(2 years and 5 months after Kyrielle's Reincarnation)
[Katherine's POV]
5 years ago, I got married to Thomas. We were originally a group of B ranked adventurers called 'Thd Wolves', it's a simple name.
Over the course of our adventures, we fell in love with each other as we have saved each other's life countless times, and helped other people together as well. 4 years of adventuring together. We both took our retirement from the party when our leader died in a subjugation quest to a giant Horned Beetle.
His death made us thought that we wouldn't live long continuing our adventure lifestyle... Before we knew it, we had grown attached to each other and can't stand losing one another. This is why we agreed to retire together and get married. After a while, we decided to have children. Our adventurer party were sadly disbanded when all 3 older members, including me and Thomas are gone.
2 years after we got married, I got pregnant. I have birth to a healthy baby girl 9 months later. She was me and Thomas's first child....
Her given name is Kyrielle, Kyrielle Buffet. It is a feminine form of the name Kyrie, which is a short prayer that means 'Lord have Mercy.' Thomas was the one who gave her this unique name that I haven't heard much of.
With silky smooth red hair and bright blue eyes, she was a very good looking girl even at such a young age. She will no doubt grow into a beauty in the future, thanks to me and Thomas's genes.
Her features all look like me, even her hair and her eye's shape. But she has the sharp face of her father, as well as his blue eye color.
But all of those is not that important at all... What's important is that my child is she's unusually smart for her age, maybe even TOO smart.
When she was born, she only cried scarcely, once just when she was born, and only when I had forgotten to feed her as a newborn. During the first year, she is probably the easiest child to take care of ever because she never begs for attention and is very obedient, contrary to childrens her age.
She never cried at all once she was able to eat solid food and take care of her own basic needs like going to the toilet or wiping her body.
Sometimes it feels like she's scared of humans, but after a lot more exposure to people she got used to seeing others after meeting so many customers who buy potions from us.
Taking care of her was extremely easy... until she learned how to crawl that is. It was during this period when problems started to arise. She would crawl everywhere in the house, be it the bathroom, kitchen, living room or sometimes even the climbing up to the attic.
If you take your eyes off of her for even a minute and poof! She's gone!
Somehow despite her lively behavior, she has never hurt herself a lot. She is unusually careful for a baby that lively. Even though she would crawl everywhere in the house, she have never left the house alone because me and Thomas have always warned her about it... She's very obedient.
But by far her biggest trait is that she's unusually curious. She often watched me work on potions with curious eyes, which is something most children of her age would consider boring. She also carefully observed Thomas practising his sword in the backyard, which is not what a girl her age would be interested in.
Whenever I'm teaching her how to write and read, she would obediently listen and follow without even saying that it's boring. Once she was able to talk, she also asked a lot of questions even though her sentence incomprehensible sometimes....
"Mama! Red color, round, food, name what?"
"Huh? Red, round food?"
She actually meant an apple.
But while she may seem like a genius at such a young age, she's actually very cute just like a normal child. Her curiosity and her lively behavior seemingly emits an adorable aura that makes you feel 'awww!'
I especially like it when she was young and replied to my commands with "Mmkay!" instead of "okay." I'd almost get heart attacks when she peeks at me working, with her two blue eyes barely over the counter.
When she was 2, an incident happened.... When I was working on an order of potions from the Magic Pioneer Lynn, I heard her scream from the second floor, followed by multiple loud sounds of bottles breaking.
"Kya!!!"
"Kyrie?!"/"Kyrielle?!" Ghyse was just as surprised at me when we heard her scream.
I ran upstairs and saw her sitting on the ground inside the storage room... with glass shards all over floor. Blood dripped down her head, and it was then that it felt as if I was emotionally hurted by her taking an injury this serious.
Afterwards, I brought her downstairs and casted healing miracle on her. I think that was the first time she has ever saw magic, as she was deeply fascinated by it. Seeing her face, I can't help but feel bad for scolding her.
In an attempt to avoid having her enter the storage where many dangerous things were stored, I locked the door and placed the key somewhere that she wouldn't be able to get to.
To my surprise she was able to not just take the key at a timing when everyone was busy, but did it so without anyone noticing. She was careful and smart, and although obedient, not entirely submissive. A trait of a smart child.
When Ghyse told me that the reason Kyrielle sneaked in there is because she was after her dad's books, I was overjoyed. Kids of her age would never even consider touching a book unless they are forced to, let alone show any interest or ability in reading them.
That was when I started thinking....
"Ghyse, my girl may be a genius..."
"Madam... If you think so, then why don't you invest money in her?"
"Invest?"
"I'm taking about the magic school. You went to one because you are a noble, but for any normal commoners only the smartest kids will go there."
"I see... That might be a good idea actually! I'll discuss it with Thomas."
After she first witnessed magic, she grew even more curious. She offered to help me with alchemy and also said she want to learn how to make potions... I'm more than pleased by that, and focused on teaching her to the best I could.
Sadly, she just doesn't have the talent to become an actual alchemist.... She's going to need a whole lot of training if she wants to become like me.
