How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 26

Evan sprang to his feet and reached for Nihil. No matter how many times Nihil told him not to bark, there was no way he could hold back this time.

Nihil quickly leaned his head back to avoid Evan’s hand, but Evan was a little faster.

“How am I supposed not to bark?! Spit it out right now!”

“L-let go of me!”

Nihil’s cheeks were squashed between Evan’s fingers as he struggled and pushed Evan’s face away. But there was no way a well-trained knight several times his size would be so easily pushed back.

“Spit it out! How many have you eaten?! You’ll get sick if you eat too many cookies burnt like this!”

“Y-you stupid mutt!”

“You’re the kind of brat who would rather die than do something you don’t want to, so why the hell did you stubbornly force yourself to eat all of those?!”

“P-please stop, Sir Evan!”

“Sir Evan, calm down!”

Unable to watch any longer, Carus pulled Evan back while Rianus grabbed Nihil to stop him. Evan had never intended to hurt Nihil, so he obediently let go.

Nihil’s cheeks had been squeezed rather hard. He loosened his jaw and rubbed them in circles with his hands.

Rianus placed both hands on Nihil’s cheeks and whispered, asking if he was all right. Nihil showed no sign of pain and simply nodded.

After calming Evan down and finally getting him seated, Carus spoke.

“Why on earth did you do that?”

“Marquess.”

“…Yes?”

“You haven’t been subtly bullying that kid because he’s a commoner, have you?”

Evan narrowed his eyes and gave Carus a suspicious look. The marquess practically jumped out of his skin.

“W-why would I bully him?! Have you thought that little of me all this time?”

“…Of course, I know you’re not the sort of person who would do that, but you spilled tea on his head, gave him a cut on the cheek, and presented him with completely burnt cookies as a gift.”

At that, Carus awkwardly scratched his head.

“When you put it that way, it really does sound like I bullied him. Well, spilling the tea was entirely my fault. As for the cut on his cheek… I honestly don’t know exactly how it happened, so I can’t explain it. But were the cookies really that bad…?”

“…I thought I was eating coal.”

“I-I’m sorry. I apologize to you as well, my dear friend. I didn’t realize things were that serious.”

“It’s fine. They weren’t that bad.”

“Haha…”

Carus laughed awkwardly, reflecting on his actions. Next time, he would have to supervise his youngest brother while he baked cookies. Yes, at the very least, he should taste them before bringing them as gifts.

Just then, Rianus, who had finally realized the truth about the chocolate cookies, spoke in a tearful voice.

“I-I kept feeding them to you without knowing…!”

“It’s okay, Rian.”

“I’m sorry, Neil. I should have tried them first.”

“You shouldn’t eat burnt things.”

Nihil hurried to comfort the seaweed-haired boy, who was on the verge of tears. The guard dog beside them began nagging him, saying, “And you’re one to talk!” but Nihil ignored him completely.

“I’ve always eaten whatever I could find, so something like that won’t make me sick. They weren’t even that bad.”

“H-how can you say that? Hic… Waaaaah!”

Nihil hurriedly tried to explain himself, but Rianus burst into tears anyway, thinking about how much hardship his friend must have endured while growing up.

Nihil blinked at the sight of Rianus crying, then looked up at the two adults as if asking what he was supposed to do after making the child cry.

“Y-Your Highness!”

“I-I’m sorry, Your Highness. Next time, I’ll make sure to bring something delicious…”

But rather than comforting the child, the two adults were even more flustered than Nihil. They could only wave their hands around helplessly.

Faced with their utterly useless behavior, Nihil let out a deep sigh and gently brushed the tears away from the corners of Rianus’s eyes.

“Don’t cry, Rian.”

“Hic… B-but I wanted to give you only good things, delicious things.”

“If you say that, my teacher’s younger brother, who worked hard to bake those cookies, will feel bad.”

Sniffle… “I don’t want that to happen…”

“Then, if you ever meet him, tell him you enjoyed the cookies.”

“O-okay.”

Nihil gently stroked Rianus’s head as the boy obediently nodded and promised to do so. Rianus seemed to like the touch, because he smiled shyly despite the tears still glistening in his eyes.

