I Became a Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess

〈Episode 2〉 Where Am I? Who Is This?

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When Choi Sunwoo drew his last breath and opened his eyes again, he found himself in a completely new world.

Unable to do more than cry as a newborn baby, he was cradled in the arms of an unfamiliar woman.

Her attire was nothing like the modern clothing of the world he had known.

Medieval? Early modern? With no historical knowledge to guide him, his confusion only deepened.

“You are the firstborn son of the Bilhark family.”

A man who introduced himself as Rancel Bilhark proclaimed this proudly.

Bilhark family? A name he had never heard before, and with that, he began crying once more.

Where was this place, and who was he? It took quite a while for these questions to find their answers.

By the time he turned two and could walk quite steadily on his own, he encountered a young girl one day.

Through the people around her, he learned her name, a child who, like him, could only babble incomprehensibly.

Ariel Löweheim. The moment he heard that name, just seven simple syllables, something stirred violently in Edgar’s mind.

‘Ariel Löweheim?’

It was a name he vaguely recalled from his past life as Choi Sunwoo.

A character from a romance-fantasy novel he had heard about in passing.

A tragic figure who, despite being a side character, met an early death. Though not a protagonist, she was remarkably popular, and he had picked up bits and pieces about her from casual conversations.

Unfortunately, he had never been interested in romance-fantasy novels and had never actually read the book.

So why on earth had he been summoned to this world?

‘This has to be some kind of curse.’

Otherwise, such an absurd situation simply couldn’t happen.

The typical reincarnation plotlines of web novels he used to read went something like this:

The plot of a familiar novel would go astray, he’d leave a furious comment about it, and somehow, he’d find himself inside that very story. While not always, most of these narratives followed this pattern.

Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he had strayed far from this formula.

Before closing his eyes in his previous world, he had read countless stories. So many that even a full night wouldn’t be enough to list them all.

And yet, out of all those countless works, he ended up in the world of a novel he hadn’t even bothered to read. In its own way, it was an extraordinary twist of fate.

‘Why did it have to be a world like this…….’

He had always been close to the conveniences of modern civilization.

The absence of smartphones, TVs, or computers in this new world was anything but a cause for celebration.

If this had been a world from a novel he frequently enjoyed, he might have viewed it as a kind of adventure. But finding himself in a world he couldn’t care less about? It was just one misfortune piled on top of another.

‘I appreciate the chance to start a meaningless life anew, but this isn’t it.’

Thus, Edgar found himself lamenting his fate in the body of a two-year-old.

It was in the midst of this grumbling that Ariel, nestled in her mother’s arms, suddenly stretched her tiny hand toward him.

She reached out with all her might, but how long could the arm of a two-year-old really be?

Still, the fact that her hand was directed at him made Edgar tilt his head slightly.

‘What’s this?’

Was she perhaps feeling a sense of camaraderie as a fellow baby?

He had no memory of what it was like to be a two-year-old in his first life, and as this was his second, he couldn’t truly understand the thoughts or behavior of a baby.

Naturally, he couldn’t grasp the meaning behind Ariel’s actions.

‘Baaa!’

‘Does she want me to hold her?’

Ariel, still in her mother’s arms, waved her tiny hand with all the urgency of a family reunion. The sight of her chubby hand flailing with determination was almost unbearably adorable.

‘Fine, here you go.’

Though his mind was that of an adult, his body was still that of a two-year-old.

Despite his best efforts, stretching his hand as far as he could in an attempt to be generous, Edgar’s hand still failed to reach Ariel’s.

Even as he kicked his legs and wriggled with all his might, his mother, Katria, simply pulled him closer into her embrace, thwarting his efforts entirely.

“Daaa!”

Edgar protested with what he thought was a spirited complaint.

However, whether due to his underdeveloped vocal cords or the limitations of his baby body, what came out of his mouth was just more incomprehensible babbling, indistinguishable from Ariel’s own.

“Now, now, you shouldn’t do that. It’s rude to the Lady.”

‘Ah.’

At first, he thought Katria had pulled him back out of concern that he might tumble out of her arms. But no apparently, she had stopped him because of the other child’s status, not wanting him to overstep boundaries.

Only then did Edgar fully grasp just how significant the tiny girl before him really was, despite being too young to even form proper words.

‘So she’s really from a Grand Duke’s family. Impressive.’

Normally, parents wouldn’t go out of their way to prevent babies from playing together unless there was a considerable gap in social rank.

‘Our family’s a barony, right? Yeah, that’s definitely a massive gap.’

He wasn’t entirely clear on the precise hierarchy of noble ranks, but he’d heard that the gap between counts and barons alone was substantial.

