Chapter 421 - Getting Through To Leonel
"Would you like something to drink, uncle?" Edwin nervously scratched his head and asked King Leonel.
Leonel was sitting on a chair with his leg crossed. Though he was the guest at Edwin\'s quarter, he was comfortably leaning back on the chair and was sitting there as though he owned the whole place.
He gestured towards the empty chair that was in front of him and asked Edwin, "Why don\'t you take a seat first? I don\'t need anything to eat or drink."
A deep frown appeared in between the King\'s thick brows when he said, "What I need right now is to hear you. If we are to break my sister out then we need to take action before the night ends."
Edwin gave a dejected smile to his uncle and complied with his order. He took a seat and before he could even speak, he heard King Leonel asking him, "So, what\'s your plan?"
Edwin heaved a deep sigh and tried to start the conversation politely. However, he couldn\'t think of a way to begin the conversation without sounding offensive.
So he decided to be straightforward and blunt like he always used to be and began, "Uncle, I don\'t know what my mother told you and how she convinced you to help the King of Mihir, but…" he recalled how his mother had threatened to hurt his wife and his daughter and his voice turned sour, "But what I know is that whatever she tried to do for my sake was going to be the death of me."
King Leonel understood that Edwin was aware of the war that Lillian was trying to bring into Wyverndale.
So he didn\'t try to play dumb anymore. "What do mean by \'death of me\'? And what\'s with the tone that you are talking?" His dark brown eyes became darker and he asked with suspicion, "Don\'t tell me you didn\'t come asking for my help to break your mother out because you somehow betrayed your own mother."
Edwin averted his gaze away from his uncle for a few seconds and replied after an awkward scoff, "It\'s not like that, uncle."
Leonel was quick to notice a hint of hesitance in Edwin\'s eyes and he instantly raised his voice to confront his nephew, "Edwin! I had never in my life thought that you were even capable of thinking bad about your mother. What did you do? Did you betray your own mother? Is that why you were trying to avoid me? Because you were ashamed of yourself?"
Edwin wanted to lash out at his uncle for assuming things on his own and not giving him a chance to talk. But he controlled his anger because he knew that he needed his uncle as an ally, not as an enemy.
So he politely tried to make his uncle understand why he did the things that he did. "Uncle, yes, I did betray my mother\'s trust but–"
"So I was right!" Leonel indignantly slammed his fist on the armrest of the chair and roared. "How dare you–"
Edwin swiftly cut his uncle\'s words and pleaded, "Uncle, please hear me out first. There\'s a very genuine reason for why I did that."
Edwin furrowed his brows and asked King Leonel, "Were you aware that my mother is a dark witch?" He wanted to know how much he had to explain to his uncle to give the full context to him.
"Of course I am aware!" Leonel narrowed his eyes at his nephew and tried to make him feel indebted towards his mother, "She had told me that she had to tap into the dark side to save you. Are you even aware that you were a stillborn child, you ungrateful brat?"
Leonel sneered in a derogating way and glared at Edwin. "Your mother fell into the trap of the dark side for you and now that very child betrayed her. My sister sure came with an amazing fate."
Edwin let out an exasperated sigh. He was tired of how both the brother and sister had the tendency of not listening to the others. But he wanted to give his best shot at making his uncle listen to him and making him understand everything.
So he tried to speak again, "Uncle, I am really grateful towards mother for giving me life, not just once but twice. But that does not give her the right to take my life away."
"She…" Leonel was now a little attentive to what Edwin had to say because this was the second time he had mentioned about dying. "She tried to kill you?"
"I am sure that my mother wasn\'t doing that on purpose at first." Edwin adjusted himself on the chair properly and began explaining what he meant, "I had been cursed and my lifeline is connected with that of Adeline\'s. And mother had planned to assassinate Adeline by inviting the war."
Edwin\'s pupil dilated as he further explained his woes, "I had asked my mother time and again not to do anything rash for my sake. I had warned her that my life would be at stake if she tried to do anything to Adeline. And I had told her time and again that getting rid of Adeline was not an option."
Edwin furrowed his brows and tightened his fists. "But when I was on house arrest, she went behind my back and made a deal with that Vampire King. And because of her, that mad King got the courage to come here to Wyverndale and also attack us."
Edwin adjusted his collar while recalling the day he thought he was going to die because of the pain that he had gotten from the attack on Adeline. "My mother made Wyverndale vulnerable to attacks… and Adeline and I would have been dead if it wasn\'t for Adeline\'s husband who saved her in time."
Leonel felt a prick in his heart when he heard that the King he had chosen to follow had almost killed his dearest nephew.
Edwin glanced at his uncle. To his relief, it looked like he was finally getting through to him. "Yes, I did betray my mother but she was the one who had betrayed me first. And after hearing what she said to me after getting captured, I don\'t know if she ever loved me for real. I think she just raised me as her tool to exact revenge on my father."
"Why would you say that? Of course, she loved you," Leonel tried to defend his sister although he himself was not so sure about his sister anymore.
Edwin gave a wistful smile and shook his head. "If she had loved me then she would have never threatened me with my wife and my daughter\'s lives. She said she would kill us all."
In an attempt to console his disheartened nephew, Leonel said, "She must have said that in her anger, Edwin. No mother wants her children dead."
Edwin knew that his uncle was now vulnerable to emotional manipulation. So he used the sympathy that he was getting from his uncle to ask for his help, "Uncle, I think you already know how immature and mad that Vampire King is.. He will bring nothing good for Frostford if you side with that enemy of humans. Why don\'t you help Wyverndale instead?"