1 Prologue

"This can't be happening"

☆Loud Banging Bells☆

Lost in my senses of never-ending torment of hope and regret, wishing that all this happening right now was just a dream, but fate can be cruel sometimes even when you don't want it to, life can be bitter or sweet, filled with pleasure or displeasure.

My life is that of a bitter one, one I wish I was never born into, one I wish I wasn't born the way I was, something priceless, something rare, a diamond in the rough, a life I never asked for but was given, a life of a Silver-Haired.

My fingers clenched together in a tight hold, against the bouquet of roses I held, it was all sweaty from my trembling body and the unsettled nerves I was having, but it was covered in white gloves so I couldn't feel my sweaty palms, my heart slamming loudly in my chest like a thud sound.

I swallowed hard, my eyes drifting back and forth around me, the white veil covering my face, I couldn't help but thank the designers who made this dress, at least my face will be hidden during the marriage ceremony, I looked like a bride dressed for a royal wedding, I looked more like a princess than the pauper I was.

My wedding gown was tight against my slim body, making all my curves I didn't know I had until this moment show... wearing a corset can do that to your body, now I know, never worn a corset before.

The wedding gown had a variety of designs, yellow roses at my back like a spinal cord down to the floor where my gown reach, my hand gloves embodied with diamonds around them, my silver hair packed in a bun, in style decorated with silver pins and then my veil reaching down, longer than my gown that needed the bridesmaids to carry. My face that I can't even recognize again was applied with makeup that changed my looks like I switched faces.

Funny, I wasn't a princess but I actually felt like it. My soul and body weren't in anything at all during the preparation for my wedding. I know I should be happy, getting married is any girl's dream, she would be excited about the arrangements, the dresses, flowers... especially the wedding night.

But I'm not that girl, this... the wedding gown, the preparations, was not anything I dreamed of, this was most of all the worst day of my life and what I hated the most was... this is what I was born for, this is my destiny, it's harder than it looks cause sometimes I wish I wasn't born a silver-haired, I wish I was just a normal girl so that I could live my life, not in fear of the future, be free and marry for love, not to a stranger, I don't even know or how he looks.

Being silver-haired came with great responsibility, a rarity of species mostly born girls and destined to serve under the House of Sorcery in the Empire and uphold their family names, fulfilling all the duties.

Ha duties... never had to do any of that, I sighed taking a deep breath, my heart kept slamming in my chest. I never asked for this life, I hated it, I never agreed to this marriage, if I could just run away I would... but the moment I knew my father's life was on the line, the plan went out the window.

I could still remember those times, those years ago before all this, it was just me and my father at a small mining town, my mother died the moment she gave birth to me, it was how fate works, any silver-haired born the mother doesn't survive, my father didn't expect I would be a silver-haired but it was what fate had in store for him.

Ever since that day my father tried his best to take care of me even as harsh poverty struck us. Whenever the Raids came in search of silver-haired he would hide me below our wooden house under the carpet where he made a small space for me to hide whenever they searched, it has been like that for 18 years. Matured and going out, I always covered my hair away from gaze.

Silver-haired were meant to be taken at a young age into the Empire for their training until they are married, but I stayed outside the walls until I was an adult, it was considered treason and against the highest laws of the land, but my father didn't care, he loved me too much to let me fall into the hands of the Empire. He wanted me to have a normal life and believed there was more to me than being married off and bearing heirs for warlocks, but how long could he hide me?

I was bound to be discovered, the Raids found me and in exchange, I had to leave or my father would be hanged, I would die before that will happen so I made a choice that I would always regret and be tormented for the rest of my life, but it was worth it, as long as my father was compensated and alive, I would do anything for him, he is the only family I have.

The moment I stepped into the Empire I knew my life will be changed forever, there was no training of any sort given to me because I was already the age to marry, it was like a blink of an eye as my marriage was planned and now today I'm in the church standing in front of a tall iron door waiting to step into a life I knew nothing about, and never asked for... may the gods help me!