ch-5: Love only ever left scars.

One day, while I was peacefully sleeping, I felt that familiar prickling on the back of my neck. The kind of sensation I’d only feel when someone was watching me. My instincts flared up like fire alarms. I opened my eyes—slowly, carefully—and, just as I expected, found my two older brothers standing over me, eyes sparkling like I was some kind of holy artifact.

“Oh my stars, she’s awake!” one of them whispered.

“She’s so cute I could cry,” the other added, scooping me up like a teddy bear.

Ugh. Here we go again. Those sentences seemed straight out of a romance novel.

They started blabbering all the usual nonsense—how I was the most precious little sister in the world, how no baby could possibly be as perfect as me, how even my yawns were adorable. But while they were busy smothering me with their embarrassing affection, I noticed something they didn’t.

Over their shoulders, past their backs which were facing the balcony, I saw a shadow—silent, creeping, precise.

Another assassin.

He was climbing up the balcony with calculated movements, clearly aiming to slip into the room unnoticed. Unfortunately for him, he chose the wrong room, the wrong target, and the absolute worst timing. My useless brothers had no clue. They didn’t even sense the danger behind them.

I scanned the room quickly and spotted something sharp sticking out of one of my brother’s chest pockets—decorative, but still sharp enough for what I needed.

Without making a sound, I pulled it out and hurled it with deadly precision. The metal hit the assassin right in the eye, and he let out a strangled cry before losing his grip and plummeting into the river below. Good. That river behind the palace was perfect for washing away corpses.

My brothers never even noticed what happened. They just blinked, looked around in confusion at the sound, and then looked back at me, smiling as if nothing had happened.

I sighed internally. Just another day in this ridiculous life.

My new family was too obsessed with me—it honestly gave me the icks. From that day on, it became worse. Every single one of them stared at me with those annoying, love-filled eyes. As if I were some fragile glass doll they couldn’t afford to break.

I don't know what that arrogant god did to me, but my body acted weird. I could only move with real flexibility and balance when I sensed danger. In peaceful moments, I was just a normal baby—limbs flailing, coordination messy, strength limited. My body might be small, but my mind… my mind was still sharp. Still me. Still an assassin deep down.

Learning to walk again was another circle of hell. Every time I took a wobbly step, my family would lose their minds.

“Look! She’s standing properly on her own now!”

“She’s walking! Our baby is walking!”

“It’s so adorable when she stumbles like that!”

Ugh. Spare me.

Their cheering, their clapping, their constant noise—if I had the strength, I would’ve walked straight out of the palace and into the nearest forest. But no. I was stuck. Reincarnated into the body of a royal baby, surrounded by people who loved me far too much, treated me like I was something divine, and never gave me a moment of peace.

Their love—it wasn’t comforting. It was suffocating. I didn’t trust it. I didn’t want it.

Because love, in the end, only ever left scars.

And this family? This kingdom? They had no idea who they’d just brought into their perfect little world.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***