Chapter 155: Imprisonment
Chapter 155: Imprisonment
Reiner learned a lot about the Erubiorene's house from Anvina.
It turned out that marriages in pure-blood families had certain rules. Generally speaking, only the eldest son with inheritance rights could have offspring, therefore the current head of the Erubiorene family could have three wives.
If the eldest son died without giving birth to an heir, then his wives would marry the second son, and so on. Sometimes there would even be extremely complicated, unethical relationships, which was simply shocking.
And in the same generation as William Von Erubiorene, there was another man, George Von Erubiorene. He was not married and was responsible for some of the daily operations of the manor.
George and William were step brothers. He was two years younger than William and usually lived a simple life. Even Anvina, who had inherited her mother's job and was assigned to the manor from a young age, did not see him many times.
As for Elymia's mother, Martha, she was originally William's favorite younger sister and he never would have expected that she would have an affair with an outsider and even to give birth to a child. So she was imprisoned in the tallest tower in the castle and died five years ago.
"Wait a minute, what's the situation of Mrs. Martha's affair?" Reiner asked.
In such a conservative family, it was impossible that Elymia's mother would not know about the consequences. So why did she even give birth to the child?
"At first, no one noticed it. Later, as Miss Elymia grew up, everyone discovered the problem."
Anvina emotionally said, as if she had released what she had suppressed in her heart for so many years.
"You will find that almost all of the people in the Erubiorene's family have pure blond hair. In fact, in this area of Berger City, there are very few people with pure blond hair..."
She stroked her own long blonde hair. Reiner could see that Anvina's bright gold was mixed with a little different color, so it was not pure.
"Master Erubiorene and Mrs. Martha have bright blonde hair, but Miss Elymia's hair is red like a flame."
Reiner recalled Elymia's long scarlet hair upon hearing Anvina's words. It was indeed different from Edward Or William's hair. He hadn't noticed it earlier, but after Anvina's explanation, Reiner suddenly understood.
"But wait, how can the hair color prove everything?"
Reiner asked rhetorically. Although it was indeed weird to have two blond-haired people giving birth to a child with red hair, wasn't it a bit too sloppy to judge Mrs. Martha guilty of having an affair with other people only by relying on this?
"Since it is an affair, did they find that man?"
Anvina nodded.
"In the beginning, they questioned Mrs. Martha, but she refused to admit it. The Erubiorene family then searched for the people who had been in Berger during that time. They finally found that Mrs. Martha's former classmate, a person named Ron, had visited Mrs. Martha, and he happens to be red-haired."
This Ron was not a mage, but inherited the family business and became a travelling merchant. However, after being discovered by the Erubiorene family, he was immediately arrested and brought to the castle. After a month of torture, he admitted that he had an affair with Mrs. Martha and committed "suicide" by hanging himself the next day.
"This is very odd, not to mention that the confession obtained by torture can't be completely trusted." Reiner said.
He originally thought that these pure-blood mages were just stubborn and conservative, but now it seemed that they were all human scum.
"This was all discussed among the servants, but later, one thing completely convinced everyone that Miss Elymia was indeed an illegitimate daughter."
Anvina said slowly, choosing her words carefully.
"Because she did not inherit the bloodline ability of the Erubiorene family."
As Reiner had learned, the bloodline for a mage was unique because it combined the abilities of some magical creatures into their own blood, greatly increasing their power. The existing twenty seven pure-blood mage families had completely different bloodline abilities.
In order to prevent their bloodline abilities from being contaminated, they came up with the method of marrying people within the same family to keep their bloodline pure. While it was not the most ethical thing to do, these blood-line mages determined it was their best choice after much research.
Thinking back to President Demetrius's statement about efficiency, Reiner couldn't help sighing.
According to Anvina, the bloodline ability of the Erubiorene family was that they could control fire without casting spells. This was derived from a magical creature called the Salamander snake. This creature could dominate the flames it fed on. The ancestor of the Erubiorene family was fused with this bloodline.
Elymia was completely unable to awaken this family ability, which was the greatest proof that she was an illegitimate daughter.
"Miss Elymia will not become Master Edward's official wife, but will be like a slave, a tool for his desire. In the past, most illegitimate daughters with impure blood were in this situation."
Anvina said with her voice gradually becoming smaller.
"How can they do this..."
Claire did not know what to do after learning what happened. She didn't expect the situation to be so involved. Now it seems that saving Elymia will not be as simple as she had thought.
"So in short, Elymia believes that she is an illegitimate daughter and her mother had committed a crime. Therefore, she will be obedient in front of the Erubiorene family. If she marries Edward in the future, she will definitely have a miserable life, right?"
Anvina nodded silently at Reiner's summary.
"We need to change all of this."
Reiner said, making Anvina look shocked.
"Impossible! No one can change the Erubiorene family. They are the supreme authority in this land..."
She tried to explain, shaking a little.
"Anvina, listen, I need your help."
Reiner held the maid's hand, causing a few blushes to appear across her face.
"This is not to defy your master, but to help Elymia."
Anvina was silent for a moment, but it was obvious that she didn't want Elymia to become a slave.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked.
"I need the family tree of the Erubiorene family over the past three hundred years, preferably with a text description or image. In addition, I also need the records related to the man that Mrs. Martha had an affair with back then, including when he came to Berger and when he left." Reiner said.
After listening to Anvina's explanation, he already had an idea in his mind, but the facts still needed to be carefully presented.
"Oh? Although I can get these, what use are they?"
The family register of the Erubiorene family was in the library of the castle. It could be accessed during cleaning. As for Mr. Ron, there should be written records, but Anvina didn't understand what these records could explain."It's a secret."
Reiner put his finger on his lips and said.
..................Still looking for volunteering editors to speed up my releasing speed. Anyone who is interested can join the discord to apply.You will be given a test chapter to test your editing skill and the knowledge of this project.