The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 337

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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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Special Side Story 1. The Form of Love (2)

“No.”
The turmoil faded quickly.
Kaiden shook his head deliberately.
“It’s fine. Sleep comfortably if you’d like…….”
“I’m not fine with it.”
How many nights had it been now?
Rachel found herself frowning without thinking.
“A married couple sleeping in separate chambers is one thing, but how many days has it been now? Do you know what the nobles are whispering about behind our backs?”
The Queen is with child, so she’s proven her worth at last. The King is still young and vigorous, so taking a few concubines would help stabilize the realm. And so on. It wasn’t just one or two who gossiped when they learned that the royal couple, who usually stuck together like glue, were now sleeping apart.
“Who are these people saying thoughtless things about you? I’ll find every last one of them and——”
“That doesn’t matter.”
It was Rachel who broke Kaiden’s suddenly murderous momentum.
She rose from her place and pushed him down beneath her, just as she had that night long ago when they’d met at the Bentrum Imperial Prince’s Palace.
That night when everything had changed.
“…Rachel?”
Kaiden’s eyes widened like a startled cat.
Yet he hesitated to touch her, his concerned gaze drifting toward her belly. Seeing that worry in his eyes, she raised one eyebrow.
“Kaiden, I’m human.”
Kaiden blinked blankly at her words, as if lost.
“Not some delicate sugar doll that shatters from a light touch.”
Rachel looked down.
Seeing him lying between her legs with both arms spread open, gazing up at her with startled eyes, stirred something strange within her.
“…Did you think I wouldn’t notice you standing by my pillow every night, watching?”
At Rachel’s observation, Kaiden’s expression shifted to that of a child caught in mischief. He bit his lower lip and turned his head away, avoiding her gaze.
“Why did you do that?”
Rachel’s voice grew lower.
“Why stare at me like I’m some beast caged within us, without ever reaching out?”
At her accusing tone, Kaiden opened his mouth with visible shame.
“If it bothered you, I’ll——”
“Is it that people are right? That I no longer feel like a woman to you?”
Her figure hadn’t swollen that much anyway.
Rachel absently stroked her lower belly.
“Honestly, I’m not even sure there’s really a child in here.”
She was four months along now, but as a first-time mother, whether from inexperience or her nature, her belly remained modest. Looking at her softly rounded form, the attendants with birthing experience would occasionally mention that the first might be a beautiful princess.
“If I’m avoiding the marriage bed simply because I’m carrying a child……”
Speaking it aloud only made her angrier.
She carried the child through no effort of her own—why should she alone wrestle with such worries? For a moment, she wavered between wanting to tell him to stay out of her chamber until she gave birth, and something else entirely.
Thump.
The view before her shifted suddenly.
Rachel found herself staring at Kaiden’s face beneath the familiar ceiling, her mouth falling open.
“You don’t feel attracted to me anymore, and you call that speaking? Is that what you’re saying?”
His voice carried an injured note.
Kaiden frowned as he looked down at Rachel.
“From the time you were small until now, there hasn’t been a single moment when you haven’t appeared beautiful to me.”
“…Isn’t that pushing things a little far?”
She knew her husband’s childhood better than anyone.
That small, delicate boy with eyes that blazed with life had always been watching her.
“To think you harbored such dark intentions even at that tender age. You were surprisingly depraved for such a young thing.”
Though perhaps he hadn’t been as innocent as all that.
Kaiden laughed softly at her words and slowly lowered his head.
The familiar scent of jasmine rose from his half-dry hair.
“So.”
Rachel felt laughter slip from her lips without thought, and he whispered softly, his forehead nearly touching hers.
“Do you dislike me?”
His sharp nose brushed against her cheek.
The tender, gentle gesture—as if two birds were expressing affection beak to beak—drew a smile from her despite herself.
“…I’m somewhat indignant about it.”
At her confession, Kaiden lifted his head slightly.
Though he’d entered his mid-twenties, his handsome face still held traces of boyishness, now marked with a question.
“If you loved me so much, why didn’t you lay a single finger on me all this time?”
She’d genuinely begun to wonder if he’d somehow become a different person.
After all, before the pregnancy, Kaiden had constantly sought her out. During matters of state, he’d chase after her the moment a gap appeared in his schedule, pestering her relentlessly. Even after she became Queen and maintained her training, she barely had strength left to manage him.
