Intense Initiation (3)
“Who said you could butt in without permission?”
This little brat. Saved by me, and he doesn’t even show a shred of gratitude—just throws his weight around.
Still, how could a nanny possibly dare show anger toward a prince?
I deliberately lowered my head to him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t lie. You’re not sorry at all.”
It was an astonishingly sharp observation.
He’s quite perceptive, unlike how he looks.
The Third Prince Edwin I was meeting for the first time had more unexpected sides than I’d imagined.
Charging fearlessly at someone twice his size. Spouting whatever popped into his head without thinking.
I assumed the shabby prince would be timid and depressed, but this is…
I met the boy’s direct gaze with a piercing stare of my own.
Only his face is angelic.
At that moment, Edwin asked me with clear displeasure.
“The old witch said she was too sick to come today. Was it all an act?”
The old witch.
The princess had used the same term earlier.
Did both siblings hold a grudge against the head chambermaid?
“It was only a mild headache. She recovered quickly. Thank you for your concern, Your Highness.”
I bowed at the waist in polite gratitude, but something felt off.
Edwin was staring at me with blatant disapproval.
“Your Highness? Is something the matter?”
Edwin tilted his head at my question.
“You seem different from usual.”
“Do I? In what way?”
“You’re uglier than usual.”
“……?”
The sudden personal attack nearly left me speechless.
“…Your Highness, have I committed some offense against you?”
“Stop acting so familiar. It’s annoying.”
I’d tried to keep my composure, but his reply was just as prickly.
“Even if you came here on Emma’s recommendation, I don’t trust you.”
Emma’s recommendation?
I narrowed my eyes, recalling the head chambermaid’s words.
She said I entered on Madam Conrad’s recommendation.
So Madam Conrad’s first name was Emma.
Emma Conrad?
The strangely familiar name made me frown before I could stop myself.
…It must be a coincidence. The surnames don’t even match.
While my mind wandered, the prince added in a sharp voice.
“You’re on the old witch’s side anyway. I know everything.”
Every reaction was so unexpected that the situation felt incredibly awkward.
At that age, children usually trust their nanny without question.
The way he stayed so guarded suggested the original Rachel Brown hadn’t been a very good nanny.
The head chambermaid seemed to dislike me too.
What exactly had this nanny—who had only been in the palace for two weeks—done to make so many enemies?
I deliberately put on a troubled expression and lowered my head.
Whatever the case, if I wanted to remain here for the time being, I had to play my role faithfully.
“Your Highness, I am simply your nanny.”
“Ha!”
Edwin crossed his arms and gave a loud snort.
“Liar. You obviously told the old witch I was here.”
“……”
“Did she send you to drag me back? What, is she going to ban me from going outside again?”
Did the head chambermaid even have the authority to impose an outdoor ban on the prince?
I set the question aside and simply bowed my head in silence.
When a question was difficult to answer, silence was the best policy.
The prince kept glancing at me sideways before suddenly tossing out another remark.
“By the way, how did you know about that earlier?”
“About what, Your Highness?”
When I asked in return, he shouted in frustration.
“How did you know those guys were cheating!”
“I simply saw it.”
I recalled Gail’s clumsy hand movements.
He and the orange-haired boy had only started using tricks from the second round onward. Using them from the start would have made the opponent refuse to acknowledge the outcome.
He probably thought the trick would work on me too.
He had no idea I had deliberately let myself be fooled the second time.
Hmph. As if I’d fall for such a sloppy trick.
I clicked my tongue, remembering the countless con artists I’d seen in the back alleys.
Compared to their sleight of hand, Gail’s skill was nothing more than a water strider paddling on the surface.
But Edwin seemed unwilling to accept my words. He pushed his lips out in a pout.
“Liar. I didn’t see anything.”
“That’s because it was Your Highness’s first time seeing it. There’s nothing strange about that.”
He raised one eyebrow at my response.
“So you’ve seen it often?”
“…Yes, I suppose I have.”
“How? Is that something nobles get to see a lot?”
I looked into the prince’s innocent eyes.
They were still fierce and full of suspicion, yet beneath that lay an innocence he couldn’t quite hide.
Eyes I could never have possessed in my lifetime.
Suddenly, the place where I had once lived came to mind.
