novelraw Chapter 265: Forbidden Feelings
Chapter 265: Forbidden Feelings
"Is this all you've got, Alajina?!"
In the room deep within the tavern, the tall Heliana violently threw a punch at Alajina's face in front of her. That giant impact bloomed on her face, ringing like a loud bell to awaken her senses, which had become sluggish due to the Ice Prince's prolonged frost, making her feel genuine pain.
The formal dress on Alajina's body had developed tears due to the battle, revealing her fairly robust muscles. She coldly cast a glance at Heliana in front of her, whose helmet had been dented from the smashing. She spat a mouthful of blood-mixed saliva and stood up again.
"You haven't grown in the slightest either, just like when we were little, when you were ten years older than me yet still got your eyes beaten swollen by me..."
"Is that so?"
Heliana smiled disdainfully, then violently reached up and yanked the helmet off her face, revealing a face that bore two or three parts resemblance to Alajina's. Her face was bruised from Alajina's attack just now, but Alajina's blood-stained face was no better off than hers.
As if not needing too many words, two pairs of irises of the same color but bearing entirely dissimilar meanings stared intently at each other, just like a collision between a storm and frost and snow.
It was as if it started snowing inside the tavern again, becoming as cold as the dueling arena in the courtyard of the vassal kingdom in the Sardin Matriarchy, casting the silhouettes of the confronting two into the bygone years.
Although the previous Hammond vassal king was tyrannical and heartless, she was not stingy and had quite some methods in cultivating her children.
As her daughters, they had to be well-read in poetry, books, and classics, understand horseback riding, archery, and dueling, and be proficient in using various weapons and firearms. As her sons, they had to have excellent etiquette, outstanding taste, and be gentle and generous...Without much gaze of familial affection, only mechanical natural selection and progress were what the children of these vassal kings needed to consider. This Spartan education created the group of sisters including Alajina and Heliana.
Even if the incident of Alajina committing matricide hadn't occurred, they would have eventually fought each other due to their yearning for power. It was just a pity that most of them died in that massive turmoil that shocked the Sardin Matriarchy.
The relationship among the children of the Hammond vassal king was not harmonious. Even sisters like Heliana and Alajina, who were not considered familiar with each other and had no obvious struggles, could be said to have a "good relationship."
During their childhood, because Heliana was much older than Alajina, their theoretical studies were naturally not together; only during combat training would they occasionally meet.
Heliana didn't bully her with a strong physique like the other sisters of Alajina's age, and didn't even talk to her much, merely looking at her with a disdainful gaze from afar. And Alajina was also busy prioritizing dealing with the other sisters who directly attacked her. Even knowing Heliana looked down on her just the same, conflict had never erupted between them.
But Alajina wasn't an ordinary child. Her aptitude surpassed others. Those sisters who looked down on her in the past were sequentially defeated by her in the dueling arena, until finally, this eldest sister who had never laid a hand on her sought her out and taught her a harsh lesson once.
Yes, in memory, Alajina only had one battle with Heliana, which was before she was about to leave the Hammond Fiefdom and head to the Co-Ruler's side to become a Phoenix Knight.
In that sky full of wind and snow, Heliana actively provoked Alajina for the first time. Just like today, they didn't carry other weapons. In the snow, in the unattended courtyard of the vassal kingdom, they privately engaged in a one-on-one melee battle.
"Bang!"
At this time inside the tavern, Alajina was once again smashed in the lower abdomen by Heliana's punch, causing her to fall backwards uncontrollably, even smashing a visible crater into the wooden floor.
She panted and looked at Heliana before her. The lighting inside the tavern turned into a piercing cold wind at this moment, bringing the nearly thirty-five-year-old Heliana back to ten years ago.
Behind the courtyard ten years ago, two young matriarchy women stepped barefoot in the quite thick snow in the bushes. Their bodies entangled with each other, fully utilizing the combat techniques they had learned in the past, turning them into power, punching the other's most vulnerable places punch by punch: face, eyes, nose, lower abdomen, and chest...
