Chapter 40

"Why are you crying?"

"I don't know! Is it because of relief? Is it pain?"

"LMAO, okay. Bye."

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Margret whispered. "You okay?" Anastasia gave her an obvious look "yes I am."

"So you are going to talk with her?"

"Yes. eventually." Scarlett yelled, "I'm going to school bye!" She slammed the door without waiting for an answer.

Margret and she stayed sitting on the couch. Margret emphasized. "So~ what are we going to do now?"

"Go there?"

"Yup."

"Is it going to be awkward?"

Anastasia nodded "yup, very much."

"Where would she be most likely?"

"We rarely see her, my best bet is her house." As she concluded. A few seconds later, they felt an aura. A witch's aura. Like receiving information from a satellite, they calculated the aura was about five hundred meters away. The person was sitting on a rocking chair, sipping tea. "I guess my stepmother wants to talk about something her apartment then."

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They reached the door of Anastasia's stepmother's house. Margret looked at her friend "knock." Anna kept staring at the door "just knock." Anna's face turned into a frown towards the door. Margret had enough and rang the doorbell.

An old short black lady opened the door. She smiled at them as if she was expecting them. "Ah! Anna and Margret! It's already finished then! Come inside!" Inside, it looked like a witch's house. There were weird plants, a huge mud container, an enormous cauldron, and a black cat. The cat rubbed herself between Anastasia's legs. Anna bent down to pet it. She liked her. "I never knew you had a soft spot for them. You always called them balls of fur who's bring asthma to you." Anna ignored her and kept petting the cat.

Her stepmother announced, "So! Would you like tea or chocolate milk?"

"Uh~. Choc-" Anna interpreted Margret "Tea would be nice." her stepmother smiled and left the room. "What was that?" Anna took the cat in her hands "If a witch's giving you tea, don't ask for chocolate milk. It's good manners." Margret rolled her eyes and sat down on the nearest chair.

The former queen came with a tray. She set down the tray "So what do you want to know?"

"Why you killed every female who my father slept with? Why you killed his bastard children? Why didn't you kill me? Or my mother?" Anastasia took a cup from the tray and poured tea into that.

"I listened to my brain. I know it's my job to control it from making me mad. But when he first slept with some noble lady, that voice made me mad and I killed her on spot. I was so scared when I came back to my senses. Later, it passed off as an anonymous murder. Nobody found out.

"Then as years passed, more murders happened because of me. Your mother caught me red-handed, I killed one of her ladies-in-waiting. I thought she would become angry. Instead, I saw fear in her eyes. She reported my murders to the general. She-"

"Can you call him my father? I don't want a man whore as my actual dad."

"Sorry. Later, they both helped me to control that voice. They couldn't do anything at all for my marriage. That bastard was the emperor, he could do anything. He could start killing everyone and nobody would say anything. If they were the actual kings and queens, they would have sentenced him to death or something.

"We even had three kids, they died as soon as they were born. I investigated it. The trail ended, leading me to him. It broke me. I-"

"Holy shit! This came from a mythology story or something? I'm sure this marriage is like Zeus and Hera's marriage. Except Zeus never killed his legitimate children for sleeping around like the hoe he is." Anna slapped Margret's head "Sorry about the mosquito in the room, please continue."

"Who are you calling a mosquito?!" Anna snapped her fingers and Margret froze. "Sorry about it."

"It's okay. Whoever my dead husband had raped, I built them a protection center kind of thing. I had counted all of them. There were about a hundred women and a hundred kids there. I wanted to be mad, but I cried instead. I'm happy that I didn't kill them. But then it became reality. So when you were conceived, my brain controlled me again after a few years. It told me to kill you and your mother, I killed everyone in the protection center.

"Realizing what I did, I was about to throw myself to death. Your father stopped me from doing it. Your father then arrested me when he became emperor because of the mass murder I did. Also, the death of the man whore was staged as an assassin attempt.

"I'm grateful people didn't think it was because of me. So you have any questions!?"

Anna tilted her head "What was your name again?"

"Oh, it is Daphne." she nodded "what did you mean when you said something was finished?"

"Oh." Daphne's face scrunched up in thought "do you remember what you did when you were about ninety years old?"

"I burnt my room down?"

"No, you did something even more remarkable? Come on, it's your greatest achievement!" Anna stared at Daphne "ugh! When you were ninety years old, you did something so great. Not even the most experienced witch could do it!

"You made a potion that hides your aura for a few centuries!"

"That was an accident!"

"Yes, but still! It's remarkable! I was your first experimental guinea pig, and it hid my aura for nearly a Millenium! It finished working on me today!" Anna snapped her fingers and Margret unfroze. 'wait what just happened? Why am I here?' Margret stood up and walked outside the door. Daphne and Anastasia ignored her and kept their conversation going on. "Really?"

"Yes!" Margret barged in again and they turned their head at her. She was huffing out air and leaned against the door. Margret couldn't make up her words "Anna! It's- It's- It's! He's here!"

Daphne scrunched her nose in confusion "Who's here?"

"Your brother!"

(LMAO, that was quick.)