The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 141

Chapter 141. Traces (1)

A secret chamber so shabby it was hard to believe it was inside the royal palace.

A cold, razor-sharp silence hung in the air, enough to make one’s skin prickle.

“…This woman.”

Standing in the middle of the chamber, Kayden murmured.

He was staring coldly at the woman kneeling before him.

“Is the one I’ve been looking for?”

The woman was dressed in rags.

Her head was bowed so low she was practically prostrate on the floor.

The hands clutching her skirt trembled faintly.

“I’ve confirmed that she has the Ouroboros mark on her body.”

Standing by the door, Aurel gave a small shrug.

“And unless she’s lying, she remembers her past life, too.”

At the mention of a past life, Kayden let out a short, incredulous laugh.

“A past life.”

Kayden crouched in front of the woman.

“Raise your head.”

“Y-Your Majesty, I am honored to….”

Despite his clear command, the woman wouldn’t raise her head, though what frightened her so much was unclear.

She merely tried to offer a greeting in a trembling voice.

“How insolent.”

Kayden lifted her chin with the tip of his scabbard.

“Did you not hear me tell you to raise your head?”

“How could a lowly commoner like me dare raise her head before Your Majesty….”

“Then answer me as you are. Who were you in your past life?”

The sudden question made the woman go rigid.

Unable to meet Kayden’s eyes, she kept darting her gaze away.

“I-I used to belong to an assassin guild.”

“The guild’s name?”

“…Breath of the Angel.”

“Your position?”

“I was… the leader.”

With each question and answer, Kayden’s face grew increasingly expressionless.

He asked in a flat voice, “Your name?”

“M-my name is…”

The woman barely managed to answer, her voice dwindling to a whisper.

“Kyla.”

Aurel studied his liege.

He sat before the woman without moving a muscle.

With his back turned, Aurel couldn’t see his expression, but he knew instinctively.

‘This time, too.’

Another wrong answer?

Aurel sighed to himself.

“You’re Kyla.”

“Y-yes. That’s right.”

“How utterly ridiculous.”

“…Pardon?”

The corners of Kayden’s mouth stretched into a languid smile.

He casually moved the tip of his sword away from her chin.

“You made an effort.”

Green eyes of an unusual hue and blonde hair tinged with red.

There was something about the woman that resembled the person he was looking for.

“A clumsy one, though.”

Despite her shabby clothing, her skin was far too much like flawless white jade.

Like that of noblewomen who received regular beauty treatments.

“If your master wanted someone to play a part, he should’ve sent someone who could do it properly. How careless of him.”

Insolent fools.

Kayden thought of the lords who’d only recently come under his rule.

This woman was surely a trap sent by one of them.

“Who sent you?”

“Y-Your Majesty, what do you….”

“Are you still not done with your act?” Kayden asked, amusement in his voice.

Madness glinted in his golden eyes.

“Then let me ask you one thing, Kyla.”

His demeanor was so menacing that he looked ready to kill her if she didn’t give the right answer.

The woman swallowed hard as the king brought his face close to hers.

He was certainly a blindingly handsome man, but the sheer force of his presence made her feel faint.

“Why did you leave me behind that day?”

Leave him behind? Who left whom?

The woman stared at Kayden in confusion.

“Even after I begged you….”

One corner of Kayden’s mouth twisted.

The madness in his eyes had turned to grief and rage.

“Why did you abandon me and leave?”

Could there really be a woman who abandoned the Knight King of Adamant even after he begged her not to leave?

Kayden pressed the woman, who could only tremble without answering.

“Come now. Answer me.”

“Y-Your Majesty…”

“If you’re truly Kyla, you should be able to answer that.”

His smile couldn’t have been more cruelly teasing.

His expression made it clear that he knew perfectly well he was asking a question she couldn’t answer.

The woman surrendered to Kayden, who’d seen right through her.

“F-forgive me, Your Majesty! I only did as I was told! I really don’t know anything! The Marquis of Sorel said he’d restore my older brother’s title if I did as he instructed!”

The Marquis of Sorel. Just as he thought.

Kayden scoffed, unsurprised. “Good. You’re being honest.”

It was fortunate that the woman hadn’t been pointlessly stubborn.

If she had, he might have snapped her slender neck for daring to impersonate the person he cherished.

Kayden stood without a backward thought.

“Aurel.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Summon the Marquis of Sorel.”

At the king’s command, Aurel tilted his head. He looked at the weeping woman as he asked, “Then what should I do with her?”

“Deal with her as you see fit.”

“Pardon? As I see fit?”

