Chapter 1

Part 1: I Became a Noble's Bastard (1)

It was a life that didn't amount to much.

A regular young man who loved games.

A mundane life, struggling to pay off credit card debts and enduring the pressures of work.

The end of that life was just as unremarkable.

The cause of death was hypothermia.

After being dumped by a girlfriend he had dated for quite a while, he drank heavily and returned home on a winter night. He slipped and fell unconscious, and was left to freeze to death.

Thus, his first life came to an end.

When I opened my eyes again, I was wrapped in a blanket, lying in a crib.

At that moment, I heard a strange language I had never heard before.

"Alex, you are the son of Duke Grecia."

Strangely, I understood it immediately.

A beautiful woman with a gentle smile spoke to me, the baby.

The blonde woman in an elegant dress was my mother, and I was a newborn.

The moment I heard her words, I naturally thought of the word 'reincarnation.'

It was hard to believe, but I was indeed reincarnated, and this place didn't seem to be Earth.

Looking out the window, I saw three moons floating side by side, making it impossible to think this was Earth.

Time passed.

At any rate, the new life seemed quite good.

No, it wasn't just good.

A luxurious room with a medieval style, several maids.

And the words of my mother, saying I was the son of a duke.

Clearly, I was reborn as the son of a great noble.

Despite being drowsy, I was very happy.

Of course, not everything could be perfect.

A few days after I opened my eyes, a handsome man came in and left, and he glanced at me, the baby, before taking my mother away.

From the look of it, he was the duke, my father.

He didn't seem particularly happy to see me.

It turned out that my mother was a commoner, and I was an illegitimate child not recognized by the family.

Not only that, but there were two legitimate wives and two older brothers, making me a third-rate bastard. I even saw a maid scold me in a low voice when my mother wasn't around.

The relationship between the duke and my mother seemed quite different from what I knew about married couples. The situation didn't look good.

'How can I be happy just because I was born into a noble family! This is some cliché from a long time ago! If I was born as a duke's son, I should be a comfortable youngest child or a strong firstborn, or at least have a system window pop up!'

I didn't see any sparkling fairies, and calling out for a system window, settings window, or stats window brought nothing to mind. There were no gifts from God, and I had never seen God or even an angel.

I tried to open my sleepy eyes and find a way, but my thoughts didn't last more than a few minutes.

A newborn baby, overwhelmed by sleep, fell back into a deep slumber.

Perhaps because I was from a noble family, my mother's room and mine were separate, and I spent each day nursing from a wet nurse, filled with unnecessary worries.

One night.

I suddenly woke up.

In the room bathed in moonlight, a maid stood.

'Ah, it's Kanna. She's on duty tonight.'

She was one of the maids who helped my mother take care of me.

'But why did I wake up? I'm not hungry, and I'm not wet... '

Suddenly awake, I stared blankly at Kanna, who looked at me with a sad expression.

"Just go back to sleep. Why did you wake up... "

She muttered in a somewhat apologetic voice and silently approached the crib.

A foreboding situation.

I opened my mouth in surprise, but before I could, a large pillow was placed over my head.

The hands holding the pillow were Kanna's, and the pillow covered my face before I could cry out.

I couldn't breathe.

"I'm sorry. The young master was born too early."

The voice I heard, growing fainter.

'No, this is some ridiculous drama! This can't be! Assassinated a few months after being born! I haven't done anything!'

I screamed inside, but no sound came out from my mouth, pressed against the pillow.

My consciousness began to fade.

Unfortunately, no salvation came until the last moment.

My breathing stopped.

'Damn, what a ridiculous reincarnation.'

With that exasperated mutter, my second life also came to an end.

Darkness. A fading mind. Death came.

A bright light began to appear before my eyes.

Is this heaven?

...

How much time had passed?

Whoosh!

The light enveloped the darkness.

And.

"Aaaaaah!"

I opened my eyes again.

A beautiful woman in front of me.

"Alex, you are the son of Duke Grecia."

She, whom I had seen every day, spoke to me with the same expression she had when I first met her.

And.

Finally, words appeared before my eyes.

I stopped crying when I saw the Korean letters floating before me.

After a few days of being in a daze, I had to admit it.

I hadn't died. I had returned to the point of my second birth.

Reincarnation followed by a return.

Being killed a few months after being born was absurd, but returning to the beginning made me both happy and bewildered.

Moreover.

The words that appeared when I focused my mind indicated that this return wasn't a one-time event.

'Auto-save point...'

It was a phrase I often saw in the single-player games I enjoyed.

Instead of the player saving the game manually, the game automatically saves at certain points, and if the player dies, they respawn at the last save point.

The phrase that appeared at that moment was 'auto-save point.'

'If it's a point in time rather than a location, it means it's a specific moment in time.'

I thanked the unknown entity that brought me to this world.

Indeed, I wasn't thrown into a strange world without any options.

However, even if I could come back to life, it wasn't necessarily a good thing.

'I need to find a way not to die.'

Even if I could come back to life, it would be useless if I kept dying.

