How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 88

The wriggly little puppy had fallen asleep in Evan’s arms, but the children continued chattering for quite some time. Their eyes sparkled as brightly as the glowing mushrooms.

Rianus watched the children talking, then suddenly seemed to remember something. He scooted right up beside Nihil and whispered to him.

“But Neil, are you still close with those friends of yours… Ann, Matthew, and Laura?”

“Who are they?”

“…Huh?”

“……Ah.”

Only then did Nihil recall the names he had blurted out at the inn that sold rabbits. The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward. What this innocent little kid wanted to know was whether Nihil was closer to those children than he was to Rianus.

Dia had been the same way. Whenever Nihil showed interest in something else, Dia would do anything to get his attention back. That changed a little after Dia grew up, though…

Father, Requies, please stop bringing home strays to raise. Take care of yourself first.

“…U-um.”

“What’s wrong?”

At Rianus’s question, Nihil gently shook his head and stroked the boy’s hair, saying it was nothing.

“Those were just names I made up on the spot.”

“Oh, really?”

“Of course. You’re the only one.”

Hearing that Nihil had no friends other than him, Rianus broke into a broad smile before he could stop himself. But then he suddenly felt as though he were being a bad person, so he quickly shut his mouth.

He doesn’t have any friends, yet I’m happy about it… I’m such a selfish child…

As Rianus berated himself and nervously glanced at Nihil, one of the twins spoke up with a mischievous grin.

“Dan said he’s going to marry Neil.”

“…Huh?”

Rianus froze in shock at the unexpected statement. Marriage? This was the first he had heard of it.

Ella giggled at the sight of Rianus’s bewilderment.

In fact, Dan had already declared that he would marry Mary, Lily, and even Big Brother Yvonne, making this his fourth proposal. But the twins deliberately pretended not to know that and continued teasing Rianus.

“That’s right. Dan said he’s going to marry Neil. Didn’t he say Neil was his because he’d marked him with his saliva?”

“W-what?”

“If Dan marries your older brother, you’ll become family with Dan, too!”

“No, no!”

Rianus frantically shook his head.

Just because Dan married his precious friend didn’t mean Rianus would become family with him. They weren’t related by even a single drop of blood! More importantly, they were still so young and small. What did marriage have to do with anything?

“Our poor Dan. Whatever shall he do? His future in-laws are against the marriage.”

“No! When I grow up, I’m going to marry Fairy Big Brother!”

Dan boldly declared his intentions, and Rianus desperately protested. Yvonne finally couldn’t hold back any longer and burst out laughing at the little ones’ battle over Neil.

“Hahaha! Nerr, you don’t need to worry too much. Dan has already proposed four times. I’ve even received a proposal myself. He probably doesn’t really understand what marriage means yet. If someone else treats him kindly, he’ll probably propose to them, too.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yep. Anyway, Neil must be really pretty. Jane, aren’t you curious, too?”

“I-it’s b-better if you don’t see him.”

“Huh? You’ve seen him, too?”

“Y-yeah.”

Jane couldn’t forget that brief but intense moment at the inn that sold rabbits.

Those snow-white eyelashes and mysterious eyes resembling the night sky had stirred an inexplicable possessiveness in him. If those bad adults had seen Neil, they would surely have kidnapped him.

Perhaps their big brother thought so, too. He blocked the fearless twins from sneaking toward Nihil with a hand as large as a cauldron lid and growled in a low voice.

“Don’t even think about taking off his hood.”

“That’s so unfair! Why make us curious if you’re not going to let us see?”

“Exactly! Brother Jane said he saw him, too!”

The twins fearlessly charged at Evan, but he flicked both of them on the forehead and chased them away.

“Ow!”

“That really hurts!”

The twins clutched their foreheads and rolled around on the floor, making a huge fuss. The centers of both their foreheads quickly turned bright red.

Watching them, Nihil clicked his tongue lightly and scolded Evan.

“Are you trying to put holes in their heads?”

“I barely tapped them. You should be more careful.”

“I’m being careful enough.”