“That’s because……”
Now it was Kaiden’s turn to furrow his brow, aggrieved.
“The physician said we had to be careful. If something went wrong, you’d be the one in danger.”
His concern was for Rachel first and foremost.
After learning that miscarriage could burden the mother gravely, he couldn’t bring himself to touch her.
“Really now.”
Rachel let out a sigh.
She lay on her side with her face against his chest, her arm wrapped around his shoulder as she murmured.
“Bearing a child is quite the undertaking, isn’t it?”
There were countless things to worry about.
Rachel gazed blankly at the ceiling and murmured to herself.
“…When I think that the person who gave birth to me endured all of this, I find myself feeling a filial piety I never knew I had.”
Though she still couldn’t understand why they would go through all this trouble only to abandon her afterward.
Rachel sighed quietly and turned her head slightly to the side.
“Kaiden.”
“Yes?”
“Does it feel real to you? That you’re about to become a father?”
Kaiden shook his head slightly.
A faint shadow of concern crossed his face as he fell into thought.
“…Honestly, I wonder if I can be a proper father.”
His father, the King of Lionel, had never shown him affection. His mother had died young, her face unknown to him. He’d been raised by a nameless governess who maintained a businesslike demeanor and by his half-sister Idis. He’d never felt a father’s love, never known what it was to have a father figure.
“The same is true for me.”
She had never known her biological parents’ love.
In her past life, she’d never borne a child.
Though in this life, despite herself, she’d accumulated some experience with child-rearing.
“Even so.”
Rachel took the hand of the man lying beside her.
“I believe that if we try, we can become good parents too. That’s what I think.”
The lives they’d lived were thorny paths, pools of blood, a hell overflowing with suffering.
Yet even within that darkness, love had undeniably existed. Rachel had learned it, practiced it, and come this far because of people who shared not a drop of her blood.
“Kaiden, you will be a good father.”
Just as Emma raised me with love, just as your sister cared for you with love.
Just as we found each other and learned from Edwin and Emilia.
“So don’t worry too much.”
Kaiden blinked slowly under the gentle touch of his wife’s hand stroking his hair.
Seeing his drowsy expression, Rachel lifted the blanket and moved to cover him.
“Kaiden, if you’re tired, sleep comfortably……”
“If it’s a daughter.”
His voice was careful, as if he were uttering a thought long held dear.
“Let’s name her Kayla.”
“Kaiden.”
“I know you rejected it before. But I want to use that name.”
“I……”
“Do you hate that name so much?”
It wasn’t simple dislike.
Something far more complex and subtle churned within her chest.
Rachel looked at Kaiden with a troubled expression.
“Why do you cling to that name so desperately?”
No matter how much she’d loved herself during those days when she bore that name, she couldn’t understand wanting to pass it to her own child.
“It’s not even such a beautiful name.”
“Why isn’t it beautiful? It was yours.”
“…Because it belonged to someone who killed countless people.”
For a moment, the darkness of the chamber felt heavy.
Rachel held Kaiden’s hand tightly as she spoke.
“A name carelessly given. The name of someone who lost her parents young, entered an Assassination Guild, and killed many for coin.
The name of an unfortunate, wretched woman who was betrayed and burned to death by the lover she’d trusted.”
She didn’t want to burden her child with such a cursed name.
“So Kaiden, this time you must give way. In exchange, if a son is born, you may name him as you wish……”
“It was a savior’s name to me.”
Rachel stopped and looked at the man beside her.
“It was the name of someone so strong that despite her own misery, she willingly reached out her hand so others wouldn’t suffer as she had.”
Their fingers intertwined.
Kaiden touched her hand—much smaller than before, yet still bearing calluses despite becoming Queen—with tenderness.
“So this time, I want her to be happy.”
You bore that name and knew only sorrow, but the child who receives it will know happiness beyond measure. I’ll make it so.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
Adamant’s first princess would be called Kayla, and bearing that name, she would be born into the highest station, and would live a life envied by none.
“Kayla Adamant.”
Surely that suits her far better than the name Angel.
It carried the nobility of the royal house together with an adamantine strength that would shatter under no hardship—just as the name’s previous bearer had been.

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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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