Elizabeth placed her gla.s.s of wine down and looked at Vyvyan. Vyvyan looked at the gla.s.s of wine in Elizabeth's hand and pouted. Slightly unhappy, she admonished Elizabeth: "You've started drinking when it's daytime? This is different to what you're supposed to do. Didn't you come here to take care of Nier? Why are you drinking during the day? You're the Empress of an empire, and yet you're now acting as if you're an unemployed tramp?"

Elizabeth curled her lips, and then asked, "Has it got anything to do with you?"

"No. What happened last night also has nothing to do with me. I don't care about that sort of thing. My child won't get the short end of the stick no matter what you do with him. What I want to know is what you see my child as?"

Elizabeth shook her head and timidly replied, "I don't know. I don't know myself. Troy isn't Inard. I know that, but he's becoming more and more similar to Inard now. He's ambitious, suave, persistent and brave. Should I say 'He sure is Inard's son' or 'He sure is my son'?"

Vyvyan snickered: "Elizabeth, remember that Inard is your husband, while Troy is your son. How do you see it now? How did you do it last night? You must've been very sad these eighteen years. I know you. You're a more emotional woman than I am. You definitely loved my Onii-sama, right? Therefore, you looked at Troy with the same gaze you looked at Inard with, didn't you?"

Elizabeth replied in a soft tone: "I don't deny it. I know that this is a bit cruel on my child, but I have no choice. My son is the same as his fath-"

"They're not the same," interjected Vyvyan. "My son is fearless, because we are his backing. Therefore, he's not the same as Onii-sama. They're completely different. Onii-sama will abandon you for the Galadriels, but my son won't abandon you for tribes or whatever danger."

"You mean…"

"This morning, he asked me what the situation in the West is."

"The West?"

Elizabeth's hand suddenly froze stiff in mid-air when she raised her gla.s.s of wine. The wine inside swished and reflected Elizabeth's stunned expression. Humanity might not have considered the West to be where the dragon race was located, but she understood what Vyvyan implied.

Vyvyan coldly answered, "That's right. In other words, it's Inard's, my brother's, and your husband's grave. My son wants to go to the West, since you mentioned Inard in his presence. He wants to go and see where his father died. Don't you think this is ironic? His son wants to go and see where his father left, but the reason is because his mom mentioned his father?"

"That place…"

"Correct. I will not allow my child to go there. I wiped his memory of yesterday. My child won't understand this if I tell him. He won't listen to me. I've been disappointed many times already, so I don't have any delusions of him listening to me anymore. Hence, I had to take matters into my own hands to stop him from going. Anyway, you understand what I mean now, right?"

Elizabeth gave a gentle nod: "You mean that want happened yesterday never happened, correct?"

"It never did in the first place," stated Vyvyan, as she s.n.a.t.c.hed Elizabeth's bottle of wine and drank straight out of it. "What could you two do even if it did happen? What? Are you going to fight with Nier? Please, have some self-respect, okay? You didn't do that last night for my child's future. You did that just to satisfy your own emptiness. It's best for my child that nothing happened yesterday. That way, he won't go to the West. I don't want to alter your memory, either, as injecting mana into you could easily destroy you. Point being, practice self-awareness and behave yourself. If you don't want my son to go to the West where his father was killed, then pretend nothing happened yesterday!"

Elizabeth's gaze was void of all emotion. It was comparable to an empty hole. Ending her short silence, he replied, "Understood."

Vyvyan nodded, and then picked up a gla.s.s of wine by the side. Though she said drinking in the day was what a useless person would do, some promises needed to be sealed with alcohol. In some cases, alcohol is akin to ink. There may be no invoice, but sometimes, you may trust the person merrily drinking in front of you.

The two of them raised their full gla.s.s of wine, and then looked at each other's faces. Tone serious, Vyvyan warned, "To you, Troy is just your child. Wait. He's not even your child. If you didn't even have that minute relation, he wouldn't be related to you in any capacity. I, on the other hand, am different. I can have countless ident.i.ties. I could even be my child's wife."

Elizabeth snickered: "No, it's impossible for you to be his wife. His wives are Lucia and Nier. You can forget it, you hag."

Vyvyan smiled: "Perhaps. We're both old now."

The two shared a smile. They then drank the hot and spicy wine carrying a bitter taste together.

Freya sorted out a pile of doc.u.ments next to me. Smiling, she asked, "Onii-sama, you seem absentminded today. Are you concerned about the upcoming dinner?"

We had finished the day's work and were having a short break, so we could afford dinner together. To be honest, the dinner was very important. Elizabeth, Vyvyan and Nier would sit together. Lucia still couldn't move, so she regretfully couldn't join in at the family gathering.

"No, I'm all right. That's not why. I was thinking that I've forgotten some things, but then I feel as if I didn't. My brain is a mess. I can't make sense of it. It's something very important, but I can't recall a single thing. I think I wanted to go somewhere, but then I don't know where or why I wanted to go there."

Freya smiled: "It does not matter, Onii-sama. People forget lots of things every day, so you do not need to be concerned about one thing. It must not be that important; otherwise, how could you have forgotten? Today is not your mother's birthday or your wedding anniversary, so I am sure it is nothing important."

"Uhm," I responded with a nod. "You're right. Let's get going, then. Today's work is done, so let's go eat now."

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