“You’re especially soft on children.”

“…They’re still young.”

“Who’s calling them young here…? Haah, forget it. I shouldn’t even bother.”

Evan eventually fell silent, as though he had nothing to gain from arguing. Even though he must have known the twins had thrown away their medicinal tea, Nihil continued treating them kindly.

Was Evan being too sensitive, or was that wildcat simply too generous? Either way, Evan didn’t like the twins.

Meanwhile, the children watched in fascination as Nihil’s way of speaking changed completely whenever he talked to Evan.

It might have seemed funny for a child to speak so stiffly, but Nihil was so mature that it didn’t feel particularly strange.

The children began whispering among themselves, entertaining the reasonable suspicion that Neil might actually be around their big brother’s age.

“How old is he, anyway, that he keeps calling us young?”

“Maybe he’s actually an adult who was turned into a child by a curse…”

“Did you read that in a fairy tale?”

“Maybe he has a disease that keeps him from growing.”

“Fairy Big Brother is a fairy, so he might be really old. Like a hundred years old? But how many is a hundred?”

“Dan, are you still going on about fairies?”

Rianus could hear their whispers perfectly well, and he giggled. Then came the sound of something tapping against the building.

Tap, tap.

The sound grew steadily louder.

“It really has started raining.”

Just as Nihil had predicted, rain had begun to fall. Rianus murmured in wonder. A moment later, the warehouse door flew open so violently that it nearly seemed ready to break off its hinges.

“Uwaaah! If I’d been even a little later, I would’ve ended up looking like a drowned cat!”

Bella made a dramatic entrance, quickly shutting the warehouse door behind her before shaking the water from her head.

Evan narrowed his eyes when droplets splashed onto his face, but Bella simply giggled and dropped down onto the floor.

“Ladies and gentlemen~! It’s bedtime now~! If you go to sleep too late, you won’t grow tall~!”

As she spoke, Bella clapped her hands briskly.

The children glanced at one another. When Yvonne and Jane got up first to arrange their sleeping spaces, the others slowly began moving, too.

Normally, because of the rain, they would all have crowded into one corner of the warehouse to sleep. But perhaps because they had covered the collapsed section of the wall with a tent, there was relatively plenty of room.

Yvonne briefly wondered where they could possibly put Evan, who looked twice the size of an ordinary adult. But Evan told them not to worry about him, swallowed a recovery potion, and settled down beside Rianus’s leaf bed.

The children lay down in rows inside the warehouse. The girls and Dan took the middle, while Yvonne and Jane, the oldest children, lay down at opposite ends.

Nihil took out two canteens, filled them with water, and dropped a heated stone into each one. Then he handed them to Dan and Rianus.

“Hug these while you sleep.”

“Wow! They’re so warm! Thank you, Fairy Big Brother!”

“Oh, right. We left the stones in the campfire…”

Only then did Yvonne remember the stones they had placed in the fire. By now, they would have been soaked by the rain and gone cold.

“Give us some, too!”

“Why does only Dan get one?”

The twins sat bolt upright in their sleeping places. Unlike the other children, they were shivering. Nihil pretended not to know that their medicinal tea was gone and replied casually.

“Drink the tea you left earlier.”

“That tastes awful!”

“Yeah! It tastes awful!”

“Then keep shivering.”

The twins insisted that they absolutely would not drink it, then flopped back down.

Whoooooosh—

As the night grew deeper, the wind and rain became increasingly fierce. Even the cozy tent shook noisily in the wind, creating a bleak, ominous atmosphere.

The mushroom lamps that had been glowing faintly seemed to have reached the end of their lives, and complete darkness settled over the warehouse.

“The wind is strong.”

Evan murmured quietly. At this rate, the entire warehouse might be blown away. They had tried to block the large holes, but it was impossible to keep all the wind out. A chill swept through the building.

The children couldn’t sleep either, tossing and turning. The twins, who hadn’t drunk their tea, seemed especially cold. They huddled tightly together, wrapped themselves in their blankets, and shivered.

