Chapter 2: Devil general

years after the downfall of the dragon realm.

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"You will have to marry him, you are not in the position to refuse this. You’ll have to be useful to our household for once!" Duke Gerold Villden rebuked his daughter who glared angrily at him for his decision to marry her off in place of her elder sister, to a man rumored to be hideous and ruthless.

"But father, I wasn’t the one chosen, but Zoorah. She is the eldest among us! The emperor had clearly given his words, why are you sending me in sister’s place?"

"Because you’ve brought nothing but bad luck to our household ever since the day you were born! You have no use for our family nor do you possess any useful powers to add to our rank in society!" Gerold yelled at his second daughter, Rheanna who looked and acted nothing like any of his other children.

He must have committed some great sins in his previous life to be cursed with a silver haired rebellious daughter like Rheanna, she had brought nothing but bad luck to his family.

Rhea looked at her father with slight rage evident in her black orbs, but not affected by his harsh words. Well, he wasn’t wrong. She was a useless piece of trash in a realm were everyone possessed magic, while she had none, but a little ice spike, which was a useless thing to possess in a realm where respect and wealth were determined by ones magical powers. She was the disgrace of the Duke’s mansion that nobody cared for, but that didn’t mean she’d agree to marry in place of her sister.

"Father do you hear yourself? What do you think would happen if the Emperor of Birhhan finds out you tricked him by giving your second daughter instead of your first? I will not marry the devil general, and that’s final!"

"You are in no position to refuse, you will do as I say, Rhea!"

Rhea chuckled bitterly in the face of her father’s outburst, "Father, do you hate me this much? Although I might not possess any useful powers, but how could you do this to..."

"You should consider yourself lucky, little monster." Came Selena’s voice from the entrance, she was the first wife of the Duke, also Rhea’s stepmother, "General Jurian has achieved a lot right from his young age, shouldn’t you be happy and honored to be his wife soon?"

Rhea didn’t know if she should laugh or cry at her step mother’s words, she scoffed, "If you think it’s something to consider lucky, then why don’t you let your daughter, Zoorah marry him?"

Selena’s face contoured in anger, but when she remembered this curse of a marriage no longer falls on her daughter anymore, she smirked then said, "Because you and the devil general will be a perfect match, a little monster for a monster, don’t you think?"

Rhea really felt the urge to strangle this woman in front of her. Just because she was born different, she had been labeled as a monster. And now she would have to be the one to marry a man like the devil general?

Impossible! In all the twenty years of her life, all she’d ever heard about the general were bad things. Just yesterday, she’d heard some people talking in the city about him,

"Have you heard? Devil general has won the battle against the beast realm, and he is coming to the capital of Birhhan."

"Oh heavens! I heard he does not only eat raw meat, but also drinks his enemy’s blood for a meal everyday."

"He’s so scary, and I heard his majesty summoned him back because he wanted to reward him with a wife for his loyalty and countless victories."

"Disgusting! Any woman who ends up being his wife would surely be doomed, who would marry a hideous person like the devil general?!"

General Jurian Qieldan was rumoured to be ugly, no one had ever seen his face as he was known to always wear a mask to hide his hideous appearance. In the capital, even a toddler would stop crying when the general’s name was mentioned, it was said he had been at the battlefield for so long, and as he grew up killing, his temper was so violent that killing was a way of relieving his anger.

The people of Birhhan were repulsed of him and called him names. They also treated him like a deadly disease due to his hideous appearance, avoiding him like a plague, but despite that, he remained loyal to his land and served them by protecting them from the other realms on the battlefield. Though they respected his abilities and prowess, no one could stop people’s mouths from gossiping.

Due to his ways of killing ruthlessly in the battlefield. They called him...

The devil general.

He lived far away from the capital of Birhhan in a small village far off the borders of the realm. Due to his steadfast loyalty, the Emperor of Birhhan decided to bestow upon him a wife, However the Emperor had no daughters of suitable age, so this task fell to his step brother Gerold Villden who had many daughters, Hence the Emperor had issued a decree for the Duke’s first daughter, Zoorah to be married to the General Jurian Qieldan.

"Why our household of all the families? How can I let my beloved daughter marry a man rumoured to be the devil?!" The Duke had rebuked in rage as he received the decree. He had four daughters, and among them his first daughter, Zoorah was the most intelligent, and most skilled with her powers, she was also the family backbone, and the beautiful delicate flower of society. How could he give her away?

As lord Gerold was in despair after receiving the news, his first daughter came running inside his study room with a tear stained face, "Father! I don’t want to marry the devil general!"

"Yes, my lord. Zoorah can’t marry that man. She’s the flower of society and the pride of our household, her magic powers are on peak, and most of all, she’s your favorite daughter. You can’t do this to her." Selena cried as she walked inside the room and dramatically went on her knees to plead with her husband.

"I can’t go against the Emperor’s decree, Selena. He had specifically said in the decree that it should be my first daughter. I also can’t watch Zoorah be wedded to that man, but there’s nothing I can do now."

"But my lord, his majesty has never seen any of your daughters before. What if we send that rebellious daughter of yours to the general’s mansion instead, think about it, Rhea has no use for our family. With the way she’s becoming hard to handle, it would be best to send her away before she kills another person just like she did twenty years ago to her own birth mother."

Hearing his wife’s words, Gerold thought about it for awhile. His second daughter had been possessed by something on the day she was born, and he believed whatever it was, was nothing but pure evil, he had only been keeping her in his mansion for the sake of it, but she’d brought nothing but bad luck to him, she was also the reason his beloved second wife had been frozen to death after giving birth to her twenty years ago.

Furthermore, She’d brought nothing but disgrace to his household. If she wasn’t caught stealing in the city, she would be caught fighting like a savage dog outside. She was just like a curse thrown into the Villden household.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to give her away to the devil general to rid the family of an evil and useless daughter.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read