Being Loved for the First Time Chapter 23

Every single one of the little boats was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

Perhaps because they were meant for children, their designs emphasized cuteness rather than realism.

The tiger boat looked exactly like the stuffed toy my brother had given me.

“Amazing.”

Even my brother exclaimed in admiration, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Isn’t it, Anastasia? They’re so cute and wonderful, aren’t they?”

“Uuh.”

When I nodded in response, Father looked deeply moved.

He had clearly been looking forward to seeing how we would react.

‘Father really loves preparing surprise events and seeing everyone’s happy faces afterward.’

Perhaps because he knew my brother and I weren’t particularly expressive, even our small reactions seemed enough to leave him extremely satisfied.

And the undisputed master of enthusiastic reactions in the ducal residence was—

“Waaah! Lara wants to ride the bunny!”

As expected, my sister spread her arms wide and squealed in excitement.

When she rushed toward Father, he swept her into a tight embrace and spun her around in the air.

“Waaah! Daddy’s the best! Daddy’s so cool! Lara loves Daddy soooo much!”

“Daddy loves our Laurencia very much too! And of course, I love Damian and Anastasia very, very much!”

Only after the affectionate father and daughter had finished their joyful exchange did Father ask us to choose our boats so he could put us in them one by one.

My brother then spoke to Father a little bashfully.

“I’m old enough to play in the water by myself without riding a boat now, Father.”

“Of course you are, Damian. But you know…”

After placing my sister in her little boat first, Father opened his arms toward my brother.

“Daddy thought our Damian would want to play together with his little sisters. Was I wrong?”

At that, my brother’s cheeks turned pink with embarrassment, but he approached Father nonetheless.

Father stroked his hair once before effortlessly lifting him into the deer-shaped boat.

‘Wow, Brother is already seven, and Father can lift him that easily…’

Well, there was a reason I’d thought Father resembled a mountain.

“Now, Anastasia. Come here, our youngest.”

And naturally, I wasn’t given any choice in the matter.

Not that I disliked it.

It simply made my heart feel strangely ticklish.

‘I’ve fought with siblings who wanted my head, but I’ve never played peacefully side by side with them like this.’

A year had already passed. I should have been getting used to it by now.

Perhaps because I’d accumulated so many years of experience, this entirely harmonious atmosphere still fascinated me.

The closest thing we had to an argument—or perhaps a competition—was…

“Lara wants to be first! Daddy, push faster! Faster!”

My sister pestering Father to push her little boat farther ahead.

She looked genuinely delighted.

The rabbit ears sticking up from her hat fluttered whenever she moved.

“Daddy, Lara wants to go whoosh! Really fast! Whoooosh!”

“I’ll do that soon, my daughter. But now it’s Anastasia’s turn to be pushed.”

“Really? Then Lara can wait! Lara’ll stay here and splash, splash in the water!”

“As expected, our Lara is such a wonderful, kind big sister!”

“Uh-huh! Lara’s the big sister! I’m a really wonderful, good big sister, so I’m good at waiting!”

At her words, Father secured her boat against a rock before approaching me.

But then—

‘Huh…?’

Just as Father was coming toward me, a powerful gust of wind suddenly blew.

“Laurencia!”

My brother was the first to notice something was wrong.

Perhaps because of the wind, the little boat Father had checked and secured several times suddenly rocked and drifted into the current.

My brother hurriedly climbed out of his boat and tried to run toward our sister.

However, the river’s current had abruptly grown so strong that even the knight standing beside her couldn’t catch the boat.

“D-Daddyyy!”

My sister, who had been happily splashing in the water, cried out in surprise.

Father, who had been beside me, rushed toward her with a grave expression, and the knights followed.

But the water was flowing at an unnaturally high speed.

“No! Laurencia!”

Mother’s scream rang out.

And directly in the path of my sister’s drifting boat stood an enormous rock.

‘If she crashes into it at that speed…!’

There was no time to hesitate.

Even if someone in my family or one of the servants saw me use my power, I had to act.

Abandoning all calculations, I reached toward my sister.

The moment blue light gathered at my fingertips—

‘Damn it!’

I realized things weren’t going to go as I intended.

My magical power, which I’d always controlled with precision, surged outward as though boiling over.

‘No, I still have to do this.’

I hadn’t spent nearly two thousand years experiencing all sorts of things for nothing.