Evan thought they deserved it, but he couldn’t ignore them completely. In the end, he spread his own cloak over the twins.

Meanwhile, Bella, having transformed into a cat, tried to sneak onto the leaf bed. Evan caught her by the scruff and dragged her back down. Then, as though telling her to hold the puppy instead of the adorable little kitten she was pretending to be, he handed her the puppy.

After taking the puppy, Bella puffed herself up as if to say, “It may be Mr. Doggy’s baby, but I’ll make a special exception and help out.” Then she curled up and tucked the puppy safely against her body.

How many minutes passed?

The wind gradually died down, and the children began falling asleep one by one. But Nihil couldn’t help noticing that Rianus was still wide awake, his eyes sparkling in the darkness.

Nihil whispered softly.

“Nerr, can’t you sleep?”

“Mmm…”

“You must be tired.”

“I am. But I can’t fall asleep.”

Rianus was exhausted, yet he didn’t feel sleepy. If anything, his mind seemed sharper than usual. Perhaps it was because he was sleeping somewhere unfamiliar.

He turned to his precious friend, who was sitting by his head and continuing to pat him gently.

“Neil, aren’t you going to lie down?”

“I will.”

“Come up here and sleep with me.”

“It’s cramped.”

“We can lie on our sides and snuggle close. I’m sure I can’t sleep because you’re not beside me.”

“You’ll be uncomfortable.”

“Pleeease~”

At Rianus’s adorable pleading, Nihil finally let out a low laugh. He climbed onto the leaf bed, offered Rianus his arm as a pillow, and carefully tucked the blanket around him.

“Now go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

Satisfied, Rianus beamed. He was truly grateful to have a friend who indulged his little whims.

He wished Nihil were his older brother. Then he would gladly give up all his power and do everything he could to help Nihil become crown prince.

Nihil would surely make a good king. Or perhaps he would run away because he didn’t want to deal with all the work. His friend was capable, but he had no desire for power or fame.

Then what if they had been born brothers in an ordinary commoner family?

Nihil was clever and mature, so he would surely have made an amazing older brother. He would have looked after his little brother while their father was busy earning money.

He would nag Rianus occasionally to make sure he didn’t become a picky eater and see that he finished his meals. If Rianus fussed at bedtime, Nihil would read him fairy tales or sing him lullabies until he fell asleep.

He would take good care of Rianus whenever he was sick, play with him when he was bored, and perhaps even teach him how to read and write. Sometimes they would bicker and play pranks on each other, only to get scolded by their father…

…Hmm? That didn’t seem all that different from how things were now.

“Nerr, stop thinking and go to sleep.”

Watching Rianus blink and tilt his head in confusion while nestled in his arms, Nihil chuckled softly.

“Big brother, sing me a lullaby.”

“A lullaby?”

It was a rather impulsive request. Rianus wondered whether Nihil would take care of him like the older brother in his imagination. He also remembered his friend saying that he would sing a lullaby if he ever met the child he had raised again.

Would Nihil sing one for him? Or would he laugh and say that Rianus was too old for lullabies before soothing him to sleep some other way?

Even as he wondered, Rianus already knew the answer with absolute certainty.

Nihil would sing him a lullaby.

“Hmm. Is it okay if it sounds a little strange?”

“Yeah.”

Rianus was so happy that Nihil had readily agreed to his request that he giggled and said anything would be fine.

“Come on, sing it.”

“If I sing you a lullaby, you have to go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

Soon, Nihil’s quiet, clear voice began to echo softly through the darkness.

“[Sleep well, my baby. My lovely little one. Do not fear the darkness beneath your eyelids. When you open your eyes, I will always be before you, so do not fear the fleeting moment…]”

When the lullaby began, Rianus’s eyes widened at the unfamiliar lyrics. But Nihil seemed to have expected that. He gently placed his palm over Rianus’s eyes, closing them for him, and continued singing.

“[…Do not cry, my baby. My precious little one. They are nothing but illusions. I will be beside you even in your dreams, so do not fear the nightmares. They are only, only dreams…]”