"Waah?"
Calliope was surprised and let out a cry. But no matter how she tried to speak, all that came out of her mouth was a baby's "waah waah" sounds.
Flustered, she tried to turn her head and look around her, but she couldn't. She couldn't even tell if her eyes were or weren't open. A maid who had been bringing in hot water commented.
"Oh my, the baby must be very healthy. Just look at how she cried out the moment she was born. This is a very rare case."
Usually, infants had to be patted on the butt a couple of times before they began to cry out.
"It's a beautiful miss!"
"Congratulations, Countess Rustichel!"
The midwife who had been carrying Calliope turned to the mother of the child
"How is the baby?"
As soon as she could speak, she asked about her child.
"She's a healthy one."
The midwife looked at infant's fingers, toes, checking if she had ten of each, and after an inspection of the overall body, responded as such. At the countess's beckoning, the midwife placed the child into her arms. The mother's tired face brighten up like a ray of sunshine upon seeing the babe.
"My baby..."
The countess's smiled and cried. With a trembling hand, she stroked the baby's nose.
"Oh my, Sir Count, you cannot enter yet….!"
The door was thrown open, and a man hurriedly entered the room. A man that seemed as large as a water buffalo seemed to fill up the room as soon as he appeared. As he turned and looked at the woman holding the child, his eyes brightened. No matter how many times his wife had given birth, this sight always brought tears to his eyes.
After having gotten his fill of looking at his wife, the father seemed to hold in his desire to touch the baby and stared at it instead.
"You've suffered, my dear. How is the child?"
"She's a healthy baby girl."
"A daughter...!"
Their family already had two sons. Finally, to their household that seemed to only be son-rich, they had been given a daughter. And the count had wanted a daughter from the start.
"Thank you, thank you."
The deeply moved count dropped consecutive kisses onto his wife's cheek.
"Waaah!"
The infant cried out, and the two parents' eyes became wet at the sight. No matter how many times they saw it, the birth of their children was so very touching. The servants surrounding the happy couple looked at them with soft smiles.
"The infant's cries are clear and refreshing to the ears. I've never heard such a beautiful cry from a baby."
At the count's words, no one thought in contempt that a baby's cry wouldn't sound good. On the other hand, they nodded in agreement. Because this noble family cherished its servants and treated them well.
And it wasn't just the pretty voice, the small and cute face, fingers, toes, and eyes that had yet to open, all of this combined formed a beautiful babe.
"Hmm, then let's have your name be Calliope."
"Calliope. It's a good name."
Laughter and smiles filled up the room.
Calliope had returned to the day she had been born.
***
One month after she had returned to the past, she was able to realize her situation.
'I traveled back in time.'
But how? She remembered the woman she had met in her last moments.
[I'll give you a present–]
Was this life the present that woman had given her? Was that even possible? Well no, it was possible because she was now lying down in a cradle.
'Just how…I guess she wasn't a person? A goddess maybe? A demon?'
[–so in the future, let me hear your voice a little more.]
She had given her a new life just because she wanted to hear more of Calliope's voice. It didn't make sense. After all, Calliope had never been praised for her singing in her past life.
'Though it's not like I ever sang in front of anyone'
Of course she didn't, because the songs she knew of were the hymns that she learned through her general education as a noble. Unlike the religious standards of society, Calliope wasn't a deep believer, and she definitely didn't have a personality for performing in front of others.
'But unlike my past life, I probably won't be able to stay single.' Calliope thought pessimistically.
Her two, round eyes drooped, and everytime her mouth twitched, her cheeks would cutely shake a little.
"Oh my, our miss must be getting sleepy."
"…"
She was having blasphemous thoughts about religion and marriage, and now she was sleepy. She didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top…"
Her nanny rocked her cradle as she sang a lullaby. Calliope needed time to think about her situation but her surroundings were clearly making that impossible at the moment.
'Sigh, babies don't have any privacy, seriously.'
She didn't give in to her nanny's soothing touch and tried to think. That woman who had been able to send her to the past. She was important.
Calliope looked up at the ceiling in deep thought. The mobile that hung above her had birds and clouds that shook and rose up and down. No matter how much she pondered over this, she would not be able to come to a definite answer. She had been given a new lease on life. So.
