Chapter Two: Reunion

Yawn. Leonhardt stretched, feeling unusually stiff.

Assessing his surroundings, he realized his bed decorated with the insignia felt strangely wide.

Was the magic properly invoked?

Leonhardt lifted his body and sat up on the bed before looking around. It was a vaguely familiar space. He blinked in surprise when he realized that it was as if the room he had used until he was about fifteen.

No way…

Did the magic really work? Or was this a curse the witch cast on his ignorant self as a punishment? Leonhardt covered his face with his hands. They were too small.

Huh? Leonhardt doubted his eyes.

Nowhere could he find his big hands that had thick fingers with perfectly formed joints, so large that one alone could hold three books. Hands worn with scars. The hands in front of him were white, soft, and without a scratch on them. They had barely been used to hold pens and books or even a wooden sword.

What’s with these flimsy hands…?

Worry made his head feel fuzzy and his stomach heavy, like he had swallowed a rock. Leonhardt touched his own cheeks with an uneasy movement. Plump and squishy. His face, which used to have handsome, strong features, was gone, and he was touching cheeks that felt as soft as well-raised bread dough.

Leonhardt jumped off the bed in a hurry, suddenly dizzy when he realized his eye-level was strangely very low. If the magic really succeeded in turning time back, there should be a mark under the bedside table.

Oh my God! There it was—a mark with clumsy handwriting under the small table that he had made when he was eight years old. It was a mark that only he knew.

Did the magic really work? To get the final confirmation, Leonhardt pulled on the bell rope. If that woman’s magic really managed to turn back time…

“Your Highness! You’ve awakened. We’ll get the water ready for you.” His nanny, who was supposed to have departed from his palace the day he became an adult, appeared instantly.

His nanny and the maids skillfully started to wash him and change his clothes. The platinum golden hair, looking as soft and thin as a skein of silk, and the vivid violet eyes reflected in the mirror were all just as he remembered.

However, it had been an extremely long time since he had soft lines unique to a child, a pair of arms and legs that were only starting to grow long, and muscles that were not yet defined.

Still unable to believe this situation even after he saw it with his own eyes, Leonhardt’s lips moved slightly as he tried to organize his thoughts.

The feeling of his lips opening and closing, and his soft and supple young skin, was as real as it could be. He gulped down a few breaths, thinking.

1. He realized his deep regrets too late—the empress had already passed away.
2. He had then asked for the witch of the Clock Tower’s help.
3. He came back to the past to make the empress happy.

Judging by how his room looked, his nanny’s presence, and the mark under his bedside table, he predicted that he’d come back to the time when he was around ten years old.

So… it worked. But what now? His thoughts swirled in a storm, but he quickly arrived at a conclusion. From now on, he should strive to annul the engagement between him and the empress that had been arranged before they were born. If she didn’t become the empress to begin with, everything would be easily solved.

If she marries a suitable man who is not the Crown Prince and lives as normally as any noblewoman does, she will at least not have to die in my stead. Maybe she would be able to live happily in that case.

Leonhardt had decided to go to the current emperor—his father—to annul the engagement, but when he saw the formal attire the maid brought, he tilted his head.

That outfit… he was sure he had seen it somewhere…?

“What is this?”

“Today is an important day, so Your Highness, you must wear this attire no matter what.”

“Important day?”

“Your Highness! I told you over and over again last night. Today is the day you will meet your fiancée, who will later become the Crown Princess and the empress in the end, so… Your Highness, you do remember the lady’s name, don’t you?”

“Lady Elysium?” Leonhardt uttered the empress’ family name in dismay. His head started to spin so fast that it rang.

Why? Why must it be today? Leonhardt squinted at the clothes and shook his head. “Elizabeth Isolde von Elysium is a silver-haired lady with blue eyes. Rather than this color… this color would be better,” Leonhardt said while pointing at a dark blue formal attire.

“…We’ll bring it at once!”

Until yesterday, the Crown Prince was someone who would throw the imperial palace into chaos with his selfish streak. Even if the maid thought that he seemed strange today, she must have been relieved to know that he remembered his fiancée’s name and appearance very clearly.

After he was dressed neatly in the dark blue formal attire and while his nanny was brushing his beautiful golden hair, Leonhardt was internally pulling his hair out.

Why… why must it be that day?! I couldn’t even give her a proper farewell because that rascal Ils said that I shouldn’t come to her grave if I had any sense of shame! I haven’t prepared my heart, yet it’s already the day for me to meet the empress for the first time?

“Your Highness. What did you say the lady’s name was?”

“…Elizabeth Isolde von Elysium.”

“Excellent. More than anything else, you must at least remember her name no matter what!” His nanny was so desperate that her hand that was holding him felt burning.

Leonhardt silently nodded. He had confidence that he would never forget her name—if nothing else.

“…Were you not able to sleep well last night? No wonder your complexion doesn’t look good, Your Highness…”

“Ahh. It’s nothing. It’s just… I get nervous when I think about meeting my life companion.” To be precise, they were meeting again. As Leonhardt was saying whatever came to his mind, he remembered the day they met for the first time and what was written in her journal about it.

“What a spiderweb-like hair.”

“Someone like you is the fiancée of the Crown Prince? The Crown Princess? The future empress?”

“Do whatever you want. I’m curious as to how long you can stay.”

