“Father, can I…” I said as I pointed at the papers.
“What’s that?” Dad raised one eyebrow.
“Can I have it, pwease?” I said politely, thinking,
let me take care of that, Daddy-O.
He looked at me with puzzled eyes as I stood there, beaming. It was understandable since in his eyes, I was a toddler of not even three years of age who was never taught anything, let alone given enough to eat.
“Pwease, Father?” I asked once more, looking up at him with my best puppy dog eyes.
Looking horrified, Eliza quickly trotted towards me and put her arm around my shoulder, saying, “My sincerest apologies, your grace. My lady has such a curious spirit…”
“I’ll see what she wants to do with it,” Dad cut her off and handed me the papers.
Yes!
I shouted in my head as I politely took the papers and quickly skimmed through a couple pages. It was as I suspected. On these pages were equations that showed the process of finding the volume of a sphere. This seemed to be the way they created balls of fire to be used in battles. Suspecting that I should easily be able to apply a mathematical formula to these magic equations, I carefully read everything over.
After a moment, I came to the conclusion that these would in fact allow one to find the volume of a sphere, but looked horrendously complicated only because they weren’t distilled to one simple formula.
“The voyume of this sphere is one hundwed and thirteen point zewo four,” I said proudly.
“…How did you find that?” he asked suspiciously.
As I found, it wouldn’t have been that hard to find the answer by following what was written on the page. It was just that that would’ve taken at least half a day because of its sheer complexity. So what he was really asking was how I gave him the answer in less than three minutes.
I wasn’t going to tell him though. Not yet. It would be highly suspicious for a 2.9-year-old to be smart enough to prove a mathematical formula.
I mean, a 2.9-year-old being smart enough to solve this at all was already suspicious, but at least this way he wouldn’t think that I’d come up with a whole new proof.
“I, I just knew,” I sheepishly smiled.
“Did that woman teach you these things?” he asked.
That woman? Who, that evil woman? Please, she didn’t even tell me my name, for heaven’s sake!
I thought, then immediately shook my head, saying, “No. I just… I just knew when I saw the picture and the numbers.”
Oh god. Please, please don’t ask any more questions,
I pleaded in my head.
“My lady surely shows promise, does she not, your grace?” Eliza quickly stepped in. And thank goodness she did, because I was running out of excuses.
“…It seems that way,” he answered as he studied me, trying to figure out what I was hiding. But something about him strangely seemed warmer and more welcoming than when I first stepped into the room.
The best thing to do in a situation like this was to swiftly change the subject.
“Father,” I said pleadingly as I felt my tummy rumble. “…I’m hungwy.”
***
Dad was a busy man who didn’t have that much time for lunch. When his secretary came in to tell him that he had to go to his afternoon meeting now, he swiftly left after ordering, “Bring her as much food as she wants. Make sure she eats her fill.”
Thanks to that wonderful command, I finally could really eat my fill. I ate and ate until I had a huge food baby. I could feel the undigested food threatening to come back up, but couldn’t stop stuffing my face. There were just so many different kinds of scrumptious dishes ranging from meat stew to fruits and fresh salads.
Eliza and the servants apologized for not being able to give me all the delicious dishes that I wanted even as they watched me gorge myself with what was already on the table.
“The doctor said that we had to start you off with thin soup and gradually add onto your diet,” said one of them with an apologetic smile.
“I see,” I answered as I continued to stuff myself. I mean, it made sense. Stuffing oneself with all the delectable delicacies in the world after starving for years would surely make one have a bad stomachache, at the very least.
Honestly, my tummy was already suffering the consequences of the luncheon even though I was only given easily digestible things. I rubbed my tummy with my tiny hands, wondering if my body could take this much food. It seemed like it would take at least a full day for everything to be digested.
“My lady, would you like to go for a walk?” asked Eliza.
“A walk?” I asked back.
“Yes, my lady. I can show you around the castle. It’s really big with lots of beautiful rooms,” smiled Eliza.
That sounded nice, but could I really roam about outside? The woman used to scream at me the second I crawled even the slightest bit closer to the door. Naturally, I never dared to leave that room. It did seem, however, that that might not be the case here considering that I was already outside of my room in the dining room.
“Do you not want to? You also haven’t seen your room either,” added Eliza.
“My woom? But I thought that that was my woom,” I said confusedly.
“Nope, that room you woke up in this morning was one of the guest rooms. It’s much too small to be your room, my lady,” chuckled Eliza.
That was hard to understand. What was she talking about? That room was not small. It was at least ten times bigger than the room I used to live in. In fact, it was so big I could have run laps. It was practically like a small gymnasium.
