At the d.u.c.h.ess’ surprised scream, The Marquis grabbed the nape of Ariel’s neck.
“I don’t know why this child is here. Haha.”
After the Marquis caught Ariel, he looked back at the room that was tightly shut and gritted his teeth. He, then, put his young daughter back in the room.
“We’ll talk about this… later.”
That night.
Bang. The attic’s wooden door suddenly opened with a loud bang. Inside, a little girl, Ariel froze in fear. In front of the slightly opened door, a person’s figure casted a shadow.
“I thought I told you not to be seen by anyone.”
It was her father, Marquis Lucilleon. You could smell the strong scent of alcohol rum from him and Ariel had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well.
“I told you to stay quietly in your room.”
The Marquis grabbed the vase in the hallway outside of the attic and as soon as Ariel breathed in, the vase hurled towards her and crashed right next to her head.
Puk. Crash!
The vase the Marquis threw hit the wall right next to Ariel and was completely shattered. Ariel shut her eyes, her body completely tense. The Marquis then came close to her and said
“But, you just had to come out and see the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess Monica and even locked eyes with them?”
Ariel opened her mouth in an attempt to say something but closed it right after. It was not wise to say something as an excuse. She did not intend to come out because she wanted to, but because of the prank, Orabi Jerome had played on her that made her run out. But even if she tried to explain, the Marquis would just undoubtedly get angrier.
“And you also did something strange again. You came out of the room. I told you that a devil like you should keep out of my sight!”
Ariel put her feet together and moved her body away. This was an attempt to get farther away from the Marquis but the shard of the broken vase was stuck in Ariel’s bare feet and was bleeding profusely.
“Ouch!”
The blood dripped down from her small pale feet. There was blood on the edge of the broken gla.s.s and the look in Marquis Lucilleon’s eyes changed when he saw it. It was the most malicious look that anyone has ever seen. Knowing what would happen next, Ariel fumbled through the dark attic and fled to the corner.
Clang!
The Marquis then grabbed her hair and Ariel was suddenly overwhelmed of the pain of her hair being pulled.
“It’s a disgusting color. So utterly disgusting.”
The Marquis, who repeatedly mumbled the same line over and over again, pulled Ariel out of the attic by the hair. When she was being pulled down the stairs, it was very painful. But Ariel did not utter a single sound. Ariel knew from experience that if she made more noise and pleaded for him to stop, he would still continue and would become much worse.
The Marquis brought Ariel to his study and pulled out a ring. His ring was gold-plated with a seal and a large jewel on it. Usually, the hitting and punching would last for an hour or two, but on that particular day, it lasted even longer than usual. Ariel held back her breath and eventually pa.s.sed out.
She was then brought back to her room later that night and the next day Ariel’s leg became disabled.The Marquis got angry and said,
“That useless b.i.t.c.h is now a limp as well!”
“I was going to get rid of you by selling you off by means of political marriage. Tsk. But now that’s even impossible as well!”
Even though the Marquis had no regards for his daughter, he wanted to send her off to another n.o.ble family through political marriage and make at least a little bit of money off of her. But the Marquis could not send her away through political marriage because of her disabled leg.
Since the plan to send Ariel away through political marriage failed, he decided to sell her away instead. Ariel’s young and inexperienced magic may have been insignificant to the family, but her talent in magic was so unique it became valuable as her magic was not used for good and was the evilest magic anyone can ever acquire.
He wanted to take her mana and make a mana stone. Eventually, after some time, the Marquis could not take anymore magic from her, but he continued to do that even though he was wealthy enough. He thought Ariel would take revenge on him when she got full control of her powers and he feared that she would leave him behind.
At that time, Ariel was just a young child who wanted to be useful in order to gain her father’s love and so a few years went by, and she was now 14 years old.
Then ‘He’ came to Ariel. ‘He’ had said that the mana stones Ariel made were special and asked the Marquis for her. When the Marquis refused, ‘He’ offered him a huge sum of money right in front of her, and she saw how she was bargained for and eventually was sold to ‘him’ and followed him back. Then, the Marquis made up an excuse saying that Ariel was sick and she had to leave their home to seek immediate attention.
For the first time, Ariel had left the Marquis and her family. And from that day on, she had fallen into a h.e.l.l far more worse than before.
