Magnus felt a small pang of disappointment as he watched his mother tuck him into bed and then tend to his little sister instead. But as someone who considered himself a grown man, he knew jealousy over his sister was beneath him.
His younger sibling, a few years his junior, was the last addition to their family.
Magnus had been born into the noble house of Sellendor. His father belonged to the class of local barons and merchants. He had an older brother and an older sister, and his parents were still in their thirties, having married quite young.
The eldest was his brother, and also the sibling Magnus saw the least. Since he was destined to succeed their father as baron, he was being educated at the residence of the Duke, the lord of this region and their father's liege, where he received intensive training for the role that awaited him.
As for his sister, although she underwent the rigorous training in ethics and noble customs expected of every aristocratic girl, she never passed up an opportunity to spend time with Magnus.
Magnus would have described himself, putting it as mildly as possible, as perhaps a bit too clingy where she was concerned.
"Sweetheart, would you keep an eye on your sister? I need to go welcome the arriving guests," said his mother, pulling Magnus from his thoughts.
"All right, Mother..."
In response to her son's flat reply, the woman leaned down and kissed Magnus on the head, then settled the baby girl she had been holding beside him. She straightened her dress and, before leaving the room, told the servant at the door to keep watch over the children.
The woman's name was Elara. Even before she had come to the Sellendor household as a bride, everyone around her had agreed that she more than deserved the grace the name carried.
She was tall, fair-skinned, and every gesture she made flowed as though it had been rehearsed years in advance. She had golden hair and blue eyes, and possessed a beauty and a figure well above the ordinary.
When the door closed, the room seemed to expand around him. Magnus turned to his little sister. The baby was reaching for the air with her chubby hands, watching her brother with wide, curious eyes. She was just two and a half years old, and her name was Rina.
Magnus stood up and climbed down from the bed. A nearby servant stepped forward immediately to help him, but Magnus waved off the offer and got down on his own.
The servant received Magnus's refusal with a small measure of surprise but said nothing. For people of their station, children climbing out of bed by themselves was not something you saw every day.
He then noticed his little sister following behind, imitating him as she clambered down from the bed in turn.
He turned to the servant. She was a young woman, her hair pulled back tightly, her hands always clasped neatly in front of her.
"Would you bring Rina's pacifier?" said Magnus, his tone more of a request than a command.
The woman had long grown accustomed to Magnus being more mature than other children his age, even though he was only five. His request, therefore, came as no surprise to her.
"Right away, young master."
As the sound of her footsteps faded, Magnus turned back to Rina.
Rina was staring at Magnus's socks. Then at her own tiny feet. Then at Magnus's socks again. She seemed to be trying to work out the difference between the two.
Magnus wondered what was going through her mind. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps something. No one could ever truly know what passed through the mind of a two-and-a-half-year-old.
"Come on," Magnus said quietly. "Shall we take a little walk?"
Rina lifted her head. She had large, deep blue eyes, inherited from their mother, and in them there was always a spark, as though she had just discovered something a moment ago.
"Walk...? Yey!"
When Magnus began to walk, Rina walked too.
The manor took on a different character at this hour.
When guests arrived in the morning, the corridors would come to life: voices multiplied and everything moved with a sense of purpose.
But now, just before noon, the long hallways were nearly silent. The thick walls kept the interior cool, and the chandeliers hanging from the high ceilings stood as though they meant to gather light rather than scatter it.
Magnus walked slowly. He knew Rina's steps could not match his pace. Each time he turned to look, he found her a few steps behind: sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, but always with her eyes on him.
She reminded him of a duckling.
After making his way through the corridors, Magnus finally stopped and pushed open a door, stepping inside. His sister and her tutor were within. His sister had the same black hair as he did, but her eyes were purple.
Her name was Selene.
She sat up straight at the head of the table, facing her tutor. The tutor was an older woman, her back like a wall, her eyes always measuring something. Her name was Madam Mira, and she had come to the Sellendor household before Magnus was even born.
Magnus paused before the door was fully open.
Selene raised her head. Her purple eyes found Magnus, then Rina standing behind him. A wide smile broke across her face at once, the way a small girl with a sweet tooth might look when presented with her favourite pastry.
"I believe that will be quite enough for today, young miss," said Madam Mira.
She then gathered the materials she had prepared for the lesson into her bag and rose to leave.
