How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 100

Abel, who had been put in charge of personnel transfers within the Royal Guard, looked rather exhausted as he cautiously glanced at Sedes before speaking.

“Hey, Your Majesty.”

“What is it?”

“Sir Evan is a little… different from what I expected. He seems rather cruel.”

“…You mean the Second Prince’s escort knight?”

At the sudden mention of Rianus’s escort knight, Sedes lifted his eyes from his paperwork and looked at Abel.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Or maybe he just doesn’t like birds?”

“Explain yourself properly, Abel Bridgid. Have you done something behind my back?”

“…It’s nothing much. Well, the Sirentia yesterday reminded me of it, and I was a little curious…”

“Stop beating around the bush.”

“I was curious about that little kid you said was his friend, so I sent a bird over.”

“…Didn’t I tell you to exercise restraint for the time being?”

Sedes pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a deep sigh. Ever since receiving the Sirentia, Abel had been going on and on about how curious he was about that child. It seemed he had finally gone and done something about it.

“No, I only wanted to take a little peek at what he looked like. White hair and black eyes full of colorful patterns? Of course I’d be curious! Actually, if they’re black, they should just be black. Why are they colorful?”

“…They really are colorful. That’s all I meant when I described them that way.”

“I can’t even imagine it! So I sent a bird!”

“You really need to rein in that curiosity of yours.”

“Anyway, I sent it, but…”

“But?”

“The little brat didn’t come out. Instead, Sir Evan appeared and tried to chase it away, then he swung his sword—whoosh!”

“Did he finish it off?”

Sedes’s eyes gleamed with a hint of interest. Abel, on the other hand, had shared the sparrow’s vision, and just remembering what had happened at dawn sent a chill down his spine.

“Sedi! I was brutally murdered!”

“Not you. The bird. If anything, we should reward Sir Evan for eliminating an intruder.”

“Oh… I suppose that’s one way to look at it?”

“I’m very pleased to see that he’s doing such a good job protecting the prince.”

Sedes smiled as though he truly was satisfied. He had always been concerned that the Second Prince had only one escort knight, but it seemed that a single knight was doing the work of two or three people. Sedes liked that very much.

Still, if he didn’t help Abel resolve his problem, the efficiency of their work would surely plummet. He gestured for a shadow knight to approach.

“Your Majesty, your command?”

The knight knelt on one knee and bowed his head, awaiting orders.

“What is the schedule for the princes’ lessons today?”

At the question, Abel’s eyes lit up. He looked ready to send another bird the moment he received permission.

“They’re both at the training grounds for swordsmanship lessons right now.”

“Go to Sir Evan and deliver a message. Tell him I’ll be sending another bird, so he must not kill it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The shadow knight bowed respectfully and headed straight for the training grounds.

The princes’ escort knights were standing in a line a short distance away from one another. Evan, however, was conspicuously isolated from the others.

The shadow knight looked at the young knight, who seemed unable to fit in with the rest, with a touch of sympathy before cautiously calling out to him.

“Sir.”

Evan, who had been watching only his own master the entire time, turned around in surprise.

“What… is it?”

The sudden appearance of a shadow knight made Evan’s heart sink.

Have they already found out about what happened in Sharton Street?

His Majesty had encountered that wildcat before, so if a report had reached him, it was entirely possible.

He had always known the truth would come out eventually, but he hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. He hadn’t prepared an excuse, much less steeled himself for punishment.

“Would you come with me for a moment?”

“…Yes.”

To avoid the First Prince’s escort knights, the shadow knight led Evan a little farther away.

He thought Sir Evan looked somewhat dejected, but assumed he must have gotten into another argument with the First Prince’s knights and decided not to dwell on it.

“I have a message from His Majesty. He said you are not to kill the bird.”

“…The bird, sir?”

“Yes.”

Evan’s eyes widened at the unexpected message. He immediately thought of the little sparrow he had sliced in half that morning.

Could that have been a bird sent by His Majesty?

“May I ask who owns the bird?”

“It belongs to His Excellency the Prime Minister.”

“…”

The Prime Minister?

Marquess Abel Bridgid, His Majesty’s childhood friend. As a boy, he had been called a magical prodigy, and everyone had been certain he would become the next Tower Master.

For some reason, however, he had made little progress in magic and had never entered the Magic Tower. He had remained at the Third Circle and taken up the position of Prime Minister instead.

He was mild-mannered and treated both princes equally, which was why the prince liked him.

Evan’s eyes trembled slightly as he absorbed the explanation.

…Did I cut a bird sent by the Prime Minister in half?

“Well, I’ve delivered the message, so I’ll be going…”

“W-wait. Is that all?”

The shadow knight seemed ready to leave immediately, as though that was the entirety of the message. Evan hurriedly stopped him.

“Do you happen to know why the Prime Minister sent the bird…?”

“He seems curious about the child who has become the prince’s friend.”

“Ah…”

Evan hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Th-that brat is extremely wary of others. The only thing I can do is explain who the bird’s owner is and make sure he doesn’t kill it. I can’t say how the brat himself will react.”

“Understood. I’ll relay that message.”

With that, the shadow knight disappeared once more.

Evan wondered whether he should feel relieved that the incident in Sharton Street hadn’t been discovered or worry that the Prime Minister’s curiosity had shifted to that wildcat. In the end, he decided to stick with feeling relieved.

That brat manages just fine on his own. There’s probably nothing to worry about.

Evan chuckled at the thought of the wildcat, who was probably sleeping late with his blanket pulled all the way over his head.

