part 2)

After having a meal, the Queen invited the couple to her study room where no one would be able to hear anything from the outside. She knew that her son and daughter-in-law did not come just to have a meal together as a family. They must've come to ask her about something important.

The Queen told the couple to take their seats and ordered a maid to bring in a pot of Jasmine tea and three pieces of cups. After the tea had been served, the Queen locked the door and sat across the couple.

"Mother, I want to ask you something that happened many years ago. Do you remember when the delegates from Prazia came here before Concubine Jayda got pregnant with Odette?" Vaughn found no reason to hide anything from his mother and got direct to the point.

The Queen was startled when her son asked her about that time. She could still remember it vividly – as if it only happened yesterday. She sighed.

"I guess you might have already heard something about it. I might as well tell you what happened…"

The Crown Prince of Prazia at the time, Crown Prince Odhran, came together with the delegates. Although he was the Crown Prince, the people of Prazia did not favor him. They wanted the Third Prince to inherit the throne.

Crown Prince Odhran wouldn't give up the throne. He wanted to find a strong ally that could help him fulfill his ambition. He knew that King Tarendino would not refuse huge amounts of money and even gave the King some precious, rare herbs and plants. 

On one of his visits, he saw Concubine Jayda. She was so young and beautiful, and he thought that she was one of King Tarendino's sisters. He wanted to take her in as his concubine. He already married his Princess Consort who happened to be the granddaughter of Prazia's Military Head and daughter of a well-known merchant family in Prazia.

He was determined to ask for Concubine Jayda's hand in marriage that day when all of the delegates have gathered. King Tarendino presented all of his concubines to be auctioned off, but he did not include Concubine Jayda who sat below us. Prince Odhran knew then that Jayda was the King's concubine, and it hurt him.

He tried to avoid Concubine Jayda because he wanted to win King Tarendino's support. However, it was too difficult for him to resist the beauty. He began to visit her every week until it turned to daily visits. I told the King that I sensed something was off between Crown Prince Odhran and Concubine Jayda, but he just brushed it off. King Tarendino even accused me of being jealous of Concubine Jayda's beauty.

He wouldn't listen, and I no longer said anything. I ordered my guards and maids to monitor the movements in Concubine Jayda's courtyard. We found out that the two had an affair. When Concubine Jayda became pregnant with Odette, I knew that she was not the King's daughter.

I sent secret messages to the King to warn him, but he did not even try to investigate the matter. One of my maids saw the Left Minister mixed something in the King's drink and blew some powder on him. After that, the King seemed to willingly follow whatever the Left Minister had told him to do.

Our relationship began to fell apart. He could not divorce me because he needed my strong family backing to survive. I was supposed to marry the eldest prince who was the true Crown Prince of Tissuria at the time. He was twenty years older than me and already had too many concubines and children. I was only sixteen at that time and Tarendino was twenty. They were siblings, but they were not close. 

Although there was already a Crown Prince, the other princes also wanted the throne. King Menard, the King of Tissuria during that time, had thirty princesses and fifteen princes. King Tarendino was the Thirteenth Prince. Everyone said that he was cursed, and no one paid much attention to him. He knew that I was going to marry the Crown Prince, but he still courted me and promised my father a lot of things. 

He told my father that the next Crown Prince of Tissuria would be my son, and no one would be able to snatch the title from him. My father did not want me to marry the Crown Prince due to our huge age gap and his many concubines and children. Some of his children were around my age.

When King Menard fell ill, the princes and their supporters began to bicker with each other. The chaos was instigated by the Thirteenth Prince. He planned it all. He created discord among his brothers and used the influence and power of my family to seize the throne. King Tarendino killed all of his brothers as well as their male children. He used the princesses for political marriages and as gifts to his loyal men.

I have never known someone as despicable as him – him and the Left Minister. It was the Left Minister who staged each of Vaughn's assassination when he was young. The trip to Ishelon was not the first time he attempted to kill Vaughn. I just happened to stop the killer before he could get near my son. I was trying to investigate the Left Minister's background, but it always led me to a dead end.

King Tarendino did not sleep with any of his concubines when the delegates came to visit. He was busy drinking with them and counting the tributes that he collected. The Left Minister colluded with Prince Odhran. They made the King believed that he was the one who slept with Concubine Jayda when he got drunk and left her room before daybreak.

The news that Concubine Jayda was pregnant came as a surprise to the King's harem. But, none of them had spoken ill of Jayda. The Left Minister already told them what he would do when they slandered his daughter. 

When Odette was born, I saw a birthmark on her back. It was similar to the Crown Prince Odhran's birthmark on his right hand. He told me that only the members of the Royal Family of Prazia had such a birthmark. I wanted to tell the King, but the Left Minister threatened me not to say anything unnecessary if I don't want anything to happen to Vaughn. I thought that was the end of it, and Odette spent her days without trouble.

I don't remember when the King began to be suspicious of Concubine Jayda, but he began to question her about Odette's birth. A few weeks after that, I heard that a concubine was found dead. I was not interested to know who it was, but I have a hunch that it was she who told the King about Jayda's affairs.

There was a time when the King and the Left Minister would bicker, which was a rare sight. A few months after the King and Left Minister had a huge fight, Concubine Jayda fell ill. The last person who visited her before she died was her father – the Left Minister.

I am sure that the Left Minister is the one who killed his own daughter to bury their secret, but I have no evidence to support it. The King would not listen to me. The relationship between the Left Minister and the King became better after Jayda's death. The King even tasked me to care for Jayda's children. I despised him so much for giving me such a revolting task.

They were children, I know that, but the Left Minister's blood was flowing in their veins. The same Left Minister who never ceased to bring trouble to my family.

The Left Minister helped Crown Prince Odhran to secure the throne. The people refused to accept it and wanted the Third Prince to usurp the throne. To avoid bloodshed, the Third Prince had decided to leave Prazia.

I heard that it was not easy because the Left Minister's men chased the Third Prince. I am not sure if he is still alive or dead. The Left Minister gained the full trust and support of King Odhran because of that.

Vaughn and Zenia could still not believe that the story behind it all was overwhelming. The despicable Left Minister was treating everyone on his side as a pawn to fulfill his desires. 

"What does the Left Minister want?" 

"I am not clear on that, but I am certain that the Left Minister's hatred for King Tarendino is too deep. The King may have known it already but still refused to believe. Sometimes, I think that the Left Minister had put him under some kind of spell."

"The hypnotic powder!" Vaughn and Zenia uttered at the same time.

"What hypnotic powder?" Queen Mina was confused.

"I will explain it to you some other time, mother. There are things that I still need to verify. This information helped us a lot, mother."

"If I have known that it will be so useful, I should've told you about it before. I just thought that we will never ever find out the truth. I hope you two will uncover something."

"We will go now, mother. We will come to visit you again when we returned." Zenia stood up together with Vaughn.

"Wait for a while, Zenzen," Queen Mina held Zenia's hand and made her sit.

The Queen went to a cabinet and pulled out something. Zenia looked at Vaughn who only shrugged his shoulders.

Queen Mina returned to her seat with a smile on her lips. She handed a tiny parcel to Zenia.

"Please pass this to Renaria for me. I haven't thanked her for the gift she had given me before."

Zenia wanted to refuse at first, but she saw the Queen's happy face when giving it to her. Zenia took the parcel and thanked Queen Mina.

"I will gladly deliver this to my mother," Zenia stood up and bowed her head.

Vaughn took Zenia's hand and bowed to his mother before they head out. Queen Mina smiled warmly at the departing couple. She truly wished that they could always be together…forever.