How the Prince Makes Friends - Chapter 320



Only Krnovel

Episode 320

-Rune Calendar, September xx…

-The madman started to roam the forest, trying to welcome his father.

* * *

‘Please… please let me meet him!’

Dios was terrified when he saw the man howling in the forest.

‘Father, why is it doing that?!’

‘Well…, I don’t know… … .’

‘I told you not to meet people in their true form!’

‘… I feel like I’m lost… … .’

‘Ah, I dare ask you to please appear before me again! Let go of this!’

While Requies was hesitating to apologize, those who appeared to be the man’s acquaintances appeared and grabbed him.

‘Are you crazy? Why are you doing this!’

‘I have to welcome him back!’

‘Who the hell are you talking about!’

‘He is the universe! He is God!’

‘… I’m going to turn back.’

Dios rubbed his forehead. There were plenty of people who showed affection for his father, but he had never seen anyone follow him so fanatically.

Even though he said that we only met eyes once, I couldn’t understand his feelings at all.

‘Has that never happened before?’

‘If it was before… , when are you talking about? … I don’t have complete memories of before I met you. It was after all of my memories… , were taken away.’

‘… … .’

‘Oh, is it also the case that when Dia was a baby, she followed me around?’

‘… It probably wasn’t that bad.’

‘It seems similar, but… … .’

‘It’s natural for a baby to follow its guardian.’

Dios asked with a slightly uneasy look as he spoke.

‘Do that guy and I have something in common?’

My father pondered the question for a long time and then answered with a hesitant expression.

‘…Being human?’

‘Not that!’

‘The fur color is… brown.’

‘No…! I’m not talking about appearance!’

Dios shouted in frustration. It seemed like it would take half a day to find the cause.

‘Ah… , please… … !’

The man was eventually dragged away by his acquaintances, but he resisted so strongly that his clothes were torn, but he paid no attention and only looked for his father.

Then my father quietly opened his mouth.

‘… There is one thing… … .’

‘What is it?’

‘You and the author, are likely to be…’

‘What did you say?’

Dios frowned. The sound was so quiet he couldn’t hear properly.

Even when I asked, my father hesitated for a long time as if he didn’t want to tell me.

‘Speak quickly!’

When I couldn’t stand it anymore and pulled his hair, only then did my father hesitantly open his mouth.

‘… The priest, Dia.’

‘… … ?’

‘The author is likely to be connected to God.’

* * *

‘Put this down! Put this down!’

‘What’s wrong with him, really!’

What the hell is going on? The young man who was hiding behind the tree gaped at the man being dragged out by the people. After a long time of coming out of the house to do research, the atmosphere in the village was flowing strangely.

The young man quickly looked for the cabin after seeing that the people had left the forest. However, where the cabin had been, there was only a dense forest of trees.

You were appearing and disappearing, but today you’re really hiding.

The young man stood there for a moment, looking around to see if there were any other people. Fortunately, there seemed to be no one around.

The young man took one last quick look behind him, made sure no one was there, and stuck his head into the tree. The witch’s hut came into view.

‘Leki, Dia!’

As I hastily opened the cabin door, a boy with a glum expression appeared.

‘Be quiet. Who the hell is coming in?’

‘Do you know what happened outside?’

‘We have ears too. They appear quickly.’

The boy snapped at me as usual, but I could see that he was a little relieved to see me.

‘Hey, is the temple far from here?’

‘…temple?’

The young man’s eyes widened at the unexpected words. Why is he suddenly talking about a temple?

‘The guy who was causing trouble in the forest.’

‘Are you talking about the guy who was being dragged away by those people earlier?’

‘Yeah. I think we should send him to the temple. He’s completely possessed by his father. He’ll probably stay that way unless he worships another god. My father… can’t accept him.’

‘Oh, is that so…? Oh… , I see… … .’

The young man didn’t know what to say when he heard that he was possessed, so he answered stupidly. In fact, he didn’t really understand what was said afterwards.

I approached her thinking she was a witch, but since Requies had never done anything witch-like before, the fact that she had bewitched someone was just baffling.

‘… So, I have to explain… Hey, are you listening?’

‘Huh? What did you say?’

‘I have to explain and send that guy to the temple.’

