A Special Remedy for Muscle Pain
Was I too hasty?
I was supposed to appear as nothing more than an ordinary nanny.
Realizing my mistake, I quickly lowered my head.
“I apologize. Please forgive me.”
“Don’t do anything that calls for an apology. Not unless you’re tired of living.”
The emperor slowly descended the stairs.
It was just as he passed by me.
“Be grateful that I don’t dislike those who strive.”
The quiet voice was meant for my ears alone.
“I’ll overlook it for the time being. How long that child can endure, however, remains to be seen.”
With a low chuckle, the emperor vanished from the hall as suddenly as he had come.
I stared at the empty space where he had stood and clenched my fist.
Being disregarded does not suit my temperament.
Ever since arriving at this palace, everything has clashed with my nature.
It was a string of intolerable things, yet I had to endure them now.
Because that would benefit both me and Edwin in the end.
Even so, why did part of me refuse to yield?
I pictured Edwin’s innocent, unknowing face and smoothed my clothes.
A replacement.
I walked down the steps the emperor had trodden.
Not to serve the emperor or the knight commander, but to collect the imperial prince I had chosen.
Splash—
“Uwaaak!”
Splash—
“Eeeek!”
Plunge—
Edwin let out bizarre groans as he struggled.
Yet his body refused to obey its master’s will.
It’s hard! It’s too hard! I can’t do this!
After ten round trips to the mountain summit, the young prince’s next trial was ladder traversal.
Edwin looked up like a drowned rat.
Above him stretched a long ladder.
Officially called “Stream Crossing.”
Despite the deceptively cute name, it was one of the Gloria Knights’ infamous exercises, notorious for making grown men pass out.
Edwin stared blankly at the knights passing overhead.
They crossed in full armor, hanging from the rungs as they fought their way to the far side.
Several lost their grip halfway and plunged into the water below.
None, however, fell as frequently as Edwin.
“Your Highness, staying in the water too long will exhaust you faster!”
A knight shouted advice from above.
Edwin gritted his teeth at the words.
Do my brothers really train like this? How can anyone endure something so brutal?
No matter how he considered it, he couldn’t imagine his brothers subjecting themselves to this.
That didn’t give him the option to abandon the training, though.
My knees were creaking earlier, and now my arms feel like they’re about to snap!
Edwin dragged himself out of the chest-deep puddle and seized the ladder again.
He clenched his jaw and reached with one arm, then the other, but the result was the same.
“Uwaak!”
He crashed back into the water with a noisy splash.
He had only cleared nine rungs, yet his arms kept failing him.
Frustration burned. He was furious with himself for being so weak.
“Uuuuugh!”
Edwin ground his teeth until they ached and crawled out of the puddle once more.
His soaked clothes clung like heavy wet cotton, but he paid it no mind.
In the young prince’s mind there was only one choice: complete the assigned quota.
I will do it! I will finish and—!
Images flashed through Edwin’s mind.
Not one figure, but several.
“Uwaaa!”
Once more he reached for the ladder, shouting Just a little farther! inside his heart again and again.
“Huuuugh.”
At last Edwin succeeded in crossing the ladder and collapsed onto the dirt.
It was the first day the Third Prince had joined Gloria Knights training.
After roughly two hundred attempts, he finally managed to traverse the full six-hundred-foot distance.
“Uuu…”
The moment Edwin regained consciousness, he let out a pained groan.
“Are you awake, Your Highness?”
“Big brother, are you okay?”
Hearing my voice and Emilia’s, the boy slowly turned his head.
“Emilia…? Rachel…?”
“You lost consciousness during training. This is Your Highness’s bedroom.”
“…My bedroom?”
Edwin scanned the room with a dazed expression, then sucked in a sharp breath.
“I haven’t finished training yet—uwaak!”
He tried to bolt upright, only to scream and collapse again.
“Uuuuugh—!”
“You used muscles you’ve never worked before. The pain will be intense. Just stay lying down.”
“But there’s still more training left—!”
“Your Highness, it’s already evening. Training ended hours ago.”
By the time the knights finished their final drill, Edwin had succeeded at stream crossing for the first time, then immediately fainted.
I had brought him straight here, washed him, and changed his clothes the moment he collapsed.
Four hours had passed since then.
“Ah…”
Edwin sighed at the darkening sky beyond the window.
His shoulders slumped as he leaned back against the headboard.
“So I really can’t do it after all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn’t endure the training to the end.”
