How the Prince Makes Friends - Chapter 176



Only Noblemtl

Episode 176

The wizard barely managed to wiggle his jaw, which was caught in a terrible evil force, and made a sound.

“Ha…, I’m going to do it….”

The boy looked at his own saliva on his hand indifferently, then wiped it on his robe and replied.

“I won’t kill you. There’s no good in creating a cause and effect related to life and death.”

“I’m going to do it. Uh, I’m going to do it… ”

“What can you do by drawing the recipe on the floor one by one?”

The boy muttered something like the wizard was really useless and put his chin in. There was a crunch, but it was more frustrating to see his skills underestimated than to feel pain in his jaw.

Magic circles are extremely complicated. It may be fine if it’s a very easy or frequently used magic, but it’s extremely difficult to draw a complex magic circle with mana.

That’s why most magicians first draw a spell by hand and then apply mana by overlaying it.

There’s a reason why wizards carry around scrolls with magic circles drawn on them!

But the little boy who was looking at my face muttered as if he was really surprised.

“Are all wizards really at the level of you?”

The wizard barely managed to keep his face from crumpling again at the heartfelt response.

He was one of the top wizards. He had never been ignored like this even in the empire…

‘Could it be a dragon…?’

But isn’t that a problem in its own right?

The boy opened his mouth after struggling for a while, as if trying to find some use for himself.

“Do you know anything about a child named ‘Dia’?”

“I… I can’t tell anything from just the name.”

The wizard decided to do as much as the child wanted for now, since getting out of here safely was the priority.

“Hmm… I guess so.”

The boy thought again, saying that it was definitely true. And only after a long time did he finally open his mouth.

“Hair and eyes are light brown. Um…, hair is about this long, and the last thing she wore was….”

The wizard was so taken aback by the explanation that followed that he forgot that his jaw had dropped once and just opened his mouth wide.

What kind of explanation is this, when it’s not even about finding missing children? And brown hair and brown eyes, which are the most common colors.

“Age…, not quite 600.”

“……?”

The wizard opened his mouth to say something, but stopped dead in his tracks.

600 days…? No, no. There’s no way you’d find a 2-year-old child in yourself. How old is 600 months? 50 years old?

“It’s been about 500 years since it was lost, and at the time it was the 8th Circle….”

“…….”

“The 8th Circle wasn’t common, but as you know, 500 years ago, because of the Heavenly Demon War, 8th Circle magicians appeared like mushrooms after a rain……”

What do you know? I have no idea what happened 500 years ago. Their war, in which the power of a single entity was like a disaster, completely took away human civilization and records.

“I don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”

“…….”

“Ah, first of all, he was human.”

The wizard thought about it. After all, that kid is not human. If he were human, he wouldn’t have assumed that humans from 500 years ago could still be alive.

“…I haven’t heard anything.”

“I see.”

Did he die then? The little boy muttered a bit bitterly as he ended the conversation. Then he slowly reached out his hand towards my forehead.

“Okay, okay, okay, just a moment…!”

The wizard twisted his whole body to avoid the touch, feeling a sudden surge of anxiety.

“Hey, Prince 1, aren’t you curious about his weakness?”

“weakness?”

Fortunately, the boy showed interest in the Prince’s weakness. The wizard thought this was his chance and quickly continued speaking.

“If you promise to spare my life, I will tell you the First Prince’s weakness.”

“I told you clearly that I wouldn’t kill you.”

“Then, if you promise not to cause any further harm……”

“You who tried to pluck out my eyes?”

“…….”

“You didn’t even think about touching our child, did you?”

“…That’s not yet….”

A cold sweat ran down my back. The little boy was calm and quiet from the beginning to the end, but that was a separate issue from his soft temperament. Didn’t he break my fingers and ankles first with his expressionless face?

As I hesitated, not knowing what to say, the hand reached out again.

“Ma, magic tool!”

“hmm?”

“Hey, there’s a magical tool that the First Prince always wears!”

“You mean those earrings?”

“……!”

Surely, you already knew… … !

“You wouldn’t call that a weakness, would you?”

“…….”

“How stupid.”

After a small laugh, the wizard’s eyes turned white with the sound of something breaking.

***

Nihil, who had absorbed all of the wizard’s mana, slowly got up from his seat.

