TPNSIA-05

CHAPTER-05

Chapter 5: A Fierce Initiation (3)

“Who told you that you could interfere?”

This brat… I just saved him, and this is how he talks to me?

But how could a nanny possibly get angry at an imperial prince?

I forced myself to bow my head.

“My apologies.”

“Don’t lie. You’re not sorry at all.”

His observation was surprisingly sharp.

He’s more perceptive than he looks.

Edwin, the Third Prince, was turning out to be quite different from what I had expected.

He had fearlessly charged at boys much bigger than himself, and he blurted out whatever came to mind without thinking twice.

They call him the worthless prince, so I expected him to be timid and withdrawn. But this…

I stared sharply into his eyes.

Apparently, only his face looks angelic.

Then Edwin asked me with a displeased expression,

“The old witch said you were sick and couldn’t come today. Were you pretending?”

The old witch?

The princess had called the head maid that earlier too.

Had both siblings somehow made an enemy of her?

“It was only a mild headache, so I recovered quickly. Thank you for your concern, Your Highness.”

I bowed politely, but something felt strange.

Edwin was staring at me suspiciously.

“Your Highness, is something wrong?”

He tilted his head.

“You seem different from usual.”

“Do I? In what way?”

“You’re uglier than usual.”

“…?”

The completely unexpected personal attack nearly left me speechless.

“…Your Highness, have I perhaps done something to offend you?”

“Stop acting like we’re close. It’s annoying.”

I struggled to maintain my composure, but his response remained prickly.

“Even if you came here because Emma recommended you, I don’t trust you.”

Emma’s recommendation?

I narrowed my eyes, remembering what the head maid had said.

She said I entered the palace on Lady Conrad’s recommendation.

Then was Lady Conrad’s first name Emma?

Emma Conrad?

For some reason, the name sounded familiar.

…No. Surely it’s just someone with the same name. The surname is different.

While I was briefly lost in thought, Edwin continued sharply.

“You’re on the old witch’s side anyway. I know you are.”

Every response from him was unexpected, leaving me rather bewildered.

At his age, you’d think he’d simply trust and follow his nanny.

Judging by how guarded he was, perhaps the original Rachel Brown hadn’t been a particularly good nanny.

The head maid didn’t seem to like me either.

Rachel had supposedly been in the palace for only two weeks.

What on earth had she done to make so many enemies already?

I deliberately put on a troubled expression and lowered my head.

If I intended to stay here for a while, I needed to play my role properly.

“Your Highness, I am simply your nanny.”

“Ha!”

Edwin crossed his arms and snorted.

“Liar. The old witch obviously told you I was here.”

“….”

“She told you to drag me back, didn’t she? What now? Is she going to forbid me from going outside again?”

Does a head maid even have the authority to confine a prince to his palace?

I kept the question to myself and silently bowed my head.

When a question was difficult to answer, silence was often the safest choice.

The prince kept glancing at me from the corner of his eye before suddenly asking,

“But how did you know earlier?”

“Know what?”

He shouted in frustration.

“How did you know those guys were cheating?”

“I could simply see it.”

I recalled Gale’s clumsy hand movements.

He and the orange-haired boy hadn’t started cheating until the second round.

If they cheated from the very beginning, their opponent might refuse to accept the outcome.

He probably assumed the same trick would work on me.

He had no idea that I had deliberately allowed myself to be fooled during the second round.

Hmph. Not a chance. Who did he think he could fool with such amateur tricks?

I clicked my tongue as I remembered the countless professional swindlers I had encountered in the back alleys.

Compared to them, Gale’s skill was laughable.

Edwin, however, seemed unwilling to accept my explanation.

“Liar. I didn’t see anything.”

“It was your first time seeing something like that, Your Highness. There’s nothing unusual about missing it.”

He raised one eyebrow.

“Then you’ve seen it a lot?”

“…Yes. You could say that.”

“How? Do nobles see that kind of thing often?”

I looked into the prince’s innocent eyes.

They were still fierce and filled with suspicion, but beneath that hostility was an innocence he couldn’t completely hide.

Eyes like those were something I could never have possessed.

Suddenly, I remembered the place where I had grown up.

If a boy like this were thrown into that place, he wouldn’t last half a day.

To survive there, you had to become a skilled liar and learn every dirty trick imaginable.

