Chapter 32: The Era of the Sunnah
“Shmph.”
Idun was crouching under the wall behind the annex.
He swallows his sobs as if he is angry with himself, and he looks extremely poor.
As I approached, Idun raised his head.
The edges of his eyes are red.
"What do you want? Why did you follow me?
“Why do you think?”
She handed him a tissue.
“If your nanny doesn't follow you, who will?”
“Go away.”
He ignored the handkerchief and buried his face between his knees.
“Don't worry about me. You didn't even care about me.”
“How can a nanny not care about who she takes care of...”
Before I could finish, Eddon jumped up and shouted, “You said you were going to quit my nanny job!”
“When did I say that?”
“Emilia told me everything! She said you told her you were quitting!”
“Well, I'll quit eventually.”
"What?"
“But not now.”
Idun furrowed his eyebrows. “That is, you will leave one day.”
He lowered his head again. “You don't like working for a petty prince like me. I know that."
“Your Highness.”
I looked at him and continued: “Do you remember what I told you before?”
“What do you mean?”
“The weak must be a coward—otherwise he will neither protect himself nor others nor anything.”
“...I remember.”
His eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as he recalled that day.
“But...”
I stared directly into his eyes.
“There is a way.”
"What is it?"
“There is a way to protect everything without becoming a coward.”
Edun slowly raised his head, pleased with the words. “What is it?”
“To become strong.”
"…What?"
Unlike the weak, the strong do not need cowardice.
More precisely: he does not have to.
“Yes, there are strong, cruel, and evil people in this world. But they are not cowards—they need not be.”
I put my palm on his shoulder.
Emma wanted this boy to be happy.
“Happiness, huh.”
Honestly, I don't know the path to happiness.
I dreamed about it one day, and only reaped a miserable ending.
But I know one thing for sure:
“In such a cruel world, the weak cannot afford happiness.”
I looked at the third prince in front of me:
Small, slender body; anxious eyes; An easy prey in anyone's eyes.
“Your highness is weak. As Princess Emilia said.”
"You-!"
“But it's okay.”
"…What?"
“Because I will make Your Highness strong.”
It was not a suggestion, but an announcement.
Edun blinked his large eyes slowly.
“Why?”
A question I did not expect.
“Why do you suddenly say that? "You don't even care what happens to me."
He frowned in confusion.
“A promise is a promise.”
One I cut before someone died, and another yesterday.
“So I will not stray from your highness.”
Even if you order me to leave.
“At least until the day you no longer need me.”
Of course, I will be the one who decides when that will be.
“What are you raving about?”
Idun frowned, not seeming to understand.
Maybe he doesn't remember what happened last night.
“What promise?” And with whom?
“Enough chatter. Let's go back.”
«Come back?» To where?"
“Where do you think?”
I took his hand and pulled it gently.
“We have to calm down Princess Emilia.”
“I'm sorry, Leah. “It was my fault.”
“Hmph!”
“I'm really sorry. Won't you forgive me?
“Hmph!”
Emilia turned her head away when her brother returned.
She was really angry.
“Why don't you forgive His Highness, Princess Emilia? Look how remorseful he looks.”
Catherine pampered her while hugging her, and only then did the princess open her mouth.
“He bullied me like a villain. Why would Leah forgive him?
Idun, kneeling on the grass, broke his face at the word “wicked people.”
This is how he was put in the same basket with Lloyd.
"I'm very sorry. I won't be hard on you again. “Okay?”
“Hmph, hmph!”
“If I bully Leah again, then...”
I interrupted him: “I will discipline His Highness in a manner befitting him.”
“Achel you will?”
Emilia turned, pleased, then frowned again.
«Hmph! Achill is going to leave Leah anyway. That was a lie!
“No, I'm not going anywhere.”
“Achel, are you really going to stay?”
"Yes. "I won't leave."
“Really? You won't leave? "You'll stay by Leah's side?"
