How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 64

Rianus grew nervous, wondering if the other children had already singled him out as a target the moment he arrived.

The boy glanced around the room, apparently checking whether any of the others knew Rianus. However, since none of them had seen Rianus before either, nobody answered.

Rianus timidly opened his mouth.

“I… I travel around with just my big brother.”

“Did you come from another village?”

“Yes.”

“How did you know to come to the guards?”

“My brother told me to go to the guards if anything happened.”

“And where’s your brother now?”

“I lost him…”

Knowing he wasn’t very good at acting, Rianus lowered his head. That, too, was advice Nihil had given him.

The boy sneered at him.

“You idiot. Your brother abandoned you.”

“…Huh?”

“You’ve been abandoned, you moron.”

Rianus was stunned by the words idiot and moron, which he had never heard directed at him before. Then he realized he was supposed to get angry at the accusation that he’d been abandoned, and shouted in protest.

“No!”

The boy scolded him as though he were hopeless.

“People like us don’t believe it when someone says, ‘Wait here. I’ll come back for you.’ Do you think you’re the only kid who’s been abandoned like that? Your brother obviously got tired of you and went off on his own.”

“But my brother definitely said he’d come find me if I waited at the guards.”

“You really don’t get it, do you? He lied because he wanted to abandon you!”

The boy thumped his chest in frustration.

Rianus’s mind became a muddle as he wondered how much longer he should insist that his brother would return.

Nihil had told him that if he ran out of things to say, he should lower his head and remain silent—or simply burst into tears. Rianus wondered if this was one of those situations.

He tried to squeeze out a few tears, but his eyes only seemed to grow drier, so he settled for keeping his head bowed.

Fortunately, perhaps because Nihil’s advice was working, the boy stopped berating him.

His tone softened a little as he spoke again.

“Well… maybe he really will come back for you. Still, if you end up alone, we’ll let you join our group, so don’t get your hopes up too much. Can you pick pockets or steal?”

“…No.”

“Then have you been living off begging?”

“Begging?”

“Panhandling, idiot.”

“…I’ve never tried it.”

Rianus shook his head, but wondered whether he should have lied and said he could do it.

The boy frowned, looking puzzled.

“Then how have you been surviving?”

“…I ate what my brother gave me.”

It wasn’t a lie, since he had been eating the things Nihil brought him. Still, saying it that way made him feel strangely as though he had been living off Nihil’s charity.

It was true that Nihil took care of all sorts of things for him, but if they were being precise, wasn’t Rianus the one who made sure Nihil had food to eat?

The boy apparently didn’t see it that way. He gave Rianus another look of utter contempt.

“So you really were abandoned! You can’t steal, you can’t pick pockets, and you can’t even beg! What can you do? Your brother definitely got tired of feeding you and left you behind! I would’ve abandoned you, too!”

“No! My brother likes me!”

“How would you know that?!”

“He definitely said he likes me!”

He had said it today, too. That he really liked him.

Of course, he’d been talking about how much he liked carrying Rianus in his arms or on his back, but he had still said he liked him.

He does like me, right?

As Rianus tried to reassure himself, a little anxiety crept into his heart.

Nihil had been kind to him, but a small part of Rianus wondered whether it was only because Nihil had nowhere else to go and could enjoy staying somewhere with plenty of food.

Trying to shake off his unease, Rianus murmured softly,

“Neil… likes me…”

At that moment, a faint tap sounded from somewhere.

At first, Rianus thought he had imagined it and tried to ignore it. But then he heard another tiny tap.

It was so quiet that only someone with hearing as sharp as Rianus or Bella’s could have caught it.

Suddenly, Rianus remembered the conversation he’d had with Nihil the night before they came to Sharton Street.

‘Let’s come up with a simple set of signals in case we can’t talk to each other. If I tap something once or make a sound, it means “Do as you please.”’

‘What do you mean, make a sound?’

‘Any sound. It could be knocking on a wall or snapping your fingers. One sound means “Do as you please,” two consecutive sounds mean “Yes,” and three consecutive sounds mean “No.”’

“…Two taps means yes…”

As Rianus murmured what he remembered, another tap sounded. It was almost as though Nihil were praising him for remembering correctly.

With renewed confidence and a hint of longing, Rianus declared once more,

“Yes! My brother likes me. He likes me a whole lot!”

As if responding to his words, another tap rang out without the slightest hesitation. It was a clean, straightforward answer, just like Nihil.

Rianus was so happy he could have jumped for joy.

The boy stared at the suddenly cheerful Rianus with narrowed eyes, as though he’d never seen such a strange kid before. Then he grumbled, “If we took in someone as useless as you, the others would complain,” and insisted that Rianus’s brother absolutely had to come back for him.

Perhaps this conversation had convinced the children that Rianus wasn’t someone they needed to be wary of, because one by one, they began approaching him and asking questions.

Most of them were about the cat. Bella promptly flopped onto her back and put on an adorable display, winning the children over.

“Is that your cat?”

“Can I pet it?”

“Your cat is so cute!”

“Brother Yvonne said we shouldn’t touch animals carelessly because they might spread diseases…”

“Move aside. I want to see, too.”

“Kitty!”

“Ah, Bree, don’t get so close! Come over here.”

The rest area quickly grew noisy.

Worried that Bella might be unable to avoid unwanted contact, Rianus hurriedly picked her up and held her protectively.

