Chapter 83


    Having a full lunch, sitting on a chair reading a book was not as bad as I thought. The tip of my nose tickled as a gentle breeze blew in through the slightly opened window.


    “Yaawnn…”


    I yawned even before finishing a single storybook. I’m sleepy. Sleepy. As I was about to lower my head subconsciously, Nichs asked me a question as if it were ridiculous that I was feeling sleepy.


    “Are you sleeping already? It’s only midday.”


    I felt like there were some words omitted from his question. Something like ‘you’re such a terriblyzy person’. Of course I don’t care. My eyelids were so heavy that it was too much to hold on to.


    “I’m sleepy… aren’t you sleepy?”


    “You can’t get sleepy while reading a book.”


    That’s weird. Isn’t it usually the other way around? I tilted my head and slowly opened and closed my eyes.


    “I think the prince is a very strange person.”


    “What?”


    “This and that. Hehe.”


    Nichs put an absurd expression at my silly answer. Oh, I think I’ve seen that expression a lot now. Even Nichs, who was expressionless every day, had such an expressive face. It was only recently that I realized this.


    “……”


    I rolled my eyes and looked at Nichs. He was reading a book in a fixed posture, and sent a gaze as if he were looking down at me. But in the meantime, something about Nichs’ movement had caught my eye. He was spinning the fountain pen with his left hand. He seemed to do it out of habit everytime he read a book.


    I eximed knowingly, “Your Highness also has a peculiar habit!”


    “What?”


    “You are spinning the fountain pen with your left hand while you turn the pages with your right hand.”


    “Ah… did I do that?”


    Nichs looked astonished as if he had known that for the first time. It seems that he was unaware of it, as people’s habits are created unconsciously.


    “Yes. But how do you spin it so well? When I try, it just keeps falling.”


    Nichs answered with a puzzled face, “…I don’t know either. It just happens.” I hmm-ed with a short sigh.


    “I think I’ll try again sometime. Whoa! It fell.”


    Once talentless, always talentess. The fountain pen in my hand rolled down the marble floor with a dururu sound.


    “Don’t do that. Follow me.”


    How many times have I failed? Nichs, who was watching me, took a deep breath like he couldn’t watch it anymore. Still, the expression on his face clearly meant to say, ‘I don’t know why I have to do such a useless thing’.


    “I still can’t. Well, I’m d that my inability to spin a pen doesn’t affect my life. I am going to give up now.”


    Of course, it was of no use. It was a failure again. Eventually, I dered that I would give up.


    “If you were going to give up, you should have done it a little earlier.” Nichs grumbled that the time he had invested, even briefly, was not worth it. Then he muttered like ‘what do you want from me’ and waved his hand.


    “Enough, read a storybook or something.”


    “Yes.”


    Actually, I’ve read this children’s book three or four times before. I know the content. But the problem was that there was nothing to read other than this book.


    “Excuse me- Your Highness!”


    So, after another five minutes, I called Nichs. Nichs replied although he looked like he was sick of it.


    “Ah, what again?”


    Oh, oh? I narrowed my eyes. It seems that while Nichs himself may not have noticed yet, his characteristic grandfather-like tone of royalty has disappeared.


    ‘Is it that much trouble…’


    Hmm, I’ll just ask this question and not bother you any more. If I touch him one more time, he might get annoyed.


    “I have another question. After reading so many books like this, what kind of person do you want to be in the future?”


    “What kind of person do I want to be? Are you talking about hope for the future?”


    I nodded. Nichs put on a worried expression.


    “I am the prince of the empire and the future crown prince and emperor. Why do you ask me something so obvious?”


    Is that so? But that’s a very obvious answer!


    “Then what kind of emperor do you want to be? Competent? Tyrannical? A rare genius?”


    “How bold of you. You are the first person to ask the prince such a thing.”


    “Hehe. I will take it as apliment.” I shrugged. Then, Nichs again put on an absurd expression on his face.


    “I will not be a tyrant. I should try to be aspetent as I can.”


    “That’s great, Your Highness.”


    “…whew, considering that there are not one or two people like you in the world, I feel a little stuffy as the next emperor.”


    Nichs sighed deeply. What, what’s stuffy? No matter how you look at it, it was an insult.


    “Did you get your lunch fish soup stuck?”


    “I’m going to get indigestion because of you.” Nichs shook his head. Saying that, he raised the corners of my lips into a smile.