Ruina Imperii: Chapter I

The shopping district in the city of Lumenquire was crowded and bustling— just as always— when Cytheria stepped out of the carriage, following her aunt, Duchess Esclarmonde Diamondess of Kreindarth, and her cousin, Evora.

The weather was sunny with the cool breeze countering the heat of the blazing sun, and yet it was still a bit hot due to the people crowding through the streets. Clothing shops, workshops, restaurants— various stores can be seen as voices of different kinds of people filled the bazaar.

"It's noisy here." Cytheria heard her cousin, annoyance filling the girl's tone. It was Evora's first time going to Lumenquire's shopping district and she had never dared to imagine that it was such a crowded and sticky place to go in. She didn't even know why her mother and her cousin decided to check the place when they could go to a fancier place with a lot of fancier shops that sold fancier things. Montanne's Bazaar, for example.

This shopping district was a place where all people, commoners and nobles alike, could freely roam. It was filled with cheap goods, so people that shop there were mostly of lower and middle class. For the exact same reason, many folks go there.

On the other hand, Montanne's Bazaar was another shopping district in Lumenquire that was filled with nobles and wealthy commoners. Ah, no. It wasn't even filled, in the first place. The whole land was owned by the Montanne Family— a family of nobles, of course— and they made sure to make it look so with wider streets, cleaner environment, grander buildings, and expensive shops those in the lower class wouldn't be able to access. Definitely a better choice than… this.

Evora looked at the people brushing against each other as they passed by, then the blackened exterior wall of a shop, then the ground she stood on. Touching her beautiful red heels was a—

"Oh, my God! Is that a… poop?" Her whole face showed exactly what she felt: disgust.

"God, Eve! No." She turned to her cousin. Cytheria seemed to be conflicted whether to laugh at her or to just tell her to go back to the carriage. "I told you, you wouldn't like it here," Cytheria said and as soon as the words left her mouth, she instantly earned a glare from the younger lady's hazel eyes. "What? Wasn't it you who insisted to come with us?"

Evora pursed her lips because she couldn't refute her cousin's words at all. She indeed insisted she come with her mother and cousin to this place despite of Cytheria's warning. But there had to be a good reason why the two elder ladies liked going there. Something that, should she see with her own eyes, she'd be willing to come back for as well.

"Ah! Look over here!" And then Cytheria was already in front of a stall several meters away from where they stood. She was looking at some trinkets and seemed extremely excited. The scene confused Evora for the lady wasn't one to be interested in such ornaments and accessories. After all, Cytheria only wore magic-restraining jewelries. The brunette girl knew very well there wouldn't be such accessories available in this kind of place.

"Let's go and take a look," Esclarmonde Diamondess said, following her niece.

Honestly, her mother didn't really look like the kind of noble who would like to go to such a place. Her stoic aura and neutral expression left an impression that she'd be the stereotypical noble, who hated the presence of commoners and loved the feeling of power.

Well, no.

That would be her, not her mother.

Evora was left with no choice but to follow as well. She had noticed how the three of them seemed to have caught many attention. Well, it was no wonder. After all, while most people there looked plain and boring (sorry, not sorry, that was how she saw them), the three of them screamed class. For one, they just came out of a carriage with the insignia of the Diamondess Family, and two, going to such place wouldn't stop Evora from wearing an eye-catching red dress with white ruffles that was made using a very expensive fabric. Around her neck was a gleaming gold necklace with a rose pendant, matching the bracelets she wore around her wrists.

