Moonlight Ball

“Teacher,” Iris uttered in an extremely quiet voice.

Elaine shook his head. He had no intention of hearing the dissuasion of his young daughter. “We’ll see what happens and everyone involved in this will pay the price!” He reaffirmed, sounding truly angry.

Iris remained in bed for the remainder of the day, under the guise of being sick. Fortunately, her excuse for being sick worked and nobody bothered her. Truth be told, everyone was grateful to avoid her because of Queen Rosemary’s personality, which was fierce. The maids walked carefully with their heels up, and everyone hid or lowered their heads when the Queen appeared, afraid of making eye contact.

Was the queen happy with the way they behaved around her? Iris wondered.

Iris sat in her pajamas in bed waiting for her teacher and gazed at the woman in the mirror in the distance. She was so beautiful in the moonlight that she didn’t even look like a human being. The moonlit enhanced her white flawless skin and her dazzling blue eyes seemed to contain all the secrets of the world.

Iris climbed out of bed and walked slowly towards the mirror. She looked at the woman reflecting at her and raised her hand. The woman in the mirror copied her, and the two hands touched, with the mirror between them.

Why did such a beautiful woman behave so harshly?

“What are you doing?” Elaine asked, and she turned towards his voice coming from behind her. Iris did not hesitate anymore. She ran and jumped into the arms of her father and teacher.

“Teacher!” She squealed with delight.

“Iris!” Elaine hugged her as if he’d never let her go again. It was a bit awkward to hug Rosemary’s body though, but he wanted to hug her tighter knowing that Iris was in it. Oh my God. Of all the bodies, why did you go into Rosemary’s body? Elaine felt so sorry for Iris when he thought about her future.

“Teacher, how did you know? How did you know it was me?” Iris asked him what she was most curious about. It had taken a long time for even her to figure out what had happened to her, but the reverent teacher immediately understood the situation. How did he do that? Elaine smiled broadly at Iris for a moment.

Soon, everyone would find out why the Queen was acting strange if she continued to behave like Iris. Rosemary was not like Iris at all. She was always extravagant and didn’t want to be unnoticed. How could Iris live as Rosemary? Iris hated to stand out more than anything else. Elaine had to deal with this, but first, there was something he needed to ask, “How did you end up meeting with the Queen?” What reason did Iris meet the queen? It was difficult for Elaine to understand.

Iris was unaware, but Elaine never let go of his only daughter and disciple entirely. He set up a workshop in a place with good security, and even if the process was difficult, he only chose a request that would not have a big political issue for her. Elaine knew all the details of all the requests that Iris made because she was only commissioned through the Magic Tower. No matter how hard he thought about it, Iris and Rosemary shouldn’t have had a reason to come into contact.

“She said she came to make a request.”

“Request?”

“Yes,” Iris replied meekly.

“Through the Magic Tower?”

At Elaine’s sharp question, Iris briefly thought about something and shook her head. “Of course, I assumed it would be through the Magic Tower. No visitors come to see me unless it’s through the Magic Tower. But I didn’t look at the Tower’s requests.”

“Why did you do that? Didn’t I ask you to always check the request forms?” Elaine asked sternly.

Iris shook her head, “I was going to say no to her.”

She’d lied from the beginning saying that she was a disciple of Iris Elaine with the intention of refusing the Queen’s request. So there was no reason to ask for a request form because she had no intention of hearing the queen’s request at all.

“I’ll look into this. I need to find out how the Queen knew you. We’d better approach this from the tower. Also, now that you don’t have tattoos, it’s going to be quite difficult for you to use your magic. Take this.” Elaine handed Iris a bracelet carved out of solid ivory. “Unless you look closely, you wouldn’t know, but there are many letters written on it. It’s not as good as getting a tattoo on the body, but while you have it on your body, it will assist you to use magic.”

“Teacher….” Iris’s face was distorted because it was so obvious that her teacher must have made it quickly for her. She tried to embrace her teacher again, wanting to thank him, but he unexpectedly pushed her to bed and the ivory bracelet clanged as it fell on the stone floor. Iris plopped down on the bed.

“Someone’s coming! See you tomorrow night!” he whispered. Before Elaine’s body vanished into the air, he instructed her quickly, “Never let it be known that you are Iris. The Queen has many enemies. Don’t trust anyone but me, all right?!” Elaine’s body completely disappeared in the dark without giving her a chance to answer.

It was Sidrain, a strong red-haired man, who barged through the door after banging on it. He strode along with a very unpleasant and irritable-looking face. He growled as he grabbed Iris’s wrist. Her eyes shot open in surprise at him because he’d come in the middle of the night.