The royal capital of Orelia, Hilvari.
As soon as the bell of the demon moment rang, the whole Buckingham Palace was lit by tens of thousands of holy light crystals, like a daytime city that does not allow shadows to exist. This is the engagement dinner of Princess Serafina, the first heir of the empire, and the neighbouring prince Cassian.
The air is filled with the expensive and strong fragrance of moon shadow orchids, mixed with the staggered noise.
"The third basement floor, the innermost barrel." A low voice sounded in the shadow of the cloister.
Vera stopped and threw a few gold coins with body temperature. In the dark, an inner court waiter in a coarse cloth uniform received it accurately, and he didn't even dare to look up at her.
"The amount is twice as much as agreed." The servant's voice was a little tight.
"That's the deposit. After that, it's enough for you to buy a manor with a vineyard in a neighbouring country.
Vera's voice was very soft, with a hoarse and rough feeling. She raised her hand and pressed the edge of the hood, and the half-silver mask under the hood refracted cold light under the dim wall lamp. The edge of the mask on the right half of the cheek fits the terrible scar that has been burned by the holy flame.
"But..." The waiter swallowed his saliva, "That's the queen's private wine. If it's found out--"
"Did you find out?" Vera smiled softly, and the smile did not reach the bottom of the stagnt water-like eyes at all. "The person who drank this bottle of wine will only think that it is the miracle of the holy light tomorrow. You are just fulfilling your duty and offering the best wine to the princess. Do you understand?"
The waiter took a deep breath, squeezed the gold coin in his hand, and slipped away against the wall like a frightened quail.
Vera walked out of the shadow, looked over the huge mica stone arch, and cast her eyes on the brightly lit banquet hall below.
Under the five hundred steps, the nobles are wearing complicated silk dresses, and the fragrance of their clothes is flowing with absolutely pure light magic. In this empire, light magic is not only power, but also the source of bloodline, privilege and arrogance.
She saw the man surrounded by the stars in the centre like the moon. Her father, the current king of the empire, was stroking his white beard and looking at the stage with a happy face.
"The Light of the Empire! Divine incarnation!"
On the high platform, the voice of the master of ceremonies was sharp because of excessive excitement.
With the sound of sacred hymns, Serafina slowly walked onto the terrace. The white skirt embroidered with pure gold thread stings people's eyes. She wore the bright "Morning Star" imitation crown on her head, which was completely cut from the top-level holy light crystal, and each side was crazily absorbing the surrounding magic elements, reflecting the flawless light.
Standing beside Serafina, there were knights in pure white uniforms. At the head is the most powerful "hound" next to the queen, Roland, the royal knight who killed the shadow mage with his youngest posture.
Vera's eyes were fixed on Roland's face. The face that should have called her "sister" with a smile is now as cold as a stone sculpture. In those familiar blue eyes, there is only the faith and absolute obedience of the mother and daughter on the stage.
'He is Roland.' Vera told herself in her heart that her nails were deeply embedded in the palm of her hand, bringing a slight tingling, 'but he was also a dog of the queen.'
She once thought he was dead in the fire, until three months ago, she used a fake information worth thousands of dollars in the underground black market to exchange a name from the mouth of an old servant of the palace: the bodyguard knight Roland, the queen's half-sister's bodyguard.
"What, are you stunned?" A greedy voice interrupted Vera's thoughts.
A fat-headed vice president of the Chamber of Commerce came over with a wine glass, and his eyes turned ambiguously on Vera's mask and slender waist. "I've seen you, the 'snake letter' in the black market. What, do you want to cling to our great princess today?"
Instead of retreating, Vera turned her head slightly. Through the one-sided eye of the mask, she looked at the man who had signed the family order that year.
"Yes," she said softly, "after all, it's a grand day."
"Be knowledgable and go back to your sewer. This kind of occasion is not suitable for you..." The vice chairman waved his hand in disgust, but the corner of his eye glanced at the slender neck exposed under Vera's hood.
Vera raised the wine glass in her hand, which was an ordinary glass of wheat wine.
