Chapter 1

**The Prince's Method of Making Friends - Chapter 1 (1/324)**

‘Lianus.’

It had been a while since my older brother spoke to me.

‘Yes!’

I replied eagerly, delighted. After all, he was the only one who ever spoke to me.

‘I hear that the Duke of Thesaurus is hosting a gathering to foster camaraderie among the young nobles who are learning swordsmanship at his mansion.’

‘At the Duke’s mansion?’

‘Yes, would you like to go?’

‘But, brother, I…’

I hesitated. I was the child cursed with mana.

‘You are also learning swordsmanship, aren’t you? They won’t care about that.’

‘But, is it really okay for me to join?’

Whenever my brother spoke to me kindly, something bad always happened.

I knew this, and yet, I always fell for it. Maybe this time would be different. Maybe I wouldn’t miss this one chance.

‘If you don’t go, who else will? No one practices swordsmanship as diligently as you do.’

‘Then, I’ll go! When is it?’

‘Tomorrow, by 4 PM. I have to talk to the teacher, so you should go ahead.’

‘Yes! I’ll see you then!’

This time, maybe I could make friends and have a conversation with them. Even if I couldn’t use aura for the rest of my life, I could still talk about swordsmanship, right? I had practiced hard and tried to act mature like my brother.

However, I should have been suspicious from the start that the gathering was at an odd time.

‘Look, the swamp prince really came. But he’s quite late.’

‘His eyes really are different colors.’

‘They say he was cursed with mana because of the mixing of the winds.’

‘Even if he didn’t know as a child, to be this clueless…’

‘Still, he’s really small. Is he the same age as the First Prince?’

The Duke of Thesaurus’s mansion, the maternal home of the First Prince, Lawrence de Harpence, and the Queen’s family.

A snake’s den where no one would welcome the Second Prince, who had no backing.

‘Why is he learning swordsmanship? I heard he can’t even feel mana, let alone use aura.’

‘I heard the king ordered the same lessons for all the princes to show no favoritism.’

‘But wouldn’t it be more considerate if their levels were similar? The king is being too lenient.’

What was too lenient? Was it too lenient not to consider me, who couldn’t use aura no matter how hard I tried? Was it too lenient to have me in the same class as my brother, despite my low level?

The whispers, the laughter like the sound of the wind, the young heirs of the nobility who glanced at me and didn’t even greet me.

I should have been angry. I should have punished them for insulting a prince right in front of me.

But I couldn’t.

Seeing those crimson eyes, the same as the queen’s and the duke’s, swirling among them, my lips wouldn’t move.

Stupidly, I was being fooled again, it seemed.

In the end, I was fooled again and ran away.

* * *

“The royal carriage is passing!”

A small, secluded village with little traffic.

Under a sky filled with dark, ominous clouds, something that was neither snow nor rain fell, stinging the cold, frozen cheeks.

The sleet that started just a few minutes ago was truly regrettable.

It quickly soaked the ground and seeped into the collars of the villagers who were lying prostrate.

A traveler passing through the village, unaware of what was happening, only tilted his head in confusion at the sight of the villagers lying scattered along the road.

“What’s going on? Why are you all out in this cold weather?”

The old man quickly pulled the traveler down to lie prostrate.

“The royal carriage is passing! Hurry, lie down.”

“But wouldn’t it be enough to just bow and show respect?”

The old man pressed the back of the traveler’s neck and began to explain.

The traveler, though feeling very uncomfortable with his wet clothes, decided to listen seriously because of the old man’s serious expression.

“A while ago, a young lord from some baron’s family passed through a neighboring village and beat a child to death. He was so vicious… It was a day with heavy snow, and he insisted on driving his carriage through. He saw a child looking at him through the window and, because the child dared to look down from a higher place, he dragged the child out and beat him right there. The child was covered in blood and died frozen in the snow!”

The old man’s voice grew louder without him realizing it. The traveler’s face hardened as he listened.

“Good heavens, no one stopped him from beating the child to death?”

“How could anyone step in in that situation? If they did, they would be beaten to death too. The child’s parents cried and begged for forgiveness, but they were also beaten. They almost died, but their lives were saved. But how can they live on after seeing their child die like that?”

“Didn’t they file a complaint?”

“Would they even blink at the death of a mere commoner’s child? If the nobles are like that, how much worse would the royal family be? So, you should lie flat on the ground.”

The traveler, having heard the old man’s story, shuddered and obediently pressed his face to the ground.

He vowed to find an inn as soon as the carriage passed, soak in a hot bath, and not leave until the weather improved.

At that moment, a sniffle and a woman’s pitiful voice were heard.

“Can you hide my child? We have no dry clothes to change into.”

It was a mother and child. The child, looking ragged, was sniffing and looking at his mother.

The village chief, who seemed to be in charge, stepped forward and said,

“The carriage is moving too fast! I’ll let you stay at my house tonight, so lie down quickly. Your child might be beaten to death if you don’t!”

