*PREVIOUS CHAPTER*
"Do you want any children, duchess?"
***
I wanted to disappear by his question, but he kept staring at me with his serious face. "Uhm, I don't know..." I answered with a small voice and gulped. 'What if I answered it wrong..?' I was lost in thoughts. The duke looked quite stressed too. He closed his eyes and frowned, while I looked down and fidgeted my fingers.
"I think it's too early to have children. Please tell me when you want to have them". The duke grabbed another pile of paperwork and continued signing them. I was quite furious too, did he only marry me for bearing children?! Although my age is around 18 here, I was 20 before I reincarnated! 'Does he think that he's superior because he's a duke and a man?' I clenched my hands and sighed, I couldn't afford going against him.
Standards here are unfair: men > women
Some people in China thought so too, but it wasn't this bad! Even if a princess was born first, the prince had to become king. The eldest princess wasn't loved and not even seen as a princess, some kings even sold their daughters off to get married and gain more power.
This way of thinking was ridiculous!
***
I was reading a romance novel in the library, the librarian even prepared a whole stack of them for me. I read a novel called 'As Pure As Roses & Blood'. As you can tell, the love between the male protagonist and female protagonist was very pure. The handsome man had many flaws and was seen as a pain, like the thorns of a rose. The woman was beautiful, but had blood on her hands. Their love for each other changed the flaws and blood. They got married and got children.
'It's so touching!' I could almost cry when I finished it, only if love could be that pure.... I closed the novel and grabbed another one, the duke called me over again but I ignored him several times. "That man deserves to be ignored!" I talked to myself, resulting the librarian to think of me as a psychopath.
*Two hours later*
I found a book about the history of magic, it looked quite interesting and the drawings were very pretty. The book had around a thousand pages so I brought it to my room. Naralia had quite an exciting look when I brought it with me.
"Master, those books are very rare! There are only 3 of them!" Naralia couldn't hold her excitement back and jumped everywhere. "Have you seen one before Naralia?" I stroked her head as she closed eyes. "My summoner had one too, but it got burned since it was seen as witchcraft. It was a book with many curses" I was in deep thought. 'If this book was cursed, why would it be here?' I was confused and took a deep breath. I opened a page and my eyes immediately went to the first page.
Owned by:
Xenia Florys,
Bertha Florys,
Louise Florys,
Yui Florys,
Could the last one be the duke's mom?
I immediately turned some more pages and noticed animals, magic creatures. "Naralia, are you close with any magic creatures?" I asked while turning more pages. "I am, only with the pure ones though" she hopped on my legs.
"There are pure and cursed ones, the pure ones own white magic and the cursed ones own black magic. Pure creatures own rare powers, like summoning fire or water. The cursed ones own powers that can change events, for example manipulating time or time travel. Cursed creatures are called like that because their powers are forbidden in both this and my world" I quickly turned some more pages, hoping to find more information about magic.
"I am a mixed creature, I was not born in a natural way" I looked at her with my eyes narrowed.
'How would she even be created, she has a heart, blood and flesh. Did they make a Frankenstein out of her?' My thoughts were thinking different things and Naralia just sighed.
"I was made by a magician, he summoned me from a seal and sacrificed a rabbit" I nodded, although I didn't understand a single thing anymore. "Summoning creatures isn't allowed, they have to born by nature. The magician was caught on several charges and was beheaded for summoning around 30 creatures" I could kinda guess why the magician summoned them, but my mind was just purely disgusted.
"Anyways, is there anything interesting in the book?" Naralia changed the subject and turned some pages. There were plants, animals, objects and gems. It was most likely that gems were the core of magic, they were put in swords and armours. "We can evolve if we find the right gem, it has to be related to our pure or cursed magic" Naralia pointed at a purple gem. It was drawn so it wasn't very accurate.
We turned some more pages, but those were all empty. Since the rest was written by Florys owners, it has to be some kind of passed down book in the family.
"Duchess, what are you doing?" It was the duke's voice, he was standing in the doorframe looking at the book I was holding. I wanted to hide Naralia, but luckily she was already gone. "Why are you so interested in that book?!" The duke snatched the book away and threw it, he was furious.