How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 58

“We’ll have to walk from here to Sharton Street. Let’s have a simple breakfast before we set off. Could you stand up for a moment?”

“Okay!”

As Rianus cheerfully got to his feet, Nihil lifted one of the carriage seats and took out the food and tableware stored inside.

Evan climbed down from the driver’s seat and entered the carriage. His eyes widened at the breakfast spread neatly across the portable table.

Rianus and Bella, who had been watching from the beginning, were just as astonished.

“When on earth did you prepare all this?”

“Neil, this is anything but simple!”

“Eek! It looks delicious! Young masters, let’s hurry up and eat!”

“We don’t know when we’ll get another chance to have a comfortable meal while we’re in Sharton. Eat plenty while you can.”

Nihil answered only Rianus’s question. Finally, he took out a glass teapot, poured water from a canteen into it, and measured out some tea leaves into a strainer.

Seeing that he was clearly planning to brew tea, Rianus tilted his head and asked, “How are you going to boil the water?”

“Nerr, there should be some stones in your bag. Could you take them out?”

“Oh, right!”

Rianus rummaged through his bag, recalling that he had seen some stones inside, and took out two small ones to hand to Nihil.

“Can you boil water with stones?”

“Yes. These are called heatstones. Did you see them among the relief supplies for Sharton Street?”

“Heatstones?”

“Ah! I know about those!”

Bella suddenly raised her hand.

“I know heatstones! They’re those little pebbles that go inside heating pouches, right?”

“…Heating pouches?”

Nihil tilted his head, unfamiliar with the term, so Rianus helpfully explained.

“I know about heating pouches, too. They’re little cloth bags filled with small stones. When you shake them to stimulate the stones, they release heat. I heard they’re distributed to servants who work outdoors during the cold season… So heatstones are the main ingredient in heating pouches!”

Rianus nodded as he finally understood, and Evan added his own explanation.

“Guards patrolling the outer castle walls in winter and knights sent out to hunt monsters are sometimes issued them. I brought one along just in case, but perhaps because it’s so old, it barely produces any warmth anymore.”

Evan took a worn-out pouch from his belongings and handed it to Nihil.

Nihil accepted it and shook it gently.

Soon, he felt the pouch grow slightly warm and murmured in surprise, “So that’s why heatstones were included in the relief supplies. This is how they’re used. It certainly makes them easy and safe for anyone to use. But, puppy, most of the stones in yours have reached the end of their useful lives.”

“This… was given to me by the current captain of the Royal Knights before I became a knight. It was quite hot when I first received it, but even if you take good care of it, there’s only so much you can do after eight years.”

“I see. If you want to keep using it, replace the contents or store it together with some heatstones that haven’t been used much. Heatstones have a tendency to exchange energy with one another and gradually become similar.”

Seeing that the eight-year-old heatstones could still produce some warmth, Nihil figured Evan must have treasured them quite carefully and returned the pouch to him.

Evan had said that the captain of the Royal Knights was his benefactor. Perhaps this was why.

“Nerr, the larger the heatstone, the more heat it can produce, and the longer it can keep doing so. See these tiny white dots? Those are the heat-producing points. If you strike two heatstones together where the white dots meet, they’ll start producing heat. After a certain amount of time, they’ll cool down again.”

“I see! I thought they were just stones that gave off heat when you stimulated them.”

Rianus took the heatstones from Nihil and turned them over in his hands, fascinated. No matter how he looked at them, they seemed like utterly ordinary stones, black with white speckles.

Nihil took the heatstones back from Rianus, saying he would demonstrate how to use them. He struck the two stones together with a sharp click, then dropped one into the teapot and the other into a container of cooled soup.

Bella and Rianus leaned in close to watch. Their faces became distorted as they caught sight of each other through the transparent glass teapot, making them startle and lean back a little.

Evan seemed more interested in the soup than the tea, staring intently at the container.

Within seconds, the smaller teapot reacted first. Steam began to rise slowly, and before long, the water was bubbling vigorously.

“Neil! It’s starting to boil!”

“Nerr, it really is hot, so don’t touch it. This is medicinal tea, and it needs to steep for a little while. I’ll move it aside for now.”

Nihil gently lowered Rianus’s hand when the boy pointed excitedly at the teapot. Then he moved the pot aside and pulled everyone’s plates toward himself.

By then, the soup was steaming, too.

Nihil stirred it gently as he continued explaining.

“Heatstones are useful when you need heat quickly, when lighting a fire is difficult, or when you’re somewhere it would be inconvenient to do so. They’re also handy when the humidity is too high to start a fire. Oh, and since kitty can’t eat hot food, I’ll serve hers first.”

“Thank you, pretty young master!”

Bella politely accepted the bowl of soup Nihil handed her. Shortly afterward, the soup began to bubble.

The rich, savory smell of soup filled the carriage. Hungry, Rianus and Evan stared at it intently.

“Puppy, you’re drooling.”

“W-What are you talking about?!”

Evan protested even as he wiped his mouth with his hand.

Seeing him, Rianus subtly leaned backward and discreetly wiped his own mouth, pretending he wasn’t doing anything of the sort.

