Chapter 1

It has been 10 years since I got reincarnated into this world, and I’m still waiting for a system window to pop up or something.

Walking down a hallway, I looked to my left, where my maid Clare was walking slightly behind me.

Clare is diligent, always professional, and takes her job very seriously. I couldn’t ask for a better maid.

These days I go by Rita Lucendi because I was born into a marquess family, which dates back to the beginning of this kingdom, called the Selendrai kingdom.

I have been learning whatever I could in my free time and from my tutors, which led to me being praised a lot and being called a genuine genius by the people around me because I learn things way faster compared to kids my age.

Overall, from what I have learned, this world is your stereotypical fantasy world. Tropes like monsters, magic, other races, etc. are common.

It didn’t take too long to learn the language because, surprisingly, it uses a lot of the same terminology as in my previous world.

Reading the books in my family's library about not just this kingdom but this world’s history, I compared it to the various games that are set in fantasy worlds, which I spent a lot of time playing in my past life. I have determined that this world is not any world that I recognize.

Honestly, those protagonists who got isekai to another world with a system had it easy, like having to learn a new language, which is a huge pain in the ass, or spending the first month of my life stressed out trying to figure out what's going on.

I want to cuss out the god who sent me here if there is one, or maybe the game devs who made this world.

Ending my internal grumblings, I stopped and stared out the window to see a slightly older blue-eyed boy with the same hair color as I do, silver. It was my older brother Eric.

His hair starts to glow white, and white electricity starts to form at the tips of his fingers. After a bit, he fires the white electricity like a thunderbolt at a straw target. It was immediately destroyed, leaving a burn mark on the ground. Then he began charging up to fire at another straw target.

When I saw magic for the first time, I genuinely smiled for the first time thinking of all the fun things I could do with magic. It was such an odd sight that Clare’s seriousness and stone-faced demeanor turned into complete shock when I smiled. Probably because I've been told in my past life that my sister Norn and I don’t show a lot of emotion, and it carries over to this life.

Due to this, the other servants in the manor are always afraid of me. A kid who doesn’t smile and doesn’t act her age is creepy to them. It caused rumors to start spreading about me being cursed or something.

However, these days I have learned to plaster on a smile every day so I don’t creep out the servants. It took five etiquette tutors and a lot of work for me to figure out how to plaster on a smile and then some to make it look genuine.

Thinking about those tutors, I kind of felt bad for them. I basically brought each and every one of them into tears whenever they tried, and that was just smiling. I don’t want to think about what would happen to them if they were going to teach me other facial expressions.

Anyway, speaking about my brother, he was back home from the Royal Academy because it was spring break, which lasted for about half a month. The royal academy, about a few days's ride on a carriage, is a prestigious school that all children of nobility go to.

It's a real shame; we don’t have much of a relationship with my older brother, and the same goes for the rest of my family.

I was born into a stereotypical noble family, with my mother only caring about money and my father only caring about influence and power.

Speaking of the Royal Academy, I’ve been hearing some interesting rumors about the academy.

There was a baron's daughter catching the attention of certain powerful and prominent male students in the academy, which also included my brother for some reason.

If I’m not wrong, this sounds exactly like the plot of an Otome game I have played before.

For some reason, I get the feeling that I just might be the villainess in that potential heroine story because not only my brother is caught up with that girl, but also my fiancee, who is the 3rd prince of this kingdom, was also caught up with her.

Let's not worry about it too much. I have a couple of months until I enroll in the Royal Academy, and I have more important things to care about today. Heck, I should be happy going to the Royal Academy because I’m going to have way more freedom at school than at home, and since this is a fantasy world, I always wanted to try out being an adventurer.

After I was done staring out the window at my brother training with his magic, I continued walking.

“Let's go”

“Yes, lady Rita.”

“How's the schedule for today?”

Today is a particularly special day, one that I have been anticipating for years now.

“You’ll be going to the church for your appraisal ceremony, then my lady will come back to inform the master and mistress of your magical power. And finally, my lady has three tutors for the rest of the day.”

I wore a frilly, light blue victorianish dress and some expensive jewelry that matched my silver hair and red eyes.

When a person turns 12, they go to the church to have their magical powers appraised.

Supposedly, in this kingdom and others like it, there is a legend that says the royals and nobles are the result of a union of humans and dragons, with the royals being the direct descendants of dragons, giving them the ability to use magic.

Whenever someone casts magic, their hair starts glowing. The more vibrant it glows, the more mana they have, almost like a gauge. And subsequently, if they have a low amount of mana or run out of mana the dimmer their hair glows.

A person's magic attribute is determined by their family's bloodline, with the Lucendi household having a history of birthing strong mages, mostly in the attribute of lightning.

Reaching the front door of my family’s manor, there was a carriage waiting for me outside.

A servant opened the carriage door, and I entered it with Clare.

