Ambition

Before Hesta could finish speaking, Eucali and Ligo had already started laughing.

"What?" Hesta looked at them.

"...People really are talking about it everywhere. We were just asking Madam Fatima about it," Ligo said. "He's the Emperor's attendant scholar, you know?"

"I just heard an old lady over there mention it."

"He was originally the illegitimate son of a general from around here—"

"General Schiller?" Hesta added.

"That's right. This Schiller had four sons with his wife. He himself was a royalist, but who knew all his children would grow up to become liberals?" Ligo suppressed a laugh. "In a fit of rage, he published a notice in the papers disowning all four sons. Then, less than a month later, he suddenly died of a cerebral infarction, without even leaving a will.

"By rights, his estate should have gone to his sons. But guess what? Since he had previously severed ties with them, those brothers couldn't directly inherit their father's property. They first had to undergo paternity tests, then establish themselves as legal heirs through blood relation. When the results came out, everyone was dumbfounded. Not one of the four children was the old general's biological son. His only flesh and blood was Kovishik, the illegitimate son who had always been living elsewhere and whom he himself had never thought much of."

Hesta fell into thought—no wonder that old lady had placed such emphasis on Kovishik's bloodline.

"In the end, Kovishik received most of the old general's fortune. Those sons are still filing appeals, trying to recover part of it." Ligo's voice carried the amused smile of a gossip. "I don't think Madam Fatima likes him very much, or at least she doesn't approve of him becoming her daughter's fiancé. But there's nothing she can do about it."

Eucali gazed