Nanny? Me, a Nanny?!
Never in my life had I crossed paths with children.
Yet now my mind was so tangled that I was on the verge of dizziness.
‘At least she came with a recommendation, so she must be a noble young lady.’
I formed my first hypothesis about Rachel Brown, then immediately erased it.
As far as I knew, there wasn’t a single noble house in the empire that carried the surname Brown.
Besides, Brown was the sort of plain name commoners used.
A noble surname was supposed to sound elegant and carry a grand meaning.
‘Then she must be a young lady from some insignificant, struggling family.’
She was probably the latter.
No matter how lowly a maid, a daughter of a prestigious house would never wear such shabby clothes.
At that exact moment, a sharp headache struck as if it had been waiting for its cue.
A voice so familiar it made my skin crawl rang in my ears.
Think about it while you have the chance. Why do you think I’m doing this?
From the other side of the grave.
The existence of him, which I had tried to forget, resurfaced with painful clarity.
My chest began to burn as if I had swallowed a lump of burning coal.
It felt as though the cursed flames that had devoured my body were now scorching my heart.
“…Ian.”
I shouldn’t have said it out loud.
I shouldn’t have uttered the name of the bastard who killed me.
The flames that had been smoldering in my chest spread to my eyes.
Tears spilled from my burning eyes.
“Nanny, you crying? Does it hurt?”
Right then, the little furball—no, the child called Her Highness Emilia—clung to my knees.
“Nanny, don’t hurt! Hwaaaaang—!”
“Wait, just a second…”
The princess had already burst into loud, heaving sobs.
Watching her cry along with me left me at a complete loss.
With no other choice, I carefully placed my hand on Emilia’s tangled, fluffy hair.
I couldn’t even remember the last time I had comforted a child, so I was utterly flustered.
“…Please stop crying.”
I gently stroked her soft, cotton-like hair.
I wasn’t sure if it would work, but thankfully it did.
Emilia stopped crying almost immediately.
“Mmm, then Nanny won’t cry anymore either?”
“Yes. I won’t cry either.”
“Then Ria won’t cry either!”
The princess wiped her tears with surprising vigor and pressed her lips together tightly.
Seeing her like that somehow cleared the fog in my head.
That’s right. Now that I had died and come back to life, trivial emotions were irrelevant.
I clenched both fists and recalled the words he had spoken.
Ian had wanted me reduced to nothing.
Yet contrary to his wish, my soul had brazenly borrowed another person’s body and returned.
‘Just wait, Ian.’
I ground my teeth, picturing the face of the lover who had stabbed me in the back.
‘No matter what the reason was.’
For a traitor, there was only death.
I recalled the iron rule of the organization and clenched my jaw.
‘I will never forgive you.’
The day I opened my eyes not as the leader of the continent’s greatest assassination group, but as an imperial nanny, I made a vow.
I would live this second life solely for revenge.
“Nanny, Nanny.”
I had been silently burning with vengeance when Emilia tugged at my skirt and whined.
“Big brother ran away. Find him.”
Big brother? Ah, right. The head maid had told me to find His Highness Edwin.
“Are you referring to His Highness Edwin?”
I switched to formal speech now that I was fully aware the child before me was a princess.
“Yeah! Big brother’s name is Edwin!”
I nodded at Emilia’s words, then immediately furrowed my brow.
‘Wait, is there any reason for me to stay here?’
Escaping the imperial palace would be easy for me.
I already knew more than five secret passages out of the palace.
‘But even if I leave right now, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to find Ian.’
I had no idea how much time had passed since my death, and I didn’t have a single coin on me.
Rushing outside blindly in this situation would be foolish.
‘This body isn’t trained like my old one. If I move without a plan, dying a second time wouldn’t be surprising.’
I looked at the young princess, Emilia, and made up my mind.
For the time being, I would play the ridiculous role of nanny.
With an utterly solemn expression, I threw open the door.
This was the moment my new life truly began.
Finding the prince was easier than I expected.
Because Emilia knew exactly where he was.
“Are you certain it’s over there?”
“Yeah! Ed big brother always plays right there!”
Emilia kept trying to follow me with her short legs, so I finally scooped her up with one arm and walked quickly.
‘How is she so light?’
The princess was so light she might float away if I let go. A sweet, powdery scent rose from the crown of her head.
‘Good grief. She’s not a furball—she’s a cotton candy.’
