Chapter 003
Perhaps because I had been holding a fussy baby all night before falling into a deep sleep as if I’d fainted, my entire body was aching. The nanny was nowhere to be seen; she hadn’t even shown up.
When I blearily opened my eyes, Bright-eyes stretched his hands toward me. He laughed delightedly while patting my lips and cheeks with his palms.
“Do you like that?”
To think this little Bright-eyes would grow up to be Hayden, the male lead of my favorite romance fantasy novel. It was unbelievable.
Whether he was finished sleeping or not, he stood up, held onto my body, and took tottering steps before rolling forward.
“Oof, my aching bones.”
After stretching and picking myself up, I lifted Bright-eyes high into the air.
“Uwoong-ah-woong, Mama! Mamma!”
“You want food?”
“Mamma! Mamma!”
What on earth is your nanny doing that she hasn’t come until this hour…….
“Kyaaaa……. Mmph.”
I almost screamed, but I caught a glimpse of Bright-eyes and clamped my mouth shut.
I must be crazy! Did I really sleep here? The sun is already in the middle of the sky! Everyone who needs to know will know I’m here!
It’s not that the nanny didn’t come; didn’t she go to report me just now? No, wait a minute. But they didn’t wake me up?
I pressed my hand to my head in confusion.
Little Bright-eyes, completely unaware of my agony, just flailed about in excitement.
“Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!”
Right, you need to eat. Seeing that two lower teeth and two upper teeth have come in, he should be eating baby food. I wonder what kind of baby food they have in this world.
No matter how confused I am, I have to feed the baby.
Holding Bright-eyes in my arms, I climbed down from the bed.
What excuse should I make? That my body rolled and rolled until I ended up here? That I woke up and found myself in this place? That I truly didn’t know either?
I bit my lip hard. But what did I do wrong? I only comforted the child because he was crying hysterically!
In an instant, a surge of courage rose within me.
Holding Bright-eyes, who was shouting “Mamma” while smearing his drool on my cheek, I stepped out the door. The baby male lead is treating me like a favorite stuffed doll just because we slept together for one night.
It was just as I took a step with that thought.
A woman appeared at the end of the hallway. She stood with her arms crossed, glaring at me with eyes that flashed sharply.
“Hello, Duchess.”
She had a dress too flamboyant for a nanny, makeup too heavy for a nanny, and finally, fingernails too long to be seen as a nanny.
Hmm, she’s not the nanny.
“Who are you?”
“Ha, are you asking me who I am? Can’t you tell just by looking? I’m the nanny who looks after Young Master Hayden! My name is Diane!”
“Ah.”
So nannies in this world go around looking like that. I was reminded of my sister-in-law back home, who would throw a fit even if I just applied a bit of BB cream.
Nails must be short, no makeup allowed, and clothes without a single decoration.
I wondered if my sister-in-law, who used to hold onto my mother and cry, saying I was going to kill my nephew if I didn’t follow those rules, was just being excessive.
I don’t understand? How do you change a baby’s diaper with those nails?
“And?”
“This is truly absurd! I want to tell you, Duchess, that you have snatched away the work I was supposed to do! Because of that, I received a reprimand from His Grace the Duke that I shouldn’t have had to receive!”
I let out a short sigh.
Since I possessed this body, I vowed not to live while holding things in.
After suffering that persecution at home and working until I died of overwork at my job, it’s only fair not to hold back anymore, right?
Besides, if I’m the Duchess and this woman is the nanny, I’m the boss.
I carefully observed the woman claiming to be the nanny, who was glaring at me while breathing heavily.
In the original story, after Roana fled with the money, there were those who slowly ate away at the Ducal House and laid a path of thorns in Hayden’s future.
Later, Hayden swept them all away at once. And the person who helped uncover their corruption was the female protagonist.
The nanny reached out her hand to snatch Hayden away, but I pivoted my body, avoiding her touch.
“Go and bring some baby food. The baby says he’s hungry.”
