Capítulo 9: Only Mother is Good.jpg
As the saying goes, *"The tree wants to be still, but the wind won't stop."* Standing at the very heart of the storm, yet being the weakest link in the chain, Smith was rational enough to understand that he had no control over the trajectory of these events. Forget influence; even maintaining a semblance of control was a distant dream. All he could do was disguise himself cautiously and use the limited resources at his disposal to minimize the impact of the situation.
Rationally and emotionally, Smith was utterly convinced that someone in Berlin was plotting against him. However, he had no concrete plan for protecting himself. Lacking any knowledge of the "Temporal Management Bureau's" capabilities and methods, he was left with no clear idea of how to mount a defense.
Indeed, as the newly born prince of Prussia, and especially in light of the recent "accident," Smith was receiving the highest level of protection that 1859 Prussia could offer.
Inside his room, no fewer than two medical personnel and four bodyguards stood on constant alert. The medical staff was there to address any sudden health issues of this newborn prince, who was rumored to have arrived via a complicated birth and might be unwell. The four bodyguards were tasked with fending off potential intruders or hidden conspirators aiming to harm him. This innermost protective circle consisted of carefully selected, trustworthy individuals from the Prussian royal court.
Beyond this core layer of protection lay additional support. Medically, a joint Anglo-Prussian medical team had been assembled, comprising court physicians from Prussia and specialists from Britain. Emergency equipment and treatment facilities had been prepared in case the young prince exhibited any anomalies, allowing the "professional team" to spring into action immediately. On the security side, eight groups totaling 40 security personnel formed the second layer of protection around the prince's room.
Outside the Crown Prince's Palace, Regent William had mobilized one company of Royal Guard cavalry and three companies of Royal Guard infantry. These royal family troops extended the security perimeter by an entire block, with mixed cavalry and infantry patrols conducting round-the-clock sweeps. Any suspicious individuals exhibiting unusual behavior were immediately subjected to thorough interrogation.
Even artillery units had been called in. At several street corners surrounding the palace, guards had set up fortified positions with sandbagged breastworks, each equipped with a light field cannon preloaded with grapeshot. The positions were arranged to provide overlapping fields of fire, creating deadly crossfire zones capable of sweeping the streets clean should hostilities break out.
The waterways hadn't been overlooked, either. The Crown Prince's Palace, also known as "Bellevue Palace" for its picturesque location along the Spree River, stood surrounded by the lush greenery of Unter den Linden in the front and the sparkling river in the back. However, the serene scenery was now disrupted by the rumble of engines and plumes of coal smoke, thanks to police patrol boats deployed by the Berlin Police Department. Equipped with kerosene searchlights and multi-barrel firearms, these boats were ready to deal with any "water ghosts" who might attempt an underwater infiltration. Any suspicious swimmer would be illuminated by the searchlights and met with a warm reception of gunfire.
For the year 1859, this level of protection was nothing short of an ironclad fortress!
Yet, none of this gave Smith any peace of mind. While such measures might deter would-be assassins from 1859, they were likely to be counterproductive when dealing with the Temporal Management Bureau, an organization more than capable of executing "single-click possession" on key figures of this dimension.
Due to these same fears, Smith could not place complete trust in those assigned to protect him. The only people he could truly rely on were those he considered absolutely dependable—and for Zhao Hao, the only dependable individuals were those whose characters he thoroughly understood, who held sufficiently significant historical roles to dissuade the Temporal Management Bureau from easily possessing them.
Although he hadn't read detailed information about the Bureau, Smith was convinced that their purpose was to realign timelines back to their historical trajectories. Given such an objective, they would naturally hesitate to possess pivotal historical figures lightly. Such an act, by its very nature, would introduce a massive variable, potentially triggering dramatic historical changes.
Even if the Bureau had become reckless enough to target these individuals, Smith's deep familiarity with them would allow him to detect any abnormalities in their behavior, providing an early warning.
Unfortunately, such individuals were extremely rare for a newborn like Smith. In fact, within all of Berlin, there were only four.
The most dependable choice was, of course, his father, Frederick. Whether in private or in public, Frederick treated Smith as his treasured child, displaying genuine affection from the depths of his heart. However, as a military officer, Frederick couldn't stay by his side every moment of the day.
The next two candidates were his grandparents, the Regent William and his wife. Theoretically his "grandfather and grandmother," the pair loved him almost as much as Frederick did. But William, being burdened with countless state affairs, could hardly dedicate his time solely to the child. Meanwhile, his grandmother Catherine had sprained her ankle amidst the chaos of recent events and was not in the best condition to serve as a constant protector.
After much deliberation, Smith was left with only one option—the person he least wanted to choose: his mother, Victoria.
Reluctant as he was, Smith had to admit that Victoria was the perfect choice. As a British royal princess without any formal duties in Prussia, she was free of the distractions of official business. As Frederick's wife and a living symbol of Anglo-Prussian relations, Victoria was a "dutiful" royal woman. Regardless of how she might resent the child who had been born at such great cost to her, abandoning his safety was simply not an option—it went against her very mission.
