Chapter 1

***

Lestia pulled her small body close to the corner of the cottage, looking nervously at the struggling adults.

“You mean, you can’t pay back the money?”

“Sorry, I’m sorry.”

Her uncle kept his head down against the vicious-looking thugs.

Apparently, her uncle borrowed money again and could not pay it back. It had happened often, but this was the first time the gangs had come to their house to collect money like this. The sight of them threatening him made Lestia’s legs shake, unsure of what to do.

“Please. My house is in ruins, and I don’t have any money.”

“If you can’t pay back the money, you’ll have to do it with your body. One silver for each finger. That’s a total of twenty silvers, if you add up your toes. That way you’ll pay back everything.”

The thug chuckled and pulled out a bright blue dagger, threatening her uncle.

“Ahhh!”

“Please! No!

Lestia shouted in surprise as her uncle screamed loudly as the gangsters grabbed him. That was the only way an 11-year-old child could protect her uncle. Suddenly, her uncle seemed to have noticed something and pointed at Lestia and said.

“Oh! How about my niece instead of me, then the money…..?”

Only then did the thugs confirm Lestia’s existence and look at her in unison. Lestia’s breath seemed to catch in her throat at the calculating glances of the adults who seemed to be putting a price on her.

“She will be useful. Even that girl’s mother sold herself.”

Only then could Lestia understand what her uncle was saying.

Now her uncle was trying to sell her in exchange for paying off his debt.

“Uncle Sa….!”

“Oh, yes. This girl is worth the money. She’ll be quite a beauty when she grows up. Well, it looks like I can sell her before then.”

The thug who was holding the dagger smirked and walked over to Lestia.

“Ah….no!”

Lestia shuddered and squirmed in fear.

Living in a dump or not, even a 3 year old knew what being sold was. Lestia didn’t want to go to such a place where she would have to live an inhuman life until she died, even if it meant living one day at a time with her drunken uncle, getting beaten every day.

“Uncle! Uncle! I’ll work harder to sell flowers. I won’t be lazy anymore. Please.”

Lestia begged aloud, expressing her usefulness to her uncle who was her only protector.

But her uncle was more than a little annoyed.

“Shut up! Follow me quietly. If I’ve fed you and put you to bed, you must return the favor.”

“Uncle…!”

In the end, Lestia was grabbed by the gangsters and helplessly led out of the cottage.

It was a dark night, even the moon was obscured by clouds. There was a blizzard blowing so fiercely that she could not see an inch of the world outside. The little girl, who was driven outside by the will of others, was sorrowfully cold and horribly afraid of everything.

But that didn’t mean she wanted to give up on her life.

‘No. I don’t want to be sold like this.’

Lestia ended up biting the back of the thug’s hand that was holding her, like a young beast in distress.

“Ah! This d*mn girl!”

The thug got angry and threw Lestia straight into the snowfield.

“Ugh!”

Lestia’s skinny little body rolled on the floor, wretched with cold and pain.

“She’s stubborn. I’ll have to teach her how to be obedient.”

“Hey, that girl is a commodity from now on. Take it easy.”

“Easy? I’ll teach her exactly what will happen if she messes up again. Only then will she be easy to handle from now on.”

The thug with a bitten hand approached Lestia, threatening her.

“Ah…!”

Lestia was terrified and stood up, gritting her teeth to escape. But she couldn’t get up. It seemed that she had sprained her ankle in defiance, and her body was not moving as it should. There was no escape. Lestia’s gray eyes were hopelessly stained with a feeling of intense helplessness.

The thought of not being able to do anything on her own made her give up everything. It was a familiar thing, but facing that familiarity was sickeningly painful every time. Lestia sat helplessly, staring at the thug as he crept closer and closer to her. That was when it happened. An unidentified boy suddenly appeared and blocked the hand that threatened Lestia.

“Hey, get your hands off of her.”

The boy’s low voice that rang through the snowstorm was like a warning from a raging beast. The thugs gulped and looked at the boy. The figure hidden by the long robe was clearly that of a boy who had just entered puberty. Nevertheless, everyone in the position was overwhelmed and hardened by the words the boy uttered.

“Step away.”

Once more the warning was given, and a fierce gust of wind ripped off the cloth covering the boy’s face. Black hair, darker than the night sky, fluttered with snowflakes, revealing vivid golden eyes.

Lestia thought her breathing ceased for a moment, because the boy’s two beautiful eyes were staring at her. For the first time in her life, she saw the noble color of their eyes. The straight and clear gaze became a ray of light that pierced Lestia’s murky and cloudy silver-gray eyes like an arrow.

“What is this? If you don’t want to get hurt, child, don’t interfere with the adult’s business.”

