How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 6

In the end, Rianus succeeded in secretly smuggling Nihil into his bedroom.

He had emptied all of Evan’s luggage, wrapped the unconscious Nihil tightly in a cloak, stuffed him into a suitcase, and carried him inside like a piece of baggage.

Fortunately, Nihil was small. If he had been even a little bigger, the plan would undoubtedly have failed.

They encountered the royal guards patrolling the palace, but they didn’t seem particularly concerned that the prince had returned so late. They simply greeted him briefly and went about their business.

Rianus returned the greetings of the servants waiting for him, then dismissed them all. He ordered them to bring his meals to his room and specifically requested plenty of meat for Nihil.

I’m hungry, so make sure there’s lots and lots of it.

He even asked for his steak to be cooked less thoroughly than usual, reasoning that since Nihil had lost so much blood, perhaps he needed to consume some blood himself.

The servants seemed a little puzzled by the prince’s unusual requests, but they obediently agreed without asking questions and withdrew.

Back in his bedroom, Rianus enlisted Evan’s help to spread a cloak on the floor and carefully lay Nihil down on it.

He wanted to place the child on his soft, comfortable bed, but Nihil was covered from head to toe in blood and filth. He simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. If the servants discovered the mess when they cleaned later, it would be difficult to come up with an excuse.

“Your Highness, are you really going to use that?”

With a solemn expression, Rianus nodded and looked back and forth between the glass bottle in his hand and Nihil, who lay motionless like a corpse.

The bottle contained the one and only elixir he had hidden in his secret safe.

It was an extraordinarily precious treasure, bestowed upon each direct descendant of the royal family exactly once.

They said that as long as someone was still alive, the elixir could bring them back to health, no matter what ailed them.

“Your Highness, please just summon the royal physician. Why waste something so precious?”

“We can’t summon the royal physician. The moment we send someone to fetch him, people will start paying attention. It’ll only be a matter of time before they discover Neil’s existence.”

“Then I’ll bring in a physician from outside first thing tomorrow morning.”

“What if he dies before then?!”

Nihil couldn’t die. Rianus’s goal had been to make a friend who would be sad if he died, so what would be the point if his friend died first? He absolutely had to save him.

Besides, he had already ordered plenty of meat. Surely, someone had to eat it!

“Your Highness, please reconsider! Every precious member of the royal family receives only one elixir in their entire lifetime. What will you do if your own life is ever in danger? I know it’s presumptuous of me to say this, but the Crown Prince selection trials are notorious for being brutal. How do you intend to survive them without an elixir?”

“I’ll think about that when the time comes. Right now, I have to save him! Don’t stop me!”

Leaving his pleading knight behind, Rianus pulled the stopper from the elixir bottle with a soft pop.

Even during that brief conversation with Evan, Nihil’s body seemed to be growing colder by the second.

If he delayed any longer, it might truly be too late.

Rianus himself couldn’t understand why he felt so attached to a beggar he had only met that day. Yet from the moment they first encountered each other, his instincts had kept telling him that he had to hold on to this child.

Rianus possessed better hearing and eyesight than most people. His instincts were sharp, too.

He had always refused to trust them, clinging instead to his meager hopes. And every time he did, reality dragged him straight back into the abyss.

This time, however, he had decided not to ignore his instincts. He would do exactly what he wanted, no matter what.

Glug, glug, glug…

Rianus carefully poured the elixir over Nihil’s wounds. Despite the amount of blood he had lost, his visible injuries weren’t particularly large.

He could hear his knight lamenting beside him, but Rianus paid him no attention. He focused solely on treating Nihil’s wounds.

Once the injuries had healed to some extent, Rianus carefully supported Nihil’s head, tilted it back, and trickled a little of the elixir into his slightly parted mouth.

Gradually, color returned to Nihil’s previously pale complexion. His body, which had been as cold as ice, also began to regain its warmth.

Evan, too, eventually gave up and watched the transformation in silence.

Rianus had poured away nearly half the bottle when—

Suddenly, someone grabbed his hand.

“Th-That’s… cough, enough.”

“…Neil?”

Rianus wasn’t sure whether he was more startled by the sudden grip on his wrist or by the fact that his corpse-like friend had moved at all. He nearly dropped Nihil’s head, which he had been supporting with his other hand.

He stared down at Nihil with wide eyes, then turned to look at Evan. The knight was just as astonished, his eyes darting back and forth between the two of them.

Nihil pushed himself up into a sitting position. Perhaps because some of the elixir remained in his throat, he coughed several more times before releasing Rianus’s wrist.

“Neil, are you okay now?”

In response to Rianus’s question, Nihil looked at the glass bottle and asked,

“What’s that?”

“T-This is called an elixir…”

“Where did you get it?”

At Nihil’s question, Rianus’s mismatched eyes darted nervously from side to side.

Nihil let out a deep sigh and stared at him.

What happened to all that meat I told him to prepare? Why is he feeding me this stuff instead?

Nihil kept staring at Rianus. Under that seemingly indifferent yet persistent gaze, the prince turned his head away to avoid eye contact.

Nihil reached out and grabbed Rianus by the chin, but the knight’s palm came down sharply on his hand, forcing him to withdraw it at once.

