The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 74

Chapter 74: The Imperial Hunting Competition (3)

“Urgh.”

The assassin’s eyes twitched as if convulsing.

At the moment he hesitated over whether to reveal his client’s identity, he had already lost his qualification as an assassin.

“If you talk, I’ll let you go. I’ll even keep it a secret that you came here.”

“…You’ll keep it a secret?”

The assassin narrowed his eyes at my words.

“You expect me to believe that?”

To prove that someone had ordered the prince’s death, this man would have to be used as a witness.

And yet I had not only promised to let him go but also to bury the very fact that he had come here. It was only natural for him to be suspicious.

“Then keep your mouth shut and die.”

At my words, the assassin hesitated.

But judging by the way his eyes shifted, he wasn’t thinking of confessing, but rather of finding a chance to escape.

‘Did you think I’d let you?’

The assassin, who had been edging sideways while gauging my movements, suddenly widened his eyes.

It seemed he had just realized something was off.

“…What, is this paralysis poison?”

“Yes.”

“Hah. If I didn’t have resistance to poison, I’d have collapsed already.”

The assassin glanced at the arrow still lodged in his leg, then turned his gaze back to me.

“Now I really want to know who you are. Are you one of our kind?”

“So who sent you? Why target the Third Prince?”

A ridiculous conversation where we each said only what we wanted.

But neither of us had any intention of answering the other’s questions.

The tense silence stretched on.

“I’ll ask again. I’ll warn you now, I don’t have much patience. So you’d better answer while I’m still asking with words.”

I threw out another question to the assassin, who still showed no signs of speaking.

“Was it the Second Consort who hired you?”

This time, after another pause, the assassin finally said, “From the looks of it, you’re neither imperial family nor noble. Why bother asking? Even if you found out, there’s nothing you could do.”

“Spare me the nonsense. If you don’t want to die, talk.”

“Try killing me then.”

At that moment, a strange gleam flickered in his eyes.

It was the fierce will and defiance that only someone staring death in the face could exude.

“If you can kill me, that is!”

The assassin snapped the arrow shaft embedded in his leg and charged straight at me.

Even though the paralysis poison should have spread through him, his movements were still quick.

“Tsk!”

I clicked my tongue and drew two daggers hidden beneath my skirt.

They were among the weapons I had stashed away in my travel bag when I visited the back alleys.

‘What a blessing it was to leave some weapons in storage instead of carrying them everywhere I went.’

I had been forced to keep them strapped inside my thighs while hunting, which was no small discomfort.

I swiftly crossed the daggers in my hands.

Clang!

His sword clashed with my daggers, the metallic ring cutting through the air.

The assassin’s mouth opened wide, laughter bursting out even beneath his mask.

“Ha, hahahaha! I knew it!”

Seeing me deflect his blade, the assassin looked thrilled.

For some reason, he seemed overly excited.

“You’re one of us, aren’t you!”

“…Think whatever you like, but I suggest you shut your mouth.”

I adjusted my grip on my daggers, twisting one corner of my mouth upward.

“Because none of the bastards who ever called me that died well.”

Clang, clang, clang!

The assassin charged wildly before I even finished speaking.

It looked as though he was deliberately keeping up the assault to distract me.

‘How simple.’

This time, I parried his strikes smoothly.

Then I spun my body and kicked him square in the temple.

“Urgh!”

It happened in an instant, too fast for him to react.

The assassin crashed into the ground with a groan.

“Now then.”

I crouched before him with graceful ease.

Then I grabbed his jaw with a rough hand.

As I forced his mouth open, just as I expected, a small poison pouch was inside.

“I can’t just let you die comfortably before you answer.”

Holding his jaw shut to stop him from biting down, I pressed on.

“So, who ordered you to kill the Third Prince…”

Just then.

“Aaaah!”

A faint scream rang out in the distance.

The problem was, it was a voice far too familiar.

‘Edwin?’

Instinctively, I turned my head toward the source of the scream.

‘Don’t tell me there were more of them?’

That made no sense. I had confirmed there were no other presences nearby.

“Grrk!”

The assassin seized the moment when my guard loosened and shook his head violently, biting down hard.

Blood spilled from his lips as the poison pouch burst.

“Damn it!”

I tried to force his mouth open, but it was useless.

He had already swallowed the poison.

The assassin chuckled at my frustrated expression.

