The Maid With a Child - Chapter 31

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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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31. I’ll protect you, no matter what.
Crash!
Adlen’s shoulders flinched at the loud commotion echoing from beyond the door.
An attack—the first in a long while.
Rackalt hid Adlen and the Baby Prince in the dressing room, then drew his sword.
Adlen held the child close, patting his back gently.
“It’s all right, little one. Everything’s fine…….”
“Goo? Ung-cha?”
But the Baby Prince seemed far less troubled than Adlen.
He stared at Adlen with bright, unblinking eyes and broke into a gummy smile. When loud sounds came from outside, he’d glance over now and then, but his attention never lingered long.
Such composure didn’t fade with age.
Any ordinary child would have screamed their lungs out in a situation like this.
So Adlen wept instead.
“Wh—wh-hoo-ooh……. I’m so scared, little one……. W-waaah…….”
No matter how many times he faced an attack, the fear never dulled.
He was supposed to be protecting the Baby Prince, yet here he was, drawing comfort from the child’s warmth instead.
But he couldn’t help it. Fear was fear.
“I’m sorry, little one. Here I am, supposed to be your kidnapper, and I……. Wh-waaah…….”
This wasn’t Adlen’s first time reproaching himself.
At first, he’d focused only on caring for the child, but after facing two, then three successive attacks, the weight of what he was actually doing finally settled on him.
‘In the end, this child has no parents waiting in Morn.’
To Adlen, consumed by guilt and trembling, Rackalt had then laid bare a truth he’d been overlooking.
If they simply let Morn take the child back, there was no guarantee who would actually raise him.
Even if the general—his uncle Kias—came to claim him, there was no assurance he’d be treated well. Kias had lived on the battlefield just as Rackalt had; no one could say whether he’d feel any affection for the crown prince. It was possible he might view him merely as a tool.
The child might well fall into the hands of those who would exploit him, trapped and suffering all the more.
Adlen couldn’t bring himself to believe everything his master said, but he chose to close his eyes and trust it. Because at least this much was true: he was doing his best for the Baby Prince.
“It’s over. You can come out.”
The outside had grown quiet, and soon came a knock on the door.
It was the voice of the knight—a familiar face by now.
“The—the bodies, sir?”
“All cleared away.”
“And the blood?”
“Yes, all wiped up…… Oh, that table leg there. Mm-hmm. There. Yes, all clean now.”
The area around the table had been completely dealt with today.
Adlen swallowed his tears and opened the door.
They were finishing up cleanup and opening windows to air out the room.
No trace of the fierce battle that had just taken place remained visible. But the lingering scent of blood and the unsettled atmosphere were unavoidable.
Adlen drew a deep breath to still his trembling heart, searching the room for his master with his eyes.
“Master.”
“Wait.”
Rackalt, who had been listening to the knight’s report, turned toward Adlen and raised his palm.
At the signal to keep his distance, Adlen’s footsteps stopped short.
Rackalt rolled up his sleeve.
The movement was too swift for the eye to follow, but Adlen clearly saw the blood smeared on the edge of the cuff.
“You’re hurt?”
Adlen’s brow furrowed.
Blood-stained clothes were troubling enough, but worry for his master’s wounds overrode all hesitation, and his feet moved forward.
“There’s still blood smell…….”
“I can tolerate a smell by now.”
Adlen replied with a face drained of color. His mouth was set firmly, though his eyes wavered and trembled despite his efforts to hide it.
“I think I might faint.”
Rackalt studied his face, ready at any moment to catch both the child and Adlen.
“I won’t. It’s not even me who’s injured.”
Tear tracks streaking his pale face like rain on glass made such words lack any real conviction. Yet for some reason, Rackalt found himself yielding to the force of will behind them.
Adlen sniffled and examined every inch of Rackalt’s body.
“You’re truly not hurt anywhere?”
“I told you—no.”
“You say that, but you are hurt.”
This wasn’t the first time Adlen had spotted an injury Rackalt hadn’t even noticed. Once before, there had been minor scratches he’d overlooked.
