Chapter 96: Chapter 96 Revelation
Irmine was sitting quietly on the chair while pressing both of her hands against her temples.
Oliver had already been gone for over an hour. She indeed felt worried, but knowing he was surrounded by powerful monsters helped calm her down slightly.
"Honey, are you alright?" Arnulf asked as he approached and handed her a cup of water.
"I don’t know...do you think I’m a bad mother? Oliver must surely hate me right now." Irmine said as her eyes already watery.
"Hmmm... I don’t think he would think that. He’s a good son. We raised him with good manners and surrounded him with love." Arnulf replied calmly.
"However, I think it’s better for us to reveal everything to him. Sooner or later, he will find out about it." Arnulf said seriously.
"Find out about what, Father?" Oliver suddenly asked as he entered through the door. His eyes were completely serious now.
"O-Oliver! You already returned?" Arnulf said in surprise. He had not even sensed Oliver approaching the house.
Oliver had already heard what Flora told him earlier. And the truth had shaken him deeply to the core. However, he still refused to fully believe it until he heard it directly from his own parents themselves.
Oliver sat down on the chair across from his parents. He placed both hands on his knees while leaning slightly forward. All of his monsters had also gathered inside the living room, each of them reducing their sizes to fit the limited space comfortably.
"Father, mom...can you please tell me what exactly you two have been hiding from me? If it’s something related to me, then I need to know about it." Oliver asked seriously.
Even though he already had a rough guess about the truth, he still wanted to hear it directly from them.
Irmine looked into Oliver’s eyes, and she could sense it immediately. It seemed Oliver already had some idea about what was happening. Then, she glanced toward Husk and Flora, who were both silently looking at her as well.
"It seems we can no longer hide the truth from you. Fine. I will tell you everything." she finally said. Irmine slowly stood up and began walking away.
Arnulf quickly grabbed her hand to stop her.
"Are you sure, honey?" he asked softly.
"Yes. I think... it’s finally time." Irmine replied. After that, she walked upstairs and entered her room.
A few minutes later, Irmine returned to the living room while carrying a small box in her hands. She slowly opened it and showed its contents to Oliver.
Oliver looked inside and saw a noble crest. It had the shape of two crossed swords with wings extending behind them. The crest was made from pure gold and looked quite heavy.
Below it, a name was engraved.
House of Isolde.
"What is this, Mom?" Oliver asked.
"This is the crest of my house. You already know that I once told you I came from a minor noble family. But... I lied to you." Irmine admitted.
"House of Isolde is a prestigious house that rules over the Duchy of Iseros. My father... your grandfather, is a Duke."
"Duke?!" Oliver exclaimed in shock.
A Duke was essentially the third-highest noble rank within the kingdom, standing only below an Archduke and the King himself. There were only a handful of Dukes throughout the entire kingdom. And Oliver had never once imagined that his grandfather was one of them.
"A few years before you were born, I met Arnulf during one of my official visits. We eventually fell in love and decided to get married."
"However, many members of the house opposed our relationship because Arnulf was a commoner. And if I married him, there was a possibility that my noble title would be stripped away."
"But even so, we still chose to marry. Most of my family was furious, but my father kindly still allowed us to stay in the mansion and keep my family name."
"So, we continued living there. A few months later, I became pregnant. We were truly happy. We bought many clothes and preparations for the baby and dreamed about our future together."
"But only a few days later... I suffered a miscarriage. We were completely devastated. But still, we believed maybe it simply wasn’t our time yet to become parents. So... we decided we would try again."
"But during the next two years, I suffered miscarriages around five times. I was completely devastated and started feeling like something was truly wrong with me."
"So, we decided to visit a healer. He performed a thorough examination on me and then told us shocking news. He said that my eggs were of poor quality."
"And because of that, the fertilized eggs could not properly form a healthy connection or placenta within my womb. That was the reason behind all the miscarriages. At that time, I was heartbroken."
"I truly believed I had become infertile. But then... another truth was revealed. The healer examined the products of conception and discovered a large amount of strange substances inside them. He then checked my body and discovered those same substances flowing within my blood as well."
"He said the substance did not originate from this local region, and it was extremely rare to find it within a human body, especially in such a massive amount. So there was only one possible explanation. I had been poisoned."
"And even worse...he said I had been exposed to the poison for such a long period of time that it had completely destroyed my ovaries. As a result, I could no longer become pregnant..."
Oliver listened to her explanation with complete focus.
Meanwhile, Arnulf simply sat there quietly with his eyes closed.
Irmine then continued speaking.
"At that time... I just wanted to end my life. I thought I had failed as a wife, and I could not become a mother. But one day, my sister... who specialized in forbidden and rare spells... decided to help me."
"She said she would give one of her eggs and have it fertilized using magic before implanting it into my womb. I was completely shocked by the idea. But because I was too desperate... I agreed to it."
"And in just a single attempt, a living child finally grew within my womb. But that child was not born from my seed and your father’s seed...it was from my sister."
"One day, she told us that once you were born and old enough, she would eventually take you back. After hearing that, we immediately ran away from there and tried to live somewhere else. And then... a few months later, you were born inside this very house."
Oliver was completely speechless after hearing the shocking revelation.
