A Stormy Night (1)
"Giddyup! Giddyup!"
"Neigh-h-h."
I was a horse.
A four-legged beast of burden—a horse.
"Rayche, go right!"
"Neigh-h."
A steed of peerless caliber, ready to charge down sheer cliffs at its master's bidding.
"Now spin! Round and round!"
"Neigh-h."
At this very moment, I was not a human being. I was a horse.
"N-Nanny?"
Catherine gaped in utter horror as she watched me crawling across the floor on all fours with the imperial princess perched proudly on my back.
"Hi, Catherin! Say hello to my horsie."
"Ah... g-greetings, Nanny—er, Sir Horse?"
The fact that she actually bowed just because a child told her to proved she was no ordinary woman either. What kind of person formally greets a horse in the first place?
"Rayche, say hello back!"
How on earth is a horse supposed to return a human greeting?
My self-hypnosis nearly shattered, but I quickly caught myself and cleared my throat.
"Neigh-h."
"Oh, Nanny..." Catherine murmured, looking at me with eyes full of sorrowful pity.
Dammit. The fact that I had to endure pity over something like this was uniquely humiliating. It was irritating enough on its own—
"Bwahahaha!"
Though what rankled even more was that wretched young prince howling with laughter.
After a hearty bout of amusement, Edwin's lips twitched upward as a mischievous idea crossed his mind.
"Lia!"
"What, Brother?"
"I heard your horse knows how to do tricks. Is that true?"
"Twicks?"
"Yeah. You know, rearing up on its hind legs and waving its front hooves around."
"Uh-huh! Of course she can!"
Emilia tugged at the hair on either side of my head like reins. "Rayche, do twicks! Do twicks!"
Tricks?
Did she just dare command the head of the continent's top assassination syndicate to perform parlor tricks?
"Rayche! If you don't listen, Lia's gonna spank you!"
Even a master assassin had no desire to be spanked on the bottom by a five-year-old in front of an audience. Resigning myself to my fate, I recalled my sacred duty as a beast of burden and threw both arms toward the ceiling.
"Neigh-h-h!"
"Oh, Nanny..."
Catherine's gaze of deep, agonizing sympathy made my face burn.
Yet the trials of an imperial prince's nanny were far from over.
Childcare is definitely hard labor. Anyone who claims raising children is easier than real work ought to be hung upside down and repeatedly dunked into an icy mountain stream. I'd rather stake out a swamp for two weeks straight.
Once the horseback riding came to an end, I took Emilia to the grand bathhouse to wash up.
"Your Highness, you need to lift your arms."
"No! Lia's ticklish!"
She needed to finish her bath if we were going to make dinner on time, but whether she cared about her nanny's scheduling anxieties was another matter entirely. Emilia clamped her arms tightly against her sides and shook her head with stubborn resolve.
"No! I don't wanna! Lia just wants to play in the water!"
There was no helping it. It was time to deploy my secret weapon.
"Your Highness."
"Huh?"
"Look here."
I reached into my apron pocket, produced a small sweet, and waved it above my head. The moment she caught sight of the wrapper, Emilia's blue eyes lit up.
"Candy!"
She thrust both arms straight up into the air to grab the treat. Not about to let the opening slip by, I instantly swiped the bath sponge right under her arms.
"Eeeek! It tickles—!"
Splash—!
Unable to endure the tickling, the princess flailed her arms, spraying a massive wave of water that left me looking like a half-drowned rat.
"Oh, Rayche took a bath too! When did you do that?"
"...Just a moment ago, Your Highness."
Wringing the water from my soaked hair with a resigned sigh, I dried Emilia thoroughly from head to toe.
After the ordeal of the bath came study time.
Edwin received lessons from a visiting tutor who came by once a week, but Emilia did not. By imperial tradition, the early education of a young princess was entrusted entirely to her nanny. Only upon turning twelve would a noblewoman from a prominent lineage be invited to instruct her in the virtues and scholarship expected of highborn ladies. Thanks to that custom, Emilia's education fell squarely on my shoulders.
"Rayche, what does this word mean?"
Fortunately, the previous nanny seemed to have done a fine job teaching her the imperial script. Emilia had taken to reading fairy-tale books on her own and would occasionally ask me about unfamiliar vocabulary.
"Which one, Your Highness?"
"This one!"
Emilia pointed a chubby finger at a phrase printed in the corner of a page.
"......"
"Lia's daddy is the Emperor, so what's an Emperor of the Night? Are there two Emperors?"
The problem was that she would occasionally bring me bizarre reading material and put me in deeply awkward positions. I glanced down at the book's cover and let out a weary sigh.
"Did you take this from the maids in the annex again?"
"Uh-huh! Catherin was reading it, and the cover was so pretty that I borrowed it!"
Emilia proudly displayed the luridly decorated cover for my inspection.
"Your Highness, this book is still far too difficult for you. Let us choose another."
"Huh? Why? But this one's pretty."
"Come, let us go pick a different book."
Of all the things she could have picked up, it had to be an adult romance novel. I couldn't very well lecture Catherine, a grown woman, on her private reading tastes either.
"Awh-h-h."
Tucked beneath my arm like a bundle of luggage as I carried her away, Emilia pouted with a glum expression.
"Then when can Lia read this book?"
"A very long time from now."
"Then what's an Emperor of the Night? Lia wants to know!"
"...A man who is powerful at night is called an Emperor of the Night."
