The Maid With a Child

Chapter 32. Is That Really a Baby?

 

“Kyahhh!”

The Sigelion estate was noisy again today. Finding the source of the commotion didn’t require much effort.

“An attack?!”

Rakalt and the knights, who had been heading toward the meeting room, immediately turned and rushed toward the master room without hesitation.

They slammed the door open as if to break it down, storming inside—only to freeze at the scene before them.

“H-Help me! Please, save me!”

Adelen’s desperate screams echoed down the hall.

She was wailing not so much like a grown adult, and everyone could understand why.

Given the current situation, it was hard not to.

They, too, might not have outright sobbed, but perhaps a tear or two would have slipped out.

“What in the world… how did this happen?”

Rakalt was the first to recover his senses, as expected. He had experienced this sort of thing far too many times over the past few months.

“Kyahaha! Addu! Wooo!”

While all the adults stood pale-faced, only the baby’s voice rang out joyfully, full of energy.

Squeak, squeak.

There was no swing among the countless toys they had provided. Yet, the sound of a swing echoed through the room.

The ‘swing’ the baby was riding on wasn’t a swing at all—it was the chandelier.

“Baby! Please come down, I beg you!”

Adelen sobbed as she pleaded with the baby. But the baby paid her no attention, instead putting even more effort into swinging.

The chandelier, made of countless crystals, jingled dangerously with each motion.

It was the birth of the world’s most expensive and dangerous swing.

“It doesn’t look like the baby can come down…”

One of the knights murmured blankly as he looked up.

There was no obvious way for the baby to get down. Of course, there was no clear way up either.

The only way down seemed to be falling, but the baby was so stable on the chandelier that it didn’t look like falling was even a possibility.

If anything, the chandelier itself seemed more at risk.¹ My stomach LOL.

If the chandelier fell with the baby on it, it would be disastrous. Its complex structure made it nearly impossible to extract the baby without bringing the whole thing down.

“A ladder! Get a ladder!”

Adelen, who had been the first to witness the scene, also came up with the first solution.

The knights, who had been staring blankly upward, snapped out of their daze at her shout and ran to fetch a ladder.

But before the ladder could arrive, the chandelier began to creak ominously.

The baby, with its tiny body, was rocking it so vigorously that it seemed as though a typhoon had hit the room.

The ceiling, which had been supporting the heavy chandelier, started to give way, making creaking noises as debris fell.

Adelen’s face turned pale.

For a split second, she even considered climbing up to the ceiling herself.

“Move aside,” Rakalt ordered.

He pushed the knights and Adelen back and sprinted toward the wall.

“!?”

There was no time to be surprised.

Rakalt grabbed a protrusion in the wall, pulled himself up, and leaped for the windowsill.

From there, he swung himself toward a support beam connected to the chandelier, grabbing hold of one of the ropes.

With a swift, calculated movement, he swung through the air, narrowly brushing past the chandelier, and extended his arm to grab the baby.²Reading this, I am now really wondering how the baby got there.

“Uwaaah!”

The baby, still holding tightly onto the chandelier, resisted with all its might.

But the baby was no match for Rakalt’s strength.

The baby was pulled away, leaving the chandelier to wobble precariously.

Fortunately, it didn’t fall.

Rakalt then landed safely beneath the wildly swinging chandelier.

“Uwaaah! Nyehhh! Kyaaah!”

The baby, upset at having its playtime interrupted, angrily smacked Rakalt on the shoulder and arm.

Despite its tiny fists, which were barely a fraction of an adult’s, the blows landed with audible thuds.

Adelen rushed forward, stunned, and scooped the baby into her arms.

“Baby! Calm down, please, calm down.”

She pressed the baby’s face into her chest, holding it tightly.

The baby, still fuming, let out sharp cries but didn’t lash out at Adelen. Instead, he burrowed into her arms, wriggling and flailing in frustration.

“Oh dear…”

Adelen sighed, holding the baby tightly in her arms.

Though the baby was far from fully grown, Adelen already felt her strength waning.

From wrestling with the baby’s sheer energy to dealing with the new disasters he created daily, every day was a challenge.

“I only looked away for a moment to clean up the diaper… How could you climb up there in such a short time? And how did you even manage to get up there in the first place?”

No matter how she looked at it, it was ultimately her own lack of attention that had caused the chaos.

Adelen hung her head low, half-explaining and half-complaining.

“What happened? Is everything alright?”

The head butler arrived late, hauling a ladder and shouting in a panic.

Seeing that the situation had already been resolved, he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“…Looks like it’s over. What broke this time?”

“Nothing broke—well, it almost did.”

“What almost broke?”

“The chandelier…”

“The chandelier? How? Did he throw a desk at it or something?”

From the head butler’s serious tone and expression, Rakalt realized he wasn’t joking.

The man genuinely believed the baby might have hurled a desk at the chandelier. What on earth had been happening while he’d been preoccupied with other matters?

To be fair, Rakalt had been busy lately, and Adelen had grown skilled enough at babysitting that he hadn’t felt the need to check in often.

But in that time, what exactly had occurred? No—how had the baby been growing? Or rather… was that even a baby?

“Aduweh! Yahweh!”

The baby now babbled in a way that almost mimicked human speech.

As if trying to make a point, he pushed against Adelen’s chest.

“Eek!”

Caught off guard and drained of energy, Adelen stumbled and accidentally let go of the baby.

With astonishing agility, the baby slid down Adelen’s body and crawled toward the wall. Or was it running? Everyone rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

The baby moved on all fours, but the speed was comparable to running.

His limbs moved so quickly that the floor made a rapid tat-tat-tat-tat sound beneath it. Reaching the wall, the baby began to climb it.

Following the exact path Rakalt had taken earlier, the baby climbed up the wall with determined effort, mimicking his movements.

While Rakalt had merely used the wall as leverage, the baby scrambled up with unrelenting energy, inch by inch.

“So that’s… how he got up there…”

Dumbfounded, no one even thought to stop the baby. They simply stood frozen, staring.

When the baby’s tiny hand finally reached the chandelier’s rope near the ceiling, Rakalt stepped forward again and pulled the baby down.

“Kyaaa!”

The baby let out a fierce wail, clearly displeased.

“We’ll need to remove the chandelier soon.”

The head butler remarked, glancing up at it.

He nodded gravely, completely serious.

“I’ll also trim the edges of the windows,” he added.

“That’s a good idea.”

Rakalt agreed with equal weight.

The head butler set the ladder aside and began picking up fragments scattered across the floor.

These weren’t pieces of the chandelier but remnants of what used to be toys.

Despite providing countless toys, none lasted more than three days. Thankfully, the Sigelion family was wealthy, and Rakalt was far from stingy.

Still, constantly replacing toys was a hassle.

The real problem was that the baby didn’t particularly enjoy playing with the toys.

“He seems to prefer breaking them rather than playing with them.”

Adelen muttered.

“…Guess you can’t escape your bloodline.”

Rakalt replied, clicking his tongue as he looked down at the baby.

The baby, now yelling rather than crying, bore a striking resemblance to his parents.

“With both parents being exceptional warriors, there’s no way their child would be weak.”

“Wait… even the mother’s side?”

“The mother was actually scarier.”

That meant even General Kias was included on the mother’s side.

If the lord, who could hold his own against that formidable general, admitted the mother was terrifying, just how strong was she?

And now this baby, who seemed to have inherited all of that strength, was bound to grow even wilder.

Adelen weakly waved her hands.

“I’m not sure… if I’ll be able to keep up with this baby in the future…”

The next 10 chapters will be done by Rumi. Enjoy~