Chapter 7: You, behave!

Over a year into the reincarnator's new life as the heir of a duchy, one would be able to find a toddler waddling his unaccompanied way through a broad corridor lathered in a bold, red carpet traversing its entire length, towards the living area. While the grandeur of the passageway screamed of unequivocal magnificence as though straight out of a fairy tale, a few telling details would make it easy for the common man to distinguish between the austerity of a noble's receiving manor, and the homely feel of the building Solace now strode through.

Besides the plethora of exquisite oil paintings gilded in gold frames whilst hanging on the wall, were just as many doodles of an infant child soaking in the golden rays of the sun shimmering down through the skylights.

The panes up above bathed the toddler's form in its warm illumination, causing a healthy radiance to reflect off of the baby fat on the young child's face as he gazed about the elaborate wallpapers plastered across the high walls.

Having just accompanied his mother in the study for a while, and fully sated after an overdue feeding, the child, who was now able to walk on his own- a skill he'd picked up from having painstakingly crawled all over the floors and smashing his forehead on the ground one too many times in an effort to get on his own two feet as quickly as possible- decided to visit someplace else in the inner wing to switch up the scenery.

While he wouldn't want to give up being carried by his female relatives, allowing himself to have multiple choices in any matter was important to Solace who had wrested enough control over the disability of being a baby.

As Solace approached the living room alone- which he assumed was unlikely to be the case given how much of a worrywart of a mother he had, and who would have sent the ever-astute Leah tailing close behind him- he couldn't make out the sounds of his older sister causing a general ruckus, nor the sounds of Esme who would usually attend to the young girl.

'Ah! It must just be my aunt then, huh?'

At the thought, Solace's forehead creased and his baby fists clenched in indignation, as he made a beeline for the courtyard where he assumed his sister would be.

'Better make a quick getaway before she catches wind of my presence.'

But just as he took a step beyond the living room, the shuffling of footsteps within the adjacent room caught his attention, instantly quelling the hopes of the young child as he realised his attempts at evading the demon were utterly thwarted.

"Who is it?" Peeking her head around the large door frame, the young adult's expression instantly brightened up as she noticed the miniature figure of her favourite nephew smiling back at her as though he were happy to see her.

'Ah, let's just get this over with.'

Having resigned himself to his fate, the child plastered as excited of an expression across his face while calling out the name of his aunt while taking full advantage of his infantile vocal cords.

"Alessy!" Voiding the final inflexion in her name because of an inability to utter the final syllable, Solace ran towards the 20-year-old redhead who bent down to catch him in her arms.

'The word cute incoming in three, two, one…'

"Come here, you cute little thing!" Snuggling up against his baby cheeks, eliciting a light giggle from the baby, she picked him up and brought him into the room she'd been relaxing alone in. Solace noticed a book placed open against the coffee table beside the sofa where she'd evidently been idly laying.

"What're you doing walking in the corridor all alone, Ace? Were you perhaps looking for me, huh? Oh! Did you want to play Fly again?" She cooed, as she tightened her grip around his midline.

'Oh fuck, no. Not this again.'

"N-"

But before the young child could voice his dissent, he had already been tossed several feet into the air. He could only feel the wind brushing past his parted lips in jeer, while a bout of nausea washed up his throat.

"Hahaha! I'll catch you, Ace!" Laughing boisterously as she watched her nephew being sent off shooting toward the high ceiling, the young woman nonchalantly got ready to catch Solace as he threw up a multitude of curses within his mind.

'Ugh. I hate this woman.'

— — —

Once the duo had settled down, Alessia had plopped the toddler beside her on the sofa while she got back to her book. If there was something she could appreciate about her nephew, it was that he had a very steady temperament, and so playing around with him required very little effort.

On the other hand, Valentina was a ball of energy and was constantly on her toes. While it didn't mean the young adult enjoyed the company of one child over the other, since she was quite fond of the wilful behaviour of her niece which somewhat mirrored herself, she certainly knew she could go about her own thing with minimal attention-seeking behaviour from Solace.

Today, however, Alessia was not fated to have a quiet sit-down with her nephew, who was finally curious about what she was reading. It was quite the bother to choose to spend time with his aunt only to have her angle her novels away from his gaze- a conscious action on her part to relieve herself of the guilt of reading certain materials around the children.

But Solace didn't plan to take part in her little show of modesty on this fine day, as he chose to pry into why she kept the hard book covers' contents away from his sights. He'd managed to pick up a healthy range of vocabulary from Alessia that he wouldn't have been able to draw out of his mother or the maids, but it was high time he was able to observe the reading material that caused her speech to sound more unrefined than his other female housemates.

"Alessy, weed?" Asked Solace inquisitively, putting his 15 months of effort and toothless articulation into forming a short question.

"Yep. I'm reading a… storybook, Ace." With a slight pause as she considered how to phrase her reply, she shut her book with her fingers between the pages, contemplating whether or not she should put the niche tale away.

