The Rival Queen

Chapter 2| Resolve For A Mother's Smile

Two years has passed since my rebirth and I've done everything I can to at least swerve my fate from becoming a nun for the rest of my life.

I finally concluded that it was no use when my body is still of the age of two and just make my free reign for a couple of years the best until I reach the age of seven, the day fate will bring my sister and the boys together at the Mana and IQ Ceremony.

Since I was an otaku in my past life, I wasn't really physically fit and had the bad grades in Physical Education. And so, I convinced myself to fix my unhealthy habit and become physically fit by exercising everyday.

At first, I was really lazy at exercising but once the days passed by, it became more and more of a habit of mine.

My assigned nursemaid was a girl named Luisa. Though she's very naive and easily gets intimidated by my confidence despite my age, she's really fun to talk to. I found out recently that Luisa and the other maids have found me...peculiar.

Though I should have tended to cry and argue with them like a normal two year old would, I would instead converse with them and even do chores if they let me. If I could right now, I would have laughed at them for being quite clueless.

I put back the book I borrowed yesterday. Since I came to this world, I had found quite a few strange things. One was that the books here and the books from my previous life were very, if not completely, different.

Instead of history books talking about King Arthur reigning over the Romans, it talks about the lineage of the Septimius Royalty and the Houses. It intrigues me so much that I had already finished reading the entire library of the western area.

Even though my father has completely ignored me and my mother would especially try her best to avoid me, being a daughter of a Duke has its perks. Especially the wide variety of interesting books at the house of where I and my mother lives. If there are four libraries in this home alone, how much more is there in my father's main mansion, I wonder ?

I do appreciate my maids very much. They even took the time to look for books fit for a two year old such as myself but with just one flip, I had already finished the whole picture book. My maids didn't take long in finding out I could already large and especially not picture-related books.

"Miss Rein-sama, are you sure your just two years old ?" Luisa's friends at the kitchen would sometimes ask me. I would just shrug and hop away to do either exercise or read books, making them more confused with my unclear response.

Mother would always look at me in pain every time our eyes meet and I would feel a pang of what might seem like hurt every time she avoids me when clearly I was in front of her. I heard from the chatter at the maids once is that my father was paying more attention to her second wife than mother, causing me to worry for her. I know for sure my mother had fallen in love and might still is in love with Duke Dean, my father.

I have to confess, mother seemed to go pale every time my and her maids talk about father without noticing she was indeed listening to their chatter. That was the reason I had that solid resolve in making her life easier and livelier. Every time I finished a book, I would, without a doubt, go towards my mother and sit with her to talk about the book I recently read.

If I would be lucky, I would catch a glimpse of a smile on her face but it would always disappear before I could look at it properly. Sigh~ my life is really going to be hard after the Mana and IQ Ceremony. I wonder if Catherine is also nervous about the Mana and IQ Ceremony ?

Now that I think about it, I haven't met my sister at all since my father left mother at the day of my birth. Well, hopefully Catherine isn't also as nervous as me.

For now, let's just try to make mother happy !