Silent Heart

Chapter 1

Somewhere in the Southwestern Region of Graewen, lies the Family of Marquis Gram De'Chaulet. His Wife, Marchioness Carine De'Chaulet, had given birth to two respective daughters, Abelia De'Chaulet and Coralie De'Chaulet.

In noble traditions, The eldest child of the family is often fated to inherit the family and all its assets after the current Marquis either retires his position or dies. But for this particular case, the next heir/heiress to inherit it all was the second daughter, Coralie and Abelia received assets that were next to nothing and harsh treatment from both her family and their servants.

The sole reason for the eldest's disinheritance was a defect on the day she was born; Her lack of voice...

Unable to speak or usher a word from her lips, her family had deemed her unworthy of the inheritance and shunned her over their second daughter, who was born healthy and free of birth defects.

Abelia received no love or interest from her family and even labeled her lesser than a house servant. Hence, she was forced to partake in the role of another maid and most servants started harassing her due to her incapability to speak against them and her family.

They'd scolded her for little to no reason, handed down their chores on her shoulders, and even minimized her food provisions seeing that she wouldn't be able to retaliate or object against them.

To make matters worse for her, they were all done under the orders of her sister Coralie De'Chaulet who belittled her for her shortcomings as well as her lack of voice. She even boasts about how she's living the high life while Abelia is stuck with meager house chores.

She mockingly pitied her and stated that if she were in her position, she would kill herself rather than stay in such a lowly position.

When she's alone, Abelia can only weep in the solitude of her shabby room and wonders why she was born in the first place. If people like her have lived this way, why be born in the first place? Was there a reason to begin with?

She didn't know the answer for years, and it only made her heart ache even more...

One Particular Day...

In the common streets of Gram's territory, Abelia is seen alone and wearing clothes of the common folk as her family forced her into it. This wasn't done out of the kindness of their heart, but to prevent her from besmirching the family name should anyone outside her home recognize her as the firstborn daughter of the De'Chaulet Family.

As to why she's roaming through the streets of common folk, she was ordered by the head maid to go outside and buy certain items needed for their housework. Though aware of the fact that she couldn't speak, the head maid of the house pushed her into doing this task, handed her a pouch filled with silver and bronze coins and a small list, and sent her on her way.

Without a voice, Abelia complied with her task and searched for the items around town.

There were some problems in her search seeing that she hadn't recognized the routes around town and stores where she could buy these items. Not even the list holds specific details on where to buy these items, it's just the names of the items and nothing more.

If she were to return empty-handed, the head maid would scold and punish her in the end. Thus, she went on to wander the town in hopes of finding what she needed before the stores closed in the evening.

To further achieve her task, she politely tapped people on the shoulder, showed them the list, and narrowed her finger on the first item. Some aren't generous enough to help her, but those that do just point their finger in a specific direction and she repays their kindness with a bow before heading her way to the place she needs to go.