Sitting there on this soft fur couch, I got a full front view of two cousins, staring at one another with full suspicion, topped of course with this cherry of tenseness in the air that they are oozing out.

It is both entertaining and discomforting.

“Cousin… The winter festival is tomorrow night, so why are you early?” Alaxandair with a curious and an annoyed tone, asked.

“What… is my unannounced presence not welcome? Come now! We’re family Xan!” He pointed out something that Alaxandair can’t argue. “And besides… I want to meet the Lord Protector!”

“Lies…” Alaxandair murmured.

“Excuse me?”

“I SAID, LIES! I know why you’re here, you’re after my sister!”

Seriously?

I knew right away that this is more than just an overly protective brother, sheltering his sister from some guy. This is by all means a power struggle, I could tell between their eyes that they wanted to talk about politics and power in their own domain.

But they can’t, because I am here, and thinking about it… this won’t get anywhere really.

As last time I heard, usurping someone like a grand duke needs the blessing of their liege lord, the King and/or me!

But I still do hope this is just minor family spat and Alaxandair being an overbearing brother, because this kind of thing is annoying as hell.

Yes… I’ll admit that I want to break Albion’s status quo, but it’s specific ones like lower and upper class or decentralization and centralization.

It’s about the whole kingdom, not just some part of it, especially what I am being subjected to!

This… competition of who’s the better patriarch in the family.

Knock, knock…

The one who knocked and entered was one of the castle’s maids, she was there to inform us that dinner was ready, and like that, the spat stopped as we headed straight down to the dining room, where along the way we bumped into Ruith.

“Brother! Cousin! And Lord Protector…” She… though can’t be seen from the face, can be heard along her lines of how glad she is seeing me. “You three are going for dinner, right?”

“You’re, joining us?” Alaxandair asked with a slightly sarcastic tone because he knew she was going to hole up in her room again.

“Yes actually!” As Alaxandair and Domnall heard this, they were quite surprised by her answer, me though… seeing how she’s really free now and isn’t monitored 24/7 after… that event… wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Ohh! Alright then…” Though he said it neutrally, I could tell from his face he is screaming in joy.

Arriving at the dining room, we were greeted by some people who already arrived there.

Amadela, Miss Marie, Nieve, and Roison was sitting side by side. From the chatter I overheard, Nieve is telling a funny story to the three of them.

Arthur, Kristof and Pere on other hand was on another table, talking of course, probably about the Wynegys murders.

But there’s also the late ones to arrive, Eleanna, a bit red and sweating, cause she ran to the dining room, thinking she was late, and Sir Fionn that came along with her.

At first sight of Eleanna, I really wanted to have dinner with her by my side. From her reports on the investigation and just… wanting her to be by my side, I am her boyfriend after all! but… the seat was taken by Domnall.

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If I have to sum it up, he… really just want to butter me up, from throwing many topics to talk about to the wall, expecting one to stick, to… congratulating me with the Soleis… I guess… it’s an open secret now.

“You know there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask… did our grand duke here, really threw a pie at you?” Seeing he just took the chance for me and Eleanna being intimate, I asked him something that might make him embarrassed.

“Haha… you must have heard it from Amadela huh? Well, yes… he did throw a blueberry pie straight to my face, I am not mad anymore of course, but… for a man who has travel the world since he can walk, he sure does act like an unrefined peasant!”

“Haha…” that unexpected backhanded diss towards Alaxandair made me chuckle.

“Am I not wrong? I mean… the man is as backwards as those monks in their monasteries! He always spouts nonsense about tradition this, customs this, old way this... I bet a million krons that if he was in your shoes, specifically when you ‘renegotiated’ with the Soleis, he would just send them both straight to the dungeon, without even seeing and considering their value as puppets!” He rants.

“Well… C’mon, if I wasn’t me, the logical choice would be sending them straight to the dungeon like the criminals they are! But… thanks!” Again, I know he is just buttering me up, but from the tone of his rant towards Alaxandair, I felt it came out somewhat sincere.

“Either way… he is the Grand Duke, I am but a baron of a castle near a beach…” And… he shows his true colors.

Yeah, I know what you mean bud. People like your cousin is a pain in the ass, but if you want my blessing to whatever scheme you got against him, then show me what makes you better!

