How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 54

“……?”

Nihil tilted his head, wondering what Evan was talking about.

“How much do you need?”

“What… the hell are you talking about?”

Nihil had been behaving himself because he felt somewhat guilty about what he had done. But when he realized Evan had misunderstood him, he frowned.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not a vampire.”

“…You’re not?”

At Nihil’s firm reply, Evan awkwardly lowered his dagger.

Nihil let out a disbelieving laugh and opened his mouth.

“If I needed to drink blood, would you keep giving me yours?”

“That would be better than giving you His Highness’s blood, wouldn’t it?”

“……You’re too softhearted.”

A strange emotion welled up inside Nihil, making his stomach churn slightly. He rubbed his chest as though to soothe the sensation.

Seeing this, Evan asked if he was feeling unwell and once again raised his dagger, insisting that he would share his blood after all. Nihil mocked him instead, saying that drinking Evan’s blood would do absolutely nothing for his health.

Evan remained suspicious, still looking concerned, but he refrained from carelessly cutting his arm.

In truth, Nihil had already obtained the blood he needed, so all he had to do was play dumb and return to his room. However, since he had been caught, he felt he ought to explain himself to the person involved. With a deep sigh, he spoke.

“The reason I wanted your blood was your awakening.”

“Awakening? You mean beastkin awakening?”

“That’s right. I hadn’t given it much thought before, but after seeing Kitty, it started bothering me. It might just be needless worry, and I’m not certain about anything, so I tried to take your blood without telling you… and got caught.”

“Ah, I see.”

Evan nodded at Nihil’s explanation, but then a question occurred to him, and he looked up again.

“But didn’t you say you were going to drink it? Can you find out by drinking it?”

“……”

Nihil pressed his lips together again in response to Evan’s question.

Seeing his reaction, Evan guessed that perhaps Nihil possessed some ability that allowed him to learn something by drinking blood.

He had already suspected that the boy wasn’t human, but apparently, he possessed all sorts of strange abilities.

Honestly, whether Nihil was human or not no longer mattered much to him. His Highness was a quarter-elf, and Evan himself was apparently a puppy. Having one more nonhuman among them wouldn’t change anything.

Since Nihil didn’t seem inclined to answer any more questions about his abilities, Evan decided to continue the conversation on that assumption.

“Is blood all you need? Is there anything that can substitute for it, or anything else you need?”

“…Actually…”

“……?”

Nihil avoided Evan’s gaze once more and hesitated before finally speaking.

“Any bodily fluid containing even the slightest amount of genetic information will do. But…”

Nihil’s gaze traveled from Evan’s eyes to his lips before briefly dropping toward his crotch. He then abruptly turned his head away, covered his mouth with both hands, and mumbled.

“I don’t particularly want to drink it.”

“…You crazy bastard!”

It took Evan a moment to grasp the meaning behind that look. Once he did, he cursed and sprang to his feet, gripping the dagger in a reverse hold.

“Drink the blood. Blood seems best. No, it’s the only option. Please.”

Evan pleaded, raising his dagger as though he were about to slash his forearm at any moment. But Nihil’s next words made him freeze again.

“Don’t cut yourself. I’ve already obtained the blood.”

“…What?”

Obtained it? My blood? When?

Evan was thrown into confusion once more. He quickly lowered the dagger and turned his hands and forearms over, examining them from every angle, but couldn’t find any visible wounds.

If Nihil had drawn his blood with an extractor fitted with a fine needle, it wouldn’t have been strange for there to be no wound. But there was no way the boy had access to such sophisticated equipment. And if he did, there would have been no reason to bring a dagger.

“…Pathetic.”

Nihil looked at Evan through half-lidded eyes, as though he were utterly hopeless, and tapped his own earlobe.

Without thinking, Evan raised a hand to his own ear.

When he rubbed his right earlobe, he finally felt a slight sting. Something seemed a little slippery, so he checked whether it was blood, only to find a milky-white ointment on his fingers.

Evan was briefly at a loss for words.

What was he supposed to do with this small, insolent wildcat who had sneaked into his room to steal his blood, yet had even applied ointment to the wound?

Had the little brat really thought he wouldn’t get caught?

“It won’t get infected.”

“Ha! There’s no way such a tiny wound would get infected… Wait.”

“What?”

“So you’re telling me that while you sneaked into my room, drew my blood, and applied medicine, I slept like a log the entire time without noticing anything?”

“I took care not to wake you. Your skills aren’t… entirely lacking. So don’t be too disappointed.”

“…So they are lacking.”

Watching Nihil refuse to tell even the smallest white lie and claim that his skills were lacking, Evan gave a bitter smile.

Since things had turned out this way, he decided to take the opportunity to ask something that had been on his mind.

“Can I ask you something?”

“……?”

Nihil, who had been slowly wriggling off the bed as though he had finished everything he came for, tilted his head at Evan’s question.

“Um, from your perspective, do you think I’m… I mean, my abilities…”

“Are you wondering when you might become a Master?”

“No, well, there’s no guarantee I’ll become a Master, but… I was wondering whether I at least seem to have the potential…”

Embarrassed by his own question, Evan fumbled for excuses. Then, realizing how ridiculous he sounded, he lowered his head and felt his face grow slightly warm.

Sword Masters were so rare that one could count them on one hand across the entire continent. There was only one in the kingdom at present, so it was ridiculous to assume he himself would become a Master.

