31 — Florian's Welcome

'Well, the Snakow wasn't a big deal.' Joezand thinks, looking mindlessly at the ceiling of the carriage. 'The fight with Pult was way more tense. I genuinely thought he'd kill me. And he almost broke my arm! It's still kind of hurting.'

'But you came out on top.' Sunnaria sighs dreamily. 'I can only imagine how dashing you looked when you cut him and claimed your victory. Or how cute you looked when that maid put her hands on you after training, hehe. You've grown so much, little lamb!'

'S-Stop imagining that! Jeez—'

"You're BLUSHING now?" Agnes says, robbing him of his train of thought. He looks at her, seeing her raised eyebrow. Iaomai is by her side, diligently carving a piece of wood.

"W-What? Blushing? Why would I be blushing?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out! Ever since you came back to the carriage you've been spaced out, looking upwards and giggling to yourself. Did you hid your head or something?" Agnes rolls her eyes. "You're probably imagining something completely and utterly uncouth and perverted, aren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Shut up now." He says dismissively, looking up and starting to think again. 'So, as I was saying—'

"No, seriously. What the hell are you doing?" Agnes asks.

"I'm just thinking. God, get off my case already."

"About what?!"

"I'm reminiscing!" Joezand replies. "Don't you have anything better to do than just bothering me?"

"Not really, no." Agnes shrugs. "There's no books or anything here. Lorelai's leading the horses, Iaomai's too focused on carving a new crutch to chat with me, and I'm still mad at your maid. So you're really the only one I can talk to."

"I could still talk to you, Duchess Agnes." Iaomai says.

"No. Keep your mouth shut and keep carving. Make it flawless!"

"U-Understood." The butler replies.

"Well, that's not my problem." Joezand says. "You can stay quiet and enjoy the trip, how about that?"

"Are you forgetting I'm doing you a favor being here? Agatha wouldn't let you go anywhere without a chaperone. At least I won't get involved in your business." Agnes says. "Speaking of that, you still haven't told me why we're going to Kivul."

"I told you, I'm looking at the lay of the land." He explains. "Seeing if it's a good territory to start actually acting like the prince. I might end up at the emperor seat, after all."

"That's a load of bull and you know it. You don't give a crap about having a duchy or anything like that. And you certainly don't care about being the next emperor."

"People change, Agnes. I told you this before."

"No, no, no. You're not pulling this again." Agnes argues. "You always liked fighting and hunting," Hm. So those hunting bows hung up in his room make sense now. Good to know. "so I can believe you made yourself train to beat Pult. But I know you. When we were growing up, you complained every time someone mentioned owning a territory. You complained every time we had to read a book on the subject of governing. Not one time. Not two times. Every time." Agnes continues. "You always expressed how uninterested you were at anything like that from childhood to adolescence. You expect to believe that you changed your whole personality in months? I'm not stupid, Joezand." She leans forward. "You're hiding something from me. And I completely despise, totally hate, fully abhor, absolutely loathe, and utterly detest not knowing. So tell me the truth."

"Okay, sure." He whispers as he leans in as well, face to face with her. "I'll tell you. Not here, not now. I'll wait until we've settled in on the city. But you have to stop being annoying and argumentative all the time. And apologize to Anneliese, too."

"But she... Ugh, fiiiine." She straightens herself back up and looks at the maid by his side. "I'm... sorry, Anneliese." The words come out with great difficulty. "For being rude to you earlier."

"O-Oh, that's, uhm..." Anneliese says. "T-That's fine, Duchess Agnes. I d-did break your crutch, after all."

"That you did." Agnes replies, exasperated. "But I'm getting another one now. So don't kill yourself over it or something."

"W-Well, still, I commited such a grave wrongdoing and—"

"Oh my god, just stop being a doormat and accept the apology already." Agnes grumbles. "You're starting to get on my nerves."

"A-Alright." Anneliese says. "Thank you, Duchess Agnes. And I'm s-sorry too, for breaking it."

"Yeah, yeah. You already said it before." Agnes says, leaning back into her chair. She looks to the side at her butler. "How's it coming along?"

"It's fine, but it will still take a while." Iaomai answers. "I should probably be able to finish it by tomorrow night."

"Cool. Another whole day without walking. Very nice." Agnes sighs. "I really wish—"

Everyone is launched forwards as the carriage stops.

"Again?!" Agnes complains. "Learn how to drive, you maniac!"

"Shush, we're here." Lorelai voice comes from the front. "Oh. Well, well, well. Look who's here to welcome you guys."

They get out of the carriage, seeing a rather barebones village. Dirt road, wooden houses with hay ceilings, stone well right at the middle. A few common peasants with simple clothes are going about their day, but the person next to the city's entrance is clearly not one of them. Very well defined jawline, incredibly muscular, short brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a red cape with a green shirt and pants, huge sword sheathed at his hip. He smiles as he walks up towards the carriage.

"Hey, there." Joezand says. "We're here on business—"

Joezand is grabbed all of a sudden.

"Ack!" He exclaims.

"H-Hey!" He hears Agnes let out a shrill scream next to him. The man... hugs them both. Really, really tightly.

"Brother! Sister!" He says with a booming voice. "I missed you guys!"

Oh, that must be...

"Florian!" Agnes cries out. "Put me down, you animal!"

The last royal he hadn't met.

Florian von Styria.