How the Prince Makes Friends – Chapter 28

Author: isuzuuy

“Even if your sense of smell is good, this is ridiculous!”

Horrified, Rianus darted around to avoid Nihil. He tried hiding behind the butler and even clung to the skirts of the maids, but Nihil approached him directly without so much as brushing against anyone else’s clothes.

Although it was only a game, Rianus was beginning to feel genuinely frightened. Forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to run, he hurried toward Evan and stretched out both arms as if begging to be picked up.

It was clearly against the rules, but Evan couldn’t ignore His Little Kitten’s request to be carried. Besides, he wanted to see the wildcat struggle a little, so he promptly lifted Rianus onto his shoulders.

Rianus’s field of vision rose dramatically, giving him a clear view of the entire office.

Evan strode away with Rianus on his shoulders, moving them a little farther from their original position.

Surely, even that brat would have trouble finding the prince while he was riding on someone’s shoulders. Nihil might be able to figure out their direction by scent, but if they were too high for him to reach, even the wildcat would have to give up.

Rianus wrapped his legs tightly around Evan’s neck and clung to his head with both arms. He looked like a little squirrel trembling in terror after being chased by a beast, making the servants giggle.

Nihil seemed to hesitate for a moment before turning toward Evan and taking one slow step after another.

Unlike his previous steps, which had been completely confident, his pace was now a little slower.

Watching Nihil approach, Rianus had forgotten that the others were supposed to make noise to help the person who was it. He covered his mouth and even held his breath, but Nihil suddenly stopped five or six steps away.

The servants were so tense as they watched the scene unfold that they, too, forgot to make noise. Silence settled over the office.

Even Evan, who hadn’t been particularly worried until then, stiffened.

When the office grew quiet, Nihil tilted his head and began tapping the floor with the tips of his toes.

His footsteps rang out at regular intervals, echoing through the office like the ticking of a clock in an otherwise empty room.

How much time passed?

Using the vibrations from the floor to determine where everyone was standing, Nihil let out a quiet chuckle.

Someone was missing.

That mutt must have put the prince on his shoulders.

Nihil moved with painstaking care, taking one slow, measured step at a time. He was now less than three steps away from Evan.

Having become so immersed in the game that he was genuinely frightened by Nihil’s steadily approaching figure, Rianus shook his head vigorously. It felt as though he and Nihil were alone in an otherwise empty space.

Nihil abruptly stopped again.

Evan’s hair was already a complete mess from being grabbed, and Rianus was still clutching it tightly. His hair was literally being pulled out by the second.

Afraid that the prince would be discovered, Evan couldn’t even cry out in pain. He could only watch miserably as his hair fell out in clumps.

Nihil slowly raised his head.

His chin continued to lift until he was looking directly at Rianus, who was perched on Evan’s shoulders. Then he stopped.

Nihil’s lips curved into a red crescent.

With a smile in his voice, he whispered so softly that only Rianus and Evan could hear him.

Found. You.

***

“Eeeek! %@#@#!”

“Gah! Y-Your Highness!”

The silence in the office was shattered by two screams.

One belonged to Rianus, who shrieked in terror at being discovered. The other belonged to Evan, whose neck was being strangled and whose hair was being ripped out by the prince.

“That was… so scary.”

Having unintentionally terrified Rianus, Nihil patted his shoulder soothingly.

Rianus reached toward Nihil, who still had the blindfold over his eyes, and carefully untied it. He then inspected the black cloth thoroughly to see whether there had been a hole in it.

However, he couldn’t find even the tiniest hole.

After lowering Rianus from his shoulders, Evan stood beside them and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair. The strands that had been pulled loose and had nowhere left to go came away in clumps.

“S-Sir Evan, I’m sorry.”

“…It’s all right.”

Evan grew a little depressed as he watched his hair drift away in search of freedom. He wanted to punch the grinning wildcat, but if he did, the prince who had pulled out his hair would be put in an awkward position.

Regardless of whether Evan glared at him, Nihil calmly covered Rianus’s eyes with the black cloth.

Once his vision was blocked, Rianus could feel his other senses becoming more acute.

“I can’t see anything.”

“Well, of course you can’t see anything, Your Highness. You’ve covered your eyes, after all.”

The butler, who had been watching with a pleased expression, chuckled amiably.

Perhaps because he desperately wanted to be caught by the prince, the butler took a more active approach to the game. The other servants were no different. Everyone’s eyes sparkled as they watched one another warily.

“Should I start counting?”

“One, two, three, four…”

As Rianus counted, the servants scattered busily around the room. The butler smiled from ear to ear, clearly enjoying himself. Even Evan, who had been standing relatively still in one spot, moved a little farther away.

“I’m coming to get you!”

After counting to ten, Rianus stretched his hands out in front of him and took an awkward step forward. The servants began making noise.

“Your Highness, I’m over here!”

“Come this way!”

Voices and clapping mingled together. With sounds coming from all directions at once, Rianus grew confused. Because his hearing was so good, every sound reached him in a jumble, leaving him unable to figure out whom to pursue.

Then his toe bumped against a table leg.

“O-Oh, this is too difficult.”

He hadn’t thought much about it when Nihil had skillfully avoided the furniture while chasing him. But now that he was the one who had to do the chasing, he realized that even taking a single step required caution.

Unable to bear watching him struggle any longer, Nihil quietly moved the small, lightweight pieces of furniture that could easily topple over into a corner.

Perhaps because the servants were eager to be caught and were making even more noise, Nihil kept clapping as well. However, his claps were drowned out by the other sounds and failed to draw Rianus’s attention.