Emilia tilted her head in confusion, trying to piece the logic together.
"Then is Lia's daddy an Emperor of the Night too?"
"...How on earth did you arrive at that conclusion?"
"Daddy's the Emperor, so he's the strongest in the whole wide world! That means he must be strong at night too, right?"
"I wouldn't know, Your Highness."
Dammit, how am I supposed to know anything about the Emperor's virility? I had zero curiosity on the matter and even less desire to find out. The mere thought made my stomach churn.
"Why does Rayche always say you don't know? Are you doing that 'cause you think Lia won't understand? Lia's not a dummy!"
Unsatisfied with my answer, Emilia puffed out her rosy cheeks in protest. Pushed into a corner, I blurted out the first irresponsible excuse that came to mind.
"Next time you meet His Majesty, you may ask him directly."
"Oh! That's a great idea! Okay!"
It felt like a terribly cruel trick to play on the sovereign of an empire, but it hardly mattered. By the time the Emperor ever bothered to set foot in this palace, Emilia would have forgotten all about the question anyway.
The daily routine of an ordinary nanny was dizzyingly frantic. While the princess napped, I tidied her bedchambers and gathered the soiled laundry to drop off at the washhouse. Once clean garments were fetched, I had to wake the princess and see to the children's meals.
Mealtimes were always an uphill battle with Edwin. Just when his picky eating habits seemed to improve, he would inevitably relapse. Only recently, he had secretly tried to dispose of some rare, expensive fresh oysters, earning himself a ferocious scolding from Catherine.
That was the first time I realized that woman was capable of anger.
Catherine, who also acted as the palace cook, was uncompromising when it came to meals.
"When I was young, my family was so destitute that every scrap of food was precious. I simply cannot stand by and watch good food go to waste."
It was an unassailable argument. At any rate, after hearing that impassioned speech, Edwin never left a single scrap on his plate whenever Catherine was in the room—an extraordinary miracle in itself.
Once the chaos of dining subsided, it was time to put the children to bed. Edwin was relatively accustomed to sleeping on his own, but Emilia was another matter entirely. She refused to close her eyes unless someone remained at her bedside until she was sound asleep.
She was truly a peculiar child. For someone like me, having someone watching over me while I tried to sleep would banish every trace of drowsiness in an instant.
"Rayche, pat my chest!"
Emilia's small voice called out from beneath the bedcovers. Clearly, she had no intention of falling asleep tonight either unless I stayed glued to her side.
As the night deepened, the weather took an ominous turn. Heavy, bruised storm clouds blanketed the sky, and before long, rain began to pour in sheets.
Emilia, the sole princess of the empire, lay tucked in her bed, gazing out the window with an anxious expression. Just as her nanny, Rachel, moved to snuff out the lamp to conclude the day, small fingers caught her sleeve.
"Rayche, um... can't we leave the light on?"
Rachel paused at the young girl's plea.
In the imperial palace, all lights had to be extinguished at bedtime regardless of status. It was meant to conserve oil, of course, but above all, it was to prevent fire. If an errant blaze broke out and claimed the life of an imperial royal, the consequences would be dire.
"As you wish."
Reading the desperate plea in the princess's wide eyes, Rachel withdrew her hand from the lantern, allowing its warm, golden glow to continue filling the room.
Emilia blinked in astonishment, clearly not expecting her request to be granted so easily.
"Is it weally okay? Emma always said the light had to go out evewy single night."
"She had a rather rigid way of doing things."
"Huh? Rayche, what'd you say?"
"It is nothing, Your Highness."
Muttering softly under her breath, the nanny pulled the duvet up over the princess and gently patted her chest. The motion was entirely mechanical. Yet, curiously enough, that steady, rhythmic cadence lulled Emilia into a sudden, overwhelming drowsiness.
Just as the little princess began drifting away into the world of dreams, a quiet farewell followed her.
"Rest well, Your Highness."
Whispering the low bedtime parting, the nanny withdrew as silently as a ghost. Behind her, the small lantern continued to cast its steadfast, protective light over the princess's room.
Rumble—!
A blinding streak of azure lightning tore across the heavens alongside howling wind and driving rain. It was a ferocious, tempestuous night.
Whoosh—!
The bitter gale swept against the palace walls, and a sharp draft forced its way through a crack in the window frame. In a single breath, the little lamp was snuffed out.
As if waiting for that very cue, an ear-splitting crack of thunder reverberated through the darkness.
"Eek!"
Jolted awake by the deafening boom, Emilia's eyes snapped open. Pitch darkness surrounded her.
"I-It's dark..."
The little princess rubbed her eyes and looked frantically around the room. Across the bedchambers, far from where she lay, the lantern held nothing but a wisp of smoldering wick.
"Lia's s-scared..."
Sniffling through tears, Emilia climbed down from the bed.
There were only two things in the entire world that the cheerful little princess feared above all else: the dark, and the roar of thunder.
"Sniffle..."
Thunderclaps crashing through the blackness of night were terrifying beyond endurance. Emilia scrambled as far from the window as she could, curling into a trembling ball in the darkest corner of the wall.
"Ugh... Lia's all alone, and it's so scary..."
Paralyzed by terror, the frightened child could not even summon the voice to call for help.
Right then—
Knock, knock.
"Your Highness, are you still awake?"
A calm, familiar voice echoed from beyond the door.
It was her nanny, Rachel.