Chapter 6
Accident-Type Childcare
Lucia hurriedly opened the door as she returned to her quarters in the training camp.
Persuading the Emperor hadn't taken as long as she'd expected, but registering the child's birth with him as the guarantor had taken a while.
'It will be very interesting to see his reaction when he finds out that the child he guaranteed is the Saintess.'
He didn't even realize that she had deliberately let the birth registration slip in front of him, and he took the bait.
Even if the Emperor wasn't deeply involved, she believed he should take responsibility since he was the one who started the Saintess Sealing Plan that entangled her in her previous life.
Lucia's lips curled up at the thought of the Emperor's enraged face.
As soon as Lucia arrived, she rushed to the bedroom where the child was likely to be.
But the bedroom was empty.
So was the reception room.
And the kitchen.
Not seeing the child anywhere, she recalled the child's voice in the bathroom just before she left.
'Could she still be there?'
Opening the bathroom door, she saw the child standing precariously on the slippery edge of the bathtub, reaching out as if desperately trying to grab something.
The child was startled by the sudden opening of the door and the presence of someone, and looked up, eventually losing her footing.
Lucia quickly caught the child.
The child, now in her arms, opened her tightly closed eyes and looked at Lucia.
Her eyes were wide with disbelief that she hadn't fallen to the floor.
Lucia carefully put the child down and said,
"Why are you still doing this?"
"……Towel……."
The child mumbled, shrinking in the spot where she had been placed.
Lucia's gaze immediately went to where the towels were usually kept.
'……Ah.'
The towels in the bathroom were on a shelf too high for the half-sized child to reach.
Moreover, looking at the child, she was still naked, and it was now past midday.
If the Saintess were an ordinary child, she would have caught a cold by now.
As soon as she realized her thoughtless mistake, she felt the child's gaze on her from a distance.
The child, who had been looking at Lucia's feet, looked up nervously as their eyes met, as if she had done something terribly wrong.
At Lucia's feet, small feathers and dirty grime floated leisurely across the floor above the clogged bathroom drain.
And they were dirtying her shiny black boots, as if Lucia had stepped into a mud puddle.
The child still watched Lucia with trembling pupils.
It seemed the child was worried about making the place dirty.
But,
'I should take off my shoes first.'
Unfortunately, Lucia didn't realize what the child was thinking.
She had washed away the dirt, so it was only natural that the dirt would come off.
Watching her shake off her shoes like that, the child couldn't hold back her tears and began to sob sorrowfully.
From Lucia's perspective, it was a very sudden outburst.
Lucia was bewildered by the tears she couldn't understand.
'Ah, I see. I should have given her a towel first.'
She hurriedly grabbed a towel and wrapped it around the child's body.
But instead of stopping her crying, the child moved even further away.
Lucia blinked as she looked at the child.
'……Is this not it? I'm sure I used to wipe her down after washing her.'
Looking back on her memories, she realized that she had never lived on her own since she was young.
During her growing years, she was the daughter of a noble family, and after severing ties, she was a knight of the Imperial Palace.
Except for her life on the battlefield, she had always been helped by maids who took care of her until she was over ninety years old.
So, Lucia had zero life skills except for swordsmanship.
As she looked back on her life, a big question arose.
'……Me. Raising a child?'
Lucia was only now beginning to realize what she had gotten herself into just a day after her regression.
She realized then that this fate was a much more difficult path than the achievements she had made in her ninety years of life.
.
.
.
The child was wearing Lucia's smallest blouse, which was far too big for her.
She sat across from Lucia at the table, looking very dejected.
Bread, meat, fruit, a lump of green stuff.
Perhaps it was because the food was in its raw, unrefined form, as if it had just been plucked from the green lump.
Even though she must have been hungry, she didn't touch the food in front of her at all.
Lucia felt a bit frustrated as she watched the child.
She had saved the Saintess.
She said she would be a mother.
But.
At this rate, could she even raise her to be a normal child, let alone grow up properly before her awakening?
Besides her lack of life skills, the most important thing was reality.
'How much does it cost to raise a child?'
Looking back on her past, she had never cared about money before her regression.
