The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 115

Chapter 115: The Knight King and the Third Prince (2)

‘This move….’

It was part of the Empire’s splendid sword dance, the kind that had no practicality to speak of.

And it wasn’t the movement for the evil dragon role Edwin played. It was the movement for the first Emperor’s role.

But it wasn’t exactly the same.

‘He stripped out all the useless motion and kept only the essentials.’

He removed the movements meant to look beautiful and left only the sharp trajectory meant to slice the armpit and the nape.

‘Not bad.’

For a young boy.

Kayden let out a small laugh.

He didn’t block the prince’s final strike on purpose, and he didn’t dodge it either.

“Uh….”

After finishing an attack he put all his strength into, Edwin stared at him blankly.

A very small, thin line had appeared on the cheek of Kayden, the King of Adamant.

When a bead of blood finally surfaced along that line, the young prince’s face turned pale.

“I, I’m sorry!”

Edwin went pale, not knowing what to do.

But Kayden, looking completely unconcerned, lightly brushed over the wound on his cheek.

“I, I didn’t mean to….”

“Of course you didn’t mean to.”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry….”

“You don’t need to apologize.”

Kayden spoke as if it truly didn’t matter.

“It’s almost embarrassing to call this a wound.”

He was the kind of man who survived just fine even when monster fangs and claws tore his flesh and punched holes through his belly.

Calling a scratch like this a wound was laughable.

“But….”

Edwin made a pitiful face.

Like Kayden said, it was such a light wound you wouldn’t notice it unless you looked closely.

And after one swipe of a finger, it looked less like a wound and more like the skin had simply lifted slightly.

‘What do I do?’

Even if it was nothing, the problem was the location.

The members of the imperial family and nobles considered a scar on the face, no matter how small, to be deeply humiliating and sacrilegious.

‘If it becomes known that I hurt the king’s face….’

Edwin bit his lip hard.

The King of Adamant might not care, but as the Empire’s third prince, his position would be in jeopardy.

If that happened, the Emperor might take a dislike to him, and if he was questioned about how he ended up injuring the king’s face, it was obvious the fact that he learned swordsmanship in secret would come out.

“Prince Edwin.”

Then a polite voice came from above his head.

Kayden was looking down at him.

“As promised, I’ll grant what you want.”

“Yes?”

Edwin blinked his large eyes, now pooled with tears.

“Didn’t I promise?”

Kayden’s eyes curved into crescent moons.

“That if you land even a single strike on me, I’ll grant you one request, whatever it is.”

He tapped the faint wound on his face with a fingertip.

“You did it, so I should keep my word.”

“Ah….”

Edwin stared up at the man, who was far bigger than him, in a daze.

At first, those golden eyes felt frightening, like the eyes of a beast or a monster. But in this moment, for some reason, they seemed to hold a warm light.

He didn’t know why.

“Go on.”

Kayden planted the scabbard he was holding against the floor.

“Any request at all.”

He gave the young prince a strange look.

“If you ask me to hand over the Adamant mines, I might even do that.”

“Yes?”

The Adamant mines?

It was an absurd thing to say.

Edwin stiffened as if he might faint with his eyes open.

Kayden burst into laughter, as if he found it entertaining.

“Ah, that must be too much of a burden for a young prince.”

“D-don’t tease me.”

“I’m not teasing you.”

Kayden stretched his lips into a long smile.

“I’m not someone who enjoys jokes.”

So, if he really asked for the Adamant mines, would Kayden actually give them?

Is this man in his right mind?

“Of course, if you make a request like that, I can’t take responsibility for what happens after.”

It made chills crawl up Edwin’s spine.

He didn’t know how to react, so his lips only parted and closed.

Then he realized the man in front of him was waiting for an answer, and he hurriedly cleared his throat.

“I….”

Either way, what he wanted to ask the King of Adamant was already decided.

Wasn’t that why he’d taken the sparring more seriously in the first place?

At last, Edwin’s lips opened with effort.

***

“Your Highness Edwin?”

I frowned.

Edwin was letting out a sigh so deep it looked like the ground might sink in, his face full of worry.

He had obediently changed into his pajamas, and the moment our eyes met, he let out another heavy sigh.