Hurriedly recalling the distant past, when my magical power had still been unstable, I somehow managed to cast a protective spell on my sister first.

Immediately afterward, I clenched my fist and used my magic to bring her within Father’s reach, since he was the farthest ahead.

“Th-the wind suddenly!”

As the wind abruptly blew in the exact opposite direction from before, the knights raised their arms to shield their faces.

The wind was excessively powerful because I couldn’t control it properly, but Father kept his gaze fixed on my sister.

“Laurencia!”

The moment Father caught the little boat, I finally managed to release the tension from my body.

“W-waaaah! Daddy! Lara, Lara was just… It suddenly moved! Lara, Lara didn’t do anything bad… Waaaah! Waaah!”

“Yes, yes. Our Laurencia didn’t do anything wrong. Our baby stayed still just as Daddy told her to.”

My sister burst into frightened sobs.

As Father comforted her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and cried even harder.

Those weren’t tears caused by fear that had already passed.

They were tears born from the relief she felt now.

My brother, Mother, and all the knights were focused entirely on my sister.

Even the knight holding my boat seemed unaware of what I’d done.

‘…Thank goodness. Really.’

An accident like this was already bad enough.

If my parents realized there was something strange about their youngest daughter, they’d only become more worried.

These were parents who summoned doctors and priests and made an enormous fuss whenever I developed even a slight fever.

‘That’s why I don’t want to give them any more reasons to worry…’

Ah, if this had happened under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t have been any problem.

Because my power had run wild, it felt as though more magical power had been wrung out of my body than I was currently capable of using.

“Hnnng…”

I tried to suppress it, but a whimper escaped my lips.

“Youngest Princess!”

When the knight called out in alarm, my sister, who had been sobbing in Father’s arms, stopped crying as though by magic.

“Sh-Shasha, are you hurt?!”

I could see my sister gesturing for someone to bring her to me.

And then—

“—stasia!”

With Mother’s desperate voice ringing in my ears, my memories abruptly cut off.

After living through a total of one hundred lives, I’d never dreamed I would somehow end up becoming a sickly character.

I’d always possessed an exceptionally tenacious life force, no matter what world I was in.

Just how many times had I collapsed now?

‘That bastard… Pulling a trick like this.’

As I slowly regained consciousness, I immediately cursed the culprit behind the accident.

‘There’s no doubt about it. The texture of the magical power I felt when Sister’s boat drifted away.’

And those unpleasant traces that had tried to invade my body when I used my powers.

They felt exactly the same as when I’d encountered that bastard in my dream.

‘What on earth is he thinking?’

Did he find it unacceptable that I was living with a normal family for once?

No, even I considered this an extraordinarily fortunate turn of events.

But…

‘My sister could have died.’

No, that was an attempt to kill my sister.

Whatever his true purpose might be, I had no reason to interpret his actions favorably.

Besides—

“Thank you, Lord God. Anastasia… Ah, our youngest, our baby.”

As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw Mother release a deep sigh of relief.

She hugged me tightly, stroked my forehead, and checked once again to see whether my fever had gone down.

“M-Mommy…”

“Yes, my baby. Mommy’s right here.”

I’d called out to reassure her, but instead, she gently patted my back.

“My baby, you must have been in so much pain. Our youngest is still so little. Perhaps we kept you outside for too long.”

That’s not it.

Why should Mother blame herself because of that bastard?

For a moment, I nearly failed to restrain the murderous intent surging within me.

Gritting my teeth inwardly, I vowed to make that bastard pay.

How dare he try to ruin our peaceful family vacation?!

However, the next disaster came upon me in a very different way.

‘Wow, seriously, that bastard…!’

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine ever addressing that unwelcome intruder from my dreams with a more affectionate name.

I stared blankly at the overturned bowl of baby food and blinked.

I genuinely hadn’t been trying to do anything.

All I’d wanted was to quietly eat the baby food Mother was feeding me.

But the moment she brought the spoon toward my mouth—

A wind spell activated on its own, spectacularly overturning my bowl of food.

…Damn it. I have absolutely no intention of becoming a troublesome baby.

“Our youngest, don’t you like your baby food?”

Mother gazed at me and asked.

No! Absolutely not!

I’m not some spoiled baby who fusses about food!

It’s unfair!

It’s so unfair!!