Seriously, it’s not just any random request, but a literal order for me to cry?
I am speechless. I am at a loss for words.’
“Wah, wah.”
‘Pathetic bastard.’
Seriously, I didn’t know until now that it was such a good thing that I couldn’t speak yet. If I could actually speak words he could understand instead of gibberish, I would probably be dead already.
‘Hmm. Hmm.
So you’re not leaving?’
I was sucking on my pacifier while venting my frustrations when the guy looked at me with fascinated eyes.
To think that a guy like this is my father.
Day by day, I realize over and over again that a guy like this is my father. This is a fact that I can’t deny.
‘My life is ruined.’
Anyways, here’s the second fact I learned…
‘This guy seriously doesn’t do any work at all! What kind of Emperor is this?! Even if he’s not actually working, shouldn’t he be out there ruling all those people living in his huge, huge kingdom?’
“Your majesty.”
I didn’t hear any sort of noise before, so upon realizing we were not alone, my eyes grew big as saucers.
Keitel, who had been eyeing my expression, smiled. His expression had always been withered, but then he turned to face the unknown guy with an even more withered expression than usual. All he did was just turn his line of sight, but the knight flinched under his gaze.
As I laid there in my rocking crib, watching the knight with fascinated eyes, I felt it quite odd.
‘No, it’s just that his glare could even terrify a knight!
Are you telling me you gave me, who is only a couple months old, a glare so terrifying that it could even bring a grown man down to his knees?!
You ignorant bastard!’
“The hostages we dragged from Izarta have arrived.”
“Tell Friedel to take care of it.”
He turned his head away as if he had no interest when suddenly, as if remembering something, he turned back.
“No, never mind.”
He smiled as if he suddenly got a good idea. It was closer to a sneer than a smile, as only the ends of his lips lifted. ‘To be able to look mesmerizingly beautiful and absolutely terrifying at the same time, I guess he had the beauty to pull it off.’
“Just shove them all into confinement, I will later take care of them directly.”
“The King of Izarta…”
The knight hadn’t finished talking and so his words trailed off, but apparently, Keitel was no longer interested in what he had to say. He once again turned to look at me. Then, I didn’t have any idea what he thinking, but he gave me the same smile from earlier and held out his hand towards me.
‘Hey- Hey!
I’m scared of you! Can you get away from me?!’
“Just set a day for an execution.”
His voice was colder then any other time he spoke.
It was so cold, it made my skin crawl.
Yet, the way his hand was touching my cheek was gentler than any other time.
I tried to swallow back my fear as he spat out such cold words, yet at the same time, he sweetly patted me as if he was really whispering sweet nothings and not coldly ordering someone’s death.
Keitel laughed at me as if he recognized my reaction. His eyes widened like the full moon and faced me.
“I feel sorry for you. To be born when you don’t even know what kind of person your own father is .”
‘Yes, yes. So you do know!’
“Not that it changes anything.”
‘Ow! Can’t you say that after you truly feel sorry for me? You-!’
Enraged, I made an angry face, but he just simply started patting my head all a sudden.
‘Stop patting me! I’m not your toy!’
“It reminds me of that woman who strived so hard to have you.”
‘Oh, so you do remember her? So you are human after all.’
I looked up at him. He laughed by himself a bit and then he took away all expression from his face.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m a baby, but he would often look at me with this look. With this empty, hollow expression as if he couldn’t feel anything.
“Now, cry.”
‘******* shit!’
‘I seriously don’t cuss easily, but this fucker is seriously something else!’
“Other brats seem to be crying endlessly all the time.”
‘Yeah, technically that is the normal reaction of a baby.’
I nodded as I responded to all his reactions.
Of course, in this guy’s eyes, it just looks like I’m liking everything he’s doing.
‘Wah, wah! Why am I a baby?’
*Sob Sob*
I turned my face away sorrowfully when I heard his serious voice drop from above.
‘I don’t know how a month and a half just passed me by… No, that’s a lie.
I actually do know exactly how it went by down to the smallest detail, but it’s all things I don’t want to remember.
*Whish Whish* Disappear!’
“Around this time it’s always like this. It continues to be warm and sunny but it quickly turns into fall. The leaves will soon be colored and start falling. Then it will suddenly be very cold.”
I don’t know if it is because around this period babies tend to be sensitive to sounds but Cerera tends to talk to me quite a lot. Of course, the crazy Emperor also tends to start talking to me a lot, but that’s just bullshit he keeps mumbling to himself.
