How the Prince Makes Friends - Chapter 2
Only Noblemtl
Episode 2
A small child who looked about the same age. The tips of his toes were red and frozen because he wasn’t wearing shoes on this cold day.
The clothes, which were quite large and had been picked up from somewhere, were torn and tattered here and there, and there were stains of dirt, either blood or dirt, all over their heads and clothes.
“Your Majesty, what will happen if you run away like that?”
The knight who followed the child wrapped a thick cloak around him and handed him an umbrella.
“I’ll take care of the rest, so please go into the carriage first. It’s too cold outside.”
The child glanced at my article and looked around to find the parents of the child who had been hit by the carriage. However, no matter how much he asked, the parents did not show up, and only after he screamed did an old man open his mouth, trembling.
“Your Majesty, please forgive me. The child has only recently appeared in this village. He is a wandering orphan with no parents, and there is no family to punish him. Please, please stop your anger.”
Forgive me.
Who forgives whom and who punishes whom when he is the one who killed the child?
The prince looked around once more with a face that looked like he was about to cry.
Perhaps because they had been lying face down on the cold, damp ground the villagers’ clothes were already wet, and the sleet was falling even harder, freezing people’s hands and feet.
The prince thought that he should first send the villagers back.
“Everyone get up and go back! If there is anyone related to this child, let him alone remain.”
“Ha, but.”
“You foolish and ignorant guys! Get in now! I’ll catch all the guys who keep lurking in front of me and beat them up!”
The faces of the people began to turn pale at the prince’s words. It was because they thought of the child from the next village who had been beaten to death. There was a brief commotion, and then one or two people left the place, and everyone moved busily and soon disappeared.
The street quickly became empty.
The prince let out a ragged laugh.
He is the second prince with no power, but the people around him are trembling in fear without knowing anything. It’s so funny, so funny, and so funny, but also so pitiful.
Water droplets fell from the dark green hair that was floating in front of my eyes.
The color of a dirty swamp. The Swamp Prince, as they say. What nickname would suit you better?
My mood became even more depressed, as if thick filth was falling from my head.
“Your Majesty, please go in now.”
I raised my head at the knight’s voice that broke my thoughts and glanced at the child lying in a pool of blood.
It was a truly miserable sight.
He was clearly a bad kid, having made others like that and then feeling depressed over the color of his hair.
That’s why he doesn’t have any friends. That’s why everyone cried and left.
A sleet fell on the child’s ashen head, stained with blood. The prince unconsciously crouched down beside him and held his umbrella over him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Please forgive me. I hope you’ll be born in a better place next time. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
I gave a soft final farewell to the unknown child.
Please, next time I can live in a place where I won’t be cold or hungry.
The prince, who had been praying quietly, spoke softly to the knight who was guarding him without taking his eyes off the child’s corpse.
“Sir Evan.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Will you be sad when I die?”
“I will die before the prince dies. I am the prince’s knight.”
“I will be the one to mourn when Sir Evan dies. Then who will mourn when I die?”
“… Don’t say that.”
The knight’s face was distorted. It seemed as if his prince, wounded and torn here and there, would crumble to pieces at any moment.
The prince thought.
He said that since he was a prince, many people would come to his funeral.
I think His Majesty would be a little sad, but I don’t think I would die before His Majesty.
I shook my head, feeling depressed again for no reason.
“This child has no one to mourn for him, so I will mourn for him. When I return to the palace, I need to make just one friend. A friend who will mourn my death. I don’t need many, just one.”
The knight, who was watching his master muttering to himself, felt complicated. He could not count on one hand the number of children of noble families who had come to the play and left in tears.
By His Majesty’s order, he had no choice but to send his children to the Nolli Sidong, but the nobles, under pressure from the Queen and the Duke of Tesaurus, kept nagging their children to keep them from getting involved with the Second Prince.
The article reminded him of his younger sister, who had not been able to get out of bed for ten years and had never met anyone her own age.
If the child had not been sick, would the prince have been willing to be his friend?
In an instant, the prince jumped up and fell. The umbrella slipped out of his hand and rolled away.
The knight quickly helped the surprised prince up and quickly picked up the umbrella that was about to roll away in the wind and put it on him.
“Your Majesty, why are you doing this?”
“Ooh, it moved!”
“Huh? You mean the corpse?”
“It definitely moved!”
Evan thought it was nothing serious, thinking that his prince must have been mistaken by the wind-blown hair. Trampled by a horse and bleeding like this, there was no way that a child, or even a healthy adult, could have survived.
The moment the knight thought so and tried to calm the surprised prince,
-Dreamy
The blood-stained, ashen head jerked wildly, unmistakably.
***
“Ugh, ugh… … .”
Chul-thuk, a small hand groped through the puddle of blood, and the ashen head began to slowly rise. The child groaned softly and strained his arms, but could only raise his body halfway.
