The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 72

Chapter 72: The Imperial Hunting Competition (1)

It had been about half an hour since the Emperor declared the opening of the hunting competition.

The imperial family, who had set off earlier than the other nobles, scattered in search of their prey.

We were no different.

“Waaaah―!”

Another cheer erupted, signaling someone else’s successful hunt.

‘How many times has it been already?’

I looked at Edwin, who was drawing his bowstring from atop his horse.

His arrow was aimed at a rabbit grazing not far away.

His stance was flawless.

But unlike usual, his eyes were trembling violently.

“Urgh!”

He couldn’t focus, so naturally the tip of the arrow wavered.

Whoosh― Thunk―

The rabbit easily dodged the arrow flying toward it.

I frowned as I watched the rabbit dart away like lightning.

“Your Highness, you should have been able to hit that just now.”

Edwin pouted at my remark.

‘I can guess why, though.’

The boy was weak when it came to animals.

So of course, he couldn’t easily shoot an arrow at a living creature rather than a target.

“Your Highness, are you planning to catch nothing at all?”

I pointed to the cart hanging from my horse.

“If you want to fill that cart within the allotted time, you’ll need to start doing it properly from now on.”

Edwin sighed as he looked at the empty cart.

He glanced at me nervously for a while before finally speaking.

“…Hey, do we really have to hunt?”

Good grief, then why did he practice archery so diligently?

Folding my arms, I asked back, ready to hear his reason, “Why are you suddenly thinking like that?”

Clutching his bow tightly with both hands, Edwin continued, “Hunting is for eating, isn’t it? Even if we catch a lot, we won’t eat it all. So why do we have to keep killing innocent animals…?”

“Then why did you say you would participate in the hunting competition? You can’t claim you didn’t know this would happen.”

At my question, Edwin nodded. “I knew. But I only learned archery because I wanted to be strong like you…”

His voice grew so small it was about to vanish.

“I didn’t learn archery to kill animals for fun.”

Edwin lowered his head with a dejected look.

“……”

I remembered the first time I met Edwin.

Surrounded and mocked by attendants, constantly bullied by his half-brother.

‘Just a person consumed for someone else’s amusement.’

Perhaps he saw himself reflected in that fleeing rabbit.

I quietly watched him.

He still had a gloomy face.

‘Well, even if he says that, he must be worried.’

If he failed to catch even one animal at the hunting competition, there would be no humiliation greater than that.

Besides, didn’t he say himself to the Emperor that he would participate?

“I do understand Your Highness’s feelings.”

Edwin lifted his head at my words.

In his clear blue eyes, pure as a sky washed clean, a small glimmer of hope appeared.

“But sometimes there are things you must do, even if you don’t want to. Today is one of those days.”

At my words, Edwin bowed his head again, looking utterly dispirited.

‘Simple boy.’

Instead of comforting the downcast prince, I silently picked up my bow.

It was the one I had carved myself over the past week just for today.

‘It’s a bit rough, but so what?’

I slowly pulled the string with the arrow set in place.

‘As long as it shoots, it’s enough.’

Swoosh―

In the blink of an eye, the arrow flew and struck a shadow beyond the bushes.

A short death cry, then silence.

“Got it.”

“Huh?”

I tugged Edwin along and approached the bushes.

It was a fox with fine red fur.

Shot in the thigh, the fox could no longer move.

“Uh, uh…”

Edwin froze with wide eyes.

The small hands clutching the reins were flushed red.

Lifting the fox by the scruff, I said, “They say if an attendant hunts it, it counts as the master’s hunt.”

Edwin couldn’t answer.

“This is Your Highness’s first chance to be acknowledged by His Majesty the Emperor.”

I tossed the fox into the cart with a calm face.

“If catching just a few animals can earn His Majesty’s recognition, then it’s a bargain, isn’t it?”

“I, I…”

“If Your Highness cannot do it, I will do it in your place.”

Edwin hung his head in shame.

“…Sorry.”

“Why apologize?”

“Because you taught me so diligently, and yet I couldn’t even shoot properly…”

With a sad voice, he added, “Because of me, you’ll have to kill more animals…”

How ridiculous. To say such a thing to a former assassin.

