Meanwhile, on the eastern side of the imperial palace, in the crown prince's room, was a large bed in the middle.
The room was spacious enough with a modest touch of grandeur, not too extravagant nor too plain.
On the only bed in the room, a woman who looked in her late sixties was lying on the bed with a pale complexion.
Her body seemed frail, and her expression was sickly, making one think that she had been bedridden for quite a while.
Her eyes were closed while her facial features were a bit contorted, as if she was experiencing some pain within her body.
She seemed as if she couldn't sleep in peace no matter how much she wanted to.
*CLICK*
Hearing the sound of the doors opening, her lips quivered as it arched into a smile and faintly asked, "Son, are you back?"
Arthur's lips curved into a warm smile, "Yes, mother." However, despite sounding happy, his eyes lost shine whenever he saw his mother lying on the bed, unable even to walk around.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})He walked towards the bed and sat down beside Maria Xeton, his mother, who was the first wife of Ruthren Xeton and originally the empress consort of Ruthren before Reva's mother came into the picture.
Maria extended her hand towards Arthur feeling his presence near her, and softly asked as she opened her eyes slightly, "How did the meeting with your father go? Is he doing well?...And did he praise you for comprehending the fifth stage of your ethereal art?"
Arthur was sitting with the left side of his face facing her since he didn't want her to notice that his face's right side seemed a bit swollen.
Even though he took a rank 5 healing pill, it wouldn't heal entirely so soon.
Maria had poor eyesight due to her illness, and the best she had was a blurry sight. But still, Arthur didn't want to take any risks and make his mother feel down because of what happened.
And that's why when he heard her question, his heart tightened as he would have to lie to her again not to make her worry.
"Yes, mother. Father is doing well, and he praised me for doing a good job during my close doors cultivation. But mother need not have to ask about him every time. How could a powerful man like him experience any fatigue?"
Arthur's lips were firmly pressed as he finished his words.
He was inwardly angry that his mother cared so much about his father, but what she got in return was being treated like an abandoned old woman.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})No matter how much indignation he felt, he was able to endure all his father's harsh criticisms and beatings only because he prioritized the safety and well-being of his mother in his mind.
He knew that if he somehow offended his father, his father might do something cruel as cutting off all support for his mother, just the same as the threat he got from him earlier today.
He also didn't want to tell his mother the truth because he didn't want to hurt her by saying that his father didn't love or care about her at all, which was quite the opposite of how much she cared about him.
The last thing he wanted was her illness to worsen from heartbreak or something similar.
She was already very sick inwardly for a long time and was barely holding on. No amount of healing pills worked on her despite the resources and wealth the imperial family possessed.
But all the expenses were borne by Arthur himself, and he knew that his father literally did nothing to try and help his mother. Otherwise, he was sure that his mother's health would have improved at least.
In fact, Arthur was even angrier at his father that his mother ended up like this for his father himself.
He knew that his father wanted her to breakthrough as well and maintain a high cultivation to be worthy enough to be his wife.
Despite the dangers, Maria wanted to make Ruthren happy and decided to forcibly breakthrough using breakthrough pills even though her cultivation base was already weak after breaking through unnaturally many times.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Maria also didn't want Ruthren to be disappointed with her son as well because of her incompetence. So she thought she would have to increase her cultivation to prove her worthfulness.
But because of her flimsy cultivation base, the breakthrough pill completely caused havoc in her ethereal core, and as a result, she basically lost her original cultivation and was now no different than a cripple.
But simply being a cripple wouldn't make one end up bedridden like this. But the potent essence of the breakthrough pill caused a backlash in her body and ethereal core.
Now, Maria's ethereal core was in a vulnerable state that it could implode anytime due to any slightest disturbance.
It was like she had a time bomb in her chest which could go off any minute and destroy her heart.
There was almost no ethereal energy in her body, and because of that deficiency, her damaged ethereal core began to suck all the proteins, minerals, and more from her body at a slow pace, thereby deteriorating her health slowly.
In fact, her real age was not even forty, and even then, her looks should have looked like she was in her twenties with her original cultivation.
Her youthful beauty had already faded and long gone by her current looks, and now it seemed as if she was centuries old.
Maria warmly smiled as she caressed Arthur's cheek, "Even strong men can sometimes have their own problems to deal with, which we might not understand unless we are in their shoes."
Arthur finally couldn't hold it in seeing how dutiful, loving, and trusting Maria seemed towards Ruthren and asked, "But mother, aren't you displeased that he hasn't even visited you once?"
Maria continued to caress him as she said in the same warm tone, "Not at all. If he really wanted to abandon me, he wouldn't have still kept an old-looking and useless woman like me here. It's because he cares about you, and that's more than enough for me. I couldn't be prouder of my son who even reached the Sky Ethereal Realm at the age of twenty-one."
Arthur bit his lips as his gaze lowered, feeling even more ashamed of himself that his mother might suffer because of his ineptitude of not being able to meet his father's standards.
He knew that Ruthren doesn't make empty promises, and his mother might even end up worse if his cultivation doesn't breakthrough within a week.
And here, his mother was innocently lying on the bed without knowing anything about the way he was treated by his father and how he even ready to abandon his mother completely.
He couldn't imagine the devastation she would feel if she learned about the truth.
He even shifted his mother to his room and looked after her needs day and night because he didn't trust the usual maids and servants in this palace, afraid that they might do something to kill her off silently on his father's orders.
The only one he could trust was his young personal maid he knew since his childhood. She was in his company long enough for him to get a good grasp of her character and also to earn his trust.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to cultivate without much worry even though he had placed other safety measures near Maria.
Feeling an air of sadness around Arthur, Maria got worried and said, "Arthur, if you ever feel that you have been trying too hard and feeling tired with everything, you have the right to take a step back and relax. You have even looked after me all these years when you could have spent all those time looking after your own needs at such a young age. "
Arthur's heart wobbled as the first half of her sentence struck right at his inner most thoughts.
"You are my son, and not a moment passed where I haven't felt how lucky I am to have the gods bless me to be your mother. In this world, I have already seen how people like me get abandoned even by their own families. But you still held on to me all these years, and that's more than enough for me. Maybe it's time you let go of this useless old woman and move on. I—"
"Never!" Arthur shouted out in a fervid manner, and his brows knit together as his eyes became moist, "You are not a useless person...not to me. You are my mother, and I always need you with me no matter how long. Just promise me that you will never give up if you really love me. I have never seen you as a burden and never will. I promise to find a solution and heal you somehow. As long as there's breath in you, there's still hope."
