If I Were Reborn, I Wouldn’t Marry You - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 3

“Nanny, how did you know that kid was a prince?”

When I asked in a perfectly six-year-old manner—appropriately oblivious and cheerful—the nanny made a troubled face and apologized to Leonhardt on my behalf.

“Young Lady! Calling His Highness ‘that kid’! My apologies, Your Highness. Our Young Lady is still very young…”

I’m six years old and Leonhardt is four.

Leonhardt was even smaller in build than other children his age.

The nanny’s ears flushed slightly, perhaps realizing belatedly that her excuse sounded strange.

I secretly exchanged glances with Leonhardt and smiled.

“It’s okay.”

Leonhardt answered, trying his best to speak clearly.

I could see the nanny’s guard dropping significantly at Leonhardt’s gentle demeanor.

The nanny bid farewell to Leonhardt in a much kinder voice than before.

“Thank you for forgiving our rudeness. We shall take our leave now.”

Though we had entered in haste thinking it was an empty palace, being caught by the palace’s owner was quite discourteous.

Even if Leonhardt was a despised prince.

The nanny, who had greeted him as politely as an etiquette textbook, tried to hurriedly leave the palace with me before anyone could see us.

However, a maid entered Leonhardt’s room before we could leave it.

“Your Highness, please have your meal.”

The maid who had called Leonhardt in an indifferent voice frowned upon discovering us.

“Who might you be?”

Her tone was polite because she saw my outfit, which I had put extra effort into for coming to the Imperial Palace, but her gaze as she looked me up and down was insolent.

The nanny was a kind person, but not one to easily overlook rudeness.

“This is the Young Lady of House of Lordric.”

House of Lordric was the empire’s most prestigious noble family.

Our father, the current Duke of Lordric, had been the Emperor’s guardian when he was still a prince, and was also the person who provided decisive help for the adult Emperor to win the succession struggle.

The Young Lady of such a ducal house would seem like a distant star in the sky to someone who was merely a palace maid.

‘And for a ducal house, even the Young Lady’s nanny would be nobility.’

The other party wasn’t even a lady-in-waiting, but a maid.

And judging by her assignment to the ‘Abandoned Palace,’ she was most likely of middle-class commoner status.

Not even comparable to me, there was already a huge status difference between her and the nanny.

When the nanny retorted in a cold tone, the maid, who belatedly grasped the situation, spoke in a fawning manner.

“I am honored to meet such an esteemed person.”

I simply blinked and did not acknowledge the maid’s greeting.

According to etiquette, one must maintain their posture until the other party accepts the greeting.

And the court greeting posture was quite difficult to maintain.

The maid’s initially proper posture quickly began to crumble.

This maid had also been assigned to the separate palace in my first life.

According to what I heard from Leonhardt then, she had been there since he was too young to remember.

She had been embezzling the food supplies allocated to the separate palace to line her own pockets.

‘She starved a child, so this much isn’t even punishment.’

In the past, thanks to Leonhardt’s unnecessarily tight lips, that maid played the role of a faithful servant to the persecuted prince, secretly living lavishly until she was disposed of by my hand only after Leonhardt became Emperor.

Let’s meet again later.

The nanny, also annoyed by the maid’s presumptuous attitude, pretended to adjust my outfit while deliberately dragging out time.

Only after nearly five minutes passed did the nanny suggest I acknowledge the greeting.

“Oh my, Young Lady. A maid from the separate palace is offering her greetings.”

Her act of covering her mouth with both hands as if just noticing the maid was quite natural.

I pretended to be shy, clutching the nanny’s skirt while mumbling.

“Mm-hmm, hello.”

The maid, finally able to straighten up from her posture, had become a much more respectful person than before.

“Yes, it is an honor to meet you, Young Lady.”

Even her tone when asking why we were in this abandoned palace was cautious.

“But what brings the Young Lady to the separate palace…”

“The Young Lady is touring the Imperial Palace with special permission from His Majesty the Emperor.”

The nanny answered in my place with a haughty tone.

Of course, my permitted palace tour was limited to part of the gardens, but that detail was omitted.

“Ah, I see. If you need directions, I would be happy to guide you wherever you wish to go.”