"Until next time. Do take care of yourself," Selene replied as Madam Mira made her way out of the room.
She then leaned forward and scooped up her little sister, who had toddled over to her. In the meantime, Magnus climbed up onto the chair across from her, managing it with some effort, but once seated he found he could not see anything from that angle, so he stood up on the chair instead.
He looked with interest at the books on the table.
In this world, books were expensive things. Especially those of genuine value, which were difficult to come by. But Magnus's father was a merchant with a particular fondness for books, which was why the manor had a small library of its own.
"You are quite the curious one, aren't you, dear?" said Selene.
Magnus shrugged without looking up from the book. Curiosity, for him, was not a choice but an unavoidable impulse. From the very first moment he had arrived in this world, he had been trying to make sense of everything.
"If I am not curious, I cannot learn," he said in a plain tone. There was no childish stubbornness in his voice; he sounded more like someone stating a long-accepted truth.
Selene laughed softly at the answer. Her eyes lingered on her brother as she stroked Rina's hair, and in that gaze there was both amusement and a quiet, measured attention. She had noticed that Magnus was not like other children; her brother was what one might fairly call a prodigy.
"These books might be a little advanced for you," she said gently. "But if you like, I can have some simpler ones brought to you."
Magnus finally looked up. His eyes met his sister's directly. A brief silence followed. For a small child, his gaze was composed to a degree it had no business being.
"We won't know until we try." he replied.
Selene's smile widened a little further this time. She seemed to enjoy answers like that. Perhaps Magnus's strange maturity was a small amusement for her amid the tedium of her lessons.
Rina, meanwhile, had slipped free of Selene's arm and stretched toward the table. Her small fingers touched the pages of the open book. The pages rustled faintly. Rina startled, then her eyes lit up. She touched them again, this time with more deliberate intent.
Magnus watched her. Seeing how even the smallest thing could become a discovery for a child was, in a strange way, calming.
"Shall I set her down?" Selene asked.
"No need," said Magnus. "Let her try."
Selene raised her eyebrows slightly but did not object. Rina gripped the edge of the table and tried to pull herself up to standing. She wobbled for a moment, then tried again. Her tiny feet trembled, but she would not give up.
Magnus leaned forward a little from where he stood on the chair. He was close enough to catch her if she fell.
Rina finally managed to get to her feet. She looked around as though she had just won a great victory. Then she turned toward Magnus directly. She took one step, then another.
On the third step, she stumbled.
Magnus instinctively reached out and caught her. Rina let out a small sound but did not cry. Instead, she looked up at his face and responded with a senseless little grin.
Selene had been watching the scene in silence. This time there was a different expression in her eyes. It was a look that made no effort to conceal the weight of the love she carried for the child in her arms.
She straightened slowly, drew Rina back into her lap and buried her face in the little girl's hair. She took a long breath, as though the very presence of that small body was enough to settle her.
"You little witch... I am going to gobble you up!" She shouted as she kissed her little sister on the neck and played with her.
Rina responded to the sudden attention with a delighted sound and reached up to grab at Selene's hair, tugging at it. Selene showed not the slightest sign of discomfort. If anything, she held on tighter.
Magnus watched the scene in silence and caught himself smiling without having meant to. The smile did not stay on his face for long.
The past had crept in, as it so often did, and settled quietly into a corner of his mind.
In his previous life, he had been an only child. Or rather, he had had a sibling, but the child had died young in a traffic accident. His parents had never been the same after that.
Before long, his mother had left them. He had been left alone with his father, who had since surrendered himself to drinking.
It was during those years that he had joined the military academy, partly to escape and partly because it was simply what he had wanted.
Magnus blinked softly and deliberately scattered his thoughts. Selene was still holding Rina close. The little girl's laughter was spreading through the room, filling the space between the heavy stone walls with an unexpected warmth.
On Selene's face there was an almost childlike joy; there was no trace of the composed, measured young lady from her lessons.
"Magnus! Would you like to share this sweet little bun with me?" she asked, nodding toward Rina, who lay beaming in the crook of her arm.
Magnus smiled and climbed up onto the table, joining his siblings' game without hesitation.
This world was different from that one. No, it was he who was different now. He had been given a second chance, and a second family.
It was a second chance given so that he could savour moments like these, and so that, when the time came and it was asked of him, he could protect them.
This was a chance he had never been able to have in his previous life.