How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 59

“Thief!”

“You little brat! Stop right there!”

“Someone catch that little bastard!”

“Get lost! Get the hell out of here!”

The merchants’ furious shouts erupted from all directions.

Some were so worried that another child would come and steal from their stalls if they left their posts that they could do nothing but stamp their feet in frustration. Others entrusted their shops to their families and chased after the children who had stolen their goods, while still others repeatedly swung their brooms to protect their wares.

Rianus stood motionless, staring at the scene in a daze, as though he had no words for what he was witnessing. At that very moment, a piercing shriek rang out right beside him.

“Let go of me! Y-You ugly gorilla!”

Startled, Rianus turned toward the sound and saw a boy who looked about ten years old. He had a loaf of bread in his hand and was being held aloft by the baker, his feet dangling in the air as he struggled wildly.

“You little brat! Do you need a proper beating before I hand you over to the guards to teach you a lesson?”

“Let go! I said let go!”

The boy struggled for quite some time. When he realized he wasn’t getting anywhere, he shoved the stolen bread into his mouth.

“You little—!”

The flustered baker belatedly tried to snatch the bread away, but it had already disappeared into the boy’s mouth.

Well, not quite disappeared. The bread was still very much visible in his bulging cheeks, which looked ready to burst.

As though someone might steal the food right out of his mouth, the boy clamped both hands over his lips and hurriedly chewed.

The baker, Bern, let out an incredulous laugh and rapped the boy on the head. Then he lowered his gaze slightly and looked at the two filthy little boys who had been standing quietly nearby the entire time.

He had been wary of them, suspecting they had come to steal bread, but neither child had done anything. They had merely watched.

Were they six or seven years old? One was covered in bandages from head to toe, as though he had been injured, while the other had his hood pulled so low that his face was completely hidden, making him look even more suspicious.

Bern continued eyeing Rianus and Nihil warily before speaking.

“You two little brats in cahoots with this one?”

At Bern’s shout, the bandaged child flinched and immediately hid behind the hooded boy beside him, timidly shaking his head.

The meek response made Bern lower his guard a little.

Perhaps he lowered it too much. His grip loosened slightly, and the boy who had finished eating the bread twisted his body violently, kicked Bern in the shin, and attempted to escape.

In the confusion, the bread boy lunged straight for the bag belonging to the bandaged child, who looked a little slow-witted.

With a short razor blade, he cut through the strap and snatched the bag. It happened in the blink of an eye.

And then—

Thump!

Splatter!

He fell flat on his face.

“……”

“……”

A brief silence followed.

Bern awkwardly withdrew the hand he had been about to reach out with.

The bread boy was apparently too embarrassed by his fall to get up right away.

The hooded child who had tripped him retrieved the bag without the slightest concern, while the bandaged child seemed worried about the fallen boy and even prodded the back of his head a few times.

The boy sprang to his feet, blood streaming from his nose. He glared at the two children, each at least a handspan shorter than him, then made eye contact with Bern. Even so, he managed to steal another loaf of bread before immediately bolting away.

Bern let out an incredulous laugh. He couldn’t believe someone had stolen bread from him again in the middle of all that.

Wondering what the two little ones would do next, he watched as the hooded child inspected the broken bag strap, raised his head, and asked,

“Do you have a needle and thread?”

“……”

Bern thought they were truly strange children.

As it turned out, he couldn’t lend them a needle and thread.

A bakery had no reason to keep sewing supplies on hand, and Bern himself didn’t know how to sew in the first place.

The hooded child seemed to accept this and, with no other option, wrapped the broken strap around the bandaged child’s waist and tied it tightly in place. Then, as though they had finished everything they came to do, he took the bandaged child’s hand and started to leave.

“W-Wait. Hold on a moment.”

Bern hurriedly called the children back just as they were about to leave. He handed them a paper bag filled with leftover pieces of bread he had prepared earlier.

He had originally planned to give the scraps to the children who came to steal that day, after talking them into behaving. But the feisty little thief had already run off, so he figured he might as well give the bread to these two instead.

Besides, while the hooded child gave off a suspicious air, the bandaged one looked so gentle that Bern doubted he had ever managed to pull off a proper theft in his life.

At first, both children simply stared blankly at the paper bag Bern held out.

When he urged them to take it because he was giving it to them for free, the bandaged child rolled his clear green eyes and timidly accepted the bag, bowing his head in thanks.

Bern had been looking after the little vagrants in small ways for some time, but he had never felt quite so strangely unsettled as he did today.

For some reason, he had a feeling he would see those children again.

He just hadn’t expected it to happen a mere twenty minutes later.

“These two were carrying a paper bag with your bakery’s logo on it. Are these the goods you reported stolen today?”

“……”

Bern was speechless as he looked at the two children in the guard’s hands.

The bandaged child was carefully clutching the paper bag of bread to his chest, while the hooded child looked completely unconcerned despite being detained. Bern found himself caught in a strange mixture of emotions.

He looked from one child to the other before speaking hesitantly.

