Chapter 10
“Stop crying.”
I sighed as I looked at Edwin, who showed no sign of stopping his tears anytime soon.
“I’m sorry for being late, but I did find Your Highness, didn’t I?”
“Krngh—!”
I hadn’t planned to let him blow his nose at all, but the boy wiped it on my sleeve.
As I stared at the snot sticking gooily to my sleeve and stretching out, my face involuntarily wrinkled in disgust.
I hid my sleeve behind me and continued speaking.
“Stop crying. I was unavoidably delayed because the Head Maid caught me on the way.”
On my way here, the Head Maid had scolded me, asking if I’d left the prince wandering around somewhere while leisurely taking a stroll.
I recalled the incredulous look in her eyes when I told her we were playing hide-and-seek.
Meanwhile, Edwin looked up at me with teary eyes upon hearing my words.
“…Why did you come looking for me?”
Why did I come looking? In hide-and-seek, doesn’t it end when the seeker finds you?
It was truly a baffling question.
“Well, because the game ends once I find Your Highness.”
When I replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, he pursed his lips.
What on earth had this boy wanted to hear?
I stood Edwin up and rose from my seat, giving Emilia’s bottom a couple of light pats.
Unlike her crybaby brother, Emilia stopped crying easily.
“Anyway, since I won, Your Highness has to eat all the vegetables.”
At that moment, Edwin’s face, which had seemed to stop crying, turned as white as a sheet.
* * *
“They’re all cold! How am I supposed to eat this? Vegetables taste even weirder when they’re cold!”
Back in the dining room, he made a miserable face at the pile of vegetables on the plate in front of him.
“I’ll have them reheated.”
“Argh, no!”
After glaring at the plate for a long while, he scooped up a piece of vegetable with his spoon and shoved it into Emilia’s mouth.
Unlike her brother, the princess, who had a good appetite, chewed it up happily with a munch munch.
“A bet’s a bet, Your Highness.”
When I moved Emilia a bit farther away from him, Edwin glared at me.
“You like tormenting me, don’t you?”
“Tormenting? Vegetables are good for you.”
“What good is that if they taste bad!”
“Your Highness, the world of competition is always ruthless. A loser has to eat even the most unappetizing food if that’s what they promised.”
His face twisted at the word “loser,” but in the end, he shoved his share of vegetables into his mouth.
“Euuugh—!”
Pitifully trembling all over as he did.
After that ordeal of a meal, the prince bolted to the rear garden without looking back.
“Brother! Go with Liaaa!”
The boy racing across the green lawn with his sister looked so full of life, as if he’d never shed a tear.
Standing there under the shade of a tree with my arms crossed, I recalled what had happened that morning.
—I’m dead.
Edwin had clearly said the previous nanny had died.
‘Judging by how the servants avoid talking about her, it probably wasn’t an honorable death.’
I tilted my head as I watched the prince running around in the garden.
‘From the way he talks, it seems he was quite close to that previous nanny.’
To be so innocently cheerful after losing someone close to him.
‘Is it just his natural temperament, or does he simply not think about it?’
Just then, something glinted on the wrist of Edwin, who had raised his arms toward the sky.
It was the bracelet I’d taken back from those insolent servants.
Even in the sunlight, the pale pearl bracelet looked strangely familiar no matter how many times I saw it.
What was the reason it kept catching my eye since last time?
‘It’s just an ordinary accessory.’
That was right. It was a cheap accessory you could find anywhere.
The problem was why a prince of the realm carried around such a commonplace trinket like a talisman.
Unable to contain my curiosity any longer, I unusually approached him first and asked.
“Your Highness, I have a question.”
Edwin turned around with a face full of sulkiness when I drew near.
He must have been really upset about eating those vegetables earlier.
“What question?”
“Is that bracelet something precious to you, Your Highness?”
Edwin paused briefly at my question, then raised an eyebrow and shot back.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“From last time too, it seems like you carry it around so carefully.”
He fell silent at my words.
Then Emilia answered in place of her brother.
“Brother’s bracelet was originally Emma’s! Emma gave it to Brother!”
“Lia! You don’t have to tell her that.”
Edwin scolded his sister with a flustered face.
But the princess just put on an innocent “I don’t know anything” expression.
Edwin sighed as he looked at his sister, then turned his head toward me.
Staring straight at me, he spoke in a prickly voice.
“Yeah. It’s very precious to me. It’s Emma’s keepsake.”