I had been no exception.

“I’ve only seen it a few times in the marketplace.”

I gave him a gentle smile, as though it were nothing important.

“The people I saw back then were much faster with their hands.”

“What? Then those guys weren’t anything special.”

Edwin looked offended that he had been fooled by such amateurs.

“It couldn’t be helped that Your Highness was deceived—”

“I wasn’t deceived! And stop showing off when you’re uglier than me.”

This brat might come to his senses if I smacked him once.

Maybe just a little?

I forced my increasingly clenched fist to relax.

If rumors spread that a nanny hit an imperial prince, I’d probably be thrown out immediately.

Strictly speaking, Edwin wasn’t entirely wrong about being better-looking, either.

I stared at him for a moment before smiling.

“Your Highness, do you know something?”

“What?”

“When someone looks ugly to you, it may be because the heart of the person looking at them is ugly.”

Edwin blinked.

It took only a moment for his expression to twist.

“Y-you! Are you saying I have an ugly heart?! Are you insulting me, an imperial prince?!”

He’s still a child after all.

I smiled calmly at the furious boy.

“I would never insult Your Highness. I am merely offering sincere advice because I hope Your Highness will develop a kind and upright heart.”

I continued calmly as Edwin fumed.

“After all, I am your nanny.”

He glared at me with burning eyes before shouting,

“Don’t make me laugh! I hate people like you the most! You know that?”

The prince pointed angrily at me.

What a noisy little brat.

Well, I hated arrogant little brats too.

I stared at him with an indifferent expression hidden behind a false smile.

After glaring at me for a while, Edwin snatched the bracelet from my hand.

Then he turned around and ran straight toward the Third Prince’s palace.

I hadn’t exactly expected him to thank me, but this was still somewhat baffling.

Watching him flee, I raised an eyebrow.

“What is wrong with that kid?”

“My lord?”

The man had completely forgotten to answer his subordinate.

His mind was occupied by the woman he had seen earlier.

About this tall, perhaps.

He brought his hand to somewhere around his upper abdomen.

Slightly disheveled grayish-brown hair.

A skirt fluttering in the wind.

And eyes resembling dark-green topaz.

There had been something unusual about the woman who had effortlessly vaulted over a wall taller than herself.

Something that drew his attention.

The fact that she had even detected his gaze while he remained hidden in the shadows was proof enough.

“Interesting.”

The corner of the man’s mouth curved upward.

His lieutenant, Oliver Green, frowned.

“My lord, did someone hit you on the head?”

He received a smack on the head for daring to question his lord’s mental state.

“Ow! That hurts!”

“A beating is the best medicine for an insolent lieutenant.”

Oliver clutched his head indignantly.

“You disappeared without saying anything, so I was worried! Then you came back and wouldn’t say a word. Of course I’d ask!”

“Have I ever seemed so unreliable that you need to worry about me?”

“Well, you could be dropped in the middle of a desert and still return perfectly fine, but still….”

Oliver stopped speaking.

Looking at the man’s completely relaxed demeanor made his concern seem rather pointless.

The man was dressed entirely in black, as though darkness itself had been draped around him.

His entire presence radiated overwhelming strength.

His golden eyes gleamed like those of a predator, intimidating enough to make one’s knees tremble simply by meeting his gaze.

“Still, we’re standing in the middle of enemy territory.”

Oliver sighed as he met those terrifying eyes, which he still hadn’t grown accustomed to.

“There are eyes everywhere, so please refrain from doing anything that might attract attention.”

The man merely smiled at his lieutenant’s sincere advice.

Apparently finding that smile ominous, Oliver’s eyes widened.

“My lord. No.”

The man raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

Oliver frowned.

“I don’t know. Whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no.”

He stared suspiciously at his lord.

“Every time you make that expression, I feel like my lifespan gets shorter.”

“You worry about the strangest things.”

The man lazily rolled his neck before looking ahead.

“Don’t worry. I know what needs to take priority.”

“That sounds suspiciously like you’re saying you’ll do whatever you want after finishing your work.”

“One of the things I like about my lieutenant is how perceptive he is.”

Oliver sighed.

“My lord… you’re not still searching for that woman, are you?”

His expression became uneasy as he lowered his voice.

“Kaila Angel, I mean.”