Three days later, just after the other maids went off duty.

“Waaaaah!”

I wailed with renewed enthusiasm in front of Kanna, whose face had gone white.

If it didn’t work the first time, I just had to keep at it until it did. Every time Kanna took the night shift, I screamed my lungs out. People paid less attention as time went on, of course, but they never left me alone at night. And the looks they gave Kanna grew increasingly strange.

“Don’t you think the young master and Kanna just don’t get along?”

“He only does this when she’s on duty.”

The other maids began whispering among themselves more often when Kanna wasn’t around. Some even started making pointed remarks.

“Do you think Kanna does something wrong when she’s alone with him?”

After my fourth crying fit, Kanna was finally transferred elsewhere.

‘That was exhausting.’

I swallowed against my sore throat and bid her farewell in my mind.

‘Hope you drop dead wherever you go.’

That day, a new message window appeared before my eyes.

[The crisis has ended. A new save point has been set.]

Yes! Yes!

There it was. A save point. So dying didn’t automatically send me all the way back to the beginning. Once the situation that would kill me was resolved, a new save point was created at that moment.

Thank goodness. What a relief.

If every death sent me back to the beginning, I would have given up on the whole thing. Starting over as a baby every time? There was no worse hell.

“Oh, the young master is smiling.”

“It’s not that strange smile he had last time, either.”

“Did he really dislike Kanna that much?”

The maids whispered, but I didn’t care in the slightest. My peaceful baby life was about to begin again.

That premature hope was shattered before a day had passed.

“I’m Ruisil, the maid newly assigned here as of today.”

The maid who replaced Kanna was glaring at me when no one else was looking. Goose bumps swept over me, and every hair on my body stood on end. I might have been imagining it, but she didn’t seem like an ordinary maid.

Of course getting rid of Kanna wouldn’t be the end of it. If one weapon broke, whoever wielded it could simply use another. As long as the person ordering the murders didn’t stop, assassins would keep coming.

I watched the new maid closely.

Unexpectedly, though, she made no suspicious moves. Her expression never darkened, and she did nothing out of the ordinary. Even on her first night shift, she merely sat quietly in a chair until morning.

‘Was I mistaken?’

I let out a sigh of relief. Of course I was. They couldn’t send in an assassin disguised as a maid every single time. After a whole night on edge, I could finally relax.

‘I still need to be careful, but I can’t stay this tense all the time. There’s no assassin. At this rate, I won’t even grow.’

And so the peaceful days passed.

Three days later, I was introduced to a pillow again. It covered my nose, too.

Damn it.

I died again.

[You have died. Restarting from the autosave point.]

That made two deaths already. At least I’d returned to a different point this time.

“Kanna will be reassigned as of today.”

I stared blankly at Kanna as she said goodbye. There was no getting used to the pain of dying, even as a baby who supposedly had trouble feeling pain, and even though I had simply suffocated. I didn’t want to experience that helplessness and emptiness at the moment of death again.

But...

‘Damn it. Like hell I’m giving up.’

Once I’d died, at least I knew who the culprit was. And knowing the culprit meant I could prevent the next death.

The next day, I glared right back at Ruisil when she glared at me in secret.

“Oh, how adorable. The young master is staring at Ruisil.”

Ruisil’s glaring eyes went round, and the maids began to whisper.

“He seems to like you, Ruisil. Would you like to hold him?”

At the head maid’s suggestion, Ruisil approached my crib.

No! It’s the opposite!

As Ruisil picked me up, I had no choice but to deploy my ultimate weapon.

“Waaaah!”

“W-what should I do?”

“Oh dear, he must not be used to you yet. Give him here.”

Once the head maid took me back, I stopped crying.

Time passed. Nothing changed.

Three days later, Ruisil was left alone on night duty again. There was nothing else for it. I burst into tears once more.

“Waaaah!”

Crying every three days became the pattern. In the end, the new maid had no choice but to leave, too.

After that, the maids changed once more, and strange rumors began circulating around the mansion.

“Did you hear? Every maid who was reassigned quit.”

“And apparently no one’s heard from any of them since they left.”

“No one’s heard from them?”

“Some of their families have left their homes entirely. One girl vanished without a word to anyone.”

“Surely you don’t mean...”

One of the whispering maids murmured with a pale face, and another hurriedly shook her head.

“Surely they’re not dead. They must have left the territory for some reason.”

“But they all worked here before they left...”

The whispering maids glanced at me in bed.

No word from any of them. Had someone cleaned up the loose ends? There couldn’t be many people in this ducal household with that kind of power...

Every person who came to mind was someone I, a mere illegitimate son, couldn’t hope to touch—not now, and not in the future.

* * *

“They couldn’t even make an attempt this time?”

“No. The baby cried as he did before, and she ended up being driven out.”

“That makes three already...”

“It could be coincidence. Or perhaps the child was frightened by those amateurs’ killing intent.”

“Or there could be another reason. He might have awakened some ability unlike the usual kind.”

“There is still a long time until his awakening day.”

“Well, it’s only a possibility.”

“Shall we continue, then?”

“No. Three attempts were already too many. Rumors seem to be spreading, so let’s stop sending in maids. We’ll use another method next time.”

“Understood.”

“We should let the child experience the world for a few more months, at least.”

The secret conversation ended. After those last words, a soft laugh drifted through the beautiful room.

