Woke Up And I'm A Married Woman (17 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 2

Of course, he hadn’t realized I was a mage either. He simply praised me, saying my mind was unlike that of ordinary people.

“You possess exceptional analytical skills, strong memory, and impressive mathematical ability.”

“But Nelly speaks so awkwardly. She certainly reads books quietly and well, but still…”

“Geniuses often appear lacking in the eyes of others. Their thought processes differ from normal people’s. But this is undoubtedly a special talent.”

“Still…”

Father didn’t believe the tutor. His suspicion wasn’t unfounded. Now that I mention it, back then I was a dull child who couldn’t even wipe my own nose properly—maids would sigh heavily just trying to get my socks on right.

Me, a genius? It was perfectly understandable not to believe it.

‘Could this be a scam? Maybe they’ll say I need special tutoring and demand more money.’

‘That might actually be true.’

My parents didn’t trust the tutor’s words. The tutor sighed and said,

“If you don’t believe me, why not have her take a test at the Academy?”

Father, still doubtful, took me to the Academy. He must have been thinking,

‘The child is kind-hearted but speaks so awkwardly—I worry how she’ll manage in life. But if she truly has some talent, that’d be a blessing.’

Thus, inside the carriage heading toward the Academy, I had no thoughts at all—except having just learned that reading in carriages gave me motion sickness.

At the Academy, they confirmed I had high intelligence, especially talent in mathematics over language. So far, everything matched exactly what the tutor had claimed.

“Good heavens! What’s happening?”

“My word—the magic power meter just exploded! This has never happened since the Academy’s founding!”

The extraordinary event occurred the moment I touched the magic power meter. I possessed an immense amount of magic power—in fact, immeasurable with current technology. They said my magic quantity rivaled that of legendary dragons.

“To think such a talent would come to us on their own!”

“We absolutely must not lose her!”

“Leave her to me! I’m the right one!”

“Get out of the way! I’m the one who brought her here!”

The professors from the Department of Magic competed fiercely, showering me with offers to become their apprentice. They all shouted in unison,

“This child will surely become an Archmage!”

Honestly speaking, even after hearing such praise, I couldn’t personally feel this so-called natural talent.

[This is the timeline separator]

Neither I nor my late parents knew that my distant ancestor, Archmage Periway, had entrusted his inheritance to the Academy—purely out of his own stubborn will.

[When an Archmage appears among my descendants, give them my inheritance.] [And if none appears?] [Then it just stays here.]

An Archmage isn’t some stray dog from next door. Even if he was one himself, what solid reason could he possibly have had to be certain that such talent would reappear in his descendants?

Yet for a very long time afterward, the Periway family produced not even a single decent mage, let alone another Archmage. Thus, the inheritance remained asleep at the Academy for ages.

Then, at age seven, I discovered my magical talent and enrolled at the Academy.

Truth be told, nothing special happened afterward. It was obvious the Academy professors considered apprentices as slaves. Though they claimed to teach me magic, they spent far more time making pointless demands.

“Go copy that for me.”

“Summarize that.”

“Bring me some jujube tea.”

“Are you kidding me? No pine nuts floating in the jujube tea? You drink that yourself!”

“Hehehe, I’d like chrysanthemum tea instead.”

Essentially, they treated me as a personal servant—albeit an exceptionally clever one who instantly understood their every whim.

‘If I were that smart, I would’ve strangled my master and run away long ago.’

Usually, slaves have some leash preventing them from defying their masters. I had one too.

Graduation itself.

“With skills like that, how dare you go out into the world calling yourself a mage? I won’t let you graduate!”

Without professors’ approval, I couldn’t become a certified mage—and practicing magic for money as an uncertified mage was illegal.

What kind of ridiculous system was this? Well, in this country, you couldn’t even get a job without a recommendation letter. When professors insisted like that, there was nothing to say.

I was a slave held hostage by professors using graduation as ransom. Ten more years flew by like that.

The phrase I said most often since coming to the Academy was probably this:

“Ugh, this is impossible.”

The second most frequent thing I said was:

“I’m quitting.”

Was that too similar to my first? Well, anyway—that’s how it was. I constantly muttered about wanting to quit or give up.

What kept me going through it all was my family’s encouragement.

“I’m so proud of you, sister. I brag about you every day to my friends—my sister is studying magic at the Academy.”

