That was the day I met her. She had just been born and she was tiny as a bean. When Alan poked her cheek, she tried with all her might to grab his finger. Her thin fluffy hair was a beautiful golden color, and her big round eyes were purple.
“Wow, she’s so cute. I hope we get to play together soon.”
When I said that, she smiled so happily at me. From that day forth, Deirdre became our most precious princess.
Surrounded as we were by power players, if we ever ceded even the tiniest bit of ground, all kinds of people would try to get close. The less able someone was to reach the top through their own ability, the more likely they were to try and use pathetic tricks.
There had been some who had tried to approach our father to “support” him when he’d succeeded to the title of margrave while still young. Once they’d realized he had the clear judgment and decisiveness to rule the march by himself, they’d changed tactics and tried to marry their daughters to him instead.
Unfortunately for them, our parents had married because of their genuine feelings for each other, and since my mother was the daughter of a marquess, her position was such that she was good friends with Empress Ephenia. She’d also given birth to two sons, so the succession was secure. Not a single person had grounds to suggest that my father take a second wife.
Their next target was me. Almost every day, nobles would drop by with their sons in hopes that they would become friends with me, the successor.
I hated other kids. They refused to sit still, and they could never understand what I tried to discuss with them. They would repeat the same things over and over, and they’d always believe their parents’ word, no matter how stupid it was. When they realized kids were no good, some of the nobles would start bringing older boys to become my valets or retainers, or they would attempt to approach me themselves.
“You seem to have so much free time to come and see me. Does that mean you do not work?” I was ruthless to the adults who showed up time and time again, and I would chase away any valets who couldn’t do their jobs. I had no need for confidants who couldn’t even properly respond to me, a literal child. There was no benefit to keeping around those who would simply smile and try to pretend they understood rather than doing their own research when they didn’t know something.
Alan, who was three years younger than me, was clever in this regard and would quietly listen to the adults’ conversations and inform me of what they were discussing.
“Why not tell father all this?” I suggested once.
“You’re the successor, so you’re the best one to talk to father,” he answered. “Even though I’ve said time and time again that I want to join the imperial guard, there are so many stubborn idiots who keep saying I’m more suitable to be the successor, and it’s just annoying.”
He hated studying, but his mind worked quickly, and he looked much happier when he was training in swordsmanship with the adults, even though he got along well with other children.
“Are you actually scheming something?” I wondered aloud.
“How dare you! I make sure to tell them directly that they’re being annoying. I do wonder if they think I’ll give in if they keep pushing, though.”
“Is there anything else they can really do?”
Alan sighed. “All the people who are actually competent are too busy to come visit us.”
“It sounds like father’s been receiving a lot of complaints over the decrease in tourists recently.”
Our father was doing a good job of managing the navy, the border forces, and trade, but it seemed that he was rather terrible at the tourism aspect. I’d heard him groaning over having no idea what women liked.
“He should just ask mother for help.”
“Apparently, mother is busy helping Empress Ephenia... Oh, Deirdre.”
As I sat chatting with Alan on a bench in the garden, Deirdre came walking down the path holding a maid’s hand. She had only just turned three, yet she was already walking so stably. Her golden hair and white dress were fluttering in the breeze, and her large purple eyes shone like expensive gemstones. Everyone agreed that she would grow up into a beautiful lady, and until a short while ago, I had viewed her as something like a fairy—she had this evanescent quality that made it seem like she would just disappear if you took your eyes off her.
Now, though? I’d become more than aware that if she were going to disappear, you would know it. She might have possessed a certain feminine grace, but she was really a strong little lady. Also, she was the same as me—I had a feeling that even at her age, she would be able to follow not just elementary school lessons, but higher education studies as well.
“Ah, my brothers!”
When Deirdre noticed us, she went up on her tiptoes and waved with a big smile on her face. After being forced to deal with unscrupulous adults for so long, I thought that her pure happiness made her look like an angel.
Alan smiled at her as he called out, “On a walk, Deirdre?”
“Yes. I’m going to exercise in the training field!”
“You’re always so cute. Your smile heals my soul.”
“Are you tired, brother?” she asked, solicitous.
“What training field does she mean?” I asked.
“The one for the knights,” Alan explained. “She’s been helping promote this exercise called ‘radio calisthenics.’”
“Radio calisthenics?” I repeated.
What did that mean? Were the knights currently learning a training regimen from a three-year-old? I was starting to worry about our armed forces.
“Ah, it’s dangerous to run!”
Both Alan and I frantically stood up at the same time. No matter how stable she was when walking, her body was still that of a young child. Her arms and legs were short while her head was big. Deirdre always immediately forgot how easy it would be to trip and fall with such an imbalance of weight. She was so smart and yet also so airheaded at the same time.
“Ah.”
Not many people actually screamed when they fell. At least, in Deirdre’s case, she was always completely silent.
“Did she just maneuver her body so she could fall safely?” Alan asked.
What? If she’d been learning a martial art, then that would have been fair enough, but she wasn’t, so how could she know how to do something like that? But now that Alan mentioned it, whenever Deirdre fell, she wouldn’t just fall flat on her face. She always turned her right shoulder in and rotated her body so she fell along her back. She probably intended to stand straight back up, but she must’ve tried a little too hard because she just ended up rolling along the grass toward us.
“Alan, stop laughing.”
“But, she’s just...she’s just always so funny!”
Deirdre really was full of surprises. She was running at speeds well beyond what I’d imagined she was capable of, and now, I could see the way she was enveloped in a soft blue light as she rolled along the ground—that was probably her water spirit, healing any scrapes or scratches.
“There are so few spirits that can use restorative magic, yet Deirdre’s has already learned how,” I mused.
“Did you notice how the spirit did it on its own?” Alan pointed out.
The spirit was healing Deirdre’s wounds of its own volition. I doubted Deirdre understood just how unusual that was.
“I fell again,” came our little sister’s voice.
“That’s why we keep telling you not to run.”
“But...”
Suddenly, Deirdre took off her shoes and knelt down.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look! It’s because they’re all smooth.”
She showed us the bottoms of her shoes, wearing an expression of triumph.
“Dana, does Deirdre have any shoes without smooth soles?”
“I hadn’t been checking the soles of her shoes,” the maid admitted.
Deirdre always tried to speak like a child, but the fact that she was capable of figuring out that she kept falling because of the soles of her shoes made it more than apparent that she wasn’t a normal child. Why did she not seem to realize that?
“I want shoes that have bumps.”
If you understand what shoes you need to keep from slipping, then could you please also realize why knowing that makes you look so strange? And if you really want to pretend to act like a child, could you not do it so sloppily in front of me?
Was she just that bad at acting? Or did she just think there was no need to hide it in front of me? Either way, if it was for Deirdre’s sake, I would play along.
“You keep falling because of the size of your head, not the soles of your shoes,” Alan stated bluntly.
“Huh?!”
“Alan, don’t tell a young lady that her head is big. She’s still young, so she hasn’t grown into it yet. That’s all.”
“Huuuuuuh?!”
Wait, both of those were bad to say? Girls were so complicated.