The story of how Aracelli ended up in her current situation went like this… Shortly after arriving to this world called the Balkan Continent, she fortunately, or maybe closer to unfortunately, somehow became the maid of the Duke Alleroden. At first she thought it was okay since the job offered incentives like food, clothing and bed.
Then, on the very first night of her maid life. Aracelli soared into the sky at dawn when the mansion’s guard was at its weakest. She didn’t soar by stepping on the air or using ridiculous magic such as gravity reversal. She literally made her body fly by using countless feathers that attached themselves to her body.
Shortly after stepping on the mansion’s roof, Aracelli put her hands together and drew her mana to the best of her ability. However, since her current mana pool was far cry from what she had back in her prime, she could not find out Yoo Seodam’s exact location. Therefore, she had no choice but to launch a ‘message’ towards an unspecified space.
However, this time, knowing that Yoo Seodam also exists somewhere in this world, Aracelli was certain that this magic, which consumes an enormous amount of mana, would work without a hitch.
Swooosh-!!
Softly dissolving, a subtle swarm of white light scattered into the sky. With her business done, Aracelli skipped to the air and descended to the ground.
Unluckily, Mazellion, the youngest son of Duke Alleroden showed himself as soon as she landed. Rather than saying that she was caught red-handed, it was more like she was careless with her planning. It was all budding from the fact that she had always hid her magic as much as she could, to the point not many wizards could feel it. And the only one in the mansion who could feel her magic was Duke Alleroden himself. However, the 7th-circle wizard wasn’t in the mansion. He was currently in the capital of the Empire, so she has no fear of being caught.
“Beautiful.” Mazellion muttered while looking at the night sky. “Both you and your magic… It’s so beautiful… May I know your name?”
“It’s Aracelli…” She answered, cold sweat dripping all over her body. So far, while traveling to many worlds, no one had ever found out that she was a sorcerer. But that stellar record was currently being broken by someone who discovered her as soon as she arrived in this world. It would only be natural for anyone who saw this to question why a magician was working as a maid.
However, Mazellion understood it differently.
“You don’t have any surname?”
“Yes? Ah, that is so…”
“Hm… Why did you come to our family? Is it because as a commoner you can’t learn magic and want to secretly learn magic by watching our family?”
“…?” Aracelli was confused by his words. However, since it was a rather good misunderstanding, she followed his tune. “I apologize. The punishment of daring to try to learn the Duke’s magic, I will accept it.”
“No. You don’t have to. I also felt that It’s pretty sad that commoners can’t learn magic…”
Looking at his words, a look of understanding dawned on Aracelli’s face. It seems that before the ‘reincarnation’, he was a commoner.
“I’ll turn blind eye to the fact that you are a magician. Instead, serve me in the future.”
“I understand…”
After that, Mazellion turned his back and disappeared with the moonlight.
Waking up from her reminiscences, Aracelli sighed.
“Hm? Aracelli. Is something wrong?” One of the maids, who was clearly more senior than the rest, asked her. She was the head maid of this mansion.
“Yes? No. I am just tired.”
“Is it perhaps because you worked so hard? Take it easy.”
Aracelli sighed again in her head. It was not like the work of a maid was hard. It was just frustrating that she was stuck here and wasting every precious second in this place even though she could’ve spent it with her Professor. However, she didn’t reveal her thoughts and simply responded politely.
“I understand.”
“That’s right. I will give you some rest.” She said with a smile. The head maid really liked Aracelli. She was smart, learned things well, worked hard, talked softly, and even had a cute face, so she fully understood why young master Mazellion fancied her. “And, you have to be careful. Don’t you have a subtle relationship with the young master?”
“….” There’s no relationship whatsoever! Peeking at all the maids around her who were blushing uncontrollably at the mention of the topic, she felt exasperated. It seemed like they were excited because it was a forbidden romance between a noble and a commoner. However, for Aracelli herself, it was suffocating. She felt as if she could die any moment now.
