Looking as if she had realized something, the maid soon spoke up once more in a quiet voice.
"Miss must be a genius. For the rumours to be true…"
At those words, the moody nanny melted into happiness. More than having others envy her, she would be much happier when others complimented the miss.
"Certainly. The miss has been different since the moment she was born."
Looking at the pleased nanny, the maid smiled cheerfully. She should hurry back and tell everyone that Anna's words were true.
"Since I'm here, you can leave now."
"Yes. If needed, please call for me."
The maid promptly left and the nanny approached the cradle. Calliope left out soft breaths as she slept.
The nanny smiled as she stroked Calliope's head.
"Miss, our Miss Lippe."
[I wub you too nanwy. I'm aways gwateful to you]
The words her miss had said despite not even being able to pronounce her words properly. She felt a lump in her throat just by thinking back to that moment.
"That Miss didn't forget this nanny and spoke to me, I am just, so…"
Amidst the gathered family, she was, well, a sort of outsider.
The Rustichel family were sentimental people, but there were things that were just for family, obviously. She didn't even feel a bit sad over it.
"Nanwy is my famwy too." (Nanny is my family too.)
At some point, Calliope had woken up and responded to her nanny's words.
The nanny was surprised as she looked down at Calliope. Her wrinkled face, that showed that she had raised three children over the past several years, trembled as if she would cry. Calliope reached out towards her nanny.
"Miss….!"
The nanny hugged Calliope tightly.
"I may be crossing the line, but Miss is definitely my family, and I have always thought of you as someone like a daughter to me."
"Uhuh, famwy." (Uhuh, family.)
Calliope closed her eyes as she lay in her nanny's warm and soft embrace.
[Miss! Please, run away! Quickly!]
Calliope's last memory of her nanny during the war. She could still see it clearly in her mind's eye. She clenched her hand into a fist.
She could barely speak now. She was still far from being able to protect her family.
'I need to quickly grow up. Since I can talk now I need to improve my body and strength.'
Though her muscle strength was probably just like any other child her age, she should practice now so that she could get a head start. Calliope began to train her body, closing and opening her hands repeatedly.
"Oh my, our miss is even good at closing and opening her hands. Then let's try this exercise too. Now~ Point here, point there, turn your head, turn it."
"….."
"Turn it and turn it, close them, open them, both your fists. Point here, point there, clap them, clap them, clap your hands! Hooray!"
The nanny, immersed in the exercise chants, placed Calliope into the cradle and made the hand motions as she spoke. Calliope just looked at her nanny with a dumbstruck expression.
'Well, this will probably help me control my body better, so.'
She followed after her nanny, turn head, turn it, close her hands, open them, point, point…
'…was pointing my fingers always this difficult?'
"Alright alright, yes, just like that! Point, point."
"Pon pon." (Point point.)
A small hand was diligently moving and a short finger patted the palm of her hand. It was the first time she was able to do this, but the image she had of herself was very different from what she actually looked like.
"Pon....Pon pon. Pon pon. Pon pon, cwose an opwen." (Point….Point point. Point point. Point point, close and open.)
The nanny's heart was throbbing. How could her miss be this cute. The scene of Calliope diligently practicing the point exercise was an adorably lovely sight.
And inside this adorable lovely miss's head.
'Hand muscle improvement. Hand muscle improvement. Hand muscle improvement. ....Great. I need to do this point exercise 100 times every morning and night. My goal is a perfect mastery of my spoon holding skills.'
Sometimes not knowing everything makes everything more adorably lovely, of course.
***
As she had wished, Calliope grew. She was soon at the age at which she could walk.
Calliope carefully lifted her right foot, and her body tilted towards the left as she did so. She tried to maintain her balance, waddling as she lifted and lowered one foot and then the other. How could walking be so difficult. Her body was so heavy. Calliope felt frustrated.
She remembered how she could walk perfectly with books stacked on top of her head in her past life. She felt sad, wishing for her walking skills to return.
"That's right! Just a little bit more!"
Unaware of Calliope's inner thoughts, the count urged his daughter to walk towards him. Though he said "a little," however, the distance between the two definitely wasn't so. As she stared at the length she had to walk, Calliope felt discouraged.
'But I can't give up here.'
Calliope grasped her mind once more. Life was all about overcoming her obstacles.
'If I can't overcome something like this, how am I going to protect my family.'
Her eyes sparkled with willpower and her originally wilted body stood up once more with energy.
'I need to overcome this obstacle and get stronger. My family's lives are at stake.'
She strengthened her resolve and began taking steps once more. Baby steps were baby steps. Though this was a pettier matter than she thought, to Calliope, this was an important issue.