"Yes."
“Kyaaah—!”
In an instant, Emilia broke free from Catherine's arms and threw herself on me.
“Your Highness, you're going to hurt yourself like this!”
“Achill, I love you—!”
She wrapped around my neck and hung on me.
For a moment I froze like a stone, then I slowly extended a hand to her back.
This kind of blind affection for no apparent reason is still difficult for me.
But I can't answer it.
I am the one who chose to stay by their side.
“Leah, what about brother?” Idon said with childish harshness.
Emilia nosed her nose as if to be generous: “Okay. Since Achill will stay, I will forgive brother!”
Then Edun squinted her big eyes: “But!” You have to make me flower rings and a flower crown! Otherwise I will not forgive you!
“Ah, good! Wait a minute! "I'll make it right now!"
Idun turned into a rabbit that picked up clover madly.
“Pfft.”
Katherine finally burst out with the laughter she'd been holding in.
“Ha-ha-!”
“What?” Why are you laughing?
I turned my gaze away from the scowling Edun.
Emilia's eyes widened as she whispered, "Achill, you laughed, didn't you?"
"…never. "It didn't happen."
“Not true! You laughed!
"I did not."
«Hmph! Why is everyone laughing?!
That day, Emilia only forgave her brother after he gave the three of us shamrocks.
“How is the Third Prince?”
“As usual. Yesterday he enjoyed viewing the flowers with Her Highness the Princess.”
“What a dull child—playing with flowers like a girl.”
Helena, the Second Imperial Consort, was content as she looked at her shiny nails.
“No crap?”
"no. “No movement.”
“Good. "At least he doesn't do anything to hasten his death."
She looked up from the jewelry box the maid had handed her.
“And as for that nanny? Did you check it?
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The masked man bowed and kneeled.
“Her name is Rachel Brown. She is twenty-one, and entered the palace a month ago.”
“Brown? A noble family?
"Yes. Adopted daughter of a border count. The former nanny provided her with a letter of recommendation to enter the palace.”
“So there is a connection between her and the deceased?”
"Yes. The former governess—also of orphan origin—brokered for Rachel's adoption into the count's household.”
“Hmm.”
An adopted daughter of a lowly frontier nobleman—not even a Crusader daughter.
“And ‘orphan’ too?”
Helena narrowed her eyes.
“Hasn't Velen taken a liking to her?”
She remembered a conversation she had had with her confidant, Countess Velen Katerina, at a recent banquet.
“You don't have to worry about the Third Prince.”
“Why is that?”
“He's the same as he always was.” And the new nanny is “okay.”
“What does ‘it’s okay’ mean?”
“She is polite, does not speak back, and most importantly—her eyes are dead.”
“Dead eyes?”
“You know my hunch is right, right?”
- "naturally. So it doesn't look dangerous?
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Why?”
“The people with those eyes only care about filling their bellies. They do not act for anyone but themselves.”
Velen, who had gone through all sorts of nobles, was an expert at reading people—her words were authoritative.
“Just thinking about the Lloyd incident makes my blood boil, but there is no help.”
She had deliberately instructed her son to forget about it.
“A lowly woman dares to humiliate a prince?”
Helena did not like the Third Prince's governess;
But it was not “anybody”—it was the one whom the Emperor publicly pardoned.
She didn't want to stir up gossip by interfering.
Helena waved her hand as if the thought had made her impatient.
"It is enough. I have no energy to waste on Nabil Karoui's adopted daughter. Go away.”
“At your command, Your Highness.”
The masked man bowed and disappeared like a shadow.
As soon as he was gone, Helena called to her ladies behind the door:
“To me.”
“At your command, Your Highness.”
“I want a break. “Prepare hospitality in the back garden.”
“At once, Your Highness.”
Helena walked ahead of the line of maids into the back garden—
Determined to really relax.
But she didn't know...
Filin's insight will not work on someone who has mastered the art of hiding his truth.