How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 42

Evan tilted his head, wondering what Nihil was talking about out of the blue. Then, realizing he meant His Majesty’s escort knights, he was stunned.

“…Since when?”

“From the beginning. They’ve been following us.”

“……”

A particularly dark shadow in one corner of the greenhouse wavered briefly. Only Rianus, who had no idea what was going on, blinked in confusion.

“What do you mean, Neil?”

“Nothing important. Let’s get another dog later.”

“Oh… okay!”

Rianus concluded that Nihil must like dogs and resolved to give him a purebred puppy someday.

Evan hesitantly opened his mouth, just in case.

“Have you ever blown up an illegal auction house?”

“No.”

“…I see.”

Evan breathed a sigh of relief. The wildcat’s life seemed rather eventful, and he had been worried that Nihil might somehow be connected to the Rabbit’s Den incident. Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

However, Nihil’s next words, delivered as casually as ever, made Evan’s face contort.

“I have brought one down, though.”

“……”

This time, the dark shadow rippled much more noticeably, enough for Evan to catch it. Wasn’t there a saying that you should always wait until someone finished speaking?

“Did you bring down the Rabbit’s Den, too?”

“They didn’t keep any rabbits there.”

“……”

Evan wanted to scold him for cracking jokes at a time like this, but since Nihil was a very important witness—no, the actual perpetrator—he took a deep breath and asked again, slowly and clearly.

“Have you ever dismantled a magic circle formed by multiple overlapping spells inscribed on the ceiling of an illegal auction house?”

Nihil glanced at Rianus before answering shamelessly.

“There was no exit, so I had no choice.”

“……”

“If there’s no exit, don’t you have to make one?”

“……”

“…Rian, am I going to be arrested?”

When Evan failed to respond, Nihil turned to Rianus and asked. Rianus immediately sprang to his feet and shook his head vigorously.

“No! Neil didn’t do anything wrong! I’ll protect you, so don’t worry!”

“Okay.”

Having secured himself a powerful patron, Nihil raised one eyebrow and looked at Evan as if to ask confidently, Well, what are you going to do about it now?

Evan found his reaction so absurd that he let out a disbelieving laugh before asking,

“Why did you go to the auction house, and how did you get inside? Those people had such tight security that even the royal family was struggling to deal with them.”

“…I was kidnapped.”

“……”

Evan was speechless. His hand clenched involuntarily, and he nearly crushed the tea table.

Kidnapping. Again.

He was so sick and tired of hearing about kidnappings. He would have to petition His Majesty and get to the bottom of whoever was kidnapping children, once and for all.

“Neil… From now on, I’ll make sure to protect you!”

Having heard about the tragic life his friend had led, Rianus firmly resolved to protect Nihil himself. He clasped Nihil’s hand tightly.

Perhaps his dream of Nihil being kidnapped by a witch had been a prophetic one after all.

Unaware of what Rianus was thinking, Nihil simply took advantage of the fact that Rianus was holding his hand and resumed massaging it.

Rianus realized his mistake and looked alarmed, but Nihil had absolutely no intention of letting go.

“Rian, I don’t get kidnapped that easily. I only went along because it was cold, and I happened to be there anyway. I was hungry, too, but my body was in such poor condition that finding food wasn’t easy… I certainly didn’t expect it to be an auction house, though.”

Everyone’s mouths fell open.

A little boy who got kidnapped because he was cold and hungry…!

If Nihil had said that to gain their sympathy, he had certainly succeeded.

Rianus squeezed Nihil’s hand with his own, which was still hurting, and said,

“Neil, you’ll never have to go hungry or feel cold again! And now that the problem with the Prime Minister has been resolved, you don’t have to worry about that anymore, either.”

“Okay.”

Rianus beamed, but Evan no longer had the energy to argue with anything. He simply accepted his fate and let their little prince chatter away happily.

“Neil, did you stay in the village where we met after that?”

“No. I was in the forests or mountains. I didn’t want to interact with people. I moved from one mountain to another, so I don’t know exactly how I ended up in that village. That day, I went down there to see if I could find a shovel…”

“……A shovel?”

“I thought it might snow, so I wanted to dig a burrow underground. The ground was frozen, which made it too hard to dig with my bare hands, and my hands were getting cold.”

Evan’s mouth fell open once again.

A burrow? Where in the world was there a child who dug a burrow to escape the cold? He couldn’t decide whether to admire the wildcat’s survival skills or lament the extraordinarily harsh life he had endured.

Evan had plenty he wanted to say, but he was also terribly curious about what happened next, so he kept quiet instead of interrupting.

Their little kitten seemed fascinated by the wildcat’s adventures. His eyes sparkled as he asked,

“Did you find a shovel?”

“No. Some guys picked a fight with me in an alley.”

A simultaneous sigh escaped Evan and Rianus at the latest turn in Nihil’s far-from-peaceful adventure.

Rianus thought he heard a third person sigh as well, but he assumed he had imagined it and let it go.

Nihil paused and looked at the two of them. They were listening so intently that he felt a little awkward. Still, since they seemed interested, he decided to give them a more detailed account.

“There were about three of them. Just ordinary thugs you could find in any back alley. They wanted to capture me and sell me.”

“…You didn’t follow them because you were hungry, did you?”

“Of course not. But I’d eaten a rabbit and then gone hungry for about a week, so I was in a bad mood. That’s why I attacked them.”

“Did you win?”

“Did you kill them?”

“……”

Faced with two completely different questions at once, Nihil was at a loss for words. He glared at Evan.

His gaze seemed to accuse Evan of asking such a question in front of a child. Evan glanced at Rianus, then leaned back slightly with an awkward expression, as if acknowledging his mistake.