“Your room’s much bigger, my lady, and much nicer, too. You’re only staying in the guest room right now because they haven’t finished cleaning it yet,” explained Eliza.
“What does it look like?” I asked curiously.
“Hmm, how should I put it… it’s a room that could be for a princess,” smiled Eliza.
A princess?
I thought. My heart started to pound.
“Why don’t we head over there, my lady? I don’t think they’re done yet, but it’s still quite a sight to look at. Her grace decorated it herself while she was waiting for you to be born,” said Eliza.
“Mom decowated it?” I asked.
“She sure did, my lady. I remember her saying that she just knew that she was going to have a little princess and that she wanted to be ready for her. She got a lot of picture books for you to read, too,” reminisced Eliza.
That was enough to make my ears perk up. I wanted to get out. I wanted to see the place I was to live in. And more than that, I wanted to see the world. After all, I’d never gotten the chance to explore beyond that tiny little room until now.
I’d never gotten the chance to see what happened to the world after I died.
“…Okay, let’s go,” I said at last.
Lighting up, Eliza answered, “Very good, my lady. Why don’t we first go back to the guest room? It’s still cold out, so we need to get you bundled up a bit.”
So we went back to the guest room, holding hands.
How strange,
I kept thinking on the way back. It was strange enough that I was allowed to leave my room, but it was even stranger that I had many changes of clothes. Dresses, even, according to Eliza.
I barely even got to wash myself before,
I thought, then realized that my body had already been cleanly bathed by the time I woke up in the castle this morning.
Probably because I was beyond disgusting at that point
, I sniggered in my head.
The woman didn’t like to bathe me. Even when she did, she just grabbed my arms and dunked me in cold water a couple times and tossed me to the side. When I’d cry from the shock, she’d throw a disgusting rag that absolutely reeked at me, muttering that I was being too loud. I then dried myself in order to not freeze to death.
So, needless to say I was surprised to hear I had many changes of clothes.
“All done,” said Eliza with a big smile as she buttoned the last button on my new coat. “Oh, you look just adorable. Would you like to see yourself in the mirror?”
She quickly scooped me up and trotted over to the big golden framed mirror. “So, what do you think?” she beamed.
“…This is me?” I asked in disbelief. What I saw in the mirror was so far from what I remembered of myself. In my memory, I was an ugly girl whose silver hair was all greasy and matted and whose unwashed face had dirt all over with streaks of tear marks. I was a tiny, bony little thing who had two toothpicks for legs.
That’s how I remembered myself.
But now, a girl totally different from who I knew myself to be was staring back at me in the mirror.
The soft, creamy skin that was hiding underneath all the filth now showed, and the eyes that were always covered by my long shaggy hair were now gleaming like the clear blue ocean on a sunny day.
Every time I blinked in awe and disbelief my long eyelashes shuddered delicately.
My cheeks were perfectly pink, and my smooth, plump lips were of a healthy cherry hue.
All of these features came together so perfectly well and complemented each other.
Yes. Perfect.
Everything was perfect.
I really looked like a wealthy upper class child who was showered with love from the second she was born. The type of girl that fits the name, “Vivierre.”
My shiny silver hair caught my eye again. I’d thought my hair looked different from my dad’s when I first saw him, but now that it was washed, brushed, and neatly tied, it looked just as beautiful and perfect as his.
Noticing that made my insides feel fuzzy, somehow… I couldn’t describe exactly what I was feeling, but it felt nice.
“Oh…” I sighed.
“What do you think? Do you like the coat? I made it myself as soon as his grace announced he was going to fetch you because I thought it would be just perfect for you,” said Eliza delightedly.
Hearing that, I turned my attention to what I was wearing. I hadn’t realized, but I was wearing a very frilly blue dress. And on top of that was the new coat she just put on me. It was a navy cape made with some marvelous fabric that was extremely soft and light but warm at the same time.
It was quite astonishing to hear that Eliza made this beautiful piece of clothing herself.
“The first coat of a newborn celatose is extremely soft,” explained Eliza proudly. “I made it with one of the rarest fabrics that’s made with the fur collected from the first shedding of a newborn celatose.”
“…It’s so pwetty. Can I weally keep it?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off of the mirror.
“Of course, my lady. It’s yours,” said Eliza with a smile.
I stared at myself for a bit longer, still finding it hard to believe that the elegant little lady in the mirror was really me. Eliza let me take my newfound self in for a while before she spoke again.
“Shall we go now, my lady?” she asked.
I snapped out of my trance and answered, “Yes.”
And so we headed to the first place I was to explore in the castle: the garden.