Guardians of the Prince

Mr Kahzam had work too, so it was decided he could let the battle be.

“Ho ho ho, a narrow escape from death for you, eh Kahzam!”

Lemonina… Leave the villainous parting remarks alone and come with me please.

We decided to have Ms Lemonina join us for lunch in the prince’s room. “All the guests seemed to think it was some kind of martial arts show, so they started gathering around us. Ah, that was fun! I gave Kahzam his weapon and started without any warning, and I still couldn’t get in a single hit. As usual.”

“I was definitely surprised by the sudden fighting the first time I met you.”

“Yeah I bet.”

As we ate, we told each other about what had been happening in our lives recently.

We were pretty deep inside Shiz Cagna here, so we could talk quietly.

I’d been exchanging letters with Ms Lemonina, but we hadn’t met since she’d come to the royal palace, so I was really overjoyed to be able to see her face to face.

We finished our meal, and the prince went out via the terrace and ran off towards his treehouse.

I followed him, chatting with Ms Lemonina, watching the prince as he climbed the ladder. The prince and Ms Lemonina and I had absolutely no blood connection, but it was still cute to think of us as three generations of a family.

Ms Lemonina suddenly took my left arm and peered at the seals there.

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“I asked Lahzt. He said you practiced transforming with the arts?”

“Oh yeah, I did! It’s still hard though.”

I faked a swoon.

“I couldn’t quite make it work and it defeated me.”

It was the first time I’d focused on using the arts, and it was difficult.

The Shin on my arm had been carved by Mr Lahzt, getting the wrong seal was impossible, so I hadn’t been concerned about the actual transformation, but had to imagine it properly, and I hadn’t been able to fix the image in my head. After all, I didn’t know much about the animals of this world.

Eventually, in the end, I was able to transform into the sort of ferret-y weasel animal that Mr Kahzam had transformed into before. It was called a timp.

“I chose to turn into a timp because it’s small and nimble, so I could hide easily, and also because it’s a very ferocious animal.”

When I learned the art from Mr Lahzt, Mr Kahzam was there too and taught me about it.

Speaking of which, I saw on the news once in Japan… Weasels or martens or something were killing a special protected species of stork. It surprised me that they would prey on birds so much bigger than they were. “You too, Kohme, if you think you’re in danger, don’t hesitate to use those claws.”

Oof… I guess I could.

“Besides, in the end, you’re still a human, so you wouldn’t be able to muster the full strength of a timp anyway. Remember that, and don’t push yourself too hard.”

Mr Kahzam was someone who made his living from fighting, so he could move his body far better than me, since I hardly even exercised, and his muscles were far more flexible than mine. I didn’t even move around that much.

Plus, it was specifically because he was familiar with transforming into a ponga (panda) or a timp beforehand, that he could protect the prince and I even in animal form.

And even if I did transform into a timp, there was a limited number of things I could do. In the event something did happen to me, it might be better to leave transformation as a last resort.

“That’s true, I think it’s just as Kahzam said. Even so though, This Idine character may not be a criminal, but you should still be extremely vigilant.” Lemonina smiled bitterly.

“Yeah, true,” I agreed, heaving a sigh.

“It just goes to show you how treasured you are. Although, you’re a big girl, and with three guys hanging off you, so you should be able to make short work of a guy like that, huh.”

That… She may have been overestimating me there.

The prince was exhausted and went down for a nap, so I headed out, leaving the guard posted in front of the room.

Lemonina said she had to prepare for tomorrow, so we parted ways, and I went around to the kitchen and the laundry room and the delivery entrance, and then headed towards Shiz Cagna’s backyard, as I’d taken to calling it.

A melody played on string instruments rode on the breeze from the distance and was carried to me. The orchestra concert must have begun.

Before I even turned the hall corner, I could see a flag waving. A crowd was gathering.

“Alright, next, I think we should try going behind the curtains, to see the Shiz Cagna that normally no one sees.”

It was Mr Taval’s wife Mirette.

