Chapter 5
“Goodness, Princess, you’ve made a mess.”
Even after watching me spit it out, tongue and all, right before her eyes, she still had the nerve to call it a mess.
It wasn’t that Lenny was clueless. She was pretending.
“Come now, open wide again. Aah~”
I turned my head sharply with a distinct swish, refusing the spoon that came hovering toward my lips once more.
“That’s strange. I thought you were hungry.”
“Abubu!”
I buried my face into the blanket and smacked it with both hands.
My stomach rumbled, but the thought of having to eat something so awful made tears of frustration well up.
“What’s wrong? Is the porridge strange—”
“Uu!”
I nodded vigorously, agreeing with Lenny’s own suspicion.
“But it tastes fine to me.”
Lenny dipped her spoon into the porridge and tasted it herself, tilting her head in puzzlement.
“……”
‘She’s definitely lost her sense of taste.’
I didn’t know what ingredients she’d used, but it was an ominous shade of green, like boiled grass water. Even by sight alone, anyone could tell it wouldn’t taste good.
“Well, I’ll feed the prince first, then. I’ll leave yours here in case you get hungry later.”
When I adamantly refused another bite, Lenny quickly shifted her target to Lucas.
“Prince, you must be hungry too. Say aah~”
“Aah.”
“Good, now gulp it down.”
Lucas obediently swallowed the mysterious green slop as it entered his mouth.
He really swallowed that?
Was he so busy drooling all the time he’d let his sense of taste drip away too?
I shuddered at the memory of that one mouthful.
“Isn’t it delicious?”
Lenny’s mood brightened when Lucas swallowed, and she eagerly scooped up another spoonful to bring to his lips.
“Uwek.”
But just as she thought it had gone well, Lucas suddenly threw it all up.
“Oh my goodness! Oh dear!”
Lenny hastily set the bowl down on the table, grabbed a cloth from the bedside drawer, and began wiping Lucas’s clothes and mouth.
“Whew.”
I let out a heavy sigh, silently confirming my suspicions about Lenny’s culinary judgment.
“Lenny, what’s wrong? Oh no, Prince!”
Silvia, who had briefly stepped out, rushed back in and was horrified to see the mess on Lucas’s front.
“Lenny! What did you feed His Highness?!”
Snatching the cloth from Lenny’s hand, Silvia began carefully wiping Lucas’s mouth.
“I… I just thought he might be hungry, so I brought him some porridge… but neither of them would eat it…”
Lenny spoke with a downcast face, glancing toward the bowl on the table.
“This is supposed to be porridge?”
“Yeah. Doesn’t it look tasty?”
“Puweeeng!”
Lucas scrunched his face and whimpered toward Silvia.
It must have been truly vile for even that baby to cry so miserably.
Silvia quickly changed Lucas’s clothes, then fetched a milk bottle from the kitchen and placed it in his mouth. Lucas clung to the bottle desperately, trying to wash away the taste left by the porridge.
“Uu!”
I waved my hands at Silvia, who then gave me a bottle as well.
“Don’t tell me… you made this yourself?”
“Yeah! I ground up some oatmeal.”
As if curious, Silvia picked up the bowl to taste the porridge Lenny had made.
I sucked at my bottle and silently shook my head, warning her not to do it.
“Guh!”
The moment she took a single spoonful, Silvia clapped a hand over her mouth and forcibly swallowed the slop.
Then, she grimaced and alternated glances between Lenny and the bowl.
“Lenny.”
“Yeah?”
“You said you ground oatmeal, so why is it green?”
“Isn’t it supposed to be this color?”
Lenny blinked innocently, looking genuinely baffled.
Even I was at a loss for words.
‘That was oatmeal? I thought she boiled weeds or something.’
“From now on, never make anything with your own hands again.”
“But I just wanted to make a porridge filled with love for the princess…”
“If you want to keep working as the princess’s nanny, it’s best you don’t entertain those thoughts ever again.”
“…Okay.”
Thanks to Silvia, I had narrowly escaped what felt like a direct threat to my life.
***
While busily adjusting to life as a baby, she realized that seven months had passed since she and Lucas were born.
They had been born in a snowy winter, and now the lush greenery showed it was summertime. Half a year had already slipped by.
At seven months old, she had mastered crawling.
“Our little princess is going to wear her knees out.”
Lenny always fretted whenever she saw the princess drop onto the floor, crawling so much it seemed calluses would soon form on her knees.
She had even gone as far as to make padded knee protectors stuffed with cotton.
“Princess, even if it feels stuffy, you mustn’t take these off, all right?”
“Kka-u!”
“You answer so well, you’re just too precious, truly.”
It wasn’t her fault if the protectors slid off on their own while she was crawling around anyway.
“Now then, be careful as always today.”
After fastening the protectors onto the princess’s knees, Lenny set her down on the floor.
“Uwoo!”
Alright, time for another day of dashing around the princess’s palace.
“Princess! Wait for me!”
“Uttata!”
She was the wild foal, no, the princess, racing through this grand palace.