He collapsed with his eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth, possibly from the shock of his mana heart breaking.

I didn’t really want to absorb mana from outside the natural world because of the need to suppress fairy tales, but I thought it would be good to regain my strength as quickly as possible.

Nihil went around the wizard’s laboratory again, taking any magical tools that looked useful and putting magic stones in his mouth as soon as he saw them.

Crack, crack… … .

I thought that if I kept chewing on hard things, my teeth might become loose, but my jaw started to get sore, so after the third piece, I decided to just swallow it whole.

‘It’s not enough… … .’

However, it was far from enough to recover his body. He had been continuously absorbing natural mana, but absorbing a few magic stones didn’t make much of a difference.

If you were collecting water one drop at a time in a huge tank, now it’s only two drops.

However, since it was a stronghold for magicians, there was a considerable amount of mana gathered there, so Nihil began to absorb the mana in earnest.

Yes. I was just trying to gather mana, I didn’t plan on destroying the magic tower from the beginning.

Kookung, kugugugugu!

“…….”

Nihil, who had been concentrating on absorbing mana through meditation, was distressed by the loud noise reverberating above his head and the small rocks falling.

‘Did I absorb too much…?’

The Magic Tower, despite its name, only had two floors above ground, and the remaining 15 floors were underground. However, it began to collapse from the top down, perhaps because it had drained too much mana.

Would it be better to fall from above or to be buried underground? If we assume that neither one will get hurt, it would probably be easier to escape from above ground.

But in reality, there was no choice. The place where he was was already on the 14th floor underground.

The wizard who set up his laboratory on the 14th basement floor may have surprisingly had a fairly high status within the magic tower, contrary to what he thought.

‘By the way, I feel like I’ve heard about this situation somewhere before.’

Nihil shook off the strange feeling of awkwardness and crawled to the desk first, crouching down. He had to protect himself until everything collapsed. If he got hurt for no reason, our seaweed would cry again.

As I crouched down, I noticed that the sleeves seemed to have gotten slightly shorter.

‘Have you grown a little…?’

It certainly seems that the amount of mana sucked out by the magic tower was not so small that it could not maintain its form.

If you continue to absorb mana like this, it will appear to grow naturally.

‘I want to grow up quickly too.’

Suddenly, I remembered the voice of the little boy who was sullenly looking in front of the mirror.

“Should I grow taller later?”

It would be okay to grow together.

***

Evan caught his breath on the top of a shopping mall.

“My research materials are in that basement!”

Below was a mess of rubble from the collapsed tower, but aside from the wizards trying to enter the collapsed tower, it wasn’t as messy as I thought.

“It really has sunk in.”

“…Ah, yeah.”

Lianus answered a little late, as he was busy looking for his friend.

“Surely it’s not something that’s lying down there?”

“No way. He must have destroyed it after he came out.”

“But why didn’t you send a message last night?”

“Well… ”

Well, it’s the time when the prince sleeps, isn’t it? … .

Evan swallowed the words that were about to rise to his throat and looked around.

“Sir Evan, let’s go over there!”

Evan walked straight down the alley that Lianus pointed to and looked around cautiously.

If it’s a lynx, it’ll probably be hiding somewhere and will notice the prince and come looking for him.

We need to be prepared because he will appear again without warning… … .

“Puppy.”

“……!”

Whoosh-!

Evan, who was looking around with a sharp sense of anticipation, reflexively jumped back when he heard a voice coming from the steps.

The lynx was crouching inside a box, its hand outstretched as if it was trying to grab the hem of my clothes.

Evan felt sorry for nothing, as he looked like an abandoned cat, and made excuses.

“I told you not to show up without making a sound…….”

“I was here the whole time. Didn’t you find me and come down?”

I thought so because he was coming straight towards me. Nihil, who had been sleeping in an abandoned wooden box, stretched out as he said so.

“Neil, are you hurt?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

Lianus began to circle around Nihil, examining every nook and cranny, as if he was not satisfied with the words, “It’s okay.”

“But Neil, your hair… is really long?”

“Oh, um, that’s what happened.”

Nihil twisted his fingers through the hair that was fluttering on his shoulders, then alternately pressed the crown of his head and the crown of his head of Lianus. Fortunately, their heights seemed to be just right.

