Masha agreed, smoothing out the sheets to lay me back down.
Ann smelled faintly of roasted meat and vegetables.
She was likely a kitchen maid.
“Alright, hand her back to me.”
Masha took me from Ann’s arms and gently settled me onto the bed.
The maids gathered around the bed, looking down at me.
Seen through the eyes of an infant, adults felt toweringly massive.
I blinked slowly.
“Oh my goodness!
Did you see that?
She just winked at me!”
Ann cupped her cheeks, letting out a soft squeal of delight.
“Alright, that’s enough.
Everyone out so the little one can sleep.”
Masha shooed the lingering maids out of the room before returning to my bedside.
She gently stroked my hair.
Her warm, soft touch felt incredibly soothing.
“Little one, we’ve never had someone as young as you in this mansion before.
I’m so happy you’re here, but…
I can’t help but worry, too.”
I knew exactly why she was worried.
In the estate of Duke Andrian Lucas Brandt, there was a dormitory.
About thirty children lived there.
The world believed the duke took in orphans with nowhere else to go — but that wasn’t the truth.
The children of that dormitory were human weapons, forged to fight at the front lines for Lucas without fearing death.
As far as I knew, each of them had been chosen for a singular gift.
An exceptional sensitivity to mana.
A natural-born talent for the sword.
They were put through grueling training from the time they were small.
Those who failed to meet Lucas’s expectations were either killed or cast out.
The ones who survived grew up to be called the Children of the Black Sea — warriors capable of cutting down the Emperor’s personal knights single-handedly.
And in nearly every timeline I had lived through, the Children of the Black Sea had turned on Lucas.
They had raised their blades against him, and in doing so, became the spark that hastened the world’s end.
“I’m going to raise you beautifully, little one.”
Masha’s voice cut through my thoughts.
“So beautiful and so sweet that the master won’t be able to help but adore you — and then maybe, just maybe, you won’t have to go into that dormitory at all.”
Her words opened a door I hadn’t considered.
Right.
There’s another way.
Until now, I had lived for one purpose: to kill the reclusive demon lord, Andrian Lucas Brandt.
To reach him, I had pushed myself through countless cycles of training, growing stronger and stronger with each life.
But in this timeline, I had already arrived at his side.
Which meant I could try a different approach entirely.
If I used this face — this face that so resembled his — to earn his favor, then someday, when this body finally held the full weight of my power…
It might be far easier to drive a blade into his heart.
Or I could work from the inside — quietly removing, one by one, whatever it was that made Lucas want to destroy the world.
Far more options than when I’d simply trained my strength and thrown myself against the Black Sea Swords.
The gloom that had settled over me at being reborn into a body that couldn’t even hold its own head up lifted, just a little.
I laughed — the way I used to laugh when people called my laughter blood-curdling.
Loud and unrestrained.
Ahahaha.
Ahahaha.
“Goo-goo-goo.”
“Oh my.
Even her laugh is precious.”
Damn it all.