Chapter 3

I Became The Female Lead?

I couldn’t help but laugh.

At the same time, I made eye contact with the women who looked at me. Unknowingly, the corners of my mouth were shaking.

Then, something warm flowed down my cheeks.

I was drooling. Oh, what a shame.

“I didn’t even know you woke up. What kind of baby is this quiet? You must like the master.”

“I know right, weren’t you surprised about yesterday?”

“Well, aren’t you hungry, miss?”

“Bring me powdered milk.”

I looked at the woman confusedly for a moment, then heard a loud cry when I moved my lips together.

I was very hungry before I fell asleep…

At that moment, a baby bottle full of white liquid, which I believed to be powdered milk, came into view.

‘Ugh!’

“Huh? Why aren’t you eating? They said we should feed the babies regularly.”

Excuse me. I’ve become a baby, but this mind is too strong to suck baby bottles right now!

I tried to push it with my lips, but I couldn’t handle the power of an adult woman.

As soon as I let my guard down, I bit the bottle to suck.

“Don’t say no. You must be hungry, miss. You’ve been sleeping all this time.”

The moment I swallowed instinctively and felt the contents of the bottle down my throat made me frustrated.

“Eat a lot. That’s how babies are supposed to be.”

Gulp. Gulp.

The women who whispered so sweetly without knowing what I was feeling were looking down on me.

But even at that moment, they were expressionless.

It was a scene that made me feel a little depressed while sucking the bottle.

‘I guess you don’t like me.’

Usually, babies make people laugh.

However, I felt that the more I looked at them, the more stiff and expressionless they got.

Back then, I had never thought that the familiar name, Hillington was from the novel.

* * *

It was when I woke up after drinking a lot of formula, burped, and struggling with the shame from damp diapers, that I knew it was Rosé who was born in the novel I read before I died.

It was bright when I was drinking formula, but my vision was getting dark.

“Ugh.”

I stretched out and managed to get up and sit down, move my lips and babble, and when I shook the rattle next to me a little, time flowed like water…not.

‘Wow. It’s so stuffy being a baby, I can’t even move well.’

It was certainly excruciating to wake up again in the body of a vivid baby after a long time.

‘I’m going to die of boredom.’

It was when I was looking at the colorful jewels on the ceiling…

‘Huh? What is that sound?’

Through the crack in the door, conversations of the attendants who were talking carelessly in the hallway could be heard.

“There is a lot of talk about the Emperor’s birthday celebration. He also got an invitation, but turned it down. Of course, I understand that it is impossible to move in the current situation, but why was it a topic that no one in the capital city knew about?”

“Ah, are you talking about the engagement?”

“Yes. The marriage between the families that the previous head of the family shared with His Majesty the Emperor Seon. An oath between the Hillingtons and Belfius that they must be engaged when a girl and a boy are born, respectively.”

“His Majesty the Emperor now lacks legitimacy, so you are especially fussy about the remnants of the last Emperor. The marriage talk is also one of the topics that touched the pride of His Majesty the Emperor.”

“By the way, a boy was born to the Duke of Belfius, and a girl was born to our Hillington family.”

My head was confused.

A marriage between Belfius, Hillington, and the Emperor.

‘I think I’ve heard this before.’

My ears pricked up. Hey! Talk some more! I can’t hear you!

I wanted to shout that, but nothing came out except for babble sounds.

If it wasn’t for this crazy heavy head, I would have flipped over and jumped off the bed with a ghostly speed and crawled over to hear the servants.

Did they just say that I’m the girl from the Hillingtons and there’s a boy from Duke Belfius?

‘That’s the plot of <Young Miss is Sweet!>’

To be precise, it was the story of Gabriel, a man who had a cold heart, and Rosé, the lovely heroine in the novel, who was warmer than anyone else.

“Stop, stop, don’t tell me…”

I moved my trembling hand and sat clutching the wooden post of the bed.

I could see my plump and sausage-like fingers.

The room was very colorful with many decorations.

I’m rich. I’m very rich.

If it’s Hillington…

Everything would make sense if I were the girl of the Hillingtons in <Young Miss is Sweet>.

‘Am I the heroine?’

A faint smile came out, but the corners of my mouth then sank.

It’s like I couldn’t even smile properly.

‘Is this the same as my previous life?’

Although my body changed to a new one, the habit of not smiling properly in my past life seemed to be the same, so a disturbing sigh popped out.

I was worried. If I don’t smile, people won’t like me since I don’t have any facial expression.

‘Rosé was an only child. If I were a baby from the Hillingtons, I’d definitely be Rosé.’

Rosé is the lovely heroine in the novel.

Everyone loved her, and everything in this world flowed for her.

