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Reluctantly, Haneul awoke from his deep slumber to be met with a breathtaking ceiling. Images painted in red, blue, and purple hues which were littered around the room.
The view was breathtaking.
Haneul himself was so absorbed in looking at the ceiling above, so much so that he didn't notice the numerous people wondering around the room, chattering about him as the new royal born.
After a while, Haneul tried lifting his head, but he soon realised he was unable to. As he continuously tried to move his hands, which he found quite hard to do, along with his legs, he noticed it was exhausting to move even a bit. 'What is happening to me? Why is everything so heavy?' He thought to himself.
He soon began to struggle, not liking the feeling of not being able to move according to his will. Due to these actions, he soon drew the attention of the wandering maids.
They immediately jumped into action by picking Haneul up and gently rocking him side to side. As this was being done, a bottle of milk was quickly being warmed up to feed the royal.
Haneul was confused, and so he tried to listen to the conversation around him, and he heard the constant use of the word 'baby' alongside the phrases 'don't cry, darling'.
Soon enough, Artemis' lips were slowly pried open using the bottle's nib. The flavours burst on Artemis' tongue as he, like a gluttonous baby, ate till his heart's content. 'Wait, what in the world just happened?' It finally clicked—he had become a baby.
Artemis immediately stopped drinking the milk and suddenly froze up, causing his eyes to widen. He lifted his hand with great strength and stretched it out towards himself.
With a swift movement, he quickly slapped himself.
The maids froze; the room froze; everything froze.
That was until the first cry had begun—the sharp cries of Artemis, which had begun to echo around the absurdly large room, caught everyone's attention.
The servants all tried their best at trying to calm Artemis down, but nothing was working. Well, that was until a maid named Cecilia quickly rushed forward to hold the crying child.
She began by speaking in a calm and relaxed manner; she used her voice to calm the child, speaking such careful phrases in hopes of appeasing the crying child.
Artemis couldn't help but feel that this voice was not as gentle as the one he had heard before, but it still felt comforting in a way.
As Artemis had finally begun to calm down, his train of thoughts coming to an abrupt halt as he heard the calming voice of the maid Cecilia.
As he calmed down, a peaceful expression was painted across his face as he was in the lady's arms. His big, bright blue crystallised eyes were gently wiped of their tears; this helped Artemis see the figures around him better.
"Wow, that was a close one; good job, Cecilia." One of the voices said
'So the woman holding me is called Cecilia, noted.' Artemis thought.
"It was so surprising; we were all so shocked as to why his highness began to cry so suddenly." Another pitched in, whispering slightly.
Slowly, Artemis grew aware of his surroundings; it would take a long time for him to become fully accustomed and to adjust to his surroundings and to the situation he was in.
He soon quickly began to feel overwhelmed by his situation, but with the woman's gentle touch, he calmed down.
It was now time to think of a plan for what to do, and so he began to assess what he could, trying to formulate a plan and gather any useful information he could. After he had enough information, he would be able to compile a list of what he knew.
1. He had become a baby. 2. He was called Artemis in this world. 3. He was a prince—wait, what?
4. What the fuck?
He was a prince, as he remembers being referred to as 'His Highness," which would explain his luxurious room and the large amounts of gold that were scattered throughout the room.
This was all so hard to process, and so he decided it would be better to go to sleep to regain some energy and start gaining information the next day.
The maid watched as Artemis closed his eyes. His long eyelashes fluttered slightly, and they all let out quiet sighs of relief. The baby was gently placed in his crib with a warm blanket around him.
They all, as quickly and quietly as they could, began to file out of the room one by one, but not before sneaking one last glance at the sleeping child.
In another room, a lady sat resting, her eyes closed. She looked like she was not from this world. Around her was a pile of unfinished paperwork. This looked to be quite a lot of paperwork for a human to possess.
That woman was Oreithyia de Alger Obelia; she was previously the daughter of a high-ranking official and now was an Empress. She was extraordinarily smart, and her ideas had helped create large developments in Obelia.
She helped develop the advanced trading systems, but she also helped to instate a large education system that was placed in every few cities and towns in hopes of every child receiving an adequate education despite not being from a noble family.
This was all done for free.
She was dedicated and stubborn, and that is why the Emperor Claude de Alger Obelia was upset she hadn't had any rest even after giving birth; instead, she hurled herself headfirst into doing more work instead of taking quality time to rest.
When Claude had tried asking her to rest, he was met with a flurry of excuses.
"I need to finish this; it's extremely important if I don't do it now!"
"What if I forget I have to do this?"
"I can't not do any work."
"I am fine, perfectly fine. I can most definitely do work; no rest is needed." She said this with a nervous smile on her face as she looked Claude in the eyes.
She was diligent; Claude will give her that, but he, along with his knight Felix, began to collect her paperwork so they could prevent her from continuing. She whined to Felix, who was their trusted guard and best friend, protesting and saying things such as
"Felix, you are meant to help me, not him."
And Felix could only reply with an awkward hand, scratching the back of his neck nervously.
"I am sorry, your majesty, but his majesty is correct; you must rest." He had a serene smile on his face as he said this.
Even Cecilia popped in to whisper a message.
"Your majesty, please rest and save us from the Emperor's terrifying self!"
Eventually she was persuaded to rest after a long time and fell asleep dreaming of her smiling baby and the chaos they could cause together when he grew up, knowing Claude would be unable to resist two sets of puppy eyes, as two is always better than one.
