IPAHW 06

Chapter : 06 I’m Experienced, You Know (1)

Two years passed after that.

You could say they slipped by in a blur, but an infant’s life of eating and sleeping was so simple that time seemed to pass even faster.

Crawling, sitting up, wriggling around until I fell asleep…

Trying it with a baby’s body that had no muscles, it was basically the life of an athlete.

I squeezed every bit of strength out of my entire body, so I had to fall asleep as if I’d fainted every day.

Really, babies do everything with all their might—they eat with all their might, move with all their might, and sleep with all their might.

‘Never say babies have it easy ever again.’

The results were insignificant, but emotionally I felt like an athlete who had won a medal.

A life of exercising until I collapsed from exhaustion every single day…

Since the only thing I could do was move this short, weak little body, I kept myself busy.

The one thing that made that simple and boring life bearable was my healing power.

Away with mobiles.

Away with simple, repetitive mobiles.

From now on, it was the age of healing clay…!

For two years, I had nothing else I could do (put that way, it sounds pretty pathetic), so I played with this new toy until it practically wore out.

I gathered it in my hands and kneaded it.

Sometimes I shaped it into a bear and hugged it for no reason.

Every fine-motor exercise I needed during that period was done with healing clay.

It clumped together when touched, like glitter-covered slime, and felt like kneaded dough, making it perfect for hand exercises.

Brain development and fine-motor development!

Two birds with one stone!

Thanks to Bailey, Maria, Ella, my parents, and everyone else around me staying healthy, I never had a chance to test the healing abilities of the clay itself.

However, I had become capable of gathering the clusters of light using even a tiny amount of qi.

Filling my entire playroom with clay was now easy.

Once, I deliberately tried gathering as much as I could.

But after covering the entire mansion, the feeling became so strange that I stopped.

The amount of clay used to heal Mother had only been about half of my playroom.

So I had grown quite a bit.

‘Calling it qi feels a little weird, but I don’t have anything else to call it.’

A power that welled up from inside my body.

Something invisible.

I knew my naming sense was terrible, but since I didn’t know the proper term, I couldn’t help it.

The healing seemed to come from the power of the clay gathered through qi, and I didn’t know enough about it to describe it any other way.

My healing power apparently wasn’t divine power or magic power.

It seemed to be something else entirely.

‘Mother is a gifted person.’

As it turned out, Mother was a famous mage.

Ever since the day I poured those clusters of light into her and then fell asleep, she had tried to uncover the nature of my power.

She secretly conducted research through acquaintances.

The result?

Nobody knew.

‘Maybe it’s because I’m a reincarnator.’

That was the only explanation I could think of.

Perhaps it was an ability I gained when I recovered my memories after nearly dying.

But I couldn’t exactly tell anyone that, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

‘I thought this was magic, but apparently not.’

Embarrassing.

Mother seemed worried that my power might require some kind of sacrifice from me.

But all I used was a tiny bit of qi.

‘Judging from how I fell asleep that time, it probably uses some stamina too.’

Still, if I could spend a little of my stamina to heal other people, wasn’t that an amazing deal?

I was already three years old.

Two years and six months since my birth!

I had been reborn as a baby, but thanks to the dignity of being an experienced veteran, I had smoothly cleared crawling, standing up, and even running!

And at this moment—

‘I want to test it!’

I was itching to get out!

I sprang to my feet.

Well, that was only the image in my head.

In reality, I slowly pushed myself up.

Hey, safety comes first…

Step one: place both hands on the floor and straighten my legs.

Step two: lift my butt and stand up!

You just had to connect the motions naturally.

‘My head is still too big for me to jump straight up…’

Such was the tragedy of being a three-heads-tall child.

Ella noticed me standing and asked,

“Lady Shana, are you tired of playing with blocks?”

“I dun like dis.”

I poked the wooden blocks I had stacked two levels high.

The tower collapsed with a crash.

Ella murmured regretfully,

“Oh dear. Those blocks were handmade by your father…”

“So I played wif dem. Don’t like dem now.”

My humiliating baby speech…

No matter how hard I tried to pronounce things properly, my clumsy tongue still wouldn’t cooperate.

Back when I was Han Yeon-ah, people used to say I could become a news anchor.

Well, actually, only my father—who absolutely adored his daughter—said that.

“Oh, our Yeon-ah could become a news anchor someday.”

His constant praise still echoed vividly in my heart.

“Then shall I read you a book?”

“You always read baby books!”

“Not at all. This is a very interesting fairy tale!”

“…You already read dat one. I know it all.”

I stared at Ella with cold eyes.

Strict nanny Bailey, adorable youngest maid Maria, and meticulous, kind Ella.

Aside from my parents, they were the people I knew best in this world.

In fact, I had spent more time with them than with my parents.

