The Devil's Betrothed novel Chapter 202

Chapter 202: Not A Dream But Memories

Oriana asked hesitantly, "Then, what are real witches?"

Yorian started to explain, but his next words were not what she expected. "Do you know of scholars?"

"Uhh, yes?"

"What do scholars do?"

Oriana blinked in a daze, but despite her confusion, she tried to come up with an answer. "They are intellectuals, ranging from philosophers to officials to scribes and teachers...."

The elf nodded. "Correct. And the very foundation of their knowledge is that they are able to read and write. Witches are equivalent to scholars among the supernatural beings. As I said, witches are a race, and they are the race of the ancient seekers of truth. They understand the rules of the world better than any other race. They are always seen studying, experimenting, reading books or talking with other witches to verify the truth.

"Witches are able to ’read’ magic, understand how the world works, and ’write’ or ’rewrite’ them through spells. That is why we told you before that a witch who doesn’t know spells isn’t really considered a witch.

"Other races depend on natural talent. Example, a mermaid can only live in the water and use water-attribute magic, or a person from the feathered race can only transform between human and bird form. However, for witches, as long as they understand the ’rules’ of those innate magic, they can mimic them and use a wider variety of magic.

"As scholars, each of them has a particular specialty, some focus on making potions, others on summoning familiars, or divining the future, and there are rare witches who could do a little of everything. Martha, for example, she can cast illusion magic, and she can also cast low-level barriers. She also has basic knowledge on potion-making, thanks to the senior witches who taught her."

Yorian’s words overturned everything Oriana pictured in her head.

After meeting the wizards, especially after sensing the familiar black magic from them, the young woman could not help but imagine that witches were similar to them, evil and bloodthirsty assassins.

"Uhm, but you told me Miss Martha is different from me because I’m a Black Witch?"

"Indeed. It is a matter of attribute," Yorian agreed. "Other races, like fairies, have the attributes of nature like fire, water, wind and earth. Witches don’t. According to legends, when your race was created, the progenitors are blessed by two different factions, thus granting them the rarer attributes of light and darkness. Those with the light attribute are called White Witches, and those with the darkness attribute are called Black Witches.

"The difficulty in educating you, child, lies with the fact that spells of the White Witches are different from the Black Witches. To put it into example, it’s like cooking meat. A White Witch ’boils’ meat, while a Black Witch ’roasts’ meat. Though Martha can teach you how to ’boil meat’ in theory, you cannot learn it since you two have different attributes. Does that make sense?"

Oriana nodded helplessly. That meant, despite being also a witch, Martha could not help her control the hateful darkness attribute in her magic.

"Uhm, my lord, do you not know where I can find another Black Witch?" Oriana asked.

"Unfortunately, neutral Black Witches are uncommon in the human kingdoms," the elf replied. "You might have guessed this, but the reason why witches have a bad reputation were mostly caused by evil witches with a darkness attribute. Not to mention, there are also those wizards—who are black magic practitioners often confused with warlocks.

"It almost caused everyone with black magic to be hunted and shunned, even by their fellow brothers or sisters. Covens—that is what we call the scholarly circle or group of like-minded witches—often discriminate against Black Witches. Even if Agartha...alas, let’s talk about that place another time.

"What I’m saying is, it is hard to find you a teacher as the witch race has a very, very small population. For every twenty witches, only one warlock is born. In every couple, they mostly only give birth to a single offspring. Out of every hundred babies, only one is born with the darkness attribute. Imagine how small the number of your kind is.

"But what you must understand is that you, Oriana, are not inherently evil. Your power is not evil. You should not fear your magic. How you decide to use your power, it is all up to you."

After they had finished that small session, Yorian left, leaving Oriana with mixed feelings about what she heard.

"May I ask what’s bothering you?" Seren asked.

Oriana looked at her, feeling puzzled as to why Seren had suddenly asked her this.

"You look unusually quiet today, unlike how you are always," Seren added.

Oriana herself was not aware why she was feeling this way. Was she confused, sad or disappointed? She couldn’t understand anything.

"Maybe I am just exhausted with all these unexpected events happening these days. I will be fine soon once I get used to it."

"If you say so," Seren replied, "but if anything is there, you can talk to me. I don’t treat you like a servant but someone I can relate to. You can always talk to me."