At that time, the physical stamina that Alajina relied on as an advantage was completely not worth looking at in front of her bear-like elder sister. Alajina's fists hitting her robust muscles were as powerless as hitting her heavy armor today. But even so, Alajina still relentlessly fought her, wanting to knock her down.
And Heliana also harbored the same feeling, seemingly having accumulated grudges against her for a long time as well, which was why she actively sought her out to duel with her.
"Princess Alajina! Princess Heliana! Where are you?!"
The calling voices of attendants continuously came from afar. Seemingly, other sisters had told the palace steward about the private brawl between these two vassal princesses. They followed the wind and snow, getting closer and closer to here.
But how could the two in a white-hot battle care about others? In their eyes, there seemed to only be the other's face and fists, only thinking of knocking the other down, only thinking of how much longer they themselves could hold on...
In a daze, besides the wind and snow of that day, Alajina seemed to also remember the other party saying some words to her, but she truly couldn't remember exactly what words they were...
"..."
"Princess Alajina..."
"Princess Heliana!"
"Where are you guys?"
As the attendants' voices drew closer, the situation in the battle became increasingly disadvantageous for Alajina. Her strength and combat techniques were completely crushed by this eldest sister. Not only was her body riddled with scars, but her physical stamina also gradually failed to hold up.
The coldness of the frost and snow spread along her senses, which hadn't yet been numbed by the Ice Prince back then, making her feel quite uncomfortable. Exactly in an instant of negligence produced by feeling the cold, Alajina had her opportunity seized by Heliana, who locked her neck with robust arms, controlling her movements.
Heliana seemed very angry at her, and struck extremely heavily, as if wanting to strangle her to death alive.
"..."
The tinnitus stemming from oxygen deprivation and the sky full of wind and snow covered Heliana's words. At that time, she was only thinking of how to break free from her lockdown, so until now, Alajina couldn't recall the slightest bit of what she said to her back then...
What exactly did she say?
Time returning to the present tavern, Alajina, whose mind suddenly surfaced with past scenes, once again revealed an obvious flaw, being subjected to the same move by Heliana once again.
By the time Alajina reacted and prepared to throw a punch to stop Heliana, it was already too late. That giant body forcefully endured all of Alajina's offense, then violently extended both hands and tightly locked her in an embrace, using the power of her body to isolate her windpipe wanting to breathe, making her struggle with difficulty...
As that familiar feeling of oxygen deprivation assaulted again, and as the consecutive sounds of tinnitus rang again, Alajina simultaneously gritted her teeth.
Behind her, Heliana's voice sounded, as familiar as the duel in the snow ten years ago.
Everything, everything continuously overlapped, making Alajina suddenly recall exactly what she had said to her back then.
"Alajina..."
"Alajina!"
"I'm jealous of you!"
Yes, this was what the angry Heliana had said to her back then.
The mere fourteen-year-old Alajina heard Heliana behind her suddenly say this baffling sentence. At that time, she truly couldn't understand, why would Heliana be jealous of her?
Mother treated all the children equally without discrimination. Because the eldest sister resembled mother more, she was deeply beloved by the other sisters. She was also stronger than herself, and more responsible towards the Hammond family than herself...
Then, what was she jealous of about her?
"Stop! Let her go! Heliana, I beg you to let her go!"
In Alajina's memory, amidst the sky full of wind and snow, she, who was about to lose consciousness from oxygen deprivation, suddenly saw a gentle man wrapped in a fur coat charging frantically towards this side surrounded by countless attendants.
His eyes were completely filled with her, as he hurriedly shouted like this to Heliana who was locking her neck.
That was her own father...
And Alajina suddenly felt the elder sister behind her stiffen, even the action of locking her neck becoming slackened. Because of this, Alajina was finally able to detach from the state of extreme oxygen deprivation...
"Alajina, Alajina! You scared me, are you okay... my daughter... no... Heliana! What have you done!"
Alajina, released by Heliana, weakly fell to the ground, and was wrapped in the warm fur coat by her hurriedly running father, once again isolated from the wind and snow outside...
