The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 39

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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 39. The Sage, Seiji Lil (2)

‘A sage calling himself a fool.’

Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong either.

I suddenly remembered when I first met Seiji.

– Save me, assassin. If you truly value saving lives more than taking them.

Eyes filled with venom, lips stubbornly pressed together, a body trembling continuously.

A person who was more frustrated by not being able to show his achievements than by the fact that he might die at any moment.

A person who feared having everything about himself forgotten more than death itself.

Nevertheless, he chose to be temporarily forgotten instead of death.

While waiting for ‘that time’ to come when he could reveal his achievements to the world.

“That’s probably why I unknowingly relied on that damn girl. She was the only outsider who remembered me.”

But ‘that time’ never came until now, and I, who had hidden him, had long since died.

If I hadn’t been reborn in Rachel’s body, he might have been forgotten forever in this place.

“You won’t be the only one anymore. Both I and His Highness have come to know of your existence.”

Seiji let out a bitter laugh at what hardly seemed like comfort.

“Ha! Does it work that way?”

“And when you go to the Imperial Capital, more people will remember you.”

“Now, now. Don’t try to gloss over it. My going to the Imperial Capital is a separate matter.”

He wagged his finger, indicating he wouldn’t be easily swayed.

“If the little prince doesn’t pass the test, I won’t be going to the Imperial Capital, understand?”

“…A test, you say?”

“That’s right, I told you. Since this might be my last disciple in life, I can’t just accept anyone.”

The sage showed his teeth in a wicked grin.

* * *

“You.”

Leo, who had volunteered to be their guide, suddenly threw out a question.

“You’re not a cleric, are you?”

Edwin was startled by the direct hit.

“How did you know?”

“Elder Seiji hates clerics so much. If you were a real cleric, there’s no way he’d let you into his house. And that wound disguise.”

Leo pointed at Edwin’s hand covered in plaster.

“It looks convincing, but if you look closely, you can tell it’s fake.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah, what’s your real identity? Why did you come here? Judging by those expensive silk clothes you’re wearing, are you some kind of high-ranking person?”

Edwin couldn’t say anything in response to the sharp observation.

He couldn’t reveal that he was royalty, nor could he think of any other good excuse.

While hesitating to answer, he worried unnecessarily about what would happen if Leo got angry and called him frustrating.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

Seeing Edwin’s obviously flustered state, Leo just turned his head away.

“Anyway, get rid of that shoddy disguise right now. It’ll get in the way when we’re working.”

“Ah, okay.”

“And if it’s difficult to talk about why you came here, you don’t have to say. I’m not particularly curious anyway.”

Leo showed the axe strapped to his back.

“Let’s just hurry up and look around so we can leave. I still have firewood to chop.”

Having finished speaking, Leo moved forward alone without waiting for an answer.

In a way, it was an attitude that bordered on dismissive.

But paradoxically, Edwin felt an inexplicable sense of relief from that attitude.

Even though they had just met today, why did he feel more comfortable with Leo than with the people he had met in the Imperial Capital?

Edwin, who had been standing there as if nailed to the spot, hurriedly followed after him.

* * *

‘Everyone talked about it so terribly, I thought it would be like hell.’

Edwin walked along the stone path crossing the plague village, following Leo.

Then he realized one important fact.

Not everyone afflicted with the plague was just waiting for their day to die.

“Leo? There’s nothing for you to help with today, so just go~ Give our regards to Elder Seiji!”

“Oh my, Leo? Is the elder doing well by himself? Here, this is bread I baked this morning, please take it to the elder.”

“It’s big brother Leo―! Brother! Let’s sword fight! Sword fight!”

The people of Ruxen Village were living each day more earnestly than anyone else, even while fighting against disease.

Men wrapped in bandages all over their bodies plowing fields, women gathered at the washing place doing laundry, children playing soldier with tree branches.

They seemed happier than Edwin, who lived in the Imperial Palace. Quite paradoxically.

Edwin gazed at them intently, then looked up.

The sky over the plague village was blue, high, and clear.

Not much different from the sky he looked up at from the Imperial Capital.

The young prince’s eyes sank deeply.

* * *

“Ugh.”

Edwin dry-heaved at the unbearable stench.

‘I should take back what I said about it not being different.’

The young prince looked at Leo on the opposite side while covering his nose and mouth with one hand.

