Black & White

Needless to say, everyone doesn't know about Arina's abilities as a magician--let alone a dark magician. The first reason, of course, is because dark magic itself is considered a taboo school of magic—which is disgusting and too strong.

But... The second reason was because its figure had entered into the royal prophecy centuries ago.

"One day in the future, a dark magician will bring great disaster to the entire kingdom. Burning the entire land, polluting all the waters, until they tear down the sky"

That prophecy is hundreds of years old, but unfortunately there has never been a king who abolished the rule 'anyone caught possessing dark magic will be immediately executed' until now. As a result, if she didn't want to be burned in public, Arina was forced to hide her magic completely.

Everything has been running smoothly for years. But after being careful like that all her life, Arina finally got caught by a prince.

The two of them had known each other since childhood, but Arina had never been so close to the royal family. The reasons are many. But the three siblings were never easy to approach. The first prince, Felix, was very annoying to talk to. Then the second princess also has a strange personality.

And unfortunately, Arina was caught by the worst, which is the third prince. The prince who was always praised by the ministers for his cleverness in exploiting other people's weaknesses for his own interests.

That day just came 5 months ago, when prince Alex suddenly came to her house and said that he knew Arina's real identity who was a dark magician.

Actually, at that time Arina had almost spontaneously killed him. But instead of fighting back, the prince actually proposed an agreement. "Be my fiancé. And that way, we can help each other." He said at that time.

"Maybe I should have just killed him right then." Arina said with a long sigh. "What do you think I should do, Sei?"

"Eh? Why do you ask me that?" She replied with curved lips.

Arina laughed briefly, but her gaze returned to seriousness as she continued reading. "High priest…" She muttered, quoting one of the sentences in the book.

In general, people who have magic abilities are already quite rare because there aren't many of them. But priests, people who have healing magic and purification magic are even rarer. The problem is not only can they heal wounds, they also have the ability to remove curses. If anyone could kill a dark magician to the bone, it would most certainly be a priest.

Even so, to Arina's knowledge, the usual priest shouldn't be able to sense the presence of dark magic around them. The thing is, if they could, they would have burned Arina already when they saw her engaged to the prince a few months ago. Even the head priest also came to the celebration at that time.

"But the high priestess, don't tell me she could...?" Arina muttered again. "If so, it looks like I do have to kill her while I can."

Obeying the prince's order feels suck, but what else can Arina do...

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Until 4-5 years ago, according to tradition, the position of the crown prince was actually occupied by the kingdom's first prince, Felix. But once he lost his hand in one of the wars, rumor has it that he started going crazy and stressed out until he finally went into a slump in all aspects.

Even though his original character was already bad, at that time his temperament became like a madman. That's why when he almost destroyed a village, His Majesty the king finally could no longer let it go. So from then on, the status of crown prince fell to Alex, the third prince.

Unlike Felix who likes to win wars because of his sword skills and muscular body, Alex's abilities seem to excel at the royal round table. Not only is he good at solving political problems, it is said that he also sometimes stops wars before they actually happen.

Not only loved by the king and queen, this one prince was even loved by all the royal ministers. Especially now, with the fact that he's engaged to the daughter of the Almira family. To be honest, people who do not support him are almost non-existent now.

The noble families who wielded great influence in the kingdom actually existed a few more. But among all of them, the Almira family is the family that is most famous for their intelligent mind & special skills.

With Mr. Hendrick as the kingdom's personal architect, and Mrs. Anastasia who was the direct adviser in the palace's herbs garden, everyone often referred to them as the most genius noble couple in the entire kingdom.

And as if that wasn't enough, they also have a daughter who has extensive knowledge about antiques. There are more than a few nobles who come to her every time they need to find some certain expensive items.

Well, despite the truth, at least the family does look perfect from the outside.

Knock knock. "Rina, it's me. Can I come in?" Anastasia said at the door. But because there was no response, she opened the door herself. And in that dark room, her daughter was seen laying on the bed.

"I heard you were sick. Are you okay?" She asked, although her daughter still didn't answer anything. Arina didn't look like she was asleep, but the way she didn't reply made it seem as if she was in a cranky mood.

"Your maid said your stomach hurts because of your period, so I brought some medicine. When I get sick, I also like to drink this." She said again. She waited a few moments in case Arina wanted to roll over and turn around. But because her daughter remained silent, she gave up.

"Well, if you want to be alone then, you should just rest. I'll check on you again later." She said. And after she stroked her head, Mrs. Anastasia got up and walked out of the room.

"..."

"Oh my God, that was close…!" Muttered Arina, who turned out to be Sei—because the real Arina was busy hunting for a priest somewhere!

'For godsake, Miss Arina! You must hurry back!!' Sei shouted in her heart while looking far into the night sky outside the window.