“Oh my! Very good, Your Highness!”

I stared down at the drawing I was working on that the maids were persistently praising. Touching my chest softly, I confirm to myself that I am still alive. How did this even happen?

On the night the king was supposed to have killed me, it turns out that the maids weren’t as heartless as I had originally thought. One of them hurried to my side as soon as Pyre left, despite the other maids’ protests, hastily checking on me, the blurry expression I could manage to make out on her face still showing a small amount of hope that I’d survive.

And, to her surprise, I was still breathing.

It hurt. It hurt, a lot. However, for whatever reason, I survived the initial attack. From what I learned on later, the cut, apparently, wasn’t deep enough to cut through anything major or whatever, but even then, no one was stupid enough to believe that was the reason I survived. A baby, no matter what, should have died from that cut.

But, I wasn’t about to complain. Because it was due to that wound I was finally able to come to terms that I had in fact died and reincarnated. In brief flashes as I wavered in and out of consciousness, I learned what happened after I’d fallen asleep. I had a heart attack and was found dead in my rundown apartment a few days later, as I hadn’t answered any of my family or friend’s calls or messages.

My funeral was simple, and my family was devastated. For someone who has been fit and healthy their entire life only to die in their sleep from a heart attack… Well, while not unheard of, it certainly is unusual.

Oh well. There’s not much I could do there. So, I wished them a good life and prayed for them not to dwell on my death for too long as I accepted my new life.

It took months for me to recover from my injury, and of course my good-for-nothing father was told of my miraculous survival a few days after his oh-so kind visit prior. To everyone’s surprise, he visited not that long after, watching as the maids worried over me under his piercing gaze.

Thanks to that, I was woken up from my restless slumber, still barely conscious, the pain searing and unbearable, but his words were crystal clear.

“Interesting,” he’d said. “Seems like this one might be worth keeping…” His cold blue eyes watched me for a moment. “I suppose it needs a name. Just call it Yviel.”

With that, he left, and hadn’t been back since.

Cut to now, where I’m almost a year old, now with a name and maids who were charmed by my apparent cuteness, though most of them I could tell only really cared for me because of their overwhelming pity.

My two main maids, Alle and Janice, were definitely won over by my ‘cuteness’. Alle was the one who came to check on me after the king left, and, if not for her, I most definitely would have died a second time. So, I spent most of my time after recovering to butter up to her, and it worked splendidly.

While I still believe little girls have more devastating cuteness power, I underestimated the power of babies and children in general. It seems that my looks work almost as well to charm others, as Janice is a prime example of that.

Picking up the paper, I turned to her, smiling brightly and held it up to her. “Wah!” My face flushed and I forced myself not to smack my head on the ground in embarrassment.

I was still a baby, so I couldn’t really talk, no matter how much I wanted to, but that’s fine. It only added to my ultimate goal, no matter how embarrassing it currently is. Janice smiled gently at me, pointing at the “drawing”, which was pretty much just blobs of different colors because I still didn’t have much control over my body, “Is that for me?”

I tried to nod, but it was a bit awkward, so I just pushed the paper towards her. Alle was watching and she puffed out her cheeks, “No fair! I want a picture from His Highness too!”

“Alle.” Janice reprimanded, frowning at the young maid before turning back to me, gingerly taking the paper from my hands. “Thank you, You Highness.”

I smiled and giggled, causing the two women to smile back. While I still couldn’t really walk or even crawl, I tend to get bored just laying in my crib all day, so eventually I just started making a fuss until the maids finally let me lay down on the floor. It was a start.

Having brushed up their feelings for today, I plopped down on the carpet, staring up at the ceiling, sleepiness coming over me. I frowned, blinking a few times to try to keep myself awake, but I couldn’t fight it as I slowly fell asleep.

“Oh my…” Janice whispered, picking me up and placing me back in the crib.

The last thing I heard before falling asleep was the bedroom door opening.