‘Wait a minute.’

Even during the brief moment of joy, I recalled the plot of the original, which I had read enough to memorize, and realistic worries came rushing in like a dark cloud.

Rosé.

Even when she was a baby, she was very lovely and had a chubby cheek charm that melted away the people of the family who had lost her mom.

And Rosé’s father.

I trembled.

‘Ugh. That man was my father, right?’

I realized who the scary person was that hugged me as a baby and gave cool orders.

‘If I were the heroine…’

I became happy and scared.

While thinking of my cold father, my thoughts turned.

‘Do I have to melt them? I was even pointed out for being unlucky just by looking at me because I couldn’t even smile properly. So how do I do that?’

But I didn’t know when I was struggling with the shock and happiness of becoming Rose, that life isn’t as sweet as honey rice cakes.

I had a serious misunderstanding.

* * *

(3rd person pov)

The baby was asleep.

Just like the figure of an adult who feels exhausted, he felt sorry for the tears that formed on the corners of her eyes while making a sniffing sound.

“Why is she crying?”

“I do not know. Sometimes she weeps as if she were having a nightmare, and she cries silently.”

Like a trained knight, Lira stood in an angled pose.

Looking at Lira like that, Sears wiggled his eyebrows.

It is said that crying is a child’s way of talking, but it’s not like she cried loudly with her mouth open. Is it strange to have that quiet feeling?

It felt heartbreaking when he looked at her.

“Isn’t there something wrong with her health?”

“They said it wasn’t a bad thing. It is said that even babies dream.”

“Is she having nightmares that’s making her cry?”

“But the baby is quieter than anyone else, gentle, and smart. If she had a sore spot, she would have expressed it.”

Lira’s rude tone and her cold expression were not to a kid’s liking.

Wouldn’t children feel reassured by a more friendly tone and lovingly look?

‘Still….’

She was someone he could trust more than anyone else.

Lira is not a friendly person, but she is definitely someone who can protect.

She will protect by risking her own name, her money, and the commissions she receives.

That is why, without revealing her existence, she was specially made to live here.

“Anything else?”

While gently touching the baby’s tears with his thumb, Sears saw her little foot sticking out of the blanket.

They were too small.

“Now she has gotten used to walking.”

“And?”

“She can lean on walls and move long distances, and although she can’t say a word yet, her babble has also become more specific. She seems to be on the superior side compared to the developmental status of a baby at around 12 months of age.”

It was a familiar routine.

“She doesn’t look for her mother?”

Sears blinked his eyes and Lira replied indifferently.

“She’s a curiously naughty person.”

“…….”

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing.”

A child who doesn’t look for his parents.

Sears was heartbroken.

“It seems like you’re holding something back. But I don’t think so. She’s a baby that’s only a year old.”

It was disastrous, but Sears knew his wife didn’t have that many days left to live, so he spent time with her as if he had become her hands and feet, dealing with everything she had done.

Instead, he couldn’t stand by this child.

He shook his head and recalled what happened today.

‘I can’t guarantee it now, sir.’

‘Then?’

I think it’s best to reduce the pain. Because the bitter poison in the course of the treatment was strong…’

It was awful.

His wife was his life.

His jaw became firm.

‘She’s dying…?’

‘…….’

His wife, who had lost consciousness and was ill, woke at that moment and called him with a faint smile.

It felt like he was being pushed over a cliff.

As he bowed his head as if in dismay, and looked at the doctor who had left, his wife even comforted him with kindness.

‘It’s okay. Thank you for still loving me.’

The friendly gaze was terribly painful. And he himself was begging for it.

She was the person who feared, hurt, and suffered more than anyone else, and he hung on to her like a fool.

No. He couldn’t lose her.

‘I can’t let you go like this. No matter what happens…’

His wife gently stroked his face.

‘Sears, you need to calm down. You know it too. Remember, it’s not all about our kids. If you pour out your blind anger, the sky will be angry and you won’t have good dreams.’

‘Please…’

‘Don’t save me, but our child. And you have to love her more than anyone else, okay? Watch over her and keep her safe… I don’t know if there will be people who use her, and I don’t know what kind of danger there will be in the future if they touch Hillington. Again, never ever let the temple take my child…’

A sigh leaked out.

He was afraid every day

He couldn’t even show her their own recovered daughter properly before she had fallen asleep again as if she were always in a dream.

“My daughter.”

Unfortunately, it was the best thing he could do for the time being to be able to come to see the child, even at this late night when she was only sleeping.

Exhausted, he dragged the chair to the side of the baby’s bed and sat down quietly.

(t/n: Sears is MC’s dad)

TO BE CONTINUED.