Myrcella stood in the midst of the mess, her chest still heaving.
"I'm fine."
"I just knocked things over."
"No one is allowed in without my command."
Footsteps outside the door quickly faded away.
The world returned to silence.
Myrcella slowly walked to the bed and collapsed onto it weakly.
She looked at the mess on the floor.
Those exquisite items she once treasured now lay in shattered pieces.
Just like her heart.
No, her heart wasn't broken.
It was just as if a piece had been forcibly dug out, leaving an unhealable void.
She remembered Lynn's hateful face!
She remembered Sansa's feigned innocence and charming naivety!
And even more, she remembered the humiliating figure behind that door last night, a figure that made her soul tremble!
Jealousy, anger, disgust, shame... She didn't understand.
She truly didn't understand.
Why?
Why could men so brazenly enjoy everything?
While they, these so-called princesses, queens, and noble ladies, could only be like exquisite commodities.
Priced and used to exchange benefits, consolidate power, and endure their endless betrayals and promiscuity?
Myrcella buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
"Lynn, you're such a scoundrel, I'll never be with you for the rest of my life!"
Just then, the door was gently pushed open.
No knock, no announcement.
Only one person in the The Red Keep could be so unrestrained.
Cersei Lannister.
She wore a long black silk dress, her golden hair meticulously coiled, revealing a beautiful yet somewhat haggard face.
When she saw the mess on the floor, there was no surprise in her green eyes, not even a ripple.
She just watched quietly, then closed the door.
"It seems my little darling has encountered a small problem."
Cersei's voice was very soft, as if afraid to disturb Myrcella.
Myrcella suddenly looked up.
Her bloodshot green eyes were full of wariness and hostility, like a cat whose territory had been invaded.
"What are you doing here?"
Cersei walked gracefully to Myrcella, treading over the scattered fragments.
Then, she bent down.
She picked up the silver comb broken into two pieces.
It was a gift from King Robert on Myrcella's tenth birthday.
Cersei gently brushed the dust from the comb with her fingertips, looking at the now dull emerald on it.
She ignored Myrcella's hostility and spoke to herself.
"The first year I married Robert, I also broke a comb."
Cersei's voice was calm.
As if telling a story unrelated to her.
"It was made of gold by the best craftsman in King's Landing, inlaid with a hundred pearls from the Summer Isles."
"Much prettier than yours."
Cersei's gaze wasn't on Myrcella, but drifted towards the grey sky outside the window.
"Robert was dead drunk on our wedding night."
"While he was with me, he kept shouting another woman's name over and over again."
"Lyanna... Lyanna Stark..."
Cersei's smile was uglier than a cry.
"Do you know that feeling?"
"I am also a person, I also have dignity!"
"I looked at him sleeping like a dead pig, and I wished I could just kill him!"
"But I couldn't, I still had House Lannister behind me."
"The next day, I smashed that comb."
"I also smashed everything I could see."
"I thought that would smash the dead person in his heart."
"But it was useless."
"You know, Myrcella."
"We women are like these exquisite combs, expensive perfumes."
"We can be had, but we are not necessary."
"Our only value is to please those men."
"When our youth is squandered by these men, or when they find new toys, we are casually broken and discarded."
Cersei slowly turned her head, her green eyes, identical to Myrcella's, now like two bottomless pools of stagnant water.
She looked at her daughter, at her face full of unwillingness and anger.
"Do you feel that Lynn betrayed you?"
Cersei hit the nail on the head.
Myrcella's body trembled violently, her lips bitten white.
"He's involved with Sansa Stark, he's entangled with that wildling girl from the North!"
"And I, I, the princess who is about to become his wife, have to watch all this like a fool!"
Myrcella's voice became sharp with emotion.
"How dare he! How dare he!"
"Because he is a man."
Cersei's answer was simple and cruel.
"Because he holds the power that you, I, and even the entire House Lannister need."
"Myrcella, you must understand one thing."
Cersei reached out and gently stroked Myrcella's soft golden hair.
"In this world, love is a lie in a poet's pen, a dream in a maiden's chamber."
"It's worthless."
"Power is strength."
"It can give you everything you want, and it can destroy everything you hate."
Myrcella stared blankly at her mother.
