1-1 - A Childhood Promise—But With An Expiration Date

After what felt like an eternity of battling my illness, I lost all my senses except my hearing.

Eventually, even the days when all I could do was listen to the nurses who came by several times a day came to an end, and I fell into the same eternal sleep as Saya—or so I thought.

Yet somehow, I regained consciousness. What’s more, my eyes, which had long since lost their sight, could now vaguely perceive light. On top of that, my surroundings seemed strangely noisy.

Had I… been resuscitated?

Even if I wanted to find out, my monochrome vision was too blurry to make anything out, and my hearing was still poor. I could barely distinguish what sounded like a woman’s voice.

…Well, that made sense. Even if I hadn’t died, it wasn’t as though my illness had been cured. In the end, I would probably just spend my days in a state that was little different from being asleep—

There was a time when I actually thought that.

I couldn’t tell exactly how much time had passed, but it was probably a few months.

By the time my eyesight had gradually improved and I could clearly hear the voices around me, I had come to understand a startling fact: I had become a baby.

I mean, how should I put this? I did think something was strange. Ever since I’d lost the ability to move, I’d been fed nothing but high-calorie liquid meals, yet lately, for some reason, someone had been feeding me milk.

I’d wondered why they were giving me milk, but if it was breast milk, that made sense… Like hell it did! Why the heck had I turned into a baby?! Had I skipped heaven altogether and gotten reincarnated?!

You’ve got to be kidding me! I’d been planning to find Saya in heaven and apologize after I died, but getting reincarnated out of nowhere completely ruined my plans! Wait, no. That wasn’t really the issue here.

I needed to calm down a little.

First of all, had I really been reincarnated? It certainly seemed like I was being breastfed by an unfamiliar woman… With that thought, I looked up at her again.

How old was she…? Maybe in her late teens? She had quite an attractive face, and what she was wearing looked like… a maid’s uniform, perhaps? She was dressed in a black-and-white apron dress.

Was there any chance this woman was a nurse…? No, definitely not.

I’d never heard of a nurse breastfeeding a patient. Besides, the woman was several times larger than me. If I were still my original size, just how many meters tall would that make her?

Looking at it that way, there was no denying that I’d been reborn as a baby, and I couldn’t think of any other explanation for why I’d become one.

In other words, I must have been reincarnated. I spent a while considering whether that conclusion might be wrong, but I couldn’t find a single reason to doubt it.

…Hmm. To think I’d actually be reincarnated.

I mean, come on. If a miracle was going to happen anyway, wouldn’t reuniting with Saya in heaven have been a lot more dramatic? What was the point of leaving Saya behind and getting reincarnated all by myself?

It was like discovering that your lottery ticket matched this year’s jackpot numbers! Except the ticket was from last year, so you couldn’t claim the prize! That was about how pointless this miracle felt.

Still… I supposed it was better than no miracle at all.

If I’d been reincarnated, I shouldn’t have to fear that illness anymore. And if I’d been given a healthy body, there would be no need to lie this time.

I could fulfill Saya’s final wish in the truest sense. I would live this second life I’d been given as freely and fully as possible, find happiness, and when I died again, that would finally be my chance to—

While I was thinking about all that, the woman leaned over to look at my face. Then, wearing a puzzled expression, she said something.

She wasn’t speaking Japanese, so I had no idea what she was saying… But I’d stopped moving while I was lost in thought, so she was probably asking what was wrong or something like that.

Still, this woman was something of a mystery herself. Since she was wearing a maid’s uniform, I assumed she was a wet nurse, but she apparently produced milk herself… I really couldn’t make sense of it.

“—?”

Oops. Now she was looking at me with concern.

So, resorting to a little body language, I tilted my head to one side and said,

“Ai~?”

“~~~~!”

—Whoa, mph?! Hey, wait a minute, Miss Maid (probably)! Don’t suddenly grab someone’s head and bury it in your ample bosom! I’m tiny right now, remember?! You’re going to suffocate me!

I desperately flailed my arms and legs until the maid noticed my distress and hurriedly released me.

Pant, pant… That was close. I’d finally gotten reincarnated, and dying of suffocation between a pair of breasts would be a pretty ridiculous way to go.

I gave her a look intended to convey that she really needed to be more careful, but for some reason, the maid smiled blissfully and gently hugged me again.

