How to Keep Your Nanny
“You’re not going to be my nanny anymore? You’re quitting?”
“Yeah, what should I do? Ria really likes Neiche. I don’t want to go to Neiche!”
Edwin looked shocked for a moment, then lay back down with a hardened expression.
“Do whatever you want.”
“What? Why―! Don’t you like it when Neiche leaves, big brother?”
“If she doesn’t want to, what can I do? Just let her do as she pleases.”
Edwin mumbled from beneath the blanket he had pulled over his head.
“…That kind of woman can leave or stay, I don’t care.”
Edwin clenched his fist tightly as he thought of the nanny.
That chilling voice, sharp as a blade, that had so clearly pointed out his own place.
Now, just remembering her made something deep in his chest surge with emotion.
“Ugh! Big brother, you’re such an idiot!”
When her brother didn’t give the reaction she wanted, Emilia threw the cushion that had been beside her.
“Neiche is so good! She gives me delicious things, hugs me every day, and protects Ria―!”
The princess pounded on Edwin’s torso with her tiny fists.
“Big brother, I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”
After hitting him for a while, Emilia climbed down from the bed, huffing and puffing.
“Big brother is a dummy!”
The princess, who had shouted with great vigor, paused while grabbing the doorknob and looked back at her brother.
Ever since the day she had run into the Second Prince in the garden, Edwin had been like this.
Except for mealtimes, he was always curled up silently in bed.
Even when he saw his little sister Emilia, he would only offer a faint smile instead of acting close and friendly like before.
In fact, whenever he looked at Emilia, his face would twist with pain.
Normally, he would have immediately followed his one and only little sister when she got sulky and tried to cheer her up.
But today, he didn’t.
Emilia’s face fell, but she soon pressed her lips together tightly and walked out.
“Just wait and see. Ria is going to make sure Neiche can’t leave.”
A resolute determination shone in the young princess’s blue eyes.
“…What is this?”
“It’s Neiche’s!”
“You’re giving it to me?”
I looked down at the golden trinket Emilia had pressed into my hand.
The gold bracelet, delicately crafted with an opal set in it, was clearly meant for a child.
“Yeah, it was originally Ria’s, but I’m giving it to Neiche.”
“No, Your Highness. How could I possibly take something that belongs to you?”
“No! Take it!”
When I tried to return the bracelet, Emilia stomped her foot and shook her head.
I reluctantly accepted it, and her face immediately lit up with joy.
Then she suddenly ran to the corner of the room, dragged over a box almost as big as she was, and pulled it toward me.
Inside the box were all the toys the princess usually cherished.
“I’ll give you all of these too!”
“All of them?”
“Yeah! These are the ones Ria loves the most, but I’ll give them all to you.”
Emilia took the dolls out of the box and piled them around me.
Before long, I found myself completely surrounded by the princess’s beloved dolls.
“Your Highness, I’m fine. Besides, aren’t these all things you treasure?”
“It’s okay! Ria likes Neiche more!”
Emilia climbed over the army of dolls, crawled onto my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Does Neiche like Ria too?”
The princess blinked her large eyes slowly.
Even to me, it was quite an adorable sight.
If she was already this full of charm at such a young age, whoever ended up as the princess’s husband in the future would have a hard road ahead.
“Neiche, why aren’t you answering?”
“…Yes, I like Her Highness the Princess very much.”
“Then you’ll stay with Ria forever, right?”
I should never have let her overhear my conversation with Catherine.
I let out a sigh.
“Your Highness, no one in this world can stay together forever.”
“Nooo! Ria is going to stay with Neiche until she becomes a grandma!”
This was tricky.
We had only known each other for less than a month. Why was she so attached to me?
I haven’t even done that much for her.
This was exactly why you shouldn’t get involved with children.
They get attached if you’re even a little kind to them.
I lifted Emilia, who was nestled in my arms, and set her down on the floor.
“Your Highness, by the time you become a grandmother, I will already be nothing but bones.”
“Bones? What’s bones?”
“…It means I’ll be much older than a grandmother.”
“Hmm? But Neiche is already older than Ria. It’s fine!”
Well, I doubted she would feel the same about a skeleton.
I had tried to gloss over it because explaining a skeleton was too much, but it didn’t seem like a very good answer.
“Neiche, since Ria gave you all the things she likes, you’ll stay with Ria, right?”
“……”
“Quick, quick! Promise!”
Emilia used her finger to draw something wiggly on my palm.
“Ria wrote her name, so it’s a promise, okay?”
“Your Highness, Emilia.”
“Promise! Promise! If you don’t promise, Ria will cry all day!”
The princess flopped onto the floor and flailed her arms wildly.
“Promise―!”
“Your Highness, I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
I helped Emilia up from the floor.
“So I cannot give you an answer. I’m sorry.”
