Being Loved for the First Time Chapter 14

Following Father’s thunderbolt-like announcement, the ducal residence became even busier.

Especially the knights assigned to guard me, my brother, and my sister.

‘We must bring the joy of victory to the youngest princess. Understood?’

‘Of course, Captain! We can’t lose to the other guards!’

‘Victory for the youngest princess!’

‘Glory to our liege!’

When I secretly listened in, that was the sort of thing they were shouting to motivate themselves.

And it wasn’t just my knights. My siblings’ guards were the same.

‘Well… I suppose winning would be nice.’

In any case, Father’s sudden declaration that a martial arts tournament would be held had made the festival even livelier.

Two or three of the maids assigned to my room often whispered together with their cheeks flushed pink.

“This is our chance to give them handkerchiefs before they enter the tournament.”

“What kind of embroidery should I do?”

“I’m going to embroider the flowers he said he liked last time, along with his initials.”

“Are you going to confess?”

“Confess? Nooo, it’s just… to wish him victory and hope he doesn’t get hurt.”

Was it because spring had arrived?

Everyone was enjoying such a wonderful time in their lives.

I let out a small sigh while concentrating on climbing the sofa.

It felt as though I was finally getting close to succeeding.

‘Oh, just a little more strength and—’

I was struggling to lift my thighs and belly onto the sofa cushion when—

“Shasha!”

My sister rushed into the room, calling my name.

I suppose I’ll have to leave it for next time.

Just as I let go of the sofa with that thought, my sister hugged me tightly from behind and spoke excitedly.

“You know, you knooow!”

“Uuh?”

“Shasha and Lara are gonna be princesses this time!”

Princesses?

What was that supposed to mean?

It didn’t take long for me to understand what my sister meant.

That was because—

“I’ve been swinging my sword three thousand times every day lately so I can show you an impressive performance at the tournament.”

“If I become the champion and receive flowers from the youngest princess, I think I’ll cry.”

“No, Your Ladyship. I’ll be the champion!”

Starting that afternoon, whenever the knights saw me, they asked me to cheer for them.

No, did they seriously think a baby who had only just reached nine months old could understand any of that?

Well, I could understand them, but still.

In short, my sister and I had been assigned the role of presenting flowers to the winner of the martial arts tournament.

What was this uneasy feeling?

I had a suspicion that Father was planning something.

It wasn’t strange for daughters of a ducal family to take on that role.

But Father was going to put my sister and me in front of the knights?

That overprotective father of ours?

However, I couldn’t pursue that line of thought any further.

Mother and the maids had summoned a fashion designer and begun discussing what dress I should wear that day.

“Since the youngest lady’s hair is still short, wouldn’t a hat that covers her whole head be better?”

“She’s still a baby, so she’ll be adorable even with short hair. We could also put a matching ribbon headband on her.”

“That’s right! Even though she’s so young, she’s incredibly elegant. I’m sure she’ll sit quietly no matter what we put on her!”

Hearing the delighted maids, I suddenly realized my mistake.

‘Ordinary babies throw things off!’

If I’d seen even one example of that behavior, I would have happily done the same.

‘Well, it’d be stranger if I suddenly started doing that now.’

Fortunately or unfortunately, this ducal family already had Brother Damian, who was even more mature than I was.

So everyone simply assumed that my quiet behavior was another personal trait.

“Since it’s spring, perhaps light green fabric would be nice?”

Mother looked thoughtful.

“My lady, what kind of dress did you wear as a child?”

“Me?”

Mother seemed to search through her memories.

“When I was little, I think I mostly wore white and light green. I also wore yellow dresses fairly often.”

“Then wouldn’t those colors suit the youngest lady beautifully too?”

“Exactly! The youngest lady looks just like you, my lady! From her pretty face to how elegant she’s been since she was little!”

Mother smiled, apparently pleased by the maids’ words.

“Even her jet-black hair and ruby-like scarlet eyes are exactly like yours, my lady!”

As the maid said, unlike my cotton-candy-colored sister and brother, I resembled Mother quite closely.

My straight hair, its pitch-black color—although, to be fair, my hair had always been black whenever I reincarnated—and my scarlet eyes, which were slightly lighter than Mother’s.

I’d learned that soon after my birth because Father had made such a fuss about how happy he was to have a child who resembled Mother.

‘You have no idea how sad I was! The children kept looking only like me, even though you’re so beautiful, my lady.’

‘Oh my, but I’m happy that the children resemble you.’

