The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 242
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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 242. Karma (6)
“…Please come in.”
I didn’t have the nerve to turn away the king in the middle of the night.
As I turned my body diagonally toward the inside of the door, Kaiden smiled and squeezed through the gap.
“Hmm, it seems there are no interruptions today.”
“If you mean Saylus, he’s standing night watch in Prince Edwin and Princess Emilia’s bedchambers.”
“Despite everything, he seems to listen to you well.”
“We’re bound by contract, after all.”
My commands don’t have magically strong binding power, but they do have some degree of compulsion. This was also why Saylus had no choice but to obediently follow my orders.
“Still, he always complains. Says I’m working him too hard.”
“That guy was always complaining even before you returned to the Imperial Capital. I thought I’d die from the noise. He’s not a fly, but he buzzes around all day long.”
Saylus is rather talkative, after all.
I smiled softly and shrugged my shoulders.
“By the way, what brings you here?”
“You’re the one who gave the Empress the clue, aren’t you?”
Straight to the point.
As soon as Kaiden entered the room, he closed the door and stood blocking it.
“The 2nd Imperial Consort said she betrayed her father because the Empress had a secret weapon.”
“…Calling it a secret weapon makes it sound quite impressive.”
It was just an ordinary magitech device.
I recalled the puppet maid Lili I had planted in the Empress’s Palace.
“I simply handed over a magic orb that recorded the conversation between the 2nd Imperial Consort and Count Miller.”
The 2nd Imperial Consort probably would never know until her death.
The fact that the one who recorded all the conversations in her palace was her bedroom maid. And the fact that the maid was actually not a person but a puppet.
‘Somnia pulled Lili out of the palace immediately after finishing her business.’
Now they wouldn’t be able to find evidence even if they wanted to.
Thinking of the 2nd Imperial Consort who must have been helplessly beaten by the Empress without being able to make any rebuttal made me feel a little sorry for her.
“I’m not even disappointed anymore.”
Kaiden smiled softly and took another step closer to me.
“Rather, I’m quite curious about how many moves ahead you were thinking when you acted.”
The man who was so tall I had to crane my neck to look up at him smiled broadly.
“Still, I’m a little proud that you didn’t foresee that I would visit this room first today.”
“…I’m glad you’re proud.”
“By the way, this room resembles you.”
Kaiden turned around with a whoosh and slowly began to walk.
Creak, squeak.
Every time Kaiden took a step on the old wooden floor covered with carpet, a suffocating sound emerged.
‘There’s not much to see.’
His gait was as cautious as that of a beast exploring unknown territory.
‘What could be so fascinating about it.’
His golden eyes held a strange light.
Kaiden walked around the room very slowly with sparkling eyes.
The patterns carved on the wallpaper, the scratches on the furniture, the color of the curtains, and even the shape of the quill pen on the desk. His persistent gaze followed as if savoring everything in the room.
“Simple but clean without any clutter.”
If he was that curious, he could have touched the objects, but Kaiden only examined everything in the room with his eyes before speaking.
“But don’t you think about decorating the room a bit? For someone who is a prince’s caretaker, the room seems too modest.”
“I think this is a wonderful room as it is.”
It was also the first place I opened my eyes in a stranger’s body, and I was more attached to it because it had appropriate traces of time compared to other places.
“And rooms that are too fancy don’t put my mind at ease.”
Edwin had offered to move me to a different room several times, but I had refused.
“I think this is just right for me.”
Honestly, there were times when I thought even this was more than I deserved.
The bedding and curtains were all high-quality, and the furniture and wallpaper were so expensive that ordinary commoners couldn’t even dream of them.
“They say people tend to seek things that are sweet to the tongue and soft to the skin as their circumstances improve.”
Kaiden looked at me with his head tilted diagonally.
“You’re quite frugal.”
“I’m just someone who dislikes wearing clothes that don’t fit.”
“Do you think wanting better things doesn’t suit your station?”
He added a comment as if he had read my mind.
“You’re not an assassin anymore, are you?”
I had thought this way for a long time.
That for someone who kills people for money to covet wealth and power was itself an unforgivable sin.