“Did… they did not explain anything to you?”

“They insisted they hadn’t stolen anything.”

“……”

“We didn’t steal it.”

The hooded child spoke in a flat, toneless voice with not a single ounce of pleading in it. The bandaged child cautiously nodded in agreement.

Before the misunderstanding could grow any worse, Bern quickly explained.

“That’s right. These children didn’t steal anything. I gave them that bag myself. It contains misshapen loaves that weren’t fit to sell, along with leftover pieces of bread.”

“…Is that so?”

The guard looked down at the two children in his custody, his expression uncertain.

When he had found them in a secluded alley, the two had been handing out pieces of bread from the bag to other children.

The other children had spotted the guard and fled at once, but these two had merely stood there, staring blankly at him.

“We didn’t steal it.”

The flat, mildly reproachful voice made the guard instinctively offer an explanation.

“These two were handing bread out to the other children, so I assumed they must be the ringleaders directing them.”

“They were handing out bread?”

No wonder the bag seemed a little lighter.

Looking at the paper bag the bandaged child was clutching so dearly, Bern was overcome by a strange urge to fill it back up.

Just then, the child wrapped in bandages fidgeted and opened the bag, taking out a piece of bread.

With everyone watching, he should have felt self-conscious, but he paid them no mind and held the piece of bread out to the guard.

The guard hesitated, unsure what to do with the offered bread. Then he carefully set the children down and accepted it.

He was still wondering what to do next when the expectant looks from his colleagues and Bern finally wore him down. He put the piece of bread into his mouth.

“Nerr, trying to win people over with food is wrong.”

“A-Ah. Okay…”

The guard, who had somehow ended up being bribed with a single piece of bread, stared at the child in disbelief.

But he couldn’t think of anything in particular to say, so he took a copper coin from his pocket and handed it over.

“Sorry for the misunderstanding. This is to make up for it.”

The child stared at the coin with wide eyes, then promptly accepted it and turned toward the other child who seemed to be his companion.

“Neil, this is—Mmph!”

Just as the bandaged child began to speak, the hooded child swiftly clamped a hand over his mouth.

Everyone was taken aback by the sudden action. The hooded child then removed his hand and spoke.

“Nerr, you should thank the big brother guard who gave you the copper coin.”

“Ah… Thank you.”

Following the hooded child’s instructions, the bandaged boy bowed his head to thank the guard. Then he clasped the hooded child’s hand tightly, and the two of them calmly wandered off to who-knows-where.

“…What do you suppose that was?”

“Who knows…”

The guards and Bern stood there dumbfounded, watching the children disappear into the distance. They only came back to their senses and returned to their places when a customer entered the bakery.

They were very, very unusual children.

 

***

 

“I thought this was a gold coin that had gotten dirty.”

Rianus said as he examined the copper coin he had received earlier.

He knew that copper coins existed as a unit of currency, but his arithmetic lessons involved studying royal budget proposals with much larger denominations. He had never bought or sold anything himself, either, and the only coins in his treasury were gold ones. This was his first time seeing a copper coin in person.

“Nerr, gold doesn’t tarnish that easily. That’s why it’s so valuable. For reference, one gold coin is enough to cover a family of four commoners’ living expenses for a month.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It won’t be enough for a luxurious lifestyle with plenty of cultural activities, but it’s enough to keep everyone fed.”

As Nihil spoke, he thought of the gold coins he had hidden throughout the Second Prince’s palace. By now, the butler had probably gathered the servants and instructed them to search for the coins that the prince’s friend had supposedly hidden and forgotten about.

I wonder how much they’ll recover.

Nihil already knew that some of those coins had ended up in the pockets of certain servants. There had been people picking them up even while he was still hiding them.

He had no idea what percentage they would manage to recover, but Rianus had also decided to hire additional servants, so it wouldn’t be a problem if a few people were dismissed.

Though it remained to be seen how many people could be weeded out through such a simple test.

After finishing his thoughts, Nihil added a suggestion as he watched Rianus continue examining the copper coin.

“Would you like to buy something yourself?”

“Buy something… myself?”

“That’s right. With one copper coin, you could probably buy one or two large potatoes.”

“Yeah! I want to try!”

Nihil led the bright-eyed Rianus back toward the market.

Perhaps because the commotion caused by the children of Sharton Street had happened only a few minutes earlier, people looked at Rianus and Nihil rather suspiciously. But Nihil wasn’t the least bit intimidated, and Rianus was so preoccupied with the thought of buying something on his own for the very first time that he had no time to worry about the hostile stares.

“Neil, do you think I’ll be able to buy something properly?”

“You don’t need to be so nervous. Even if you make a mistake, nobody will scold you.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Okay!”

“And mind your way of speaking.”

“Okay! I won’t make the same mistake this time.”

Only a few minutes earlier, Rianus had tried to speak to the guard in the same dignified tone he used with the palace servants, and Nihil had stopped him.

Determined not to make that mistake again, Rianus nervously approached a vegetable stall.

His very first errand was about to begin.