‘Shit! When I think of the past half month that I had to endure it pisses me off again.
That son of a dog. It’s not the first time I just wanted to give him a book on parenting babies and scream at him to learn how to actually take care of one.’
“Are you uncomfortable?”
A gentle voice kept talking to me. I squinted up at Cerera.
This is just something I learned recently, but she was not a normal nanny.
No, she was a normal nanny, but she was not a normal person.
Countess Pestrille, that was her official title.
To think a noble Countess came to the royal palace and had to spend her days as nothing more than a mere nanny. When I first realized who she was, I was really surprised.
“Why do you stare so much? Is the outside world that fascinating?”
‘No. It’s you that fascinates me.’
I really did find this 23-year-old Countess fascinating.
‘So, it’s one of those stories…
The Count dies in the war so the Countess, in order to protect her estate and title, decides to serve in the royal palace. What’s also surprising was the fact that the Emperor was the one who suggested her to be a nanny.’
Even though she had to leave her own child behind with her mother, she seemed satisfied with this situation in her own way.
”Our princess is so mild-mannered “
A pitiful smile lingered on her expression. As I said, Cerera had a special skill in making herself look sorrowful and pitiable no matter what she did. The time I first thought of this, I had no idea why she would behave this way. Now that I know her circumstances, I could not find her more pitiful.
‘Sheez,
I feel like crying for some reason.’
“Ahhh~”
“Yes?”
“Ahh~”
I wanted to call her mom, but my tongue wouldn’t move the way it was supposed to so I couldn’t properly pronounce the words. You could think that this is just a baby’s babbling, but Serira got up from her seat and looked me in the eye. Then, she actually listened carefully to my baby talk.
‘She’s so nice.’
So nice to the point that I felt bad, and it made it that much harder for me to depend on her.
“Oh no, something’s in your eye.”
In an instant, my eyes filled up with tears.
‘Did I think of the other world while looking at Cerera?
There was literally no connection between the two. Seriously. I made a depressed expression.
My mom and dad must have been so shocked.
It wasn’t even an accident but murder. A bloody murder.’
The criminal held up a sharpened knife and stabbed me several times. I could still recall the pain of being torn apart. Of course, it freaking hurts but the fact that I never got to say goodbye to my parents before I died was something that hurt even more.
‘Even if I conceded a hundred times and accepted my death as my destiny- You should at least let me say goodbye, God!’
“It’s okay. Don’t cry. Hush…”
I guess she thought that that wouldn’t do because she lifted me up. Unlike two months ago, my body had gotten a lot bigger. I had more hair and I could stay up longer. Also, if nanny laid me down I could lift my own head. I could also flip over, but I admit it takes a lot of effort on my part.
‘Ah!’
Now that I narrated them all out, it was not much to brag about. I felt pitiful that the only things I could brag about were these things, but it’s okay.
‘I refuse to cry!
I am a baby!’
“Elaine will soon bring Mam Mam ( ) then you can eat at that bench. What do you think? Good idea right?”
She looked pretty excited at my first walk. Well, I guess I am too at the prospect of feeling the outside breeze for the first time in my life. There have been chances to go outside in the past but it was only to the terrace.
So what I’m trying to point out is the fact that this is the first time we took an actual stroller out to get some fresh air.
If I had been any normal baby I would go to the hospital to get my shots, visit relatives or follow my mother out frequently on errands. However, my environment was different. At the palace, I had a personal doctor 24 hours a day on the clock ready to treat me, there were no living relatives to visit and Cerera was chosen to serve only me. Therefore, she had no reason to go out on any errands and even if something urgently came up there was a different servant ready at all times.
I feel that they really just like to just wrap me up really tightly. There is no overprotection quite like this.
‘This is seriously overprotection. Okay?’
“Oh, she really must like it.”
I laughed when I met her eyes. When I laughed cheerfully she laughed back. This suit’s her more than that sorrowful expression she always had on.
‘That’s right. She only twenty-three and if the law didn’t prevent it, she could even remarry…
Later, when I grow up and Cerera respects my thoughts, I will suggest that she does so.’ After thinking this over I closed my eyes.
“Ms. Cerera!”
‘Ah, Elaine.’
I must be a real genius since I could recognize her as soon I just heard her voice.
I sighed deeply and opened my eyes.
Cerera rose and I could see Elaine running so rudely towards us.
