Chapter 130
Chapter 130
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: Feline Fiasco at Dinner
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"...Your Majesty, wouldn't it be best if the adults excused themselves?"
Queen Helia asked, the corners of her eyes crinkling in a smile. Sedes nodded readily to that bewitching expression.
"Very well."
Sedes rose from his seat at once. It seemed the adults planned to leave the children alone to ramp up the bullying, but in truth, this side had the advantage with just the kids present.
Helia shot Sedes a suspicious look when he stood so readily, but she soon rose as well, dismissing the servants under the pretense of giving the children some space.
Nihil swept his gaze across the dining room once, pinpointing any hidden presences and their positions, before calmly resuming his meal.
"Nil, try this too!"
Nod, nod.
As soon as the adults vanished, the kids perked up like fresh seaweed. They nitpicked Nihil's sloppy table manners several times, but after having their hair yanked by the polite little lordlings and gaining some hard-earned wisdom, the seaweed kids pulled off a blatant "So what?" and ignored them outright—leaving the other children unable to hold their ground.
Socially speaking, the only one who could check Lianus was his fellow prince, Lawrence, but Lawrence just silently ate, clearly uninterested in joining their crude chatter.
Nihil didn't hold back and shoveled in the food heartily. Only appetizers had been served so far, so there wasn't much, but thanks to Nihil inhaling large portions at top speed, the kitchen started buzzing.
"Your Highness the 2nd Prince, you wouldn't starve a friend you treasure so much, would you?"
Aiden asked with a pout. Even as he spoke, his eyes locked intently on Nihil whenever his napkin lifted.
"Starve him? My friend's meals are...!"
Lianus started to boast that he always took good care of meals, but something occurred to him, and he clamped his mouth shut.
"Nil, even when I was sick in bed, you ate properly, right?"
"......"
Nihil shot Lianus a sidelong glance before stuffing a hunk of smoked salmon into his mouth like a king.
Lianus whipped his head around to stare at Evan, who stood guard by the entrance.
Evan met the baby beast's gaze and timidly shook his head.
Lianus's face hardened.
To suddenly become a friend who couldn't even feed him properly!
Feeling needlessly upset, Lianus shoved all the nearby dishes toward Nihil. Nihil accepted without hesitation and dug in vigorously.
"Oppa, no matter how I look at it, that guy's weird."
Camilla whispered to Aiden. He already knew that without being told.
In the end, Aiden was left with all his food snatched away. Frowning, he reached for the last piece of salmon to place it on his bread. Or tried to.
If Nihil hadn't snatched it first.
"......"
Lawrence stared intently at the salmon placed before him.
"Hey! You gonna hog it all?!"
"......"
Aiden's voice boomed through the dining room after losing the final piece of salmon, but his opponent didn't even bother replying—just kept eating away.
...How barbaric.
Lawrence thought as he picked up his salmon with the tongs. But it slipped right away, plopping back onto his plate.
"......"
Evan had no idea why he was currently wielding a sword in the training grounds with a kid clinging to his back.
"Get down."
Shake, shake.
"I said get down, you damn lynx!"
Whose fault was it that things had come to this!
Evan grabbed the nape of the lynx stuck fast to his back, refusing to let go. But it was so tenacious it wouldn't budge.
"You should've teased the kids in moderation!"
Shake, shake.
"No what?!"
Nihil shook his head again. He hadn't teased the kids. He couldn't even speak—how could he have teased them?
He'd just eaten a ton and given the baby kitten some extra attention. Sure, food started flying later..., but he'd only tossed once, and it was just a tiny shrimp head.
Not even tossed, really. The kids kept eyeing the shrimp he'd peeled, so he'd casually offered them the heads instead.
Nihil clamped down on Evan's hair as the knight tugged at his nape to shake him off.
You saw it too—those wild girls kept interrupting while I peeled shrimp for our baby.
In protest, he yanked hard at the mutt's fur.
This mess was partly the puppy dad's fault too. When he said the kid liked shrimp, they served annoying king prawns. He'd bully back with shrimp heads later.
"Quit yanking my hair and clean your muzzle properly! It stinks of cream!"
Nihil shook his head again. His muzzle was spotless. It was just that Rian had fed him cake, and some cream got on his napkin. He hadn't liked the shrimp, but the strawberry shortcake wasn't bad.
Of course, that didn't mean he forgave the dad.
The cream on the napkin was already wiped clean, but Nihil demonstratively rubbed his muzzle all over Evan's back.
"Ah, not on me! Your Highness, rein him in!"
"...Maybe Nil's just worried about you, Sir Evan? Y-You... got a bit... hurt."
As Lianus spoke, he seemed to grow concerned himself and scurried over to hug Evan's thigh.
"Sir Evan, let's call it off."
"This is a matter of Your Highness's honor!"
"...My honor... is fine. It's trashed anyway."
He'd never really had any to begin with..., and today it had been utterly demolished. He'd spewed vulgar curses, thrown punches, bawled his eyes out—and to top it off, his friend had hugged him in front of everyone.
Paradoxically showing just how much Nihil cared. Amid the food-flinging chaos that soiled everyone's clothes, he alone stayed pristine—even his brother, eating alone at a distance, had ended up splattered and filthy.
His older brother's incredulous stare was still vivid in his mind. In the end, furious, Older Brother had stormed off without even touching dessert.
