The Devil Duchess Adopts The Villainess

Elena blushed furiously and hurriedly tried to rack her brains to give an explanation for her impromptu confession. Everyone was now looking at her and Elise especially seemed to be shooting her a puzzled glance. She wished she could just sink into the ground and disappear, this felt like a bad dream.

“Yes Servia! I told you that I would confess just like the dare!”, Elena blurted out. The safest bet was to just blame the twins was what she finally decided. Servia looked confused and opened her mouth to say something but was elbowed hard by her twin sister who whispered in her ear, “Just nod yes”.

“Err… Yeah I guess you win?” Servia said a bit hesitantly.

Elena nervously gazed at Elise who shook her head slowly and said, “Elena I expected better of you, don’t just pay along with the foolish games from the twins”. Elena nodded her head quickly then hurriedly turned her tail back into legs then fled to the back of the procession as fast as she could run.

“Idiot, idiot, idiot!” Elena cursed at herself.

Elise nodded to herself, she was a bit surprised to hear that confession, but it looks like it was just a mischief from the twins. Our dear Elise was a genius in battle but when it came to feelings of romance, it would be an understatement to call her dense. Numerous suiters over the years had been shot down from Elise not understanding their intentions.

Although when Elena gave the confession her heart did ripple for a moment but then she shook her head and dismissed it as a joke. Elise looked at the raptor carcasses strewn across the group and called out to Mary, “Burn all the corpses cleanly, the last thing we need is to attract some nasty beasts over.”

Mary wore a simple black clock and a pendant with a star hanging from the middle, her eyes were dark grey in colour and her body was thin almost like a branch. She approached the corpses and began to chant a spell. “Igniorsis Hellus Falmeorus!”, the magic power around her began to increase heavily.

The air rose in temperature and small ripples of heat could be seen dancing within the palm of her hands. A small fire ball formed in her fists which at first glance would seem too small, but the fire burned with an eerie green colour and a sinister hissing noise came from the flame. Mary casually lobbed the ball into the sea of corpses.

Boom!

The green fireball hit the nearest corpse and ignited immediately with an earth-shattering explosion occurring. Elise covered Ashley’s ears so she would not get deafened but the noise. The green flame hopped from corpse to corpse and burnt all the remains into an ashy crisp. Mary bowed deeply at her lord and then returned to sit quietly behind her friend Sophie. Mary may be the quietest of the Valkyries but her title as ‘The Flame Witch’ was not built on empty words.

The carriage quickly set off again through the mountain pass and luck must have been on their side as no further monster attacks occurred. The calm gentle breeze tickled Ashley’s face as she poked her head out of the carriage window. She turned around and saw her mom watching her with a soft look on her face. She became a little bit nervous and turned to look out of the window again, not daring to glance at her mom.

Elise was her new mom but sometimes she would be unable to forget how her real parents had treated her.

“The brat girl is useless, why don’t you toss her outside or sell her off to a trade”

“I am your wife, but you went to bed with some whore!”

“Alright my dear, I will just banish her to the edge of the estate, and I promise you will never see her again”

These events left a shadow in little Ashley’s heart and although she felt that Elise was not a bad lady, a little voice would just whisper in her heart. ‘She will abandon you as well’. Elise saw that Ashley now had a downcast look on her face and her violet eyes flashed in displeasure.

She did not know how to comfort the small child. Elise sat down in the carriage and tried to remember what her father did to comfort her when she was upset. She then smiled and remembered a small trick that she used in the battlefield. The easiest way to win a fight is to distract then aim for the heart.

She reached out and picked up Ashley in her arms, the little girl squirmed slightly but then laid down in her arms happily. “I noticed you were looking at Mary earlier, did you like her fire magic?” Elise asked.

“Mommy! Miss Mary was so cool! She just spoke some words and bang!”, Ashley excitedly replied. Elise paused and tried to figure out why she was now feeling a sense of displeasure from hearing Ashley praise her knight so highly. She looked outside and now thought that Mary was no longer very pleasing to the eye and closed the curtains.

“Ashley how much do you know about magic?” Elise was planning on educating her daughter if not to fight, then to learn to protect herself. Ashley thought for a moment and spoke,” Only chosen people of good hearts is what the maids said all magic users were.” Elise laughed softly in her heart, if all magic users were good then there would be no more wars to be fought.

Magic was a tool that bent to the user’s imagination, good men could create brilliant magic, but monsters could use magic to cause untold amounts of destruction and pain.

She reached for a finely decorated comb in the side compartment of the carriage and began to brush Ashley’s hair as she explained the origins of magic. Magic can only occur with the presence of mana in the body but not all races contain mana and the church of Light classifies mana races as the ‘chosen ones’ and the races without mana as ‘the sinful’.

Natural dark races such as demons, dark elves and beastkin cannot use magic. In exchange, they possess other abilities that make them feared across the continent. Dark elves are formed when an elf is banished from the sacred tree of life and lose their mana reserves but obtain unmatched stealth skills. Beastkin and demons have extraordinary physiques and are far stronger than members of other races.

Each member of the mana races possesses mana but not all members will be able to produce magic power. This is why magic users were considered national treasures to nations and regardless of birth, they would be protected carefully. It was not unusual for a commoner to be granted a noble title and land if they could produce high level spells.

Mana transforms into magic power when it circulates through a magic circuit within the body. It was very rare to have a complete magic circuit and the likelihood of obtaining one would only increase if a member of your family was a magic spellcaster. The benefits of circulating mana included the increase of the natural lifespan, anti- aging properties and enhanced physique.

The shape of the mana circuit also determined which forms or elements of magic that one could use. There were numerous elements such as wood, fire, water, lightning, ice, poison and many others. The average spellcaster could cast spells of four different types. Rare prodigies could cast up to ten different elemental types but Elise belonged to an even more exclusive group, only a handful of people across the history of the kingdom had a complete mana circuit but were only able to use one element.

When Elise was younger, she used to feel inadequate compared to the other young nobles her age. Raw determination and strength lifted her to her current reputation. Despite the laughs of others, she trained every day with shadow magic to the extent where the dark marks became a permanent part of her body. When she was only twenty, she reached a high enough level of mastery where none could win against her. No matter what type of element they casted, she was faster and deadlier.

Even holy or light magic users were no longer her match.

“You don’t have to worry about magic. It is impossible to test for the presence of a mana circuit until you reach ten years old.” Elise reassured Ashley.

Ashley was a tad disappointed that she could not cast spells immediately, Elise realised her expression was still a bit unhappy, so she decided to perform a minor spell. She began to chant a magic spell, “Darknis, Lusiomss, Tradiese”. The inside of the carriage darkened immediately, and Elise hugged her daughter in the pitch-black darkness. Suddenly small prickles of light appeared in the darkness and began to wink like stars in the sky.

Ashley was utterly transfixed by the beautiful site before her eyes. The room was dark but yet shone with patterns resembling the night sky. This was the first time Elise had performed non- combat spells and nervous looked at Ashley, seeing the happy smile of her face made her feel another crack appear on her ice heart which was now slowly thawing out. Wuxiaworld for visiting.

“Maybe learning a few more of these spells wouldn’t be so bad”