Reborn as Naoya Zenin: I Swear I Came Back for Revenge! [5]

“What do you mean? Names?” Naoya frowned at the unexpected answer.

“Yes.” Rei nodded. “Ogi-sama’s wife was badly frightened, and Ogi-sama seems to have official business, as he left in a hurry. At present, the twins still have no names.”

“According to tradition, twins who remain in the house to be raised are prone to dying young, and they invite calamity as well. That is why they have been sent here to be brought up.”

“I see. So their parents abandoned them?” Naoya sneered. Then she turned toward the two sleeping infants in the crib and drawled in a mocking, sarcastic tone, “Did you hear that? Your parents don’t want you anymore. You’re unwanted things—and you don’t even have names.”

“How could that be? Did you not just give them names?” Rei carried the kettle to the table, then took a can of powdered milk from a cardboard box underneath. It was honestly surprising that the Zenin Clan had something that looked like it had been bought at a supermarket.

“What? I never did anything like that.”

“You said Maki and Mai, and you asked me which one should be called Maki and which one should be called Mai.” Rei took out a can opener and pried open the aluminum can of powdered milk.

“I… That was just nonsense I said offhand.” Naoya gritted her teeth. How was she supposed to know these two brats did not have names yet? That was what had made her slip up.

“Then do you think there are any more suitable names?”

“Mm… Which one is the older sister?”

“If you look carefully, the one on the left is the older sister, and the one on the right is the younger sister.”

“Oh… ” Naoya stared at the two of them for a long while. She seemed to see some difference, and yet it also seemed as though there was no difference at all. If she could sense them through cursed energy, however, the two would be very easy to tell apart.

“In that case—the older sister is Swine, and the younger sister is Dogshit.”

“I think the names you gave them before were quite good. The older sister will be Maki, and the younger sister will be Mai. Let us decide that for the time being, and later we can ask Ogi-sama and his wife for their thoughts.” Rei had already finished mixing a bottle of milk and spoke as if the matter were already settled.

“Tch.” Naoya huffed through her nose to show her disdain, but then she felt a gaze fall on her, making her uncomfortable all over. “Hey—what are you looking at me like that for?”

“Nothing… ” Rei was being glared at by Naoya, but she still kept looking at her, and even smiled softly. “Maki… Mai. The older sister is the younger sister’s hope, and the younger sister is the older sister’s support. You gave them good names.”

“Naoya-sama, although you are usually overbearing and rude, refuse to let others near you, and speak in a way that hurts people, deep down, you are actually a kind child, aren’t you?”

“I think you’ve misunderstood completely.” Naoya was stunned for an instant, then immediately recovered. How could she possibly be shaken by such low-level rhetoric? “Besides—do you know this? In jujutsu, names are very easy vessels for resentment, and can become curses. What if I’m cursing them? These two will spend this life dragging each other down, sinking forever, cursed by their names for the rest of their lives. I don’t think that’s entirely impossible—no, rather, it’s already a fact… Forget it. I doubt you’d understand something like that.”

“Naoya-sama, when I am praising you, please do not say things that ruin the mood.”

“I’d rather you didn’t praise me.”

Without realizing it, Naoya was tugging at the hem of her kimono, unaware that her palm had already wrinkled the fabric into a mess.

…

“Naoya-sama, next I will demonstrate how to feed them. Please watch carefully. In a moment, I will feed Mai, and you will feed Maki.”

“First, gently support the infant and keep her at an incline. You absolutely must not feed her while she is lying flat, or she will choke.”

“Oh.”

“Then—the bottle must also be held at the proper angle. You cannot let the child suck in air.”

Mai—or possibly Maki—opened her mouth and latched onto the bottle nipple. Rei supported the infant’s neck with one hand and held the bottle with the other, watching the child intently.

“Do you understand?”

“I get it, I get it. You don’t need to demonstrate anymore.”

“Then please feed Maki. The older sister is quieter than the younger one, so she is perfect for your first attempt.” Rei arranged it in a steady tone and handed over the other warmed bottle.

Naoya steeled herself and picked up the other bottle. Imitating Rei’s actions, she helped Maki up and leaned her against the soft cushion by the side of the crib—though after looking for a while, she suddenly felt this one seemed like Mai instead.

Forget it. Who cares? It’ll be clear enough when they grow up.

“Waah—waah—!”

The soft babbling sounds coming from Maki’s mouth were not crying. She was only looking at Naoya with round, wide eyes.

“All right—this is the best milk, so drink up.” Naoya brought the nipple to the infant’s mouth with distaste, but Maki merely opened her mouth wide, completely ignoring the bottle placed in front of her.

“Your movement is wrong. Tilt it a little more,” Rei instructed from the side.

“All right, all right, I know…” Naoya tried again and finally managed to get Maki to accept the nipple.

Come to think of it, it was strange. With the young of all kinds of animals—piglets raised in pens, for example—as soon as they smelled their mother’s milk, they desperately shoved their way into the mother’s embrace. The strong claimed the most nutrition and grew stronger, while the weak could only pick at scraps and grew weaker, until the intelligent and powerful individuals were ultimately selected.

But humans—even though they were the most advanced animals, their young had to be actively fed. Too much and they would not eat, too little and they would not eat, too hot and they would not eat, too cold and they would not eat. They acted as if dying themselves was no great matter. Looked at that way, they were practically inferior to animals.

Without question, Naoya Zenin admired the former way of survival.

Naoya let her thoughts drift as she fed the baby, entirely failing to notice that Maki in front of her had already been fed until she started spitting up milk.

“Uu—uu! Waah!”

“Naoya-sama—Naoya-sama?” Rei reminded her.

“Huh? Ah!”

Naoya came back to herself and quickly pulled the bottle away, then stared helplessly at Maki as the infant began wailing.

“Hurry and wipe her clean,” Rei said, handing Naoya a napkin.

“R-right.”

Instinctively, doing nothing more than following the instruction, she took the napkin and wiped Maki’s mouth clean. The crying baby girl quieted down again.

“Maki-sama and Mai-sama are both very well-behaved,” Rei said, lifting Mai as well and placing her beside Maki. “As if they are afraid of causing trouble, they only cry when they absolutely have to, and once the problem is solved, they immediately settle down.”

“This is probably the most well-behaved they’ll ever be in their lives,” Naoya sneered. Then her gaze also fell on the two little things nestled tightly together in the crib.

That’s right. She had already thought it through—there was no need to rush into revenge. The timing was not right.

Killing them would be easy, nothing more than a lift of her hand. But her current self was still too weak. Without having awakened her cursed technique, if she killed members of the Zenin bloodline at a time like this, the crime of slaughtering her own clan would be pinned on her, and she absolutely would not escape punishment under Zenin family law.

So first, she had to find a way to deal with Naobito’s side and recover her own strength. She had a powerful premonition that as long as her cursed technique returned, she would not need to relearn or readapt to anything. Even the highest secret art in jujutsu society—Domain Expansion—would come to her effortlessly.

Without question, that was the realm of a special grade jujutsu sorcerer.

When the time came, one special grade jujutsu sorcerer who had mastered Domain Expansion, and two twin girls unloved by their parents and treated by the family as inauspicious castoffs—which side would even require consideration?

T/N: heuheuheuehu future female naoya ooolalalalalala ANYWAY VIOTE TIME