Chapter 4

The woman, with her brown hair neatly tied up, was clearly looking at me.

“I’m Princess Rebecca’s nanny, Giselle.”

Strangely enough, the nanny seemed to have no intention of holding the child.

“I see.”

At that time, the maid who read my expression approached me with a smile.

“We’ll hold her for you, Lady Leona.”

With a very different expression and voice than before.

My forehead naturally frowned because they gave me a friendly feeling.

“What?”

The faces of those people, who flocked around me as if they were forming a circle, were strange. Their eyes were twinkling.

People, who smile, are scarier. As I was feeling uneasy, Rebecca, who was still in my arms, stretched out her arms to the maid.

I had no choice but to let the child go to the maid’s arms.

Worried about me holding her again, Rebecca wrapped her legs around the maid’s waist.

“Boo Hoo~ How dare you touch me!”

“Of course I’ll touch you. It’s still too early for you to be happy for being able to escape from my arms once, Rebecca.”

When Rebecca went down to the floor, she stuck her tongue out and quickly ran through the dolls, then burrowed herself into one of the rabbit dolls.

Nobody stopped her as if it was a familiar sight.

“From now on, if you let ‘that’ thing come close to me, I’ll kill you all.”

Don’t worry, ‘that’ thing has no intention of coming close to you.

After looking at Rebecca, who was throwing a tantrum, I slowly swerved my gaze at the room.

There was a long table that didn’t suit the child’s taste inside the room.

Then I sat down at the table that was piled up with the books that Rebecca would never touch during her leisure time.

I didn’t do anything in particular.

I just wanted to see how stubborn Rebecca is. That’s how the time passed by.

Perhaps she thought that I was going to hug her again, so Rebecca kept burrowing herself inside the rabbit doll and didn’t come out for a long time. Because of that, the room was filled with nothing but terrible silence.

After a long time passed, Giselle approached the rabbit doll and kneeled.

“Miss, how about coming out now? It’s hot in there.”

“Quiet! How dare you order me around! Do you want to be kicked out?”

A brusque voice streamed through the rabbit doll.

“However….”

“More than that, nanny. I’ll stay here until ‘that’ gets out of my room! I’m so annoyed, and I’m in a bad mood!”

“Oh, no…..You have to eat, Miss. What if you get a fever?”

“Just leave me alone.”

As I watched it, I casually took a book that was piled up on the table and opened it.

“How can you say that, Miss? It’s not that I was worried about you, but…..”

“If you weren’t worried, you wouldn’t care whether she went out or not.”

The nanny, who was trying to get the child out of there, stared at me keenly.

“If you’re trying to raise a child by spoiling her like that, she’ll only grow worse.”

If you do everything that she asks for, there will be no end. In the end, it’s not for the child’s sake, but only a shortcut to destroy the child.

“….You sound as if you really become the princess’ mother.”

The nanny’s body, which was reacting sharply like a hedgehog, slowly turned towards me.

“First of all, that was indeed my duty. Even if you’re her nanny, it would be great if you follow what I said.”

It was difficult to refuse my orders as long as the Duke branded me as the ‘mother’ of the princess. She knew about that, which made the nanny’s face become red.

The nanny, who was gritting her teeth, finally took a step back.

Soon enough, the icy sensation lodged in my head. Ignoring her gaze, I pretended to read the book thoroughly.

Meanwhile, the wind blew gently through the door that was slightly open.

Thanks to that, the pages of the book that I was looking at went over and over again.

It’s a tranquil time that only I could feel. The maids around me asked several times about bringing tea in order to get out of this situation, but I only spent my free time ignoring their words.

Eventually, Rebecca couldn’t endure it anymore. As one of the piled-up dolls fell, Rebecca pulled out her head from the doll.

“Enough! Why aren’t you going yet? Open the window! It’s hot. Hot!”

After being together for a short time, I already felt intense fatigue.

As I looked around, I was amazed by the appearance of the maids who refused to give up even when they were worn out.

I can feel how much they had suffered all this time.

So I stopped the maid who went to open the window right away.

“No. Don’t open the window. It’s easy to catch a cold if you open the window in this cold weather.”

“Hey!”

After ‘that’, ‘that thing’, and ‘get lost’, is it ‘hey’ this time?

Rebecca’s face was revealed more than before. I could see that her eyebrows and bangs were completely soaked in sweat.

The more she made a fuss, the stronger I would teach her a lesson.

As if I couldn’t hear her tantrums.

