The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 36

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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 36. The Plague Village, Ruxen Village (1)

How long had we been riding?

In the distance, I could see a towering stone wall rising high.

The massive stone wall that separated the outside world from the village was Ruxen’s symbol.

In front of the entrance gate, two small figures were moving about.

They seemed to be gatekeepers guarding the village entrance.

I hastily brought the carriage to a stop.

“Huh, we’re here already?”

Edwin got off the carriage and frowned.

“What? We still have a long way to go.”

I ignored Edwin’s reaction and pulled down the pile of luggage from the carriage roof.

“Your Highness, please sit over here.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“I’m going to disguise you.”

“Disguise me? Why?”

When I pulled out several medicine bottles from the bundle, Edwin looked troubled.

“Children cannot enter a plague village unless they’re infected. But I can’t leave Your Highness alone outside, so there’s no choice.”

“But still…”

“Besides, Your Highness stands out in many ways. We’re going to sneak in. Now, please lower your head.”

The boy reluctantly lowered his head with a reluctant expression.

“Ptui ptui, what is this!”

“It’s black dye powder. It will temporarily change your hair color.”

“Black dye? Why are you sprinkling that on my hair!”

Such a fussy kid.

Be grateful it’s not charcoal powder.

I diligently sprinkled the black dye on the boy’s fine hair.

“Wait, my eyes are stinging!”

“That’s perfect. If your eyes are bloodshot, you’ll look more sick. And let’s apply this to your arms.”

“What’s that now?”

“Mix plaster with water and apply it with this resin.”

After finishing the disguise, Edwin hung his head in despair.

“Do we really have to go this far?”

“Only by going this far can we reduce the chances of getting caught. Oh, don’t forget to do as I told you earlier.”

“No, this doesn’t seem right.”

After pushing the muttering boy into the carriage, quite some time had passed.

‘I need to hurry.’

I picked up the clothes that were in the bag.

It was an old priest’s robe that I had obtained by asking Catherine.

* * *

“Haaaam~”

Peterson, the gatekeeper of Ruxen Village, yawned so wide his mouth nearly split.

Thanks to that, the helmet he was wearing slid down at an angle.

What was the point of caring about appearance when you’re a gatekeeper of a village no one visits?

After yawning once more loudly, he called to his colleague standing beside him.

“Hey, is there any group scheduled to come today?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. There wasn’t anyone the day before yesterday, or yesterday, so probably not today either?”

“Really? Then what’s that carriage coming over there?”

“Huh?”

At Peterson’s words, his colleague frowned.

“Where did it come from?”

The carriage approached at a speed that was neither too slow nor too fast, then stopped in front of the gate.

Peterson approached the driver’s seat with tense steps.

“Halt! Identify yourself!”

“May God’s blessing be with you.”

The person sitting on the driver’s seat who greeted them was wearing an old priest’s robe.

“I am Cleric Benedictus.”

His voice was hoarse and raspy as if he had caught a cold.

His face was completely invisible because he had pulled his hood down deep.

But judging by his voice alone, he was unmistakably an old man.

Meanwhile, at the mention of being a cleric, the gatekeeper’s attitude became much more cautious.

“Excuse me, Cleric, could you please remove your hood for a moment? It’s customary to identify everyone who enters.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t like showing my face to anyone. I once suffered from scale disease.”

Scale disease.

At just those three words, both gatekeepers looked shocked and took a step back.

Seeing their reaction, the cleric let out a self-deprecating laugh.

“Hehe, of course I’ve overcome it now thanks to God’s grace, but as you know, scars from scale disease cannot be removed even with divine power.”

“Ah, yes. Of course, we understand. You must be deeply troubled.”

Peterson waved his hands sympathetically at the cleric.

“Then may we check the identity of the person in the carriage?”

“Of course. But be careful. That child is a scale disease patient.”

“Aah—!”

Peterson’s group was about to open the carriage door but sighed at the sight of the child visible through the window.

The black-haired boy had a gloomy expression.

The skin visible between his collar was already rotting black with pus flowing.

“He’s my disciple, Johannes. He caught the disease while helping me.”

“Oh my, heavens.”

The gatekeepers covered their mouths as if genuinely sympathetic.

“Right now, all the clerics who can use divine power at the Imperial Palace have left on pilgrimage to the Holy Kingdom.”

“Ah, so he couldn’t receive treatment.”

“That’s right. You know that scale disease patients cannot stay in the Imperial Palace, right? Until they return, I think this boy will have to stay here.”

“There’s a priest’s quarters in the village. The young cleric can stay there. There are no other clerics there right now anyway.”