She was a gentle old lady, who never seemed to run out of smiles, and she was extremely popular.

She looked exactly like a tour guide, with all the guests gathered to one side of the flag, and it suited her. Let me not get in her way.

“What?”

Among the guests on the tour was a face I recognized.

I nonchalantly went around to the back of the crowd.

“Good afternoon, Mr Tsuguru.”

This older man with the constantly troubled expression worked in personnel at the royal castle. He was the one who’d recommended me as nanny.

He turned around, surprised, and then tried to hide in the corner, putting a finger to his mouth. “Shhh!”

“I just wanted to thank you for all your help back then. What is it you’re doing here?” I asked, and he answered stealthily.

“I’m blending in with the tour group, conducting an impromptu performance review. Please keep it a secret.”

Wow, really!

“Oh wait, so you’ve already assessed me?”

The agent nodded, and gave me a thumbs up, his expression unchanged, and then snuck back into the tour group.

So, that was a seal of approval, was it? All well and good then, but, like… Can I have a raise or something?

Oh yeah, speaking of paychecks! Before I first got to Shiz Cagna, as a reward for the the work I’d already done – in other words the six months I’d spent raising the prince by myself after waking up in that treehouse – Lady Solamire told me she was going to make a new bank account for me.

Turned out there were bank-like institutions over here too, and I could use the Shin on my left finger as a PIN to make deposits and withdrawals.

They’d apparently thought to transfer some money to me when they first explained everything to me at Mr Lahzt’s villa, but explaining the situation to me and then just saying, “Okay so, here’s some money,” felt kind of bad. So it seemed they’d postponed it.

Later, when I looked at my account, my eyes nearly glowed. That was too many digits. I mean, I guess it was a settlement payment, in a way, but… what the heck was I supposed to use this for? Retirement?

And so, I became an incredibly rich nanny.

◇ ◇ ◇

The following day, there were public lectures with Ms Lemonina in the museum, starting first thing in the morning.

It was a lecture by the foremost Shin researcher, so people came from the royal palace and even other towns hoping to get a seat, and the hall was a chaotic semi-circle of bodies.

I took the prince along, and headed for the hall around the time of the final lecture.

The prince was holding a large bouquet.

“Alright, little prince, how did we say we’re going to give these to the professor?”

I checked behind the curtain, and the prince had a stiff expression on his face.

“Thank you very much for your talk!”

“Alright, great! I’ll leave it to you.”

Ms Lemonina’s lecture ended, and the guests burst into applause.

The prince walked onto the stage, his gait a little stiff, gave Ms Lemonina the bouquet and said his planned lines, and then leaned over and gave her a kiss.

Yeah, good job, perfect! Ms Lemonina seemed happy too.

It was by doing stuff like this that the prince would get used to playing a part in front of big crowds of people.

Eventually, Mr Lemonina waved and left the stage, and headed out of the hall through the guest seats.

The guests got up too, in threes and fives, and started exiting after her.

Just then, a soft light glowed at the back of the hall.

Something white was passing by the doors people were leaving through.

I gasped and shouted to the guard standing in the back.

“Take the prince and Lemonina to the waiting room please!”

And then I half-ran backstage and leapt outside through the back door.

As I was searching the back garden, a soft breeze kicked up, and a white bird landed.

Speak of the devil, it was Kahzapka, the gods’ messenger bird.

Kahzapka landed on the branch of a small tree in the garden, and dropped a letter from his beak, which I caught in both hands.

Kahzapka looked like he was waiting for something… It was an utterly familiar series of events. Today, we were at about eye level, and we were so close that if I took a single step forward, we’d be able to rub cheeks.

I quickly put my hand in my skirt pocket. I always carried a letter to Nanao with me, and added to it a little bit at a time.

I took out the letter and gently offered it.

“Um… Thank you for always doing this. If there’s anything I can do in return, please let me know,” I whispered, and Kahzapka replied with a sort of cooing deep in his throat, and then immediately spread his wings.

There was another gust of wind, and that white shape flew up through the grove and melted into the clouds.