Of all the orders in the world, he had to give the most troublesome one.

Aurel scratched his cheek, looking at a loss. “You mean I shouldn’t kill her, correct?”

No answer came.

Kayden had already left the secret chamber.

“Whew.”

Another fruitless attempt must have put him in quite a foul mood.

With a sigh, Aurel held out a hand to the woman still sitting on the floor.

She looked up at him in bewilderment.

“I thought your acting was truly dreadful. Are you perhaps dim-witted as well?”

“Pardon?”

“When someone offers you a hand, you’re supposed to take it and stand up. Must I explain every social convention to you?”

“Oh, I-I’m sorry.”

The woman apologized in confusion, then took Aurel’s hand and stood.

The moment she was on her feet, he pulled his hand away and wiped it with a handkerchief.

“I’ll provide an escort, Lady Schmitz. I wish you a safe journey home.”

The woman’s eyes widened.

“W-wait! You knew who I was?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“But when? How on earth….”

“Do you think you’re the first person like you I’ve seen? Good grief. To attempt an impersonation after seeing the others get such a thorough dressing-down. These dim-witted nobles….”

“Then why…!”

The woman asked, her eyes still wide.

“Why did you pretend you didn’t know?”

“Why else?”

Aurel furrowed his brow as though it were the stupidest question in the world.

“To catch the wicked flea who dared try to exploit my liege’s weakness.”

A wicked flea?

The woman, Lady Schmitz, stared at him blankly.

“Don’t tell me you deliberately brought me here to catch the Marquis of Sorel? Even though you knew I wasn’t the person His Majesty was looking for?”

“I’m glad your comprehension is at least average.”

Aurel smiled in apparent relief, then brought his palms together as though clapping.

“Now, would you kindly leave?”

He turned away with a bright smile.

“I must go and apprehend the Marquis of Sorel on His Majesty’s orders.”

“W-wait! If you do that, my family….”

“Oh, right.”

At Lady Schmitz’s plea, Aurel widened his eyes as though something had just occurred to him.

“As of today, House Schmitz will be granted the rank of viscount.”

“What? But our family originally held the rank of count!”

“Lady Schmitz.”

His long, narrow eyes, so unlike those of the people of the western continent, curved into gentle crescents.

Yet the gaze he fixed on her was now icy.

“Be grateful that you spoke the name ‘Kyla’ today and lived.”

Kyla Angel.

The only name the King of Adamant longed for, hated, and loved all at once.

He’d never spared a single person who dared impersonate her.

That was Kayden’s unspoken rule.

“And consider it an honor to be granted a noble title again after daring to stand against His Majesty. Restoring titles to the nobles of a fallen kingdom is highly unusual, you know?”

His tone left no room for argument.

In the end, Lady Schmitz could only leave the secret chamber without another word.

Still with no idea who “Kyla” was or why she’d offended Kayden.

***

“Rachel seems strange lately.”

Edwin, the Third Prince of the Empire of Ventrume, looked deeply troubled.

He stirred his still-warm soup with his spoon.

‘Something’s changed.’

Ever since the day he returned from his stay with the knights, Rachel seemed different somehow.

Perhaps she was oddly colder than usual, or perhaps she’d become even more rational.

“Nothing happened the day I came back, did it?”

“W-well, I’m not sure.”

At the prince’s question, Catherine tilted her head with an awkward smile.

“Knowing Nanny, wouldn’t she have told you herself if something had happened?”

“That’s true. Then why has she suddenly become even more reserved?”

Edwin sighed again.

Catherine hurriedly changed the subject.

“Oh, right! Maybe she’s been thinking about what I said!”

“Hm? What did you say, Catherine?”

“Well… when we took a bath together, I told her I wanted us to become closer.”

Having inadvertently learned that the two of them had bathed together, Edwin’s eyes widened.

“You two took a bath together?”

“Yes!”

“J-just the two of you?”

“Yes!”

At the news that they’d bathed alone together, the prince’s face flushed.

“That’s, that’s something only married couples do!”

The Empire’s nobles and royalty considered bathing a deeply private affair.

Being attended to was one thing, but even relatives or friends of the same sex very rarely shared a bathtub alone together. Unless they were married.

“Hm? Oh, I suppose you wouldn’t know, Your Highness. Commoners like us all share a tub from the time we’re little. Water and soap are both precious, after all.”

“R-really?”

“And above all, bathing together brings friends closer, you know?”

Just as Catherine puffed out her chest and declared this with confidence,

“Who, exactly, is growing closer?”

Rachel, the nanny, appeared before them with her arms crossed.