How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 37

Sedes narrowed his eyes and stared intently at the little white-haired boy.

The first thing Nihil had done upon entering the palace was start a purge of its personnel. Sedes couldn’t help wondering whether the Second Prince’s Palace might end up in the boy’s hands if things went wrong. Was it really safe to keep him by Rianus’s side?

Nihil sensed that the kid’s father was beginning to regard him with suspicion, but made no attempt to correct his misunderstanding. The more uneasy Sedes became, the more attention he would pay to Rianus.

Nihil rose from the sofa. Despite having everyone’s eyes on him, he remained perfectly composed as he began sorting the sacks of medicinal herbs.

Everyone watched with mixed expressions as the small boy carried armfuls of herbs from place to place. Eventually, Evan couldn’t hold back any longer and spoke up.

“Want some help?”

“No need. And this time, it couldn’t be helped, but next time, try to make sure no one else brings in the herbs if possible. They’re going to be fed to a child, so we need to be careful—What’s this?”

Nihil stopped in the middle of moving the herbs and opened a particularly small bundle. It wasn’t on the list he had given them.

He examined the contents with his fingers and sniffed them a few times. The scent seemed familiar, yet he couldn’t immediately recall where he had encountered it.

In truth, this was a pouch Sedes had randomly picked up from the apothecary to test Nihil. He wanted to find out whether the boy really knew anything about herbal medicine. The problem was that Sedes himself didn’t know what he had picked up.

He casually tested the waters.

“Is there something else mixed in with the herbs?”

“…”

Nihil immediately realized that Sedes was testing him. He narrowed his eyes and glared at the king with extraordinary disrespect before putting a leaf into his mouth.

The scent was familiar, but he had never tasted this particular herb before.

Watching Nihil chew the tip of the leaf, Evan asked anxiously,

“How can you eat that when you don’t even know what it is?”

“I’m eating it because I don’t know what it is. The scent seems familiar, but I don’t think I’ve ever ingested it before.”

If he had used this herb in the past, he would have known what it tasted like. He always experimented on himself before using anything.

Perhaps he had encountered it as a fragrance somewhere rather than handled it directly. But where on earth had he smelled it before? He couldn’t quite remember.

…It has been very recently, too…

“Ah.”

A thought suddenly struck Nihil. He spat out the leaf and handed the bundle to Evan.

“Take it away and throw it out. Or return it to the apothecary.”

“What is it?”

Evan rummaged through the herbs he had received and sniffed them just as Nihil had. But no matter how hard he tried, there was no way he could identify them. He was just about to taste a little when Nihil hurriedly added,

“Puppy, don’t go eating random things you find. That’s an aphrodisiac.”

“…”

Evan froze, a single herb leaf still held between his fingers. The bundle slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, scattering its contents everywhere.

“I can’t blame you for wanting to test me, but of all things, why did you have to pick this?”

“…”

Nihil frowned and scolded Sedes.

The king pressed his lips together, unable to offer even a single word in his defense. At the mention of an aphrodisiac, the escort knights didn’t dare criticize Nihil’s disrespect, either. Instead, they sneaked glances at their master.

Once Evan had recovered somewhat, he abruptly lifted Nihil into the air and examined him from every angle.

“A-Are you all right?”

“The amount I ingested was negligible. There’s no need to worry.”

Evan still wasn’t convinced. Keeping Nihil tucked under his arm, he gathered the scattered herbs. This wicked stuff needed to be disposed of immediately.

Nihil remained calm even as Evan carried him around, jostling him from side to side. When Evan stared at the fireplace, apparently considering burning the herbs, Nihil helpfully added an explanation just in case.

“Puppy, that herb is used by burning it, so absolutely do not set it on fire. Since it was in the apothecary, there might be other ways to use it, but I don’t know the details. Adults can tolerate it reasonably well, but it has a strong effect on children. If you insist on burning it, take it outside the palace to dispose of it.”

Sedes, who had been keeping his mouth firmly shut, cautiously asked,

“Are you certain it’s an aphrodisiac?”

“No. It might not be an aphrodisiac at all. It doesn’t have much of an effect on me.”

Nihil thought of the other children who had inhaled the fragrance aboard a slave ship and spoke haltingly.

“At first, they seemed sleepy, as though they were about to fall asleep. Then, after some time, their bodies grew hot and their eyes became unfocused. It might be useful as a painkiller in an emergency, but I don’t recommend it. We don’t know what side effects it might have.”

“…How do you know all that? Can we trust that information?”

Uncomfortable in Evan’s arms, Nihil squirmed until he found a more comfortable position. Then he leaned heavily against Evan with utter disregard for propriety and spoke.

“I’ve seen children who inhaled that fragrance. If you don’t believe me, why not burn some and see for yourself? Or experiment on one of your father’s dogs.”

“…”

“The best way to learn is to experience things firsthand.”

Everyone was left speechless once again by his merciless suggestion.

Regardless, Nihil wrapped his arms tightly around Evan’s neck and added,

“I’ll warn you in advance, though. You can’t use the dog at our house. There’s only one, and it would be troublesome if he went into heat—Mmph!”

Evan hurriedly covered Nihil’s mouth. It was already too late, since the boy had finished saying everything.

“For the love of God, watch what you say!”

Evan wanted to cry. With the prince absent, there was no way to keep the wildcat’s mouth under control. The boy was definitely taking revenge because Evan had teased him too much that morning.

Evan hurriedly bowed to Sedes again and again.

