How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 130

“…Your Majesty, perhaps it would be best for the adults to leave the children alone?”

The Queen asked with a smile that curled the corners of her eyes. At that sly expression, Sedes readily nodded.

“Very well.”

Sedes immediately rose from his seat. It seemed she intended to leave the children alone so they could intensify their bullying, but leaving them unsupervised would actually work in their favor.

Helia looked suspicious when Sedes stood up so readily, but she soon rose as well. Pretending to be considerate and give the children some privacy, she even dismissed the servants.

Nihil glanced around the dining room, noting the hidden presences and their locations, then calmly continued eating.

“Neil, have some of this too!”

Nod, nod.

As soon as the adults disappeared, the little seaweed sprang back to life.

The children repeatedly criticized Nihil’s atrocious table manners, but the little seaweed had apparently learned a thing or two after pulling out a young master’s hair. He simply responded with an attitude of So what? and blatantly ignored them. As a result, the other children couldn’t even stand up to him properly.

The only person of sufficient status to restrain Rianus was another prince, Lawrence. But Lawrence silently continued eating, as though he had no desire to participate in such vulgar conversation.

Nihil ate as much as he pleased without hesitation. Since only the appetizers had been served, there wasn’t much food to begin with. But Nihil devoured such a large quantity so quickly that the kitchen soon found itself rather busy.

“Second Prince, surely you aren’t letting your precious friend go hungry?”

Aiden asked with a pout. Even as he spoke, he kept watching Nihil intently whenever the boy’s veil lifted.

“Let him go hungry? I would never neglect my friend’s meals—!”

Rianus began to insist that he always made sure his friend ate well, but then something occurred to him, and he fell silent.

“Neil, you still eat properly even when I’m lying sick in bed, right?”

“…….”

Nihil glanced at Rianus, then promptly stuffed a large piece of smoked salmon into his mouth.

Rianus quickly turned toward Evan, who was standing guard by the entrance.

Confronted by the little predator, Evan timidly shook his head.

Rianus’s face stiffened.

To think he had suddenly become a friend who didn’t even make sure his companion ate properly!

Feeling needlessly hurt, Rianus pushed the food around him toward Nihil. Nihil accepted it without hesitation and continued eating enthusiastically.

“Brother, I really think there’s something wrong with that kid.”

Camilla whispered to Aiden. It was obvious even without her telling him.

Having had all his food taken away, Aiden frowned and picked up the last remaining piece of salmon, placing it on a slice of bread. Or rather, he was about to.

If only Nihil hadn’t snatched it away first.

“…….”

 

***

 

Lawrence stared intently at the salmon on his plate.

“Hey! Are you gonna eat everything by yourself?!”

“…….”

Aiden’s voice rang through the dining room after his final piece of salmon was stolen, but the person he was addressing didn’t even bother to answer. He simply continued eating.

…How uncultured.

Thinking that, Lawrence picked up the salmon with his tongs. But he soon lost his grip, and it fell back onto the plate with a soft thud.

 

***

 

“…….”

Evan couldn’t understand why he was now supposed to wield a sword in the training grounds with a child clinging to his back.

“Get down.”

Shake, shake.

“I said get down, you damn wildcat!”

Whose fault was it that things had come to this?!

Evan grabbed the scruff of the wildcat clinging stubbornly to his back, trying to pull him off. But the little beast was so tenacious that he barely budged.

“This is why you shouldn’t have teased the other children so much!”

Shake, shake.

“What do you mean, you didn’t?!”

Nihil shook his head again. He hadn’t teased the children. How could he have teased them when he couldn’t even speak?

All he had done was eat a little too much and pay special attention to the little kitten. Well, food had started flying around toward the end, but… he’d only thrown something once, and even that had been the tiny head of a shrimp.

Technically, he hadn’t even thrown it. The children kept eyeing the shrimp he had peeled, so he had merely offered them the heads, suggesting they eat those instead.

Nihil grabbed a handful of Evan’s hair as the man continued tugging at the back of his neck to shake him off.

Hadn’t the puppy seen it himself? Those brats had kept interrupting him while he peeled shrimp for their little one.