Udada, udada.
Before Lenny had even finished getting ready to follow, the princess was already wriggling her tiny bottom, stirring the hem of her dress as she crawled out of the room.
Perhaps because she had been confined to the palace in her past life, she couldn’t yet walk, but she loved roaming open, wide spaces.
As she left her room and was about to turn at the end of the hallway—
Thunk.
She crashed into something solid, like an ancient tree trunk, and tumbled over.
“Ugyak!”
No, not a tree, but a pair of firm, sturdy legs, straight as if grown from the earth itself.
“Princess!”
Lenny, who had been chasing after her, shouted in alarm and quickly scooped her up.
“Princess, are you all right? Who could be moving about the princess’s palace so carelessly?!”
Lenny’s voice was sharp and furious as she scolded the other party.
“Oh my, I greet the princess.”
“Ddaa?”
Even though she was dizzy and sprawled from the fall, a smooth, low voice gently entered her ears.
“I didn’t notice you on the floor, crawling about like a pill bug.”
‘A… a pill bug?’
That pleasant voice had made her dazed for a moment, but now she snapped to attention.
‘Have you ever seen a pill bug this adorable and precious?’
Who did this audacious person think they were, calling her that!
“Unyaa!”
Still nestled in Lenny’s arms, she turned her head to see the face of the impudent man.
The moment she spun around with a sharp flick and their eyes met—
“Waa…”
She, indeed, became a pill bug.
Long, crimson hair that shimmered down his back, sun-kissed bronze skin, and cool blue eyes that shone like a winter sea. His face was so strikingly handsome it could captivate even an infant’s aesthetic sense.
“Princess, your, your nose…!”
“…”
Huh? Her nose?
She reached up with a short arm to wipe beneath her nose, and a damp sensation met her fingertips.
When she pulled her hand away to check, it was streaked with bright red blood.
“A handkerchief, quickly!”
Flustered, Lenny pulled a handkerchief from her dress pocket and pressed it against the princess’s nose.
Frowning at the sudden nosebleed, the princess kept her gaze fixed on the man’s face, and her thoughts stopped short.
‘That face is criminal.’
Even standing quietly, his looks alone were impossible to ignore. How had she never seen such a face in her past life?
Heat rushed to her face, and the nosebleed, which had just begun to slow, started gushing once more.
“Oh dear, why is it bleeding again!”
“Why is she having a nosebleed all of a sudden? She must’ve been crawling too recklessly, like a real pill bug.”
Despite that absurdly good-looking face, his words were as unpleasant as ever.
“Sir Baumann! How could you say such a thing to the princess!”
‘Baumann?’
A memory surfaced. In her past life, there had indeed been a Captain of the Imperial Guard named Baumann.
He had been the very one to drag her out on the day she was imprisoned.
‘Could it be just someone with the same name?’
He looked nothing like the man she remembered. Had something happened in the meantime?
Just as a trace of suspicion flickered in her eyes, Lenny’s sharp voice rang out again.
“Apologize to the princess at once!”
Startled, the princess turned to look. Baumann’s face had turned red as he met Lenny’s fierce gaze.
“……”
The princess watched them both with half-lidded eyes, alternating between Lenny and the man called Baumann.
“Do you not hear me, Sir?”
“…My apologies, Nursemaid. I misspoke.”
Though he’d spoken so rudely to her, the moment Lenny scolded him, Sir Baumann immediately lowered his head and apologized.
“You’re not supposed to apologize to me, you should apologize to the princess!”
“To the princess as well…”
“……”
‘Is that what you call an apology?’
He bowed politely to Lenny, but to her, it was a grudging, perfunctory mutter.
“I should be on my way back.”
“Then allow me to escort you to your room, Princess.”
“You, Sir? Why?”
Lenny stared at Baumann with genuine confusion. They were still within the princess’s palace, what was the need for an escort?
She stared openly at him, and he, blushing further, met her gaze.
“…Sniff.”
The princess deliberately sniffled loudly, breaking the awkward atmosphere.
“Oh no! Princess, your nosebleed hasn’t stopped yet, let’s get you back quickly.”
Lenny, paying no further mind to Baumann, adjusted her hold on the princess and turned to go.
‘No. I can’t just leave him like this.’
This might be the chance to keep that man, who had once stood beside her father, closer to her side in this life.
“Attata.”
The princess glanced up at Lenny, then boldly wiped the blood beneath her nose with her palm and beckoned to Baumann.
“…..?”
“Princess?”
Both Baumann and Lenny looked at her in puzzlement.
“Ddaa.”
‘Good grief, both of you are hopelessly slow.’
Once again, she gestured firmly toward Baumann.
“Datta.”
“……”
Finally catching on, Baumann approached the princess.
As he neared, she waved her hand again, as if signaling for him to lower his head.
Without a word, but somehow understanding her intent, Baumann bent his head toward her.
Then the princess, still carrying the blood from her nosebleed on her palm, pressed it squarely against Baumann’s face.
You’re mine now.