“Don’t worry. It ended the moment you fainted.”
“What? Why?”
“Monsters appeared at the north gate. The entire knight order was dispatched immediately.”
Monster incursions into populated areas had grown frequent across the empire lately.
The imperial palace was no exception.
But we just finished a major subjugation campaign in Adamanth.
Hadn’t the King of Adamanth declared he had wiped out the monsters?
Their constant reappearance was decidedly strange.
“I see…”
Edwin’s face clouded with worry, as though something weighed on his mind.
I usually couldn’t guess what thoughts passed through that small head, but this time I understood.
“You did well.”
Carrots and whips were necessary whether dealing with beasts or people.
I lightly patted Edwin’s head.
“…Huh?”
He looked up at me with wide, startled eyes.
“You performed admirably. Honestly, I didn’t think you’d finish the mountain runs.”
His eyes grew perfectly round.
“Really? I did well?”
The fact that I had expected failure seemed irrelevant to him.
“Yes. Extremely well.”
At my praise the boy’s entire face brightened.
“Then—then that means! Can I become as strong as Sir Jerome?”
Jerome again. That man.
Edwin stared at me with sparkling, deer-like eyes.
“…Didn’t Your Highness say you wanted to become strong like me?”
The words came out sharper than I intended.
“Huh? I did! Rachel, you’re incredibly strong too!”
Edwin answered with the same sunny expression.
“But Jerome is the strongest in the empire. You’re supposed to set your goals high.”
He added the words with a bright smile.
“My teacher said so!”
Sage, that old man, really does have a talent for saying unnecessary things at the worst moments.
It wasn’t wrong, yet hearing it soured my mood.
“…Your Highness, remove your clothes.”
“Huh? Why suddenly—?”
“I need to work out the knotted muscles. You have training again tomorrow.”
With an indifferent expression I picked up the jar beside me.
The moment I opened the lid, a sharp, spicy scent rose.
“Nate, what is that?”
Emilia approached with open curiosity, then wrinkled her face at the smell.
“Achoo! Achoo! Aaaachoo!”
“Princess Emilia, come here.”
I wiped the snot from beneath her nose and lifted her onto my back.
“W-what is that stuff?”
Edwin tried to scoot away as though sensing danger.
“It’s a massage oil made from diluted pepper extract.”
“Pepper? Isn’t that for cooking?”
“Objects rarely have only one purpose.”
“Uh…”
Edwin stared at the oil in my palm with open horror.
“But I heard that’s really expensive. How did you get any?”
I could hardly admit I had swiped it from the Medical Bureau while fetching his cold medicine.
A nanny shouldn’t teach children how to steal.
“…I obtained it by chance.”
I suffered constant muscle pain myself from training every night.
The moment I spotted the jar in the Medical Bureau I had no choice but to take it.
“Now take off your clothes and lie face-down.”
“Everything?”
“Yes. Everything except your underwear.”
“Do we really have to go that far?”
“Would you prefer I massage you through your clothes? The effect would be weaker.”
Edwin hesitated, then obediently stripped.
Wearing only shorts, he flopped onto the bed face-down.
It’s clean.
The first time I saw him he had been covered head to toe in bruises.
Now his skin was flawless. The sight filled me with a strange, renewed feeling.
“Ugh, it tickles!”
The moment my hand touched him, Edwin squirmed wildly.
“Hey, it tickles!”
“Endure it.”
He giggled for a long moment before his laughter turned into a scream.
“It hurts! It hurts so much!”
“Of course it hurts.”
I deliberately withheld no strength.
“Gently! Please, gently! That spot hurts too much!”
“I am being gentle.”
“Kuek!”
This was punishment for daring to call Jerome the strongest in my presence.
Feeling petty, I pressed harder. The boy made a sound like a suffocating frog.
“Kueeeek. Rachel, it hurts… please.”
“Nate! Me too, me too—can I help big brother?”
Emilia, who had been sitting quietly on my back, suddenly leaped onto Edwin’s spine.
“Kuuuurgh!”
“Big brother, Ria will make you feel better fast!”
“Kuuuurk, Ria, nooo…”
Face half-buried in the pillow, Edwin twisted his entire body in agony.
No matter how you looked at it, her “help” seemed less about healing and more about finishing him off.
Perhaps the princess possessed an assassin’s talent after all.
“Eeeeek!”
Edwin screamed into the blanket before finally lifting his head.
“Hey, Rachel! Be honest with me! You’re angry at me, aren’t you!”