Hmm. I was pretty sure I’d made a displeased face, yet she seemed delighted. Apparently, I still hadn’t mastered controlling my expressions. I needed to find a way to communicate properly, or things were going to get terribly inconvenient.

…All right. I’d decided on my next course of action.

To understand the situation I’d found myself in, I first needed to learn the language of this country. Let’s see… I could start by learning my own name and the maid’s name.

Four years had passed since my birth.

Incidentally, I wasn’t saying four years because I’d been counting the days or keeping track of dates. I simply assumed that was how much time had passed because someone had celebrated my fourth birthday.

There were four seasons, and a year seemed to consist of twelve months, but I hadn’t confirmed whether the length of a day or the exact number of days matched those on Earth.

In any case, I’d finally become proficient in this country’s language.

Perhaps it was because a baby’s brain was so adaptable, or perhaps it was because I retained my memories from my previous life, but everything I tried to learn sank into my memory like water into a sponge.

Despite that, the reason it had taken me about as long as an ordinary baby to learn the language was the environment surrounding me.

Apparently, I was being kept isolated in a detached building, and the only person who ever spoke to me was Milly—the maid who had been raising me.

The only other people I’d even seen were a taciturn maid who occasionally delivered supplies and my father, who had shown his face exactly once. Under those circumstances, learning the language had been quite a struggle.

Incidentally, the reason for my isolation apparently had something to do with my birth.

My name was Leon Granches. Being the second son of the Granches count’s family sounded rather impressive, but my mother had been a maidservant who caught the nobleman’s eye—or, to put it simply, I was an illegitimate child born to his mistress.

Consequently, after the count’s lawful wife, Caroline, intervened, I was isolated in the detached building. Well, that was everything I’d learned from my father’s monologue during his one and only visit.

The rest was speculation on my part, but… Only one child could inherit the title of count. If I’d been a girl, there probably wouldn’t have been a problem, but as a boy, I had the potential to threaten the legitimate wife’s son’s position.

—I suspected that was the sort of thinking behind the situation.

Whether it was an extension of that reasoning or something else entirely, I had no means of contact with the outside world apart from Milly.

I had no ambition to inherit the title and become a count, so they could do whatever they wanted about that. But I really wished they’d stop depriving me of opportunities to learn things.

I hadn’t settled on a concrete plan for how I would live freely and find happiness, but whatever path I eventually chose, I wanted at least a basic level of knowledge.

And my current environment was completely inadequate for that. Just how inadequate? So inadequate that it had taken me almost four years to realize that I wasn’t on Earth at all, but somewhere else—probably another world.

Man, when I happened to glance out the window one night and spotted a blue moon, it genuinely scared the hell out of me. I’d already figured out that I wasn’t in Japan because nobody spoke Japanese, but I’d assumed I was somewhere else on Earth.

Of course, looking back, there had been clues all along.

For example, this mansion had clearly cost a considerable amount of money, with gold decorations and other expensive furnishings. Despite that, the beds were hard, and the clothes weren’t particularly comfortable.

At first, I’d assumed they were giving me cheap things because I was an illegitimate child, but even the clothes my father had worn during his one visit were made from fabric that wasn’t much different.

I’d wondered why that was the case when they clearly had money, but everything made sense once I realized I was in another world. In other words, the quality wasn’t poor because the items were cheap. It was because this world’s technology was underdeveloped.

Technologically speaking, perhaps it was comparable to medieval Europe? There was also the possibility that we were in some remote region where imported goods from other countries were completely unavailable, but either way, it wasn’t an environment I would normally expect to encounter on Earth.

And so, my daily routine lately had consisted of exploring the detached building and gathering information, but…

“Lord Leon, you’ve slipped out of your room again! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

With those words, someone suddenly scooped me up from behind. Before I had any chance to resist, I was carried straight back to my room.

“Ugh, I wanted to look around a little more.”

“It’s good to be curious, but didn’t I tell you not to wander around by yourself?”

“Sorry, Milly.”

I obediently apologized. After all, there had been an incident when I’d thrown a tantrum about wanting to leave the detached building, and Milly had genuinely burst into tears.

It wasn’t even her fault, yet she’d held me tightly and sobbed, saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry you have to live like this.”

The guilt I’d felt back then… Ugh, just remembering it was painful.

“Lord Leon?”

“Mm, it’s nothing.”

“Are you sure? In that case, will you promise not to wander off on your own anymore?”

“………”

I silently turned my gaze toward some distant, irrelevant point.

