Nier asked the person tailing her from behind without answering her: "Take it as me begging you, could you please kill yourself?"

That's right, a month had gone by and yet Nier still felt that way. Guarding a prince while she's a Valkyrie is just torture. Guarding somebody other than the empress when she was part of the empress's guard unit felt the same as being told to resign, and there was no such thing as a second master for the Valkyries. There are only two types of Valkyries; the first type is the live ones guarding the empress, the other type are the dead seniors.

Further, the prince behaved completely differently to her majesty. He lacks a domineering aura, and he doesn't have the n.o.ble air of a royal family member either. He was just like a young playboy of some rich household. He was basically a disgrace to her majesty, and yet her majesty liked him so much. All of the Valkyries were unhappy about that.

So "Please kill yourself" was not a joke when it came from Nier. She genuinely wanted the disgrace of the royal family to off himself. However, the bug never responded to her.

Nier turned around and her surroundings swiftly transformed. The voice, fragrant and laughter filled market disappeared in the blink of an eye transformed into a wet, stinky and dark blue stone wall. His majesty before her had been stabbed in the chest with a knife and blood spurt fourth from his wound.

"YOUR MAJESTY!!"

Nier screamed out and reached for her belt. Her heart froze. Her job was to protect his majesty even if she was unwilling. If his majesty were to die, she would have to kill herself to apologise, no, killing herself wouldn't be enough to relieve the empress of her anger.

She had never disappointed the empress before!

However, where she reached was empty. Her sword was not hanging where it usually was. Instead, there was a pouch of candy there. Nier froze as she looked at the pouch of candy in front of her. The pouch which originally had beautiful flowers sewn on it was now covered in blood, and seemed to be jolting like a live beating heart.

What is going on?!!

The prince before her struggled to turn his head around. His face was covered with blood and yet he was smiling. While gasping for air he said: "Nier… Run…"

"Hu!"

Nier sat up aggressively and panted. Her sweat had wet her sheets. She checked her surroundings with horror, yet only saw her fellow Valkyries sleeping soundly. She scanned the room with her green eyes before her horror and despair slowly dissipated. She gripped her blanket and took a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart down.

"Why did I dream of that prince, d.a.m.n it", she thought.

Nier shook her head to relax herself and then carefully got off her bed. She then walked up to the table and poured herself a cup of water from the pot. She sat down on the chair, looked at the tiny candle and fell into a daze.

A cold breeze blew past and Nier sneezed. She looked outside the window and then at the wall in front of her where a row of white capes were neatly hung.  Capes were no longer used as a form of decoration. The thick capes were now used to keep warm and guard against the wind. Whenever they wore those capes, it meant that winter was coming.

Nier finished her cup of water, and her racing heart and anxious mind calmed down. She then climbed back into her bed and looked at the roof.

His highness will be back in two days.

Wait……

Why am I counting the days until his majesty returns…? Is it to see his useless smiling face or to chat with him? How ridiculous, I spoke more than I did this entire year when I was with him. It was honestly tiring and infuriating. Uhm, it appears I'm counting down the number of days left until my suffering begins again.

Nier calmed down, closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

"Ugh!"

The empress blew a breath of cold air out and then put her bleeding finger in her mouth. The maid in front of her quaked where she stood as she looked at the empress who had stabbed herself in her hand with a needle for the nth time. Her entire family could be executed for allowing the empress to bleed. However, the empress didn't blame the maid. Instead, she picked up the crooked-red braided object on her leg and excitedly exclaimed: "What next?! I want to sew my name and the prince's name onto the scarf! How do I do it? Teach me!"

"Erm… Your humble servant recommends that you use gold-coloured threads…Umm… And then… and then, do it like this… Like this…"

The maid trembled as she sewed on the scarf before her while the empress concentrated on the maid's every move as she clumsily imitated her movements. And eventually, she managed to sew a character on. Although the scarf was frankly quite ugly, it was a character that the empress just poured all of her effort into sewing on. She wore a blissful smile on her face.

Seeing the empress's excited look, the maid let out a sigh of relief. She was overheard by the empress when she and the other maids were talking about sewing a scarf for their husbands. Since then, the empress has called her to her room every night to teach her how to sew a scarf. She hadn't had a good sleep for an entire week, but the empress didn't look the least bit tired.

She had many needle p.r.i.c.k marks on her fingers but she didn't quit. She insisted on sewing a crooked scarf for her son.

The scarf wasn't bad for a beginner. There were no flowers on it. It was just a very simple red scarf, with only the prince's name and the empress's initials sewed on in a different colour in gold in the corner.

"I wonder if this will make my son happy…? This is the first time I've sewn a scarf for him… Uhm… Now he won't get cold in winter… Hehe… Hehe… He might even be so happy he hugs me… Hehe… Hehehe……"

The maid looked at the empress who was acting like an idiotic mother as she excitedly held the scarf against her chest and imagined his majesty's reaction. If she wanted to give his majesty a scarf, she could've ordered a top-level tailor to weave him a high quality scarf with the royal emblem on it. However, the empress insisted on doing it herself, which resulted in all the scars on her hands that she now had.

But since the empress was so elated, it didn't seem like she made a mistake……

The maid respectfully said: "Your humble servant believes that his majesty will definitely like it, since this is a scarf his mother personally weaved for him."

"Uhm, uhm, I'm very pleased. Very pleased. It's been tiring for you recently. This is my reward for you. Have a one week vacation too. Go home and spend some time with your family."

The empress generously removed one of the gem rings on her hand and placed it into the maid's hands. She then held the scarf she weaved on her chest as she smiled stupidly. The maid trembled as she accepted the reward. She then saluted her and left the room. She then quickly left the inner court as the Valkyries looked at her with envy in their eyes.

The empress's belongings have basically never left the palace, so receiving the ring that the empress wore was like receiving a priceless treasure. Most importantly, she successfully left the empress's inner court alive which was basically a miracle. She must be the luckiest maid yet.

The next day.

"Good morning, Nier."

"Good morning, Alice… Wait… Hey, Grace, you're not using your arm strength correctly. Straighten it and initiate the transfer of power from your legs. Your explosive power from your hip is important."

Nier held a warm cup of water in her hands as she supervised the Valkyries' training. As the sword instructor, she didn't have to train, but she still needed to supervise the training of the other Valkyries. The Valkyries trained with real swords, even when sparring. Wounds were treated with no importance, and deaths were ignored. This was how elites were created.

Alice looked at Nier with her thick white cape, chuckled and said: "His majesty is soon going to be back."

Nier nodded and replied: "Yeah."

"But why did you suddenly scream for his majesty in your dreams last night and then sit up?"

"Pffft!"

Nier spat the water in her mouth out and then coughed violently. Alice tippy-toed up and chuckled as she pat her on her back. Nier felt like her spine was going to snap. She took one step back, straightened up her posture and wiped the corner off her lips. She then took in a deep breath and said: "It was nothing. I just saw his majesty get killed in my dream."

"It looks like you still really hate his majesty, huh? You even want to kill him in your dreams."

Alice smiled helplessly. She then stroked the arm of her friend sympathetically and said, "Be tolerant. It's another month again."

"Yeah……"

Nier placed her cup down and watched the Valkyries down below training. She herself didn't realise that she was waiting for that day with antic.i.p.ation…..

1 Bonus Son-con Chapter

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