-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: The Precious Elixir
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In the end, Lianus succeeded in sneaking Nihil into his bedroom undetected. It was all thanks to emptying out Sir Evan's luggage bag completely, wrapping the unconscious Nihil tightly in a cloak like a bundle, stuffing him inside, and carrying him in like mere baggage.
Thank goodness Nihil had such a small frame. If he had been even a little bigger, it surely would have failed.
He ran into the palace guards on their rounds, but at that late hour, they didn't seem to care much whether the prince had returned or not. They just exchanged light greetings and went about their duties.
Lianus acknowledged the greetings from the waiting servants and then dismissed them all. He ordered food brought to his room. He made sure to ask for plenty of the meat Nihil had requested. He was hungry, after all—so much meat.
Lianus even thought simply that since Nihil had lost so much blood, he probably needed to consume some, so he requested the steak be cooked rarer than usual.
The servants were a bit puzzled by the prince's unusual orders but withdrew without complaint, saying they would do so.
Returning to the bedroom, Lianus spread the cloak on the floor with Sir Evan's help and carefully laid Nihil down. He wanted to put him on the soft bed, but Nihil's entire body was caked in blood and filth, so he couldn't bring himself to do it. If the servants discovered it while cleaning later, it would be hard to explain.
"Your Highness, are you really going to use that?"
Lianus nodded solemnly, alternating his gaze between the glass vial in his hand and the corpse-like form of Nihil lying there.
The vial was the one and only elixir he had hidden in his secret safe.
A priceless treasure granted to only one per direct royal descendant.
They said it could revive anything as long as there was still a breath of life left.
"Your Highness, just call the royal physician. Why waste something so precious?"
"No royal physician. The moment we fetch one, all eyes will be on us. It'd only be a matter of time before Nil's presence is discovered."
"Then allow me to bring in a physician from outside first thing tomorrow morning."
"What if he dies in the meantime?!"
He couldn't die. The whole goal was to make a friend who would grieve for him if he died, so what use was there if the friend died first? He had to save him, no matter what.
And he'd ordered plenty of meat—what good was that if he couldn't feed it to him?
"Your Highness, please reconsider! That elixir is something even precious royal blood can only obtain once in a lifetime. What will you do if your life is in danger? It's impertinent of me to say this, but the crown prince selection trials are notoriously brutal. How will you endure without an elixir?"
"I'll worry about that when the time comes. First, we save him! Don't try to stop me!"
Ignoring his pleading knight, Lianus popped the lid off the elixir with a satisfying pop. Even in the short time it took to argue with Evan, it felt like Nihil's body was growing steadily colder.
Any more delay, and it might truly be too late.
He had only met the boy today, yet for some reason, Lianus felt an inexplicable pull toward him. He couldn't explain why, but from their first encounter, his instincts had screamed that he had to hold onto this kid.
Lianus had superior hearing and eyesight compared to others. And his instincts were sharp too.
He'd always ignored them, clinging to vain hopes, only to be slapped back by harsh reality every time. So this once, he resolved not to dismiss his gut and to do exactly as he wanted.
Drip... drip... drip...
Lianus carefully poured the elixir over Nihil's wounds. Contrary to the amount of blood lost, the visible injuries weren't that severe. He ignored the knight's lamenting sighs from the side, focusing solely on tending the wounds.
Once the wounds had healed somewhat, he gently cradled Nihil's head, tilting it back and trickling a bit of the elixir into his slightly parted lips. Color slowly returned to the pallid face, and warmth began to seep back into the ice-cold body.
Sir Evan soon gave up protesting and watched the changes unfold.
He'd poured in about half the elixir when...
Suddenly, a hand clamped down on Lianus's, stopping him mid-pour.
"S-Stop... cough, cough."
"...Nil?"
Lianus nearly dropped Nihil's head from the shock—whether from his wrist suddenly being grabbed or from his corpse-like friend suddenly moving, he couldn't tell.
He stared down at Nihil with wide eyes, then glanced at Evan. The knight looked just as stunned, his eyes bulging as he alternated between Lianus and Nihil.
Nihil propped himself up into a sitting position on his own. He coughed a few more times from the elixir lingering in his throat, then released Lianus's wrist.
"Nil, you okay now?"
At Lianus's question, Nihil turned his gaze to the vial and asked,
"What is that?"
"Th-this? It's called an elixir..."
"Where'd you get it?"
Nihil's heterochromatic eyes rolled around with a gurgle. He let out a deep sigh and fixed Lianus with a stare.
What about all that meat he'd ordered? And here he was feeding him this liquid instead?
Nihil stared piercingly at Lianus. Under that persistent, impassive gaze, Lianus turned his head away evasively.
