The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: A Wish and a Promise (1)

‘He’d only suffer from the pain if he were awake, so it’s better he stays unconscious.’

I slowly rose to my feet.

Startled, the apothecary flinched and fell backward.

“And you.”

“Y-yes!”

He suddenly threw his hand up and began blurting out things I hadn’t even asked.

“I-I’m good at making cold medicine too!”

That wasn’t what I was going to ask.

Well, cold medicine was important too.

I narrowed my eyes. “What you saw today is a secret. Understood?”

“Y-yes! I’ll remember, absolutely remember!”

The apothecary prostrated flat on the floor and bowed his head.

“So, you said you can make cold medicine.”

“Y-yes. The maids working at the medical bureau said my cold medicine is the best. Fast and effective.”

“Then give me that.”

“Y-yes!”

The apothecary scurried to the preparation counter, hands moving too fast to see.

Before long, he handed me a murky red potion.

“U-uh, I heard His Highness the Third Prince is young. It’s safe for children, so I added a bit of strawberry syrup.”

What a pointless touch.

I took the medicine and glared at him again. “I’ll say it once more. If anything that happened here today gets out…”

The apothecary moved swiftly again.

Before I could even finish, he was already on the floor, flat as a sheet.

“I—I value my life! I swear, I swear I won’t tell a soul what happened today!”

His overly dramatic response caught me slightly off guard.

Well, after witnessing that scene, it was only natural.

“If rumors spread, you’ll be the first I come looking for.”

“Y-yes. I understand.”

Leaving the apothecary who looked as if he were meeting the Emperor himself, I hurried out.

At first, I only intended to walk a little fast, but before I knew it, I was running, panting hard.

Like that, I sprinted toward the Third Prince’s Palace.

With all my strength, at full speed.

***

“Huuuuh…”

Edwin was still too dazed by the fever to regain his senses.

I pried open his lips and forced the medicine into his mouth.

“Nanny, what if it goes down the wrong way…”

“Don’t worry. I may not know much about caregiving, but I’ve fed plenty of medicine.”

“What?”

Contrary to Catherine’s concern, Edwin didn’t spill a single drop.

I could only hope that pathetic apothecary’s skills weren’t all bluster.

“Princess Emilia, you’ll catch his cold if you stay like that.”

“No! Lia’s staying with Brother!”

Emilia had clung to her brother’s side without budging since before I arrived.

That stubbornness—where did she get it from?

With a sigh, Catherine picked up the princess.

“Mmmph! Lia said she’s staying with Brother!”

“Princess Emilia, let’s go have a snack. The kitchen made your favorite honey cake.”

“What? H-honey cake?”

Emilia’s honest little brow furrowed.

Honey cake or her sick brother.

Biting her finger, the princess muttered, “I can’t… Lia has to stay and protect Brother…”

“I’ll be guarding Prince Edwin. So please go.”

At my words, the princess’s face bloomed like a flower. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Alright! Then Achel, you protect Brother for me! You have to do it properly, okay?”

“You have my word.”

And so, Emilia left the room in Catherine’s arms.

Silence settled in. Only the prince’s breathing filled the room.

His breath seemed steadier than before taking the medicine.

I placed a hand on his forehead—it was noticeably cooler.

‘Guess that apothecary wasn’t all talk.’

I let out a small sigh and leaned back in my chair.

Outside the window, the sun had already begun to set.

***

Spring colds were terribly persistent.

Even after taking the medicine, Edwin remained sick for several days.

The coughing stopped completely, but every night his fever would rise and fall.

Thanks to that, Catherine and Rachel had to take turns nursing him day and night.

A few days passed, and in the stillness of early dawn, while everyone was asleep—

Edwin slowly opened his heavy eyelids.

His whole body had felt like it had been beaten, but now he was okay.

Through his blurry vision, he saw someone sitting by his side.

Someone sitting with the moonlight behind them, watching over him.

“Emma?”

Whether it was the remnants of sleep or lingering fever—

Edwin called out the name of someone he could never meet again.

“Emma, is that you?”

His sorrowful eyes quickly filled with tears.

“It’s really you, right, Emma?”

He reached out desperately.

“Why… why did you only come now? I’ve been praying all this time.”

Even if only in a dream, just once—he had begged to see her.

And then, Emma took his hand.

Without saying a word.

“It really is you, Emma…”

Edwin tightly clasped the cold hand.

As if he never wanted to let go again.

