The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 117

Chapter 117: The King’s Promise (2)

“Emilia! What kind of rudeness is this! Catherine, do something!”

“Ah, yes, yes!”

Catherine hurried to pry Emilia off the king as she cried in his arms.

But at that moment, Kayden stopped her with one outstretched hand.

“Princess Emilia.”

Kayden lifted the sobbing princess and held her close.

The child buried her face against his neck and cried miserably.

“Waaahhh.”

She cried so sorrowfully that even Kayden, who could cut down an enemy’s neck without blinking, felt his heart waver for a moment.

“Princess Emilia.”

Kayden called her again.

“This isn’t a permanent farewell. Please stop crying.”

“Liar! Emma said that too, and she never came back!”

At the mention of Emma’s name, Edwin’s face hardened.

Catherine, flustered, clapped a hand over her mouth.

‘Emma?’

Kayden narrowed one eye at the unfamiliar name, then relaxed his expression again.

Supporting the princess with one arm, he awkwardly patted her hair with his free hand.

“It’s not a lie. I promise you.”

“Promise?”

Emilia jutted out her lips and looked at Kayden.

“Yes.”

Kayden smiled at the little princess.

“I’ll definitely come see you again. If I can’t come, I’ll invite you to Adamant Castle.”

Invite an Imperial princess to the Adamant Kingdom?

Did this young king understand what that meant?

Catherine stared at him with wide eyes.

“You’ll invite Lia to your castle?”

Emilia had already stopped crying.

Sniffling, she asked again, “Really?”

“I’m someone who always keeps my promises.”

Kayden tried to wipe the snot under the princess’s nose with his finger, then realized he was wearing gauntlets and borrowed a handkerchief from the knight beside him.

“So believe me. I’ve never once failed to keep the words I’ve spoken.”

Emilia’s small face wobbled this way and that under the handkerchief.

“Oops.”

He was wiping as gently as he could, yet she still moved this much.

A child’s head really was far more fragile than he’d expected.

Kayden tossed the handkerchief back to its owner and lightly supported the back of Emilia’s head.

“Are you all right, Princess?”

“Mmhm.”

Emilia rubbed at her eyes several times with her tiny, fernlike hands.

Then she looked up at Kayden with her big eyes.

“Then it’s really a promise? You’re going to invite Lia?”

“Yes, it’s a promise.”

“Mmhm.”

Emilia finished wiping away her tears, then suddenly rummaged through the pocket of her skirt and pulled something out.

“Here, I’ll give this to you, Majesty King.”

What the princess held out was a very small rabbit doll.

There was a loop made of thread attached to the top of its head.

“It’s a gift to celebrate us being friends.”

Without a word, Kayden accepted the rabbit doll Emilia offered.

In the princess’s hands, it looked about palm-sized, but in his, it looked no bigger than two joints of his finger.

“A gift?”

“Mmhm. So you won’t forget Lia.”

Emilia stared up at Kayden’s face and asked, “Why? You don’t like it?”

If he had to say whether he liked it or not, honestly, it was closer to not liking it.

He’d never been the type to enjoy playing with dolls, even as a child.

“….”

Kayden stared at the rabbit doll in his hand for a long moment.

Then, without a word, he hung it from the end of the dagger hilt at his waist.

“Thank you, Princess.”

Kayden flashed a broad grin at Emilia, who looked proud.

“I’ll carry it with me at all times.”

“Hehehehe!”

Maybe she liked that he accepted her gift so gladly, because Emilia suddenly planted a kiss on his cheek.

“E-Emilia!”

Edwin reached toward them with a shocked face.

He wasn’t shocked by the princess’s rudeness, but by the fact that his only little sister had kissed the cheek of a strange man instead of him.

“Lia likes Majesty King! Likes you soooo much!”

Still half dazed, Kayden hugged Emilia around the neck as she beamed.

“So Lia will wait nicely too! You have to come see me again, okay?”

“Th-then me too!”

At that moment, Edwin latched onto Emilia’s last words and raised his voice.

“Can I come along too?”

“…Yes?”

“If you’re inviting Emilia, I was wondering if I could go with her too….”

Edwin’s voice trailed off as it trembled.

In his big eyes lingered regret and disappointment.

“…Prince Edwin as well.”

Kayden stared at the prince and added, “It seems you’re disappointed that I’m leaving early.”

Edwin pressed his lips tight.

Even if he was the king of another country, Kayden was one of the few adults who took interest in him first.

Thinking they were already parting made him feel strangely disappointed and regretful.

‘If he goes now, he might become someone I never see again.’