“I’ll take care of it, so give the Young Master to me and go see His Grace the Duke! He’s been waiting for you for a while!”
His Grace the Duke?
Ceres?
As soon as I heard that name, I felt the courage that had surged up suddenly deflate. I swallowed hard.
“I should. I must see His Grace.”
“Then please go. And give the Young Master here, quickly. It’s long past his breakfast time!”
The nanny spoke sharply and finally snatched Hayden away.
As the nanny walked away, stomping her feet, Hayden reached his hand toward me.
“Mamma, Mamma!”
Hayden’s voice echoed through the hallway.
Quite sorrowfully.
* * *
Ceres organized his thoughts on which words would be best to start with.
He quietly observed Roana, who had only appeared at 9:00 AM with a face that looked like she had just woken up.
She was smiling broadly with an awkward face, but there was a deep pillow mark remaining on her cheek.
It was a face that clearly showed she had been sleeping until now.
“Good…… morning, Your Grace.”
“I see.”
As Ceres stood up, he felt Roana’s body flinch and stiffen.
Before he could even speak, Roana opened her mouth first.
“First, I’m truly sorry for breaking the promise, Your Grace. I didn’t intend to, either, but in the early morning, the baby was crying so hysterically that it echoed through the hallway, yet no one was looking in on him. For quite a long time. From a humanitarian perspective, I couldn’t just leave a child who was losing his breath.”
“…….”
“So I only intended to comfort the baby, but I never thought it would turn out like this. While I was comforting him, I fell asleep too…… By the way, the baby kept being fussy at night; is he usually like that? And the nanny didn’t come by even once? I think that is truly wrong.”
“So, the conclusion is.”
“Since all of this stemmed from the nanny being absent from her post……”
Roana, who had been speaking without a moment’s rest, smiled.
Then, she whispered in a small voice, different from before.
“I’m asking for a single instance of favorable consideration.”
Ceres let out an incredulous laugh. It felt as if all the things he had been thinking in his head had completely evaporated.
Looking at that innocent face, his fighting spirit vanished. Ceres relaxed his body and walked around his desk.
In fact, Ceres had heard everything he wanted to hear. With what intention she had approached Hayden, and why she had broken the promise.
He had received the answers before he could even ask the questions.
Ceres sat on the sofa and gestured to the opposite side.
“Let’s sit and talk.”
“Yes.”
Roana cautiously sat on the sofa.
“I have more to ask. How did you put Hayden to sleep? According to the nanny, the baby is particularly fussy. So much so that he doesn’t even sleep properly. Once he starts crying in the early morning, there’s no end to it. How did you comfort him?”
“From what I know, babies around this age often do that. Sometimes because they’re growing taller, and sometimes because they’re teething. Isn’t there only one way to comfort a baby? He’s a baby who can’t even speak. You have to comfort him until he stops. How hard must it be for him to grow?”
“Comforting him until he stops?”
I nodded at Ceres’s question. He had a very serious expression.
“Yes. They say it’s only for a time, anyway. He’ll be fine once this period passes. And Hayden was gentle once I comforted him. He’s a bit sensitive to body temperature, but once he fell into a deep sleep, he didn’t wake up easily. He was a very good baby.”
Ceres ruminated on Roana’s words.
It was too different from the story he had heard from the nanny. That there was no child as fussy as Hayden, and that he was on the difficult side to raise.
She had also said that a baby must be raised strictly and that, to some extent, crying should be ignored. Thus, she claimed he could leave everything to her, the expert. She had boasted that only she could look after Hayden.
He had paid a large sum in employment fees based on her ten years of experience working as a nanny in the capital.
But why did Roana, who had seen him for only a day, seem more reliable?
Was it because she appeared without even knowing how to be ashamed, wearing only a robe over her pajamas and with a simple face without any makeup?
Or was it because he was biased? Because he liked hearing that Hayden was a good baby?
Or was it because the nanny’s attitude had been grating on him, knowingly or unknowingly?
