The Maid With a Child - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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18. Adelen, Despair
Rikalte scoffed at Adelen’s naive assumption that she would find happiness in family alone.
“The operation succeeded precisely because they abandoned even their guards while sleeping and fled. That’s what made it work.”
“But… how could that possibly…”
“Not everyone works with such fierce conviction that they’d stake their lives on it. That’s actually the norm.”
In Rikalte’s eyes, Adelen was the abnormal one—sacrificing herself for others’ sake.
“That’s… the norm.”
Adelen murmured uneasily to herself.
No matter how she thought about it, this wasn’t normal. Time and again, her common sense clashed with her master’s.
She admitted she had a tendency to cling excessively to family, harmony, and happiness. But her master seemed to deny those very things with equal excess.
“Was your nursemaid the same way…?”
“My nursemaid.”
Rikalte recalled old memories for the first time in ages.
They were memories he’d thought too ordinary to need revisiting.
“There was nothing she would have abandoned me for.”
“…That must have been a relief.”
“It was. If there had been something like that, she wouldn’t have abandoned me—she’d have handed me over for money.”
“…What?”
“She muttered every day like a prayer that she’d only work for the coin she was paid.”
“No, in front of a child…”
Adelen stood stunned, as though she’d been struck.
She’d assumed he’d been blessed with nothing but the finest.
The finest nursemaids, the finest tutors, the finest attention, the finest love.
And yet such a nursemaid was what he’d had.
“She probably spoke that way in front of a child. In front of adults, she’d act as though she’d die for you.”
“Why didn’t you tell your parents?”
“Why would I? She did her job well. She worked exactly as much as she was paid for. Isn’t that enough?”
As an employee, saying such a thing outright would have been problematic, but as a child, he hadn’t understood it was.
And she performed exactly the role required. Since there was no inconvenience, there was no reason to change anything.
“Besides, I spent most of my time with tutors anyway. The nursemaid wasn’t particularly important.”
“Ah, so… with the tutors and… your parents and… you didn’t need to spend time with the nursemaid at all?”
Rikalte nearly laughed at Adelen’s desperate attempt to reinterpret it as something harmonious. So this was how important she found that “cozy” family she spoke of.
But it wasn’t entirely false.
“No. My parents were busy with their own affairs. I only saw them once a week, when we managed to eat together.”
At his casual tone, Adelen grew even more unsettled.
At the sight of her, Rikalte laughed again.
A mere servant, and here she was daring to pity him.
Because family-building was her only dream, Adelen had a peculiar tendency—whenever the subject turned to children, childhood, or family, she’d lose her composure and become relentless.
“Then, what did you do as a child, my lord?”
Even now, she dared to dig into his past.
But he happened to need rest at that moment.
Meetings concerning General Kias always gave him a headache, and they never reached a conclusion anyway.
Pointless chatter was perfect for clearing his mind. So Rikalte, in a generous mood, answered her unnecessary question sincerely.
“Ate, slept, studied, trained.”
“No playing?”
“Not the kind of play the Young Prince indulges in. I don’t recall doing much of that.”
Adelen found herself frowning without meaning to.
It was an improper thought for a servant, but she pitied the childhood version of her master.
What right did that child have to bear the weight of duty? …That’s why he became someone without blood or tears. Though he wasn’t actually like that, not really.
It was an exaggerated reputation born from the fact that he was always away at war, with no chance for connection.
Her master, who’d snap necks at a moment’s notice and throw punches when things went awry—he’d actually done these things, but not on anyone, at any time.
Rather, he’d been delicate enough to notice a small, chronic pain in her wrist before she herself was aware of it.
If the servants’ gossip were true, he would have said something like “That pathetically weak, useless little wrist—I’ll cut it off for you!” But he hadn’t.
So perhaps his emotions were simply parched and unexpressed—he wasn’t a murderer reeking of blood from his very bones.
Once she understood that, she found she could allow herself to feel sympathy for him.
“Was it… difficult?”
Rikalte paused to consider.
Perhaps. He’d often found it difficult, but he hadn’t thought of it as difficulty. It was simply something he had to bear as Sigelion’s heir.
“I think it was a necessary part of the process.”
……
“If I hadn’t received that education, I wouldn’t be carrying Sigelion on my shoulders the way I do now.”
Rikalte did not regard any moment of his past as a mistake.
“Just as you must sleep less and push your body to its limits because you’ve taken on the task of caring for the Young Prince, I simply lived the life that suited my position.”
“I see…….”
“So there’s no need to pity the Young Prince’s life or carry guilt about it.”
Adelen lifted her downcast eyes. His words had been plain fact, yet somehow they comforted her.
……Could he actually have been trying to console her?
“Come to think of it, from Teplan’s perspective, it would be more advantageous for him to grow up whimsical, like a commoner’s child.”
……That didn’t seem to be it either.
“So don’t hold back when raising him. Avoid giving him too much affection if you can.”
“Is that something I can control……?”
“You have to try.”
When it came to effort, she had never fallen behind anywhere.
Effort was both the foundation and necessity of a maid’s life—she would keep going until things worked out.
But even with such a stern command from her master, she had no confidence.
“Aw-oo?”
How could anyone help but love something this adorable?
Raising him was already exhausting her to death, and yet he looked so precious.
When he grew a little more and began doing charming things—how much more, even more beautiful would he become? Already unfairly lovely as an infant.
Not to dote on such a beautiful child, not to give him her heart—what a terrible effort that would be.
……She didn’t want to try.
* * *
Of course, some things could be controlled through effort, and some could not.
Affection wasn’t something you could give or withhold at will.
A person could pass a cat just by its face once or twice in passing, grow fond of it, and then weep bitterly when it vanished from sight.
How much more so for a child cradled and raised in one’s own arms.
And then, one day, the final blow came.
“Aw-oo! Uh-uh-uh! Ah-ah!”
“Mmm, yes…… Just a moment…… Just a moment…….”
Just when she thought he might be sleeping through the night, there were nights when he’d suddenly wake before dawn and cry or whine for attention—last night was one of them. Where on earth did he get such endless energy? He played without tiring even until his master woke.
If it had been brief, she could have managed, but he showed no fatigue no matter how much she tried to keep the noise down while playing with him, which only made her use her body more.
By morning, Adelen had collapsed gloriously from exhaustion.
The infant climbed over her body, bouncing and begging to play, but she only managed a few strangled sounds before her eyes refused to open.
That was when it happened.
“Adelen! Adelen!”
“Yes, yes…… Sleep now…….”
Adelen lay the baby on his stomach to settle him, patting his back, when suddenly her eyes flew wide open.
“?! What did you just say?”
“Aw-oo?”
“No, not ‘aw-oo,’ but—Adelen? You called my name, didn’t you?”
Adelen’s heart began to race.
She had always thought he’d speak eventually, but she never imagined his first word would be her name.
The very first word from this child in the world wasn’t mother or father—it was Adelen.
At the orphanage, the younger children’s first words were usually ‘food.’ A title of address like ‘nurse’ came before that.
She’d accepted it as simple fact then, but to hear her own name as a first word carried an unexpected resonance.
It was the resonance of warmth spreading into the world.
She wanted to hear it just once more.
“You were calling me, weren’t you? You said Adelen, didn’t you?”
“Adelen!”
“!”
This time the word emerged in proper pronunciation.
Adelen’s eyes widened, shining with astonishment and emotion.
It was unmistakably Adelen.
It was the moment when she became truly engraved in the child’s world.

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