How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 11

When breakfast time arrived, the sound of trolley wheels echoed through the room.

This time, Nihil didn’t slip out onto the terrace. Instead, he carefully drew the canopy curtains all the way around the bed before wriggling under the blankets.

Watching him, Evan clicked his tongue and left the bedroom, only to return moments later, pushing the trolley himself.

The breakfast spread was modest, especially compared to the dinner from the previous evening.

After confirming that the maid had left, Nihil poked his head out from beneath the covers. He glanced over the prepared food, then repeatedly prodded Rianus’s cheek as the prince slept beside him.

When Rianus showed no sign of waking even after being poked for quite some time, Nihil grabbed his soft cheek and gave it a long pull.

Evan, who had been watching, nearly jumped out of his skin. However, when he heard Rianus let out a faint groan, he shut his mouth just as he was about to protest.

Rianus’s brow gradually furrowed, and beneath his slowly lifting eyelids appeared two clear, jewel-like eyes of different colors.

“Neil…”

Rianus called out to Nihil. His voice was so hoarse that it was barely audible. Despite being sick, he seemed happy about something and managed a faint smile.

Nihil picked up the small teapot he’d prepared in advance, filled with warm water, and held its spout right up to Rianus’s mouth so he could drink.

Once he’d made sure the prince had finished, Nihil hopped down from the bed and placed the teapot on the trolley. He picked up the prepared soup and spoon, then wriggled back onto the bed and settled beside Rianus.

Whatever was going through the prince’s head, Rianus smiled faintly again.

Nihil scooped up some soup, blew on it to cool it, and fed it to Rianus a little at a time. He also tore the bread into tiny pieces, soaked them thoroughly in the soup, and fed him those as well.

When Rianus began feeling around beside him as though searching for something, Nihil quickly placed a teddy bear in his arms.

“You’re surprisingly good at this.”

Watching Rianus hug the teddy bear tightly, Evan was secretly impressed.

He hadn’t shown it outwardly, but Nihil’s efficient, no-nonsense care had genuinely surprised him.

Until Nihil had pulled the prince’s cheek, Evan had been horrified and ready to throw him out. But everything Nihil did afterward was so practiced and delicate that Evan was rather proud of himself for having the patience not to kick him out.

At first, Evan had wondered why Nihil had bothered transferring the water into a small teapot. He understood the reason when Nihil simply held the teapot up and let the prince drink straight from its spout. It was a simple yet ingenious method.

It was perfectly ordinary for commoners to drink directly from a teapot’s spout. But after becoming a royal knight and spending so much time around nobles and royalty, Evan seemed to have become too rigid, with all their table manners and tea-drinking etiquette.

Remembering how he’d once insisted on using a cup when giving water to his sick younger sister, only to spill half of it, Evan resolved to try Nihil’s method himself.

He should find a small, adorable teapot light enough for his frail little sister to lift on her own and give it to her as a present.

“…I’ve taken care of a sick kid before.”

“…?”

At the sudden, quiet remark, Evan needed a moment to work out what Nihil meant. Then he realized it was an answer to his earlier question.

He had a sick younger sibling? He says he raised them. Wouldn’t most people just say they looked after them? I wonder if the kid died.

Evan thought of his own younger sister, who was probably lying sick in bed right now. She was so frail that he could count on one hand the number of times she’d left her bed since birth. Ten years younger than him, she was only ten herself.

Then he suddenly realized that it had already been a week since he’d last seen her. He decided that once the prince recovered, he would visit her.

By then, Nihil had finished feeding the prince his soup and had discreetly slipped the medicine in as though it were more soup. It must have been terribly bitter, because even through his drowsy haze, Rianus’s brow furrowed.

Watching Nihil carefully lay the prince back down, Evan pointed to the two remaining pieces of soft white bread on the trolley.

“You should eat, too.”

The wildcat seemed to become even more unbearable when hungry, so Evan needed to make sure he was fed before he could cause trouble for His Highness.

“No need. Eat it yourself.”

“Eat before you go hungry and start tormenting the prince.”

“I ate plenty yesterday, so I won’t need to hunt for food for the next week.”

Evan was so dumbfounded that one corner of his mouth twisted upward as he let out a disbelieving snort.

So that’s why he ate so much yesterday. He was trying to cram in a whole week’s worth of food at once.

“Cut the nonsense and eat something. You think you can go a whole week without food in the palace? And even if you do go hungry for a week, don’t take it out on His Highness.”

As though he couldn’t be bothered to deal with Evan any longer, Nihil shot him a half-lidded glare, sighed, and picked up one piece of white bread. He stuffed it into his mouth in several large bites.

Then he casually brushed his hands together and wriggled back under the blankets.

“You’d think it was your bed.”

Evan put the remaining piece of bread in his mouth and wheeled the trolley out of the bedroom. He stopped a passing servant and handed it over, then went over the prince’s schedule for the day in his head.

