The story of an eldest daughter raised amid discrimination is not uncommon.
A child subjected to unfair treatment despite possessing exceptional ability and character.
“Ariella, we have decided to name your younger brother crown prince. This was the nobility council’s decision, and my hands are tied.”
An eldest daughter whose rights were stripped away one after another, until she finally lost the greatest opportunity of her life.
“…Convey my congratulations to the Queen. After all the scheming she carried out over these past three years… she finally succeeded.”
“You must address her as your mother! Even if she is not your mother by blood…”
“She never treated me like a daughter. And what mother spends three years trying her hardest to tear down her child? Do you feel satisfied, Father? Does it please you to install an infant as heir to the throne?”
Ariella was that very daughter. And what made it all the more unjust was that she hailed directly from the royal line ruling the country.
In truth, she could have become queen of Oinos, the maritime kingdom. From early childhood, she had studied and trained across vast disciplines such as administration, diplomacy, and economics. She mingled freely with the common folk without barriers, earning tremendous popularity.
No one doubted she would ascend the throne in the near future. That is, until the new Queen arrived three years ago and had Ariella’s half-brother named crown prince.
Nor did it stop there.
“…You are asking me to marry into the Empire?”
“The decision has already been made.”
Even after securing the crown prince title for her own son, her stepmother still viewed Ariella as a thorn in her side. The princess retained considerable standing within the kingdom.
Fearing she might pose a future threat to her son, the stepmother devised a scheme to cast Ariella out of the country for good.
In the end, she was driven into an unwanted marriage.
The groom was the emperor of the Holy Empire.
And she would not be his first wife, but his third.
Inside the cabin of the ship bound for the Empire, Ariella muttered under her breath, recalling the words of her father, the King.
“What decision? And decided by whom?”
While her birth mother lived, he had treated her as heir to the throne. But after remarrying, he went back on his word as if nothing had ever happened. Each time the memory crossed her mind, her teeth ground together in fury.
Fuming, she stared out the cabin window. A chill wind blew.
The imperials sent to retrieve her had voiced disgust at the salty tang of the sea, yet she found it purely invigorating.
Framed by the square window, the port city where she had spent her life drifted further and further into the distance.
‘I likely will never lay eyes on this sight again.’
At this pace, the vessel would soon reach Holy Empire territory. Past that point, there could be no turning back. Ariella would become nothing more than a political ornament stripped of influence and power.
She refused to live that way.
To be the third wife of a devious man regarded as the most wicked on the continent, in a place teeming with conspiracies and intrigue?
Knock… knock—!
A light tapping sounded on the door in quick succession.
“Come in.”
Betty gingerly cracked open the cabin door after scanning the surroundings.
She was the most loyal among Ariella’s maids.
“How does it look outside?”
“The priests and nobles have all boarded an imperial warship.”
“And Count Igor?”
“He departed with them. He is no longer aboard this ship.”
“Hah, what a relief.”
The timing was immaculate. A glint flashed in her eyes.
“Bring it here, then… And once I have vanished, simply carry out what I wrote for you in the letter beforehand.”
“Yes, leave it to me.”
Knowing full well what lay ahead, Ariella gave her earnest instructions.
“There will be terrible chaos. I am sorry to place this burden on your shoulders.”
“You have no need to apologize. The princess has done no wrong.”
Betty was a clever girl. She set about following instructions without posing a single question.
Thanks to her, mere moments later, Ariella stood alone in her cabin, soaked in blood.
Ariella exhaled slowly to regain her composure.
‘The magic circle itself is flawless.’
She was alone in the cabin.
What stained the princess’s form in crimson was animal blood Betty had pilfered from the ship’s galley.
Using that blood, Ariella had inscribed a magic circle onto the cabin floor.
It was a summoning circle, a school of magic whose very existence eluded most mages.
“There is no other way.”
The fact that Ariella had learned magic and was skilled in it remained a secret shared only between Betty and herself.
Ever since her youth, she had felt a mysterious pull toward magical power. Her reason was simple.
“Because it is difficult for everyone… entirely fair.”
Before magic, neither gender, appearance, nor background carried weight. Even a naturally gifted soul had to endure grueling, painstaking labor to master it, and she loved it for that very reason.
Ariella had always relished a challenge since childhood.
A miracle born from merging the logic that unravels intricate equations with the intuition that pierces straight to the essence of things.
The clever girl had fallen hopelessly in love with that wondrous, dazzling power. The problem was that all forms of magic other than holy magic were branded forbidden heresy, punished by severe penalties upon discovery.
