IWBAACTWITOS Chapter 17

When all three of us entered the baby room, the nanny smiled and greeted us.

"Duchess."

"Nanny, did Royna cry a lot today too?"

"No. She didn't cry much today. Miss Tilly stayed by her side the whole time. The baby loves Miss so much."

"That's right. Our Royna loves her sister so much."

Roxana put us down and said she'd wash up and change clothes, asking us to wait a moment before leaving the room.

When Roxana left, the nanny gestured for me to come closer.

"Why?"

"Miss, I didn't catch it earlier, but I've told you many times. You can't run when you have food in your mouth. Miss is still young, so you might get indigestion or throw up. You need to sit down and eat one thing at a time, chewing slowly and thoroughly. Do you understand?"

"I got it."

At my obedient answer, the nanny briefly showed a complicated expression before looking at Rayan, who was staring intently at Royna, and smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Your Highness. I am Mia Harrison, the nanny of the young ladies."

Rayan, who had been absorbed in Royna, belatedly came to his senses at the nanny's introduction and hid behind me.

'What, that's cute.'

When I stepped aside, Rayan looked at me with a flustered face as if asking for help. I almost had a fangirl moment but managed to maintain my poker face thanks to decades of fandom experience from my previous and current lives.

'Really my baby, I want to bite and suck on him.'

Later he would become someone who wouldn't easily let his guard down around anyone and have an unpleasant personality, but that was because of an environment where he couldn't trust anyone.

But since he was still a young child, his clumsy reactions were so cute.

"Nanny, he just became my first Four Heavenly Kings! He's the Demon King's subordinate number one."

"Oh my, then who are the other Four Heavenly Kings?"

"Butler grandpa. The other two positions are currently recruiting."

"Then how about including baby Royna in the empty Four Heavenly Kings position?"

"Isn't that nepotism?"

At the mention of nepotism, the nanny rarely burst into loud laughter.

Startled by the nanny's laughter, Royna opened her eyes wide and looked at the nanny. The drool flowing from her improperly closed mouth was standard.

I wiped Royna's drool with the handkerchief around her neck.

"So Miss, what will you do after gathering the Four Heavenly Kings? World domination?"

"Why would I do such a bothersome thing?"

"Then why are you recruiting Four Heavenly Kings?"

At the nanny's question, I stared intently at Rayan. I couldn't tell the nanny straight out that it was because I hated how Rayan couldn't even bear to make eye contact and despised the gazes of people who made such a young child lower his head, so I gave a vague answer.

"He said he didn't want to be my friend. So I told him to be a Four Heavenly King."

"Ah, no."

"Then?"

"I didn't say I didn't want to be friends, I said whatever was fine."

"Really? Then being friends is good too?"

"......Yes."

"But friend recruitment is over."

"......"

"So from next time......"

I was about to tell him to speak more clearly, but I shut my mouth.

'What am I doing with a five-year-old?'

"You're now the Demon King's first Four Heavenly King, so don't say whatever is fine. The Demon King—me—cares."

I wanted to tell him to lift his head and make eye contact during conversations, but that would be another form of coercion for Rayan.

Forcibly swallowing a sigh, I smiled sweetly.

Rayan lifted his head to look at me smiling and slowly nodded.

'Are you the person I'm supposed to save?'

I didn't feel anything like when I realized through Ash why I came to this place.

Moreover, one problematic point was that if I, who knew the future, saved him now, this world might be destroyed.

Setting aside my personal dilemma about not wanting to change the original story, that was the biggest problem.

World destruction.

It might sound unrealistic, but this was a world based on world destruction by evil spirits.

If I saved the current Rayan, if I changed the original story, I wouldn't be able to eliminate the evil spirits and the world would be destroyed.

If I let things flow according to the original story, after 17 years Ash and Royna would save him from the evil spirits, and Rayan would eliminate the evil spirits.

If it flowed according to the original like that, I wouldn't need to intervene and it could reach a happy ending.

'But it's 17 years?'

It was quite long.

Maybe it felt that way more because of my child's body, but even the past 4 years felt extremely long - how long would 17 years be?

Was I supposed to just watch Rayan's abuse for all that time?

As I pressed my lips together and stared intently at Rayan, the nanny intervened between us.

"Miss, shall we introduce baby Royna to our new Four Heavenly King?"

Only then did I notice Rayan watching my mood. I belatedly returned to being Thalia who knew nothing and smiled at Rayan.

"......Ah, right. That's why we came. Yan, come here and look at my little sister."

"......Yan?"

