She casted a faraway look through the open air; high and huge tress that covered the garden, their almost dark shade blurred into the night, brightening the stars and the lonely moon. The clear, cloudless sky acted like an anchor, pillars that connected the roofless Hall.

The dark stone stairs magnificently stood in each corners, like a secret doors that growing towards the heaven.

Jae slipped in easily, dismissing the frantic manservant and maids and smirked, eyeing the lone figure that sat perfectly still, with a set of candles and glasses of wine in lay forgotten in the table.   

Her long, cascading dark locks were loose, tumbling down into waves.

She didn’t move an inch and he knew that she was aware of him from the beginning.

He sipped the red wine, enjoying the sweet scent and staring at her curiously.

“What’s in your mind now?”

“Another planet. Another different race. Another life.”

Great, she was another science geek like his brother, judging from her answer, she was also immensely wonderful in philosophy.

“You’ll get along with Max. He’s a brainiac as well.”

He told her bluntly.

She tilted her head in confusion, large eyes reflecting the moon’s light, replied him with a perfect mix of wryness, bemusement, and sarcasm.

“Is that supposed to be compliment?”

He huffed at the question.

He took a peek at the high moon.

Time to drag her into a deeper conversation to gain more information.

Max waltzed out of the room. It must be quiet a record that this particular woman managed to infuriate him every time, even if she wasn’t in close proximity with him.

A female, light skinned figure advanced at him, a familiar face of his brother long-standing lover.

“He’s with her. Midnight hall, in south sea corridor.”

Yuri commented while walking passed him supporting the half drunk mess of the Prince of Wales, Max sent her a grateful look that she’d missed.

She enjoyed the bed. It was smooth and soft silk, the one that she’d usually slept when Jae wanted her company.

Her mind already whirled over her steady lover and her new interest; the Velikiy Knyaz and the Prince of Wales. Both were destined for the throne, yet the former denied his and the latter was incredibly naïve and righteous that it was laughable that the Duke of York hadn’t kicked him out of his stool sooner.

Well, may be because his mind had been occupied by Seo.

The Heiress of Savoy was struggling to find her footing when she lost Tsesarevich’s affection totally last year because of Crystal. And just this year Caroline lost him from the foreign Tsesarevna.

She immediately disliked the glint that Jae reflected from his eyes months ago.

Yuri knew he would chase his sister-in-law, charmed her, broke her like another toy.

It was either for who Tsesarevna originally was or whose she was.

That was probably the reason Jae allowed her to play with the British heir. The Grand Prince was getting a new toy, so he lent his old one for a moment to another kid.

He was quite possessive of her.

She was the only one who survived and managed to nurture a small fondness for the notoriously playboy and famously cruel Grand Prince after all.   

Max. Max. Max. For the love of Tsar, that boy was possessive as well!

All Russian royalty were, it was in his blood.

Especially with father as special as the Emperor.

Though all those traits were buried deep within his haughtiness and self-loving egoistical bastard charade he’d loved to masquerade all the time.

Heh. Naslednik Tsesarevich was starting to fall in love. Too bad he would never realize that given his penchant of obviously rational male brain.

She the pendant that she’d succeeded to steal from the Prince of Wales.

Her delicate finger grasped the lock and opened.

There were two name engraved.

Stephen and Sunny.

Oh.

Stephen.

And Sunny.

His Royal Highness Stephen Arthur, Prince of Wales.

Yvonne Yuri Alexeivna, lover and mistress of Ivan James, Velikiy  Knyaz.

And Sunny.

Two women who could cope with his talk of ideal world daily.

Two women who would compete for his affection.

Only one certainly would bear the crown of Princess of Wales.

Still.

Her and Sunny.

Oh my God.

Yuri couldn’t help. She cackled gleefully

This was precious, she thought as she wiped her tears of mirth.

She needed to tell Jae! She woudn’t want to miss when her lover narrated what she had found to his best friend.

Casey was going to throw the biggest tantrum in the century.

“He makes another blunder.”

Philippe commented, he could see this prediction miles away when he observed the new Crown Princess conversed naturally with Jae.

“Who’s doing the stupid idea?”

Louis replied, not taking a look from the book he’d been reading while his brother enjoyed the night breeze.

“Both.”

“Let them be. Max is a brat, sooner Sophie would just haul his from his stuffed lovers for ignoring her.”

“And Ivan?”

Ah. Even the proper name calling, Philippe; even though you hated him, he mused fondly.

“I think he will really fall this time. Hard. Falling fast and hard too.”

“Ouch.”  

He casually drank the sweet concoction, blended ice, double creams and double caramel coffee and observing the bustle of busy café.

The place wasn’t an extraordinary, yet it was his secret sanctuary.

Though perhaps it wasn’t a secret anymore, he mused.

Her companion face turned into a blissful oblivion when she sipped her double espresso.

How the hell this woman managed to drag him into a secret date in his favourite place? And how she could enjoy those bitter beverage without anything sweet?

“It takes me a long time to search and work for the source heat, hot enough to actually manage to fuse the deuterium.”

Oh, yes.

He would definitely listening and purposely forgetting his bet with Jae that he could disregard his wife for a certain time.

The date.

It was delicious. And totally not romantic.

What a wonderful morning.

His wife was bribing him with a new non-pollutant energy source that the Electorate of Llelewyn had already implemented.

He’d contemplated afterwards.

His little competition with his brother wasn’t worth anything for him.

Especially with an intelligent science debate that gained much attention from the college students at that morning.

If only they could have the enlightening discussion like this every day.

Perhaps she wasn’t a bad company to spend with in the rest of his life. 

AN :

New characters in this chapter. 

Yvonne Yuri Alexeivna : Yuri, Kwon.

Stephen Arthur, Prince of Wales: Tiffany, Hwang.

Old characters.

Ivan Jae James, Velikiy Knyaz, Grand Prince of Russia : Jaejoong, Kim.

Maximillian, Tsesarevich : Max, Changmin.

Frederick Louis Roi, dauphin : Andrew Choi, Siwon.

Philippe Louis, duke of Anjou : Zhoumi.

Sophie Auguste, Tsesarevna : U-Know, Yunho.

Terms used in this chapter :

Tsar : (Tzar, Czar or Csar; Bulgarian, Serbian and Ukrainian) is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism. The term is derived from the Latin word Caesar, which was intended to mean "Emperor" in the European medieval sense of the term - a ruler with the same rank as a Roman emperor, holding it by the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official (the Pope or theEcumenical Patriarch) - but was usually considered by western Europeans to be equivalent to king, or to be somewhat in between a royal and imperial rank.

Tsesarevich (Цесаревич): is the term for a male heir apparent, the full title was Heir Tsesarevich ("Naslednik Tsesarevich", Наследник Цесаревич), informally abbreviated in Russia to The Heir ("Naslednik") (capitalized).