But it was something only he could say.

“It’s fine. I’ve killed needlessly plenty of times before.”

Perhaps that last part was a mistake.

Edwin looked at me with wide eyes.

His innocent gaze was now tinged with inexplicable guilt.

“Your Highness, I’m doing this purely because I want to.”

“But still…”

After hesitating for a while, Edwin asked in a weak voice, “…Don’t you think I’m pathetic?”

“What do you mean by pathetic?”

“For being this cowardly, timid…,” Edwin muttered, clutching his bow. “Everyone thinks I lack the qualities of a prince.”

“I don’t think that.”

“…Huh?”

“I believe Your Highness already possesses the qualities of a prince.”

Rather than giving him my gaze, I once again picked up my arrow.

“And I think it is enough to stain your hands with blood only when that is the sole choice left.”

To truly pity what is pitiful is a blessing.

There will come a time in life when you can no longer even think such thoughts.

That is when the heart becomes coarse.

“One day, Your Highness too will loose an arrow without hesitation.”

Yes. As long as Edwin was a prince, as long as he had decided to grow stronger, one day those small hands would also be stained with blood.

But I wished that day would come as late as possible.

I wished he could keep what I had lost as a child, even as he became an adult.

A thought unbefitting of the assassin leader ‘Kyla.’

“Whether the target is a mere beast or a human.”

Edwin said nothing.

He only clutched his bow as if it were a lifeline, eyes filled with fear.

I looked at him indifferently for a moment before turning my head.

“What I mean is, there is no need for that right now.”

“Rachel…”

Swoosh, thud.

The arrow I shot without pause buried itself in the thigh of a deer.

I slung the deer over my shoulder and threw it into the cart.

“Let us move, Your Highness.”

It would do no good to stand out for having the attendant do all the hunting.

After all, this occasion was arranged by the Emperor to evaluate the princes’ qualities.

“Let us go somewhere less crowded.”

“Y-Yes!”

Even after we moved, the hunt continued.

I kept shooting arrows in Edwin’s stead.

Each time, the cart grew more and more full.

‘I think this should be enough.’

Too much game would cause problems as well.

The prince who had never stood out in any field suddenly appearing all decorated would already keep people talking for months.

‘It will be troublesome if rumors spread that he is already talented in various ways. He has not yet grown strong enough.’

I considered ending the hunt here, but for some reason, it felt lacking.

‘It would be good to catch one large beast at least.’

So far, all we had caught were rabbits, deer, and stags.

Useful prey, but not much to boast of before others.

Standing out too much was no good, but showing no results at all was not good either.

“Your Highness, there seems to be nothing left to hunt here, so let us move…”

I lowered my bow for a moment and turned my head.

Edwin was staring at the game piled in the cart with a shadowed face.

He truly looked sorrowful at the animals’ deaths.

“……”

What should I say to console him at a time like this?

I walked up behind him, placed a hand on his shoulder, but found no words to speak.

Born an orphan and raised as an assassin, I had never had time to grieve the deaths of beasts, let alone humans.

‘Catherine would have known what to say.’

I suddenly missed Catherine’s silly antics.

Comfort was the specialty of someone warm and kind like Catherine, not someone like me.

“Well…”

I tried to say something, anything, to ease Edwin’s heart.

At that moment, a sharp sensation brushed the back of my neck and my body reacted instinctively.

“Rachel?”

When I suddenly grabbed his shoulders and pushed him behind me, Edwin’s eyes widened.

“Why all of a sudden?”

Instead of answering, I raised a finger to my lips.

Edwin clamped both hands over his mouth.

His large eyes trembled anxiously.

“Your Highness.”

I quietly raised my bow and nocked an arrow.

And whispered so softly that only he could hear.

As expected, gentle comfort did not suit me. I would do it my way.

“Don’t grieve too much.”

After all, everything that lives must one day die.

I spoke slowly as I drew the bowstring, aiming toward the faint sound of shallow breaths.

“Life is either to hunt or to be hunted. That’s the choice we make.”

Swoosh, thud.

The arrow flew the moment my words ended.

It pierced the shadow hiding in the tree.

The shadow was a man covered head to toe in a mask.