Echoes of Philomel

The Threads of Fiction and Fate

'In the novel, I'm... No, It's not me!'

She didn't want to admit that she was the villainess who faced such a miserable end. Just the name was the same. The name 'Philomel' was not common, but it was not rare either. However, Philomel was a little uncomfortable because he had repeatedly felt that the 'Pilomel' in the novel was similar to herself.

For example, there was an anecdote from her childhood that was narrated to reveal the evil nature of 'Philomel'.

'Philomel' lost the necklace her father gave her as a birthday present. Fearing to be hated by him, she tried to kill one of her maids for stealing it. In fact, there was a similar incident. But it wasn't intentionally blaming her maid for her sins. Philomel really thought her maid had taken it. Her necklace was missing, which she misunderstood as it was the maid who last cleaned her room. Later, when her maid's innocence was revealed, she was scolded by her nanny and even apologized to her properly. She didn't even mean to kill her. Tracing her memory, she thought 'I'm going to kill you!' but it was purely out of anger.

It wasn't a lie at all, but in the novel, 'Philomel"s inner thoughts or back story were not revealed, so she looked like a complete villainess.

"No. It must have just been written on its own accord, based on what an unknown outsider had heard about it."

Shaking her head, Philomel muttered as if to reassure herself.

"Princess, I'm going in."

Suddenly, the voice of the nanny came from outside the door.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

She hurried to the desk and put the novel into a drawer. It was clear that she would be hit with a nagging bomb if she was found out reading a romance novel while she was on probation.

"You weren't studying and you were doing something else, right?"

She didn't even get permission to come in, but the nanny opened the door and entered, frowning and looking around.

"What the hell! I was studying properly."

She pointed to the thick history books on her desk, but the suspicious nanny looked around her room a few more times before standing in front of Philomel.

"Please grow up a bit now. If the princess gets into trouble, we, who serve her, will be in trouble."

"Yes..."

Soon, the nanny's nagging started. Her nanny was the only one who could treat her badly, except for the emperor. She was also the empress's nanny, and everyone referred to her as her nanny, even though she never gave milk to Philomel. It is said that the empress trusted and relied on her nanny, almost like her own mother, and brought her into the palace when she got married.

Eustis respected her wife's will and made the nanny her daughter's nanny, leaving full responsibility for her upbringing and education. As he was indifferent to her daughter, in fact rhe affairs with Philomel were left to her nanny alone.

"His Majesty has firmly instructed her to correct the princess's habits this time."

"Chi. Lies."

Apart from saying that, Eustis was not a father who was interested in her daughter to this extent. However, the nanny knew that it worked well for her Philomel, and she used to sell the name of Eustis to try to control the princess.

She said, for example, that if she took a good etiquette class, she would let Eustis share her meal, or if she got a perfect score on her test, she would let her go to her office. Even so, when Philomel fulfilled the condition, she avoided the fulfilment of her promise, making excuses for each other. It was only after the nanny broke dozens of promises that Philomel realized she had been tricked. Her nanny blamed her for losing interest in her successor's classes.