The two of them sat there for a long while, silently holding hands.

“Emma.”

Then the prince slowly opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

When she drank the poisoned tea sent by the Second Empress and was dying—he couldn’t do anything for her.

“I’m really, truly sorry.”

For being a prince with nothing, always the one being protected.

For being a coward who couldn’t even protect his little sister.

Tears streamed endlessly from Edwin’s eyes.

“It was my fault. I was wrong.”

The young prince’s voice was hoarse and broken.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“What is it that you are so sorry for?”

At that moment, Emma spoke for the first time.

Her voice was much lower and colder than before.

But Edwin wasn’t in a rational enough state to notice the difference.

“I… I hurt Emilia. Just like I did to you, Emma.”

The prince squeezed his eyes shut, as if in horror.

“And again, I couldn’t do anything in front of Brother Lloyd. Fighting him didn’t help.”

Edwin bit his lip.

“I’m sorry. You even wished for me to be happy, Emma, but I don’t know anymore.”

Every time he tried to grasp happiness, the misfortune lying beneath would rear its head and engulf him.

“Emma, what is happiness? I don’t know. What should I do to be happy?”

His small shoulders trembled faintly.

“Mother left, and you left too. Everyone around me ends up leaving.”

And that strange woman also said she would leave.

Even though she claimed she was always on his side.

“…She’ll leave too. Lia will leave someday.”

Edwin murmured as he held Emma’s hand tightly.

“I’m scared, Emma.”

Of being left alone. Of having no one by his side.

But what he feared the most was that even now, in this very moment—

He had no strength to protect the one person still beside him.

“…If I were as smart as my eldest brother, or as strong as my second brother, maybe no one would have left.”

His face flushed red again, perhaps from the fever returning.

“Why, why am I…! Cough, cough!”

As the prince broke into a fit of coughing, Emma stood up.

At her movement, Edwin flinched and cried out.

“No! Don’t go! Don’t leave me alone, Emma!”

“Shhh—”

A cold hand rested on the prince’s fevered forehead.

At the cool touch, Edwin instinctively closed his eyes.

“I will not leave.”

“Really? You really won’t go?”

“Yes.”

“Really? You promise?”

“…Yes. I promise.”

When Edwin asked again with a trembling voice, she slowly nodded.

“So please sleep a little more.”

As if those words were magic,

The prince drifted back into slumber, reassured,

Beneath that cold yet gentle touch.

***

It would’ve been better if I had forgotten everything.

“That was Emma’s final wish.”

“A wish, you say?”

“Yes. Emma said she hoped I would be happy. That was probably her last wish.”

I lifted my hand from Edwin’s forehead.

“Why did it have to be you?”

At first, I thought it was someone with the same name. Later, I hoped it was just a namesake.

But in the end, I had no choice but to realize it.

That she was the same person I had known as ‘Emma.’

Countess Emma Conrad.

The late nanny of Edwin, and the woman who once raised me.

A woman whose original family name was not ‘Conrad’ but ‘Leusche.’

“…So you lied to me just to die in such a pathetic way.”

The last day I saw Emma was still vivid in my mind.

She had clearly said she was going back to her hometown to live with her real family.

That I didn’t need to come find her anymore.

No—that I must not come find her.

“If you wanted to cut ties with me, you should’ve just said so.”

Had she said that, I would have gladly accepted it.

And yet, she kept the gift I gave her, even after death.

“…Damn it.”

I cursed as I looked at the pearl bracelet gleaming on Edwin’s wrist.

It was a cheap trinket I had bought with my first pay from the assassin guild.

A completely impulsive purchase.

Even though I thought I’d never see her again, I had bought it because she came to mind.

And on the day I promised the guild master I’d never meet Emma again—

The day I happened to meet her once more.

When she clung to me, crying, I gave her the bracelet.

“Kyla, what is this?”

“…A token. If you bring this, I’ll grant you three wishes, no price attached.”

At my words, she paused her crying and burst into laughter.

Her eyes looked at me like she was watching a grown-up child’s awkward affection.

“You’re still as stiff as ever. You could’ve just said it was a gift.”

Seeing my embarrassed face, Emma laughed for a long time and wiped her tears.

“Then, may I make the first wish?”

“Go ahead.”

“Will you still come visit me? Even if you don’t show your face.”

Emma seemed to already know very well what kind of work I did.

“As long as I know you’re safe, that’s enough for me.”