|Little ones – connect me with Surou, please.|

Not really though – the moment that he was sure that the brown-haired woman left, he called out to his sentinels and gave instructions.

“(Okay~!)”

“(Ah! I get it!)”

|…?|

The first sentinel agreed without a moment of hesitation, but unexpectedly, the usually more easygoing second one called out suddenly, making Zoemi raise his brow.

“(What did you get…?)”

The first sentinel was no less taken aback than the black-haired boy and asked for an explanation.

“(We all were surprised when dad told us he thinks about all of us as his children, right? But since the beginning, he called us his little ones!”

“(EH?! I always thought that he meant our size!)”

The second sentinel revealed excitedly, and the first one gasped in disbelief mixed in with realization.

|…I should have been more clear on that – that was never about your dimensions, I just thought that little ones sound cuter than kids…|

Zoemi looked to the side in embarrassment, happy that the two sentinels weren’t in the same room to witness his blushing face.

“(Ahaha~! Okay, dad, I’m using our version of the message spell now~!)”

“(Ah! Not fair! I was going to do that!)”

The second sentinel laughed cheerfully before declaring – which in turn made the first one cry out feeling cheated.

“I know this feeling… Zoemi? Are you contacting me?”

After a moment, even though the connection happened from the black-haired boy’s initiative, the second prince Surou was the one to speak up first.

There was a lot of hesitation in his voice and not without reason – he could feel the pressure in his mind but no one began talking to him, making things very suspicious.

Honestly, in his situation being careful like that wasn’t anything special, one could even argue that the blue-haired boy was too easygoing, straight up asking for Zoemi by name.

“|Royto, my boy, how are things going on your side?|”

Still, his words were what made Zoemi shake his head and speak up after the touching scene.

“So it’s really you, good. I will not have to forcefully drag you into this to help me out…”

Surou breathed out in relief, hearing the voice of the black-haired boy in his head, revealing why he acted as he did at the beginning.

“What do you need me for? Do you want to finally hear an update on the situation in Atreterve?”

The blue-haired boy asked, sounding very mockingly, and slightly annoyed.

Originally Zoemi put him up to gather information in the foreign country, but it didn’t really seem like he needed the information all that much.

For Surou who wanted to lay as low as possible, that wasn’t particularly bad, but after some time it began to bother him,

“|Did the news about what happened in the kingdom of Bellcephora reach the Atreterve already?|”

“(Pardon…? What news are you talking about?)”

The black-haired boy asked, making the blue-haired one ask back in hesitation mixed with confusion.

“|Ah. So nothing, huh? You see, the official version known to the public is of course slightly different, but basically – the queen was being hexed and controlled by the Barbariacca nation this whole time, Horeo learned about it and decided to act, he almost killed the royal couple but was stopped by lady Bellcephora… whom he later defeated with shocking ease, by the way… unfortunately the former royal couple managed to flee and is expected to flee to a different nation, namely Barbariacca. Meanwhile, king Horeo successfully claimed the throne after the support of the King’s Guard and the gathering of the nobles. Oh, and it appears that they have found out about your absence only now, and believe that you were kidnapped and tortured in order to get the information that would allow the spies to infiltrate the royal castle out of you.|”

Zoemi nodded to himself and decided to not keep the second prince in the dark anymore, giving him the compact version of the news.

“(…)”

…which obviously rendered the blue-haired boy speechless…

“(…say… was that whole me being kidnapped and possibly tortured thing doesn’t really paint me in a particularly horrible light…)”

Still, after being freed from the hex that was dulling his mind, Surou recovered within just a few seconds and asked in a cautious voice.

“|No. It was all Horeo. I was unfortunately unconscious at the time as my health is getting more and more problematic. But putting aside the small stuff… You know what? I was going to reunite you with Burushi anyway, why not do that right after you will have a proper talk with your dear older brother. I am positive that he will be actually happy to see you act normal again after so long.|”

Zoemi said casually, brushing off his own problems and focusing on the matter between the two brothers.

“(You are having issues with your health? Considering our situation isn’t it possible that you got cursed? Those types of spells can be horrendously nasty!)”

