Chapter 21
“Fine, even though you refused Lia’s request for a princess story and left early, I have no idea what kept you up so late, but I’ll let it slide.”
Edwin stuck out his lips and waved his hand.
“I can take care of myself just fine without you.”
That kid—he must have taken what I said yesterday to heart.
He’s pettier than he looks.
“Then I’ll catch a quick nap and report back.”
I bowed obediently to Edwin and stepped backward.
“Catherine! Lia, more of this!”
“Oh my, our Imperial Princess Emilia eats so well—she’ll grow big and strong in no time!”
“Me too, more.”
“Oh dear, it seems to suit Your Highness Edwin’s taste too. What a relief!”
Catherine watched the children eagerly devouring their food with genuine joy.
‘As expected, the nanny role suits them better.’
I let out a chuckle and quietly slipped out of the dining hall.
I didn’t realize it then.
That I would regret being away this time today for years to come.
* * *
Catherine Veil, head maid of the 3rd Prince’s Palace.
She was the eldest daughter among four sons and three daughters of Viscount Veil’s family.
With a significant age gap from her siblings, she was confident in caring for children.
She had always looked after her younger brothers and sisters in place of their busy parents.
But there was one crucial fact she had overlooked.
“Huff, pant, Your Highness Emilia, wouldn’t it be better to head back to your room now?”
“No way, no way! Why is the horsey talking?”
“Eek, eeeee!”
Imperial Princess Emilia was far more peculiar than any of her siblings.
Catherine crawled diligently on all fours across the lawn.
With the young princess riding on her back, no less.
Catherine never could have imagined she’d end up as the playmate for the princess’s beloved “horse-riding game.”
“Giddyup—! Go faster!”
Emilia swung two strands of Catherine’s hair like reins.
“Eek, eeeeeek!”
Catherine panted raggedly, her eyes welling with tears.
“Y-Your Highness, c-can we play something else?”
No matter that the princess was just a child, carrying her around on her waist like this while crawling was too much.
How on earth had the nanny managed this for hours?
“Something else?”
“Yes! And Your Highness Edwin seems bored all by himself too!”
“Ung? Oppa?”
Emilia turned her head toward her brother.
Just as she said, Edwin was sitting on the lawn, plucking at the grass with his fingers.
He looked thoroughly bored to anyone watching.
Emilia tilted her head at the sight.
“Is that sooo? Then what game do you want to play?”
“Well, you see…”
Seizing the opportunity, Catherine set Emilia down on the ground and stood up.
At that moment, Edwin sprang to his feet from where he sat.
“I’m thirsty.”
“Oh my, it must be snack time already. Shall we head to the annex? I’ll bake you some delicious apple pie.”
“I want to eat here. Make it all and bring it here.”
“Pardon? Uh…”
Catherine hesitated at Edwin’s firm command.
It felt awkward leaving the young prince and princess alone.
Especially since Rachel was away right now.
On the other hand, Edwin seemed to sense her reluctance and added,
“I’ll wait here with Lia, so hurry and bring it.”
“Um, Your Highness, if you’d wait inside…”
“Are you defying the prince’s command?”
“N-No! I’ll bring it right away! Please just wait a moment!”
Catherine buckled under the prince’s irritation, her eyebrows flying as she dashed toward the annex.
Watching her retreating figure, Edwin lifted one corner of his mouth.
Unlike that woman who didn’t so much as blink when he invoked his status as prince, the head maid was a most loyal servant.
Which made her all the easier to deceive.
Edwin turned to his little sister with an excited expression, unlike before.
“Lia, let’s go outside.”
“Ung? Is that okay?”
“Yeah. You said you wanted to go back to the central garden last time, right?”
“Yes! Lia wants to go!”
The young prince and princess clasped hands and ran off.
The direction they headed was the wall behind the annex.
* * *
“N-Nanny—!”
Catherine’s shrill scream jolted me awake from my nap.
She had burst in without knocking, her face a mess of tears.
A foreboding feeling washed over me, and I scrambled out of bed.
“What happened?”
“The Your Highnesses—they’ve vanished!”
“What did you say?”
It was a bolt from the blue.
* * *
“Oppa, the butterfly can’t fly.”
“Butterfly?”
Edwin lowered his head at Emilia’s words.
What his sister was crouching down to peer at wasn’t a butterfly—it was a flower.
“Is it hurt?”
Emilia gazed at the flower with worried eyes.
Edwin couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the sight.
“Lia, that’s not a butterfly. It’s a flower.”
“Flower?”