“Now it’s time for a meal. I don’t think the child wants to eat, so bring mine.”

“Yes? B-But…”

It was the nanny who stopped me again this time.

“That’s enough. Are you trying to tease the princess?”

Leaving the bewildered maids behind, the nanny’s face stiffened.

I almost nodded when she asked me if I’m trying to tease Rebecca.

“Tease her? No. I’m just trying to teach her properly.”

“What do you mean? It sounds like you’re trying to say I didn’t properly take care of the miss?”

The nanny’s tone gradually increased.

Then, as if she finally exploded after enduring her anger, Rebecca made a commotion again.

“Nanny! Get out! If not, I’m going to collapse here! Huh?”

“A truly sick child doesn’t threaten to be sick.”

“You don’t know anything about Miss Rebecca!”

Eventually, the nanny, who was unable to withstand Rebecca’s urging, screamed at me. Only then did the child stare at me with a nod.

“I don’t know anything. But I am sure of one thing, you are the most responsible as to why the child behaves like that. I’m sure the Duke brought you in because you’re competent and entrusted his child to you.”

Her lips trembled because she couldn’t refute my words.

“I believe you are competent. Because you’ve been taking care of another family’s child all this time. But because you’re competent, you wouldn’t be able to admit that your parenting method was wrong. You must have known it’s wrong.”

Unknowingly, my eyes narrowed.

A child may not be able to change the nature that they were born with, but they can change their character while growing up.

It depended on the caregiver’s parenting method. This is why I was even angrier.

‘If it wasn’t for that woman, it wouldn’t have escalated this far.’

The nanny, who had been listening to me, lit up her eyes, her face flaming red.

“The master has completely entrusted her to me! I’m proud to raise her properly.”

“Not anymore. So if you’re going to refute my words, get out.”

“Ha? You’re asking me to leave when I was the one who raised the princess ever since she was a baby?”

Her lips were trembling incessantly, unable to control her feelings. So I just nodded to her.

“Yes. If you don’t follow what I said, get out of here.”

“…That word, you’ll regret it.”

“Maybe. But if you truly want to make Rebecca feel better, even for a little bit, you must get out. If you don’t get out even after I said this, I’ll consider you as someone who wants Rebecca to be in a mess more than anyone else.”

After that remark, the nanny’s fierce expression didn’t falter.

Rather, she moved past me and looked at Rebecca, who was inside the rabbit doll. There was no particular conversation between the two, but I felt a strange atmosphere.

Considering Rebecca’s personality, she would be annoyed, but strangely the child only kept eye contact with the nanny for a long time without saying anything.

“Miss, do you really want me to go out?”

‘Was it because of her words, or was it because the nanny’s gaze emphasized something unspoken?’

Rebecca pulled her head out completely after a long time.

“Why are you trying to kick my nanny out! You get out! You get out!”

“If you want me to go out, you have to talk to me properly, Rebecca. I’m your mother.”

“Mom? As if! Get lost!”

“You need to say ‘I sincerely ask you to leave’. If you do so, I’ll get out. And if you don’t want me to drive your nanny away, you need to ask me properly. You need to get out of there and say that to me.”

Rebecca’s appearance somehow overlapped with mine, who grew up in an orphanage. With countless children I met there. So I was even more determined.

Now that Rebecca has enjoyed everything, she has to learn how to give up.

‘At least for Rebecca’s future. No, it was for my future.’

I glanced at Rebecca, who didn’t respond to my question, then moved my gaze towards the door.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the answer I wanted from the child. So you can get out now, nanny. Unless you want to get dragged out.”

“…Who do you think I am? I was the nanny of this family for more than five years! I’m a much higher aristocrat than you!”

Eventually, the nanny blew up, and instead of going out, she stood right in front of me.

She was so furious as though she was going to do something right away, but she only stared at me dryly.

Of course, she looked down at me because I was sitting down, and I looked up to her.

“Are you sure you won’t regret what you just said?”

I shook off her hand, which was holding me, with all my strength.

“What?”

“You don’t realize that if you disregard me, you’re disregarding the duke who chose me to be the mother of Princess Rebecca, do you?”

“Are you trying to blackmail me with that? What a joke. I guess you don’t understand the situation right now?”

While snorting, she gritted her teeth and lowered her head towards me.

“If you really want to live in this house and be treated like a madam, then wake up. A lady of a noble family, huh? If you just listen to me, you can enjoy everything you want like everyone else.”

Are you underestimating me? The nanny snickered and put her hand over my head.

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