CHAPTER 04…………………………………………….
“What do you mean…?”
“There’s some idiot who wants to take you.”
He didn’t even bother choosing his words in front of me.
“Wait a moment. I’m still a minor.”
I was flustered. No matter how little interest he had, did he seriously not even know my age?
But it seemed he truly hadn’t known.
“What? You’re not twenty? Then how old are you now?”
“……”
I clenched my fist tightly.
“……Nineteen. My twentieth birthday is still two months away.”
“Is that so.”
He frowned one eyebrow as if calculating something, then waved his hand dismissively.
“Fine. You’ll be an adult by the time the wedding is held, so there’s no problem. Besides, he’s away far off on business right now, so he won’t be coming to see you anytime soon.”
As he said that, the count muttered to himself,
“I should draft the contract in advance. The amount of investment is, after all… Hm? You’re still here? I’m busy, get out. If you cause another incident, you’ll find yourself locked in the basement next time.”
With a wave of his hand, as though he had no more business with me, he drove me out.
And that was the end of it.
It felt empty.
Not even sure what state of mind I was in when I returned, I stood blankly in the middle of my room, replaying what I had just heard.
Marriage?
Marriage?
‘Who do you think you are, deciding my future?’
Just as I wasn’t his daughter, he was no longer my father either.
Anger, emptiness, despair—emotions tangled together and squeezed my breath tight.
“Ugh!”
I clutched my chest.
Maybe it was because my heart was weak. From time to time, breathing became this difficult. No—there had never been a place in this house where I could truly breathe.
‘I have to leave.’
To breathe, to live, I had to leave somewhere—anywhere—right now.
It wasn’t as if I’d never thought about running away. In fact, I was seized by the impulse several times a day.
But today was the first time I put it into action.
‘Let’s pack an outer layer too.’
I stuffed things haphazardly into a travel leather bag: starting with my mother’s diary hidden beneath the broken floorboards, clothes to wear right away, and travel supplies I’d planned to use someday.
Since I hadn’t owned much to begin with, it didn’t take long to sweep up everything in my shabby room.
“Don’t forget this either.”
Among the items was the emerald necklace Cosette had bragged about countless times, saying it was a gift from her fiancé.
Knowing she’d stepped out briefly when I returned from the study, I’d taken it on impulse instead of my mother’s jewelry box. It seemed like something she treasured—she’d surely make a scene once she realized it was gone.
“Hm?”
Just then, I noticed a necklace chain peeking out from under the carpet. It seemed to be something Cosette had failed to take with her earlier.
It was a necklace with a tiny oval opal, no bigger than a pinky nail, surrounded by small crystals. Too modest to have belonged to the countess, but I recognized it instantly—it was something my mother had worn constantly until just before she passed away.
‘Surviving by hiding… it’s just like me.’
I let out a weak smile and picked up the necklace.
When I noticed the clasp was broken, I wrapped the chain around my wrist several times and tied it. I shook my hand a few times to make sure it wouldn’t come loose.
Having finished preparing to leave by slinging the leather bag over my shoulder, I looked around the room. Now that I was actually about to go, something weighed on my mind.
‘Leaving Mom’s things behind…’
This hadn’t been my original plan. There was a reason I had stayed in this dreadful mansion, gritting my teeth and enduring it.
My mother had devoted herself to researching a way for me to become a magician, and the results of that research still remained intact in the underground laboratory. Moreover, her diary said the research was nearly complete.
Since my only use to this family would be a political marriage anyway, I’d planned that when Father eventually proposed marriage, I would demand all of my mother’s things in the underground lab as my dowry.
For some reason, although Father didn’t care about anything else, he wouldn’t even let Cosette set foot near Mother’s underground lab.
But thinking about what happened today, I doubted he would really hand over the key to the lab even if I obediently agreed to marry.
‘Whatever. I’ll just sneak back later and steal the key.’
It was a ridiculous thought, but in my irrational state, it felt like a perfectly feasible plan.
My insides were boiling like lava; I needed to get out of here first. If I stayed any longer, I might suffocate.
There was no way I’d use the front entrance or main gate. With my lack of talent for hiding, I’d be caught immediately by the patrolling knights.
There was another way to escape.
“It’s time.”
When I glanced outside, the sun had already set, yet it was as bright as midday. Tonight was a beautiful full moon.
