How the Prince Makes Friends Chapter 98

In the royal palace’s study, the prime minister was tearing his hair out.

“We’re right on the verge of redevelopment, and now this happens?!”

“…Calm down, Abel.”

Sedes, whose eyes were dark with exhaustion after working through the night to deal with the sudden incident, tried to calm his friend, who was buried beneath piles of documents and looked just as haggard as he did.

In fact, just last night, Sedes had been the one who needed calming down, not Abel.

“How am I supposed to calm down?! It’s drugs and human trafficking! This isn’t some petty pickpocketing case!”

Watching his friend say exactly what he himself had said the previous day, Sedes shook his head and threw Abel’s own words back at him.

“Still, isn’t it fortunate that we discovered it before the redevelopment began?”

“I have to revise the relief project’s budget from scratch!”

“……Good luck with that.”

Knowing that the prime minister had just as much work as he did, if not more, Sedes offered his heartfelt condolences.

“I’ll give you some leave once this is over.”

“…A month?”

“……”

“…Two weeks?”

“……Four days.”

“Damn it!”

Not even a week, but four days!

Abel cursed despite knowing full well that the person in front of him was the king of an entire nation. He had already been working without a single day off because of one incident after another lately, from slave ships to rabbit dens, and now he was getting only four days of leave?

Abel was about to throw the stack of documents in his hands, but then realized that he would only be the one to suffer the consequences. He quietly sat back down and picked up his fountain pen again.

“By the way, did you put the Sirentia away?”

“AAAAAAAH! I FORGOT!”

Abel suddenly remembered the Sirentia he had placed by the window of his bedroom in the palace the previous night to let it bask in the moonlight, and screamed.

“Sedi, I’ll be back in a bit!”

“…Go ahead.”

Sedes watched his friend rush out of the study with a clatter. For a moment, he blankly thought that he wanted to leave, too, but soon shook his head and turned his attention back to the documents.

I want to go home.

Even though this place was already his home.

With that thought, Sedes let out a deep sigh.

“…So, if we supply food as ingredients instead of cooked meals, we could reduce labor costs and provide a greater quantity of food, couldn’t we? I think dried foods that are easy to store would be best!”

“That would be good, but it would also require a lot more drinking water. Once the waterworks construction begins, it’ll be difficult to use the wells, too, so we need to keep that in mind.”

“I see! Neil really is smart! We need to think about the drinking water problem, too!”

Rianus repeatedly praised his friend for pointing out all the things he had overlooked or hadn’t thought of himself.

As he chattered away about his assignment with the smartest friend in the world, they arrived at the palace in no time. Having completed her mission, Bella went home, promising to come visit again.

When they opened the terrace doors, the butler, who had been tidying Rianus’s bedroom, widened his eyes at the sight of everyone returning before greeting them with a gentle smile.

“Welcome back.”

“Yeah! I’m back, Butler.”

“I’ll prepare your bathwater.”

“Okay!”

Rianus had been longing for a proper wash, so he quickly pulled off his wig and tossed it aside. His dark green hair, which had been trapped beneath it all this time, finally emerged. He was delighted to feel the fresh air reaching his scalp.

Nihil, who had never needed warm bathwater in the first place, was about to head straight to his own room to wash up when a maid hurried over in a fluster and stopped him.

“Young master, young master! It seems the mana in the magic stone in your room has run out! It’ll take a little time to heat the water, so could you please wait a bit?”

“……”

The culprit who had secretly used up all the mana in the magic stone remained silent.

Just then, the little kitten came up with a brilliant idea and bounced excitedly.

“Then you can bathe with me!”

Nihil nodded as though it were an excellent idea. However, the wildcat following close behind the little kitten was caught by the scruff of his neck right in front of the bathroom door.

Dangling from the back of his neck, Nihil frowned.

“What’s the big deal about children bathing together?”

“…Because I don’t think you’re a child.”

“If you’re worried, then you can bathe with us, too.”

“How could I possibly bathe with my master—”

“Great! Sir Evan can bathe with us, too! I’ll scrub your back!”

“…Meow.”

And so, Evan entered the bathroom with both hands held by two terrifyingly forceful little children. He swore that he had absolutely not followed them obediently just because the little kitten had offered to scrub his back.

Once inside, Evan realized that he had never shown the prince his naked body before. He suddenly became awkward and fidgeted uncomfortably. When he lowered his head slightly, the scars covering his body came into view.

As Evan worried about what he would do if the prince found them frightening, his eyes met those of the white-haired wildcat.

“What are you looking at?”

“…You really are an unlovable wildcat.”

“The unlovable thing here is your crotch. Cover that dangling thing up. It’s right at my eye level, and it’s extremely unpleasant. Or just cut it off. How do you even walk around carrying something that heavy?”

Nihil clicked his tongue as though he genuinely found the sight disgusting. Evan stared blankly for a moment before understanding what he meant. Horrified, he hurriedly wrapped a towel around himself.

“YOU CRAZY LITTLE BRAT! PLEASE WATCH WHAT YOU SAY IN FRONT OF HIS HIGHNESS!”

“Can’t I even make a joke?”

“WHO MAKES THAT KIND OF JOKE?!”

“Have you never bathed with a friend before? What a waste of a life.”

