Chapter 6: The Extra(2)

The rain fell on both of us, me and Diana. But the only one people cared about was Diana.

The next morning, the duke called me to his study first thing in the morning and asked how the meeting went.

I told him the truth about how the crown prince left me but not the reason why he left me.

I was talking to him with my drowsy eyes. My forehead felt like it could cook an egg.

I didn't want to talk with him any longer. Because I couldn't make the right judgement when I was sick.

But to make it worse, a man came in and sat next to me. He had no injury. It looked like he took a little of my words to his mind.

"Tristan, you will escort Marinette to the party today."

The duke handed over the invitation with the pink wax seal on top of it. The wax had a carving of the letter M. If my memory didn't fail me, then the family who sent this was the Madeline family.

So the party I would be going to with Tristan would be Aurora's coming-of-age party.

Diana should be the one who went there if it wasn't for me pushing her into the lake yesterday.

It was just a small fever, why did everyone make such a big deal out of it?

But on a sick day like this, it would be nice if I could stay in my room and sleep all day.

However, I needed to try on the dress that was made for Diana. Since she wouldn't be the one attending the party, then I would go instead.

The dress was already complete, and another dress would take a long time to make. That was why the duke called the tailor to fix some part of the dress to fit me.

It wasn't the best feeling to wear another's person leftovers. And the worst thing was that I could never wear that dress because the colour of the dress didn't match my colour scheme.

Madame Rosita invited me to her shop since she made a few for me when she first met Marinette a month ago.

In the novel, Rosita was among the few people who were on Marinette's side. Even on the day of Marinette's execution, Madame Rosita gave a dress to Marinette even if it meant risking her career.

Why would someone be loyal to a stranger like that? To Marinette, Madame Rosita was only a mere character, and a mere pawn to raise her social status.

After the day of Marinette's execution, Madame Rosita's career went downhill and no one ever saw her again.

The way to Madame's boutique was somehow quiet. Her boutique was on the edge of the Mortel's region.

She was right, the dress she made for Marinette was so beautiful. The purple roses hanging by the side of the waist, and the off-shoulder dress compliment Marinette's beauty.

To make a dress just by looking at a person from afar, she had a high talent for her job. She was born to be a tailor. 

It was fascinating and mysterious how she even got the dress to fit Marinette perfectly.

Before I left her boutique, she handed me a mask. It was a unique mask, as it only covered half of the face.

The mask had a drawing of roses and little doves on it. It was too stunning for me to reject it.

I got on the carriage with my knight ready to go back to the Mortel household with the dress and mask.

Flynn also got sick as well by the way I looked at him holding the box with my dress and mask in it.

There was redness under his eyes. He would let out a little sneeze from time to time.

I never would've thought this of a man before. But seeing him, I felt like he was a baby who wanted to sleep.

"You can sleep, I'll wake you up before we arrive."

He shook his head denying my request.

"I'm alright, my lady. You should be the one sleeping. You need to save your energy for the evening party."

I was sleepy, but I didn't want to sleep. Because if I did, then I would be too lazy to attend the party.

The habit from my old life still hung onto me even if I moved on to my new life. When I fell asleep, I didn't want to wake up.

The way I coped with my pain all those years was sleeping. I would pretend to be asleep for my father to spare mercy on me.

Under the blanket was a safe space for me, if I closed my eyes, then the night that my father was drunk would pass by quickly.

Since neither of us wouldn't want to sleep, I decided to have a small conversation with my knight.

"Flynn, how do people use magic?"

"You don't know how to use magic, my lady?"

"I want to be even better in my magic."

It was true. The most I could do was create a rose. 

But that would be considered special since the magic of the Mortel family wasn't quite the easy one to master.

If it was easy, then it wouldn't take Marinette two decades to master the magic.

She got out of the basement the day she controlled the family magic.

The magic of the Mortel family was called the Death Roses Magic.

There are two types of magic in this world. The light magic and the dark magic.

The light magic is the magic the human got from the goddess. Dark magic is the condensed magic that lies deep down in the demon's world. The demon fed its existence with dark magic.

The light magic had many branches, one branch could wield the element of water, and one branch could wield the element of sound, but no branch could replicate the uniqueness of the light magic, the magic that could heal.

However, the Death Roses Magic broke the theory of the world. It was originally light magic, but then it got cursed by the demon king and turned into the magic the Mortel family used this day.

Flynn told me of how people use their magic. There was a special type of thing that people used to let out their magic particles to control the surroundings.

That thing is called Mana.

Flynn who never wielded the death Rose magic before, and how different the magic was from the rest of the magic spells.

From the book he read, he told me that Mortel never used mana like other people. The demon king cursed the ancestors of the family to never use magic again.

Since we use it, we also need to pay the price. The price was the source we used to let out the magic.

We had to exchange our lifespan for every time we used magic.

The Mortel family remained strong till this day, it was because the head of the family from the older generation would have up to ten children. They were exploited as a warrior to defend the family.

In a battle with another regular mage, they always won because they had no limit of source to use magic.

But when those children couldn't live past their 40 because they spent their lifespan on many battles.

"Since you never get a proper lesson about the magic, there's something you need to know. From what the young lord told me before, he said to let out a powerful magic, you shouldn't hesitate to die."

"So we need to gamble our life in every magic we use..."

I see, Flynn. Thank you for the lesson.

Neigh!!!

The horse went awol as the coach's head rolled down its body and dropped on the ground.

It looked like the time had come. 

The reason the novel was popular was because the male lead wasn't much of a nice guy.

To completely fool Marinette is to win her trust. Flynn earned her trust in the same scenario in the novel.

What would be the better way to earn a lady's trust than to save her on the brink of her death?

"My lady...you..."

"Now that I know the trick, it wasn't difficult after all."

The head of another man wrapped with the thorn of roses fell in the carriage between Flynn and me.

The assassin couldn't have the luck to witness the villainess's death aura as his eyeballs already turned into two roses.

He failed his job the moment he tried to get into the carriage.

"Clean it up."

To be continued...!