The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 155

Chapter 155. An Unexpected Gift (3)

“Why haven’t we hired more maids?”

There were exactly two weeks left until the subjugation.

Catherine answered my question with hollow eyes, “If I could, I’d like to hire another twenty.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

“Because there’s no one to hire!”

As a rule, maids working in a prince’s palace had to be of noble birth.

Catherine and I were born commoners, but we now had noble surnames, which allowed us to serve the imperial siblings.

“But noble birth isn’t an absolute requirement for becoming a maid, is it?”

As always, there were exceptions.

“Some of the maids working here don’t have noble surnames. But they all received Her Majesty the Empress’s permission to continue serving in this palace….”

“That was an exceptional case.”

Catherine sighed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Her Majesty said she’d make an exception just that once. She knew we’d have trouble finding maids to work in the Third Prince’s palace right away.”

“Then there’s nothing for it. We’ll have to send notices to noble families….”

“I already tried.”

Already?

I looked at Catherine in surprise.

She was always rushing about so frantically that I assumed she hadn’t given it any thought.

“Nanny, I am the head maid, you know. I’ve been trying so hard to hire more maids before Prince Edwin leaves for the subjugation.”

Catherine continued with a deep sigh, “But not a single family gave me a definite yes. Most didn’t even reply.”

I leafed through the letters Catherine handed me.

Half contained politely worded refusals, another quarter demanded outrageous compensation in exchange for entering service, and the rest were outright rejections.

‘I thought Edwin’s standing had improved a little after the hunting competition and the Founding Festival.’

Apparently, I was mistaken.

Then again, the noble faction, with the Second Prince as its sure bet, saw the Third Prince as a new rival. And the nobles of the imperial faction, concerned above all with protecting their own interests, would hardly abandon the First Prince to support the Third.

‘And we haven’t exactly shown the neutral faction anything compelling enough to draw them to our side.’

The hunting competition was an opportunity to bring Edwin to the Emperor’s attention, while the Founding Festival was a stage on which to make the other nobles and foreign envoys aware of the Third Prince’s presence.

‘Then we’ll have to deliver something decisive in this subjugation.’

Frowning, I set the letters on the desk.

“What should we do, Nanny?”

Meanwhile, Catherine was watching me with her chin resting on the office desk. She looked exactly like a hungry puppy hoping its owner might toss it a treat.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I just thought you might have a clever solution.”

She seemed convinced I had some secret trick to get us out of this situation.

As always.

“…If it’s a matter of hiring new maids, I think I can manage something.”

It would make things a little troublesome, but there was no helping it.

This was urgent. Even if it meant putting everything I had on the table, I’d have to play every card at my disposal.

“Oh, goodness! Really?”

Catherine sprang to her feet with a delighted squeal.

“Yes. I’ll find them as quickly as possible. I’ll be away with His Highness, too, after all.”

“Wow, really? That’s… what?”

Catherine stopped in the middle of clapping her hands in delight.

Still smiling, she tilted her head. “Nanny? I think I just heard something strange. I must’ve misheard….”

“You probably didn’t.”

I never intended to send Edwin to the subjugation alone in the first place.

My expression perfectly calm, I said, “I’m going to the subjugation with Prince Edwin.”

***

Bang.

For a fist that wasn’t yet fully grown, it made quite a racket when it struck the desk.

“Absolutely not!”

Edwin sprang from his seat and glared at me.

“Do you think that makes any sense? I don’t care if it’s you, Rachel. Not this time!”

This was unexpected.

I gazed at Edwin’s stubborn face.

The boy who always begged me to take him along was now angrily telling me not to even think of following him. How things had changed.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s dangerous, obviously!”

Edwin came around the desk and planted both hands on his hips.

“Even if you’re strong enough to take down a monster single-handedly, you’re absolutely not coming this time!”

Had he grown taller again already?

Edwin’s eyes were now level with the tip of my chin.

