Beast of the Frozen Night - Chapter 104.2

The once lively atmosphere turned heavy in an instant. The group approached the stiff Anne with a joyous faces

“My God, my daughter. Yes, you can’t have abandoned us.”

Anne, who avoided the Countess’s hand trying to hold her hand immediately, instinctively stepped back. She unconsciously clutched Daymond’s clothes. Like the surprised Anne, Daymond’s expression hardened.

Anne had never once thought of them in all this time. She hadn’t asked Daymond about their whereabouts and deliberately chose to forget them. She had assumed they were living well somewhere. But facing her parents now, her heart felt heavy.

To anyone’s eye, it was hard to believe they had once been nobility, their appearance was so miserable. At first glance, they seemed to have endured all sorts of hardships before returning to their homeland.

Her mother’s expression turned bewildered as Anne hesitated yet unmistakably avoided them.

“Why are you acting like this, Angroanne? Didn’t you come to see your mother?”

The absurd reaction of thinking as if Anne had come to greet them, made Daymond’s cool gaze rise sharply.

He had specifically ordered their exile to a foreign land during the annihilation of Libelois. Initially, he intended to make them suffer as much as Anne had, even selling them as slaves, but Anne’s plea to spare their lives led him to a merciful decision.

He had banished them from the land, ensuring they could never set foot on this land again, expecting them to spend their lives in hard labor until their deaths. Yet, they proved to be tenaciously alive.

“Damn, I wish you hadn’t seen this.”

Daymond scowled and pulled Anne behind him.

Daymond watched the dirty people who dared utter his noble wife’s name with disdain and raised his hand. Knights who were previously unnoticed, suddenly appeared from all directions, preventing their approach. At the Grand Duke’s command, the knights had been discreetly following and ready to intervene.

The sudden arrival of about ten knights made passersby step back, creating a spectacle. The former Count and Countess turned pale, while Robert, who was already beaten so much, hid behind his parents, too scared to speak as knights with swords suddenly surrounded them.

Despite Anne’s reluctance, they didn’t back down easily.

“My dear daughter, you wouldn’t fail to recognize your own mother. Angroanne, we’ve missed you so much.”

Although they clung to her as if she was there to save them, no one dared touch Anne. They were deterred by the fierce look in Daymond’s eyes who was standing in front of her, as if supporting her.

Even though it wasn’t Daymond who directly ruined their family, they realized the knights storming their residence that night belonged to a certain family. Helpless, they could only suffer as the knights turned their mansion upside down and recounted their crimes against the Grand Duchess.

Even when they were tied up like criminals and taken to somewhere unknown, they still believed their daughter would never abandon them and would plead for mercy with the Grand Duke. They maintained hope until they were forcibly boarded onto a ship and exiled to a barren land.

At first, they gritted their teeth and cursed Angroanne bitterly. Calling her the worst kind of traitor. Then, they cursed the nobles who took their money and abandoned them, and finally, they turned on each other in blame and argument.

After three years, they had stopped complaining or even speaking. They were too busy struggling for survival to fight among themselves.

Even those who had sworn never to stoop to menial labor due to their pride eventually had to take up rough tools in the face of hunger. Robert, who had screamed that he’d rather starve than do the work of lowly servants, finally succumbed when faced with the brink of starvation.

In a shabby house where the rain seeped in, they began to take on whatever work they could find. It took them a full seven years to barely make their way back to the empire.

Yet, despite all the hardships, they never let go of the inherent pride and ambition of their noble birth and their expectations on Angroanne. They thought they understood her character better than anyone else. They were confident that their daughter would eventually take them back in.

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