The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 301

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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 301. Happily ever after (3)

“Rachel.”

Edwin stood there with a much more composed demeanor than I had expected.

It was hard to find any trace of the child who used to cry and throw tantrums, begging me not to leave.

“If you leave today, I won’t see you until the wedding. When will you send the invitation?”

“I’ll send it once things are settled after I go to Adamant. You should probably receive it before summer ends.”

“I see.”

A brief silence passed.

Edwin touched the hilt of the sword at his waist and smiled bitterly.

“Actually, I was hoping Rachel would stay until Emilia’s coming-of-age ceremony.”

“…Is that so.”

“But since that was the promise made with The Emperor from the beginning, changing it now would cause a lot of trouble for both Rachel and Uncle.”

At his nephew’s words, Kaiden bowed his head lightly.

The Adamant Royal Family was bursting with complaints about the young founding king still not taking a queen. Even the two-year grace period was something he had barely managed to secure.

“This is troublesome though. I may have grown up a lot, but Emilia is still a child, so it seems hard for her to accept this situation. I never expected she really wouldn’t come out to see you off…”

Edwin looked back toward the Prince’s Palace and muttered as if troubled.

Now that she was over seven years old, the Princess had become really stubborn.

Recently, she had even developed the strange habit of never taking back anything she said once.

‘Catherine says all children that age are like that.’

I looked toward the quiet Prince’s Palace and replied briefly.

“It’s fine. Just because I can’t see her today doesn’t mean I’ll never see her again.”

“That’s true. But it’s a fact that we won’t be able to see each other often.”

It would be stranger if a caretaker who became a foreign queen could frequently meet the Empire’s Crown Prince and Princess.

“If you want to arrive before sunset, you really need to depart now.”

Just then, an Adamant knight signaled that they could delay no longer.

“Then I’ll be going now, Prince Edwin.”

I looked at Edwin quietly and then bowed very deeply.

“R-Rachel? Why are you suddenly doing that?”

The flustered Edwin helped me up while waving his hands.

“You startled me. We agreed not to be so formal with each other…”

“Thank you for everything, Prince Edwin.”

Edwin’s hand suddenly stopped.

His large, beautiful eyes reflected me.

“I…”

I sometimes thought about it.

What kind of life would I have lived if I hadn’t possessed Rachel Brown’s body, if I hadn’t met Edwin and Emilia?

“Meeting Your Highnesses…”

Of course, no matter what body I was reborn into, I would have succeeded in getting revenge on Ian.

‘Assassination is my specialty, after all.’

But if I hadn’t been reborn as their caretaker, if that hadn’t happened.

I would never have felt this kind of emotion.

“Only after meeting Your Highnesses did I learn what it means to live like a human.”

A caretaker is someone who looks after and teaches children.

But looking back, I learned much more from the children.

How to live life, how to treat people, and about my own emotions too.

“I will be proud for the rest of my life that I was Prince Edwin and Princess Emilia’s caretaker.”

It was Emma who taught me about parental love when I was an orphan with no family.

It was these two who taught me about love for children when I only knew survival of the fittest.

“I hope the Empire that Your Highness will rule as Emperor will prosper and be peaceful above all others.”

Though I will become a foreign queen starting today.

Even so, I can’t help but wish for the Empire’s well-being because it’s the country of the children I cared for.

“…To be honest, I thought Rachel didn’t really like that I became Crown Prince.”

“What? That couldn’t be.”

“Your expression didn’t look good at the investiture ceremony.”

“That was…”

I hesitated for a moment, then confessed honestly.

“It was probably because I realized my role was completely finished. I realized that my time as a caretaker by Your Highness’s side was over.”

At my answer, Edwin furrowed his brow.

Even though he looked like he was about to cry, he tried hard to smile.

“You know, Rachel.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I was glad I could be Rachel’s child too.”

The boy who had grown taller than me was looking at me exactly as he had on the day we first met.

“I also learned what life was after meeting Rachel.”

For reviving me when I was withering away here.

For making me someone who could make any choice.

“Thank you, Rachel.”

Edwin smiled brightly and hugged me.

“Take care…”

Just as we were finally about to say our farewells.

“Racheeeel!”

A high, clear girl’s voice rang loudly throughout the Imperial Capital.

“Princess Emilia, you’ll get hurt running like that!”

The small child who came running with a trail of maids behind her rushed into my arms with frightening momentum.

“Emilia…”

“I don’t want Rachel to go!”

Emilia, who blurted out her true feelings right away, hugged my waist tightly and remained silent for a while.

“Emilia, there’s no time.”

