I Want to Live a Normal Life - Episode 4: Escape Plan

Episode 4: Escape Plan

“Hmm, it’s getting urgent to get out of here…”

It’s been about half a year since I’ve been confined to this detached house.

As for magical training, it’s been going remarkably smoothly. In fact, almost too smoothly; I got quite immersed in it. Every day, I diligently practiced moving, releasing, and absorbing magical power, and as a result, I feel like I’ve significantly improved my ability to handle magic. It seems that Mine-kun indeed has a high aptitude for magic. I’ve also managed to learn [Body Enhancement], which spreads magic throughout the body to improve physical abilities, quite early on.

I’ve also started training in earth attribute magic and am currently repairing and reinforcing the walls and floors of the detached house. It’s a simple task of channeling magic into the walls and floors to convert the magic in the gaps into soil. Of course, I’m only doing it where it’s not visible from the outside to avoid arousing suspicion from the servants.

Originally, I planned to improve my magical skills further before attempting this, but the draft was so cold that I decided to expedite the plan. It was surprisingly easy, thanks to Mine-kun’s magical aptitude after all. I’m grateful for that.

However, it’s not all smooth sailing. First, there’s the issue of food. And then, there’s the stress.

As usual, it’s mostly soup with hardly any ingredients and bread. Occasionally, when delivered by the middle-aged maid, there’s something resembling a salad, but it’s clear that the nutrition is lacking.

So far, I haven’t fallen ill, but there’s no guarantee it won’t happen in the future. Well, Mine-kun in the original story was confined here until adulthood, so I probably won’t die. But still, I’d prefer to stay healthy as much as possible.

The quality of the people delivering the food is just as low as the quality of the food itself. They’re all trash. It’s pathetic to think these are the servants of the marquis’ household.

It’s normal to receive verbal abuse, and some maids even deliberately flip over the tray in an exaggerated manner. It seems they still hold a grudge against Mine-kun’s mother, who was a commoner, rather than being of noble birth like themselves. If they have complaints, they should take it up with the Stubble.

By the way, the brat Cain also occasionally comes to taunt. His vocabulary is poor, so the damage is minimal, but being constantly nagged is irritating. However, there’s no point in arguing back; they’re all just a pain.

Looking at it this way, it’s easy to understand how crappy the environment Mine-kun was placed in the original story. I’d hold a grudge against the Arlights too. I’d blow away the whole army. Honestly, I’m kind of itching to do it too. But I won’t, of course.

Anyway, with stress piling up like this, I really need to let off some steam.

“The prospects for an escape plan are in sight.”

While repairing the detached house, I noticed there’s a basement about two meters square underground. It seems it was previously used as a storeroom, but for some reason, the entrance was hidden. I thought there might be something special about it, but there wasn’t anything particular. I desperately searched, thinking there might be some amazing items or a secret diary. What a disappointment.

But well, “Why not dig a tunnel from here?” So the escape plan was decided. Originally, I thought about making a hole in the wall of the detached house, but that would give me away immediately. Even though I’ve learned [Body Enhancement], I probably wouldn’t be able to leave the estate with my current abilities.

As for the tunnel exit, according to Mine-kun’s memory, there’s a forest not far from behind the detached house, so I’ll aim for that for now. I’m not sure about the distance, but once I enter the forest, I should be able to judge by the appearance of tree roots.

“Well then, let’s get started, shall we?”

I immediately started channeling magical power into the stone walls. There’s more resistance compared to earth walls, but this should work somehow. While ensuring it doesn’t collapse, I’m shaping the stone to create a space large enough for one person to pass through.

“This is really tough.”

It took about three or four hours of actual labor to break through the stone zone. It’s about a meter in distance, I guess? It was quite thick.

Nevertheless, I didn’t expect handling soil and stone to be so different. I need to increase the speed and accuracy of my magic manipulation. But I managed to overcome the difficult part.

“From here on, it’s just normal ground, so I should be able to speed up quite a bit.”

…There was a time when I thought that. I’m compressing the soil to increase the strength of the walls and ceiling while creating a path, but this turned out to be a much more challenging task than I anticipated. And understandably so, as I’m trying to further compress soil that’s already at a certain density. It’s not as easy as it sounds. In the end, I only managed to progress about two meters by nightfall.

“This is really tough. This is a formidable enemy.”

(Note: Well, lol. First time reading a novel with soil as the antagonist)