How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 72

Nihil grabbed Rianus’s hand and pulled him to his feet, much to the latter’s bewilderment.

The cat that had been purring on Rianus’s lap rolled onto the ground in protest, but Nihil merely told it to keep a good eye on the meat before heading toward the campfire where the children had gathered.

The children were still busy preparing the pigeon meat.

“Haha, Neil, Nerr! What’s going on?”

Dave gave an awkward smile as he hurriedly hid the slightly mangled pigeon meat behind his back.

“Nerr has something he wants to ask you.”

“Huh? M-me?”

Rianus, who hadn’t yet prepared himself mentally, faltered in confusion. But he soon remembered that this was something he had to do himself, so his hesitation didn’t last long.

He turned to Yvonne and Jane, who appeared to be the oldest among the children.

“How old are you, Yvonne and Jane?”

“Hahaha, you want to know our ages? Jane and I are seventeen. Why?”

Rianus hesitated for a moment before cautiously asking his next question.

“Do you and Jane… have identity cards?”

“Identity cards? We don’t have anything like that.”

“Why not?”

“You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone with an identity card in Sharton Street. Our status is a little… low, you know? Anyway, we probably aren’t eligible to get one. And even if we were allowed to apply… Most people here don’t even know how to write their own names. How would they apply for an identity card…?”

“……!”

Rianus froze, looking as though he had just been struck hard on the head. His beautiful green eyes trembled.

“T-then, if you knew how to read and write, would you apply for an identity card?”

“Hahaha, what would we do with one? We don’t even know what we’d use it for. People would just laugh at kids like us if we showed them our identity cards.”

At those words, Rianus burst out angrily.

“Yvonne, you’re an idiot!”

“H-huh?”

Leaving the bewildered Yvonne behind, Rianus turned away in a huff. Nihil watched him go and chuckled under his breath before following after him.

“What was that all about…?”

“W-well, I’m not sure…”

 

***

 

When they returned to their spot, the cat guarding the pigeon meat greeted them with a meow, as if demanding praise for doing such a good job.

Rianus pouted, picked up the cat, and plopped down onto a log.

“You knew, didn’t you, Neil?”

“Knew what?”

“Why don’t children get identity cards.”

Nihil chuckled softly as he turned the pigeon meat over. Watching the meat gradually turn golden brown, Rianus grumbled.

“…Ignorance is a sin.”

“Maybe it is.”

“We need to establish educational institutions where even people without money can receive an education. But… will I be able to persuade His Majesty?”

Rianus grew troubled.

He had confidently declared that he could do it, but he couldn’t guarantee that the king would approve. If all else failed, he intended to allocate part of the budget allotted to him toward establishing educational institutions. However, doing so might draw opposition from the faction supporting the First Prince.

Rianus absolutely did not want the children of Sharton Street to become caught up in the struggle between political factions.

How should I explain this to His Majesty to persuade him?

Nihil watched Rianus sink into thought again for a while before speaking.

“…But would teaching those children really be worthwhile?”

Rianus tilted his head at Nihil’s sudden change of subject. After all, Nihil himself had taught him the importance of education. Why was he suddenly concerned about whether it would be profitable?

“What are you talking about, Neil? We’re not trying to teach them so we can profit from it.”

“But a relief project is still a project. It requires an enormous amount of money. If there’s no return, there’s no point.”

“You were the one who taught me that relief without practical results is hypocrisy. Education is absolutely essential if we want to change their lives. Besides, this is a project carried out in the royal family’s name. Even if we suffer some losses, we have to achieve results. We can’t simply end it by saying, ‘We provided necessities to unfortunate people.’ This is politics, and it’s also a kind of investment. You can’t expect to reap the rewards from the very beginning.”

“So what can we gain from it?”

That question plunged Rianus into deep thought.

Nihil waited patiently for his answer, poking at the campfire with a twig.

After a long while, Rianus finally spoke.

“First, public support. They’re members of society, just like everyone else. If this relief project succeeds, similar projects will surely be carried out in other slums, and the number of people who benefit will be impossible to ignore. No royal family has ever enjoyed a long reign without the people’s support.”

“Hmm. And?”

Thinking that he needed to convince Nihil, Rianus explained his reasoning carefully and earnestly.

“Second, talent. People whose potential has been hidden by ignorance might finally get the chance to flourish. Just look at Sir Evan, who rose from commoner status to become a Royal Knight. The royal family would act as a patron. By taking talented people under our wing early and establishing ties with them, we could secure their services more easily in the future.”

“Hmm…”

“And that’s not all. Once people are educated, they’ll understand what they’re capable of doing. The children beg or steal food because that’s all they’ve ever seen people do, and it’s all they know how to do themselves. We need to broaden their horizons. If they learn to read, they can look through employment notices and find jobs. If they learn arithmetic, they can conduct business. Unless they use their education to become criminals, they’ll surely contribute to society’s growth.”

“But, Nerr, can you guarantee that there’ll be no discrimination when they try to find work? As you know, the people living on the streets have no respectable means of supporting themselves. They survive by stealing things, begging, or selling their bodies. People assume they must be selling their bodies simply because they have pretty faces. Do you really think employers would want to hire them?”

“Ah…”

He had a point. An ordinary employer wouldn’t readily hire someone who had stolen things in the past.

If something went missing, the employee would be the first person suspected.

Regardless of whether the accusation was true, an employee from the lowest social class would likely be branded a thief. And even if they were proven innocent, they could still be fired on some trivial pretext, such as having caused a disturbance.

