The Romantic Trials Of A Transmigrated Empress

Chapter 376: My mother once said.

Back in the sonar, Galen was going over his own memories of his mother’s coldness. But unlike Roland who did it silently, Galen was mentioning his grievances loudly over a hefty dinner and more wine.

"Do you know that she never carried my children in her arms even once?" He waved a fork that had some lettuce in Roland’s direction.

Roland sent a spoonful of garlic butter rice in his mouth. The rich, savory flavor almost made him moan in pleasure. He sliced a piece of chicken and to follow the rice, all the while nodding along to Galen’s words.

The fact the their mother had never carried Galen’s children in her arms was not an earth shattering surprise as he had no memories of her carrying either of them. It was always the nursery maids.

"She did not even know their names." Galen tapped the fork against a crystal glass, calling for Roland’s attention. "Scratch that, she did not even know that I had more one child because she always rejected every invitation I sent to her to my home. She almost had my children thrown out at royal banquet. When she found out that they were mine, she just ignored them like they were no better than the servants."

"That’s Maurelia De-Kensington for you." Roland sighed.

"Do you know what she said at my first wedding?" He asked.

Roland shook his head.

As he swirled the wine in his glass, Galen let out an empty laugh and said, "She said to me that she was happy I finally had someone in my life that could love and stand me."

Roland laughed. He did not mean to but he did and Galen did not blame him.

"She was my mother and she had just admitted to not loving me or wanting to be around me." Galen leaned forward on the table with a glint of humor in his eyes and he said, "It gets better because at my second wedding she made it worse."

Roland raised his eyebrows curiously.

Galen sipped some wine first and he told his brother, "She said she never expected me to amount to much but I kept surprising her with how much of a disappointment I had grown into. She said I was a failure in everything, even my choice of wives."

Roland coughed.

Galen chuckled and raised his voice. "I did not even pick them, she got together with our father and decided on who I should marry. I just nodded and gave them the go ahead to do as they pleased and yet I was the failure!!!"

Roland laughed even more. Even the servants behind them raised their lips or brows. Some just sharpened their ears because these were real stories about the queen which people didn’t know noveldrama

Roland refilled his wine glass. "Do you know what she said when I started my knight training?"

Galen shook his head. He had not been there and they had never discussed their mother like this so all they were sharing with each other was new.

Roland cleared his throat. "She told me that when I will wield the sword, other knights marvel not at my skill but my lack of precision and buffoon like movements."

Galen choked on wine but Roland was not finished.

"When Lord Votura, my sword master met her a month later to give her an unsolicited report. She told him not to bother and they might as well give me a sword made of paper and tell the enemies to die of laughter."

Galen’s laughter deepened and he slapped the table. "I have a better one."

"Amaze me." Roland replied.

Galen sat upright like a man determined to win a challenge. "I was not good with the sword like you but I was very confident in my painting abilities. So, I painted her and showed her my work."

"Oh-Oh." Roland muttered.

Galen nodded, as expected the response he got was very heartbreaking. "She said that my paintings should be rolled up and flung in the sea. Then she asked her maids to burn the painting and told me to stop having ideas."

Roland piped in eagerly, "I have a better one on the first time I was expected to give a speech before courtiers for our father’s birthday. I wrote it out first and asked my royal governess for advise.

He took it and me to her, seeking some advise to beef up the speech. After reading it, she told me that she did not know whether I would be applauded but she knew everyone would be calling for rescue pigeons to send them back to their homes because their ears would be bleeding."

Galen gasped. "No wonder you were stammering and sweating when you gave that birthday toast. You were thirteen, right?"

Roland nodded. "Hmm. And there was the time I was sick and went to her chambers, hoping that she would care for me like I had seen Consort Rina caring for Benjamin. So, I hugged her and she told me that if I snuggled any closer to her, the red knights would mistake it for a hostage situation and shoot me with arrows. I was six years old."

A servant burst into laughter and someone gasped. Roland and Galen did not care. They actually found this sharing session to be fun.

"When I was ten, I took her flowers and performed a solo horse dance for her on her birthday in her chambers. After the dance, I told her that I loved her and she told me to quit it with the theatrical desperation and she had one of her knights pick me up like kitten and throw me out." Galen sighed. "My God that woman was terrible."

Roland leaned back in the chair, one hand tapping the crystal glass slowly. "When I had my first drink of wine at a banquet after my first victory in war. She walked up to me and whispered, "Stop waving that glass like a victory flag, you conquered a tiny territory not an ocean."

Galen gasped. While most of the terrible sarcastic remarks made by their mother had been funny. That one was not. "I...I..."

"Its okay brother, you don’t need to apologize for her. She was who she was." Roland raised his glass. "A stone cold bitch."

Jesting’s walking cane dropped to the ground. Servants gasped. It was almost like they had heard news of the queen’s death all over again.

"You got that right." Galen agreed.

They toasted and downed more wine.

"She told me I owed her my career as a successful night." Roland mentioned as an afterthought. "If I had not desperately pushed myself to prove that I could be more than what she thought of me, I never would have become Eldoria’s greatest knight."

Galen’s eyes turned thoughtful. "It would mean that I owe her my career too. If she had not made such remarks about my painting, I would not be Eldoria’s best landscape painter today."

Roland reared back in surprise and his chair crushed to the floor, along with him.