Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 311: Where In This Was Love?

Chapter 311: Where In This Was Love?

Wanting to earn her mother’s love once again, Lucille strategized and managed to get more orders than Arabella did.

Her mother was happy when she succeeded for a few days and Lucille got the praise she deserved. It had been a while since her mother praised her.

But when Arabella’s side sold more again, Lucille’s mother acted as if her success the previous days did not succeed at all.

Were all her efforts for nothing?

Was her effort not enough?

Did she fail somewhere?

Will her mother ever stop comparing her to Arabella?

Lucille was beginning to lose confidence.

Did all her studies do nothing? Did Arabella study more than she did? Was she taught how to promote better than Lucille’s education in Obrusca?

If that was the case, then they only need to hire more tutors. After all, all the profits would be for the kingdom anyway.

Lucille’s mother did allow her to get more tutors when she said Arabella might be getting a better education.

Thus, Lucille studied hard. But on the next Assembly, Arabella was not even trying to promote anything.

The same thing happened the following year. Arabella was simply enjoying herself during tea parties and was just having chats with everyone.

Then, what did Lucille study for in two whole years?

She came prepared and equipped to fight with Arabella but the latter was not even fighting.

Then, one day, Lucille realized that everything that happened during the first year of assembly she met Arabella was all coincidence.

Arabella was not trying to promote anything. She simply answered the questions she was asked. And the young ladies simply went crazy over her answers and bought whatever she said she was using and drinking.

And the merchants and minister of trade of Lobelius maximized the opportunity when it came.

Arabella had no part in it. However, just a few answers from her earned Lobelius a lot of gold.

Then what had Lucille been trying to compete with? What was she trying to defeat?

She informed her mother and she agreed for Lucille to have the support of the minister of trade and well-known merchants from Obrusca.

Lucille did well that year and sold a lot of products from Obrusca. She thought her mother would finally praise her again. But Lucille received none.

Instead, her mother noticed that Arabella seemed to be growing even more beautiful by the day. Yet, she did not even say Lucille was beautiful too.

When people were praising Arabella’s kindness and innocence, Lucille’s mother asked her to look more innocent and charming too.

Her clothes were changed to cute and bright-colored dresses to make her look adorable and kind. Even Arabella took notice and said it was a fresh look on her.

But Lucille preferred more elegant-looking clothes that made her look mature. She didn’t want to look cute or adorable. She was older after all. She wanted to look gorgeous and dignified.

Arabella looked cute and adorable because she was still young. She had not yet matured.

Lucille meanwhile was older by several years so what she wanted was to be more like the elder ladies who looked collected and elegant, not innocent and naive like Arabella was.

Still, Lucille had no choice but to obey what her mother said since she got glared at when she began to say she didn’t really like the cutesy dresses.

Her mother began having her trained to look cute and innocent too just as Arabella was.

Lucille didn’t understand why but she had to do it or else her mother would get angry. She wanted her mother’s approval so she had to do what she wanted.

And this kept happening every time there was an Assembly in Medeus or every time her mother heard something from other nobles about Arabella.

Her mother always pushed her. Lucille always had to do everything Arabella does. And she had to be better at it.

After several years, Lucille noticed that her mother was overly competitive when it comes to Arabella.

And she understood one day when her mother got furious when Lucille said she no longer wanted to compete with Arabella.

Her mother threw a glass at the floor. She almost hit Lucille too but she didn’t want to leave a mark that would ruin her skin so she threw it on the floor instead.

That scared Lucille so much.

Her mother didn’t mind hitting her with something so dangerous.

Lucille could have been hurt severely.

And yet, her mother was only worried about the scarring which would make her even more inferior to Arabella, not at the fact that she almost hurt her own daughter nor the fact that Lucille got terrified and hurt by such an act.

It was then, that Lucille realized that her mother didn’t care about her much. She only wanted her to be prettier than Arabella and achieve more than she does.

Can what her mother had been doing to her be called love?

Did her mother ever love her in the first place?

Thus, Lucille decided to ask if her mother loved her at all.

She got a hug for the first time in a long while.

And her mother said that she did love her very much.

That day, Lucille learned that her mother, Lucia, hated losing to Arabella’s mother, Ofelia. It was because Lucia was once the fiance of the King of Lobelius.

King Edgar broke his engagement with Lucia to marry Arabella’s mother. It embarrassed Lucia so much and she became a laughingstock because of it.

But King Neville was in love with Lucia and proposed to marry her. It was then that she was saved but she never forgot the feeling. Especially when there were still people who snicked behind her back.

And due to this, Lucia said she didn’t want Lucille to experience the same. If Lucille was only ever second to Arabella, she would be a laughingstock as well.

Lucia said she was doing this for Lucille’s future.