Kissing Hellfire: Marry Me, Evil Lord
Chapter 169: Finding Answers (2)

Chapter 169: Finding Answers (2)

Lauren wasn’t surprised by what Anthony said. She had come up with the same conclusion. Though she hoped it wasn’t an incurable illness, she thought a dead great priestess who could communicate with the living wouldn’t be wrong. Lauren turned silent, while Alec’s face couldn’t become grimmer.

"But surely there is something we can do. I don’t care if we touch a forbidden spell or need the rarest drug. Tell us, Anthony," said Alec. The look on his face told Anthony that he would not take no for an answer. This made Anthony believe that Alec had finally opened his heart to someone after so many years since the tragedy in his family happened.

"Why would such a curse befall me? Will you please enlighten us," Lauren asked.

Anthony sipped his tea and sighed, a little distraught. "I am not certain about this, but I can sense the blood of a black mage running in your veins, Queen Lauren. The blood of the first generation of black mages who were from a thousand years ago."

Anthony put down the teacup and a wooden stick with gold vines appeared in his hand. He set aside the kettle and teacups and used the wooden stick to draw some lines on the table, lines that were glowing in golden light. Soon, it became clear to Lauren what he was doing. He was making a spellbound formation, but what kind of formation it was, was something Lauren wasn’t sure about. This kind of spell could only be done by a few skilled mages, and there wasn’t a lot of information about it in books.

"This spellbound formation would allow the creator to see what kind of blood is running in someone’s veins. Through this, we will know if you really have a black mage’s blood," informed Anthony, and he asked for Lauren’s hand once again. He got a small dagger out of nowhere and cut Lauren’s palm, letting the drops go to the center of the glowing lines on the table.

The blood from the center slowly spread to the connected lines glowing in golden light until the lines turned red.

When Lauren got her hand back, Alec held it and healed the small cut in her palm. She smiled at him and pressed her palm onto his, but Alec’s expression remained stern and critical.

Anthony’s hands moved in a circular motion above the drawn lines on the table that were now glowing red with Lauren’s blood. A flicker of gold crossed his eyes, and his palms produced a soft golden light that was ascending to the spellbound formation. He was using his magic to support the formation. After what seemed like a long minute, Anthony uttered a word, and everything vanished from the table.

Lauren and Alec stared at Anthony with expectant eyes, eager to hear what he had to say.

Anthony cleared his throat. "My assumption is correct. You have a black mage’s blood in you, and I don’t mean the one ordinary black mages have. It is much stronger, one that can withstand any kind of poison, even the drug that can make a black mage run wild. And you don’t run wild like an ordinary black mage does. You are in control of your ability to suck people’s energy..."

"...This is a very rare case. Something that was not seen for ages. But this only means one thing," Anthony paused as if he were giving time for the couple to brace themselves. "You are somehow connected to the first generation of black mages, Queen Lauren. Surely, both of you know the history, so I will not bother explaining it."

Lauren asked, "But how could I be related to the first generation of black mages? It wasn’t written in history books, but they were said to have been annihilated by elder mages a thousand years ago because their existence was a big threat to people."

"I have a little knowledge about what really happened a thousand years ago," Anthony said, which brought hope to Lauren. She badly wished to be enlightened. To know if her assumption was right that her mother also had black mage’s blood in her.

"If you have read enough history books, for sure you have come across a great mage named Master Leighton."

"Master Leighton, yes, I’ve heard of him," Lauren affirmed. "Back when the mages were still uncivilized and had yet to learn how to properly use spells, a guild was built to teach mages the art of spell casting. Master Leighton was its founder. He was also said to be the first mage to master all the art of spells which is why he built a guild to teach mages."

"I was his disciple centuries ago, back when I was still very young."

Lauren was surprised to find someone was a disciple of a mage from a thousand years ago and was written in history books as a legend.

"He was there when the first generation of black mages emerged, the Capewell family, who were cursed by a great priestess after she was consumed by evil and turned insane. Unlike the black mages we know today, they were a lot stronger. They didn’t run wild and they remained sane for a long time even though they were feeding on people’s energy and souls. They were also capable of reproduction since one of the daughters of the Capewells gave birth to a baby boy who was born with a black mage’s blood. They were said to be annihilated, yes, that information is not only a rumor. It is true, only that they were not entirely annihilated. My master said one of them survived—the newborn baby. It was only he who knew... because he was the one who hid the boy. He could not bring himself to kill a child."

Lauren was shocked at the revelation. Alec had told her that it wasn’t written in history books how the Capewell family was killed and it was possible one of them made it through all these years, but to hear that a mage like Master Leighton, who was admired by all, had this secret was something she did not expect.

"What happened to the child?"

"Master said he lived a normal life during his prime years because Master didn’t mention to the boy anything about him being a black mage. Master Leighton also made the boy believe that he was a human so he wouldn’t practice any spells. However, one day he just vanished. Master Leighton searched for him but he never found the boy. I never had the chance to meet him though, it was long before I became Master Leighton’s disciple."

"Which means the boy must have had a child or children, and Lauren could be born to his bloodline," said Alec.

"But the children born into the Capewell family after they were cursed were bound to suffer an illness and die early. There was a book from three centuries ago written by an anonymous writer who wrote about it. It included how the newborn baby of the Capewells survived the annihilation grew up and had a family of his own but died early due to an illness that was tied to the curse of the Capewells. The book had only a few copies, but most people didn’t pay attention to it."

"If that is the case, it means one of my parents must be from the Capewell bloodline, and it could not be my father..." The puzzle in Lauren’s head finally made sense. Her mother told her before that she was orphaned because her parents died early; she too died early, and she knew the poison Queen Thalia had been feeding her wasn’t the cause.

"My mother died early... but her condition was nothing similar to mine. She had no problems with the cold, unlike me. She was only very frail, and sometimes I noticed she had trouble sleeping at night. I couldn’t remember every detail as I was very young back then, but I know she was very ill."

Although it was clear to Lauren now that Thalia’s poison wasn’t what caused her mother’s death, she did not regret what she did to her and her family. Thalia plotted so many bad things against her mother, and she and her daughters were responsible for why life in the palace was like hell to Lauren.

"My first assumption was that my mother was an ordinary black mage who mixed three forbidden spells to conceive a child. I heard there was sorcery as such, but it wasn’t widely known."

Anthony replied, "Yes, I heard about that as well. But you see, your blood isn’t one of an ordinary black mage, Queen Lauren. So your mother must be a descendant of the Capewells who carried their curse, which she passed to you. According to that book by an anonymous writer, the offsprings of the Capewells were bound to suffer different kinds of illness along with the black mage curse. I didn’t have a chance to know the writer because he was very mysterious, but I have a feeling that whoever he was, he was somehow connected to the priestess who cast the Capewell’s curse."