From Baby Cries to Servant #2
“Haaah…”
Moonlight poured brightly through the glass window. A lace curtain fluttered where the breeze slipped in through a narrow gap.
And beyond it, a young girl leaned against the windowsill, gazing up at the moon as she let out a long sigh.
Her name was Helena Krauser.
Tomorrow she would turn nine, and she was the girl destined to inherit the main line of the Krauser dukedom. On top of that, she had absorbed the family’s secret sword techniques with startling speed, proving she was a prodigy blessed with martial talent.
Helena’s future should have been dazzlingly bright—yet the girl herself felt every bit of it as a stifling shackle.
An unexpected gift had revealed itself, and because of it she had been marked as the daughter who would carry on the ducal house. The Krauser family prided itself on meritocracy, so the path was open and fair; that very fairness, however, pressed down on Helena with crushing weight.
She ought to have felt at least a little excitement, yet not the faintest spark of it showed. If only her ill-tempered younger brother had been the one to inherit, she thought. All Helena wanted was for tomorrow’s party to pass without incident.
And then the day of the party arrived.
“Today I offer my sincere thanks to every guest who has taken time from busy schedules to gather here and celebrate someone as lacking as myself. Though I carry Krauser blood, I am still only a child with a long road ahead. Even so, the praise you bestow upon me fills me with both embarrassment and joy…”
Despite the crushing pressure inside, Helena presented the flawless image of a perfect little lady. Her cultivation and gentle speech already far surpassed a child’s level; even compared with adults she lacked nothing.
Talent with the sword, impeccable manners as the daughter of a duke, and words that seemed to soothe the heart of whoever heard them—the nobles gathered there could not stop praising her.
“How remarkably poised she is. To show such bearing at so young an age…”
“Haha. Looking at Young Lady Helena, the future of House Krauser seems completely cloudless.”
“Truly…! Your praise is far too generous for me.”
Yet when she received gifts or compliments she still lit up or grew shy exactly like a child. Thanks to that, Helena’s stock soared higher and higher—among her parents and among the guests alike. Only her younger brother watched with envious eyes, but that was a trivial matter.
“Lady Helena, may I bring you something more to drink?”
“No, thank you. I’m fine. I’m grateful you thought of me even while you’re so busy.”
She never forgot to show consideration even to the servants doing odd jobs; she was the gentle princess one might find only in fairy tales.
“Lady Helena, are you all right?”
When the party was in full swing and the intensity of gazes fixed on the guest of honor finally thinned, Chess—who oversaw the entire event—approached with a look of concern.
Parties of this sort were, in truth, social arenas for the nobility; building faces and cementing friendships mattered a great deal. The brief rest Helena now enjoyed was simply a gap that had opened in that press of activity.
“Ah, Lord Chess. Even with everything on your shoulders you still find time to look after me…”
“This party exists to celebrate Lady Helena’s birth. Paying attention to its central figure is only natural.”
Whatever the official pretext, Chess knew full well that a noble party always became a contest of connections. Even a noble like himself—without a proper fief and with no need to host social gatherings—understood that much. Even so… or rather, precisely because of that, Chess regarded Helena, the day’s true purpose and guest of honor, as the most important person present.
She was the current duke’s daughter, and in the not-so-distant future she might well be the woman his own son Zion would serve. Cultivating a sense of familiarity with the Altram family from now on was essential. And standing above all of that was his loyalty to House Krauser.
“As for running the party, please don’t worry. The noble guests have already drifted into their own conversations, and by this point the servants I’ve instructed can manage everything without me. Only light assistance, greetings, and the final cleanup remain.”
“Ah… as expected of the Viscount. You leave no gaps.”
Helena found Chess’s loyalty a little burdensome, yet she accepted it readily. House Altram had served the Krauser dukes for generations; she felt a special closeness toward him. Sitting with him even seemed to ease the weight that had been crushing her heart.
While she rested quietly in a corner, Helena suddenly exclaimed and spoke up.
“Oh—right. It’s already been a full year since you were blessed with a son, isn’t it? I never offered even a proper gift or word of congratulations, and I wanted to apologize for that.”
“Please, there’s no need. Simply knowing that Lady Helena is aware of it is already an honor.”
In this world a newborn’s age began at zero—an influence of the full-year age system most people knew. By that reckoning, Zion had now spent a year in this world.
Helena, buried under pressure and her own duties, had only just remembered and felt genuine remorse. Failing to show concern for the child of a loyal vassal house was, in her eyes, a clear failing of virtue.
“Lady Helena, there is no need to be so hard on yourself. Merely knowing of my son’s birth is glory enough.”
Chess offered gentle comfort, yet he could tell it had not truly reached her. She smiled softly and thanked him, but he saw that the smile was forced.
Was there any way to help?
As Chess fretted, his infant son Zion suddenly came to mind. There was nothing the baby could actively do, yet a baby possessed something that healed people simply by existing. He decided to gamble on that.
“Lady Helena…”
“Yes? What is it?”
“If it would not be an imposition, would you come see my son tomorrow? For a change of air as well.”
“Your son…?”