"Weed, me?" While pouting at the work between her palms and utilising his limited repertoire of the language spoken at home, he strung words together to try to express his desires to the adult.

"Would you like me to read you a story?" Whether or not she'd misunderstood his request, or tried to brush off the obvious ask of the little boy altogether, Solace wouldn't budge on the matter and decided to prod his aunt to read aloud the novel within her hand.

But just as he was about to voice his thoughts, a new figure appeared right at the doorway of the living room with her approach having gone unnoticed up till now- a testament to the duo's focused attention on each of their next steps.

"Ah, Solace, there you are. What've you got up to?" As Alexandria broke the two individuals out of their stupor, Solace's vision caught the faint movement of Alessia's sneaky hands as she tucked the book further beside her and into the crevice of the sofa.

'Oh? Time to get back at her, haha. I'll definitely find out what it is you're hiding, woman.'

"Alessy weed me, mama." Replied an excited child, as his pudgy fingers pointed towards the book held in the hands of a now wide-eyed young adult.

"She's reading to you, baby? What story are you guys read-" Her baby talk came to a screeching halt as the mother's gaze transfixed onto the cover of the hardback book which displayed 'Lady Benedict's Secret Lover', before slowly cranking her head towards her sister with a frosty storm swimming within her bottomless pupils.

"Wait! It's not what you th-!"

*Shwii*

Suddenly, an ice-blue shard shot towards where the book was hidden, as Solace's vision struggled to pick up on the projectile his mother had evidently launched towards her sister.

'Magic?! Was that magic?'

Almost failing to believe his visual sense, the child turned to his right where his aunt was to ascertain her safety- or where she should have been if it hadn't been for her appearing in the far corner of the room. Solace watched as her figure belched out of the shadow formed by the bookshelf, as her frantic appearance clutched the maroon hardback cover to her chest.

"Not the book, si-!"

Once again, before having the chance to complete her sentence, Solace watched as a second blue icicle flew at breakneck speeds towards his aunt, who promptly melded back into the shadows, as the shadowy tendrils almost instantly disappeared behind her.

'My god. That is… something. Why haven't I seen any instances of magic these past few months if they're so proficient at it?'

Wondering where his aunt had disappeared, Solace pondered over the secrecy behind, or at least the complete absence of, magic within the household.

Putting aside his musings, he felt his mother's gaze zone in on his direction as her menacing appearance began to wane.

"Come out from behind Solace, Alessia." Huffed the frustrated mother.

"No! Please allow me to at least finish my explanation before you go and murder my innocent novel." Fired back an equally as annoyed younger sister.

"Haa… okay, but you'd better have a good explanation for why you were about to read one of those vulgar books of yours to Solace. Or I'll burn every last one of the books from your despicable collection."

'Vul-gar. I wonder what that means.' Rolling the word around his mouth, as he attempted to decipher the type of books his aunt had been keeping away from him, Samual watched as his aunt pitifully crawled out of her hiding place behind the sofa as she began to explain her side of the events thus far.

— — —

"-And that's why you caught me at such a bad time. I promise I'd never divulge these books to Solace. Well… unless he's older, maybe." Muttering the final parts of her explanation under her breath, she looked forlornly at her older sister who had her arms crossed while in deep thought.

Sighing as she released the tension from her shoulders, Alexandria walked towards her son and gave him a kiss on the forehead, as she avoided responding to Alessia's excuses altogether- an implicit acceptance of which Alessia was aware, allowing her to wipe the sweat trailing down her pale forehead.

"If you want to read a storybook, ask mommy when I've finished working, alright baby? I'll read you a bedtime story before your nap this afternoon. Make sure to pick one out, okay?"

"Nh, mama." Having received the reply from her well-behaved son, the mother looked around the room and shot one final glance towards Alessia, whose back straightened, before she decided to leave the pair alone.

'Leah probably left after Solace joined Alessia in the living room. Hm… I'll have her come supervise him in the dark for a little while just in case that little minx pulls anything again.'

"Mama go bye-bye?" Asked a baby who was trying to lay some of the heat off of his aunt.

"Yes, baby. I'll be in my study if you'd like to join me again, okay? And you. Behave!" While her tone of voice was drastically different for each of the two recipients of her reply, the love she had for each lay bare for anyone to have been able to see.

"Nh." "Phew."

With that, Alexandria turned to make her way out of the living area. From the corner of his vision, Solace managed to catch a glimpse of his ever-playful aunt sticking out a little, pink tongue as she jeered at the retreating form of her sister. The kid, however, was not the only person to have noticed the taunt.

"I saw that." Came the monotonous reaction from the mother leaving through the door, who didn't even bother to turn back to see her sister's body quickly stiffen up again as she donned a helpless, awkward expression on her face.

"Haha… I didn't think she'd catch that though."

Shaking his head at the young adult's lively personality, Solace Antigonus's journey picking up the new language from scratch would continue, surrounded by the fine women of his daily life.

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