How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 2

A small child who appeared to be around his age.

Having gone barefoot in such freezing weather, the tips of the child’s feet had turned bright red from the cold.

The clothes he wore, which looked several sizes too large and seemed to have been picked up somewhere, were torn in places. Stains of what might have been blood or dirt covered his hair and clothing indiscriminately.

“Your Highness, how could you just run off like that?!”

The knight who had followed the child draped a thick cloak over his shoulders and handed him an umbrella.

“I’ll take care of everything here, so please get back into the carriage first. It’s far too cold.”

The prince glanced at his knight before looking around for the parents of the child who had been struck by the carriage.

However, no matter how many times he asked, the child’s parents never appeared. Only after he shouted at the villagers did an elderly man finally speak, trembling with fear.

“Your Highness, please forgive us. That child only arrived in our village recently. He’s an orphan wandering about without parents, so there’s no family to punish on his behalf. Please, please quell your anger.”

Forgive him?

He was the one who had killed the child. Who was he to forgive, and who was he to punish?

With a face that looked as though he might burst into tears, the prince scanned his surroundings once more.

Perhaps because they had been lying on the cold, damp ground for so long, the villagers’ clothes were already soaked. Meanwhile, the sleet was falling even harder, freezing their hands and feet.

The prince decided that he needed to send the villagers home first.

“Everyone, get up and go home! If anyone here is connected to this child, that person may stay.”

“B-But…”

“You foolish, idiotic people! Get inside at once! Anyone who continues loitering in front of me will be seized and beaten!”

At the prince’s words, the villagers’ faces began to turn pale. They were reminded of the child in the neighboring village who had been beaten to death.

After a brief commotion, one or two people began to leave. Soon, everyone was moving about in a panic, and before long, they had all disappeared.

The street was empty in an instant.

The prince let out a small, bitter laugh.

He was only the powerless Second Prince, yet those people were so terrified of him without even knowing the truth. It was laughable, laughable, and yet so utterly pitiful.

Water dripped from the dark green hair hanging before his eyes.

The color of a filthy swamp. Wasn’t that why they called him the Swamp Prince? Could there be a nickname more fitting for someone like him?

It felt as though thick, sticky filth were dripping from his head, making his mood even more miserable.

“Your Highness, please come inside now.”

At the knight’s voice, which interrupted his thoughts, the prince lifted his head and glanced at the child lying in a pool of blood.

The child’s condition was truly horrifying.

How could he be so wicked? Someone else lay in that state because of him, yet here he was, feeling depressed over something as trivial as his hair color.

No wonder he had no friends. No wonder everyone always left in tears.

Sleet settled on the bloodstained head of gray hair. Without thinking, the prince crouched beside the child and held his umbrella over him.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it. Please forgive me. Next time, be born somewhere better. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”

The prince whispered his final farewell to the child whose name he did not know.

Please, next time, may you live somewhere where you won’t be cold or hungry.

After offering a quiet prayer, the prince kept his eyes on the child’s body and spoke softly to the knight standing beside him.

“Sir Evan.”

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“If I die, you’ll be sad, won’t you?”

“I’ll probably die before you do, Your Highness. I am your knight, after all.”

“Then I’ll have to be sad when you die, Sir Evan. But if I die, who will be sad for me?”

“…Please don’t say things like that.”

The knight’s face twisted in pain. His young prince, who had been hurt and worn down in so many ways, looked as though he might crumble to pieces at any moment.

The prince thought to himself.

I’m a prince, so surely many people will attend my funeral.

Perhaps His Majesty would be a little sad, but it wasn’t as though he would die before his father.

Feeling miserable all over again for no particular reason, the prince shook his head.

“This child has no one who will grieve for him, so I’ll grieve for him instead. When we return to the royal palace, I’ll make exactly one friend. A friend who’ll be sad when I die. I don’t need many. Just one will be enough.”

Watching his master mutter to himself, the knight felt a heavy knot of emotions in his chest.

There had been too many young noblemen sent to serve as the prince’s playmates who had eventually left in tears to count on his fingers.

They had been sent to accompany the Second Prince only because His Majesty had ordered it. However, the nobles, pressured by the queen and the Duke of Thesaurus’s family, had badgered their children into avoiding any association with the Second Prince.

The knight thought of his younger sister, who had been confined to her bed for ten years and had never even had the chance to meet children her own age.

If she weren’t ill, would His Highness have gladly become her friend?

“…!”

Just then, the prince suddenly sprang to his feet, only to stumble and fall. The umbrella slipped from his hand and rolled across the ground.

The knight hurriedly helped the prince up, then quickly retrieved the umbrella before the wind could blow it farther away and held it over him again.

“Your Highness, what’s wrong?”

“It, it moved!”

“Pardon? The corpse?”

“It definitely moved!”

“That can’t be.”

Despite his disbelief, Evan glanced at the child. But the only thing moving was the gray hair fluttering in the wind.

Of course. The child had been trampled by the horses and had lost so much blood. There was no way someone so small could have survived that. No, even a fully grown adult could never have survived it.

“…Your Highness.”

Evan was about to gently reassure his master, assuming he had mistaken the windblown hair for movement, when—

Wriggle.

“…!”

The blood-soaked gray-haired head twitched so violently that there was absolutely no mistaking it.

“U-Ugh…”

Splash.

A small hand groped against the pool of blood, and the gray-haired head slowly began to rise. The child let out a faint groan and strained to push himself up with his arms, but he could barely manage to lift half his body off the ground.

