TBMRB 04

Chapter 04

The horrifying sound of the impact rang through her head again and again, as if someone were hammering nails directly into her skull.

The memory that had begun with death came rushing backward.

Blood trickled down from the corners of her eyes, while the acrid smell of burning that had clung stubbornly to her nose seemed impossible to shake off.

“It’s dark out, so leave early.”

Seoul in winter, carrying the sharp scent of snow.

“Member, please straighten your leg this way.”

Her head hurt.

“The teacher isn’t going to scold you over something like that.”

As she sank into her memories as though drowning in water, her head hurt as if it were about to split apart.

Dead…

“My dead… body.”

Far too many memories for a three-year-old to bear came flooding in like a tidal wave.

“Try doing a squat.”

Who is this voice?

“As for burpee tests…”

“When your hip joint hurts, you can loosen it like this…”

What are all these memories?

Familiar yet unfamiliar voices echoed inside her head.

It was as though lips had sprouted all around her, all of them talking with Mariella alone at the center.

Her head hurt.

Her ears hurt so much…

“Mariella!”

A small hand—larger than Mariella’s, but still belonging to a child—caught her just as her staggering body began to lean toward the stairs.

Mariella barely managed to open her eyes.

The pajamas covering her face smelled warm and comforting, while the body heat surrounding her was still hot in the way only a young child’s could be.

“Ditty.”

“D-Don’t look over there. The servants will take care of it, so don’t worry too much…”

Dietrich was only seven years old, and his voice trembled as well. Even so, he was trying his best to calm his younger sister somehow.

The only warmth she could find among the unfamiliar voices ringing through her head.

Someone who was worried about Mariella.

Only then could she finally scrape her burning throat and force out a few words.

“My head huwt so much…”

“What? Hey, Mariella! You…!”

The consciousness she had barely managed to hold onto was severed in an instant.

She was sick for an entire week.

Fortunately, the butler did not die as pointlessly as Kang Hae-jin had in her previous life. Instead, he had severely injured his leg, so his children hurriedly came up and took him back to his hometown.

Everything had been so chaotic that Mariella did not get to properly see him leave, but she was still somewhat relieved.

The servant who had fallen down the stairs together with the butler was taken away by the guards.

In the meantime, I recovered the thoughts of an adult.

Mariella sat quietly on her bed, accepting spoonfuls of soup from a maid.

Her head still hurt a little, but the shock of remembering her previous life had subsided considerably.

She had never imagined that reincarnation actually existed.

“Young lady, how are you feeling now?”

“I’m okay.”

I can endure this much.

However, the maid who had placed a hand on Mariella’s forehead and then withdrawn it still looked worried.

“You still have a bit of a fever, though. Please finish your meal first and take your medicine. If your fever goes down after you take it, I’ll put you to bed.”

“It only huwts a wittle now. I think I’ll be okay without medicine…”

“No, you can’t. You have to keep taking it until you can do that thing you used to do so often again. What was it… a lunge? Yes, until you can do that position again. Now, say ‘ah.’”

…She had never imagined that those strange words that had occasionally surfaced in her mind were remnants of her previous life.

She had thought it strange that these bizarre words and movements kept coming to mind.

But to think they were memories from her previous life.

Reincarnation.

She really had never imagined something like this could happen.

Honestly, it still feels a little… awkward.

Every time she looked in the mirror, she saw cheeks that looked ready to burst.

Pink hair as fluffy as cotton candy.

Bright blue eyes that were difficult to get used to no matter how many times she looked at them.

And, most importantly, the muscles she had worked so hard to build in her previous life had all disappeared, leaving her with a soft, squishy body that felt like a slime!

Mariella Kallenberg.

Mariella quietly rolled her new name—which still felt awkward even to pronounce—over the tip of her tongue.

The shock of the accident brought my memories back.

A previous life.

Reincarnation.

She had never once imagined that something like that would happen to her.

Because her life had always felt like a dice game where she could only ever roll a one or a two.

She had always been just a little unlucky, forever holding ordinary, boring hands that were neither particularly good nor particularly bad.

And for someone like her, reincarnation?

I never asked for a second life.

Of course, she had tried to live as happily as she could.

In her previous life, she had made the thing she loved and was good at into her profession and worked incredibly hard. She had also tried to enjoy various hobbies.

