"You called that guy a moron."

"Yes."

"You called the emperor a moron."

"Yes."

"Wow... Still, I am proud of you brother, I am really proud of you." said the girl with sapphire eyes with a smile. She was trying her best to control her laughter.

"What?"

"You did it, Leon."

"I did what...?" asked James in a confused tone. He was expecting the duke to drag him down before the emperor where he would ask for his forgiveness, but it seemed like that wasn't going to happen.

"Today, my son, you proved that you truly are the son of Esper's. Calling that guy a moron isn't something anyone can do & you did it, just in one line."

"You should have seen his face." added Adeline, but this time, she laughed out loud. She had seen her brother fight with countless people over silly matters, but today he didn't hit anyone. His words were more than enough.

"I am proud of you, Leon." said the Duke with a smile. He was not even a single bit angry about his son's behavior. But was not so happy with Theo, who was provoking Leon, but his comeback was just phenomenal. He wanted to clap right there, standing beside the emperor.

Leon couldn't go back in time & change his actions but was trying, and now the changes were visible. He was calm, not arguing with anyone, was easy to talk with, less violent & many things. Over the past month, Heinrich had noticed the changes in his son & was happy with him.

"But..."

"We can't do anything now. Get ready. We are leaving." Within a moment, the cheerful expression from the duke's face was gone & was replaced with his usual indifferent tone. Every action Leon took would have its own consequences & they had to be prepared for it. Sitting here won't help in anything. All of his prediction were getting true & something big was coming.

"Yes."

***

"Fuck!" A man probably in his forties with golden eyes & reddish-grey hair slammed both of his fist on the table.

"How dare you...?" every word that man spoke was filled with agony & rage. It was for the first time in his life he was directly humiliated in front of the whole noble society. It was his own daughter's birthday & because of one man, everything was ruined.

"Milord, please calm down!" said a man with green eyes & grey hair, calmly reading the room.

"How do you want me to calm down? Huh, tell me? He disrespected me, my entire lineage. I swear to God, I will kill him. I will wipe out his entire family's existence from this very land."

Espers had a history with Elysiums. They were someone whom every emperor hated for some unknown reasons. They never got along & especially this time, they were crossing the line. When he was young, he was also humiliated by Heinrich, to which he didn't mind cause he proved to be useful in the future, but his son, the most worthless person on this entire empire, called him a moron. That was outrageous. Something had to be done & it was time for them to pay for the disgrace they had caused to the royal family.

"Yes, Lord & we are with you, like always." replied a man with violet eyes & brown hair.

"Prepare everything. I want those Esper's end as soon as possible."

"Yes lord."

"Now get out."

The two men once again bowed down & left the room. Everything was going according to their plan. Not even a single deviation had occurred, except the boy spilling out the truth. But they were all nobles & were not going to stop to become goodie-goodie because someone of their own kind told them to. It was impossible. They were sent by the God himself to rule over the weak & they were doing it. There was nothing wrong with it & was their right to fulfil the requirement of a ruler.

***

10 days had passed since the princesse's birthday function & to everyone's expectations, things have gotten pretty chaotic. With each passing day, their relationship with the royal family was falling apart over a silly matter. First things first Duke Esper returned to his duchy with no incident & then the consequences part started. 3 days after a letter with royal seal reached the duchy & contained a not so happy words of the Emperor, who ordered him to handover his son, so he could punish him.

The duke's response was: "I missed the part where that's my problem."

Seriously, he sent a reply containing this one line, which once again was another slap on Adalbert's oversized ego & that didn't end well.

Soon the other two dukes also sent letters, appealing that he should send his son to the palace, where he would say sorry & come back with no harm to anyone. Heinrich knew it was not that simple, so once again, he replied to those letters with one simple line.

And you guessed it right, the contents were: "I missed the part where that's my problem." Which did its intended work, by offending those two morons.

Then finally, after a long wait, things started moving. A single letter arrived from Arlet's, which read like this.

