Ether Cornelia was the only child of Viscount Cornelia. And due to the set-up Ether found herself in a rather expected but tiresome situation.
She was currently in the huge office room with piles of books from one corner to another.
"Argh." She slumped her head on the table as she glanced gloomy with the mountains of paper in front of her.
'What kind of riches? lands? I only inherit bills of debts and business that are falling left and right. There are also suspicious documents that clearly show illegal activities and fraud. I even have the audacity to eat luxurious meals for breakfast that comes from the high taxes in this land. No wonder the other lords didn't cede this land as soon as the Viscount died. Ether sighed for the umpteenth time. 'The alternate name for this land can be called Land of Debts. If this goes on, there might soon be an uprising from the citizens here. It's not that I will be doomed. But it will lead to more chaotic things.'
'Ruth is really the goddess of misfortune. I should have expected some misfortune coming with this set-up. Forget about that side character first, I need to fix this territory and my status.'
"Nellie? Are you there?"
The door opened, revealing Nellie. "What is it, Milady?" She said with politeness.
"Who manages the whole territory after the viscount?"
"When you are in your sickbed, it is Baron Gredor, a close confidante of your Father, who manages the territory now, until the empire conscripts a new lord here."
'Baron Gredor? Ah, I have a bad feeling about this.'
"Did he frequently come here to the mansion?"
"He just came here, to give the taxes he collected from the town people."
"Who manages the taxes and the other expenses of the house?"
"I am the one who manages everything, Milady." Nellie answered.
Oh, "Then perhaps you are the one who writes and records all of this?" Ether said as she raised the only decent accounting book they had.
"Yes, Milady. The rest were all the documents brought by the Baron for collection here. He strictly told us that we should just store it and never touch it."
"And you do as he said?" Ether said. "Do you know that all of the documents aside from yours, have suspicious records and the whole Viscount is already falling into debt?"
Hearing this, Nellie suddenly dropped on the floor. "Milady, please forgive me for my incompetence but if I don't follow what the baron told me to do, Milady will be harmed and the rest of all the servants working here. If you are going to punish someone, please punish me. I'm the only one who has a hand out of this."
Ether stood up and opened the window at her back, to breathe fresh air. "No, it's my fault," she sighed.
Though it was clearly not her fault since in the first place she was just an unknown being whose existence was overwritten to fit in this new world. If Ether wanted to have a peaceful life here, she needed to solve all the problems as Ether Cornelia should face. Plus, she had a promise to fulfill with her friend, Ruth. If things go well, she would not be afraid anymore of being alone for eternity.
In her backstory as Ether Cornelia, she was a sickly child since she was little since she had overwhelming magic. But during her tenth birthday, she overcame her sickly self and was able to control her magic well. The Viscount couple never let anyone know about her great aptitude of magic in fear that their daughter would not have a proper life. Only the servants and the Viscount know about Ether. But three months ago, on October 1st, the time of her eighteenth birthday, she was greatly in distress when both of her parents died in a carriage accident. And holed herself inside her room, without seeing anyone.
'Well, that is basically the elaborate story of Ether Cornelia. Or my life now.'
"It's because I am greatly distressed that everyone, my people, is suffering right now." Ether continued her words. "But I realized today that nothing will happen if I keep mourning." She turned her glanced back at Nellie who was still kneeling.
"Nellie, please stand up and look at me." Ether helped her up. The old maid looked at her. "Will you help me, to raise my town, my people and myself?"
Hearing her words Nellie started to tear up. 'Just this morning, Milady seems to be acting unusually. But it is because she is already over with her mourning. I'm glad. I'm so happy for Milady.'
"Yes, Milady." Nelle said with great conviction. But she was surprised when Ether locked her into a hug. "Thank you for everything you have done so far to me, Nellie."
'Although, all of it are just fake memories, but those memories you have of me, I know that you are strangely treasuring it. The moment you woke earlier in the morning just to help me prepare myself and prepare my breakfast as well.'
'The agonizing arrow of guilt is being penetrated deep inside me. But if none of my existence exists here, I wonder what kind of life these people have. This is all I can do now, in order to pay for being a fake.' Ether was the first one to release from the hug.
"Nellie, can you please bring some snacks and tea here?" Ether asked. "Having to check all those paper works will require me to finish sometime so I'll be staying here quite longer."
"Yes, Milady." Nellie said. As soon as she left, Ether called out for Yu.
"Yu," Yu immediately ran out of thin air. In her hands were a pouch of cookies that she was eating leisurely.
"What is it, Master?" Yu said as she munched on the cookies.
"I'll be going out of the town. To check some things, just pretend to be me for the whole day." Ether said and disappeared without waiting for Yu to respond.
But even from appearing outside a forest, Ether in her imagination could hear the loud scream of protest of Yu.
She just flicked her fingers and her clothes started to change. Her outfit was one of those of a poor traveler. Ragged brown dress and a brown old coat. Since the people didn't really see her face as the Viscount daughter, she didn't really need to change much aside from her eyes. She just made her long hair shorter and changed the color of her eyes to a dull brown.
A mirror appeared in her hands. As she looked at it, a proud grin escaped her lips. 'Heh, as expected of the strongest archmage, I'm always perfect at whatever I look at.'
When she was finished with her get-up, she swiped her hands in the air and a map appeared in front of her.
'The Viscount owned a whole town called the town of Rhoda and a total of ten villages surrounding it. The main livelihood of the whole Viscounty was agriculture. But from what I saw in those documents earlier, none of them are faring well.' Ether let out a distress sigh.
With the map, Ether continued to walk ahead until she reached a cliff. From there, she finally saw a huge rocky field and in the middle of it was the town of Rhoda with large walls surrounding it.
'That must be the Town of Rhoda.' Ether said as she fixed her hair behind her left ear due to the sudden gust of the wind that blew.
Her eyes narrowed when her sight caught something from the rocky field. 'Hmm... that is?'