Chapter 2: Granted Second Life [Vol. 1 - Rebirth]
Bright light engulfed Herena's vision. She seemed to be trapped. She heard various sounds. She only knew she was already hearing a baby cry.
She died, didn't she? Just as she was going to tell Calus something, he threw his sword to kill her in her room. However, until now, she seemed incapable of even imagining where she was.
"UWAH!"
She felt warm all of a sudden. Her hot bath removed the stuffy feeling in her body. Then a towel came to caress her.
'Huh?'
She didn't trust her eyes in the water.
What the? Is she reincarnated as an infant of nobility—again?
Questions filled in. However, when she looked up, she saw only familiar faces in the noble house where she found herself—particularly the one who delivered her in her first life.
Even after she was born, that woman could not express different feelings about her. As the duchess of the house, the woman could not even describe her feelings. Her eyes also appeared lifeless in one hand. The servants cleaned some blood that flowed from the old woman's bed.
The physician was in the middle of washing the baby and couldn't help giggling. She looks very much like her dad, more like the duke.
The baby had her tiny golden blonde hair in the middle of her head. With the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at the physician, those features all seemed to make the person pinch her cheeks for a second
"You're such a lovely baby. You shall become a beautiful woman."
Her physician exclaimed. The physician's eyes and lips were raised. Herena knew her to be a fine woman. One day, though, she went away. No one knew why, but her parents insisted that the lady had worked somewhere.
With her prescience, she knew that from afar. She was born again and would be betrothed to the crown prince.
"Uhacowh"
She said, but the doctor looked as if she was laughing at her. She seemed to love the baby, so she couldn't keep herself from pinching her little cheeks.
"I believe, I suppose, that it was a baby's word? So sweet."
But Herena's life was never going to be the same. She swore to herself that she must make all necessary changes to rewrite her destiny, but she may still have a long way to go.
***
"Is this my little sister?"
A gentle, nostalgic, and familiar voice had spoken in the place where the nanny had taken the baby. The little one was wearing a pretty small dress for a baby. Staring at her brother, she couldn't stop crying in the hands of her nanny.
"Oh, why are you crying, my dear? Are you injured or something? Did anything happen to you?"
His brother asked her. The baby couldn't let go of her soft grip on her nanny. She was still hugging Harlene. When the baby understood his words, she shook her head.
"Young master Ismael, the baby, as your sister, is brilliant!"
Harlene cried, smiling at the baby and the young Master, which widened the eyes of the little boy. But it took him just a few seconds to smile at the baby in front of him. He lifted one of her hands and delicately pinched the baby's cheeks to make them pinker than ever.
"I know Harlene, she will one day be a gorgeous and intelligent being, and I hope I can be there to do her prowess."
He wiped the baby's tears and chucked. Harlene, however, seemed taken aback by the words of the young Master. She felt as if Ismael had said goodbye until he clarified his remarks and giggled afterward.
"I think long before I marry someone I love, just before that, I hope she accomplishes something."
Then he pinched the baby's cheeks again, causing Herena to laugh for the first time.
"Do you enjoy getting your cheeks pinched, little sister? Then you'll have to endure me for a while!"
He enjoys playing with his sister. As an infant, he loves her. He wouldn't stop staring at the baby. It seemed to calm him somehow, calming the unnecessary truths hidden behind his mind.
In the nanny's arms, she gave Ismael the baby, knowing that he could hold his sister even if he was a kid.
"Careful Young Master."
"I will, Harlene. Oh, I almost forgot, did the Duke and Duchess inquire of my sweet little sister?"
He knew the answer, but he nevertheless hoped that the presence of his younger sister in his arms would change that. But instead of hearing Harlene's words, Ismael could only see how the nanny moved her head, consternation written across her face.
"I think it will always be that way. Although I already had a little sister, they seemed busy and had nothing to do with us."
"I-I'm sorry----"
"No, Harlene, this isn't your fault, so no need to apologize, all right?"
"Y-yes, young master."
"Then..."
He took the baby to his room and played with her while Harlene went outside to her chambers, sighing for a moment before holding a piece of paper in her hands
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, but I couldn't do it."