Of course, the two elder ladies told her to take them off or at least wear less accessories, but she proved to be more stubborn than them. Who would dare to steal from or harm a Diamondess anyway, when their family was one of the highest ranking even among nobles?

~~~

Her dangling silver earrings swayed as Cytheria bent down to look at the cheap ornaments that were laid out in a table. The stall owner greeted her with a familiar smile. She had visited this place often that she wasn't even surprised to be recognized by shop-owners.

"What about this, My Lady?" The owner showed her a bag and poured out everything in it. "These have just arrived from Kai."

At the mention of Kai, one of the continents that was filled with mana, Cytheria's attention was piqued. She looked through the products, hoping to find something that was imbued with supernatural energy.

This shopping district was filled with cheap goods, but she knew that there were also valuable things that could be found there. She found out about this when, a few years ago, during the second time her aunt had brought her here, she found a bracelet which had the same value as a whole manor or even a small estate, although the merchant sold it only at the price of ten coppers. Most probably, the seller himself didn't know of the bracelet's attributes. It was a bracelet without any fancy physical features and it didn't have even one jewel, yet it held an enormous amount of mana that even nobles could rarely be born with.

It was nothing compared to how much a Magi Imperatoria could be born with, but it was of too much value for other people, not to mention commoners, who barely had mana within them. And the youngster only sold it for ten coppers!

Cytheria had no use of it, having been born with mana that overwhelmed even her physical body that she had to live always wearing a set of mana-restraining jewelries. But she also couldn't let just anybody to have it, so she bought it— for a thousand golds because she couldn't just buy it for ten coppers, knowing its true value— and gifted it to Evora. The girl never wore it for it wasn't fancy enough to be worn by someone as great as the girl who would be the next empress— Evora's own words. So instead, the magic was taken out and was put to a fancier bracelet with gems embedded on it.

Cytheria was one who prioritized responsibilities more than anything, but Camdyn had lived with no responsibility heavier than that of a student and a daughter. It had been a year and a half ever since she dreamed about Camdyn starting a novel— one with her as the protagonist.

Cytheria couldn't help but sigh whenever she remembered it. A lot of things were uncertain and there was a complete series of questions going through Cytheria's mind that would probably be left unanswered for the rest of her days.

Why were her dreams different than others'? Why was she dreaming about Camdyn's life? Among other people, why Camdyn's? Among other people, why her? Was she really just a protagonist in a novel? Why did she feel strange whenever she dreamed about Camdyn? Why did she feel awfully familiar? With Camdyn... with Camdyn's friends... with Camdyn's life... her entire being...

Why was it that the more she grew up, the more she felt alike to the other girl?

Cytheria noticed how the girl's personality rubbed off on her. It was like they were merging— their memories, their being— to this lump of flesh known as Cytheria Diamondess's physical body...

Was everything merely a dream? Then was the dream Camdyn's life? Or Cytheria's? Who was she?

These last few questions had freaked her out that she had locked herself in her room the moment she thought about them. The whole time of her isolation, she thought back about how she questioned her entire being. A few days later and she decided, whatever it was that happened on that novel Camdyn had written, she would not be bound by it. No, she refused to live, literally, by the book. To hell with it! Cytheria or Camdyn— right at the moment, she was Cytheria, and she would live as who she really was. Cytheria Artemesia Diamondess with Camdyn Amber Zobel's memories and personality.

Besides, the Cytheria of Camdyn's novel was too serious for her own good. She became an empress and Cytheria certainly didn't want to live as the mother of the whole Iremonde Empire! That was too much of a responsibility, considering she was already a Magi Imperatoria! And the Cytheria of Camdyn's novel was caught in a love triangle... She didn't want to be stressed out just for something as trivial as that.

She was Cytheria Artemesia Diamondess, a Magi Imperatoria Successor, with an imperial power similar to that of an imperial descendant. She was a girl who loved writing stories in her vacant times, a girl who often wasted mana for trying to make things that only existed in her dreams out of curiosity, a girl who wasn't supposed to be bound by anything, save for the responsibility of protecting the whole of the Iremonde Empire. She was supposed to be free.

And she would be.

"What is it, Cythe?" Her Aunt Esclarmonde asked, then also looked at the trinkets. "Have something caught your eyes already?"

There was nothing yet. Cytheria continued to search for the familiar tug of her mana reacting to another's, but there was none. It seemed the trinkets today were just as they were. Trinkets.

But she hummed and picked up a hair accessory, "I think Cecily's daughter would like this. What do you think?" She gave the accessory to the duchess. Cecily was one of their maids in the Diamondess House back in the duchy. It has been more than a month ever since her last visit to the duchy. When she turned ten, she frequented in Lumenquire, where the capital of the empire was.

"Well, it is a good one, certainly," the duchess commented. Cytheria's eyes sparkled as she excitedly said, "Right?"

"Yeah, but no." Evora disagreed. She looked at the other ones then picked up another hair accessory, "If you're planning to give her a hair-dress, choose a ribbon. Arpina prefers ribbons. Gift her this orange one, it's her favorite color."

Cytheria glanced at her aunt, who shrugged her shoulders. "Your cousin has been playing with the kid lately. They're almost inseparable, if you'd ask me." A laugh, her brown eyes bright with amusement. "The girl has already made Evora promise to keep her as her personal maid when she gets older."

