Mother?

Cassandra bowed her head in front of the Empress in respect.

Her hands were clenched as she looked at the good waiting for the Empress to give her permission to stand straight.

"You may rise." The Empress said with a smile on her face. She was enjoying Cassandra's misery.

"I was waiting for you." The Empress said as she indicated Cassandra to sit at her.

"I apologize for keeping you waiting," Cassandra said in a low voice as she came near the Empress.

The Empress observed Cassandra's every move. Her eyes moved towards every move of her. Cassandra wore a light-colored dress that flowed with the wind. The room they were sitting in was airy making it harder for the Empress to concentrate.

"I heard that you were reading about some basic knowledge. You want to learn cooking?" The Empress's voice was filled with a playful tone but her eyebrows raised in question. She wanted to know what Cassandra was thinking about but she also knew that her move of calling Cassandra in this room will be reported to all the Royal children eventually.

[I just want everyone to know that I will not be tolerating anything that is not under my control.]

[I have to set an example with the fifth Princess.]

[The other children will soon realize that it will be their turn.]

[I have to fasten my process to make Valeria marry Aiden Salvador.]

[I cannot find the Princess the Duke is interested in but I know if all the Princess's get married he would have no other choice than to stop the marriage of the lady he is interested in or marry Valeria. I will make sure that only the latter option is available.]

[I have to give the fifth Princess a fair chance to get married first.]

Cassandra looked at the Empress who was smiling at her face but had dangerous thoughts behind her back. Cassandra looked down as her fingers clenched tightly. "Yes, I wanted to utilize the time."

[Utilized your time?] The Empress laughed. [What else can you do? Practice your nonexistent powers?]

"That is a good idea. I am so proud of you for thinking something like that." The Empress nodded. "But I heard that you usually stay in the library? Do you like reading?"

The maidservant came forward to pour the tea in Cassandra's cup. Cassandra looked at it as she hummed. "Yes. That is my escape route."

"Escape route?" The Empress raised her eyebrows. "What are you trying to escape?"

Cassandra swallowed hard at the Empress's question. "I like to be alone where people do not see me with pitiful eyes."

"But you are pitiful." the Empress said subconsciously but soon she realized what she had said as she stopped in a hurry. "So apart from cooking what else are you reading?"

"I am reading the old ways to needlework, cloths making, gardening. And many more …" Cassandra's voice turned like a whisper towards the end as she refused to look in the Empress's eyes.

"But why the old way? You know that you are a Princess. You can have maids working under you." The Empress drank the tea before the cup was seated on the table. "Or you know that the family you would be marrying would require such knowledge?"

Cassandra's gaze snapped towards the Empress in confusion. She had no idea why the Empress you say such a thing.

'How can I know where I will marry?'

'I had to say those because of the stupid Duke who handed me the cooking book.'

'If given a chance I would definitely avoid him again.'

Cassandra was emerged in her thoughts when she heard the Empress's thoughts flowing in her mind.

[Why isn't she replying?]

[Do she have something else in her mind?]

"No Empress, I read it out of interest," Cassandra said with a smile on her face even though she was struggling to come up with valid reasoning.

"Interest makes you do a lot of things. Speaking of it." The Empress took the teacup towards her lips. As she drank only her eyes were seen. Staging at Cassandra like a predator.

Cassandra could tell that the Empress was laughing behind the tea. Her eyes have moved slightly up as her cheeks had raised. Soon Cassandra re3alized that the Empress was looking at her and the cup.

As Empress put her teacup down, Cassandra took the cup that had been seated in her front for a long time. She smiled as she took a sip. The tea had long been turned cold but Cassandra could not complain as she drank it down her through with a grateful expression.

"Do the fifth Princess think me as her mother?"

Cassandra wasbtaken aback. She was quiet for a second as she tried to understand why would the Empress ask such questions.

The Empress had taken in the children because they had Royal blood. Cassandra knew that if they did not have it, she would not have acknowledged them.

'But what is the meaning of asking it now?'

'Why would you want to know it?'

'You have never treated us like a mother?'

'At least not me.'

'And even if you had, what type of mother were you?'

'A mother whose hands were dyed red with her children's blood?'

Cassandra looked at the empress who waited for the answer. Only Cassandra knew how many children the Empress had taken care of over the years. Maybe tha56t's why she never opposed her or was like a nonexistent being until now.

Cassandra tried to read the Empress's thoughts. She tried concentrating but couldn't. The Empress was staging at her without thinking anything.

"That …" Cassandra struggled to answer but she had to swallow her original answe5r as she nodded her head with an innocent smile on her lips even if her eyes were crying internally. "You are the only mother I know .."

The Empress smiled, satisfied with the fifth Princess's answer. Her eyes were twinkling with unknown emotions like an evildoer who had gotten permission to make trouble.