Even after severing ties with her family without a penny, the salary she received was enough to support a maid, and even after retiring early, she was so wealthy from war rewards that she refused the titles and estates she was offered because they were too much trouble to manage.
But what about the current situation?
It had been nine years since she had severed ties with her family, and it was during the five-year special training period.
Moreover, all the necessities for living during the training period were provided, so she had given her unnecessary salary to the royal guard's operating expenses.
So, she would be getting a salary in the future, but she didn't have any savings.
Lucia looked at the child wrapped in her clothes and felt frustrated again.
But if she hadn't saved the Saintess today, she wouldn't have been able to bring her here without any problems.
'Right. Positively. The documents were burned, and her identity wasn't revealed. No mission was assigned.'
Exactly 11 years until the child turns 16 and awakens.
During that time, she could hide her existence with the Control Stone, work as a knight of the Imperial Palace, gather information, and gradually eliminate the forces involved in the Saintess Sealing.
……Even so.
'To have to worry about what to eat tomorrow.'
This training camp was an isolated place strictly separated from the outside world, solely for training.
Even the maids who had worked here had only come when no one was around, so she had never even met them.
So, that service had ended the moment her childcare leave began.
Fortunately, neither the child nor Lucia was ready to meet anyone else, so the timing wasn't bad.
'If I hire a maid, she'll have to call me Mom. I don't want to force her to call me Mom. But I can't cook right now…….'
As Lucia's expression became grim with worry, the child lowered her head and said softly.
"……Annie wanna go back……."
Lucia doubted her ears at the child's sudden words.
'What?'
If she came all the way here, didn't that mean she wanted to stay together?
But thinking about it, the child had never once said that she wanted to be together.
She was flustered but calmly asked.
"Do you mean the orphanage? Why?"
At Lucia's words, the child glanced at the dirty white gloves she had placed on the table, then lowered her head again.
The child didn't actually want to go back.
Warm water, a smooth and clean bathtub.
It was all things she had never experienced in her life, even for a short time.
But more than those things, what she regretted was this sweet moment when a woman who looked a lot like the mother she had only dreamed of was going to be her mother.
Was her dream the opposite after all?
But, the child remembered.
The serious faces of the adults. The long sighs they took as they looked at her.
All of this was exactly like the adults described by the children at the orphanage who had been abandoned for misbehaving.
Unlike the children of nobles, the children at the orphanage learned two things as they learned to read.
How to take care of children, and how to help with housework and farm work.
The situation of children being adopted just five years after the end of the war was for the sake of supplementing the labor shortage.
Powerless girls were adopted to be nannies or maids to do housework and take care of younger siblings, and boys were adopted to help with labor.
Moreover, instead of being adopted into such an ordinary family, Annie had been sold to be a cleaner in a dirty warehouse with no people.
Knowing her situation, the child understood this situation even more in front of Lucia, who said she would adopt her.
She had done something wrong, so it was time to wake up from her dream and go back.
The child didn't lie as she looked at Lucia, who was asking for the reason.
"……Annie. Dirty. Can't be here."
However, she couldn't help her lack of vocabulary.
Lucia looked around at the child's gloomy words.
'I see.'
Indeed, this was the training camp of the Imperial Knights.
It was a very dry place with decorative weapons hanging on the walls, and no common sofas or furniture except for the reception room and dressing room.
Moreover, the floor, which was always clean, had been dirtied by today's events, making the place feel like an old office.
So, as the child said, it was definitely not a place for a five-year-old child to live.
"That's right. You're right."
"……!"
The child was shocked as if she had been hit by a stone from the sky.
She had expected the adult in front of her to think that way, but hearing it in person was a huge difference.
The child began to tremble her soft little chin to hold back the tears that were about to burst.
Then, this time, Lucia, who was watching her, was flustered.
She had only agreed with what the child was saying, but it looked like she was about to burst into tears.
Did she make a mistake?
Lucia reviewed the situation so far.
So far, the only place the child had been in this lodging was the bathroom.
And the situation that made her cry was…….
Lucia looked at her dirty boots and repeated the child's words.
'Could it be……. That being dirty. Is about herself?'
It was an unimaginable suspicion, but that was the only thing that came to mind. She decided to throw it out to the child.
"Could it be that the bathroom is dirty because……."
