The realization came late to Emmelyn, but now she understood the connection she had with the witch. Ellena was not lying when she said Emmelyn was connected to the Bellevars.

The Bellevars were her mother's relatives and that made Emmelyn and them related by blood. Since Duchess Bellevar was friend with Thessalis Morelli, that meant, Emmelyn was also connected to the witch through the Bellevars.

Emmelyn didn't know who they were, until today.

Now, she had finally solved the mystery. The Bellevars were not strangers to her. They were her family from her mother's side who lived under the family name of Sovie.

Ah.. she remembered them so well. How could she forget? The old and frail couple seemed to be deeply in love even after decades together.

Grandpa Elroy, as Emmelyn endearingly called him, always took Grandma Isabelle by the hand when they had their morning walks.

Emmelyn didn't know that the couple was not native Wintermerian since they had lived in their home from before Emmelyn was born.

She only knew them as Grandpa Elroy Sovie and his wife Grandma Isabelle Sovie who were childless and lived in the countryside.

Now, things finally made sense to Emmelyn. As far as she knew, Grandma Isabelle was the one who was related to her mother. Emmelyn's mother was a Sovie.

However, it didn't occur to her to ask why the elderly couple used the wife's family name, not the husband's. Now that she could guess their real identity, Emmelyn realized that the husband's name must have been Bellevar.

Of course, they had to use a new name since they were trying to hide from the Strongmoor family's pursuit and start a new life in another country.

[Oh my god...]

[So, it's them!]

Emmelyn pressed her temples as she suddenly saw the bigger picture. She knew the Sovies, or the Bellevars, quite well and she visited them several times.

Emmelyn once heard her mother talked about the Sovies' only daughter who died when she was really young but she never paid attention to the story or probed deeper to ask what happened.

That must be Lady Marielle, who was engaged to King Jared and killed herself when he broke off the engagement one-sidedly.

Gosh... now, Emmelyn felt really sorry for the old couple. She felt so guilty for knowing them for so long but didn't care enough to find out more about them. It must have felt really horrible to lose your child that way.

Now that Emmelyn was going to be a mother herself, she could empathize more with the Bellevars' suffering. It was really not fair to see their daughter heartbroken and killed herself after being dumped by her fiance.

Then, not only did they have to witness her death, but they were also blamed for the succeeding events.

Their daughter's godmother punished the Strongmoor family for the son's sin, but the Bellevars ended up having to flee and left their home and all their wealth to start a new life in another country.

Poor, poor family.... Emmelyn said to herself. After she thought about it, things started to make sense as to why her father adamantly rejected the Strongmoors' proposal to submit Wintermere under Draec when King Jared sent his envoys.

The king of Wintermere would rather choose war than bending the knees and become a subject of King Jared Strongmoor of Draec.

Not only did he do it because of the old enmity between their family, when the Bellevars were chased out by the Strongmoors, but also to protect Grandma Isabelle and Grandpa Elroy.

If Emmelyn was in her father's shoes, she would probably do the same thing. Family was very important to her, coupled with the fact that the Bellevars were wronged by Draec.

She would rather die an honorable death than live in shame for the rest of her life.

Ahh... this world was such a small place, she thought. Emmelyn never knew that she and Mars were connected in this way, long before they met.

What happened between King Jared and Lady Marielle in the past had an impact on Emmelyn and her family. Because of the incident, the Bellevars had to find refuge in Wintermere and asked for Emmelyn's father's protection.

This was the reason why Wintermere engaged in the war with Draec and lost. It was done for honor and the decision made them pay a hefty price. After the war, the Rosehills were all wiped out except for one.

To get her revenge for her family's death, Emmelyn ended up meeting Mars with the intention to kill him, but instead... she fell in love with the prince and now they were married with a baby on the way.

What an entangled fate, Emmelyn pondered. Her mind went back to the past before she came to the capital to kill the crown prince.

After she heard that Wintermere fell, Emmelyn quickly went home only to find her kingdom ruined and her family gone.

She came to see the Sovies as soon as she arrived back from Atlantea to find information about her family. She needed to know if she had any family members left.

There was none.

The Sovies survived because they lived in the countryside and the enemies didn't know their connection to the royal family of Wintermere. Emmelyn stayed with them for weeks, while she mourned for her family and then made a plan to get her revenge.

That's when she met Thessalis.

The week before she left for Draec's capital, the Sovies received a guest. It was an old woman who always had a sad expression on her face. She wore a black robe and walked with a cane.

Grandma Isabelle introduced her to Emmelyn as Grandma Thessalis. She was her oldest friend and was also her late daughter's godmother. At that time, Emmelyn didn't pay much attention to Thessalis, since she was grieving.

Her mind was filled with sadness and determination to get her revenge.

Gosh... Emmelyn clenched her jaws when she realized she was this close to the witch that had destroyed her husband's family. She didn't know it back then.