He had been imagining beating to death the men who had thought of capturing and selling a child so small that he had spoken without thinking.

“I won, Rian. I didn’t kill them. Anyway, after that, I went looking for a shovel again.”

“Did you find one?”

“Unfortunately, no. Before long, sleet began to fall. I’d also used up some of my energy beating those guys down, so I figured I needed to find somewhere to stay before my body temperature dropped any further. I thought I might sneak into an empty house.”

“What happened then?”

“But the men I’d knocked out had woken up and started chasing me. One of them grabbed me by the scruff of my neck.”

“…Don’t tell me you got kidnapped again?”

Rianus’s mismatched eyes began trembling violently once more. Before the misunderstanding could grow, Nihil quickly shook his head.

“No, Rian. Before I could even put up a proper fight, the guy just threw me away. He’d grabbed me because he wanted to take his anger out on me, but he was afraid I’d beat him up again, so he threw me first.”

“What? Those bad people! Were you badly hurt?”

“……”

Nihil paused and looked back and forth between the two of them. Seeing how absorbed they were in his story, he hesitantly opened his mouth.

“I recommend that you stop listening to the rest of this story.”

“But I’m curious!”

“Why are you trying to back out now? Just tell us.”

Rianus tapped his teacup with his teaspoon, urging Nihil to hurry up. Evan watched him and quietly picked up his own teaspoon as well.

Nihil sighed. He had warned them they would regret it, but the two continued to press him.

With no other choice, he continued.

“…So, after I was thrown…”

“…After you were thrown?”

Rianus swallowed nervously.

“I got hit by a carriage.”

“…Huh?”

Somehow, that sounded familiar…

“When I came to, there was a little boy with seaweed-like hair and mismatched eyes squatting in front of me, staring intently.”

“W-Wait a moment…!”

“When I asked who he was, he didn’t answer. He just kept staring at me, then suddenly asked if we could be frie—”

“Gyaaaah!”

Unable to bear the embarrassment any longer, Rianus let out a bizarre shriek, quickly clamped a hand over Nihil’s mouth, and began making excuses.

“I-I really said that by mistake! I’d been repeating to myself that I absolutely had to make a friend, and then…”

“That’s why I recommended that you stop listening.”

Nihil, the person who had received what could loosely be called a confession, shrugged.

Feeling both guilty and embarrassed, Rianus buried his face in his hands and couldn’t bring himself to look up.

“At the time, I thought you might be a little… slow.”

“Pfft!”

“S-Sir Evan! Don’t laugh!”

Evan tried to hold back his laughter, but muffled snickers kept escaping between his lips, rendering his efforts useless.

Rianus’s ears turned bright red as he flailed about in embarrassment. Then he grabbed his completely cold plum tea and gulped it down in one go.

It had been a serious incident in which someone was hit by a carriage, but since the person who had been struck was recounting the story so casually, it had somehow turned into a comedy.

“Neil, I’m really sorry about what happened back then.”

“It’s fine. People can say the wrong thing sometimes.”

“No, I mean… about hitting you with the carriage.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“But…”

When Rianus faltered and couldn’t continue, Nihil smiled gently and called his name.

“Rian.”

“Hmm?”

“If getting hit by a carriage were the only way I could meet you by going back in time, I’d gladly step in front of one.”

“…Huh?”

“I’m pretty happy right now. So you don’t have to feel sorry for me.”

“……”

Evan clicked his tongue, while Rianus froze in a daze, unable to say a word.

Finding his reaction strange, Nihil tilted his head and cautiously called him again.

“Rian?”

“N-No! You can’t!”

“……?”

Coming back to his senses, Rianus suddenly slammed his hand on the tea table, jumped to his feet, and shouted. Startled by his abrupt behavior, both Evan and Nihil stared at him in confusion.

“Absolutely not! I-I’ll definitely come back to get you, so even if I’m late, don’t get hurt! Just wait for me!”

Rianus made a solemn promise to himself.

If I have to visit the duke’s estate and become a clown over and over again just to meet you, then I’ll willingly return to that den of snakes as many times as it takes.

Even if it was only a hypothetical situation, Rianus didn’t want his friend to get hurt ever again.

Taken aback by the unexpected words, Nihil’s eyes widened. He blinked several times before breaking into a soft smile.

It was a radiant smile, so dazzling that it seemed to have a halo shining behind it—a smile Rianus had never seen before. Even Rianus, who had been so serious moments ago, could only stare at him, dazed and captivated, before smiling back.

With that smile still lingering on his lips, Nihil answered,

“All right. I’ll wait.”

He says he’ll come looking for me himself, so I suppose I’ll have to wait. What else can I do but wait?

“Rian, let’s go. It’s almost time for class.”

“Okay!”

Just then, they spotted the maids approaching from a distance. Rianus hurriedly tidied up the table and led the way.

As Nihil was about to follow, he noticed a small glass vial containing holy water.

He turned toward Evan, who was absentmindedly folding the sandwich wrapper into a neat little square, and asked quietly,

“That holy water looks quite pure. It must be valuable. Where did you get it?”

“I have a few more bottles. Take one if you need it.”

“What about you?”

“…I got it because I needed it, but it turned out to be useless.”

“Is someone sick?”

“……”

“Bring them to me.”

“They aren’t ill, so there’s no point.”

“Can’t I see things that you can’t?”

“……”

Evan didn’t answer. After all, he couldn’t bring that person here because of his own irreversible, foolish actions.

Nihil stared at Evan for a while, then decided not to ask any more questions. He picked up the vial of holy water, tucked it into his clothes, and turned to follow Rianus.

Evan watched the backs of the two little boys walking ahead of him, his gaze growing slightly somber.