I remember seeing that manga was published around the 2000s.

There was two protagonists, a crossdressing body guard (F) and a prince. there was also a small yellow(?) dragon that wears a headband and has a ball ingrained on his back.

The prince's father got possessed by an ancient demon after the prince's mother and father tried doing a ritual and failed. The mother basically told the protagonist to run away with the dragon so the father doesn't take the ball that was on the dragon. The mother got brainwash afterwards because I remember there was a scene where the father gathered hunters to hunt the protagonist down and the mother was told to joined in with the hunters.

During the time where the protagonist was running away, they stopped by a shop(?) and got disguises. The prince cross-dress as a girl as a disguises and the bodyguard got a new weapon. They departed after the bodyguard said farewell to the shop owner. They found out later that the father put up a bounty on them and their wanted posters was everywhere which causes them to run to a forest I think.

that's when two male characters appear which are either the prince's brothers or the bodyguard's brothers because I remember one of getting addressed as older brother ( and the protagonist was quick to trust them) . the volume ended with the prince going asleep because one of the male character fed him a magic candy or something and the bodyguard fighting or at least being alerted by the other male character.