Nihil vigorously plucked at the dog’s fur as though making that very complaint.

The little kitten’s father was also partly to blame for this mess. When he’d been told that the child liked shrimp, he’d served them inconvenient grilled prawns instead. He would make him regret it later by tormenting him with shrimp heads.

“Stop pulling out my hair and wipe your own damn mouth properly! You smell like whipped cream!”

At that, Nihil shook his head again. His mouth was perfectly clean. It was only because Rianus had fed him cake that some whipped cream had gotten on his veil. He hadn’t particularly liked the shrimp, but the strawberry cake hadn’t been bad.

Of course, that didn’t mean he intended to forgive the little kitten’s father.

The whipped cream on his veil had already been wiped away, but Nihil deliberately rubbed his mouth all over Evan’s back.

“Ah! Don’t wipe it on me! Your Highness, please do something about this brat!”

“…Maybe Neil is worried about Sir Evan? I-I mean, Sir Evan is a little… injured, after all.”

As Rianus said that, he seemed to grow concerned himself. He approached Evan and wrapped his arms around the man’s thigh.

“Sir Evan, let’s just stop.”

“This is a matter of Your Highness’s dignity!”

“…My dignity… is fine. It’s already been completely crushed anyway.”

He hadn’t had much dignity to begin with, but… hadn’t it been thoroughly destroyed today?

Not only had he shouted vulgar insults and thrown punches, he’d even burst into tears. And on top of that, his own friend had cuddled him in front of everyone.

Ironically, Nihil had been so considerate of him. In the chaos of food flying everywhere, everyone else’s clothes had gotten dirty, but he alone remained spotless. Even his elder brother, who had been eating by himself some distance away, had food splattered all over his clothes.

He could still vividly remember the look his brother had given him, as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. In the end, his angry brother had left without even eating dessert.

“Ah, it’s just a sparring match! We agreed not to use aura!”

Evan shouted in frustration, but Nihil shook his head again.

Aura wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he was taking the puppy’s kwa in his place.

…In other words, his back hurt terribly.

The more violently Evan moved, the more Nihil felt as though his entire body were being torn apart. So he clung to Evan even more tightly. If he could have, he would have simply knocked the puppy unconscious and made him stay still.

More importantly, the medicine he had given Evan was about to take effect. Nihil could endure the pain in his own back, but if the puppy started vomiting impurities in the middle of a sparring match, both he and his opponent would be thoroughly confused.

“Hah. A knight being protected by his master…”

The opposing knight, who had been watching the scene, curled his lips in disdain at Evan, who was being held tightly by two little children.

He was the escort knight of Noah Allier, the child who had been thoroughly tormented by Nihil today and had burst into tears twice.

Considering the circumstances, it should have been the young masters’ escort knights who stepped forward. However, apparently having heard rumors about Evan’s skill, they had coaxed Noah—who was particularly eager to curry favor with them—into putting his own escort knight forward, lest their knight lose.

Evan felt a surge of anger at the opposing knight’s remark. But when he looked down and saw their little kitten gazing up at him with those round, sparkling eyes, his anger immediately subsided.

…Our little kitten is magnificent. Surely he can protect a lowly puppy like me.

Just then, Aiden spoke to Nihil.

“Hey, if you let us cut your hair, we’ll call off this sparring match.”

“…….”

Nihil immediately lifted his head from Evan’s back, hopped down, and trotted over to Noah.

He didn’t mind giving away some hair. The ends were already badly damaged, and he needed to get them trimmed anyway.

But Noah apparently didn’t see it that way. He stepped backward.

“W-Why are you coming toward me?”

Noah looked on the verge of tears, wondering why Nihil was approaching him when Aiden had been the one to ask for his hair. But Nihil tilted his head, as though he couldn’t understand what the problem was.

It was Noah’s escort knight who was fighting Evan. So if he wanted to stop the fight, wouldn’t it make more sense to give the hair to this child rather than Aiden?

Just as he was thinking that, someone grabbed him by the scruff again.

“…….”

