“Mom.”

No matter how much the three coaxed and fussed, the person Elise liked most was Mom.

“Say Dad. Da. Ddy.”

“Say Elodie. E. Lo. Die.”

“Eric. Eric is the easiest, so you’ll say it first, right?”

Despite the three’s desperate efforts to be the first person Elise would call, her first word after being born had been Mom.

“Yes, Elise will wear whatever Mom puts on her, right?”

Erica, who had stepped back tired of the three’s excessive attention, came forward and efficiently dressed her, and the three people’s contest to dress Elise ended anticlimactically today too.

“Now, let’s go to the temple.”

The four headed to the temple attached to the royal palace. Here, children had to undergo a ceremony of receiving blessings from a priest at the temple on the day they turned one year old.

And the priest presiding over Elise’s blessing ceremony was……

“It’s been a while.”

Hildeon, the most respected Holy Knight Order commander in the kingdom.

“Having the Holy Knight Order commander preside over the baby’s blessing ceremony is an honor, but I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“It’s a good excuse for me. I wanted to come see anyway, but only now did I get the chance.”

To think he could only come here to see his friend’s child with an official excuse. That’s how busy a person Hildeon was. And Elise could truly be called a lucky child.

‘Not just any neighborhood temple priest, but receiving blessings from the Holy Knight Order commander himself.’

Plus Dad was a count, big brother was one of only two ability users in the world, and adopted big sister was the king. Come to think of it, the person who delivered her when she was born was the legendary Grand Mage who defeated a dragon.

Whether Elise knew she was born with an even greater silver spoon than her mother who had been born with a golden spoon, she stopped trying to put the large jewel Elodie had attached to her clothes in her mouth and stared intently at the red-haired uncle she was seeing for the first time. Hildeon gave such a child a pleased smile.

“She looks exactly like the countess. This child’s marriage is out of the question.”

A man targeting Elise. Just hearing about it made Roderick’s expression unpleasant as he pulled the child closer into his arms.

“Well then, let’s begin the ceremony.”

With everyone watching with reverent hearts, Hildeon recited the prayer used in the baby’s blessing ceremony.

“Child taking your first steps into the world, may God’s love and care dwell in each step you take searching for the meaning of life and death……”

These were just words of blessing, and the real blessing was something else. Holy power.

In the blessing ceremony, the priest puts a finger on the child’s forehead and sends a little holy power through. This was the substance of the blessing.

“Elise Winterborn, I bless you in the name of God.”

It was the moment when the tip of Hildeon’s finger placed in the center of Elise’s round forehead emitted a small light. Elise flinched, then quickly tilted her head toward Dad and avoided the finger.

“Waaah……”

Then that gentle child began to cry. While everyone was flustered, Roderick looked ready to grab Hildeon by the collar.

“What did you just do to my daughter?”

“I only used a very small amount of holy power. Usually they don’t feel pain…… Wait.”

Usually they don’t feel pain. That meant Elise was not usual.

“This child was also born with the Winterborn ability.”

Unexpectedly, Elise’s ability was revealed at an early age. So now there were three Winterborns in the world.

‘For her first birthday, we should have a birthday party.’

Erica also held her daughter’s first birthday party.

But she didn’t hold a grand birthday party for the child who had survived the first year like the nobles here did. Perhaps she followed Korean trends when she ended her first life.

‘First birthday parties should be modest and cozy with family.’

After the blessing ceremony ended, the family of five headed to the cabin hidden in the royal palace. While Mom and Dad prepared the birthday party, big sister and big brother took care of their younger sibling.

“Elise, where do you want to go?”

“Ooh……”

“Huh? Where are we going?”

Elise held big brother’s hand and headed toward the grass field. Walking toddlingly without rest like that, she discovered white flowers and stopped.

“Ah……”

Elise looked up at Elodie and pointed at the flowers with her hand.

“Do you want to eat?”

“Oong.”

When the one-year-old who understood big sister’s words nodded, Elodie spoke spirit language to the air.

Pop!

At that moment, a spirit appeared from thin air and turned the strawberry flowers into bright red, well-ripened strawberries. Elise would think strawberries were something big sister made from flowers by calling fairies.

“Elise, let’s eat strawberries.”

“Kyaa!”

“Is it delicious?”

“Oong.”

“Shall we eat more? Here too, here too, here too, here too.”

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

“Kyaa!”

Erica, who had been watching fondly, put on the brakes at this point.

“Don’t feed Elise too many strawberries. She’ll be full and won’t eat cake.”

“Ah, right!”

“Elise, you have to eat the cake big sister and big brother made.”

The cake set on the table in the backyard was one that Eric and Elodie had baked themselves and even decorated. The children who used to only know how to stick cookies on cakes that Erica baked and iced had already grown enough to bake cakes by themselves.

“There, it’s all ready. Now let’s have Elise’s birthday party.”

“Wow!”

The family of five sat around the table with the cake placed in the center. The baby, who couldn’t possibly know what this was yet, just looked around bewildered as Roderick lit the candles.