“…Just because my body has changed doesn’t mean the karma I’ve accumulated disappears.”
Kaiden’s brow furrowed slightly.
It seemed he didn’t like my answer.
“I’ve thought this before, but you seem too strict with yourself.”
“It’s a habit.”
“A habit?”
“Yes, I was in an environment where I would inevitably break down if I wasn’t strict with myself.”
When you kill people for money, you become accustomed to the act and emotions, and once you start rationalizing the process, you inevitably break down.
When that happens, people no longer look like people.
“Not because of personal grudges or unavoidable situations where you must kill or be killed, but simply killing people to make money.”
I continued with my eyes half-lowered.
“There are times when you think people are no different from chunks of meat in a butcher shop.”
At those times, it felt like my personality was being annihilated.
The sight of myself treating the other person like a piece of meat without personality felt like a monster that had already been castrated of its humanity.
“But I always wanted to remain human.”
The more people I killed, the more I carved out my conscience, the more I could obtain a wealthy and pleasant life. If I had wanted to, I probably could have hidden my identity and lived an ordinary life. Like that bastard Ian.
“In the organization, there were crazy bastards who did assassination work just because they liked killing people, and guys who only took requests with big money involved.”
Thinking of old times made my eyes furrow automatically.
“At the very least, I didn’t want to become the same kind of existence as those bastards.”
If proving I wasn’t weak meant I had to become the same monster as them, I wished to remain a weak human instead.
‘If the work you’re doing becomes too hard, come back anytime. Kayla, you know that, right?’
Even though I was doing work I couldn’t proudly reveal to the world, even though I had entered the wrong path from the beginning and could no longer move toward the light.
‘Even though we’re not connected by blood, we’re family.’
Even to her who told me to come back anytime, knowing I was a murderer with blood-stained hands, I wanted to remain ‘human.’
“Because I wanted to stand before that person as a shameful person who doesn’t forget shame, not as a monster who forgets everything and smiles.”
“That person?”
“There’s someone who raised me until I entered the assassin’s guild.”
I let out a bitter smile thinking of Emma.
Although I could never stand before her again, I wanted to remain human until the end for the sake of what she had left for me.
‘Well, everyone said even that was hypocrisy.’
Suddenly, a hazy memory from the past surfaced.
It was a scene where Ian, drunk, shouted at me as if frustrated.
‘Who wanted to become an assassin? You and I both were sold as slaves when we were young and became assassins to survive!’
Why should we take responsibility for a life we didn’t choose?
Ian used to say we bore no responsibility for our lives as assassins.
‘Even if we want to leave the organization, if we run away on our own, we’ll live being chased for life. Even if we want to do other work, the moment our past is revealed, everyone will treat us like criminals.’
Ian couldn’t understand why I only used the wealth I earned from contracts for the organization’s work. He couldn’t understand why I deliberately let go and spared the targets of assassination contracts.
‘Kayla, you just want to pretend to be good. But you know what? For people like us, that’s the most luxurious thing of all.’
Living a life you didn’t choose is already burdensome enough, so why shouldn’t one be allowed to pursue the same happiness as others?
Ian and I always clashed at that very point.
“It seems I brought up something I shouldn’t have.”
Just as I was unable to escape from those memories of the past.
A flustered yet gentle voice came from above my head.
“Sorry, I didn’t come here to make you wear such an expression.”
“…What kind of expression is that?”
Kaiden quietly gazed at my face, then raised his hand.
“A very hurt expression.”
His rough palm gently caressed my cheek as if to comfort me.
I quietly felt the touch of that palm and murmured softly.
“…It’s not because of you, Prince Kaiden.”
“Then who is making you wear such a face?”
I couldn’t answer easily.
Kaiden was someone who knew who Ian was, and what kind of relationship Ian and I had.
“Is it because of that bastard? Ian Miller?”
But once again, he read my heart all too easily.
“…My anger is suddenly rising even more. To think I have to deliver such news to you with my own mouth.”
“News, you say?”
Kaiden stopped stroking near my eyes with his thumb and made a murderous expression.
“Ian Miller.”
He added in a voice that seemed to suppress his anger.
“That bastard has gone missing.”
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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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