“So.”
“Yeah!”
“You really bought every kind of snack there is…….”
“Yeah!”
Lianus had just returned to his bedroom, changed into comfortable loungewear, and finished preparing to eat snacks.
Nihil was at a loss for words as he looked at the overflowing variety of snacks, not only filling the Three-Tier Dessert Tray but also spilling over onto the Tea Table.
He shot a look at the large guard dog standing beside him as if to say, ‘Why didn’t you stop any of this?’ But Evan, knowing this mess was all his fault for saying just one thing, silently turned his head away and pretended not to notice.
“Lian.”
“Yeah?”
“We can’t eat all of this, so just leave a few and give the rest to the Palace staff.”
“But if we don’t try everything, how will we know which one tastes best?”
“If you get full, even delicious things stop tasting good. We’ll be eating snacks together from now on, so there’s no need to eat this much all at once.”
“Oh, I see! Since we’ll always be together from now on!”
“Exactly. So go ahead and send the rest away.”
“Okay!”
Listening to the two kids talk, Evan thought Nihil was really good at handling children.
Usually, he spoke curtly, but when it came to comforting a child, he explained things gently and clearly.
He always mixed in the words the other person wanted to hear, making it impossible not to be persuaded.
Lianus pulled the cord connected to the chime bell. Now that he no longer had to hide Nihil, he pulled it confidently, and the bell rang out loudly.
Before long, a maid knocked on the bedroom door. It was the twin-braided girl who had brought juice the previous night.
“You called, Your Highness? Oh my!”
The maid with the twin braids was startled, her eyes wide, as she saw a stranger sitting comfortably inside the bedroom.
It was surprising enough to see an outsider, but his appearance was even more astonishing.
Snow-white hair, as pale as fresh-fallen snow, and eyes like a starry night sky streaked with the colors of the Milky Way.
His long, white lashes, gently covering those eyes, looked like crescent moons floating in the night.
Even with almost no expression, he was incredibly beautiful.
Watching Anna, who was staring at Nihil in a daze, Lianus thought, ‘I was just like that too,’ and brushed off her rudeness with a small smile.
“Anna, this is my friend Nil. He’ll be staying here at my Palace from now on.”
Knowing that Nihil disliked his real name, Lianus introduced him as ‘Nil’ from the start.
Anna, who had been standing there blankly, snapped back to reality at Lianus’s voice and hurriedly bowed.
“Ah, y-yes! Hello, Young Master Nil. My name is Anna! I, um, it’s just, really, I mean, very…….”
‘……?”
“…You’re beautiful.”
“……”
A silence fell.
After blurting out that he was beautiful, Anna was once again staring at Nihil as if hypnotized. Kids the Prince’s age were always hard to tell apart, whether they were boys or girls.
Though the ends of his white hair looked as if they’d been hacked off with scissors, he was still as beautiful as a doll made from only the rarest and prettiest things.
At the maid’s bold comment, Evan let out a muffled laugh, and Anna, startled back to her senses by the sound, shuddered as she replayed her own words in her head.
“S-sorry!”
Lianus made a thoughtful noise, glanced at his friend, and muttered, “He is pretty,” nodding his head.
But since the maid kept staring at Nihil in a trance, he brought up the real reason he had called her.
“Anna, please pack up the rest of these snacks and share them with the Palace staff.”
“C-can I really take them?”
“Yeah. Oh, wait. Nil, which one do you want to eat?”
Nihil was about to say ‘anything’ but, glancing at the maid, just vaguely pointed at the nearest package of Cookies.
Lianus figured it was probably because he wasn’t used to such fancy snacks, so he pointed out the Cookie package and a few others, and had the maid pack up the rest.
“Anna, take the rest and bring us some tea.”
“Yes, Your Highness! Is there anything else you need?”
“Call for the Servant and the Head Maid.”
“Yes! Understood!”
Anna bowed deeply, gathered the snacks, and left the room, her neatly braided hair bouncing as she went.
Not long after, a maid brought in tea.
It wasn’t Anna.
After hearing from Anna about the Prince’s close friend, the other maids had fiercely competed for the chance to serve, and this girl had been chosen for her tea-making skills.
They’d all made a fuss about his looks, but seeing Nihil in person, they realized the fuss hadn’t even begun to do him justice.
The maid was so distracted sneaking glances at Nihil as she poured the tea that she nearly spilled it.
Lianus quickly dismissed her, saying it was enough.
“Nil, it’s a problem if you keep bewitching the maids like that.”
Lianus spoke as if he was genuinely troubled, and Nihil just shrugged in reply.
“Can you blame them? A total stranger, who they don’t even know when he arrived, is sitting in the Prince’s bedroom, wearing the Prince’s pajamas, enjoying tea time. How can they not stare?”
Evan narrowed his eyes as if he couldn’t agree with Nihil’s logic.
Of course, it wasn’t wrong, but his looks were definitely part of the problem.
Evan sighed deeply, thinking that this appearance would continue to cause trouble, and took a sip of tea.
Lianus tilted his head at Nihil’s words, then poured milk into his own tea and dropped in seven sugar cubes, one after another.
Then he added milk and sugar cubes to Nihil’s cup as well.
“This is called Milk Tea. You can drink it as plain tea, but it’s tastier like this. Want more sugar?”
Nihil took a sip of the tea that Lianus had sweetened and shook his head.
He didn’t need any more sugar.