I felt a little wistful at the thought that the days when I could look straight down at the top of his head were numbered.

“We’re going somewhere swarming with incredibly powerful monsters! They’re huge and vicious! Even more than the mutant monster we saw in Luxen!”

“That’s precisely why I intend to accompany you,” I answered with an impassive expression. “I can hardly send you somewhere so dangerous on your own, Your Highness. And you’ll need to find an attendant….”

“If that’s the problem, it’s taken care of!”

Taken care of?

When I frowned, Edwin gave his chest a light tap and replied, “Sir Philip said he could find me an attendant!”

“…Sir Philip did?”

Why was that bastard putting strange ideas into someone else’s child’s head? No, someone else’s prince’s head.

Edwin lost some of his bluster at my disapproving expression.

“S-so you don’t need to worry! Besides, if you leave the palace too, who’s going to look after Emilia?”

“…I have that taken care of as well.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Edwin knew perfectly well that Catherine couldn’t give Emilia all the care she needed by herself.

“Catherine’s busy with her duties as head maid. The other maids have plenty to do, too. Are you going to leave Emilia neglected?”

The mere thought of leaving Emilia alone seemed to make him anxious.

“What if Emilia gets hurt while she’s alone, or something happens…”

“If the nanny is away, surely we can find others to fill in for her.”

Edwin’s face contorted at my words.

“What? Are you saying you’ll hire another nanny?”

“Something like that.” I added in an offhand tone, “I’ve hired new maids.”

Edwin’s eyes grew as big as pine cones. “You hired new maids? There were people willing to come here?”

“Yes. They’ll all arrive before we leave for the subjugation.”

The head of the Golden Goose Merchant Guild was a man who always kept his word.

That was how he’d turned the distrust surrounding his origins into unwavering confidence in him.

‘He did curse me out a bit because I can’t afford to pay him right now.’

But that hardly mattered.

In the end, I secured Somnia’s promise to send me five suitable maids within a week.

‘Ten would’ve been nice. What a shame he wouldn’t budge from five.’

He was clearly planning to send a few of the maids in his own employ.

It seemed stingy for the richest merchant guild master on the continent, but I could understand.

‘Forging noble identities for ten people at once would be a bit much.’

I could picture it without even seeing him.

Somnia tearing at his hair and cursing me.

“S-still, you can’t!”

What was the problem now?

Edwin spoke firmly, as though he absolutely refused to give in this time, “You are! You are a woman!”

So that was his reason. How ridiculous.

I raised an eyebrow.

“…For a reason as trivial as that?”

“What do you mean, trivial?” Edwin shouted, his face reddening. “No prince takes a woman as his attendant! If I go with you, Rachel, everyone will talk behind my back about how I brought my nanny to a battlefield!”

Hmm. He wasn’t wrong.

After a moment’s thought, I said, “Then I simply need to go as a man.”

“What are you….”

“You seem to have forgotten how we traveled to Luxen Village, Your Highness.”

Edwin slowly blinked his large eyes at me.

“…Are you saying you’ll disguise yourself as a man?”

He really had grown. He understood me so well now, and he was quicker on the uptake.

When I shrugged instead of answering, Edwin’s eyebrows drooped.

“Rachel, do you want to go to the subjugation that badly?”

Of course not.

A subjugation was still a battlefield.

Who in the world would want to go somewhere their life would be in danger?

‘But at this subjugation….’

I thought of Ian.

That bastard who casually asked if I was all right, wearing leather shoes and silk clothes, standing there as though he’d never betrayed his lover and burned her to death.

‘Ian will be there as the Second Prince’s attendant.’

The subjugation would be a decisive opportunity to strengthen Edwin’s standing, and it might also become the stage on which I exacted my revenge.

‘So I have to be there.’

I clenched both hands behind my back.

“Yes, I do.”

“…Why?”

“Well….”

“Is it….”

Edwin lowered his chin and looked at me.

His uncertain eyes searched my face.

“Because you don’t trust me?”