Chapter 11
“Well, isn’t that something a nanny should be able to handle?”
In truth, I had no real idea of the status a nanny held in society.
I had simply assumed that a nanny to a ‘prince’ would have that much authority.
‘From her reaction, it seems I wasn’t wrong.’
The head maid was glaring at me, her face flushed red.
“You’ve been in the Imperial Palace for less than a month.”
She snapped at me rapidly in a voice thick with irritation.
“We can’t entrust His Highness’s care to someone who hasn’t even been fully vetted yet. Understand?”
“That’s strange. It seems like the ones who need vetting aren’t me, but the maids who attend His Highness.”
“What did you say?”
“You wouldn’t have instructed the head maid to bring His Highness cold wash water, now would you?”
The head maid clamped her mouth shut as if her words had been blocked.
She glared at me for a long moment before twisting her expression.
“Hah, now I see. So that’s why an adopted child from some no-account count’s family got in on Lady Conrad’s recommendation.”
What kind of kindness was it to mutter her soliloquy loud enough for everyone to hear?
And to think the real ‘Rachel Brown’ was an adopted daughter of a count’s family.
‘What shocks me more is that there’s a count’s family I’ve never even heard of.’
Well, if it was a family granted their title while I was dead, it wasn’t impossible.
“If Lady Brown’s words are true, that’s truly regrettable.”
The head maid had already switched back to an nonchalant face, as if nothing had happened.
Her control over her expressions was truly impressive.
“Very well. Then let’s do it this way.”
She narrowed her eyes and added,
“From now on, everything concerning His Highness’s personal affairs will be left entirely to Nanny Lady Brown. Satisfied now?”
She didn’t seem like she’d apologize even if it killed her.
The head maid snorted derisively, then left with an exasperated look.
Up until then, I thought it had turned out rather well.
That is, until I learned the weight her words carried in this place.
* * *
“What do you mean by that?”
The very next day.
I came to fully understand the meaning of the head maid’s parting words.
And very early in the morning, at that.
“The head maid said that everything regarding His Highness is to be handled by you, the nanny.”
The maid looked at me with a troubled expression.
“I’m sorry. I’m just doing as the head maid instructed…….”
The maids who used to come at the prince’s waking hours and mealtimes hadn’t shown so much as a glimpse.
When I came to check, the news awaiting me was like a bolt from the blue.
“So, you’re saying I have to prepare His Highness’s meals myself?”
The maid looked at a loss for words at my question.
“W-well then, I have work to do, so I’ll take my leave!”
She mumbled an evasion and vanished before I could grab her.
“Ha, what a pain.”
I irritably ran a hand through my hair.
‘That woman planned this from the start.’
Watching the maids who passed by while eyeing me warily, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
In the end, the lofty Imperial Palace wasn’t so different from the filthy back alleys.
‘Of course. To these maids, I’m nothing but an outsider who insulted their leader.’
It had only been two days since I’d taken over this body, but I felt it keenly.
There was no one in this place on the side of the prince and princess siblings—not even for ‘Rachel Brown.’
* * *
‘What do I do?’
No matter how bad the situation, I couldn’t let the prince go hungry as his nanny.
‘But I can’t feed him food I’ve made either.’
The only time I ever cooked was to poison someone.
Just as I was turning to at least fetch some of the black bread the servants ate,
I heard voices from somewhere. They came from outside the open window.
‘Quite noisy. Did a fight break out?’
They say nothing beats watching a fight when it comes to spectacles.
I cautiously poked my head out the window.
Below, several maids had surrounded someone.
“Don’t you get what I’m saying? I told you to wash all the curtains by morning—did you or didn’t you?”
“Why should I always do your work for you? I’m not your personal maid!”
“What? How dare you talk back like that! You insolent little—!”
Smack—
With the sound of palm meeting cheek, one maid toppled over.
The fallen maid had ivory hair and pale amber eyes.
Her slender, lanky build made her look like a pretty scarecrow.
“A fake noble trying to act on the same level as me, a count’s lady?”
The maid who’d called herself a count’s lady shouted with her head held high.
She ground her heel into the hem of the fallen scarecrow maid’s skirt.
“Lady Conrad’s ruined the order in the palace entirely! How arrogant can these annex maids get!”
