Ch 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.

As I walked down the hallway, I looked to my left and saw my maid, Clare, 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, having been born into a marquess family that dates back to the founding of the Selendrai Kingdom.

I have been learning whatever I could in my free time, as well as from my tutors. This has led to me being praised often and even called a genuine genius by the people around me because I learn things much faster than other 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.

As I read books in my family's library about the history of this kingdom and the world itself, I compared what I learned to the various fantasy games I had spent so much time playing in my past life. I soon realized that this world was not one that I recognized.

Honestly, those protagonists who got isekai'd into another world with a system had it easy. Learning a completely new language was a huge pain in the ass, and I spent the first month of my life stressed out, trying to figure out what the hell was 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 looked out the window. There, I saw a slightly older body with the same shade of silver hair as me, and blue eyes that were the opposite of my red eyes.

His hair began to glow white as white electricity formed at his fingertips. After a moment, he fired it like a thunderbolt at a straw target. The target was immediately destroyed, leaving a burn mark on the ground.

He then began charging up another attack, preparing to fire at a second straw target.

When I saw magic for the first time, I genuinely smiled, thinking about all the fun things I could do with it. It was such an odd sight that Clare's usually serious and stone-faced demeanor turned into complete shock when she saw me smile.

Probably because I had been told in my past life that my sister Norn and I didn't show a lot of emotion, a trait that seemed to have carried over into 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 to 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 of my brother, he was back home from the Royal Academy for spring break, which lasted about half a month. The Royal Academy was a prestigious school located in the royal capital, a few days' carriage ride away. It’s where all children of nobility went to study.

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 what you could call a stereotypical noble family. My mother cared only about money, while my father cared only about influence and power.

Speaking of the Royal Academy, I’ve been hearing some interesting rumors over there.

There was a baron's daughter who had caught the attention of several powerful and prominent male students at the academy, including my brother, for some reason.

If I’m not wrong, this sounds exactly like the plot of a generic Otome game.

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

Let's not worry about it too much. I still have a couple of months before I enroll in the Royal Academy, and I have more important things to worry about right now. Heck, I should be looking forward to going there. I'll have much more freedom at school than I do at home, and since this is a fantasy world, I've always wanted to try 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 looking forward to for years. For that reason, I am wearing a very ornate and elaborate, frilly, light-blue Victorian-style dress, along with some expensive jewelry that matches my silver hair and red eyes.

“You’ll first be going to the church for your appraisal ceremony. Afterward, you’ll return home and inform the master and mistress of your magical power. Finally, you have three tutors scheduled for the rest of the day, my lady.”

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

Supposedly, this kingdom and others like it have a legend claiming that the royals and nobles are descendants of a union between humans and dragons. The royals, in particular, are said to be direct descendants of dragons, which grants them the ability to use magic.

Whenever someone casts magic, their hair begins to glow. The more vibrant the glow, the more mana they have, almost like a built-in gauge. Conversely, the less mana they have, the dimmer their hair becomes, and if they run out completely, the glow disappears.

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

When I reached the front door of my family's manor, I found a carriage waiting for me outside.

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

I looked at the scenery as the carriage began moving, excitement building inside me as I wondered what kind of attribute I would receive.

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, more specifically, my family name, since we were the lords of the territory.

“I thank you for greeting us.”

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

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

I had never really been to this chapel before, since my family only followed and donated to the religions that benefited them the most. One of them was Zerefism, one of the 12 major religions in this world, which worships the god Zeref.

Inside, I saw priests and priestesses dressed in white robes with yellow accents were praying before statues of a goddess, who was worshipped by another of the 12 major religions.

She is the goddess Era, from the Eraism religion.

The stained glass above depicted her as a beautiful blonde woman wearing a more ornate version of the robes worn by the priests and priestesses. She held a scale in her right hand and a book in her left, symbolizing the divine aspects she represented: 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.

In contrast, the next panel depicted demons wreaking havoc throughout this world. The panel after that showed them fighting the demons, eventually driving them back to their own world.

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

However, this marked the beginning of a new era, with the young gods taking over the responsibility of watching over the world. New races were also born from the weakened old gods, including humans, elves, dwarves, and others.

Strangely enough, dragons are different from the other races because 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.”

With some anticipation, I did as I was told and placed my hand on the crystal ball, wondering what kind of magic I had. Would I get my father's electricity attribute or my mother's water attribute?

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

“Huh? My apologies, Lady Rita; it seems like there is something wrong.”

Looking confused but only showing that expression for the briefest moment, which I noticed, he quickly checked the orb by looking at it for any damage, then used 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 on the orb again, 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, almost pitying look.

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

I stood there in a daze for a while. When I finally came 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 looked at her before glancing around the room. That's when I realized I was back at my family's manor, standing in front of my father's desk in 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 sat at his desk with a cold, emotionless expression. However, I could sense the deep fury hidden beneath it as he thought of ways to get rid of me. I was now a liability—no, something much worse, the end of our household.

“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 this for as long as we can, so we can consolidate as much power as possible and limit the damage she has done to our family. I refuse to let this family be tarnished or fall to the level of those filthy lower nobles.”

A noble being born without magic is uncommon, but not unheard of. However, when it happens to a family belonging to the old nobility faction, like mine, the consequences can be severe. These are families that have existed since the founding of the Selendria Kingdom and have long bloodlines known for consistently producing mages. As a result, having a child born without magic can cause them to lose much of their influence and power.

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.”

Bernard led me to a carriage, giving me no opportunity to gather any of my belongings. The journey was practically nonstop, with us only stopping at inns during the night. I was given a hood to cover my face, while Bernard remained silent about where we were going.

After several days of travel, we eventually arrived at an old manor deep within a forest.