* * *

‘I’m free!’

After the third maid left, peaceful nights finally followed. The maid who came after her didn’t try to kill me.

Restful nights. A throat that didn’t hurt.

At last I could happily eat, sleep, and poop. But I couldn’t keep surviving this way forever.

There was no help for it. I would have to become a genius.

“Waaah, abubu.”

“He’s babbling already.”

“Abu-abu.”

“Isn’t he babbling for an awfully long time, though?”

“Ooo. Bwaaa.”

All that frantic crying had done a number on my throat. It hurt like hell. But I needed to learn to speak as soon as possible, so I kept trying to babble today, too.

“Abu-abu-abu...”

* * *

As time passed, I was finally weaned off breast milk. My mother hadn’t nursed me herself—we had a separate wet nurse—but that was only natural in a high noble house.

‘Ugh, this baby food doesn’t taste very good.’

My first taste of baby food was worse than I’d expected. The babies I’d seen in my previous life had gobbled it down. Maybe food culture just hadn’t developed much in this era. I might have to go into the spice trade when I grew up.

I thought I would eat my baby food and grow up strong. But perhaps that was nothing more than a fleeting dream.

I couldn’t say when it began. Little by little, I started sleeping more.

I was tired. I spent less time awake, and my face and body began to burn with fever. I felt sick, yet I remained drowsy. Something was wrong.

The maids forced food into me, but I vomited up even what I managed to eat. My strength ebbed away, and I began to waste away with illness. My alarmed mother summoned the family physician and a priest, but neither the physician’s treatment nor the priest’s divine arts could heal me.

“What on earth is making the baby sick?”

“I’m sorry. We still don’t understand all the illnesses that affect young children...”

The family physician kept wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. Healing magic might have advanced, but one look at him told me he was a quack who didn’t even understand hygiene. Just what I’d expect from the medieval age. Infant mortality must have been through the roof.

Time kept passing, and he still couldn’t identify the illness, let alone treat it.

“Wah, ah-puh, abu.”

At my groanlike cry, my mother stroked my face with a pained expression.

“If only you could tell me where it hurts...”

I cried out again at her words.

“Abu, ah-puh, ah-puh.”

‘My stomach hurts! My guts are twisting! Damn it, there’s something wrong with the food!’

Unlike the physician, I knew why I was sick. But no matter how desperately I shouted, everyone else heard only a baby crying.

On the last night, when all my strength was gone, my mother—who had spent several nights at my side—looked at me and murmured softly.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect you.”

She knew, too, that my illness wasn’t natural.

“You’re this sick, and the duke hasn’t even come to see you.”

Tears fell from her eyes as she looked at my ailing face. I couldn’t answer her. As her words ended, my breathing stopped as abruptly as if someone had switched off the power.

[You have died. Restarting from the autosave point.]

I’d died again.

When I came to a moment later, I bit my lip.

‘Damn it! I got too comfortable!’

‘A genius, my ass. I need to be an alien at this rate!’

Back at the moment after the third maid had been driven out, I practiced speaking desperately. If I was too late, it was over. I didn’t need any other words. Just two short phrases.

And in the end, I managed it.

“Oh, here you go. It’s baby food. Blow, blow. It shouldn’t be hot. There, num-nums.”

That day, when I was offered baby food for the first time, I took a mouthful from the maid’s spoon. Then I spat it out with all my might.

PTUI!

Baby food sprayed everywhere. The startled maids hurried over.

“Oh dear, is he not ready for baby food yet?”

Of course I wasn’t! It was far worse than that.

Now it was time to show what all that practice had been for. I tightened my stomach, put my mouth and tongue in position, drew a deep breath, and shouted with all my strength.

“Num-nums!”

Every maid looked stunned.

“Did he just...?”

“He spoke just now, didn’t he?”

“Was he calling for my lady?”

“I’ll go get my lady!”

The startled maids bustled about, and one ran to fetch my mother.

A little later, my mother rushed into the room, and I shouted again.

“Num-nums!”

My mother’s face lit up, as did the maids’, but I wasn’t finished. Besides, “num-nums” didn’t mean “Mama.”

“Hurt!”

“Num-nums hurt!”

At the same time, I raised my hand and pointed at the baby food scattered everywhere.

A child holding up one tiny finger and talking nonsense with his very first words. My mother, the maids, and even the mansion staff who heard about it were baffled. The duke’s son had said neither “Mama” nor “Papa” first, but “Num-nums hurt.” It was more than enough to start another strange rumor.

Fortunately, my mother didn’t dismiss what her child had said. Her expression hardened. She snatched up the bowl of baby food that remained and gave the maids an order.

“Fetch the family physician... No, fetch the alchemist!”

“The alchemist?”

“I understand there’s one in the territory.”

“Ah, yes. There is, but...”

“Didn’t you hear what the child said? Fetch the alchemist at once!”

The maids questioned her in surprise, but my mother—Amanda, the duke’s concubine—only repeated her command.

“Hurry!”

“Yes, my lady! Right away!”

She was a commoner by birth and remained only a concubine, but being the duke’s woman was no small position. The maids hurried out, and my mother gripped my hand tightly.

Ow. Too tightly. She was cutting off the blood flow.

“Ah, hurt.”

I had no choice but to put the first word I’d learned to use again.