The woman, her face pale with fear, urgently pressed her child’s head down.

A short silence followed, interrupted only by the child’s sniffles, as the sound of hooves began to approach from a distance.

The sound grew closer at an incredible speed, as if something terrible was about to happen.

The traveler, thinking that the Harpence Kingdom was truly despicable, waited for the carriage to pass quickly.

* * *

“Hic, hic, hic…”

Amid the jolts of the moving carriage, a muffled sound, indistinguishable as either a laugh or a sob, emerged from the dull, dark green hair.

The small, trembling body, red-eyed and tear-streaked, was curled up tightly, making it look even smaller. The moisture from the red, swollen eyes dripped through the fingers, wetting the knees and stealing warmth, but the child’s hands were too busy trying to suppress the sobs to do anything else.

The knight driving the carriage felt a sharp pain in his chest, unable to do anything to help his young master, and was annoyed by the sleet that had started falling.

How long had the child been crying? To cool his swollen eyes, the child opened the carriage window.

A cold wind and sleet rushed into the carriage. The sleet, neither snow nor rain, stung the frozen cheeks, much like the child himself, who was unwelcome to anyone.

“Prince! You’ll catch a cold. Close the window!”

“I want to keep it open a bit longer. How much longer is it?”

“We still have a couple of hours. We’re about to enter a village, so please come inside quickly.”

The child, hearing the word “village,” leaned out to look at the village entrance. With his exceptionally good eyesight, he could see clearly despite the sleet.

He saw the villagers hurriedly lying prostrate on the ground. Confused by their strange behavior, the child shouted to his knight, who was sitting on the driver’s seat.

“Sir Evan! Why are the villagers doing that?”

“It’s the royal carriage, so they’re showing respect! It’s cold, so please come inside quickly!”

“What? Who would lie on the ground in this weather just to show respect! Tell them to get up!”

“They’ll be even more terrified if I get out to tell them. It’s better to just pass through quickly.”

“Then, drive faster!”

“…Yes?”

“Hurry and get out of the village! Faster, faster! The sleet is coming!”

Evan, surprised by his master’s urging, increased the carriage’s speed.

He muttered, “I wish I hadn’t come if I knew this would happen,” but couldn’t bring himself to say, “I told you so. I said it would be better not to come.”

He couldn’t add salt to the wounds of this delicate little kitten.

The little kitten, who had been crying quietly a moment ago, now opened the window on the driver’s side and started slapping the knight’s back.

Evan, feeling a bit relieved that the kitten seemed to have regained some energy, pretended to be aggrieved and shouted,

“Prince, hitting me won’t make the horses go faster!”

“Faster, faster!”

“I’m already pushing them to their limits! The ground is starting to freeze, and we could have a serious accident!”

“The road is clear, so what could go wrong? Just get out of the village quickly!”

The child, forgetting that he had been crying, stomped his feet in the carriage.

Why did it have to start sleet now! If I had known, I would have come out a little later. I should have held on a bit longer to let the villagers go home.

As he thought this, the image of the crimson eyes, which had formed a crescent, flashed through his mind.

No, I couldn’t have held on any longer.

Thinking it was all his own fault for being stupid, he held back the tears that were welling up again and glanced outside the carriage.

He caught a glimpse of a child, whose face and hands were frozen red, looking at him through the passing scenery.

Why are you out in this weather! Why don’t you go inside!

Unable to confront the villagers, the prince took out his frustration on his knight.

“Are we still far? Drive faster!”

“How much faster can we go! If we keep this up, we really… Ack!”

Neighing sounds came from the horses, and there was a thud as if something had been crushed.

The carriage swayed violently.

The knight poured all his strength into calming the horses, nearly causing the carriage to overturn.

“What! What happened!”

“A child suddenly ran out and was hit by the horses!”

“What? Sir Evan, stop! Stop the carriage!”

Although he was already slowing down, the carriage, which had been moving at a high speed, couldn’t stop immediately and took a while to come to a halt.

As soon as the carriage stopped, the door burst open, and a head of dark green hair popped out.

The villagers, who had raised their heads in surprise, met the gaze of the prince, whose eyes were of different colors.

Shocked to have made eye contact with a royal, the villagers gasped and bowed to the ground again.

Seeing this, the child felt a lump in his throat and let out a sharp cry.

“What! Did you drop money on the ground? Get up, all of you!”

The child jumped out of the carriage and started running down the road the carriage had just taken, ignoring the water splashing onto his shoes and pants.

‘It’s all my fault. I yelled at Sir Evan, so he didn’t see the child.’

The child must have died. There was no way to survive being hit by a carriage moving so fast.

He could hear his knight shouting something from behind, but it was drowned out by his heavy breathing. His legs felt stiff from the cold.

The sleet was gradually soaking his head and clothes, and with each breath, a white mist appeared and disappeared.

After running for a while, he saw a pool of red on the side of the road where the carriage had passed. A small figure was visible in the middle.

It was the child.