Necromancer's Descent

61 - Loveless Marriage

Asten's Point of View

I watch Rosalin quietly as we're once again preparing dinner. Things have been quite tense since yesterday. Both between his highness and I, his highness and Mia, and Mia and I... and Rosalin and all three of us. I believe his highness believes Rosalin is the cause... which might not be incorrect, but not precise either.

She simply pointed out mistakes in my behaviour...

Besides... ever since it happened, she hasn't quite been able to meet my eyes, and seems to have withdrawn into herself more than she was already. She probably believed I would serve Mia first from the provocation, only to find me failing to make Mia happy.

"Rosalin...Yesterday... I apologize, that I failed yesterday."

Rosalin peeks up from the vegetables she's cutting for me, and then looks away again, with an expression of guilt lingering on her face.

"No.. I pushed you without really making sure if you were ready. I think I got too hasty... and frustrated with the situation."

I lower my head a bit in shame. Was I that bad?

"...it reminded me of my parents' marriage... and then of myself..."

As far as we know, Rosalin had lost her memories. Had she perhaps begun to recall some of them?

"What were their marriage like?"

Rosalin's hands stop moving, and her expression sours at my question. Clearly not happy. Though, I suppose that makes sense with how quiet she is.

"My mother and father married young. My father was a well liked young man, who did well in his education, and had a fairly well off family... My mother was from a poor family. Despite that, she was beautiful, and she knew how to enhance that beauty. She fell in love with my father, and believed that he would take care of her, and be good to her... but his family wouldn't approve, and my father apparently had another girl he was more interested in, and whom his family would have accepted."

So a maid and wealthy merchant, or even a minor noble perhaps? I'm still not sure whether I'm supposed to be the mother or father in the tale though.

"My mother decided to draw him into her bed for a single night, hoping to gain his love. My father, being a young fool, fell for her seduction and spent the night with her... They were young, so just the once got her pregnant. She wasn't tracking her cycle, and didn't think about the symptoms, so by the time she found out, it was too late to abort the child. When it was announced to my father, and my father's family, they didn't take it well..."

She puts the knife down completely, and rubs her hand quietly.

"They forced him to marry my mother, to take responsibility... and then they cut him off the moment he finished his education. The only money they got was for the child, and wasn't a large sum by any means. He was forced into doing cheap labor to support my mother...  and he despised her. Felt tricked. Since she said it was a safe day. She had really believed it was a safe day. My mother hoped, that he would eventually come to love her, and treated him with love for a couple years... but in his eyes, she ruined his life. He started drinking, and started being violent with her. When my mother eventually realized that he was never going to love her... she... she probably regretted it... I say probably... because she never was good at taking responsibility... so she blamed the child instead. The child became a symbol of the pain and betrayal felt by both of them."

She sighs softly, and then looks at me, with hesitance in her eyes.

"From what I've seen... Mia doesn't seem to love you, but is just using you as a convenient side piece that help her make presents for the others, helps her, and spoils her, without getting anything in return. The one she actually wants is someone else. Not just that... you care for his highness so much there isn't really space for anyone else. In a situation like that, how will your child be treated?"