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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Premonition Dream
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At the end of the damp stone stairs lay a dungeon.
Once the soldier handed over the silver candelabra and left, Aracilla took off her hooded robe.
Beyond the iron bars, a woman in a tattered prisoner's uniform was miserably slumped, eyes closed, looking utterly wretched.
“Sis, it’s me.”
“...Ari?”
Hearing the familiar voice, Iris opened her eyes and crawled towards the bars.
Aracilla hastily set the candelabra on the floor and knelt, meeting her sister's gaze.
“How did you get here...?”
“Frederick helped me. I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner. I was delayed by all the interrogations.”
“No, thank you for coming.”
Through the narrow gaps in the iron bars, the two sisters clasped hands. In the faint candlelight, Iris’s appearance became clearer.
Aracilla’s expression twisted as she saw her sister’s disheveled hair, gaunt body covered in bruises, and pale, emaciated face.
“Oscar Vandermir, that son of a bitch... Someone’s been tortured to this state because of him, and he just gets to die peacefully on his own?”
“Aracilla...”
“If that bastard hadn’t committed treason, you wouldn’t be like this, would you?!”
Aracilla, shouting with fierce rage, bit her lower lip. Her lips, swollen from being bitten too often, beaded with drops of blood.
Clear hatred surfaced in her tear-filled eyes.
“It’s all because of that bastard... No! It’s because of our family, who married you off to him!”
“Ari, calm down.”
Iris, her voice hoarse, soothed her sister. Even after being dragged in and brutally tortured for her husband’s treason, she remained calm.
“My marriage couldn’t be helped. You know that.”
“Yes, I know! That it was a political marriage promised before His Majesty the Emperor, and it had to be fulfilled. But it’s not like there was no way to cancel it, was there?”
“There wasn’t, Ari... There really wasn’t...”
Iris managed a difficult smile with her cracked, pale lips. Her emaciated fingers gently patted her sister’s hand.
“You might not have known, but the previous Duke supposedly asked His Majesty to bestow the title and assets upon the grandson who fulfilled the marriage promise. So this marriage would have proceeded no matter what...”
Hearing a truth she had never known, Aracilla’s face was aghast.
“Are they insane? Why would they arbitrarily hold another family’s precious granddaughter hostage for their family’s succession? If they were going to do that, they should at least have raised their grandson properly!”
Unable to contain her rage, Aracilla slammed the iron bars. Then she paused, looking at her sister.
Iris, too, had cast her eyes down, her face filled with regret.
“If not for that, the one who inherited the ducal family would have been Sir Vandermir...”
“Are you talking about the Commander of the Red Hawk Knights, who recently left for the North due to the Duke’s treason?”
“Yes, I found out after I got married. That my husband had been fighting his brother over the succession. That’s why he and I...”
Unable to finish her sentence, Iris hastily covered her mouth and coughed. Aracilla worriedly stroked her sister’s shoulder.
“Are you okay, Sis? If I had known this, I would have married him myself. If it were me, I would have ripped out every single hair of that damned duke and broken his wrists to stop him from ever committing treason.”
She muttered as if genuinely regretting it.
Meanwhile, Iris’s green eyes, once like summer foliage, lost their light and rapidly blurred.
“Ari... I have one last request...”
At her voice, which sounded as if it could fade any moment, Aracilla leaned closer to her sister and listened intently.
“Tell Mother, Father, and Adrian that I’m sorry. And please, take good care of our family.”
“Sis, I...!”
“You must leave now.”
At that moment, a soldier opened the door and entered, grabbing Aracilla’s arm. She still had more to say and resisted with all her strength, but the soldier’s strong grip eventually dragged her out.
A few days later, Iris was executed as the traitor’s wife. Clutching the newspaper with her sister’s obituary, Aracilla wailed.
“It’s unfair! My sister knew nothing. I, I should have been the one to marry him...”
She repeated those words over and over.
* * *
Deep into the night, inside the Hugo Marquisate.
“—Hah!”
Aracilla gasped, her eyes snapping open. Her entire body was drenched and clammy with cold sweat.
Clutching the bedsheet, she sat up and looked around. Even in the darkness, she could see the familiar scenery of her own room.
‘What was that? Just a moment ago, I was...’
I was prostrate on the floor, grieving my sister’s death.
Beneath her slowly fluttering eyelashes, her blue eyes were unfocused. Her heart pounded quickly and erratically.
Aracilla, looking down at herself sitting in bed in her usual nightclothes, soon realized:
‘It was a dream.’
As far as she knew, Iris wasn’t married, and had no connection whatsoever to the eldest son of the Vandermir Ducal Family.
The situation from moments ago hadn't happened in reality.
However, Aracilla’s body began to tremble as if she felt a chill. Cold sweat beaded on her rounded forehead once more.
This was because she knew it wasn’t just a dream.
‘I saw my sister’s future in a dream...’
She possessed a special ability to dream of future events.
From trivial matters like herself getting soaked the next day after going out unaware of a sudden downpour, to major events like a friend being in a carriage accident several months later.
The subjects of her dreams weren’t limited to herself but encompassed those around her.
The drawback was that she couldn’t dream at will.
If today’s dream was indeed a premonition, it was the first she’d had in five years.
Seeing the future in dreams was random, and there was only one way to confirm if it was a premonition.
‘My magic is surging; it must be a premonition.’