With a bright smile, Lianus slid a Choco Lava Cake in front of Nihil. It was still slightly warm.
Nihil broke the Choco Lava Cake in half, intending to give a piece to Lianus, but as his spoon sank in and chocolate oozed out, he just decided to eat it himself.
“That’s called Choco Lava Cake. It’s supposed to be eaten warmer, but it looks like it’s cooled down a lot. How is it? Is it good?”
Lianus asked, eyes shining, and Nihil nodded absentmindedly and took another bite.
The chocolate was rich, but not overly sweet, which he liked.
The Milk Tea Lianus had made was too creamy and sweet for his taste.
Seeing Nihil eat so well, Lianus smiled brightly.
“Should I go get more?”
“There are four of us drooling over it.”
“Ku—cough!”
Evan, who had been quietly drinking his tea, suddenly spat it out at the surprise attack.
He swore he’d only glanced once, but that wildcat had read his expression anyway.
‘Does that brat have eyes on the side of his head?’
Seeing Evan still coughing, Lianus jumped up and hurried over, patting his back and asking if he was okay.
Evan said he was fine, but he actually wasn’t.
If only that wildcat had kept his words polite, he wouldn’t have been so startled.
“Sir Evan, it’s not poison or anything, right?”
“No…….”
“You surprised me. Nil, we don’t keep dogs in our Palace, so where did you see one?”
“…….”
“I could have sworn you said at lunch that the only ones you knew here were a dog and me.”
A brief silence followed.
Evan couldn’t bring himself to admit that the ‘dog’ Nihil was talking about was actually him, and Nihil was too busy wondering if such talk might be bad for a child’s emotional development to say anything.
Nihil quickly changed the subject.
“Lian, I think your Knight wants to try the Choco Lava Cake.”
“What? Sir Evan, do you like this? Should I have them make one for you right away?”
Though the topic was the same, Lianus completely misunderstood, eyes wide as he looked up at his Knight.
He was genuinely surprised, since Evan had never once shown he liked sweets before.
“Ah, no! It’s fine, really!”
“You don’t like it……?”
The little kitten’s eyes drooped. Lianus’s expression, as he muttered, “But it’s tasty,” looked so dejected.
Nihil, as if to show off, took a big spoonful of Choco Lava Cake, and his expressionless face was somehow even more annoying than a smirk.
Evan wanted to complain to Nihil for making unnecessary comments, but, catching sight of Lianus’s drooping eyes, he just opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally letting out a big sigh.
“Next time, please save me one…….”
“Alright! I won’t forget, I’ll make sure to get it for you!”
Lianus was delighted to learn something his Knight liked.
He never did figure out what the whole dog thing was about, but he was very, very satisfied.
The Servant and Head Maid arrived a little later.
Quite a bit of time had passed since they’d been called, but since the Second Prince’s Palace was short-staffed, the two of them handled all the important matters, and the maid hadn’t been able to find them quickly.
Both looked a bit surprised to see a completely unfamiliar child in the Prince’s bedroom, but, perhaps thanks to their experience, they didn’t make the same mistake as the other maids and greeted them skillfully.
The Servant was an elderly man who looked to be in his sixties or seventies, while the Head Maid was much younger than expected, appearing to be in her mid to late twenties.
“Servant, Head Maid, welcome. You must be busy.”
“Forgive us, Your Highness. We must have missed the maid while we were moving about.”
The Servant stepped forward and replied to Lianus. The kind old man’s face wore a gentle smile.
“It’s fine. I know how busy you are. I suppose we really should hire more staff soon.”
“We’re alright. Please don’t trouble yourself.”
“But it’s you and the Head Maid who are doing all the work. Sorry for being stubborn. Figure out how many people we need and post a hiring notice by tomorrow. But I’ll handle the final selection myself.”
“…As you wish.”
The Servant looked a little surprised at Lianus’s sudden order to hire more people, but soon smiled softly and nodded.
He didn’t know what had caused the Prince, who was usually so sensitive about outsiders, to change his mind, but it was a good thing.
“The reason I called you both is because there’s someone I want to introduce. This is my friend Nil. He’ll be staying here at the Palace from now on.”
Lianus turned slightly and pointed to Nihil beside him, smiling brightly. The Servant smiled back and bowed his head to Nihil.
“Nice to meet you, Young Master Nil. I’m Paul, the Servant.”
“I’m Perry, the Head Maid.”
Nihil didn’t answer, just nodded lightly in greeting. His white hair swayed gently with the movement.
Was it just his appearance, or was it his serene expression?
The Servant and Head Maid couldn’t help but wonder if the Prince had brought home some kind of divine beast.
Watching his proud friend, Lianus grinned from ear to ear. It finally felt real—he had a friend to introduce to others.
His heart fluttered.
His cheeks flushed and his eyes rounded as he smiled, looking so lovely that even the Head Maid, watching from the side, couldn’t help but smile too. It was the first time the Head Maid had seen the Prince smile like this, and for the Servant, it had been two years.
“Where should we prepare the Young Master’s bedroom?”
Head Maid Perry asked politely.
Naturally, her gaze shifted to Nihil, who was wearing the Prince’s pajamas.
Judging by his appearance—like he’d already spent the night here—and the fact that all the staff had been sent away the previous night, she guessed that a room for the close friend had already been arranged.
If she were a capable Head Maid, she’d tactfully pretend not to notice and quietly prepare a room….
“Eh…? Nil is going to sleep in my room with me…….”
“……What?”