Chapter 2
“Is it done?”
Even though it was called a magic contract, nothing really happened aside from my name glowing.
Still dazed, I stood there as Priscilla nodded.
“Once you sign a magic contract, the person who issued it can immediately know the name and location of the signer. Someone from the capital will come to get you by tomorrow.”
And that’s how things led to now.
Snapping out of my thoughts, I anxiously bit my lip in the dark room.
Night had already fallen deep.
The only sound was the distant cry of some unknown bird.
“Just hold out. Somehow.”
I had just made up my mind.
Bang!
Suddenly, the closed window rattled violently.
At first, I thought it was the wind—but it wasn’t.
“What? It’s locked?”
“I heard the lock was broken.”
Confused voices came from outside the window, beyond the curtain.
I clenched my teeth.
I had expected this. I had melted down all the wax candles assigned to me and sealed every gap of the window shut.
“Damn it.”
The voice, laced with irritation, sounded rough.
My room was close to Priscilla’s.
Since the butler had warned them not to cause a disturbance, they probably wouldn’t do something as stupid as breaking the glass.
Quietly, I unlocked the door.
If things went wrong, I planned to shout that an assassin had broken in and run into the hallway.
The window rattled a few more times, then stopped.
“You’re lucky.”
It was the butler’s son’s voice.
Only after their presence completely disappeared did I finally let out the breath I had been holding.
Maybe because I had been so tense, my stomach churned uneasily.
At that moment, someone suddenly whispered through the slightly open crack of the door.
“You heard everything we said, didn’t you?”
I lifted my head.
Through the gap in the door, the old butler was staring straight at me.
In an instant, his hand shot out, trying to grab my hair—
“Ah!”
Startled, I shoved the door with all my strength.
At the same time, the inward-opening door tore off its frame and flew outward.
Crack.
The sound of the butler’s arm breaking, caught in the door, rang out.
Thud.
The heavy impact snapped me back to my senses.
How…?
Sometimes, this body—Liliata Hayes—would suddenly produce an unknown burst of strength.
Maybe because it wasn’t my original body, something like a mismatch between soul and body was causing errors.
“What do I do…”
The doors in the lord’s mansion were expensive handcrafted pieces made from carefully carved wood.
If they make me pay for this…?
More than the butler trapped under the door, I was more afraid of the extra labor time I’d be forced to work to pay it off.
This wouldn’t do. Especially when even the lord couldn’t be trusted—
“Liliata?”
I looked up to see Priscilla.
She was in her nightclothes, clutching a slipper in one hand.
“What happened?”
“Miss, the butler came to kidnap me!”
“My goodness, they actually went through with it!”
After checking that I was unharmed, she looked down at the butler pinned beneath the door with a fearful expression.
“He’s not dead, is he…?”
She poked him with her foot. His body twitched slightly.
“He’s alive.”
She sounded almost disappointed.
At that moment, loud hoofbeats echoed, and the mansion became noisy.
Looking out the window, Priscilla and I saw a large carriage entering the estate.
Her face immediately brightened.
“Someone from the capital must have arrived!”
“So soon?”
“They said they needed someone urgently. This is great—let’s go!”
Still holding her slipper, Priscilla ran barefoot down the stairs.
Seeing her like that made my nose sting.
She looked even happier than I was, and it moved me deeply.
***
Four black horses stood before the black carriage that had arrived at the lord’s mansion.
White breath puffed from their nostrils as they snorted.
The lord, woken at a late hour, looked displeased.
But after checking the document presented by the middle-aged noblewoman who stepped out of the carriage, he fell silent.
What on earth did he see that made him act like that?
I was curious, but I didn’t dare ask.
“Miss Liliata Hayes?”
“Yes.”
At the noblewoman’s call, I raised my hand and stepped forward.
She looked me up and down, then gestured toward the carriage.
“Get in.”
At that moment, the butler’s son, Joffrey, shouted,
“This cannot be! Liliata is supposed to marry me!”
The noblewoman slapped him across the face in an instant.
With a sharp crack cutting through the air, his head snapped to the side.
“W-what…?!”
Perhaps from shock, he stammered, his lip split.
The noblewoman’s sharp gaze turned to the lord.
“Is what he says true?”
“No.”
The lord shook his head without hesitation. It seemed he was cutting ties now that things had escalated.
“It had better not be.”
Something in her eyes must have unsettled him, because he immediately called the guards.
“Lock Joffrey in the underground prison.”
“My lord?”
Joffrey asked in shock, but the lord’s command was firm.
“Take him away.”
“My lord! Why are you doing this all of a sudden?! You can’t do this to me! My lord! My lo—!”
The noblewoman frowned as she watched him struggle until the end.
“What a noisy man.”
“I will handle it without any trouble.”
At the lord’s words, she nodded, though her expression remained displeased.
She then gestured at me, as I hesitated before boarding the carriage.
“Miss Hayes, get in.”
It was an absolute command.
No one there could defy her.
The servants, startled by the commotion in the middle of the night, watched from nearby.
“Rita, make sure you contact me! You have to!”
Priscilla shouted urgently.
Thank you, Miss.
Because of the heavy atmosphere, I could only mouth the words.
Priscilla waved her slipper like a handkerchief before suddenly realizing and lowering it in embarrassment.
Everything happened too fast.
There was no time for a proper farewell, not even to pack my belongings.
As soon as the noblewoman and I boarded, the coachman whipped the horses.
The lord’s mansion disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The inside of the carriage, entirely black on the outside, was incredibly luxurious.
It couldn’t even be compared to the lord’s carriage.
Carriages in the capital really are different.
I admired the soft seat made of purple velvet.
Many questions filled my mind, but I stayed silent.
Even the lord had been powerless before that noblewoman.
I didn’t have the courage to speak freely in front of someone like her.
***
After traveling through the long night, we arrived at dawn.
“We’re here.”
At the noblewoman’s words, I opened my sleepy eyes.
As I hurried out of the carriage, I saw tall poplar trees lining both sides of a narrow path.
They looked like black fingers rising from the ground, gripping the area like a fence.
“Well then, this is where we part.”
As she tried to close the carriage door, leaving me behind, I quickly called out,
“Ma’am!”
Her cold gaze turned toward me.
“Th-thank you for bringing me here…!”
At my awkward thanks, one of her eyebrows rose slightly.
Just then, a crow flew down onto the carriage.
Caw, caw—!
As it flapped its wings and cried loudly, the noblewoman’s face turned pale.
“Leave at once!”
She shouted at the coachman and slammed the carriage door shut with all her strength.
In an instant, I was left alone.
“She’s gone.”
The noblewoman who had confidently slapped Joffrey seemed to be afraid of birds.
Well… I hate pigeons too.
Pushing aside my thoughts, I finally felt relieved that I had escaped the lord’s mansion.
“I’m glad I made it safely.”
My gaze turned to the tall gate in front of me.
The entrance to the estate was made of tightly woven iron bars.
The sharp spikes at the top were intimidating just to look at.
With thick fog settled on the ground, I slowly approached the gate.
No matter how I looked, there was no bell to press.
In a world with magic contracts, there’s no doorbell?
It’s early… is anyone even awake? It would be rude to shout at this hour…
As I hesitated in front of the gate—
Creeeak.
With a metallic sound, the gate opened.
Was it automatic?
If I had known, I would have just lingered here earlier.
The moment I stepped inside, the gate shut on its own again.
“Yep, definitely automatic.”
I nodded.
Magic, probably.
After only experiencing the primitive rural territory, encountering actual magic felt strangely new.