Aracilla placed a hand near her heart and checked the state of her internal magic, feeling certain.
After having a premonition dream, her magic always surged wildly, just like this.
Aracilla, expertly calming her magic, soon adopted a serious expression.
‘But that means my sister will die in the near future, doesn’t it?’
Both Iris and Aracilla in the dream looked largely unchanged from their current selves.
This meant it would happen within at most a few years.
‘No, I have to stop my sister from getting married.’
But how could she prevent a political marriage with the Vandermir Ducal Family?
Aracilla, using magic to light all the candelabras in the room, fell into thought.
First, expose Oscar Vandermir’s weaknesses and threaten him to cancel the political marriage.
‘...No, the Vandermirs have the power to suppress our opposition.’
If the Vandermir succession hinged on the political marriage, it was obvious it would be forced through, no matter the controversy.
Even the ancient and prestigious Hugo Marquisate couldn’t stand against the Vandermir Ducal Family, which was called the foremost of the three pillars supporting the Empire.
Then, second, Aracilla Hugo marries Oscar Vandermir.
Although Aracilla had been adamantly single for quite some time, she could marry for her sister’s sake.
However,
‘I’m not confident I could do that.’
She wasn’t confident she wouldn’t punch him and kill him the moment she saw him.
She briefly considered what punishment she would receive if she killed Oscar Vandermir.
Murdering a noble carried a minimum sentence of 30 years, and if the ducal family submitted a petition, the punishment would be even harsher.
‘...Tsk, even if Frederick helped, I wouldn't be acquitted, would I?’
Then Aracilla would have to rot in prison for over 30 years. For her, who had dreams she wished to achieve, that was a truly troublesome future.
Finally, third, Aracilla Hugo marries another Vandermir.
‘If not for that, the one who inherited the ducal family would have been Sir Vandermir...’
‘Are you talking about the Commander of the Red Hawk Knights, who recently left for the North due to the Duke’s treason?’
Specifically, with Sir Vandermir of the Red Hawk Knights, mentioned here.
‘Marrying a knight isn’t something I particularly fancy, but...’
However, there were only two Vandermir brothers, so she had to choose between Oscar and Sir Vandermir.
Aracilla, who had long agonized over whether there was a better way, made a decision as dawn broke.
‘This is the best option. I’ll just close my eyes and do it.’
Having made up her mind, she declared as her family gathered for breakfast.
“Mother, Father, Sis, Adrian. I’m going to get married. My fiancé is Sir Vandermir.”
More accurately, she announced it.
The peaceful breakfast at the Hugo Marquisate instantly plunged into chaos.
“Our lovely Ari, it seems you haven’t fully woken up yet.”
“Aracilla, what trouble have you caused now? Tell your mother honestly.”
“Ari, are you perhaps feeling unwell? Jackson, go call the physician.”
“You can’t get married, Sis! You’re still too young!”
After her family’s words, a mix of disbelief, worry, and chiding, Aracilla calmly opened her mouth.
“Jackson, I’m not ill, so don’t call the physician. I’ve been awake since dawn, so I’m not half-asleep. I haven’t caused any trouble either. And Adrian, twenty-one is certainly old enough to marry.”
At her serious rebuttal, the Marchioness also put down her cutlery and became serious in turn.
“Then why this sudden change? Who was it that swore they’d never marry and drove their parents up the wall?”
“The Aracilla Hugo of that time is dead. The me reborn now feels like I’m going mad with the desire to marry.”
From her second daughter, who spoke brazenly without changing her expression, the Marchioness saw a reflection of her from three years ago.
‘Mother, Father, Sis. I’m not getting married. I’m going to dedicate my life to the Magic Tower, so please understand.’
Even then, she’d raised their blood pressure with her unilateral announcements, and it seemed nothing had changed with time.
“Ari, but why Sir Vandermir of all people? Aren’t you a mage who dislikes knights?”
“Exactly! You once told me not to even learn swordsmanship.”
While the Marchioness took a sip of water to calm her boiling insides, the Marquis and Adrian stepped in.
The Cetron Empire was well-known for the poor relations between mages and knights.
This was because the Imperial Family had historically fostered the two factions in turns, making them keep each other in check.
Periodically, events would arise that caused mutual resentment, leading to intense animosity, and they constantly competed to gain superiority.
“I intend to make an exception only for Sir Vandermir.”
“Why...? Ari, don’t tell me you’ve been secretly meeting Sir Vandermir...?”
Aracilla shook her head at Iris’s plausible suspicion.
“No? I don’t even know his exact name, and I’ve never even seen his face yet.”
“...”
A deep silence fell. The Hugo family collectively stared at Aracilla, dumbfounded and speechless.
Aracilla, who had steadfastly swallowed her food, wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and smiled sweetly.
“There’s a political marriage promised between our family and the Vandermir Ducal Family, isn’t there?”
“Yes, how did you know that...?”
The Marchioness and Marquis’s eyes widened.
It was astonishing how their second daughter knew something they themselves were too distraught to even mention yet.
“I’ll go meet Sir Vandermir soon, and then I’ll be the one to fulfill that political marriage.”
“...”
“Well then, I’ll be going.”
Leaving her dumbfounded family behind, Aracilla stood up and returned to her room with light steps.
She then wrote a letter and handed it to her maid, Audrey.
“Send this to Sir Vandermir.”
Let me see my future husband’s face.
