The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 89

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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 89. LOVE & POISON (13)

Hup.

Edwin unconsciously held his breath.

Looking at the lordling’s slender, snow-white nape made him feel strange.

The tickling sensation in one corner of his chest and the churning feeling in his stomach were utterly unfamiliar.

“Prince Edwin?”

Edwin finally came to his senses at Bridget’s voice.

“J-just a moment.”

With trembling hands, he placed the necklace around her neck.

“D-done.”

At the prince’s words, Bridget arranged her hair and turned around.

“How does it look?”

She smiled brightly as she touched the necklace around her neck.

“Is it pretty?”

She was like a young rose discovered one early dawn.

Bridget possessed a captivating charm that went beyond mere prettiness, drawing one’s gaze at first sight.

Edwin stared at her with a dazed expression, unable to say anything.

“What is it?”

Bridget looked at his face and smiled mischievously.

“Are you surprised because I’m too pretty?”

“…Yeah.”

At his unexpected answer, Edwin spoke to the surprised Bridget in a small but clear voice.

“You’re really pretty.”

Bridget’s eyes widened.

None of the boys her age she had met before had ever told her outright that she was pretty.

Even the children who obviously liked her would deliberately tease her and say mean things instead.

Perhaps because she wasn’t used to it, Bridget’s cheeks turned rose-colored.

“Ah, th-there’s another gift too!”

Edwin, seemingly embarrassed belatedly, hurriedly handed her the second gift.

It was a silk pouch.

“This is…”

Bridget opened the pouch and blinked slowly.

“Are these flower seeds?”

Inside the pouch were five seeds.

Edwin nodded shyly at her words.

“That’s right.”

“What kind of flowers are they?”

“That’s a secret.”

“It’s a birthday gift, and you’re saying it’s a secret?”

At Edwin’s words, Bridget looked at him with suspicious eyes.

But Edwin shook his head firmly as if he absolutely wouldn’t tell her.

“You’ll find out when you grow them. You can plant them in a pot and grow them.”

“So I’ll only get to see my birthday gift months later.”

At her words, Edwin smiled sheepishly.

“W-well, th-there’s also the fun of waiting, isn’t there?”

The fun of waiting.

Bridget stared intently at the seeds inside the pouch, then closed it.

“I understand. I’ll take good care of them.”

She tucked the silk pouch deep inside her skirt pocket.

“Is this all you needed from me then?”

“Ah, well…”

“Then may I take my leave now?”

Edwin nodded with eyes full of reluctance at her words.

He couldn’t think of any more excuses to keep her there.

Bridget looked at the prince and turned around without hesitation.

Had she taken just a few steps away?

“Your Highness.”

Bridget, who he thought had gone far away, suddenly turned around and approached the prince.

Edwin looked at her with surprised eyes.

“You mustn’t like me.”

“…Huh?”

It felt as if a corner of his hidden heart had suddenly been exposed.

Edwin looked at her with the expression of someone who had been hit hard.

“As I told you before.”

Bridget continued with a face unbefitting a child.

“I am destined to become an empress.”

Born as the only daughter of the Crowner family, it was an unavoidable fate.

Only a future emperor could become her husband.

Edwin unconsciously moved his lips.

“…Even if the 1st Prince becomes emperor?”

Prince Adrian was her cousin. If the two were to marry, it would be difficult to avoid the stigma of incest.

“If that happens, I would go east.”

“East means…”

“I might become the empress of the empire on the Eastern Continent.”

Bridget knew very well what burden had been placed upon her.

She wasn’t the irresponsible type to abandon that burden for no reason.

“I’ll probably get engaged right after my coming-of-age ceremony, whoever the partner may be. The family elders have decided it so.”

Edwin’s eyebrows drooped as he listened to her words.

“Is that what you want?”

“Your Highness, there are things in this world that must be done even if you don’t want to. Just as there are many things that happen even if you don’t want them to.”

Bridget whispered softly while meeting Edwin’s eyes.

“So please don’t like me. I’ll take my leave now.”

This time, the lordling truly turned around without hesitation.

But Bridget couldn’t take more than a few steps before she had to stop in place again.

It was because of Edwin.

“That’s…”

Edwin was holding onto the edge of her sleeve.

His bright blue eyes, filled with desperate light, held Bridget in them.

“I don’t want that.”

“So this isn’t a matter of what Your Highness wants or doesn’t want…”

“What if.”

Edwin fidgeted with the lordling’s sleeve as he spoke.

“What if I become emperor?”

“…What?”

At the prince’s shocking statement, Bridget’s eyes became as wide as pinecones.

“What are you saying right now…”

“No, at least what if I become better than the 2nd Prince?”

Edwin’s bright blue eyes burned with heat more intense than anyone’s.

