Chapter 6: Smiling face, Grief, and Black dog III
Herscherik sat on a sofa in the middle of his dimly-lit room and gazed at the flames in the fireplace.
After spending the whole day in his room by himself, it felt somewhat vast, and he let out a small sigh.
(I've lived by myself before, so this should be normal for me, but….unexpectedly, it looks like I can’t stand being alone.)
Herscherik noticed that he had been spoiled by Meria a lot more than expected. Letting out a bitter laugh, he thought back to when he returned to the castle.
After his return, his father asked persistently, yet he didn’t tell him the truth. If he did, then those people, as well as their families, would receive the death penalty for conspiring to kidnap the prince.
“My stubbornness was probably inherited from my mother….”
He had claimed that, before he realized what happened, he was saved by Meria, so he really didn’t know anything. His father hung his head and muttered in resignation.
“You alright?”
Herscherik was deep in thought about his past, but in this room where he was supposed to be alone, he was greeted from behind.
However, Herscherik didn’t move, continuing to stare at the flickering flames in the fireplace. He rubbed the pad of his thumb on the pocket watch unconsciously as he answered.
“I’ve caused you some trouble, haven’t I, Mr. Kuro? I’m sorry.”
He sensed the presence behind him tensed their shoulders, but he didn’t turn around.
“……It’s not like you need to apologize or anything. Also, just ‘Kuro’ is fine.”
“Really? Then you can just call me Hersche. ”
Herscherik tilted his head to the side, revealing a smile. The image of his beloved dog Kuro appeared in his head, but he didn’t say anything.
“Kuro, you really are a master spy, aren’t you? I was surprised.”
Thanks to Kuro appearing, this incident was officially resolved.
Fabricating another location as their hideout in lieu of the place he was taken to and allowing the folks from Count Luzeria’s territory to escape the imperial capital were all thanks to him.
Kuro was truly a master as shown by his abilities, from the glimpses of his fighting skills in the place Herscherik was kidnapped, and how he managed to sneak into the inner palace, despite how strict the security had become now.
“Really, thank you. Although I don’t have anything on me right now, I’ll reward you soon.”
“I’ll be waiting without getting my hopes up…But are you really going?”
Herscherik knew that Kuro was probably listening to his request to his father from somewhere, so he looked around the area.
When he held down the button that opened the pocket watch, a portrait of three people who were no longer in this world appeared.
(The people who these three cared about are in trouble. There’s no way I’d let them be abandoned.)
“I’m definitely going.”
Herscherik answered, full of determination.
Previously, Herscherik had made one request to his dejected father.
“Since Meria is very exhausted from this incident, I want to allow her to return to her hometown. And I want to be there to escort her since I’m grateful for what she did.”
However, Meria’s homecoming was only a pretext. His true goal was to go to the territory and obtain evidence of injustice. It might be difficult for him with his childish physique, but if he didn't do it, there would be victims of poverty this winter.
His father was against allowing him to leave the imperial capital. However, Herscherik's resolve wouldn’t break.
The parent and child were trapped in a stalemate, so Luke, the butler quietly waiting beside the king, offered a proposition.
“Your Majesty, how about we have a primary butler accompany Master Herscherik? I think it’s about time for one to be necessary, so if he brings one with him, he should be fine, no?”
The king threw his butler a look that said, “Don’t say such unnecessary things!” but the butler pretended that he didn’t notice it.
“A primary butler?”
Herscherik tilted his head to the side. He had studied as much as possible, but with this, he realized that there were still many of this country’s customs that he didn’t know. One reason for this was that those kinds of things didn’t fall into his interests. Furthermore, his mother who was supposed to teach him customs and conventions passed away, and his father was swamped with continuous work. He also had little contact with his prince and princess siblings, so there was no way he could know everything he needed to.
“Simply put, a primary butler is a butler who works not for the country, but for the sake of a single aristocrat….akin to a retainer, I would say.”
Luke explained to Herscherik in an easy-to-understand manner.
Each primary butler was an exclusive butler assigned to only a single prince from the current and former royal families. The primary butlers pledge their allegiance to their lord for the rest of their lives. If done poorly