“Are you going to comb my hair?”

“Okay! I’ll comb it for you!”

“Yeah. But……”

Nihil stopped talking and glanced up at Evan. For some reason, the dog’s mana was at rock bottom.

“Did you come riding a dog?”

“Uh, um…, Sir Evan brought it to me.”

Lianus could not bear to affirm Nihil’s sharp expression, so he corrected him instead.

“How are you going to get back when you leave?”

“Huh? Why?”

“The puppy’s mana is running low.”

“……!”

At those words, not only Rianus’s eyes but also Evan’s eyes widened. It seemed like he really said it without thinking about the consequences.

“Money?”

“Oh, there isn’t any.”

Lianus rolled his eyes and looked at the button on his sleeve.

“…Will this sell?”

Nihil looked at the boy watching him and smiled faintly before taking out a platinum medal from his bosom.

“Let’s go to the top of Ali.”

***

Lianus looked around the reception room. Nihil had shown the upper staff the platinum badge, and they had naturally been guided here.

“Neil, where did you get that?”

“The owner gave it to me.”

“Baron Ali?”

“huh.”

I didn’t know it would be used like this, my friend said, taking a leisurely sip of tea.

Not long afterwards, Baron Allier appeared, looking a little disheveled. He dismissed all the waiting staff and greeted Lianus briefly.

“Second Prince, how have you been?”

“It’s been a while, Baron. I appreciate you coming here despite your busy schedule.”

“No. I just happened to be nearby on some business. And in the first place……”

Maurice glanced at Nihil, still not speaking. He always wondered what to call that little boy.

Although he was a commoner boy smaller than his son, he was also the prince’s close friend, his son’s benefactor, and his business partner.

“That…, Neil…, would be difficult if exposed externally.”

“Oh, right. Feel free to talk to Neil! I’ll just stay here and be quiet.”

“…yes.”

Maurice made a strange face, feeling as if the tables had been turned, and then sat down on the sofa.

Nihil sat Lianus down next to him and immediately took a pouch out of his bosom.

“Actually, my business is nothing special…….”

As he spoke, Nihil pushed the snack aside, opened his pocket, and turned it inside out. Things began to pour out of his pocket.

“……?!”

Wow-

It kept coming out.

“What, what is this…?”

The table was quickly filled with things. Nihil opened his mouth as he grabbed the rolling marble.

“They’re magic tools. I wish you’d sell them to me if you knew how.”

As he said this, he gestured to the magic tools, but Maurice couldn’t take his eyes off the pocket in Nihil’s hand.

“…that…….”

“This is not for sale.”

“But that’s the most……”

“no.”

Nihil flatly refused and put the pouch back in his bosom. The subspace pouch could easily become dangerous to the user if used incorrectly.

“…That’s too bad.”

Morris couldn’t hide his disappointment at the firm rejection, but his eyes soon came back to life as he saw that the other magic tools were also of the same quality.

“Did you make these?”

“No. I took it from the magic tower. I don’t make such cheap stuff.”

“…It looks like a pretty good product.”

“Out of level.”

“…….”

Yes, if that’s what you’re saying, then so be it. Maurice nodded his head vaguely, trying to please his great partner.

“Let’s skip the contract. I believe you’ll pay a good price.”

“Can I just settle the account in front of the prince like before?”

“okay.”

At those words, Rianus opened his eyes wide and looked at Nihil.

“What? Why?”

“Rian, your money is my money and my money is your money.”

“Oh… I see! Okay, you can use my allowance however you want!”

“Okay, thanks.”

Nihil smiled lazily and patted Lianus on the head. Maurice, who had been watching him with a trembling look, opened his mouth while gathering up his magic tools.

“These things are expensive, but they charge a lot of commission.”

“That’s what happens behind the scenes. Please prepare to return to the palace.”

“Is this an official outing?”

Maurice quickly scanned Nihil and Rianus’ attire.

The clothes on the partner’s side were a bit… dirty, but unlike before, they were properly dressed and luxurious going out clothes.

If it’s an official outing, you’ll need to prepare a suitable carriage.

“It was an unofficial kidnapping, so please keep it unnoticed.”

“…….”