Chapter 188: Chapter-188

“What do you think Your Highness means in this situation?”

“It means… a title—”

“Enough.” She cut him off mid-sentence, her tone flat. “I don’t want to hear your nonsense.”

She turned slightly, her eyes flickering with something colder now—something far more perceptive.

“That maid… that so-called ’white moonlight’—” Heena’s lips curled faintly, not quite a smile. “By deliberately calling her Your Highness again and again, she’s saying only one thing.”

Her voice dropped, almost whisper-like, yet piercing.

“In my eyes, you were never the Duchess. You’re still the fallen one… the one who lost everything.”

A brief pause.

“And the position of Duchess?” Heena’s gaze hardened. “That belongs to me.”

Silence followed.

The system blinked, still holding his head, clearly struggling to process the depth of what she just said.

“…Host,” he muttered slowly, “she just used a title… and you made an entire story out of it.”

Another thud.

This time louder.

“You idiot!” Heena snapped, glaring at him. “You really don’t understand a woman’s words at all, do you?”

He shrank slightly under her gaze.

Heena exhaled sharply, brushing her hair back with visible irritation. “Words aren’t always just words. Especially not between women.”

The System looked at the scene unfolding and made a confused expression. “Now I understand women even less than before.”

Heena glanced at him with disgust. “Yeah, well, we’re not as complicated as your coding. Do you forget how many times the scientists had to rewrite your programming? And look—you’re ’still’ not well-made.”

The System shut up immediately, because arguing would just be wasting his own time. Now he was stuck listening to this drama whether he wanted to or not.

—

Kieran’s mother looked at the maid—her husband’s white moonlight mistress—and said with icy politeness, “Oh my, I have to say: a lowly person can never understand grace. It seems it’s my fault for not teaching you proper manners.”

The maid looked at her and shot back in a soft, meek voice, “Your Highness, if you wish, I can get on my knees and apologize to you.”

But then, in a voice just loud enough for someone with sharp hearing to catch, she added: “Like hell you deserve it.”

Even Heena raised her eyebrows. ’Damn.’

Kieran’s mother heard it clearly. Without hesitation, she raised her hand and ’slapped’ the maid across the face, making her cheek turn bright red.

And this maid—this woman who was supposed to be the white moonlight, the sympathetic figure—was ’good’. Like, Seraphina was ’nothing’ compared to this woman’s acting ability.

The moment the slap landed, big tears rolled down her cheeks in swift motion. Her eyes immediately found the other white moonlight in the room—Lucian’s father’s mistress—seeking solidarity.

—

Lucian’s mother, unlike Kieran’s mother who maintained cold composure, had ’disgust’ written clearly across her face. She wasn’t even trying to hide it.

And this mistress wasn’t some lowly maid. No, she was the daughter of the scholar-master who had taught Lucian’s father when he was young. They were childhood study partners. Childhood sweethearts.

Which somehow made it worse.

The woman looked at Lucian’s mother up and down and said sweetly, “Sister, you’re really getting old.”

’Now’ things were getting interesting.

Lucian’s mother looked at her and shot back, “Well, who cares if I’m getting old or not? After all, a woman ’ten years older’ than me is calling me ’sister,’ so I must be doing quite well by comparison.”

Heena almost choked. Because this woman—this white moonlight mistress—looked like she was in her early thirties at most.

’Damn, money really does wonders.’

The woman’s expression flickered with anger. “Well, no matter if I’m ten, twenty, or thirty years older than you, one command from me and Brother Lucian would throw you into the dark room again.”

Even Heena had to admit: this woman was brazen. But the reason she was so confident was because of the support she had from that bastard duke.

Lucian’s mother’s face twisted with mocking fury. “I have to say, the Grandmaster raised quite the daughter. Did all the men in the world die, or why are you still chasing after someone else’s husband?”

The woman paused, her eyes turning angry. The one thing she couldn’t handle was someone mocking her father.

“Hah! Being a so-called scholar, yet what can you do? You old woman can’t even control your own man, and you come here to shout at me?”

Lucian’s mother felt her anger boiling. “You ’bitch’—what the hell are you even doing here?!”

And suddenly—even Heena felt like her eyes were playing tricks on her—the mistress’s eyes turned red. Tears started falling. Butter-butter-butter, like someone had opened a faucet.

Her expression shifted to one of hurt and fragility.

’Oh no,’ Heena thought. ’Here it comes.’

And right on cue, a male voice boomed: “HOW DARE YOU?!”

It was Lucian’s father. That old man. Along with the other three dukes, who had apparently returned.

All four patriarchs looked at their ’legal wives’ with utter contempt.

Lucian’s father strode forward in long steps, stopping in front of his so-called white moonlight. He saw tears on her face, her lip trembling, the wronged expression perfectly crafted.

And this woman was ’old’—like, at this age you should be playing with grandchildren. In this world where people married young and had children young, she should absolutely have grandchildren by now.

Yet she was acting like a pitiful heroine from a tragic romance novel.

’Damn,’ even Heena had to admire the commitment.

Lucian’s father wiped her tears and said tenderly, “Are you okay?”

And just like every white lotus bitch in every drama ever, she said in a trembling voice, “It’s… it’s not sister’s fault…”

’Oh for fuck’s sake,’ Heena thought. She’d heard this exact dialogue thousands of times. It never changed.

And men—men were ’fools’ who thought with their dicks instead of their brains. This man, so successful and wealthy and supposedly intelligent, couldn’t see through this woman’s obvious pretense.

He hugged her protectively, then looked back at his wife with cold anger.

Heena could predict exactly what he was going to say. And sure enough, he opened his mouth and delivered the line:

“How many times have I told you not to touch her? She is a respectable lady. I just think of her as a friend.”

’Unbelievable.’

—

Kieran’s father’s eyes landed on his white moonlight maid, who was standing to the side with red eyes, clenching her dress like a suffering damsel enduring humiliation.

Meanwhile, his legal wife—Kieran’s mother—looked at him with a calm, cold expression.

And Heena had to say: he really ’hated’ this woman. Hated that even after all these years of marriage, her dignified expression never cracked. You could kill her and she would still maintain that regal composure.

He walked forward and looked at his wife. And unlike Lucian’s father who shouted dramatically, he simply said quietly:

“I am disappointed in you.”

The woman ’shuddered’ at those words.

’Now that,’ Heena thought, ’is how you truly hurt someone.’

—

Adrian’s father just looked at his wife and said softly, “If ’she’ were here, this would never have happened.”

It was like an arrow pierced directly through the wife’s heart. She bit her lip and tears fell—not dramatic sobbing, but genuine pain. She looked like a fairy in the rain.

Absolutely beautiful.

—

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