But regardless of how hard she had tried, whenever she thought about having to support herself completely, without a single family member she could rely on, life itself sometimes felt rather exhausting.

So how had she ended up being reincarnated like this?

If there really was a next life, she had wanted to be reborn as a rock or a tree and live peacefully.

But this…

And on top of that, I have the body of a three-year-old.

What was she supposed to do in an unfamiliar world with such a soft, helpless body?

Looking at a body whose fine motor skills had not even developed enough to use a fork precisely was both ridiculous and absurd.

“It’s strange. Why isn’t the fever going down?”

The maid touched Mariella’s forehead once more as she nibbled on some bread, letting tiny amounts of the powdered medicine fall out of her mouth to get rid of its bitter taste.

This maid’s name was probably… Betty?

After rummaging through her memories and pulling out the name, Mariella happily pressed her face against Betty’s pleasantly cool hand.

“Even after taking the medicine, your fever isn’t going down. Could you stay here by yourself for a moment? I’ll go get the nanny, young lady.”

“Mm, okay. Take your time.”

Now that I’ve recovered my adult mind, what’s so difficult about being alone for a little while?

Mariella readily nodded and sent Betty outside.

Betty returned just as Mariella’s consciousness was becoming hazy, hovering between wakefulness and sleep.

“Young lady, I brought the nanny… Oh my.”

Mariella had been keeping her eyes tightly shut because she was too tired to bother opening them, when she felt someone’s hand touch her forehead.

Considering that other people’s hands still feel so cool, I must have quite a high fever.

“Betty, go outside and prepare a wet towel. We need to cool the young lady’s forehead.”

“Yes, Nanny.”

As Betty left, the nanny who remained beside Mariella began gently patting her chest in a steady rhythm.

Nanny Anna was one of the people who had become especially familiar to Mariella as the memories of her previous life and her memories after reincarnation became intertwined.

The Mariella she remembered had been a child who was separated from her parents from the moment she was born.

Maybe the reason it suddenly feels like my fever is getting higher as soon as I see Nanny is because I’m acting spoiled around someone I feel comfortable with.

“Weren’t you sleeping? Did I wake you?”

Suddenly wanting to see her nanny’s face, Mariella opened her eyes wide.

She saw Nanny looking down at her with her own eyes widened in surprise.

“No.”

“You can sleep a little longer. It’s good to get plenty of sleep when you’re sick.”

Mariella did not want to fall asleep again, so she had to quickly find another topic that would attract her nanny’s attention.

Hmm.

“Nanny, where’s Ditty?”

The story of the other child in this household—another child who had grown up away from his parents and in the care of the nanny—was the most useful topic at times like this.

Dietrich Kallenberg.

The little older brother of the body Mariella had been reincarnated into.

The infamous troublemaker of this household, who caused some kind of accident whenever you took your eyes off him.

But he protected me on the day the butler was injured.

Normally, whenever he encountered her, he would pick a fight with her and call her ugly.

But at that time, he had acted quite a lot like an older brother.

And he’s only seven years old.

Even though he himself had been trembling from head to toe because he was frightened, he had somehow tried to keep Mariella from staring down the stairs for too long.

Considering how young he was, Dietrich must have been quite shocked as well.

But because Mariella had been bedridden for an entire week, she had not been able to pay much attention to him.

“Is Ditty not huwt?”

“He seems to have been somewhat shocked, but everyone has been doing their best to take care of him, so fortunately, he recovered his spirits quite quickly.”

That’s a relief.

“The young master is also very worried about you, young lady.”

“Ditty is?”

“He came to see you twice while you were unconscious…”

That was when it happened.

Along with a faint but unmistakable crashing sound, people’s screams pushed their way through Nanny’s words.

What a house where nothing can ever stay peaceful!

There had been a loud noise outside, so she should probably go see what happened, right?

There was a very high chance that Dietrich had caused another accident, so as one of the owners of this household, Mariella had no choice but to step in and deal with it.

Especially now that there’s no butler.

“Nanny, let’s go.”

“But, young lady, you suffered a great shock not long ago. And your fever hasn’t even gone down yet.”

“What if Ditty got huwt?”

The nanny had tried to stop her, but at those words, even her concern won out.

She immediately scooped Mariella up into her arms.