It was about time he went to notify the tutors of His Highness’s absence.

There were exactly three people Evan never wanted to run into inside the royal palace.

The first was Queen Helia. The second was her son, Prince Lawrence. The third was the queen’s father, the maternal grandfather of the First Prince, and the princes’ swordsmanship tutor: Duke Kalor Thesaurus.

And on his way back from notifying the prince’s tutors, Evan ended up running into two of those three people.

“My greetings to Your Majesty the Queen and His Highness the First Prince.”

There was no reply to Evan’s greeting. The two pairs of vermilion eyes merely scrutinized him from head to toe.

Evan hesitated. If he lowered his gaze slightly, he would end up looking at the First Prince; if he raised it, he would meet the queen’s drooping, seemingly gentle eyes. After some deliberation, he decided to keep his gaze a little more focused on the First Prince.

He knew all too well just how vicious and cruel that seemingly gentle queen could be.

She was a madwoman who, simply because she couldn’t bear the thought of her own child having to call the child of a royal concubine older brother, had ordered the belly of a woman carrying an unborn child to be cut open and the baby forcibly removed before it had fully developed.

They said she had nearly died because of it. Yet the one who actually died was Consort Natura, a half-elf who had given birth to the Second Prince. The queen herself had survived and continued strolling around the palace as though nothing had happened. It was difficult to imagine anything more infuriating.

After maintaining their silence for some time, the two pairs of vermilion eyes curved into smiles simultaneously.

The sight was chilling.

“Sir Evan, it’s been a while.”

The First Prince spoke first, his tone leisurely and unhurried. He was polite and affable to everyone, which made him popular throughout the palace. Yet he never once used honorific speech when addressing his own younger brother, the Second Prince.

As though His Highness were beneath even the lowliest servant.

The First Prince never dirtied his own hands. Instead, he manipulated everything around him with his long, silver tongue. Despite his young age, he was already adept at concealing his emotions and manufacturing whatever expressions suited him.

He was the complete opposite of the Second Prince, who was always honest and couldn’t hide what he felt.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Evan had encountered the First Prince at the ducal residence just yesterday. However, he had no desire to prolong the conversation, so he didn’t bother correcting the prince and simply gave a short reply.

It was also a small act of protest for the subtle bullying that had made their little kitten cry.

“I heard that my younger brother is ill. Please convey my wishes for his speedy recovery.”

Evan flinched at those words.

He had only just finished reporting the Second Prince’s expected absence from lessons. How on earth had the First Prince already heard about it?

What was more, Evan hadn’t said a single word about the prince being sick.

“…I’ll convey your message. If you’ll excuse me, please take care.”

“Sir, why are you so eager to send me away? How disappointing.”

“My apologies. His Highness the Second Prince is alone, so I cannot remain away for long.”

“Ah, that’s right. Sir Evan is my younger brother’s only escort knight.”

The little snake smiled sweetly. Evan’s gaze grew darker.

He knew that the House of Thesaurus had been putting subtle pressure on the royal knights. He could understand why the knights couldn’t easily refuse a ducal house led by the kingdom’s only Sword Master, but still…

“My younger brother is fortunate to have you as his escort knight, Sir Evan.”

Evan’s mood sank further, and he no longer responded. He simply bowed once more, turned around, and headed back toward the Second Prince’s palace.

Upon returning to the Second Prince’s palace, Evan didn’t enter the prince’s bedroom. Instead, he stood guard silently outside the door.

There was no sound from within, so it seemed that neither the prince nor the wildcat had woken up yet.

A few maids came upstairs to clean the bedroom, but Evan sent them all away, instructing them not to come up to the fifth floor unless they were specifically summoned.

Unable to contain his irritation, Evan struck the wall lightly with his fist.

Ever since encountering the First Prince and the queen, he hadn’t been able to shake his foul mood. It felt as though he were floundering in a deep swamp, unable to escape.

No matter how hard he tried to think of something pleasant, the lingering image of those vermilion eyes only became more deeply etched into his mind.

He had no idea how news of the prince’s illness had leaked out. Even in the kitchen, he’d merely said that the prince seemed to have overeaten the previous night and instructed them to prepare only soft foods. He hadn’t mentioned the prince being sick at all.

How long had he been lost in thought?

Suddenly, he heard a light knock from behind him. Evan, who hadn’t sensed anyone approaching, couldn’t help jumping in surprise.

Once again, there was a soft knock on the bedroom door.

His Highness would have no reason to knock on his own bedroom door, so it was probably the wildcat.

I’m supposed to be an escort knight, yet I was so lost in thought that I couldn’t even detect someone’s presence. Pathetic.

Shaking off his thoughts, Evan opened the bedroom door.

From his lowered field of vision, a snow-white wildcat glared up at him with gleaming black eyes and a thoroughly displeased, half-lidded expression.

Evan casually blurted out, “What is it?”

“Go on. Bark some more.”

The little bastard?!