Chapter 425: Meeting Mommy [Part 2]
Northern stood, absent-minded and absorbed in the moment that seemed to be playing out in slow motion.
The woman's face was paler than a couple of moments ago. She tried to reach him from her position with her hands trembling.
Not knowing what the heavy ache that overwhelmed his heart was, Northern slowly went down, bending to his knees.
He took the woman's hand and helped her to his cheek, his eyes barely holding on as he stared down at her.
Several touches could be seen running around the compound of this particular building, but neither of them seemed concerned about it.
To Northern, who was seeing the woman that had brought him to this life for the first time, he had thought it wouldn't change a thing to see her.
But he was wrong; it changed everything. And the most difficult thing was he didn't even know how to navigate through the emotions.
There was pain tightening his chest. He could feel the joy of finally seeing his mother, but at the same time, he could also feel a weight of sadness with that joy.
Everything was just so unclear, so confusing. A hell of an emotional palette he had never felt before.
Something tickled his cheek before he knew it. The moment he felt it, Northern's brow twitched and creased.
He wiped the little liquid with his thumb and stared at it blankly.
'I'm crying?'
His, compared to his mother's, was like a drop in the ocean; the lady in front of him was already weeping buckets.
Her shoulders trembled as she fondled Northern's cheek with so much care, a sad smile gently beautifying her face.
An uneven rhythm of steps resounded in the building as multiple soldiers and servants raced up to check on the treasured lady of the Empire.
"My s-s-son..." Her voice trembled as the words came out.
Northern frowned, 'How can she be so sure? There's no iota of doubt in her eyes.'
He also could see it. Their white hair, although his was quite dirty compared to hers. The blue eyes were just like his.
On a few occasions, he had been granted the opportunity to look at his own reflection, and right now, it felt like he was looking at himself in the flesh of a woman. There was a striking and indispensable resemblance between the two. That way, it made sense why the Tower Sage recognized him at a glance. It didn't take a genius to figure out he looked so much like Lady Henai. And almost everyone knew Lady Henai had lost her child.
"Mother?" Northern didn't know how the words dropped, but they did.
And immediately they did, the woman drew him close hurriedly and hugged him tight, crying tremendously.
At that point, several soldiers broke through the door, all armed with their weapons and ready to wreak hell.
But they all paused as they saw what was happening. The lady was hugging someone with white hair.
They slowly retreated outside her room, with only one man walking forward through them.
Guillever closed the door behind him. It was slightly broken, but it held.
He observed the two of them with a gentle sadness sitting in his eyes.
Lady Henai removed herself from Northern, shaking as she inspected his whole body.
"W-why? Are you dressed like this? W-w-where have you been? How did you grow up? Where did you live? How are you feeling? What is-"
Guillever's hand slowly touched her shoulder, making her words freeze. He smiled and said to her,
"Henai, why not let him rest first? Let this moment sink. The questions can come later."
Lady Henai looked between the Tower Sage, who was crouching behind her, and Northern, who was kneeling in front of her.
Her face contorted with even more sadness. "But I want to know now! I want to know everything about him. I am sure this time around, Gilly, this is my child."
"I know, Henai," his voice resounded with kindness. "I can see it too. He is definitely your son. So, Henai, trust me, I will take good care of him. You don't want to cause a ruckus at a time like this. Let me take care of him for tonight; you rest, and tomorrow you can come to my place."
Northern's face turned grim.
Seeing this, Henai gave a quick response to the Tower Sage.
"No, no, I don't want that. I trust you, but my son does not seem to trust you. I don't want to lose him any moment again. I don't want to let him out of my sight again. I was not even given a chance to hold my own child. He was taken out of my hands all for the sake of protecting him. And now you're telling me to do the exact same thing."
"Henai, it's not "
"I appreciate your help, Gilly, but no."
The Tower Sage clenched his fist and stood up. "Okay then, is it okay if I stand guard here through the rest of the night?"
Northern tilted his head in curiosity. 'What the hell is wrong with the man?'
He went and added when he saw the hesitation in Henai's after she looked at Northern again.
"I will cast a barrier over here. Your conversations will be safe from the outside, even from
me."
'This guy really expects me to believe that?' He frowned slightly, but his mother spoke before his expression could be noticed.
"That's fine then, Gilly." She responded with the tenderness Northern had noticed earlier. Guillever bowed his head and backed away. He opened the door-the wooden door creaked painfully as he forced it open.
It was a little bit noisy to close it back as it was almost being torn apart completely.
But Guillever tried and eventually closed the door. Immediately the door closed, silence suddenly overwhelmed everywhere.
Northern frowned as he observed the air. 'It's different... almost like a separate space.'
Lady Henai smiled at Northern. "What he says he will do is exactly what he will do. Don't worry about it."
Northern narrowed his eyes, staring at his mother for a couple of seconds, then looked away for a moment, sheepishly scratching his neck as he said, "You can't trust people so easily like
that."
The lady's blue eyes flung wide open and almost immediately shrank, unfolding a delightful smile on her face.
"It must not have been easy growing up. You are fifteen years, five months, and three days." Northern's eyes were left wide open with surprise. A second later, he said, "Wow."
He was short of words to follow.
She touched his jaw once again with a sad smile. "How have you been? How are you on this
continent?"
Northern looked at her hand and frowned, pulling himself away from her a little bit.
The action made Lady Henai crumble with sadness, her face seeking Northern like a desperate
puppy, but she patiently waited for Northern to speak.
After a couple of minutes, he looked at her sternly and opened his mouth.
"Did you ever look for me?"
"I did. Your father promised he would help me, but he never got back to me. There were too many enemies, and he suggested that perhaps it was best for you to stay hidden." Northern looked at her blankly for a couple of seconds, then cautiously asked, "My father.
Who is my father?"
Her face folded with determination as she spoke. "Your father is the thirty-fourth Emperor of the Reimgard Empire, Regallion Reshard Reimgard, the third."
'Looks like Jeci wasn't wrong after all...' he thought and looked at her. "And my name?"
She looked at him for a couple of seconds, swallowed, and finally answered with his name.
"Rian Artemis Reimgard..." She paused and continued, "All your siblings and every other imperial family member have an R for all their names because they are strictly blooded by the imperial family. However..." Her voice trembled as she came to a pause. Northern frowned, wanting to know more. He said no words but his expression implored her
to continue.
She looked down, overwhelmed by shame as she spoke. "Except the bastards... I am of a different lineage. My mother was from a different tribe than the Reimgard and Luinngard families. Ah, look at me. I haven't even explained the weird family tree of the Two Empires to you. Wait, do you even know-"
Rain quickly interrupted her before she could go out of breath. "I know, just continue...
mother."
The word she heard warmed her heart more than anything else in the past fifteen years of her
life. She smiled and went on.
"Because you were not of their true origin, you were only allowed to carry one of the Reimgardian names. For your middle name, I decided to name you after the founder of my mother's tribe, which she often told me stories about. Artemis."
Northern shrugged a little bit. 'Looks like I do have a good name after all.' He chuckled for a
bit and sat on the ground, looking at the woman.
There was a lot on his mind, but hearing his name was a great first step.
'I'm a bastard... of some sort...' The realization of it didn't seem to hurt at all.
Not that he cared to begin with. There was the most important question he really wanted to
ask.
He looked at his mother with a frown befalling his face and asked, his tone reverberating with
power.
"Mother, who tried to kill me?"