Luna opened her eyes and blinked repeatedly, however no matter how many times she blinked, her vision does not clear up. Am I shortsighted in this world? Do I need my glasses?

She tried to move her body to look for any glasses but found that her body felt very odd. She lacked the strength to turn or flip her body and her arms and legs were of no help. After struggling for quite a while, she finally bothered to bring her arms up to her face to inspect what could possibly be wrong with her. To her surprise, she found that her arms and hands were small and chubby. 

BaoBao! BaoBao! 

After a short while of not getting a response, she called out to him again. 

BaoBa-

I'm back!! Sorry that I disappeared for a while! I tried to negotiate for you but as you can see... It was not successful... You got put into a punishment world...

As much as I really appreciate your help and concern BaoBao, that was really not needed. I'd appreciate it even more if you don't disappear on me so suddenly like that again. Once was already more than enough an experience. Without giving BaoBao a chance to talk, she continued on. More importantly, what's going on now? I'm a baby? Based on my poor eyesight, I'd even guess that I'm less than 6 months old?

I said before that you'd spend an entire lifetime of suffering. Naturally, that would mean from birth to death. The body you're in now is only around 3 months old. Unfortunately, you seem to be born a mute. There are no other defects to this body though. 

Has anyone tried to commit suicide to end their life in the punishment world?

The weaker hosts who could not beat the world's consciousness tried to. It doesn't work. Somehow, one way or another, you'd be revived or you'd survive. In fact, a failed attempt may make life worse than if you did not attempt it at all. So I'd really recommend not even trying. 

Mm. Let's get to the background of this original soul. Also, are there any missions to complete? Can I listen to the world book?

As the hippocampus of the body you're in now isn't developed yet, there're no long-term memories stored for me to trigger. We can only live day by day and find out how your family's like towards you. About missions and a world book, they are none for punishment worlds... You can take it as living your second life except it's sure to be an unfortunate one...

I see... Luna laid there, staring at the ceiling above her then trying to observe her surroundings. She seemed to be in a white wooden crib that was made comfy with fluffy blankets. With this information and BaoBao's assessment that there were no other abnormalities to this body, she deduced that the baby was not treated very badly. 

I guess it's kind of a torture to be mentally active yet stay limited by your physical capabilities...

Suddenly, she felt the urge to relieve herself. This was when she realised the true horror and torture of being a grown person stuck in the body of a baby. She tried to make sounds but it only came out as weird soft sounds. Soon after she got the urge, she peed in her nappy, clearly lacking the control over her urethral sphincters. Feeling incredibly uncomfortable, she tried to knock on the crib but it was not not effective either. She lacked strength in her hits on the crib. 

BaoBao... Where are the baby's- my parents...? Who're in the house...?

It's night time so everyone's asleep. You have an older sister who's sleeping in another room. Your parents are right beside you. 

BaoBao make some noise as natural as possible so that you wake at least one of them up. 

Got it! 

BaoBao materialised his body and started scratching the leg of the bed near the mother. He was acting like a rat. It was loud enough such that she woke up with a start and sat up look around for the source of the sound with wide and alert eyes. She first looked towards the door but her attention was then drawn to the sound of BaoBao scurrying away, pretending to be spooked by her movement. She frowned as if irritated by the nuisance and before BaoBao knew it, a small dagger was sent flying at him. He went even faster that it seemed unnatural and the knife only lightly grazed his skin. After hiding behind the leg of the crib that was placed nearer to the wall, he instantly disappeared with his heart thumping wildly in his chest. He had not expected that a plain and simple task could have been so dangerous. Who's she?!

The mother walked over with a frown still on her face to retrieve the dagger half buried into the floor. Was I dreaming?

It was then she heard yet another sound but it was far softer this time. It took her awhile to realise that it was her baby. She rushed to the crib to check on her.

"Eva! Why're you awake?" She asked while picking her up to feel that her nappy was wet. "Oh! Did this wake you up? You're a very sensitive girl, huh?" Her mother smiled warmly. She helped Eva change into a new nappy before rocking her back to sleep. 

So my name's Eva... She seems like a kind mother. 

Kind?! She almost killed me without any hesitation!

You were acting like... a rat... 

Eva could not help but yawn. 

Isn't it... normal...

Eva could not fight the pull of the sleep she somehow felt from the monotonous rocking and fell into a deep sleep quickly. 

 

Days and months passed by slowly. 

All Eva did was eat and sleep. She could not make much sounds beyond soft gurgling and babbling no matter how much she tried. Her vocal chord and mouth just could not seem to cooperate with her intention to sound any proper syllabuses.

Her physical growth also seemed a little stunted. When she was supposed to be able to roll over, sit up, or stand by herself, she could not. When she was supposed to be able to grasp onto things firmly, they fell out of her loose grip. 

Her family had shared worried glances but they never stopped smiling warmly at her. 

