Chapter 182 Who Is Really Uncultured
"What right do you have to refuse!?"
Lady Selyma could hardly believe her ears. "I'm Friedel's mother. His marriage is my decision to make. A woman like you doesn't deserve him at all, so how dare you seduce him?"
"Besides, I know exactly how your so-called feelings developed—wasn't it just from going to the battlefield together? I really can't imagine how a duke's daughter would stoop so low as to go to a filthy place like a military camp and stay with a bunch of men. But then again, you even dared to ask Rolf to order your divorce. When you couldn't get your husband's love, you went and fooled around with a bunch of men. Is this the Virlet family's upbringing?"
Anne finally understood why Friedel had made a point of warning her that Lady Selyma was difficult to get along with. This wasn't just difficult—this woman simply didn't know how to speak properly.
"Lady Selyma, please watch your language."
Anne's eyes turned cold. "The military camp is not some filthy place. Without the army protecting our borders and fighting on the front lines, the Soth Empire wouldn't have peaceful days either."
"Moreover, I didn't go to the camp to be with men, much less to fool around. It was simply my duty as a member of the Virlet family. My father, Duke Skoda, dedicated his entire life to the battlefield, and so did my brother. Please choose your words more carefully."
"Also, I divorced because my ex-husband betrayed me. He broke the promises we made before marriage, and his family schemed for my dowry and my life. I had no reason to stay there. This has nothing to do with whether I had my husband's love, and even less to do with upbringing. Rather than saying I have no manners, you should ask yourself whether you're qualified to use that word."
Lady Selyma looked at Anne's beautiful face and, for some reason, felt an overwhelming sense of authority that made it hard to breathe.
She'd felt this authority from Friedel before, but he was a seasoned soldier who'd commanded the Lion Knights. Lady Selyma didn't like it, but at least she understood it.
But she couldn't understand why Anne also had this oppressive presence, as if she had taken countless lives. But could such a lowly woman really be capable of that?
Lady Selyma looked at Anne with contempt. She was displeased with Anne's rebuttal and even more displeased with the murderous aura about her. How could such a woman marry Friedel? What's more, Anne had questioned her upbringing.
Damn it, Selyma thought—from birth until now, no one had ever dared to question her like this!
"Ha! Once you're married, you belong to your husband. I heard that your ex-husband never intended to divorce you—it was you who went to Rolf to demand it. Why don't you look for the problem in yourself instead of making such a fuss about divorce?"
"Your husband betrayed you—why couldn't you try to win him back, lower yourself to hold onto his heart? I don't understand why you're so self-righteous, saying he broke his promises. If you hadn't made a fuss about divorce, wouldn't you still be his wife?"
"And you say his family schemed for your dowry and your life—my God, you actually have the nerve to say such things. Once you married him, your dowry should go to your husband's family. If they weren't pushed to the brink by you, how could they actually move against you? When something happens, you don't look for the problem in yourself first, but push everything onto others—is this your upbringing?"
Lady Selyma snorted coldly. "I can forgive you for speaking to me in this tone because you earned merit on the battlefield, but you should also be clear that a woman who has lowered herself and been divorced has no right to marry Friedel. My son is such an outstanding man—women throughout the Soth Empire, even princesses from other countries, admire him. As Friedel's birth mother, why should I let him pass up better ladies and choose damaged goods abandoned by her ex-husband?"
Anne's voice turned icy. "Women are people too. They don't become objects just because of marriage, and they should have their own thoughts and opinions. I didn't want to stay in the Titan family, so I asked His Majesty to help dissolve my marriage to Holden. This isn't being abandoned by an ex-husband. If we're talking about abandonment, then I abandoned Holden and the Titan family."
"And I don't recall there being any logic that blames victims for being killed. Which law of the Soth Empire states this? Could Lady Selyma please point it out?"
"Whether I'm qualified to marry Friedel isn't for you to decide. But since you mentioned being his birth mother, I have a question. I heard Queen Mother Smith raised Friedel from childhood. Our laws don't forbid mistresses from keeping their sons—so why didn't you?"Lady Selyma was left speechless by Anne's question. Of course she couldn't tell Anne that back then, she had been caught forcing Friedel to jump into the water to frame Rolf, and her right to raise Friedel had been taken away. Even so, Lady Selyma still felt that Friedel should follow her arrangements—it was true in the past, and it was still true now.
"What business is it of yours!?"
She turned her face away somewhat frantically. "Queen Mother Smith is my older sister. She loves me and was willing to help raise Friedel. This is between us sisters. As for you, you've just temporarily bewitched Friedel, making him mistakenly think he likes you. When he comes to his senses and remembers you're a dirty thing who's been married before, what does it matter if you're a duke?"
"When he divorces you then, you'll become the laughingstock of the entire empire, even the entire continent. A woman who's been divorced twice—what will you do then? Will you continue saying he broke his promises, or say you can have more choices?"
"Just because you went to the battlefield once and earned some military merit, you think you're something special. But that's not how women should be. Women in military camps are either prostitutes there to comfort men, or lowly commoners trying their luck for money. What decent person would be there? If you really think you're so great, you should have killed yourself when you divorced and returned to the Virlet family, to show everyone your loyalty."
Seeing Lady Selyma's flustered expression, Anne knew there was more to the story. But getting the truth out of her would be nearly impossible.
Still, Anne wasn't in a hurry. This involved Friedel's past, and she didn't plan to pry too much, to avoid making Friedel feel she was interfering too deeply.