The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Goal (1)

“Making an old man do this kind of hard labor.”

“Weren’t you saying you were still in your youth?”

“So just because I’m youthful, it’s okay to make me do this? A young person with such a narrow-minded way of thinking—this country’s future is bleak, truly.”

Sage gritted his teeth as he dug into the ground with a shovel.

He stopped planting seedlings in the dirt and suddenly turned his head toward me.

“This is elder abuse, you hear!”

“Didn’t you say it was employment fraud before?”

“It’s both, both!”

“Hmm.”

I shrugged at Sage, who was yelling at me from the shade.

“Strictly speaking, it’s not employment fraud. Maybe disguised employment.”

I was the one who got conned into the job.

Sage raised both his eyebrows. “Wow? You sure talk fancy. Birds of a feather flock together, and that one’s just as feisty.”

He grumbled on and on, yet tended the garden more diligently than ever.

“Grampa, what’s this?”

“Hey! You little mutt! Don’t touch that! That’s a poisonous plant!”

“Uuh, what’s poisonous? Is it food?”

Sage lifted Emilia, who was squatting beside him, high into the air.

He snatched the small seedling she was holding and threw it to the ground.

“Hey! What kind of nanny just leaves a child unattended like this! You should be holding her or carrying her on your back!”

“Unattended? I’ve been keeping an eye on her.”

It’s not like I want to let Emilia run around like that.

But the princess herself was whining to play beside that moody old man, so what could I do?

“Her Highness the Princess seems to prefer your company over mine, so I’ve had no choice but to stand aside.”

“What? Good grief.”

Sage let out a hollow laugh and finally hoisted Emilia onto his back.

“People who don’t know how to care for kids trying to care for one, tsk tsk. You little mutt, I’ll carry you, so stop picking up random things to eat. Got it?”

“Uuh, Lia likes Cloud Grampa!”

“…Sigh, what kind of mess is this in my twilight years. My back’s breaking, seriously.”

Sage supported Emilia’s bottom with one hand and began tidying the scattered seedlings with the other.

“In thirty minutes, it’s time for Prince Edwin’s lesson. Finish your work before then.”

“Yeah, yeah, got it! You never do anything yourself and just nag all the time!”

Watching the grumbling Sage, I lifted my head and looked up at the sky.

It had already been four days since our return from Luxen Village.

On the surface, everything seemed just as usual, but quite a bit had happened since then.

‘The most unexpected part was the King of Adamant sending someone.’

Just yesterday, the King of Adamant and his knights, who had visited the Empire of Ventrume, had departed.

And two days ago.

The King of Adamant sent someone to the Third Prince’s palace.

‘His name was Oliver.’

I recalled the face of the knight with the naive look.

He had shown up out of nowhere, awkwardly smiling and apologizing.

“I heard His Highness the Third Prince was ill for a couple of days. Is he feeling better now?”

What did it matter to them if a foreign prince was sick?

Not even the First or Second Prince—he was the Third Prince, who wasn’t even a contender in the throne succession.

“His Majesty the King apologizes for not being able to visit in person.”

Oliver delivered his master’s apology and handed over a large box as a get-well gift before disappearing.

The contents of the box were surprisingly a bow and arrows.

‘Since it’s a country known for knights, I expected a sword.’

Never imagined he’d gift a bow and arrows.

‘No way—was it intentional?’

Edwin had never learned swordsmanship.

Perhaps the King of Adamant knew that and deliberately sent a bow and arrows instead.

Not that Edwin had learned archery either.

‘Weird guy.’

I recalled those golden eyes smiling brightly with a familiar scent of soap.

More like a mercenary king than a real monarch.

I shook off thoughts of the King of Adamant and turned my head.

‘Hmm, unexpected. Reinforcements?’

The presence I sensed beyond the wall had increased from one to several.

‘One of them was always there. Who sent the others?’

Honestly, I wanted to catch them all and interrogate them right away, but that wasn’t possible.

Right now, I wasn’t an assassin leader—I was the prince’s nanny.

‘They haven’t caused any trouble yet, so let’s wait and see.’

Furrowing my brow, I stood up.

“Thirty minutes have passed!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

Sage threw off his gloves in irritation when he heard me.

I received Emilia from him as he passed by in a huff and saw him off.

Another day in the Third Prince’s palace was passing quickly.

