Chapter 7
“Childcare is definitely hard labor.”
I let out a sigh as I closed the door.
“Or maybe that little brat is just exceptional.”
Just thinking of that annoying prince made my blood pressure rise for no reason.
Instead of chasing after Edwin, who had run off with the bracelet, I had chosen to let him be.
But then, of all times, the head maid had caught me leaving Emilia alone.
It all started when the head maid discovered Emilia sneaking into the kitchen to steal food because she couldn’t bear her hunger any longer.
- If I catch you slacking off even once more, your pay will be docked. Understood?
Damn it.
To think I was being threatened with money by some ordinary person.
It bruised my pride, but there was nothing I could do.
I needed funds to escape this place, and every coin counted in my situation.
In the end, I spent the entire day trailing after the imperial siblings.
Of course, Edwin was too busy running away with a rotten expression whenever he saw me.
I let out a deep sigh.
“Who would’ve thought I’d end up scraping by as a nanny.”
The word ‘nanny’ suddenly brought back old memories.
I—well, ‘Kayla Angel’—was an orphan.
It was my crime to have been born in an era where days were filled with bloodshed from magic beasts and barbarians.
Abandoned at birth, I spent seven years in an orphanage attached to a temple.
It was there that I met a woman.
She called herself the mother of children like me who had lost their parents.
We called each other ‘family.’
But that peaceful life didn’t last long.
Even the temple couldn’t escape the barbarians’ raids.
The temple burned, and the children scattered, their fates unknown.
I barely escaped with my life, only to be caught by some shady slave trader.
The trader sold me to the assassin guild ‘Angel’s Breath’ for a hefty sum.
He had convinced the former guild leader by arguing that, despite my malnutrition, I had a sturdy build compared to my peers.
My first memory there was the instructor’s face as he ordered me to kill a puppy that couldn’t even open its eyes.
After five years in the assassin guild, I was finally able to step back into the outside world.
And that’s when I reunited with the woman who had raised me—by chance.
She was still faithfully playing the role of mother to children without homes or parents.
Unlike me, who was too stunned to speak, she burst into tears and hugged me the moment she saw me.
- I’m so glad you’re alive. Truly glad, Kayla.
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her what I did for a living in front of her.
After that reunion with my old connection, I visited her whenever I could.
Being with her made me feel like I’d returned home.
Not that a rootless orphan like me had a home.
But the former guild leader, who had marked me as a candidate for the next leader, wouldn’t tolerate my meetings with her.
- What good is talent if you’re flawed like this?
The former leader pressed his blade to my chest when I returned to the guild and clicked his tongue.
- Killing every single member I sent to kill that woman. Is she your real blood kin or something?
Instead of arguing, I lowered my eyes and swore.
- I won’t meet her again. So leave her be.
- You think she’ll understand you if you do? Now that you’ve become a murderer?
He looked at me, covered in the blood of the guild members, with genuine pity.
- This is why women won’t do. So sentimental.
The former leader didn’t take his sympathetic gaze off me.
- Kayla, that weakness of yours will kill you someday.
What had I said in response back then?
I couldn’t remember clearly.
But I did run into her a few more times after that.
Disguised as coincidence, but inevitable.
In my faint memories, I glimpsed her laughing with the children.
‘Emma.’
I whispered her name in my heart.
By now, she was probably spending her twilight years happily with her real family back in her hometown.
She deserved it.
Sometimes, even the faint outline of a memory is enough to find solace.
With that, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
It was a deep sleep, deeper than I’d had in a long time.
* * *
“…Damn it.”
As dawn broke outside the window.
“It wasn’t a dream after all.”
I sat up, staring at the ceiling that still felt unreal.
I flung open the window, and cool air rushed in.
Looking outside, I saw servants bustling about despite the early hour.
Seeing such an utterly ordinary sight made my heart stir for some reason.
I had lived my whole life as an assassin and died as one.
The guilt over killing had faded long ago, and I’d never felt any pride in my life.
Maybe that’s why.
