A Noble Again

"You may rise now." Prince Leonard said and he handed a paper with his seal to Huvel. "With this you have become a noble of Soleil Kingdom again."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Huvel took the paper and bowed his head.

They were inside the prince's office. Only the prince's chamberlain and Chance were in the room with them. There was an air of seriousness in the room, until Huvel spoke up again.

"It's quicker than I expected!" Huvel said with his usual playful tone. "What did you do behind the scene to make it work that fast?"

The prince smiled wryly. "What do I have to do? Your image of a rotten young man is enough to work out everything! The ministers must be thinking of trashing me together with you."

"Well, work hard to prevent that, Your Highness!" Huvel gave the prince a big smile.

"You don't need to tell me that! But I gained something good from this matter. It really is an unexpected stroke of luck!"

"Hmm? What is that?"

"Not telling you."

"… If you don't want to tell me, why mention it in the first place!" Huvel pouted. "I brought something good for you as well. See it if it is better than that 'something good' you got."

Huvel waved his hand to Chance. Chance stepped forward. In his hands was a small, well polished wooden box. The prince's chamberlain opened the box and brought the thing inside to the prince.

"Healing potion?" Prince Leonard recognized the colour of the liquid inside the tube his chamberlain showed him.

"Yes, they are only low-tier so they won't be of much help to you. But I made a large quantity so you can give them to injured soldiers to earn their trust," said Huvel.

"Do you want me to play the role of a benevolent prince?" The prince smirked. "Anyway, I accept your gift."

"They are not gift. Buy them from me!" Huvel said with a big smile. He could not easily give away the potions that he had to spend many days and large amount of mana to make.

The prince was dumbfounded.

"You!" The one who cried was the prince's chamberlain. He was agitated by Huvel's casual and disrespectful way of speaking. He did not know why the prince was being passive toward him while he was the one who granted him a noble title. He decided to set things right by scolding the young noble. "How dare you make fun of His Highness!"

"Oh! I'm not making fun of him." Huvel replied him causually; he was still all smiles.

"This is not your place to comment!" The prince glared at his chamberlain and said directly.

Only then, the chamberlain realized that the prince was never bothered by the speech of the young noble called Huvel. He then understood that he crossed a line that he should not have.

"My apologies, Your Highness. Please forgive my impertinence, Lord Huvel!" He bowed as he said.

Huvel nodded at him.

The prince looked back to Huvel and copied his playful tone, "Were you always this greedy? If you ask nicely, I could have given you some gold coins to repair the castle you will be living."

"Are you willing to be my sugar dad…? Wait! What do you mean by castle? Why would I live in a castle instead of a mansion?" Huvel knitted his brows as he said.

"Hmm?" The prince tilted his head. "Oh! I forgot to mention that the town I will bestow you is Boswel. It was originally an outpost castle to monitor and exterminate the monsters that came from the nearby jungle. People started living around the castle at some point and now it has become a big town. Isn't it generous of me to give you such good place?"

"Too generous!"

Huvel was taken aback. He was not surprised to know that the prince could imitate him well. But he was surprised of how he could say things shamelessly while he was a dignified prince.

"Is my influence bad for him?" he thought. "Anyway, let's put that matter aside for now."

"Isn't it a town near Emmele Jungle? You are not giving me a town! You are just passing me your duty of keeping the monsters under control!" Huvel held his head in his hands as if he had a headache.

"Well, there is nothing I can do about it." The prince chuckled a bit. "I planned to give you a big, rich town but the ministers rejected every time I suggested a big town. They wanted me to give you only Boswel. It seems they want to criticize you after you mismanage the town and get into a conflict with the soldiers stationed there to keep the monsters at bay. They will like it even more if the monsters breach the wall of Boswel and invade nearby villages. So, be sure to pay attention to the soldiers all the time. If you fail there, the blame will be on me!"

Huvel was more concerned with another matter other than the soldiers. He smiled bitterly when he said, "I bet the income that town made are not even enough to pay all the soldiers' wages."

"Don't worry!" The prince was all smile. "The soldiers' wages are paid by the kingdom. But there are not many farm lands and the income is mostly from a few passing merchants. So, you should be careful of spending too much money."

"Ah! Too troublesome!" Huvel could not smile anymore. His dream of living leisurely had been destroyed.

"I must make some more potions to have some extra fund. Your Highness, you must pay me according to the market price for all the potions I brought this time!"