The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 322
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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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Side Story 2. The Princess’s First Love (8)
Something to confess.
How did this little brat who’s barely dried behind the ears learn such a difficult word as “confess” in the first place?
Looking at that small face flushed red, somehow an ominous feeling crept up my spine.
“Rachel, I’ve made up my mind.”
The child who called my name stared intently into my eyes.
“I want to be like Leo…”
My heart sank in an instant.
‘Damn Seiji.’
I should make it so he can’t use the title of sage anymore.
I shouted before Emilia could continue.
“Absolutely not with Leo!”
“I want to become a mercenary like Leo!”
Rumble.
Just then, the sound of thunder echoed like a reverberation.
Emilia and I stared at each other blankly with our mouths agape.
“Wh-what do you mean Leo is absolutely not allowed, Rachel?”
“A mercenary, what do you mean by that…”
We both blinked, not understanding each other’s words.
‘A mercenary.’
What on earth is she talking about?
I frowned and opened my mouth.
“Princess Emilia, a mercenary? Don’t tell me Leo enticed you? Suggesting you become mercenaries together…”
“What? That can’t be. Leo immediately said absolutely not when he heard I wanted to become a mercenary.”
Emilia continued with a dejected expression.
“According to Leo, a princess can’t be a mercenary. Brother Edwin said something similar too.”
“Well, that’s obviously…”
“But Rachel told brother he could become anything!”
Emilia looked at me with reproachful eyes.
“Then can’t Ria become anything too?”
I was truly speechless.
Not only was the content of the young princess’s confession completely unexpected, but the unfamiliar word “mercenary” had to pop out too.
“That’s…”
“Actually, Ria knows too. That I can’t live my life according to my own will. All imperial family members are like that.”
Edwin, Adrian, and even Lloyd who was exiled.
No prince was free from their bloodline.
It was just a matter of whether they walked a path they preferred among the given options, or only walked the path forced upon them.
“The Empress said so. Especially imperial women can’t make any choices as they please.”
After going in and out of the Empress’s Palace several times because of Adrian, she must have heard unnecessary things from the Empress. Emilia continued with a dejected face.
“When young, you have to listen to your father, and later when you grow up, you have to marry and only listen to your husband.”
“…You don’t need to take such words to heart.”
“But it’s the truth.”
I didn’t bother to deny it.
Emilia fidgeted with the hem of my clothes that she had been clutching with her small hands.
“But that means you can become free if you leave the imperial family.”
“Pardon?”
“That’s why I wanted to follow Leo. You know, Leo said he’ll live as a mercenary when he returns.”
“…So you want to follow Leo and become a mercenary.”
“Yes! But to follow Leo, the only way is to marry him, right? So I asked Leo to marry me, but he rejected me.”
Of course he did.
Emilia drooped her thin eyebrows.
“It’s not that he doesn’t like Ria, but he can’t let me become a mercenary.”
“…Your Highness, do you know what a mercenary is?”
“Of course. Leo and Brother Edwin explained it in detail.”
The princess answered confidently to my question.
“They travel around freely and defeat bad guys! They’re much cooler and stronger than knights!”
That’s not it.
I sighed, wondering where and how to start explaining.
“Princess Emilia.”
When I gently stroked the child’s neatly arranged hair, she burrowed deeper into my embrace.
“Mercenaries are those who fight for money, risking their lives without belonging anywhere.”
“Huh?”
It seemed too difficult a sentence to understand at once.
I touched Emilia’s cheek as she tilted her head and added an explanation.
“It means people who throw away their lives and fight to earn money. Mercenaries are those who would harm even good people to make money.”
Just like assassins like me.
The past I had covered up and erased suddenly flashed through my mind.
I tried to maintain a calm expression and patted Emilia’s back.
“How did you even come to think you wanted to become a mercenary?”
“That’s…”
Emilia looked at me with wide eyes.
“Because they said mercenaries can go anywhere freely.”
“You are already free now, Your Highness.”
“But I can’t come find you if Rachel leaves.”
The sound of heavy rain continued.
The sound of water droplets hitting the window was particularly loud.
“…So the reason you want to become a mercenary is…”
I stopped stroking Emilia and asked back.
“Because you want to come find me if I leave?”
“Yes.”
Emilia nodded.
Her innocent eyes seemed to say there couldn’t possibly be any other reason.
“Why did you think I wanted to become a mercenary, Rachel?”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
It was hard to bear having had more childish thoughts than an actual child.
“…Just.”
“Just?”
“I thought it was to be with Leo.”
“With Leo?”
Emilia tilted her head.
That innocent expression of not understanding anything somehow stirred a very faint anger in me.
“Didn’t Princess Emilia say you liked Leo?”
“Ah, right. I do like Leo.”
“Didn’t you share chocolate with him too?”
“Mm, right. I did.”
“You told Prince Edwin you wanted to marry Leo.”
“Yes, I did?”
To think that all those words and actions were because of me.
I felt like giving myself a hard knock on the head.
“…I…”
Her voice seemed to tremble slightly.
I pretended to cough and quickly cleared my voice.
“Didn’t I tell you? I’m not leaving forever…”
“But Grandfather Seiji said so. He said if Rachel marries Uncle Kaiden, she won’t be able to come often.”
Emilia brought both hands to my cheeks.
Her now-warmed hands wrapped around my face, spreading warmth to it as well.
“So Ria will go. Whenever Rachel wants to see me, Ria will go.”
Words saying she would come running no matter what happened.
The child casually spoke a promise that no one could easily make.
I was left speechless by Emilia’s confession.
“…I think I misunderstood something.”
“Misunderstood? What misunderstanding?”
As if I could say that with my own mouth.
When I kept my mouth firmly shut, Emilia raised her eyebrows.
“What misunderstanding? Tell me quickly.”
“…It’s nothing important.”
“Ria hates secrets that only Ria doesn’t know. Tell me quickly.”
When I showed no signs of opening my mouth easily, Emilia lowered her voice.
“It’s the Princess’s command.”
Emilia, who had only recently learned about the power she possessed, would sometimes use the word “command” when adults tried not to follow her words.
“Sigh.”
In the end, I had no choice but to honestly confess.
“…I was worried about what would happen if Princess Emilia really married Leo.”
“Huh? Why would that be a problem?”
“Well, Your Highness is still too…”
Too young and lovely a child.
The thought that the child before me would leave my side made my chest feel tight.
“Aren’t you too young? To be in love.”
“Love?”
Emilia made quite an embarrassed expression.
The little one touched her chin with her fingertips, pondering seriously before finally speaking.
“But Ria doesn’t love Brother Leo?”
“…Pardon?”
“Ria likes Brother Leo. But it’s not love.”
This young child knows the difference between liking and loving?
I stared at Emilia blankly and unconsciously asked back.
“Then who does Your Highness love?”
“Well, obviously.”
It’s not like there could be anyone else under the blanket.
Emilia looked around as if worried someone might be there, then brought her face close to my ear.
“Rachel.”
Can’t you just not marry Uncle and stay by my side forever?
Emilia spoke playfully, giggling as she whispered to me.
“Rachel, you know what? I love Rachel.”
Just a tiny bit more than Brother Edwin.
Emilia smiled as brightly as a star shining in the darkness.
It was the smallest and most lovely confession of first love in the world.
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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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