Myrcella stood in the center of the mess, her chest still heaving violently.
"I'm fine."
"Just knocked some things over."
"No one is allowed in without my order."
The footsteps outside the door hurried away.
The world returned to silence again.
Myrcella walked slowly to the bed and sat down weakly.
She looked at the mess on the floor.
Those exquisite items she once treasured were now broken fragments.
Just like her heart.
No, her heart wasn't broken.
It was just gouged out a piece by someone, leaving a void that couldn't heal.
She thought of Lynn's hateful face!
Thought of Sansa's feigned innocent and charming appearance!
And thought even more of last night, behind that door, that humiliated figure that made her soul tremble!
Jealousy, anger, disgust, shame...
She didn't understand.
She really didn't understand.
Why?
Why could men enjoy everything with such peace of mind?
And they.
These so-called princesses, so-called queens, so-called noble ladies, could only be like exquisite commodities.
Marked with a price, used to exchange for benefits, consolidate power, and still endure their endless betrayal and promiscuity?
Myrcella buried her face in her palms, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
"Lynn, you are such a bastard; I will never be good to you again!"
Just then, the door was pushed open gently.
No knock, no announcement.
Only one person in this Red Keep could be so unscrupulous.
Cersei Lannister.
She wore a black silk dress, her golden hair pinned up meticulously, revealing that beautiful but somewhat haggard face.
When she saw the mess in the room, 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 encountered a small trouble."
Cersei's voice was soft, as if afraid of disturbing Myrcella.
Myrcella looked up abruptly.
Those red-rimmed green eyes were filled with wariness and hostility, like a cat whose territory had been invaded.
"What are you doing here?"
Cersei stepped on the fragments on the floor, walking elegantly to Myrcella.
Then, she bent down.
Picked up the silver comb broken in two.
It was a gift from King Robert on Myrcella's tenth birthday.
Cersei gently brushed the dust off the comb with her fingertips, looking at the now dim emerald on it.
Ignoring Myrcella's hostility, she spoke to herself.
"The first year I married Robert, I also smashed 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 more beautiful than yours."
Cersei's gaze didn't land on Myrcella but drifted to the grey sky outside the window.
"Robert got drunk on our wedding night."
"While fucking me, he called another woman's name over and over again."
"Lyanna... Lyanna Stark..."
Cersei's smile was uglier than crying.
"Do you know that feeling?"
"I am a person too; I have dignity too!"
"I watched him sleep like a dead pig; I wished I could kill him right there!"
"But I couldn't; I had the Lannisters behind me."
"The next day, I smashed that comb."
"I also smashed everything I could see."
"I thought this could smash the dead person in his heart."
"But it was useless."
"You know, Myrcella."
"We women are like these exquisite combs, expensive perfumes."
"Nice to have, but not necessary."
"The only value of our existence is to please those men."
"When our youth is squandered by these men, or they find new toys, we will be smashed casually, discarded."
Cersei turned her head slowly. Those green eyes, identical to Myrcella's, now looked like two bottomless pools of dead water.
She looked at her daughter, at her face written with unwillingness and anger.
"Do you think Lynn betrayed you?"
Cersei hit the nail on the head.
Myrcella's body trembled violently, her lip bitten white by herself.
"He's unclear with Sansa Stark, entangled with that wildling girl from the North!"
"And I, the princess about to become his wife, have to watch all this like a fool!"
Myrcella's voice became sharp with agitation.
"By what right! How dare he!"
"By right of being a man."
Cersei's answer was simple and cruel.
"By right of holding the power you, I, and even the entire House Lannister need."
"Myrcella, you must understand one truth."
Cersei reached out, gently stroking Myrcella's smooth golden hair.
"In this world, love is a lie written by poets, a dream in a maiden's boudoir."
"It's worthless."
"Power is strength."
"It can let you get everything you want, and also let you destroy everything you hate."
Myrcella stared blankly at her mother.
Looking at that exhaustion and madness penetrating deep into the marrow on her beautiful face.
