章節 3: A One-year Journey of Infancy

In the first three months after birth, I could do nothing except for drinking breastmilk, sleeping all day and of course, cry because that is what every baby would do.

During the first three months, my vision was slowly developing every week and little by little, I could finally see the faces of the people that were taking care of me.

With me able to recognize facial features, I could confirm that my parents were really are Philip and Hilda, and the loud old man was Lord Sauros. I know this because their faces match with the illustrations of the novel and anime.

Though I still hate it when they stared at me, now that I could see them clearly, I always have a ten second countdown every time they gaze at me and I regularly throws a tantrum when they looked at me for long enough.

However, I have some exceptions, like during my feeding time or if they have something special to say. If not, I just blatantly ignored them and continue to wait for the days to go by.

Sometimes, there were other people who I can see during these three months. Like the three maids with animal features. If I remember correctly, I saw these three beast maids in the anime.

Now that I have a better view of them when they check on me, I was amaze that their animal features are so fluffy and realistic as if I have the urge to touch them.

I am a huge fan of kemono fur suit cosplays in my past life and I used to go to anime conventions in order to see those humanoid animals.

I guess I have to put the urge of touching animal ears in the future to-do-list.

Just you wait fluffy ears, I will touch you one day.

------------------------------------------------------

In the fourth to sixth months, I manage to control my body movements and able to coordinate my limbs better.

With that being said, I can roll around both ways and able to sit a little. Now that I have a better view of my room, which is fancy and luxurious for an infant. Meh, who am I to judge the effort of my parents in this world.

My parents in the previous world didn't have that kind of effort and just reuse old elements from my older sister's baby room. I understand that they were broke, but come on, show some love to your own child. I am ashamed that my previous parents didn't have that much care for me compare to my elder sibling in the past.

On the other hand, the parents in this world have outdone themselves with they're care for me. They give me cute and pretty baby clothes and animal toys to play with. They are always sweet and more caring compare to my previous parents who were cold and strict.

I also have better grasp of the language of this world by listening to the vocabulary they used in talking to me. I always able to respond the words they tried to teach me when interacting with them.

There's also the loud grandfather who occasionally checks on me, trying to entertain me as much as he can with his deafening voice. Honestly, it wasn't specified in the novel on the reason why he was this thunderously loud.

I got tired of his constant shouts of entertainment that I started to shout like him using my baby voice.

'Hear me roar, grandfather! As I, Bellona, will surpass your annoyingly loud voice!'

[Sauros POV]

"BWAH! BWAH! BWAH!"

"Aww~ She is growing so fast"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the seventh to ninth months, I finally able to crawl around whenever I want.

When my parents saw this, they allow me to explore outside of my crib and investigate the room. The room itself is wide and it reminds me of Eris's room in the anime, or maybe, this was originally her room when I wasn't in the story yet. Perhaps, we will share the room once she was born.

With that being said, I crawled around a bit more before I got bored and just laid down on the floor making baby noises.

However, when the maids didn't close the door properly, I cheekily opened it with my baby arms and explored outside of the room.

I crawled around the hallway of the mansion and surprisingly, it is fun traversing the entire place as a baby. Everything is so massive and wide in the perspective of an infant and I can't fandom with my tiny baby brain on how lucky I am to be in this kind of luxurious building.

I continued exploring while I hear the anxious voice of my parents as they command the maids to find me. So, I quickly crawled away from them before they find out my location.

How do I know what they're saying? Simple, I collected all of the vocabularies of the people that were talking within my vicinity and deciphered the semantics and structure of words they use to form a sentence. That's right, I mastered the human language in just nine months.

While crawling away from the people that were searching for me, I bump into someone I didn't expect to encounter.

"Oh? What are you doing here, granddaughter?"

It was grandfather Sauros and we cross paths at the corner of the hallway.

'What should I do? If I stop crawling away, they will definitely catch me and lock me up in the room'

I anxiously thought to myself and think of a way to solve this problem.... I know!

"Up! Up! Up! Up!" I kept shouting up so that he will give me a piggyback ride. He furrows his eyes at me for a few seconds, making me nervous, but he then laughs boisterously.

"HAHAHAHA! Do you want to ride on my back, dear?"

"Up! Up! Up!"

"Okay then, up you go here!" grandfather Sauros then picks me up and puts me at his back. I hold on to his head with my mitten wrapped hands and we explored the entire mansion together.