Watching Rianus stand helplessly in confusion, Evan advised him to focus on a single sound.

Rianus concentrated once more.

Amid the chaotic noise, he heard a quiet but unusually regular clapping sound. Thinking it belonged to Nihil, Rianus decided to ignore everything else and follow that sound alone.

One step at a time.

His steps weren’t as precise or swift as Nihil’s, but he walked with a little more confidence than before.

Just as the sound he was pursuing drew quite close, the regular clapping faltered briefly before moving away.

Feeling that the sound he had worked so hard to approach was growing distant again, Rianus hurried forward and threw his arms around the person in front of him.

“I caught you… Huh?”

He had thought he’d caught Nihil, so he expected to find a small, slender figure about his own size in his arms. Instead, he had embraced something unusually large, hard, and cylindrical.

Rianus quickly pulled off the black blindfold.

As his vision returned, he found himself staring at his escort knight, whose eyes were wide with surprise.

“Sir Evan?”

Evan clearly hadn’t expected to be caught. He looked down in astonishment at the little kitten hugging his thigh tightly.

The little kitten also widened his eyes at the unexpected discovery, but soon broke into a delighted smile and hugged him even tighter.

“Oh, it was you, Sir Evan! The small, regular clapping sound!”

“That was impressive, Your Highness.”

Finding and following his clapping through all that commotion was no small feat. Evan felt proud of the small, delicate kitten smiling so brightly at him.

Nihil had already approached Rianus.

Rianus told him he had wanted to surprise him, too, and lamented that he hadn’t managed to do so. Since Nihil had never intended to let himself be caught, he merely smiled and glanced up at Evan.

Meeting Nihil’s eyes, Evan curled his lips into a crooked grin.

“You little wildcat. Get ready to do it again.”

Nihil received the challenge with a crooked smile of his own, as though it were beneath him.

When Nihil quietly suggested to Rianus that they should give Evan a handicap since he was a knight, Rianus glanced at Evan and nodded. He, too, felt that applying exactly the same rules would be unfair.

After all, his escort knight was an exceptionally talented individual who had entered the Royal Knights Order at the youngest age in its history!

“Sir Evan, since you’re a knight, you can find people without clapping your hands, right?”

“Of course.”

Even now, Evan was tracking Nihil’s presence. He had also memorized the boy’s footsteps, which were lighter and more carefree than the prince’s.

Although they were much quieter than anyone else’s, Evan was confident that he could follow them as long as he concentrated.

“I’ll catch that wildcat and present him to Your Highness.”

“Okay! Good luck, Sir Evan!”

Rianus sincerely cheered for his knight. Nihil hadn’t done anything wrong, but being chased by him had been genuinely frightening. So Rianus hoped Nihil would get a little scared, too.

Besides, he wanted to see that ever-composed expression change. But he couldn’t imagine what Nihil would look like if he were afraid of something.

Evan slowly counted to ten. The movements of the people scattering in all directions before coming to a halt remained vivid in his mind.

While everyone else had hurried away, one set of footsteps had remained leisurely. Evan strode straight toward the spot where those small, light footsteps had stopped.

As he approached, the light, bouncy footsteps of the prince pattered past him.

Since his target was the wildcat rather than the little kitten, Evan let Rianus pass without paying him any attention.

Wait, did His Highness come this way earlier?

The question briefly crossed his mind, but Evan ignored it.

He would soon regret that decision. There was nothing at the spot where Nihil’s footsteps had stopped.

A sharp clap sounded behind him.

Evan whipped his head around toward the sound.

Since they had agreed that he wouldn’t need to clap, Nihil must have made that sound to mock him for losing track of his presence.

But instead of getting angry, Evan could only grow more tense. He had heard the clap, yet he couldn’t sense Nihil’s presence at all.

A brat who could imitate other people’s footsteps and completely conceal his own presence—even from a knight!

Footsteps sounded again. This time, they were Nihil’s actual footsteps rather than an imitation.

Evan had to catch up before the boy concealed his presence again, so he quickened his pace.

But it was no easy task. Nihil’s footsteps never stopped, yet he dodged Evan’s reaching hands at every turn, never staying still for even a moment.

Everyone had relaxed because Nihil was the designated target. However, as he repeatedly brushed past the servants by the narrowest of margins and nearly got caught several times, tension gradually filled the room.

“Ah! It wasn’t me!”

The coachman, who had nearly been caught, shouted and ran away.

Nihil was subtly manipulating Evan into reaching for the servants instead. After nearly catching someone else several times, Evan grew increasingly frustrated.

Rianus had completely forgotten that Nihil was supposed to be caught. He simply watched the scene and giggled.

Playing together like this was so much fun.

The servants, who had been tormented by Nihil, eventually pressed themselves against the walls to get away from him, even though he wasn’t the one who did it.

At this point, Nihil was a walking natural disaster in miniature.

Just then, Nihil brushed past Rianus.

Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around him from behind.

“…Huh?”

Confusion spread across Rianus’s face. He had thought Nihil was merely passing by, but the boy had suddenly embraced him from behind.

Rianus found himself in Nihil’s arms, his face full of questions as he began to turn around to see what was going on.

At that moment, a large, rough hand settled on his small, round head of dark green hair.

“???”

Only belatedly realizing what had happened as he felt the heavy weight on his head, Rianus’s eyes widened like saucers.

“I caught the wildcat! …Huh?”

Evan pulled off his blindfold and checked the small, round head he had caught.

It was dark green, not snow-white.