Asking a duke’s daughter to make the journey herself might have been somewhat improper. But when the invitation was a carefully measured suggestion that stayed within bounds—and when it came from a house of proven loyalty—the matter changed.
Perhaps he simply wanted her to get a little outside air. Helena pictured the Altram residence, which was not far from her own mansion, and decided it might not be so bad. She had a younger brother of her own, yet the age gap was only a year; she had never actually held a baby. In that sense as well, the outing seemed worthwhile. The girl nodded.
“Waaah.”
One year into baby life.
I lacked for nothing, yet the one inconvenience that refused to stop being inconvenient was that I still could not control my bowels. Inevitable or not, it was mortifying beyond words.
I told myself I had no choice and tried to cultivate a thicker skin, but every single time my lower half was wiped clean those resolutions crumbled without resistance. Even after a full year of this, it still happened.
“Really now. Who did our Zion take after to be this well-behaved?”
Once I was cleaned and put into a fresh diaper, Rina scooped me into her arms and sparkled at me. The look said she could barely stand how cute I was. They say even a hedgehog dotes on its own young; this woman’s maternal love left that saying in the dust.
Well, I could understand the affection. I stayed quiet even when the two of them put me to bed and then lost themselves in passionate lovemaking, and unless a sudden emergency struck I never cried at night. Without the sleep deprivation that comes from a baby wailing at all hours in the early months, of course they found me remarkable.
Just for not crying I received this much praise. Truly free compliments. If the babies of the world could understand speech, I would recommend they at least stay quiet at night.
“My lady, the master has returned.”
“Oh my. Has it gotten so late already? All right. We’ll go down shortly.”
Both Rina and Chess used polite speech even with the servants—an attitude that set them apart from ordinary nobles who barked arrogant orders. Perhaps these hopelessly doting parents acted that way because they themselves lived in service to someone else. It was a point of common ground I rather liked.
“There. Our Zion, wait here quietly for just a little while, all right?”
“Waaah.”
I could not quite bring myself to answer “yes,” so I substituted a baby cry. When I wanted milk I cried “waaah.” When I needed a diaper change I cried “waaah.” “Waaah” was, quite simply, a magic word of unmatched cost-performance.
“Haaah…”
No one else was in the couple’s bedroom where the crib stood. Only me, staring at the ceiling and sighing. A one-year-old baby rolling around on a bed while heaving sighs would have looked grotesque, but since no one was watching, what did it matter? Moments like this were exactly when I needed to savor the calm and let the tension go.
For now I was faithfully playing the role of “waaah,” after all.
—Is… this the room? It seems to be Lord Chess and Lady Rina’s bedroom as well… Wouldn’t it be rude for me to enter alone?
—Not at all. Please, go right in.
—Then, if you’ll excuse me.
Hm? An unfamiliar girl’s voice outside, and then a strange young girl opened the door by herself and stepped in.
From the conversation I understood why she was coming in alone, yet I could not think of anyone in this mansion who would warrant such treatment.
No—I could state with absolute certainty that there was no one.
“Whoa!”
Neat, long black hair and golden eyes. A girl of perfect features in a white dress. The moment I saw her I involuntarily swallowed air. Rina, who always fed me, was pretty, yet I felt certain this girl’s future beauty would far surpass even that.
“So you’re… Zion Altram.”
The girl leaned against the crib rail, staring down at me as she murmured. She knew my name, so my parents must have told her in advance. The way she had entered the mansion, the respectful treatment she received from Chess… she had to be someone of considerable rank.
While I was thinking that, a name of shocking impact stabbed into my ear like a needle.
“I’m Helena. Helena Krauser.”
Oh… shit.
That girl was the very Helena Krauser who was weak under pressure yet acted with perfect composure, and who therefore ended up with her mental state fried to a crisp. The extreme talent monster who would reach Sword Master before the age of twenty—the strongest woman. And, because of that very danger, the top-priority conquest target.
Normally such a sudden meeting would have made me flail in surprise, yet my heart remained as still as a lake. All thanks to the Steel Mental blessing granted so that a man who fought for justice anywhere, anytime, could keep his composure.
Meeting a woman like that so abruptly was still astonishing, but first things first—I should at least greet her warmly.
“Aww!”
A handshake between men is common enough. My arms were simply too short to reach. So I spread both arms and babbled. Helena’s eyes went round and her lips trembled.
I had heard her nature itself was not bad, so she did not seem angry. If she were the type to get angry at a baby she would never have come this far.
“Ah, um… in this situation, that is…”
As though she had never handled a baby before, Helena stamped her feet in flustered confusion. Then she carefully extended the hand that had been resting on the crib rail toward me—almost as if offering a handshake.
Normally she would have understood it as a request to be held, yet she simply held out her hand; perhaps she had a surprisingly timid side.
Leaving the offered hand hanging would be awkward. To avoid that I took the girl’s hand firmly and gave it a light shake. Her hand was so small that I was essentially gripping a single finger with both of mine and waving it.
“Ah… aah…!”
A cry of pure delight spilled from Helena’s lips. Wait—why?