And yet, Ariel wasn’t just any noble; she was the daughter of a Grand Duke, a figure who stood at the highest level of power aside from the ruler of the nation.

It became clear to Edgar that he would need to tread carefully in his interactions with her from now on.

‘What if we’re playing and I accidentally hit her…? Oh, no. I don’t even want to imagine what would happen.’

The thought of so much as scratching her filled him with dread. He imagined not only his parents but their entire family line being wiped out. Perhaps even their extended relatives would vanish without a trace.

The chilling thought sent shivers down Edgar’s small body, and he burrowed deeper into Katria’s embrace.

“Come now, Katria, why not let the children play together? It would be nice for us mothers to relax over a cup of tea and chat.” 

Suggested Helene, the mistress of the Löweheim household, as she alternated her gaze between Edgar and her daughter.

Katria hesitated, her anxiety about potential mishaps making her reluctant to agree. Still, she cautiously opened her mouth.

“But…”

“We can have the maids watch over them for a while. Children grow best when left to spend time with their peers.”

“If you insist… very well.”

The Bilhark family was vassal to the Löweheim household, a relationship of master and servant. To refuse or add further argument would have been an even greater breach of propriety.

In the end, Katria bowed her head in acquiescence and gently placed Edgar on the carpet.

‘Mother, how could you send your one and only son into this lion’s den?’

As he was set down, Edgar watched Katria with a mix of emotions swirling in his eyes. He felt like a puppy being abandoned as he watched her retreating figure.

The soft texture of the carpet against his bottom somehow felt more like sitting on the blade of a guillotine.

And across from him, Ariel was placed down as well.

The moment their eyes met, she let out another enthusiastic ‘Baaa!’ and crawled toward him on all fours with an unstoppable determination.

‘She’s… kind of cute.’

Even if she wasn’t the main character, she was undeniably a child befitting a role in a romance-fantasy novel.

At only two years old, her features were already strikingly distinct. To Edgar, her presence seemed clearer and more vivid than even his own uncertain future.

‘Alright, let’s think positively.’

If it had come to this, he might as well entertain the daughter of the Grand Duke and earn some favor.

Who knows? Perhaps Helene, impressed by his actions, might later mention him to her husband, and thanks to that, the Bilhark family could receive some small benefit.

After all, if you want to capture the enemy general, you start with a well-placed word.

“Daaa!”

“Baaa?”

What could truly capture the attention of babies?

There might be countless opinions on the matter, but in Edgar’s view, one tried-and-true answer stood out.

‘Sparkly things are the best.’

Sure, the daughter of a Grand Duke might have grown up surrounded by all kinds of glittering treasures, but that would have been, at most, for a year or so.

Besides, people, babies included, are always more drawn to things they’ve never seen before.

Edgar fiddled with a small pendant hanging around his neck and carefully removed it.

It was a gift from his father, Rancel, shortly after he was born. Apparently, it had some sort of special magic imbued into it, though Edgar had no idea what that was.

For now, it was simply a toy meant to appease the precious young lady.

“Daaa, daaa!”

“Baaa!”

As he waved the pendant in the air as if to say, ‘Here, take it,’ Ariel’s eyes lit up, and she eagerly grabbed it.

It seemed his theory was spot on.

Edgar smiled in satisfaction as he watched her fiddle with the pendant, her tiny hands busy exploring every detail.

The way she carefully played with it made her look like a sculptor molding clay.

*Plop.*

“P…pa…!”

“Daaargh!?”

But the peaceful moment didn’t last long.

As Ariel played with the pendant’s string, she suddenly shoved it into her mouth.

Panicked, Edgar let out a garbled cry, more akin to frantic baby babbling and quickly snatched the pendant with both hands.

“Daaaah!”

What followed was a fierce scolding.

Though to an observer, it might have looked more like a childish tantrum, to Ariel, who heard it directly, the effect was no less shocking.

Her face froze as if time had stopped, and her plump cheeks began to quiver slightly.

‘Ah.’

Edgar immediately realized something had gone wrong.

A vivid premonition of the next three seconds flashed before his eyes, and a cold bead of sweat ran down his back.

Exactly three seconds later,

“Baaaaah!”

As expected, Ariel burst into a wailing cry, her voice echoing like the world was ending.

Her sorrowful sobs drew the maids from either side and even the two mothers, who had momentarily stepped away, came rushing back in alarm.

‘Is this the end for me?’

Feeling the doom of his second life, barely a year old, Edgar reluctantly let go of the pendant in his hands.

Unless the magic imbued in the pendant could somehow rewind time by one minute, survival seemed unlikely.

As Helene’s concerned face came closer, Edgar’s complexion grew increasingly pale.

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