The Duke's Unwanted Wife

“I already have. If you weren’t so persistent in wasting all our time, then I wouldn’t have to do this to you. I don’t know why you think of me as a villain when I’m doing this for your own good!”    

“You’re always doing something like this! You act like you're omnipotent and you make too many rash decisions on behalf of people. You like to control their lives and expect them to thank you for lording over them! I can’t bear it any longer! I want you to stop controlling my life!”    

“You are overreacting. When have I ever lorded over you?! I gave you a choice in this matter and I helped you out. I’m not even asking for thanks! I’m asking you to finish what you started! In the first place, you’re the one who came to me for advice!”    

“And I regret that choice very much! I am not going through with this and I don’t want to hear anything about this any longer.”    

“Well, I’ll just have to see how long you can hold out,” she settled, glaring at him. He stormed out of the house, slamming doors. The rest finally peaked their heads out of the corners, looking back and forth between the two.    

“What happened?” They asked Marvis, who had been there since the argument started.    

“I don’t know either. They just started arguing out of nowhere. I can’t ask her because well…”    

“She doesn’t speak well when she’s this pissed. But it’s rare to see both of them argue like this. It must be serious,” Fredrich mused out loud. Adelie stepped forward and sat beside Natalia, holding her hand. Natalia gave her a cold look and snatched her hand back.    

“Are you going to be angry at me too? I didn’t do anything and I’m your dear little sister. Surely you can’t be mad at me. You love me.”    

“…what do you want, Adelie?”    

“Why are you two fighting? That never happens.”    

“I told him I was removing him from my travel company to Berinda and it went downhill from there. He's supposed to take on more duties as the future Marquis Adamantine but he is intent on following me simply because I had a vague suspicion that Princess Denitra may be a part of those trying to kill me.”    

“Is that it? I thought he would be angrier about the marriage you set up with mother without informing him.”    

“Why would he be angry about that?”    

“…never mind. So he’s just angry he can’t protect you?”    

“He’s angrier that I’m not allowing anyone to join me on my journey to Berinda.”    

“What do you mean you’re not allowing anyone to join you? Surely that doesn’t include me,” Marvis said, marching up to her. She turned her face away from him, giving her answer.    

“You can’t be serious. You are not invulnerable, Natalia. Even you can’t go into enemy territory without protection,” Fredrich stated.    

“I cannot risk your safety, especially yours, Marvis. Werecreatures cannot survive in Berinda. They are almost always killed on sight. They allow entry to their kingdom strictly only by invitation and only I have been invited and I can only go with five people as my company.”    

“Aren’t you basically a hostage? Is this what your grandmother wants?” Alana asks, confused.    

“Although I am going as an ambassador, this is a personal mission. Berinda is a country that has closed itself off from the outside world but unlike Polivia, it is entirely by choice. They are a traditional patriarchy and they value bloodline, heritage and magic above other things. The magical quality in Berinda is excellent according to what I’ve heard so I’m going to do a market survey.”    

“And get yourself killed?!” Fredrich asks, shaking her. She looks him deep in the eyes and says,    

“I cannot die.”    

“Natalia, no matter how powerful you are, entering the enemy’s territory is dangerous. If we’re with you, we can protect you.”    

“And who would protect you? You are all prime targets. Your magic will be easily suppressed in Berinda and you’ll be sitting ducks, all of you. How am I supposed to protect all of you then?”    

“But your magic will be suppressed as well!”    

“Will it?” She asks, snapping her fingers. The room brightened by the sun suddenly went dark. It alarmed them and they tried to use their magic to create light…but it didn’t work. Despite all of them possessing different kinds of magic, none of them worked.    

“This…is an anti magic barrier. It operates solely on world order and it is the same type of magic that covers the capital city of Berinda,” her voice echoed all around them like she was everywhere all at once. She snapped her fingers again and the barrier was gone like it was never there. She was still seated there, staring at their looks of panic. There was something different about her, the beads of blood streaming down her face like tears.    

“How can you…what is…how?!”    

“I could teach you but it is an absolutely painful process. You will have to remove all the mana in your body to be able to inscribe the magic circles on your body so your body won’t reject the contrary power in the magic circles. And to drain the mana in your body means…”    

“You’ll have to die. That’s impossible!” Alana exclaimed.    

“Not die. You need to reach a state of near death and revival to be able to let your mana flow back to the earth. Without mana, you will have to inscribe these magic circles in your body with a consecrated object, sharp enough to pierce skin. It took me a complete year to be able to inscribe it all.”    

She raised her sleeve and with a wave of her hand, they could see several small glowing magic circles on her hand, each with a different symbol in them. Once the illusion was off, her body glowed silver and there wasn’t a part of her body that wasn’t covered in magic circles. They didn’t know whether to be amazed or horrified.    

“Do you understand now?”    

“Not yet. If they have an anti-magic barrier over the capital city, does that mean they can’t use magic? With what I’ve seen, that’s impossible,” Fredrich reasons.    

“They use a vastly different type of magic. The guards I will be going with have been specially trained for this situation. They won’t try to attack me publicly and I know how to argue my way out of any problem. I also know how to open an anti-magic portal to get out of there which can only take five people through before it collapses. I won’t just put myself in a situation I’m not prepared for.”    

“Just because you explain it doesn’t mean we will just say it’s fine for you to go alone. Isn’t it scary?” Marvis says, cleaning her face. Natalia wanted to laugh. In both lives, this man was an assassin and a killing machine who fulfilled gruesome and long orders from his liege. She personally heard of several missions of his that almost ended in him losing his life yet here he was, worried she would be lonely.    

“I guess you’re all okay with the continuous threats to my life then? In just a few days of arrival, they have attempted to kill me three times. They’re not going to stop trying until I finally find out why.”    

“I knew you were aiming for something like that but I hope you also understand why this is extremely dangerous,” Adelie said, taking her hand again.    

“When have I ever shied away from danger? I know what I want and I will stop at nothing to get it. Before then, I have to go and comfort a very stubborn brother of mine,” she said, snapping her fingers. She disappeared right in front of their eyes and they sighed.    

“It’s really hard having such a powerful friend. I wish it was that easy to teleport,” Alana wistfully said.    

“More importantly, her magic circles. They are all in fae language so I could decipher a few. Those characters are said to be very hard to write and you have to spend years trying to correctly write them or the spells won’t work. We can see all the magic circles on her body are fully activated and they work well. It’s tempting,” Fredrich said, rubbing his chin. They could see he was calculating how well it would work and shook their heads. It was obvious to everyone that it was hard, too hard for any ordinary person to do. That was just how amazing Natalia was.    

“Isn’t there another way we could protect her? I won’t be able to live with myself if we just let her go there with no backup,” Marvis said, desperate. They looked at him and truly started to think of ways they could help her.    

“She said entry to Berinda was strictly by invitation and you can only bring five people, right?” Alana started.    

“I think I know the perfect way to help her. It would require some…sacrifices.”