Even if Kayden visited the Empire again next time, there was no telling how things might change by then. Maybe Edwin himself wouldn’t even be in the Imperial Palace.

“…Yes,” Edwin answered shortly and looked down at his toes.

Kayden watched the dispirited young prince for a moment, then carefully set Emilia down.

Then he drew the long sword strapped to his saddle.

“Take it.”

“Your Majesty! That’s…!”

When Kayden offered the long sword he drew to Edwin, the Adamant knights cried out.

“Your Majesty, isn’t that your treasured sword?”

“How can you give something so precious to a prince of another country….”

But Kayden ignored his subordinates completely and continued speaking to Edwin.

“This is a sword forged by a skilled smith of the Adamant Kingdom.”

Kayden drew the blade from its scabbard made of dark blue leather.

In the pale dawn light, the blade shone a blue-white.

Edwin’s eyes widened at the sight.

“The edge is made by processing high-purity adamant. For slaying monsters, there’s no better sword than this.”

At the sudden sword bragging, Edwin nodded with a flustered face.

“I, I see.”

Kayden slid the sword back into the scabbard and held it out to Edwin.

Edwin stared at him with startled eyes.

“It’s a return gift. Let’s say it’s a present to show I’m leaving after being well received at the Third Prince’s Palace.”

Without thinking, Edwin accepted the adamant sword.

Kayden looked at the young prince and smiled quietly.

“I came in a hurry, so I didn’t have a separate gift prepared. I’d like to give you the most valuable thing I have on me. I hope you like it.”

It was clearly a fine sword made with care.

And if it was a sword the king carried, how much effort must have gone into forging it?

“W-wait!”

Edwin snapped back to himself too late and shook his head hard.

“It’s far too much of a gift in return! I wasn’t even hoping for something like this….”

“Things have owners. And that sword seems to suit you better than it suits me.”

Kayden gave him a kind smile.

“And it’s not that expensive or precious either. It’s about the same as the bow I gave you last time, so don’t feel too burdened.”

At his words, Oliver, the adjutant who’d been standing beside them the whole time, parted his lips as if he couldn’t believe it.

‘Sir, you should at least wet your mouth before you lie like that. You could buy several castles with that sword alone.’

The sword Kayden had just gifted Edwin was a famous blade, no, a holy blade you couldn’t buy even with a fortune.

The bow he’d sent Edwin as a gift last time was valuable too, but it couldn’t compare to this sword.

He said you could buy several castles with it, but in truth, it was so precious it was hard to even put a price on it.

‘High-purity adamant is a nightmare to work with. With ordinary skill, it’s hard even to reshape it into another form.’

Oliver swallowed a sigh as he watched the young prince holding the holy blade.

‘We gathered the dwarven craftsmen living in hiding and only barely managed to forge it.’

As soon as the young king of Adamant destroyed the Lionel Kingdom and took control of the adamant mines, the first thing he did was develop independent steelmaking techniques.

And at the center of that were the dwarven blacksmiths scattered across the continental mountain range.

‘But the fact that we’ve joined hands with the dwarves has never been revealed to the outside world.’

He said he’d never think of him as his nephew.

Oliver glanced sideways at Kayden, who was smiling from ear to ear, and pressed a hand to his forehead.

‘So my lord’s human too. Seeing how his arm bends inward like this.’

Unlike Oliver, who was full of worry, Edwin, the one receiving the sword, looked as bright as a blooming flower.

“Th-then, thank you. I’ll accept it gratefully.”

Edwin clenched the sword tightly.

It didn’t feel real that a blade this fine belonged to him.

“Prince.”

Kayden slowly opened his mouth.

“It seems you’ve got talent with the sword. If you keep honing it, you can become an excellent swordsman.”

It was praise he never expected.

Edwin blinked at Kayden’s words.

He did land one hit during the spar, but in the end, he was the one who lost.

‘And he only used one hand.’

Unlike Edwin, who charged with everything he had, Kayden simply stood in place and swung only the arm holding the scabbard.

Even so, it was Edwin who got beaten so one-sidedly it was painful to watch.

Only after the spar ended did he realize that, and he’d been so ashamed.

‘Still….’

Edwin quietly stared at Kayden.

‘I thought he’d be a very difficult person.’

All of a sudden, Edwin realized what that strange sense of familiarity he’d felt since the first time he saw Kayden was.

‘They’re alike.’

The young prince thought of his mother’s face in the portrait.

The eyes of Edith Lionel, the Third Consort, and Kayden’s eyes were astonishingly the same color.