Chapter 2

I lay on a bed, staring at the ceiling in a room provided to me by the servants that work in this remote mansion.

How long has it been since I've been doing this, maybe a few days at least.

“Haa”

I took a deep sigh and continued staring up at the ceiling. What should I do?

The servants who were taking care of me were gradually coming to see me less and less, partly because I didn’t want to leave my room and I was just ignoring them when they tried to communicate with me.

The chances of a noble among the old nobility being born without magic is incredibly rare, only happening a handful of times, with the last one happening over a hundred years ago.

My family probably has about a month or two left to stall for time from announcing that I have no magic.

The reason my father didn’t just get rid of me is because I was too big of a target if I was to be eliminated. The other nobles from other families and even the royal family had a close eye on me, thinking I’m a gem among the new generation of aristocrats.

What should I do? I've been asking the same question again and again for the last few days now.

There is nothing left for me. I’ll probably be married off to the son of some random family since my blood is still valuable and would be a good bargaining chip to the nobles who aren’t from the old noble faction. I’d doubt he would not care who I’d end up with and it would probably be an easy way to get rid of me.

Suddenly an idea sprang up in my mind, I'll just run away.

The last town I passed by riding the carriage to get here was the town Farsbarow and if I remember correctly was an adventurer town for beginner adventurers which is about a day's walk from here.

I can’t really escape right now, it would be a bad idea just to run away. I have to be smart about this, my clothes are not proper attire for traveling and I have nothing to my name. If I'd run away right now, I probably would get myself killed, get lost, or be found when they send out a search party to find me.

So then, I’m going to have to make a plan and look around the mansion for stuff for my escape.

I waited till night, when most of the servants were asleep and roamed around to get a layout of this mansion.

After 10 minutes of roaming around I heard 2 sets of footsteps around the corner, I immediately but quietly opened a door to a room on my right, to hide from the pair of footsteps. Less than a minute later I heard 2 female voices chatting, probably maids working at night.

“Thought I heard something”

“Maybe you're just hearing things.”

“Sigh. I really hate that it’s our turn to do night shift, I just want to go to sleep already, can’t they hire more servants so we don’t have to do this”

“I doubt anyone would want to work in a place like this, we better hurry and finish our chores for tonight”

“Oh, have you heard about lady Rita?”

“Ya, who hasn’t”

“I wonder what happen to her and why they just drop her here”

“Who knows”

The two maids continue on their way and I sigh in relief at the maids not finding me.

Interesting, they gave me some useful information, this place is understaffed, it’s going to make it easier to sneak around.

I think I should follow them to know where they usually go at night to get an idea of where they work.

“Hey, do you feel like we are being watched?”

Right now I was standing outside the kitchen, by the door, watching the 2 maids cleaning the kitchen.

“I can feel it too”

“This is really creepy”

Then one of them turned her head in my direction as I was poking my head in the door.

“Gagh!!”

She screams when she sees my face, I guess it’s because I look like a mess. My hair is disheveled and I hadn’t eaten much in the last few days so my cheeks have sunken, I look like a mess.

I should go back to my room right now, before her screaming gets the attention of the servants or the guards.

I ran to my room as quietly and unnoticed as I could. I was lying on my bed, trying to act how I usually act, not one minute later a guard barged into my room and neel.

“My apologies lady Rita for barging in, it would seem that an intruder has enter into the building”

I didn’t reply, but glanced at him and stared back at the ceiling blankly acting how I usually do when I first got here.

“I’ll be guarding you for the time being, I do apologize”

He left and stood by my door, I guess this will last a few days till everything calms down.

3 days later, everything calmed down and I could finally explore the mansion again.

Sneaking around the mansion, I’d explore the gates, garden, storage rooms, servants quarters, pantry, and armory. Thankfully nobody saw me and I got myself a knife from the armory since all the other weapons are too big for me. I’d also gotten an unused backpack in the storage room as well.

This is today's haul for now, now I need a place to hide it. I look around the room and then the wall, maybe I should hide it in the wall.

I approach the walls in my room and check if they were hollow and they were. Then I move to the drawer and move it away so I can start making the hole with my knife.

After I was done carving out a hole, I put away my stuff in it. This is not enough to run away with but is a start.

2 weeks have gone by since I was sent to this mansion. Rumors have already circulated among the nobility that I have no magical powers, it even reached here.

Right now, I was sneaking around to my room in the middle of the night like every night, carrying some stuff in my arms, being as quiet as possible to not get any attention from the servants and guards.

I reached my room, I opened and immediately shut the door. Then I walked to a drawer and pushed it to the side to reveal the hole in the wall I made.

I threw them on a steadily growing small pile of things I’d need to run away.

The servants that work in this mansion are actively trying to avoid me as of late. I've been hearing them saying the mansion is haunted once I showed up because of them hearing mysterious footsteps in the middle of the night, things randomly going missing, having the feeling of being watched, or seeing a small figure appearing in the dark.

You can guess that all of those things were because of me, more specifically I was sneaking around and stealing things around the mansion for the last week or so.

Living in such a remote area, gossip spreads like crazy, everyone thinks I’m cursed and I will bring extreme bad luck if I’m near them.

Now the servants refuse to enter my room and be near me, only leaving food and some clean clothes to wear outside my room.

After putting my haul in the hole for today and pushing back the drawer. I waited an hour before the crack of dawn because today is the day I escape and run away to live the life of an adventurer since I finally got all the things I think I need to escape.

Once I saw the hand on the clock in my room turned to 4 in the morning. I took out my stuff out the hole that was behind the drawer, I pulled out and changed into some pants, shirt, and a traveler's cloak. Then a belt that held a knife, a flask of water, and a pouch of rations.

Finally I put on a backpack that holds the other important stuff like a map, some money, and my jewelry that I wore when I was sent here. I’m planning to sell them if I need the extra money, they will probably sell at a high price if I do.

I left my room and sneaked out of the mansion, making sure I didn’t run into any of the servants working at night.

When I reached the gate, the gate guards were easy to sneak past since they were always sleeping on the job.

Honestly I’m surprised how they even manage to not get found out and keep their jobs.

Slowly opening the gate to not wake them up, I excited the gate and looked back at the mansion.

I probably had a few days till one of the servants noticed I was missing, so I better start to walk down the road.

I’d walk away from the mansion, not looking back.