She saw the deep-seated weariness and madness on her beautiful face.
She suddenly felt that her mother in front of her was so strange, yet so... pathetic.
"So, that's why you..."
Myrcella's voice was strained.
"So, that's why you knelt before him, why you... pleased him in that way?"
Cersei's body froze.
Her hand, stroking Myrcella's hair, also stopped in mid-air.
"Haha... Hahahaha..."
Cersei suddenly started laughing.
As she laughed, tears rolled uncontrollably from her eyes.
She let go, stumbling back two steps.
"Yes... I did kneel..."
Cersei looked up.
Tears mixed with makeup, washing two messy streaks down her beautiful face.
"I knelt at his feet like a dog, wagging my tail and begging."
"Do you think I'm despicable? Disgusting?"
She looked at Myrcella, her green eyes full of desperate self-mockery.
Myrcella's heart felt as if something had violently clenched it, making it impossible for her to breathe.
She wanted to say no.
She loved Cersei.
But last night, that unbearable scene seemed to still echo in her mind, making her unable to utter a single word of comfort.
"Do you think I wanted to?"
Cersei pulled Myrcella into her arms.
"Do you think I wanted him to humiliate me like that?"
"Who was I doing it for?!"
"I was doing it for you! For Tommen! For Joffrey!"
"If I didn't do that, do you think he would have let it go?"
"Do you think he would have let you be his bride peacefully?"
"He would destroy us! Destroy House Lannister! Just like he destroyed Petyr Baelish!"
Cersei's voice was filled with endless grievance and unwillingness.
Myrcella was stunned.
She looked at her mother, who seemed to be going mad, her mind in a complete mess.
"You simply don't understand, Myrcella, you don't understand anything!"
Cersei pushed herself up from the ground, slowly standing.
She wiped the tears from her face.
All the vulnerability in her swollen green eyes had faded, leaving only a destructive madness.
She walked towards Myrcella step by step, like a lioness driven to a corner, ready to perish with the world.
"Do you think that drunkard Robert Baratheon truly cares about you, his daughter?"
A strange and twisted, alluring smile appeared on Cersei's face.
"That's right, I got my revenge on him."
"He isn't even... your real father."
Boom—!
In Myrcella's head, something seemed to explode.
She stared blankly at Cersei, thinking she was hallucinating.
"You... what did you say?"
"I said,"
Cersei leaned into her ear.
In a voice like a devil's whisper, she spoke each word, clear as day.
"I said, you are not Robert Baratheon's daughter."
"You are only my child."
"You are Jaime's and my child."
"You, Joffrey, Tommen... in your bodies flows the purest blood of House Lannister!"
"The blood of the lion, not that roaring, stupid stag!"
Time, at this moment, seemed to stand still.
Myrcella's eyes were wide open, staring blankly at her mother, who was so close.
She saw her face, twisted by madness, and her green eyes, burning with destructive flames.
She felt her world completely collapse at this moment.
Her father... wasn't her father.
Her real father... was her uncle?
How... how could this be?
This was more absurd, more insane, and more... disgusting than everything she had seen last night!
"Now, do you understand?"
Cersei looked at her daughter's pale face, satisfied, and smiled.
"You and I are family."
"Once Robert discovers your identities, I will die, you will die, Joffrey will die, and Tommen will die too!"
"So, I cannot let him find out."
"No matter what, I cannot let him find out, because I love you all."
"I only need power."
"Once I sit on that Iron Throne, once I become Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, no one will be able to take our heads."
Cersei's voice was full of temptation.
She was like the most venomous snake, injecting her deadliest venom into her daughter's already scarred heart.
She wanted to turn her daughter into a madwoman like herself.
Myrcella didn't speak.
She just stood there blankly.
In her mind, only those few sentences echoed repeatedly.
I am not Robert's daughter... I am Jaime's daughter... In my body flows the blood of House Lannister... After an unknown amount of time.
Myrcella slowly raised her head.
The last trace of a princess's innocence in her beautiful green eyes was completely extinguished.
In its place was a calmness that even Cersei found chilling.
If her birth itself was the greatest lie.
Then why should she adhere to those ridiculous morals and rules?
If this world was inherently dirty..
Then why should she remain pure?
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