/
The nanny’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, that makes a lot of sense.”
“Wait a minute. That’s a bit… Wouldn’t it be hard on the nanny? I think she’ll get her back going faster if she rests comfortably in a quiet place.”
Ellencia hurriedly intervened, but the nanny insisted on expressing her loyalty.
“I’m fine! It’s okay if my back gets better slowly, so I want to help the princess by her side.”
She had to leave the palace as soon as her back got better. If so, the nanny’s power would come to an end on that day. So she would want to somehow stick to Ellencia and take root in her palace. Even if she stayed in her closet for the treatment, she would never have a chance to exert her influence over the princess.
Philomel stood by the nanny.
“Princess, please allow the nanny to stay that way.”
“That is…”
Then, Ellencia hesitated and glanced sideways at Count Pollan.
“Miss Philomel, wouldn’t you really mind doing that?”
Count Pollan seemed to believe that Philomel was too kind to her to play the part to her detriment.
“Of course. The nanny is just lying here, so what’s the point of her bumping into me? It would be easier for the princess to adapt to life in the imperial palace if she stayed with the nanny.”
“… In that case, I will follow your command. However, as long as the nanny’s stay is prolonged, I will have no choice but to inform His Majesty the Emperor.”, said Count Pollan sternly, looking down at the nanny.
“Thanks Miss Philomel and serve Her Highness the Princess with all your heart and sincerity.”
“Yes, how can I not?”
Count Pollan asked for consent from Elencia this time.
“Is Her Highness okay too?”
“…that is.”
When Elencia didn’t immediately answer, the nanny sniffed out loud. She also added that he would sit on the street when she went out and that she had no family to take care of her.
“…Yes, please do so.”
The kind Ellencia eventually accepted Philomel’s proposal.
“Lady Ellencia, don’t worry. I will be by your side and give you clear guidance so that the princess can acquire the dignity she deserves. Even if she grew up among lowly things, her noble lineage doesn’t go anywhere. I’ll drain all the water from lowly things. “
The nanny who had achieved her wish smirked. She wasn’t talking about Philomel, but when she imagined her nanny’s ‘sure guidance’, she got goosebumps.
After the nanny gave Ellencia her long speech about her princess’s manners, Philomel left with her countess.
‘Ellensia, since you haven’t experienced the nanny care yet, she hasn’t betrayed your naive faith in people.’
Philomel knew the nanny well. She may have been a good nanny when she was young, but she wasn’t now. Even if she was an angel who had come down to earth, she assured her that if she stayed with the nanny for a few days, she would get rid of her crane.
She thought, ‘It’s a bit unfortunate that Ellencia is going to be harassed by the nanny, but it can’t be helped.’
This was all for Elencia’s own sake.
Count Pollan walked beside her and started talking.
“I was once again impressed by the merciful kindness of the princess Philomel.”
“I am no longer a princess.”
“Pardon?”
She just pointed out the obvious, but he was startled.
She said, “The real princess, the real daughter of His Majesty the Emperor, has returned, so I am no longer the princess.”
“Yeah, but if you’re registered with the imperial family, you’ll… Haven’t you heard from His Majesty yet about the enlistment?”
“I heard about it, but I declined.”
“Why? Why did you do that!”
Pollan’s mouth dropped open, as if he was more surprised than before. Philomel was even more surprised by his reaction.
‘Is it really surprising that I refused to register?’
But she was soon convinced. She promised to reap the cuckoo chick that has rolled into someone else’s nest after she had taken the place of their own child. She was so gracious that even a saint would cry. She grabs a passer-by there and asks. If she were asked to choose whether to live as a sinner’s daughter or a princess, how many would choose the former? Not just from Count Pollan’s point of view, but from a general point of view, Philomel’s choice would have blown away her good luck.
But she had no intention of telling him why she didn’t want to be registered. Philomel decided to make the count understand in a different direction.
“It doesn’t make sense to be registered. Have there been any cases like mine in the history of the Belerov Empire?”
“That’s…”
Pollan shut his mouth. As Philomel had said, it was an unprecedented case in the long history of the Empire.
