In my hazy consciousness, I struggled to come to my senses.
But for some reason, my body kept moving towards the bound baby.
‘Wake up, I have to wake up…..’
I tried to wake myself up, but it was to no avail.
Like someone who slept for only a couple of hours for three nights and was being forced to wake up, I couldn’t come to my senses.
– Please, me…..Save me.
I don’t even know what I’m doing–
But regardless of my consciousness, I naturally reached out to the baby.
A baby with a mass of power.
If it was really alive, it’s an unbelievable existence itself.
What are you.
I tried to stop it’s uncontrolled body somehow, and tried to ask the baby.
However.
–I am, the only one who.. understands you–
What nonsense is that….?
What, have you lived for like, 3,000 years?
Where do you think you are to thoughtlessly chatter about understanding me.
But my body felt tight, and I just couldn’t bring myself to control it.
My fingertips glistened in golden light and tapped the baby’s body.
At that moment, the chains and fabrics that had bound the baby were released.
A small baby who had just been born and couldn’t see, opened its golden eyes and looked at me.
As if it was very satisfied.
“You are……”
As I felt myself suffocating, I tried to ask the baby a question.
–Don’t forget, Anastasia. I am, to you, the only one–
When the soft, gentle voice wrapped around my ear and tried to babble nonsense again.
‘–by!’
With a voice heard from somewhere, the hand that couldn’t be taken away from the baby suddenly fell out.
The baby’s face, which had been smiling softly until a while ago, was suddenly distorted.
– Again, a disturbance….
With an unbecoming, irritating voice.
“Baby!”
A boy with wet blonde hair and purple eyes shook me and pulled me back to reality.
* * *
‘Mikhail?’
No, Mikhail wasn’t the only one around.
All of my family members were looking at me with worried faces.
My older sister must’ve cried so much, that her eyes were red like rabbits, her eyelids and her eye rims were swollen.
Even my brother had a face that looked like he was about to cry.
‘What is it? What’s going on right now….?’
My father had wide eyes, and my mother had her hands clasped as if she had been praying somewhere.
“Anastasia, our baby.”
My mother lifted me out of my cradle and hugged me tightly.
“Do you know how worried your mother was because your fever didn’t go down all week?”
What? A week?
I didn’t get up for a week?
I blinked my eyes in disbelief.
“Shasha, heung, are you continuously hurting? Sister will, sister will get sick instead, so can’t you stop being hurt?”
My sister talked between her tears.
“Laurentia, if you’re going to be sick, I have to be sick instead. Because I’m your older brother.”
My brother told my sister with a face that said, such a thing shouldn’t happen.
My father cried, seeing the two of them and hugged them tightly.
“My babies, if you’re going to get sick, the strong father should get sick instead.”
Then, looking at me in my mother’s arms, he burst into tears again.
“Really, Thank you so much for waking up. Anastasia. Really, really, I kept thinking what if I did something wrong……”
Then, my father immediately stroked Mikhail’s hair and said.
“Thank you, Mikhail. It’s all thanks to you.”
“It was nothing. Duke. It was something I could do.”
Looking at Mikhail answering politely, my mother let my father hold me in his arms.
Then she took a towel from a maid and wiped Mikhail’s wet hair with her hand.
“You shouldn’t deny it during times like this. Mikhail. It’s raining like this, but within a week, you went to the distant Grand Duke and brought us the heirloom of the Grand Duke.”
Heirloom?
Only then did I check out the blue beads that Mikhail was holding.
It was a magic tool, no, it was something so sophisticated that I wondered if I could call it that lightly.
“……When the priest said that Anastasia seems to have fallen under an unknown curse, everyone was so surprised.”
What Mikhail was holding was a tool that could lift some of the curse.
I remembered the baby I saw in my dream.
‘It was a ridiculous situation.’
In my 99th life, I was determined not to go out of the corner of the room and only breathed.
When I stopped the last world destruction, I didn’t even move a lot, so my body felt a little uncomfortable.
But until relatively recently -about 200 years ago- I’ve been honing my skills.
No wonder it was hard to give up.