“…Sir Evan, are you sure you’re not his nanny rather than his friend?”

“……”

Watching the scene from beside him, Carus poked Evan in the side and asked. Evan maintained his silence, unable to bring himself to hit the marquess.

…Besides, he couldn’t entirely deny it.

And before long, the prince stopped crying. It really was easy to mistake Nihil for a nanny.

“Rian.”

“Hmm?”

“You said you wanted to give me only good things, delicious things, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Then, whenever someone gives you food as a gift, you have to give it to me first, okay?”

“Yeah! I will!”

Rianus smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically. However, the two adults listening to their conversation grew serious.

At first glance, saying that he would taste gifted food before anyone else might sound arrogant. In reality, though, it meant food tasting—the practice of sampling food before it was served to someone important to check for poison.

Evan’s brow furrowed on its own. He had been about to scold Nihil, but somehow, as though he had sensed it, the boy met his gaze.

Confronted with those mysterious, indifferent eyes whose depths he couldn’t fathom, Evan ultimately said nothing and lowered his gaze.

Having successfully silenced the guard dog, Nihil turned toward Carus.

“And Teacher, I have nothing more to tell you. The lesson is over, so you should head back now.”

“Ah…”

Taken aback by the unexpected dismissal, Carus lowered his head. Then, as though he had made up his mind, he clenched his fists tightly.

“If I go back like this, I won’t be able to sleep for ten days.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“And eventually, I won’t be able to hold back…”

“What will you do if you can’t hold back?”

“I’ll attempt a kidnapping.”

“……”

The marquess was more extreme than Nihil had expected.

At the sudden threat of kidnapping, Nihil let out a disbelieving chuckle.

“Me?”

“…Yes, kidnapping you would be the right thing to do, my dear friend. But somehow, I feel that might be a little difficult, so…”

“So?”

“…His Highness…”

Carus glanced at Rianus.

Rianus’s eyes widened. Apparently, he had never imagined that he himself might become the target of a kidnapping.

“I think a Bonbon Chocolat might be enough to kidnap him.”

At those words, Evan’s body gave a slight shudder.

Nihil thought that, at this rate, the guard dog might be the first one to get kidnapped.

That would be a problem. Rianus only had one guard dog, after all.

Left with no other choice, Nihil decided to give in one last time.

“Fine… I’ll listen and decide. Go ahead.”

“…! You really mean it?!”

At the unexpected permission, Carus sprang to his feet, rushed toward Nihil, and clasped his hand tightly.

Nihil felt a slight tremor through their joined hands. He glanced down at the hand Carus was holding and let out a deep sigh.

“Why are you going this far?”

“Th-this is truly important to me…”

“Don’t get your hopes up. Go ahead and tell me. I’ll see what I can do.”

Carus nervously cleared his throat several times before finally speaking, stumbling over his words.

Soon, an unfamiliar language flowed from his lips.

“(May the proper spell reach my beloved…)”

“……”

Nihil’s eyebrow twitched. The pronunciation was terrible, but it wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t understand it.

However, Nihil parted his lips a few times before closing them again.

“…My dear friend?”

As the silence continued, Carus’s voice began to tremble.

He clutched Nihil’s hand as though it were his last lifeline. His grip was so tight that Nihil’s hand gradually turned white, but Carus didn’t seem to notice.

“M-my dear friend…”

Anxiety clouded Carus’s eyes, and his hands grew cold. Nihil watched him for a long moment before letting out a laugh that sounded almost like a sigh.

“Ha… It’s a complete mess.”

“……!”

Nihil pulled his hand free from Carus’s grasp, rubbed the fingers that had turned pale, and gave him a crooked smile.

“If you’re going to memorize something, at least do it properly.”

“I particularly… struggled to memorize it. The pronunciation was very unfamiliar to me… and it’s already been five years.”

“The person who taught you those words? Your mother? Your father?”

Carus’s eyes widened. He tried to grab Nihil’s hand again, but Nihil’s fingers were still tingling from the force of the previous grip, so he quickly avoided him.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Only then did Carus notice the red marks his grip had left on the small hand. He apologized profusely, then carefully took Nihil’s hand and gently massaged it.