Fortunately, there was no drool on his lips. Unfortunately, everyone had witnessed the gesture, and they had to press their lips together to keep from laughing.

When Rianus’s stomach finally growled, nobody could hold back anymore.

“I’m embarrassed…”

Rianus said, his face red as he dipped his second piece of bread into the soup.

“Nerr, eat plenty.”

“Y-Your Highness—no, young master, that’s perfectly normal! Here, here, have some more!”

Evan silently pushed the prepared food toward Rianus.

Rianus soon shook off his embarrassment and began chattering again.

“Neil, can I use those heatstones, too?”

“Yes. You’ll need a little practice, though. And Nerr, don’t save your carrots for later. Eat them.”

“O-Okay…”

Evan smiled faintly as he watched Rianus squeeze his eyes shut and chew the carrots.

“Neil, I finished all my carrots!”

“Good job.”

“Yeah!”

Nihil smiled back at Rianus’s bright grin, patted his head once, and poured the tea.

Evan silently marveled at how effortlessly Nihil handled everything. The other two, however, seemed completely uninterested in his skill. They watched only the reddish tea flowing into their cups, then politely accepted the cups Nihil handed them.

“Hot, hot, hot, hot!”

Bella, who couldn’t drink hot things, hastily took a sip and immediately made a fuss. She opened the window and stuck her teacup outside, apparently intending to cool it down before drinking.

Rianus giggled at the sight. Then he took a sip of his own tea, only to be startled by how bitter it was. He pressed his lips together.

Nihil rolled his eyes back and forth, watching Rianus as the boy nervously gauged his reaction. Lowering his eyebrows in a sad expression, he asked, “Is it that bad?”

“U-Um? N-No! It’s just too hot!”

Rianus couldn’t bring himself to throw away tea his friend had brewed for him, so he eventually pressed himself against the window like Bella and began cooling his tea.

If I let it cool and gulp it all down, it should be fine… right?

Nihil watched Rianus, whose thoughts were written all over his face, and smiled to himself.

 

***

 

After breakfast, the group left the carriage and walked a short distance along the secluded forest path. Then the two knights concealed themselves, leaving only Nihil and Rianus to continue toward Sharton Street.

“Nerr, with one eye covered, your sense of distance will be impaired. Don’t let go of my hand, and make sure you stay close.”

“Mm-hmm…”

Rianus replied reluctantly.

The problem was that Nihil himself had pulled his bangs as low as possible and drawn his hood deep over his head to conceal his eye color, leaving only the lower half of his face barely visible.

Rianus knew that his friend wasn’t hindered at all by having his eyes covered, but he couldn’t help feeling a little strange about the situation.

Nihil looked at Rianus, who was standing there in a daze, and spoke again.

“Are you cold?”

“N-No, not at all. What about you, Neil? You’re barefoot. Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m more accustomed to it this way, so don’t worry about me. If anything bothers you, be sure to tell me.”

What bothered Rianus most was that his friend was barefoot, but he pressed his lips together and merely nodded.

Despite the chilly weather, the things Nihil had prepared for him kept Rianus from feeling particularly cold.

When they crossed the forest path and entered the marketplace, people gradually came into view.

The sounds of merchants who had begun their work at dawn and customers bargaining for fresh, quality ingredients could be heard all around them.

They still had a little farther to walk before reaching Sharton Street, but Rianus had never been to a market before. Seeing him curiously looking in every direction, Nihil slowed his pace.

For a while, Rianus forgot their purpose and tugged Nihil along, peeking at one stall after another.

Nihil followed wherever Rianus led without complaint. The merchants, however, seemed irritated by the wandering orphans who kept peering into their stalls, and they began to frown.

Eventually, a rough-looking man tried to chase them away by brandishing a bread knife.

“What are you loitering around here for this time? Planning to steal something again?! Get lost!”

The baker, a frequent target of the orphans, was already in a foul mood. Flour prices had recently risen, and children kept taking turns trying to steal his bread, leaving him operating at a loss.

Nihil gently pulled Rianus behind him when the rough-looking man shouted and waved his knife, startling the boy into freezing in place.

Clutching Nihil’s clothes, Rianus whispered quietly, “Why is he acting like that?”

“Bakeries are easy targets. That man thinks we came here to steal bread.”

“I see.”

“Nerr, it looks like the children are about to make their moves all at once. It could be dangerous, so let’s stay out of the way.”

“Huh? The children?”

Rianus looked bewildered, still unable to grasp what was happening. Nihil gently tugged him closer.

At that very moment, a shout rang out from somewhere.

“THIEF!!”

Before Rianus could even turn his head at the urgent cry, he spotted a filthy child sprinting across the market with something clutched to his chest.

“W-What’s going on?”

“Come on, Nerr. Over here.”

Startled by the sudden commotion, Rianus hesitated. Nihil firmly took his hand, pulled him along, and pressed them both close to a wall.

“A-A thief appeared?”

“No. That child is bait. Try paying a little more attention to what’s happening around you.”

“Catch the thief!”

Just as everyone in the marketplace turned their attention toward the child being called a thief, other filthy children suddenly appeared from all directions. They snatched items from the stalls and bolted.

The marketplace descended into chaos in an instant.