She continued in a displeased voice.
“And bringing in some bitch we don’t even know where she rolled in from as a nanny—!”
Hmm, the only nanny in the 3rd Prince’s Palace is me.
Was she just now calling me some bitch we don’t know where she rolled in from?
What an intuitive maid.
‘Hmm, but as the prince’s nanny, wouldn’t it be a problem to let even these maids look down on me?’
Respect for the prince’s nanny should be the same as respect for the prince himself.
‘Since I’ll be staying here for a while, I should at least restore some order before I go.’
After a brief hesitation, I decided to intervene in their fight.
I swear on the heavens, it wasn’t because they’d badmouthed me or because they were the head maid’s lackeys.
It was purely to uphold the order in the prince’s palace—a rare noble impulse I’d acted on.
“Are you talking about me right now?”
I leaned my elbow on the windowsill and called out.
The maids’ heads snapped toward me in unison.
Their faces paled instantly.
“N-Nanny?”
“If you’re talking about me, include me too.”
“W-Wait, that’s…….”
The maids froze on the spot the moment they saw me.
Whether because the subject of their gossip had appeared out of nowhere, or because I’d vaulted over the rather high windowsill in one leap to approach them.
Or maybe the story of me dumping cold wash water on a maid had already spread.
I couldn’t tell which it was.
“You must not be too busy with work, gathering like this to gossip.”
I said it with deliberate sarcasm, and their expressions hardened.
“So what? Are you here to punish us for some crime?”
But the maid in the center replied boldly, her face unchanging.
“Do you think you have the authority for that, Nanny?”
“Of course not. What right do I have to judge your rights and wrongs?”
At my response, the maids exchanged triumphant glances among themselves.
“However, I do have the right to punish you for slandering me—someone who wasn’t even here—while prattling on about origins and status.”
As I continued with a cold expression, the maids flinched.
“Why the faces? Don’t want to hear from some bitch you don’t even know where she rolled in from?”
“N-No, that’s not…….”
Strictly by rank, I—the prince’s nanny—held a higher position than any of these maids.
They knew it better than anyone, which was why they didn’t dare contradict me.
But it seemed I’d underestimated the nobles’ brazenness and their misplaced pride.
One maid—the one who’d claimed count’s origins—stepped forward with a sneer on her lips.
“Would you look at that. This is why you can’t be nice to lowborn trash. Show them a little kindness, and they start acting like they’re all that.”
Poke—
“Who are you to……?”
She jabbed her finger into my forehead.
“Huh? Who are you to say that to meee! Some lowly thing who can’t even lift her head in front of me out there, trying to give advice? An adopted count’s brat who doesn’t know her place…….”
I seized the arm she was pointing with and wrenched it behind her back.
“Kyaaah—!”
The count-origins maid let out a shrill scream.
As I applied pressure, her face turned deathly pale.
“I guess they didn’t teach you in your count’s family that pointing fingers at people is rude.”
“W-What did you sayyy?”
I pressed my body close to hers and whispered so only she could hear.
“Lady, you should count yourself lucky that I don’t know your family’s name.”
“W-What?”
I whispered into her ear in the mischievous voice of a prankster fairy plotting wicked fun.
“If I did, your whole family—servants included—might have all drunk poison and dropped dead by tonight.”
“Bullshit! As if a pathetic threat like that would scare…….”
“Lady, you shouldn’t casually insult people whose origins you don’t know.”
“L-Let go! Let go and say that!”
“You never know.”
I let out a low chuckle right by her ear.
“I might have rolled in from a far more dangerous place than you could ever imagine.”
The maid trembled violently, thrashing about.
Of course, it was all for naught.
Her face ashen, she staggered as if about to collapse.
Oh dear. Had I gone too far teasing a young noble miss?
I softened my expression at once and gave her a bright smile.
“If you get caught ‘gossiping needlessly’ again, it’ll be trouble. Got it?”
This time, I asked loudly enough for the maids behind her to hear.
The maids nodded hurriedly as if to say they understood.
As I released the pressure from her arm, the count-origins maid bolted from the spot.
The two other maids panicked and followed after her.
Lowly things always make such a fuss over nothing.
I watched the maids’ retreating backs, then turned.
The maid who’d been slapped was staring up at me blankly from where she’d fallen.