She suddenly felt the mother before her was so strange, yet so... pitiful.
"So, you would..."
Myrcella's voice was difficult.
"So, you would kneel to him, use that way... to please him?"
Cersei's body stiffened.
The hand stroking Myrcella's hair also stopped in mid-air.
"Haha... Hahahaha..."
Cersei suddenly laughed.
Laughing and laughing, tears rolled uncontrollably from her eyes.
She let go, staggering back two steps.
"Yes... I did kneel..."
Cersei looked up.
Tears mixed with makeup washed two messy tracks on her stunning face.
"I knelt at his feet like a dog, wagging my tail for pity."
"Do you think I'm despicable? Disgusting?"
She looked at Myrcella, her green eyes filled with desperate self-mockery.
Myrcella's heart felt seized fiercely by something, pain making her unable to breathe.
She wanted to say no.
She loved Cersei.
But the unbearable images from last night seemed to echo in her mind still, making her unable to say a word of comfort.
"Do you think I wanted to?"
Cersei pulled Myrcella into her arms.
"Do you think I was willing to let him humiliate me like that?"
"Who did I do it for?!"
"I did it for you! For Tommen! For Joffrey!"
"If I didn't do that, do you think he would let it go?"
"Do you think he would let you be his bride peacefully?"
"He would destroy us! Destroy the Lannisters! Just like he destroyed Petyr Baelish!"
Cersei's voice was filled with endless grievance and unwillingness.
Myrcella was stunned.
She looked at this mother acting like a madwoman, her mind in chaos.
"You don't understand at all, Myrcella, you know nothing!"
Cersei propped herself up on the floor, standing up slowly.
She wiped the tears from her face.
In those red, swollen green eyes, all fragility had faded, leaving only a madness close to destruction.
She walked step by step toward Myrcella, like a lioness driven to a desperate situation, ready to perish with the world.
"Do you think Robert Baratheon, that drunkard, really cares about you, his daughter?"
A weird, twisted, coquettish smile appeared on Cersei's face.
"That's right, I got revenge on him."
"He isn't... even your biological father."
Boom——!
Myrcella's head felt like something exploded inside.
She stared blankly at Cersei, thinking she was hallucinating.
"What... what did you say?"
"I said,"
Cersei leaned close to her ear.
Using a voice like a devil's whisper, she said word by word, incredibly clearly.
"I said, you are not Robert Baratheon's daughter."
"You are only my child."
"Mine and Jaime's child."
"You, Joffrey, Tommen... flowing in your bodies is the purest Lannister blood!"
"It's the lion's blood, not that stupid stag who only knows how to roar!"
Time seemed to stand still at this moment.
Myrcella's eyes widened, staring blankly at her mother close at hand.
Looking at her face twisted by madness, looking at those green eyes burning with the fire of destruction.
She felt her world collapse completely at this moment.
Father... wasn't her father.
Her biological father... was her uncle?
This... how is this possible?
This was even more absurd, crazier, and more... disgusting to her than everything she saw last night!
"Now, do you understand?"
Cersei looked at her daughter's face, pale as paper, and smiled with satisfaction.
"You and I are the real family."
"Once Robert discovers your identity, I will die, you will die, Joffrey will die, Tommen will die too!"
"So, I can't let him find out."
"No matter what, I can't let him find out, because I love you all."
"I only need power."
"When I sit on that iron chair, when I become the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, no one can cut off our heads anymore."
Cersei's voice was full of seduction.
Like the most poisonous snake, she injected her deadliest venom into her daughter's already riddled heart.
She wanted to turn her daughter into a madwoman just like her.
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...
Flowing in my body is Lannister blood...
After an unknown amount of time.
Myrcella slowly raised her head.
In those beautiful green eyes, the last bit of innocence belonging to a princess was completely extinguished.
Replaced by a calm that even made Cersei feel alarmed.
If her birth itself was the biggest lie.
Then why should she abide by those ridiculous morals and rules?
If this world was filthy to begin with.
Then why should she be pure anymore?