Volume 1: Prologue
One day, someone will slaughter all of you, drain every drop of your blood, slice off every piece of your flesh, crush every bone in your body, and feed it to wild dogs, pigs, and vultures!
This is not a curse, but a vow, because that someone can only be me...
A young girl stood before a fresh grave, murmuring to herself. At that moment, only the wind and rain bore witness to her words.
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Volume 1: Chapter 1 - Charlotte Mellerfield
Screech!
A piercing cry split the sky as bronze talons gripped the rough castle bricks, sending stone fragments flying. Dark golden wings stirred up a whirlwind.
A giant eagle with a wingspan exceeding twenty meters landed heavily on the castle's tower.
A girl of about fifteen or sixteen gracefully dismounted from the eagle's back. In one hand, she carried a heavy parchment bag, while the other brushed her flaxen hair, tousled by the wind, behind her ear.
A castle guard clad in leather armor jogged up to take the eagle's reins from the girl.
"What is the lady doing?" the girl asked casually.
The guard shook his head. "I don't know, but it seems she hasn't left her chambers yet."
The guard truly didn't know. He was merely a squire tasked with tending to the mounts, with no right to enter the main keep. Yet, his vague answer was enough for someone familiar with the lady to guess the truth. The girl took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then stepped down from the tower.
The delicate silver chain at her waist jingled pleasantly as her deerskin boots clicked against the stone floor. She passed through a corridor adorned with brass crystal wall lamps. Maids along the way stepped aside, bowing in respect. The girl hurriedly returned their greetings and quickly moved on, soon arriving at the redwood door of the castle owner's bedroom.
Pushing open the slightly ajar door, the girl's eyes first fell on a finely woven tapestry depicting angels and fairies. The room was furnished with exquisite carvings of roses, irises, and thorns, lace-trimmed pink silk curtains, and a vanity mirror reflecting golden sunlight.
At first glance, this seemed like the typical boudoir of a noble lady.
However, a quick scan revealed three figures sleeping soundly on the walnut bed draped with crimson curtains.
Black and golden hair intertwined like three delicate flowers blooming together, caressed by a gentle breeze and spring rain, leaving behind a blush of sunset.
A mere glance at such a scene would be enough to make one's heart race, but the girl, as the lady's personal maid, had seen it all too often. Her expression remained unchanged as she walked to the bed, raised the parchment bag in her hand, and slapped it against the fair, smooth calf of the black-haired girl in the middle.
The black-haired girl showed no reaction, but the two golden-haired beauties on either side of her were startled awake by the crisp *smack*.
The golden-haired woman on the left had a wheatish complexion and appeared older, exuding a mature charm. The girl glanced at her, and the woman offered an apologetic smile before picking up two well-worn dresses from the bedside, hastily putting them on.
The girl then turned to the right, where a younger golden-haired girl lay. She was momentarily taken aback. The golden-haired girl, meeting her gaze, quickly looked away. She grabbed a random dress from the floor to cover herself and hurried out of the bedroom as if fleeing.
The golden-haired woman on the left bowed to the girl and followed suit.
"Mmm, Renee, you're up..."
The black-haired girl finally awoke, rubbing her eyes and sitting up. She stretched lazily, her smooth black hair cascading like a waterfall over her milky skin, her graceful figure fully revealed.
Renee, the girl, ignored the captivating sight and rolled her eyes. "Actually, I've already been to Lakeside Manor and back. Please check the time, Miss Charlotte Mellerfield. It's already noon. If you don't get up soon, you'll be late for this afternoon's audience!"
"Mmm..." The castle's mistress, Charlotte Mellerfield, yawned again, still looking drowsy.
Renee's lips twitched slightly. She turned to have the maids prepare hot water, then pulled the naked Charlotte out of bed and pushed her toward the bath.
The maids lined the oak tub with smooth silk to prevent any nonexistent splinters from scratching the noble lady's delicate skin. The perfectly warm water was sprinkled with flower petals and fragrant oils, their soothing aroma designed to ease fatigue and drowsiness.
After the bath, wrapped in a towel and seated at the vanity, Charlotte finally woke up.
Renee stood behind Charlotte, combing her long hair while complaining incessantly. "Miss, you really are something. With such an important matter today, you didn't rest properly last night. After all these years of planning, aren't you afraid it'll all fall apart..."
"Yes, it's been so many years..." Charlotte gazed at the sunlight outside the window, silently reflecting.
It had been sixteen years since she arrived in this world.
This was an ancient, fantastical world of castles, knights, and miracles. Charlotte's luck wasn't bad. Sixteen years ago, she was born into the Mellerfield family with her memories from her previous life mostly intact. The Mellerfield family was the ducal house of Greenfield in the Oran Empire, the most powerful nation on the Eagle Continent. In this life, Charlotte was a noble lady of high standing.
However, the Oran Emperor's own daughter, Princess Laila, was married off at the age of twelve to a duke in his fifties, a man of considerable power. This was the typical fate of noble ladies in this feudal era—tools for political alliances seemed to be their only value.
Whether due to her innate aversion to such a fate or the unyielding ambition that even her gender couldn't suppress, Charlotte could not accept such a destiny. Thus, from the moment of her birth, she began meticulously planning a scheme grand enough to fulfill her ambitions.
Today, the first step of that plan would be set in motion...
"One of them looked familiar. Was it Miss Cecilia?" Renee asked curiously after finishing her complaints.
"Yes," Charlotte nodded. "It was her."
