How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 23

The liveliness in Rianus’s voice faded, settling into a calm tone. He didn’t like seeing his friend being insulted right in front of him.

“But, Your Highness. You must maintain a clear distinction between those above and below you…!”

“Countess, I’m more than capable of distinguishing between those above and below me. And if my friend had known I was a prince and groveled before me, we wouldn’t have become friends in the first place. Aren’t friends supposed to be equals? He may be a commoner, but His Majesty has granted him permission to enter the palace, and he is staying here as both my friend and my guest. It would be a problem if you openly disrespected him like that. If my friend’s conduct as a student was inappropriate, you should have corrected him during the lesson. But you never treated my friend as a student at all, did you? I didn’t stop you because my friend doesn’t seem particularly interested in learning, but if you were dissatisfied with his behavior, I would appreciate it if you treated him as a student and corrected him accordingly from now on.”

“……”

The sack of grain sitting beside them blinked in surprise at Rianus’s unexpectedly logical and firm words.

Nihil was so proud of Rianus that he unconsciously raised a hand to pat his head. But when he noticed the countess glaring at him, he quietly lowered it again.

“…I was thoughtless. I apologize, Your Highness.”

“I’d appreciate it if you apologized to my friend, too.”

The countess’s expression tightened slightly, despite her efforts to appear composed. It seemed she had no desire to apologize to a commoner.

The sack of grain, which had been watching the exchange indifferently, gently squeezed Rianus’s hand and shook his head. It was a gesture telling him to let it go.

“Rian, you don’t need to defend me. I’m not confident I can sit up straight through every lesson.”

Despite having just been insulted to his face as an uneducated commoner, Nihil’s expression remained indifferent.

But that only made Rianus feel worse. Somehow, Nihil seemed accustomed to being treated this way.

Pouting, Rianus grumbled.

“Neil, anyone listening to you would think you’d been sleeping or lying down during the lesson.”

“If they’re going to treat me the same way regardless, lying down might not be a bad idea.”

Oh! That actually sounds like a good idea!

Rianus’s eyes lit up, and he smiled brightly as though he had never been displeased in the first place.

“Then should we have a bed brought in?”

“……”

Nihil couldn’t agree, not even as a joke. He knew Rianus was serious. The moment he said yes, a bed would be installed in the sitting room.

They say you can’t even drink cold water in front of a child, but why does it feel like my kid is making me drink water instead?

Still, knowing that Rianus had absolutely no intention of causing him trouble, Nihil covered his face, sighed, and laboriously straightened his slumped body into a sitting position.

Then he met the eyes of the countess, who was watching him in utter shock.

Nihil gave her a meaningful look, as if to say, My kid is this crazy about me, so if you don’t want a headache, let’s just wrap this up and move on.

Fortunately, whether because she understood his intention or because she had seen the prince keeping his eyes fixed exclusively on his friend throughout the entire exchange, the countess cleared her throat and regained her composure.

“Ahem. I apologize.”

Nihil didn’t reply. He merely gave a slight nod.

The countess frowned again at his insolent behavior, but apparently had no desire to deal with him any further. She bowed to Rianus and hurriedly left.

Nihil watched the countess’s retreating figure with an indifferent yet persistent gaze.

Rumors about the insolent commoner the prince had picked up would probably spread soon. And so would the fact that the prince was going out of his way to protect him.

If no rumors spread, it might not be a bad idea to draw her into Rianus’s circle instead.

“Neil, you must’ve been really surprised when the lesson suddenly started today, right? I’m sorry.”

Rianus apologized again for what had happened during lunch. He had actually been a little worried that Nihil might say he no longer wanted to attend lessons with him.

“It’s fine. Still, I think it would be good to learn about the instructors beforehand. What kind of person is the history teacher?”

“The history teacher is my favorite! I’m sure you’ll like him, too.”

Rianus chattered excitedly as he explained, delighted to finally have something he could tell his friend about.

The history teacher’s name was Carus Francesca. Now twenty years old, he had inherited his family’s title at the remarkably young age of fifteen and was known as the young Marquess of Francesca.

He taught history to the princes, but his actual profession was as a professor at the academy, where he taught Imperial and several other languages.

His specialty wasn’t history but languages. However, he was so intelligent that his language research had naturally led him to become well-versed in history as well.

He was so devoted to language studies that he left most of the management of his territory to his younger brothers and spent more time at the academy than at home.

He had accepted the position of the princes’ instructor because the king had offered him access to part of the royal library, which was normally restricted to members of the royal family, and he had eagerly seized the opportunity.

The House of Francesca had not always favored political neutrality, but because its current head consistently avoided involvement in politics, his domain had gradually come to be regarded as one of the kingdom’s most prominent neutral territories.

“…And the marquess has light teal hair. When we first met, he said I was the first person outside his family he’d ever met with green hair like his, so he was really happy. He even told me to call him by his first name.”

Rianus finished his explanation with a shy, delighted smile.

Seeing that smile, Nihil, who had been mentally recording information about the marquess without much interest, raised his opinion of him a little.

Two out of five points.

Considering Nihil started everyone at zero, that was a rather generous score for him.

The history lesson proceeded much like the etiquette lesson at first. Rianus diligently played the role of a good student, while Nihil faithfully played the role of a sack of grain.