‘Explain what!?’

The young man jumped in surprise at the mention of explanation.

These witches don’t know how scary humans are… … !

‘No! You don’t do anything!’

‘I won’t do it! You do it!’

‘Yeah, I… , what?!’

‘I hate dealing with people.’

I wasn’t good at that kind of thing in the first place… The boy hung his head in dejection.

‘… But I can’t send my father away… … .’

‘That… that’s right… ‘

The young man unconsciously stroked the head of the rough hedgehog as it laid down its spines.

‘Where are you stroking!’

But the hedgehog soon put its spines back up. It’s really hard to handle.

‘Anyway, you do it!’

‘Oh, you should tell Dia, please do it for me.’

‘Who’s the older brother? I told you I’m older?!’

‘Ahaha! Got it, got it.’

The young man, trying hard to hide his distress, eventually returned to the village after warning the witch’s family not to come out to the village for a while.

‘I must return to Him! I can only find peace with Him!’

The man possessed by the witch was still screaming even as he was being tied up by people. The young man was a little nervous because his condition seemed more serious than he thought, but he soon pretended not to care and went into the crowd.

‘What the hell is going on?!’

‘Nonsense! This guy disappeared and we all went looking for him, and then we found him in the forest, screaming for someone to find him?’

‘Could it be that you mistook it for some strange mushroom or root and ate it?’

‘Not even a kid?!’

‘I got lost in the forest. That happens often. Then I got hungry and ate something bad.’

The young man quickly drew up a scenario. If he were to explain honestly and take her to the temple as the boy said, it would only be advertising the existence of the witch. It didn’t seem like Requies had been possessed on purpose in the first place…

‘That’s right. This fool can definitely do that!’

‘But we don’t know what they ate.’

‘…even though I know it, I don’t know how to decipher it.’

‘So what do we do now…?’

‘Ah, send it to him… … !’

‘… … .’

As the atmosphere became solemn, only the screams of the struggling man could be heard. The young man flinched for a moment at the sight of her searching for the witch while shedding tears, but soon added a few words.

‘They say that holy water can detoxify all poisons… … .’

‘Where is the holy water for us? It’ll take several days to get it right away… ‘

As soon as the word Seongsu was mentioned, the villagers began to talk amongst themselves.

‘Then… how about taking her to the temple instead?’

‘… to the temple?’

‘It’ll be faster and cheaper than bringing holy water. If you go to a big city, there might be a way.’

‘That might certainly be the case.’

The young man timidly retorted or chimed in while listening to the conversation from the side. In this situation, there was no benefit to standing out.

Through my efforts, the man was tentatively diagnosed as having hallucinated after eating something bad, but his family decided to isolate him at home. This was because it was too expensive and he might revert back to his original state if left alone.

But the young man thought that this was enough. In fact, if he just left it alone, maybe things would be okay. If he tried to pressure her any further, she would only look suspicious.

Still, I spoke properly to the witch family and warned them to make sure that something like this would not happen again. Requies also decided to cover her eyes at all times just in case something happened.

‘…he hung himself.’

But despite my efforts, my peaceful daily life began to crack.

‘Oh my god… how did it get to that point?’

‘… But… there are also rumors that his family killed him.’

The man who was just about to turn the corner stopped walking and leaned against the wall when he heard the conversation. He never thought he would hear such news…

My hands clenched on their own. Even though it seemed a little suspicious back then, I should have dragged him to the temple. But how on earth could I…?

The townspeople’s conversation continued.

‘Family…? No, wait, don’t say that. Taking care of a sick person is really hard. On top of that, dealing with someone who talks nonsense all the time is really…, Of course, I’m not trying to blindly defend that family…, but I don’t want to criticize them without knowing the exact details.’

‘No, listen carefully. I think a priest has come to the next town.’

‘What? If the priest had come, wouldn’t he have been able to cure it?’

‘It’s not just a priest, it’s an inquisitor. He’s here to catch the witch’s child.’

The young man felt his back stiffen at the mention of the witch’s child.

no way…….

‘…What is that?’

‘They say he’s the child of a witch who conspired with the devil. I don’t know for sure. I just heard it. Anyway, why is that guy… he acted like he was possessed by the devil.’