There was no guarantee that I would keep coming back, and even if I did, a life of endless death and resurrection would be a living hell.

In that case, the ability to come back to life would be a curse rather than a blessing.

However, finding a way not to die wasn't easy.

I had died just a few months after being born, a time when I couldn't even crawl, let alone speak.

'What a hellish difficulty from the start...'

I couldn't die again. The memory of a terrifying death and the prospect of a bleak baby life again meant I had to survive at all costs.

Fortunately, I knew who the culprit was.

Of course, there was probably someone else giving the orders, but knowing the person who carried out the act meant I could eliminate the threat.

The maid who killed me was Kanna.

She wasn't a particularly noticeable woman.

Among my mother's maids, she wasn't particularly outstanding and seemed quite diligent.

Even with the eyes of someone who had lived a previous life, she didn't seem like someone who would kill someone casually.

'Well, it's a different era and a different life.'

It was clearly a brutal medieval era. Even in a well-off noble family, people were likely not much different.

I fought off sleep and continued to observe Kanna.

As a result, the maids and my mother thought I was a strange baby who didn't cry much and didn't sleep well.

But I didn't have the energy to care about their opinions.

Time passed again.

My father, the duke, occasionally visited with a indifferent expression, and as I grew, I needed less sleep, giving me more time to observe.

As time went on, Kanna's expression grew darker.

'Why didn't I notice this before?'

Now, her expression was dark enough to be obvious.

Other maids looked at her with worried expressions.

'If you're going to kill someone, especially the son of a duke, your face can't be normal. Are you not thinking about the consequences?'

Even if she covered it up as a natural death with a pillow, she would still be held responsible. She might even be executed.

However, I sneered at Kanna's darkening expression. There was no reason to feel sorry for a murderer.

"Oh! The young master is smiling."

"He doesn't smile much, so it's a relief."

"But isn't his smile a bit strange?"

"Tsk! Where did you hear such a thing!"

The maids discussing my face were scolded by the head maid.

I was too young to sneer.

The moment of my death was approaching.

At first, the maids took turns watching me every few hours, but after a few months, only one maid stayed at night.

They would sit in a chair in the corner of the room and doze off unless I cried.

The care was much looser than before, but compared to my previous life, it was still excessive. After all, I was from a noble family.

Kanna seemed to be waiting for the time when she was alone at night.

On the night Kanna was alone.

"Go in."

"Then, good luck."

"It's fine. The young master is quiet, so it's not difficult."

Kanna waved goodbye to the other maids leaving for the night.

After that, she glanced at me with a slightly apologetic expression.

But I wasn't interested in her face.

A few hours later, as the night deepened, the same thing would happen again.

I couldn't let that happen.

Instead of waiting, I opened my mouth wide.

And I let out a full-throated cry.

"Aaaaaah!"

The cry of a baby who rarely cried echoed through the mansion.

Naturally, chaos ensued.

"What's happening!"

"It's the young master's cry!"

The maids who had left the room rushed back, and my mother, who was resting, ran in as well.

The maids and my mother asked Kanna what had happened, but the pale Kanna could only shake her head.

"He just started crying suddenly."

"But a well-behaved baby wouldn't suddenly do that!"

My mother, who rarely showed anger, was clearly shocked.

But Kanna was right.

The head maid carefully picked me up.

"He must have had a bad dream or woke up suddenly and was startled. He'll fall back asleep soon."

No way. If I fall asleep, it's over.

"Aaaaaah!"

Again, with full power!

I cried until my face turned red.

The startled head maid almost dropped me.

"Call the priest and the doctor immediately!"

My mother shouted at the maids.

What? I understand the doctor, but a priest? Really?

Anyway, amidst the chaos, I continued to cry desperately.

It was tiring. I was exhausted.

I had heard of babies who cried all day, but that seemed impossible. It was crazy.

But this was just the beginning. I had to endure to survive.

I didn't stop crying.

"Aaaaaah, aah, huff. Huff. Cough, aah!"

That night, I burned the night white.

The next morning.

I was sprawled on the bed, panting.

"The young master doesn't seem to have any special illness. Apart from a swollen throat from crying too much, he is healthy. The swollen throat will get better soon."

I heard the doctor's words, but I wasn't paying attention.

Bright light was blinding my vision.

An old man in a white robe had his fingers on my small neck, and a bright light was emanating from his fingers.

I had wondered if the call for a priest would be real, but it was. This wasn't the ordinary medieval era of my previous life.

The priests here could use divine power.

Then.

There might be mages and knights who use sword techniques.

Was this a good thing? I couldn't tell if it would be advantageous for me.

No, that wasn't the important thing right now.

I had survived the night, but nothing had changed.

There was no message indicating that the danger had passed, and Kanna was still standing there.

My mother was even apologizing to Kanna.

"I was too shocked last night. Don't worry about it."

"It's fine, my lady."

Seeing Kanna unharmed, I knew the danger hadn't passed.

It was disappointing, but I had anticipated this.

My ordeal wasn't over yet.