Bella meowed and rubbed her face against Rianus’s cheek. Immediately, delighted exclamations about how cute she was erupted from all around them.

“So you really do keep that cat?”

“Huh? Oh, y-yes.”

Rianus found himself answering yes to one of the children’s questions without thinking.

He wondered why any street child would keep a cat when they barely had enough food for themselves. But Bella had too many peculiarities for him to simply claim she was a stray.

Before he knew it, the children had formed a circle around Rianus and Bella.

A few stayed away, but most gathered around to get a closer look at the cat.

Rianus began to suspect that Nihil had brought Bella along not so much to guard him as to make it easier for him to win the children’s favor.

“I knew it! I’ve never seen a cat that’s so friendly with people.”

“Right? Most cats are too busy stealing food or rummaging through trash cans.”

“Big sister, this cat looks clean!”

“Bree, I told you to come here!”

“Hey, can I pet the cat just once?”

“Hey! Then who feeds it?”

“Huh? Huh?”

As the questions poured in, Rianus struggled to decide which one to answer first. Then a little child who had been sitting in a girl’s arms suddenly asked,

“Are Kitty emergency rations?”

“……What?”

The innocent prince’s pupils shook violently.

There was no custom of eating cats in the Kingdom of Harpense, but he wondered whether poor children might catch and eat them. He couldn’t bring himself to answer carelessly.

“Myaow~?”

“……!”

Bella meowed, snapping him out of his daze. Rianus hurriedly shook his head.

“N-No! We’re not going to eat her! Cats aren’t food!”

“Then what does Kitty eat? How does she survive? Does your big brother feed her?”

“H-Huh? Yes, yes. My brother feeds her.”

“Your big brother’s big brother is amazing!”

“Yes, he’s really amazing.”

In a matter of seconds, Nihil had become the hardworking older brother who supported both his younger sibling and their cat. Rianus, delighted that his friend was receiving praise, proudly agreed that his brother was amazing.

As a result, the children’s attention shifted from the cat to the amazing big brother.

“Is your brother good at picking pockets or stealing?”

“No! My brother doesn’t do that!”

Only after answering did Rianus realize his mistake.

He had reacted indignantly at the thought of Nihil being treated like a thief or pickpocket, but stealing and pickpocketing were among the few ways these children could survive from day to day.

Nihil himself had even brought a bundle of money for pickpocketing, just in case.

To these children, such things were normal—practically a part of life. How could Rianus dismiss them as that sort of thing?

Worried that his words might have earned him the children’s dislike, Rianus lowered his head.

However, none of them scolded him. Perhaps they simply assumed he was lying.

“Then how does your brother get food if he doesn’t steal or pick pockets?”

“H-Huh?”

“How does he find food if he doesn’t steal or pick pockets? Is your brother pretty?”

“H-Huh? How did you know? My brother really is pretty…”

“Ah…”

At that moment, all the children looked at Rianus with pity.

Rianus was bewildered by their sudden change in attitude, unable to understand what was happening. Bella, however, understood immediately. She pressed a paw against her forehead and let out a long, mournful myaaaow.

“Haah… Your brother… Never mind. It’s probably better if you don’t know. Maybe your brother went to work just now.”

Rianus tilted his head at that remark.

Where on earth could Nihil have gone to work when he was probably hiding somewhere nearby, keeping an eye on him?

Rianus couldn’t make sense of the children’s expressions. He glanced at Bella, hoping she could explain, but the cat had gone limp across his lap as if she’d given up on everything.

The boy patted Rianus on the shoulder and spoke.

“Why don’t you learn to steal, at least for your brother’s sake? The people in this market are kind, so they’ll overlook it to some extent. The guards are really nice, too. This place is usually their break room, you know? But they cleared it out for us. That bread was given to you by one of the guards, wasn’t it?”

The boy nodded toward the bread Rianus had been holding. Rianus gave a small nod.

“We all ate that bread, too. But aren’t you going to eat yours?”

“…Oh, yes…”

Rianus wasn’t hungry because he’d eaten lunch not long ago. More importantly, he’d promised to eat only what Nihil gave him, so he couldn’t eat the bread.

Wanting to win the children’s favor, Rianus carefully held it out to them.

“Would you… like to share this?”

“What? Really?”

“Yes. You can have it.”

“Great!”

The boy snatched the bread before Rianus could take it back and distributed it among the children in his group.

Watching how quickly he reacted, Rianus finally understood why the guard had looked so puzzled when he refused the bread earlier.

“You’re a really good kid!”

The children’s eyes had lit up at the sight of a mere loaf of bread. Rianus’s eyes trembled slightly as he watched them.

“…Even if someone gives you food, you shouldn’t just follow them.”

“I’m not going to follow you, so it’s fine.”

“I see…”

“You gave us bread, so I’ll teach you all sorts of things as a special favor.”

The boy introduced himself as Kane and began chattering away.

Rianus nodded at everything as though it were fascinating and asked question after question. Apparently finding him a satisfying student, the other children gradually joined in.

Kane told him all sorts of things, starting with tricks for stealing and picking pockets, then moving on to shops that should never be targeted, reasons children must never wander around Sharton Street after sunset, how many children lived in the district and the major groups they belonged to. He even shared all the little personal details, such as which groups got along and which ones hated each other.

Most of the information wasn’t particularly useful to Rianus, but he found it fascinating and kept asking questions.

Above all, it had been a long time since he’d talked with children his own age, so he was feeling rather excited.