I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess – Chapter 1

When Choi Seonwoo Closes His Eyes

When Seonwoo, the man, closed his eyes for the last time and opened them again, he was greeted by the sight of a new world.

As a newborn, all he could do was cry, cradled in the arms of a lady.

The outfit around him didn’t resemble anything from his previous modern world.

Medieval? Modern? Without any historical knowledge, his confusion only deepened.

“You’re the firstborn of the Billhark family.”

The man who introduced himself as Ransel Billhark proudly declared.

Billhark family? Hearing that unfamiliar name made him cry again.

Where on earth was this place, and who was he? It took a while to unravel those questions.

When he turned two and learned to walk quite well, he met a girl one day.

He learned the name of the child, who could only babble like him, through the bystanders.

Ariel Robeheim. The moment he heard that seven-letter name, something intense flashed through Edgar’s mind.

‘Ariel Robeheim?’

Back when he was still Choi Seonwoo, it was a name he had carelessly overheard.

He remembered it as a character from a romance fantasy novel.

That character was a supporting role destined to meet a tragic end at a young age. Despite not being the main character, she was quite popular, and he had caught snippets of her story.

However, unfortunately for him, he wasn’t into romance fantasy novels, so he had never read that particular work properly.

Why had he been brought to this world, considering he didn’t even have an interest in it?

‘It’s gotta be a curse.’

There was simply no other way this could have happened.

Initially, the main route for transmigration in the web novels he typically read involved the story going off the rails. If you posted angry comments about it, you’d get sucked into that world. Most stories revolved around this concept.

So why had he strayed from that mold?

In his previous world, he had consumed countless works. If he were to list them all, he could talk for days on end.

To end up in a world from a story he had never even seen the content of was quite a bizarre twist of fate.

‘Why on earth did I end up in this kind of world…’

He was someone who got along quite well with the conveniences of civilization.

He had no reason to be thrilled about a world without smartphones, TVs, or computers.

Sure, if it were a world from a novel he often read, he might consider it an adventure, but being in a world he couldn’t care less about felt like adding salt to an open wound.

‘I’m grateful to be given a second shot at life, but this is just wrong.’

While Edgar lamented in his two-year-old form, Ariel, cradled in her mother’s arms, suddenly reached out toward him.

She reached out with all her might, but how far could the arms of a two-year-old really stretch?

Yet the fact that her hand was directed at him made Edgar tilt his head slightly.

‘What is this?’

Could it be that there’s some sort of camaraderie among babies?

He couldn’t possibly remember the time he was a two-year-old in his first life, and since it was his second life, he had no grasp of the perspective or thoughts of a little child.

Naturally, he couldn’t fathom the meaning behind Ariel’s actions.

“Pa-!”

‘Is she asking me to catch her?’

Ariel, while still in her mother’s arms, flailed her tiny hand like a little orphan trying to reunite with family.

She was adorably cute, to the point where he felt like biting her cheek.

‘Here you go.’

Even if his mind was that of an adult, his body was still that of a two-year-old.

Though he thought he was being generous and extended his hand, he still couldn’t reach Ariel’s.

He kicked his legs as if trying to leap out but was pulled back into his mother’s embrace by Katria, his mother, thwarting his attempts.

“Daah-!”

Edgar protested as vigorously as he could.

Yet, due to his oral structure or perhaps some other reason, even though he thought he was expressing himself well, all that came out was the same unintelligible babbling as Ariel.

“Oh, now that won’t do. It would be rude to the young lady.”

‘Ah.’

He initially thought that his mother was worried he might move outside her grasp, but it seemed she was preventing him from making any contact due to Ariel’s status.

Only then did Edgar realize how significant the tiny girl in front of him, who couldn’t even speak properly, truly was.

‘So, the grand family really is grand.’

It was unlikely for parents to rush in and stop babies from playing together unless there was a significant class difference.

‘Our family is supposedly a baron’s household. Sure is a huge gap.’

While he didn’t know the exact difference in nobility levels, he had heard that there was a significant gap even between count and baron families.

Among these, Ariel was a young lady of the Duchy, the highest rank after the supreme ruler of the nation.