‘Look at her. Just look at her. Look at the way she’s running, she going to fall for sure. Tsk!’
As I sucked on my pacifier she really did end up falling when she was almost in front of us.
‘Ugh!’
I shouldn’t have jinxed her.
“Waaa~!”
The problem was when she fell, it wasn’t because she tripped on her own feet. Unfortunately, she fell because she bumped into someone.
“Princess Faylene.”
As I heard that sharp voice burst out from behind, I instinctively knew something was going to go down. This frail main female character that collapses after bumping into Elaine was definitely the princess of some kingdom forcibly offered a tribute to Keitel and…
“What kind of rudeness is this?”
It was going to be very complicated.
I can’t even hold up my forehead yet I want to hold it. A sigh automatically came out.
Keitel had several bad hobbies and one of them was taking princesses from fallen kingdoms and shoving them all into his palace where he could play with them.
Yes. ‘Play’ with them.
The thing is I can’t honestly say it was sexual slavery. It wasn’t like he was molesting them or even sexual harassment.
“Are you alright, Princess?! Are you not hurt anywhere?”
Faylene was definitely a name received here. I’m pretty sure she has a different name.
I just sucked on my pacifier.
‘My pacifier.
My pretty pacifier…’
My pacifier had a pink color to its pretty nipple, its texture felt really soft like I was sucking on an actual mom’s breast. Its quality was the best.
“You wrench! How dare you do this! Do you even know of this person’s status?!”
The servant in the back was acting up. Cerera just sighed.
‘Yup, I know.
I understand how you feel nanny.
This is really a time to be sighing.’
Elaine got up slowly and was fretting – not knowing what to do.
‘Anyways, why wasn’t the princess getting up? Was that princess made of Couque d’Asse?’
She didn’t bump into her that hard so I was taken aback and just wondered at this.
However, I didn’t have to wonder long because she lifted her head. Then her beauty was revealed.
She was quite- no, she was very pretty. Her ruffled blue hair shook.
The servant helped her up, lifting her matching blue dress.
Since she was still called a princess after coming here she must be from a great kingdom. If they don’t wish to get killed by Keitel they would have obviously sent a princess from a direct bloodline, or I guess they could have just sent every princess in their kingdom. Anyways, she looked too mature to be considered young, yet her beauty was now just blossoming.
‘So pretty. She’s like a Hollywood star.’
“What is your name?”
The voice was sharp and crossed.
Elaine was unable to answer for she was in tears. She just lowered her head.
‘That idiot. She’s supposed to speak up and start begging.
Doesn’t she know that if she just stood there fidgeting it actually makes the other person want to shout louder?’
My eyes just scrunched up on their own from annoyance. If it was just me at that spot I would just ignore it, but unfortunately, I was just a baby and the one holding me was Cerera. Cerera walked gracefully and quickly arrived at her destination.
“I apologize, Princess.”
She apologized with faultless manners and lifted her head. She was holding me so she must have been uncomfortable, yet she looked flawless.
‘Ah.
Did that Emperor want me to learn these perfect manners, so he chose her as my nanny?
No… It can’t be.’
“My servant has been rude towards you. I beg of you for forgiveness.”
The princess who looked like she was going to fiercely slap her using a third party calmed down a little bit. Elaine sighed so loudly that everyone could see her relief.
‘Was it that scary?
For a servant who greeted the Emperor every day, she sure was gutless. What is she going to do if he decides to pick her? Oh yeah. It’s not like my dad is a normal dad.’
“Who are you?”
Princess Faylene rudely looked her up and down. Her blatant display of disrespect actually irked me. ‘Who are you to look at my nanny like that and judge her like an item?!’ I don’t know if all high standing people are like this, but the pretentious way she looked as she looked over us made me want to kill her. It was a look that seemed to say as if we lacked reason or thoughts but were just an item to be evaluated and priced. ‘Well, I guess I felt this way in my previous life too.’
“Countess Pestrille, Cerera Everlast. I hold the lands of the southern part of Agrigent. I was ordered by his Majesty to take care of Princess Ariadna.”
“Ariadna?”
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T/N I found this quite strange
T/N I had these cookies recently ! They are so good and so crumbly .There vanilla and coffee .You guys should try them at the local Korean grocery store .For those unlucky people who don’t I could try to send you guys some if I set up some payment system….until then you can try to order them
online .They are called Couque d’Asse and it around five bucks a box .^_^