Different From other Children

"Lippe, did you just say that you love me?"

The first one to react with joy was the simple kid rather than the adults who were still reeling from their thoughts. Robert shed tears of joy, touched by his lovely sister's words. 

"I love you too! I love you the most in the world!"

Robert hugged Calliope and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Calliope, who had gotten used to this level of skinship, accepted his kiss in a natural manner. 

"Ehem, Lippe."

Lucius cleared his throat as he saw this scene. As all gazes fell on him, his eyes wandered a bit, and then he spoke in a soft voice.

"....I love you too."

Calliope's eyes widened. 

Lucius in her previous life had never said he loved her. It was assumed that even if they did not say such things to one another, they knew that they loved one another. It's not like she ever doubted Lucius's love for their family, but her heart was full after hearing it from him in person. She felt like she was going to cry with joy. 

She pressed down on her overwhelming emotions and smiled brightly. Because she didn't need to do anything else than smile to express herself. 

"Mommy loves Lippe very much. Thank you for being our daughter."

The countess spoke to her as she picked up and hugged her daughter. 

As their children spoke to one another, the stunned parents had returned to their senses. They were full of countless questions, but they put them away. 

More importantly, to their daughter who had just said words of affection for the very first time, they wanted to return those words of love. As she heard the loving words that responded to her own, Calliope's lower lip trembled. 

She had really missed them. She wanted to speak with them like this everyday. 

Even though she had gotten used to her daily life and seeing her family members, her chest still stung with emotions. 

"I love you, Lippe."

The count stroked Calliope's head as he spoke. His daughter's short hair tickled his palm. It wasn't just his hand that tickled. After thinking for a moment, the count turned to his sons. 

"….And Lus, Robel."

"Yes, Father."

Lucius and Robert answered obediently to his call. The always casually acting Robert was nowhere to be seen in his upright posture. 

The count looked at his two sons, who he had strictly raised to act in this manner. He had thought that this was right. 

A noble household, especially a knight family, often had to assume responsibility for many. The count wanted his children to grow to become responsible people. 

But there was something that was more important than that. 

"I love you two as well."

More than being responsible, he hoped that his children would be happy. But he hadn't even expressed one word of his love to them. Of course he hadn't. Because it was something so obvious, he didn't think he needed to say it. 

When Calliope said she loved them, it was only after seeing his family members that he realized. He had set out to be a strict father, but had been a callous one instead. 

Upon their father's words, Lucius and Robert froze in their positions, unable to respond or react. This was a first. Their father had said such words for the first time. They had never anticipated such words and believed there would never be such a moment again. 

Different from their reactions to Calliope's words, they awkwardly avoided their father's gaze. Robert even started sneakily walking away from the count. The count repressed his urge to smack his younger son as he noticed him sneaking away. As he did so, he felt regret and scolded his previous actions. 

How had he acted so that he would get such a reaction at his words of love. 

Robert snuck a look at his mother. Whenever there was some kind of conflict in the family, his mother was always the one who took charge to settle things down. 

But the countess pretended as if she didn't know what was going on nor did she speak up, keeping watch over the situation. 

After looking around the room for awhile, trying to make sense of the mood, Robert ended up making eye contact with his father. He immediately turned away his gaze and wiggled his fingers. 

His father's gaze was warmer than he had expected.

[I love you.]

His shock and surprise faded, to be replaced by confusion. 

He continued to fidget as he felt butterflies in his stomach. He wanted to swallow his words, but he ended up spitting them out. 

"….I love you too, Dad."

He couldn't look at his father as he spoke. His expression was as if nothing special had happened but his ears were bright red. At his son's appearance, the count smiled. 

He realized that seven years was still very young. And that perhaps his strictness might have been too extreme. His hand twitched. He wanted to pat Robert on the head but he felt awkward doing so. He had always scolded his younger son for his mischief and laziness and had never praised him for something. The count stopped hesitating and reached out, but before he could pet Robert on the head, Lucius replied. 

"I am always grateful to Father and Mother."

Well then. Those words sounded like something Lucius would say. 

But though Lucius had on his usual blank expression, his parents could see that he was actually embarrassed. 

The countess smiled cheerfully. She had thought her oldest son, who usually acted like a little adult, had lost all of his childish nature. Though she had been proud of his maturity, she had missed his cute side. 

But after Calliope was born, he began acting more like his age. 

"Mom and Dad will always love the both of you." 

Spring had passed but a spring breeze seemed to pass by. A soft, fluffy leaf sprouted in everyone's hearts. 

The countess always spoke tenderly to her sons, while the count was strict. He didn't express himself to his children, and thus his children could only act the same to him. 

Until this point, there had never been such a loving gathering in the family where they had spoken like this to one another. Though it was a little awkward, they were happy. 

