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nNot every couple lived happily ever after-

nDiana's POV

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"Your prince charming, I hope he treats you well.

" those words Marinette muttered coming out of her mouth with blood dripping on the prison's floor.

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"Your prince charming...

"

"Your prince charming...

"

"HAHAHAHA, I hope he treats you well.

"

nHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

nHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

n'My prince charming?'

nIt was the same prince charming, the one Marinette said for her last words to me, his gentle hands which used to stroke my hair, his eyes which were once looking at me with affection with a little smile on his face but at that moment, my eyes seemed to be fooling me.

nBecause it was that same man who thrust the sword I gave him on his birthday into my stomach, the agony pain as I covered the bleeding with my hand didn't compare one bit to the coldness in his eyes as he glared at me when he abandoned my body in the brink of death looking at him leaving me there.

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"I'm sorry Diana...you'll understand soon.

"

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"Richard...how could you...

"

nYou killed me and left me there rushing to where Marinette was supposed to be executed and you expected me to understand.

nI didn't understand.

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"HAHAHA, poor Diana got abandoned by her prince...HAHAHAHAHAHA.

" I heard her voice, her mocking voice I imagined Marinette would say if she saw my blood dripping on the empress's throne at that time.

nHAHAHAHA

nHAHAHAHAHA

n'Goddess, please give me a second chance...please...I don't want to die like this...'

nPlease...please...please!!!

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"Please!!!!!

"

nHuff huff

nI screamed out of my lung feeling the sweat dripping on my forehead, I was scared, I was terrified, those nightmares kept haunting me every time I slept.

nI didn't want to see any of those. I was trembling and shaking with fear on my bed before I knew it.

n'Diana, it's alright...it's alright.' Those comforting words I said to calm myself didn't help because everything felt so real, my heart was throbbing in that dream, the sensation of the sword in my stomach was painful.

nIf only those things I saw were just a nightmare, I didn't have to be crying after hearing the news of the engagement between Richard and Marinette.

nIf only...

nBut it wasn't. Everything I'd been dreaming of every night since I was a child was all the thing happening in my past life.

nThe life I thought it would end with a happy ending and the thought I would live happily ever after with the one I loved seemed like a lie now.

nWhat was the happy ending again? They said the male lead and the female lead marrying each other at the end of the story was a happy ending but what happened after that?

nI hated myself, I disgusted myself for not doing anything in the past except hallucinating all of those damn things about happy endings.

nAll of my suffering in my past life, the one I cared for died one after another wasn't Marinette's fault, even I could know a little who was behind all those. But I lied to myself, convinced myself that it wasn't him, there was no way it could be him. I shoved all of those faults on Marinette, so it would make me feel better.

nI hated myself for that.

nI asked God for a second chance but what had I done all these past twenty years, nothing. Even though I had all those dreams about Richard killing me, I lied to myself that those were nightmares.

n'There's no way he would do that to me.'

n'Richard is my childhood friend, I know him more than anyone.'

n'He loves me...' those foolish thoughts gathered like a thick fog then turned into the ice globe just like a bubble to protect me from that cruel reality.

nBut when everything that happened until now aligned with those dreams, I felt a little scared from time to time.

nWhen Richard was engaged with Marinette, I was alright at first when I heard about it since I knew it beforehand. I felt better because I became so strong but in the end, the pain overwhelmed me forcing my tears to come out.

nKnowing beforehand didn't mean it wasn't gonna hurt.

nI cried because I was afraid I would meet the same fate as I once had in my past life, I tried everything to avoid the same tragedy again but when the people I cared for died in front of me again...I couldn't handle it even though I knew it beforehand.

nBut this life, instead of saying it was Marinette's fault, I searched for the culprit, and I wished I didn't.

nI realized how painful it was to be betrayed by the one you loved, if Marinette also traveled back in time, she would be laughing at me judging from her last words saying to me in the prison.

nShe also knew that I was the only one who didn't know the truth and kept on trusting him until the day I died.

nI looked out to the full moon outside my window, it was beautiful. With the dim light of the moon, I grabbed the feather and started writing everything I dreamed of.

nIt wasn't late yet, at least I could save the people I cared for.

nWhen I finished writing everything in my diary, I walked around the room couldn't sleep. I was anxious, I was afraid. Everything will start after the engagement, although I prepared for it for years, I couldn't say I was ready completely.

nI will go against him, the crown prince.

n'Haa...I couldn't sleep.'

nI decided to walk out of my room to the garden to take some fresh air and I didn't expect that woman to be up.

nIt was already midnight, but she was still doing something at the training ground of our duchy.

nI hid behind a wall and look at Marinette from afar.

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"Ack...