Then she forcefully dumped the piece of paper in a wastebasket near used her clothes.
"No more... she's innocent and everything."
She would rather severe her ties with the Emperor than let herself do things that could endanger the children's lives. She knew the children were never at fault. It was the Duke and Duchess's fault, not their children's. Faults of parents should never be brought towards their children. I am
Ismael liked his younger sister. How she laughs when she crawls and how she naturally points things up when Ismael asks about them —he liked them all.
She's an amazing child. But why does she seem to point to things other than Ismael's words - to define that he cares about them? She's also mysteriously sweet, he thought.
Then the day lasted into the night, and Herena was still in her brother's lap when they ate dinner.
"It's inappropriate to allow your sister to sit in your lap, Ismael."
Yet it seemed that the baby understood what their father had said. She then knocked her little hands on the table and finally yelled to cry because she knew she still had baby hands.
Right around the time she wanted to attract attention, she couldn't. Is this what she lived for? Having the brain of an adult but living inside the body of a baby? She could scarcely speak
That's what she had in mind when she cried.
Ismael laughed and held Herena's hands, softly massaging them. Two sets of eyes didn't look like they cared, but Ismael took care of the baby. Looking at his sister with tenderness, he spoke the words that broadened the baby's eyes.
"I wanted to pamper her because she is essential for me, Duke. Can I ask you, though, if you're getting paid for it—"
"Words like that are inappropriate. Eat and take the baby away, or maybe."
"What's the matter?"
"You will be ground---"
"Asdfghjk"
The baby spoke between their conversations —again. This was the first time her parents were watching her. They appeared to expand their eyes with discarded accessories.
They stopped to eat, looking at the baby in Ismael's hands.
They could be parents to them, but what's wrong with those two? Herena had known in her previous life that they only used her and Ismael for the people they wanted to take advantage of. However, it is never fair to treat their children like tools with no emotions. They're a villain in disguise
Herena was already staring at the two, the duke and duchess, but she couldn't stand the way she spoke. Like a baby's tongue, she doesn't even appear to say the right words. Nevertheless, the duchess was the first to laugh at the sight.
It widened both pairs of eyes on the spot.
"I'm sorry, I got something funny on my mind."
Ismael didn't even treat them as parents because he knew the reasons why he always treated them as dukes and duchesses in the household
From that moment on, the Duke's vision was no longer the same.
The night went on, and the morning came. The baby slept in her chambers, but Ismael could not even leave her. The baby's hands were clasped in Ismael's fingers, and they slept peacefully there with smiles on their faces.
***
Morning came. Herena's eyebrows rubbed together while she was lying in a cuddly cradle. She had a bottle of milk in her mouth. Then, she immediately took it off, allowing her senses to hear more. She could listen to the noises outside her bedroom. She thought the door might have been left open. This is why she was able to hear the words outside, and she was never wrong.
Though it was deliberately left open.
"Ismael, why don't you show us your beautiful little sister?"
"Yes, she's just a child, right?"
"Hold on. You got a sister?"
"Will you remain silent and calm down like Calus? He's not even asking questions, yet all three of you seemed to be asking me questions!"
"Oh, the little boy was too protective of his little sister."
"I suppose it's lovely, but fine if you wanted to show it to us and we didn't -"
"What makes you think I'll show you Gavin, Servous, and Victor?"
Then the three young men could not help laughing about how Ismael behaved.
"Of course, we understand. So Calus, you got praise from your best friend. Is there anything you'd like to say?"
"Let's go with no discussion for today. Ismael will certainly not wait for everything to be finished to see his sister."
After listening to these words, Herena did not know that her brother and Calus had ever been friends. She was unaware that those young men who hated her in her first life were her brother's friends. All she knew growing up was that her brother didn't even seem close to His Highness. She knew it was because they weren't friends in the first place, but this? Maybe the cause for their friendship breaking was her? She might perhaps have been the reason or something.
She was as confused, but she seemed to hear more.
"What happened to your confession to the Lady, Calus?"
"Well, it sounded like Lady Arianne was just a little lady like us and wouldn't give time for romantic feelings."
Ismael spoke, but Calus refuted his words.
"I think she's already in love with me."
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