On a battlefield, such marks barely qualified as wounds. He hadn’t known they pained him until Adlen found them first, watched his face go deathly pale with alarm.
After it repeated a few times, irritation had sharpened into something closer to steel.
……The kind of nagging she’d never heard from her own mother or nursemaid.
Rackalt looked down at Adlen’s bent head as she scanned his body with meticulous care, and let out a hollow laugh.
Was this loyalty, or mere busybodying?
Watching her attach so quickly to the Crown Prince of an enemy kingdom, fussing over him like he was her own blood—it seemed like busybodying was the answer.
“We’ll take our leave now.”
The knights who had stayed to finish the cleanup bowed and shuffled out.
He’d sent out first those soaked in blood, and kept only those who looked halfway presentable to handle what remained.
“You’ve done well. Thank you. Be careful on your way back.”
Adlen bowed repeatedly, her courtesy almost mechanical.
Rackalt didn’t understand that either. They’d simply done their job—what was there to thank them for?
“Seems you’ve got plenty of people to look after. Busy work ahead.”
Exasperated beyond measure, Rackalt let slip a sharp remark before he could stop himself.
“I’m sorry?”
Adlen turned with eyes wide as saucers.
This time it was Rackalt’s turn to scold.
“Instead of worrying about everyone else, worry about yourself. Look after yourself first.”
“Ah…….”
Only then did Adlen’s cheeks flush.
“I’m sorry. I think I’ve had the habit since childhood, looking after my younger siblings. It just stuck with me.”
“Did that Orphanage teacher teach you to be foolishly good-hearted by putting others before yourself?”
“Not exactly…….”
Adlen pouted uncertainly. She felt like she was being scolded for something she hadn’t done wrong.
She’d never been chastised for looking after others before, so she didn’t even understand why this felt like a scolding. And foolishly good-hearted? That stung.
“I’m not foolishly good-hearted. I only look after people I want to look after. That’s why I didn’t spare any of Morn’s soldiers, did I?”
If she were truly foolish, she’d have blubbered about how pitiful they were and thrown herself in their path. She’d have spouted some idiotic drivel like, “Couldn’t we find a way to resolve this peacefully without killing them?” the way those fairy tale princesses always did.
All those kind princesses from old stories would’ve done that. But this maid wasn’t kind—she valued her own nation and her own safety more, so she simply let them die.
“But why do they keep attacking the same way? They must know it won’t work, but they send them anyway, like they’re just sending them to their deaths.”
It was a remarkably sharp observation.
Rackalt’s eyes brightened with interest as he looked at Adlen again. She seemed naïve enough to be helpless, but she was certainly no fool.
“It’s not one person sending them. That’s why each side differs.”
“If they’re all different…….”
“Morn has no Central Pivot right now, so whoever seizes the Crown Prince becomes king in all but name. That’s why they’re all scrambling against each other.”
“Ah…….”
Adlen stared at the Baby Prince with confused eyes.
So those rescue hands that had reached out weren’t for his sake at all.
Born into such privilege, and yet he had nowhere and no one to rely on—the irony was the same.
Though she hardly dared pity someone of his station, Adlen unconsciously held the Baby Prince tighter, cradling him with fierce protectiveness.
“Will the attacks become more frequent then?”
“We’ll see. But they’re nothing to worry about. No need to be too concerned.”
Even as he spoke of not needing to worry, Rackalt’s eyes hardened with resolve.
When he’d first met the king, he’d thought the attacks would stop completely.
But human greed for the Royal Throne ran far deeper than he’d reckoned.
The world didn’t consist solely of the foolish person standing right before him.
“Protecting one person like you is nothing. Don’t you worry about it at all.”
Protecting his own soldiers was a general’s duty.
Adlen, too, belonged to him now—a foolish one at that. So it was only right that he should be the one to guard her.
No matter who came charging in, he would make sure Adlen came out unharmed.
That was his vow.

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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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