Book 20: Chapter 12
Elizabeth walked up to Vyvyan’s side and whispered in her ear, “What do you think is the deal with this woman? Why does my son know this sort of person? No matter how I look at her, there’s an issue with her. She doesn’t look as though she harbours kind will. You want to get rid of her?”
Vyvyan noticed that the only species here was humans. As a precaution, she used her magic to transform her ears into human ears for the meantime. She, therefore, assumed the identity of a woman with western vibes, blonde hair, jadeite eyes and a perfect body to boot.
Vyvyan maintained a friendly smile the entire time. The woman opposite Vyvyan maintained a calm, yet imposing, demeanour. Vyvyan’s presence didn’t intimidate her. She didn’t ask Vyvyan anything or feel she was odd. She just quietly waited.
While maintaining her smile and eyes on the woman, Vyvyan muttered into Elizabeth’s ear, “Kill her if you want. You just want me to take the blame. When my son blames someone, you’ll make me the one who cops the scolding. You never lose your distasteful temper and moronic ideas no matter where you are.”
Elizabeth gently shook her head: “No, I’m not suggesting it to wipe my hands off the slate or anything. It’s just not too convenient for me to kill her. After all, there’s still a woman with my son. If we have to kill, we’ll have to kill them all. I made a promise to myself long ago to never kill any of my son’s people again or to kill in his territory. Can’t you kill her, and then teleport her corpse elsewhere?”
“Didn’t I tell you there’s practically no mana here? I need to go somewhere suitable to draw a magic formation for me to be able to teleport us back. If I expend a large amount of mana here, I’ll require my son to replenish my mana, you know? I don’t mind that, but if this woman happens to be important to my son and I kill her without asking, my son will be upset. Then what? I’m his mother; a mother shouldn’t do things that would upset her son.”
Seeing the two whispering to each other, the woman gently cleared her throat. In response, Elizabeth frowned. As the Empress of an empire, nobody ever dared to cut her off when she spoke, yet the woman dared to cut her off with her “ahem” when she was in the middle of a discussion. Elizabeth perceived the interruption to be an insult.
Speaking in fluent English, the woman inquired, “May I ask what you relationship with my son is. What you are here for and if you are looking for my child for something?”
Elizabeth was left dumbstruck. She didn’t understand English. As an elf, Vyvyan didn’t use language to communicate. Instead, she used her mana to sense thoughts. Thus, she understood what the woman said. However, that was precisely why the content bemused her. Vyvyan thought, “The child this woman speaks of… Oh!! I get it now! She must be that girl’s mother! I see. I see. The girl panicked, so it’s only reasonable for her to call her mom!!’”
“I understand now,” conveyed Vyvyan, smiling. “You may have misunderstood something. I have no relation to your child. We are related to that individual, so you need not worry. Further, we harbour no ill will. We merely want to take the child back.”
The woman dawdled for a moment. Puzzled, she replied, “You understand Chinese? Great. Nevertheless, the child is not a foreigner, so what do you mean by take back? I know the child’s parents. I never heard about this.”
“To be frank, we do not quite understand why, but it is true that we are not residents here. You need not worry. The child used to live with us. Therefore, the child trusts us. You will understand when they are back.”
The woman nodded. Her thinking went as so: “These two foreigners don’t seem to be related to my son in any capacity. I thought my son found himself two gorgeous foreigners during the short time I left. I can accept it if it’s a normal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. As long as I think she’s all right, he can date her. In saying that, my son should continue living with me. Additionally, I must be able to accept the woman. These two foreigners look my age, yet their bodies are superior to my own. If they seduce my son, mm, I don’t know why, but it irritates me. It must be because I’m worried about people deceiving him.
“It’s clear now, though. These two women aren’t here for my son. Since they’ve said that, they’re here for Ning!. I genuinely never imagined that her family knew foreigners. Moreover, Xiaoning keeps in contact with foreigners? However, that means my son is a proper and ordinary kid as I thought, not one who dates women around my age.”
Reasoning Ning’s issues had nothing to do with her, the woman’s mood improved. Vyvyan was also relieved. She thought the woman was another woman claiming to be her son’s mom. The entire time she was there, Vyvyan thought, “I already have two difficult-to-deal-with women. If another one joins the fray, I really will need to reconsider Elizabeth’s suggestion to just off this woman, and then destroy her corpse so that nothing remains. My son only has one mother, and that’s me. How can one child have multiple mothers? That’s not normal.”
Elizabeth didn’t understand a word they said. Consequently, she felt frustrated. She tugged on Vyvyan.
Vyvyan whispered into Elizabeth’s ear, “This woman is the mother of the girl. It sounds as though she came here out of concern for her daughter.”
“I see,” remarked Elizabeth, relieved. She thought that the woman was there to fight for her son. She genuinely considered offing the woman. Her thinking was, “I can’t kill the Elven Queen and the dragon. As for a human? I can kill her any day of the week. Right now, though, she isn’t related to my son, so there’s no problem. She’s not an enemy.”
In an instant, the three women laughed. Nier looked at the jolly trio with fear swirling inside her. She turned to Lucia. In a quiet voice, she asked, “Do you know what happened?”
“No… This is probably the best way to go about it. Her Highness’ astuteness and resourcefulness isn’t something we can comprehend…”
Glossary
*Please be aware that a lot of this just couldn’t be adapted properly as “him” and “her” in Chinese is pronounced the exact same way, which was the reason I used “the child”, “the individual” etc. as substitutes for the subjects “him” and “her”.