The Revenge Of The Abandoned

"Mother, I just..." Azer tried to explain himself, but found that he couldn't say anything. He indeed had rashly accused his own daughter without evidence after listening to a servant's words. Feeling guilty, he didn't say anything.

"Iris, this is all your fault, you caused Father to misunderstand! If you had clearly explained the situation, this wouldn't have happened." Athia chimed in, looking accusingly at Iris.

She seemed to be creating an opening for Azer to back out. But, only Iris realized that she was, in fact helping her out by giving her an opportunity to explain the situation.

Turning to face Azer with a 'scared-but-acting-tough' look, she spoke up resolutely.

"Father, While I was on my way to Moth...Concubine Mother's courtyard, this maid came running to me. She told me that she brought seaweed soup for my Mother. When I asked her if I could take a look at it, she suddenly knelt to the ground, exclaiming that she had accidentally brought Father's medicine instead of soup. She kept kneeling, even begged me to let her take it back to you! So I told her to go..." Looking around, she pointed to Zena.

"I even asked my maid to go with her, so she can make sure the medicine was delivered to you safely! I was only...I was only scared that she wouldn't give father her medicine. I didn't think..." She stopped speaking, looking fearfully at the maid.

Everyone was surprised, especially Azer. Libera on the other hand, understood the situation. Just as she was about to speak, Athia once again stepped up,

"Iris, how can we believe what you are saying is the truth? You could just be lying to cover up your crime! Besides, Zena is your maid, you can order her to say any nonsense you want!" She once again directed the blame towards Iris.

"Iris, you..." Azer started to speak.

In desperation to clear her name, Iris spoke up before him fl.u.s.teredly, "That's not true! Second Sister, that's not true! I swear it wasn't me! How could I poison Father?! Where would I get the poison anyway!?"

"That's right! How could Iris have poison on her? She's just a young girl, how could she have something like that?" Her grandmother made a timely appearance, fully supporting Iris.

"So, it was just the maid that tried to poison husband, and framed Iris when she failed?" Libera spoke up confusingly.

Everyone nodded their head in approval. This seemed to be the most likely situation. How could a little country-side girl like Iris have poison with her?

"No! No! I didn't frame her! I didn't frame her! It was..." The maid started screaming in fear. Just as she was about to complete her words, Libera yelled at her angrily,

"Impudent! You dare say it was not you?! How dare you have guts to poison Master and frame Iris? Guards, immediately take her out a beat her to death!" She motioned the guards to take the maid away.

Iris smiled at her quick response. She effortlessly killed off a maid to protect her name. As expected of Her Imperial Viciousness.

"Iris dear, please don't be upset. Your Father just misunderstood the situation a bit, he didn't mean to." Libera turned to comfort her.

"That's right sister, the maid was just to impudent, trying to poison Father." Aria also chimed in, trying to act all innocent.

"But... If I didn't stop the maid, wasn't...wasn't she going to deliver the bowl of p-poison to mother?!" Iris burst into tears after making the statement. She brought everyone's attention back to the crux of the matter.

"This..."

"Thinking about it, it's true! The maid was originally going to Concubine Riya's courtyard!"

"That's right! She only went to poison Master because Young Miss Iris told her to deliver the medicine!"

"Oh my!"

"Why...why did they try to maliciously kill mother? Mother's so nice! Why do they want to kill her?" Iris sobbed louder, as if she suffered the most heartbreaking pain. Seeing her like this, everyone felt sorry for her.

"Okay, Iris. Don't cry. We're going to find the one who dared to do something so vicious! Azer, investigate this incident thoroughly for me!" The Matriarch tried to comfort her, giving Iris the result that she wanted from the start.

"Yes, Mother!"

Libera's face changed slightly. She tried to cover the expression change, but both Iris and Athia noticed it.

Iris knew clearly that Libera would push out a scapegoat to protect herself. But that would still stop he from acting against her mother for sometime. That was what she was aiming for all along.

She needed time. With that, even if she dared to go against her mother again, Iris would have established enough power to take her on.

...

As Azer declared the incident over, people started to leave.

Iris was planning to go to her mother and tell her a very twisted version of the incident today. Just so that she could hate Azer more.

Just as she was about to leave, she saw Athia standing there.

The both exchanged gazes and Athia left. Seeing her leaving, Iris's deep eyes flickered.

This second sister of hers...

Even just now, her every word was to help her out. Even when she pushed Iris ahead and said that she could have lied, she was only doing that so Iris could present stronger facts to support her argument. So that her innocence would be made clearer.

Athia, this girl, she was...someone Iris could never understand in both of her lifetimes.