In Sickness And In Health (Yandere M. Genius x F. Reader x Yandere M. Prince)

Chapter 68: In Debt

When Orion entered his mother's room, she was waiting for him, too, as if she had expected his arrival. The woman even prepared tea for him before he set foot in the room. It was still hot, the smoke spiralling into the air. He didn't take time to notice it, instead, running forward in despair and fear over losing the girl he loved.

"Mother," he panted, the woman motioning to the chair in front of her, "I was just with Miss Shiratori and...s-she said she wouldn't marry me, but - But I want to marry her and she said - "

"Orion."

The male's mother called his name softly, a weird kind of emotion lingering over in inbetween all of her words. She seemed withdrawn for a moment before she forced herself to smile. And even then, the woman was overcome with some immaterial kind of pressure, her shoulders slumping and her eyes drooping. He quieted, concerned, and silently took a sip of the tea she made for him, averting his eyes.

"I've never asked you this question; never once - probably because I believed you owed me something. After all, I've been fighting my sister my entire life and, in the process, had everything I thought was mine revoked. Then I tried and tried and tried to make your father mine by whatever means necessary. And, so, I thought, when you were born, 'This child is indebted to me'. I think Meridian thought the same."

"Aunt?"

"But I saw the way she treated her children before you were even born. She would make her eldest hold up his shorts while she beat him where your grandmother couldn't see the scars and she would force his eyes open to study topic after topic until they bled. And so I thought, when I was pregnant with you, 'My child must be grateful that I don't hurt him so'. But now, I don't know who is worse: my sister or I."

"But you are obviously kinder! You have never once hit me! A-And Zuki, Ichi, and Rei think the same! They always said how jealous they were of you being my mother! And (Y/n), too!"

Verona felt the desire to smile. But it was just that; a desire. By no means could she do so. In fact, the fake smile she had placed upon her lips fell at that, confusing her child greatly. She had always been called a villainess, and contrary to what she had once believed, there was no way to seek forgiveness for what she had done. Not even to the child in front of her, who trusted her with his very life.

"Have you ever, even once, wanted to be king?"

Orion snickered for a second as he heard the question, thinking it the easiest thing in the world. But when he answered positively, the woman asked him to try again, prompting his smile to fall and his heart to fill with confusion. All of a sudden, he felt the question was burdensome; like he hadn't ever really answered it truthfully before. Immediately, he met his mother's eyes, trembling as the word "yes" refused to escape from him.

"It's alright," she reassured him, "I knew it a lot sooner than you did. In fact, it was two weeks after you were born that I knew."

Verona didn't tell him, but those two weeks in their entirety, she hadn't seen him once. She felt a high of joy when he was born, but, as soon as he stopped breathing, it all washed away. The woman only felt hatred for the thing. The fifteen-year-old Cadmus had been the one to be by his side, sleepless and filled with fear. She decided to abandon him, effectively, until she stumbled upon something.

Like the others in her family, she had been given a taboo, one she thought was because of the blood of their great goddess running through her. But her ability was to see through different times using the eyes of others. So when she had discovered Ezdia was never a deity, she discovered many other things, including the importance of the pond at the center of the labyrinth. To them, who carried the bloodline of a too-beloved species, they could ask for one wish, of which the sprites - possessing the element of fate - would grant.