Guardians of the Prince

Chapter epilogue

“Lady Nanny. …Lady Kohme.”

There was a voice from the other side of the door.

Pulling my body out to make an appearance from under my writing desk, I replied.

“Oh yes, come in! Ow–”

I hit my head.

“Are you alright?” asked Taval, his old face clouded with worry, as he opened the door to my private chambers.

His magnificent white hair was pulled back into a bun, and he looked wild somehow, like a ronin from a historical play. He was in charge of Shiz Cagna, and actually wore perfectly orthodox suits.

“I’m fine, just looking for something… Oh, it’s about tomorrow’s dinner party, right? I’ll come right down.”

I quickly checked myself in the full-length mirror in the corner of the room, and put a bonnet on my head.

It was a little white bonnet that tied at the chin, part of the maid and nanny uniform. The nanny one had a bit of a colorful pattern. After that I had a navy blue pinafore-style dress over a white blouse, and a white apron.

Mr Taval and I strode down the hallways, headed towards the kitchens. The King and Lady Solamire were coming for a stay starting tomorrow, so we were having a meeting with the head chef.

It had been two months since I’d come to stay at Shiz Cagna. The work of a nanny was totally different from what I’d imagined. In Japan they were almost like housewives, as far as I knew, doing housework and child-rearing duties, but here it was totally different.

I was the one who looked after the prince’s meals, but professional chefs actually made them. I was the one who helped the prince change his clothes, but the ones who washed them were the maids.

And of course, the prince and I didn’t just strip down and get into the bath together anymore. I washed myself separately while the prince was bathing. I was uneasy about that at first, somehow.

If you’re wondering what on earth the nurse actually did, it turned out I was some kind of supervisor, over the chef and the maids!

The post of wetnurse bore responsibility for everything related to the prince in Lady Solamire’s place, and it was the number two position at Shiz Cagna. Appalling!

Except, it’s not like they could employ a random member of the general public, so I got a lot of help from Mr Taval and his wife, who were actually in charge.

Until the prince and I came, this second palace was used as a holiday villa for the royal couple, or a reception hall where guests from foreign countries would stay, but it was all run by Mr Taval and his wife. One part of the palace was open to the public too, as a museum, where they exhibited treasures and paintings that told the story of the royal family’s history, and the Tavals were in charge of that too. They were already incredibly old, but they were amazingly powerful.

And then, the people of the village who lived down the hill from the palace got in the habit of calling it The Prince’s Palace. I was overjoyed that they’d welcomed us so kindly.

Winter was approaching in Vio Rizonna. The first snow had finally fallen yesterday.

And then this morning, when I had looked out from the hallway over the beautifully manicured garden, the snow had left a faint, beautiful layer of decoration over the greenery. Through the trees that ringed the garden, a small lake and an orchard were visible. The cold air stung my skin, but today looked like it was going to be clear skies.

“What was it you were looking for? Maybe I could help you with something.”

Mr Taval asked, so I answered with a bitter smile.

“Ah, it was just… It was a letter I wrote to my younger sisters.”

I’d written letters addressed to Nanao and Koaya, and now I carried them around with me always. Recently, the prince had begun to study Shin, and so we’d been learning together, and writing letters.

After all, Kahzapka could cross space and time right, so he could go to Japan probably. Maybe I was asking too much, but maybe I’d have the opportunity to give my letters to Nanao and Koaya somehow. I wanted to cling to that possibility, no matter how small.

Maybe Nanao’s Shin name had actually reached her. I’d put it in the bouquet that I’d tossed to her that day. So as long as I wrote the addressee’s seal properly, maybe I could write the body of the letter in Japanese…? So with that in mind, I wrote letters both ways, with and without Japanese in them.

And now I couldn’t find either one of them. I really wondered where they had gotten to. Had the prince maybe hidden them somewhere?

“So this is where you go off to.”

A guard with dark green eyes had rushed over from the garden. I stopped short with a smile on my face.

“Mr Kahzam!”

He greeted Mr Taval and I, lifting his hat a bit. He was wearing the standard guards’ uniform, with a tall black stand-up collar.

