CHAPTER 02…………………………………
This time, it was my turn to respond.
“W-Wait a moment, Your Grace! What do you mean by that…?”
“I mean I am taking her with me, right now.”
“Right now?!”
My father, who had been ready to scold me, suddenly found himself completely flustered as I was snatched away.
The Duke of Nordian looked down at him with an arrogant smile. His dark red eyes shone with overwhelming authority.
“It seems the Count is unaware, so allow me to enlighten you personally.”
“Gah! Wh-what is—!”
Without warning, the duke grabbed my father by the collar. His beautiful smile deepened.
“Ora Masters have keener ears than you.”
Apparently, he had just overheard my father threatening me.
I felt so humiliated I wanted to hide somewhere.
The Duke of Nordian was famous for more than just being Non-magical. People gave him a nickname.
The only Ora Master on the continent.
A specialized hunter of magical criminals.
The Emperor’s personal enforcer.
In short, he was the only person in the world capable of facing magicians without using magic himself.
There was no way my father, a desk-bound noble who blindly worshiped magic, could resist him. And if he even hinted at using magic, the duke—who hated magicians—would not remain calm.
Wanting to avoid a repeat of the night when someone was torn in half right before my eyes, I hurriedly grabbed his wrist.
The duke’s fierce gaze softened as it turned toward me.
“See? Lady Yveris wants to come with me too. I think we’ll suit each other well.”
No! That’s not it!
But my mouth wouldn’t move, as if cursed. He grinned deliberately, meeting my bewildered gaze.
“Shall we go, then?”
He released my father’s collar and took my hand.
Go? After all this chaos?
Even as I was being dragged out of the room, I couldn’t think of any plan to respond.
As we stepped into the hallway, a brown-haired man, presumably one of the duke’s aides, appeared from somewhere. He alternated his gaze between the duke and me, eyes wide.
“Your Grace?”
“Prepare the carriage. We leave immediately.”
“Yes, sir!”
The aide ran off at once to carry out the orders.
“W-Wait, Your Grace! Damn it!”
My father, having regained some composure, rushed out behind us, waving a document in his hand.
The carriage was quickly ready, and before I could process it, I found myself seated inside.
The duke, sitting opposite me, tapped the carriage wall toward the driver.
“Move.”
Everything had happened in an instant.
“This is unacceptable, Your Grace! This is kidnapping! How can you act so irrationally? We haven’t even signed the contract yet!”
My father shouted furiously, chasing the carriage. He had always seemed intimidating and immense—but now, he looked small and pitiful.
“Honey, what’s happening all of a sudden?”
“Father? What… what is this? Sister?”
My stepmother and half-sister, startled by the commotion, had rushed out and froze upon seeing us.
The carriage raced at full speed, quickly leaving the nightmarish mansion behind.
As the house shrank from view and vanished, I finally realized I had actually escaped.
…I’m outside.
I had never once imagined I would leave that house like this.
Just as shocked as I was, I stared at the man before me, dumbfounded.
“Lady Yveris.”
His dark red eyes curved gently as he looked at me. The sunlight streaming through the window made him seem almost angelic.
And then he dropped a bomb.
“Have we met somewhere before?”
I felt all the blood drain from my body.
…What am I doing?
Why on earth had I followed this man into the carriage? He was the person I most needed to avoid!
…I’m in serious trouble.
At this rate, death was practically guaranteed.
One month ago, I first met the Duke of Nordian, on what seemed like an ordinary day.
I was screaming at my half-sister while two maids held my arms.
“Cosette!”
One of the maids somehow found an old jewelry box and handed it to her.
“Here you are, Miss Cosette.”
“Please! That’s not allowed!”
Cosette, dissatisfied that there was no jewelry she liked, had ransacked my room and found my mother’s jewelry box.
She scowled, freckled face twisted in mockery.
“You said there’s no jewelry?”
“Please, Cosette! That… don’t touch that.”
“If anyone saw, they’d think I’m stealing. I’m just borrowing it, sister.”
