章 2: ARGENT

SHE slowly opened her eyes. What greeted her was an unknown ceiling. She furrowed her brows. She felt the soft touch under her body. She felt somewhat weak. Like her body was drained of all energy. But she painstakingly forced herself to sit up. Her eyes glided around the room she was in. She was sitting on a big canopied bed. A big door was on her far left corner. There was a balcony and a floor to ceiling windows on her right. Not far in front of her was a moderately sized bookshelf and a dressing table.

Her brows furrowed even more. She was certain that she was blown into pieces by that bomb she made. So why was she here, in this room, appearing to be very much alive? Did that soldier manage to save her? No, that's impossible. Her distance to the bomb alone will make sure that nothing would be left of her after the explosion. And there's no way that that bomb didn't explode. Because she never made failed products. She could already feel an incoming headache because of all the unanswered questions.

She was about to massage her temple but her action quickly stopped when she saw her hand. It was small and dainty. Clearly a child's hand. She raised her other hand. It was the same. How could a twenty-five year old grown woman have hands like these? These pair of hands definitely wasn't hers! But when she tried to move and flex both hands, it moved and flexed the way she wanted it to. Telling her without an absolute doubt that these hands were definitely part of her body. She immediately looked down and inspected the rest of her 'body'. A flat chest, short legs, small feet - indications that this was definitely a child's body. But why was she in this body? Did she somehow shrink?

But before she could think of an answer to those questions, the door suddenly opened and in came a girl wearing some kind of outdated maid outfit. She looked like a fifteen, sixteen year old girl with auburn hair tied in a messy bun and a smattering of freckles on her face. When the maid saw her, she immediately rushed beside the bed. Worry filling her brown eyes.

"Young Lord, are you okay? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Do you need anything? Water? Food? Should I call the doctor?" the maid continuously asked without missing a beat.

Young Lord? Why was this maid calling her 'lord' when she's clearly a girl? She has no doubt about that because she also checked that part down there. Wait- did that maid just spoke in English? And in a British accent to boot. But before she could ask anything, the maid spoke again.

"Oh, I should get the Duchess. Don't worry, Young Lord, I'll be back immediately with the Duchess." And then, she ran straight out of the room.

Duchess? Now she's just getting more and more confused. She looked at the mirror on the dressing table. Maybe some of this confusion would lessen if she saw what she looked like. She already have a hypothesis. Now, all she needed was some kind of evidence to form a solid conclusion. Even though she still felt weak, she forced herself to get up and walk to the dressing table. Once there, what she saw in front of the mirror almost startled her.

The reflection she saw was a six, seven year old child. She has short silver hair that curls at the end. A small face with a slightly upturned nose and pink lips. Long, thick silver eyelashes that fans her big purple eyes. And a delicate white skin. She looked like some kind of porcelain doll. This... this was definitely not her face. That would mean that she didn't shrink. Which only left her with her other guess. That she's now inhabiting a different body.

Based on the facial features of this child and the speech pattern of that maid, she could safely assume that she's somewhere in Europe, probably in Britain. But how did she end up here? And in another body no less. Maybe this body could answer some of her questions. Surely, the original owner's memory was still here. She went back to the bed and sat on the edge. She closed her eyes and tried to uncover the original owner's memory. A wave of dizziness came to her and different scenes appeared inside her brain. When the dizziness subsided, she started to digest all the information that she saw.

This was Earth, but not the same Earth she was originally from. Here, there's a thing called Mana - a magical energy that every living being has. Because of this Mana, humans developed different kinds of supernatural abilities. Those abilities were called Gifts. But the level of those Gifts vary depending on the amount of Mana a person has. Gifts can be classified into seven levels; SS, S, A, B, C, D, and E. SS being the strongest and E being the weakest. The difference between someone with an SS level Gift and someone with an E level was like comparing heaven and earth. For example, a person with an E level healing Gift could only cure a small physical wound while someone with an SS level could cure an entire army of dying soldiers. But not all humans have enough Mana in their body to develop a Gift. A small percentage of humans could not develop Gifts and were referred to as NoGifts.

And the original owner of this body belonged to that small percentage. A NoGift.

