Edric’s gaze upon Alex is more that of an observer than a father.

He scrutinized the child with narrowed eyes, as if examining a specimen of a newly discovered species. Or perhaps he observed and analyzed the child with sharp eyes, as if looking for a flaw to refute a new theory.

When the child cried, he rang the bell to summon a servant.

Far from tenderly holding and putting the child to sleep, he didn’t even stroke him once.

Once, Melly asked him to tap the child’s mouth to see if Alex was hungry. Edric, uncharacteristically hesitant, tapped the mouth, and when the child’s lips followed his hand, he startled and withdrew it.

‘This won’t do.’

Melly thought some drastic measures were needed.

A few days later, on a day Edric wasn’t going to work, Melly deliberately left. Going downstairs, she instructed Louisa, Oz, and all the other servants:

“Don’t go up to the child’s room even if you hear the bell.”

Everyone followed her instructions with puzzled faces.

Shortly after.

Following the ringing of the bell, Alex’s loud cry shook the mansion’s dome.

To Edric Pelton, a child was as shocking as encountering an indigenous culture for the first time.

It was shocking that such a small body had everything it needed, and the simple, animal-like way of life – eating, defecating, and sleeping – was also shocking.

It was shocking to him that the child couldn’t sleep alone and always needed someone to put him to sleep, and that he expressed his wants through crying.

Melly seemed to know exactly what the child wanted whenever he cried and solved the problem. And the solution took various forms, sometimes changing diapers, sometimes breastfeeding, sometimes pushing the stroller around the corridor.

Edric was perplexed.

‘How does she know so well? Is it from the differences in the cries?’

But to his ears, all cries sounded the same. He didn’t think he could ever be as quick as Melly in perceiving the child’s needs.

This made him anxious about being left alone with the child.

“I’ll just go downstairs for a moment. Can you be alone?”

But when Melly said this to him when he briefly stopped by the nursery while working on estate matters in his study, he didn’t hold her back saying he couldn’t do it.

The child was sleeping soundly. So he boldly let her go, believing the child would continue to sleep well.

“Of course. Take your time.”

But how much time had passed?

Feeling something strange, he looked up from the book he was reading.

Then he could see the child showing signs of waking up between the crib bars.

“…”

Edric felt anxious.

Melly should return before the child fully wakes up. Or anyone else.

But in the meantime, the child’s arm and leg movements in the air grew larger, and eventually, even whimpers broke out.

“Uung… huung…”

Edric felt his mouth going dry.

He immediately rang the bell. But even as time passed, no one came.

He opened the door and looked out into the corridor, but there seemed to be not even an ant in sight, let alone a person.

‘Where on earth has everyone gone?’

Just as he was about to step out, thinking there must be at least one person downstairs.

“Uwaaaaang-!”

The child burst into a loud cry.

‘Damn it.’

He couldn’t go downstairs leaving a crying child behind.

Edric returned to the nursery.

Alex’s face was flushed red with blood from crying with all his might, his tongue curled up round.

When the child cried, Melly would hold him first.

So he should do the same.

But he had never held Alex alone before. The limit of fragile life he could hold was Jade.

He didn’t know how to hold a child much smaller and lighter than Jade. No, he knew theoretically, but he didn’t dare put it into practice.

He felt he might hurt the child with his careless attitude.

“…!”

Another strong cry awakened him.

Now there was no choice.

‘I have no choice but to try somehow.’

Edric sighed and put his hands under Alex’s body, who was crying with his whole body.

Then, carefully supporting the head as Melly always did, he picked him up.

The child was light enough to be held with one hand, but Edric couldn’t relax the tension in his arms and entire body, as if Alex was a ton of iron.

Finally, he managed to rest the child’s head on his bent elbow and wrap the body with his lower arm.

Just doing that much made beads of cold sweat form on his forehead.

He felt a newfound respect for Melly. She skillfully held the child with one arm, and with the other, she even checked the temperature of the pumped breast milk.

Melly’s movements flowed naturally like a stream, and her expression was full of composure.

He, who could usually imitate everything at once, felt he could never match that.

