How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 79

Evan felt a little relieved as he looked at the wildcat, who now seemed perfectly fine.

“You get drunk quickly and recover quickly, huh?”

“It wasn’t enough to get drunk in the first place.”

Nihil gave a halfhearted reply, then searched through the bag for some medicine and handed it to Dave. Evan could only shake his head in disbelief at the sheer variety of medicine Nihil had brought along.

Dave clearly didn’t want to take the medicine, but Nihil threatened him, saying that if he ended up shitting himself from both ends and became dehydrated, things would be even worse. With no other choice, Dave swallowed the medicine.

Looking at Nihil’s excessively calm demeanor, Evan began to wonder whether the person who had been shedding tears earlier was even the same person.

He wanted to crack open that tiny head of his and see what on earth was inside, but since this wasn’t a subject he wanted to bring up again, he decided to pretend nothing had happened.

Still, he was annoyed that the brat could cause such a commotion and then act as though nothing had happened. So Evan deliberately taunted him.

“You drank so confidently that I thought you were a heavy drinker.”

“……”

“Haah, I never would’ve imagined you’d get drunk after just a few sips of beer…”

“……”

“Even our youngest wouldn’t get drunk that much.”

“…When I drank it before, I was… fine.”

“Yeah, right.”

“……”

When the situation turned against him, Nihil clamped his mouth shut, then turned toward Rianus.

“Shel, Doggy is bullying me.”

“Don’t bully Neil!”

“……”

Smack, smack.

The little kitten immediately drove Doggy away.

Watching this, Dave giggled before asking as though something had just occurred to him.

“Oh, I kept hearing Neil call for Doggy, so I thought there was some kind of really smart dog hiding somewhere that was as clever as a cat.”

“M-Me too…”

“……”

Evan silently gulped down his beer. Perhaps because he couldn’t smack the wildcat who was patting the back of his hand, the beer tasted bitter.

At that moment, Dave, who had mistaken “Doggy” for some kind of code name or nickname, asked with great curiosity,

“If Big Brother is Doggy and Neil is Wildcat, then what is Nerr—no, Shel?”

At that question, Rianus was about to shake his head and say that he didn’t have a nickname like that, but a low voice came from above him.

“Little kitten.”

“…Huh?”

“…?”

“What did you say?”

“…Have you lost your mind?”

Ah, damn this mouth of mine.

Seeing everyone make their own little remarks, Evan realized his mistake and quickly shut his mouth, pretending he hadn’t said anything. But he couldn’t escape Nihil’s lingering stare.

Evan mentally smacked himself in the mouth over and over, but that wasn’t going to make his words disappear.

Fortunately, their precious little kitten was rather oblivious.

Rianus tilted his head and whispered,

“Is that part of the act?”

At the innocent question, Evan let out a groan. He could hear the wildcat mutter under his breath, “Blasphemous fool.”

Thinking it would be better to simply insist that it was true, Evan nodded. In response, the wildcat shot him a look of utter contempt, as if to say, You dare call your own master something as lowly as a little kitten?

“But isn’t ‘little kitten’ too long?”

“……”

“Oh, n-no, actually, since there’s already a real cat, ‘little kitten’ is perfect! It suits Nerr—no, Shel, really well!”

Dave had tried to argue, but he quickly changed his tune under Evan’s murderous glare.

Jane had remained silent throughout the conversation, simply watching. Perhaps he felt sorry for Nihil, who was being treated differently by his big brother, because he timidly opened his mouth.

“N-Neil could be a l-little w-wildcat…”

“……”

“……”

“…N-Never mind.”

When Nihil’s and Evan’s expressions twisted into utter displeasure, Jane hurriedly shut his mouth.

After bickering among themselves and forgetting their original objective for a while, Evan finally remembered that he hadn’t delivered his report. Keeping the two little ones close beside him, he spoke quietly.

“There were no reports of missing persons, and it seems the head of the local guards was replaced about three months ago. Someone probably arranged the personnel transfer on their own. It doesn’t seem to be directly related to human trafficking, but they’re likely turning a blind eye to it. They’ve been taking advantage of the guards’ reluctance to patrol Sharton Street, cleverly leaving certain shifts unstaffed about once every ten days. Unfortunately, today happens to be one of those days. I suspect it’s when the drugs are delivered.”

“…So there’s no point asking the local guards for help.”

“They seem to be targeting only children without relatives. That Kelvin fellow probably played a major role in it. I really should’ve broken at least one of his fingers…”

While Evan ground his teeth and the boys struggled to pretend they weren’t listening to the conversation, the owner arrived carrying some warmed milk.

“I put plenty of ‘sugar’ in this milk for the children, so don’t even think about stealing any of it—sir.”

The owner had started to hand the milk to the boys, but after noticing Evan holding the little ones, he cautiously extended the cups toward him instead.

The boys saw the wooden cups being placed on the table and tensed up, realizing that the expected moment had arrived.

The owner handed over the milk and immediately returned to his duties, but they could see him continuing to watch their table. He seemed to be checking whether the children actually drank the milk.

“Wow! That looks delicious!”

To avoid arousing suspicion, Nihil deliberately raised his voice and gulped down the milk.

The boys and Evan were horrified on the inside. However, they remembered Nihil’s earlier assurance that he had brought stimulants in case they were given sleeping pills, as well as antidotes, so they managed to restrain themselves from intervening.

Nihil drained the milk, leaving a white mustache around his mouth, then exclaimed cheerfully,

“It’s delicious!”

“…Delicious?”

Rianus felt a little relieved to hear that.

They had agreed beforehand that if the milk contained an ordinary sleeping pill, they would shout, “It’s delicious!” But if it contained a type of narcotic, they would shout, “It’s sweet!”