"Your name is hard to pronounce because my tongue gets twisted. So I'll just call you Yan."

The pronunciation difficulty was an excuse. At his first nickname, he seemed pleased and trotted over to my side.

I patted Yan's head and told him he was good.

"......She's small."

"She's still a baby. She's only six months old."

"She looks exactly like you."

"What are you talking about? I'm prettier! Royna is still a baby so she's ugly."

"No, she's pretty."

"She looks pretty now because she's being quiet. When she starts crying......"

Yan stared intently regardless of what I said beside him. Royna also blinked her big eyes and gazed at him.

Seeing that, I closed my mouth. I felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

"Miss? What's wrong?"

At the nanny's call, I came to my senses and shook my head to indicate it was nothing while forcing smiles for Yan and the nanny. The story hadn't even begun yet.

This was a meeting not in the original, but I felt like the gears that had been set were starting to turn as they should.

'Don't overthink it. They might just meet in childhood. It's not like either of them will remember this.'

Young children's memory was really momentary. Especially if Royna met Yan later, there was no way she'd remember.

Royna observed the newly appeared Yan and tilted her head. Rayan also observed Royna and tilted his head in the opposite direction.

At that sight, the nanny and I quickly inhaled.

'Crazy, that's too cute.'

Boom boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom boom boom.

My heart shook wildly to the *Korean soul-filled gut rhythm. The nanny, though she didn't know the gut rhythm, was clearly riding a similar beat to mine.

'I want to put them in my mouth and go wah-lah-lah.'

Both were cute enough to want to bite. I vowed to secretly bite both of them later when the nanny wasn't looking, temporarily forgetting my déjà vu and worries while savoring happiness.

Today was the day I met both protagonists.

Roxana, soaking her body in water full of aromatic oils, looked up at the bathroom ceiling.

Though she'd washed and changed clothes before coming home, seeing Thalia's smile made her think there might still be a smell of blood on her body, so she hurried to the bathroom.

As Thalia had expected, bringing Rayan to the ducal mansion was Roxana's idea.

Though Philius and Julian were flustered when she suddenly suggested changing plans, seeing Rayan's condition, both agreed that the ducal mansion would be better for the child than the imperial palace.

Roxana's direct rescue of Rayan also helped, allowing them to easily negotiate with the prince's attendants.

While Julian conducted near-threatening negotiations, Roxana interrogated the captured attackers. Unable to get anything but statements that they knew nothing, it was eventually processed as a coincidental bandit attack.

If the outcome was predetermined anyway, she regretted not leaving it to her subordinate and staying by Rayan's side under the guise of protection.

'The more I think about it, the more furious I get. Being too busy with negotiations to feed a child?'

She wanted to punch Matilda, but that gaunt woman would probably die from just one hit.

Even if Roxana really did as she pleased, Julian would handle the aftermath, but she had no intention of unnecessarily escalating things.

'Damn three families.'

"Duchess, isn't the water too hot? Shall I add more cold water?"

The maid, noticing Roxana's murderous aura intensifying, pointed out the lukewarm bathwater temperature.

She was also the one who had put plenty of aromatic oils that Thalia liked in the bath water. Roxana sighed deeply and asked for just one basin of cold water.

Roxana washed her face with cold water, recalling when she'd held both Rayan and Thalia.

She hadn't noticed when holding only Rayan, but holding both together, Rayan was clearly much lighter.

Moreover, seeing him glance around nervously and gobble up the bread as if it might be taken away, it seemed he hadn't been starved just once or twice.

"Tell the head chef to consult with the physician and change the meal plan. Tilly isn't picky so we just fed her anything, but we don't know the prince's preferences yet, so from now on, dice any vegetables the child might dislike and mix them in. And... don't just make enough, make plenty even if there's leftovers. We need to let him know he can eat as much as he wants without worrying."

"What about the leftover food?"

"From now on, take leftover food to the separate building. We can't waste food."

"Yes, I'll convey that."

For now, what Roxana needed to do immediately was feed him well to fatten Rayan up as much as Thalia.

Translator Note:
*Korean gut rhythm refers to the traditional Korean shamanistic ritual music and dance called "gut" (굿). In the original Korean text, the character uses the specific onomatopoeia "덩기덕 쿵 더러러러, 쿵기덕 쿵 더러러러" (deonggirok kung deoreoreoreo, kunggirok kung deoreoreoreo) to describe how her heart is beating wildly from seeing the cute scene.

The "gut" represents something deeply embedded in Korean cultural consciousness - a primal, spiritual rhythm that connects to the very essence of Korean identity.