From Baby to Servant #3
No. Why was she trembling like someone who'd just been shocked by electricity, all because she'd held a baby's hand?
Mind-reading would have been wonderful right about then, but unfortunately I possessed no such skill.
I'd even considered swapping one of the skills I'd gained upon arriving here for mind-reading, then concluded that was a bit much.
In other words: overkill. Total overkill.
"Aww."
Helena Krauser.
A girl with a glass mentality who never wavered in her actions, so outwardly she seemed to be holding herself together just fine—until she hit Sword Master, after which her mind completely collapsed.
But if you asked whether she fell to pieces entirely after that, the answer was no.
She wanted to be free of her duties.
The environment surrounding her, however, would not permit it. The kingdom needed power.
So the solution was simple: create a situation in which power was no longer required.
In other words, if she brought the entire continent to its knees beneath the kingdom, she would be free.
Once she achieved the great work of unification, no one would be able to bind her any longer.
Helena's shattered mental state reached that reality-detached, error-riddled conclusion, and in the process of realizing it she was fated to engulf this entire continent in a vast conflagration of war, or so I was told.
Truly like mutual annihilation in a world-scale nuclear war.
That was why Hypnos had sent me to a place where contact with Helena would be easy.
I never imagined I would end up in the Krauser servant family, but in many ways it was an extremely convenient station for making contact.
Look. A member of the ducal house, someone I would normally never even meet face-to-face, had rolled right up to me of her own accord.
"Oh my… how can anything be this soft……"
I had wondered why she was trembling with delight to that degree, but it seemed she simply liked soft things.
The information available from the Observer of Observing only covered which woman destroyed the world and for what reason; minor details like this I had to obtain by running around myself.
I wasn't sure I would remember it all the way to the end, but I decided to file it away for now. Helena liked softness.
"Aww. Awwww!"
I wanted to speak to her directly, but if a one-year-old baby started spouting the common tongue it would cause a massive uproar.
So I did my best to convey my will with my entire body while restricting myself to baby babble as much as possible.
Just then I released the hand that had been holding Helena's finger and flailed both arms wide, as if asking to be picked up.
I even made proper eye contact, so anyone with ordinary intelligence ought to grasp my meaning.
"Ah… does he want me to hold him, perhaps?"
Fortunately Helena understood the gesture exactly as I had hoped.
I wanted to crow loudly in praise, but that would only make her conclude I possessed the intelligence to understand speech, which terrified me.
A babyhood spent with a sound mind was precious; I wanted to get through it as uneventfully as possible. I had to protect the baby life.
At any rate, Helena was thoroughly flustered watching me continue to babble while staring at her.
In terms of time she seemed to stomp her feet for a good five minutes, but eventually she steeled herself and carefully scooped me into her arms.
"Wa, waa……"
Her holding technique was that of a complete beginner, yet the solid reliability I felt in her forearms was nothing like a child's.
I seemed to recall hearing she had trained in swordsmanship from a young age; that was clearly the influence.
Making me feel muscle strength at her age? She knew how to throw a punch—no, she was a girl who could.
"Kyau!"
Since she had held me the way I wanted, I beamed as if to say well done.
A baby's face has no ugly or handsome, so I felt not the slightest reservation about smiling as shamelessly as possible.
At that, the girl who had been quietly marveling while holding me for the first time sparkled her eyes with joy.
It was only a slight lift of the corners of her mouth, yet her face looked thoroughly at ease.
Yeah. You weren't born wanting to be born that way either. Glass mentality, you've really had it rough.
I smiled brightly as if I understood every corner of Helena's heart and lightly stroked the hair that brushed my cheek.
It was an unavoidable choice; the only place my hand could reach right then was her cheek. If I could have, I would have gently stroked the back of her head instead.
"Could it be… are you comforting me?"
Outwardly she maintained perfect posture and facial control.
Even her own parents had no idea what was going on inside her, but I knew. So I answered yes the only way I could—by smiling as wide as possible and making a big noise.
"Kyauuu!"
"Ah…! Really, truly that's it. How can a child who can't even speak……"
From the outside it would only look as though I were vaguely playing along.
It might even seem the baby's voice had simply timed itself well by chance, not that I had truly understood and answered.
But Helena appeared to believe I was comforting her.
Perhaps she simply wanted to believe it herself; that only meant her mind was cornered that badly.
Badly enough to show tears to a speechless infant and carelessly pour out her true feelings.
"I would have been content just living quietly. But I couldn't cast aside the expectations of so many people, starting with my father the Duke… so I forced myself to endure. And yet you tell me even someone like me is all right."
And seeing her ramble on with completely unexpected confessions, I decided her imagination must be remarkably rich.
Or perhaps her mind was simply ill.
"Aww. Awwww."
Someone once said that simply listening seriously to another person is already half the battle.
Hoping Helena would stabilize, I recalled those words and occasionally chimed in with her complaints.
Most of it was nothing more than babble like aww and ooo, but so what? If she liked it that much, that was enough.