“Your Majesty, I truly have no excuse.”

“…It’s fine. This is certainly… refreshing.”

“Why are you apologizing on my behalf?”

“Please, just shut that mouth of yours! You’re so well-behaved around the prince, so why can’t you stay quiet for once now?!”

“Well, you know how it is. You can’t even drink cold water in front of a child. Besides, it’s rather amusing watching you bark.”

Nihil smiled brightly and swung his legs, teasing Evan. Evan gave the dangling legs a sharp slap before clamping his mouth shut, determined not to let the boy provoke him any further.

“Anyway, Your Majesty, you seem to have stayed rather long. If the queen starts getting suspicious, that’ll cause trouble for us, too. You should probably head back soon—Ah, wait. I have something to give you.”

Nihil hopped down from Evan’s arms and ran off somewhere. He returned carrying a flowerpot with a single red flower growing in it, taken from a dimly lit shelf, and thrust it toward Sedes.

“Here, Your Majesty. Take this.”

“…What is it?”

“A bribe to ask you to look kindly upon me.”

“…”

Sedes accepted the flowerpot almost reflexively.

A single flower as a bribe. It was the most worthless bribe he had ever received in his life.

Nihil offered an explanation as Sedes stared down at the flowerpot with a peculiar expression.

“I was very lucky to get it. Water it just enough to moisten the soil, as though it were receiving the evening dew. Keep it out of strong sunlight, and put it outside after sunset so it can bathe in the moonlight. You’ll also need to feed it a drop of blood from time to time, and it must always be the same person’s blood.”

“…Blood?”

Sedes was thrown off balance by the increasingly bizarre instructions.

Did this flower actually feed on blood to grow?

“…What exactly do you mean by that? I’d appreciate a proper explanation.”

“Do you know what the raw material for mana potions is?”

“If you mean Maractea, then yes.”

“Exactly. Mana potions are made from Maractea roots. That flower is a Maractea flower.”

“Maractea doesn’t bloom.”

“They pull it out before it flowers, so no one ever sees it bloom. Besides, a flowering Maractea is rare to begin with, and it has to grow for over a hundred years before it can do so. I think a flowering Maractea was called something else…”

Nihil frowned as though trying to remember something, then gently touched the flower in the pot. Its delicate red petals swayed under his fingers.

“Ah, I think it was called ‘Sirenthea.’ Have you heard of it?”

“…Sirenthea?”

Everyone who heard the name widened their eyes and stared at the little flower in the pot.

Sirenthea wasn’t the name of a flower. It was the name of a gemstone mentioned in legends. According to an absurd tale passed down through the ages, a knight who obtained the gem could break through the Wall of Transcendence, while a mage could reach the Eighth Circle, a level supposedly beyond the capabilities of any human.

But it was nothing more than a legend. No one had ever seen one.

“Are you saying this is the legendary Sirenthea? But… isn’t it a gemstone?”

Nihil, who knew nothing about the legend, tilted his head.

“I don’t know anything about the legend… Could they have compared the fruit to a gemstone? Sirenthea blooms only once in its lifetime, bears a single fruit, and then withers immediately. If you regularly nourish it with the blood of one person, it produces a fruit infused with that person’s mana. When that person swallows the fruit, they can absorb an enormous amount of mana. Normally, mana absorbed from nature has to be refined into one’s own mana, a process that takes time. But the mana obtained from Sirenthea bypasses that process, allowing a large quantity to be absorbed all at once. That can help someone break through a bottleneck.”

“…”

“Is it not to your liking?”

When Sedes failed to respond, Nihil tilted his head again.

Sedes glanced at the flowerpot in his hands before cautiously addressing the little white-haired boy.

“Is this truly legendary…?”

“Most legends are exaggerated, so I hope you won’t believe them too blindly.”

“They say a knight can cross the Wall of Transcendence and a mage can break through the Eighth Circle.”

Nihil furrowed his brows and clicked his tongue.

“What nonsense. The Wall of Transcendence isn’t determined by the amount of mana someone possesses. The same goes for a mage’s circle. This flower certainly increases the amount of mana someone can hold, but it won’t break through those barriers for them. Roughly speaking, if that Shadow Knight over there ate it, he might be able to aim for the level of a Sword Master. But someone at Your Majesty’s level wouldn’t become a Sword Master just by eating it.”

Nihil gestured toward one of the escort knights—the same one who had been hiding in the shadows and whom Nihil had praised as useful.

At the mention of a Sword Master, everyone turned to look at the knight.

Sedes’s eyes widened. He glanced at his escort knight, then spoke in bewilderment.

“…Is that true?”

“Some people can reach that level without eating something like this in the first place. That knight has plenty of potential. I’d appreciate it if you could decide quickly whether you’re accepting the bribe or not, Your Majesty. If you don’t take it, I’ll feed it to the puppy at our house.”

Evan, the puppy in question, shuddered.

Without realizing it, Sedes tightened his grip on the flowerpot.

“What would happen if a mage ate it?”

“It would be more effective for a mage than for a knight, whose physical abilities are also a factor. Hmm, if we’re talking purely about mana, a mage who has just reached the Fourth Circle could immediately advance to the Sixth Circle. Of course, forming that mana into circles would still depend on the individual’s ability.”

At present, the highest level humans could reach was the Seventh Circle. A mage at the Sixth Circle could therefore become one of the most powerful mages in the Mage Tower, second only to its master.

“…May I ask where you obtained it?”

“I dug it up on the hill right behind here.”

“…”