"I greet the shining moon of the empire, Empress Rexa-"

"Oh my goodness! What happened to you Evanora!?" The Empress yelled in shock.

What just happened? What happened to me? What's going on?

"Your majesty, is something wrong?" I asked slightly, raising my head.

"Yes! Evanora, dear you are covered in blood! How could you move around like this?" The empress pointed out as I noticed, my expensive black gown was covered in dried blood and my beautiful black and silver heels were ruined. Of course there was blood all over my exposed skin which neither me or Sir Zaven noticed before we came here. Maybe we got too accustomed to blood.

"Call the imperial physician immediately!" the Empress ordered.

"Wait your majesty! This is not my blood!" I yelled to get everyone's attention who were rushing around to get the imperial physicians and doctors. They all stared at me, like I was crazy.

"Then did you take a blood bath?" the Empress asked as I sighed.

"Well, I was busy dealing with some thugs and human traffers. Which is why I couldn't attend to her majesty earlier. Of course I didn't want to show her majesty such a sight, but I couldn't ignore imperial order." I apologetically bowed down. "Please forgive me for this misunderstanding."

Forgiveness my ass! I wanna go home and sleep! Fuck you all and your imperial order!

"Oh my, you must have a hard day." the empress said with an unreadable expression as I just smiled at her. Empress Roxanna called one of her ladies in waiting and told her something. After the queen's order spread along the ladies in waiting, they all looked at me with a fiery expression.

"My lady, please come with us." one of the ladies said as she grabbed my arm. Oh my god, she has a strong grip.

"What? Where are we-" And before I could even finish, I was dragged away.

...

In at least half an hour I was dressed in 10 different dresses. When the ladies in waiting dragged me away, they were ordered by the queen to get me cleaned up. Of course my black dress, shoes and the cloak I usually wear were thrown away. Did I mention that the Empress favoured me because I was pretty? Of course it never happened in the original novel because Evanora didn't get many chances to catch people's eyes. She didn't finish her studies and neither achieved what she could, so no one even knew her as the Matriarch of Illusions. As my actions changed many things from the original plot, it even caused me to catch the empress' attention. But sometimes it just crosses the line.

"This dress was created just for you!" The empress smiled as I twirled around. I was wearing an A-line Lavender dress with a turtleneck and long sleeves with long flutters at the end of the sleeve. White silk material at the middle of the dress and purple silk was used over the white silk over the dress from the back and only the leaven from the open to keep the white silk visible. Of course it was decorated with jewels and other ornaments. The dress was simple and elegant, but why does the empress have dresses which fit me!?

Right, Empress Roxana is a sly and cunning person. All these years, she kept the throne to herself without passing it to the royal bloodline. Many said that the empress plans to pass the throne to another heir. And there were rumours that the empress was seeing a child. But not much information was found.

But for me she had a different intention. Beauty was an excuse. The military power, the army of the power, weapons and magicians are all needed equally in war. While 3 of the 4 halves are military power, 1 half is magicians. The advantage one country or empire has when they have magicians fighting is huge. Fire power, elemental, destructive energy and healing are all useful in the battlefield. As magicians are rare, Alastria was lucky to have the strongest magician Zaven Reamann by their side. And among the 3 halves of the military power, one half is the imperial army, another is the army of the Grand Duke Zehava which is Empress Roxana's family and the last one is Esmeray duchy's military strength.

While the Empress has the imperial army and the army of Grand duke Zehava, I was in the centre of both the Esmeray military strength and the tower of magic. As the magicians won't participate in war without the head magician's word, the Empress's order means nothing.

And Esmeray doesn't support any of the factors, so they had no intention of supporting the empress. If a war breaks out between the empress and the crown prince factions. It's obvious that the Esmeray military army will support the Crown Prince who is the son of the Emperor and first empress, he is the legitimate heir to the throne.

So if the Empress could win my favour, there will be hope for her to get her hands on the Esmeray military army and the tower of magic and currently I am second only to the head magician Zaven Reamann. But lucky for me, the empress' intentions are easy to read. And I have no intention to help the evil woman who tormented the crown prince and second prince all their life.

"Shall we try the next one now?" the Empress asked as I looked at her shocked! What do you mean by the next one?! Let me go! The empress lady in waiting ties the corset even tighter than Emily does. Do they want me to die from suffocation?

"It's quite surprising that you have prepared all this." I mentioned the dresses all over the dressing room.

"Well, your coming-of-age ceremony is coming. I heard the duke has been putting a lot of preparation on it. So while picking a gift for the lady, my eyes caught the latest trends among the young ladies and I decided to pick them up as well." Empress Roxana smiled. Even though she has aged, she looked flawless even though she was in her 40's, her chocolate brown hair now has a few white strands but she didn't lack elegance and grace. In every one of her movements she kept reminding me that she is the one I should be aware of.

"Her majesty is very kind and generous. I can't thank her majesty enough for these previous gifts." I said. I must get out of here!

"Oh don't be. I love to admire beauty, and consider this as my way of appreciating Lady Evanora." her sly smile sent chills down my spine! That's it! I must leave at once! I lowered my head to avoid being caught by anyone. A thin curtain-like thin layer fell in front of everyone's eyes who was in this room. This was an illusion, fortunately it took less mana.

"A summoning from the marquess has arrived. It seems like some urgent matter has happened in the tower. I must leave immediately." I said calmly, the curtain showed them what I wanted them to see. In this case, they are seeing a summoning from the marquess.

"Oh my that's a shame, I hope to see Lady Evanora once again. Send my regards to the Marquess and Duke Esmeray." the Empress said, as I smiled. As I walked out of the dressing room, the curtain showed them I teleported myself to the tower. After I got out of the Empress palace, away from guards and servants' eyes. I finally snapped my fingers to remove the curtain I had placed in front of their eyes. My eyes stopped glowing as soon as I stopped the spell. This is what Matriarch of Illusions was specialised on. Illusions. To be able to use illusions as distractions, defence, and attack I trained to be specialised on it. It was a higher study of magic that Marquess Reamann taught me. To be specialised in an element and something like illusions or other varieties. Of course, no one except the knowns about which element I am specialised in. I was titled Matriarch of illusion, but the biggest fun fact is that the title is also an illusion to hide my elemental magic from the public eye.

Ha! Marquess Reamann is just so amazing! No wonder I liked him when I read the novel. I walked in the forest connected to the garden in the imperial grounds as soon as I heard some guards walking. Walking around the forest under the moonlight was nice. But I realised that after a little while, I was lost. Too dependent on magic, I couldn't even find my own way out without magic!

"So cold!" I whined as I walked through the forest. The worst thing that can happen is meeting an ogre or a guard. After walking around for a while in the forest looking for a life force that won't kill me, I finally found something, or to be more exact someone. It was a guy, leaning on the tree trunk as he stayed on the ground. Huffing, trying to catch his breath even though he was not moving much. He was wearing black pants and a coat which was well designed and decorated well. Something like this only belongs to an aristocrat. His black hair was like the night sky and shined under the moonlight, even though I couldn't see his face, I was attracted.

Wait a minute, imperial palace ground + nice aristocrats clothes + black shining hair = the male lead crown prince Lucian De Conlaed Alastair!