‘It was as good as being practically immune to enchantment-type magic.’
You dragged, that me, into a dream?
[tn– she can’t believe that, with her skills, she was dragged into a dream]
This place also has monsters, so even if the highest-ranking monsters come, they won’t be able to lure me into dreams.
But that newborn baby.
–I am the only one who understands you–
Besides, it even said nonsense like that.
A person who understands me you say, despite living 100 times, I have never met a person like that.
But that newborn baby spoke as if it knew me.
‘Just what in the world……’
I felt uncomfortable.
Just what kind of special are you preparing for the 100th episode (life).
A sense of crisis made me raise my head.
It was so cozy here that I forgot my destiny.
The absolute rule of my life that I have to save something.
‘……..I’m gonna have to grow up quickly.’
Because my hands and my feet are too small right now.
I have to grow up quickly so I can use my power properly.
‘You jerk, I’ve been using my power sparingly and carefully so I don’t surprise my family, and now you take all my power as you please?’
I grinded my teeth.
I will find you and pay you back as much as I’ve suffered.
Of course, right now.
“Anastasia, please just grow up healthy.”
My priority is to act as the youngest of my family, who was surprised because of me.
* * *
Since then, for about a month or so, for the first time in a thousand years, I continuously put up a barrier before going to sleep.
Because my body has grown so well, it often ends with a slight fever in the morning.
Maybe that’s why, otherwise the jerk didn’t approach any further.
I passed the time without seeing any more uninvited guests.
As the spring air started to creep in little by little. I entered my 9th month of age.
“Come here, my youngest!”
My father clapped his hands at me with eyes mixed with anxiety and expectation.
I tightened my legs.
I can do it. Walking alone!
One step. Two steps.
And when I took the long-awaited third step, my body tilted.
Immediately, a large, firm hand grabbed my body and hugged me.
“My youngest, my youngest!”
My father lifted me up.
“By yourself, you walked three steps by yourself?!”
The father then asked the knights nearby as if to confirm.
“Did you all see it? The figure of my youngest walking alone?”
“Yes, Duke!”
“It was a very graceful figure!”
“It was such a moving and wonderful sight. To think that I’m seeing this moment!”
To my father’s fuss, the knights in charge of my escort today also chattered with applause.
‘I mean, what was so amazing with taking only three steps alone…!’
No, it’s a big improvement.
‘The fact that I’ve developed enough to walk alone means that I can gradually use my power little by little.’
With a little more power, I will be able to gather information without getting a fever.
Well, even now, I was trying my best to see if it was possible to some extent.
“Did you make a dress for the April festival?”
In April, a festival is held in the duchy.
“I’ll be back from the Grand Duchy. Around mid-April at the latest–”
Mikhail Leventis’ visit to the Grand Duke, which I didn’t want to know much about.
“Oh, I think I’m cleaning much better today.”
The slightly improved efficiency of the maid’s work.
“This Duke of Endeblanc is a very historic place–”
I peeked into my brother’s class and finally learned about history and this family’s title.
It wasn’t that fast for me, but I was relieved by the fact that I was still growing.
“Our youngest is now able to walk alone, are you guys training properly?”
For some reason, my father was acting like a real boss.
‘I mean, what’s the correlation between a baby’s steps and the training status of the knights?’
“It’s embarrassing compared to the lady, but everyone is doing their best. Duke.”
“I will do my best not to lose to the development of the youngest lady.”
Nevertheless, my knights answered honestly.
But my father narrowed his eyes as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Hmm, I heard that last time when the little duke of Leventis went to the Grand Duke, there was a man who fell behind.”
“That, that’s…….”
“Since it’s spring, it’s time to check the skills of the knights after a long time.”
“Duke, what you’re saying…….”
“At the festival in April, I will hold a martial arts competition. Be prepared, everyone.”
[tn–not sure if its really martial arts but it’s the only trans I can find]
At my father’s words, the faces of the knights became subtle.
I felt uncomfortable, too.
‘Father, did you just use me as an excuse for the evaluation?’
I can’t believe my father.