She heard her father's questioning of Heliana, and felt her father's heaving breath out of anger.
"Edlas... I..."
In fuzzy memories, Heliana's intermittent voice came over. She seemed to call her father's given name directly, seemed to have some guilt, seemed somewhat cautious, but her enraged father and herself at that time didn't detect the meaning behind these words in the slightest, so much that up until now Alajina had mostly forgotten those words...
"Shut up! Discourteous thing! How dare you address me like this? How dare you treat your sister like this?!"
"I didn't mean to... but I won't call you by that title... I just..."
"Get out of the way!"
"...I understand."
The wind and snow gradually faded away. Alajina, equally having her throat locked inside the tavern, violently widened her eyes. She wasn't throat-locked into losing consciousness by Heliana like ten years ago. Her body slowly gave up struggling, but the next moment, when Heliana couldn't react, she abruptly violently erupted. One punch smashed onto her face, breaking free from the confined state.
Alajina didn't pay attention to the fainting sensation brought by oxygen deprivation. Gritting her teeth, she twisted her head and pounced on Heliana, pressing her to the ground with one shove, smashing her face punch after punch.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Not just the face, that fierce attack even carried Alajina's anger all the way downwards, from her armor all the way down to her abdominal guard...
Following this fierce attack, even the sturdy armor of the Phoenix Knight was beaten bumpy and uneven. Although Alajina's fists were also covered in blood, she still stared intently at a necklace revealed on Heliana's neck due to her attacks.
That necklace worn by Heliana was an item her father always carried. Back then, after committing matricide, she hurriedly fled from the Sardin Matriarchy, not taking any other items of her father's from the palace to leave there. Yet today, she saw this item that should have remained in her father's tomb on Heliana's neck...
Only at this very moment did Alajina suddenly understand why Heliana had said those words "I'm jealous of you" to her back then.
"Haha..."
Alajina panted, until she had beaten Heliana's face full of blood, and she truly lacked the strength to raise her next fist, did the room deep within the tavern become quiet again.
Although Heliana's face was full of wounds, that pair of irises of the same color as hers still stared intently at her, just as if looking through her current face to see the past.
"You've grown..."
"As expected... I am still very jealous of you even now, Alajina."
Alajina's white long hair drooped slightly, obscuring her side profile. But she slowly raised her fist again, seemingly wanting to prevent the other party from saying the following words by striking her. But her exhausted fist was naturally far too slow compared to the speed at which Heliana spat out words. She failed to prevent the other party from saying the following words.
"Did you really think that we children, who were treated like that by our mother, would have deep feelings for her? Even the second child, who had the best relationship with mother, secretly wished she would die sooner. They resented you, resenting your talent, resenting that you might snatch away their power and status... but I was not like this. I resented you, only because I was jealous of you, jealous that you could always stay by Edlas's side."
Edlas was the name of Alajina's father.
"Edlas's gaze always landed on you, because you are his daughter and ought to enjoy all his favor... while I, because of my resemblance to mother, was taken for granted to be hated and feared by him... It was because of this that I could never approach him, and could only endure secular torment in the dark."
Before her words finished, Alajina threw another punch at her face, directly knocking out a tooth from her mouth, producing a distinct sound.
"Shut up."
But Heliana didn't care in the slightest. She tilted her head slightly and spat out that fallen tooth in one mouthful.
"But now, does Alajina, who committed the great crime of matricide, have the right to accuse me? Edlas is already dead, and my heart left with him, which is why I ended up giving up on myself today. I just want to tell you, Alajina, I fell in love with the man mother brought back, I fell in love with your father..."
"And because of this, I was deeply jealous of you..."
Fourteen-year-old Heliana, this eldest daughter of the Hammond Fiefdom of the Sardin Matriarchy, went against secular norms and fell in love with the man her mother brought back into the palace, the merely 22-year-old Edlas.
Forbidden feelings quietly bloomed like poison, serving thinly as the answer to many dusty stories and questions within the past Hammond Fiefdom of the Sardin Matriarchy, through the words buried for many years in Heliana's heart at this very moment.