Equally important was Victoria's robust physical condition. Barely four or five days after the grueling childbirth, this 19-year-old mother was already able to get out of bed. Within a week, she had gradually regained her vitality, and at this rate, she would be fully recovered within half a month. This was likely due to her strict physical training during her youth, which had endowed her with excellent health. Her fencing training, in particular, had given her considerable "combat potential."
Smith wasn't expecting his mother to single-handedly fend off attackers in a one-versus-many battle. However, he hoped she could at least buy some time until reinforcements arrived, earning herself a "Heroic Stance" badge or a "Spartan Spirit" medal in the process!
So far, this matter has only been Smith's one-sided wish. He knew himself that, because of the difficult birth, he had become "Wei Wusheng" in Victoria's eyes—something that was highly off-putting. Whether Victoria would be willing to stay by his side was still uncertain. Plus, as a newborn who couldn't even speak, how could he possibly achieve his goal?
But, as fate would have it, just as Smith was lost in such thoughts, a turning point arrived.
Before that incident, Victoria would never willingly stay with Smith for even a minute. She would always hurry in, fulfill her duties as a mother, and then hurry out again. However, after the incident, Victoria's time spent with Smith increased.
On one hand, this was due to Frederick. After the incident, the busy cavalry commander increasingly felt guilty towards his son, who had endured so much. So, he would often take time out of his busy schedule to be by Smith's side. And whenever this happened, he would always bring Victoria along, not only to reunite the family but also with the hope of strengthening the bond between mother and child.
On the other hand, Victoria herself had begun to undergo some psychological changes.
People, you see, never realize that not only is their fate unpredictable, but even their true feelings can be unclear.
Indeed, the difficult birth had brought great psychological trauma to Victoria, making her feel estranged, resistant, and even disgusted by Smith. But when the machine suddenly made a loud noise and blood splattered onto Smith's infant clothes, Victoria was shocked to find that her first reaction was to rush over. Had she not been blocked by the panicked crowd, she would have likely been one of the first to reach Smith.
This matter troubled Victoria for a long time, as she tried to figure out the underlying cause of her actions. When she finally realized the reason, an even greater shock made her tremble—she had suddenly realized that she was trying to save him. It seemed that deep in her heart, this "breech birth monster" occupied a unique position. After all, this was a piece of flesh that had fallen from her body, a continuation of her life.
From that moment on, an unusual seed was planted in Victoria's heart. And from then on, whenever she looked at the little guy in the crib, despite the reflexive disgust and aversion, a trace of gentleness began to quietly emerge in her heart.
The next time Frederick and Victoria came together, Smith immediately noticed the change in Victoria. When Frederick picked him up, Smith looked toward Victoria.
This gaze seemed to strike Victoria like a bolt of lightning.
When Smith was in school, bored out of his mind, he had once flipped through Stanislavski's *An Actor Prepares*. It was purely by chance, just to kill time, and he never expected to actually get into it. The book was a monumental classic on how to bring a character to life, and now Smith was an actor. He had to play the role of a son trying to evoke his mother's love, and only love could awaken love.
So, when Smith looked at Victoria, his gaze was full of a son's love for his mother. This wasn't very difficult for Smith; he simply called upon his memories from before his rebirth and imagined Victoria as his own mother—or, to put it more dramatically, allowed the image of his mother to appear in Victoria.
The gaze was only the beginning. Smith awkwardly maneuvered his newborn body's arms and stretched them toward Victoria.
"Oh, our little man wants his mommy, huh?" Frederick chuckled, trying to mimic the tone other fathers used to tease their children. But to his surprise, Smith gently nodded and smiled.
Frederick had never imagined that a newborn, less than two weeks old, would respond like this. His smile widened, and he continued teasing Smith, saying, "Don't you want daddy to hold you?"
Smith, of course, knew this was just Frederick trying to tease him. But what mattered was that he had to act like a baby. So, he immediately stopped smiling and began crying, loudly and with such intensity that it seemed like the entire prince's palace could hear him. The echo even seemed to drift across the Spree River.
At this, the new father Frederick panicked. He turned to Victoria, looking flustered, and said to his son, "Oh, no no, you want mommy to hold you…"
Then, turning to Victoria, Frederick said, "Vicky, he wants you!"
Smith had been waiting for this moment. At Frederick's words, he immediately turned toward Victoria, extending his arms and showing a smiling face, while simultaneously making a sound similar to "mama"—
This was the limit of the sounds Smith could make at that moment!
"Vicky! Listen! It seems like he's calling for you!" Frederick exclaimed, overjoyed, almost jumping three feet into the air. Seeing this scene, the warmth that had been faintly growing in Victoria's heart intensified. Naturally, she took Smith into her arms and, with an unprecedented tone, said, "Alright! Mommy's here!"
With that, Victoria took Smith from Frederick's arms. A sensation Smith had never experienced after his rebirth instantly washed over him—
It was probably the feeling of "being loved by a mother"…
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