By the way, why was the child crying?

Edric looked around as if the answer might be somewhere outside.

Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of a bottle in a bowl.

The child might be crying because he was hungry.

Edric picked up the bottle and brought the soft rubber tip towards the child.

‘Wait.’

But just as he was about to let the child latch on, a scene he had often observed came to mind.

Oz would drop a few drops on the back of his hand before handing the bottle to Melly.

Edric did the same. The lukewarm sensation didn’t feel bad.

But because he couldn’t trust himself, he decided to taste it too.

He already knew what breast milk tasted like.

About a week ago, Melly’s milk ducts had become blocked, making her breasts as hard as stones.

No matter how much she tried to express by hand, the blockage wouldn’t clear, and Melly was whimpering in pain, so he had helped.

That was when Edric first tasted the subtle sweetness of the milky white liquid flowing into his mouth.

The liquid dropped on the back of his hand tasted and felt almost the same as then.

‘This should be fine to feed.’

Reassured, Edric put the bottle in the child’s mouth.

The child sucked on the bottle as if he had been waiting for it.

Gulp, gulp-.

The swallowing was so strong that it was clearly felt in the hand supporting the head.

‘Looks like he was crying because he was hungry.’

Feeling relieved to have passed a hurdle, Edric let out a deep sigh.

Alex looked at Edric with bright eyes while sucking on the bottle.

Blue eyes, clearer than Jade’s, were gazing at him. They were so clear and transparent that they seemed to reflect even his clumsy and inadequate parts.

“Yes, Alex.”

Edric spoke to the child with a self-deprecating smile.

“Daddy is a novice. I didn’t do anything when mommy gave birth to and raised your brother.”

The child blinked at that. As if to say it’s okay. As if to say you can do well from now on.

When the child’s sucking speed became noticeably slower than at first, Edric removed the bottle.

He had heard that if the child sucks until the bottle is empty, he might swallow air, which could cause gas in the intestines and make him uncomfortable.

Fortunately, the child seemed satisfied and didn’t fuss when daddy took the bottle away from his mouth.

Milky breast milk glistened on the child’s lips. Edric gently dabbed from the corners of the child’s mouth with a neatly folded gauze.

The child was observing every move with bright eyes, as if to see if daddy was doing well.

‘What was next?’

After thinking for a moment, he easily remembered that Melly had held the child upright to aid digestion.

Edric tried to imitate the scene from his memory. As he did so, the child’s gaze gradually aligned with and came closer to daddy’s, then crossed and misaligned. The child’s small head naturally rested on his shoulder.

He cupped his hand and gently patted the child’s tiny back.

But he still couldn’t quite trust himself.

‘Is this right?’

Should he pat a little harder?

But he couldn’t imagine patting any harder than this. He felt like the child’s spine might crumble if he applied even a little more force.

Edric lightly patted the child while walking around the room once.

His body was stiff and his movements unnatural, but the child was leaning comfortably against him.

Edric felt grateful to Alex for not complaining even though he was an inexperienced father.

He unconsciously kissed the child’s downy hair that was tickling his cheek.

The child’s hair had a faint smell of milk.

At that moment, suddenly the child lifted his head. And then…

“My lady, are you sure it’s alright?”

“I’m worried about young master Alex. Can’t I just go up and take a quick look?”

Louisa, Oz, and all the other servants were restless.

The Duchess had forbidden anyone from going up to the floor where the nursery was.

“It’s fine. He will do well.”

“I… honestly, I’m not so sure.”

Oz replied hesitantly to Melly’s words.

“I know the Duke is excellent in many ways, but childcare might be different. The Duke didn’t even raise Jade, after all.”

Oz’s rebuttal was reasonable.

Melly looked at the clock. Half an hour had passed since she left the nursery. She thought it might be okay to go up and check now.

“Then I’ll go take a look. So I can deal with anything that might have happened. So everyone stay downstairs.”

Melly said that and went up to the third floor alone.

As she entered the corridor where the nursery was, she unknowingly tensed up.

She had expected to hear the child’s whimpering, but it was surprisingly quiet.

‘Surely nothing has happened?’