“What?”

“Ummamma. Umma, uummamma.”

I wasn’t sure if the child was saying ‘mamma’ or ‘umma’. I didn’t know what to do with the child who was looking straight at me and making sounds similar to ‘mom’.

“Huh… This is crazy, really.”

Lady Louisette’s child.

Miss Valerie.

I read and re-read the letter. As if scrutinizing it repeatedly would reveal the identity of the writer.

But pretending not to know scared me, as whoever brought the child here clearly knew my exact identity, even after I had fled to this place.

“No, this isn’t right. Little one, if you stay here, your real mother who brought you will come.”

Surely, they wouldn’t have gone far, leaving such a young baby. Perhaps they had put the baby down, knocked on the door, and then hidden nearby to observe my reaction.

I only took the letter with Celeste’s name on it and covered the basket again with the blanket.

The child’s cute face disappeared under the blanket.

“Kyaa, abubu.”

Even with the cloth over its face, the baby seemed to think this was a game, giggling and making joyful noises.

That reaction made me briefly think that I shouldn’t leave such a young baby like this, but I couldn’t bring a stranger’s child into my house.

“It was nice meeting you, let’s not see each other again.”

Yes. I shouldn’t fall for someone’s malicious prank. With that resolve, I quickly went inside and closed the door.

Deliberately ignoring the baby’s squealing sounds from behind me.

“…The tea must be cold now.”

I took a sip of the tea that had already gone cold. But the opportunity to fully enjoy its aroma had long since passed.

Five minutes later.

Although I had intended to keep the door closed until the child disappeared, after five minutes, I had no choice but to open the door wide and pick up the tear-stained baby.

“Wuuwaaaaang!”

“This is maddening.”

The child, who had been happily waving its hands until I closed the door, must have been quite scared by those five minutes alone, as it was now covered in tears.

When I picked up the baby, who had been crying loudly enough to bring the house down, it suddenly stopped crying as if it had never happened and started smiling brightly.

“Hiccup, hiccup. Kyaa!”

At that moment, I had a feeling.

That my comfortable and peaceful countryside solo life was now over.

* * *

I have no family.

I didn’t have one before, and I won’t have one in the future.

Parents? I’ve never seen their faces since I was born, and I don’t even know if they’re alive.

When I say I have no family, people are initially surprised, and then they look at me with pity.

They throw out insincere comforts, asking how I manage without parents, saying I must have been very lonely and had a hard time.

Lonely and hard? Well, I didn’t particularly miss the parents I’d never even seen.

Feeling a sense of loss due to someone’s absence is only possible when you have memories of being together. Someone like me, who had no memories of family at all, didn’t know what it meant to long for them.

So, I was used to being alone from a very young age.

It was actually quite sad for a child not even 10 years old to be accustomed to living alone without parents.

Enduring harsh words and piercing gazes that I wouldn’t have had to face if I had parents, I had one thought.

That it would be nice if I had a real family of my own.

That I, too, wanted to have a real family.

And I really, really didn’t know it would happen like this.

“Abu, buu.”

“It’s certain. This child is indeed the young lady’s baby. No, I mean, it’s Madam’s child.”

“…How can that be?”

I muttered to myself with a rather serious face, then looked at the man in front of me.

“I’m not even married. And this is a child I’m seeing for the first time. How can this be my baby?”

“I don’t know about Madam’s past circumstances, but it’s been proven that this child and Madam share blood.”

“…What I requested was to find out who abandoned the baby at my doorstep. Not a paternity test.”

Maybe I should have just gone to the security office. My head was starting to throb.

I had brought the baby inside when it started crying, but what to do next was the problem. I couldn’t just keep a child I’d never met before, especially one whose parents I didn’t know.

I don’t know who left the baby at the door and ran, but no one would just accept and understand a letter saying ‘We’ll return the baby to you’.

The best solution would be to find the real parents through the security office, but the letter with my name accurately written on it bothered me, so I couldn’t move carelessly.

As I was hiding my identity and living in a rural village, getting tangled up with the security office wouldn’t do any good. After some consideration, I chose to track the child’s identity through a detective agency.

Fortunately, I had more than enough money, so I didn’t hesitate to hire the most famous detective agency in the neighborhood, Alfonso Detective Agency, to find the child’s family and return them.

Compared to modern times, it would be like a private investigation agency, I suppose. People who will do anything for money really exist in any era. It’s a newfound fact, but somehow it felt bitter.

But this detective, who was supposedly recognized for his abilities even in this rural village, came up with the strange answer that this child was mine. How should I take this?

“Madam, you seem unaware, so let me explain. This is a magic potion that finds blood relations. When we mix one drop of blood from each of the two subjects, if the colors merge and become transparent… it indicates a blood relation. Like this result.”

The detective shook a flask containing a transparent potion.

“Bubuua.”

So that’s why he pricked my finger once and the baby’s finger once with a needle?

According to the detective, with the recent increase in child abduction cases, the empire has started a large-scale crackdown. If a child of unclear identity appears, the adult with them automatically becomes a subject of investigation…

That’s probably why he first tried to determine if the baby and I were blood-related using this magic potion or whatever it was.

“Okay, let’s say this is my child. But how could I, the person who gave birth to the child, not know about it, and be separated from it for over half a year?”

“That, I don’t know, Madam. All I can tell you from here is that this child is yours.”

The detective’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. It seemed he thought I was some kind of despicable person who had secretly given birth to a child and was trying to abandon it.

“If you really want, I can try to find out who left the child at your doorstep.”

He spoke as if he was reluctantly agreeing to do it because I was being stubborn.

“Umma. Mamma.”

While I was having this unproductive conversation with the detective, the baby was quietly nestled in my arms, babbling as if in agreement.

Haah, what is all this about? It’s really a baby I’m seeing for the first time.

The throbbing pain that had started near my temples was gradually spreading throughout my head.

The child seemed to be about a year old. But I had only been possessing Celeste’s body for about half a year, so the possibility that Celeste had given birth to a child in secret and hidden it… wasn’t entirely impossible.

In the original story, Celeste certainly hadn’t even married, let alone had a child. But at this point, with me becoming Celeste, the original story had pretty much been shattered, so there was no use in comparing it to the original content.

Then where exactly did the original story go wrong?

“If you have no further requests, please leave now, Madam. Well, I won’t charge for the consultation. I won’t charge for the potion either, so just accept the child now.”

The detective pushed me and the child out as if chasing us away, then closed the door. The look in his eyes just before the door closed seemed to say, ‘A human worse than an animal, abandoning their own child.’

No! This isn’t my child, and I’m not a mother! I wanted to say that, but I couldn’t.

“…This is unfair.”

I was left standing on the street, holding the child. Feelings of frustration and injustice seeped out of my bewildered and dumbfounded heart.

It was unfair enough that I had died without enjoying the prime of my youth, and it was unfair that I had possessed the character of a villainess destined for an early death. On top of that, for a forever-single who had never even dated to become a mother? Could there be anything more unfair than this?

“It’s unfair!”

“Ababuba. Baba.”

The baby babbled cutely as if imitating my words. The warm, wriggling presence against my chest slightly, just slightly, soothed my sense of injustice.

Yes, what fault could you have? If there’s any fault, it’s with the adults.