Chapter 177 I Disagree with You Marrying Her!
Even though Friedel had grown up by Queen Mother Smith's side since childhood, and Selyma had barely paid any attention to Friedel's upbringing, she accepted all the compliments without hesitation. After all, she thought, no matter how much her sister helped raise the child, she was still Friedel's birth mother.
But for some reason, Friedel always went against her. When she arranged political lessons so he could compete with Rolf for the throne, he not only refused but coldly told her that only Rolf could be the next king.Selyma didn't understand - she and her sister were blood sisters, so why should one of their children be the certain heir while the other could only be a prince?
She wanted to fight for Friedel, but he turned around and went all the way to the eastern battlefield to take over as leader of some knight order.
In the end, Rolf smoothly took the throne, and Friedel became a prince. Selyma was completely dissatisfied. In her opinion, if Friedel had stayed, who knows who would have become king!
What a useless son.
A few years passed in a flash. Rolf's throne was secure, and Selyma reluctantly accepted the fact that her son was a prince of lower status.
She started a new plan. This time she planned to find Friedel a good wife - preferably someone of noble birth like herself, obedient and sensible, lovable and pitiful, so Friedel would stop thinking about battlefields and armies and just stay peacefully in his territory as a prince.
However, this time when Friedel came, he brought Selyma a huge piece of "wonderful" news.
"You want to marry that kind of woman as your wife!?"
The shrill female voice could almost pierce through the entire estate. "I don't agree! She's not worthy! Go tell her right now to get lost and stop shamelessly appearing in front of you. Go now!"
Friedel calmly rejected her demand. "My marriage to Anne will not be canceled. I'm just here to inform you, Mother. If you can't accept it, I don't mind if you don't attend my wedding."
"In your dreams!"
Selyma threw the fan in her hand hard at Friedel, pointing at him and screaming, "I'm your mother, you must listen to me!"
"How did I give birth to such an ungrateful son? If you had listened to my arrangements back then, you'd be sitting on the throne now. Not only do you not regret it, but you want to marry a lowly, dirty woman! Where does that leave my face!"
Friedel's eyes instantly turned cold. "Mother, I respect you because you gave birth to me, but that doesn't mean you can insult Anne however you want. She's an excellent person who not only single-handedly supported the entire Virlet family but also went to the battlefield herself, earned military honors, and became leader of a knight order, creating new history. Someone like Anne should never be described by you as lowly and dirty!"
Selyma laughed coldly. "She's divorced - isn't that dirty? And a perfectly good duke's daughter who won't stay home but runs off to a military camp full of men - that's something only the lowest commoners would do. This Anne is simply a disgrace to her family!"
"Mother!"
Friedel scolded, "The Virlet family's ancestors have all fought on battlefields. They wouldn't think Anne is a disgrace - they'd be proud of her. Besides, Anne just met a terrible man and went through a failed marriage. That's not her problem. That Anne had the courage to ask my brother the king for help with the divorce shows she's very rational and decisive. I really like her..."
"Listen to yourself!"
Selyma was furious. She felt that after going to the battlefield, Friedel had become even more unreasonable. This wasn't the child she had in mind at all. "If she couldn't manage her marriage well, that means she's useless. If she had learned to be humble and made her husband feel respected, how could she have been kicked out? I heard that although her husband wanted to marry someone else, he didn't say he wanted to divorce her. Such an ungrateful woman - why should you take her on?"
"You're a prince! What noble lady can't you choose? Why pick up something that's been used and thrown away? I'm telling you one last time - I don't agree. If you dare disobey my orders, I'll go to Queen Mother Smith and have her punish you severely!"
Friedel had long been numb to Selyma's orders.
When he was little, he was initially raised by Selyma's side, but she was completely focused on the king and had no mind to care for him. If it weren't for Queen Mother Smith and Rolf's care, Friedel might have died in childhood from Selyma's repeated neglect.
Even so, Selyma didn't think she had done anything wrong. Only after her sister's repeated scolding did she reluctantly pay Friedel some attention. But when she discovered the king's genuine affection for him, she demanded he help secure the king's favor.
Selyma had a kind of innocent cruelty. She demanded that Friedel hurt himself to gain the king's attention. At first, Friedel did as told, until Selyma told Friedel to jump into the water and then blame it on Rolf.
Young Friedel finally understood that in his mother's eyes, he wasn't a living person but a tool for his mother to compete for favor.
Friedel refused to jump in the water. In anger, Selyma personally pushed Friedel into the water.
Queen Mother Smith happened to witness this scene. From then on, she took both Friedel and Rolf under her care, and Selyma lost custody of Friedel.
Out of consideration for her sister, Queen Mother Smith didn't make this incident public. But unexpectedly, Selyma got worse, even going directly to the queen's chambers to demand that Friedel do as she arranged.
But by then, Friedel would never follow his mother's arrangements again.
Over all these years, he could maintain a relatively peaceful mother-son relationship with Selyma only because of his good upbringing.
But that didn't mean Friedel wouldn't get angry.
Especially when he heard Selyma say she would go complain to Queen Mother Smith, he actually laughed in anger.
"If you want to go, I won't stop you. But Mother, if you still can't learn to change your bad habits, not just me - even Queen Mother Smith will run out of patience one day."
"And I already saw Queen Mother Smith before coming here. She really likes Anne and thinks Anne and I are very well-suited. Mother, you're the only one who won't bless me. Instead, you use the most vicious words to insult my fiancée. Maybe in Mother's eyes, you've never really cared about me at all."
"But fortunately, I... stopped having any expectations of you long ago, Mother."