The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 340

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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 2. After That, They (2)

Laughter filled the air.
The Empire’s Banquet Hall was in uproar.
One might think that a festival returning year after year would lose its novelty by now, but the Foundation Festival remained a day when the Empire’s people, regardless of rank, celebrated with genuine hearts.
“Is it true that the Princess herself will perform the Ceremonial Dance today?”
“So I’ve heard. They say this is her first official appearance in such a role.”
“The Emperor treasures her so dearly, yet he’s allowed her to perform the dance. Remarkable.”
“Well, he permits it precisely because he treasures her. There’s no better venue than the Foundation Festival to showcase the Princess’s excellence.”
News that the Empire’s sole princess would dance the Ceremonial Dance alongside priestesses from the Kingdom of Leon to invoke the Empire’s blessing had already spread throughout the realm.
“I won’t go on stage. I don’t want to.”
In the encampment prepared behind the Banquet Hall stage.
The Princess, Emilia, sat crouched in a corner of the encampment, hugging her knees with her brow furrowed.
“Your Highness, we’ll be starting soon.”
The Maid Captain Catherine shifted her weight anxiously from foot to foot.
The priestesses who had already completed their final preparations and stood ready on stage were watching the Princess carefully.
“Your Highness, everyone out there is waiting for you with bated breath.”
“I don’t care. I have a headache. I can barely stand straight.”
It was probably a lie.
Emilia was the sort of child who, when she truly suffered, would rather hide her pain than show it.
“Your Highness, you’ve practiced this dance so hard for months.”
Catherine embraced the still-sulking Princess with one arm, trying to soothe her.
“Wouldn’t it be such a shame to end it all without even stepping on stage? Not only does Prince Edwin eagerly await it—the Emperor himself is anticipating this greatly.”
“No, I’m not disappointed.”
Emilia answered with her brow still creased.
In the young Princess’s large eyes, tears glistened.
“Why would I be disappointed? If anyone should be, it’s someone else. I’m not upset or disappointed at all.”
Ah, Rachel. Why didn’t you come?
Catherine swallowed her sigh and managed an awkward smile.
Surely there was a reason, but watching the despondent Princess, Catherine found herself resenting Rachel without meaning to.
“Once the Blessing Prayer from the Kingdom of Leon concludes, will you be ready to ascend the stage?”
Before the situation could settle, an Attendant announced that the stage was imminent.
“Just a moment—please, just a moment more!”
Catherine hurriedly straightened Emilia’s attire.
Thanks to the archaic Ceremonial Robe woven from the cloth priestesses wore during Kingdom of Leon ceremonies, and the Wreath resting atop her golden curls, the young Princess appeared like a fairy who had wandered into the mortal realm.
“Your Highness, if you could just endure it for today—”
“No!”
Emilia shook off Catherine’s grip and bolted from the encampment.
“Wait, Your Highness! Princess Emilia! Good heavens! Princess Emilia!”
Startled by the child’s swift movement, Catherine lunged to catch up but stepped on her own dress hem and tumbled in place.
“Your Highness!”
“What’s happened?”
“The Princess—!”
Catherine opened her mouth to answer the Attendant’s question, then closed it firmly.
It would be far from beneficial if word spread that the Princess had abruptly abandoned her post on such an important official ceremony.
‘Even though the Emperor treasures Princess Emilia, he certainly wouldn’t welcome her displaying childish behavior before all these foreign envoys.’
The Royal Family must not display emotions carelessly.
No matter how young the Princess was, a true member of the Royal Family must uphold that dignity.
“…She had an urgent need for the privy, or so she said. How much time remains?”
“Oh dear, that does complicate matters.”
The Attendant’s expression grew flustered, but he quickly exchanged a few words with someone outside the encampment and returned.
“Fortunately, many nobles wish to receive the envoy’s Blessing Prayer, so the schedule will be slightly delayed. There should be about fifteen minutes of buffer, so the Princess should have plenty of time for a brief absence.”
“Thank you. I’ll bring the Princess back within the time limit—don’t worry.”
Catherine’s face bloomed with an easy smile.
She stepped briskly from the encampment.
“I—this—”
The easy smile vanished in an instant.
Like she had done in her days as a maid at the Guest Palace of the 3rd Prince’s Palace, Catherine gathered her skirts in both hands and sprinted forward at full speed.
“Catherine?”
Edwin, seated in the Upper Seats where the Royal Family gathered, looked startled to see Catherine approaching him. Crown Princess Bridget wore the same expression of surprise.
“What’s the matter?”
Edwin descended quickly and stood before Catherine.
Having shot up in growth the previous year, he now looked down at the Maid Captain from a full head’s height.
“Y-Your Highness, I come to—”
“Skip the formalities between us. What’s going on?”
Edwin studied Catherine with a serious expression.
“W-well, P-Princess Emilia—”
“Emilia? Wait, come this way.”
Edwin glanced sideways at the Royal Family seated in the Upper Seats, then led Catherine behind a nearby Column.
“All right, what is it exactly? Has something happened to Ria?”
Catherine, still catching her breath, clutched her chest as she answered.
“The Princess r-refuses to take the stage and has r-run away!”
“What?”
Edwin’s eyes widened as if he’d been struck on the back of the head.
“What are you saying? Ria ran away? The stage she said she wanted to perform on?”
“She was heartbroken when she learned that Rachel—that the Queen of Adamant would not attend—”
“Over something like that? Surely—”
The words “over something like that” rose to the tip of his tongue, then faded away.
Edwin exhaled a long breath.
“…This is serious.”
It was a true emergency.
Edwin raised his hand with a grave expression.
Without a word, his Guard Leo stepped forward from the shadows where he’d been waiting. The young man, now possessed of a frame no one dared underestimate, bowed quietly.
“Find Emilia at once, Leo. You may deploy the Knights if necessary.”
“I hear and obey, Your Highness.”
Catherine, watching Leo vanish like the wind, quickly bunched her skirts in her fists.
“I’ll search as well. If she doesn’t return within the time limit—”
“I’ll buy us as much time as I can. Don’t worry.”
Edwin gazed toward the stage and dais above while his voice remained steady and reassuring.
“Don’t fret too much, Catherine.”
Catherine bit her lip and nodded.
She turned and began to run, and once she had gone far enough that the stage crowd was out of sight, she cried out at the top of her lungs.
“Your Highness! Princess Emiliaaaa!”
Fifteen minutes remained.
The hunt for the runaway Princess had begun.