"Ah, it's just sparring! No aura, remember?!"
Evan bellowed, and Nihil shook his head once more. Aura wasn't the issue. The problem was that he was taking hits on behalf of the mutt's "fault."
...Put another way, his back hurt like hell.
The more violently Evan moved, the more it felt like his body was ripping apart, so Nihil clung even tighter. Deep down, he wanted to knock the mutt out cold to make him stay put.
Above all, the medicine he'd slipped him was about to kick in. He could endure the back pain, but if the mutt started puking mid-spar, both the opponent and he would be utterly baffled.
"Hah, a knight who needs protecting from his master..."
The opposing knight watched pitifully as Evan was clutched by the two little ones. He was Noah Allie's guard—the kid who'd burst into tears twice today after getting thoroughly thrashed by Nihil.
All things considered, the other kids' guards should have stepped up, but having heard the rumors of Evan's skill, they feared their own knights might lose. So they'd coaxed Noah—who was desperate to impress them—into putting his guard forward.
Evan bristled at the words, but when he glanced down at their baby kitten gazing up innocently, his anger melted away.
...Our baby kitten's so great, of course he'd protect a lowly mutt like me.
That's when Aiden called out to Nihil.
"Hey, if I cut your hair, we'll call off this spar."
"......"
Nihil perked his head up from Evan's back, hopped down, and scampered straight to Noah.
Hair? He could spare plenty. The ends were frayed anyway—he needed a trim.
But Noah didn't see it that way and backed away.
"Wh-Why're you coming to me?"
Noah whined that Aiden was the one who'd asked for hair, so why him? Nihil just tilted his head—what was the problem?
Noah's guard was the one fighting Evan, so to stop it, shouldn't he give the hair to this kid, not Aiden?
As that thought crossed his mind, his nape was suddenly grabbed again.
"......"
Nihil crossed his arms, kicking his feet in midair to vent his frustration like "Now what?" Evan irritably shook him by the scruff.
"Do you even know what it means to let someone cut your hair?!"
"......"
"Please, just stay put for once. You don't seriously think a little injury means I'll lose, do you?"
Shake, shake.
The mutt wouldn't lose. A quick glance showed the mutt was clearly stronger. Even if the opponent used aura, Evan had the edge.
But if Evan puked mid-spar, wouldn't everyone assume he'd lost to some scrub knight and gotten hurt?
As Nihil pondered how to smoothly defuse the spar, the baby kitten caught his eye.
The baby kitten tilted his head, sensing the gaze even through his napkin.
"......"
Having settled on a plan, Nihil subtly twisted his body to eye Evan. Feeling the stare, Evan scowled "what now?" but let his guard down.
In other words, careless.
Swish—thud.
Nihil rebounded off his body to slip free of Evan's grasp. Evan lunged in surprise to grab him again, but Nihil twisted midair, kicked the reaching hand aside, landed smoothly, and bolted toward the baby kitten.
"Wh-Wha?!"
Lianus flinched back in shock as Nihil charged, but the distance closed in an instant. His body lifted into the air, vision flipped, and he glimpsed the ground below.
Nihil hoisted Lianus over his shoulder and bolted. From behind, Evan let out a dumb "Wha, wha?" before yelling "Hey, you crazy little shit!" and giving chase.
The fleeing lynx couldn't overcome his short legs and was soon caught by the mutt.
In the end, there was no sparring—just the rumor that the 2nd Prince's new friend was nuts spreading like wildfire.
Imperial studies were minutes away, but Lianus clung tightly to Nihil in the parlor. Since he couldn't attend with Nil, he planned to slip in as late as possible.
"I should've yanked that jerk's hair out completely!"
Lianus fumed. He'd been about to swap Nil's napkin due to the lingering cream smell when he spotted the bruise on his face.
"I'm fine, Rian. If you'd come even a little later, I would've kicked that guy's gut."
"Doesn't hurt?"
"Nope. Didn't even notice."
Lianus made a pouty face, comparing the fist-sized bruise he'd planted on Aiden's cheek to the tiny finger-width mark marring his dear friend's face.
"They all must think I'm dog chews."
"Rian, no dog chews. The mutt'll gobble 'em up."
"......"
Lianus shot Evan a quick glance at his friend's out-of-left-field joke.
Evan looked queasy and spaced out, but perked up at "dog chews" and eyed Lianus's plump cheeks.
I'm the mutt and His Highness is dog chews—maybe I can just close my eyes and chomp once? He snapped out of it.
"...Don't make weird jokes. Lynx."
"Rian, watch your cheeks. Might get chomped while sleeping. Mutt's eyeing them hungrily. Must be jealous of me."
"Hmm, speaking of that. Can I bite too?"
"Huh?"
"Your cheek."
"......"
Nihil hadn't expected Rian to ask so seriously and went wide-eyed before flashing a meaningful smile. He dramatically raised his paws, gaped his jaws wide, and lunged with a "Rawr!"
"Eek!"
Lianus yelped strangely as Nihil surprise-nipped his cheek. Evan startled and moved to pry them apart, but an unexpected variable appeared...
"Wh-What in the...?"
Rustle—
The stack of papers in King Sedes's hands scattered across the floor as he entered the parlor.
"......"
"......"
Silence fell briefly, then the white beast's jaws released the plump cheek with a pop.