Too Lazy to be a Villainess novel Chapter 17

Chapter 17: A Helpless Prey

"Oh, my princess... do you feel tired?" Nanny held me in her arms, warm and loving as always.

Of course I’m tired, Nanny. My tiny bones are screaming. My little muscles are begging for mercy. I don’t know why Papa is so determined to make me walk so soon, but the man is on a full-intensity mode. Now I understand why they call him blood-thirsty.

I mean, come on. Who puts an eight-month-old through cruel training?

Ugh. Whatever. Thinking takes too much energy too.

Right now, I have one priority. Hunger.

Nanny, feed me. I want apple pudding, I wiggled, kicking my arms and legs.

"Oh, princess, are you hungry?"

I wiggled in her arms. Yes. Yes. Apple pudding. Get me apple pudding.

She smiled knowingly and placed me in my crib. "I’ll get you your favorite apple pudding, okay?"

That’s my Nanny. She always gets me what I want.

But then she paused and glanced around. "I wonder where Mareilla is?"

Oh. I wonder too.

She was here with us, then someone came in earlier and said she was summoned by the head maid. But it’s been more than an hour, though.

Hmm... suspicious? Maybe.

Do I care? Not at the moment.

Nanny’s gaze landed on someone standing near the corner of the room. A maid. A new one, apparently.

"Are you a new maid?" Nanny asked, tilting her head.

The maid stood stiffly, nodding. "Yes."

Huh. She must be new. Haven’t seen her before. Also, when did she even get in here?

Nanny smiled, oblivious to my growing suspicion. "Please take care of the princess until I get her food."

The maid nodded again. A little too quickly. Nanny turned to me with her warm, reassuring smile. "I’ll be back soon, my princess."

Then she left.

And I was alone.

With the weird maid.

Okay. No big deal. I’m a princess. I have guards. I have power. I have...

Wait. Why is she just standing there?

And why are her eyes locked on me like that?

This was weird.

I blink at her.

She blinked back.

Alright. Maybe she’s just socially awkward. It happens. But I felt abandoned.

Okay, fine. Maybe that was a little dramatic. But could you blame me?

Nanny had just left to fetch my food. Even Marilla was missing. The maids I knew were nowhere to be seen. Papa and Theon were in some royal business meeting. And so, for the first time in my royal baby life, I was alone.

Completely, utterly alone in my nursing room.

Ah, wait, I had this weird maid here. But what’s the use of her? She was just standing far away, stiff as a board, avoiding eye contact, looking around. So practically, I was alone.

Which, at first, was great.

For one, I had complete and unrestricted access to my toys. Normally, Nanny would intervene before I could attempt to chew the wooden blocks (a very important part of my scientific research). But now? Now, there was no one to stop me.

I was just about to launch a full-scale oral investigation on my favorite stuffed rabbit when suddenly—I heard footsteps approaching.

I turned and saw the same weird maid walking toward me slowly, looking around, suspiciously. Oh, looks like she’s trying to socialize.

Wait...she’s hiding something behind her. She walked closer. Slower. More...suspicious.

And that’s was when I saw it—gleaming silver, hidden behind her skirts. A knife. A real, actual, stabby knife.

I wasn’t the brightest baby in the empire, but even I knew what this meant.

Assassin.

My tiny fingers trembled around my stuffed rabbit. My heart pounded—no, thundered—against my ribs. Was this what true fear felt like? Cold and suffocating, like a ghostly hand pressing against my chest squeezing tighter and tighter until I couldn’t breathe?

I couldn’t move.

She was still coming.

Step.

By.

Step.

The world shrank, closing in around me. The walls of my nursing room—once safe, warm—now felt like a cage. My vision blurred, my breath came in shallow gasps. The candlelight flickered against the gleam of the knife, turning it into a sliver of death approaching me, inch by inch.

I refuse to die. Not like this.

Not in the cold silence of my nursery, not before I even learned how to walk.

I wanted to scream, but my throat had closed up, strangled by terror. My body felt too small, too helpless, too weak.

I was just a baby. A baby. Who the hell tries to assassinate a baby?!

But the murderous glint in her eyes told me this was real. That knife? Real. The deadly intent dripping from her every movement? Real.

This wasn’t a nightmare.

It was my death approaching me—slow, deliberate, inevitable.

My little, helpless body instinctively stood up, wobbling slightly as I clutched the edge of my crib. My tiny hands gripped the wooden railing, my knuckles turning white.

I wanted my papa. I wanted Theon. I wanted someone—anyone—to come crashing through that door and rip this woman away from me.

But the room remained silent.

No savior. No guardian. No mercy.

She stopped before me, her eyes gleaming with pure hatred. A hatred I didn’t understand. A hatred so intense, it made my stomach churn.

"It’s you who killed my family first," she whispered, her voice trembling with rage. "You do not deserve to live too."

Was this it? Was this my end?

I was supposed to die painlessly—poison, that’s how it was meant to be. But this? This was cruel. Brutal. Wrong.

Schlick.....

Behind her, a tall, shadowed figure loomed.

Cold. Unforgiving. Terrifying.

Papa.

Rage.

At the world that dared to harm me.

"You’re safe, my girl. You’re safe."

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