“Chirp chirp chirp—”
In the early morning, the little birds outside seemed determined to wake the entire world by themselves.
“Ugh…so annoying!!!”
Well, waking the whole world might be beyond them, but waking a certain girl was rather easy.
Whoosh—!
A soft pillow flew straight toward the window and sailed neatly out of it.
But even so, the chirping birds showed no sign of stopping just because of the girl’s irritation.
“Hm?”
Rubbing her eyes, Ilea slowly sat up in bed, looking around in a bit of a daze.
This…wasn’t her old rented apartment.
Ah!
Right—she’d died…and was reincarnated into some hellish world by that damn goddess.
And turned into a 13-year-old loli…
At that thought, she scratched her somewhat messy white hair, then raised an arm and sniffed under her armpit.
Still fragrant…so it wasn’t a dream.
Thump!
She flopped back onto the bed, staring blankly at the canopy overhead.
The bed was so soft~
This set of bedding would cost tens of thousands on Earth, wouldn’t it?
Hmm…how was she supposed to live in this world?
From Ilea’s original memories, this world seemed to have magic and other mysterious powers.
So her top priority was…not to let her parents or older brother notice anything strange about her, right?
In other words, she’d have to draw on Ilea’s inherent bratty little devil personality?
Thankfully…her father and brother had already left for the royal capital,Harongze—apparently the king had summoned all nobles of viscount rank and above.
That would at least ease her burden a bit.
Mainly, she’d have to watch out for…
Ilea’s mother?
As she was lost in thought, someone suddenly knocked on her door.
“Darling~ I heard you were feeling down?”
Outside, a gentle voice called out, using the word “darling.”
Memories instantly flooded Ilea’s mind, and she immediately recognized who was at the door.
Speak of the devil.
It was Ilea’s—now her own—mother.
Lady Shudrian Sereton Bateos.
In Ilea’s memories, she was a good mother, just a bit…
“Darling?”
Click!
Before Ilea could reply, the lock gave a soft click.
Then, a beautiful young woman with white hair and blue eyes peeked her head inside.
Seeing this woman at the door, Ilea was instantly stunned.
So young…
She remembered her eldest brother was already seventeen, so as a mother, this woman had to be in her thirties, close to forty, right?
But…why did she look like she was only in her twenties?
At that moment, Shudrian had no idea what Ilea was thinking.
Wearing a white gauzy nightgown identical to Ilea’s, she walked in with a worried expression, then knelt directly in front of her daughter and gently touched the girl’s small face.
“Yaya? Are you feeling unwell?”
Eh?!
Calm down!
You have to stay calm—this is the first test, right?
Hmm…according to her memories, while this little girl was quite the brat, she was still very attached to her mother.
“M-Mother…I’m fine, I just…had a bad dream last night.”
Her cheeks flushed a little, and her eyes shifted instinctively, not daring to meet her mother’s deep blue gaze.
“Ah…that really is awful…”
But this mother of hers didn’t doubt her at all.
Instead, she simply pulled her into a warm embrace.
The softness and warmth seemed to wash away all of Ilea’s emotions at once, leaving her body and mind with an unprecedented sense of peace.
This wasn’t magic—it was simply the natural feelings this body had always possessed.
The instinctive attachment every creature has to its mother.
Family affection…
How long had it been since she last felt this?
This…was exactly what she’d wanted, wasn’t it?
A sudden clarity came over Ilea, a faint glimpse of what she might want to do in the future.
“There, there~ No matter what kind of nightmare Yaya had, Mommy will always be here with you~”
That gentle, child-coaxing tone might have seemed a bit childish to the original 13-year-old Ilea—she might even have gotten annoyed at being treated like a little kid.
But to the current her…it was just right.
Since she’d finished everything back in her old world, and was now reborn into this one…
Could she simply live here, with parents and family who loved her?
To once again…experience the bonds of family?
At that thought, her eyes grew misty, and tears began to spill uncontrollably from her crimson eyes.
She instinctively hugged her mother back, her small body trembling slightly like a helpless kitten.
“Yaya…don’t cry! Mommy’s here, Mommy’s right here~”
Shudrian didn’t ask what exactly had happened.
She simply held her daughter tightly, gently stroking her back.
It wasn’t clear how long they stayed like that, until finally, the girl lifted her head from her mother’s chest.
The spot where she had nestled was already damp with tears, clearly visible…
“Feeling…better now?”
That gentle voice from above snapped the dazed girl back to reality in an instant!
The very first thing she did was turn her head aside, her cheeks flushed red, not daring to meet her mother’s eyes.
“Hehe~ So now our little Yaya knows how to get embarrassed too~”
Shudrian gave a small smile and reached out with her sleeve to wipe her daughter’s tear-streaked face that looked just like a little crying kitten.
She simply thought her daughter felt a bit awkward for showing such a vulnerable side.
“Now can you tell Mommy what’s wrong?”
“I…I just…miss them a little,” the girl murmured instinctively.
Miss them?
Heh~
Still just a little girl, after all.
Always saying how she hated the old man and her brothers, but they’d only been gone a few days and she was already down like this~
A warm—one could even say tender—smile spread across her mother’s face.
“I see, I see~ Then little Yaya must grow up well, so that when they come back, they’ll all be amazed by you~”
The girl was momentarily taken aback, then realized her mother was talking about her father and brothers, who had left for the royal capital.
This mother of hers…how should she put it?
She was certainly a good mother…just that, in Ilea’s memories, she was a bit too gentle and soft.
From Wu Qiou’an’s perspective, it simply seemed…a little airheaded.
“Um…Mother, when will Father and my brothers…be coming back?”
It wasn’t that she particularly missed these relatives she barely remembered.
It was just…
As a marquis and heirs to the marquisate, neither her father nor her two older brothers were ordinary people.
If they noticed something had changed inside her…things could turn very bad.
“Ara ara~ If he heard you actually call him Father, he’d probably be overjoyed~”
Though Ilea felt a bit nervous, it was clear her mother had focused on entirely the wrong thing.
Ah…that’s right.
From childhood on, this little rascal had always called Marquis Bateos “that old fart.”
No, no, she couldn’t change her old speech habits this quickly—that was a terrible slip…
She still needed to adapt more to these memories.
Fortunately…
Ilea cast a sidelong glance at her mother, still kneeling gracefully in front of her with a gentle smile that looked almost like a saint descended to earth.
Thank goodness…
The first family member she ran into was her.