“Then Bridget, would it be okay for me to like you?”

Bridget couldn’t say anything.

Unlike with the 2nd Prince, she couldn’t rudely shake off his grip on her sleeve.

No, she could have, but she didn’t want to.

“If qualifications are needed to like you.”

Edwin looked at Bridget and spoke in a resolute voice as if making a vow.

“I’ll become that kind of person.”

They were twelve years old.

An age when even momentary childish words could be spoken as if they would last forever.

But for some reason, Bridget felt that the prince before her seemed more sincere than anyone else.

“…If you can do it.”

Bridget unconsciously smiled toward Edwin.

“Try it.”

Only after hearing her answer did the strength leave Edwin’s hand.

Bridget’s sleeve, finally freed, eventually disappeared far away.

Edwin watched her departing figure and clenched both fists.

In his blue eyes dwelled an unwavering determination that no one could break.

* * *

The 2nd Empress’s Palace, the most luxurious and beautiful palace in the Bentrum Empire’s imperial palace.

In that place where usually only the beautiful songs of birds raised by the Empress echoed, sharp screams rang out.

“Aaaahhhhh!”

Empress Helena screamed and repeatedly stomped on the slave at her feet.

The sturdy male slave endured the kicks while curled up, unable to make even a groan.

Making a sound could further displease the 2nd Empress and cost him his life.

“Huu.”

Perhaps tired from kicking.

Helena breathed heavily and swept back her disheveled hair.

She looked around at the maids standing nearby and shrieked harshly.

“Did you all see it too? His Majesty the Emperor favoring that mutt.”

The maids remained silent.

They knew well that silence was the way to preserve their lifeline.

Helena glared at the maids who were only reading her mood, then downed the iced honey wine on the table in one gulp.

‘That person who never showed such open favor even to Adrian, why to that worthless brat?’

She ground her teeth remembering the Emperor who had placed his hand on the 3rd Prince’s shoulder at the hunting grounds with a proud expression.

‘Could he have switched from the 1st Prince to the 3rd Prince?’

No, that couldn’t be.

The House of Crowner was an essential family for the current Emperor.

‘How infuriating. The 1st Prince is already an eyesore, and now the 3rd Prince is causing trouble too. The assassins I sent still have no news whatsoever.’

Helena slumped into a nearby chair and bit her nails.

She had no way of knowing that the Gilbert Brothers had become fertilizer for the herb garden tended by the 3rd Prince’s gardener.

Crunch.

Helena kept biting her nails.

There was something more annoying than the assassins sent to the 3rd Prince’s Palace not returning.

‘Because of the Empress, it’s only me again!’

Since the day the Empress was nearly poisoned, the Emperor had further strengthened the palace’s security.

Thanks to that, going out became difficult, and outsiders’ entry into the palace was also strictly controlled.

‘I heard that the one who saved the Empress this time was some woman, whether a caretaker or maid following the 3rd Prince.’

Helena fumed with indignation.

Thinking of the 3rd Prince made her feel even more heated inside.

‘That brat who used to cower whenever he saw me suddenly became bold. Moreover, Jerome said he wouldn’t take anyone’s side, so why did he let the 3rd Prince join the knight training?’

Helena’s face gradually contorted as she was lost in her own thoughts.

Countess Katerina, Pailin, who happened to visit the Empress’s Palace, tactfully sent out the slave and called in maids to help with grooming.

“Your Majesty, won’t the Founding Festival be held soon?”

Pailin brought up a topic that might improve the 2nd Empress’s mood.

“Isn’t it customary for the Princes to compete against each other during the Founding Festival? Last year, Prince Lloyd couldn’t participate because he injured his leg, but this year is different.”

Helena’s eyebrows twitched at the mention of competition.

Pailin observed her reaction and quickly added.

“How about showing His Majesty the Emperor Prince Lloyd’s outstanding swordsmanship skills at this opportunity?”

“Swordsmanship skills?”

“Yes. Isn’t there a sword dance that the Princes perform during the Founding Festival?”

The Founding Festival, which came once every three years, was a national celebration that foreign envoys also attended.

Performing a sword dance at such an occasion was both burdensome and glorious.

“But a sword dance requires a partner, doesn’t it? Are you saying to put Adrian on stage too?”

That brat who was considered a crown prince candidate solely because he was the legitimate 1st Prince.

She didn’t want to make him stand out more by performing a sword dance together.

“The Empress probably wouldn’t allow it anyway.”

At Helena’s words, Pailin stretched her lips into a long smile.

“There’s another Prince, isn’t there?”

“Don’t tell me.”

Helena glared at her with incredulous eyes.

“Are you saying to put Edwin as Lloyd’s sword dance partner?”

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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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