How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 129

“……?”

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the little boy sprawled flat on the floor, arms and legs spread out. They wondered what on earth he was doing, but Nihil rubbed his hands and feet against the rug as though asking whether this was how it was supposed to be done.

“What on earth do you think you’re doing?!”

“……!”

At the Queen’s furious shout, Nihil sprang up in surprise and hid behind Sedes.

Sedes couldn’t understand why his son’s friend was hiding behind him, but he tried to think of a reasonable explanation.

…Is he telling us to do our worst?

Or perhaps he simply liked the rug.

Sedes thought, You never can tell with children these days, before realizing that no matter how hard he tried, someone as lacking in delicacy as himself would never figure it out. So he turned to his son’s friend’s friend.

“…Second Prince, do you know why this child is behaving like this?”

“Y-Yes? Ah, well, h-he’s never done anything like this before… I-I’m sorry.”

Rianus was just as baffled by Nihil’s behavior. His eyes darted around as he nervously gauged everyone’s reactions.

Just then, Nihil pointed at Aiden. The boy in question scowled, while the maid, understanding what Nihil meant, let out a quiet gasp.

The maid cautiously stepped forward.

“Your Majesty, may I speak?”

“…You may.”

“I believe the young master may have misunderstood something. I don’t think he meant any harm, so please, I beg you not to punish him.”

“How can you defend a child for lying down on the floor like that?!”

Helia shouted at the maid.

The maid trembled and bowed deeply.

“I-I’m sorry…”

“I’m not criticizing you for defending the child. But why are you only trying to cover up his behavior instead of correcting what he did wrong? Whatever the reason, how dare he behave like that in front of His Majesty—!”

“That is enough.”

Sedes raised one hand, silencing the commotion. He had no particular desire to intervene, since he would rather not exchange words with the Queen. However, the little white child at his feet kept tugging insistently at his cloak, leaving him no choice but to speak.

“…But, Your Majesty!”

“Queen, enough. You always pretend to speak for my sake, using me as an excuse. Yet I haven’t said a single word. Do not presume to act as though your opinions are mine.”

“…….”

Helia pressed her lips tightly together. Even then, Sedes noticed that she made no effort to apologize to him. He curled one corner of his mouth into a faint smile, then gestured to the maid with his chin.

“Continue.”

The maid glanced nervously at the Queen before cautiously speaking.

“…The young master said he would teach that white-haired… young master proper etiquette…”

“…….”

“He told him that whenever he saw someone of high status, he should lie flat on the floor…”

“…….”

“S-So I thought perhaps the young master had misunderstood…”

At those words, Sedes looked down at Nihil standing by his feet.

So he’s already done this once.

Sedes narrowed his eyes. There was no way it had been a misunderstanding. The child had obviously just been trying to mess with the others.

He couldn’t help but marvel at him. He had no idea how the boy had won the maid’s favor in such a short time, but his ability to coax someone into exposing another person’s shame without uttering a single word was truly impressive.

“Young Master.”

“Y-Yes, Your Majesty.”

Aiden, who had been glaring at the maid, flinched at Sedes’s call and lowered his head.

“Though the difference in status between you is clear, that does not give you the right to treat him however you please.”

“…Yes.”

Aiden pressed his lips together. Apologizing to a commoner? That was utterly ridiculous.

Just then, his younger sister Camilla stepped forward again.

“Your Majesty, my brother did nothing wrong! That page tried to hurt us! Th-This young master here injured his knee while running away!”

Camilla pointed at the child who had fallen in the training grounds earlier. The boy flinched when she singled him out, then glanced nervously at her before stammering.

“T-That’s right. H-He tried to hurt me, so I-I had to run away and get injured.”

As he spoke, the boy limped. His injury was no more than a minor scrape on his knee, but his mother had repeatedly urged him to make a good impression on the First Prince and the young masters of the noble houses. So he put everything he had into the performance.

“He tried to hurt you?”

“Y-Yes! That c-commoner—no, that child threatened us and ch-ch-chased us!”

