Another year passed and I turned three years old.
I was now Deirdre, the problem child of the prestigious Belisario family. Honestly, they’d doomed me the second they’d named me Deirdre—that was so clearly a villain’s name. It wasn’t a problem, though. Just because my name made me sound like the bad guy, it didn’t mean I would pick on my maids. Dana and Cynthia were both bright, bubbly girls that I wanted to keep around. Why would I be mean to them?
The problem was that normally, noble girls weren’t granted much freedom. I doubted they would have fretted over me so much if I had been a boy, but because my parents’ first two children were sons, all the hopes and dreams they would have for a daughter were piled onto me—except, I had taken those hopes and dreams and shattered them to pieces, ha ha... Oh man...
I made sure to listen to the warnings that I wasn’t supposed to run in the corridors and so only ran outside. That led to me trying to think of where I could run at full speed safely without fear of falling over, which was when I discovered the outside training field for the knights on the other side of our courtyard and decided to borrow a little corner of that wide-open space. My brothers were training in swordsmanship there, so I decided it was probably fine for me to run about in.
But anywhere I went, I had to be accompanied by at least one maid or valet and two guards. Never once was I allowed to go out on my own.
For the record, my valet was an eleven-year-old boy named Rex, the grandson of my father’s majordomo. My brothers’ valets were more experienced boys in their late teens, but then there was me. I wouldn’t be working when I was older, and I already had many maids attending me, so it felt more like he was here on the off chance that there was a task that needed a man’s help. It sounded like he was still being given proper education for the job at least.
I felt bad for him. I doubted any boy of his age would want to be stuck looking after a girl who was only three. He probably would’ve preferred being with someone like Alan. That would be much more promising for his future prospects, wouldn’t it? Despite that, he made not a single disgruntled look as he diligently carried out his duties. He even made sure to listen to everything I had to say. He was a good egg.
It seemed a little absurd for me to need two whole guards while I was within castle grounds, but my guess was that it was more in case I went too far. They’d need one person to forcefully carry me back to the castle and another with their hands free.
I’m really sorry. I just want to see what kinds of places there are inside the castle grounds. I keep forgetting I’m only three now that I can walk properly. I often found myself suddenly tumbling into ditches or slipping and falling and ending up sliding along the lawn; grazes and scratches were a given by now. Every time something like that happened, my mother and maids would scream and cause a big fuss. My water spirits could cast healing magic, though, so there was no need for them to react like that.
I was once again going for my daily run at the training field with Dana, Rex, and two bodyguards in tow, just as I’d been doing for the past few days. I always made sure to do some warm-up exercises first so I wouldn’t injure myself, but honestly, I wasn’t sure of the correct way to do it.
By the way, don’t you think PE classes should teach kids how to enjoy exercising? They should teach kids basic exercises they can do at home every day so they can prevent diseases when they’re older. Instead, they always teach you in ways that make you hate it instead.
Me? Oh, I despised it. Now, though, I understood exactly how hard it was to begin exercising as an adult. I’d learned the importance of exercise. It was because I hadn’t before that I’d practically shortened my lifespan.
In this life, I would make sure that I was doing exercise every day as a kid. I’d get my strength and stamina built up so that it wasn’t painful to exercise as an adult.
What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, warm-up exercises.
What came in clutch was the exercises that everyone in Japan knows: radio calisthenics. We’d always been made to do them before PE, so I remembered exactly what to do. When you stretched, you needed to stretch as far as you could. When you bent your knees, you had to bend the right amount and at the right angle. It was a well-thought-out exercise routine that stretched every muscle in your body and also got you sweating.
It was about a month after I’d started using that corner of the training grounds when a knight came up to me and asked, “Lady Deirdre, what are those exercises you’re always doing?”
“Warm-up exercises.”
“Oh my. I’ve never seen such exercises before. Did you think them up yourself?”
“Uh... Kind of?”
“May I do them with you?”
“Huh?”
Why, why, why? Were my movements that strange? Maybe he had his eye on Dana? She was very cute.
For the record, there were women among the knights, but because they were aiming to become knights, they were often big and muscular and wore their hair cut short. Either way, if a cute girl wearing a maid outfit walked into your life, of course you’d want to get to know her.
I see everything, mister!
“I believe that the exercises you have chosen are very smart.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I would appreciate if you could teach them to me.”
Oh no, he was being serious. I’m sorry. For a three-year-old, I have a tainted mind.
“It’s time to exercise! One, two. Next, hands like this.”
I didn’t want to talk too much since I had to make sure I didn’t say words that were too difficult for someone of my age. The best option was for me to just demonstrate the movements.