"Well, that's something," Cytheria commented, then smiled at Evora, "It's good you're getting along well with others." She took the orange ribbon from her cousin's hand and paid the shop-keeper.

The three ladies visited other shops. Cytheria was glad to see her cousin slowly getting used to the place and getting more comfortable. They were in a pottery shop when they noticed a lady, clad with a black cloak that covered most of her clothes, sitting right by the fountain, a harp gently held in her hands. A glimpse of the lady's pants and boots told Cytheria that she was a traveler.

The hood of the cloak was pulled back, revealing the lady's red hair that was gently blown by the wind, creating a gorgeous illusion of a burning flame. Cytheria was mesmerized by the beauty of the scene. It was indeed a world inside a novel. Otherwise, such scenery wouldn't be as captivating.

"Oh! There's going to be a performance over there!" Cytheria blinked, then turned to her aunt. The duchess looked excited as she pointed ahead, where Cytheria's side faced. "Let's go watch it up close!"

"No way! Mother, it's too crowded there! Much more than here, ugh!" Evora strongly disagreed, her voice high, as she looked around her as if she was surrounded by dirt.

"They're just people, Eve," Cytheria rolled her eyes at her cousin, grabbed the whining young lady by the arm, and dragged her closer to the fountain. The duchess could only chuckle at the sight of her two precious girls.

The girl holding a harp positioned herself and not too long after, a sweet melody captured the hearts of the crowd, and the bustling place became much quieter than most times. People stopped, some were satisfied with just hearing the tune emanating through the gentle touch of the lady's finger through the strings of the instrument, while some chose to see the performance with their own eyes.

In the midst of the silenced crowd, Cytheria herself was beguiled by the magical sound that rung through her ears. The lass was fully aware of the use of magic and she let her guard down a bit because, in this world, it wasn't rare for a performer to enchant his performance, be it a dance or music. Doing so would stabilize the emotion's flow to the way the performer wanted it, if not, it would help delivering the performer's emotions to the audience.

And yet such alluring melody wasn't enough to completely distract Cytheria from her surroundings. Hence, she easily detected a faint tincture of black magic around the area. The unpleasant sensation that clung to the air sickened her and she felt her magic throb, reacting strongly— negatively— and even her restraints glowed slightly.

When she looked around the place, there was nothing that seemed to be the source of such animosity.

It was the first time Cytheria had ever felt such foreboding aura and she instantly knew that it was something she never wanted to encounter again. Dark magic wasn't something that a wizard could choose to learn. It was something that reacted to negative feelings—something filled with negativity— and the moment it emerged, it would poison the heart and mind of the wizard, driving the poor victim to irrationality. An influence of the devil.

She felt the hair of her body stand on their ends.

She turned to the ladies next to her. Her aunt and cousin were completely captivated by the enchanted melody. Good. She decided to keep the presence of dark magic to herself. She had to quickly get rid of the danger and come back here without the two ladies noticing.

The Magi Imperatoria Successor bit her lip. There was no denying. She was nervous. Now was the first time she had ever encountered dark magic. It was extremely rare, and though it was dangerous, it was still different from necromancy. Necromancy is evil magic, but it was still light magic, a magic that was controlled by humans. Dark magic, on the other hand, was the one doing the controlling.

Cases of dark magic was too rare to even be studied, so there was only limited knowledge about it. Another fact that made it more dangerous.

Despite that, she slowly stepped out and tried to find the source of the dark magic.

Light magic reacted to dark magic. Mana was within anything, it permeated through anything to the littlest of atom. And as a supernatural element, mana was something that was even more alive than fire. It had an instinct, so it knew to stay away from danger, to protect its host. When a person was in danger, his foremost layer of protection was his mana.

It felt sickening to the point that it was getting harder to breathe. But the reason of this feeling was the presence of the dark magic. The only way to find out where it was is to go to where she would feel worse, to where her mana didn't want her to go.

Hence, she focused on the changes with her mana—focused too much that she didn't notice a hand reaching out to her.

"Cythe." A grip on her shoulder made her jolt. It was only Esclarmonde Diamondess though. The duchess stood behind her, obviously curious about what would make her walk away from such a beautiful performance. However, the reaction she got from the young lady alone was enough answer and one word rang inside her head: danger.

The duchess's face turned grim and all the relaxation from earlier was instantly washed away. She observed her niece, hoping to get more information.

Cytheria took no longer than a few seconds from recovering from the shock. Noticing how her aunt was reading her, she said, "Dark magic." She felt the hand on her shoulder tensed up.

"So let me report this to the city guards." Esclarmonde was calm as she said this. At least, she seemed as if she was. She badly wanted to bring her precious girls home right this instant, but long-ranged teleportation was too hard even for someone like her. And she knew Cytheria was a wise girl who was capable of protecting herself. Although that wasn't going to change the fact that she would feel a lot better if the two girls immediately went home.

"No—" The Cytheria's magic throbbed again and she felt her chest tightened as a part of her magic ran rampant even with the restraints she was wearing. It was too dangerous, the dark magic she was trying to locate was too strong and too menacing that her magic reacted to it with vigilance.

