How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 136

“Do… Do you hate me?”

The child’s voice trembled terribly as he asked.

Hate him? What on earth had this little thing done wrong?

Sedes lifted Rianus into his arms and turned him around so they could face each other.

The child’s lips were pressed tightly together. His large, round odd-colored eyes were slightly scrunched up, glistening with unshed tears.

Sedes gently wiped away the moisture with his rough, calloused hands, then gazed at that small, round face for a long while.

He had thought the face resembled Natura’s, but unexpectedly, it also resembled his own quite a bit.

As he stared silently, lost in thought, his gaze suddenly settled on Rianus’s plump cheeks.

Something came to mind, and Sedes asked almost absentmindedly,

“May I ask you something?”

“Huh? Sniff… What is it…?”

Before Rianus could finish speaking, Sedes lifted him up again and promptly sank his teeth into one of his cheeks.

“……!?”

His son froze like a broken doll.

It was a little salty, like a salt roll. And, for some reason, there was an incongruous hint of sweet whipped cream, too.

Sedes applied a little more pressure with his teeth against the soft, squishy cheek. When Rianus startled and flailed, he finally couldn’t hold back his laughter and let go.

Rianus stared up at him with wide eyes, as though he had no idea what on earth had just happened.

Sedes laughed again as he looked at the clear bite marks left on those plump cheeks, then gently stroked them.

“Ahahaha! So that child wasn’t biting you for no reason. They’re incredibly soft.”

“Y-Your Majesty?”

“That child told me to do it while I still had the chance. Said I wouldn’t be able to bite them once they grew up, so I should take the opportunity whenever I got one.”

“Th-That…”

“So I tried it myself. If that fellow can bite you, why shouldn’t your father be allowed to? And you seem to taste like whipped cream.”

At the mention of whipped cream, Rianus’s face turned bright red, and he lowered his head.

Come to think of it, when they had been eating strawberry cake, Nihil had wiped his face with a handkerchief, saying he had gotten some cream on it.

“I-I must have… eaten the cake messily.”

“You ate strawberry cake?”

“…I-I didn’t get that much on myself…!”

Rianus was so embarrassed that Sedes had correctly guessed even the kind of dessert he had eaten that he buried his face in both hands.

Sedes burst into laughter at how adorable he looked.

“Wahaha! I deliberately added it because that child said he wanted it.”

“Neil… said he wanted it himself?”

“Yes.”

Sedes had also wanted to tell Rianus that he had made sure to prepare the shrimp he liked. However, since they had ended up serving grilled king prawns that were inconvenient to eat, he decided not to mention it. He had already been lectured by his son’s friend about that.

Next time, he would have them prepare a delicious shrimp dish that was easier to eat.

Rianus tilted his head, wondering if his friend liked strawberry cake. Despite supposedly liking it, Nihil had given him most of his own cake, along with nearly all the strawberries on top. Of course, Rianus had fed Nihil his own share of cake, too.

Watching Rianus drift off into his own thoughts right in front of him, Sedes felt a little bitter, as though he had already been outdone by that snow-white child. Still, even that tilted little head was so adorable that he contented himself with gently stroking it.

“Rian.”

“Y-Yes?”

Rianus startled when Sedes called him by his nickname, his eyes widening again.

He had been terribly surprised just to hear his name, but now he was being called by his nickname.

He was happy, but at the same time, a vague sense of unease began creeping over him. He couldn’t help wondering what was happening.

“I heard you like being called by your nickname.”

“Did Neil… tell you that?”

“Yes. I’ll try to call you that when we’re in private.”

Rianus shyly nodded, feeling both embarrassed and happy, then nestled into Sedes’s embrace.

Sedes gently rubbed his back.

“You have a good friend.”

“That’s right. Neil is really strong, cool, and capable. And he’s very…”

“Kind.”

At the word kind, Rianus smiled bashfully and nodded over and over.

Sedes stroked his fluttering curls once before slowly speaking, as though recalling the past.

“Your mother… was very skilled with a bow. Her eyesight was so good that she could easily hunt birds from a great distance.”

“……?”

“Though, quite apart from her excellent eyesight, she wasn’t particularly good at reading people…”

“……”

“She couldn’t lie or hide her expressions well. Deceiving others was never her strong suit.”

Rianus stared at Sedes with wide eyes. He had never imagined he would get to hear stories about his mother like this.

His father’s expression as he reminisced about her looked very happy, but there was also a hint of loneliness in it.

Sedes continued slowly, as though turning over his memories.

“Everyone called your mother a concubine, but no. What did they know about being a concubine? They treated her as nothing more than a mistress. She was neither an elf nor a human, so she wasn’t welcomed in the forest or human society. In the end, she was looked down upon here, too.”

A bitter smile appeared on his face. Even so, he continued.

“I held the wedding ceremony first, right in front of everyone. They didn’t all acknowledge it, but… I didn’t want to lose her. Eventually, she was given the position of concubine. But to me, she was my first queen. That was only right. What king would take a concubine before taking a queen?”

Rianus’s little hands tightened slightly. He had never known his father felt so strongly about his mother.

Sedes took a small key from his pocket, unlocked a drawer, and showed him a little portrait.

It depicted a woman with brilliant golden hair and emerald eyes. Her smile was so lovely that it immediately drew the eye.

It was a face Rianus had never seen before, but he instinctively knew.

This was his mother.

“Would you like to have it?”

“……!”

Rianus’s eyes widened. Was he really allowed to receive something like this?

“You may have it. I have more.”

