#1
Noah’s eyes flew open wide, and he slowly looked around, feeling strange.
“Owwie. Again?”
Noah, who had been blankly staring at the ornately painted ceiling, could roughly guess what was going on and was grumbling to himself when he blinked at a strange sound coming from his own mouth.
“Wha’s dis, wha’s dis…….”
As if his tongue had been cut in half somewhere, unintelligible, babble-like words were spilling from his mouth.
Since it felt weird to call it a repetition of the same situation, he raised his hand and stretched it out straight.
Was his tongue cut in half and his hand shrunk to a quarter of its size?
He saw a cute, maple-leaf-sized hand.
He stared blankly at the short fingers that moved along with his sparkling thoughts and the plump palm.
Why are my hand and fingers like this again?
Struggling to push off the thick blanket, he saw a white nightgown with fluttering lace trims.
“It’s tiny…….”
If the world hadn’t suddenly gotten bigger, then he had clearly gotten smaller.
As he tapped his short legs with his small hand, Noah’s gaze fell upon a mirror in one corner of the room.
“Ouch. Oww…….”
Even if he wanted to move silently, nothing was working properly—not his body, not his voice, nothing.
After immense effort, Noah crawled across the soft, squishy surface of the large bed, looked down, and his small mouth fell open.
Was the bed always this high?
Finally, he turned his body around, tightly gripped the sheet, and slowly lowered his legs first while lying face down.
“Owie…….”
It was an extremely cautious move, but the moment he lowered both legs, Noah’s small body tipped backwards with a thud.
“Aigoo…….”
There was only one thing he felt while moving with such difficulty. This was definitely not the body of a nineteen-year-old.
Noah let out a deep sigh, pointlessly slapped his knees with both hands, and stood up.
After walking across the large room for a while, Noah stood before an elegant, full-length mirror and found himself face to face with a small, cute little boy.
“I’m free… years old?… Three… Four…?”
Sparkling emerald eyes set in a head full of voluminous, curly platinum-blond hair.
A deep sigh escaped from the lips of the little boy with a three-heads-tall body and rosy, chubby cheeks.
The words that described the current Noah were: the only omega son of the Grand Duke who ruled the northern Austern region, which was practically always winter, and the blooming age of nineteen, Noah Schwein.
Ji-hoon, who had been enjoying travel and winter sports, found himself at some point possessed into a character from the fantasy novel he had been reading.
Everyone has their own tastes, right?
Ji-hoon’s favorite novels were fantasy novels featuring Northern Grand Dukes. Sometimes they were romance fantasies, sometimes they were BL fantasies.
Stories about a Northern Grand Duke, like a wild wolf living alone in a world full of harsh northern winds and blizzards—meaning a world covered in white snow—were truly fun.
Romances where he opposed the Emperor or had touching misunderstandings and conflicts with other characters were also good.
Anyway, that was while reading the novel.
Suddenly becoming the child of people who had a movie-like love story was a completely different matter.
He was happily skiing down a slope, then opened his eyes to find he had become the son of his favorite romance fantasy protagonists.
Before he could even adapt to this “what is this” situation, he was abruptly dragged off to various dance halls left and right.
Find an alpha to succeed the Northern Grand Duke and lead the harsh territory!
Without even fully grasping the atmosphere, not knowing what to do or how to do it, he danced until his feet were blistered and mercilessly stepped on countless men’s feet.
Just tell me to dance at a club. Then I can party all night long.
The 3/4 time oom-pah-pah waltz was something he had only learned once in middle school dance class.
While stepping on the alphas’ insteps and forcing a smile with upturned corners as instructed, he ended up married to the relatively clean and decent second son of a Duke, an alpha.
It was a mistake made when he couldn’t properly tell if it was a dream, reality, or if he had truly been possessed by a character in a novel.
And on the very first day in the territory.
That bastard, who was hard to even call a husband, ran away because it was cold.
But then he opened his eyes, and it was a reset. They said his nineteenth birthday had passed and he had to go to the dance halls again starting today.
While thinking “what is this,” he went around stepping on people’s feet again, and this time married the eldest son of a Merchant Guild Master who seemed like he might be more reasonable.
The marriage between the only omega son of a Duke and the eldest beta son of a Merchant Guild Master caused many issues.
Though it was packaged as a groundbreaking decision超越身份社会和体质 (transcending social status and secondary gender) and a love story of the century, what could he do? It seemed better than a guy who runs away because it’s cold.
But then, this guy lived for a few days before cleaning out the safe and running off!
How could such a ridiculous, nonsensical thing happen not once, but twice?
And this time, he hadn’t regressed to nineteen, but to a young child.
Noah tried to prop his chin on his short arm, but when that didn’t work, he plopped down flat on his back right there.
At least it was good that he wouldn’t be dragged to a dance hall right now to dance the 3/4 time oom-pah-pah spinny dance, but what should he do from now on?
Hearing the sound of the door opening carefully, he lay still and looked towards the door.
“Oh my, young master. Why are you on the floor…….”
