The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 112

Chapter 112: Alliance of Revenge (4)

“You’ll need it.”

I answered Kayden firmly.

“Without fail.”

The Empire wasn’t stupid.

They even had a separate department for rooting out and managing spies, so there was no telling what might happen to the eyes and ears Kayden planted here, or when.

And no matter how capable a young kingdom’s informants were, they couldn’t learn the full story of everything that happened inside this vast Imperial Palace.

“Until you heard me just now, Your Majesty, you didn’t even know that His Highness Edwin nearly suffered an assassin’s attack at the hunting competition.”

“…Hearing it put that way bruises my pride quite a bit.”

Straightforward.

I gave a faint smile as I looked at Kayden’s face, which stiffened slightly.

“By nature, what happens inside the Imperial Palace is something insiders know better than outsiders.”

When I added those words, comfort that wasn’t quite comfort, he let out a short laugh.

“So you’re saying, let’s take revenge together now.”

“If Your Majesty permits it.”

Working together, a king of another country and the Empire’s nanny.

If others heard it, they’d laugh it off and tell us to stop joking. It was truly absurd.

“Fine. I understand you’re desperate for revenge.”

Kayden replied in a voice tinged with amusement, then rose from the sofa.

As a result, I had to crane my neck for a while to look up at him.

“I only asked you to keep me company. I didn’t expect we’d get tangled up like this in private matters.”

He looked down at me and grinned.

“I don’t trust just anyone. But I trust my eye for people.”

He tapped the corner of his eye with a finger.

The same way he did when he said my eye color was beautiful.

“You’re suspicious, but you seem like someone I can trust.”

Could the words suspicious and someone I can trust really fit in the same sentence?

It felt strange, but I pretended it was nothing and didn’t avert my gaze.

“…Fine. Having eyes and ears even in the very center wouldn’t hurt.”

Kayden’s eyes narrowed long.

As if he had some other scheme.

But it didn’t matter.

‘Once I catch Ian, I can leave the others to this man.’

He said he was someone who could face an entire legion alone, so that should be easy for him.

I rose and bent at the waist toward him.

No, I tried to. Until I saw the large hand thrust out in front of me.

“We’re practically allies now. A salute’s too stiff, isn’t it?”

Calling it an alliance and all. That was a pretty heavy choice of words.

When I looked a little flustered, Kayden chuckled.

“Now that you’re actually doing it, are you scared?”

“…No, of course not.”

“Then what are you doing?”

He gave the hand he held out to me a small shake.

“Hurry up and take it.”

“…There’s one more thing I want to say.”

Instead of taking his hand, I carefully drew out one more card.

Or maybe a card that’d turn out to be useless.

“One more? What is it?”

“You also know, Your Majesty, that the Empire’s Crown Prince position hasn’t been decided yet.”

Ever since I heard that the King of Adamant would be staying in the Third Prince’s Palace, I planned to bring this up somehow.

‘If you were someone I used to know, I’d have shoved blackmail in front of you no matter what.’

But the man before me was someone I didn’t know at all.

Except for the fact that, like me, he held a grudge against Breath of the Angel.

So I deliberately brought up Breath of the Angel first, but I still wasn’t sure Kayden would accept the proposal I was about to make.

“Your Majesty Kayden.” I asked in a slightly tense voice, “Do you have no interest in who’ll become the Empire’s next great Emperor?”

At my words, Kayden’s expression shifted subtly.

Fortunately, it didn’t look like he had no interest at all.

‘There’s no way he wouldn’t be interested.’

No matter how exceptional Kayden was, the Adamant Kingdom was a young nation.

If a country could run smoothly on one outstanding individual’s strength alone, there wouldn’t be any nations that disappeared into history.

The less established a country was, the more important its diplomatic ties with neighboring nations became.

And the relationship with the Empire of Ventrume would clearly have a major impact on the Adamant Kingdom’s future.

“The intention behind suddenly bringing up such a topic is….”

Kayden spoke slowly.

“I understand it well enough, but aren’t you a nanny?”

A distinctly intrigued glint swirled in his golden eyes.

“You act like the Prince’s strategist.”

“His Highness Edwin has no one at his side yet who can truly speak for him.”

It wasn’t that there was no one who could serve as a spokesperson.

But Sage was someone who couldn’t be exposed to the outside, and I, too, had limits to what I could do with the title of nanny.

So neither Sage nor I was suitable as Edwin’s backer.