He had quite a few more hidden away. His father said this with a mischievous, childlike smile.

“Even in her cruel life, she was always bright and honest. I… fell in love with that side of her.”

Rianus nodded slightly. Not simply because she was his mother, but because the woman in the portrait truly seemed like someone one would like.

She was certainly… certainly someone worth falling in love with.

“So at first… I thought I was being punished.”

“……?”

“Because I had brought her, who was so utterly free, into the palace and bound her here. I thought that was why I was being punished…”

Sedes took a deep breath. Then, feeling as though the woman in the portrait had met his gaze, he gently brushed his fingers over it. The rough yet warm texture of the paper felt strangely comforting.

“Even after we married, we went several years without having a child. So everyone began belittling her, claiming there was something wrong with her.”

“……”

“Actually, there was something wrong. As it turned out, half-elves were naturally incapable of having children. When she confessed that to me, she cried and cried, apologizing.”

“……”

“She… deceived me.”

At those words, Rianus’s body stiffened slightly. Sedes drew him close against himself and continued.

“I was very… surprised that she had deceived me. She knew she wasn’t good at lying, so she rarely ever did it.”

“……”

Rianus wanted to ask. Had his father hated her for it? But he was too afraid of the answer to ask.

“She… confessed that she was sorry for telling me so late, and that she had done it because she wanted to stay with me.”

“……”

“Do you know what I thought when I heard her confession?”

“…Did you resent her for deceiving you?”

Even as he answered, Rianus’s expression stiffened slightly, and his eyes trembled anxiously.

Sedes chuckled softly and shook his head.

“No. I was overjoyed that she wanted to stay by my side so much that she was willing to deceive me. Deep down, I had never been able to shake the feeling that I had imprisoned her in the palace, when she had always been so free.”

As he spoke, the corners of Sedes’s eyes curved with genuine happiness.

“Rianus.”

“Y-Yes?”

“I loved your mother… that much.”

“……”

“But once that fact became known, the nobles began putting even more pressure on me. I had no choice but to ask for her understanding and take a second queen. And then… a miracle happened.”

“……?”

“Natura… her belly began to grow.”

Her slender waist gradually rounded as her belly grew. Her body swelled, she had trouble sleeping, and she suffered from morning sickness. But she seemed happier than ever.

‘Sedi, it’s our child.’

‘Yes. Our child.’

“So I was happy, too.”

A deep smile spread across his face.

“Of course, I intended to divorce the daughter of House Thesaurus. It was obvious that it wouldn’t be easy to do so against a ducal family, but I wanted to show Natura how I truly felt, even if it meant going that far. But… It was only later that we discovered the daughter of House Thesaurus was pregnant, too.”

“……”

“That was when I regretted things the most.”

If only he had endured a little longer… Just a little longer.

“Thanks to that, divorce was out of the question. What could I do? It was all my fault.”

“……”

“What’s more, your mother told me to leave her alone, because there was a high chance the child would be stillborn.”

“……”

“Perhaps your mother had known from the beginning that she might die giving birth. But she always said the same thing. That her pregnancy was truly a miracle.”

“……”

“She repeated the word miracle as though trying to convince me. She said there would never be another chance like this, and she told me dozens, even hundreds of times, whenever she could. As she stroked her swollen belly, she called you ‘Ruth.’”

Rianus flinched when he heard his own prenatal name, ‘Ruth.’

After all, Nihil had told him that his name was a compound of the words Rian and Ruth.

Sedes’s throat seemed to have grown dry. He paused and reached for his teacup, but when he found it empty, he set it down with a soft clink.

Normally, one of the knights would have appeared to refill it. But perhaps they had judged that this was not a situation they should interrupt, because they remained quietly hidden.

Sedes felt his hands beginning to tremble. At this rate, he might end up letting his emotions spill out in front of his knights and son. So he tried to act as though nothing was wrong and gently changed the subject.

“Your mother made a teddy bear while she was pregnant… Do you… still have it?”

“Pupu?”

“…You gave it a name.”

“Pupu is my friend.”

At those words, Sedes’s expression crumpled again.

Come to think of it, when Rianus had planned to run away with his friend, he had said he would take Pupu along, too.

Should he be happy that his son had kept the bear all this time, or should he feel heartbroken that it had been his only friend until now?

Disliking how deeply his emotions were stirring, Sedes hurriedly pushed the thought aside.

“Th-That… teddy bear’s right eye…”

“Ah… Pupu’s right eye is a little crooked. Mother must have made a mistake while sewing it.”

“…I… sewed that one on.”

“……?”

“…I… sewed it on myself.”

“……!”

The two different-colored eyes widened so much they seemed ready to roll right out of their sockets.

Sedes couldn’t help laughing.

It really was true that holding something cute made you feel better.

“Natura insisted that I had to do it, so I picked up a needle. It was the first and last time I ever did something like that. The pieces were so small and thin that I kept dropping them. Actually… that was the result of several attempts.”

“Ah… Um… Pupu’s mismatched eyes are what make him special.”

“Pfft…!”

Sedes couldn’t help laughing at his son, who was trying to comfort him over his pitiful sewing skills.

“Pfft, yes… They’re special. Your eyes are very special, too.”

“……!”

“Come to think of it, your right eye is golden. Perhaps that’s because I sewed the bear’s right eye on. Or maybe Natura knew something when she made me sew it on.”

As he spoke, Sedes gently stroked the corner of the child’s eye, which held the same color as his own.

He felt much better.

Now, he thought he might finally be able to speak about her without losing his composure.