The maid tactfully assessed the situation and answered while bowing and scraping.

She seemed eager to show kindness to me, a duke’s daughter, and make some impression.

“That won’t be necessary. We’ll manage on our own.”

The nanny immediately declined.

Her gaze, which had been cold toward the maid, became warm again when it turned to me.

“Young Lady, didn’t you say earlier that you wanted to visit the Lake Garden?”

“Mm-hmm, I did, but…”

Actually, I dislike the Lake Garden.

Because the Crown Prince often appears there.

It was just an excuse I made to head toward this separate palace.

But the nanny took my hand as if to head to the Lake Garden immediately and tried to leave this separate palace.

However, I had one more thing to do.

“I don’t really want to go anymore.”

I planted my feet firmly and stood my ground.

Six-year-old me was a generally gentle child who, like a well-raised little one, could be somewhat willful and stubborn.

The nanny, who hadn’t anticipated this reaction from me, looked troubled.

The nanny was about to say something to appease me but stopped, conscious of the other people’s presence.

Leonhardt, who had been quietly watching us, also flinched.

‘You, why are you staring like that.’

As expected of someone only a week into regression, watching like he’s observing a government meeting.

‘Look more innocent!’

What’s a four-year-old doing with such world-weary eyes!

I’m doing all this for your benefit, so even if you can’t help, at least don’t interfere.

I demonstrated by tilting my head with an innocent expression.

It was an expression I’d used whenever my family suspected my mental age after regression, so I was confident.

Confident that I’d look just like a six-year-old.

Leonhardt flinched when he saw my ‘head tilt.’

His face hardened as if he’d seen something unseemly.

I was amazed that even a four-year-old’s soft features could make such an expression.

This is bad.

The nanny, who had lowered her guard due to his small and fragile appearance, began to be wary of Leonhardt again, sensing the silent tension between us.

I frantically signaled to Leonhardt with my eyes.

Act like a baby, you baby rabbit!

Whether my mental plea got through, Leonhardt awkwardly broke into a grin.

It seemed like the product of effort, but it wasn’t satisfactory.

In this situation, a frightened expression would have been better.

‘Sigh, I think I was more natural than that even on my first day.’

Is this the difference in talent?

I stepped forward to make up for Leonhardt’s poor acting skills.

“I want to play with him!”

The nanny was someone who particularly valued etiquette and manners.

Even when she immediately noticed that Leonhardt wasn’t receiving proper treatment, she still observed all the proper protocols for addressing a prince.

“Young Lady!”

The startled nanny called me in a low, firm voice.

As I expected.

The nanny, forgetting that she had been wary of Leonhardt, began trying to discipline me for acting like a foolish child.

“You should say ‘Your Highness the Prince.'”

At the nanny’s stern tone, I pretended to be cowed and corrected myself.

“Yes, I want to play with His Highness the Prince!”

The nanny looked troubled at my cheerfully innocent rudeness with just the title changed, but it would be stranger if a six-year-old obediently listened to everything.

‘Nanny, I’m sorry. But we’ve lived together and have affection for each other, so I can’t just leave the child alone.’

My inner adult self offered an apology to the nanny.

But my outer child shouted in a higher voice than usual, as if too excited about coming to the Imperial Palace to control myself after begging and pleading.

“Can’t I?”

When I asked pleadingly with aegyo, the corners of the nanny’s mouth softened.

The nanny was also one of the people from the Ducal House who was weak to my aegyo.

But the nanny wasn’t someone who would be completely easy to handle.

“His Highness the Prince is busy.”

I hadn’t expected the nanny to let me play with Leonhardt, whom she was seeing for the first time, especially in this Dusty Pavilion.

“Until when is he busy?”

“Probably for quite a while.”

When I pouted my lips, the nanny smiled ambiguously and answered.

“Then, it can’t be helped. Let’s go to the Lake Garden, Nanny!”

When I pretended to back down for now, her expression soon brightened.

“Shall we?”

Taking the nanny’s outstretched hand, I spoke loudly enough for the maid and Leonhardt to hear.

“But next time when he’s not busy, I can come play, right?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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