How the Prince Makes Friends - Chapter 97



Only Noblemtl

Episode 97

The two who were pointed out closed their eyes tightly. They couldn’t just be dragged to prison, so they had no choice but to break their promise to the kids.

If I had time to discuss it secretly, I would have kissed her, but if I was dragged away like this, I didn’t know how I would be interrogated, and if I made a mistake, I might have everything taken away.

Meanwhile, the innkeeper rubbed both palms of his hands and spoke to the knight.

“Sir, I’m just a little, just a little bit in the middle. If you help me catch the bastards who sold the kids, I, I, I don’t know…”

“How noisy. Those who aid and abet human trafficking are equally punished. And you’re also suspected of using drugs? Do you admit to the charges?”

The knight asked Jane and Dave a question. The two men, their expressions frozen in tension, exchanged glances and slowly stepped forward.

“Now, wait a minute, you sold the children? What do you mean by that?”

Yvonne, who had no idea what was going on, grabbed Jane’s arm and stopped her as she stepped forward.

“There must be some misunderstanding!”

“Really? But these guys seem to know what they’re talking about.”

Walter narrowed his eyes at the two boys, their faces hardened. They didn’t seem to be trying to escape or try to escape, so he planned to transport them to the guard post without arresting them.

“Okay, Jane, just explain!”

“……I’ll explain when I get back.”

“Huh, you acted nice all day long, but now you look so cute. You guys are all the same in the end.”

Kelvin snorted from the side. Kelvin, already old and with a long record, was quite pleased with the guys’ first and last misdeed, as he would not be out of prison for another dozen years.

The guards approached the boys with stern faces. Pan, who had been insisting that he knew nothing about the guards, was at a loss as to what to do about the situation, but finally opened his mouth.

“Now, just a moment, sir! I, I……!”

“stop.”

“……?”

When the child’s voice rang out softly, Pan looked in surprise toward the source of the sound. The children’s eyes also opened wide at the familiar voice.

Nihil, who had said goodbye, was standing alone with his hood pulled down low.

Nihil opened his mouth to Walter, still with a relaxed attitude.

“Sir Ernest, let those boys go.”

“…who…….”

Walter felt a little nervous as he saw the little boy naturally addressing him. Although he was born as the second son of a baron and did not inherit the family line, he held the title of Commander of the Royal Knights, so no one could treat him poorly.

“If I was going to reveal who they were, they wouldn’t have come out like this. Those kids sold me out at my request, so they did nothing wrong.”

“What is that…….”

“I had no choice but to protect the children who were captured with a small number of people. Those children were the ones who sent a secret letter to the royal family to ask for help. I will personally write to Your Majesty and explain the situation, so please leave those boys alone.”

“That’s something that can be done as you wish….”

Walter trailed off, wondering whether to be polite or rude to the boy, as he couldn’t figure out his true identity.

Nihil sighed as if he was really annoyed because Walter didn’t seem like he would back down easily.

“Your Majesty, it’s difficult if it comes out like this. The reason we didn’t resolve this within our family and submitted a secret letter was to return the favor to the royal family. Thanks to me, you were able to find the hidden medicine.”

“Are you the one who figured it all out?”

Walter felt that the boy was unusual and eventually chose to be polite. He decided that it was better to be polite than to be rude and then get nitpicked later.

Nihil nodded vaguely, thinking that Walter had been caught, and answered.

“Yes. The bear-like creature you’re looking for is also mine, so please pretend not to know him.”

“……I heard that there were two children taken by a mercenary, or rather a knight, from the gambling house.”

“One of them is my cousin. He’s the one I’m taking with me to play.”

“…….”

Walter frowned slightly. Judging from the boy’s speech and attitude, he was certain that he was a nobleman, but he was confused because he couldn’t remember if there had ever been a child like him among the nobles of higher rank.

Nihil opened his mouth again, preventing Walter from continuing his thoughts.

“The silver coins I received as my ransom were given to me as a reward for helping the children, so please don’t take them for no reason. I also received credit for sending the secret letter, so if possible, please give me some.”

With those words, Nihil made a gesture in the air. At that gesture, Bella appeared, her mask pulled up to her eyes, and she carefully picked Nihil up.

Walter quickly called out to Nihil, who was about to leave.

“Okay, wait a minute! Are you the person involved?”

“Kyung, I’m a busy person. At home, there’s a little brother waiting for me, like a kitten.”

“…….”

“…….”

There was a moment of silence. Nihil continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

“The innkeeper gave me milk laced with sleeping pills, and my servant and I were each sold for 80 silver. Four children were captured there, including that child, excluding us.”

Nihil gestured to the board. Then he asked the board.

“Did you see me or not?”

“…Look, I saw it! …Yo! That guy, no, it’s definitely him!”

After hearing Pan’s answer, Nihil turned to Kelvin and continued speaking.

“That bastard even mobilized my men to capture me and sell me. So I had my knight threaten me. There were four other boys besides that Kelvin. Ask them. Didn’t that bear sue for damages, saying that his arm was broken?”

“……Why on earth did you do that?”

“I invested a lot in the upcoming relief projects and redevelopment projects, but the streets are so dirty. I decided to take the initiative to clean them up. It may be a little late, but if it had come any later, it would have been irreversible. Right?”

“…….”

Walter was once again speechless because it was true. If the incident had happened after the relief work had started, both the relief and redevelopment work would have been halted, and the streets would have become even more chaotic.