Avoiding my chilly gaze, Ella said,

“Then perhaps an adventure story…”

“I memorized dat too. I can recite it myself.”

I was sick of every story that began with “A long, long time ago.”

Exactly when was that long ago?

What year?

When were the characters born and when did they die?

Even knowing they were fairy tales, they sounded absurd.

But the fairy tales in this world were on another level.

Fantasy was the default here.

Adventure stories added a spoonful of exaggeration from Chinese martial arts movies.

Then another spoonful.

Then another.

Oops, spilled the whole bowl!

That level of exaggeration.

Still, surprisingly, the stories Ella softly read beside my bed were a great help in understanding this world.

A story about dragons made me think a princess would be kidnapped.

Instead, it ended with:

“And so, deep within the Kalanipa Mountain Range, the dragon’s bones still remain.”

A story about elves made me think they were just forest fairies.

Nope.

Actual elves lived in the forests.

And in a dwarf story, someone proudly declared,

“This is a genuine dwarf-made item!”

The more I listened, the harder it became to tell what was real and what was fiction.

Eventually, I wanted to know the truth.

So dragons really exist?

Where do they live?

Exactly where is this forest full of elves?

Bring me a map.

You say dwarves made it?

Then where’s the certificate of authenticity?

Can people tell at a glance whether something is dwarf-made?

Isn’t that a scam?

And beastfolk exist too, right?

Does every animal have a beastfolk version?

Even rare animals?

Can they transform freely?

‘If only I could ask all of that.’

In reality, all I could manage was:

“So dragons are reaw?”

And that was the end of the conversation.

Sigh…

‘Ella and Maria laughed so hard that I refused to talk for two days afterward…’

Honestly, that hadn’t been very mature of me.

“Our Lady Shana is so clever…”

“I don’t want praise. I want magic…”

I was curious!

Curious enough to die!

I had been born into a world where magic actually existed!

My own mother was a mage!

So why did I have to live without ever even seeing magic?

Forget learning it.

I hadn’t even gotten to watch it!

“No. The Madam specifically instructed us never to give you difficult books.”

“That’s so mean…”

I puffed out my lips and grumbled.

Ella looked like she was about to burst into laughter.

She was only holding it in because she thought it might hurt my feelings.

She could laugh if she wanted.

I was an adult.

Something like that wouldn’t wound my pride.

“Besides, even if we gave them to you, we couldn’t read them. We wouldn’t understand them, and we can’t read rune language anyway.”

“Ugh…”

I was studying letters, but I lacked learning materials.

I hated fairy tales.

I was bored to death of them.

‘Does this place not have any culture of advanced learning?’

There was a highly motivated student right here!

Why wasn’t anyone teaching me?

Across both my past and present lives, I had never wanted to study as badly as I did now.

Besides, this new body seemed naturally intelligent.

Thanks to a brain that memorized things after seeing them only once, I quickly learned this world’s writing system as well.

Of course, being able to recognize and read letters was different from reading them aloud…

Still, I had learned all of it on my own while listening to fairy tales.

Nobody had taught me.

Good thing I was smart…

Perhaps because my dejected mood worried her, kind-hearted Ella studied my face.

“If you’re really that curious, why not ask your father yourself, Lady Shana?”

“Daddy?”

“If it’s a request from you, he’ll never be able to refuse.”

Ella whispered.

Perhaps embarrassed by the childish advice—which sounded more like something Maria would say—her cheeks turned slightly red.

“But…”

Father would never do anything Mother disliked.

What if they ended up fighting because of me?

“And if you tell Madam that you’re just too curious about magic, she won’t be able to refuse either.”

“…Really?”

“Of course! I guarantee it!”

If it were Maria’s guarantee, I’d ignore it.

But Ella’s guarantee sounded trustworthy.

“If Lady Shana smiles and says just one thing—‘Daddy, I wanna see Shana!’”

“…No…”

Three years into baby life.

Using cuteness to get my way was absolutely unacceptable!

I had adult pride, after all…

Still, the suggestion to approach Father instead of Mother made sense.

“Where’s Daddy?”

“If it’s now, he’s probably in his study.”

“Mhm. I’m going!”

“Wait, Lady Shana! Let me come with—”

“By myself!”

“No, you can’t!”

“Don’t follow me! Don’t, okay?”

“Oh dear…”

Ella stayed seated and simply waved at me.

She knew that anywhere in this mansion, I would be perfectly safe.

Ever since I learned to walk and run, the entire mansion had become my playground.

This was all my territory.

I was the baby who ruled this domain…

‘I can run!’

The joy of running on my own two feet!

Now that I was three years old, I truly understood how precious this simple act was.

If you knew the frustration of wanting to stand and walk but being unable to do so, you couldn’t help feeling grateful.

With solemn determination, I took a step forward.

Squeak!

Ah, come on.

Why does this world have squeaky shoes too?!