Rudeus' POV
I woke up after a long sleep. (I'm not sure, but my body felt oddly refreshed.) The first thing I did was to get out of the crib (I can't wait for the day they move me to a real bed instead of this useless crib, since I can climb off the fence) to find out what time it was. The aroma of food answered me, a very thick meat odor. (It's probably late afternoon.)
Lilia was preparing lunch alone today, and the front door was open. From that, I was fully sure Mom was outside in the garden, since no one else leaves the door open except her. (She leaves it open to be able to run fast enough to reach and heal me if needed.)
I had already seen the garden from the window once, when Mom was carrying me. And it's very beautiful with many trees and flowers.
That day, Dad tried to pull my focus towards him by doing some fancy movements with the sword, but Mom placed me down on the ground to play with her. She didn't realize Dad's attempts to impress me, and I wouldn't tell her. (Poor Dad, he was putting on a show with no audience to watch.)
Ignoring the open door, I crawled right behind Lilia and said, "Lilia!" She flinched upon hearing me call her, but when she saw me just sitting on the floor gesturing for her to carry me, she sighed in relief and picked me up.
(I still don't understand why she's afraid of me, like she's waiting for me to turn from some kind of ticking time bomb into a killing demon in a kid's body, or is she still expecting my death? Haaah, I'll ignore this anyway.)
After she carried me, she tried to put me on the table so she could focus on cooking food. But I stopped her by saying, "..Hungry!"
In this world, they don't have baby formula. So, she usually feeds me any available fruit with high water content. (Usually apples, and the reason they have a lot of them is because they belong to Dad's horse, Carravaggio, and he shares them with me. I didn't eat a big chunk of his share. And soon they will buy some for me. I hope Carravaggio doesn't hold it against me for eating his share of apples.)
(I'm 90% sure this isn't Earth because of magic, which didn't exist there according to my knowledge. The many unfamiliar city and country names they mention support this. Not to mention the many new shapes of the fruits they feed me.) Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm in some secret military facility isolated from the rest of the world for research purposes.
(Thinking about it, that's the stupidest idea I've had in a very long time. If it were truly the case, fully suited men would have visited long ago and come to check on me regularly, or at the very least, they would have brought the proper medicine for my illness and given it to me instead of leaving me to suffer like this.)
Lilia today had a small, apple-like fruit. She cut it into small cubes, then smashed them with her hands into very small parts, so I could swallow them easily. (Anything is better than the old-fashioned way, please. AKA the French way.) She fed me until the fruit was finished. The fruit is strange; it produces a lot of juice like a orange but tastes a little different from normal apples. Strangely enough, my body likes it a lot. (I just hope it has nothing to do with Paul's dirty genes.)
She told me she won't give me another one because Mom wouldn't be happy if I was full and she couldn't feed me.
(My body and brain love when Mom nurses me the most. It's probably the necessary bonding process between a mother and son. At the same time, I'm inwardly screaming at how awkward the situation is. If I didn't know I wouldn't survive a week without this needed process, I would have refused to tolerate it at all. Well, at most, a year will pass before my milky teeth grow, and after that I'll be able to eat on my own. Then this humiliation will end.)
While I was thinking about my situation, Lilia had already finished preparing the food and had already started setting the table. (This woman is the very definition of a multitasker.)
She set two plates, one of them at one of the two ends of the table, with a fork to the left, a knife in the front, and a spoon to the right of each plate. She repeated the process for the second plate, which is right in front of the chair next to the table end, then placed a perfectly folded handkerchief on each.
(Is this woman some kind of robot? The way she works and reacts without a hint of emotion so perfectly makes me think I'm still on Earth and she is some kind of a very advanced robot.)
I wanted to explore the rest of the house, but for some reason, they don't let me go upstairs. Neither have I gotten out of the house yet. (My curiosity will kill me. I want to discover any clues about whether this is Earth or not. And if it's not—if this is another world or another universe—too many questions need answers, and the way to get them is knowledge.)
After a few moments of thought, I realized I can't walk yet, and I have no way to climb the stairs alone. It's too dangerous for a baby like me. So, when the next opportunity arises, I'll ask them nicely to be carried upstairs. (I hope it works.)
So far, I've only seen four rooms on the first floor: the living room, two bedrooms, and the dining room.
The first bedroom is almost normal, but way too medieval, with just one bed, probably made for a single person, yet Mom and Dad use it. (I wished they used it just for sleep, because of their daily work I have a very hard time sleeping at night, with many sleepless nights or sleeping for an hour or two at maximum on those days.) My crib is next to them; they just left some distance between the two beds. Each of the beds is adjacent to the wall opposite to each other.
The room isn't spacious; it barely fits us. It probably wasn't even originally a bedroom, and they just moved the beds in hastily. And there aren't any cupboards in the room, even though I'm sure the day I was reincarnated here, the room I was in had a bigger bed, a big cupboard, and many other furniture, with a big window with beautiful curtains, many tables and nightstands, and finally one armed chair Lilia rested on for a second that day.
The other bedroom is Lilia's, or judging by its size and simple furniture, it's a servant's room. It has an even smaller bed, a single cupboard, and a small pesky mat in the middle. (A true enemy of crawling; if you get in, you will never get out on your own.)
Given how big the house seems, I can speculate my family must be rich, right? And with that, I'm sure there's a library full of books somewhere in the house. (Worst case scenario, they would at least have a shelf as big as a wall, right?)