It seemed he would need to act with caution from now on.

‘What if we were playing and I accidentally hit her…? Ugh, I shudder at the thought.’

The moment he caused even a scratch, would his parents and all of their relatives be wiped out?

Perhaps even distant relatives might vanish overnight.

As chilling thoughts raced through his mind, Edgar trembled and burrowed deeper into Katria’s embrace.

“Katria, let the kids play. The mothers could enjoy tea together and have a chat, right?”

Helene, the matriarch of the Robeheim family, who had been observing Edgar and her daughter alternately, suggested readily.

Katria, uneased by the thought of potential mishaps, was cautious and hesitated to respond.

“However…”

“If we ask the maids to watch over them for a bit, it should be fine. After all, children grow while playing with other children.”

“If you say so… very well.”

The Billhark family was a vassal of the Robeheim family. It was a lord-vassal relationship.

Knowing it would be more impolite to add any more to her statement, Katria eventually bowed her head in acceptance and had no choice but to put her son down on the carpet.

‘Mother, why on earth are you bringing my only son into this situation?’

With a gaze heavy with mixed emotions as she walked away, Katria left Edgar to watch her fading figure like a stray puppy.

The soft touch of the carpet against his bottom as he sat felt oddly like sitting on a hot iron.

And there was Ariel, placed down on the opposite side, looking over at him.

Once their eyes met, she let out a loud “Pa-!” and hurriedly crawled toward him on all fours.

‘She is indeed cute.’

Though not the heroine, she certainly looked the part of a girl in a romance fantasy novel.

At just two years old, her sharp features stood out more prominently than Edgar’s future seemed to.

‘Alright, let’s think positively.’

Since it had come to this, he might as well play with the duchess’s daughter and score some points.

Who knows? Perhaps Helene would speak highly of his actions to her husband later on, and as a by-product, the Billhark family would receive some small favor.

After all, if one wishes to capture a foe, one must first strike up a conversation.

“Daah!”

“Pa-?”

What could babies possibly be interested in?

There could be countless opinions, but Edgar was sure of one solid truth.

‘Shiny things are the best.’

Of course, being a duchess’s daughter, she might have been surrounded by gold and jewels since birth, but that was likely only for about a year.

Moreover, newborns tend to be more interested in unfamiliar things over those they see all the time.

Edgar fiddled with the small pendant around his neck, which he had received from his father, Ransel, shortly after his birth.

He had heard it was enchanted with a special magic, though he didn’t know much about it.

At that moment, it merely served as a toy to pacify the precious princess.

“Daah, daah!”

“Pa-!”

As if saying she wanted him to hurry and give it to her, he waved the pendant in the air, and Ariel eagerly snatched it.

It seemed his thoughts were indeed correct.

Edgar beamed, observing her twist and turn the pendant with satisfaction.

Her tiny hands fiddling with it looked rather like she was playing with clay.

– Splash.

“Pba, bweh…!”

“Daah!?”

But the peaceful moment didn’t last long.

While toying with the pendant’s string, Ariel suddenly shoved it into her mouth.

Edgar, in a panic, screamed—perhaps it was just babbling—and desperately yanked the pendant with both hands.

“Daah!”

And then came a fierce reprimand.

Though to an outsider it looked more like a childish tantrum, Ariel, hearing it, seemed incredibly shocked.

Her face stiffened, as if time had frozen for a moment, and then her chubby cheeks trembled.

‘Oh no.’

Instinctively realizing something had gone wrong, Edgar sensed the imminent disaster.

The scene from three seconds later began to play out hazily in his mind, and a cold sweat dripped down his back.

Time ticked away another three seconds,

“Paah—!”

As predicted, Ariel began wailing loudly as if the world was ending.

Upon hearing her heart-wrenching cries, the maids on either side and both mothers rushed over.

‘This is it.’

Realizing that his second life, which had barely lasted a year, was about to end, Edgar let go of the pendant.

Unless the magic within present could rewind time a minute back, it seemed he had no hope of living on now.

As Helene’s face began to approach more closely, Edgar’s complexion only grew paler.