“So what you’re saying is that I should bet Adamant’s future on the Third Prince.”

Kayden let out a hollow laugh, as if even he found what he was saying ridiculous.

“On a prince who inherited the blood of an imperial family I erased with my own hands.”

“Yes.”

“Invest in His Highness the Third Prince, who has not a single base of support here.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“What kind of confidence is that?”

He was looking at me as if it fascinated him that I answered without hesitation.

“Did you think I’d accept a proposal like that?”

“I thought you’d at least consider it once.”

I met Kayden’s eyes.

“Because you’re the one who said you’d stay in the Third Prince’s Palace during the founding festival, Your Majesty.”

As he said, Edwin was a prince who inherited the blood of the imperial family he’d ruined with his own hands.

No matter how much the Empire offered first, it was Kayden himself who chose to stay here.

‘Either way, this man won’t have ties to the other princes.’

Of course, if he wanted to, he could make them easily.

‘But I can’t hand someone like that over to the other princes.’

I looked at Kayden, who seemed slightly flustered, and opened my mouth.

Please, let what I say now hit its mark.

“Even a bad connection is still a connection, isn’t it? Please stand on His Highness Edwin’s side.”

If only as a form of atonement.

At my quiet addition, Kayden’s eyebrow twitched.

He stared at me with an unreadable gaze.

“…I have no idea how the Prince ended up taking a woman like you in as his nanny.”

After a long silence, Kayden spoke again.

His expression wasn’t bad.

“I’ll consider it.”

Kayden didn’t withdraw the hand he’d offered me and broke into a grin.

“If you take this hand, that is.”

…It’s fine to take it, right?

It’s ridiculous that I’m hesitating after being the one to suggest cooperation first.

Meanwhile, as I continued to hesitate, Kayden raised one eyebrow.

“What are you hesitating for? Don’t tell me you’ve got a sword hidden up your sleeve.”

He clearly meant it as a joke, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh.

There wasn’t a sword up my sleeve, but I had two daggers hidden under my skirt.

“Your Majesty Kayden, but how could I dare to lay my hands directly on you….”

“Did you think that when you slipped into the king’s bedroom without permission?”

In the end, I took Kayden’s hand.

His big hand was so thick and rough it was hard to believe it belonged to a person.

It was enough to make me wonder if it was a bear’s paw instead.

How long did he hold a sword for it to become like this?

“A moment ago, you looked like you were stubbornly refusing to take it.”

Kayden’s voice, laced with laughter, came from above my head.

“Now you don’t look like you plan to let go.”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

I’ve lost it.

Without realizing it, I must’ve gotten absorbed in studying his palm.

As soon as I let go, Kayden let out a small laugh.

“It’s already gotten this late.”

Before I knew it, deep darkness had settled outside the window.

“I think it’s about time I go to bed.”

“My apologies. It seems I’ve stolen too much of Your Majesty’s time.”

I stepped aside naturally and bent at the waist.

Kayden then moved toward the bed.

The mattress sank deeply, and I heard the sound of Kayden leaning his back against the headboard.

“Are you going to keep standing there?”

It was the kind of question that asked what I was doing, not climbing onto the bed.

‘I acted without thinking back then, but….’

For an unmarried woman to lie beside a king went against common sense and propriety.

Even if neither of us was conscious of the other as the opposite sex, it still seemed like we ought to keep a certain distance.

‘And since I came early today, a few of the maids saw me come in here.’

If rumors spread that the prince’s nanny went into a distinguished guest’s bedroom in the early evening, it was obvious everyone would find it strange.

“I’ll sit on the sofa.”

“You’re going to stay up there all night?”

“Yes.”

That was a lie.

The moment Kayden fell asleep, I planned to leave right away.

If I lay on the bed, he might notice when I got up.

“I heard I don’t have to lie beside you.”

Over the past few days, some of the maids who passed through here said they stayed up all night, dozing off while sitting on the sofa.

If that was the case, it meant I didn’t have to lie next to him.

“…Fine.”

Kayden stared at me for a moment, then lay back comfortably, looking up at the ceiling.

“Do whatever you want.”

His voice sounded like it carried a trace of regret, but was I imagining it?

“Then sleep well, Your Majesty.”

After bowing to Kayden properly, I sat on the sofa.

The crimson lamp that lit the room flickered.

In the bedroom, where the conversation between a man and a woman had ended, only silence flowed.