[ I met His Highness the Crown Prince for the first time today. His Highness abhorred my hair and said it was like a spiderweb. Mother discussed with father about how they should hire a magician to dye my hair. ]

…What a certified scum!

Even though his nanny had brushed his hair, Leonhardt ruffled his hair again before slamming his head against the table.

The full-grown man hadn’t adjusted himself to a child’s body yet and ended up ramming his soft skin against the firm wood. Before his nanny could let out a scream, the ten-year-old Leonhardt cried out loud.

***

Inside the carriage heading to the duke’s residence, the maids were desperately pinching each other to stop themselves from laughing. Leonhardt’s nanny managed to endure it with her years of experience, but she also made an indescribable expression at times.

“Just laugh,” The Crown Prince granted them imperial permission.

The people inside the carriage then looked at each other before bending forward, their shoulders shaking. It was the choice they made because they could not dare to laugh openly in front of the young imperial who had a white bandage on his forehead.

His nanny, on the other hand, took a wiser route. “Your Highness, it must’ve hurt, huh? Your Highness… must have been deep in thought about the lady. We couldn’t even notice that… please forgive our discourtesy. Please come here, I’ll hold you.”

Leonhardt let out a sigh before letting himself be held by his nanny. Now that the Crown Prince couldn’t see her expression, she silently burst into laughter as she looked out of the golden carriage.

“I get nervous when I think about meeting my life companion,” he had said.

The maids had doubted their ears when they heard this. Did those words really come out of the mouth of the young Crown Prince, who had just been fuming yesterday saying his parents had sold their child?

Then, they had started to doubt their eyes. The Crown Prince had slammed his forehead against the hard wooden desk. Even if it was a desk for children, it had to be of the finest quality if it was for the Crown Prince. The desk, made from the finest timber, was so sturdy that it was basically a miracle Leonhardt didn’t pass out given the force he used to slam against it.

They had put a bandage on his reddened forehead and styled down his hair again to cover it. The maids knew that if they laughed here, they wouldn’t just be fired the next day but could potentially be beheaded for insulting the imperial family. That was why they had been holding in their laughter by pinching each other’s sides.

Meanwhile, Leonhardt kept thinking about his first meeting with the empress and regretting it.

I can’t say it’s like a spiderweb. I must say anything but a spiderweb. Yes! I should just… I should just say… How should I compliment her?

But no matter how much he tried to jog his memory, he couldn’t remember anything other than likening her to a spiderweb or mockingly laughing while saying “someone like you will be the empress?”

Leonhardt was truly glad his face was buried in his nanny’s warm embrace. If it hadn’t been, the imperial carriage’s window might have been smashed with his head this time.

Leonhardt decided that if they could meet this time, he would not repeat his foolish acts and would instead praise how beautiful her silver hair was. And if he could manage to talk her into canceling this engagement, just as he planned…

Would she be happy for real?

“Look at His Highness’ expression. He might be a child, but he seems to be looking forward to it, don’t you think?”

“Didn’t you hear what he said in the morning? His life companion… I would even believe it if he said his heart is fluttering about it rather than just looking forward to it.”

“Shh! You’ll wake His Highness. I feel like this is my first time seeing this side of him ever since I started serving him.”

The maids’ whispers started to sound farther away.

Could the empress really live happily if he called the engagement off? Could she meet someone who would genuinely love her and would give anything for her?

It was only after he took the throne that he could understand why his father had to make a ridiculous deal with the duke of Elysium by making him get engaged before his birth. The union between the imperial family and the ducal family, which had a history of producing the very first empress, would not make an awkward and uncomfortable relationship.

The imperial family and the Elysium family formed a strategic alliance to maintain a friendly relationship, at least on the surface, since both sides always kept an eye on each other.

It was the easiest method with no inconvenience on either side. And that was the engagement between the imperial family and the Elysium family. To him who had just taken over the throne that time, it was ridiculous and miserable that two children who were not born yet had been tied to each other since they were in their mothers’ wombs.

His attitude towards the empress might have just been a misdirected expression of his anger over this matter. However, the object of his anger should not have been the innocent empress, but rather his father, who failed to establish a stronger foundation for imperial authority.

Leonhardt’s eyelids grew heavier. He nuzzled his stinging forehead into his nanny’s shoulder and closed his eyes. Whether their engagement gets broken off or not, for now, it was the utmost priority to do what a child’s body was most accustomed to do.

As he drifted into sleep, he kept asking, over and over again…

What if the empress had to become an empress against her will once again?

What if she became the empress or the queen of another country instead of this empire?

No, no. It didn’t matter.

What if she couldn’t live a happy life even if she met someone other than him?

Unable to find an answer for the last question, he decided to change his plan.

Let’s change the future I’m certain of. She is someone who will become the Crown Prince’s fiancée, then the Crown Princess, and finally the empress. Rather than forcing that future to change, I can just change myself. I just need to make her happy. But…

Leonhardt’s little heart throbbed painfully, and he opened his eyes. His conscience, which had disappeared as an adult, seemed to have returned and was stabbing him in the chest.

Do I have the right to make her happy?

Leonhardt’s eyelids were threatening to close again, but he forced them to stay open as he mentally asked permission from the empress, who he was about to meet.

If you would allow me, I swear to do anything for your sake. Empress, my empress. Am I permitted to love you? In this life, at least in this lifetime, may I be the one to make you happy?