Saga of Atlantis

Chapter 147: The One Behind

[Third Person POV: General]

Click..

With a clicking sound, the door closed and Eden walked out of the room, and now the room was only filled with the ladies.

On the sofa sat Saintess Olivia and Eden’s mother, Stephanie, while Sarah stood in the corner.

In front of them stood the queen of the Merovingian kingdom, Isabella.

Her face was etched with tension as she stood alone in front of her long-time friends, who were sitting on the sofa, looking at her without any emotions.

"Why are you standing, Isabella? Take a seat," Stephanie said, gesturing for her to sit on the sofa opposite to them.

Isabella nodded as she walked over and took the seat in front of them.

"....."

"....."

All three of them sat in silence, no one saying anything as the silence lingered inside the room.

"Why did you do this, Isabella?" Stephanie asked in a low voice as she leaned back on the sofa. "Why did you betray my expectations?"

"I am sorry, Steph," Isabella whispered as she lowered her head.

"Weren’t you the one who proposed the idea of Eden marrying your daughter?" Stephanie asked again as she sat straight, staring right at her. "Weren’t you the one who said how perfect they both look?"

"Look, things were not in my control—" Isabella tried to defend herself, but Stephanie’s next words made her turn silent as she lowered her head.

"Eden nearly went insane because of your daughter, you know that, don’t you?" She said as she glared at Isabella. "Because of your daughter, he went from a sweet boy to an underage alcoholic."

"Stephanie," Olivia tried to intervene, but before she could, Stephanie gestured for her to stop.

"I heard a lot about what happened when I wasn’t awake," she said, her body trembling in anger. "Your daughter treated my son like some kind of plague, ignoring him whenever they met, acting like he didn’t exist, only for him to desperately try to gain her affection."

"Of course, I understand it wasn’t Angelina’s choice. She couldn’t do anything, could she?"

Stephanie asked as she made Isabella look at her. "She was such a sweet girl who never went against her father and mother’s wishes. So, tell me, Isabella, why did you do this?"

"I am sorry, there were things that I could do nothing about," the queen lowered her head as she continued to speak. "There were powers that I couldn’t fight against even if I wanted to."

"So you are saying that you weren’t the one who wanted to separate Eden and Angelina?" Stephanie asked, still glaring at her.

"No, I just wished that Eden and Angelina would have a good life. They were like bound to each other, never being separate," Isabella replied, shaking her head, her expression tinged with sadness as she remembered the past.

"So it was the king who wanted to break their engagement?" Olivia asked, frowning.

"No, if it was only him, I could have somehow tried to stop him, but the one who wanted this to happen left me with no choice," Isabella replied, shaking her head.

"Speak clearly, Isabella. What do you mean you had no choice?" Stephanie said firmly as she looked at her.

"I didn’t have a choice," Isabella whispered as she looked away from Stephanie. "Because it was your family that wanted all this to happen."

"H-huh?" It was Olivia who let out a startled voice as she looked at Isabella. "W-what are you saying?"

"It was the Thorja family that wanted us to take away everything that Eden liked," Isabella whispered slowly as she leaned on the sofa. "They were the ones who wanted to make Eden’s life hell."

Stephanie remained silent as she looked at Isabella with a blank expression.

"What?" Stephanie asked with a cold voice that contained all her boiling anger. "You are saying it was my family that wanted this to happen?"

"Yes," replied Isabella as she looked back at her. "They were the ones who offered us to work with them, and if we didn’t, they threatened that they would make sure that our kingdom would never have a better future."

Stephanie stared blankly at Isabella as she slowly sank onto the sofa.

"How could they?" Olivia mumbled, clearly not understanding why someone like the Thorja family, which was a giant in this world, would try to make the life of a kid miserable.

"Stephanie," Olivia said, as if she remembered something, looking at Stephanie.

"Yes?"

"That creepy brother of yours, do you think he is the one who is behind all this?" Olivia asked with conflicted emotions.

"Most probably, he is the one," Stephanie sighed as she covered her face with her hands. "He is the only one that can go so low."

"But your father—" Olivia’s words were cut short as Stephanie looked at her.

"For him, the benefit of the family comes first. Don’t think he would be oblivious to all this; most probably, he was the one who came up with this idea," Stephanie replied as she clenched her fists.

"Tell me all you know, Isabella," Stephanie said as she looked at her. "Tell me what they offered and what they wanted to do."

"First, they just wanted us to keep a lookout for Eden, see if there was someone who was protecting him from the shadows or if there was someone who came in contact with him," Isabella replied as she recalled all the words that she remembered.

"Then, after we confirmed that nothing like that was around him, they started to give us orders, from small bullying to disturbing him, until they started to ask us to mentally attack him."

"Wait, what about his father? What was Aldric doing when this was happening?" Olivia asked as she looked at Isabella in confusion.

"He was part of the plan... He was with us from the start," Isabella replied with trembling lips.

Olivia turned silent as she didn’t know what to say.

"Then, at last, they asked to take away what Eden wanted the most," Isabella said as she sighed tiredly.

"Breaking the engagement with Angilina," Stephanie mumbled, and Isabella nodded her head in reply.

"In return, we were offered a hundred years of protection from them and a strong bond with the Darkonia Continent, as they work as a link for the engagement of Angelina and the First Prince of the empire," Isabella replied as she closed her eyes.

Her own conscience was making her feel guilty as she realized she had sold out her own daughter because of something she couldn’t control.

"I need some time alone, please leave, both of you," Stephanie said helplessly as she fell onto the sofa, closing her eyes.

"Want some drink?" Olivia asked Isabella as she stood up.

"Hmm," Isabella nodded as they both moved out of the room.

The room remained silent as Stephanie had her eyes closed, lost in thought.

"Quit acting, they are gone," a voice resonated throughout the room as a beautiful gray-haired woman arrived, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"Even though I knew this would happen, I still feel bad because it all happened because of me," Stephanie sighed as she opened her eyes, looking ahead.

"Still, you were almost accurate about how your family would behave, even though he didn’t tell you most of the things," Valeria said as she sat down on the sofa.

"But, the urge to kill them all for hurting Eden is really hard to control," Stephanie said as she looked at the ceiling.

""They still have their things to do, so don’t do anything unnecessary," Valeria said as she looked at her seriously.

"I know, don’t act like you’re smarter than me," Stephanie rebuked, glaring at her.

"Still, you were playing a huge gamble. If they had thought of killing Eden directly, you couldn’t have done anything," Valeria pointed out with a frown.

"That wouldn’t have happened. They fear that man too much to even think of doing anything to the person they think is his son. All they could do was borrow others’ hands to attack him," Stephanie replied firmly without flinching.

"Then, what now?" Valeria asked, ignoring her comment.

"Now we play the waiting game. If things are going as I thought they would, then they will soon contact me to come back," Stephanie replied as she leaned back on the sofa.

"How are things on your side?" She asked again, opening her eyes slightly.

"I have prepared all the things that I needed to, and if things go as planned, I can break through to the next tier in a year or two," Valeria replied.

"Hmmm, good for you," Stephanie replied as she closed her eyes.

"By the way," Sarah, who had been quiet all the time, spoke up, "if you are here, then where is Zaria?"

A beautiful smile formed on Valeria’s mature face, turning into a wide smile as she looked at both Sarah and Stephanie.

"She is with her Papa."