Chapter 859: Nanny Chen [Bonus - ]
Chapter 859: Nanny Chen [Bonus Chapter]
A soft evening breeze drifted through the tall windows of the foyer, stirring the sheer curtains against the marble pillars.
Downstairs in the second living room, Martha had gathered Lia, Penelope and Kaede onto a huge cream-colored sectional sofa.
A low tray on the coffee table held four tall glasses of iced tea with fresh mint from the greenhouse, next to a plate of warm sugar-dusted butter biscuits Martha had somehow already managed to whip up in the new kitchen.
The three girls were happily swinging their feet over the plush rug and whispering about the glass staircase and the enormous gardens when the click of heels announced Harper’s arrival from the back hallway.
She strolled in with an air of unhurried authority with her violet hair catching the warm lights overhead.
Resting comfortably in the crook of her left arm was a sleek midnight-black cat, its long tail draped lazily over Harper’s houndstooth sleeve, its violet eyes blinking down at everyone with slow royal condescension.
Silas came down the last few steps of the staircase a moment later, his hands in the pockets of his dark trousers and an amused smirk on his lips.
“Gather round, ladies,” Harper announced, tossing her violet waves over her shoulder. She stopped in front of the coffee table and gestured grandly at the cat in her arms. “Before we settle in for the evening, we need to do an official introduction… You all saw this little thing riding around on Silas’s shoulder earlier, but you haven’t met who she really is yet.”
Lia set her teacup down with a soft clink, her brown eyes widening.
“Who she really is, Miss Harper? Isn’t she just the talking stray Big Bro adopted?”
“A stray kitten?!” The cat’s ears flattened against her skull, and her whiskers twitched in deep, dramatic offense. “I am Nitocris-Hathor, First Per-aa of the Khemet Dominion, ruler of the eternal dunes, Nyaa~!”
Penelope’s biscuit froze halfway to her mouth.
“Wait…” she said slowly, staring at the cat. “The cat that called Bridget a chili pepper is an empress?”
Kaede gasped so hard she nearly spilled tea all over her Academy skirt.
“A real one?!” she squeaked, leaning forward so fast her side-ribbons bounced. “Lia, your talking cat is royalty, just like me…”
“She’s a lot more than a talking cat, girls,” Harper said with a smug, mysterious chuckle, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Watch closely. Go ahead, Nito. Show them…”
Nitocris let out an exasperated little sigh.
“Mortal children need so much theatrical demonstration, Nyaa~” she grumbled.
She leaped down from Harper’s arm and landed in the middle of the wool carpet with featherlight grace.
The moment her paws touched the floor, a radiant flare of deep golden-violet mana bloomed from her chest.
It opened like a desert lotus, throwing faint patterns of ancient script across the ceiling while a warm wind smelling of cinnamon and frankincense swept through the room.
The small feline shape stretched and lengthened with smooth boneless elegance.
When the purple light broke apart into drifting embers, a breathtaking woman stood in the middle of the room.
Her skin was a rich warm brown that seemed to glow from within. Her long hair was an ink-black river streaked with bright violet, tumbling past her waist as heavy gold earrings banded with lapis swayed beside her jaw, and a gold armband gleamed on the sculpted curve of her upper arm.
…And draped over her toned, curvy frame was Silas’s oversized black training shirt.
It hung loose off her shoulders, the wide collar sliding down to show one smooth collarbone, while the hem fell safely to mid-thigh like a casual tunic.
Somewhere between the bedroom and here, the shirt had become part of her change… It appeared when she took human form and vanished whenever she went back to four paws.
’I like it though, it’s pretty convenient for me.’
Nitocris crossed her arms beneath her chest, her violet eyes sweeping over the girls with effortless majesty and a lazy smirk.
“Now you see my true form,” she declared, her rich voice purring through the room like dark honey. “I can shift between my forms whenever I please, Nyaa~”
Silence fell over the living room.
Lia sat with her hands clasped against her knees and her mouth slightly open.
Penelope didn’t move a muscle… Her eyes took in the glowing armband, the violet-streaked hair and the tall dangerous presence rolling off the ancient empress.
