"So he gifted you a horse...?"

"Yes."

"Wow..." It was mind-boggling for James, as he had never heard of someone giving a horse to express their love. He knew someone who bought a property on moon for impressing his date, which was ridiculous. Just what the ducking hell he was planning on doing on moon...? And another guy gifted a bundle of toilet paper his crush, which served the purpose, but was also ridiculous.

"And what color was it...?"

"White."

"Is it still here...?"

"Yes."

"..."

"Brother...?"

"Yes..."

"Why the hell you are asking so many useless questions...?" asked Adel with an irritated tone. Leonhart knew she had no use for that horse and she didn't even like it. But was still asking questions.

"I..."

"You know I don't like horses."

"Oops. Sorry, my bad." James had no idea about it as he had no recollections of that incident. He was just curious about that horse.

"Even so, how did you forget about all this...? You even came up with that ludicrous name."

"I... knew about i-t, but just... couldn't recall that." said James with an awkward smile. He couldn't possibly say that he was not Leonhart and was here out of nowhere because of some unexplainable phenomenon.

"Really..."

"Adel, Leon, how many times do I have to tell you?" said the Duchess calmly, which was more than enough to shut both of them up.

James didn't know why he shut up, but after hearing those words, he really had a bad feeling that if he spoke one more word, something bad would happen. Leonhart's mother really was someone whom he never knew, but had a familiarity towards her. It was like he had known her for a very long time. It felt like she was her own mother, but at the same time, she wasn't.

And if you are wondering where he was, then his bumpy carriage ride ended long ago, and now he was in the dining hall eating dinner with the whole family. The duke and the duchess asked a couple of questions about the barony and James answered them honestly, as there was nothing to hide. He had done nothing noteworthy to blabber, so he told them he was learning, and they didn't press on to the topic more.

As for Adeline's situation after hearing everything from that orange haired girl, James had a clear idea about the upcoming situation. So that moron of a crown-prince who had a titanic sized crush on Adeline was arriving tomorrow and she needed his help to kick him out. He had no idea or any ways to help her, but agreed nonetheless. It was the least he could do in Leonhart's place.

"So, what should we do about him...?" asked Adeline.

"Nothing."

"Father, what do you mean by nothing...?"

"We won't do anything. He will come, you will meet him and then he will go back. That's it. There is nothing more to discuss." replied the Duke with same heavy tone as before.

"But Father..."

"Listen Adel, he is the crown prince, not just some ordinary person to whom we can just say no. So please, both of you behave properly. We don't want another chaos like before, remember...?" said the duchess with a warm expression on her face. She knew her daughter won't be happy with this and would definitely act reckless and Leon was no exception. So the only plausible thing was to warn them.

"Yes, Mother."

"Yes."

"Very well, then. Leon, complete your dinner." Now her calm expression was gone and was replaced with a look of a doting mother.

"I...I... will." said James, looking down on the not so tasty vegetables he had on his plate. He had never been a fan of green veggies but ate because of his mother's constant pestering. And here also the situation was not that different. So he ate despite his tongue protesting. It felt like he could throw up at any moment, but he continued.

He chewed and chewed. Felt like this nightmare would never end, but still he fought and chewed it to the very last piece and then swallowed it with the help of water. And it ended. He came out victorious, but nobody applauded him for his victory. They kept staring at him with a skeptical look in their eyes.

"What...?"

"Why you are acting like you ate some dog shit?" asked Adel with the same skeptical expression.

"I... What...?"

"Adel..." shouted the Duchess.

"Sorry... I am sorry..."

"Never disrespect your food."

"Yes, Mother."

"If you say something like that one more time... then..."

"No, mother... I won't." said Adel, focusing on her food. The Duchess's words were not all just talk, as she could do many things if she wanted.

Throughout the mother daughter chat, James couldn't say anything. It was both funny and scary at the same time. Leonhart's mother really was whom he couldn't take lightly.

And with that, the dinner for today ended and James returned to his room, the room where everything began. It was not like his room back in his world or whatever that was, as James did not know about where he was. Was he in a parallel universe or in 4th dimension? or got abducted by aliens? There were countless events that could have happened, but there was no certain answer.