“Romance between commoners and nobles… I thought it only happened in novels!”
“How come the young master is so blind?”
From what Aracelli knew, Mazellion’s reputation before the sudden change couldn’t be any lower. Simply put, he was a human garbage. Even though he was born in the great lineage of Duke Alleroden—one of the strongest magicians on the continent—he had just barely completed his first magic circle. He was incomparable to his eldest brother who had completed as many as six circles in his early 30s and was called genius among geniuses, and his second eldest brother, who, even though only had a low number of circles, had turned the academic world upside down several times with his excellent magic theory.
However, for some reason—which everyone in the mansion saw as Mazellion turning a new leaf—he suddenly started to learn magic religiously. Then, when he became 20 years old, he completed four circles of magic, which meant that he was a genius enough to be recorded in history.
At that display of behaviour, everyone started to suspect that Mazellion’s trashy behaviour was nothing but a façade because he feared that he would be oppressed by his brothers if he showed his talent to the world. He only showed his talent once he was old enough to defend himself. In other words, from a young age, Mazellion’s political sense was well-honed.
People couldn’t stop clamouring at him. The more they thought about Mazellion, the more charming he seemed. However, Aracelli, who knew that he was not the same person as Mazellion from the past, knew just how wrong those people were.
“Ah, Aracelli! You are here!”
“Yes? Is there something you need?”
“Ah… The young master wanted to see you at the Replacian Garden!”
At those words, Aracelli sighed inside her mind and nodded her head. She assured herself that she had to look good to the protagonist to make the Professor’s job easier.
* * *
Mazellion Alleroden was originally a different person from another world. He was a genius wizard in his own way, but an unfortunate one since he couldn’t reach the height he should’ve reached because he could not learn magic properly due to his low status.
However, by chance, he was given an opportunity to learn a certain magic. It was none other than ‘black magic’. A kind of magic which could only be used by selling souls to dark beings. Even though it had such a steep price, the exchange was guaranteed. Its performance simply overshadowed any other form of magic.
Naturally, the use of black magic was strictly forbidden in the magic society of his original world. It was due to the fact that black mana was highly likely to run rampant, and had an atrocious side effect of corrupting the environment and people around it with its unclean energy. For that reason, before being reincarnated in this world, Mazellion was killed by the wizards.
Before his death, he cursed the world that suppressed his talent and thirst for knowledge just because of his low status. And the next thing he knew, he woke up in his current body. The body of the youngest son of Duke Alleroden.
After living in this world for several weeks, Mazellion became aware that black magic in this world had already disappeared more than a hundred years ago due to the same reason as his old world, a large-scale warlock hunting. Due to that fact, Mazellion became the only warlock in this world, and no one was able to notice his dark magic.
Mazellion, who sat in the garden alone, focused on the circles around his heart. There were four bright white mana circles and three black mana circles spinning around his beating heart. The three dark mana circles were his secret. A knife he had hidden for the worst-case scenario.
Step Step Step-!!
When he heard the sound of footsteps behind him, Mazellion quickly woke up from his meditation and turned around. There stood Aracelli, a mysterious wizard girl who had entered the mansion of Duke Alleroden as a maid, but was now his ‘lover’.
(T/N this guy is not only going to pick a fight with Seodam but also all of the ‘Aracelli best girl’ army.)
“You’ve come, Aracelli.”
“Yes…”
Mazellion rose to his feet before staggering towards Aracelli. For some reason, the girl in front of him looked a little uncomfortable. He soon figured out why.
“Ah… If the other maids are angry at you because I called you while you were working, just tell me. I will take care of everything.”
“No… It’s not like that.”
“The next time you want to talk, let me know. I can listen to your concerns at any time.”
‘What the hell are you talking about.’ Aracelli was confused. She found his words baffling just like always.
Mazellion and Aracelli strolled through the garden. By Mazellion’s orders, no one, not even gardeners, could enter this garden. The knights were escorting them from afar, but to be honest, their protection wasn’t needed since Mazellion himself was far more powerful than them.