But at that very moment, the wildcat was…

“Achoo!”

Cleaning.

Nihil was busy sweeping out the secret passage behind the bookshelf in his study, which had accidentally opened. No matter how hard he had tried before, the bookshelf wouldn’t budge. But once the books had been put back on it, it opened without much difficulty. Apparently, it needed to be pressed down by a certain amount of weight.

The passage behind the study seemed to have once led somewhere, but it had been sealed off when the palace was renovated and repaired. Now, it was nothing more than a small, empty space.

“Achoo!”

“Ppiik!”

The puppy, which had been left alone on a cushion, had been squeaking so much that Nihil had brought it along. Now it was sneezing too, thanks to all the dust.

“Evan II, you’d be better off staying over there.”

“Ppi?”

An environment this dusty couldn’t possibly be good for something so young.

Thinking this, Nihil moved the cushion a little farther away. The puppy immediately began squirming around again, squeaking and squeaking.

“…You’re a lot of work.”

Just like you’d expect from a puppy born of that stupid dog…

Despite his words, Nihil tucked the puppy into his arms. Its warm body and wriggling vitality were an absolute delight.

Come to think of it, I need to look up information about the awakening ceremony for that doggy fellow…

Nihil mulled over various things before shaking his head and clearing his thoughts. He needed to deal with what was right in front of him first.

After finishing the cleaning with the puppy in his arms, Nihil initially considered using the space as a storage room for medicinal herbs. Then he changed his mind and began decorating the interior with the luminous pearls he had collected from the mountain behind the palace.

Children are such trivial creatures. Give them nothing but a blanket draped over the space between two chairs, and they’ll crawl inside and giggle to themselves for hours. If I make a little secret hideout like this, Rianus will absolutely love it.

Ta-da! Lord Requies, look at this! It’s my secret hideout!

“……”

At the sudden voice echoing through his mind, Nihil froze.

“Ppiik, ppiik.”

“…Yes.”

At the sound of Evan II’s cries, which seemed to be urging him on, Nihil finally came to his senses. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again.

It was a good thing he had so much work to do. It meant he could spend less time thinking about his little one.

Nihil laid a soft rug across the floor of the secret hideout and brought in a few candleholders to give the place a cozy atmosphere.

As he moved items from his bedroom into the hideout, his bedroom gradually became more and more barren. But he hardly used it anyway, and the servants would notice and replenish the furnishings, so it didn’t matter.

Nihil looked over the now-decently decorated space and smiled faintly. Then he accepted a heating stone from the butler and began conducting various experiments, recording his findings as he went.

If I strike two 100-gram heating stones together with roughly ten newtons of force, the temperature reaches about fifty degrees. The duration seems to be proportional to the size of the heating stone…

Nihil searched through his old memories, recalling the everyday items that had once been made using heating stones.

Before he fell asleep, heating stones had been used in daily life quite frequently. But after the War Against the Heavenly Demons, civilization had supposedly regressed. It seemed the situation was even worse than he had imagined.

He had expected mana density to have fallen considerably, making magic stones scarce. But the skills of knights and mages were also far inferior to what they had once been, and even ordinary potions had become difficult to obtain.

It was almost hard to understand how such fragile humans had managed to survive among monsters and other races.

I went to sleep and woke up in the future, only for it to feel more like I’ve traveled into the past.

Now that his body was weak, perhaps it was fortunate that there were no particularly threatening forces around. The only thing that concerned him was the Grand Duke, the being people called a demon.

There’s no way the demonic race would help humans out of simple goodwill.

Nihil rubbed his face with a dry palm. Once something caught his attention, his thoughts kept branching off endlessly.

I should rest. It’s not as though I can confront them yet anyway…

Nihil gathered several makeshift household tools he had created and handed them to the butler, along with a sheet of paper explaining how to use them. He also asked the butler to observe the servants’ reactions after they had tried them.

Having more or less finished everything he could do within the palace, Nihil decided to wait patiently by reading a book. He had no idea when the kid would return.

As he made his way toward Rianus’s bedroom, however, he ran into some maids who had come upstairs to clean.

“Oh! Young Master Neil, where are you going?”

“……”

The servants in Rianus’s palace were particularly eager to strike up conversations with Nihil whenever they saw him. The reason was that, aside from the butler and head maid, he had never once spoken in front of any of the servants. As a result, all sorts of strange rumors had begun circulating.

Apparently, the young master the prince brought home is some kind of divine beast or sacred creature, and he doesn’t particularly like humans.

They say hearing his voice brings good luck.

I heard he can’t speak human language.

Nihil, who had been thoroughly inconvenienced by the servants that morning, subtly furrowed his brows.

They say keeping one of Young Master Neil’s hidden gold coins brings good luck!

He had seriously considered cutting off the hands of most of the servants, since nearly all of them had somehow ended up with the gold coins he had hidden away. But as it turned out, they had submitted their own coins in exchange for his, claiming they were lucky gold coins.

As a result, he had spent the entire morning struggling to distinguish the “lucky gold coins” from the ordinary ones.

The servants’ unpredictable behavior was so much like Rianus’s that it had been both absurd and, somehow, amusing enough to make him chuckle.

“Young Master?”

When Nihil merely stared at her expressionlessly without saying a word, the young maid called out to him again.

Nihil had no intention of interacting with the servants until he had figured them all out and decided which ones to replace. He was about to ignore her and turn away.

“Ah! Young Master Neil, wait! Please don’t go!”

“……”

A maid with her hair neatly braided into two low pigtails scurried over to Nihil, crouched down in front of him, and blocked his path.