The original owner's name was Argent Blackbourne, the 19th Duke of Hanover in the Kingdom of Albion. Why did a young girl became a duke? Well, apparently it was all arranged by the current Duchess - the original owner's mother. The former Duke - this body's father - was a well known adventurer. On his last voyage, he never came back. Nobody knew what happened. The ship he was in just disappeared in the sea. After half a year of searching, the former Duke was proclaimed dead. During that time, the Duchess was already heavily pregnant. If her child was not a boy, then the title of the Duke of Hanover and all the estates and properties will go to a distant male cousin. Because the title could only be passed to the male line.

The Duchess gave birth to twins. But both of them were girls. The Duchess has no choice but to present one of the girls as a boy. And the lucky one to be selected was the original owner, Argent. The Duchess was not from an aristocratic family. She's an orphan that the former Duke met during one of his adventures. If she lose the properties and estates that belonged to the Duke of Hanover, then she will have no way to properly support her children. Not to mention, she won't be able to fund the search for the former Duke. Because up until now, the Duchess still believed that her husband was alive. And so, Argent was sacrificed.

Too bad, the original owner turned out to be a NoGift. Every children in the Kingdom of Albion will be tested once they reached the age of one. There will be a ceremony to activate the flow of Mana in their body. To know what their Gift was and what level it would be. The original owner being a NoGift was quite the sensation back then. Because that was the first time that an aristocrat, and someone from a Duke's family no less, turned out to be a NoGift. Many believed that it was because the former Duke married a barbarian, that's why his son turned out like that.

On the other hand, her twin, Aurum turned out to be quite the genius. An SS level telepathic Gift. But despite her outstanding result, there was one problem. She couldn't control the overwhelming Mana that she possessed. Because Aurum's Gift was related to the mind, it was much more dangerous. Anyone with a low level Gift could turn into a mindless idiot just by being near her. The Duchess tried to control it using nullum - a special stone that could block the flow of Mana - but it only lowered her Gift by one level. The Duchess tried her best to treat Aurum as normal as she could but an accident three years ago made it almost impossible for her to do so.

Aurum was living in a separate wing in the Hanover manor. All the servants serving there at least have B to A level Gifts. But one time, a maid accidentally destroyed Aurum's favorite doll. Aurum's state of mind immediately became unstable after that. The nullum bracelet she's wearing broke and all that powerful Mana leaked out. It was already too late before the Duchess found out what was happening and took control of the situation. Five servants died and the rest became crazy. The families of those servants wanted to persecute Aurum for what happened but the King ruled it out as an accident. After all Aurum was from a high ranking noble family and she was still an SS level Gift. There's no way the monarchy will persecute a talented aristocrat, no matter how dangerous she was. But the King warned the Duchess that if another incident like that happened, then the monarchy will take guardianship over Aurum.

The infamy of the Blackbourne twins became more intense after that. One was a known waste and the other a heartless monster.

Because of that incident, the Duchess has no choice but to transfer Aurum to the tower in Hanover manor. Except for the Duchess, no one was allowed to interact with her. That also includes the original owner. But two days ago, the original owner tried to sneak inside the tower. That day was the twins seventh birthday and she wanted to give a gift to the twin who she rarely saw. The original owner knew that her mother would be angry but she really wanted to talk to Aurum. The day before that, she was bullied at school. She dared not talk about it with her mother because she didn't want her to worry. But she wanted to talk about it to someone. Everyday, all of those children would tell her how much of a waste she was. None of them wanted to be her friend. So she thought maybe her twin could be her friend. But just after entering her sister's room, her strong Mana immediately hit her mind and she lose consciousness.

The original owner probably died because of that and for some unknown reason, her soul entered this body. The only conclusion she could think of was that the bomb she detonated somehow made a chasm in time and space and her soul somehow traveled trough that chasm. Then she ended up entering the first available body she could find. Hence, this situation.

She sighed. She stood up again and walked in front of the dressing mirror. She stared at the unfamiliar face. From now on, she has to live in this body. Then so be it. From this day onward, she will be Argent Blackbourne, the 19th Duke of Hanover.