Nihil crossed his arms, dangling in midair with his toes swinging as though expressing his displeasure. Evan, who had lifted him by the back of his neck, shook him irritably.

“Do you even know what it means to let someone else cut your hair?!”

“…….”

“For the love of God, please just behave yourself. You don’t actually think I’ll lose just because I’m a little injured, do you?”

Shake, shake.

There was no way the puppy would lose. Even a cursory assessment showed that Evan was stronger. In fact, even if his opponent used aura, Evan still had the greater chance of winning.

But if Evan started vomiting impurities during the sparring match, wouldn’t everyone assume he’d suffered internal injuries at the hands of some incompetent knight?

As Nihil wondered how he could bring the match to an end without making a scene, his eyes fell on the little kitten.

Even through the veil, the little kitten seemed to sense his gaze and tilted his head.

“…….”

Having reached a decision, Nihil subtly turned his body toward Evan. Evan noticed his gaze and furrowed his brows as if to ask what he wanted now, but he wasn’t wary of him.

In other words, he had let his guard down.

Whoosh—Tap!

Nihil suddenly twisted his body and slipped free of Evan’s grasp.

Evan was startled and reached out to catch him again, but Nihil twisted in midair, kicked away the approaching hand, landed on the ground, and dashed toward the little kitten.

“H-Huh?”

Rianus was startled by Nihil suddenly rushing toward him and stumbled backward. But the distance between them closed in an instant. His body was suddenly lifted into the air, his view flipped upside down, and all he could see was the ground.

Nihil hoisted Rianus over his shoulder and ran away.

Behind them, Evan let out a stupid, “H-Huh?” before immediately shouting, “HEY, YOU CRAZY LITTLE SHIT!”

The wildcat fleeing with the little kitten in tow couldn’t overcome the limitations of his short legs. He was soon caught by the puppy.

In the end, there was no sparring match. Instead, rumors spread in no time that the new friend the Second Prince had made was completely insane.

 

***

 

There were only a few minutes left before his lessons in statecraft, but Rianus was still glued to Nihil in the reception room. Since he couldn’t attend those lessons with Nihil, he intended to put off going for as long as possible.

“I should’ve ripped all that bastard’s hair out!”

Rianus fumed. He had noticed the smell of whipped cream lingering on Nihil’s veil and had been about to replace it with a clean one when he discovered the bruise on Nihil’s face.

“I’m fine, Rian. If you’d been just a little later, I would’ve kicked that brat in the stomach.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No. I didn’t even notice I’d been injured.”

Rianus had left a fist-sized bruise on Aiden’s face, yet he looked utterly miserable at the sight of the tiny bruise on Nihil’s face, no bigger than the tip of a finger.

“Everyone must think I’m their chew toy.”

“Rian, you can’t be a chew toy. The puppy will eat you.”

“…….”

At his friend’s unexpected joke, Rianus glanced at Evan.

Evan had been sitting absentmindedly, feeling somewhat unwell. But when the topic of chew toys came up, his eyes drifted toward Rianus’s plump cheeks.

I’m the puppy, and His Highness is a chew toy. Would it really be so bad if I took one little bite?

Just as his train of thought was about to go further, he suddenly snapped back to his senses.

“…Don’t make weird jokes, wildcat.”

“Rian, watch your cheeks. You might get bitten while you’re sleeping. The puppy’s been eyeing them hungrily. He’s obviously jealous of me.”

“Um, about that… Can I bite yours too?”

“What?”

“Your cheeks.”

“…….”

Nihil hadn’t expected Rianus to ask such a serious question. His eyes widened, but then he broke into a meaningful smile. He dramatically raised his arms, opened his mouth wide, and lunged forward with a loud Chomp!

“Eek!”

Rianus let out a strange cry as Nihil suddenly bit his cheek.

Evan hurriedly tried to separate the two, startled by the sight. But an unexpected complication arose…

“W-What is this…?”

Rattle—

The stack of papers in Sedes’s hands scattered across the floor as he arrived at the reception room.

“…….”

“…….”

A brief silence followed. Then the plump cheek slipped out of the white beast’s mouth with a soft Chup.