The prince and his knight, who witnessed the grotesque sight of a blood-covered child moving right before their eyes, could only freeze in shock.

Could it be undead? Is there a dark mage nearby?

The knight pushed the prince behind him and drew his sword. The prince’s face went pale as he clutched the knight’s clothes, yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the child.

The knight looked down at the child, who was practically crawling along the ground. The child’s face was difficult to make out, but one thing was certain: his gaze was fixed on the prince.

Keeping the child at a distance, the knight moved the prince even farther behind him.

However, the prince caught a glimpse of the black eyes peering through the filthy bangs and stared in astonishment.

“…Wait a moment, Sir Evan.”

Having noticed the mysterious, shimmering light within those fleeting black eyes, the prince stepped out from behind his knight, who was trying to shield him, and cautiously approached the child.

He could hear someone behind him calling, “Your Highness!” But, as if under a spell, he took one step after another toward the child.

I want to see them more clearly. Those eyes, shining with such a mysterious, wondrous light.

The prince approached until he was right in front of the child, crouched down, and lifted his dirty bangs.

The child’s face was so smeared with blood that his features were difficult to distinguish. Yet those eyes were clearer than anything else, resembling either the Milky Way scattered across the night sky or a black opal gleaming with a multitude of colors.

“…Look. You’re…”

The child’s lips moved, producing a faint whisper of air. The sound was so quiet that the prince couldn’t make out the words, so he tilted his head in confusion.

The child frowned slightly and spoke a little louder.

“What are you looking at? Who are you?”

The child’s voice became clearer, but the unexpected question left the prince staring wide-eyed, his eyes of yellow and green opening into perfect circles.

The bangs the prince had carefully lifted slipped down again, once more concealing those eyes that resembled a galaxy or a black opal.

Disappointed that he could no longer see them, the prince leaned even closer and swept the child’s hair completely back.

His hands became smeared with blood and grime, but he didn’t care in the slightest.

Suddenly, the prince wanted to become friends with this child.

Perhaps this was the moment to put into practice the promise he had made to himself just a little while ago: that he would make a friend.

When he actually tried to say the words, his mouth felt stiff, as though it had forgotten how to move. Still, he couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.

He had a strong feeling that it had to be this child.

I have to make a friend! I will make one, no matter what!

Gathering his courage, he carefully opened his mouth.

“U-Um…”

“What?”

“I-I mean…”

“Stop stammering.”

“I-I…!”

“…?”

“…Will you go out with me?”

Oh no. I said it wrong.

The beautiful black opal crumpled into a deeply displeased expression.

…As it turned out, his attempt to make a friend hadn’t gone very well.

He had failed at practically everything: from bringing up the subject without even apologizing to the child lying on the ground covered in blood, to messing up his words and accidentally asking the child to date him instead of asking to be friends.

…But he really had worked up the courage to say it.

‘Quit talking nonsense and get lost.’

Ouch.

…Still, even if the child had rejected his courage so harshly, he shouldn’t have hit someone who was injured.

It hadn’t been intentional. He had absolutely no intention of hitting a patient.

He had remembered what happened at the Duke of Thesaurus’s estate, along with all the playmates who had run away in tears, and he had simply felt a little upset. He hadn’t even hit the child that hard. He had merely pressed down on his head a little.

And the child had collapsed back onto the ground under the pressure of his hand.

He must have fainted because he’d lost too much blood. It definitely wasn’t because I hit him.

It couldn’t have been.

By then, the sleet had stopped. Accompanied by the rhythmic clatter of hooves, the carriage continued smoothly toward the royal palace.

Ever since climbing aboard, the prince had kept looking at the child lying across from him.

It was too cold outside, and the child had lost so much blood that the prince couldn’t bring himself to leave him behind. So he had carried the unconscious child into the carriage. Worried that his body temperature was dangerously low, he had even taken off his own cloak and carefully tucked it around him, making sure that his feet were completely covered.

The eyes that had captivated him, resembling a black opal, were now hidden behind closed eyelids. However, this gave him a chance to examine the child’s face more closely, even if it was a little late.

So, so beautiful.

Even with his face drenched in blood, the child’s beauty remained impossible to conceal completely.

“Sir Evan.”

The prince called to his escort knight, who was driving the carriage from the driver’s bench.

“Did you call, Your Highness?”

“What should I say this child is?”

The royal palace was not a place where unverified outsiders could enter at will.

Even ordinary servants needed a letter of introduction just to apply for a position, and the attendants accompanying nobles weren’t permitted to enter the palace unless personally vouched for by their noble employers.

It would be even more difficult for a lowborn child who had been wandering around as an orphan until just moments ago and had no way to prove his identity.

Hearing the prince’s question, Evan lamented his master’s complete inability to make even a single friend. After thinking it over for a moment, he figured they might be able to get away with insisting on a simple explanation and cautiously offered a suggestion.

“…A friend?”

“…”

Sitting on the driver’s bench, Evan couldn’t see inside the carriage. Nevertheless, he could easily imagine the little kitten’s ears and tail drooping in disappointment.

He let out a deep sigh.

“That’s what you get for hitting him, Your Highness.”

The prince grew a little depressed. He had no excuse. It was true that he had hit an injured child.

He must have fainted because he’d lost too much blood. But since he happened to lose consciousness right after I hit him, he’ll probably suspect that I knocked him out.

He had vowed to make a friend and finally mustered the courage to confess his feelings. Yet instead of making a friend, he was about to be mistaken for the child’s enemy.