It was his job to bring someone who didn’t have a drop of blood into the Emperor’s hands. Enrollment of the imperial family was usually done for a thoroughly political purpose rather than the will of the person concerned. First, when the emperor had no children worthy of inheriting the throne. There were several cases in which a collateral lineage not far from the direct line was registered to inherit the throne. Second, if they needed to enter into a marriage alliance with a foreign country, but they did not have a suitable child to marry. At that time, the children of the imperial family or high-ranking nobles were formally registered and then married. But no one of those cases was Philomel’s.
In fact, for the same reasons as those two, even if she needed to be registered, Philomel, who was not a member of the imperial family or a noble, could not set foot in the imperial family. Even if Philomel accepted the offer, it was obvious that the nobles would strongly oppose it. She wondered if Eustis, who possessed the mighty imperial authority, pushed ahead with the determination to carry out a large-scale purge.
‘Of course there’s no way.’
Pollan opened his mouth without giving up persuasion.
“Still, it’s not like there aren’t any similar precedents. It is said that the 7th Emperor registered the daughter of a vassal who died while defending him and took it as his daughter. Even though that vassal was a commoner…”
‘When was that story, about 800 years ago?’
Wrinkles formed between Philomel’s eyebrows over the years. At that point, it was the realm of legend, not history. As she rummaged through what she had learned in her history class, something bothered her.
“Wait. Isn’t Eustis the 7th emperor?”
“Yes, it is.”
Adjudication. The royal family, who were not originally emperors, were promoted to emperors by their descendants after death. Usually, when a non-child of an emperor became emperor, the title of emperor was bestowed upon his deceased parents. Although it was nominal, it was to make up for the lack of legitimacy by becoming the son of the emperor.
“Since he wasn’t the emperor during all his lifetime, of course there wouldn’t be much opposition if he took a commoner as his daughter.”
It was a matter of a completely different level from the case of an emperor living and reigning and registering a commoner.
“Well. It’s not that there’s no precedent at all, it’s that good…”
“The evidence seems insufficient.”
“I can’t believe it… I’ve spent three days and nights trying to find it…”
Count Pollan rubbed his bright eyes and cried.
‘You did a good job of excavating an anecdote from the days when there was not much material left.’
It was easy to draw Count Pollan, who must have struggled with the old records in the archives of the Imperial Palace Library.
“Why did you go so far?”, asked Philomel, who felt a little sorry for him.
“I posted that it was unprecedented, and His Majesty told me to bring it by any means. I searched all night and couldn’t find it. I couldn’t go back home, so it’s been over five days since I saw my daughter’s face.”
Philomel expressed hers silent condolences to the father of a three-year-old. But it was something Count Pollan fell for the emperor’s recklessness.
‘I have to do something.’
It seemed that she would have to meet the emperor in person and negotiate. Before the poor Count Pollan made history that really didn’t exist. But she had work to do first.
“Count Pollan. No, Count.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Although Philomel had given up her late title, Count Pollan had not yet given up hope of her being registered and treated her as his princess.
‘For now, let’s just let him do what he wants.’
Instead, Philomel spoke out what she wanted.
“I want to meet my real mother. Please take me to the prison where she is kept.”
There was someone she had to meet before leaving that place. That was Philomel’s biological mother, Catherine Hounds.
Catherine’s story came this morning from Countess Deles. They eat and chat together, when she brings up her words about a recent sighting on her side.
“Well, I happened to pass by and saw a woman being dragged out of His Majesty’s office. It was so terrifying to see the blood dripping from her hands.”
“… Do you remember what the woman looked like?”
“Well, she kept her head down, so I didn’t see anything except that her hair was brown. The maids there said the emperor was very angry. What crime did she commit? I’m afraid.”
A woman with brown hair.
During that time, she was a person who committed a crime worthy of being directly brought before the emperor.
It was the nanny who appeared shortly thereafter that embodied on her side what had been nothing more than a dim light.
“Oh, that should look like the controller in prison…”
The nanny, who couldn’t get up because of her back sprained, said so. It was a grumble that bordered on talking to oneself, but Philomel heard it clearly. Catherine, the woman who gave birth to Philomel was in the palace.
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Translator Note:
Am I the only one that thought, for a moment at least, that Philomel wanted the nanny to stay in the palace to take revenge? I must be a really bad person.