[1506]
[Alabasta Kingdom]
In the Royal Palace, a specific chamber can be seen decorated just near the King and Queen's own chambers.
It is a room being maintained and attended to 24/7 by the servants and maids of the Palace.
From Servants coming by to clean the room and attend to the surroundings, while Guards often stand by the Door on guard.
Now and then, members of the Royal Guard will stand by the door when stationed.
One will even sometimes witness the Head of the Royal Guard, Igaram, volunteer to guard this room.
People of their status and responsibilities would willingly guard this room without complaints, and anyone could tell how important this room is.
Tightly guarded, they won't even let an insect past the area, and it is thoroughly cleaned without a speck of dust remaining for health reasons.
The Reason why this room is tended with care is that...
This is the very room of the Royal Prince of the Alabasta Kingdom, who recently turned 1-year-old just months ago.
Nefertari Lionel.
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Inside the Chamber,
A White wooden crib can be seen placed at the center of the Room. It is custom-made, with a tall, wide structure befitting royalty.
Even the Royal Family's insignia is meticulously engraved on the Crib's footboard.
And in the Crib with the Red Bedding lies a 1-year-old child, Nefertari Lionel.
He has curly black hair and black eyes, inheriting them mostly from his Father, Nefertari Cobra, who has the same features, instead of his mom, who has light blue Hair.
The Baby can be seen looking blankly at the Ceiling of the Room in silence, while the servants are busy tidying and organizing the room, paying him little to no mind.
'Nefertari Lionel, huh?' Lionel was still wandering in his mind.
'It has been a Year already?'
It has been a year already since Lionel was born.
More precisely, it has been more than a year since the 21-year-old young man with a terminal illness died and was reincarnated as the Son of King Cobra.
As Nefertari Lionel.
'Still... I am grateful to be alive...', Lionel thought with a slight grin at the corner of his small mouth, quivering now and then.
"Keuk.. Keuk...", slipping out a few chuckles with a hint of nervousness in it.
Even though he is grateful, being granted a second chance to live when he was just at Death's grasp.
The fear and emotions that he had been keeping in himself had overwhelmed him, frightening him to his core.
The stressful situation of being told of his Irreversable illness, the body breaking itself down, and the most extreme experience he just had...
He experienced Death itself...
Thinking of dying again, even in this new child body that he possesses, would trigger a physical and emotional response.
It has been engraved into him, into the very soul that he has to carry in this new world.
An Unforgettable moment, looking at his small hands that would uncontrollably shake, glimpsing the memory of the past.
'This...' Lionel tried to control his trembling little hands,
"Huu...", taking a deep breath and erasing all of his own thoughts that he has.
'I've been here for a year, and I can't even...' Disgruntled at his own state, Lionel has no idea what to do in his situation.
It doesn't help that he is still a Baby that needed to be cared for by others. He has no control over what he wants to or needs to do.
His uncontrollable quivering, the Physical and Emotional response, the unexplained and undetermined condition of his can only be explained by one thing.
It's textbook Trauma, but he himself doesn't know this yet.
Because Death is an overwhelming event that a person simply can not cope with.
The baby Lionel can be seen in his crib just a moment ago, chuckling to himself, staring absently at the ceiling, then looking at his quivering hands.
Such a weird behavior to see from a 1-year-old child, yet with all the servants and maids present in the room, no one even bothered to cast a single glance in his direction.
Nobody finds it strange, given the peculiar behavior shown.
Well, that is because almost everyone in the palace has become used to this behavior.
They didn't find it normal or natural.
They have just become used to Lionel's weirdness and attributed it to the fact that it is his quirk.
And it has been like this since the day he was born,
When he was born, he didn't let out a single cry or even utter a sound.
He was consumed by shock back then, and a mixture of emotions that he didn't know how to describe.
He didn't know what to feel, the right emotion to have, whether he was happy that the pain he was trapped in for the past few weeks had just disappeared, the joy of being reincarnated, or the feeling of fear because he didn't know what had happened to him.