A kid like this wouldn’t last half a day if I dropped him there.
To survive in that world, you had to become a con artist skilled in every kind of trick.
And I had been no exception.
“I only saw it a few times in the marketplace.”
I offered him a gentle smile, as if it were nothing.
“Their hand movements were slower than the ones I saw back then.”
“What? Then they really were nothing special.”
Edwin looked as though his pride had been wounded.
“It can’t be helped that Your Highness was deceived—”
“I wasn’t deceived! And don’t act so superior when you’re uglier than me.”
This kid… Maybe a light smack would knock some sense into him. Should I test it?
I struggled to suppress my tightening fist.
If a rumor spreads that the nanny struck the prince, I’ll be thrown out immediately.
Strictly speaking, Edwin wasn’t entirely wrong.
I stared at him for a moment, then gave a bright smile.
“Your Highness, do you know something?”
“What?”
“When someone looks ugly to you, it means the heart of the one looking is ugly.”
Edwin blinked at my words.
His face twisted in an instant.
“You—you’re saying my heart is ugly right now? Are you insulting me, a prince!”
He really was just a child.
I gave the bristling boy a serene smile.
“It is not an insult, Your Highness. It is advice given in the hope that you will possess a righteous heart.”
I continued calmly while watching him huff and puff.
“Because I am Your Highness’s nanny.”
He glared at me with blazing eyes before exploding.
“Don’t make me laugh! I hate people like you the most! Understand?”
The prince pointed at me furiously.
He really is loud.
I also despised arrogant little brats.
I looked at him with an indifferent face masked by a false smile.
After glaring at me for a long while, Edwin suddenly snatched the bracelet from my hand.
Then he spun around and dashed off toward the prince’s palace.
I hadn’t expected gratitude, but this was still rather bewildering.
I raised an eyebrow as I watched the boy’s retreating figure.
“What kind of child is that?”
“My lord?”
The man forgot to answer his subordinate’s call, his mind still replaying the ‘thing’ he had seen moments ago.
Was it around this level?
He placed a hand near his solar plexus.
Slightly tousled gray-brown hair.
Skirt hems fluttering in the wind.
And eyes resembling dark green topaz.
The ‘it’ that had effortlessly cleared a wall taller than himself possessed a special quality that drew the man’s gaze.
The fact that it had noticed his stare hidden in the shadows was proof enough.
“I’m becoming curious.”
The corner of the man’s mouth curved into a slanted smile.
Meanwhile, his adjutant, Oliver Green, frowned at the words.
“My lord, did you get hit in the head?”
He had dared worry about his lord’s mental state and received a blow to the crown for it.
“It hurts!”
“A beating is the best medicine for an insolent adjutant.”
Oliver clutched his head with an aggrieved cry.
“You vanished without a word, so of course I worried! Then you return and don’t say anything, so I had to speak up!”
“Was I so unreliable that you felt the need to worry about me?”
“Well, you’re the type who could be dropped in the middle of a desert and still return perfectly fine. Even so…”
Oliver trailed off.
Watching his lord’s utterly composed demeanor made his own concern feel truly pointless.
The man, wrapped in jet-black darkness from head to toe like a shroud, radiated power with his entire being.
His golden eyes, gleaming like a predator’s, were enough to make one’s knees buckle at a glance.
“Still, this is the middle of enemy territory.”
Oliver sighed as he met the still-unfamiliar, ferocious gaze.
“There are many eyes watching. Please refrain from actions that draw attention.”
The man merely offered a light smile at his adjutant’s earnest advice.
Apparently finding that smile ominous, Oliver widened his eyes.
“My lord, no.”
The sudden refusal made the man raise one eyebrow.
“No to what?”
The adjutant frowned and added.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, but no.”
He looked at his lord with wide eyes.
“Every time you make that face, I feel like my lifespan shortens.”
“You worry about the most useless things.”
The man cracked his neck from side to side as if tired, then gazed forward with a languid stare.
“I know how to prioritize my tasks, so don’t worry.”
“That sounds like you plan to wander around freely once your work is done?”
“My adjutant is quick-witted. I like that about you.”
“Sigh… My lord. Don’t tell me you’re still searching for that woman?”
Oliver lowered his voice with a dubious expression.
“Kyla Angel, I mean.”