“Magic studies cover all academic disciplines; specifically, I focus on the correlation between spatial teleportation and time…”

“Anyway, I’m just so proud of you!”

Looking back now, Diana probably just repeated those compliments out of habit. She seemed perfectly content simply having someone to brag about to her friends.

‘Well, it wasn’t all terrible.’

There were only fifteen students studying the mage curriculum at the Academy.

Though treated like slaves by professors, we formed a tightly knit, almost familial bond. I even gained someone like a younger brother.

“What will you do after you graduate, sister?”

Grisha was a beautiful boy four years younger than me, with delicate features. Because of his gentle, kind appearance, even the fiercest professors softened toward him.

“Who knows? Probably more of the same even after graduation.”

I answered Grisha’s question with utter indifference. Graduation? What even was that—was it edible? First, I had to ask if graduation was even possible—that’d be the polite thing.

Grisha’s sapphire-blue eyes sparkled as he asked,

“Then… would you like to open a mage guild with me?”

“A guild? You want to become a mercenary?”

“Yes. I want to live freely—somewhere no one knows us, doing whatever we like.”

“Then shouldn’t you exclude me too, since I know you?”

“N-not you, sister!”

What an adorable kid. I ruffled Grisha’s black hair.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

“You promised!”

“Yes, I did.”

I wish things had unfolded as promised with Grisha that day.

One day, while diligently preparing for my graduation exam, I received shocking news like a bolt from the blue.

“S-sister… Mother and Father…”

My parents had died in an accident.

Now, Diana was the only family I had left. To support my younger sister, I needed to graduate from this Academy—quickly!

‘Ugh! Just let me graduate already! To me, I’m clearly already working as a full-fledged mage!’

Why wouldn’t they allow it? Were they trying to turn me into a ghost haunting the Academy?

I ground my teeth and redid my graduation research over and over.

Eventually, I passed the final graduation hurdle with my thesis titled: “Magic Beyond Time: Can Only the Soul—excluding the body—be transferred, and would that even still be ‘you’?”

Then, on the day of the Mage Certification Ceremony,

the Head of the Department of Magic offered me his hand and said,

“Congratulations, Archmage Periway.”

“…Huh?”

Since when did he know how to use polite speech? No—more importantly, what did he just call me?

“Archmage?”

I doubted my own ears. The professors beamed with wide smiles—seeing such expressions on their faces shocked me again—and offered their congratulations.

“Yes. All faculty members at this Academy have been waiting for you to reach the level of Archmage.”

“We knew you’d succeed.”

“We admire you.”

“At last, the Empire has produced an Archmage.”

It felt like I was being pranked terribly. Were they all mocking me? Would they suddenly laugh and say I actually failed my graduation exam?

Still eyeing the professors suspiciously,

“I’m delighted we can finally entrust the long-held inheritance of the Archmage to its rightful owner.”

The Academy’s Grand Chancellor appeared, revealing to me the existence of an inheritance I never even knew existed.

“From this moment onward, the Archmage’s inheritance is yours. However…”

“However…?”

Still dazed and unable to grasp reality, I heard the Chancellor add,

“The late Archmage Periway instructed that his inheritance be handed over three years after you become an Archmage yourself. Since he was also a spacetime mage, perhaps he glimpsed the future and left such a will.”

I didn’t yet know this mysterious, ancient inheritance would bring misfortune into my life like a cursed flute’s melody. At that moment, I was simply overjoyed to have finally graduated.

I never imagined my younger sister would kill me over that inheritance.

Had I not researched the magic of turning back time, I would have died then and there.

‘If only I could’ve gone back even further in time.’

Then I would’ve silenced the Chancellor before he even mentioned the inheritance. But I awoke the day after being named Archmage.

‘So I’m destined to walk through this hell again.’

Outside, relatives scheming for the inheritance pressured me relentlessly; inside my home, my younger sister watched my every move, waiting to take my life.

Reliving it all felt like my mind was collapsing. I scratched my head irritably.

‘The inheritance isn’t even accessible until three years later, and no one knows exactly what it is. Yet they’re already trying to kill me.’

Diana. What a frightening child.

According to Diana’s explanation before she killed me, the inheritance had already been transferred to me—since the Academy only held it physically, my death wouldn’t invalidate the inheritance.