Sighing at someone’s face, of all things. It put me in a weirdly bad mood.

“What is it?”

“Well.”

Edwin looked at me, his brows knit.

“What kind of woman do you think His Majesty the King of Adamant would like?”

“…Pardon?”

Why was he suddenly curious about something so pointless?

I stared at the prince with a suspicious look.

“Actually, today….”

Edwin drooped both eyebrows and muttered in a small voice, “I ran into His Majesty the King of Adamant in the garden. And of all things, he caught me practicing swordsmanship….”

He trailed off and checked my expression.

Since I was the one who had repeatedly warned him not to let anyone find out he was learning swordsmanship, he couldn’t help but be wary.

“So?”

When I asked without much reaction, Edwin let out a relieved sigh and continued, “He suddenly asked me to spar.”

“…A spar?”

That bastard suggested it first?

I only asked him not to ignore Edwin.

‘I didn’t mean for him to take an excessive interest, either.’

I thought back to my conversation with Kayden and let my lips stretch into a long line.

“Yeah, and he said that if I managed to land even one hit, he’d grant me one request, no matter what it was.”

“Don’t tell me you made some absurd request.”

When I made a serious face, Edwin frowned.

“What are you talking about?”

“Shouldn’t you be asking me first whether I landed a hit?”

“Of course you did.”

“Huh?”

Edwin’s eyes went round at my confident answer.

“How can you be so sure?”

“It’s not like I don’t know Your Highness’s skill.”

Kayden probably didn’t fight seriously.

If he had, Edwin couldn’t have come back looking fine, without a single injury.

‘Besides, you can tell just from watching his sword dance.’

In terms of talent alone, Edwin was even better than the Second Prince Lloyd, who was called a genius with the sword.

If he weren’t still a beginner who had only just started learning, Edwin might have been able to overwhelm Lloyd during the sword dance.

‘So if it’s just landing one hit on Kayden, that wouldn’t have been so difficult.’

Of course, that was on the premise that Kayden held back and Edwin fought with everything he had.

I stepped closer and looked down at him. “If it’s Your Highness, you definitely landed a strike. Am I wrong?”

“No, I did, but….”

At my words, Edwin’s eyes darted around.

Then he muttered in a small voice.

“When I listen to you, it really feels weird.”

“Weird? What do you mean?”

“Like….”

Edwin scrunched up his nose and continued, “Because it feels like you believe in me more than I do.”

He mumbled in a small voice, like he was about to dig a hole and crawl into it.

“I still don’t trust myself yet….”

“I simply trust what Your Highness has shown me until now, and the effort you’ve made.”

A boy who didn’t have even the basics endured the grueling knight training through sheer stubbornness, and in a short time, he even learned swordsmanship.

How could I not trust the skill of someone who achieved results through effort alone?

“So don’t think of yourself as untrustworthy.”

Before I knew it, Edwin’s eyes were wide as he looked up at me.

“And if you still feel like you can’t trust yourself, then you can trust the words of those who know Your Highness better than anyone.”

“Those who know me well?”

“Yes. People like me or Catherine.”

At my answer, his clear, bright blue eyes sparkled.

Edwin stared at me intently and nodded slowly.

“…So.”

I still hadn’t heard the important part.

I steered the conversation back.

“What did you mean by what you said just now?”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you ask what kind of woman His Majesty the King of Adamant would like?”

At my words, Edwin let out an, ah, of realization.

“Right. At first, when I succeeded in landing a hit, he told me to ask for anything I wanted. He said he could even give me the Adamant mines.”

The Adamant mines? Is he insane?

‘What kind of scheme was he trying to pull on a kid?’

If Edwin asked for the Adamant mines, Kayden could use that as a pretext to start a war.

He could give the mines as promised, then decide he wanted to take them back and simply seize them again.

I couldn’t know whether Kayden truly had that kind of ulterior motive, but the possibility certainly existed.

‘He said we’re forming an alliance, but people’s hearts can change as much as they like.’

How many people smile and promise help to your face, then plan to stab you in the back?

Especially among the powerful, that kind of petty trick was common.

“But I asked for something else. There was something I wanted to know.”