Chapter 504: Intervention 3
TL: Rui88
When Grand Duke Cabre first saw the red-haired lady, he was initially astonished by her appearance. His own wife Helen, hailed as the Pearl of Horn Bay, was already the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. Yet this lady, called Mariana, was by no means inferior to Helen in looks, and even surpassed her in temperament.
When he met her gaze, he did not sense the evasive and slightly timid look common in ordinary people when meeting the ruler of a nation. Instead, he found himself, to a certain extent, subdued by the power in her eyes.
Yes, this lady’s eyes contained a certain power that could directly affect the hearts of others. People often used phrases like “eyes like torches” to describe someone with bright and spirited eyes, but Lady Mariana’s pupils themselves were as red as fire. The moment Grand Duke Cabre looked into those eyes, images of flames, lava, and lightning flashed through his mind.
She must be a woman with a firm heart and a strong will, the Grand Duke concluded to himself.
“Your Majesty, this is my mentor. She returned to Horn Bay not long ago.”
Grand Duchess Helen introduced her husband, her demeanor towards the red-haired lady deeply respectful.
“Your Majesty Cabre, it is a great honour to meet you. Please forgive my ignorance of court etiquette.”
Mariana gave the Grand Duke a slight nod, which served as her curtsy.
Cabre quickly said, “Not at all. Since you are Helen’s mentor, you are naturally my elder. Of course, you need not adhere to such formalities. Please, be seated.”Aside from her being his wife’s mentor, she was also the key to saving Eton from its crisis, so it was only natural to show respect.
He asked eagerly, “No amount of pleasantries will help the situation, so, Lady Mariana, let us be brief and get straight to the point. You must be aware of Eton’s current crisis. May I ask if you have any way to help us?”
Mariana first glanced at her student, Helen, then said slowly:
“Magic.”
“Magic?”
Grand Duke Cabre, along with his wife Helen, a magic user herself, were both taken aback.
The Grand Duchess asked in a low voice, “Teacher Mariana, do you mean… we should use our abilities to sneak into the enemy camp and assassinate their high-ranking officials? That is a viable method, but my husband will not allow me to do so. He fears that I…”
Was she to let her mentor risk her own life for her?
“No!” Mariana denied it without hesitation.
“I mean we will defeat the Crusader Army on the open battlefield using magic.”
The Grand Duke’s hands trembled. “This… this… this… this…”
He could not form a complete sentence.
Grand Duke Cabre was the ruler of the Duchy of Eton, a top-tier noble whose family lineage stretched back for several hundred years.
And what was magic? For thousands of years, it had been regarded by the people as an unnatural power, a violation of the gods’ teachings, something evil and foul that should not exist in the world.
Even though the Grand Duke had married a magic user and loved her wholeheartedly, from the inside out, he saw it merely as a manifestation of the great power of love. In his heart, love itself was irrational and ineffable, something more mysterious and powerful than magic. In the young Grand Duke’s somewhat naive view of love, to love someone was to accept all of them, including their flaws, even if that person was a witch who, according to legend, violated the ways of nature.
Through his long time with his wife, he had come to hold an attitude of tolerance and sympathy for magic users. Slowly, he also learned that not all magic users were evil; there were many good people among them, who possessed the same precious feelings as mortals, such as happiness, joy, pain, and sorrow.
But even so, for the Grand Duke to accept magic in an instant, to see it as something normal, as a legitimate tool, as a form of martial power that did not violate the code of chivalry, to be used openly and honourably to defeat an enemy…he was still unable to make that shift immediately.
And what of Grand Duchess Helen? She had grown up in a great noble house, pampered and doted upon, cherished by all. She had lived a carefree life, and having been a good girl since childhood, she stumbled upon the path of a magic user by chance. Magic brought her a sense of novelty, excitement, or perhaps a kind of forbidden pleasure. She studied and researched magic because it gave her a unique feeling, different from the toys she could so easily obtain. As a woman seen as weak in the eyes of the world, to be able to command such immense power…this contrast enthralled her. Being a magic user was merely one of Helen’s labels, not some kind of exclusive, one-to-one binding.
Furthermore, from a young age, the lesson she received from Mariana was to hide, hide, and hide again. Her mentor at the time had reminded her over and over that magic must never be displayed before the world, must never be cast in public. When people knew you were a witch, you would face a terrible fate. This had subconsciously formed a fixed mindset in Helen…[magic] and [places with people] were mutually exclusive. In the presence of others, unless it was someone she knew through and through…like her husband or her junior fellow magic user…or an enemy she could not be identified by and was confident she could eliminate completely, she was not to use magic.
However, the main reason was that, with Helen’s current depth of understanding of magic, she could not yet comprehend the extent to which this power could influence a large-scale battle. The greatest extent of her speculation was assassinating important figures, stealing vital intelligence, or using unnatural means to cause enemy generals to misjudge the situation.
For all these reasons, the Grand Duchess was also greatly astonished to hear her mentor declare her intent to defeat an army on the battlefield with magic.
Mariana saw the shock on the ducal couple’s faces. She smiled faintly, a smile that, for a moment, even made her image in Grand Duke Cabre’s mind align with the popular perception of an evil witch.
Of course, it was only for an instant. The red-haired lady immediately reverted to the solemn, sincerely respectable image of a mentor.
She parted her rosy lips and spoke slowly and gently:
“I know that for a long time, there has been a deep-seated prejudice in the secular world against magic and against us as magic users. It is indeed difficult for you to accept it so suddenly. But you have been with my lovely student for so long now, so…”
“Tell me, Ettiot, what kind of person do you think your wife is?”
AN: I thought I wouldn’t have time to write today, but I actually finished.