‘Should I just kill him now?’ Aracelli contemplated. If her Professor had to deal with him anyway, Aracelli was willing to get her own hands dirty and end it here. But she shook her head. Having lost most of her power and her inability to replenish her mana without her Professor’s mana, it was impossible for her, or at least the current her, to deal with him. On top of that, it was highly unlikely that she would be able to overcome the power of the world’s blessing given by ‘protagonist correction’ on her own.
And, crucially…
‘The energy around his heart… it’s definitely black mana.’
But why haven’t other wizards in this world killed him yet? It was as if they didn’t know anything about black magic.
‘Is it possible that black magic has not yet appeared in this world…?’
Aracelli had only been here for a week, so her knowledge of this world was quite limited. Because of this she had no choice but to figure out most of the situation on her own.
‘If it’s the blessing of the protagonist, then it’s possible for it to interfere with history itself.’
However, Aracelli was aware that Mazellion was not a protagonist with the blessing of ‘interference with reality’. His blessing was being ‘reincarnated’ into someone else’s body and living a new life. It would not be possible for his blessing to completely twist the history that had existed.
‘For now, I need to learn about the black magic in this world…’
“Aracelli.” Aracelli’s train of thoughts was being broken by Mazellion’s sudden words.
“Yes?”
“Why did you want to learn magic?”
“…?” Aracelli tilted her head to one side at his question. She had never thought about it before. She only felt it was natural for her to learn magic because she was a descendant of Archmage Rinekal. On top of it, for her, magic had always been as natural as breathing. So, when everyone kept calling her genius this and genius that, she continued to learn magic to meet their expectations. But further down the line, her purpose of learning magic changed. It was to meet a certain man. A man who was kind to her when everyone else turned their eyes away from her. The man who saved her from her darkest days.
“I think I learned it for the sake of my life.” So Aracelli answered, and Mazellion smiled as he nodded, seemingly satisfied with her reason.
“Is that so? Your reason is the same as mine it seems. I also learned magic for my life. To be exact… To survive. That’s why I couldn’t be angry at you for sneaking into our family and learning magic. It reminded me of the old me.”
“….” Aracelli looked at him blankly. It seemed like he was trying to make a connection between them with the fact. But she found it funny and absurd to watch him do it. In addition, the words ‘reminded me of the old me’ made Aracelli very upset. After all, how could he equate her efforts with his effort which dabbled in black magic which could only be attained by sacrificing a living human being?
“So, I want to give you an opportunity.”
“An opportunity?”
“Yes. I plan to take you to a seminar which will be held soon. There, famous magicians from all over the world will gather. You can choose a master there to take you. How is it?”
“But… if someone like me follows them, it might damage the reputation of the master.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about such useless things.”
“Besides, if I go to a seminar like that, can I understand anything?”
“Of course! You can learn a lot just by attending!”
Aracelli sighed. She really didn’t want to go there. It was better to use that time to look for her professor. Just why was he this pushy?
“No need to hesitate. There are so many great and special magicians out there. Some people specialize in making golems, some magicians have successfully teleported objects over long distances, and some magicians made special crystal balls that can communicate with other countries…”
Naturally, they did not interest Aracelli, who had already reached the realm of Archmage. However, Mazellion’s next words made her eyes twinkle.
“…Ah, yes! A magician who wields a long, large wand appeared not too long ago. His wand was powerful enough to crush an entire wall with a tremendous roar… I wonder where such a magician came from.”
“Wait. By any chance, will that magician come to this seminar too?”
“Huh? Yes… he will be there.”
When Aracelli suddenly showed interest, Mazellion was excited. He started to tell her that the magician in question had only appeared a week ago and had started working in a prestigious magic tower in the neighboring country.
After hearing his story, Aracelli was convinced that the magician Mazellion was talking about must have been her beloved Professor.
“I will go! I will go to that seminar.”
There was no reason for her to hesitate any longer.