But as time went on, the history teacher began mixing in casual remarks: how nice it was to have the lessons separated, how uncomfortable the First Prince was to be around, whether he could teach in a more relaxed manner himself, and how His Highness’s dear friend should pay attention to the lesson…

The history teacher was more free-spirited than expected, and a little peculiar.

No, he was very peculiar.

He didn’t scold Nihil for leaning comfortably against his chair. But whenever Nihil slumped too much or tried to lie down, the teacher would trot over, lift him right up into the air so he could breathe the air above, then put him back in his seat.

After being lifted up and down several times, Nihil was initially bewildered, but he soon adapted. Eventually, he managed to slump in such a way that the teacher could no longer lift him easily.

Rianus was also startled by the history teacher’s strange behavior and widened his eyes in surprise. But when he saw Nihil dangling limply in the air with an indifferent expression, he burst into delighted laughter.

Perhaps that innocent laughter was precisely why Nihil kept getting lifted up.

After about an hour of lessons, the history teacher announced that they should take a short break. He pulled a bundle of cookies from the bag he had brought and handed them to his adorable students.

“These are gifts for you. My adorable youngest brother baked them himself! To be honest, I wanted to show them off.”

“Thank you, Teacher!”

Rianus accepted the cookies with a bright smile. Nihil, still slumped over, merely watched with his eyes as his own bundle of cookies was placed on the desk.

Among the pale golden cookies, baked to a lovely color, were several chocolate-colored ones. Since the youngest brother was apparently still quite young, the cookies looked a little crude in shape.

With a rustling sound, the bundle was opened, and a cookie suddenly appeared in front of Nihil.

Nihil glanced at Rianus, who was holding it out and waiting for him to take it, then accepted it.

“……”

Why did the cookie smell burnt and taste bitter?

Nihil’s eyebrow twitched as he straightened up in his seat. He chewed the cookie, wondering whether they were supposed to taste like this, and continued eating without saying anything. Then the teacher spoke.

“Oh, my brother said he didn’t add any chocolate, but isn’t it amazing how some of them turned out looking like chocolate cookies? My brother must be a genius!”

They’re just burnt!

Unable to spit it out, Nihil forced himself to swallow the burnt cookie. When he glanced to the side, he saw Rianus reaching for a charcoal-colored cookie.

Nihil quickly called out to him.

“Rian.”

“Hmm?”

“…Could you tell me where the Kingdom of Harpense is…?”

Nihil quickly scanned the surroundings and drew Rianus’s attention to the world map spread across the desk.

Since the history teacher was watching them with sparkling eyes, Nihil couldn’t very well tell Rianus not to eat the cookie.

Rianus’s eyes lit up at the thought of being able to teach his friend something. He scooted closer and sat right beside Nihil.

“Neil, the Kingdom of Harpense is right here! Our kingdom has a very small coastline. The Empire and the Kingdom of Berlem border us closely on both sides.”

“What’s this?”

Nihil pointed to a small island near the Kingdom of Harpense. It was the Duchy of Lephne, consisting of a large crescent-shaped island and a smaller, round island.

“This is the Duchy of Lephne. The crescent-shaped island is Nemea, and the round one beside it is Margarita. The Grand Duke who gave us that elixir rules this territory. But the location shown on the map isn’t actually accurate. You can’t get there without a portal. They say the Grand Duke cast magic over the entire archipelago and made it completely invisible. The coordinates also change every day, so you can’t get there unless the Duchy of Lephne tells you the current coordinates.”

Nihil nodded as he listened to Rianus’s explanation. So the Grand Duke really was a demon. Apparently, he could use magic on a fairly large scale.

“According to rumors, the Duchy of Lephne has severe demonic energy contamination and is full of demons, so it’s dangerous for humans to visit. Some say the Grand Duke cast the spell to prevent humans from recklessly coming there, even out of curiosity.”

“Have you ever been there?”

“No. The Grand Duke rarely interacts with others unless it’s related to his work. And when he needs to, he comes here himself rather than letting outsiders into his territory. But I am a little curious about the Duchy of Lephne.”

“I’m curious, too!”

The history teacher raised his hand high and joined the conversation.

“Demons naturally have long lifespans, so their history must be incredibly long and unique. I’d love to study their languages as well! Surely they know many dead languages that humans have long forgotten. In fact, I once tried to corner His Grace the Grand Duke and ask him for help, but he refused.”

“……”

“Haha! I nearly lost my wrist that day.”

“……”

The history teacher scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Nihil narrowed his eyes and gave him a dubious look, as if wondering what kind of idiot he was, before ignoring him and turning his attention back to the world map.

Then he noticed some hastily scribbled notes in one corner of the map.

At a glance, they looked like a recipe for a stew made by throwing all sorts of seafood together.

Rianus didn’t seem like the type to scribble on maps, so Nihil wondered whether he was craving seafood stew that badly. He asked if Rianus liked seafood.

“Seafood? I like shrimp. But seafood is pretty rare in our kingdom, so we don’t get to eat it often. Why do you ask all of a sudden? Are you craving seafood?”

“This scribble…”

Nihil began to speak, then suddenly stopped.

Now that he looked more closely, the writing system resembled the scripts used on the same continent, but the pronunciation was completely different.

What language was this again…?