Chapter 9 – Twelve Months After Birth
12 months has passed.
That day, I left the room for the “first time.”
Right, for the first time.
I took baths in a baby bathtub in the room, I ate my meals in the room, I did my business in the diaper-like thing.
Maa, I’m a baby, I had no choice but to do it in a diaper……
I couldn’t do anything alone.
Shame? What is that, is it delicious?
I’m a baby, you know! There’s no problem, you know! God dammit!
My fellow playmates Elder brother, Elder sister, Mother, Father, and nanny come to my room.
And no one brings me out of the room.
The only person coming to the room from outside is the old doctor.
In other words, there was no need to leave the room and there was no one who took me out.
I didn’t think about leaving myself.
I was busy with training, I was too absorbed into it.
Saying that no one wanted to bring me out, is wrong.
Elder brother Theo loves trees so much he grows them in the garden by himself, he boasted that he created stands for his bonsai all by himself, he talked about it to the not yet one-year-old me endlessly.
It’s impossible to think that he wouldn’t want to show the trees to me directly.
Elder sister Ellie is raising a large-scale flower bed, several kinds of flowers, edible and inedible plants, and many things I didn’t understand well together with Mother Claire.
Just like Theo, she talked about her flower bed endlessly.
It’s impossible to think that she wouldn’t want to show me the flower bed she raised by herself.
Rather, they both said it several times before.
I want to show my prided children to Lily as well.
They may have said it because they thought that I could not understand anything since I was not one year old yet.
They surely understand that I wouldn’t be able to see it even if they showed it to me.
At times like these, they showed sorrowful and regretting expressions.
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Few days before leaving the room for the first time, the old doctor came for a doctor’s visit.
「The eyes of Lilianne Ojousama suffer from a disease that last for one’s lifetime…… The “Cloudy Eyes”」
Words I have not heard before were mixed in.
After that, the old doctor said that he visited a number of people with the same symptoms, browsed various literature, and that he searched for anything that could cure me.
He wasn’t able to find a cure, only that all dozens of people described in the various documents had “Cloudy Eyes,” there was no light in their eyes.
“Cloudy Eyes”
When you comprehend the stories of the old doctor, it seems that it’s a disease characterized by white cloudy eyes.
It’s said that there are only a few people who suffer from it congenitally and most of the people develop after suffering from an illness.
In other words, I who has it congenitally is a rare case.
Neither the cause nor the treatment is known, and it’s regarded as an incurable illness.
Symptoms are a complete blindness, like a dark night without a moon.
Not an amblyopia, but a complete loss of sight.
It seems to develop suddenly without no prior signs.
Claire who heard it let only a few words.
「…… Is that so……」
Just that.
As if she gave up on everything, as if accepting it all, she probably knew since my eyes must have been cloudy since I was born.
However, I think that the words from the old doctor were close to a death sentence to her.
The old doctor visited dozens of patients with the “Cloudy Eyes” and researched from many documents, to make sure he didn’t make a mistake.
I wonder if both the old doctor and Mother had a faint hope that it was different from what they expected.
Because Theo and Ellie knew, because they understood, they weren’t taken out of the room.
Because the things they love and wanted to show to their beloved imouto, they can’t show it to her.
Therefore, nobody tried to take them out of the room.
And today, I went out of the room.
Of course, I did not go alone, my mother protectively embraced me and Elder brother and Elder sister are with her.
My sight is shut into darkness.
But that’s not all, I may suffer from “Cloudy Eyes,” but I can see magical power (Temp).
My mother who holds me protectively, Elder brother and Elder sister who walk next to her, there is no color, but I see them well.
Therefore, I’m not sad.
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This place which seems to be a hallway is a little colder than the room, but because there’s a thin magical power (Temp) similar to the heater in the room coming from above, I can’t say it’s uncomfortable.
I feel like we are going down, so we must be going down the staircase now.
My room appears to be on the second floor.
I realized for the first time.
Aside from that, the clothes I’m wearing now are different from the ones I wear usually.
I usually wear trousers with skirts or coveralls, but now I am dressed in a puff sleeve balloon-like dress.
A large ribbon that is visible from the front is stuck on my back, Claire and Ellie praised me that I look like a fairy-san.
My hair was carefully set, not sure whether it’s part of the dress, but there’s a headband with some fluffy decorations on my head.
I can’t see myself in the mirror, so I made sure by touching, but I’m obviously dressed in clothes for party or something.
I can’t grasp the details of my clothes because they don’t have magical power (Temp), but I can only roughly understand.
Even if I strengthen my eyes after all that practice, I still can’t grasp the details.
Although my vision grew to the point I can understand the facial features, there was no growth regarding details of clothes.
It feels strange because I can’t see the clothes people are wearing.
There’s a strange boundary line on places where the clothes are worn.
Clothes are one big bundle, but things like accessory can be seen only roughly.
Maa, if a necklace is on top of clothes, I won’t be able to understand.
Clothes or an accessory? It turns into something like that.
There’s a possibility I may be able to understand the details if I improve my vision more, so I will not give up yet.
Because clothes look like that, the bodies are not transparent.
So in order to grasp the details of clothes, I have to touch and check it directly.
There’s still many things I don’t know.
I’m getting slightly excited.
As soon as I finished thinking about such, it seems we arrived at the end of the staircase.
After walking for a while, Elder brother and Elder sister pushed something.
It doesn’t have magical power (Temp), so I couldn’t see it.
Judging by the actions, it was probably door.
It seems to be double door as both push slowly.
Double door…… is this family actually quite rich?
You wouldn’t normally have a double door, right?
No, this place doesn’t look like a country I have lived in before, perhaps the double doors may be a standard in foreign countries.
While I was thinking so, the door opened and ban, ban, ban, an explosive sound echoed.
I was quite startled by the sound that brought me back from the sea of thoughts, but I’m usually expressionless so they probably won’t notice unless I let out a voice.
They I heard many blessing voices.
There were voices I have not heard before among them.
Ah, I see, today is my birthday.
I’m one year old at last.
One year after I have reincarnated, it feels like I have reincarnated not so long ago.
In other words, this is a birthday party.
In my vision shut in darkness, I can grasp details of white figures with magical power (Temp), a lot of people were reflected in the vision I have gained through training.
One year after reincarnation.
The number of people I have met so far is six.
But, the number of people that have gathered for my birthday exceeds fifty.
There are so many people wishing me blessings.
Just that makes me want to cry.
Claire who holds me slowly walks into the ring of blessings.
There, she sits next to my father, Alek.
Ellie sits next to Claire, Theo next to Alek, and they wish blessings again.
My heart is overcome with emotions.
And the one restriction I have imposed on myself is untied.
One year after reincarnation.
With almost no facial expressions, I have stuck with a taciturn character.
That ends today.
「Thank you bery mush」
I said with the best smile I could possibly muster.
「「「「「「Cu, cute!!!!!」」」」」」」
…… I honestly didn’t expect such reaction.