Using Evan’s large frame to block the gazes watching them, Nihil quietly switched his empty wooden cup with Rianus’s cup, then said,

“Yeah, it’s super delicious. Hurry up and try yours, Shel.”

“Mm…”

Rianus awkwardly stared at the empty wooden cup in front of him, then hurriedly pretended to drink from it.

Of course, since the cup was empty, no matter how much he tilted it, not a drop of milk came out. But when he put the cup down as though he’d finished drinking, Nihil calmly wiped the corner of his mouth, claiming that he had milk there.

In reality, the milk mustache around Nihil’s own mouth was still untouched. So Rianus rolled up his sleeve and wiped it away for him.

Even after the children had drunk their milk, the suspicious gazes watching them didn’t disappear. It seemed they would remain on guard until the little “rabbits” fell asleep.

Nihil drank some of Rianus’s milk as well, leaving about half in the cup, then poured the remaining half into Evan’s beer mug.

Staring blankly at his now milky-white beer, Evan muttered in disbelief,

“…Why did you pour it in there?”

“Big brother has already had to drink so many yucky things, so I’ll share a little of mine with you as a special treat!”

“……”

“Don’t you feel grateful?”

“…I’m so moved I’m about to cry.”

“I knew you’d be happy!”

“……”

Evan let out a hollow laugh at Nihil’s utterly cheerful response.

After that, Nihil kept chattering away by himself. To convince the people watching that the children were asleep, they needed to demonstrate a clear change in behavior.

Every so often, a drunken customer would pass by their table, glance at the empty milk cups, then look at Rianus, who sat quietly, and Nihil, who kept chattering.

Since Rianus wasn’t very good at acting, he followed Nihil’s instructions, pulled his hood down low, and sat quietly with his head slightly bowed.

That way, people would assume both children had fallen asleep as soon as Nihil finally quieted down.

“…And then En gave him a flower, but Matthew… Ah, right, Laura got sulky back then…”

As Nihil continued, his words became increasingly incoherent, and the order of events grew completely jumbled.

He even seemed a little irritated when he couldn’t get the words out properly, much like a sleepy child fussing.

His rambling served no real purpose and didn’t seem to expect any response from anyone. Yet every time a new child’s name came out of Nihil’s mouth, Rianus’s little body gave a tiny twitch.

“Mm… so then… the two of them started fighting…”

Nihil’s pronunciation grew increasingly drawn out and slurred until, before long, the table that had been filled with nothing but his chatter fell silent.

His acting was so convincing that Evan began to worry Nihil might actually have fallen asleep from the sleeping pills. He cautiously touched one of the boy’s fingers.

Fortunately, Nihil hadn’t fallen asleep. He subtly wiggled his finger three times to let Evan know he was still awake.

A little while later, the owner, who had continued keeping an eye on the children, cautiously approached their table.

Before the owner could say anything, Evan spoke first.

“Boss, the cute little rabbits have fallen asleep, and it seems they don’t have a home.”

“Is thaaat so?”

“We’ve met by chance, and surely we can’t leave these poor children to sleep outside, can we? I’d like you to provide a room for the adorable little rabbits to stay in.”

“Ahem. F-Follow me.”

Perhaps embarrassed that Evan had stolen his line, the owner hurriedly led them away.

Since the inn was directly above the restaurant, Evan had assumed the owner would simply show them to an empty room. Instead, the man led them out through the back door rather than toward the inn rooms. In an alley, he handed them over to another man who had been waiting there, then hurried back inside the restaurant.

The man glanced at Evan’s enormous frame and hesitated before cautiously speaking first.

“Ahem. How much do you want?”

“How much can you offer?”

“Sixty per kid. How about that?”

“Sixty gold coins?”

“Are you insane?”

“Hah…”

Evan raised one corner of his mouth in disbelief.

The disobedient wildcat was one thing, but offering a mere sixty silver coins for their adorable, precious prince was absolutely unacceptable.

Evan subtly released his imposing aura, putting pressure on the man.

“Hey, brother. Who do you expect to feed with that pocket change, huh?”

“S-Sixty is already a generous offer. The older kids only go for fifty.”

“No, no. I’ve got my own circumstances, and I have to split the money with these young fellows here. But think about it. Two rabbits make 120, right? And there are three of us who have to split it. That means only forty each. So in the end, I only get forty, huh? Do you understand, brother? Forty isn’t even enough to cover my drinking expenses for one day.”

In terms of beer, that price was equivalent to drinking two hundred mugs. But intimidated by Evan’s imposing presence, the man couldn’t bring himself to argue that the demand was ridiculous.

“T-Then how about sixty-five per kid?”

“Haah, honestly. You really don’t know how to negotiate. These are little rabbits, after all. Don’t you know how difficult it is to find little rabbits these days? Haah, forget it. Let’s just call the whole thing off.”

“W-Wait a moment! Seventy. I can’t go any higher than that.”

“Ninety. I won’t sell them for less.”

“D-Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Then don’t buy them.”

“How about seventy-five?”

“Eighty-five.”

“Eighty! I won’t pay any more than that.”

“Hmm…”

Evan pretended to consider it for a long time before finally speaking.

“Fine, eighty it is. They’re worth eighty each, so handle them gently when you take them away. It’d be a problem if they got even a scratch along the way, wouldn’t it?”

“I know what I’m doing, so mind your own business.”

Evan added the last remark because he was worried the man might handle the children roughly. But the man seemed to be in a hurry. Without even removing the children’s hoods to inspect them, he handed Evan a pouch of money.

Then he roughly tied the children together with rope, stuffed them into a small iron cage, and covered it with a cloth.

Pretending to leave, Evan passed the money pouch to the boys and told them to follow the cat. Then he hurriedly went after the man.