Camilla passionately insisted that the page had bullied them.

Sedes watched her for a moment, then glanced at Nihil and asked casually,

“Did this child swing a weapon at you?”

“…Pardon?”

Camilla was momentarily stunned by the question and repeated it without thinking. Then she stole a glance at Nihil. He was the smallest of all the children. Honestly, she was confident she could beat him in a fight.

Sedes continued without giving her time to come up with an excuse.

“Or did he threaten to hurt you if you didn’t do as he said?”

“T-That’s not…”

Camilla was momentarily at a loss for words, fidgeting with her fingers. She couldn’t exactly say that he had chased them around trying to smear chocolate on them.

“What could something so small possibly have done to hurt you?”

“W-Well… he tried to infect us with a disease…”

“…A disease?”

Sedes looked at Nihil as though he had no idea what he was hearing.

“…Does he have some sort of ability to spread diseases?”

At that question, Nihil seemed to ponder for a moment. Then he suddenly raised both arms, as if threatening them. Just as he had done to the other children, he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Sedes’s thigh.

“……?”

Silence fell over the reception room.

When Sedes failed to react, apparently too busy trying to understand what the gesture meant, Nihil tilted his head. Then he raised his hands threateningly again and lunged at him once more.

“…Heh.”

Was I just threatened?

A laugh escaped him. It seemed the children had been avoiding his son’s friend as though he were some sort of plague demon.

Nihil tilted his head at Sedes, as if wondering why he wasn’t afraid of him. Then he raised his hands threateningly once more.

Lunge!

Sedes had been grabbed by a truly terrifying beast three times now, so he had no choice but to speak.

“Truly… terrifying.”

“…….”

“Have I now… caught the disease?”

Nod, nod!

The little boy nodded. His vigorous nods looked remarkably proud, as though he had successfully accomplished something.

“Well, this is quite a predicament… Wouldn’t you agree, Queen?”

“…….”

“An attack on the royal family. It’s been a long time since blood flowed at the guillotine. It’s a little unfortunate that the blood in question would belong to a child.”

“What?!”

The little kitten listening nearby sprang up in alarm. Sedes had been mocking the children, but Rianus, who was hopelessly bad at reading the room, seemed to have taken him seriously.

“W-What do you mean by that?! M-My friend doesn’t have any disease!”

With that, Rianus hurriedly pulled Nihil away from Sedes’s thigh and put some distance between them. Then he hid Nihil behind himself as though he would never let anyone take him away, and continued in a tearful voice.

“I-I’m telling the truth! Look, I’m perfectly fine!”

“…….”

“My friend is clean. W-We even bathed together!”

“…….”

“A-And we’ve already slept together for so many nights! I’m still perfectly fine, see…!”

“…….”

“Hiiiing…”

Tears welled up in Rianus’s eyes.

Sedes was too busy thinking about how much fun it would be to tease his son to respond. Meanwhile, Rianus turned around and whispered to his friend.

“Sniff… Neil… run away.”

“…….”

“I’ll come for you later. No, wait…”

Rianus had been about to say that he would call Nihil back once he became king. But that might never happen, and even if it did, it would take far too long. So he changed his mind.

“Just… sniff… just come with me. Sniff… Take me with you.”

“…….”

“Sir Evan too… Let’s take him.”

“…….”

“Ah… We have to bring Robert along too…”

Rianus murmured as he thought of the little puppy, then hesitantly continued, watching Nihil’s reaction.

“You can take Robert’s food out of my portion…”

“…….”

“Hey… Can we take Pupu too? Pupu doesn’t eat.”

“…….”

Nihil began trembling again. It was quite difficult to hold back his laughter while watching the little prince pick out what belongings to bring when he ran away from home. Covering his face with a veil had truly been an excellent decision.

After mentally adding a few more things to the list, the little prince glanced at his father and lowered his voice as much as possible.

“Let’s come back much, much later… when His Majesty’s hair has turned white and he’s forgotten everything.”