'Alright. I just need to take four more steps, and I'll be there.'
But those four steps never seemed to end. Indefinitely.
Calliope's eyes sharpened. Did her father really think she didn't know he was slowly going backwards every time she walked forwards? The count beckoned to his daughter.
"Fader. It is wong to chane duh destwinashun, becwuz it wi cause demowawizashun. Pwoviding a sense of accompishmen ish ipwoten as well."
(Father. It is wrong to change the destination, because it will cause demoralization. Providing a sense of accomplishment is important as well.)
"Oh, oh. Ri-right. I'm sorry, Lippe."
The count sweated as he answered Calliope. Did he really understand his daughter correctly just now? 'It is wrong to change the destination, because it will cause demoralization. Providing a sense of accomplishment is important as well.' These were all correct words, but these weren't words of a child who was merely turning two.
'Just as I thought, my daughter's a genius....!'
The count pumped his fist in the air and his shoulders went up and down with glee. Since her pronunciation had improved a bit, he looked forward to what she would do next. On the other hand, he felt a little afraid. He was always the one to scold and discipline, but these days, he always seemed to somehow be the one to be scolded with Lippe.
"I won't walk backwards anymore."
At those words, the satisfied Calliope nodded her head.
'Good. Now I'm going to really start walking.'
Calliope put strength into her small, cute hands. Her mochi-like cheeks puffed up as she started to walk. Seeing this adorable display, the count couldn't help but smile. The always frozen and hard face softened. The moment Calliope finished her last step, the count embraced her in his arms and praised his daughter. He gave Calliope kisses on the cheek.
"My, our Lippe walked so well to Daddy. Yes you did."
The countess, who had been watching over the two's interactions, walked over and tenderly patted Calliope on the butt as she also spoke praises.
"Our Lippe is really the best. So amazing."
But Calliope, the recipient of all these praises, had an unpleasant expression on her face. Though she was used to getting her butt patted, something like this.
'His beard…..stings.'
However, if she showed she signs of dislike, she was afraid of hurting her father's feelings. So she took her father's kisses patiently. It was really prickly.
'This is also an obstacle. This amount of pain is nothing, I can handle this."
She needed to overcome this. Calliope patiently accepted the count's kisses. The mochi-like face soon looked as if she had reached the peak of perseverance nirvana.
***
"Today our Lippe was able to successfully walk on her own."
The count spoke. Meanwhile, the countess had already jotted down something in a calendar. Calliope was relieved that she wasn't a member of the royal family. If her father was the emperor, all those days in the calendar would have become national holidays.
'Lippe First Flipped Over Day,'
'Lippe First Sat Up Day,'
'Lippe First Stood Up Day.'
The list would go on and on.
Her head hurt as she thought of how each of these days were nevertheless meticulously jotted down in her mother's calendar.
"Our Lippe, should we try to fly in the sky?"
The count held up his daughter high in the air.
"Heavens, Dear. That's dangerous."
Seeing an excuse to hold her daughter, the countess snatched Callippe out of the count's hands. The count could only watch with envy as his wife held Callioppe and played Peek-a-boo with the baby.
***
"Eu...."
Calliope tried to hold it in.
She had been suffering while fighting against this tempting urge. It was a fight between reason and instinct. She tried closing her eyes, hoping that if she couldn't see, her desires would disappear from her heart.
But no matter for how long she closed her eyes, the temptation had already gripped her heart and wouldn't disappear. Actually, closing her eyes only increased the presence of her desires. She opened her eyes and swallowed her saliva.
'I really want to flip it. This bowl…..!'
Her adorable hands trembled. Her clear, sparkling eyes were now clouded with instinct.
'N-no, I can't. The baby food is all in the bowl. It'll spill. I can't flip it over. I know, I know…'
Why did her hands keep going towards the bowl?
For some strange reason, she was so bothered and she couldn't seem to stand the way that the bowl was set up. She kept thinking the wider side should be on the bottom, and the narrower end should be at the top, like an inverted triangle shape. She kept thinking the shape of the bowl right now was a very dangerous position.
'I have to quickly flip this to make this into an inverted triangle shape. I really think I should do that….Euaaaaahhh.'
Calliope didn't know what to do in the face of this great impulse she had. Her usually calm face wavered like a flickering candle light against the wind.
Her face looked like a candle that was just about to go out.
'I, I can't stop myself…!'
Calliope, who couldn't keep in her desires anymore gripped the bowl with one of her hands.
The bowl started to tip over. But right before the baby food started to spill out of the bowl.
A knock sounded as the door opened.
"Oh, Mr. Butler."
The nanny, who had been pulling out a bib for Calliope to use, raised her head.
Butler?
Calliope froze abruptly.