The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 227
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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 227. Return (1)
“Act like an adult? Act like an aduuuult?”
Saylus wrinkled his nose.
He placed both hands on his hips and looked down at Edwin standing before him.
“Then shall I treat you like an adult from now on, Your Highness the Prince? Huh?”
“Why are you being sarcastic? Was asking you not to come out of the shadows such a difficult request?”
Edwin clenched both fists tightly as he looked up at Saylus, who was much taller than him.
“Rachel told you to stay out of sight too! So why do you keep popping out without permission?”
In the past, in a situation without Rachel, if a man bigger than his own body had raised his voice so threateningly, he would have been frightened and backed down immediately.
‘But not now.’
His perspective had broadened as much as his height had grown.
Edwin knew that Saylus could never harm him.
Therefore, he also knew well that there was no need to be afraid of him.
“How ridiculous! Don’t order me around when you’re just a brat who’s still wet behind the ears!”
“It wasn’t an order, it was a request! I even said if you want to come out, at least stay inside the encampment! Why do you keep going outside?”
“That’s my business!”
“Did Rachel say that was okay?”
“Well, not exactly, but…”
“Then why are you doing it? On the first day, you ignored me when I tried to talk to you and didn’t show your face at all, so why do you keep trying to be seen by other people!”
“When I walk around, I change my appearance, so it doesn’t matter!”
“That’s magic, right? You said you can only use magic three times a day! Who knows what might happen, so why are you wasting magic on something like that?”
“Well, that…”
Saylus, momentarily at a loss for words, furrowed his brow.
He pouted his lips and looked at Edwin with displeasure.
‘I thought he was just a pretty little chick, but why is he so good with words? Did Kayla teach him how to lecture me in the meantime?’
It was a reasonable suspicion.
Saylus let out a light sigh and turned his head away sharply.
“Fine, fine. I just won’t wander around anymore. For a kid to already nag so much, I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of old fogey you’ll become when you get older…”
“You promised.”
Edwin didn’t even listen to the end of Saylus’s words and turned around to leave the encampment.
“…Huh?”
Saylus stood there looking incredulously at the spot where Edwin had disappeared.
“That habit of cutting people off when he’s done talking is exactly like Kayla too. Is it okay for people who don’t share a drop of blood to be so similar?”
Saylus flopped down on Edwin’s cot and then bolted upright.
“Ugh, annoying! Why did I agree to such a request!”
Regardless of his irritation, he had to escort Edwin until they reached the Empire.
Because Kayla hated people who broke promises the most.
“Damn it!”
The mage roughly tousled his fine silver hair and seeped into the ground.
He hid in the shadows and immediately attached himself to Edwin’s feet.
“Sigh, this ordeal will be over soon too.”
“Just three more days to the Imperial Capital?”
“Your Highness has also endured much hardship.”
Edwin was sitting around the campfire with the 3 Knights.
The boy was casually eating the fishy rabbit meat stew served for dinner and laughing. His appetite seemed surprisingly modest for royalty.
“The knights have endured more hardship than I have.”
“Oh, what hardship have we…”
“No.”
Edwin stirred his bowl with a wooden spoon and quietly added.
“Thank you for following such an inadequate commander to the end.”
The atmosphere became solemn.
The knights glanced at each other.
The first among them to speak was Pinet.
“Casualties during subjugation missions are always a possibility.”
Pinet glanced at Edwin sitting beside him and continued matter-of-factly.
“Usually, we can’t even recover the bodies in countless cases, but this time we were fortunate enough to return the bodies to their families, so I think we should consider ourselves lucky.”
“Hey, Pinet…”
Bata jabbed Pinet’s side with his elbow.
He seemed concerned about Edwin’s darkened expression.
“What I mean is that no matter how excellent a commander comes, casualties are bound to occur during operations like this.”
“Pinet is right about that. The deaths of the others weren’t Your Highness’s fault, so please don’t blame yourself.”
Everyone was comforting Edwin.
Even though their grief over losing their comrades was greater and deeper.
“…Mm.”
Edwin smiled faintly as he listened to the comfort directed at him.
“Thank you for saying that, everyone.”
The young prince expressed his sincere gratitude.
Unaware that Saylus, hidden in his shadow, was watching him with strange eyes.
* * *
“Humans are just as hypocritical now as they were before. Will that nature never change?”