Edwin fiddled with the bracelet on his wrist.
“She said it was her final wish.”
“A wish, you say?”
“Yeah. Emma said she wanted me to be happy. That was probably her last wish.”
To wish for another’s child’s happiness in her final moments.
‘…Her way of thinking really takes after that woman.’
Just then, someone tapped my hand.
It was Edwin.
“Here, a gift for you.”
He held out his right fist toward me.
He’d looked angry just moments ago, but now suddenly a gift?
He was a pretty commendable boy who knew how to respect his elders, after all.
“Thank you.”
The moment I reached out with a word of thanks, he suddenly grinned wickedly.
“Pfft, revenge!”
Edwin placed a large green object on my hand.
Its long, slender form belonged to……
None other than a praying mantis.
“…….”
Edwin was looking at me with an excited face.
He seemed to expect me to be shocked out of my wits.
But I had no intention of playing along with what he wanted.
“I don’t really like insects. Here, back to you.”
I politely grabbed the praying mantis by its hind leg and delicately placed it on top of Edwin’s head.
Edwin and the mantis alike stared at me in blank bewilderment.
“Eek! What are you doing?!”
Realizing the situation late, he frantically shook his head and fumed.
“That’s not fun at all! I’m going to my room!”
“As you wish.”
“Emilia, come here! Let’s play inside!”
Edwin took his sister and headed into the palace.
It was just as I was about to follow them inside.
A prickling sensation at the back of my head. I quietly turned around.
All that stretched behind me was a long wall, trees, and bushes.
‘Even a mutt of a prince has eyes watching him, I suppose.’
I had to give points to the royals for their needless suspicion.
I smirked as I stared at the tree far off in the distance.
‘Though their skills don’t seem all that impressive.’
As I stood there fixing my gaze for a moment, an irritated shout rang out.
“Hey, what are you doing not following?!”
Edwin and Emilia.
Their two pairs of innocent eyes were looking at me.
“I’m coming.”
There was no reason to fuss over trifles when I wouldn’t be staying long anyway.
I straightened my clothes and lightly turned my steps.
* * *
‘Talk about bad luck.’
While walking with the prince and princess siblings, I ran into the Head Maid.
She acted as if my presence meant nothing to her.
She gave the prince a light bow, then scanned him with a sharp gaze.
“Your Highness, did you perhaps leave the prince’s palace yesterday?”
Edwin flinched excessively at the Head Maid’s question.
He looked just like a fawn gripped by fear.
‘He was boldly calling her an old hag in front of me.’
After a long hesitation, Edwin finally mumbled in a shrinking voice.
“N-No. I didn’t go out…….”
“Tell the truth. You really didn’t go out?”
Edwin’s face filled with terror at the Head Maid’s icy tone.
“Lying is bad, Your Highness.”
“Th-That’s…….”
“One of the maids attending Your Highness clearly said you went to the stables yesterday. Isn’t that right?”
Ah, the maid who brought the washbasin.
Come to think of it, I’d mentioned the stables in front of her.
‘To tattle on that in the meantime—impressive loyalty.’
I clicked my tongue in admiration at the unnamed maid’s devotion to the Head Maid.
“I’ll ask once more, Your Highness. You really didn’t go out yesterday?”
“I just…….”
“Then I’ll have to reprimand that maid for giving a false report.”
At the Head Maid’s words, Edwin hurriedly opened his mouth.
“I-It was just a quick trip out! Just a walk!”
Why was he so scared?
It was a reaction I couldn’t understand.
This was the boy who’d bravely charged at those burly stable hands.
Meanwhile, the Head Maid’s expression grew even sterner upon hearing Edwin’s answer.
“A walk? I clearly told you not to wander off without my permission.”
“We went out together.”
When I suddenly interjected, a furrow formed between the Head Maid’s brows.
Edwin looked just as surprised.
He seemed shocked that I was taking his side.
“What do you mean by that, Lady Brown?”
“His Highness said he was bored staying cooped up in the prince’s palace, so we went for a walk outside together.”
Good, that sounded properly like a nanny’s response.
I was quite satisfied with my own answer when the Head Maid’s face twisted even more.
It was a more displeased expression than the one she’d worn that first day when our eyes met, when she’d come looking for me.
“How ridiculous.”
The Head Maid sneered, narrowing her eyes.
“Lady Brown, by what authority did you take Your Highness out so carelessly?”
