”…?”

As she did that, the maid looked around in confusion but her initial observation wasn’t wrong – there was no one there.

…which was rather odd considering that she was specifically instructed to bring the food to the young lord at the specific time…

It has been almost two weeks since she started working in the Banemor mansion and for the first time in her life, she experience living her own life.

Although she ended up having to spend most of her time learning how to do chores around the mansion, the magicless girl could do that freely without spending a fortune on mana crystals that would fuel the ancient artifact changing her appearance into that of a green-haired boy.

Well… that wasn’t exactly true, Reo still had to pretend her name was Ririe – as that was the first name that came to her mind when she unexpectedly met the new master of the mansion, Zoemi, out in town the same night they both arrived – as well as showing up as the green-haired boy from time to time to not let Zoemi know the truth.

Reo could just reveal her secret to the black-haired boy, but at that point, she was actually scared to do that.

In Zoemi’s mind, Reo was the wind magician with a carefree outgoing personality…

To tell the truth, that indeed was Reo’s personality, but the real Reo was a magicless girl who used a couple of different artifacts to trick everyone into thinking that she was a mage.

As far as she knew how aristocrats were, not a single one enjoyed getting tricked like that.

Reo wasn’t causing trouble for others by hiding her identity, but the sole fact of withholding the truth would make her less reliable as a friend – not to mention that a commoner tricking nobility – and high nobility at that – would end up being judged as a sever offense punishable even by death.

But then, since the consequences of getting found out could be THAT serious, why was Reo posing as a male wind magician?

Well… it all had to do with pride.

Although there were aristocrats who didn’t hesitate to betray lose their honors and betray their ideals for a fistful of money, a vast majority held their own pride in the highest regard.

Reo’s grandparents and father were exactly the same.

Living lavishly while in a well-respected and equally well-paid office was one of the requirements for their happiness and they felt the most respected when they were the center of attention, spending exorbitant sums on every occasion.

To add to it, before Reo was born and messed everything up, lord Moyena and his wife had six other children – three boys and three girls, all talented in terms of magic.

The problem was that even since the youngest years, the same policy of spending a vast amount of money and taking pride in it had been implanted in their minds.

Still, that wouldn’t become a problem until a few years down the line as Moyena family was well off and the head of the family was even chosen as the country’s treasurer!

Could things be even better?

Yes, they could – but everything good comes to an end someday.

And the event that marked the beginning of the end of the perfect lifestyle of the proud aristocratic family was the birth of Reo.

The pregnancy of lady Moyena had complications from the start but no one expected things to be any more out of ordinary than the previous six.

And no one expected there to be twins.

Due to the botched medical procedure only the child born first – who ended up being the magicless girl, Reo – survived.

Both the other twin, a green-haired boy who didn’t even receive a name, and their mother ended up dying.

The medics attending ended up reporting to lord Moyena that because the magicless girl was born out of order, her umbilical cord ended up strangling the boy who would have been a wind magician – on top of that it was reported that because of the movement of Reo while still inside the womb, the mother ended up suffering organ failure which directly caused her death.

It was a disaster.

Losing his beloved wife was one thing, but losing her because a magicless child dared to be born first and ended up killing her magician brother?

Unforgivable.

In a final sign of a familiar love lord Moyena ended up not getting rid of his youngest daughter permanently, but instead gave her to a trusted servant to leave her at the nearest orphanage’s doorstep.

Normally, that should be it.

The Moyena family would announce the tragic death of both the mother and child and Reo would end up either getting adopted or simply growing up in an orphanage, having no idea about her origin.

…yes…

…it SHOULD have been like that…

The problem was that in his need to show off to a foreign ambassador visiting his mansion, lord Moyena ended up borrowing one of the precious artifacts from the kingdom’s treasury, one that looked especially amazing but which purpose he didn’t know – and while playing around with magic, his children ended up breaking it.

It was impossible to find the same kind of artifact, as the broken one was in the treasury because it was deemed unique.

Using his connection, lord Moyena managed to find an artisan capable of fixing it – but the price that the man demanded would have thrown the entire family into years of debt.

The only choices available seemed to be dishonor and severe punishment for basically stealing and destroying a precious artifact or dishonor by life in poverty.

But, lord Moyena was a cunning man and figured out a third way that would lessen the severity of the consequences.

He ordered the servant to bring the child back, and using the fact that the news about the death of his wife and child didn’t manage to spread, he announced that only his wife died.

Still, lord Moyena decided it would be too shameful to announce that the child that his wife sacrificed herself to give birth to was a magicless girl, he purchased an appearance altering artifact from the same man who was already working on fixing the broken artifact from the treasury and revealed to the world his son.

Of course, as it was a great tragedy to lose a spouse, many noble families sent gifts, mourning the loss of lady Moyena and wishing the child all the best.

Monetary gifts.

Thanks to that, the burden of the ridiculous payment didn’t fall solely on the Moyena family and they dodged poverty.

Their standard of living had to be adjusted, but at least they saved their honor with the artifact back in the treasury with none being the wiser.

What to say…

Reo was simply unlucky – because of what happened, her existence became a family history because if she ever revealed who she really was, the enemies of the family Moyena family might start putting two and two together and ruin their reputation.

At least that was the version that was told to Reo, chaining her down with the burden of guilt that she honestly didn’t deserve in the slightest.