Edwin looked at his sister with pity and patted her back.

“If you have something you want to say to Rachel, say it now.”

At those words, Emilia slowly raised her head.

The Princess’s pretty face was covered in tears and snot, but she was still more lovely than any fairy in a fairy tale.

“You know, at first I didn’t understand why Rachel had to leave, so I kept thinking about it.”

Emilia kept sniffling and moving her lips.

“Rachel said she loved me, and I love Rachel too, so why are you leaving? We’re family, so why do we have to be apart?”

Family.

At Emilia’s words, I hugged the child face to face.

Biting my lower lip so my overflowing emotions wouldn’t show.

“…I see.”

“Yeah, but Catherine said that even if Rachel leaves, we’re still family. That you’re leaving now so you can be happier than you are now.”

Emilia sniffled and caught her breath, then continued speaking.

“I don’t like being separated from Rachel, but I still want Rachel to be happier. So, so I’ll let you go. But…”

The Princess looked up at me and spoke in a barely audible voice.

“You have to come visit Ria often, okay?”

I suppose farewells are something you never get used to.

I slowly knelt down and hugged Emilia tightly.

Then I extended one arm to Edwin, who was standing behind her.

“Prince Edwin, come here too.”

Though he was pretending otherwise, Edwin’s face was already wet with tears.

After hesitating, he finally knelt down and came into my embrace.

“I promise you here and now. I will come whenever Your Highnesses want to see me, or whenever Your Highnesses miss me.”

For the strongest assassin, there was no cage that couldn’t be escaped, no wall that couldn’t be crossed.

“I always keep the promises I make, you know that, right?”

“Mm-hmm!”

Edwin and Emilia nodded with their faces buried against my shoulders.

“And no matter how far apart we are…”

I buried my face in their golden thread-like hair and spoke in a small but clear voice.

“I am Your Highnesses’ caretaker.”

Though after today passes, I will no longer be called your caretaker.

Though you too will eventually grow from children to adults as time flows.

“…Don’t forget.”

Even if you grow taller than me, even if you become adults, marry and have children, even if someday your hair turns white with age. Because you will always look like children in my eyes.

“…No matter what happens, Your Highnesses are forever my children.”

To you who appeared like gifts in my world that knew only blood and death.

To you who became the only meaning in my life that had nothing but revenge.

“So please stay healthy and happy until we meet again.”

Now we exchange farewell greetings for the new chapters of each other’s lives.

Farewell greetings so we can meet again someday, in different forms, with smiles.

* * *

Clop, clop.

In the silence, the sound of hoofbeats and carriage wheels rolling could be heard.

“Somehow I feel like I’ve become the villain.”

Kaiden spoke for the first time in the carriage we rode together.

I, who had been silently looking out the window while leaving the Prince’s Palace, turned my head toward him.

“Why do you think that?”

“…It feels like I’ve become the villain who separated a parent from their children.”

“Since you’re the villain I chose, I think it’s fine.”

“So I ended up being the villain after all? I only just got recognized as an uncle, and now I’m going to be hated again.”

His somewhat sulky appearance made me laugh despite myself.

I rested my arm on the window sill and looked outside.

“Growth always requires a villain. Kaiden, not just you, but I’m the same kind of villain.”

“What kind of villain could you be?”

“I suppose you could say I’m like a lion that deliberately pushes its cubs off a cliff.”

Though I would always remain a caretaker to Edwin and Emilia, I couldn’t really watch over and help them in every little thing like a caretaker would.

“Your Highnesses have reached the time to graduate from me. That timing just felt a little early.”

Though it was regrettable, I couldn’t keep the children locked in my embrace forever.

If I wanted the children to live in the world as individuals.

“And I too.”

I met Kaiden’s eyes and smiled brightly.

“Must graduate from Your Highnesses.”

My mission as their assigned caretaker was over.

So now it was time to successfully complete a different mission.

Thud, bump.

How much time had passed?

The carriage came to a stop with a sound.

“We have arrived, Your Highness.”

Finally the carriage door opened and a new landscape spread before my eyes.

Kaiden, who got out first, extended his hand to me with a smile.

“So, am I included in this new mission you’ve taken on?”

“You’re stating the obvious.”

“Then what is this new mission?”

I took Kaiden’s hand and stepped onto new ground.

“To try living.”

The person who gave me a second life where I could meet the children.

The person who wished for my life when everyone else wished for my death.

In this lifetime, may I live with you until the very end.

“Together with you, Kaiden.”

– 『The Prince’s Caretaker, Specializing in Assassination』 Complete

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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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