Back to the room. This monstrosity of a room was not like his usual cluttered room filled with garbage. It was spotless and was cleaned throughly every day by the house servants. It was weird for him to sleep in that of cleaned room but he got used to it.

James lied down on his too comfortable bed thinking about the recent events about the war with the vegetables, but soon to his luck, sleep came quick. And shortly he was asleep, unbeckoning to the events waiting for him at the very next day.

***

A carriage was moving along the road carrying the insignia of the Elysium family surrounded by many knights who were also advancing along the road, protecting the carriage. Inside the carriage there were two individual present with matching facial features. One was a boy with slight reddish colored hair and beautiful crystal like black eyes. He was Wilhelm Isolde Von Elysium, the future emperor to this empire. Another was a girl with pure silky black hair and obsidian black eyes. She was Elizabeth Isolde Von Elysium, one and only princess of the Espedor empire. Because of their matching facial features, anyone from afar could tell they were siblings.

The beautiful girl named Elizabeth carried a bored expression on her face and the boy named Wilhelm carried a serious expression, as if he was going to a war. Both were blood related siblings but were not that close as they talk very less and was nothing commonality between them.

"Wil..."

"Yes..."

"Why am I here...?" asked a girl with obsidian black eyes. She never wanted to take part in her brother another failure of a trip, but was forced to because of her father's orders.

"About that...?"

"Yeah..."

"You are here beca-use... Father told me to. Yes, father told me." replied the boy with reddish hair stiffly. He had begged his father to ask his sister to go with him for so-called moral support. Well, he needed moral support cause he had been destroyed by Adeline's words for as long as he could remember and he didn't want to repeat the same scene once again. Elizabeth had a good relation with Adel so he was planning to use her to establish a relationship bridge.

"You can't even lie properly."

"Wha...? I am not lying."

"Really..."

"I swear I am not. You can ask father when we return... I..."

"Ok...Ok... Stop over acting."

"Yes... Yes... but I am not overacting."

"I know..." said Elizabeth with a sigh. She knew the total story, as it was not that hard to figure out, but didn't protest because she also wanted to meet Adeline.

And for a short amount of time, silence descended inside the small carriage. Neither of them spoke anything, as they had nothing to talk about. But the princess broke the silence by asking for a much needed an answer to a question.

"Hey Wil...?"

"Yeah..."

"What will you do...?"

"Yes..."

"If... Leon is waiting for you there...?"

"No...." Hearing the word Leon, Wil's face turned sour as if he had bitten a lemon. There was only one person in the entire empire whom he hated the most, and it was Leonhart, brother of Adeline. No matter how he tried, he just couldn't get rid of that guy and he would be always present to spoil his plans.

Wilhelm had also thought about killing him, but it was too much of a risk, as it would be too obvious to find the culprit and Esper's were not cool headed guys. So no one had balls to even attempt those things. So he chose simple approach. Tried to find Adeline when she was on a stroll or when Leon was not around, but that proved to be futile, as he was always there.

Whenever he would execute his plan, Leon would appear out of thin air to obstruct him, as if he could sense about his next moves. It was really frustrating, but he never gave up. Despite Leon's spawning, he tried but ultimately failed, which led to a crisis. We all know about that, so there is no point in reminiscing about it.

"What...?" asked Elizabeth, seeing her brother's not so pretty expression.

"No... He won't be there."

"You sure..."

"Yes... I am sure." He was not entirely sure, but had a little confidence because of Leon's visit to Esvet.

"Really..."

"Yes... and how many times you want me to repeat the same thing...?" shouted the reddish-haired prince, who was getting angry over these baseless questions. Her questions were weakening his confidence even more.

"Calm down... I am just joking." replied Elizabeth with a smile. In reality, she also did not know about Leon's presence in the duchy, but was just messing with him. Well, it was the most basic sibling thing to do, so she did it.

"Oh... Really. Then it wasn't funny."

"That was funny... If you ask me."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, yes."

Once again, silence fell between them. This time, no one spoke anything as Wil was angry and Eli didn't want to mess with him even more and the carriage continued rolling towards the duchy.