-------------

"Dear Friend Heinrich, because of your son's obnoxious attitude & the emperor's order, I am Duke Allison of Arlet's duchy halting all of our business deals in the east region until you solve your dispute."

-------------

"You saw that, right?" asked Heinrich, looking towards his son with the same indifferent gaze. He had been expecting all these things & now after that event everything fell in to its designated place. Still, he was not worried, as they were not weak to counter these petty matters.

"Yes."

"So..."

"I am sorry. It is happening all because of me." said Leon bowing down. James felt an enormous amount of guilt after returning from the palace. Every situation was getting turbulent because of him.

"Well, it's partially your fault. Still, you are not the only one responsible for this chaos. We are all liable for this."

"How?"

"It's just we have a pretty problematic history with the royal family for over 3 generations by now. I think my grandfather started this when he was young, just like you. Then the crown-prince of that time held a grudge & here we are biting tooth and nails."

"Oh."

"So you shouldn't worry about that, but now tell me, what we should do?"

"Me..." asked Leon, pointing to himself, in a confused tone. He couldn't understand why the duke was even asking theses questions. He was not some diplomat who could solve this issue but was not also an idiot who couldn't figure out simplest things.

"Yes." replied the duke, pointing out to the map before him. It was a map of their region & the empire.

The whole Espedor country was divided into 4 states. The middle one was ruled by Esper. To their east was Carlston & to the west was Arlet. Above all of them, to the north, was the state governed by the emperor.

As the region who handled the security of the empire, they had the largest active army of all, which was fairly useless when there was no war. Still, they were feeding them for apparent reasons. Then the Arlets which handled the economic growth by taking goods from them & again was selling back to them. And at last came the Carlston, who was the backbone of the empire by selling food supplies at unreasonable rates. Their land was one of the most fertile of all.

So everything was fine on the surface, but inside, nothing was fine. The duchy was gaining less money by selling their natural resources & were buying food for more money than they ever had. So with each deal, the debt was increasing & each time they failed to make payments, some lands were given to Carlston. Pretty good loan shark technique.

The major thing was their land was fertile, not on a par with their neighbour, but was good. Still, they were doing very less farming. They had an abundant amount of natural resources but were only selling to others. There were far better use for that. And now the others were threatening to cut off deals which would very much push the duchy to ruins.

If people won't get food or money, they won't survive and will fight against the ruler. An uncontrollable & predictable civil war. And just like how Russian empire fell to its knee within a couple of years, Esper's would also fail. The pitch was set, just needed the right amount of speed & momentum for the ball to hit the wicket.

"So this is our region..." said the duke, pointing to the map, where their duchy was. He was teaching his son about the region as he did not know about it, cause he only wasted his time over nothing.

"An uncontrollable & predictable civil war." Without James's knowledge, these words escaped his mouth. After his return from the palace, he was focusing most of his time on the recent events & it didn't take a genius to understand what they were planning.

He was letting go of the past & was now sure that he would have to spend his life here. There was no going back. Because of some unexplainable phenomenon he was stuck, still he could make his life a little better. He now had a family, people who cared abut him, who loved him. And the least thing he wanted was to lose everything once again for another silly mistake.

It won't happen again, nor he would let it happen. This time he would fight till his last breath to save them. He had lost once, but not anymore. He wanted to live a life & would live a life. The end.

"What?" Hearing the words, Heinrich was surprised. He was expecting it would take Leon days to figure out what was going on, but he just said it within a moment.

"A civil war. They are all planning to push this region into a civil war. That letter talking about the east region halting is just the beginning. They are showing us, they could do more if wanted & will do more even if we say sorry. It is not about me saying sorry... It's bigger than that. They want an all out war. They want this duchy, this land, not just mere sorry." said James in a determined tone. It was in plain sight to for everyone to see. Those people were serious about it & he was not going to just sit and watch for someone else to take his life away.

The duke just opened & closed his mouth, but in the end, no words came out. His son had predicted the entire series of events in moments, which he & his advisors could do in months. He was beyond surprised. How did he become this smart?