“Pfft…!”

 

***

 

Sedes stared at his second son with mixed feelings as the boy planned his escape from home and waited for him to develop dementia.

At that moment, his second son’s cheeks were puffed out so much that they looked ready to burst. The Queen had separated the princes’ luncheon seating from the other children.

The luncheon should, of course, have been canceled. But the Queen had insisted on going ahead with it, using the absurd excuse that the children needed an opportunity to reconcile.

As a result, his son’s friend was sitting all alone among the children from other noble families. Sitting among them only made his already small frame look even smaller.

“Hey, do you even know how to use utensils?”

“What do commoners eat to survive?”

“I heard they eat rats. Is that true?”

“…….”

Ignoring the children, Nihil looked toward Rianus. Seeing the little seaweed puffed up so much that he looked ready to burst made Nihil feel another fit of laughter coming on.

Nihil hopped down from his chair to comfort the little seaweed. The child’s father looked at him anxiously, as though wondering what he was about to do now, but Nihil ignored him.

Scrape, scrape…

The sound of a chair dragging across the floor echoed through the dining room.

The servants hurried over in alarm when they saw Nihil moving the chair, but he slapped away the hands trying to stop him and continued pushing it with all his might.

Scrape, scrape, thump.

The chair dragged along the floor before getting stuck against a raised edge.

Nihil stopped for a moment and looked up. The little kitten was staring down at him with wide eyes. Beside him, a little snake had furrowed his brows slightly.

Such a tiny thing, acting all refined.

“Y-Young master, you can’t go over there.”

While Nihil was watching the First Prince, a maid spoke anxiously. Nihil slapped away the hands reaching to pick him up, then lifted the chair, which was twice his size, with ease.

“Young master, that’s dangerous.”

Just then, one of the men standing guard approached, took the chair from him, and returned it to its proper place.

“…….”

Nihil stared blankly at his now-empty hands, then looked at the man with displeasure. Perhaps because he was wearing a veil, however, his glare failed to get the message across.

Tap, tap, tap.

Although his chair had been taken away, Nihil didn’t return to his place. Instead, he stamped his feet energetically and climbed over the raised edge. Ignoring the servants’ horrified gasps, he scurried over to the little kitten and plopped down beside him.

The servants tried to pull Nihil away, but he wrapped his arms and legs around Rianus’s chair and held on tightly. They had no choice but to give up.

Perhaps unable to bear watching the spectacle any longer, the First Prince finally frowned and confronted him.

“Rianus, if you keep sitting there doing nothing, your page will continue behaving so rudely! Keep him under control!”

“…Why would you ask me to control my friend, Brother?”

“Even if he’s your friend, there is still a proper order between people.”

“My friend is not beneath me.”

Rianus replied sulkily, then hopped down from his chair. Only then did Nihil release his grip on it.

“If the problem is that my friend is sitting above me, then I’ll come down instead. You can eat by yourself here, Brother.”

Lawrence’s eyes trembled slightly at those words, but Rianus failed to notice.

“Your Majesty, may I eat beside my friend?”

“Do as you please.”

Sedes waved his hand as though it made no difference to him. Rianus promptly took Nihil’s hand and led him over to the table where the other children were seated.

The Queen’s expression twisted into a scowl. She had gone out of her way to hold the luncheon despite it nearly being canceled, so she couldn’t exactly have the page thrown out for behaving rudely.

If the child acted like an uneducated commoner, it would only damage the Second Prince’s reputation, which was of no concern to her. However, she hadn’t expected the page to be quite this stupid.

I expected him to be extremely timid, since he apparently runs away from the servants. But to think he would cling to the Second Prince even in a situation like this…

He also seemed somewhat lacking in intelligence. It didn’t look as though scolding him would correct his behavior. Dealing with an idiot who couldn’t understand reason was difficult.

Snap.

Helia opened her fan and covered the lower half of her face. Her red eyes gleamed sharply as they settled on Nihil.