He only remembered falling asleep, and the next thing he knew, he woke up in an unfamiliar environment, body, language, and a new life.
Those emotions clashed, leaving him with a blank, unemotional expression right from the womb.
His odd behavior right after being born even caused the Palace Medic, who's in charge of the Queen's Labor, to question him.
They thought Lionel wasn't breathing, since crying is an indicator that the baby is using his lungs.
At that time, Panic began spreading inside the Palace, and within seconds, rumors started to spread.
From servants to the guards who had been anticipating the new member of the Royal Family, stood still as they learned what had become of the Prince.
They said, "The Baby is going to die."
"The Prince is in danger."
"The Doctor Ho said it is an Emergency"
Whispers can be heard aloud that day.
Even King Cobra, whose image represents kindness and compassion, had quite a bit of an outburst.
Seeing the newborn, the Palace Medic said it was an emergency.
His wife, who passed out after hours of grueling labor that exhausted her strength and caused her to lose a lot of blood, did so even more so when she heard what became of her child.
His Majesty couldn't imagine losing his beloved child and his Queen on the same night, causing him to have a small mental breakdown in the chambers.
Yelling at the Palace Medic to save both, with all the servants in the room starting to move in panic.
Luckily, Igaram was there to calm him down, to push back his outburst and remember himself as the Ruler of the Nation and the Palace.
The King's emotions did die down, but the nervousness hadn't left.
He saw several of the maids tending to the Queen, while the Palace had been trying to resuscitate the baby by patting and slapping him in the chest.
Trying to provide gentle physical stimulation to encourage the baby to cry and take his first breath.
But what they didn't know was that inside the newborn was a 21-year-old person who was bewildered by what was happening to him.
He already knew how to breathe, and they misunderstood him.
It was only a little while later that they stopped, even when the child didn't let out a cry, it was evident that he was breathing.
The whisper of the servants halted when news came that the baby was healthy and there was nothing wrong with him.
And with the Queen's stable condition and in recovery now, the King let out a sigh of relief.
The Baby was then named Nefertari Lionel, as per the Queen's choice.
Yet the bizarre situation that occurred during his birth, the unusual behaviour shown by the child, didn't stop.
It only continued as time went by,
Lionel didn't show many emotions. He didn't cry even when hungry.
He would just point at his Mother's chest as a signal that he was hungry.
He would sleep and wake up peacefully.
He didn't have the jerky movements of a child who isn't used to his body.
He seems well-coordinated.
He even learned how to walk and how to speak a few words in just a few spare months.
Lionel overheard his Father, King Cobra, speaking to the Head Maid one time.
"Is there something wrong with Leo?... I've been hearing a few strange rumors, so..."
The King questioned with worry, as whispers of the Capital have reached his ears.
"I don't know. He is showing behaviors unbecoming of his age, but there isn't any problem that we can see. I apologize, Your Majesty..." The Palace Medic, too, has no answers, even though he has heard quite a few rumors here and there.
"Well... It's fine then, Titi doesn't seem to have any concerns too." He replied abashedly, by even questioning his own child while his Wife, Titi, doesn't.
Lionel, or what they call him now, Leo, the nickname given to him by his Mother, heard the conversation and understood the King's worries.
'Well, quite a few maids have openly talked about me when they are here...' He thought, remembering when they were talking about him, not knowing he understood every word they were saying.
'I mean, it isn't weird they would think of me that way...'
His behavior as a child didn't just spread through the whole Palace.
It also spread across the Capital and throughout the Kingdom like an uncontrolled wildfire.
Some say that most citizens think he is a Genius and the Future of the Kingdom.
While some rumors spread, mostly to the underworld of Alabasta, hidden underground, quite a few slip to the surface.
They say the Prince is not the Prince, but the soul of the devil has possessed him.
They call him
"The Devil's Incarnate"
But this rumor is known to a few and drowned out by the others.
Yet, it will not die down but will continue to thrive.
But that's for the future.