“How dare you show such disrespect to His Highness!”

Nihil shook his reddening hand once, glanced at the owner of the palm, and then turned his attention back to the prince’s mismatched eyes as though nothing had happened.

He could hear the knight grinding his teeth.

Grind.

Nihil ignored him completely. Then, in a gentle, quiet voice, he addressed the young prince, who was still darting his eyes around nervously, careful not to frighten him into running away.

“Rian.”

“Huh…? Yes!”

At the sudden sound of his nickname, Rianus’s eyes widened before curving into delighted crescents. The corners of his mouth lifted into a shy, radiant smile.

As the knight seemed about to say something, presumably to interrupt their conversation, Rianus stepped in front of him and gave his bent thigh a sharp smack with his palm.

Evan had been hit in the thigh, but somehow, it felt as though his heart had taken the blow instead.

His adorable little kitten had left home, picked up a lynx, and brought him back. Now he was lavishing all his attention on that lynx instead of looking at Evan.

It was heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, Rianus, who had eyes only for his new friend, had no idea how his knight was feeling.

“Rian, where did you get that?”

“T-This…”

Rianus glanced at the bottle, which now contained only half its original contents, and darted his eyes around once more.

Should I tell him or not? What if he gets angry? No, maybe he’ll be grateful instead, since it’s something good.

“Rian, friends shouldn’t keep secrets from each other.”

“O-Okay! You’re right! The Grand Duke Diabolus gave it to me!”

Evan pressed a hand to his forehead at the speed with which his innocent little kitten had changed his mind and blurted out the answer.

No matter how he looked at it, the prince was being played like a fiddle by that lynx.

Nihil also let out a quiet laugh at the sight of the seaweed-like head bobbing eagerly, as though he had never hesitated in the first place simply because Nihil had called him a friend. But when the meaning of the word Diabolus came back to him, his expression subtly darkened.

“Diabolus? What kind of person calls himself a devil?”

“Oh, that’s more like a title.”

“A title?”

“The Grand Duke Diabolus is a demon. Since nobody knows his real name, people came up with their own titles for him. These days, he’s allowed people to interact with his territory, so he’s also known as the Grand Duke of Lephne.”

“A demon rules over a territory in the Middle Realm?”

Nihil’s expression stiffened. Noticing his unease, Rianus added an explanation.

“Don’t worry. He’s been active for three hundred years already, and nothing has happened so far. The grand duke isn’t allowed to interfere directly in human politics, either. I heard he voluntarily bound himself with a contract because he didn’t want to get involved. He mainly closes rifts and manages monsters and demons. Our kingdom granted him a noble title so he could operate more easily, and in return, he protects us from monsters and demons. Also, members of the Harpense royal family receive this elixir on their fifth birthday.”

“He doesn’t interfere at all?”

“No. Apparently, the contract he made himself can’t be broken unless a more powerful demon appears. There was once a former king who tried to get the grand duke’s help, but he couldn’t break the contract, so he ultimately received no assistance. The elixir is also given only once to each person officially recognized as a prince or princess. As long as the recipient is still alive, it can completely cure any illness or injury! After using it, I can confirm that it seems to be true!”

Nihil’s eyebrows twisted into a deep frown.

Had he heard that correctly?

That precious medicine, which each member of the royal family received exactly once, had been used in place of a meal?

He wanted to lecture the prince about how he shouldn’t hand out such a valuable treasure so carelessly to someone he had only just met. But if he did, the prince might turn back into a piece of dried seaweed, and Nihil certainly didn’t want to deal with that. So he pressed his lips together and kept quiet.

The foolish prince was delighted that his beggar friend had recovered. He grinned foolishly, his seaweed-like hair bobbing with every movement.

Looking at that seaweed head, Nihil could only laugh dryly.

What am I supposed to do with this idiot?

He was supposedly a prince, but he didn’t seem cut out to become Crown Prince. The one consolation was that roughly half the elixir remained.

“I’m completely healed now. Keep the rest somewhere safe. Don’t waste it on anything unnecessary.”

“Okay! I’m so glad there’s still half left!”

Rianus hurriedly secured the remaining elixir and scampered over to his secret safe.

Behind the prince’s beaming face, Nihil could see the knight’s expression, twisted into a menacing scowl. His eyes seemed to say, You’ve already wasted half of it on something unnecessary!

As soon as the fluttering seaweed head left the room, the knight would undoubtedly pick a fight with him. But Nihil ignored the menacing knight and spoke to Rianus, who was carefully putting the elixir away.

“Your body temperature is way too low. Go take a bath.”

Nihil remembered the cool, delicate wrist he had grabbed the moment he regained consciousness and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his hand.

The foolish prince’s body had been colder than Nihil’s own, even when Nihil had been lying unconscious. His pulse had also seemed a little irregular.

If things continued like this, the pampered prince might end up falling ill.

“Soak in hot water for a long time. If you need someone to help you, call a servant. I’ll hide while you’re gone.”

“No! I don’t need anyone to help me! I’ll wash up and come right back. Make yourself comfortable.”

“Don’t just wash up quickly. I said you should soak in the hot water for a long—”

Bang!

Before Nihil could finish speaking, the excited seaweed head fluttered away into the bathroom.