Leo had to bluff.

He had to say such an abysmal amount of immense lies with maximum certainty so that no one would have been able to object.

He had to create such a poignant backstory that the judges of Masterchef could not have done anything but take him to the kitchen to increase the audience!

No wait, he wasn't at Masterchef.

But the concept was the same!

“When you are an orphan and you have no female figure in your life besides your younger sister, it becomes practically impossible not to start cooking” he muttered, almost to himself, but with the clear intention of being heard by both men.

He did not look at them, but stared at a point on the horizon as if he were immersed in deep thoughts.

"An orphan?" Chevel asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

“My parents died when I was little... when my sister was little. And I also have six brothers, actually. Not all from both parents... my dad used to mess around a lot. Anyway, I was the eldest, I had to look after them, and I learned to cook with nothing to support them. I know how to make excellent bread, and rework stale bread into tasty recipes” Leo continued to invent, hoping not to forget the emotional fake story.

The prince turned to him, and looked at him curiously.

“This bread is not from our country. We bought it at Valkrest. Our cooks satisfy us, and I strongly doubt that a self-taught person could be up to the royal kitchen” he objected, and from his gaze, it was clear that he did not believe a word of what Leo was saying.

"You should go back to your family if they need you as much as you say," suggested Chevel, who seemed more inclined to believe the fake backstory, but kept looking at him suspiciously.

They raised two very good points in this regard.

“Yes, I could… no, I can't, because you caught me. And also the salary of a royal cook could certainly help my family a lot more than any other job. I doubt they would allow me to work or open a bakery since I'm a man” okay, he wasn't entirely sure sexism was so great that it prevented a man from finding work, but if that wasn't the case he could pretend that in Lumai he had happened to be discriminated against?

Hey, he was okay with saying anything. It couldn't go worse than it was already going.

After all, he wasn't a spy and he was a very good cook.

One of his part-time jobs had gotten him in a 2-star Michelin restaurant... for a week... as a waiter.

But he had observed everything, taken notes, and had also given a little help with the presentation of the cake.

He was experienced when it came to cooking.

“The question seems obvious: what were you doing in the forest bordering Valkrest if you are originally from Lumai, in a completely different area? Do you think I could ever trust such a suspicious person?” realizing that Leo wanted to chat, the prince had forgotten his commitments with his sister to concentrate on the prisoner.

And if he had found himself in a different situation, Leo wouldn't have minded all that attention.

Too bad it was the wrong kind of attention.

Leo had only a few seconds to reflect on the question without seeming suspicious.

And he no longer had a chance to retrace his steps and say "You are right, I lied about everything I said because in reality I suffer from amnesia and I'm in a panic" because after all the information given it was no longer credible.

Then he fired the biggest bluff in the history of bluffing.

“Do you want to know the truth? Yes, I come from Valkrest, but I am from Lumai, and the reason I was there was that they had taken me as a slave, and I fled!” the prince and knight's eyes widened, and they gaped at Leo.

The boy had tried to be as pained as possible at the memory of the fake tortures he had endured, and he hoped with all his heart that Valkrest really had some slave trade somewhere.

…No, wait, he wasn't really hoping for it, poor people, but at least his story would have been credible, so some rumors of any slave trafficking in the neighboring kingdom would have been a good thing.

Come on, there were definitely slaves in a medieval fantasy universe like this, right?

A world where a man cannot cook would also have stooped low enough to deprive poor defenseless people of freedom.

“Valkrest has a slave trade?!” asked the prince, finally hanging from his lips, approaching the bars to better examine Leo’s expressions.

Was it too late to drop the accusation?

Yes, definitely yes.

Leo hoped not to inadvertently provoke a war.

“I don't know exactly who the masterminds were, or who was with me, or who organized everything, but they caught me. My family is poor, they wanted to take one of my brothers, but I offered myself in his place. I couldn't allow him to end up in the clutches of those people” pretending he had sacrificed himself was a great idea, right?

He would have seemed nicer, and would have elicited empathy from his captors.

The prince actually seemed troubled by that story.

“If it is true that there is an illegal slave trade, I should promptly send a letter to the king of Valkrest to investigate the matter. I don't want to believe that the royal family is entangled, but some nobles may have resumed their old ways. Chevel, do you think that we will be able to hurry up?” the prince started to work out a plan of action, proving that he was indeed a good monarch.