“My mother whispered that sentence to me repeatedly from the time I was little. She continued doing so right up until shortly before she passed away.”

Carus had searched through and studied every language known to history in an attempt to uncover the meaning of that sentence.

At first, when he discovered that the writing on the world map resembled the writing system in the documents his mother had left behind, he thought everything would finally fall into place.

Of course, he had been mistaken.

Five years was no short period, and his mother had left behind quite a few documents, yet he had failed to find a single clue.

It was as though the language didn’t exist in this world at all.

He had wasted five years without obtaining anything. His younger siblings had told him he could give up when they saw how much he was struggling, but Carus couldn’t do that—not when he needed to protect them.

Carus glanced at the mysterious little boy with white hair, then resumed rubbing the small hand he had made red.

Perhaps the only reason he had become a teacher in the first place was so that he could meet this person.

“…I see.”

“Pardon?”

At the quiet voice, Carus quickly snapped out of his thoughts and raised his head.

Nihil’s mysterious eyes, shimmering with strange colors, had been staring intently at the prominent callus on Carus’s middle finger. Now, he looked up.

“It’s a good thing you haven’t memorized it correctly.”

“…Could you perhaps tell me what it means?”

At the cautious question, Nihil frowned slightly. There were too many complications involved for him to simply tell Carus the answer.

This language was none other than the language of spirits. It wasn’t a language humans were supposed to use.

In hindsight, it was only natural that the teacher had never found any clues. Spirits didn’t use written characters, so their language consisted entirely of sounds—sounds that ordinary humans couldn’t even hear.

The problem was that spirits despised having their territory invaded.

Even today, when Nihil had tried to take a brief peek to determine whether the marquess was compatible with them, the spirits had immediately tried to gouge out his eyes. If he hadn’t dodged in time, he would undoubtedly have been seriously injured.

…Then was Teacher’s mother a spirit mage?

“Teacher.”

“Y-yes!”

“What did your mother do?”

“Ah, my mother was a mage who specialized exclusively in wind magic. Although she absolutely forbade me from learning magic.”

If that was the case, then his mother must have been a candidate—someone compatible with spirits. More specifically, she must have been a candidate who had already formed a contract with a wind spirit.

Magic and spirit arts were complete opposites. Anyone who learned magic could never awaken as a candidate, while candidates who formed contracts with spirits could never use magic.

His teacher’s mother had probably pretended to use magic while actually practicing spirit arts.

Still, I never expected there to be any spirit mages left.

Nihil studied Carus quietly. The man himself wasn’t a candidate. That much had been clear from the brief examination Nihil had conducted earlier.

Furthermore, candidates were usually born with the necessary qualifications or awakened at a young age. Since the teacher was already an adult, his chances of becoming a candidate were exceedingly slim.

But things would be different if his late mother had been a candidate.

The language of spirits was special in its own right. When a candidate recited it, the words gained power. If Carus’s mother had been a candidate and had repeated the same words to him over and over, he would undoubtedly acquire the necessary qualifications someday, even if it took a long time.

But teaching him the language of spirits carries far too much risk.

The possibility that he might awaken as a candidate didn’t change the fact that Carus himself wasn’t one yet.

Faced with a situation more complicated than he had anticipated, Nihil grew a little tired and slumped into the sofa. The seaweed-haired boy sitting beside him naturally draped a blanket over him and gently patted him.

Nihil quietly accepted the soothing touch before speaking in a drowsy voice.

“Teacher.”

“Yes!”

“I can’t tell you what it means right now.”

“Wh-why not?”

“If you learn what it means and start meddling with things, everything could go terribly wrong.”

If he incurred the spirits’ wrath before awakening as a candidate, there would truly be no going back.

“Don’t even say those words aloud. Don’t try to research them, either. Just leave them alone and rest. I’ll tell you when the time comes.”

“I-is it dangerous?”

“Very. Today, they almost gouged my eyes out—”

Nihil thoughtlessly began rambling about the ill-tempered spirits who had lunged at him the moment their eyes met. Then he noticed everyone staring at him and hastily changed his expression.

“No, no. I misspoke. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”

“……”

“……”

But it was already too late. Silence settled over the sitting room.