To the rest of the world, I was Princess Sylphiri, the proud arch-mage and high-born daughter of the high elven lineages. But inside the cold, obsidian walls of the Umbral Sovereignty of Malgora, my reality was entirely different. Here, my official title was simpler, yet infinitely heavier.
I was Raizael's royal assistant. And more than that, I was the only person on this entire volcanic mountain who had truly watched him grow up.
The high elves of our clan had surrendered themselves to the demon kingdom years ago, acting as political supporters to save our own skin. My father, a deeply greedy and calculating elf, had practically sold our own people to the mad Demon King Atlas to secure a position as the King's personal advisor. That political alignment was the sole reason I was brought to this terrifying castle as a child. While the other high elven children shook with absolute terror at the mere mention of the royal demon bloodline, I walked through these halls beside my father, matching his calculated strides.And that was how I met Raizael.
We were childhood friends, though back then, he was an absolute nightmare to deal with. He was a fragile, arrogant brat who aggressively pushed away any support I tried to offer. He hated his lineage, hated his weakness, and took his frustrations out on everyone around him. But I couldn't bring myself to leave his side. I had seen him without any parental guidance whatsoever. His mother was entirely absent, locked away in her own grief, and his father, King Atlas, was always distant, constantly out of the castle conquering the surrounding estates. Raizael had been completely alone in the dark. He was always away from me, drowning in his own bitter isolation, completely refusing to let me comfort him.
[ORIGINAL STORY MAP NOTE]
In the original, unedited script of 'The Cosmic Prophecy of Celestrix', Princess Sylphiri's role was simple: she was meant to act as Raizael's long-suffering assistant, her patience steadily wearing thin due to his constant, toxic tantrums. Eventually, when the Hero Caelum Sol-Zenith arrived at the borders, his righteous goals and heroic demeanor were supposed to move her heart, causing her to permanently abandon Raizael's side to join Caelum's vanguard. But on Raizael's eighteenth birthday, the reincarnation of the new host completely shattered that timeline before it could even begin.
I don't know what happened to Raizael on his eighteenth birthday. It was as if a completely different soul had suddenly taken possession of his body. The bitter, insecure brat who used to throw tantrums and lock himself away completely vanished. In his place stood a calm, terrifyingly mature mastermind with realistic, piercing crimson eyes that looked as if they could see right through the fabric of reality itself.
I remembered the exact morning the shift happened. I had walked into his private study, bracing myself for his usual sharp remarks as I placed a heavy stack of boring territorial reports onto his mahogany desk.
Instead of snapping at me, Raizael had paused. He looked up, his crimson eyes locking onto mine with an unprecedented, deep level of sincerity.
"Thank you, Sylphiri," he said softly, a gentle, genuine smile playing on his lips. "For always staying by my side. I know I haven't been easy to deal with, but... I am truly grateful you never left."
My breath caught in my throat, the parchment slipping from my fingers as my face instantly burned a bright, chaotic pink. A single, sincere apology and thank-you from him had sent a violent jolt straight to my core. I had already harbored faint, hidden childhood feelings for him, feelings I had buried deep beneath my professional demeanor, but his sudden maturity caused those emotions to violently bloom.
He didn't just stop at being polite, either. Over the weeks that followed, Raizael had completely changed his behavior around me, turning into a smooth, shameless flirt who knew exactly how to dismantle my composure.
I vividly remembered a few days later when I was trying to explain a complex magic array report to him. I was leaning over his desk, pointing at the blueprints, when Raizael suddenly leaned forward, closing the distance between us until his chest was practically brushing against my shoulder.
"You know, Sylphiri..." Raizael had whispered, his breath hot and dangerous against my pointed elven ear, causing me to shudder violently from head to toe. "A beautiful arch-mage like you shouldn't spend all her time staring at boring ink and parchment. If you keep looking at those papers instead of me, I might start getting incredibly jealous."
"R-Raizael! Be serious!" I had stuttered, my heart hammering against my ribs as I backed away, my ears twitching with intense arousal and embarrassment while he simply let out a low, deeply attractive chuckle. He was pulling me into his orbit, and I was completely, utterly powerless to resist the dark magnetism of the man he had become.
Yet, despite his sudden change for the better, there was a calculated danger to his actions. He was hiding a massive, monumental secret from me.
My thoughts were violently dragged back to the quiet, dim corridor just outside his private master suite a few weeks ago. I stood completely frozen in that dark hallway, my back pressed hard against the cold, unyielding obsidian wall. My hands were clutched tightly over my mouth, my heart hammering so violently against my ribs that I was certain it would burst through my chest.
From the other side of the heavy, carved chamber doors, the wet, echoing sounds of unbridled passion tore through the silence of the corridor with absolute, terrifying clarity.
"Ah... Raizael... please..."
It was the voice of Morrigan, the highly celebrated, fallen Holy Maiden of the Celestrix Empire. She was letting out loud, completely uninhibited cries of pure ecstasy, sounds that were entirely unbecoming of a sacred saintess. Every desperate moan, every breathless gasp, and the heavy, rhythmic movement of their bodies inside that room confirmed the absolute reality.
The boy I had grown up with was permanently gone. The new Raizael was a savior disguised as a villain, a man who was systematically rewriting the fate of the entire continent from the comfort of his own bed. Standing outside that door, a chaotic mixture of intense jealousy, raw arousal, and absolute awe flooded my veins. And as his assistant, and the woman whose heart he had thoroughly captured, I knew there was no turning back. I was going to follow him straight into the abyss.
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