Leo tried to remain impassive and not show the sense of guilt that just attacked him for the stupid story made up from scratch and panic.

And most of all… hastening the pace meant that the jolts on that carriage were only going to increase.

But maybe Leo deserved the nausea.

“Do you really believe that some power-hungry man would go against the commandments of the council of gods? I find it more plausible that this boy is lying” Chevel observed, glaring at Leo, who concentrated on the remaining bread so as not to show that the knight's suspicions were more than founded.

Ugh, there was a bit of mold on the crust, yuck!

“Who would lie about such an important matter?” asked the prince, observing Leo in turn, who was trying to remove the ruined pieces.

“A man without values and without morals, willing to do anything to end up in the graces of your majesty with who knows what reprehensible intent” Chevel replied, with clear disgust towards Leo, who felt deeply attacked.

Unable to control his actions, he threw the moldy crust straight at Chevel, hitting him in the face.

There were a few moments of general stillness.

And probably the only reason why Leo hadn't become shish kebab stabbed by the knight's sword was that the two men were too surprised by his rash gesture to react immediately.

And Leo, who knew in his heart that after hitting a knight with a moldy bread crust he was now with one foot in the pit, decided that if he was going to die, he would die with a bang.

“I am not a saint, I am not a genius and I am not the best person you will capture, but you do not dare to say that I have no values. I have values! And I care about my family, my rights and my freedom, all of the things that have been ripped off me. I'm hurt, I've been locked up, you've fed me moldy bread, and I've been here less than a day. I understand your position too, okay, but you don't make any effort to understand mine. I'm not a spy, I'm not an infiltrator, and I'm not dangerous. And being insulted about values by a guy who believes a man can't cook is the most unfair and ironic thing that's ever happened to me today. AND YOU STABBED ME WITH A SWORD!” Leo vented all the pent-up anger since he ended up in that world.

He was tired, disoriented, treated very badly for no reason, and even unjustly discriminated against.

He couldn't take it anymore.

And probably his frustration and sincerity were received at least by the prince, because after staring at him for a few seconds, he gestured to Chevel, who had already put his hand to the sword, in order to stop him.

“We should depart. Call the guards” he encouraged the knight, who made a small bow and anticipated him away from the prisoner.

“I don't understand if you're brave or just very stupid, but you're on very thin ice” were the last words the prince said to him before following the man.

Leo was left alone, and he was finally free to let the tears flow freely.

He was not a weakling or a crybaby, but the weight of what was happening to him, and the knowledge that the danger was ever more real, began to get ahold of him.

He expected the prison on wheels to restart at any moment, but before this happened, another person, the last one he expected to see again so soon, made their blond head appear through the prison bars.

“Are you crying? I thought that men never cried” asked the little princess, with lively, curious and surprised eyes.

“Flash news, men can do everything that women do too” Leo informed her, honestly not giving a damn about status or education anymore. His tone of voice, however, softened a little, and he became more gentle.

The princess didn't seem frightened, and she leaned more toward him.

“Is it true that you can cook?” she asked shyly.

Leo lifted his head, and looked into her eyes, slightly nodding.

Now that he saw her more closely, without thinking of his older brother and the mad swordsman, he realized how much she reminded him of his own sister.

Or maybe he was just starting to miss his sister too much.

Physically they didn't look alike at all, but they had the same energy: curious, kind, and innocent.

“Yes, I really like cooking. I cooked for my sister before I ended up here. She loves my pancakes and my crepes” he explained, hinting at a sad smile.

“What are those things?” asked the princess, tilting her head in confusion.

The princess didn't know pancakes and crepes?! Leo had to fix that.

“They are a very good type of dessert to eat for breakfast. Few ingredients are needed. For the crepes only flour, milk and eggs. They are excellent with chocolate and marmalade” he explained, trying to mimic the dessert with his hands.

The princess seemed really interested in his explanation.

“Princess! Where are you?!” Chevel's voice came from afar, and the princess jumped.

“I hope that one day you will cook them for me” she smiled at him, before turning around and returning to her carriage, which was certainly less shabby.

Leo had the same hope, even though his was mostly "I hope I won't die before I have the chance."

He’d been thinking too much about his own death lately.