Overtime as she grew older and spent less time sleeping, her time outside the house still did not seem to grow. Besides attending to Eva's needs and entertaining her minimally, she would spend the rest of her time undergoing physical training. So Eva spent that free time thinking and understanding her situation. 

Everything she knew was pieced together from whatever her family talked about and using BaoBao's information, however it was mostly pointless banter in her family so most of the things she knew still came from BaoBao. 

She found out that the place they lived in was actually far underground with several hidden passageways leading off into different directions with some stretching off too far for him to know where they ended up. At the same time, they have a house on the surface that looked far shabbier and dirtier than their living quarters underground. The only time they spent time aboveground was if they needed a breath of fresh air or if there were visitors. 

Once her eyesight was good enough, she confirmed it for herself. 

Her house underground seemed decent. There was a room where they could eat and sit in leisurely, a kitchen, and three bedrooms. She had no idea how her family managed it but the walls, floor, and ceiling were made of concrete. Interestingly, despite living underground for so long, the place did not feel stuffy and the air did not feel stale. Although they did not own a lot of furniture, they had the minimal ones for a comfortable life, such as each room having a vanity table, a nice comfy bed, and a good big wardrobe. 

In comparison, the house aboveground had only one bedroom and one sitting room with an outdoor kitchen. The walls were dirty and peeling, the wooden dining table looked like it was splintering, there was a cheap rickety bed frame and another smaller mattress on the floor that looked to be for a child to sleep in, and a worn down small chest of drawers. 

This made her suspect something was not simple about her family. 

Less than a kilometre away from their house on the surface, there was a big two-story estate that her father and sister went to everyday. BaoBao informed her that they were working as servants for the family that reside in that estate. 

Her mother only returned to working as a servant for the family when Eva turned 6 months old. She constantly had the silent Eva strapped to her back while attending to the lady of the house. However, whenever she left the house, the next most experienced servant would take over her job as the attendant while she stayed in the house to do chores. 

A random conversation with a fellow servant confirmed Eva's suspicions.

"Are you sure you want to keep living outside by yourself? I'm sure the servants' quarters are better than what you can afford by yourself outside. You even have a newborn."

"It's alright, my family sees it as our form of respite." Her mother had replied with some embarrassment. 

"Ah... That's right, your family has been serving this family for generations... It's no wonder you'd want to have some separation from them." The woman looked at her mother pitifully. 

BaoBao confirmed that the state of the servant's quarters within the big estate were in between the two houses her family has. If my parents' pay from being servants obviously can't afford everything that's underground... Where are they getting the extra money from?

The only clues she had regarding the other source of income for her family was her family's strange physical training and that her father left once in the night before arriving back home before dawn broke. 

That was until one day when her mother entrusted the care of Eva to Briana for the night. "I should be able to take up jobs again. It seems we did not need to prepare for me to rest for two years like I had to when Briana was born. Although Eva is lacking in the physical department, she seems bright enough to be left alone at least for awhile. Also, we have Briana to take care of her while we're gone."

"Just in time, I've been putting off some requests that would be dealt with better with the two of us in action."

"Don't worry, mother! Get those jobs done with father and take care." Briana smiled assuringly.

"You're really our capable daughter." Her mother hugged her and kissed her on the forehead affectionately before leaving with her father. 

Briana placed Eva in her crib after feeding her some milk. "You should just sleep now."

However, Eva simply stared at Briana with round questioning eyes.

"I'm not sleeping yet, I want to train hard and become strong and agile so that I can support mother and father in their jobs. You should do the same too next time. Everyone has to pull their own weight in this, you know." 

Eva cocked her head in response.

"Is it just me or do you really understand what I'm saying?"

Eva gave an ambiguous but innocent looking smile.

"Woah... Mother's right. You seem to have the smarts at least. That's good! You can at least help out with coming up with the best plans to assassinate our targets!"

Eva's smile froze. Assassinate? Did I hear her right?

You did! BaoBao confirmed.

"Although you may not be any good by yourself, at least you'll be a good asset, huh? I do wonder how we should develop your talent though... We never needed to know how to read or write since targets are shown to us by pictures... Even if you do come up with something, how can you tell us..." Unaware of Eva's surprise, Briana continued to ramble on and on by herself.

Assassination... I'm born into a family of servants who are assassins by night? Yet they're uneducated? Who're we working for? It doesn't seem to be for the family we're serving. Could it be that we're independent? What kind of targets do we accept? How do they receive the requests? 

Now that she got an answer, it only brought about more questions that could only be answered if she found a way to communicate with her family.

As the night wore on, both daughters could not fight the sleepiness they felt so they dozed off before their parents reached back home.

Her parents only reached home just before the sun rose, picked the children up, then immediately headed towards the big estate without rest. Briana had already eaten while Eva was still fast asleep.