A woman in a maid’s uniform exclaimed in surprise, ran over, scooped him up in a flash, and held him. Noah rested his heavy head on her shoulder.
He had only just managed to get off the bed and sit in front of the mirror, so why was he so tired and sleepy?
He wanted to think a little more, but his heavy eyelids drooped drowsily.
A short while later.
Having experienced two marriages where he couldn’t even spend the first night and was met with a sobak (simple/plainness) that was anything but simple, the three-year-old Noah was drinking warm milk.
“Young master, please try this too.”
Even after sleeping soundly in the maid’s arms and waking up, the situation hadn’t changed.
It seems he had to start from age three this time.
Noah held a cookie the size of his palm with both hands, took a big bite, and chewed on the sweet, crunchy cookie while watching a fluttering yellow butterfly.
“It’s a butterfly. Summer must be coming soon.”
“Summer?”
As far as he remembered, Austern had no summer. It was covered in perpetual snow, and even during the warmest season, it maintained a chilly autumn weather.
But here, in this beautiful green garden instead of a white snowfield, colorful pretty butterflies were flying around and multicolored flowers were in full bloom.
Living a nineteen-year-old life in a vaguely thrown-into place hadn’t been easy. Just as he was barely adapting, he regressed and was bewildered, but at least he had some knowledge, so the second life was a bit easier.
But now he was a child. The ages of the people he knew previously must have changed too. So, the first thing he needed to do was gather as much information as possible, as quietly as possible.
If this isn’t Austern, then where is it? Lost in these thoughts, Noah quickly looked towards the door at the sound of a knock.
“Elisa, His Grace the Grand Duke has arrived. Quickly get the young master ready.”
Following the knock, another woman in a maid’s uniform came in and spoke, suddenly making the surroundings busy.
So the person who just gave him snacks and milk was Elisa.
Noah alternated looking at the woman greeting the people entering and the tea table. Judging by her clothes, demeanor, and how she treated him, she seemed to be a nanny.
Okay. Elisa is the nanny. Noah nodded and looked at the women coming in and chatting.
The cookie he was holding disappeared, and the white nightgown he was wearing was changed into neat black pants and a white shirt.
“Papa?”
Someone gently brushed his curly hair and even put on a cute bow tie. Noah, who had been staying still, carefully opened his mouth.
The only person here likely to be called ‘Grand Duke’ was his father, Lucas, the Northern Grand Duke, his favorite novel’s male lead.
“Yes.”
“Mama?”
“Her Ladyship the Duchess has already gone to the dining room.”
As if the grooming was finished, Elisa wiped his hands one more time with a wet cloth. Noah gulped down the saliva pooled in his mouth.
Lucas was quite unfriendly to everyone except the novel’s heroine, Lauren, who was now his mother. And in the novel, their love story ended with a happy ending; the story of their offspring wasn’t mentioned at all.
Anyway, Lucas was Noah’s favorite male protagonist.
[‘Get married.’
‘Pardon?’
‘You’ve passed your nineteenth birthday. You must marry and succeed this territory.’
‘…….’
‘Well. What will you do with this territory?’]
The reason he didn’t retort, “Is this your territory or my territory?” was because of Lauren, who was coughing and clearing her throat beside him.
Life in Austern, with its harsh winters, was not easy for Lauren, who had a weak constitution. She spent most of the long Austern winters moved to warmer regions.
Having lived apart for more than half the year like that, Lucas now intended to entrust this place to the adult Noah and go to the warm south with his beloved wife.
If he had been a ordinary beta or an alpha, inheriting the territory wouldn’t have been difficult, but what was holding him back now was Noah’s secondary gender.
Although it was said that balance and equal relationships were achieved between alphas and omegas, the world, long centered around alphas and betas, didn’t change that easily.
In a situation where an omega couldn’t become the family head and he couldn’t just abandon the territory, the only option was for Noah to marry an alpha or a beta.
So he got married twice, and the moment he found out his husband had run away, he regressed like this.
What should I do? Walking down the corridor towards the dining room, Noah quickly racked his brain.
Having read many novels, he wasn’t in a situation to feel aversion to secondary genders like alpha or omega. He needed a way to escape the coercive Lucas, who insisted on marriage unconditionally.
From the short conversation, it was clear Lucas was exclusive to everyone except Lauren.
From various things he’d heard, it was clear that Lauren’s health had deteriorated significantly after giving birth to Noah, so he was definitely the object of Lucas’s resentment.
So, he probably didn’t see his child favorably either.
Blunt expression. Commanding tone. Short, clipped conversations.
This time too, he didn’t want to be chased out and sold off into the marriage market the moment he turned nineteen.
Standing before a large door engraved with ornate dragon decorations, Noah clenched his small fists tightly.
First, from now on, his task was to get Lucas on his side. And before his nineteenth birthday, he had to find some way to properly inherit the territory or become independent on his own.
At the very least, in this life, he must not hear the words ‘Get married now’ from Lucas.
He could think about what came next slowly. He was three years old, after all. He should act like a three-year-old.
It’s okay because he’s a child, right?
His face looked somewhat cute and charming when he saw it in the mirror earlier.
