1 Matilda Yap/Lady Presco (1/2)

[SECOND LIFE]

The second life I remember was where I was born as Matilda Sandrine Yap, a modern woman on Earth.

I was an heiress for a huge Asian conglomerate and I was married to a business tycoon. But it was an arranged marriage and for me, it was something similar to a ”business contract” only. Plus, my husband was gay. He just used me to cover-up his sexuality.

Knowing that, I still married him. I wanted a child so bad. But because of my husband's sexuality, we never slept together. We just opted for artificial insemination. It was successful and I got pregnant. I thought I would finally be a mother again.

But when I was only three months pregnant, the plane I was riding crashed and I died.

When I ”woke up”, I was back to the first life I still clearly remember.

***

[FIRST LIFE]

Before I became Matilda Sandrine Yap, I was born as Matilda Prescott– the only daughter of Duke Maverick Prescott. We were one of the few higher nobles of Moonchester Empire.

As Lady Prescott, I was snobbish and ambitious. In my first life, I wanted to be the empress. But from the very beginning, it was already impossible.

The Moonchester Empire had a strict tradition. The royal family married only within themselves. That meant that the current emperor, His Majesty Aku Moonchester was engaged to Her Royal Highness Nia Moonchester– his very own twin sister. According to their beliefs, marriage within the royal family would keep their bloodline ”pure.”

As if giving up on my dream to be an empress wasn't bad enough, my father had to choose Kiho as my fiancé. He wasn't a noble so he didn't have a family name. Worse, he was feared in the empire as the Captain of the Black Serpent Knights.

Kiho was dubbed as the emperor's ”shadow beast.” Rumors said that the Black Serpent Knights, led by their ruthless captain, did ”dirty jobs” for His Majesty. That included countless of killings, of course.

But despite Kiho's bad reputation, I still followed my father's wish and married the captain.

I did that to gain the emperor's favor. The High Priest that His Majesty trusted said that Kiho's child would be a special existence to the empire. But the problem was it would be hard for an ordinary woman to carry the ”Serpent's child” in her womb. Fortunately, the High Priest saw a prophecy about a ”dark-haired” woman that would be able to give birth to Kiho's son.

I possessed the darkest hair among the noblewomen in the empire. And thus, my father who was a part of the Royal Faction, arranged my marriage with the captain.

In hopes of gaining the emperor's favor, I married Kiho.

***

A year after my dull and loveless marriage with Captain Kiho, I gave birth to our son that he named 'Winter.' But Kiho was almost never home because he was always in a never-ending war to protect the emperor.

In short, I was the one who raised Winter by myself. The moment I noticed the emperor's interest in my son, I vowed to myself that I would ”create” a perfect child– a child that would be more than enough to be the emperor's heir. If I couldn't be an empress, then being the future emperor's mother didn't sound bad.

For the sake of my renewed ambition, I decided to make my son sit on the throne.

To support Winter, I betrayed the trust of Princess Nia, the emperor's twin sister-slash-fiancée and exposed her secret to the public. After the scandal, the royal princess was exiled from the palace. His Majesty begged the higher nobles to spare Princess Nia's life.

During that time, I had become the voice of the Royal Faction. In exchange of the princess' life, I asked His Majesty to choose an heir. Of course, none of the noble kids was deserving enough for the position other than my very own Winter.

That was how my son became the emperor's heir.

Back then, I was too happy that I didn't notice that I was creating a monster.

Winter wanted to be a good son but he couldn't help developing hatred towards me, his own mother, for his cruel upbringing. As a result of the internal conflict, my son developed a split personality caused by stress. In front of me, he was dutiful. But when no one was looking, he would turn into a vicious criminal. Sadly, it all happened when he was only twelve years old.