'I have to be prepared for what lies ahead.'
As she continued to think, she grew tired. Her eyelids began to close by themselves.
Calliope began her 73rd fight against her sleepiness.
The results were pretty obvious. She lost to her sleep for the 73rd time in a row. A new record.
***
"Wow, small. Really small. Look at that hand."
".....It's small."
"Right? Even though the hands are that small, there are tiny little fingernails too, I can't believe it."
– Murmur murmur.
She woke up to the faint sound of voices. Without thinking, Calliope let out a whine, peevishly fretting as she woke up from her sleep.
The whispering voices ceased with a "hap" sound, as if the ones speaking had covered their mouths, and her surroundings became peaceful and quiet once more.
Calliope's slight wrinkle on her forehead slowly loosened as she fell asleep again.
And then.
3, 2, 1.
"I guess she fell back to sleep. She's sooo cute! Probably because she looks like me."
"Look at the mirror before you say that."
"What do you mean? I have one-of-a-kind looks!..Aha! Are you jealous? Are you jealous~that Lippe and I have the same eyes~?"
"There's no need for an argument over who she looks like…"
A boy with hair of blue-violet like the night sky turned up his head in contempt, and continued to speak in a small voice.
"…because Lippe and I have the same hair color."
At those words, the other boy's eyes widened in surprise. His always cold-hearted older brother had said such a childish thing?!
"Waaaah!"
At the neverending stream of voices, Calliope finally began to cry as she woke up. The two brothers didn't know what to do upon her wailing.
"Aw man, she woke up because of you, Lucius Hyung!"2
"No, it's because you were too loud."
Lucius helplessly looked at Calliope.
He knew that he wasn't well-liked, much less popular, with little children and babies. For some reason, whenever he approached them their faces would go beet red, and then they would erupt into wails, apparently scared.
But he didn't want to leave the baby in his younger brother Robert's hands for that reason. With that mischievous personality of his, he would just make the baby cry harder instead of helping its cries stop.
Without any other choice, he awkwardly reached out for Calliope's hand. Though he was worried about how he would get the crying to stop, his blank face showed none of this inner turmoil.
Since he didn't know what to do, he just awkwardly patted the baby's stomach. But then a surprisingly wonderful thing occurred.
"Au-aauuuuu…"
As if she had been comforted by her brother's consoling, Calliope's cries ceased almost immediately. Lucius's eyes slightly widened. His hand paused for a moment before he continued to pat his younger sister.
– Pat, pat, pat.
Less awkward than before, his hands found a rhythm to pat to. Calliope looked at Lucius and smiled, showing no traces of her earlier crying appearance. Her chubby cheeks looked like sweet, steamed buns.
'Cute.'
Lucius's eyes warmed up. His usually chilly face seemed to thaw a bit, and he looked more like a child of his age.
Calliope looked at this version of Lucius with an interested look on her face. She had been longing to see this brother of hers, whose nickname was "The Ice Knight" in her past life.
As soon as she realized that she had been crying, she stopped her wailing, only to be surprised at the sight of Lucius standing in front of her. She smiled, happy to see him.
Up until a few weeks ago, she would shed tears upon seeing her family members. She had longed to see them and was happy to see them again, their faces from her past life had overlapped, and she couldn't cold back her tears.
She had lived thinking she would never be able to see her family again. When she lost her family, she felt as if her stomach had been blown up, and no matter how much time passed, that hole in her stomach couldn't ever be filled. No one could replace them as her family.
She had lived without being able to bury her family, to let go of them, in her heart.
So after she had been reborn, she would cry with joy and sadness every time she saw her family members, but she had worked hard to stop doing that after seeing her family's worried expressions. She had been reunited with her family, and didn't want to make any unnecessarily bad memories with them.
There wasn't even enough time to make good memories.
"Lippe! Look this way, look at me! It's your oppa who is the coolest and handsomest in the world! Your oppa who loves you the most, right here!"
Robert waved his hand to grab her attention, and then covered his face to play peekaboo on Calliope, showing and hiding his face repeatedly. Calliope smiled at the sight.
The satisfied Robert had no idea that his baby sister was smiling because she thought he was cute.
"She's looking at me!"
"That's what you think."