Chapter 5
“Who dares to butt in?”
This brat? Forgetting the favor I just did him and talking big like that.
But how could a nanny dare to snap at a prince?
I forced myself to bow my head to him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t lie. You’re not sorry at all.”
It was an astoundingly sharp observation.
‘He’s surprisingly keen, unlike how he looks.’
The Third Prince Edwin, whom I was seeing for the first time, had quite a few unexpected sides to him.
He wasn’t afraid to charge at a guy bigger than himself.
He blurted out whatever came to mind without thinking.
‘I thought the so-called mongrel prince would be all gloomy and downcast. But this…’
I met the boy’s straightforward gaze with a sharp look of my own.
‘He only looks like an angel.’
At that moment, Edwin asked me with a displeased expression.
“The hag said she was too sick to come out today. So it was just a fake illness after all?”
Hag witch.
I think the Imperial Princess called the Head Maid that earlier too.
Do these siblings both hold a grudge against her or something?
“It was just a slight headache, and it went away quickly. Thank you for your concern, Your Highness.”
I bowed at the waist to express my polite gratitude, but something felt off.
Edwin was staring at me with dissatisfied eyes.
“Your Highness, is something wrong?”
Edwin tilted his head at my question.
“For some reason, you seem different from usual.”
“Is that so? In what way?”
“You look uglier than usual.”
“……?”
His sudden personal attack left me momentarily speechless.
“…Your Highness, have I perhaps done something rude to you?”
“Stop acting all friendly. It’s annoying.”
I tried to keep my composure and asked again, but his response was still prickly.
“Even if you came here on Emma’s recommendation, I don’t trust you.”
Emma’s recommendation?
I narrowed my eyes, recalling what the Head Maid had said.
‘The Head Maid said I came here on Lady Conrad’s recommendation.’
So Lady Conrad’s name is Emma.
‘Emma Conrad?’
The somehow familiar name made me frown without realizing it.
‘…No way. It must be a coincidence. Different last name too.’
While I was lost in thought for a moment, the prince added in a sullen voice.
“You’re on the hag witch’s side anyway. I know all about it.”
His unexpected reaction left me quite at a loss.
‘At his age, he should just trust and follow his nanny unquestioningly.’
Seeing how overly guarded he was, the original ‘Rachel Brown’ must not have been such a great nanny.
‘The Head Maid seemed to dislike me too.’
What on earth had this nanny, who’d only been in the Imperial Palace for half a month, been up to to make so many enemies?
I deliberately made an embarrassed face and bowed my head.
In any case, to stay here for the time being, I had to play my role faithfully.
“Your Highness, I am merely Your Highness’s nanny.”
“Ha!”
Edwin crossed his arms and snorted.
“Liar. She must have told you I was here too.”
“…….”
“To catch me, right? What, to put me under house arrest again?”
Did the Head Maid have the authority to order the prince confined to his quarters?
I set aside the question that came to mind and silently bowed to him.
Silence was the best response to a tricky question like that.
The prince kept side-eyeing me like that before suddenly tossing out a remark.
“But how did you know about that earlier?”
“Know what?”
When I asked back, the prince shouted in frustration.
“How did you know those guys were cheating!”
“It was just obvious.”
I recalled Gail’s clumsy hand movements.
He’d started using the trick with the redhead from the second round.
If he cheated from the first, the opponent might not accept the outcome.
‘He probably thought the same trick would work on me.’
Unaware that I’d deliberately fallen for it the second time.
‘Hah, as if. Who does he think he can fool with such amateur tricks?’
I clicked my tongue, thinking of the countless ‘con artists’ I’d seen in the back alleys.
Compared to their sleight of hand, Gail’s skills were like a child splashing in the shallows.
But Edwin, unwilling to accept my words, stuck out his lower lip.
“Liar. I didn’t see it.”
“Your Highness must have been seeing it for the first time, so it’s not strange.”
At my words, he raised one eyebrow.
“So you’ve seen it a lot?”
“…Well, something like that.”
“How? Do nobles see that kind of thing often?”
I peered into the prince’s innocent eyes.
They were still fierce and full of wariness, but I could glimpse the innocence he hadn’t managed to hide.
Eyes I could never have in my lifetime.
Suddenly, the place where I’d lived came to mind.