“Thank you. May God’s blessing be with you.”

“May God’s blessing be with you.”

The gatekeepers hurriedly opened the gate.

Thanks to that, the carriage entered the village without any hindrance.

“Such a pity. The young cleric looked quite young.”

“Sigh, indeed. Why do only the people doing good deeds end up like that?”

The gatekeepers watched the carriage disappearing into the gate with sympathetic eyes.

Without seeing the sneer of the old cleric visible under his deeply pulled hood.

* * *

“Good heavens.”

Edwin chattered through the window leading to the driver’s seat.

“How did you change your voice?”

“It’s one of the tricks I learned long ago.”

“Then can I learn to change my voice too?”

“It would take time, but if you work hard, it should be possible.”

“Then teach me later too!”

He seemed quite amazed by the old man’s voice I had produced when passing through the gate.

I ignored Edwin, who kept whining for me to teach him voice modulation, and surveyed the surroundings.

‘This place is still the same.’

Entering the village dressed in clerical robes, I was greeted by hostile stares and a terrible stench.

‘Including the time I’ve lived in this body, has it been roughly 4 years since I came here?’

I slowly looked around my surroundings.

An alley where crudely built stone houses were scattered in disarray.

Village people with rotting bodies wandering between them.

‘Surely that old man didn’t die in the meantime, did he?’

That would really be troublesome.

Meanwhile, the temple the gatekeeper mentioned was located not far from the entrance.

I parked the carriage at the stable prepared next to the temple and opened the door.

“Your Highness, you’ll have to walk from here. The path is too narrow for the carriage to pass through.”

“Um, Rachel, do I really have to go?”

Edwin’s voice was trembling finely.

Only then did I notice his terrified face.

‘Well, this kid must have seen everything through the window too.’

Though he grew up neglected, it wasn’t a sight that someone who had only lived in the imperial palace could handle.

“Your Highness, if you’re scared, would you like to wait here? I’ll go alone and come back.”

“What? Where are you going?”

“The person I’m looking for is at the very back of the village.”

“Can’t we go by carriage? There’s no need to walk, right?”

“From here, the path becomes too narrow for the carriage to enter. We have to walk.”

“But what if we catch the disease?”

He looked like he was about to cry any moment.

“Your Highness, scale disease isn’t as easily contracted as you might think. Otherwise, how could clerics and physicians come here for service?”

“Clerics would be fine! They can protect themselves with divine power! But we can’t!”

Despite my persuasion, Edwin shook his head fearfully.

“Then stay right here without moving. I’ll be back soon.”

Thinking it would be better to find that person as quickly as possible, just as I was about to take a step.

Edwin grabbed the hem of my hood.

“N-no! Let’s go together!”

Edwin grabbed my hood and stuck close behind me.

“We have to go quite deep into the village. Will you be alright?”

“I hate being alone more! I want to go together!”

I sighed looking at Edwin stubbornly insisting.

“Then stick close and follow me. The path is complicated.”

* * *

The inner village was better organized than expected, but the stench was even worse.

Many people with appearances too terrible to look at with open eyes were visible.

“Um, why don’t those people have arms and legs? Do you lose limbs when you get scale disease?”

Edwin was horrified seeing a villager who had lost his right leg.

“In severe cases, that’s what happens, I’m told. At first the flesh rots away, then later it becomes hard as stone and crumbles to pieces at the slightest impact.”

That’s why scale disease was also called ‘weathering disease.’

By the time the entire body had rotted away, they would eventually be weathered by the wind and disappear from this world.

“That’s why there are no graves in this village. There are no corpses to bury.”

This symptom also contributed to scale disease being called the ‘devil’s curse.’

In the Bentrum Empire, which valued funerals highly, not even being able to leave behind a corpse meant never being able to find eternal rest.

“What? If there are no graves, how do families visit?”

“The people here are those abandoned even by their families. Even if there were graves, no one would come to visit.”

“…Then where do those people who disappear go?”

“Well, having turned to dust and scattered, they were probably blown away somewhere or washed away by rain.”

At my answer, Edwin just walked silently for a while, thinking about something.

His silence continued until we reached the end of the alley.

“Your Highness, this is the place.”

“…”

“Your Highness? Prince Edwin!”

“Huh, huh? What’s wrong?”

Edwin, who had been standing blankly despite being called several times, only came to his senses after I raised my voice.

“We’ve arrived.”

“Yes, huh?”

He seemed puzzled that the house that appeared before his eyes looked no different from the other houses.

“Um, so the person who will be my teacher is in this house?”

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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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