The magic within her was alive— she already knew that after the lessons about magic she had with her grandfather. Magic was driven with instincts that drove itself into action to protect its host. The higher amount of magic one had, the higher the possibility of one's survival. But, too much of it would be the cause of harm to the user itself. Like Cytheria's current situation.

Control! She hated it. Cytheria hated that her magic wouldn't listen to her. Control! But even repeating this word wouldn't help her. She clicked her tongue.

The source of dark magic was closing in to them. She knew that even Esclarmonde could feel it then. They looked at each other and she saw the worry in her aunt's eyes, making her feel the need to say, "I can't leave. I have taken an oath as a Magi Imperatoria Successor that I will protect that people of our empire."

"Do not make me laugh, young lady," Esclarmonde sharply said, her glare not any less piercing, "There is not yet a vow that ties your hand to such responsibilities."

That was right. She hadn't made any oath to the empire's people... yet. Instead, she had vowed to herself that the dedication of her life would be directed to the safety of the people of Iremonde Empire.

But then she saw a hand appear behind her aunt, at the end of the alley, and she knew whose hand it was. The dark magic wizard was crawling and she observed the struggle of the arm as it gripped the dirt of the alley, pulling the weight of his entire body. And she gave a last look to the elder lady, "I won't run."

The Magi Imperatoria Successor walked past the duchess and ran to the arm in sight. And then there was a man, wearing worn out clothes, so thin that his bones were already visible to the eye, his hair a shining silver that reminded Cytheria of the moon at night, and his dark magic unrestrained as it surrounded his body.

She thought that there was going to be something like a fight and she would have never thought that the dangerous enemy she was trying to find was already struggling for his life.

People with high amount of magic could live a few centuries, but people with dark magic would be corroded by the magic itself and then they would only live a few decades in that body after the dark magic developed. However, a dark magic wizard who was driven to irrationality would not hesitate to take another person's body for his own use. The wizard— the dark magic, rather— would only strive to survive with no regard to anyone and anything else. Still, the wizard wouldn't also last that long in that stolen body, especially with magic as strong as this man's.

Cytheria swallowed as she stared at the suffering man right in front of her eyes, which showed how conflicted she was about what she must do. She felt the presence of her aunt behind her.

"Cytheria! Let's go!" The duchess's voice was firm with authority. She didn't want Cytheria to get any closer to the dangerous and raging dark magic in front of them. She had to take her niece to a safer place right this instant, but the girl wouldn't listen! So stubborn!

Cytheria was still conflicted. Should she help him? But how? She had never been taught about anything like this yet! She knew none about what one must do when faced with a dark wizard getting destroyed by his own magic! Or should she just let him be? No! Ignoring someone in need was a total contradiction to who she was! A Magi Imperatoria protected people and that was clearly what she should do, no matter if it was a dark magic wizard!

Another swallow. She would save him. She definitely would!

She took a step towards the body lying on the muddy ground and before her aunt could hold her back, more steps followed. When she was two meters away from the man, she grasped her own raging mana and used it to hold the man in a barrier. The leaking dark mana surrounding the man raged more at the presence of its counterpart— light magic, which threatened to hold it back.

And then, slowly, despite the struggle, she held the barrier closer and closer, the box made out of magic slowly getting smaller and smaller. Cytheria took a step closer every minute to close the gap between them as much as she could.

Strong— the magic of this man was strong and even overwhelming her own. She was sure that this amount of magic rivaled that of a Magi Imperatoria's! Just who was this man? Why was his magic this strong? And the hatred she felt from it...

Eventually, the box was only the exact fit for his body. Cytheria's jaw hurt from clenching her teeth too hard. Now, she just had to make the barrier a bit smaller, adjusting to the shape of the man's physical body. But it was so hard that just one mistake and she would lose control of her own magic and it would be the one that was going to cause more trouble than there already was. The man's magic was too powerful, even more than hers. Cytheria was sure that this man could win against one of the current Magi Imperatoria if he was in a good condition.

She kneeled beside the body. A bit later, the edges of the barrier softened as it slowly took the form of the man's body— tall and thin— as if it was a layer of it.

Cytheria was out of breath and she even almost fainted. Only containing the black magic and she was already this tired? How pathetic! And she dared to think she could help and save this man? Ridiculous! It was utterly ridiculous of her to have thought of that!

But nonetheless, she would still try.

As soon as she stopped, her aunt reached out to her, which the lady wasn't capable enough to do so earlier when the young lady was using her magic, "Cythe..."

"I'll," the young lady gasped, struggling with her breath. Beads of sweat had formed on her pale white skin earlier, making her look as if she had ran miles of distance. Everything she had done exhausted her mentally that even her body was affected and felt lethargic.

"I'll... save this... man!"

Cytheria Diamondess was a stubborn one indeed. Although exhaustion showed through her whole face, the girl's determined, sharp gaze surprised Esclarmonde that she paused.

But then she realized as she stared back at her niece's eyes that the young lady wasn't going to change her mind, so Esclarmonde sighed and answered, "Alright."