How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 81

It had been about an hour since Pan was brought to this place, which was called the rabbit cage.

He had planned to spend the night at the hideout, just as that insolent little brat had told him to. But his father had come all the way to the hideout to drag him home.

It seemed that bastard Kelvin had sold out the location of their hideout.

His father had tried to drag him away by force. Big Brother Yvonne had even tried to fight back with a kitchen knife, but Pan could no longer afford to cause trouble for his brother and the other children. In the end, he had no choice but to follow his father.

Pan felt terribly guilty, thinking that he was the reason their hideout had been exposed.

When they got home, his father had given him some expensive milk for some reason. But the kindness seemed far too suspicious, and Neil had told him not to eat or drink anything, so Pan hadn’t touched the milk.

In return, he had received his father’s curses and beatings.

Perhaps he had been struck in the wrong place on the head, because he lost consciousness immediately. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a gambling den.

I’ve been sold.

He understood instinctively. But Pan wasn’t as sad as he had expected to be. He even wondered whether that insolent, mysterious little boy had kept him from returning home because he had foreseen this fate and wanted to prevent it.

But the boy’s efforts had all been in vain.

Pan glanced down at his abdomen. The bruises that had once been a deep, livid blue had now returned to their normal color.

It hadn’t taken him long to realize that the medicine the boy had given him was a potion. His pain had started to ease almost immediately after he drank it, and his stomach had felt better, too. But he had been too embarrassed to say thank you.

If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve apologized and thanked him…

There was no point regretting it now. Regret always came too late, no matter how quickly it arrived.

Besides Pan, there were three other children who had been brought here. They were all taller than him and looked a year or two older. Their eye sockets were sunken, and their bodies were mottled with bloodstains, as though they had endured all kinds of abuse. But Pan wasn’t afraid.

The spectators chuckled as they watched the iron cage, which they called the “hunting grounds.”

A man who seemed to be acting as the host threw a rope into the cage and told the boys to choose one of their own to tie up as food for the hunting dog.

When the boys merely exchanged nervous glances without doing anything, the host brought over a hunting dog to pressure them.

The dog drooled incessantly and barked like mad, threatening the children with its muzzle still on. At the sight of it, the boys trembled in fear, but they eventually chose a victim.

And that victim was none other than Pan.

This time, Pan didn’t resist. He had fought back plenty of times before, so he knew how things worked. The more he resisted, the more he got beaten.

Was there any word more meaningless than resistance?

Big Brother Yvonne had always urged him to run away from home. But what could he do when it came to his own blood relative? No matter how often he cursed his father, Pan had never been able to give up on him easily.

Ah, I should’ve at least made that bastard impotent…

A bitter smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

He wasn’t scared, but he felt a little sad.

“Aw, he’s being too well-behaved.”

A potbellied man chuckled as he poked his cane through the bars at Pan, who sat in resignation with his hands tied.

Pan stared at the cane pressing into his cheek with dead eyes. Then, thinking that since he was going to die anyway, he might as well make things difficult for the damn fatso, he snapped his teeth around it.

But all he did was make the spectators even more interested.

“Ahahaha! Now that’s more like it! Struggle some more!”

“Hey, if you’ve picked the prey, get on with it already!”

“Hahaha! Everyone, please be patient for a moment! Today’s rabbits aren’t over yet!”

With that, the host opened the door to the rabbit cage. A man roughly tossed two much smaller children inside before locking the door again.

“…What are you guys?”

Pan muttered without thinking as he looked at the two children whose faces were completely wrapped in their robes. The cane that had been clamped between his teeth fell out and rolled across the floor.

Pan was confused. Why were these children here? Had they been kidnapped while wandering around Sharton Street? What had happened to the older boys who had gone with them?

How had things come to this?

Despair filled Pan’s eyes. Then he pressed his lips together and made a vow.

I’ll get these little kids out of here somehow.

And he would make sure to apologize and thank them, too. This really might be his last chance.

But the insolent little brat watched indifferently as the door was locked, then spoke just as casually.

“I used a precious potion to save someone who was practically dying, and now why is this guy here too?”

“…”

Pan was momentarily speechless. He wasn’t sure which part he was supposed to be surprised by.

The fact that the medicine used on him had been a precious potion? Or the fact that he had nearly died?

At the very least, it seemed the boy hadn’t anticipated this particular fate of his.

When Pan continued staring blankly, Nihil spoke again.

“What are you looking at?”

“…”

Pan decided that even if he made it out alive, he wouldn’t apologize after all. He would just thank the boy.

As Pan pouted and looked at Nihil, the host stepped in to change the mood.

“Now, now! We’ve got two more adorable baby rabbits! Anyone interested in placing a bet on these two?”

“Why are their hoods still on? Take them off!”

“Ahahaha, my apologies! We must’ve forgotten in the rush to bring them here. You there, take those kids’ hoods off!”

The host gestured toward another boy inside the hunting grounds.

He was the same boy who had been trembling as he tied Pan’s hands with rope.

When the boy was singled out once again, he flinched in surprise and approached the newcomers.

“Don’t!”

Pan stepped in front of the children.

“I’ll put on whatever show you want, so leave these kids alone!”

Pan thought that he didn’t know how the children had been caught and brought here, but he could at least buy some time and give them a chance to escape.

However, the spectators only snickered at his actions, laughing as though a hero had appeared. They seemed amused by how someone who was trapped just like everyone else could talk as if he were anything special.

“Move. You’re in the way.”

“…”

Nihil bluntly shoved Pan aside.

Pan stared incredulously at the two little boys, who were holding hands tightly. Just what had these kids been eating all their lives to be so fearless?

