Chapter 5: The Baby Meets His Brother

Tonight, the ‘Crawling Operation’ continued.

Bracing my elbows against the sheets, I inched my whole body forward. 

Again and again.

During one of these repetitions, the sheets twisted and slipped. 

I lost my balance and slid off the side of the bed.

‘Failed, failed.’

Though no one was watching, I couldn’t help but let out a sheepish smile.

I looked up at the bed surface, which was much higher than my crawling head.

‘Can I get up there?’

After a moment of hesitation, I figured if I was going to struggle this much, I might as well take on a bolder adventure.

Despite the deepening autumn, the night felt unusually warm. 

Surely, it wouldn’t be cold inside the house.

Dragging myself forward by crawling, I aimed for the door.

The lever-type doorknob was well above my head, but I had already thought of a way around that.

I took out a hidden cloth string, made a loop on one end, and threw it up to hook onto the knob. 

Pulling the other end, the well-maintained door opened smoothly.

I slipped my crawling shoulders into the slightly opened door, widened it, and crept out into the dark hallway.

The floor of the corridor was covered with crimson carpet, soft and not cold to the touch.

Come to think of it, I had never even touched the floor outside my room before.

Pressing down on the fluffy carpet with my elbows, I inched forward.

I was progressing steadily, gaining ground.

However—

Perhaps I was too elated by the surprisingly pleasant sensation.

Originally, I had planned to advance only so far before turning back with plenty of time to spare.

But when I realized it, the situation was bad.

My baby body was nearing exhaustion, and on top of that, sleepiness was creeping in.

Thinking back, it made sense—I was past my usual bedtime and had been exercising on the bed until just moments ago.

‘I had underestimated a baby’s stamina.’

Sleepiness steadily overwhelmed me.

My blurred vision began to cloud.

Amidst that haze, I sensed a strange presence.

Something like I had felt several times before—someone observing me.

In the near darkness, someone was there.

If I had been fully alert, I should have been cautious.

But half-falling asleep, I had lost that mindset.

Not just caution—

A faint scent drifted to my nose.

Somehow nostalgic.

Somehow captivating.

Almost unconsciously, I continued crawling.

Softly, I reached out my hand.

I touched it—soft, warm.

Finally, I had reached.

“What’s this?” A low, trembling voice came down.

“Don’t come near me, you. You—”

Though the voice was far from gentle, though I should have been wary, I wrapped my arms around that warmth, and my consciousness slowly faded.

***

“Eeeh? What’s the matter, Lord Wolf?”

The voice that shattered my happy sleep was one I knew all too well.

“Why, why is Lord Rudolf here? Why, why?”

“Quiet.” An annoyed low voice cut off the shrill questions.

“But, but, but, Lord Wolf, weren’t you avoiding meeting Lord Rudolf? So why is Lord Rudolf in Lord Wolf’s bed?”

“He just won’t let go of me, so it can’t be helped.”

The warmth pressed tightly against my cheek began to slide away.

Unconsciously, I tightened my grip with both arms.

The slender arm that was slipping trembled for a moment, then relaxed.

“W-what? Won’t let go?”

I sluggishly opened my eyes and saw, as expected, Bettina standing by the bed with wide eyes.

“He suddenly wrapped himself around my leg when I was coming back from the bathroom in the middle of the night.”

“W-what? But Lord Rudolf can’t even crawl yet?”

“Who cares. He was crawling and moving around the hallway full of energy.”

“Eeeh?”

Bettina let out a deep breath, as if her lungs were emptying.

“Still, I was surprised. I came to wake Lord Wolf up as usual, and there was Lord Rudolf in the bed.”

As my head gradually cleared, I started to understand the situation bit by bit.

The arms I was holding firmly belonged to a boy around Bettina’s age or maybe slightly older.

Without much thought, this had to be the young master of the house—my older brother.

It was strange, in a way, that I hadn’t known about him until now.

I remembered hearing that, for some reason, this brother had been deliberately avoiding meeting me.

Besides, the information I’d gathered about this household came mostly from overhearing conversations centered around Bettina.

Nothing had ever been directly explained to me, nor had I asked questions, so it made sense that the information was biased.

Especially about the household, things that were obvious to everyone probably weren’t named or discussed explicitly.

Maybe the name “Lord Wolf” had come up in conversations before, but until recently, I hadn’t even realized who “Lord Rudolf” was. 

It might have just gone in one ear and out the other.

Still, this was the first time I learned that Bettina had the role of waking my brother every morning before coming to take care of me.

Since she hardly leaves my side after that, it seemed that the servants only looked after my brother during wake-up time. 

After that, he was left alone? 

Of course, Lansel and Westa probably served him meals, but I hadn’t seen them doing anything else during the day.

It might have been due to staff shortages, but I started feeling sorry for both my brother and Bettina.

‘I’m sorry for being such a troublesome baby.’

“If you’re done, take him away.”

“All right, all right, got it.” Bettina came closer to the bed and peered at me with a clearly amused expression.

“Still, you really stuck to Lord Wolf. You two really are siblings, huh?”

“Who cares.”

“You said you wouldn’t get involved with him because he caused danger to Mother, being stubborn about it, but isn’t it time to let it go? Lord Rudolf seemed to have noticed you worrying about him from afar the other day too.”

“Shut up.”

I understand now.

Mother’s health had deteriorated because of my birth. 

That was apparently the reason.

Being told that, as the cause of it, I didn’t know how to make amends.

For now, all I could do was pray for Mother’s recovery.