‘Oh, you kept saying you wanted to meet someone.’

‘Anyway, if that guy turns out to be a devil, his entire family will be burned at the stake… … .’

‘No way!?’

‘Shh, shh! Lower your voice!’

…I have to go back.

The young man wanted to continue listening to the story, but he had something to do, so he quickly turned around and left the place to head home. No, he was going to head home.

‘…! Dia?’

If only the sly hedgehog boy wasn’t looking up at me from right behind me.

‘Why are you so surprised?’

‘Oh, since when?’

‘Starting with the part where someone hanged themselves.’

It seemed like it came in a similar way to me.

‘Did you follow me?’

‘Who, who is following you?’

Seeing the boy raise his thorns in surprise, I guess he was right. The young man unconsciously stroked the boy’s head.

Snap, the hand was immediately slapped away, but the hair wasn’t pulled. That was a huge improvement.

The young man smirked at the boy who was grumbling, told him to go carefully, and turned around to walk away. However, the hedgehog started to follow him behind him, as if the farewell was meaningless.

‘why?’

‘… Go first. I have something to say.’

‘What, why are you taking so long? Just tell me here.’

The young man would normally have been happy to invite the boy into his home, but for some reason he felt uneasy and stopped walking. There were a lot of things in the house that needed to be cleared away.

‘Well, okay. It’s not that big of a deal.’

‘… … ?’

‘Don’t come to us anymore.’

‘…What are you talking about all of a sudden?’

‘There’s a rumor going around that there’s a witch living in the forest.’

The young man flinched at the word witch. After all, he had approached the witch on purpose in the first place.

‘… and only my father and I live in the forest.’

‘… … .’

‘It won’t be of any benefit to you if you stay close to us.’

The hedgehog boy is always like this. He raises his thorns and attacks everyone except his father, but he is soft and delicate inside, and once he gives his heart to someone, he becomes infinitely weak.

The young man looked down at the boy with his head bowed low, then made a surprised expression.

‘Witch? Reki was a woman?’

‘… … .’

‘I thought she had a really pretty face, but… , oh, no way… … !’

‘… … ?’

‘You too… are you a girl?’

‘… Aren’t you lacking something?’

The boy squinted his eyes and looked up at me with a pitiful expression. The young man smiled for some reason.

‘No, Reki told me before that when you were little… , you were so cute when you wore a skirt and spun around and then sat down… . ‘

‘shut up.’

‘Oh, to my brother.’

‘Who is your brother?’

‘Haha, let’s go. It’s dangerous, so I’ll take you.’

‘I don’t need it!’

The young man walked towards him, his arms wrapped around the neck of a boy who was a little smaller than him. The boy struggled against it, but the young man held on tight, his arms tightly clenched.

‘Gyaaak-!’

I had just turned the corner when I heard someone screaming.

‘A monster has appeared!’

‘… … !’

At the word monster, the young man tried to run away with the boy. However, as soon as he heard the scream, the boy shook off his arm and started running in the direction of the sound.

‘D, DIA! Where are you?!’

The young man followed the boy straight away. He was careful not to do anything that would attract attention, but he couldn’t let the boy go alone.

‘Dia, what on earth are you going to do!’

‘I have to catch the monster.’

‘what?!’

‘Don’t worry. I just learned fire attack magic a while ago.’

‘No no no no, don’t do it, you shouldn’t use magic. This is a remote place, and if you’re not careful, you’ll be accused of being a witch!’

‘So what? I’m already done with it… ‘

‘…! damage!’

bang!

The young man wrapped his arms around the boy and quickly rolled to the side. The monster’s ferocious club struck the ground, carving another dent into the already rough floor.

‘Ouch, I take back what I said earlier. Dia, let’s use magic. I have to live first.’

‘Shut up, idiot. I can’t concentrate! … Damn it, why isn’t this working!’

‘what?!’

The young man was startled, but the attack was swung once more as the novice wizard worked on his spell.

The screams of those who had not been able to evacuate could be heard, but all the young man could do was hug the boy.

Yes, this would be better than being burned at the stake. As I thought that, I closed my eyes tightly.

‘Rian, Dia, are you okay?’