Chapter 77: Help Me Please!

[13 years ago...]

"Here she is again. Your half sister who looks like a maid with her ugly dress," Eloise’s friends started to murmur when they saw the seven-year-old Lauren walking around the garden.

Eloise was ten and her friends who came from the richest families in their land were also around the same age. They were up on the balcony when they saw Lauren who was innocently wandering around the garden.

Although the King let Lady Mildred live in the castle when she got pregnant, he did not care much about the lady or the child he had with her. They received a lesser budget for their needs, so Lauren and her mother could not buy the expensive dresses the Queen and her daughters wore.

They could only afford to buy the cheaper ones, and as a princess who was supposed to be enjoying all the luxury in the world, Lauren was mocked by other children who usually visited the castle because of the way she dressed.

"What do you expect? My father just let his poor concubine and their daughter live in the castle out of pity. They don’t receive much money to buy themselves things. She is not on my level," Eloise said, looking at Lauren with disdain.

She and her sister Cassandra always hated their half sister and they did not bother to hide it, except when their father was present. Although the King was not fond of Lauren, he wanted to keep the harmony in the royal family so he wanted Cassandra and Eloise to get along with Lauren.

It was the same with Queen Thalia and Lady Mildred, when the King was around, the pretentious Queen treated the lady with kindness but once they were out of the King’s eyes, the Queen always gave Lady Mildred a hard time.

To avoid annoying the Queen more, Lady Mildred just endured everything. As a woman who didn’t come from a rich family and had nowhere to go, it was the only thing she could do to let her daughter have a place to stay. They may not be enjoying luxury, but with their everyday needs taken care of, she knew living in the castle under the King’s care was better than living off the streets.

"The King shouldn’t have let them live in the castle. Now the royal family has a black sheep," said Jennifer, one of Eloise’s friends who was a vampire. A glint of playfulness flickered in her eyes. "We won’t get scolded if we do a little trick, will we?"

Jennifer looked at the ring on her finger with a red-eyed snake. It was a gift she received from her mother and it wasn’t just an ordinary ring. The stone snake on it could turn into a living one if she wanted.

"Getting her bitten by a snake sounds nice, but is your pet poisonous? If our parents found out we killed Lauren, it would not be fun," another friend of Eloise said, looking at the thin black snake with red eyes that was half a meter long around Jennifer’s arm.

"You think I am brave enough to kill someone inside the castle? You silly, of course my snake is not poisonous. I just want us to see how this little sore thumb would react if she gets attacked by a snake. It would surely be fun to see her crying in fear," said Jennifer which Eloise agreed.

Lauren who was looking at the flowers in the garden with a sweet smile was oblivious to the plan Eloise and her friends were brewing up on the balcony.

As a young child, Lauren was timid and simple-minded. On usual days, she was either in the garden walking around or in the library reading children’s books. Her mother loved reading her a book before sleeping, which was why she grew fond of books at a young age.

She and her two sisters had a governess, but the governess only focused on Eloise and Cassandra and often left her out, so Lady Mildred taught her basic lessons that she knew to make up for it.

Lauren did not see the snake crawling toward her and only noticed it when it had gotten on her shoe. The girl’s eyes widened in horror and she fell on her back where her palm got pierced by a sharp stone.

"T-there is a snake! Help me please!" she cried in a small voice and a pained shrill escaped her throat when she felt the sharp bite of the snake on her leg.

Eloise and her friends laughed on the balcony as they watched Lauren’s mishap.

Lady Mildred’s maidservant, Rosetta, happened to pass by and saw the girl’s situation. She rushed to Lauren’s side and got a stick of wood to get the snake from the girl’s leg.

Rosetta was one of the few people who sympathized with Lady Mildred and her daughter. She was always kind to Lauren and as much as she wanted to protect the child from her wicked sisters, she could do nothing as she was a mere servant.

It was not the first and the last time Lauren got played by her sisters and the other kids. But no matter how many times she got tripped because Eloise intentionally kicked her leg while she was walking, or how many times she received a beating from the King because Cassandra framed her up for the mistakes she didn’t do, or how many times the Queen insulted her, the innocent Lauren never thought of doing bad things toward them. She would only cry and pray at night for her father and sisters to like her.

"Just stay kind and don’t do what they are doing, my dear daughter. Everything will be alright in time," it was what her kind mother always said.

Lauren believed it. She just endured every pain she suffered and every tear she shed because she believed what her mother always told her, that everything would be alright in time if she just stayed kind.

But Lauren learned the hard way that being kind would never be enough in a world full of cruel people.

"Will you stop crying?! Your voice is getting on my nerves!" Queen Thalia yelled at Lauren who was crying at her lifeless mother on the bed.

Cassandra and Eloise stood behind the Queen, feeling not an ounce of sympathy for their younger sister who just lost her mother.

"Your mother is nothing but a slut so she only deserves to die," the Queen looked at the corpse of Lady Mildred and smiled cruelly. "That is what you get for coveting what is not yours, you worthless rat."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read