* * *

Breath coming in shallow gasps.
Emilia panted.
The young girl wiped the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes with the backs of her hands, then crouched in a corner of the Flower Bed, her nose running.
“Damn it…”
After a time spent in silent resentment, Emilia lifted her head.
She had bolted without thinking and run here: the Central Garden.
– Your Highness.
– Ria, so you were here.
It was a place heavy with memories.
The same garden where Emma, her first Caretaker, had walked with her—and where Edwin, her brother, had been with her—and where Rachel, her last Caretaker, had been.
“…Foolish Rachel.”
A bond without blood could never become a true family.
Emilia recalled a conversation between noblewomen she had overheard recently.
– The Somerset Countess’s Family has taken in another adopted child, haven’t they? A daughter this time, I heard.
– A replacement for their dead daughter, perhaps. The Count’s sons opposed it, I’m told, but it was likely an unavoidable choice given the Countess’s terrible grief.
– But adopted children and true children aren’t the same, are they?
– Even so, don’t they fill the void to some degree? Not completely, of course, but somewhat.
– But a replacement only applies to objects. How could you ever replace a person?
A replacement.
Though Emilia didn’t fully understand the word’s precise meaning, the instant she heard it, she grasped it intuitively. Perhaps she too was nothing but a replacement to Rachel—a substitute.

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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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