“Want me to untie you?”

“Huh?”

“Your hands.”

Nihil nodded toward the rope binding Pan’s hands, as if asking whether he had really left it there because he couldn’t undo it himself.

“What the hell are you talking about? One of us is going to be fed to the hunting dog!”

Pan shouted, then quickly lowered his voice when he realized his mistake.

“Wait for a chance and run. I’ll help you somehow.”

“We came all the way here after being sold for a mere eighty silver coins, and you want us to run away?”

Nihil muttered, sounding slightly annoyed.

Rianus couldn’t see Nihil’s expression beneath his hood, but he was certain the boy had one eyebrow raised. His tone was still blunt, though he seemed a little offended.

Rianus asked cautiously,

“…Neil, are you upset because we were sold for only eighty silver?”

“At the last auction, the bidding went up to two hundred gold coins.”

“The previous auction… You mean the rabbit den? You actually made it onto the auction block?”

“They scrubbed me clean until I practically squeaked before putting me up there. The nobles were practically setting their eyes on fire as they kept raising the price. I blew the place up while escaping just before the sale was finalized.”

“…Neil, when I’m talking to you, I can hardly stay nervous at all.”

“That damn Doggy. I told him to get at least one gold coin per head, but he lowered our price to a measly eighty silver coins.”

“Doggy… Big Brother probably didn’t mean to do that.”

Pan couldn’t follow their conversation at all. From what he could tell, the two had deliberately gotten themselves sold. Who was the big brother? Jane?

“What are you two whispering about? Get out here!”

The host shouted from outside the cage.

The children were supposed to fight each other to survive, with the weakest rabbit falling behind and becoming the prey. But for some reason, no fight had broken out.

“Get those little brats’ hoods off already!”

When the host barked at them again, one of the boys flinched.

Nihil quickly surveyed the semicircular cage and the spectators crowded tightly against its bars. The underground area wasn’t very large. It looked like an ordinary warehouse that had been converted for this purpose.

Two fierce-looking men guarded the only staircase leading to the surface and the entrance to the cage. Their abilities seemed no better than those of common street thugs.

Among the spectators, aside from Evan, there were about four people capable of using aura. They were probably bodyguards accompanying nobles or nouveau riche who had come to enjoy their entertainment in secret. Those people were likely the gambling den’s main source of funding.

Judging by their caliber, there probably aren’t any high-ranking nobles here.

As the saying went, when the tiger is away, the rabbit becomes king.

Perhaps these people had fallen so far behind in noble society that they had crawled into a hole like this, hoping to satisfy their sense of superiority by surrounding themselves with people even more pathetic than they were.

The gambling den seemed to have tried to imitate the illegal fighting arenas favored by nobles, but its size and facilities couldn’t even begin to compare.

The operation was undoubtedly poorly organized, too. Even if something went wrong and they fled, there probably wouldn’t be any records left behind.

Nihil picked up the cane that Pan had dropped after biting it. Then he swung it around wildly, like a child who had never held a sword before.

The boy approaching Nihil flinched at his awkward movements and stepped back, while the spectators burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Looks like the baby rabbit wants to fight back… Ack!”

At that moment, the cane slipped out of Nihil’s hand and struck the host squarely on the head.

Another burst of laughter erupted. The host couldn’t even get properly angry in front of the laughing spectators, so he forced an awkward smile.

Nihil stared at his now-empty hand for a moment, then walked over to where the cane had fallen. Pretending to be an innocent child, he addressed one of the spectators.

“Mister, could you pick that up for me?”

“…”

Evan, a strapping twenty-year-old who had just been promoted to “mister,” felt an overwhelming urge to grab the mouth of that insolent wildcat and stretch it until it went sproing. But having even one more weapon would be an advantage, so he silently picked up the cane without complaint.

Once Nihil had the cane back, he handed it to Rianus and untied Pan’s hands. The rope had been tied haphazardly by a child, so it came undone with barely any effort.

Watching this, the host twisted his mouth into a sneer.

“The prey has just freed another prey! Looks like they still haven’t grasped the situation at all.”

“Well, isn’t this getting more interesting?”

At the host’s prompting, their game resumed.

Pan stood there, not knowing what to do, until Nihil told him to stop fidgeting around because he was annoying and just sit quietly. In the end, Pan gave up and flopped onto the floor with a whatever happens, happens attitude.

Nihil looked over the children’s condition.

Unlike Pan, who had only been brought here today, one of the boys already had completely dead eyes. The other two were trembling incessantly, as though they had suffered severe abuse.

Their bodies were covered in wounds that hadn’t yet healed, and their clothes were smeared with blood.

Nihil approached the boy who seemed to have been there the longest and looked up at him.

He was probably around thirteen.

“When did you get here?”

“…I don’t remember.”

“Are there any other kids besides the ones here?”

“…Th-they’re all dead.”

“Then are these the only ones still alive?”

The boy nodded to confirm.

“When one of you is chosen as prey, where do the others go?”

The boy didn’t answer. Instead, he looked toward a portable iron cage pushed into one corner of the enclosure.

Its outer surface was entirely brown, making it look rusty at first glance. But upon closer inspection, the color came from dried blood.

“Are they locked in there to watch the hunt?”

“I… don’t want to die.”

“Okay.”

The boy stared down at Nihil, who seemed completely unmoved. Then he glanced around and appeared to think for a moment before suddenly lunging at him.

“Neil!”

Rianus shouted in alarm and rushed forward, but the other children blocked his way, preventing him from reaching Nihil.

“Move!”

“S-sorry. We don’t have a choice either.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The children began to cry.