Unlike himself, who was disgusted by just the smell of filth, Leo was calmly wiping away the pus flowing from the severe patients’ bodies with a very peaceful expression.

– What we need to do today is hygiene management for the severe patients.

Not only cleaning the house, but also washing and changing clothes for patients who had difficulty moving.

For Edwin, who had always only received care but never given care to anyone, this was very high-difficulty work.

The bodies of scale disease patients, from whom blood and pus dripped with just a light touch, were too much for the young prince to handle.

Leo sighed watching Edwin dry-heave every time he saw the patients’ boils and pus.

– You just do the cleaning. You seem to have a talent for cleaning.

In the end, Edwin, who was put in charge of cleaning, scrubbed the floor with a brush using clumsy technique.

Imitating what he had seen the palace maids do seemed to make him look somewhat reliable.

While scrubbing and holding back nausea, Edwin kept glancing sideways at Leo, who was silently caring for the patients.

‘Isn’t that guy scared?’

Didn’t he have any fear of catching the disease?

Didn’t he think it was disgusting to see blood, pus, and filth?

How could he care for the sick so nonchalantly?

Leo seemed remarkable to him anew.

Unlike himself, Leo seemed like someone everyone would want.

‘Pathetic. I can’t even do this properly.’

Edwin let out a small sigh and started scrubbing again.

‘Why am I not good at anything? All I’ve learned is how to read and write, but that’s useless here.’

At the same time, a strange question arose in Edwin’s mind.

‘Then what’s the difference between me and the people here?’

The young prince suddenly widened his eyes at the thought that flashed through his mind.

Without realizing what meaning his question held.

* * *

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Mmm…”

Leo looked back at the boy following behind him.

Edwin’s appearance was a mess, unlike before.

The black dye sprinkled in his hair had melted from sweat and flowed down around his face, and his silk clothes were dirty with dust and filth.

But the young prince’s face looked more serious than when they first met.

Leo glanced at the prince and walked silently without saying anything.

‘Hmm, for a noble brat, he’s got some grit.’

Cleaning up the pus and excrement of plague patients was difficult work that even the clerics who came to volunteer frequently avoided.

Despite that, the kid had completed the tasks he’d assigned without complaining until the end.

‘Though he seems to have a weak stomach and no work sense.’

At first he hadn’t thought much of the kid dressed in silk, but now he felt the boy was quite useful.

At this point, he was starting to become curious about the kid’s real identity.

“Hey.”

“Um.”

The two who had spoken simultaneously turned their gazes away awkwardly.

“You go first.”

When Leo scratched his head and yielded the floor, Edwin bowed his head.

“…Um, sorry.”

“What? What are you sorry for?”

Leo looked puzzled at the sudden apology.

“Well.”

Edwin hesitated, then quickly poured out his words in a small voice.

“I don’t think I was much help today. I couldn’t do the work well, and I just caused trouble.”

“Trouble?”

Pretty impressive vocabulary for a kid.

Leo let out a chuckle.

“Yeah. You did. You must have lived pretty comfortably until now, right? Seeing how you can’t do things even little kids can do.”

Though his life as a prince hadn’t been particularly comfortable, Edwin couldn’t say anything.

“When I told you to fetch water, you almost fell into the well, when I told you to cut some grass, you almost cut your own hand, when I told you to hang the laundry, you made new laundry instead.”

“…Sorry.”

Edwin hung his head with a thoroughly dejected expression.

Leo, who had been staring at the prince, turned his head away.

“Still, you were helpful in your own way.”

“Huh?”

“You’re pretty good at cleaning. It’s enough if a person can do just one thing properly.”

Leo placed his hand on the young prince’s head and ruffled it lightly.

“So there’s no need to apologize. You were helpful enough.”

Edwin’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yeah. When I go around with old man Seiji, all the cleaning becomes my job too. But he takes all the credit.”

“Ah…”

“Now, we need to get back down to the village before sunset, so let’s hurry.”

“Yeah!”

Leo, who had smiled for the first time, immediately turned and started walking.

Edwin hurried to follow him, then opened his mouth again as if remembering something.

“Um, you know.”

“What?”

“What were you going to say to me earlier?”

“Oh, it wasn’t anything important.”

Leo, who had been about to brush it off, opened his mouth again under the burdensome gaze flying at him from the side.

“I was just getting curious about your real identity. Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway.”

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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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