Why didn't they do this earlier. They knew that everyone loved and cherished one another, and hadn't felt the need to express it in words. 

However, saying these words to each other gave the family a great feeling of happiness. To the point that just looking at each other would bring a smile to their faces.

Everyone's eyes fell on Calliope. If it weren't for her, they would never have had such a wonderful moment. 

The baby of the family brought them only joy and blessings since she had been placed in their lives. 

***

"No matter how I think about it, it's too early, right?"

The count nodded at his wife's words. 

The first words their baby girl had said had given their family such a precious moment together. It was a happy time that they as parents couldn't express in words. 

However, when thinking about this objectively. 

"At an age when she should be barely able to even say any sort of words, she was able to say a perfect sentence."

The count had a serious expression as he spoke, holding his chin. 

At that time, he wanted to respond to Calliope's loving words in kind to express his love for his daughter and to naturally move on from the event so that the other children wouldn't think of the babe's actions as strange. It was definitely not because they thought it was normal. 

"Before this, I had been so worried because she had been so quiet."

The countess spoke. They had always held worries, wondering if their daughter had some sort of condition or had an illness. The two parents had discussed and both had wanted to raise Calliope to be happy no matter what sort of body or mental condition their daughter might have. 

But now, their worries back then were nothing compared to now. No, well, of course they were happy that their daughter had shown signs of being a genius. 

It's just that the rate of learning was so quick that they worried. 

"What does Nanny think."

At the count's question, the nanny opened her mouth to answer. 

"Miss Lippe has been different from other children from the start. So I had also worried very much about the Miss's health, but…now that it appears that she acted differently because she has such an outstanding mind, I am relieved."

Animals are the same. When certain offspring have little movement nor response, they guess that those offspring will live short lives. And like their prediction, those offspring usually don't survive for long. 

Because they were afraid words would become reality, they couldn't say it out loud, but all the adults had worried that their lovely baby of the family would die early on due to poor health. 

But to learn that their daughter's different actions wasn't because she had a weak body, but because she was a genius…

'My daughter....a genius…?'

As their thoughts flowed to this point, the Rustichel couple widened their eyes in realization. 

Because of their shock and worries, they had forgotten a very important matter, that their daughter, not yet one year old, had spoken a perfect sentence. 

Which meant that their daughter was a full fledged genius. 

"Aren't there those stories of child geniuses who have been able to write poetry at the age of three. Our Lippe must be like them."

As he spoke and continued to think more about it, the count's lips turned up. 

No matter how solemn of a person he was, when the count thought about his child being a genius, his mood brightened. 

Calliope was not yet one year old, as she was born 11 months ago. But she was able to compose a perfect sentences. Thinking of the famous story of Kimsisbe, known for learning his first words at eight months and writing his first poem at three years, the count thought his daughter was more of a genius. 

"What do we do? Our Lippe is so smart. To think that when she's three, she'll be writing poems."

The countess was already imagining her daughter writing poems at the age of three. 

"Our Miss is sure to compose her first poem when she's two years old, not three."

The nanny, who should be bringing her lord and lady to their senses, was also lost in her own imagination. 

There was no one in the room to wake up the three from their idiocy. 

***

Late that night, the nanny finished her discussion with the Rustichel couple and returned to Calliope's room. The maid who had been watching over the child welcomed the nanny as she entered. 

"Is it true, Nanny-nim?"1

It was easy to tell what the maid was asking about. The nanny stopped the corners of her mouth that kept turning upwards, and acted as if she didn't understand the question.

"What do you mean?"

"That Miss Lippe spoke her first words. Anna heard that Miss actually said she was thankful that she was born. It can't be, or is it? Now that I think about it, Anna that little…she was just exaggerating, right?"

When the maid Anna had said that she had heard Calliope's first words, the others were green with envy. They had all been anticipating and guessing what the first word would be, but the answer was like so. 

No matter how much envy and admiration she wanted to receive, for Anna to exaggerate to such a point. The maid thought this as her lips bent into a frown.

"It's true."

"Huh?!"

"Not just that, she also told me that she loves me. And that she's always thankful."

The nanny spoke proudly, waiting to be acknowledged and flattered. 

But the maid was too shocked to even acknowledge that Calliope had spoken to the nanny. She was, one could say, still a beginner in the workforce. In other words, she lacked such awareness and tact due to her lack of experience. 

"Did she really say, 'Mother, Father, thank you for giving birth to me?' Those exact words? No other add-ons?"

"Even if it is so. Tone down your volume. The Miss will wake up if you keep shouting."

The nanny spoke, frowning.

She definitely didn't scold her because she felt sad that Calliope's words to her weren't acknowledged by the maid. It was because she was worried about the Miss. 

Really.