Chương 2: My New Body Is a Cage.

It didn't take me long to realize one crucial fact about this life: my new body was useless. Maybe useless was too harsh of a word. Inept, perhaps? The first thing I'd wanted to do in this new life was walk around, see just what this new life entailed. My first roadblock came immediately. My body got tired much too easily. It wasn't even like my new muscles couldn't keep up -though they certainly ached too. It was more like this body simply wasn't used to doing anything. I'd thought it an exaggeration at the time.

I was now realizing it wasn't. Esra really hadn't ever left her room very much at all. The few times I had wandered outside, all of the maids had looked at me as if they'd seen a Ghost. They'd all dropped what they were doing and stared. Some had paled. Some had muttered something under their breaths. One had even looked… angry? Only Anias had treated me with something approaching normality, and I was starting to appreciate that more and more. It was a shame that she couldn't be at my side the entire time.

So, I largely stayed in my room, just like my body wanted. Unlike what my body wanted, I didn't just lie in bed all day.

"God… damn… it." My arms shook, my elbows cracked, my breathing got heavier and faster. It took all I had to complete the last pushup. I had done five pushups in a row, and that had left me feeling breathless and had left my entire body aching. A few days ago I had face-planted trying to do even one. It was an almost infinite improvement. Going from zero to one was infinite, right? When I wasn't doing pushups, I focused mostly on doing squats. Those came a little easier than the pushups did.

I could manage to do twelve before collapsing on the floor now. It was real progress. When I wasn't doing either of those things, I was just… pacing around the room. It certainly beat trying to walk around the manor and having people gawk at me everywhere I went. Of course, when a maid did occasionally come in to check up on me, they'd usually do worse than gawk. One of the maids dropped the tea she'd brought for me when she'd walked in only to see me trying to do a pushup. It didn't matter. I had to do this.

I wasn't sure where the knowledge for all of this came from. It all just seemed… instinctive. Strange. Being alone in my room wasn't all bad. Esra apparently just read all day. There were at least a dozen different novels on her sidetable, and I took to reading them as I walked around. Most of those were either fairy tales or romance novels. Many of those romance novels were… probably not something a kid her age should have been reading. Then, there was the fact that I could eat anything I wanted whenever I wanted.

I didn't even have to leave my room! There was a small square red box on my sidetable. All I had to do was press it, and a maid would come to ask me what I wanted. The food would often be a little cold or a smaller portion than I'd like but that was a small price to pay. It was an oddly familiar system. Most of the time, Martha was the one who checked in on me. Martha was one of the maids personally assigned to my care. I had tried to talk to her a few times, but she hadn't been interested.

I supposed that was a given considering my reputation. My breathing settled. I rose back up on unsteady feet. It was time to get my daily squats done. I settled my feet, clasped my hands across my chest. The door opened. It was Martha. The woman froze as she took me in, before her expression settled into blankness. In her hands was a very large… box?

"My Lady, your Lord Father wished for me to give this to you." She said stepping inside.

"What is it?"

"A present I believe." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I stared at her, then at the box.

"A present for what? Do tell me today isn't my birthday or something." That would be some odd timing indeed.

"No, My Lady. I believe this is because you left your room." There was something odd in her tone, but it was probably nothing. The maid set the box in front of me. I opened it gingerly. My breath caught. The contents practically shone in the light. A silver necklace, a set of silver earrings, and a silver ring engraved with a very large red jewel. It was beautiful. It was expensive. It was definitely too good a reward for someone who just stepped outside their room a few times.

Nobles really did have it different, huh?

"Tell my Father I am very thankful." I looked at Martha. Her expression had changed. Her eyes glimmered with greed. I hesitated for only a moment.

"If you want something, I'm sure I can ask my Father." Her expression changed again, this time into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I'll put this away for you, My Lady, so you don't lose it like the last one"'"Hmm? Oh, sure." I said idly. I'd never exactly cared for this kind of thing though it was pretty to look at. My maid left me alone, and I got back to my exercise. I leaned against a corner of my small room. Books were strewn all around me. Books about just about anything one could think of. I didn't even glance at them. I had read all of these dozens of times over. I read them until I could repeat them back cover to cover.

"I just want to… go outside." I mumbled. The room was small. In truth, it was little more than a closet. Still, it was my closet, and that meant something. To my right was an open notepad. A few pencils. I'd had to sneak outside to take these. I shouldn't have. It was stupid. I'd done it anyway. The sketch is almost finished now. Massive towering buildings as shown from above. It was the first thing I'd seen when I'd come to this city. It wasn't something I would forget for as long as I lived. Footsteps.

A hand gripped and squeezed my heart. I tried to hide the notepad underneath all of the other books. The footsteps only got closer, stopping just outside my door. It unlocked. Opened. I woke up gasping for breath, sweat running down my entire body. My heart felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest. I stared at the darkness all around me. The nightmare was already fuzzy. What had I been so afraid of anyway? I held my hands out in front of me, slowly opening and closing them. Everything felt real enough.

"I'm Esra." I murmured.

"I'm Esra Veyne." My soft voice still sounded strange to my ears. Not unexpected, that. I started to calm down. My breathing slowed, my heartbeat surely but steadily returned back to normal.

"Just a stupid dream." I mumbled to myself. I glanced to my side, at the very large grandfather clock right next to the door. I had thought it odd that a Lady had such a bizarre thing in her room. Maybe Esra had needed one to keep track of things, seeing as she never went outside. It was thirteen. Exactly midnight.

"Not when I'd have liked to wake up." I muttered to myself, sinking back into my pillow. I stared up at the ceiling, closed my eyes, and tried to force myself back to sleep. I tossed and turned for ten minutes before I opened my eyes again, groaned and rose from my bed.

"Thankfully, I know just the thing." If I was feeling restless, the only thing to do was to tire myself out until I went right back to sleep. The best way to do that…was to get some more exercise. I practically felt my body tremble at just the thought.

"Yeah, didn't think it would turn out like this did you?" I grinned. There was still a pit in my stomach, but there was no point in moping about it. I walked over to the center of the room, stretched my arms in the air. There were a few cracks as my joints loosened.

"Alright. Let's start with more pushups. I really hope you're ready body, because I am going to get a good night's sleep one way or another." I paused. Something in my peripheral vision caught my eye. It was the box my Father had sent as a gift. I moved closer, head tilted. It only took me a second to realize but the ring was missing. I turned the box over, just to be sure. The other presents spilled out onto the floor, but there was no ring.

"Huh." After that, I looked all over the room. By the time I was done searching, half an hour had passed. I never found the ring, and I was absolutely sure I hadn't taken it out of the box let alone put it on. The pit in my stomach grew. This time it wasn't alone. My anger grew right along with it.