I started looking at the scenery as the carriage started moving, internally waiting in excitement, wondering what kind of attribute I was going to get.

It took an hour till I saw fields of wheat with farmers tending to them, then the town itself.

After another hour, we reached a church that was at the center of the town. I stepped out of the carriage and was greeted by the senior pastor of this church.

"Greetings, Lady Rita, it’s an honor to welcome you to our humble chapel.”

He bowed his head, showing respect to me, and more specifically, my family name since we were the lords of the territory.

“I thank you for greeting us.”

I curtsy in response to his bow, and then I was escorted with Clare into the chapel.

From first impressions, it was large, closer to the size of a cathedral.

I have never really been to this chapel before because my family only follows the religion that would benefit them the most, which is one of the 12 main religions in this world called Zerefism, which worships the god Zeref.

Priests and priestesses were wearing white robes with yellow accents and praying to the statues of a goddess, another of the 12 main religions in this world.

She is the goddess Era, from the Eraism religion.

The stained glass above depicts her as a beautiful woman with blonde hair and wearing a more ornate version of the robes that the priests and priestesses are wearing. She holds a scale on her right and a book on her left to represent the divinity she represents, which is judgment and wisdom.

In this world, the gods are associated with a specific color. Looking at the other stained glass, there was one that showed a large group of gods with angels, about 75 in total, who are known as the old gods, each having their own unique color.

And contrasting them were demons wreaking havoc in this world in the next panel. Then another panel shows them fighting, and it leads to them driving off the demons back to their world.

It came at a cost, with most of the old gods being either killed or severely weakened by the war.

However, it led to a new era for the young gods to watch over the world, and new races were born from the weakened old gods, like humans, elves, dwarves, etc.

Strangely enough, the creations of dragons are different from those of other races since they predate them. There are only seven pure-blooded dragons in this world, each personally created by a different old god.

After I was done looking at the glass stains, the senior pastor opened the door to a room with a crystal ball on a pedestal.

“Lady Rita, please enter.”

He walked to the pedestal in the middle of the room and guided me to where to stand.

“Please put your hands on the artifact.”

Doing what he was told with some anticipation, I put my hand on the crystal ball, wondering what kind of magic I had. Will I get the attribute of electricity, like my father, or the attribute of water, like my mother?

The head priest's hair glows golden, activating the device, but he looks surprised when nothing happens.

“My apologies, lady Rita; it seems like there is something wrong.”

He checked the orb by looking at it for any damage, then using it on himself, for it glowed a golden light as he placed his hand on the orb.

“I apologize for the inconvenience; please try again.”

I placed my hand again on the orb, but still, nothing happened. After doing it a couple more times with nothing happening, worry turned to dread as I knew what he was going to say.

The senior pastor then spoke with a troubled look.

“Lady Rita, I’m afraid you do not have any magical powers.”

I stood there in a daze for a while. By the time I was out of it, I felt a stinging sensation across my left cheek.

It was my mother slapping my face.

“How dare you show yourself in front of me. I can’t believe I gave birth to complete trash.”

I looked at her, and then, around the room I was in, I realized I was back at my family's mansion in front of my father's desk, at his main office.

So… I have no magic; their reactions are what I kind of expected.

My mother, looking furious, sat back on the couch after slapping me.

As for my father, he was sitting at his desk with a cold, emotionless expression, but I could tell that he was thinking of ways to get rid of me because I was now a liability.

“Elza enough, there is no point talking to somebody who is worthless to us now.”

“But Lucius, we’re going to lose most of our standing and wealth because of her. I can’t believe I gave birth to someone as defective as her.”

“I know, we must hide the fact she can’t use magic as long as we can to limit the damage she has done to the family. I refuse to let this family be tarnished and have it fall to the level of those filthy lower nobles.”

A noble being born without magic is uncommon but expected. However, when it happens to a family that is part of the old nobility faction like mine, which was made up of families that were around at the beginning of the Selendria kingdom and had a strong bloodline of always-birthing magicians, most of their influence and power will be lost.

The reason why is that old nobility factions prioritize bloodlines above all else. If a child is born without magic, they will consider that family’s bloodline to be tainted, and the family will be excommunicated from the old nobility faction, which is mostly made up of upper aristocrats.

“Bernard, come”

“Yes, Lord Lucius.”

Bernard is my father's personal butler; he has been faithfully working here for the last 3 decades.

“Send her to the manor by the edge of the territory; make sure no one can find her. In the meantime, we are consolidating our assets, prioritizing the ones that are loyal to only us."

“As you command, my lord.”

Father then turned his face toward me, this time with a scowl, and said.

“Get out of my sight.”

I was led to a carriage by Bernard, having not had the opportunity to get my things. The carriage ride was non-stop, only stopping at inns at night. I was given a hood to cover my face, and Bernard didn’t say anything as he was taking me somewhere. Eventually, after a few days, we reach an old manor deep inside a forest.