Chapter3

Arthur's icy voice rang out behind me.

I stopped in my tracks and turned around.

"Broken the engagement, shoved my fiancée to the ground, and you still dare to insult the heir to the North." Arthur didn't even glance at the signet ring on the ground—the very symbol of the Duke's honor. He stared at me like I was a dead woman.

His gaze swept over the magic swordsmen behind him, then across the whispering crowd. If he swallowed this insult today, by tomorrow all the nobles would be saying he had disgraced the Duke's name.

He raised a hand, waving it at the heavily armored magic swordsmen.

"No one speaks to me like that in the North. Take her down. Break her legs. Teach her some manners."

The moment the words left his mouth, four high-tier magic swordsmen drew their heavy blades, closing in on me in a suffocating circle.

Instinctively, I tried to channel wind magic to create some distance, but the mana dissipated after barely completing a half-cycle through my meridians. A metallic tang of blood rose in my throat—the brutal battle in Dragon Valley had long since hollowed me out.

The closest swordsman was already reaching for my shoulder. I twisted aside, relying on the raw hand-to-hand instincts forged in Dragon Valley, and delivered a vicious backhand punch to his neck.

The man grunted and stumbled back, but an instant later, a heavy [Gravity Array] flared to life beneath their feet.

Thud!

I was completely powerless to resist. My knees slammed into the ground. Two swordsmen roughly twisted my arms behind my back, the iron rings of a [Mana-Binding Shackle] snapping shut around my wrists.

Elena's boots clicked against the floor as she walked right up to me.

"You were pretty quick when you tripped me earlier, weren't you?" Her voice carried a shrill, unrestrained edge. "Mud-born trash is mud-born trash. You're meant to spend your whole life crawling in the dirt, looking up at us."

She slid a dagger from her boot. It pulsed with a sickly green glow, and from my years of wandering, I instantly recognized the corrosive dark magic runes etched into the steel.

As the blade's tip edged closer, my eyes widened, burning with uncontrollable tears.

"Elena, if you dare touch me with that blade—!" I glared at her fiercely.

"Still have a tough mouth on you," she sneered, looking down at me. "A low-tier mage thinks she's fit to compete with the future Duchess?"

Her gaze paused on my face.

"This face... is entirely unnecessary to keep."

With a violent flick of her wrist, Elena dragged the dagger viciously across my right cheek!

"Argh—!"

The corrosive venom seared into my flesh instantly. Blinding agony ripped through me, sending my body into uncontrollable spasms.

In the crowd, a low-tier mage gasped and shrank back. An older man nearby quietly tugged at his companion's sleeve and muttered, "Don't look. Let's go."

Elena raised the dagger again, ready to carve into my face once more. Raw terror surged into my heart.

"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have fought you for the wand. Please, let me go!"

She stared at my face for two seconds. Any fleeting hesitation vanished, replaced by a deeper, uglier layer of resentment.

"It's too late for begging now," she said, her voice tight. "Who told you to grow a face prettier than mine?"

The blade flashed again, delivering another agonizing slash. I screamed, throwing my desperate gaze toward Arthur. "Arthur! Aren't you afraid my family will come after you for this? You'll regret letting her humiliate me!"

Arthur turned his head away in sheer disdain. "What family could you possibly have? If your mother hadn't crawled into my father's bed, do you really think he would have blindly agreed to your engagement with me?"

It was the first time I had ever heard this absurd claim. It was ridiculously laughable; if he really knew even a fraction of the truth, he would realize how pathetic those words sounded. But right now, I could barely save myself, lacking the strength to correct his self-righteous delusion.

A flash of furious realization lit up Elena's eyes. "I knew it! You're just a whore born to that kind of cheap tramp!"

"Today, I'm going to strip you naked and parade you through the streets. Let everyone see what happens to sluts who seduce other women's fiancés!"

No. Just as I thrashed wildly, a communication crystal slipped from the sleeve of my robes and tumbled out. It rippled with magical fluctuations—my brother was initiating a connection from his end, and he was currently still in the Royal Capital.

I struggled to grab it, but Elena snatched it up first and opened the link.

My brother's gentle voice echoed through the crystal.

"Rosa? How are things? Did you meet your fiancé?"

I shrieked in sudden panic, "Brother... Brother, save me! They slashed my face, and they're going to strip my clothes and parade me through the streets!"

My brother's voice instantly darkened. "Who did this?!"

Elena stomped hard on the back of my hand and let out an arrogant, sickeningly sweet laugh into the crystal. "Me, of course. This little bitch of yours tried to steal my fiancé and my wand. She deserves to be punished!"

Panic and rage flooded my brother's voice. "Let Rosa go! Or else, when I get there, I swear I'll make you pay!"

Arthur snatched the crystal away from her. "Come if you have the guts! Elena is the future Duchess of the North. Touching her means making an enemy of the Duke of the North—"

Smash! Arthur abruptly severed the connection and hurled the crystal to the ground, shattering it to pieces.

Elena cruelly ground her boot into my fingers and let out a mocking sneer. "What could your pathetic, broke brother possibly do? With Arthur here today, even if your brother grew wings and flew over, I'd still make him watch with his own eyes as you're paraded naked through the streets!"

Time ticked by, second by agonizing second. In reality, only ten minutes had passed. A teleportation matrix journey from the Royal Capital to Winterhaven required at least that much time, but to me, it felt like a century.

Just at the exact moment she reached out to tear my collar, the front of the wand shop was suddenly blown apart by a devastating blast of lightning. A man clad in black robes stepped out from a crackling teleportation rift, riding the lightning as he walked slowly through the shattered doorway.

"Who dares touch my sister, Rosa?!"