But her curiousity doesn't end with just that..... One night she asked Thomas to teach her swordsmanship. I objected it, but soon they convinced me and I allowed it.
Thomas will teach her about swordsmanship whenever he's free. Whenever he's not around, she would play by herself in the backyard when I'm busy with making breakfast and handling the morning customers. In the afternoon she would learn to make potions from me.
This cycle continued on for a while. After I taught her how to tie her hair into a twin tail, she really liked it and kept the hairstyle ever since. That is not a bad thing though, she looked even cuter with the twin tails now.
Maybe I will actually send Kyrie to the magic school... I will observe her for a bit longer first though because that isn't a decision to be taken lightly. The Magic School costs a lot of money, after all.
Besides, she's still not even 3years and a few months old now. Most students start learning in the Zoward's Magic Academy at 7 years old, and those kids were the gifted ones. I should probably not rush things for now, there's still time and childrens are constantly changing.
And I should discuss this with Thomas as well. For now, let me just focus on making breakfast as Thomas and Kyrie should be back soon.
Sadly, Ghyse was busy this morning so I'll have to cook breakfast myself....
_____________
[Thomas's POV]
My daughter is training with me once again this morning. For a kid her age, I never expected her to have the discipline and determination to commit to learning something like swordsmanship...
Well, it's not like my daughter is a normal child anyway. I'm starting to think of Kyrielle is actually possessed by an evil spirit or something.
I sure hope my second child won't be as weird as Kyrielle...
"Put your back into each swing, Kyrie! Don't swing wildly, instead make each attack count!"
"Hah!... Hah!... Yes!"
Although she looks tired, and somewhag annoyed, she always listens quietly and obediently. The same is true even for little things that isn't swordsmanship. She's a very obedient and good girl, something that I've always appreciated.
But she's not afraid to say it when she can't do something as well, and would ask questions until she fully understands. It's not like she just want to please me, it's just that she's reasonable.
"Dad, how come that sometimes inconsistently, my swing would get weaker?"
She's starting to be able to perform sword techniques sometimes.... Specifically, One Line, the standard bread-and-butter for the River Stream Style Swordsmanship.
"If you swings are weak, that means your mind isn't concentrated in the slash. Keep working on making it consistent!"
"Okay!"
Right now it's the end of our exercise routine, where we would sit down and relax for a while before we head back home.
"Good work. Let's rest for a bit."
"Hah...Hah... Yes... "
I'm barely breaking a sweat and she's panting like she just ran a marathon. In the end, being a 2 and a half year old child has it's limits after all.
"Hmm... I was wondering, would you prefer your little sibling to be a sister or a a little brother?"
"Eh?... Hmm... I don't have a particular preference, but a little sister would be cuter right?"
"Hmm... I see... I was thinking about your sibling's name a lot, but maybe I should let your mother name them instead because I was the one who gave you your name."
"Is that so?.... What does my name mean?"
"It means 'Lord have mercy.' It's a short prayer of sorts, so that everytime we say your name, we'll be blessing you with a prayer."
"Mhmm..."
"...Kyrielle, you may not believe me but you are really unusual for a kid."
"Huh?... Why?"
"...This is why. You are barely even at the height of my thigh, but you are already talking to me like an adult. It feels like you aren't a little girl sometimes."
"Eh?... Umm... I see..." Kyrielle said as she fiddled with her hair.
Her reaction.... She's hiding something, no doubt. After all, whenever she's nervous she'll always play with one of the tail of her hair.
"....But still, I guess there are all kinds of children in this world huh. Shall we go home now?"
But I suppose there's no reason to force her to tell me if she doesn't want to. Besides, what's important is that she's my cute little daughter who loves me, and I loves her back, simple as that.
There are secrets that you'd never tell anyone, not even your spouse after all. It's better to respect Kyrielle's privacy, even if she's a child.
"Okay... Let's go back."
But of course the reason I'm being so careful and protective of my daughter is because there have been increasing cases of kidnappings in town....
This has went on for almost 2 years now since Kyrielle was born... I almost feel bad for her because kids her age would be playing outside with the neighbor's kids normally.
As the captain of the guards in this area, I'm tasked with investigating things related to these kidnappings.... I'm not properly doing my job as a guard because we haven't found any traces of the kidnapped childrens. As far as I'm concerned it wouldn't be that easy to catch the culprit, or rather it's multiple culprits since they might be an organized gang.
"Hmm...."
But all those is just the troubles of being an adult huh?... I shouldn't tell Kyrielle about this. I must act strong to become a better father figure for her after all.
"...Why did you stop? Dad?"
"Hmm...."
"Da~ddy, are you awake? Did you eat something weird in the morning?" Kyrielle said without turning around.
"I'm fine.... I was just deep in thought for a while."
"Hehe, is that so? You said to head back to home but somehow stopped mid way, so I was a bit worried... Let's head back then."
Saying that, Kyrielle turned around once again with a smile on her face. However, her expression quickly changed from one of happiness to worry.... Huh?
Did she see something dangerous? Or shocking? What is it?
"Dad, duck down!"
"!"
An attack?!
(Chapter end)