I often imagined what it would have been like to live ordinarily.
- More romantic than it looks, Kayla.
Reflexively, I recalled what Ian had once said to me.
That bastard who killed me often called me ‘romantic.’
He frequently said it didn’t suit an assassin like me, the guild leader.
‘That’s why I liked him.’
When everyone said I was born to be an assassin.
He alone told me it didn’t suit me.
I liked that about Ian. Probably.
‘But what’s the point of thinking about it now?’
Shaking off the useless memories, I turned around.
A modest dress hung neatly on the wall, as if waiting for me.
While eavesdropping on the people here yesterday, I’d learned a few things.
‘First, I’ve been revived a year after my death.’
I had no idea why there was a year’s gap.
I couldn’t even grasp how I’d come back to life in the first place.
There must be a reason, but I had no way to uncover it now.
‘Second, the real ‘Rachel Brown’ was hired on the recommendation of the previous nanny.’
No one would tell me what had happened to the previous nanny.
Everyone changed the subject at the mere mention of ‘Lady Conrad,’ so there was nothing to be done.
But I did learn that the real Rachel Brown had been close to the previous nanny.
‘Third, security is twice as tight as usual because a foreign king and his delegation are visiting.’
Sneaking out to gather information on the organization and Ian would have to wait.
Some new kingdom’s king had arrived with his knights, and of all times, why now?
‘The timing is just perfect.’
If I got caught climbing a wall while a foreign king was visiting, I’d be saddled with all sorts of false charges and die miserably.
This body had decent reflexes, but compared to my old one, it was pathetic.
I didn’t want to get caught in a botched escape attempt and end up executed.
‘I’ll have to lay low for a while.’
I glared at the dress hanging on the wall.
‘Right, this isn’t childcare. It’s a mission.’
My role was ‘nanny.’
Two clients.
A temperamental prince and a troublemaking princess.
‘I’ll endure the hardship. It’s just a means to save money, after all.’
Once I’d gathered enough funds and built up my strength, I’d escape immediately.
Straightening the hem of the dress I was wearing, I longed for the day I could leave this place sooner rather than later.
“Let’s go.”
After finishing my preparations, I threw open the door energetically.
It was the start of day two as the prince’s palace nanny.
* * *
Maybe because I’d chased after the prince and princess like mad yesterday.
Thankfully, there was no mishap of not finding the prince’s room.
When I entered carrying Emilia, who was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Edwin looked at me in surprise.
“What are you doing here at this hour?”
His face said he hadn’t expected me to come harass him this early.
I hadn’t expected a warm welcome, but his blatant reluctance irked me.
“Isn’t it natural for me, your nanny, to come wake Your Highness?”
“That’s new. You never came at this hour in the past two weeks.”
The maid who entered with the washing water glanced at me curiously too.
‘Judging by their reactions, the real Rachel Brown wasn’t exactly nanny material either.’
I bowed my head to hide my embarrassment.
“I apologize. I’ve been disrespectful to Your Highness until now while adjusting to this unfamiliar place. From here on, I’ll correct my—”
“Enough.”
The boy stretched with a big yawn and got out of bed obediently.
He seemed to have given up on running away like yesterday.
“Go wash up.”
Edwin stood in front of the basin of washing water, still looking half-asleep.
But then he started doing something utterly incomprehensible.
‘What’s he doing?’
Edwin dipped just the tip of his finger in the water and rubbed his eyes.
He repeated this a few times, then stared at me.
“I’m all washed up.”
All washed up? What did he wash? His eyeballs?
I sighed quietly.
I never dreamed I’d have to teach a prince how to wash.
“You need to wash behind your ears too.”
Despite my pointing it out, Edwin shook his head irritably.
“Argh, I did it properly!”
Properly? What was proper about that?
I forced a smile at him.
“Your Highness, the places you can’t see easily are the dirtiest. Behind your ears, your neck…”
“I’m not dirty!”
“What makes you so sure?”
In response to my question, Edwin shouted with utter conviction.
“Because I’m a prince!”