The first thing ‘He’ did was put inside Ariel’s heart a jewel that contained the “Curse of Undir”. The jewel had a spell casted inside of it, which made the person who casted the spell control the body of those who had the jewel inside of them.
Young and powerless, Ariel did not what it was and what it could do. From then on, the cursed jewel continued to live inside her heart.
‘He’ then ordered Ariel to learn magic as there were many other mages at ‘his’ command that we’re capable of teaching her. As she learned more and more magic from them, Ariel realized that they needed her power.
The amount of mana she had was immeasurable and they saw her ability and potential with magic. Not very long, she became the strongest mage in the group at just 14 years old.
She only learned how to attack and curse with her magic. Ariel became stronger day by day, but the more powerful magic she uses, her body only got weaker and weaker and it only damaged her body.
Ariel often threw up blood and as time went on, she felt that her blood, flesh, and bones had deteriorated. Even so, she could not stop. Ariel was continuously being controlled and ‘He’ used her mana at his disposal.
At first, it was interesting for Ariel how her magic grew, but it was too strong and she feared it would only bring harm to others. The magic was hurting her and she was being forced to use her magic without rest and just like that Ariel had spent 3 dreadful years with him.
Her mind, body, and soul were now all messed up and when she had turned 17 years old and now close to becoming an adult, she was given a very important mission.
She had a minor a.s.signment before, but this time it was special. ‘He’ promised that if she completed the mission, he would take the ‘Curse of Undir’ out of her and gave her the a.s.surance that the promise would remain in effect even until her death.
At last, Ariel had hope. Ariel pushed her body to the limit and broke into the place she was told to and killed all the people present. It was only after she met a young man with black hair and dark blue eyes that she found out that he was the Duke La Carte.
“You killed all the lions of La Carte. What are you?”
Ariel couldn’t utter a word. The Empire’s only Grand Duke, La Carte. The La Carte family was so powerful that even a three year old child would recognize who they are. Even if Ariel had lived inside the attic of the Marquis all her life and had no contact with the outside world, she still knew about the Duke La Carte.
There was simply no one in this world that had more power and wealth other than the La Carte family. The man with black hair leaned leisurely against the tall window frame. The blood of the deceased knights formed into a puddle and the girl who killed them was in front of him, yet the both of them were not tense.
So the sight felt even more appalling.
“…….”
When the Duke looked at Ariel, it felt as if he was being hunted. His body froze when she looked at him as he looked into her eyes. Ariel gritted her teeth and made sure he saw it but she was sure that it didn’t affect the ‘predator’ that was in front of her. He would have no chance against her and should fear death.
Just who was he? Did he not care about those knights in front of him?
The Duke in front of her was young, but to her he looked like a lion cornering her like a mouse. That every molecule of air, light, and dust in the s.p.a.ce were shouting that this man was dangerous.
The Duke leaning on the window frame came a step closer to her. Ariel, terrified, wanted to use her magic to attack him but her body was unable to move. The atmosphere felt heavy because of all the pressure the Duke gave out.
It suddenly felt as if gravity had gotten three or four times stronger. He reached for Ariel’s hoodie and took it off because it was drenched with blood. In that moment, the Duke felt embarra.s.sed. As soon as the hood was taken off, Ariel felt ashamed of her red hair. It was definitely weird and ugly.
“You.”
The Duke returned to his composure and had this cold look in his eyes and asked her a question in a monotone voice.
“How old are you?”
She was about to turn seventeen years old soon but because of the constant abuse and neglect, Ariel’s body had stopped aging at twelve years old.
“You’re really too young.”
He said slowly in a dangerously mesmerizing voice. He had the voice of a ruler.
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Ariel snapped back to her senses and created a huge magic sphere in her hand. The reason why she was there in the first place was because of her mission to kill everyone on site. If she kept with this any longer, her body will not be able to withstand anymore.
When he saw the giant black lump in her hands he did not even bat an eye nor change the look in his eyes. It was as if her effort was futile and it did not work on him. Ariel was angered by this and as soon as she was about to throw the magic sphere at him, she heard the Duke’s voice.
“I will help you.”
Ariel stopped. She did not understand. She had killed all the knights in his command and murder was a crime not to be forgiven no matter how old you may be.
Above all….. This was the first time Ariel had heard anyone offer their help.