On nights like this, miracles happen.
For someone like me, who couldn’t use magic, something magical would occur.
Gripping the closet door handle, I whispered softly,
“[To the cabin.]”
As if it understood my words, pure white light spilled out through the crack in the door.
Click.
The closet door opened by itself, as though welcoming me.
Originally, it was a door that opened inward into the room, but strangely enough, whenever it was opened on a full-moon night, it always opened outward.
Without hesitation, I pushed the door.
No matter how many times I saw it, the sight was astonishing. Inside the closet—where old, worn clothes should have been piled—an utterly alien space spread out.
It was the interior of a small cabin, sunlight pouring brilliantly through the windows.
I lightly stepped through the doorway. With just a single door between them, the air changed completely—not the dark, stifling air of the mansion, but the fresh air of the forest.
Creak. The floorboards made a loud noise, likely from long neglect. Even that sound felt welcome.
‘So bright.’
Because of the time difference, unlike the mansion, it was morning here with sunlight streaming in.
I set the leather bag I’d brought on the cabin’s only table and looked around.
“Just the same.”
It had been nearly two months since I’d last come here. The cozy, warm atmosphere put me at ease.
This was a small mountain cabin thousands of kilometers away from the Yuberis estate.
“Oh—right. I should close the door.”
I approached the place I’d come through. Just glimpsing inside before closing it made my breath feel constricted again.
Turning my gaze away, I shut the door.
With a click, the light that had been leaking through the doorframe faded. Still, if I opened that door again, my room in the Yuberis estate would appear once more.
‘It’s really strange.’
One thing I’d learned through five years of experimentation was that this miracle was fundamentally “round-trip.” If you came out, returning was part of the same set.
No matter how much time passed, no matter which door I used, if I wished to leave while standing before a door on a full-moon night, a “door” leading to that place would open.
The range was within the Veles Continent, and the maximum distance could be anywhere from one end of the continent to the other. The downside was that it had to be somewhere I’d been before, or a place whose map coordinates—latitude and longitude—I knew precisely.
‘Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tried, it never worked for Mom’s lab. I don’t know why.’
The interval was one round trip per full moon. Objects were fine, but as for living beings, only I could move. I’d tried experimenting with a cat, but it couldn’t come through.
In any case, this was magic, yet not magic. To my eyes, which could see the flow of mana, there was no movement of mana at all.
After the winter when I lost my mother passed and spring arrived, I suddenly became able to read the flow of mana.
And the very first thought I had was this:
“Then… could I use magic too?”
Ignoring the doctor’s warnings, I tried to accumulate mana back then—and promptly suffered a heart attack, nearly dying in the most literal sense.
Barely surviving, I was deeply disappointed and spent a long time shut up in my room, crying endlessly.
The first day I opened the door was also on one of those days, when I’d cried myself to sleep from exhaustion.
‘I’m thirsty… I have to go to the kitchen.’
But half-asleep, I mistakenly opened the closet door instead of my bedroom door—and astonishingly, the kitchen was inside.
“Aaaah! What is this?!”
I’d been absolutely terrified back then.
At first, I was simply happy about the miracle that had suddenly come to me. I could escape this dreadful house and go anywhere I wanted.
But I soon realized how dangerous it was for a thirteen-year-old girl to wander unfamiliar places alone without a guardian.
The Veles Continent was especially dangerous. Civilization outside of magic was poorly developed, and while security varied by region, there was no such thing as a truly safe place.
Naturally, even the right to survival wasn’t guaranteed, and if you weren’t a magician, you didn’t even have human rights.
At the beginning, I went in and out of doors without understanding the world, but after nearly getting into serious trouble once, I stopped using the doors recklessly unless I absolutely had to go somewhere.
The sole exception was this cabin.
‘It’s a good thing I prepared this place.’
I walked over to the window and looked outside. A beautiful expanse of green spread before me.
This mountain cabin, with the nearest village a full half-day’s descent away, was a safe house I’d prepared in case my secret was ever discovered.
Aside from me and that child, no one knew about this place. It was the only place where I could breathe, wholly as myself.
Coming here, I could finally breathe more easily.
As I gazed at the quiet green forest and the bright sunlight, my turbulent emotions gradually settled.
“Cough… maybe I should air the place out.”
Of course, it was obvious I hadn’t been here in a while.