Rianus hadn’t thought things through carefully enough. Just because a beggar received some education didn’t mean people’s attitudes toward them would suddenly become positive. Nor would the self-esteem of people who had endured discrimination all their lives magically improve overnight.

If they tried their best but still couldn’t find work, they would eventually grow discouraged, return to their former lives, and continue living in despair.

Should I establish an anti-discrimination law? No, no. That might actually encourage discrimination instead… We need to build their self-esteem and change people’s perceptions. Can education change those perceptions…? We also need to make them feel that they’re being protected, and that they have the right to protection… What about a guarantee system? What kind of person would an employer want to hire…?

Rianus muttered to himself, sinking deeper into thought.

Nihil gave him a faint smile, then picked up a twig and used it to turn over the potatoes that had been rolling near the campfire.

The cat, which had been looking thoroughly fed up, flinched when its eyes met Nihil’s. It quickly climbed onto his lap and began acting affectionately.

“Come to think of it, the puppy must be bored.”

“Myaaaow~”

“The kitty shouldn’t be whining right now.”

“Myaaaow?”

“No. That can’t be right. I can’t speak cat.”

“Myaaaaaang, myaow!”

“I’m just predicting what a cat would likely say and responding accordingly.”

“……”

The cat, whose thoughts had apparently been predicted, fell silent.

 

***

 

The children prepared the pigeons as Nihil had shown them, but the results were disastrous.

Some squeezed too hard and ruptured the organs, while others were so clumsy with their knives that the meat ended up in ragged, mangled pieces.

Pan, holding a lump of meat smeared with ruptured entrails, shouted indignantly.

“Damn it! That guy just had a better knife! My knife’s dull, that’s all!”

“Pan, shut up and cleanly remove the guts you ruptured.”

Jane, who had managed to prepare his bird relatively well, handed the dressed pigeon to Yvonne and glanced toward Nihil.

The two little boys who had received strawberries from the greengrocer earlier were now sitting a short distance away, tending another campfire. They had threaded the meat onto thin branches and were roasting it with great care.

When Jane approached them to thank them, a delicious aroma wafted toward him. He swallowed involuntarily before speaking.

“Th-thank you b-both… Th-thanks to y-you, the ch-children can e-eat m-meat for the f-first time in a l-long while.”

Rianus, who had been quietly muttering to himself, jumped when he noticed Jane approaching. But he soon broke into a bright smile.

“No, we’re grateful too!”

“B-but you g-gave us t-too much. Y-Yvonne was b-being so d-demanding, so you m-must’ve had a h-hard time…”

In truth, the biggest problem had been Jane’s growling stomach, but Nihil saw no reason to correct him.

As Nihil added more spices to the pigeon meat skewered on a stick, he asked, “When was the last time you ate meat?”

“H-huh?”

“Meat.”

“W-we had p-pork fat a week ago.”

“What about actual meat?”

“…I-I don’t really r-remember. A-about a month ago?”

“Tell your leader this: you’re only eating three birds today. Boil or steam them instead of roasting them. If necessary, I’ll separate the meat from the bones for you.”

“O-okay. I will.”

Jane didn’t understand why they had to do that, but since Neil was the one providing the meat, he agreed to pass on the message and returned to Yvonne.

Rianus seemed just as confused. He scooted closer to Nihil and whispered, “Neil, there are ten of them. Will three birds be enough? These pigeons are so small.”

Once their feathers were removed, the pigeons really did look tiny. They seemed about a third the size of a chicken.

“If they suddenly eat meat after going without it for so long, they could get sick. And the meat they ate a month ago probably wasn’t much, either. They might be disappointed, but if they get greedy and eat too much, they could end up bedridden, and then they’ll only suffer more.”

Rianus tilted his head at that explanation. Hadn’t Nihil, who seemed to have gone hungry for days, devoured an enormous amount of meat as soon as he arrived at the palace?

“Neil, have you ever gotten sick from eating?”

“I can eat raw meat without getting sick.”

“…I see.”

Rianus nodded, looking a little unconvinced by Nihil’s confident answer.

It was certainly difficult to imagine Nihil lying sick in bed. Then again, it was equally difficult to imagine him tearing into raw meat with his teeth…

“Uh, why are you putting those in?”

Rianus tilted his head as Nihil tossed several smooth, rounded pebbles into the campfire one by one.

“It’s cold at night. I’m heating the stones.”

“Oh, I see. But we have heatstones, don’t we?”

“We do. They probably don’t.”

Nihil gave a slight nod toward the children. When Jane had approached them, Dave’s gaze had followed him.

Rianus glanced in their direction and finally realized that they were being watched. He let out a quiet gasp.

Dave was already following Nihil’s example, picking up stones and discreetly placing them in the fire.

“Neil, you really are…”

Kind? Thoughtful?

Rianus struggled to find the right words to describe his friend. But neither kind nor thoughtful seemed quite adequate.

If anything…

“…You’re meticulous.”

Nihil’s lips curled into a wide grin. A shiver ran down Rianus’s spine at the sight of that smile—not from fear or disgust, but from a peculiar kind of thrill.

Did those children realize that what they thought were their own independent decisions were actually all being guided by his friend?

Perhaps even Rianus himself was already being manipulated by Nihil.

As if he had read that very thought, Nihil asked, “So, do you dislike it?”

“No.”

As if he ever could.

Rianus’s lips curled upward, too.