Nihil observed Walter’s complexion and then arrogantly nodded to Bella. Bella gave a brief bow to Walter, the commander of the royal knights, and disappeared with Nihil in her arms.

Walter stared blankly at the empty spot where the little boy suddenly appeared and disappeared, and only when his subordinate knight cautiously called him ‘Captain’ did he come out of his thoughts and look back at the children.

“Kids, can I ask you something else…?”

Fortunately, the knight, who was called Captain, was not pushy with the children. Since Jane stuttered, Dave stepped forward and gave a brief account of what had happened to them.

“So, to sum it up, you’re saying that you sold the children to the inn at the kid’s request earlier, and the person you introduced as his older brother followed him around and escorted him?”

“Yes. And after receiving the money, I followed the female reporter and went to deliver the letter. So I don’t know what happened at the casino.”

“Have you seen the children’s faces?”

“I couldn’t see it because he was wearing a hood the whole time.”

“What did the letter say?”

“We can’t read. Oh, but we drew the map. The cat picture on the map was drawn by that older sister.”

“I see…….”

Walter stroked the corner of his mouth as he recalled the cute cat drawing on the map. These boys were definitely the ones who sent the secret letter, since they knew exactly what was drawn on the map.

Walter summarized the situation, thanked the children for answering his questions, and left, leading the other knights and soldiers.

Kelvin was dragged away and made a lot of noise, but his guilt was so obvious that they didn’t let it go. As Kelvin’s irritated voice gradually grew distant and could no longer be heard, the children who had hidden in the warehouse came out hesitantly.

Jane said with a sigh of relief.

“I was, really, nervous.”

“Jane, why didn’t you tell us? You were really surprised.”

“Rain, you promised to keep it a secret, so, uh, I had no choice.”

“What would have happened if Neil hadn’t shown up on time? Well, I figured that would happen, but… he really is a noble.”

“I’m not a noble.”

“Eughhhhhhhhh!”

Once again, everyone jumped in surprise at Nihil’s sudden appearance. Pan rolled over, making a strange sound. The cat in Nihil’s arms cried out, “Nyahahahahahaha~” as if mocking Pan, but Nihil grabbed Pan’s hand and helped him up.

“Didn’t you go? Where’s Nerrang and your big brother?”

“Wait a little way away. All royal knights are Aura users and are very sensitive to movement.”

“I, I see. Thank you. But, I, I’m sorry. I, I couldn’t keep your secret properly.”

“It’s okay. This is something that was expected, and the knights ended up finding nothing. After all, I’m not a noble, so even if you search all the noble houses, you won’t be able to find me.”

“…Are you really not a noble?”

Dave asked with his eyes wide open. His speech and attitude were so noble that no matter how much I thought about it, he seemed like a nobleman. He even wrote well, spoke the imperial language, and even listed the personalities of nobles.

“I am not a noble. Because of that, I was charged with impersonating a noble.”

“……Is this okay?”

“Go.”

“Huh, huh?”

After saying that, Nihil turned around and started walking away. Although he wasn’t very fast, the kids didn’t think to stop him.

“Oh, so everything is resolved?”

“…maybe.”

Yvonne decided not to think about it any more, because no matter how much she thought about it, there was no way she could come up with an answer.

***

“I’m back.”

“Come in!”

As Nihil opened the carriage door, his rabbit-like, or rather, kitten-like younger sibling greeted him.

Evan let out a sigh of relief when Nihil returned. It was because he was nervous and anxious that the captain might find out. He was a little worried that he had fooled the captain, who was like his teacher and benefactor, but he rationalized it as better than getting caught and ruining the honor of a royal knight.

And on the way back, something suddenly occurred to Evan and he called Nihil.

“Hey, you little squirrel.”

“What is it?”

“Can you please look after my aura sometimes, like this morning?”

“Okay.”

Evan quickly added, feeling uneasy about Nihil’s willing acceptance.

“……If what you see is a burden to your eyes, tell me without hiding it.”

“No pressure.”

“Didn’t you say before that you get tired if you look at it for a long time?”

“Wouldn’t you get tired if you looked at something colorful for too long?”

“Colorful?”

“Natural mana is relatively transparent, but the mana possessed by people has a unique color for each person. Your mana is golden, so it stands out more.”

“Yes, sir……”

Bella, who was petting the puppy while the two were talking, laughed and asked Nihil.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, then what color is my aura?”

“Laurel.”

“Wow, how did you know?”

Bella’s eyes widened at the answer that came without a single moment of hesitation. Bella had never shown her aura in front of Nihil before, so she was amazed and excited.

“The more strongly you condense mana, the more transparent it becomes. Train yourself to be able to produce a clear and transparent aura.”

“So that the color comes out light?”

“No. It’s not like the color is fading. Well, if I were to use an analogy, the aura of those who have just started using Aura is like fog, while Puppy’s Aura is like a flame that spreads out towards the end. That’s why it has destructive power but lacks cutting power. Anything beyond that is like water.”

“It means to condense the aura so that the concentration is the same throughout.”

Evan nodded and muttered at Nihil’s apt analogy. Certainly, my aura was closer to blasting away than cutting through rock.

Since this was the first time Evan had received advice like this, he thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have the cat sit next to him sometimes during his early morning training. He was the only one who had been nagging him this morning, so he’d probably see something and tell him something.

Thinking like that, Evan imagined himself carrying the nape of a sleeping lynx at the crack of dawn and doing dawn training.

The imaginary lynx dozed off and lay down on the floor.

“…Uh, um.”