Reincarnation is weird. You don't get all your memory back the moment you become conscious, no.

At first, there's only a sense of self and no more.

And as you grow up, memory of your previous life returns little by little, like sand in an hourglass.

It's not until you're fully grown-up that you can recall everything that happened in your past life.

As such, while waiting for my mind to fully mature, I spent the majority of my time studying about this world and slowly further my own research on the Theory of Everything.

There was simply nothing better to do.

But working with advanced mathematics using a child's brain is not easy, let me tell you. 

Most of the time I had to write the entire thing out in case I forgot the logic behind what I was working on.

It also gave me anxiety everytime I erased the blackboard.

That aside, my current name was 「Aldis」 and apparently I was born into a Duke family, the Edythe.

With no brother or sister as of yet, naturally I was the first in line for succession.

Because of this, I was allowed to have quite the luxurious lifestyle. I had pretty much everything I could have wanted, even a separate mansion and my own servants, at the age of ten!

No wonder why children of nobility are so corrupt. Even I couldn't resist indulging in all these priveledges.

But it's not like there's nothing to complain about. No, quite the opposite. 

For starters, what's with this isolated lifestyle? There's pretty much zero chance for me to make any friend. Well, I did  make a friend once, but it was an old guy! He even passed out during our conversation!

Also, the amount of responsibility is way too much! 

As a future Duke, you're expected to study about etiquette, history, accounting, music, philosophy and sometimes even human psychology! 

One time they even tried to assign a sword instructor to me. 

...I was still eight years old at the time.

Thankfully, I somehow managed to convince my parents that swordsmanship was not something I needed.

Well, it would be useful to have against your everyday street thug, but if you don't pour a ridiculous amount of time into it, the average knight can still kill you. And time just wasn't what I had to spare. 

After all, I still needed to figure out a way for humans to stop killing each other.

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「 Residence maid Berta's POV 」

I was assigned as one of the young master's personal maids when he was still learning how to walk

At the time, I didn't know what I was getting into.

This child— even though the Duke's blood was running through his veins, could only be the Devil's child.

Always locking himself up in the library and writing strange symbols.

I was not educated in the ways of mathematics so it was impossible for me to understand the symbols. But, it was rumoured that when a famous mathematician saw what the little boy had been writing, he fainted. 

That mathematician was later on executed for repeatedly saying 'burn him on the stakes! He's a demon!' about the Duke's child. This incident caused considerable worries amongst the servants of the main residence, which made it so that the young boy had to move out and live separately.

But that's not all. 

When he was eight years old, using magic, he blew away a Knight Commander with just a snap. And with no hesitation.

'See, father? The sword will only be an ornament to me.' he said to the Duke while putting on an innocent smile.

It was innocent, but it was also one that seemed to say 'listen when I tell you something, incompetent fools.' to the whole world.

I can't even begin to imagine what kind of man he will become in the future.

⁂

「 Devil's child Aldis Edythe's PoV 」

I was now having an audience with my parents. 

How a child had to 'have an audience' with his own parents was beyond me, but such was high nobility. 

The conversation was an important one filled with talks of politics but it all came in one ear and out the other

No. This is not irresponsibility. It's this world that's weird for expecting a child to earnestly listen to anything political. 

But since I couldn't have anything nice, sometimes they would ask me certain questions. 

Most of the questions were about internal management so if I had to guess, this was probably to show people how capable I were. 

"Some of the villages under our management are suffering from a certain problem, what is your answer?"

What do you mean 'a certain problem'?

If you're going to test me, at least ask proper questions— And make it less obvious! 

But since it was a half-assed question, the answer should also be at that level huh...

Alright. 

"I would solve it."

That should do.

"Exactly how?"

Eh? 

"Exactly what, father?" I locked eyes with the Duke. 

He was a teriffic man, wise by all means.

The scars on his neck reflected the battlefield in scary detail. Through them, one could even see a glimpse of the cruel and raging battlefield; and even smell the foul stench of blood. 

The wrinkles under his eyes showed years and years of experience— And along with it, seemingly peerless wisdom. 

But above all,

His eyes. 

That blue gaze seemed like it had pierced through the front I'd put up like a needle through fibre; had reached the depths of my soul and was then gauging all of its worth.

In front of such an intimidating force, I decided to maintain eye contact— Perhaps due to my stubbornness. 

"Honey."

Ah, here comes the wife. 

The Duke then turned to look at the woman, his eyes looked like they were saying 'I can't help it'.

"It's our son" mother frowned.

With a sigh, the husband hesitatingly went back to talking about politics. 

Ah, that was pretty adorable. 

Not everyday you get to see a war-hardened veteran get scolded by his wife. 

Marveling at the wonders of love, my mind drifted off yet again. 

It no longer processed any information. So long, politics. So long, talks about my engagement. 

Wait.

My what? 

"Overall, this marriage will be greatly beneficial towards strengthening our relationship with the Capell house. So it's best that you two start getting along."

Eh?

⁂

Author's note:

Hello again, Kamoto here. 

The series has officially started it seems. 

We'll see the story's heroine next chapter but yet I've still got no clue how I should handle the romance aspect of this story. 

Well, we'll get there when we get there. 

Ah, right. This release was extremely delayed and for that I am extremely sorry. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me.

I have no excuse whatsoever, please forgive me.

I'll try to be on schedule for the next release and maybe release a double chapter in the future.

Thank you for reading and I hope we'll see each other again.