My refusal must have been quite a shock.
Emilia stared at me blankly for a moment before bursting into tears.
“Huuuuh―! Neiche, I hate yooou!”
“Your Highness, please don’t cry……”
“Hwaaaaaaaaang―!”
At that moment, the door opened and Catherine entered with wide, startled eyes.
“Your Highness? Nanny, what’s going on?”
“Catherine, it’s that……”
I didn’t even have time to explain.
Emilia ran straight to Catherine and threw herself into her arms.
“Catheriiin, Neiche, Neicheee!”
“Yes, Your Highness. Tell me what happened.”
Catherine wiped away the princess’s big, fat tears and comforted her.
“What could have happened to make our princess cry so bitterly?”
At the gentle voice, Emilia finally wailed out her grievance.
“Neiche said she won’t stay with Ria―! She’s going to leave―! Even though Ria gave her all the things she likes―!”
“What? That can’t be.”
Catherine patted the princess’s bottom and shot me a look.
It was a glare that asked why I wasn’t comforting her immediately.
“The nanny is going to stay in the palace forever. Isn’t that right, Nanny?”
Catherine seemed to want me to give the child some comforting lie.
“Nanny?”
“…Isn’t it true that I will be leaving this place?”
“N-Nanny!”
I stood up, pushing aside the magic circle of dolls Emilia had created.
“As I said before, I do not make promises I cannot keep.”
I spoke firmly to Emilia, who was clutching the hem of Catherine’s skirt.
“I am going to leave. So……”
“I hate Neiche! I hate everything!”
With a face full of rage, Emilia ran out of the room.
“Your Highness―! No, Nanny, why would you say something like that and make things worse!”
“Then should I lie and say it isn’t true?”
“Emilia is just a child! Did you really have to be so harsh with a little girl?”
“Precisely because she is a child, I had to be harsh.”
“Pardon?”
I gathered up the dolls that were scattered across the floor.
“Because children believe adults’ promises without question.”
Without knowing whether they’re lies, and with all their heart.
“I don’t want to tell that kind of empty lie that benefits no one.”
I picked up the last remaining cloth doll.
The one with golden yarn hair looked exactly like its owner.
I stared at the cloth doll for a long time before tossing it back into the box.
The limp doll looked especially pitiful.
“Neiche, I hate you.”
Emilia hid behind a pillar and wiped away her tears.
“Neiche, you idiot, you dummy.”
The princess listed every bad word she knew.
“Poop dog, dog poop, poop dog, ant, seaweed―!”
Her vocabulary was so limited that it had turned into a game of word chain, but still.
“Ria doesn’t need Neiche anymore, hmph!”
Emilia turned on her heel, still huffing angrily.
“Ria has her big brother!”
The place the young princess headed to was the Third Prince’s room.
“Big brother, Ria’s here!”
Without even knocking, Emilia flung the door open and ran to the bedside.
Sure enough, Edwin was still lying in bed.
“Big brother, Ria’s here!”
The bed made for a prince was far too high for the little princess.
Emilia stood on her tiptoes and peered at Edwin’s face.
“Big brother, Ria came to see you!”
“Mmm……”
But something seemed off about Edwin’s complexion.
“Big brother?”
Sensing that something was wrong, Emilia called him again, but there was no answer.
“Haa… haa……”
The prince, Edwin, was only breathing hot, labored breaths with a face flushed bright red.
“What should we do?”
Catherine placed a damp cloth on the prince’s forehead, her face full of worry.
“It looks like a cold, but the fever is too high. We should call for a physician.”
At her words, Emilia turned to me with a tearful expression.
“Neiche, is big brother going to die?”
“…Humans don’t die that easily. Don’t worry.”
Catherine gave me a horrified look before gently stroking Emilia’s head.
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. He’s feeling unwell right now, but he’ll get better soon.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Nanny, I’ll go to the Medical Bureau. In the meantime, please stay by His Highness’s side……”
It was the exact moment Catherine stood up to call for a doctor.
Edwin grabbed the hem of her sleeve.
“N-No……”
He muttered in a hoarse voice.
“I hate… the doctor. Don’t.”
“Your Highness, but still……”
“Anyway… he won’t even come… cough, cough!”
Edwin couldn’t finish his sentence. After a fit of coughing, he lost consciousness.
“Your Highness! Prince Edwin! What do we do! Wake up!”
“Big broooother―! Don’t die! Ria was wrong―! Ria doesn’t hate you, big brother!”
The two of them were so panicked that it was complete chaos.
I calmly comforted Emilia first.
“Princess Emilia, Prince Edwin has not passed away yet. Please stop crying.”
While patting Emilia’s bottom, I asked Catherine,
“Do you happen to know why His Highness doesn’t want us to call a doctor?”