The Wizard's Bride

Chapter 1

"We welcome back his highness the fourth prince and his newly found bride!"

A man dressed like a butler bowed at a perfect forty-five degree angle, with one hand on top of his chest and the other on his back. He had clean and slicked back brown hair with some gray strands, indicating the signs of aging. This was a butler that was trained over the years and honed to be perfect, as one would expect when serving the Royal family.

I, who was an ordinary girl, couldn't believe that this kind of thing would happen to me. A bride? In the past, I promised myself not to get married, EVER. Who would have thought that, at the age of eighteen, I would get married? Furthermore, it's to a prince.

If I were to tell this to my past self, even I would not believe it.

I sighed to myself and looked towards the person beside me, my groom. If there is something that I like about him, it is his face. As for personality... Let's talk about that next time.

How did this happen? I myself also wonder about that. I sighed as I look back on what happened a few days ago.

♢♢♢

It was already five in the evening, just a few more minutes and our teacher would let us go. I yawned boredly, listening to the teacher's blabber. It wasn't even part of the lecture but just reminiscing about her past.

The old teacher would always start with "Back in the day..." and it would never end until the end of the class. Sometimes, she would work overtime.

"You are lucky that you aren't suffering... blah...blah..."

It went on and on. I just scribbled in my notebook to past time, not even listening to a single word. I drew a circle first, then a straight line below the circle and another line in the middle. Next, I drew two slanted lines at the end of the line. Finally, the final touch. Two dots and a smile. A happy stickman.

Okay, I'm not that great of an artist.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

As soon as I heard that noise, my limp body suddenly sat straight and became energized. I happily listened to the bell chime that signals the end of the class. I waited for the old teacher to speak and say the words 'Class dismissed.'

They were my fourth favorite words that I wanted to hear from my teacher. Of course, the first one is 'There is no class/class is cancelled.', the second is 'There is no homework', and the third is 'There is no exam/exams are cancelled'.

Although I may look like a studious, exemplary student, the truth is, I don't like studying. Nobody likes studying, ah, maybe some do. All I want to do is to play all day. But it's not like I could just suddenly stop studying and become a drop-out. I have to support myself in the future. Though I do not like it, I need to do it.

And besides, if I really do that, I won't have a home to go to. Not like there is one to begin with.

"Oh, that's the bell. I guess that's it for now. Class dismissed." The old teacher started to pack up, while the students stretched their arms and legs before starting to talk about what they would do on the way home.

Youth. How nice to have something I couldn't have. I smiled to myself as I wallowed myself in self-pity.

I started packing up my bags in a hurry. After I finished packing up, I left the classroom without looking back. I felt suffocation as I stood there. The vibrant image of youth was too blinding for my eyes to see.

I looked at the time. There are still three more hours until the school closes. Like I have always done, I took a step towards the school rooftop.

I am always alone. No friends or even something as simple as a family. The place I always slept wasn't something I could call home. It was more like a house that has everything that I need, except the warmth of a family.

I am not accepted in that home. I am not part of that family. And that is why I watch the sunset and wait until the school closes on the rooftop. I minimize the time I spend there. It should be enough, right?

Watching the sunset on the rooftop calms me down. When I first watched the sunset through sheer coincidence, I was enthralled by the beauty of nature. It sent me shivers as I watched the slowly changing color from blue to orange and the glaring sun. Then, came the night.

The sky was filled with darkness with a little bit of sprinkled stars. I watched the moon slowly rise and illuminate the night sky. Slowly, stars started appearing, twinkling in the endless darkness.

I slowly forgot the passage of time.

I blinked my eyes and looked at the door in the front. Finally, I took the last step towards the rooftop. Just as I was about to open the door towards the rooftop, I heard voices. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but... okay, I have no excuses. I like listening to gossip, but just that. Anyways, I found out that I could not hear them clearly.

I slightly opened the rooftop door and peeked through the ajarred door. There I saw a boy, the same age as me, and... a cat?

Though I could only see his back, I could clearly see him talking to a black cat...

My first thought was: 'Is he so lonely that he is talking with a cat?'

No, no, let's not judge him. There are people who talk with animals, so maybe he is one of those people. That's nice and all, but could you do that somewhere else? It would be awkward if I just barged in and watched the sunset while ignoring the boy.

What do I do?

I furrowed my brows, pondering on how to get rid of that boy.

"Sorry, I know it's selfish of me, but could you take your cat and talk somewhere else?"

Too blunt! I'm going to hurt his feelings if I say this.

Wouldn't a person be embarrassed if they were caught talking to a cat? That's why let's avoid that. I'll just wait for a chance for this boy to stop talking and enter the rooftop to kindly send him off. See, nobody gets hurt.

Oh, look, a chance!

The boy had stopped talking so I took this chance to send him off. I was just about to open the door when, suddenly, I heard another voice. I stopped my hand from reaching out to the door handle and peeked again through the ajarred door.

It was still a boy and a cat. There was no one else beside them.

Am I hallucinating?

I rubbed my eyes and peeked again. It was still the same but I could still hear another voice. Then, a ghost?

