Three months after my birthday my younger sister was born... and was then promptly shoved of into the arms of Maddie like I was.

'This careless woman,' I thought as I stared into the bassinet at the pink wrinkled face of my younger sister.

Maddie looked at this action smiling fondly.

"Lady Veronica is very cute is she not?" She asked me.

"Mmh," I answered noncommittally whole stroking her smooth chubby cheek.

Veronica... Veronica...

Yet again I was assaulted by the feeling that there was something that I ought to remember as I turned her name over and over in my mind.

She gave me a toothless grin making the corner of my mouth twitch.

My days continued like this for four more years. I amassed a wealth of knowledge about the world yet couldn't learn magic. Now that I calmed down and thought about it, it would be strange for a full-fledged knight to still have beginners books on magic in his library, huh?

Veronica learned to sit up, stand crawl and walk. Eventually she was following me everywhere like a baby chick. In the absence of our mother I basically raised her. I feared that if I simply left her be, she'd be spoiled until she became a carbon copy of the mother. The thought was too much to bear. I did raise a daughter before in my past life, so I at least knew what I was doing.

As I watched over Ronnie, I often wondered how Aki, my daughter, coped with my death. Did she come home from club activities to see her father in that kind of mad state? If so, I hope she stayed away from him. In life I made sure to outline specific guidelines for her in the case that anything happened to me.

I do hope she's alright without me.

Over the next four years our father got busier and busier and busier until he spent hardly any time at home at all. When he was home, he was so haggard he could barely keep his eyes open, yet he still dropped by to play with his children.

He came all the way there despite being tired, so I decided to allow him to hug me even though his unshaven face was scratchy.

It seemed that the sudden rise in work for father had to do with a sudden increase in demon beast activity near the border of some of the smaller countries as well as our own forests and mountain ranges.

The Knights Order was being bombarded by a never-ending stream of monster subjugation requests that even the mercenary guild had its hands full with them.

Even so... He looked tired...

The whole situation just filled me with dread somehow.

My worries were proven not unfounded when half a year before my seventh birthday a message arrived at the Onyx household declaring that the master of the house, Shunsuke Onyx, died in a monster subjugation attempt after being poisoned by a Chimera.

This message was met with absolute silence by the family and staff. No one moved a muscle and only stared blankly at the haggard looking knights who'd delivered the message. Finally, Maddie fainted. This seemed to break the dam as a cacophony of choked sobs and mournful wails rang out from the servants, some of which fell listlessly to their knees.

It finally sunk in that the only proper parental figure I'd had in two lifetimes had died an agonizing death.

I could feel my lower lip tremble and that shocked me. I'd never mourned for anything in either of my lifetimes but now...

I managed to pull it together of course. If not for myself I had to at least stay firm for Veronica who was now being affected by the everyone else's gloom despite being naïve about what was really going on. She looked at me in pure confusion and panic as her crimson eyes began to swim in tears.

The Knights looked at me peculiarly, but it is to be expected after seeing a six year old standing steadfast and calmly among a sea of people mourning the death of his father.

But I couldn't break down now. Someone had to be level-headed enough to calm everyone else down.

I thanked the Knights politely and sent them on their way still throwing peculiar glances at me.

That night after everyone had retired to their rooms listlessly with a great atmosphere of depression and the odd choked sob and wail, I made sure to promise Ronnie to explain what happened in morning before tucking her in.

I them slipped quietly into his study to sit in his chair with one of the story books clutched close to my chest. Something wet plopped into my lap but it was simply my imagination...