“…Lord Leon? Won’t you promise me?”

Guh. Looking at me with such a lonely expression was playing dirty! Fine, then! I’d fight back by giving her the most pitiful look of an abandoned baby I could manage!

“Oh, dear. Looking at me like that won’t work, you know? I’m not letting you off until you promise.”

Huh~? That used to be enough to fool her so easily. Somehow, I felt like she was getting tougher to deal with every day.

“Lord Leon?”

“…All right. I won’t wander around without telling you anymore, Milly.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I promise. But in exchange, you have to keep me company and talk to me, okay?”

“If that’s all you want, I’ll gladly talk to you as much as you like. I’m your personal maid, after all. Oh, but it’s almost time for your afternoon nap, so we can only talk until then today, all right?”

“Yeah, okay.”

When I lay down on the bed, Milly settled down beside me as though we were taking a nap together. It was a familiar afternoon scene that had become part of our routine lately.

Her face was so close that I could see my own reflection in her violet eyes. Considering my mental age, I probably should have felt embarrassed, but strangely enough, I’d never once thought of it that way.

Well, she was practically the parent who’d raised me. It was probably much the same as how I hadn’t felt anything unusual when wiping down Saya’s body during her hospitalization.

“So, what would you like to hear about today?”

“Hmm, let’s see… Today, I want to hear about you, Milly.”

“About me?”

“Milly, you’re a maid serving this family, right? How come you were assigned to take care of me?”

I’d been destined to be isolated in the detached building even before I was born. In other words, I’d already been marked as the loser in the Granches family’s power struggle from the very beginning.

Surely nobody would want to be assigned to care for a child like that. I’d assumed the responsibility had been forced on her for some reason, but…

“I volunteered for the position myself.”

“…Huh? You did?”

Milly’s answer completely overturned my expectations.

“What’s with that reaction? Do I look like I’m taking care of you against my will, Lord Leon?”

“No, but you seem really capable, Milly, so I thought maybe you were just good at hiding how you really felt.”

“Lord Leon…”

Milly widened her eyes at my decidedly unchildlike remark. But only for a moment, before a gentle smile appeared on her face.

“I understand why you might feel uneasy, Lord Leon. But I will always be on your side.”

“…Really? Then will you answer my question?”

“Yes, of course. Please ask me anything.”

“Then I want to know. How come you were able to produce breast milk, Milly?”

I finally voiced a question that had been bothering me for a long time.

As far as I knew, only women who had given birth could produce breast milk. I wasn’t sure whether that knowledge held true in this world, but… With that thought, I watched Milly’s reaction.

An expression combining surprise and sorrow appeared on Milly’s face.

“…Lord Leon, where did you learn something like that?”

“Never mind that. Answer my question first. Milly, is it possible that you’re my—”

“No, that’s not it.”

Before I could finish asking whether she was my mother, she’d already denied it.

“I had just given birth to a child myself.”

“…Really? But then, where is your child?”

The question slipped out without a second thought, and I immediately cursed my own thoughtlessness. Milly’s beautiful face had twisted with grief.

I see… So that was why. The reason she’d wanted to take care of me was—

“—That’s not it, Lord Leon. Your father, Lord Robert, has done a great deal for me. That’s why I chose to take care of you of my own free will. It wasn’t because I wanted to distract myself from my grief.”

Milly gave me a reassuring smile and gently drew me into her arms. I could feel the steady rhythm of her heartbeat, gradually washing away my doubts.

“…I see. Sorry for asking something so strange.”

“Please don’t worry about it. Besides, it’s only natural that you’d feel anxious after being confined to a place like this, Lord Leon.”

Milly paused for a moment after saying that. Then, in a gentle voice, she continued.

“No matter what happens, I will always, always be on your side, Lord Leon. Please never forget that.”

“Milly… Thank you.”

Feeling the comforting rhythm of Milly’s heartbeat, I slowly closed my eyes.

As I lay there with my eyes shut, Milly began singing a lullaby. Its melody was gentle and soothing, filling me with a sense of reassurance. I felt a peace that I’d long forgotten since losing my family.

It wasn’t quite the kind of happiness I’d originally imagined, but perhaps spending my days peacefully like this was another form of happiness. With that thought, I was just about to drift off to sleep when—

“At least until the day you’re married off, Lord Leon, I’ll always be right here by your side.”

Milly stopped singing her lullaby and casually dropped a bombshell.