Chapter 1: The Reason Why She Became A Slave

She lives in the back alley of Golddina.

She found her hope and fortune in that dirty alley. The back alley that was flooded with dirt. The narrow dirty road between the buildings that was covered with corpse-like beggars. But she felt energized whenever she thought of her fortune.

Today, she set up a stall and waited for customers to earn a little money. She doesn’t have any sign, but she has quite a few regulars.

She stared blankly at the end of the alley, arranging the stand.

‘Why isn’t Serek coming? He said he would definitely come today. These days, it’s usual for him to postpone appointments.’

As she was about to give up, someone approached her. It was not Serek, but Leberty, who ran a pawnshop in the back alley. Knowing all about her talent of picking pockets, she was a very

good source of information.

“Celestia! You came to work today too?”

“Welcome, Leberty.”

With her green hair hanging down to her hips, Lynn Leberty smiled and walked by her side into her small stall. There were only two chairs kept in a small tent. Leberty sighed the moment her eyes fell on those.

“Honey, are you waiting for him again? Do you think such a great officer would take you seriously?”

Celestia closed her mouth and gripped the arm of Leberty and looked around it. She can’t learn magic, but somehow she has mastered the ability to erase magic, so she makes a living by erasing magic tattoos.

There was a tattoo on Leberty’s arm that she saw for the first time.

“I told you not to get tattoos like this because I don’t believe in my abilities either.”

“That’s not the problem right now. Stop expecting him. I’m telling you, Serek is just using you.”

Celestia gently rubbed the tattoo, concentrating all of her attention on the fingertips as if she had not heard it.

For instance, if the magic is to carry 1 to 10 to be engraved into the skin, she had to reverse it by 10 to 1 in consideration of the intentions of the person who wrote the magic.

She has never seen anyone do the same thing as her, but she has learned the stratagem in this job. Well, she wasn’t very proud of it, but she could not deal with mana as she had a magic seal all over her body, but she could remove magic if she concentrated well.

The tattoo on Leberty’s arm quickly faded.

“Okay, it’s done. And, Serek will come. He promised he would.”

“Get a hold of yourself, darling. Why are you so pure?”

Celestia laughed bitterly. It hasn’t been a day or two since she heard Leberty say that.

But Serek is different from such nobles. He was quantitatively different from other officers who used and abandoned people in the back alley.

His real name is Serangueban.

The generosity of nobles are short, but Serek was originally from a back alley. It’s all because of Celestia’s help that he’s so advanced in the society as he is now.

Celestia, her brother, and Serek grew up together in the same back alley ever since they were young.

They have always talked about getting anyone to succeed and feeding all of the three. They escaped from a nursery school where people used to beat them as if they were not human. And among them, Serek was the most talented in magic. Not to some, but to a greater extent.

They thought that magic was the only thing that could make the world, regardless of identity. Magic was a gift. A nobleman’s status was not something that could do better. They are highly educated from an early age, but magic was not something like that. It was a way to showcase talent and hard work.

Celestia spent all her money on Serek because she wanted to see him succeed. She has heard rumors of herself being smart, but no matter what she learns, there must have been a limit to her career because of her humble background.

Serek did not understand the magic formula as being discharged, but Celestia taught him all. She could not understand how she was a crybaby but was good at handling mana.

But Serek had a great response to using his magic of ten thousand talented people. Wizards called it ‘influence’. Usually, in aristocratic families, they would buy pills to treat the sick, but Serek could not afford them.

Once, Serek had red boils all over his body, and he suffered all night with a high fever. Another time, he lost his sight. Celestia was the one who took care of him every time, but she did not have enough magic talent to heal him. Jin himself taught Serek the magic to heal, but Celestia also wanted to be of help to Serek.

As a result, now her body is engraved with a magic wand that invalidates magic from the back of her neck to the top of her back and arms. It’s a calculation with the brain. She could have done a rough job with her useless head, but it’s not easy to nullify it.

It was Jin who found an ancient book that rolled around in a secondhand store. There, it was said that engraving magic on the body was a taboo that could lead to death, but gold was not important to a straight and ignorant street life.

Although it had enormous side effects, it eventually succeeded.

Since Celestia had everything engraved on her body, she had to connect to them before they were activated.

Celestia would wake up from sleep and would wander around with Serek all night whenever he wanted.

Some days, he would go far away to practice ball magic saying, ‘It’s the gateway of succession’, and would hit on her playfully. And some days he would…kiss her.