Cosette ignored my desperate pleas and examined the jewelry box nonchalantly.
The maids immediately sided with her.
“Oh, Miss Eloah. Why didn’t you lend it sooner? Miss Cosette needs it.”
“Yes. You don’t even have anywhere to go, miss.”
The maids giggled, and I bit my lip.
The household servants always sided with Cosette. Even as the eldest daughter of the family, I, being a Non-magical, was naturally inferior to a magical half-sister in this world.
“Ah, it won’t open.”
Cosette tried to open the box, and when it didn’t budge, she grew irritated.
“Give me the key.”
“…There isn’t one.”
“You’re always lying. You said the silk shawl wasn’t there before, but it came out of the closet, didn’t it?”
The silk shawl had also been one of Mom’s possessions. Cosette had taken it that very day.
“Anyway, Mom’s things are all in that dusty attic. I’m just borrowing one old piece of jewelry. Why make such a fuss?”
The stepmother and Cosette had stashed away my late mother’s belongings out of spite.
Borrow, she says… and never returned anything!
I clenched my lips and glared at her. One maid tried to curry favor by twisting my arm.
“Ah!”
Cosette frowned, signaling for the jewelry box.
“Open it.”
“No! Don’t!”
Before I knew it, the maids had levers in their hands. Despite my screams, they forced the lever into the box and pressed down with all their strength.
“Stop it!”
Snap. The latch broke, and the box split in two. Faded jewelry tumbled out with the lid.
“Ah… ahhh.”
I trembled uncontrollably.
Cosette examined the contents and frowned.
“What is this? Such cheap things? Everything fits you and Mom, of course. Ah, but this could work.”
She picked up a brooch set with emeralds—one my mother only wore on special occasions, a precious heirloom.
“No! That’s…!”
“No, it isn’t.”
Cosette flaunted the modest brooch on herself, mismatched with her all-pink dress.
She looked down at me, smirking.
“You should’ve just lent it quietly from the start, sister. Then maybe the jewelry box would’ve survived.”
“You!”
Finally, enraged, I shook off the maids and lunged at Cosette.
“Ah! Miss Cosette!”
“Watch out!”
I realized something was wrong with their tone just as Cosette laughed, baring her teeth, as if she’d been waiting.
“Goodness, so scary.”
She waved her hand, blue light gathering and creating a whirlwind in empty space.
I realized I had fallen into a trap.
Fourth-tier, Wind Magic: Bai Rek Sha.
The moment I recognized it, an irresistible force pushed me into the wall.
“Ugh!”
The impact made my spine feel like it would shatter. My vision blurred and cleared, and the whirlwind vanished in an instant.
When the force stopped, I collapsed to the floor like a stringless puppet.
Cough! Cough!
Dizzy, clutching my pounding chest, I gasped as Cosette approached, giggling.
“Really, why confront a magician? Just because I call you sister, do you think you actually are? You Non-magical.”
Her green eyes were full of mockery.
So this was the plan from the start.
She had deliberately targeted Mom’s jewelry box to force me into using magic. She knew I valued my mother’s belongings—it was an inevitable trap.
Cosette placed her foot on my shoulder.
Crack.
“Ah!”
It felt as if my shoulder was about to break under gravity magic.
“Hmph. ‘Dori Ca Boun’ uses too much magic. Can’t use it.”
She treated me like a lab rat, stepping on me for a long time before I grabbed her ankle pleadingly, forcing her to stop. Her giggles stuck unpleasantly in my ears.
“Know your place, sister.”
She tapped the top of my head with her slipper and waved her hand as she left with the maids, all laughing like her.
She left with my mother’s jewelry box.
Click.
The door closed, and the footsteps faded.
“…”
I curled up alone on the worn carpet. A terrible sense of helplessness spread through me.
“Ugh…”
The world blurred.
“It hurts… so much…”
The continent of Veles was a world of magicians. For non-magicians, it was practically hell.