Nihil grabbed the evasive prince's chin, but a large, calloused knight's hand slammed down sharply on his, forcing him to withdraw.
"How dare you be so rude to His Highness!"
Nihil shook off his reddening hand and shot a quick glance at the hand's owner before dismissing it and turning his mismatched eyes back to the prince.
A grinding crunch came from the knight's teeth, but Nihil neatly ignored it. Careful not to startle the young prince—whose eyes were still rolling about—and to keep his tone calm and steady, he spoke.
"Rian."
"Y-yeah...? Yes!"
At the sudden use of his nickname, Lianus's eyes widened round, then curved into delighted crescents as his lips split into a beaming grin.
As if telling his knight not to interrupt their conversation, Lianus blocked the man about to speak and playfully smacked his kneeling thigh with his palm.
Sir Evan felt the slap on his thigh, but it stung his heart even more.
His precious kitten had run off, picked up a wild lynx, and now ignored him completely, doting only on the stray. A wave of hurt surged up unbidden.
But Lianus, lost in gazing only at his friend, had no way of knowing Evan's distraught feelings.
"Rian, where'd you get that?"
"Th-this."
Lianus glanced at the half-empty vial, then rolled his eyes once more.
Should he tell him? Or not? What if he got mad? No, it was something good, so maybe he'd be grateful instead.
"Rian, no secrets between friends."
"R-right! Yeah! Grand Duke Diabolus gave it to me!"
Sir Evan slapped his forehead at how quickly his kitten switched gears and blurted out the answer.
No matter how he looked at it, the prince was being played by the lynx.
Nihil chuckled at the seaweed-like head flapping eagerly at the mere mention of "friends," as if all hesitation had vanished. But then he recalled what "Diabolus" meant and his face hardened slightly.
"Diabolus? What kind of person calls themselves 'Devil'?"
"Ah, that's just a nickname."
"Nickname?"
"Grand Duke Diabolus is a demonkin. He doesn't have a known real name, so everyone just made up that cool-sounding alias. Lately, since he's allowed exchanges with his territory, he's called Grand Duke Lepne."
"A demonkin ruling a territory in the middle realm?"
Nihil's face stiffened. Lianus added an explanation to ease his friend's unease.
"Don't worry. He's been active for over 300 years now with no issues. He can't directly interfere in human politics anyway. I heard he bound himself with a contract because he doesn't want to get involved. He mainly handles blocking unauthorized dimensional gates or managing monsters and demonkin. Our kingdom just granted him a title to make his activities easier and receives protection from monsters and demonkin in return. And on their fifth birthday, Harpen royals receive this elixir as a gift."
"No interference at all?"
"Yeah. The contract he made himself can't be broken unless a stronger demonkin appears. There was even a previous king who tried to get his help but couldn't because of the contract. The elixir is only gifted one per officially recognized prince or princess, and it completely heals any illness or injury as long as there's life left! Seems true, since it worked."
Nihil's brows furrowed deeply. Had he heard that right?
He used that ultra-rare elixir, granted one per royal bloodline member, as a meat substitute?
Nihil wanted to scold him for giving such a valuable item so freely to someone he'd just met, but if that turned the seaweed prince away again, he'd be the one in trouble. So he clamped his mouth shut.
The foolish prince grinned happily at his beggar friend coming back to life, flapping his seaweed hair all the while.
Watching that seaweed made Nihil let out a hollow laugh.
What to do with such a dimwit? He was a prince, but crown prince material? No way.
At least the elixir still had about half left—that was a small mercy.
"I'm all better now. Keep the rest safe. Don't waste it on anything stupid."
"Yeah! Half left—such a relief!"
Lianus hurriedly stashed the remaining elixir and scampered off to his secret safe.
In Nihil's view, behind the beaming prince's face loomed the knight's ugly scowl. The look screamed that half had already been wasted on something pointless.
Sure enough, once the flapping seaweed left, that knight would come picking a fight, but Nihil ignored him and called out to Lianus, who was carefully storing the elixir.
"You—your body temperature's too low. Go wash up."
Nihil clenched and unclenched his hand, recalling the chilling touch of the slender wrist he'd grabbed upon waking. The fool prince had been colder than his own unconscious body. His pulse had been unsteady too.
Left like this, the delicately raised prince might fall ill.
"Soak in hot water for a good long time. Call a servant if you need help. I'll hide."
"No! I don't need help! I'll wash quick and be right back. Make yourself comfy."
"Don't rush—soak for a long time...!"
Bang! Slam!
Nihil's words weren't even finished before the excited seaweed flapped off into the bathroom.