“……”

Since Evan had never actually had any friends, he could only fall silent. His fellow knights were considerably older than him, and even most of the juniors who had joined after him were older than he was.

Is this kind of joking normal between close friends?

While Evan was lost in confusion, Rianus spoke with an awkward expression.

“Uh, I don’t have any friends other than Neil, either.”

“It’s okay, Rian. You’ve only wasted seven years of your life. Doggy has wasted twenty.”

“I see!”

“……”

Evan was once again left speechless by Nihil’s miraculous method of calculation. Having suddenly wasted twenty years of his life, Evan scowled indignantly. Then he spotted a water dipper.

“……”

Evan quietly picked it up and filled it to the brim, scooping up as much water as it could possibly hold. Then he poured the whole thing straight over the wildcat’s head.

Splash!

Evan curled his lips into a smug grin.

“How do you like that shower, you rotten wildcat?”

“……”

Drip, drip.

Water trickled from Nihil’s pure white hair.

He stared blankly at the droplets falling from his hair for a moment before carefully picking up the dipper.

And so, the war began.

“…That was the hardest bath I’ve ever taken in my life.”

Evan collapsed onto the rug, genuinely exhausted. The wildcat’s stamina was far greater than he had expected, and their water fight had been even more exhausting than guarding the prince in Sharton.

Rianus, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed, saw Evan and plopped down onto his lap with a fluffy towel in hand. Smiling sweetly, he offered the towel as though asking Evan to dry his hair.

Evan’s eyes widened at the sight of the little kitten, who had grown comfortable enough to act spoiled around him. Then, looking deeply moved, he immediately began drying the prince’s hair.

Buried in the soft, fluffy towel, Rianus giggled as Evan’s hands moved his head from side to side.

“That was fun!”

“If Your Highness enjoyed himself, then that’s all that matters.”

“Let’s play again next time!”

“…Haha…”

Evan had to admit that he’d enjoyed himself quite a bit. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to agree so readily, and instead gave an awkward laugh.

Watching him, Nihil briskly rubbed his own hair with a towel and replied indifferently.

“Play while you can. Once a kid grows up, you can’t play like that anymore.”

“…You really are going to keep talking like an old man, aren’t you?”

“Hmph.”

Rianus didn’t even realize he was being treated like a little kid. He simply giggled at the sight of the two seeming to have grown quite close.

Then he took out paper and a pen and briefly wrote down the revisions he needed to make to his plan.

A little later, Nihil, who had been wiping the puppy with a warm, damp towel beside him, announced that he was going to his bedroom for a moment and left.

“Come to think of it, if we had a large heating stone, we could warm the bathwater in no time. Right, Sir Evan?”

“Yes. It would also be useful when hunting monsters.”

Thinking that heating stones would be an extremely versatile material, Rianus asked the butler to procure several more in different sizes.

After writing for a while, he noticed the puppy wriggling on a fluffy cushion.

Rianus hesitated a little before carefully picking it up. The puppy looked so fragile that it seemed as though it might crumble if he squeezed it too tightly.

Was bringing the puppy here really the right choice?

It was a fragile little life that couldn’t do anything for itself. The child he had raised before had been much bigger than this one, and yet it had broken so easily.

Rianus pressed the puppy against his cheek.

It’s warm.

The puppy was soft and warm. He could even hear its little heart beating steadily. Perhaps it was uncomfortable with him constantly touching it, because it squirmed and let out tiny squeaks.

When Rianus placed it back on the cushion and offered it a finger, the puppy mistook it for milk and began sucking on it.

The sensation tickled terribly.

“Oh! We need to feed the baby!”

Remembering that the puppy needed food, too, Rianus shook the service bell. Food was very important, after all!

However, the servants were either too busy or hadn’t heard him, because no one came. In the end, Evan, who had nothing else to do, went down to the kitchen himself and brought back some milk and a dish.

“Rian… what are you doing?”

A little later, Nihil returned after preparing medicine for Rianus and asked in bewilderment.

The puppy was lying beneath an overturned dish, absorbing milk with its entire body.

“…What on earth is this?”

“Neil!”

“Wildcat!”

The two people standing beside the puppy, anxiously waving their arms around without knowing what to do, greeted Nihil with genuine relief.

Nihil found the situation utterly ridiculous, but first rescued the puppy from the pool of milk. He had wiped it clean with a fresh, damp towel, never imagining that it would end up taking a milk bath in the brief time he was gone.

The puppy seemed just as bewildered. Even after Nihil rescued it, it continued flailing about and squeaking incessantly.

“…We were just trying to feed it.”

“Right! We were just trying to feed it.”

Evan and Rianus offered their excuses hesitantly. Nihil chuckled at their explanation, then fashioned a makeshift baby bottle out of an empty bottle with a narrow opening and fed the puppy its milk.

Rianus watched him closely before speaking.

“What should we name the baby?”

“Evan the Second.”

“YOU LITTLE—!”

Evan opened and closed his mouth, clutching at his hair before finally lowering his head. He looked rather depressed, as though he had reached the fourth stage of anger. Tease him a few more times, and he might soon reach acceptance.

Though that would be a problem, too.

Just as Nihil was wondering whether he should stop teasing Evan, the little kitten cheerfully shouted,

“Let’s name him Robert Louis de Armond II!”

“……”

“……”

And so, the puppy’s name became Robert Louis de Armond II.