Surou ended up surprising Zoemi and instead of focusing on the matters directly involving him, he instead worried about the black-haired boy’s wellbeing.

“|True, they can – and I believe that by now I can say that with more experience than you… but the most annoying thing is that if my problems were caused by curses, it would actually make dealing with all of that a lot easier… a whole lot…|”

Zoemi sighed with a bitter expression, putting his hand on his abdomen even though he wasn’t experiencing any pain at the moment.

“(That’s worrisome… Are you really okay…?)”

Surou sounded as if the information bothered him greatly.

“|I will manage – rather than focusing on that, tell me are you fine with meeting with Horeo and Burushi – or at least one of them – and if you are, then when exactly. It can be just a talk too like we are doing just now, but I believe it would be better to have you talk things out face to face. That is just my opinion though. The final choice is yours.|”

The black-haired boy waved his hand dismissively even though the second prince couldn’t really see him, before shrugging his shoulders and giving Surou his options.

For a moment there was silence. The blue-haired boy must have been considering his options carefully.

Things were not really easy from his side, after all.

He didn’t have a healthy relationship with his older brother… to say the least…

It might have seemed that after becoming the king, Horeo was trying to show some goodwill by publicly announcing that Surou’s disappearance must have been a kidnapping…

…but on the other hand, the same information suggested that he was responsible for leaking invaluable information to the enemy nation…

Unwillingly and after being supposedly exposed to torture, but still.

The most problematic thing about that was that if Surou was still under the influence of the hex, he would surely believe that his older brother has only good intentions and immediately after learning the information try to come in contact with him.

As for Burushi…

Things weren’t all that different, honestly.

Nowhere near as potentially life-threatening, but surely problematic.

Surou as he was now didn’t believe that he was a person that Burushi wanted to meet.

All of her direct contact with him – including the outrageous engagement and apparently creating an engagement ring to boot – happened solely because of the hex influencing the blue-haired boy’s thoughts and actions.

“(Give me a few days. I am okay with meeting them both face to face, but I want to talk things out with someone who would love to visit our kingdom. They would need special permission though.)”

Interestingly enough, despite all of that, the thing that the second prince seemed to be bothered the most was a completely different matter that Zoemi didn’t even see coming.

“|Oh? Well… Is it perhaps that young wife of the slave market owner? I am not someone who would try to tell others how to live their lives, but as Burushi’s friend, let me tell you that there are better ways of rejecting people than showing up with a new lover.|”

“(…huh…?)”

Zoemi furrowed his brows and rubbed his hands awkwardly before taking a deep breath and just saying what he had in mind about Surou’s announcement – but apparently, he missed completely with his interpretation…

“|…that’s not the case…?|”

The black-haired boy asked nervously, feeling really stupid.

“(I mean… you correctly guessed who I had in mind, but you completely misunderstood my reasoning.)”

Surou explained with a sigh and Zoemi could tell that the blue-haired boy was rubbing his forehead in disbelief at the rather outrageous assumption.

“(You see, that girl is singlehandedly responsible for freeing dozens of slaves already – some of whom were the citizens of our kingdom who were about to be illegally sold under forged identities to make it less conspicuous. Anyway – call me in three days, I should know everything by that point. Now I need to go because master is sick and I need to make sure the old fool eats something before taking his medicine. Make sure that Horeo will not try to imprison or kill me on the spot, and take care of yourself.)”

“|Sure thing.|”

The second prince said what he had to say and signaled to end the call, to which Zoemi agreed with nothing new to say.

That left the black-haired boy alone in the room.

After everything that happened until that point, the peace seemed weird – almost unnatural.

“(Dad, do you want to know who that girl is?)”

“(You know, the one that the second prince was talking about!)”

Sensing Zoemi’s mood change, his two sentinels tried their best to cheer him up and asked.

“No, it’s okay. It seemed like Surou wanted it to be a big reveal of sorts, so we should let him have it.”

The black-haired boy siled and laid down pulling a blanket up to his chin.

“You should rest too, who knows how long this peace would last.”

He added, staring at the ceiling.