‘Of course I love the children who resemble me too! But… since we already have children who look like me, I can’t help wanting one who looks like you as well.’

It was also the first time anyone had been so delighted that I resembled my parents.

It was rare for me to resemble them in the first place, but whenever I did, they had strangely tended to find it unpleasant.

Well, most of the time, I’d never even seen my parents’ faces.

In any case, the maids selected white, light green, and yellow fabrics from those prepared and began holding them against my body.

Mother gestured to reject several of the fabrics as they brushed against me, then finally made her decision with a satisfied expression.

“Let’s use yellow for the martial arts tournament. Bright yellow looks especially adorable on children when they’re still this little.”

“As expected of you, my lady. She’ll surely look like an adorable little chick.”

“Oh my, I was imagining a forsythia flower.”

Mother listened thoughtfully to their conversation before speaking to the designer.

“Prepare both a dress resembling a forsythia flower and one resembling an adorable little chick.”

“Understood, my lady.”

“Hmm, and another thing.”

After hesitating briefly, Mother pointed to all the other fabrics the maids had selected.

“Our youngest still doesn’t have many dresses, so make dresses from all those fabrics too. Make them exceptionally beautiful. You can do that, can’t you?”

Huh?

For a moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Mother’s gaze toward the designer somehow seemed to say, ‘You’d better be prepared if you can’t.’

‘No, surely not.’

My gentle, kind mother would never do such a thing.

Watching the designer bow deeply and promise to do her very best, I decided not to think much of it.

Before I knew it, mid-April had arrived.

The knights were training hard, hoping to achieve even slightly better results in the martial arts tournament.

Some of the knights guarding my room came in with a bruise or two on their arms or hands.

‘How do you expect to appear before the youngest princess with such a dreadful face?!’

‘No matter how brave she is, do you intend to show her such an awful sight?’

‘Any of you whose faces are ruined during the tournament will wear masks. Understood?’

‘It’s not enough to show the youngest princess only beautiful and pleasant things!’

And behind my back, they made such ridiculous remarks.

Your youngest princess has seen things hundreds of times worse than any of you.

Well, I had no intention of stopping their consideration.

Even if I’d seen terrible things countless times, it was still better to look at beautiful and pleasant things.

Before the festival officially began, the designer completed my tournament dress splendidly.

The bright yellow dress was so tiny and adorable that even I thought it was the kind of design I’d want to put on a little baby.

The only awkward part was that the baby in question happened to be me.

“She’s so adorable! It feels as though she’ll start chirping at any moment.”

“My lady, would you like to try it? A little chick goes ‘peep, peep!'”

“How presumptuous! How dare you ask the young lady to do something like that?”

The maids were entirely occupied with admiring me in my chick-like dress.

Personally, I would have preferred the forsythia dress.

That one had a much more subdued design…

Of course, the dress I was wearing—or rather, the one I’d been dressed in—was pretty too.

The skirt puffed out like an upside-down tulip, with elaborate, abundant frills around the hem.

Tiny puffed sleeves decorated with flower-shaped ornaments rested on my shoulders.

Since I was a baby and needed to be kept warm, white fabric had been gathered around the neckline and shoulders as decoration. The material was soft so it wouldn’t irritate my delicate skin.

And for some reason, the matching cape even had an adorable hood.

The hat was also bright yellow and covered my entire head. It had been skillfully shaped into a design that resembled a bonnet, making it especially cute.

In particular, the inside of the brim near the top was accented with a white satin ribbon.

Despite having created such a carefully detailed dress and receiving endless praise from the maids, the designer, who still looked quite young, stood there with a nervous expression.

Mother was carefully examining me from every angle.

As though she didn’t want to miss a single detail of my appearance.

“Excellent. Don’t you think she truly looks like my daughter?”

The designer didn’t realize Mother was speaking to her at first, then hurriedly answered.

“O-of course, my lady! The youngest lady was so lovely from the very first day I saw her that the designs simply flowed out of me!”

Working in society must be difficult…

While I looked at the designer sympathetically, Mother carefully gathered me into her arms, making sure not to wrinkle the dress, and showered my cheeks with kisses.

“Our youngest really is adorable no matter what she wears, but this outfit is so lovely that I simply can’t resist kissing her.”

Then, looking extremely pleased, she spoke to the designer.

“Very good, Madame. I’ll pay double the fee for all the work on these dresses.”

At Mother’s words, I revised my earlier opinion.

‘Actually, working in society doesn’t seem so bad after all.’