------------------------------------------------

In the tenth to the final month of the year, I finally able to stand with my own two feet and slowly able to walk with the help of my parents and my grandfather Sauros.

I know I can do it on my own, just because I am a reincarnated soul, but where's fun on that if you don't do it like a normal baby would do.

I had little to no bonding time with my previous life parents as they were too busy on supporting my elder sister. I was ashamed that they were my parents in the first place. how could they? Why couldn't they balance the love and support with both children, even though we were poor in the past. Maybe I should have erased these unpleasant memories from the past life if they were these hideously awful to remember.

Anyway, enough remembering some garbage memories and let's continue to experience treasured ones in order to wipe out bad ones from my brain.

During the final three months of my year as an infant, I experienced a lot of good things. Like the time when grandfather Sauros took me to a luxurious party in the Asura kingdom.

"BEHOLD EVERYONE! Feast your eyes on my granddaughter, Bellona Boreas Greyrat! And what's more interesting is that my granddaughter was also a Miko!!"

He proudly boasted to all of the nobles in the about me being his pride and joy while crossing his arms and spreading his feet apart.

Seeing my grandfather pose majestically, I copied the same pose as him and shouts like him.

"I am Miko!"

Everyone laughs happily as they were entertained by my presence and endearing personality.

"Oh my~ What we have here, Sauros. You brought something quite interesting"

The laughter stops when someone mischievously speaks among the crowd.

"Darius.... What do you want, you bastard?" Grandfather Sauros harshly said as he scowls at the approaching person that he was referring to. I too, scowls at the person because I knew that name.

In the anime, it's the name of the noble that prompts to execute my grandfather in the original story.

"Oh, how awful. Is that how you speak to me, the prime minister Darius, who was the number one supporter of the first prince of the Asura Kingdom?" says the fat bald noble man that was approaching my grandfather.

The noble man was accompanied by a man with a hairdo that looks like a dish bowl, with a colorful coat and a peacock tattoo on his left face. The design of the hair and coat looks familiar to me, where was it again? Ah, the volume 10 illustration!

I remember that his name was Auber or something. Although I only saw the figure from the back in the illustration, and I vaguely remember the description about his tattoo though.

"Leave grampa alone!" I tried to stand in front of grandfather Sauros and spread my arms wide to protect him from Darius.

"Oh, how cute~ Here, let me pinch your cheeks" the fat noble man reaches his filthy hand towards me, reaching for my face.

I removed the mittens from my hands and grab his hand to scorch it.

*Sizzle*

"GYAAAAAAAAH!! IT BURNS! MY HAND! IT'S BURNING!" the man kneeled to the floor as he grimaces in pain after scorching his filthy hand with my [Searing Hands].

"No touch, fatty!" I coldly insult the pathetic noble man that was kneeling on the ground, and the dish bowl haired man was confused on what to do in this situation because he can't just retaliate a one-year-old child.

"GWAHAHAHAHA! Do you see, Darius! No one messes with the Boreas lineage with those perverse hands of yours!" grandfather Sauros jeers at the fat noble man and everyone laughs in entertainment with the scene that I caused.

"Tch, this isn't over, Sauros! I will have my revenge on that brat of yours!!" Darius said as he fleed from the party venue with the dish bowl haired man.

I then look at grandfather who also notices my gaze.

"What is it, Bellona?"

"Me protect grampa?"

"HAHAHA! Of course, you do! You're my sweet dear granddaughter after all! You protected me, thank you" he cheerfully approves of my action and I smiled at him joyfully.

"Yay! me protect grandpa!" I cheered happily as I was raised in the air by grandfather.

Everyone in the venue was touched by the wonderful scene of grandfather and grandchild, and they clap in awe because of that.

---------------------------------------------------

[Third POV]

Little do Bellona and Sauros knows that Darius and Auber haven't left the venue at all and was hiding in plain sight while watching the scene with burning hatred, literally. Because he was still clutching to the burnt part of his hand as he was glaring at Bellona.

"Auber, prepare my men. We have a brat to punish" he ordered his servant and he nodded in compliance.

"Understood, lord Darius" he then left the side of the noble and walks away from the venue.

'I will get you one day, brat! and I will make sure that you will be tortured for burning my hand!' Darius thought to himself as he too, disappeared from the venue.