Echoes of Philomel

Hollow Words of Care

'How......how should I do it?"

Philomel absentmindedly turned her head away. Then, from a few steps away, her eyes met red eyes looking this way.

"....Majesty."

It was her fiancé, Nazar Ave Riden, born a year before Philomel.

"Nazar, this is not a good moment. Let's go back at once."

At that moment, his father, the Duke of Avrydon, grabbed Nassar and took him away.

"Father, but..."

"Hurry."

The boy, who had hesitated at the duke's resolute voice, reluctantly moved on. Unlike his fiancé, not a single drop of rain hit him, and the dry boy drifted farther away.

Philomel, too, was soon brought back to her quarters by the hands of her maids. She went into a bathtub filled with warm water and thawed her body, but her heart was still cold. Only Eustis' back figure came to mind.

"What? What were you guys doing while the princess was doing that!"

She couldn't see the nanny, who did not accompany her to the event because of back pain, making a fuss after hearing the story. Coming out of her bathroom, the nanny stood with her cane.

"I can never get past this. I didn't want to go this far either, but I think you'll get used to it after being scolded."

Match-! Match! Match!

A slender cane repeatedly hit the white calf.

'Sick. It hurts so much.'

Philomel shed tears, using the pain in her calf as an excuse. Even though the painful part was separate, she couldn't appeal to anyone. After the corporal punishment, the nanny said, "Reading is poisonous. You won't say a word that's wrong," she muttered in full audibility, "It seems that probation is not enough, so you will enter the special management system from now on. You'd better be prepared.

""...Yes."

"Did you understand? I will always watch over the princess!"

The nanny said the same thing to her several times before she left.

"It's true, princess. Why did you do that?"

"Tell the nanny that she was wrong unconditionally. That way, the princess and we won't get scolded."

Philomel felt the hand of the maids lubricating her calf, and she stared blankly at the floor. When Philomel didn't respond, they must have been taken aback. The maids looked at each other and offered her comforting words.

"Don't be too heartbroken. Nanny is moody, so she won't be angry for too much time."

"And I heard from the chief chamberlain earlier that it has been decided that the postponed construction international event will be held in a week. At that time, will Nanny allow us to see the festival with Her Highness?"

"...one week?"

"Yes, in a week. The High Priest collapsed in the returning carriage."

"Isn't it too late? We can do it in two or three days."

Philomel asked in a trembling voice.

"I do not know. Nothing like this has ever happened to him, and the High Priest must be shocked that the sacred ceremony was interrupted because of the rain at the time he assumed the official ritual."

Another maid also helped.

"People are whispering that the blessings of the gods who protect the empire have been exhausted."