Jeez, I was seriously surprised. Mr Kahzam had barely waited a few days before chasing after us, after the prince and I had first come to Shiz Cagna.

He’d come to say hello to me in the prince’s room after taking up his new post, and according to him, “Lady Solamire kindly praised me for my part in resolving the recent incidents, and… She asked me if there was any specific thing I wanted, so I blurted out that I’d been hoping to work at Shiz Cagna. I got so busy with the transfer, I’m sorry I didn’t let you know.”

But… Was it okay to suddenly ditch Lady Solamire like this? I started to get worried.

“What did Lady Solamire say?” I asked, and Mr Kahzam looked away a little.

” ‘Oh, so it’s like that is it? Give it your best,’ were, I believe, her exact words.”

And then those dark green eyes looked at me again and smiled.

Waaah!

I remembered the kiss that night for a moment. My brain was slowly getting used to my new job, but the poor thing had been giving its all, and it was over capacity in an instant.

“Did– Did she, now! But surely, Lady Solamire would feel better if you were by the prince’s side, Mr Kahzam, right!”

I changed the subject, my voice unconsciously shrill, but Mr Kahzam looked at me and smiled like he was amused after all.

While I was remembering all that, Mr Kahzam spoke, a bit of a worried look on his face.

“We just got word from the front gate, Lord Fatido is…”

“What?”

Mr Fatido had contacted me to let me know he was arriving this evening. Just as I thought that, an incredibly energetic, large figure came down the hall towards us.

“Ah– Mr Fatido…”

“I wanted to see you. I’m a bit early, but I flew.”

Mr Fatido wrapped his hands around my left hand, and kissed my ring.

Actually, Mr Fatido had made a ring for me, out of my single red stone earring. The way he glammed it up as he’d gone to slip it onto my left ring finger was such a production. I’d intercepted him, and put it on myself, but still.

Seeing Mr Fatido’s ardent greetings, Mr Taval said, “Shall I step out?” and started to move, so I grabbed his shirttail in a panic and pulled him to a stop.

“No. Please stay. Please.”

But Mr Fatido kept right on talking, paying it no mind whatsoever. “I was extremely glad to get an invitation from my sister, Kohme. For your birthday celebration, work means nothing.”

“What?”

My birthday celebration? Just as I was thinking that, a cute, shrill little voice shouted from behind me.

“No telling!”

The prince came running, his face totally red. And then behind him, Lauren, one of his attendants, came following him in a panic.

I’d heard Lemonina was supposed to be coming tomorrow too, and I thought it was going to be nice to see everybody after such a long time, but was it possible they were throwing me a surprise birthday party? I wasn’t sure I’d ever said the actual date, but I did remember saying I was born in the winter.

Even Mr Taval was grinning. He knew something.

” ‘Cause there’s nothing, right Koume!”1

The prince tugged on my apron and looked up at me.

The prince had just been shown off to the public recently, and he was getting bigger and bigger every day. We had massaged the numbers a bit to hide his identity, and told people he was three, but to look at him, he really did seem like he was three years old, outside and in. Kids in this world grew up fast.

I smiled and answered. “Don’t tell me what? Nobody’s told me anything. Did you finish your Shin studies?”

“Yep!”

“Prince catches on quite quickly. Makes my life difficult, actually.”

Coming up behind Lauren as he spoke was Mr Lahzt. He’d now become the prince’s tutor.

Mr Lahzt had gone on his trip (field work?) on Lemonina’s orders, and had taken up the post as the prince’s tutor a month ago. He came back looking thin and haggard from whatever he’d been made to do on that trip, and it did surprise me, but he was back to his old self now, and teaching the prince all kinds of things.

He also worked as the prince’s personal physician. “Getting their money’s worth out of me, aren’t they?” he grumbled.

“You didn’t teach him the teleportation, I’m assuming?”

“I didn’t but… It’s just a matter of time before he starts outpacing the textbooks,” Mr Lahzt and I looked at the prince, and we both sighed.

In fact, just a few days ago, the prince had happened upon a teleportation art in one of Mr Lahzt’s books, and had teleported himself to the Garden of Stars. Indeed, now that the prince looked entirely like a three-year-old, he might not be able to go there again.