"Of course, I'm leaving now." She raised her hand slightly, as if she was going to toast, and her cuffs inadvertently exposed a few blue crystals.
The vice chairman's eyes straightened in an instant. It is a very pure shadow magic crystal, which is much more expensive than gold of equal weight on the black market. As long as he can get those crystals, he can kill his opponent in a bid or bribe a senior official.
"Wait, this friend..." The vice chairman's tone immediately softened.
"Do you want it?" Vera lowered her voice and stepped back to the spiral staircase on one side. "Unfortunately, I only deal with the living."
She turned around and asked the vice president to follow her to the semi-terrace outside the hall.
Vera leaned against the carved railing and said in a voice that only two people could hear, "You tampered with the property inventory of the Sinclair family (her original surname) in order to get the concession of the Southern Trade Road, right?"
The flesh on the vice president's face twitched violently.
"You... how did you--"
"Wine is very expensive, but people are even more expensive." Vera gently splashed the ordinary glass of barley wine in her hand on the front of his gorgeous dress.
"You!" The vice chairman was about to have a seizure when he suddenly felt an extreme dizziness. The scene in front of him began to distort, the white light became dazzling, and there seemed to be countless hands pulling him in the shadow. His legs were weak, and just as he was about to shout, Vera had already pushed him on the back.
In everyone's opinion, the vice president was just drunk and slipped and knocked over a huge sculpture of the Holy Grail symbolising light. The loud noise of glass breaking made the banquet fall into a brief silence.
"Drag the drunkard down." The queen's voice came from above the inner court, smooth, sacred, with a condescending dignity, "Don't let him dirty the skirt of the saint."
The guards quickly dragged away the paralysed vice chairman. No one noticed Vera, who had retreated to the corner in the shadow.
She looked at the vice chairman who was dragged away, and her heart was cold. This person will be interrogated tomorrow for "blasphemy of the holy light at the princess's engagement banquet". She only needs to anonymously submit a forged financial statement to the court, and the business channel under his name will naturally be transferred to the pockets of the queen's hostile faction. This is her first move: to create a crack in the enemy's chain of interests.
And now, it's time for the main course.
"Gentles!"
On the high platform, the queen stood up, wearing a complicated pearl necklace, and her smile was as perfect as engraved on it.
"Today is the day of great joy for the empire. It is not only the engagement day of my daughter Serafina, but also the moment that proves that the 'morning star' shines on all generations. Serafina, for your fiance, for your people, show your pure holy light beyond a hundred years!"
There was a burst of cheers and beautiful words in the crowd.
Serafina took a deep breath, and her delicate face was full of pride and eagerness. She is so eager to prove herself. She needs to let everyone know that she is the real "Saint of Light", not the waste sister who was exiled many years ago and couldn't even use a little magic.
She raised her hands and began to chant the holy prayer. The holy light magic array dedicated to the royal family lit up at her feet.
Vera stood in the deepest and darkest shadow in the corner of the hall.
She watched Serafina's movements. No, that's the action of the holy light, but what about the core? Only from that position, only she who has knowledge of taboo knowledge, can see that when Serafina's holy light is in operation, her fingers tremble slightly, and the magic flow of the abdominal core has a trace of unnatural sluggishness. After all, the stolen talent does not belong entirely to her.
Vera slowly raised her right hand and put her fingertips on the silver chain on her left wrist. That's her experience in the underground arena, with countless blood and screams: how to completely destroy a person's faith in public.
The royal waiter walked forward with a huge pure gold wine glass. It is full of the top-class and purest holy spring water produced by the queen's private treasury.
Serafina took the wine glass and held the water in the glass high above her head.
"In the name of the Holy Light, may Aurelia--"
Serafina's voice stopped abruptly.
The transparent holy spring liquor, under the blessing of her holy light, should have reflected the brilliant gold, and then turned into countless dots of light scattered.
However, at the moment when she released the pure holy light, the air in the whole hall suddenly stagnated.
Everyone saw with their own eyes that the holy light in Serafina's hand did not turn into gold, but from her palm, it quickly fermented and twisted, and turned into a thick extreme black that seemed to swallow all the light!
