“Do you think they’ll hate me?”
“We ran them over with the carriage, Your Highness. I honestly thought they were dead. Even if that child were a saint, I doubt they’d like someone who almost killed them.”
“I figured as much.”
The Prince drooped.
He had to make a friend—so what now?
“But before that… I didn’t expect you to confess so suddenly. For a moment, I thought Your Highness had fallen for that child, and it startled me.”
“I just kept thinking I had to make a friend… and it was my first time actually asking someone to be my friend, so I was nervous…”
Evan shook his head with a sigh.
“Besides, they’re a wandering orphan. In other words, a beggar, a commoner. They’re not of a status to be friends with a Prince.”
The Prince nodded.
That wasn’t wrong.
I’m a Prince, and they’re a beggar.
Of course we can’t be friends.
“But I was the one who asked first. So if they say they want to be my friend, I have to be their friend.”
“…Excuse me?”
“It’s not allowed for them to ask me to be friends, but since I asked first, I have to agree if they want to.”
“But didn’t you confess poorly? And you were already turned down.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
The Prince was firm.
I wasn’t rejected.
Surely, it wasn’t a rejection.
They’d just lost too much blood and were barely conscious, probably confused.
Besides, I didn’t even introduce myself properly.
When people first meet, they should introduce themselves, but I didn’t do that.
Even if I’m a powerless Prince, I’m still a Prince!
That child probably doesn’t know who I am.
If I introduce myself as a Prince, they’ll be honored and beg to be my friend.
“They were just startled because I confessed badly. I just need to introduce myself properly.”
“But Your Highness, you can’t bring a commoner into the palace as a Play Attendant.”
“Then what do I do?”
“At best, they could be a Servant, no matter how much you want to help.”
“But they’re too young to be a Servant, and they won’t accept anyone without a letter of recommendation anyway. And I want to be their friend, not order them around as a Servant. What if they don’t want to be a Servant?”
“I agree, I doubt they’d want to be a Servant. In that case, all you can do is give them an Indemnity Payment and send them on their way.”
“What?”
“It’s unavoidable. They can’t enter the palace. You can’t just lock them up and raise them like some animal. Just give them a generous Indemnity Payment.”
“But…!”
But they got run over by my carriage—almost died!
I asked to be friends, then knocked them out again, loaded them into the carriage and brought them here, and now I’m supposed to kick them out again?
I don’t know if they even understood my confession as a request for friendship, but either way, I acted selfishly.
Chasing them out again just because I want to is wrong.
Yes, this is a matter of a Prince’s pride!
“Absolutely not!”
“Why not?”
“They have no home, no clothes, nothing to eat. It’s still cold outside, and bad people could steal their money! They barely survived, what if they die again soon?”
They hadn’t died before, so “die again” didn’t really make sense, but the Prince pressed on stubbornly.
This wasn’t just about wanting to be friends, it was about a Prince’s pride!
“You shouldn’t take in even a small animal if you can’t take responsibility!”
“That’s why you shouldn’t take them in and should send them away.”
“But I’ve already taken them in and brought them in the carriage. So I have to take responsibility.”
Evan let out a sigh.
That kid in the carriage might not even want to be friends, but our little kitten seems to have taken quite a liking to them.
But, judging by how they spoke so rudely to a Prince, someone of such noble status, they must have quite the temper.
If you bring in a wildcat like that and our softhearted little kitten gets hurt, that would be a disaster.
“Maybe they were doomed to freeze to death in the late spring chill anyway. If not run over by the carriage, maybe they’d have starved, or been beaten to death while stealing food. You don’t have to take responsibility, Your Highness. The kid was the one who ran out in front of the carriage in the first place.”
“But, but…”
The little kitten, unwilling to let go of their new find, fidgeted and kept repeating, “But…” and muttered, “It’s dangerous outside…”
“Your Highness, judging by a Knight’s instincts, that one may have had a hard life, but they’re not going to die easily. They’re good-looking, so if they wanted, finding a job wouldn’t be hard.”
Probably, they’re wandering because they don’t want to settle down.
“You get a job easily if you’re good-looking?”
The Prince tilted his head. If being pretty made it easy to get a job, wouldn’t this kid have found one by now? Wouldn’t everyone want to take them in?
“People like pretty things. Well… like the Prostitute’s Quarters, for example…”
“What?”
Evan deliberately muttered the rest under his breath, but the Prince, with sharp ears, heard it and jolted.
“That’s terrible!”
The Prince sprang up, slid open the window to the Coachman’s Seat, and smacked the Knight’s back repeatedly.