***

Thwack.

Sage loudly shut the Imperial language grammar and writing workbook.

It was an easy book, one other princes had completed by the age of five or six, but not Edwin.

It was partly because his previous academic tutor hadn’t been very enthusiastic, and partly because Edwin himself hadn’t shown much will to learn.

However, Sage succeeded in teaching the grammar that had stagnated for years to the prince in just one week after becoming his tutor.

It was a feat worthy of the Great Sage’s reputation.

“Edwin, what do you want to become?”

Edwin raised his head at his teacher’s question.

The small hand holding the quill pen paused in place.

“…What do I want to become?”

It was a question he had never been asked before in his life.

Edwin’s eyes were filled with confusion.

“Why?”

“…Because I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I’ve never thought about it.”

Despite being a very simple question, the young prince couldn’t answer easily.

The answer Edwin finally gave after a long silence was unsatisfying from the teacher’s point of view.

“You’ve never thought about it? Why not?”

“Emma, I mean my previous nanny, wanted me to leave for the Holy Kingdom as soon as I completed my coming-of-age ceremony. She said it’d be better for me to become a cleric there than to stay here…”

This time, Sage’s eyes were stained with surprise.

He wasn’t unaware of what kind of presence the Third Prince Edwin was within the imperial palace.

He had already been forewarned by Rachel, and just observing the attitudes and glances of the outside attendants who came and went from the prince’s quarters gave him a general idea of the situation.

‘It’s not that I don’t understand.’

As soon as the crown prince is decided, the other princes either inherit noble titles from their maternal families or are quietly eliminated—that was the Empire’s custom.

So for the Third Prince, who had no maternal family or backing, the only way to survive was to give up both status and wealth and become a cleric in the Holy Kingdom.

‘Still, I was hoping for an answer like wanting to become emperor, or a grand duke, or at the very least, a knight.’

Even if he was a penniless prince, he was still born imperial—Sage had expected at least that much ambition.

‘Hmph. How dull.’

Teaching a student with no goal was neither fun nor rewarding.

After thinking for a moment, Sage asked, “Is that what you want too?”

He lifted the sacred laws document that had been sitting in the corner of the desk.

“If you become a cleric in the Holy Kingdom, you’ll have to give up your name and status. You can’t have friends or lovers. Family is out of the question. Is that the life you want?”

The path of a saint is noble and solitary.

That’s why few manage to endure and walk it to the end.

Moreover, even if Edwin completed his coming-of-age ceremony, he’d still be just a boy in his early teens.

To tell a boy who hasn’t even lived half his life to walk such a path.

Anyone would call it cruel.

“You’ll be alone until the day you die. Do you still want to become a cleric?”

Though it wasn’t a threat but a mere statement of fact, the prince’s face turned pale.

“N-no, I don’t want that.”

Sage let out a dry chuckle at Edwin’s immediate reply.

“Good. Don’t take clerics lightly. It’s not a job just anyone can do.”

At his teacher’s words, Edwin muttered with a sulky expression, “…Then what can I do?”

To such a pure question, Sage replied while resting his chin on his hand, “That’s up to what you think. Someone born a beggar can live as a rich man, and someone born rich can become a beggar. That’s life.”

Up to how you think, he said.

Edwin frowned at his teacher’s words.

‘Does that mean if I just think it, it’ll happen?’

Unpleasant memories he didn’t want to recall surfaced in his mind.

A father who always turned away from him, brothers desperate to torment him.

The nanny, Emma, whom he had desperately wanted to save but ultimately couldn’t.

Though it had only been twelve years, not once had life ever gone the way he wanted.

‘And yet, he says life depends on how you think?’

A rush of resentment and anger seemed to rise in his chest, but Edwin changed his mindset.

Because he remembered the one time something had gone exactly as he wished.

“Rachel!”

When he called her name, wishing she were there, she had truly appeared like magic.

The figure of her taking down a giant monster alone had seemed more formidable than anyone.

After much hesitation, Edwin opened his mouth. “Still, I’ve thought about what kind of person I want to be.”

At the prince’s words, Sage raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Have you? What kind of person do you want to be?”

“Someone who can help others. The strongest person in the world.”

Yes, like my nanny.

Edwin answered in quite a confident voice.

His bright blue eyes were shining more brightly than ever.