“Foolish, aren’t you?”

The light began to fade from his eyes.

Perhaps he knew this was the end.

“To the Third Prince…”

The assassin looked me straight in the eyes and spat out his last words.

“Breath of the Angel will reach him.”

Breath of the Angel.

The place I had once devoted everything to in my previous life. And the place where I had lost everything.

At that all too familiar name, my breath faltered.

“What the hell…”

I knew with my head that I had to hurry back to Edwin, but my hand moved on its own.

I slowly reached out and pulled off the mask of the dead assassin.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

It was a familiar face.

One of the men who used to trail behind Ian.

Because the leader was a woman, they never listened to me, so the role of commanding them had always fallen solely to Ian.

‘A member of the organization meddled in palace affairs.’

It felt like a hot stone had lodged itself deep in my chest.

I clenched the mask tightly in my hand.

‘Then that means.’

Could it be that Ian was involved in the palace’s power struggles?

My mind grew so tangled that I couldn’t think at all.

I stood there blankly for a long time.

“…Your Highness!”

Then I belatedly remembered the fact that Edwin had screamed.

I quickly gathered up all the assassin’s belongings and mounted my horse.

When I hurried back to where we had been, Edwin was gone.

The horse he had been riding was gone too, only the cart remained.

‘The game is still here.’

Since the cart hadn’t been touched, it really did seem that Edwin alone had been the target.

I checked the direction of the hoofprints on the ground.

‘Looks like the horse bolted suddenly. Since there are no other hoofprints, it doesn’t seem like he was chased.’

The tracks led into a pathless thicket.

Without hesitation, I lashed the reins and charged in.

To find the young prince wandering alone in the dark.

The sun was setting.

The Imperial Hunting Competition was drawing to a close.

Buuuuuu.

As the horn announcing the end of the competition echoed through the hunting grounds, the imperial family and nobles began to gather one after another at the starting point.

Jerome, who had long since returned after finishing his hunt, stood calmly at the Emperor’s side, watching the scene with ease.

It was then.

“Commander.”

“What is it, Philip?”

Jerome looked at the vice commander, who seemed strangely uneasy, with a puzzled expression.

“His Highness the Third Prince has not yet returned.”

“What?”

“All the other members of the imperial family and nobles have returned, but only His Highness the Third Prince still…”

Jerome feigned composure as he looked around. As the vice commander had said, the Third Prince was nowhere to be seen.

And since that insolent nanny who always shadowed him like a ghost was also absent, it seemed he truly had not returned.

“Didn’t we station knights in the areas where the imperial family were hunting? Where is His Highness the Third Prince right now…”

“According to the last knight who saw him, His Highness suddenly spurred his horse and bolted out of the hunting grounds…”

“Ha.”

Jerome brushed back his bangs in exasperation.

‘Just when I thought he was finally pulling himself together and playing the part of a proper prince, he goes and damages his own standing like this.’

He cast a sidelong glance at the Emperor standing a little ways off.

The Emperor did not tolerate rash actions. To be precise, he despised those who acted in ways that harmed the honor and dignity of the imperial family.

“Send out the knights immediately to find His Highness the Third Prince…”

“Jerome.”

At that moment, the Emperor called for him.

Startled, Jerome awkwardly stepped toward his liege.

“What is it, Your Majesty?”

“Edwin is nowhere to be seen.”

As expected. There was no way a man as perceptive as the Emperor would fail to notice Edwin’s absence.

Jerome cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “Well, it seems something came up with His Highness…”

“If he were inside the hunting grounds, there’s no way he wouldn’t have heard the horn.”

“That is true, but I have already sent knights to search for him. If we just wait a little longer…”

“No.”

The Emperor stared straight ahead, his face impassive as he spoke.

“I cannot keep others waiting for that child. This is a competition. Would it not be unfair otherwise?”

“But…”

“Not returning within the allotted time is grounds for disqualification. Even if he is my son, there are no exceptions.”

Still, how could he speak of fairness when his own child had practically vanished in the vast hunting grounds?

Perhaps that too was what made him an Emperor.

‘If he is speaking like that, it means he will never bend. There’s no helping it.’

Jerome suppressed a sigh and bowed his head. “Then let us at least announce the winner first. I have instructed the knights to bring His Highness Edwin immediately once they find him, so he should be located soon enough.”