The cotton-candy-like little princess wrapped her arms around my neck and giggled happily.
“Nanny, so high!”
She seemed to be having the time of her life.
I let Emilia play with my hair and kept walking briskly.
‘Now that I think about it, what kind of child was Edwin?’
I had visited the imperial palace countless times before my death, but this was my first time at the Third Prince’s Palace.
‘Still… for a prince’s palace…’
The palace surrounded by arched corridors felt… empty.
It was large, yet there was nothing inside to fill the space.
‘It’s bleak.’
It was literally a desolate place.
‘Ah, it’s coming back to me now.’
Looking at the empty palace brought back a few pieces of information about the Third Prince.
Edwin Anaxinian Ventrum, the Third Prince of the Ventrum Empire.
‘A discarded child, in every sense of the word.’
Third Prince Edwin was the only son born between the current emperor, Cabelius III, and Third Consort Edith Lionel.
However, Consort Edith had passed away three years ago.
She had died from excessive bleeding during childbirth, so she must have died right after giving birth to Emilia.
Without leaving anything behind for her children.
‘It couldn’t have been helped.’
She was from another country and had no meaningful support base within the empire.
She had essentially been sold off as a political hostage, so it was only natural.
‘The Lionel Kingdom was probably too busy dealing with its own problems to pay any attention to her.’
Third Prince Edwin and First Princess Emilia had nothing to their names.
Their presence in the palace had quietly faded away.
As if they had never existed in the first place.
That was all I knew about Third Prince Edwin.
‘No wonder my memories were hazy. He really was a forgettable child.’
Serving a powerless master was always the hardest job.
If I stayed here too long, it looked like nothing but suffering awaited me.
‘I should escape as quickly as possible.’
Lost in thought, I soon reached the rear garden of the annex.
‘Hmm. Something feels off.’
No matter where I looked, I couldn’t see the prince.
I frowned and scanned the area, then finally closed my eyes.
I focused every ounce of my senses so I wouldn’t miss even the smallest presence.
That was when I detected a rather noisy commotion just beyond the wall.
I quickly headed in that direction.
“This is…”
In the corner of the annex garden stood a wall.
It had been clumsily hidden behind some bushes, but my eyes weren’t fooled.
When I cleared the bushes, a small hole in the wall was revealed.
The grass around it was flattened.
It was clearly a path used by a small animal—or a child.
The fact that the prince, who should have been in the garden, was missing meant he must have slipped out through this hole.
‘No choice then.’
I set Emilia down on the ground.
“Nanny?”
“Your Highness, you must stay right here. Do you understand?”
“Stay here?”
Emilia fidgeted with her fingers, looking troubled.
“Ria is hungry though.”
Come to think of it, she had said she was hungry from the very beginning.
I was troubled too, but there was nothing I could do.
I couldn’t possibly take the young princess outside with me.
Besides, if it became known that the prince had left his palace without any attendants, it would cause an uproar.
I had to find the prince boy as quickly as possible.
“I’ll be right back. Please wait just a moment.”
“Mmm, okay. You’ll come back soon, right?”
Instead of answering, I gave the princess a small nod, then took a deep breath.
In one swift motion, I kicked off the ground and vaulted over the wall.
“Nanny! So cool!”
Emilia’s delighted cry came from the other side of the wall.
Thankfully, this new body’s reflexes weren’t bad at all.
I brushed my hands off and was about to turn around with a relaxed expression when I felt it.
A gaze.
It was stealthy yet persistent, clinging to me.
There was no malice in it, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either.
I turned my head sharply.
But the gaze had already vanished without a trace.
‘Was it my imagination?’
I narrowed my eyes and was about to walk toward where I had felt the stare when—
“Give it back!”
A scream-like shout came from the opposite direction.
It was the voice of a young child.
The source of the commotion was the imperial stables located near the Third Prince’s Palace.
“Give it back! I said give it back!”
About twenty paces away, beneath the wooden roof of one of the stables.
A group of large boys had surrounded a single small child.
“Give it to me!”
“Giiive~ Giiive it baaack~”
The boys seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves tormenting the little one.
Judging by their clothes, they didn’t appear to be of low status.
‘They’re big but their faces are still young. They all look like nobles. Are they perhaps attendants?’
I was pondering the identity of the group of boys when I caught a glimpse of a particularly out-of-place child among them.
‘Found him.’
Third Prince Edwin.
It was the boy I had been looking for.