The Devil's Good Girl-Chapter 309: Rewrite

Year 1653, Martial Era of the Arcaria Empire.

Clouds cleared the sky, letting the tint of blue grace those who walked on the earth. The sun shone brightly, but its soft rays only brought warmth to one’s skin. It was the perfect weather for the first day of festivities in the empire: a game of hunt.

"Jackson!" Quentin, the crown prince of the empire, laughed as they galloped toward the hunting area. "How about we go further than the hunting area and around the foot of the mountain?"

Jackson, the Duke of the South, glanced at the carefree royalty emotionlessly. When he looked ahead, a glint flickered his eyes.

"Your Highness, watch out!"

Quentin turned ahead before he intuitively pulled the reins.

Neigh!

Shing!

With the abrupt pull, Quentin’s steed stomped its feet up off the ground, causing the crown prince to lose his balance. Quentin subsequently fell off of his steed and rolled to the ground.

Thud!

At the same time he fell, a large branch of a tree landed near him.

"Ugh..." Quentin grimaced at the pain in his arm.

Holding his sword, Jackson, who jumped off of his horse earlier, panicked. He rushed to the crown prince, squatting on his side.

"Your Highness, are you alright?" asked Jackson worriedly and gave the crown prince assistance to sit up.

Quentin grunted. "Yes, I’m alright. It’s just a scratch," he said before he looked up at the duke. "What happened?"

The moment that question flew out of his mouth, Quentin and Jackson shifted their eyes at the thick tree branch on the pathway.

"I saw it was falling off the tree and with how it’s barely connected to it, I knew it would fall once the vibration of our horses come close," Jackson explained with a shallow breath. "Are you sure you’re alright, Your Highness?"

Quentin nodded. "I am," he reassured before his eyes fell on the split tree branch again. "That’s a huge tree branch. How did it fall? Did someone cut it?"

Jackson shook his head. "It didn’t seem like it was deliberately sawed or cut to harm you, Your Highness."

Despite hearing this, Quentin studied the split tree branch. When he pulled the reins, he heard someone unsheathe their sword. He knew it was Jackson because the tree branch was cleanly cut in half to save him from a terrible accident.

"That would’ve killed me," Quentin sighed and glanced up at Jackson. "I owe you again, Your Grace."

"You owe me nothing, Your Highness. I’m simply doing my duty as your sword."

Quentin smiled helplessly and shook his head. "Help me up, but don’t tell anyone about it. I don’t want the court discussing any heirs in case I die. I’ve yet to wear the crown, but they were all so desperate to replace me."

Jackson didn’t speak or join the crown prince’s prattle. Instead, he focused on helping the crown prince to get back on his feet. Once the crown prince had settled, Jackson helped him get on his steed, and they went by foot to the hunting ground.

Little did they know, three figures were sitting on the nearby hill, watching this unfold from the distance.

"Mother, why did you do that?" asked Kim curiously, casting her mother a questioning look. The other man sitting on Fil’s other side was Dustin, bearing the same questioning look at her.

Fil smiled subtly as she kept her eyes on the two figures, walking down the pathway toward the hunting ground.

"Just because," she said. "They seem to have a good relationship, don’t they?"

Kim and Dustin shifted their eyes back to the crown prince and the duke.

"They do seem to have a good relationship," Kim said.

"Did you test their relationship just now, mother?" Dustin asked curiously because Fil’s answer didn’t answer it.

Fil hummed a long tune as she pondered about it. "You can say that."

In truth, Fil had to replace the part where she had shown up in the first life with something else. It was to keep the balance of the original occurrence with something else. Back then, the incident included her. Now she was nowhere in sight.

"It’s not like they originally had a terrible relationship," she blurted out quietly, earning Kim and Dustin’s attention. But she didn’t explain anything further.

In the past, Jackson and Quentin had a complicated relationship. However, it wasn’t as bad as one would think. Quentin was the crown prince, and Jackson was a strong subordinate. Although it was true Quentin was using Jackson to make himself appear better-looking in public, all his royal orders to Jackson were for the empire’s sake.

Jackson, although aware of the crown prince’s mild narcissism, trusted the crown prince for a reason. Hence, even if he had to march on the front line, he knew Quentin was the only suited person to rule the empire. And thus, he would make him emperor.

This was their relationship before Fil stepped into their lives.

Because of her, because she meddled, because of the hex she was birthed with, it eventually ruined their peaceful relationship. Eventually, her existence in their lives ruined them as well.

"Mother?" Dustin called, snapping Fil back to the current lapse. "Are we just going to watch them like this?"

Kim frowned. "I’m hungry."

"Go buy yourself something in the town. I heard there was a good shop in the capital that sells some cakes," Fil chuckled. "Buy me one as well."

"A cake?" Dustin furrowed his brows. "Mother, what is a cake?"

Fil hummed as she pondered. "It’s a sweet and soft bread. A new invention of humans."

"I want to try that!" Kim’s eyes lit up.

"Then I’ll wait for you here."

Kim and Dustin looked at each other before they fearlessly jumped off the cliff. Their mother was often in strange places; sometimes, she would stay in one place for more than a month. Hence, they knew she would stay there even if they were away for an entire day.

Even if she left, they would eventually find her. After all, she was their mother.

As the two slid down the slope, Fil couldn’t help but chuckle. "I told you," she whispered to herself. "My kids will be fine."

’I knew they would when you said they would. However, are you, Filomena?’ Her own voice rang inside her head.

"Well." Fil drew a deep breath and gazed down, eyes catching Quentin and Jackson idling by the clearing. Since Quentin was injured, they didn’t think of doing a hunt. They just lingered there. Perhaps, Jackson was talking about doing the hunt himself to give it to the crown prince.

"It would be a lie to say I am not tempted to jump from here and introduce myself," she confessed with a shallow sigh. "However, I’ve seen what happens if I do that. I’d rather let their lives take their own course of action and they’re all better off without me."

Her smile cracked a little as a glint of sorry flickered across her eyes. However, what she said was nothing but the truth.

Just like the grass she was sitting on, they were slowly dying. Withered grass slowly crawled around where she was as if they couldn’t survive with her around. She didn’t bother with it, though.

When the good and the bad Filomena became one, she was far stronger and in control. Even so, she wouldn’t be able to change the fact that her touch and presence were an omen. The only people who seemed to have immunity to her were Kim and Dustin. But she knew it was because those two were from a plague-stricken town and their lives were already filled with bad luck.

"This time, I’d like to see how the world turns without me."

Her smile returned once again as she gazed up. "What a beautiful sky," she whispered, collapsing on her back while keeping her beautiful gaze on the tint of blue over her.

"I missed him."

For a long time, Fil stayed in the same spot, just watching the empire from there. This hill wasn’t huge nor was it that tall compared to the other ones around it. However, it was the perfect place to watch the imperial palace and the capital.

When Jackson journeyed back to the South, she and her children followed. However, they mostly camped outside the fortress and didn’t involve themselves in any of the human affairs. They lived their lives peacefully — just like how they lived for the past hundred decades.

Although Dustin and Kim would occasionally roam around the town of the South, helping some people if they could, Fil stayed back. Fil was satisfied watching Jackson live his life from afar.

The war on the border still broke out, and Jackson still marched on the front line with his knighthood brigade. But this time, they easily defended the border with the crown prince’s help.

Eventually, the crown prince rose to the throne and wanted to reward Jackson for his hard work. However, despite Quentin, the Emperor’s insistence, and the people of the South’s pleading, Jackson died of old age without an heir or a wife.