Chapter 2: A World Full of Beautiful People

“The one greeting Princess Anastasia is Lady Elisabeth, the marquis’s daughter. She truly lives up to being called the flower of high society, possessing such remarkable beauty… Amadeus, you must not casually flirt with ladies like her, you know.”

Saying that with a playful tone was my childhood friend, Viscount’s daughter Lilina.

Lilina, you’re a flower too.

“Look at Princess Anastasia… how delicate she is… her golden hair flows and sparkles…”

The one who said that to me with moist blue eyes, completely enchanted, was Viscount’s son Libert.

Libert and Lilina are siblings.

You’re delicate too.

There is something I still haven’t told these two, who are close enough to be called my childhood friends.

“—Aren’t you two, that princess, and that noble lady… not that different…?”

“I’m not going to flirt with Her Highness the Princess, and could you stop making it sound like I go around hitting on girls all the time?”

I laughed as I wet my lips with a drink.

The pale lemon-colored beverage tasted like acerola juice from Earth.

“I see, so they come to you even if you don’t flirt? As expected of someone ‘loved by the God of Music.’”

“It seems word is spreading in other territories too. They say there’s a genius in the Scarlatto domain.”

I responded to their perfectly timed teasing with a polite smile.

My current name is Amadeus Scarlatto.

I’m 12 years old.

I was originally a baron’s son, but due to certain circumstances, I am now a count’s son.

And I am someone who was reincarnated into this world from Earth—Japan.

I don’t remember much about when I died in my previous life, except that it was painful.

I had been physically weak since birth, and every time I caught a cold, I felt like I might die, so it was probably a cold.

Since I couldn’t play outside much, I had many hobbies I could do indoors, and among them, I was especially absorbed in music.

I had been learning piano since I was three, and it became my specialty.

If possible, I had wanted to attend a music university.

I didn’t think I had enough talent to become a musician, but I dreamed of working in some kind of music-related profession.

However, I died before I could take my university entrance exams…

Until middle school, I was often absent and couldn’t make any friends, so my childhood was lonely.

But perhaps one of the health methods I tried worked, because from high school onward, I was able to attend fairly regularly, and although I had no luck with girls, I managed to make a few plain-looking friends.

I had just started thinking that I would enjoy my youth in my own way, and that I wanted to repay my parents who had worried about me…

And yet.

—What’s done is done, I know that, but remembering it still makes me feel sentimental.

My younger brother Reiiji… he was a bit twisted, but dependable.

He’ll surely take good care of our parents.

—Before I knew it, I died in unbearable pain without really understanding what was happening, and without even realizing I had died or how much time had passed, I was suddenly freed from a dark, suffocating place.

With my blurry vision, I had no idea what was going on, and as I sat there blankly, someone smacked my butt or something hard, and I burst into tears as if ignited.

Then the people around me were filled with relieved laughter.

Hey, I’m crying here, so why are you laughing?

Are you demons?

I was internally shaken, thinking in fake Kansai dialect, but gradually I began to understand.

That’s right, I was a baby.

I had been reincarnated while retaining the memories of my previous life.

Being taken care of as a baby while having the memories of a 17-year-old was incredibly embarrassing.

I got used to it after about three weeks, though.

From being a baby up until around two years old, I was desperately focused on becoming a functioning human.

Children really can’t control their emotions or their bodies…

I wet myself, I cried when I got upset, I couldn’t speak properly, and my body moved on impulse without thinking ahead.

For example, I couldn’t suppress the urge to put whatever was in front of me into my mouth.

Even if I tried to control it in my mind, it didn’t work.

The body and mind are connected.

It was probably unavoidable until this body got used to living.

It was around the age of three that I became able to think about my surroundings and culture.

This place… isn’t Earth…?

That’s what I began to suspect.

The lifestyle had the typical old European atmosphere that Japanese people imagine, yet the hair and eye colors of the people around me were strangely colorful.

Hair colors I had only ever seen in manga, novels, or illustrations!

There are young people and even older women in Japan who dye their hair in flashy colors, but there’s none of that root-growing-out look or unnatural feeling.

Hair being green, blue, purple, or pink—colors that would never naturally exist on Earth—felt strange to me, but that was just my own perception.

My own hair was also a vivid red.

My eyes were a bright green reminiscent of fresh leaves.

It made me think of Christmas.

Though I doubt Christmas exists in this world, so that’s fine.

More than anything, what made me happy was that I had a good face.

By the time I was five, I could strongly sense that I was going to grow into a beautiful boy, and it made me excited.

From being addressed with honorifics, I vaguely guessed that I was either wealthy or part of the nobility, but I found it strange that all the servants were also good-looking.

Is this place some kind of idol agency?

Are they working here as servants until they make their idol debut?

If that’s the case, maybe I’m the son of the president or an executive…

In the future, I could produce idols, discover composers, arrange music… I might end up working in music…!?!

And maybe I’d even end up getting close with one of the cute girls among them…!?!

Up until I was five, my heart was filled with such hopes.

—But I quickly realized that wasn’t the case at all.

There were middle-aged people too, so obviously they weren’t idols.

Even the older servants were all handsome middle-aged men and beautiful mature women.

Do my parents choose employees based on their looks?

Are they extreme appearance lovers?

That’s what I thought, until…

The first time I went out shopping beyond the mansion, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Almost everyone walking down the street was beautiful.