“Do you know who killed my wife? If not, could you tell me will my revenge be successful?”

“I’m sorry but I have no idea who was the culprit nor will you get your revenge or not, but I can tell you this. If that’s truly your desire, you will get something and that will definitely help you.”

Hmm, that was quite the funny face you made there, king. From sorrow to curious to happy and back to curious. Are you sure the king should be this transparent? But maybe he was just loosening up because he didn’t need to keep his mask in here… I was so jealous!

“Okay, let’s start the real deal. But I need to tell you this. Currently, you’re passed the criteria for receiving the reward, but I really want to listen to more of your story. Would you like to stop here or would you give me one more story before we’re done?”

“Don’t worry, sir. I’m going to tell you this story no matter what. If I’m lucky you might show me some sympathy and help me a bit more.”

The king was laughing after telling his own joke, but he was going to be disappointed if he knew that I didn’t have sympathy in my dictionary. I almost smiled at the thought but held it down in time. 

“Then, tell me your story.”

—

In Whiteland, people didn’t regard someone who could use magic higher than others because the abundance of mana stones lets everyone use magic as much as they want. But there was still one type of mages that everyone regards highly which is fire mages. 

Because the affinity of the elements mages could wield was determined when they were born and affected by their environment, fire mages rarely born in Whiteland. Unless you were the royalty which had the largest fire mana stone inside the castle to help newborn adapt to fire mana, the probability of having fire affinity was lower than one in a thousand.

But when someone with fire affinity was discovered, they would be employed by the country to work in the army or in the castle depending on their age and gender. And one of the people who was brought to the castle was Sinclair, the young girl with bright red hair and amber eyes who was found alone in the middle of a snowfield.

Whether this was fortunate or not, Sinclair was a little younger than Prince Malvis who was considered a prodigy in magic but she was able to beat the prince in every sparring match they did. So, Malvis considered Sinclair as his rival that he needed to beat one day. This was when Malvis was 9.

Sadly, Sinclair was a woman otherwise she would be a really good addition to the army. Her gender prevented her to grow in rank; at most she would be a lieutenant until she retired and Malvis knew this really well; on his 12th birthday he asked the king to make Sinclair his personal guard as a present. Malvis thought he was attached to Sinclair because of his rivalry but every grown ups knew what happened and started to prepare the girl to fit into royalty, but not all of them were happy about that.

Whiteland might be the country that values talents more than nobility or bloodline, but many nobles still tried to grow talents within their families to improve their social standing. And Sinclair was like a gem to them, they didn't care about her background since she was raised in the castle and had proper education about etiquette. She could even beat that monster in human skin called Malvis, many ambitious nobles tried to get her into their families but the prince made that impossible now.

Bad things happened when no one expected it to happen. One night was enough for the country to be turned upside down, their beloved king passed away. Turned out the king's mana had leakage which shortened his lifespan and he had been suffering from this for many years now, he had tried everything he could to extend his life long enough for Malvis to grow up and become capable of governing the country. At the age of 15, King Malvis ascended the throne with Sinclair as his queen.

Three years after King Malvis took the throne. If you went to Whiteland and asked its people how King Malvis was, they would smile and answer; the king and queen are really capable, but they are too lovey-dovey, it's kinda embarrassing as their people. Whiteland's king and queen were really powerful mages combined with their mana stones trading, everyone would say this was the most powerful country on this continent despite their small population. But a tragic event happened in this prosperous country once again.

The sorrow started to spread through the people of Whiteland in just one night and their king was filled with nothing but rage. Sinclair, the Red Queen of Snow was assassinated during her travel to the Great Forest to investigate the rumored Lonely Flower. King Malvis tried his best to find the mastermind behind this, it was impossible for Sinclair to be killed that easily. He walked along her traveling route to the Great Forest and back, just to be disappointed by the lack of any clue or evidence other than the fact that Sinclair was killed by just a single stroke of the blade. This should reduce the number of suspects down a lot but Malvis couldn't do anything because those people had a lot of backing which prevented him from investigating any further.

Two years after the incident, by this point Malvis memorized all of the suspect's names into his heart and swore to give the culprit and their backing fate worse than death. 

The day after Sinclair's remembrance day, King Malvis announced that Whiteland would start preparing for the incoming war. At first everyone thought their king had gone mad from sorrow, but to their surprise King Malvis was resolute and firm on this decision. War was inevitable…