Aria raised her brow provocatively, "What did I do? I don’t know, you tell me. Maybe those villagers are so hungry that they start eating poisoned herbs in the forest. Or maybe they are just a bunch of idiots who accidentally drink a well full of feces, that’s why they get dysentery. They are peasants after all. They are dumb and meant to be harvested."
"You know well that’s not what happened!" Anastasia raised her voice to her daughter. She didn’t want to yell at Aria, but she knew her daughter must’ve done something to those innocent villagers. "I know that it’s YOU who killed them, Aria!"
"And how’d you know?"
"Because of that damned floating book next to you!"
"Oh, well, darn. I’ve been caught," Aria chuckled. "Yes. I poisoned them. Do you know the chicken soup that I’ve prepared for the banquet? I poured a lot of poison into it, and it will take effect after three days. The poison was made with the help of a poison master of course."
Aria pointed at Jade, who was still rubbing her hurting nose after getting slammed with the door, "That woman is not actually Meredith. I put the soul of someone you know inside her. She is the one who has been helping me with the poison."
Anastasia turned her head towards Meredith in disbelief and asked, "Y-you, who are you?"
"Isn’t it obvious? The infamous poison master and herbologist, Lady Jade Stormfront," Jade introduced herself as she stood up. She patted her dress and added, "I should say, Lady Anastasia, your daughter has a talent. She is smart, ruthless, and an actual witch. I would be a very proud mother if I were you."
Anastasia was too speechless to even stutter right now. She kept staring at Jade inside Meredith’s body until she muttered, "You. You are the one who poisoned my daughter’s mind!"
Anastasia lunged towards Jade and started attacking her by trying to claw her face and pull her hair.
"Aw! Ouch! Urgh, let go, you crazy bitch! I didn’t do anything to your daughter! It was all her ideas!" Jade yelled as she tried to resist the attack. "If you don’t believe me, ask her! Who plans the entire thing!"
"Yes, it was all my idea, Mom."
Only then did Anastasia stop attacking Jade. She turned her head towards her daughter. Tears welled up in her eyes as her heart ached.
She knew betrayal was just one game that most royals played, but to be betrayed by your own blood made it ten times worse.
"I thought we had it good here, Aria. We have everything we need, and we will be in peace forever..." Anastasia murmured. "Why do you have to ruin everything?"
"Because this is not the life I want," Aria stated coldly. "You and your little pathetic life in this pathetic mansion in whatever mountain is not what I want, Mom. I want to be Gale’s wife! I want to be Queen and I want to have all the glory in this world for myself while Swan deserves to suffer!"
The previous Anastasia would’ve been very proud of her daughter, but not now...
’I have turned my daughter into a monster...’
**
Aria might act cold in front of her mother, but she was actually really upset by her words just now. Aria has never changed since she was young. She had always been ruthless, cunning, and full of ideas.
"I don’t understand you, Mom. You should’ve been happy to have a daughter like me. Why did you change? Why can’t you just be the same mother I’ve known since I was young?"
Unfortunately, not even Aria knew what to do with her mother. She knew that she’d sacrifice Anastasia eventually. She just disliked how her mother didn’t worship the ground she walked in like before.
In the end, Aria simply laid on her bed, hugging Necronomicon, her true friend, wishing to meet the Great Witch, Madam Harsetti in her dream.
’I am all alone now. Nobody truly liked me when I was a princess, and now even my mother doesn’t like me anymore,’ Aria told herself as she clutched her witchcraft book harder. ’Please, Necronomicon, show me the way to become the ultimate witch, so everyone in this world will bow down to my rule, and they will understand how great I am!’
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