I trembled just thinking about it. Nah, rejected. Ghosts don't exist. I started chanting to myself, hoping that it would be effective to lessen my fear.

I squinted my eyes and what I saw made my jaw drop. The cat's mouth was moving and this action confirmed my thoughts.

T-the cat... The cat is talking!

I couldn't believe it. I rubbed my eyes, thinking that maybe I was just hallucinating. But it was still the same.

Okay, maybe that's not a cat but a robot. This is an elite school and the students here come from a prestigious family. Perhaps he just brought out his toy to school and show-off?

That speculation is too far-fetched. Our technology is not that advanced as to creating an intelligent talking cat. No wait, maybe there is a team who developed this kind of technology and they just didn't tell this to the world.

Let's have faith in science.

Therefore, I put this matter at the back of my head. There was no point in thinking about stuff I could not comprehend. And so, I reached out to the door handle.

Just as I was about to push the door open, I was pulled forward by force. Because I was caught off guard, I couldn't react properly and my body fell forward.

I closed my eyes and waited for my face to fall flat on the floor. But then, the cold hard floor I was waiting to kiss was nowhere to be found and the only thing that I felt was a soft but firm chest.

I opened my eyes to confirm that I indeed did not fall down to the ground. I was instead caught by the boy.

Looking up, I saw the boy's face. I widened my eyes as a familiar face entered my eyes. A memory from a year ago flashed through my mind. I clearly remember this face as it made a unique impression on me.

The first time I saw him was in an alleyway. It was winter at that time and on my way home, I decided to take a detour. Then, by coincidence, I saw this boy enter the alleyway and a trail of blood from behind him. He was clutching his abdomen while limping.

What made me wonder was that people didn't seem to be concerned about a youth walking around with a terrible injury. It was as if they couldn't see him. It doesn't matter to me. We were both strangers. So I decided to just go straight home.

But before I knew it, my body was already walking into the alleyway. I was stunned when I saw him sitting on the cold ground, no, it was more like lying on a pile of trash.

"Hey." I called out to him. He raised his head and I saw his face.

His brows were knitted together, forming a frown on his stoic face. He had silky black hair that seemed smooth to touch. A pair of black obsidian eyes with long eyelashes were staring straight into my eyes. They had a magnetic feeling that made the people he stared at feel charmed. His lips were pale and quivering, probably from pain.

He felt distant and cold like there was a wall surrounding him. The vibe he has made him difficult to approach. The youth in front of me doesn't feel like a youth, but a mature man who has experienced countless things in life.

He was different. Different from the other boys around our age. I don't know why, but that was my impression of him the first time I saw him.

I don't know how long I stared at him. It must have been weird for a stranger to stare at him. So, I just bluntly spoke to him to ease my embarrassment.

"Your condition will get worse if you stay like that. Go to the hospital."

Anyone with common sense knows that and that boy, too, should also know that. But what I earned by showing concern was a glare.

"Who are you?" The words coming out of his mouth were frosty, just like the cold winter. I raised my brows and looked at his vigilant expression.

I don't know what he suffered through, but to be this injured, obviously, he suffered from an attack. It wasn't a normal attack, but I don't really care about it. After all, he was just a stranger to me.

"I'm no one. If you don't go to the hospital, then you can just go and die there." I know it was cruel for me to say, but this is the truth. He'll really die at this rate.

"How can you see me?" His guard was still raised. I noticed that he was clutching his abdomen harder than earlier.

What a weird question.

"Am I blind? How can I not see you?" I retorted to his question as I looked through my bag. Luckily, I just bought medical supplies on my way home because I needed to use a first aid kit for my health class.

"Here." I tossed him the bag of medical supplies. From the looks of it, he would not let me bandage him. He didn't take it and just looked at it suspiciously. Seeing that, I couldn't help but sigh. Boy, just what kind of life are you living? "Hey, take it. It's just medical supplies, not bombs."

Even as I said that, he still didn't take it. So, I decided to leave and buy medical supplies again. "I'm leaving."

After that, I never saw him again. So it was a surprise to see him again in front of me, alive and well.

"You didn't die?" Those were the words that I said after meeting again. Good job me. What a nice greeting!

The youth, of course, was confused at this statement. "Excuse me?"

"Ah, I'm sorry." I apologized and stood straight. It was rude of me to say that.

Compared to last time, he seemed much softer. If he was still the same, then he would have just stared coldly at me and pushed me away. I wonder what happened to him.

I noticed the cat was on his right shoulder, gazing at me with a profound look. Apart from the purple gemstone on its forehead, nothing seems strange about it. The gemstone looked like an accessory that was put on by the owner. You wouldn't think that this cat would be able to talk.

This is not an ordinary cat, I confirmed to myself. It was hard to accept something that was different to the norm. Even so, I slowly adapted.

I pretended that I had not heard the cat talking earlier. I was going to pretend that it was a normal cat until they decided to reveal that they were unordinary.

"This girl seems suitable to be your bride." A rough and metallic voice entered my ears. I blankly stared at the white cat in front of me. I processed what the cat said to me.

A bride, they say.

It was at this moment that I knew I would be tangled with a series of unique events.