Kaede’s head tilted back so far her ribbons almost touched the sofa cushions.
A hundred questions practically bubbled up behind their faces.
How did an eight-pound cat turn into a tall desert queen? Where did the gold jewelry come from? Why was she wearing Silas’s workout shirt? Was she a goddess? A summon? Something worse?
But after three heartbeats of wide-eyed staring, the tension simply drained away.
Lia let out a soft breath and picked her teacup back up, Penelope calmly took a bite of her biscuit and chewed it slowly while Kaede blinked twice, smoothed her ribbons down with both hands, and nodded to herself with total calm.
They were Silas’s family and Silas was the Lord of Blessed Land.
They’d seen so many impossible things happen around him that they couldn’t even bring themselves to be surprised anymore… If Big Bro brought home a shapeshifting desert empress who liked to lounge around in his gym clothes, that barely deserved a raised eyebrow.
Lia smiled, sounding completely genuine.
“It’s nice to meet you, Lady Nitocris,” she said softly, dipping her head in a polite little bow. “You have really beautiful hair. Welcome to our home. If you’re hungry, Martha makes wonderful baked salmon, and we have lots of soft cushions upstairs…”
“Lady Lia is right,” Martha added, stepping forward with her hands folded over her apron and offering a formal curtsy with her composure completely unshaken. “We’re delighted to have you under Master Silas’s roof, Lady Nitocris. I’ll make sure your room has plenty of linen, and that there’s fresh cream in the fridge.”
Nitocris blinked, her royal smirk faltering for half a second.
She’d expected terror, maybe, she’d expected frantic bowing, trembling pleas, or at least a little screaming.
…Being greeted with compliments about her hair and an offer of baked fish was thoroughly disorienting.
A tiny flush touched the high curve of her cheeks, and her violet eyes softened as she shifted her weight.
“A… remarkably composed household,” she murmured, clearing her throat with a quiet regal cough and tucking a violet strand behind her ear. “Your kindness is noted, little ones, Nyaa~”
“See? I told you they wouldn’t mind,” Harper laughed, stepping up beside her and leaning an arm on the back of the sofa.
She pushed her glasses up her nose, and her violet eyes flashed with sudden, mischievous calculation as they swept over the three schoolgirls.
A slow wicked little grin spread across her lips.
“Hehe~,” she giggled softly. “You know, Penelope… why don’t you stay over tonight? In fact, why don’t all of you have a proper sleepover right here in the new house?”
Penelope’s eyes lit up like twin bonfires.
“A sleepover?!” she gasped, nearly launching herself off the cushions. “Here?! In the palace with twenty-six bedrooms and an indoor pool?!”
“I want to sleep over too!” Kaede shrieked, leaping up to stand on the sofa cushions and throwing both arms toward the ceiling. “Please, please, please! I want to stay! I’m sleeping over too!”
Silas leaned against the archway with his arms crossed and let out a deep amused chuckle, raising an eyebrow at the airheaded girl bouncing on his furniture.
“Hold your horses, Princess,” he teased, his dark blue eyes sparkling. “Penelope lives under Harper’s roof, so that one’s easy but you’ve got your own household waiting for you at home… If you’re staying the night up here, you need to get permission from them first. I’m not having your nanny storm my gates at midnight because her kid went missing.”
Kaede froze mid-bounce, her face going pale with tragic horror as she clutched her side-ribbons.
“Nanny Chen…!” she gasped.
She jumped off the sofa and sprinted across the room to Martha, grabbing the woman’s apron with both hands and looking up at her with huge, teary, desperately pleading puppy eyes.
“Martha! Dearest, kindest, most wonderful Martha!” she begged, shaking the fabric. “Please call Nanny Chen! Right now! Tell her I have to stay! Tell her it’s really, really important!”
Martha smiled warmly and patted Kaede’s head.
“Now, now, Lady Kaede, don’t work yourself into a fever… Let’s call your household and see what your nanny says.”
She pulled her phone out of her apron pocket and tapped the number for Kaede’s house.
DING!