The knight and the prince couldn’t help but freeze as they saw the bizarre sight of the child covered in blood moving right in front of them.
Could it be an undead? Were there any warlocks around?
The knight pulled the prince back and drew his sword. The prince’s face turned pale and he held on to the knight’s clothes, but he could not take his eyes off the child.
The knight looked down at the child who was practically crawling on the ground. He couldn’t see his face clearly, but he could clearly see that his gaze was on the prince.
Evan hid the prince a little further behind his back, wary of the child.
The prince saw black eyes through the messy bangs matted with blood.
The prince, who saw the mysterious light flickering in the black eyes that passed by for a moment, came out from behind the knight who was trying to hide himself and headed towards the child.
A voice called ‘Prince’ from behind, but the prince approached the child step by step as if possessed.
I want to see more closely. Those eyes that emit a mysterious and mystical light.
The prince unconsciously approached her, crouched down in front of her, and lifted his messy bangs.
The child’s face was covered in blood and his facial features were not clearly visible, but his eyes, which resembled the Milky Way in the night sky or a black opal with many colors, were the most distinct.
“… Look. You… … hey.”
The child’s lips moved, making a faint sound of wind. The sound was too quiet for the prince to hear properly, so he tilted his head.
The child furrowed his eyebrows slightly and spoke a little louder.
“What are you looking at? What are you?”
The child’s voice became a little clearer, but the prince’s yellow and green eyes widened at the completely unexpected content.
The bangs that had been slightly lifted up fell down again, covering the child’s eyes that looked like the Milky Way or black opal.
The prince felt sorry for her eyes being covered, so he came closer and swept her hair back completely. His hands were covered in blood and dirt, but he didn’t care at all.
The prince wanted to be friends with this child. Just a few minutes ago, he had promised himself that he would make a friend, and now was the time to put that promise into action.
When I was about to ask her to be my friend, my mouth became stiff, but I felt like I couldn’t miss this opportunity. I had a strong instinct that it had to be her.
You have to make friends! You will, you have to!
So I gathered my courage and opened my mouth carefully.
“I, I… … .”
“what.”
“That, that’s why.”
“Don’t stutter.”
“Me, me!”
“… … ?”
“… Do you want to date me?”
Oops, I misspoke.
A beautiful black opal was haphazardly crushed.
***
As a result, I had a hard time making friends.
‘Stop talking nonsense and get out.’
Ugh.
I know it was wrong of me to talk to a kid lying on the floor covered in blood, and it was wrong of me to ask him out when the idea of being friends came out of nowhere, but I still had to muster up the courage to say it.
Still, even if your courage was ignored, you shouldn’t hit a sick person.
It wasn’t intentional. I never intended to hit the patient.
I just remembered what happened at the Duke’s house and the little ones who ran away crying, so I felt a little sad. I didn’t hit them that hard, I just pressed their heads a little.
The child fell back to the ground with his head still pressed down.
He must have passed out because he lost too much blood. It definitely wasn’t because he hit himself. It had to be that way.
The sleet had stopped. The carriage was leisurely heading towards the palace, accompanied by the clattering sound of horse hooves.
The prince had been staring at the child lying on the seat opposite him since he got into the carriage. It was cold outside and he had lost a lot of blood, so he couldn’t just leave the child behind, so he put the child in the carriage. He even took off his cloak and covered the child tightly so that the tips of his feet wouldn’t stick out because his body temperature seemed too low.
The black opal-like eyes that had once captured my gaze were now hidden behind the eyelids, but thanks to that I was able to observe the child’s face in detail, albeit late.
A very, very pretty face.
Although her face was covered in blood, her beauty was not completely hidden in that situation.
“Sir Evan.”
The prince called to his escort knight who was pulling the carriage from the stables.
“Did you call, Prince?”
“Who should I tell him?”
The palace was not a place where unverified outsiders could enter without permission.
It was a place where even mere servants and maids could not even apply without a letter of introduction, and even the servants brought along by nobles could not even enter the palace without the nobles’ direct guarantee.
It would be even more difficult for a commoner who was just wandering as an orphan and unable to prove his identity.
Evan, who was questioned by the prince, lamented his master’s sociability, who didn’t know how to make even one friend properly, but after thinking about it for a while, he quietly opened his mouth, thinking that it might work out if he kept at it.
“……friend?”
“…….”
Evan, sitting on the coachman’s seat, couldn’t see inside the carriage, but he knew that the kitten’s ears and tail must be drooping, so he sighed deeply.
“Then why did you hit me?”
The prince became a little depressed. He couldn’t make excuses. It was true that he had beaten the sick patient.
He must have lost too much blood and passed out, but since I happened to hit him and he passed out, he must have suspected that I knocked him out.
I promised myself that I would definitely make friends, and I finally confessed after mustering up the courage, but instead of making friends, I ended up being misunderstood as an enemy.