(As soon as I can walk and reach one year old, I'll ask them to teach me to read and write and leave me in the huge house library.) I can't stop daydreaming about reading thousands of magic books and learning about this new world. (Or, if this is Earth, discovering its secrets, and maybe leaving some kind of inheritance to my family if this is medieval times.)
While I was daydreaming, Lilia had already set the table by putting the pots filled with food, and called everyone to eat. She did something I still can't understand: she always prepares the table, but she always waits until Mom and Dad sit down before serving them food and water. (Why couldn't she just serve the food before calling them?)
Another strange thing: she always serves Dad first, then Mom. Like how rich, self-centered people used to live in my past life. She also doesn't eat with them. She just stands beside them while they eat. (It stings me that she is doing this.)
Mom was first to answer the call by entering the house from the garden, but she ascended to the second floor. (Her hands and knees had dirt on them. What was she doing out, hiding something in the dirt? Who am I kidding, I know too well she was just tending her garden.)
After three minutes, she came back with Dad—her hands freshly washed, while Dad held a letter in its envelope. It has a red seal on it with some drawing I couldn't figure out yet, but this isn't the first time I've seen the seal. (Why does she always go upstairs before eating when she was just in the garden? Do we have a bathroom on the second floor? But if that's the case, why do they build the bathroom on the second? The sewage system will be harder this way. And what's in that letter? And I can't see the destination or the receiver on the envelope. Not that I can read yet in the first place, even if I saw it.)
(Now after focusing on Mom, she had already washed her hands and knees and removed the dirt from her clothes, so we do have a bathroom on the second floor.)
After Mom sat down, she started her praying to Millis. (The religion she believes in, and one way or another, I feel it's a cheap copy of Christianity.) Then afterwards they began to eat (see like the prayer we do before starting eating and she does the same way of holding hands)
but as usual, she didn't seem too happy. (Because Lilia is standing nearby while they are eating, her posture stiff as always like a statue.)
And what with the way Dad was clenching that letter this hard, like he might burst into flames? That made my stomach twist. (Something's wrong. Really wrong. Every 30th of the month, Dad clenches these letters, and the house mood is tense.)
Mom tried to break the tension by saying: "You know, Lilia, you don't have to stand the whole time." Mom said to the emotionless woman. (Is Mom trying to convince that relentless woman of something? All I know is she will refuse whatever Mom is going to say to make her loosen up a bit.)
"I have to, Madame, so I can serve you, or husband if needed." Said the stoic woman without a single hint of emotion; her poker face is another level.
(See, as I said, this woman never listens to anyone, not that Mom listens to anyone in the first place. But at least Mom is cheerful.)
(And is she some kind of robot? Even when talking to Mom or Dad, she always gives the perfect answer without any facial expressions or hints of emotions. And why does she have to use that double-meaning word? It scrambles my thoughts.)
"Lilia, you know well that both Paul and I hate the stiffness of nobility. And right now, you're bringing back bad memories for both of us. Can't you loosen up a bit? If you can, sit in that chair. Please." The swordsman nodded at Mom's first remark and smiled bitterly when the memories of nobility were mentioned, but his smile turned genuine at the last part. (Still not a single hint of emotion from Lilia.)
(My brain is now brainstorming what I just heard—both Mom and Dad were nobles or maybe still nobles, and both hate nobility's stiffness and formality. Important information, considering I'm not even one year old yet—seven months, I think.)
"As you wish, Madame. Pardon my instructions." Said the former stoic maid with a nod to the cheerful woman, and she pulled a chair to the opposite side of Mom, right in the middle of the table.
(Am I hallucinating, or did Lilia just yield to Mom's loosening up? Wow! Even robots listen. That's a little scary.) As they were eating, Mom put me on the table and took care of me. (First time acting like a proper parent, if you ask me.) After they finished, Mom nursed me.
When I started yawning, I thought she would tell Lilia to put me in the crib. But when Lilia tried to carry me, Mom gestured for her not to. Instead, she carried me herself, placed me in the crib, then hugged me lightly. (She hugged a pure love hug, not as usual where she crushes me like girls when they find a plushie.)
Then she kissed my forehead and said "Goodnight" before leaving. (To my surprise, she didn't demand me to call her 'Mom' as usual or hug me tightly. Maybe she tried to keep her proper parent face for the day.)
Even if that's the case, I'm happy and proud of her. I know well that she's still immature and inexperienced at raising kids, but she still treats me the best she can. Before she left, I wanted to thank her, but that would be too much for a baby like me to do right now.
Maybe the best choice is to repeat a nice phrase I've heard. "..Mom... pretty." I muttered as she was about to leave the room. She flinched, before jumping in celebration and running out. I think I heard glass breaking, and she probably went to kiss Dad and brag to him. (I guessed this from how fast she was deer-jumping.)
(Poor Lilia. If she isn't a robot, she'll surely develop many mental problems in the future from raising this uncontrolled young couple.) As Mom left, I chanted healing magic on myself again, so I could sleep peacefully without being interrupted by my tight breathing or the activities happening in the bed on the other side of the crib.
"「Let the satisfying nourishment regain the lost vigor, regaining the lost strength.」 『Healing』" I said in a very low voice because I was sleepy. (Strange—unlike yesterday, I didn't fall asleep immediately. Instead, I felt an electric sensation pass through my nervous system. Well, now I at least know where magic comes from. That's a good start.)
Feeling this energy, I tried to control it more. But at the same time, I wondered why the healing magic didn't help me sleep as well as yesterday. Then, my hand lit up again. (Chantless magic! So it's possible. Good to know.) I didn't have enough time to celebrate this discovery because my sleepiness overtook me, and I fell asleep immediately.