ENCHANTED | Ergi .C

Chapter One | Encounters

For as long as I had remembered, the life in high-society has always been a harsh fight among the most prestigious families.

It was a treacherous way of living where most would hide their true intentions behind smiling faces, waiting for the right moment to stab you in the back. All wanted one thing alone, and that thing was power.

Because power meant climbing the ladder, fighting in the battlefield that was the social circles, and more than that, winning. The prize was being the one to look down upon the others, being the one with the influence, the fame, and the fortune. It was the way most nobles live, all their lives were like this.

My life was to be the same. And probably worse than nobles.

I had been born in the most powerful family on the land, the ruling household of the empire. Among the prestige, I had benefits that most could only dream of. Lavish palaces, dashing dresses, shining jewelries, delicious foods, all were a given in my life for I am the first princess of the Eastern Empire and younger sister of the future Emperor.

My father, Osis III, was an Emperor who had drawn a strict line between the position of Empress and Concubines. No matter how many concubines and lovers he have, the Empress would remain the empress and her authority of being on same length with Emperor was never alllowed to change by any favored lovers.

As such, being the only daughter of Empress, I was born with a gold-spoon, no, diamond-spoon in my mouth and I could get anything I want without even saying out loud.

The cost of it, however, was the heaviness of the crown that I wore. Unlike those fairytales, being a princess wasn't enough just by being pretty and dancing with prince charming.

It was far from it.

More so when your mother was inwardly an insecure and ambitious person despite being the most authoritative woman of the land.

Having grown tired of the riches or the prestige of Empress, my mother had decided that she wanted more. She aspired for more respect, more riches, more power, and her children were most perfect pawns. While making sure that older son would be the next Emperor, she also decided to invest her efforts in grooming her daughter into a perfect queen material too so that she could married her off to the ruler of foreign kingdom, preferably Western Kingdom that seemed to have rose in power recently.

Her son would be the Emperor and her daughter would be the Queen, what could a mother ask for more right?

And so my tedious life began.

Since a tender age, I had received countless lessons and classes in the ways of high society. From politics and poems to music and literature, I spent my childhood studying and training, practicing to be a faultless and perfect wife for a monarch. It didn't matter how hard the training was since it all had a purpose. A purpose that she striked for me was to strive for the highest rank a woman could achieve as younger sister of Emperor.

But that was not what I wanted.

I had realized long ago that this way of living may have not been made for me. I could see past the pleasantries and the fake smiles. I could see the expectations, waiting for a slip so they could eat me alive. Every move, every word had to be thought of, precisely calculated with caution. It was frightening, one wrong move was all it took to bring the hanging threat of failure to reality. It was suffocating.

I wanted a way out. A space to breathe, to be free from the constant pressure of the aristocracy.

And I had found one.

Magic, as it name refered, magically colored my dull and gray world.

It all started with vague curiosity. Curiosity that spouted when I first saw a street performer created a brunch of beautiful butterflies out of nowhere. Curiosity that grow when I could sense the movement of mana in the air around that performer as easily as breathing. Curiosity that turned into interest when I found out I could cast the same spell that performer did just by reading some beginner's guide books from palace library. Curiosity that turned into hobby and later my first ambition when I noticed my natural affinity with mana and my own potential.