“Happy birthday to you.”

“Happy birthday to you.”

They sang the birthday song that didn’t exist in this world but existed for this family, and now it was time for Elise to blow out the candles.

“Elise, make a wish first.”

“Please let Mom and Dad’s trading company hit it big this year too.”

“That’s Mom’s wish.”

On behalf of her daughter who was still too young to have wishes, Erica made a wish.

“Now, blow out the candles.”

“You blow like this, puff, to put them out, Elise.”

But the one-year-old still didn’t understand what she was supposed to do and just stared intently at the family’s faces.

“Watch carefully. Like this, puff.”

“Ah, no!”

“Oh! Mom blew it out!”

“Elise, Mom blew out your birthday candles. What do we do now?”

“What do you mean what do we do. Since I gave birth to you, dedicate your first birthday wish to Mom, dear daughter.”

After blowing out the candles, there was a gift presentation ceremony.

“Ta-da!”

The gift Eric had ambitiously prepared with Dad, putting their heads together, was a rocking horse.

“Snowball?”

It was none other than a rocking horse shaped like an ice wyvern.

No matter how gentle Snowball was, it looked like a scary monster, so Elise was still afraid of Snowball and would often burst into tears. So they prepared a rocking horse that resembled Snowball as a gift to help her overcome her fear.

“For now you can ride the rocking horse that looks like Snowball, and when you grow up later, you can ride the real Snowball.”

It was a perfectly suitable gift for the day it was revealed she was born with the Winterborn ability.

“You wear these to ride it.”

Elodie took out her gift and placed it down. It was a pair of shoes in a cute size.

“Oh my, how adorable. Elise, let’s try these on. Huh?”

Erica, who was about to put the gift on her, paused. Bread was embroidered on the inside of the shoe soles.

“Elise, look carefully.”

Elodie picked up both shoes and held them side by side in front of Elise’s eyes, shouting.

“Bread complete! Now you won’t get confused about which is left and right .”

“Elodie, you remember what Mom did for you long ago?”

That was when she was four years old, but Elodie nodded her head vigorously as if it was obvious.

“Oh, how sweet. Thank you.”

After the gift presentation ceremony, Erica’s unique event followed.

It was the doljabi ceremony¹a Korean tradition, part of the Doljanchi (first birthday celebration), where a baby is presented with various objects to choose from, symbolizing their potential future.

“Mom sure knows a lot of strange things.”

“I read it in a book.”

Erica spread out a quill pen, gold coins, thread, a brush, and such in front of Elise. And Eric slyly placed a toy wooden sword on top of them.

“Well then, shall we divine Elise’s future?”

Just like when she had the birthday cake in front of her, Elise looked around bewildered at the family’s faces, not knowing what she was supposed to do, but the moment she grabbed something, Eric stood up and cheered while the parents had complicated expressions.

She had grabbed the wooden sword Eric had placed.

“……Then does that mean Elise will become a swordsman when she grows up?”

“Elise doing dangerous work like being a swordsman……?”

“I’ll teach her!”

Eric alone got excited and gave Elise the sword, already trying to teach her how to hold it. Watching this scene, Erica suddenly remembered.

“Come to think of it, Eric also grabbed a toy sword.”

“Really? It was his destiny to become a knight.”

“But I thought back then that he’d never be able to dream of being a knight, so I wondered if he’d become a butcher shop owner.”

Elodie, who had been listening with interest to Eric’s doljabi, asked.

“Didn’t Elodie grab anything?”

“I’m sorry. Dad didn’t know, so I couldn’t do it for you.”

“Then we can do it now.”

Elodie didn’t know the meaning of the other objects yet anyway. Elodie, who had become dejected, began to look carefully at the objects left after Elise’s choice with sparkling eyes. What she chose was……

“I like the thread.”

It was the thread.

She probably chose that because she was so absorbed in embroidery these days that she had needle and thread in her hands whenever she had free time. Whatever Elodie’s reason was, Erica felt relieved.

‘Elodie living long means we’ll also preserve our lives for a long, long time.’

Elodie, who had chosen hers, also recommended it to Roderick.

“Dad, you choose too.”

“Then Dad will……”

Roderick suddenly pulled Erica, who was sitting next to him, into his arms.

“I’ll take Mom.”

“What could the meaning of a nasty-tempered head maid be?”

“It must mean love.”

“Ugh, gross.”

Eric, who had grown thick-headed and could no longer just watch Mom and Dad’s displays of affection, interrupted and broke up the scene.

“What will Mom grab?”

Well. I already grabbed it.

“Not Dad.”

“Why not Dad?”

While the father and son bickered, Erica recalled what she had heard from her mother in her previous life.

“You grabbed a book when you turned one.”

So she thought you might become a scholar.

‘She was wrong…… Wait, no.’

Only now did she have that thought.

‘My future was in a book. So didn’t that mean I would transmigrate into a book?’