Apparently, I'm the Infamous Earl's Legendary Bride

Book 1: A Girl in Another World - Chapter 2

Quinn

It took me two weeks to feel better enough to get out of bed, and after going through a whole lot of confusion, fear, denial, and identity crisis during those two weeks, I came to fully accept that I was no longer living on Earth and wouldn't be starting my new life working as a research scientist, my dream job. I did hope and pray a lot that I'd wake up to find myself back in my old life, but that was not meant to be. I could only surmise that Quinn Chen had died from being struck by a truck while saving a boy's life, which was so cliché. I was done in by Mr. Truck.

I rested my back against the wall of the dilapidated cottage, the home of not only Elizabeth and Quinn Fairchild, but Maria and Liam Fairchild, too, Quinn's cousins. There was no doubt that Elizabeth and Quinn were poor, as shown by the place falling apart.

The fact that Quinn's father, the bastard lord who resided in that fancy manor I could see looming overbearingly in the distance within the estate, did not aid in Elizabeth's and Quinn's destitute life was very apparent to everyone. To that despicable bastard, Elizabeth was merely another woman serving under him he had taken advantage of, and Quinn was merely another of his illegitimate children.

I chuckled in amusement. I couldn't believe that I had died and awoke to find myself now living the life of a girl not only the bastard child of a cruel, selfish earl but a girl who was being mercilessly bullied because what I had woken from had been the aftermath of a beating by none other than the earl's two legitimate sons themselves. Or rather, Quinn Fairchild's half brothers.

Ah, I remembered clearly, via Quinn's memory, as if it had been I who had been beaten, the whip slashing on my skin and the kicking of booted legs again my frail body.

I raised my gaze heavenward and sighed. I said, "I know it's nice of you, whoever you are up there, to reincarnate me and give me a second chance at life, but couldn't you at least give me some sort of advantage here? Like a blessing or something?"

Silence. But, of course, what did I expect?

I stood, my body still aching somewhat severely, but I gritted my teeth and bore it. Despite the pain, I refused to stay in bed another day. I needed to walk about and get better as soon as possible. Prolonged bed rest led to muscle wasting and a decline in health in general.

I was about to turn on my heel when an unimaginable pain ripped through me from my midsection. I sucked in my breath and could only huff as I collapsed to the ground and curled over in a fetal position. The torture coursed through me like a raging inferno, hot and furious. To me, that insane agony felt like an eternity, but I knew it only lasted a few seconds. When it was gone, I lay there, breathless.

What the heck was that?

I raised my hand to wipe the perspiration from my forehead, and that was when I felt something was different within me. I frowned. There was also something strange about my hand, too. I lifted the other one up and glanced from one to the other. I could see some sort of stream of golden particles exuding from the palms of my hands and floating around it.

I widened my eyes. Was this...

I flicked through Quinn's memory, and then there it was, the girl had learned something about magic.

There was magic in this world, which was blessed by the Gods or Goddesses, the deities. Apparently, one was considered very lucky to have been blessed.

If Quinn's memory served me correctly, one was either blessed with the creations, destructions, healings, or foresight ability, and under both creations and destructions, there were sub-classes such as blacksmithing, horticulture, and agriculture for creations while those blessed with strength, swordsmanship, necromancing, monster taming, and such likes were under the destruction's ability. But, once again according to Quinn's memory, there was no mention of this flow of golden particles I was seeing. Could it be mana?