It was a spell a child wouldn’t normally be able to use so easily, but when I thought about the fact that he’d turned himself into an animal, I realized the prince must be a bit special. Something about that place seemed to resonate with him.

At any rate, Shiz Cagna had been an utter disaster that day until we’d gotten ahold of Mr Lahzt, who’d been out of the office. If he started to be able to come and go as he pleased… That would mean trouble. Every time he went, he’d end up getting a little bigger.

“Mm, I have something to take care of in the kitchens at the moment. Lauren, can I ask you to get Professor Lahzt and Lord Fatido some tea please? Perhaps you’d like to have a snack with them, little prince?”

There were a lot of eyes on us, so I spoke to the prince using polite language. The prince was used to it.

“Yeah! Hasido, Lahz, le’s go!”

He pulled both of them along by the hand.

Just then, something moved in the corner of my vision, and shadow instantly covered us.

Mr Kahzam reflexively moved, coming directly to our side.

Just as I realized I could hear the flapping of bird wings, a single bird landed right in front of me. A figure like a white shimmer of heat… It was Kahzapka, the messenger of the gods, the one I had wanted to meet.

I promptly put both hands out in front of me. A folded up piece of paper light dropped into my hands.

Kahzapka let out a caw, and immediately leapt into the sky again, and disappeared as though he’d melted into the sunlight.

“This paper…?”

This was high quality paper that was created to last a long time.

When I opened it, the seal that was Nanao’s name was topmost, with my own name below that.

It was the page I’d put into the bouquet.

But other characters had been added to the paper. The seal of Nanao’s name and the seal of my name had been written over and over again, lined up next to one another.

It reminded me of the prince’s exercise book… It felt like whoever had written this had been practicing new characters repeatedly.

When I saw a tiny Shin at the top right, my hand flew to my mouth.

It was Nanao!

Nanao had gotten the bouquet and the letter. She must have been so confused to see just her name written in some characters she didn’t recognize.

But she couldn’t do anything else with it, so she just started trying to memorize them. Her own name, and her big sister’s name.

“It’s Nanao… But how? Why would Kahzapka go and get this from where Nanao is…?” I said to myself, excited and unable to take my eyes off the letter.

And then I realized something. Wait… the missing letter!

“Prince! When you went to the Garden of Stars the other day, did you take the letter I wrote with you!?” I was really loud, so the prince jumped, probably thinking he was about to be scolded, but he nodded obediently.

“Yeah. ‘Cause… It’s letter to Nana, right…”

The prince had met with Kahzapka in the Garden of Stars and handed over my letter!

Kahzapka had delivered it for me, to where Nanao was in the other world. And then when he’d come back to this world, he’d brought this letter back with him.

“Prince! Thank you! I love you!”

I was so overcome with emotion, I grabbed the prince in a big hug and kissed his cheek. There couldn’t be a better birthday present than this!

Seeing the prince wriggling, embarrassed, Mr Taval seemed confused.

“I feel like I’ve lost, somehow,” Mr Lahzt muttered, “and I imagine it won’t be the last time.”

Mr Fatido shrugged. “We can’t lose focus though. So, Your Highness, I think there are snacks.”

Mr Kahzam took the prince from me and gently set him down.

The prince grinned, laughing, and took off running down the hall ahead of us.

That smile was more dear to me than anything.

＊　＊　＊

Dear Nanao, Koaya,

Are you well? I’ll never be able to contact you, and I’m so sorry for that.

I’m in a country right now which is not Japan. Well, to say it properly, I’m in a whole different world from you.

I think the story is pretty unbelievable, but you’ll believe me, right Nanao, after you got the bouquet from me that day?

I’m sure Koaya would say it smells fishy, but there was a job that only I could do, and so I got called into this world quite suddenly.

That job was being nanny to a little boy. His early life has been full of adventure… But I’m going to pour all the love I’ve known from my time with you two into raising him.

And also… Maybe it’s the bouquet’s blessing, but I’ve had a lot of fateful encounters. The truth is, I wish I could meet you two again and tell you everything, make you my most important confidantes, but…

I’m sure I’ll be able to contact you again. Somehow, please, stay well.

From Koume