Those black lights were like living things, spreading along the wine glass, and a drop of dark liquid appeared out of thin air, directly staining Serafina's white skirt.
Then, black fog gushed out of her body, and a disgusting smell of sulphur, like a rotting corpse, exploded in the aroma of Yueyinglan.
"Ah--!" Serafina screamed, and the wine glass in her hand rolled to the ground.
In the eyes of everyone, her proud holy light turned into black gas summoned by the taboo shadow magic. The silver-white light representing magic is intertwined with black gas, making her look like an evil ghost who has just crawled out of hell.
"It's shadow magic!"
"She practised taboo black magic! Oh, my God, she actually poisoned with black magic--"
"Look at her face! She is getting older!"
The terrible screams broke the tranquillity of the dinner. The Knights of the Holy Light instantly drew their swords and quickly surrounded the high platform.
"I didn't! It's not me! This is slander!" Serafina patted the black stains on her skirt frantically and screamed in horror. But the higher her voice, the stronger the blackness. Prince Cassian subconsciously took a step back, his eyes full of panic and disgust.
The queen's face turned pale and she stood up abruptly: "Quiet! Please be quiet! There is something wrong with the magic array--"
"It's the punishment of the God of Light!"
I don't know who shouted in the crowd (of course, this was a rumour that Vera had long spread in the black market to make people lose trust in the royal family), and the panic quickly turned into a trampling.
"Protect Your Majesty! Protect the queen!" Roland rushed forward, holding his shield high, trying to resist the ubiquitous chaos. The original fanaticism and pride on his face were replaced by shock and panic. He looked around blankly and didn't understand what was going on.
Vera slowly came out of the shadows.
She covered half of her body with a wide cloak and passed through those nobles who were like headless flies. The focus of the crowd was on the tragedy on the stage, and no one paid attention to the masked woman in a corner.
She walked to a long table full of fine wine.
No one stopped her. Vera picked up a cup of pure wine that had not been affected and still exuded a faint golden light.
She turned around and turned her back to the light. From her perspective, Serafina's white skirt has been stained with black gas, and her whole body looks like a watercolour painted by charcoal fire. The queen's always dignified mask cracked, and because of extreme anger and fear, her facial features were distorted and almost deformed. She was frantically ordering the priest to use purification, but as soon as the priest said a prayer, he was choked by the shadow elements around him.
Vera raised her wine glass.
No one knew that the glass of wine she dropped was juice extracted from an extremely rare poisonous grass called "shadow gill". It does not conflict with any magic, but under the guidance of the top pure holy light, it will produce an extremely domineering chemical reaction - deflect the light waves and present a dark black visual effect. It is non-toxic and non-corrosive, but it can make countless people witness a perfect "depravity".
In the chaos, screams, smashing and the frightened curses of the magicians.
Vera stood in a dark corner where the light could not shine. She raised her left hand slightly and made a silent toast.
Under the mask, her drily lips evoked an extremely small arc.
"Hore to this hypocritical holy light."
She gently opened her thin lips and spit out these words in a voice that only she could hear.
Then, she turned around and disappeared into the dark passage leading to the underground black market on the edge of the palace without hesitation. Behind her, the most brilliant pearl of the empire is being swallowed up by the black fog, and Avila's revenge has just begun.
Through the long and damp darkness, Vera leaned against the wall of the secret passage and took off her hood. She touched the half-cold silver mask on her right face, and her fingertips could feel the rough and distorted scar on the edge of the mask.
She closed her eyes, and Roland's dazed look appeared in front of her when she stood on the high platform.
"It's not over yet." She said to herself, and her voice echoed in the empty passage.
She put on the hood again and sank her face into the darkness, leaving only a decisive back to the Aurelia King. She not only wants to destroy Serafina's reputation, but she also wants this bloody crown to drain the blood of all enemies.
The night wind blew in from the entrance of the passage, with bursts of screams from the banquet hall not far away. Vera stepped over the steps of the passage and set foot on the dark street. The slate road under her feet was cold and piercing, but she felt extremely sober.
It's just beginning.