She was laying in the crib, going over her situation to try to calm herself down. She just woke up from a nap, which happened to be about the last thing that happened in her past life. She already knew she had been reborn, but forgot because the dream was that realistic.
A young lady came over and looked into the crib.
“Princess! Are you all right?” she heard the sudden scream from earlier and rushed over to check up on her. Was she really that loud? But then again, with a room so quiet practically anything would sound loud.
There was a knock on the door and the young lady quickly walked over to open it.
“Your Majesty!” the lady exclaims. With a closer look, She notices that she’s wearing a rather odd dress, looks old fashioned. It seems she’s caught on to having been reborn into the past. Wait, did she call her "Princess?". The lady moves to the side and bows before the woman she previously called "Her Majesty".
“I apologize for having come unannounced.” She says. Is this her mother? I mean, why else would such an important person come to see a mere baby?
“Please don’t apologize, Your Majesty. I personally think her highness, the princess, couldn’t wait to see you.” The lady says. She’s actually been with her for quite a while. That must mean that lady would be her nanny.
“You’re too kind. Come on Michail, don’t you want to see her?” Her Majesty looked below to her side. A little boy was behind her, using the bottom of her dress as a way to hide himself.
“Is that Aikaterinia?” he asked, looking at the crib further in the room. The lady nodded, confirming his suspicion, and he ran over to the crib. The nanny’s face drowned in worry. Seeing the prince run over made her worry he was going to fall, and in the process tip over the crib, making the princess fall as well.
The Empress, Her Majesty, giggles when seeing the short lasting chaos. Michail, the prince, is leaning over the crib, staring at Aikaterinia.
She can’t help but notice his distinctive features. His hair is a bright silver with a golden hue that makes it seem like you’re looking at the stars through his hair. His eyes had the colors of an alexandrite gem.
“..I get it, I’m cute. Now stop staring at me like that!” was what crossed Aikaterinia's mind. She was getting kind of uncomfortable, and because of her baby-instincts she started tearing up. Michail lifts his hand up and reaches down into the crib. The Empress starts approaching the crib as well, and observes the exchanges between the princess and the prince with warm eyes. The nanny however, is standing behind her, almost about to fall over from worry.
Right before Aikaterinia starts whining, she completely freezes. A soft touch reached her nose.
“..boop.” Michail poked her nose. He didn’t think it would actually work. The Empress and nanny also came to a stop. Aikaterinia was completely still. Michail thought right then that he was an expert with babies, but the real reason was that Aikaterinia was frozen from confusion. Why did he poke her nose? It was such a random move that she immediately forgot why she was about to start crying.
The Empress moves over and lifts up Aikaterinia.
“Up we go” Aikaterinia thought to herself. But right at the moment where she was placed comfortably in her arms, another knock was heard on the door, followed by a man opening it.
“Your Highness, Your Majesty, it is time for your departure.” A man said, probably the butler of the palace.
“departure? they just arrived here though.” Aikaterinia thought to herself. Was it really all that worth it to come visit her if they’d be leaving that soon? whatever.
“I see. Come on Michail, we have to go now.” The Empress hands over Aikaterinia to the nanny and takes Michail’s hand. Right before they leave, Michail takes a glance backwards and waves to Aikaterinia before stepping out of the room.
“Have a safe trip, Your Majesty and Your Highness.” The nanny says. Bowing, but not too much as to drop Aikaterinia.
◃◇▹
Aikaterinia is crawling on the floor. She’s trying to get around in the room and explore, but it’s rather difficult getting around. The nanny sees her crawling around. While Aikaterinia is doing, well, whatever it is, the nanny takes out a raddle and tries to hand it to her. Aikaterinia seems completely uninterested. When Aikaterinia remembers her past life, it’s difficult to be interested in playing with baby toys. The nanny feels hopeless, what could this child possibly be into?
Aikaterinia continues crawling around the room. She spots something shiny in one of the corners and gets distracted by it. Once she reaches it she realizes it’s a book. The case on the side of the book is engraved in gold. The sunlight hit it just right to be sparkling towards Aikaterinia in the eyes. She tries to pull it out but it’s too heavy for her baby body. The Nanny notices and walks over to her, picking up the book. It’s a rather thick book actually, and the engravings are beautiful after the nanny wiped off the little bit of dust it had collected the past 2 months or so laying there.
“What a pretty book, huh princess?” the nanny said, waving the book with the cover facing outwards. Aikaterinia can’t read the language of this new place she’s found herself in, and she was really curious what this book was about.
“Uua”, The nanny picks up the princess and sits herself down on one of the chairs in the room, with Aikaterinia on her lap. She opens up the book and there are portraits of emperors and empresses throughout history. One particular portrait was of a couple at the very last page. She reaches out to it to get a closer look.
“Do you recognize her, your highness?” the nanny says, lifting up the book to help her get a closer look. “It’s your mother, Her Majesty.”
That was her mother when she was younger? It was an absolutely gorgeous picture. Despite having most of her head covered, you could tell she was a beautiful woman. Her skin was fair, and she had a good figure. She did see her earlier that day, even if it was a short meeting.
If that was her mother, then the man next to her must be her father. She gave the picture a good look, and it occurred to her that her father has never actually come to visit her. She knows that most of the toys in her room are gifts from him though.
There's a text next to the portraits, so she taps her hand on it to signal to her nanny she wants to know what it says.
“The text? It’s the names of your parents, 6th Emperor and Empress, Leander Lovell Bouvardia the second, and Athina Lovell Bouvardia.”
Leander II was named after his grandfather, Leander I, and met the empress when going abroad for his duties back when he was a crown prince.
“my parents..” Aikaterinia thinks to herself. In her past life, her parents died when she was 4 years old. She and her brother were taken in by their mother’s sister. Despite having been treated well when growing up, she always felt the three of them were at a distance. It was nothing but a sad memory.
Aikaterinia violently shakes her head in an attempt to fog the memories of her past life. This made her goal clear. In this new refined life, a second chance, she’s decided to have a happy and close family, where they won't grow a distance between each other because of their social roles.
but if there was one thing she had learned from her past life, it’s that high ranked families tend to create distance. So the fact they’re an imperial family meant she had to give it her all. Just who and when was it decided she had to be reborn into royalty?
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