As soon as Edwin returned to the encampment, Saylus popped out of the shadows and began rambling.
‘Does this person not know how to keep his mouth shut?’
Edwin, who had returned after brushing his teeth and washing his face at the stream, dried himself with a towel while staring at him.
‘How exactly did he become friends with Rachel? Rachel doesn’t seem like she’d like such a noisy person.’
Saylus was still spinning around in the middle of the encampment, talking to himself.
“Hey, kid. You don’t actually believe what those knights said earlier, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“That the deaths of the sacrificed knights weren’t your fault.”
Edwin’s eyebrows twitched for a moment.
Ripples formed in his large blue eyes.
“Actually, they all think it’s because of you, don’t they? That they died meaningless deaths while cleaning up after a young, inexperienced prince.”
“…Why are you suddenly saying such things?”
“Just because I wanted to tell you the truth.”
Saylus crouched down in front of Edwin and rested his chin on both hands.
“I get sick to my stomach when I see hypocrites.”
“Those people aren’t hypocrites.”
“That’s just what you think, greenhorn.”
The mage’s red eyes glittered with mischievous malice.
Though he had no real intention to harm, his eyes seemed desperate to wound someone’s heart.
“No, watching you sincerely thank them for their hypocrisy makes me feel wronged.”
The young prince’s gratitude to the knights had been genuine.
That made it even more irritating.
“Expressing gratitude for mere empty pleasantries is a luxury.”
“That’s why I’m telling you the knights of the 3rd Knight Order aren’t hypocrites. They’re all my comrades. Those who came this far together…”
“Do you think they feel the same way?”
Saylus raised one corner of his mouth.
“The knights just don’t bother criticizing you since they survived. Comrades? No, to them you’re a prince before you’re a comrade, just a superior they can’t afford to displease.”
Edwin listened silently to Saylus’s words until the end.
Then he quietly spoke.
“…So, what are you trying to say?”
“Huh?”
“What are you ultimately trying to say? That those people are hypocritical? That it’s all lies?”
This wasn’t the reaction he had expected.
Saylus blinked his eyes.
‘I was sure he’d burst into tears saying that couldn’t be true, or get angry telling me not to say such nonsense.’
Why was he reacting so lukewarmly?
Rather, it was Saylus who was flustered and couldn’t give any answer.
“…I know too. I know well enough that the knights didn’t say those things out of genuine feelings.”
How many years had he lived reading others’ expressions?
Edwin was sensitive to others’ moods and words.
“As you say, they might actually be blaming me. Those words of comfort might be complete lies. But is that bad?”
“…What?”
“Whether the comfort those people offered was hypocrisy or whatever, they’re all people who risked their lives fighting for me.”
Even hypocrisy doesn’t come without some thought for the other person.
Edwin had once had times when even such hypocrisy was precious to him.
“So don’t mock them like that.”
It didn’t matter what their true feelings were.
Even the feelings called hypocrisy, even the tiniest bit of concern was precious.
Edwin knew how amazing it was for one person to care about another.
“It’s an insult to the knights who fought alongside me to the end.”
Edwin glared at Saylus, then turned around and lay down on the cot.
“Until we reach the Imperial Capital, don’t talk to me unless it’s something important. I don’t want to speak with you for a while.”
* * *
Inside the tent where only a small lamp flickered.
Saylus, half-emerging from the shadows, stared intently at Edwin who was fast asleep.
‘I once said something similar to Kayla about this guy.’
Do you think the organization members under you really trust and follow you, when operations fail they all think it’s because of you, do you know they suspect you might lose to other organizations because you’re a woman.
– I know. But what changes just because I know?
It was a question thrown to scratch at her, but Kayla answered nonchalantly.
– Just because they’re thinking different thoughts inside doesn’t change the fact that they’re comrades fighting alongside me. If they fight trusting me, then I’ll trust and fight with them to the end too.
Such foolish and naive fools.
Did they not know how cunning and selfish creatures humans were?
– Sairius Krobel, you’re just a tool. You didn’t think you were in the same position as us, did you?
Useless old memories.
Saylus frowned.
“…Anyway, to think they’d resemble each other in such pointless ways too.”
The Mage silently pulled Edwin’s blanket up to below his neck.
Thus the night deepened for the Extermination Forces returning to the Imperial Capital.
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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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