After two rings, the stern weathered face of an older woman in a high-collared gray silk tunic appeared on the screen.
Her dark hair was pulled into a severe bun, and her sharp eyes scanned the background through narrow glasses.
“Good evening, Nanny Chen,” Martha greeted her politely.
“Good evening, Martha,” Nanny Chen replied, her voice crisp and carrying years of strict discipline, though a thread of worry ran right underneath it. “Has my young lady caused you any trouble this afternoon…? Her phone’s location showed somewhere up in Celestine Heights… I was just about to call you.”
Before Martha could answer, Kaede shoved her entire face into the screen with her ribbons whipping across the camera.
“Nanny Chen! Nanny Chen, listen to me!” she shouted with frantic, operatic desperation. “I want to sleep over tonight! Lia’s family moved into a giant house with twenty-six bedrooms! We have to test the beds! We have to roast marshmallows in the fireplace! It’s super important, Nanny Chen, please!”
On the other end, Nanny Chen’s eyebrows drew together until they nearly met in the middle of her forehead.
She let out a long disapproving sigh.
“Lady Kaede,” she said, her tone colder than mountain ice. “Absolutely not. A sleepover? At a house I’ve never seen, in a part of the city I’ve never visited, with people I’ve never met…? Your family left you in my care… I’m not letting you spend the night somewhere I can’t check on you. You’ll finish your tea, go wait by the front door, and I’ll send the car for you right now. I can’t allow…”
“Nanny Chen, please!” Kaede wailed, real tears welling up in her big eyes as she pressed her forehead against Martha’s sleeve. “I want to stay with Lia! Penelope’s staying! I never get to have sleepovers! Please, just this once! I promise I’ll do two hours of calligraphy practice on Saturday!”
Nanny Chen looked pained with her lips pressed into a tight line.
She clearly loved the girl, and that was exactly the problem… Every bit of her strictness was worry dressed up in a gray tunic.
“I’m sorry, my lady,” she said firmly, her hand reaching to end the call. “The answer is no. I can’t risk your safety for a game. Pack your bag…”
A shadow fell over the phone.
Silas stepped up behind Martha and rested a large, calm hand on her shoulder.
He stood there with the easy steadiness of a mountain, his dark blue eyes meeting Nanny Chen’s squarely through the screen with the gold ring in them glowing faintly.
“Good evening, Nanny Chen,” he said smoothly.
His deep voice filled the room and Nanny Chen blinked.
“I’m Silas Graves,” He went on. “I’m a Lord, and this house, Grand Horizon, is mine… It’s protected by Class-A ward arrays, and nothing hostile is getting past the front gates. You have my personal word… Kaede will be completely safe under my roof. I’ll protect her myself, and I’ll make sure she gets to the Academy gates tomorrow morning without a single scratch on her ribbons. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”
He smiled, steady and reassuring.
“You can trust me, Nanny. Let the kid have her sleepover…”
On the screen, Nanny Chen froze.
Her breath hitched, and her glasses slid down her nose as her sharp eyes went wide.
For a while, she’d only ever dealt with Martha, the sweet polite housekeeper who handled school pickups and afternoon tea.
She’d never actually seen Silas Graves… She’d never heard his voice, and she’d certainly never felt the quiet weight behind it that made her want to stand up straighter in her own kitchen.
The change in her was instant.
Her rigid disapproving scowl vanished like mist under the morning sun, and she bowed so deeply that her forehead dropped right off the screen.
“L-Lord Silas Graves…!” she stammered, the words tumbling out in a respectful rush. “Forgive my rudeness, my Lord! I didn’t know you were the master of the house! If you’re personally guaranteeing Lady Kaede’s safety, then I have no objections at all! None whatsoever! She may stay as long as you’ll have her!”
She popped back up onto the screen and glared furiously at Kaede through her glasses.
“Lady Kaede! You’ll mind your manners! You won’t jump on his Lordship’s furniture! And you’ll thank Lord Silas for his generosity every ten minutes! Do you understand me?!”
“I UNDERSTAND! THANK YOU, NANNY CHEN!” Kaede shrieked in pure joy.