"Really?" Though she had expected it, Renee was still shocked. "That's the star pupil of Mr. Capriati? Everyone at the Great Banyan Academy knows what kind of person she is."
Simon Capriati was the most renowned philosopher in the Oran Empire, and perhaps the entire Eagle Continent. Any bard in a tavern could tell you that wherever the wise Simon Capriati chose to go, he would be welcomed as an honored guest by kings and emperors alike.
Ten years ago, Simon Capriati purchased a small plot of land on the outskirts of the Oran Empire's capital, Platinum City, and founded a modest academy to impart his accumulated knowledge. This academy was named "Capriati Academy," but as Simon often held classes under a massive banyan tree on the grounds, it became colloquially known as the "Great Banyan Academy."
The opening of the Great Banyan Academy caused a sensation across the continent. Scions of royalty, nobility, and wealthy families flocked to it, as did scholars from near and far. However, Simon Capriati did not accept everyone. The great philosopher required all applicants to engage in debate with him, and only those who demonstrated sufficient rhetorical skill and intellectual acumen were permitted to become his disciples—regardless of status, rank, or background.
Over the past decade, the Great Banyan Academy had admitted over a hundred students, Charlotte among them. This number was actually quite large, given that the academy had only one teacher—the great philosopher himself. Most of the time, Simon Capriati lectured under the banyan tree, expounding on his various theories, while the students absorbed as much as they could. Only a select few, favored by Simon, received daily personal instruction. Charlotte was not one of them, but Cecilia was.
With such a status, Cecilia indeed had the right to remain composed in the presence of most nobles, even though her father was merely a humble scribe at a theater.
In the past, she had always carried herself with such dignity.
In this era, girls from commoner families were not averse to serving nobles in bed. Some noble lords even exercised the "right of the first night" within their domains, and no one found it particularly shocking. But Cecilia was different. She was one of the rare commoner girls of this era who had begun to develop a sense of self-respect and independence. Though this belief might still be in its infancy, she would never simply loosen her sash at the beckoning of a duke's daughter.
This was why Renee was so surprised.
"It's because she's poor," Charlotte explained casually. "Cecilia's brother was found to have sorcerer potential by a church priest. The awakening ceremony costs a lot of money. Clearly, Cecilia couldn't stand up to her family."
The supernatural power system of this world could be roughly divided into three components: rituals, sorcerers, and miracles. Rituals formed the foundation of all supernatural powers, giving rise to sorcerers and miracles. Some schools of thought believed that sorcerers and miracles were essentially the same—both were vessels of supernatural power, the former being intelligent beings, the latter being non-sentient creatures, inanimate objects, or even intangible natural phenomena.
The awakening ceremony was the most common type of ritual in this world. Its purpose was to assist ordinary people without innate abilities in becoming sorcerers and embarking on the path of the supernatural.
Awakening ceremonies varied widely. Different sorcerer schools had their own exclusive ceremonies, and different races modified the rituals according to their unique traits. Of course, some modifications were driven by more practical concerns—money.
The nobility, who controlled 99% of the Oran Empire's resources, typically spared no expense in their children's awakening ceremonies, using the rarest supernatural materials and enlisting the most renowned sorcerers to preside over the rituals, thereby increasing the chances of success. As a result, their children often easily stepped onto the supernatural path, sometimes displaying remarkable talent from the very beginning, giving them a head start.
However, the majority of this world's population consisted of commoners and serfs. Many from the lower classes also sought to walk the supernatural path, so they devised ways to simplify the awakening ceremonies, replacing expensive materials. This led to various flaws and a sharp decline in success rates, but the ceremonies did become simpler and cheaper. However, this "cheapness" was relative. The rarity of supernatural materials meant that truly "affordable" options were impossible. The most common material used in ordinary awakening ceremonies was powdered mithril, a single spoonful of which cost nearly the equivalent of five generations of a serf family's savings. In simplified ceremonies, mithril powder was replaced with powdered silverwing fish bones, costing the equivalent of three generations of a serf family's savings.
Cheaper, but not by much for a serf family.
Cecilia's family were not serfs but commoners. Her father's work as a scribe was relatively respectable, but they still struggled to afford the exorbitant cost of an awakening ceremony.
"I see," Renee nodded.
As a native, Renee understood the mindset of Cecilia's family well. Becoming a sorcerer was the only way to fundamentally change the family's future—a common belief among the lower classes. Even the lowest-ranked one-winged swordsman could be knighted or made a squire, and a knight was the lowest rank of nobility.
From commoner to noble—was this a leap across a class? No, it was a leap across species.
Due to the existence of the supernatural, the average lifespan of nobles in this era exceeded a hundred years, while commoners lived an average of only forty years—this was merely Charlotte's observation from her surroundings. Given her status as a duke's daughter, she had spent the past sixteen years in the most prosperous regions of the Oran Empire. In poorer rural or mountainous areas, the average lifespan of commoners might be closer to that of serfs, barely reaching their twenties.
One could live to a hundred, the other only to their twenties—could they truly be considered the same species?
No matter how learned Cecilia was, she could not bridge the gap between commoner and noble. Her family longed to join the ranks of the nobility, and perhaps even Cecilia herself felt that her brother becoming a sorcerer was more important than her own chastity.
"Then who was the other woman?" Renee asked again.
"Cecilia's sister," Charlotte replied without hesitation.
Renee was speechless. She really didn't want to comment further on her lady's scandalous private life.