A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 298: Empty Throne

Chapter 298: Empty Throne

Alessa was taken aback by the Fohl’s words. It was something that Alessa was not expecting he would say in the first place so when he revealed it just like that, it came out as a complete shocker for her.

"Me? Take over the throne? You must be joking, Fohl. I have already left the kingdom due to my actions and due to my wish to protect my daughter. And now you are hoping I would return just like that and claim the throne? That is absolute crap! What about father? Why do I need to take over the throne when he is still the king?" Alessa started to barrage Fohl with her frustrations and her questions about his plea.

"After his attempt to retrieve you and his granddaughter, he and his army returned empty-handed and suffered a heavy defeat. Due to some of the merfolk soldiers dying in the process due to the attack, the army that has returned has been crippled and the kingdom is now at risk. The King became unwell after he lost the battle and since he lost one of his eyes as well, his work became limited in the process due to his limited vision," Fohl explained.

Then, he pulled out a piece of scroll with some words that Elaina couldn’t understand due to the language it was written. It looks like random symbols in her eyes but it seems like those symbols were actually letters that the Merfolk uses.

"This here is the last letter that your father made. When we found this and read its content, we realized it was his will."

"Don’t tell me...he died?"

Fohl shook his head. "He is not dead yet."

"Eh? If he isn’t dead...then why..."

"Let me explain first, Princess. First, let’s go back a bit during the time when your father returned after his failure to retrieve you. After he returns, he immediately seeks out some healers to restore his eye from its ruptured state...however, it ends poorly as the healers have no capabilities to reconnect his recover his eye in the process. They said that because his eye has been fully destroyed, it cannot be fully restored and even if it is restored, his vision will no longer return. Compared to some cases before like reconnecting an arm or a leg that got severed in battles, his eye’s condition is unique and the healers have yet to encounter a similar case, which makes their job harder and even with the help of the other skilled healers or any healing fruits we feed him, the ruptured eye remained in the same state."

Alessa looked at Elaina with worry as she had seen who caused the injury of her father. Alessa didn’t condemn Elaina about it, instead, she was very grateful for her for doing that. But now, she is worried for Elaina about this.

Fohl continued explaining. "Since his injury cannot be healed, he decided to cover his eyes and continue as usual. However, the next problem appeared and it is related to the Trident."

The Trident. Elaina remembered it as it was the weapon that the Merfolk king was carrying when they attacked. She even clashed with it before she managed to land a hit on his eye. She remembered that her grandfather was the one who broke the trident to pieces when the Merfolk King tried to attack him which backfired as her grandfather turned out to be much stronger than the Merfolk King himself. It is also the main reason why they retreated in the first place.

"You mean father’s weapon? I saw it get broken last time but shouldn’t the blacksmiths of the kingdom fix it? After all, it is thanks to their effort that the Trident is still in good shape after all these years..."

"That is the thing. After it was destroyed, the Trident was sent for repairs...but it took a month and the Trident cannot be repaired. They tried to repair it and reform it to its regular form...only for it to end up not becoming the same Trident the King once wielded. As a result, he tried to redo the repair...only for some mishap to happen, and now, the King’s mind suddenly popped and now he is acting like a crazy man. Healers are trying to save him...but the effort did not work... As a result, the King is no longer suitable for ruling."

Alessa frowned. "So that is why you people are now here to persuade me to come back? You wanted me to take over just because of that?"

"Yes. As the direct descendant and only daughter of the king, you are going to be the ruler of the kingdom once he steps down from his throne...only that right now, you are ascending on it a lot faster. And based on the will that the king, he hopes that you take over his role as the ruler of the kingdom. It is one of his wishes," Fohl nodded, hoping for Alessa to accept the plea.

"Are you kidding me? Did you really think I will be coming back there, after all the stuff they made me do and the things that they want to do with my daughter? That place is not the home I once knew. It is better for you all to look for another person to fulfill the role of becoming the new ruler of the sea. Don’t bother me."

Fohl was stunned but he immediately tried to convince Alessa. "But Princess! If you do this, then you will no longer be treated as the princess of the kingdom! You will be throwing all of the privileges you have right now!"

"Throwing? Ha...I have thrown them the moment they asked that my daughter be sacrificed. I rather become a commoner and live with the common people if it means my daughter will have a smooth childhood and grow like a normal child."

Fohl was speechless. He wanted to say something but he couldn’t say anything else. He wasn’t able to make a comeback on Alessa’s words.

"If we are done here, then scram. You are ruining my day."

After saying that, Alessa turned her back on Fohl.

Elaina watched the incident happen. At first, Elaina thought it would escalate into something worse...but it seems that it wasn’t the case. Fohl didn’t do anything and was left standing there with his disappointed face. A few seconds later, he sighed and looked at Elaina.

"I am sorry. Since the princess refused, it seems that our negotiation offers are immediately void. The offer we have is only going to take effect if the Princess took the offer and returned with us...but since she didn’t, we will leave quietly like what you said. We don’t want any trouble so I hope you let us leave."

"There might be a bit of a battle of words earlier but you never resorted to physical violence so far, so I am not worried. You people can leave," Elaina nodded in response.

Fohl and his escort guards then slowly retreated to the gates. Fohl took one last look at where Alessa went before he left. Like what he said, he didn’t cause a fuss and silently went back home.

"Looks like things were not looking good at their kingdom huh? Well, it was their fault, to begin with so if they just stopped doing what their practices were, it wouldn’t have escalated to this in the first place," Julia sighed.

"The ritual that they keep on mentioning earlier might be some sort of old ritual that is necessary to be performed, so when Miss Alessa decided to break that tradition and escape, it has come to this now. Traditions and customs like that are hard to change and as a royalty myself, I know the struggles. My parents were like that whenever a problematic old custom appeared. Thankfully, most of them have been reversed or have been forgotten by now by the people due to the ruling that my parents did. Still, I pity Miss Alessa," Princess Margaux looked in the stream’s direction where Alessa dived back in.

Elaina smiled and stretched her arms. "Well, she has chosen her decision. And just like me, she moved on, thrown her privileges in exchange for a life. I can respect that and I fully support her actions. She didn’t need to suffer from everything and drag her daughter on it. It’s better like this."

A noise came from the stream causing the three to look simultaneously in its direction.

"Alessa?" Elaina was puzzled when Alessa reappeared before them.

"Are they gone?" she asked.

"Yeah. Left peacefully without any fuss. I thought he would order his men to capture you whether you like the decision of the will or not. But to my surprise, it seems that he didn’t break that promise," Elaina answered calmly.

"Ha...that idiot. I didn’t expect him to become a representative. Thankfully, they didn’t do anything to him but instead promoted him," Alessa smiled bitterly.

"It seems that you know that guy a lot. Are you two close when you were still in the kingdom?" Julia asked.

"Of course. After all, he is the one who got me pregnant, and the father of Mier. He was my previous secret lover until my father knew due to my pregnancy which made our secret to be exposed as a result."