‘A kid like this wouldn’t last half a day if I took him there.’
To survive there, you had to become a con artist skilled in all sorts of tricks.
And that applied to me as well.
“I’ve just seen it a few times in the slums.”
I gave him a gentle smile, as if it were nothing.
“Their hand movements were slower than the ones I saw before.”
“What? So they were nothing special after all.”
Edwin looked hurt in his pride.
“It couldn’t be helped that Your Highness fell for it…….”
“I didn’t fall for it, okay? Don’t act all high and mighty when you’re uglier than me.”
This kid looks like he’d come to his senses if I smacked him once. Should I?
I forcibly suppressed my fist, which kept clenching.
‘If word got out that the nanny hit the prince, I’d be kicked out immediately.’
Strictly speaking, Edwin wasn’t entirely wrong.
I stared at him before giving him a bright smile.
“Your Highness, did you know this?”
“Know what?”
“That if someone looks ugly to you, it means your own heart is ugly.”
Edwin blinked at my words.
His face twisted in an instant.
“You, are you saying my heart is ugly right now? Are you insulting this prince?!”
Kids will be kids.
I gave the bristling boy a calm smile.
“It’s not an insult to Your Highness, but sincere advice in the hope that Your Highness will have a righteous heart.”
I continued calmly as I watched the fuming Edwin.
“Because I am Your Highness’s nanny.”
He glared at me with blazing eyes before yelling.
“Don’t make me laugh. I hate people like you the most! Got it?”
The prince pointed at me accusingly while huffing.
‘He’s really throwing a tantrum.’
I’m not too fond of cocky little punks myself.
I looked at him with an indifferent face masked by a fake smile.
Edwin glared at me for a long while before snatching the bracelet from my hand.
Then he bolted toward the prince’s palace.
I hadn’t expected a thank-you, but this was a bit bewildering.
I raised an eyebrow as I watched his retreating figure hightail it away.
“What kind of guy is he?”
* * *
“My lord?”
The man forgot to even respond to his subordinate’s call as he recalled what he’d just seen.
Is it about this much?
The man placed a hand on his solar plexus.
Slightly tousled ash-brown hair.
Skirt hems fluttering in the wind.
And eyes like dark green topaz.
That ‘thing’ which had effortlessly scaled a wall taller than him had something special that drew his gaze.
Just the fact that it had noticed his gaze hidden in the shadows proved it.
“Intriguing.”
The corners of the man’s mouth curved into a sly arc.
Meanwhile, his adjutant, Oliver Green, frowned at his words.
“My lord, did you perhaps get hit on the head?”
He’d gotten smacked on the crown for daring to worry about his lord’s mental state, but still.
“That hurts!”
“A whip is the best medicine for an insolent adjutant.”
Oliver clutched his head and yelled, looking wronged.
“You vanished without a word, so I was worried, and now that you’re back, you’re still not saying anything!”
“Have I ever been so unreliable that you need to worry like that?”
“Well, my lord could be dropped in the middle of a desert and come back just fine, but still……”
Oliver trailed off.
Seeing his lord’s utterly composed demeanor made his own worries feel utterly pointless.
The man, cloaked head to toe in pitch-black darkness like a curtain, exuded strength from every inch of his body.
His golden eyes, gleaming like those of a predator, were enough to make one’s legs tremble just looking at them.
“Whew, in any case, this is the heart of the enemy nation.”
Oliver sighed as he met those still-unsettling, fierce eyes.
“There are many eyes around, so please refrain from drawing attention.”
The man merely gave a light smile at his adjutant’s earnest advice.
That look seemed ominous, as Oliver’s eyes widened.
“My lord, no.”
Suddenly being told no, the man raised one eyebrow.
“What?”
His adjutant frowned and added.
“I don’t know. Whatever it is, just no.”
He stared at his lord, the man, with wide eyes.
“Every time my lord makes that face, I feel like my lifespan shortens.”
“What pointless worrying.”
The man cracked his neck side to side as if tired, then fixed a languid gaze straight ahead.
“I know the priorities of the mission, so don’t worry.”
“That sounds like you’ll finish the job and then wander off as you please?”
“My adjutant is quick on the uptake, as always.”
“Sigh, my lord. You’re not still looking for that woman, are you?”
Oliver lowered his voice with a dubious expression.
“Kayla Angel.”