Of course, it was the Prince’s hand that hurt, not the Knight’s back.
The Prince scolded him, telling him not to say such things, and quickly shut the window again.
He couldn’t let the cold air reach the sick child.
“…But Your Highness, that’s the life of commoners. If a powerless commoner is good-looking, they might get kidnapped and sold, or even be sold off by their own parents. Or maybe, if some perverted Noble takes a liking to them, they might become a Play Attendant.”
They’d be raised like a bird in a cage.
“Why can they be a Noble’s attendant but not my Play Attendant? And why a perverted Noble?”
“You can’t bring them in because there are other royals in the Royal palace. As for the pervert… that kid seems so wild, unless they were kidnapped, I can’t imagine them agreeing to be an attendant.”
“Then just make them my friend!”
“It’s impossible within the Royal palace.”
“Then I won’t be a Prince anymore!”
“Your Highness, no matter what, commoners are not allowed.”
Why can’t commoners be allowed?
I just want a friend to talk with.
As long as we can talk, that’s enough.
When even his only Escort Knight refused to understand, the Prince felt a lump rise in his throat and tears well up.
I’m not asking for much. I just want one real friend.
“I… I don’t want to be royalty anymore. What’s the point… I can’t even make a single friend for myself, the Nobles are all busy watching Queen Helia and the Duke of Thesaurus, the Play Attendants all ran away crying and apologizing, and my Wet Nurse… because of me… was poisoned in my place… Even today, at the Duke’s Estate… my brother… h-hic, was tricked again. Sob, I just wanted to meet someone to talk about Swordsmanship with… Hic, waaaaaah!”
“Y-Your Highness, are you crying?”
“Uwaaahhh!”
The Knight on the Coachman’s Seat was flustered.
No matter how upset he was, the Prince always cried quietly alone, but now he was bawling so loudly the carriage shook.
He was sobbing so pitifully that the Knight, still holding the reins, could only glance back, helpless.
“Even my Escort Knight! I’m still a Prince, but I only have you, Sir Evan! No one wants to be the Escort Knight of the Second Prince without backing! My brother always has two with him, but me, me! Hic, waaaah!”
“Y-Your Highness…!”
Evan, his only Escort Knight, had no choice but to stop the carriage. He realized, too late, that he was the only one who could comfort the crying Prince.
He’d thought he only needed to silently watch the Prince’s back as he cried quietly, but that wasn’t enough.
Even a Prince was still just a seven-year-old child.
Things like royal dignity meant nothing. Whether commoner or Slave, what the Prince needed was simply someone of his own.
As Evan stepped down from the Coachman’s Seat and opened the carriage door to comfort the sobbing little kitten—
Whoosh!
Something flew with a rush of wind and landed on the Prince.
“Your Highness!”
Evan reached out in alarm, but what landed on the Prince was none other than his own cloak.
“You’re noisy.”
A voice cracked from exhaustion, drawing everyone’s gaze.
The Prince, worried the child might die from hypothermia after losing so much blood, had carefully wrapped them in his cloak.
But now, the wildcat he’d picked up—who’d seemed on the verge of death just moments ago—threw the cloak right back at our precious Prince the moment they woke up.
“How ungrateful! How dare you treat the Prince like this!”
“Ungrateful? You ran me over with a carriage and now you’re complaining.”
“Hic, sniff”
Startled by the cloak suddenly thrown over him, the little kitten clung to it, peeking out with eyes like amber and emerald.
Still sniffling a little, maybe from surprise, Evan glared at the rude wildcat who had just made the little kitten stop crying in such an ill-mannered way.
He’d wanted to comfort the Prince himself, but the wildcat had stolen his thunder, and it annoyed him.
The Prince fidgeted, his two-colored eyes darting about.
Maybe he was embarrassed to be caught crying, or maybe he remembered knocking the kid out.
He glanced between the Black Opal Child and his only Escort Knight, his eyes rolling anxiously.
A moment of silence passed, and just as Evan was about to try to smooth things over, the little kitten couldn’t hold back and spoke up again.
“I-I’m a Prince.”
“…So?”
“Do you want to be my friend?”
“No.”
Ah, Your Highness…
The only Escort Knight, who’d watched the brief exchange, let out a deep sigh and buried his face in his hands.
What a cold-hearted brat. Couldn’t you at least pretend to think about it? Did you really have to reject him so bluntly? How could you refuse a friendship offer from such an adorable Prince!
Our little kitten, so awkward at making friends, had been rejected twice in a single day.