As soon as that word she was worried about came out of Lucia's mouth, the child burst into tears that she had been holding back.
"……Hngh! I, I'm sorry……."
"……."
'That's it.'
Lucia finally realized the situation, albeit late.
However, the misunderstanding that had already begun was a difficult situation for Lucia, who was not good at talking.
Should she tell her she's not dirty?
Should she tell her not to worry because she can call a maid?
It was true, but it was wrong. She didn't know which words were appropriate.
Even though she hadn't said many words to the child, she couldn't guess what kind of reaction the child would have based on their conversations so far.
Lucia was overwhelmed by the child's loud crying that echoed to the ceiling.
The legendary black monster knight.
No matter how powerful she was, she was useless in front of a crying child.
It was then.
Just then, the open bathroom door caught her wavering eye.
And along that path, all the way to the front door, were clearly imprinted tiny footprints.
Lucia rolled her eyes, and then said firmly to the child as if she had thought of something.
"I can't send you to the orphanage."
The child was crying so hard that her body was heaving, but she stopped at Lucia's firm words.
"I can't send you whether you clean it or not."
Lucia pointed to the bathroom and the floor with her chin.
"……!"
In her opinion, the child was more shocked than she had expected, and even the tears that had been flowing stopped.
To threaten this little child with housework.
She felt a pang of guilt, but this was the best she could do for her, as threats were easier than comfort.
"This isn't a problem that can be solved by crying. Understand?"
The child, who she had expected to cry even harder at Lucia's firm words, simply closed her open mouth and wiped away her tears with her small hands.
That was also an unexpected reaction.
"This isn't my house. So, you have to keep it clean. So, you can clean it yourself, right?"
At her words, the child nodded diligently.
Now, to the child, Lucia's words sounded like, "I'll let you stay if you clean."
So, the child's position was an unparalleled opportunity.
Now curious about where this place was, the child asked.
"Then where is this……?"
"……Strictly speaking, it's probably part of the Imperial Palace."
The child was startled by Lucia's unsure tone.
It was because she suddenly remembered what Mia had told her once.
The Imperial Palace. It was a paradise where sparkling people gathered and lived without worrying about what to do tomorrow or what to eat.
'……I knew it.'
The child became gloomy again.
Even though she was going to be her mother, this sparkling woman in front of her was still far away from her.
The child looked into Lucia's blue eyes.
In the child's mind, they were pretty and kind eyes that she wouldn't be able to see if she didn't do her housework properly here.
This was a big problem. She was already tearing up at the thought of losing her first mother.
'Don't cry. You'll be a nuisance if you cry.'
But the tears kept welling up.
The child was thinking for the first time. How to not be separated from someone.
Considering the mistakes she had made so far, there was only one way for a five-year-old to make up for it.
To clean harder than anyone else who came in and out of this place.
If she showed that she was working hard, wouldn't she smile prettily instead of sighing or making a stern face, like when she held her hand?
If she smiled like that, maybe she could stay by her side a little longer, a little longer.
The child, who had put all her strength into her eyes to keep from shedding tears that wouldn't stop easily, nodded solemnly.
'Oh, that's a relief.'
Unaware of the child's determination, Lucia decided to coax the child a little more.
"That's troublesome. I can't even imagine how long it will take to clean that wooden floor, let alone the bathroom……."
"Don't, don't worry! Annie will try……!"
When Lucia was in trouble, the child clasped her small hands together desperately and shouted with her shoulders hunched up.
Ah, what a pure child.
Lucia's heart ached at the guilt that grew even more at this moment, and she almost groaned without realizing it.
"……Okay, then remember. I'm Lucia."
"Let's make a promise while you're here. From now on, don't tell anyone about what happened at the orphanage. And."
The child just kept nodding at whatever Lucia was saying.
"Didn't you forget? Look here."
"……?"
At that mechanical nod, Lucia made the child focus by meeting her eyes as if she was about to say the most important thing that the child had to keep.
"It would be good to call me Mom as soon as possible."
"……!"
At her words, the child widened her already big eyes like a rabbit and lowered her head to mumble.
Lucia thought that she had a long way to go with the child, but the child's hidden face was now as warmly red as the setting sun shining through the window.
