Chapter 141 Shifting Hatred
Drona stared coldly at Nina. He had always been the image of a loving father, without much ability himself. Only because he was the eldest son of the Titan family did he inherit power and the viscount title from the previous family head.
Later, the Titan family produced Holden, a child with combat talent. Drona didn't hesitate to send him to the knight camp. Holden caught the eye of the Virlet family's daughter, married a wife of noble birth, smoothly rose from knight to knight captain, and finally obtained the position of regiment commander.
With such an excellent son, Drona wasn't worried about the Titan family's future at all, so he was always gentle and easy to talk to.
Earlier, when Anne and Holden fought, Drona figured she'd have to suck it up. She was just a woman with no family—even as a duke's daughter, she'd have to take whatever the Titans dished out.
But Anne went straight to the king, and he actually granted her divorce! The Titans got nothing—not Anne, not the Virlet fortune. Holden threw away three years of military glory for some lowly woman, without a thought for his own family.
Drona was furious!
Now Anne had left the Titan family. Not only did she have the Virlet duke status, but she had also secretly gone to the battlefield and earned great merit. Her position would only become more secure. Those nobles would respect her even more, then turn around and trample the Titan family, who had bullied Anne, under their feet.
If she were still Holden's wife, why would the Titan family worry about its future?
Drona was filled with regret and anger as he looked at the old lady. If it weren't for his ignorant and greedy wife fanning the flames from the sidelines, making Anne completely lose hope in the Titan family, why would she have needed to seek help from the king?
The old lady felt her husband's displaced anger and turned her face away uncomfortably, holding Nina in her arms.
Drona rarely got this angry after years of marriage. The old lady understood—she'd been fooled by Holden and Candy's act, thinking Candy would benefit the family. She never imagined it would become such a joke.
Now Anne wasn't settling down even after the divorce, secretly running off to the battlefield to make trouble. The old lady had no idea how her frail body could achieve such great merit. She pursed her lips, thinking dismissively that maybe others had quietly given her credit for her father's sake, or perhaps Anne had traded her beauty and body with the soldiers for it.
Either way, it was all just an empty shell!
When Holden returned, she would definitely make him go before His Majesty the King to expose this fraud and reclaim his and Candy's military achievements!
As for now...
The old lady's eyes darted around, landing on Trion nearby.
She remembered that although Trion and Anne's relationship wasn't very good, compared to them, Anne should be more willing to accept Trion's requests.
"Trion, I remember you and Nina were in charge of this ball together," the old lady said. "Although Nina had some small problems handling the ball, causing guests who shouldn't have appeared at the ball to spread rumors outside, the guests you were responsible for inviting didn't come at all—that's your problem!"
"Don't you think you should do something to make up for it?"
Trion had been sitting quietly, not planning to get involved—after all, she and Mephist weren't the ones who embarrassed the family.
But the old lady dragged her into it to share Nina's blame. It wasn't her fault if invited guests chose not to attend!
"Mother, I sent invitations to those nobles as you requested, but they..."
The old lady cut her off. "Then you didn't do a good job. When we held balls before, everyone who received an invitation came."
Trion felt wronged. "That was when Anne was handling these things. She was a duke's daughter. With her around, no one would refuse the Titan family's invitation. Now that she's gone, it's normal for those nobles not to come."
And the incident from Holden's wedding—everyone hadn't forgotten. But seeing the Titan family's faces all looking bad, Trion didn't dare continue. She was afraid if she said more, the old lady would blame the wedding incident on her too.
Hearing Trion mention Anne, the old lady and Drona exchanged ugly looks before the old lady said to Trion, "Don't act like you can't survive without Anne. You need to understand that the Titan family doesn't have Anne anymore. Everything depends on ourselves now. Besides, you met so many people with Dr. Pascal before—didn't you think to say anything good for the Titan family?"
"...What would you like me to do?"
Trion could see that the old lady wasn't simply making things difficult—she was trying to assign her tasks in a roundabout way.
Before she could even mention Dr. Pascal leaving, they were already giving her trouble. Knowing this would only make things worse, Trion reluctantly asked what they wanted, dreading another difficult demand.
The old lady gave her a barely satisfied look. "You should know that Anne's name is on the military merit list. Go find her later and say some nice words. Get her to consider helping Holden out, share some military merit with him. If that doesn't work, at least have her look after the Titan family."
Trion's eyes widened. How thick-skinned did someone have to be to say such things?
Never mind how heartless the Titan family and Holden had been to Anne back then—just the matter of sharing military merit alone. Did this person think military merit was cabbage that you could just cut up with a knife and share with people?
These were all tallied by the participating knight regiments and reported directly to His Majesty the King. Even the king hadn't raised any objections to Holden's military merit. Did she think discussing it with Anne would make a difference?
Even Mephist, sitting on the other side, frowned when he heard this. "Mother, you're making things difficult for Trion. How would Anne agree to share her military merit with Holden?"