"Amazing. Even though you're a baby… it really feels as if you understand every word I say."
As the mental therapy progressed considerably, Helena voiced a perfectly natural suspicion while smiling.
Seeing her think with common sense again made it clear she had stabilized a great deal. Otherwise she would still be treating me like a psychological counselor.
"What will you become when you grow up later? The people of Altram were all overflowing with loyalty, so the odds are high you'll be the same, right? Or you might turn out to have a sharp temperament like my younger sibling."
Helena carried on a conversation entirely with herself, smiling with a faint shadow of gloom.
I wondered whether she was dumping too heavy a subject on a baby. My soul was adult, so I understood perfectly well, but still……
Wait.
Come to think of it, this was the first I had ever heard that Helena had a younger sibling.
My parents had occasionally mentioned Duke Krauser or Helena, but they had never once spoken of a younger sibling.
A sibling never mentioned even in private. Combined with Helena's monologue.
Putting the two together and applying reasonable suspicion, I concluded that Helena's younger sibling was clearly a complete bastard. Otherwise even Helena would never have described them as having a sharp temperament.
And if they were a bastard they would definitely cause trouble sooner or later, so it wouldn't hurt to be careful from now on.
After roughly an hour of monologue, Zion Altram fell asleep in Helena's arms with soft, even breaths.
Simply listening had piled up mental fatigue.
With a somewhat grown body he would never have dozed off so easily, but the present Zion was a baby; the mental drain was bound to be exceptional.
Thanks to that, Helena tried to lay him on the bed with a wry smile—then, as if possessed, pressed her lips to the baby's broad forehead that stretched like a little plain.
"Oh my! What am I……"
If one thought of it as a simple expression of affection for a baby, there was nothing particularly strange about it.
Yet Helena, cheeks flushed bright red, fidgeted restlessly, carefully laid Zion on the bed, and fled the room as if she had committed a crime.
"Young miss, did you see Zion well?"
Helena composed herself in the short walk down the corridor; by the time she knocked on the door of the reception room where Chess waited, she had recovered her original composure.
Perhaps that was why Chess also asked with an entirely peaceful expression.
He showed not the slightest sign of suspecting that Helena had been flustered only moments earlier.
"Yes. He was a very cute baby. And I could see the places where he resembled you, Chess, as one would expect of your son."
"Haha. Is that so? I am truly honored that you praise my son so highly."
"Your reaction is far too exaggerated."
The girl sat naturally in the seat Chess offered, a shy look on her face.
Sitting in the chair Chess himself had drawn out and offered was the natural act of a member of the Krauser household.
It might look a little arrogant, but Helena understood from experience that putting on false humility now would only make things noisier; that was her judgment.
Altram loyalty ran deep, after all.
"Um… Chess."
Helena took a sip of the tea Chess had personally brewed, then slowly parted her lips. Temperature and fragrance matched the girl's tastes perfectly—a cup overflowing with delicacy.
"Yes. Please speak."
"The child who was in the bedroom… Zion, was it? Will that child also work for our Krauser Ducal House in the future?"
"Hmm… unless something extraordinary happens, that is of course the plan."
Teaching the joy of serving the Krauser Ducal House and teaching its history was only natural.
But even after that, if his son firmly chose his own path, Chess intended to support that path wholeheartedly.
His pride and resolve to serve the Krauser Ducal House for generations was as hard as diamond, yet he did not wish to force that road upon the child.
However, if the Krauser side strongly desired the boy… Chess himself could not say what conclusion he might reach.
"Could it be that you've taken a liking to Zion?"
So he threw out a probing question without quite meaning to, but Helena answered while waving her hands in great fluster.
"Ah, that…! Of… of course I liked the child, but I don't want to force him to follow me! You know perfectly well how shallow that kind of coerced loyalty is, Chess."
"Well, that is true, but……"
For now she showed no intention of taking him by force, which was a relief.
Chess breathed an inward sigh of relief at the confirmation that Helena's consideration remained intact—then immediately changed his mind upon seeing the girl speaking with flushed cheeks like any ordinary child of her age.
"As I said… I like that child. But I hope he will think carefully for himself and then choose to be with me. And if he wishes to take another path, I want to respect it gladly."
I can't stand this!
Chess still intended to respect his son's will, but he firmly resolved to begin half-brainwashing operations while maximizing the praise of Helena's excellence.
Future talent, after all, ought to serve the future duchess.
"If that is the case… I shall do my utmost to extol Lady Helena's excellence. So that Zion himself will wish to follow you."
"Yes…? Um, isn't that brainwashing……"
"Brainwashing? How absurd! If I teach him Lady Helena's greatness, and the greatness of the Krauser Ducal House, Zion will surely come to harbor loyalty and pride—just as I and the ancestors before me did."
Having someone take her side was nice, but the blazing intensity was a little excessive.
Helena could not decide whether to feel happy or sad, and for the moment settled on smiling softly and glossing things over.