As If It Matters Now

"...Arina? Arina!" Alex called for the umpteenth time. Alex saw her talking to his brother, and he immediately became worried when he saw Arina's face suddenly turn pale. But no matter how many times he called out to her, his fiancé just wouldn't look back and kept walking away from the party.

Arina ended up disappearing down one of the palace corridors. But as soon as Alex followed her there, he immediately panicked and hurriedly backed away again to make sure that no one else was around.

"Shit, should she be doing it now?!" He grumbled. Never expecting that Arina would take off her necklace and let her cloud of black shadows writhe as they pleased into the air. In the palace!

Alex had seen it once, and it was his worst experience with Arina. Because she's only like that when she's in a more than just bad mood. It was so bad... That she couldn't control the fluctuation of her magic in her body and had to let it out.

"Fuck… Fuck!" And Arina just kept cursing to herself there.

Seeing her like that, Alex became even more curious about what she and his brother were actually talking about. But before he could even ask about it, another problem was already approaching. People, to be exact.

"Arina, aren't you finished yet?" Alex said quietly. "There are some people approaching."

Arina was still silent, but then she stood up. Still holding the necklace in her hand. "Hh, none of the princes here really care about their lives, I guess..." Arina muttered weirdly.

"..." Alex could see Arina's eyes looked like she went out of her mind or something. It was so scary that he couldn't even do anything and just stood still as Arina walked closer to him--along with her terrifyingly twisting black shadow.

But because the voices of the people were getting closer, Alex forced himself to snatch the necklace from Arina's hand and hurriedly put it around her neck.

"--Oh my, prince and miss Arina!" Exclaimed one of the women from the people passing by. "What are you two doing here together? Don't tell me…" She asked in an enthusiastic tone.

"Ahaha, we were just talking..." Alex replied shortly.

"Stop it." Said the man next to him. "Sorry to disturb you two. Please continue." He added and he pushed all of his friends to quickly leave.

"…"

"Are you calmer now?" Alex then asked carefully.

"How could I?" Arina finally replied, although her face was still red and veined with annoyance. "I still want to kill him."

"You mean Felix? What exactly did he say to you?"

Arina stared at Alex silently as if she wasn't sure if she should tell him. But if she really wanted to kill him, maybe her chances would be better if she asked her brother for help.

"He saw me last night." Arina finally talked. "No... From the way he spoke, it seemed like he wasn't the one who saw me, but Lunia. She's that weird girl who works as his secretary, right?"

"Wait, saw you? You mean when you…" Alex replied. "Does that mean they also know about your magic?" He asked.

Knowing that Arina was even able to use magic was already problematic--because everyone knows her as a normal noble. But Arina's dark magic was the forbidden topic. If the words spread, she'll immediately be hunted by the palace.

"He knew I was injured, so most likely that girl saw me when I used it." Arina answered with a sigh.

The two of them were silent for a long time after that. But then Alex said again, "So what? Did he threaten you or something?"

That's the problem. "Not really… He just asked me not to kill that priestess again." Arina said. "He just said he needed the priestess for something else. But it doesn't seem like he wanted her to be his partner."

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know!" Arina replied, feeling annoyed again. "That's why you have to look for it, before I find another way to kill that girl!"

Arina immediately turned to leave. But it turned out that Alex was holding her hand again. "But, are you okay? Are your injuries very serious?" He asked.

"As if it matters now."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that priestess was good at fighting at all. If I had known, I definitely wouldn't have asked you to go there yourself--"

"Not her. There was another man." Arina replied while pulling her hand. "But I've already taken care of it, so you should just focus on finding out what your brother is up to."