Recalling the moment, Celestia blushed unknowingly.

She had started having feelings for him from the beginning, and now he’s the only one to take care of the three of them. If she thought about it now, every moment would be a way to break their destiny.

“….No. Serek, he’s not like that.”

“Really? What are you going to do?”

Leberty sighed heavily and turned her ‘cleaned’ arms around. Celestia rose up from the spot where she was sitting.

“We have decided to get married.”

As Leberty tried to process what Celestia has said, she gave her a blank look.

‘Did she notice my dreamy eyes?’ Clearly, Leberty was getting angry. She touched her forehead.

“Listen, darling, I wasn’t going to say this but…..”

“…. Yes?”

“Serek is not Serangueban anymore. Can you really trust him? I know you haven’t lived your life for 10 years, and you’ve given everything to him, but he’s already a magic officer. He would leave you, girl.”

“What are you talking about? I’m the only one for Serek.”

“Go and see then.”

“Huh?”

“Why don’t you go to the Institute and see for yourself?”

Celestia wanted to follow what she said. But she didn’t want to stop believing in his promises. Serek could not have done that because he loves her. She remembers how her whole body ached when he whispered “I love you” to her. He said he wanted her more than anyone else. He only gave her a kiss when she was ill, but it was because he was usually too shy to do it…

Celestia noticed Leberty’s pitiful eyes.

Celestia could not help but decide to go to the Institute because she felt suspicious. She would have to make a choice if Leberty was right. She took off her apron and left the tent. On her way home, she thought she was dressed too shabbily to go to the Institute. Her brother was still sleeping because he wasn’t feeling well.

She took out the ‘best’ dress that she doesn’t usually wear and wore it. She wore it on the ‘dirty’ back of her neck. It was a white complex dress that was supposed to get blackened in one day. She remembers one of the smugglers stopped by her filthy shop to give her the dress one day.

She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled shyly. Her bright red hair was neatly organized and buried. After washing her face, she applied a cheap silver cream as she liked the fragrance of it. She got the cream from a shop next to hers.

Since she was going to meet Serek, she tried to look as decent as she could but she was a little broken.

On her way, she managed to get five figs that Serek liked in a paper bundle.

The path to the Institute was a busy area where white stones were laid on the floor and even the waterway was clearly distinct from the slums. Celestia walked diligently and reached the white stone wall.

This was her first time to visit the Institute.

‘I hope you will be glad to see me…..But I’m sorry if your acquaintances come to know that I am your lover ~’

But we are getting married anyway.

In front of the institute, there stood knights wearing blue uniforms and tall hats. They would have recognized her at once that she was a child not from a noble family, but maybe because it was a building that protected the law, they didn’t drive her away for some reason.

A knight with a spear asked her.

“Why are you here, child?”

“I am not a child.”

“Yes. So why are you here?”

“I’m here to see Serek.”

The two gatekeepers exchanged their glances.

“You don’t mean Officer Serek, do you?”

‘Why are they talking like that? It’s true that I do not fit in here, but I’m the sole lover of Serek.’

“That’s right. We are getting married soon.”

“Marriage with Office Serek? Oh, look at what this little lady said! Hey, kid. Listen, you may be popular, but….”

The other guard seemed as if he was dumbfounded while the former continued.

“Serek has a fiance with a child. What you said was ridiculous. So stop it and go back.”

“….Pardon?”

‘I was the one who was ridiculous.’

As soon as she was quiet, they seemed to think she was shocked. Or maybe they think, now that she was aware of the reality, she was envious of Serek.

The gatekeepers waved their hands.

“Why don’t you stop saying weird things and return back? ‘Cause I don’t want to swing a spear at a child.”

“Yeah, yeah, go back to hell. The Institute walls are quite sensitive when it gets noisy around here.”

She thought they were joking, but it was hard for her to believe that when they were making such a witty and dangerous joke with such serious looks.

“Let me in. I am a friend of Serek.”

The reason why she didn’t choose the word ‘Lover’ anymore was because the word ‘Fiance with a child’ hung on her mind.

“No, we can’t do that. You will be in big trouble if you call the Officer by his name! So get the hell out of here!”

The gatekeepers, who don’t seem to be of the Lehan family even if they hit well, narrowed their eyes as if it was not easy for her to find Serek.

But she put her hand on her waist and stared at them.