And here he was, asking a child who claimed never to have received proper swordsmanship training when he thought Evan might reach that level.

How much was the boy laughing at him internally? Did he even understand what it meant to be a Master?

Yet Nihil’s answer was completely unexpected.

“Who knows? If you train hard enough, you might manage it within five years.”

“……Huh?”

Evan jerked his head up at the answer he had never anticipated. His eyes met Nihil’s as the boy slowly lifted his eyelids, though Evan had no idea when he had closed them.

Nihil’s gaze seemed to see right through him, making Evan’s body twitch. But Nihil continued as casually as if the matter were of no particular importance.

“If becoming a Master means reaching the stage where you can manifest and project aura, then five years should be enough. With the right circumstances, you could do it even sooner. Ten years at the latest…”

“Don’t you think you’re making it sound a little too easy?”

Evan interrupted Nihil’s stream of predictions and objected. The boy clearly underestimated what it meant to become a Master.

Since the War Against the Heavenly Demons, the youngest Master among those known to have emerged in the past five hundred years had been thirty-two years old. On average, people had to be over forty to reach that level. And Nihil was saying ten years at the latest?

Evan was twenty now. If he broke through that barrier within ten years, he would set a new record as the youngest Master.

It was true that Masters had been somewhat more common before the War Against the Heavenly Demons. However, so many records from that era had been destroyed that most surviving accounts were unreliable, and countless stories had been passed down more like legends than history.

Nevertheless, Nihil remained unperturbed.

“I told you. Those who have what it takes will make it. Honestly, even ten years is a generous estimate. If you can’t break through that barrier by then, I recommend sticking your nose in a bowl of water and drowning yourself.”

Nihil curled his lip and delivered the cutting remark. But Evan wasn’t bothered by the mockery at all. In fact, he was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he barely heard the insult.

Those who have what it takes will make it.

Did Nihil mean that Evan was one of those people?

Evan barely managed to suppress the corners of his mouth from rising. He cleared his throat a couple of times before continuing in a calm, humble tone.

“There are only nine living Masters officially recognized at present. It’s not as easy as you seem to think.”

“…That’s fewer than I expected. But isn’t that based on human standards anyway? Honestly, humans have large numbers, but compared to other races, they’re nothing special. A single horde of orcs could turn an entire village into a wasteland in half a day.”

“That’s only natural if you’re talking about ordinary people who haven’t been trained.”

“Then are the orcs trained orc knights?”

“……”

“Be grateful that orcs are stupid. If they wielded finely forged swords instead of clubs, trained every day like knights, and moved in an organized manner, humans would all be slaves by now.”

Evan couldn’t help frowning at that. Nihil wasn’t wrong, but being compared to monsters was hardly pleasant.

Evan quickly changed the subject.

“Could you tell me what you look at when judging someone’s strength?”

“I don’t know much about the stages of swordsmanship. I simply judge by what I can see: the size of the mana heart inside the body, how well it has been strengthened, and how the mana circulates and is used. Generally, those born with larger, sturdier mana vessels also have stronger bodies. Of course, they still need to be forged through arduous training. But the more both types train, the wider the gap becomes between those born with such gifts and those who aren’t.”

“……”

“You have a natural gift, plain and simple. If you gain more experience and encounter the right opportunity, you’ll become a Master.”

“…….”

“Does that answer your question?”

“Then, compared to the Shadow Knight of His Majesty’s that you were so interested in… No, never mind.”

Evan abruptly shut his mouth, wondering what on earth he had been about to say.

But the perceptive little wildcat had apparently already figured it out. The corners of his mouth curled upward.

“Oh? Was it bothering you that I was interested in that Shadow Knight?”

“……”

“You seemed rather concerned about the possibility of that knight becoming a Master if he ate the Sirenthea. Or were you jealous?”

“……”

Mischief glimmered in Nihil’s eyes. His smile was barely perceptible, but the deep shadows cast by the candlelight in the dark room made it seem even more mocking.

Evan tried to avoid Nihil’s gaze as the boy circled around him with a smirk, but those eyes persistently followed him.

Nihil’s expression barely changed, yet he acted as though Evan’s innermost thoughts were plain to see. That only made it more irritating.

Evan belatedly regretted making such a childish remark, but there was no taking it back.

With a faint smile, Nihil called out to him.

“Puppy.”

“…What?”

Evan answered sulkily, looking thoroughly displeased.

Nihil spoke in a gentle, soothing voice, as though coaxing a sulking puppy.

“What you need isn’t the enormous amount of mana provided by Sirenthea, but time and experience. And honestly, you’re more to blame for my interest in that knight than anyone else.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you Rian’s only escort knight? You only have a brief moment to train at dawn. You have to stay by Rian’s side all day, and you don’t even have a sparring partner to compete with. That’s a very difficult situation in which to improve. In fact, your growth must have slowed since you became Rian’s escort knight.”

“……”

Evan wondered how Nihil, who woke up later than His Highness, knew that he trained at dawn. But he recalled seeing the boy scurrying around outside, covered in dirt, and kept his mouth shut.

Perhaps that hadn’t been the only time Nihil had gotten up early.

Come to think of it, did the boy even sleep properly?

Everything Nihil said was true, so Evan lowered his head. His progress had practically stagnated since he became Rian’s escort knight, nothing like the growth he had experienced when fighting monsters as a child.

“Don’t be impatient.”

“……”

“You’re already good enough.”

Those words sent a gentle ripple through some quiet corner of Evan’s heart.