The bully, who had slowed down by the boy’s spirit, threatened the boy with a bulging vein on his forehead as if he had finally come to his senses. The boy, however, was not the least bit shaken by the threat.

“I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”

It was at that very moment that flames rose from the boy’s hands.

Fire!

A blazing ball of fire struck the thug, drawing a brilliant and beautiful reciprocal under the pitch black night sky.

“Ahhhh!”

The thug who was hit directly by the fireball grabbed his arm and fell to the snowfield, screaming. Then he rolled around on the floor to put out the fire on his body.

“Hey! Is he a wizard? Why is there a wizard here?”

Lestia stared in amazement at the boy standing in front of her. The boy was a wizard. Wizards who were not very common on the continent. The boy, who had revealed his tremendous identity, threatened the stone-hardened thug.

“If you touch her one more time, I will burn you alive.”

At the boy’s warning, the thugs all scurried back in unison, and finally they all dashed away.

“Oh my god, Lysian. Gerard told you to bring your sister back quietly.”

When did he show up? A graceful young man with a slender stature approached the boy called Lysian.

“No one is dead, is there? That’s fine.”

The young man shook his head and moved closer to Lestia as Lysian crossed his arms with a slight twist of his lips. Lestia thought that the young man’s short, neat lemon colored hair and emerald eyes made her feel strangely warm in the cold.

“I’m sorry, you must have been frightened.”

He said in a gentle voice as he bent down, keeping eye level with Lestia.

“It’s all right. It was just magic earlier.”

“Huh…?”

It was just magic.

Lestia had never seen anything like this before in her life. But the young man said something increasingly unbelievable in a gentle tone, as if it was insignificant.

“I didn’t expect to meet you in this way, but I’m glad I did. We finally met, my sister. I’m your brother.”

“What? My brother?”

Lestia blinked her big eyes with a confused expression.

“Yes, that’s right. I’m your second brother Joel, and this is Lysian, the youngest in my family. Well, you’re the youngest now.”

It was unbelievable. Lestia was the daughter of a guest house prostitute. A drunkard located in the slums, she barely survived by selling flowers in her uncle’s hut. Such a lowly girl like her could not be the sister of the noblemen in front of her.

“Um…..I think you’ve misunderstood something. I can’t possibly have brothers.”

“No, Lestia. It’s you. You have silver-gray irises and creamy white hair. I’m sure you’re the youngest we’re looking for.”

Lestia was surprised to hear her name come out of Joel’s mouth. It was a name that not even her only blood uncle could call her properly.

“How do you know my name?”

“Your brother needs to know your name, doesn’t he?”

Joel smiled and gently reached out to touch Restia’s crumpled white hair. Then a pleasant gust of wind blew and lightly brushed away the snowflakes from Lestia’s body.

Lestia looked at her body in surprise. Everything that was cold and wet from rolling around in the snowfield was gone.

“This is magic too.” Lestia spoke.

“My sister, you’re smart. Lysian can make fire, I can create wind.”

Two noble wizards. They claimed to be her brothers. Lestia could not believe the claim of the nobles in front of her. However, Joel continued speaking with conviction in his voice.

“We can talk about the details at home. There’s a lot to talk about.”

“Home?”

“Yes. We are going to our home, Lestia.”

Joel said so, carefully reaching out his big hands and lifted Lestia, who was sitting in the snow.

“Oh, you are too light. How old are you now? Aren’t you eleven?”

An involuntary groan escaped from Lestia’s mouth instead of a reply. At this small moan, Joel’s gentle eyes, which had been gently watching Lestia, darkened and sank.

“Lestia, excuse me for a moment,” Joel said as he quickly pulled up the sleeves of Lestia’s dress.

Her clothes, too thin and saggy to wear in the middle of winter, showed her skin too easily. Then there were the blue bruises that grew like fungus on her pale skin. They were bruises from the beating her uncle had given her daily. Joel’s eyebrows instantly crumpled.

“This… Who did this to you?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Lestia hastily pulled down the sleeves of her dress. For her body, it looked like a rag that this beautiful and elegant person should not have touched.

Joel said, comforting Lestia, who was as sharp as a hedgehog.

“I see. Lestia. You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to. But your ankle hurts now too, doesn’t it?”

Lestia blushed. She had managed to stand, but her posture seemed to have been discovered.

“Let’s get you home and get you fixed up.” Joel emphasized gently again.

“But my house….” Lestia’s lips quivered.

She closed it quickly and tightly. There was no way she could verbally say that the cottage where her uncle had sold her off was her home. Just then, she heard her uncle’s voice from the back.

“Look! You guys! She’s my niece! Where do you think you are taking her without my permission!”