“By the way Lord Protector… I’ve heard your courting that Lady over there!” He pointed at Eleanna who was at the same table with Miss Marie and the other girls.

“Eleanna? Yeah, pretty much… we’ve been ‘courting’ one another since… 15 I think…” I said.

“Ohh… that’s one enfer of a dedication there Lord Protector! I guess, that’s what they call love huh?”

“Yeah… how about you? fancied any ladies here, except my Eleanna and my teacher of course!”

“Haha… none sadly. Alaxandair might think I fancied Ruith, which I did at a certain point of my life, but, honestly I don’t anymore, I see her more as just that rascal cousin, who likes riding my uncles’ shoulders.”

* * *

Click…

After closing our room’s front door, I was greeted with a big smiling Eleanna sitting in the couch, who was tapping the couch repeatedly in excitement to tell me what she found out.

“So… how’s your day?” I asked her as I went to sit beside her in the couch.

“Great! I found out that the killer is a man who’s a couple inches taller than Calum, also I got myself a deepthroat!”

“W-Wha?” Confused and scared is what I could describe when she said that.

“Not that one Mar!” She took my head out of the gutter. “The ‘All the President's Men’ kind of Deepthroat!”

“You’ve watch that?” I was genuinely surprised.

“Yeah… we’ve both watch it, with Arthur and Caitlin! It was movie night at your place!” She was jogging my head.

“Ohh!! Yeah, yeah, yeah! I remembered, we binge investigative movies all day that day!”

“Yeah! And, instead of an old man in a dark multi-floored parking lot, it was an old man in a snowy dark alleyway!”

“Huh… so what did your old mysterious coot spill?”

“The next place I am going to tomorrow with Jumque and Foulques, Castle Mochrumm!”

“Castle, Mochrumm? That’s Domnall’s castle… ohh… hmm…” I pondered in the realization.

“Wait it’s Domnall?” Eleanna quickly grasp my realization, though it wasn’t the right one.

“No, it’s not him, you already saw him, right? He’s below my height, and Calum, our victim, is near Arthur’s height.” I dismiss Eleanna’s suspicion. “This is still a long shot, because there’s a possibility that his courtier or serf acted on their own, but if it’s true, then this usurpation plot is going to be a pain in the ass…”

“Aww… come here!” She pulled my head down to her lap and then proceeded to gently stroke my hair. “Let’s change the subject! How’s, your day?”

“Discomforting and entertaining! The two Feannags rambled on and on about who has the bigger dick to be the family’s head, then some sis-con shit here and there from Alaxandair, but it’s still entertaining nonetheless!”

“Haha…” she chuckled.

“Well other than those two crows, me, Miss Marie, Arthur, Amadela, and Roison went to our grand duke’s snow bedded garden, made a lot of snowmen and even went to a snow war!”

“Ohh… you did?!” She said with a upset tone.

“Sorry El… Roison dragged me… but we could play tomorrow with her?” I proposed.

“Yeah… but it’s a half a day ride to Mochrumm… do me a solid and make Roison bored ‘kay! So, I can play all day with her! Haha…”

“You do like that little elf, don’t you?”

“How couldn’t I? Art’s little sis is the only cute girl that keeps me alive all the time back in our world and we’re stuck here for the moment, but! Thank god Lady Chloé rescued this… most-cutest and most well-mannered elf-girl! I just… want to pinch those cute rosy cheeks of her so hard!” Eleanna expressed her deep fascination with cute girls to me, again.

“Well just don’t pinch hers too hard like Morganna’s, unless you want to make her cry for over an hour!” I said with slight grin in my face.

“Morganna? Why are guys talking about my siste-” After entering and saw my head on Eleanna’s lap, Arthur froze. “I’ll… be giving you kids, some privacy…”

“W-wait!” Arthur pointing it out made Eleanna embarrassed.

And there she goes, she really can be a tsundere sometimes…

Mochrumm huh? I’ll admit I am kind of curious what his scheme is, I just hope he’s worth it…

Ohh and tomorrow is the winter festival, so that means… New Year’s Eve huh? Hmm… I really want to make it special for El… private dinner is a no, because we’re having a feast… then… ohh! It’s New Year’s Eve in a medieval world, I know exactly what to do!