Time moved forward unceasingly after Felix’s first words. Initially, Isabella was stunned into silence, and Felix was scared that maybe he had chosen the wrong time to start speaking. He had considered speaking earlier because he was tired of having coos and growls be his main form of communication, but he didn’t know what time was good for a normal or even a ‘genius’ baby to start speaking. His worries proved to be unfounded, however, as he saw Isabella smiling through tears, encouraging him to say it again as he happily obliged.

For the next few months, Isabella would randomly point out objects and ask Felix to repeat their names, to which Felix would purposefully struggle at the beginning but eventually he would pick the words up. Isabella seemed sold on the idea that he was a genius, often bragging to the other servants about his intelligence and getting him to say the names of objects.

Felix would slightly botch the longer words that Isabella tried to teach him to make the act more believable. He was happy that Isabella was happy and felt more comfortable being able to voice his feelings in ways other than crying, but he wouldn’t show a level of intelligence that would make him stand out while he was so unfamiliar with society’s norms.

Felix’s 1st birthday was a rather laid-back affair considering the fact he had very few people that he was close to. Isabella did have a birthday cake prepared for him, a strawberry sponge cake. From what Felix could tell from the taste, the ingredients used didn’t seem that dissimilar to the ones used in his original world, but naturally, he wasn’t well informed on the food he consumed.

Given his young age, he was more interested in whether the food tasted good or not, which for the most part it had, and he was sure that Isabella would never purposefully serve him something harmful. The cake was delicious and that’s all that mattered in Felix’s eyes. Aside from the handmade teddy bear from Isabella that Felix gratefully accepted, another interesting aspect of his birthday was finally meeting Isabella’s son, Sebastian.

Looking to be around 2 and a half years old, the boy had inherited his mother’s green eyes and Felix could observe freckles beginning to sprout on his face, but he was blessed with curly dirty blonde hair rather than the brown of his mother, presumably from his father who Felix was yet to meet. He had heard Isabella say that the man worked as a guard for the main house, so he assumed that was the main reason.

‘Anyway, back to the small boy vindictively hogging my toys’. Felix could understand the anger and jealousy lurking in Sebastian’s eyes whenever he looked at him, and he even felt a bit guilty for essentially stealing the kid’s mother. But at the end of the day, Felix also felt wronged in the situation, since he too was a ‘victim’ to the schemes of nobility considering his familial circumstances. Felix didn’t mind about the toys but he at least wanted it to look like the two were getting along for Isabella’s sake, so he toughened himself up and giggled like a naïve child as he played with the throwaways that the little menace ‘graciously’ gifted him.

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After a while, Felix’s eyes started drooping as his infantile body calmed down from his previous sugar rush. Turning to get his caretaker’s attention, he was surprised to see Isabella speaking in a low voice to a much older gentleman. Felix vaguely remembered seeing this man on the only occasion he ever met his father.

With warm brown eyes supplemented by laughter lines and purely grey facial hair, the man gave off the impression of a gentle grandpa, but Felix couldn’t help feeling as if there was a dangerous undercurrent to this man. He was grateful that his intuition had not deserted him after his rebirth (This had helped him stop Isabella from interacting with the more ‘treacherous’ house-help on a personal level).

Coincidentally in that moment of recollection, Felix locked eyes with the old man and felt a shiver run down his spine as if his body was reacting to some hidden threat, before playing it off with a giggle and shouting “papa”. This reaction was not missed by the old man, however, as a mysterious glint flashed in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came as he laughed jovially, saying “Young master, I’m a bit too old to be siring children! Your father is a great man, and you’d do well to follow in his footsteps.”

Felix smiled and giggled dumbly as if he didn’t understand what the man had said, turning to see the impressively neutral look on Isabella’s face. That face turned into an almost relieved smile as he said “mama, sleepy” while making his best droopy eyelid impression, adding some slight swaying to his dreamy smile for good effect.

Turning to face her superior, Isabella said “Sir, thank you for stopping by, the young master appreciates it as you can see. Unfortunately, we will have to end the festivities here so that I can put the young master to bed and hand my son over to his aunt. Please pass on my assurance to the Lord that his son is growing up finely, full of intelligence and curiosity.”

Isabella then curtsied and proceeded to cradle the (fake) sleeping Felix in one arm, holding her son’s hand as they exited the parlour where the party was held. Felix almost sighed in relief after they left the man’s presence but caught himself in case the man had a supernatural hearing or something (which was the case), it being a fantasy world and whatnot. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to meet the man for a long time.

*

The jovial aura surrounding Emerson disappeared shortly after Isabella left the parlour with the young master and her son in tow. Emerson had seen many things over his tenure serving his master and now his master’s son, but he found that woman’s son to be curious. He had been surprised by the initial wariness that the child showed, before quickly changing to a naively happy expression. Emerson felt that the warm grandfather persona was incredibly useful at dropping people’s defences, but the child’s nervous reaction intrigued him.

Logic told him that the infant most likely reacted the same to every face that he didn’t recognise, before unconsciously letting his guard down, but a small part of Emerson was excited to see if the young master had been blessed with good intuition. He refrained from the idea of bringing it up in his briefing to the Lord, as it seemed too fanciful an idea for now and nothing would come of it for the meantime, but he thought it might be a decent idea to make some future visits to the young master outside of Isabella’s regular reports.