‘I concealed it in my homeland, but in the Holy Empire, I would surely be exposed. High priests are everywhere there; they would sense my magic immediately.’
Had she openly declared herself a mage beforehand, the marriage would have been called off on the spot.
Yet Ariella could not do that. Confessing the truth meant being branded a heretic and stripped of her magical powers. To her, that was no different from death.
And if she were discovered as a mage after marrying the Emperor?
Her magic would be torn from her either way. Even so, since the imperial family placed great store in prestige, they would hush the matter up.
Though she might retain the title of Empress, her subsequent existence would be an unceasing hell.
In the end, only one answer remained…
‘I have to escape before reaching the Empire. Living as an exquisite hostage would be far better than rotting forever beneath those false shackles.’
Yet how?
Ariella had spent long hours pondering a way out of this trap. Then it struck her that the solution, much like the problem itself, lay within the magic she cherished with all her being.
‘If I simply flee like this, it will leave the kingdom in a terrible bind.’
She despised the royal family that had coerced her into this political match. Even so, Ariella’s feelings toward the country’s people remained deep and sincere.
What would the Emperor do if Ariella fled?
A man who repaid every slight tenfold, armed with a cold, merciless heart.
Every nation or territory he had ever confronted wound up awash in blood, reduced to barren wasteland where not a single blade of grass could sprout.
“He would undoubtedly exact retribution on the kingdom.”
And in the end, it was always the vulnerable common folk who paid the price.
Ariella’s escape plan therefore had to feature a “rationale” the Empire would accept, alongside an “act of god” sufficient to explain her disappearance.
‘So the Empire has no pretext to strike!’
The incident also had to take place outside the kingdom’s borders. That alone would guarantee complete evasion of responsibility.
Carrying out the scheme within imperial territory, thick with priests and temples, was out of the question.
“In the end, this is the place! I must vanish right here!”
Out on the open sea, where no nation held sway, lay her best opportunity.
‘I cannot return to the kingdom. The royal family would drag me back by force.’
She steeled her resolve from within.
‘I will go somewhere far away. A place neither that stubborn Emperor nor his terrifying army can reach. A place where no one is persecuted simply for being a mage.’
To pull it off, she required the cooperation of another party. Someone who represented irresistible force, as close to a natural disaster as possible.
Fortunately, Ariella held the key that fulfilled every single condition.
A threat and catastrophe that not even the Holy Empire could rein in. A being dwelling apart from the mortal world, whom she could summon using her magical aptitude.
‘The Demon King!’
No ordinary person would have dared entertain such an attempt. Yet no other path remained.
There was simply no other means to live the life she desired.
‘If I draw the summoning circle correctly and offer the proper sacrifice, I can at least summon the Demon King.’
To begin with, the reason she had learned magic was that Betty had stumbled upon a mysterious grimoire.
Ariella had spent years studying and deciphering that ancient tome. Naturally, she had never imagined she would one day actually chant the incantation to summon the Demon King from its pages.
There was another reason she specifically chose to summon the Demon King.
‘They say the Demon King is bound to protect whoever forms a contract with him.’
From the moment the contract is sealed, the two become a single entity linked by fate.
Admittedly, it was a tremendous gamble. There was no telling whether the Demon King would even accept a contract.
Yet she resolved to try. That was how desperate Ariella had become.
Snip—
Using a knife Betty had brought from the galley, she sheared off the thick red hair she had tended so carefully for years. She scattered the severed locks over the magic circle as she recited the incantation.
Her locks, which once cascaded smoothly down to her waist, were now cropped just beneath her ears.
Wrrr—!
“This too!”
She tossed the grimoire she held onto the completed magical array. That book had been her mentor and companion, teaching her cryptic spells and opening the doorway to unknown realms.
For the Demon King’s summoning to succeed, this too had to be offered up as a sacrifice.
Sssss—!
Intricate, precise sigils took shape across the circle, as though carving themselves into place.
From atop them, pitch-black energy surged upward like a pillar scaling the heavens.
How much time had passed since then?
Whoosh—!
A wave of overwhelming power swept through the room. In that instant, Ariella distinctly felt… something had arrived.
Had the gamble succeeded? Or failed?
· · ·
Tension hung in the air as if time itself had ground to a halt. The cabin was thick with black smoke left in the wake of the spell.
From beyond the haze emerged the silhouette of a man.
“…Huh?”
Ariella froze in confusion.
‘A young man?’
END