" she fell on the ground with the sharp sword in her hand, her nightgown was already soaking with her sweat, and yet, she still got up to swing the sword again and again.

nThere were many books on the ground, looking from where I was, I could see the magic book of the world, the death roses magic book, and the etiquette books.

nWhat was she trying so hard for? When I was kept in the dark in my past life, she struck for survival in the world.

nI misunderstood her when I was aware of the engagement out of a sudden, I thought she wanted to steal Richard away from me just like how she always did in the past. But she never once thought of that, her eyes when she stared at Richard every time they met at the ball wasn't his face nor his smile. It was his crown.

nAnd when she bowed to him in the throne room, it wasn't him she looked at. Her eyes full of desire were starting at the throne.

nWhy did everyone want the throne? I didn't understand why.

nI was jealous of Marinette, she always emitted the type of aura that she could do everything alone. She didn't trust anybody, her eyes glancing at me from time to time, I felt like she was judging me. I hated her.

nBut to say, I will save her in this life, I won't be sure about that.

nMy hatred toward Richard was one thing, but my hatred toward her was one thing as well.

nIn this life, I will stand above you, Marinette. I won't sit on the queen's throne enduring your mockery any longer.

nI won't...watch you stealing everything from me again.

nMarinette (Sun-hee)'s POV

nAck!!

nBoth of my hands were numb, I couldn't hold onto the sword properly anymore. The wound on my neck started to open again.

nI escaped the duchy for the whole day, I didn't want to go back to the duchy until late at night, so I decided to go to the parties I got invited all in one day.

nAnd when I came back, I couldn't sleep. That day was coming faster and faster.

nI had to prepare myself.

nHuff huff

nThe death roses magic was really difficult to use, among all the magic in this world, the side effect of this magic was the strongest.

nIt could kill a person with its side effect alone.

nDeath Roses Magic: Roses Falling

nArghhhhhhhhhh

nMy whole body was burning, it was agonizing, I couldn't breathe for a minute rolling around the dirt covered with the rose petals I summon with magic.

nI intended to inflict the side effect on the flower, but it got on me instead.

nI was jealous of the female lead, she was much better than Marinette. She was born with everyone blessing her because her magic energy was so pure and Marinette's was dark and gloomy.

nHow did Marinette control this magic?

nDeath Roses--

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"!!!

"

n'What is this?'

nMy head felt light out of a sudden, and I started to remember something out of the blue although it wasn't something I should be aware of.

nNo, it was more like...no one was aware of this, even the readers or anyone in this duchy.

nMemory Magic?

n'What is this magic?'

nI suddenly knew how to use it.

nMemory Magic--

nI shouldn't use this magic for the moment, I didn't know about its origin or anything about how Marinette acquired such strange magic.

nThe world only had two base magic which was the dark magic of the demon king and the light magic of the royal blood.

nOther magic like nature magic, fire, water, earth, or wind was just magic coming from a little portion of the light magic.

nAnd the death roses magic was also the magic that evolve from the light magic except it wasn't the small portion the ancestor of this family got.

nThe royal prince gave light magic to the ancestor of this family during the era when light magic was powerful, unlike the current era that the light magic was so weak.

nAlso, the difference between the death roses magic and the light magic was how the light magic got weaker as time goes by opposite from the death roses magic got more and more powerful as time passed.

nBut nothing in the novel mentioned the memory magic.

nHow did Marinette get such magic?

nSomewhere under the same moon, one was sleeping cozy under the blanket, one was training and a few people were running from their death.

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"Everyone, run!!! No matter what, we need to meet lady Marinette before we die.

" a group of people in the white priest suit ran from the man with the sword chasing them running on the roof.

nThey ran into the forest shivering in fear, the baby was crying in one person's arm but the mother didn't have any time to comfort her own baby as she ran for her life.

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"You have nowhere to run.

"

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"Who--who are you?!

" the man who was the tallest in the group turned his back gripping his sword tightly afraid of the sword slipping away as he asked the man with blonde hair stained with the blood of all people he had killed on the way.

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"If I tell you, will you die?

"

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"I don't care who you are but you won't get anything out of killing us...

"

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"Oho? Really? But hey, do I need a reason to kill my obstacle?

"

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"Huh--

"

nHis surprised face dropped on the ground without him saying goodbye to his newborn kid yet, his eyes stared at the man with blonde hair taking off his mask as it was dripping with blood.

nIt was Richard.

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"Tsk. Tsk. You should have stayed in the church...*sigh* I really don't want to kill Marinette's people and that innocent baby...

" he looked down at those people kneeling at him asking him to spare their lives but their words didn't make him interested a bit.

nHe yawned and covered his mouth with one hand and the other hand killed all of them at once except the baby.

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"Such troublesome. You, pick up the baby and find someone to raise him. Teach it to be an assassin too.

" he ordered one of his shadow guards behind him and the baby vanished in a split second.

nRichard smirked sitting on all of those corpses and then brought out a paper from his pocket.

nHe crossed all of the names of people he marked underline, there were only four more people remaining.

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"I can't let them ruin my new toy. She's more interesting this way, she shouldn't know anything about her past life.

" he giggled and then walked away from the corpses without noticing the one survivor pretending to die buried in all of those corpses.

n'I won't let you succeed, prince. It is our mission we've been assigned to in this life...to...to inform her everything about her past life.' gritting his teeth shivering in fear couldn't do anything against that monster.

nThanks to the priest's necklace, the priest survived the cut of the sharp sword of the crown prince.

nBut...when he took a deep breath in relief that he survived, a sound of the stepping suddenly got louder as it came close by, the corpse he used to hide himself suddenly moved and a man with blonde hair smirked at him.

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"Found you!!

"

nWho was that blonde-haired man? Did Richard come back or another person?

nTo be continued....!

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