“Yeah, it’s a pansy flower, and you’re right—it really does look like a butterfly.”
“It’s a flower! So pretty!”
Emilia reached out toward the flower in admiration.
Edwin stopped the princess’s hand as it moved to pluck it without hesitation.
“You can’t pluck it, Emilia. Flowers hurt if you do.”
“Ung? Why does the flower hurt? Did the flower say it hurts?”
The prince was at a loss for words at his sister’s innocent yet piercing question.
After all, he’d only been told by Emma as a child that flowers shouldn’t be plucked.
“W-Well, not exactly.”
“Then Lia will take it. It can be friends with Lia.”
“Wait!”
“Ung?”
Edwin grabbed his sister’s tiny hand and said,
“Emilia, don’t you like the palace we live in now?”
“Yes! Because Oppa and Nanny are there, and Catherine too!”
“Don’t you think this one feels the same? All its friends are here, it lives here because it likes it—if Lia takes it away on a whim, it’ll be sad.”
“Ung, is that sooo?”
“And Lia, flowers wilt if you pluck them. Wouldn’t it be sad for such a pretty one to wither away?”
Emilia’s face fell sullenly under Edwin’s persistent coaxing.
“Later, I’ll ask them to plant some in our garden too. So let’s tell it to stay here, okay?”
As the prince soothed her, Emilia finally nodded.
“Ung, okay.”
“Good girl.”
Edwin beamed and stroked his sister’s head.
Emilia, who had been giggling along with her brother, let out a yawn.
“Yawwwn.”
“Lia, sleepy?”
“Ung. Oppa touching my head makes me sleepy.”
Now that he thought about it, this was right around the time Emilia usually took her nap.
“Shall we take a little nap then?”
“Ung.”
“Come here.”
Edwin draped his jacket over his sister, who had curled up beside him.
Watching her like that, a wave of sleepiness suddenly washed over him too.
“Yawwwn.”
Edwin stretched and lay down next to Emilia.
By now, Catherine must have realized they were gone and be panicking.
Just imagining the scene was amusing.
Chuckling to himself, Edwin pillowed his head on his arms and gazed up at the sky.
This place, where he’d often come with Emma when she was alive, was the prince’s sole sanctuary.
The most remote corner of the central garden—no one came here except the guards.
Whenever he missed Emma, he’d sneak away to this spot.
Lately, though, the strange new nanny had kept him too distracted to come.
Perhaps because his heart felt at ease, the prince’s eyes gradually drifted shut.
And so, the sweet nap time flowed by.
Emilia was the first to open her eyes.
“Ung.”
Rubbing her eyes as she sat up, she glanced at Edwin, still asleep, then looked around.
That was when something caught the young princess’s eye.
A cat boasting white fur with yellow stripes, swishing its tail as if beckoning her before vanishing into the bushes.
“Kitty!”
Emilia’s eyes sparkled with delight.
For a princess who went wild for cats, this was an unmissable chance.
“Kitty! Kitty—!”
Emilia jumped to her feet and dashed into the bushes.
It truly happened in the blink of an eye.
When Edwin stirred in his sleep, felt the empty space beside him, and opened his eyes, the princess was already gone.
“…Emilia?”
Edwin called his sister’s name with a dazed expression.
But no answer came.
“Lia? Emilia!”
A chill of dread hit him, and Edwin bolted upright.
“Emilia—! Where are you—!”
The young prince’s voice rang out more desperately than anyone’s.
* * *
“Kitty, where are you?”
Emilia crawled along the ground on all fours.
The cat was such a magnificent creature it could bring the empire’s princess to her knees.
“Kitty, come out. Let’s play with Lia.”
Emilia called out in a hushed voice, but there was no reply.
“It definitely came this way…”
The princess stood up, her face falling in disappointment.
That was when it happened.
Kyaaah—!
A sharp feline cry pierced the air from somewhere nearby.
“It’s the kitty!”
Emilia ran toward the sound, heart swelling with anticipation at finally meeting the cat.
But when the young princess pushed through the dense bushes and arrived, the cat wasn’t alone.
“Kitty…!”
The beaming smile on Emilia’s face as she called to the cat slowly faded.
There, a group of well-dressed boys had gathered.
“Hahaha—! Idiot, can’t you even hit that?”
“Shut up! It’s thrashing around so much, that’s why!”
The orange-haired boy threw a tantrum and picked up a stone from the ground.
His gaze was fixed on the cat—hanging upside down from a tree branch.
It was the very cat Emilia had been chasing.
