The whole room is silent for a while just clicking on utensils and expectantly gazing at Kaldor, but he is not responding, he just continues with his meal, not paying attention to Alora at all.

“Did you hear what I said,” Alora said again, finally gaining Kaldor’s attention.

He looks her up and down for a while. Before dealing the final blow to his father’s plan, “you know to be my fiancé I also need to agree to it, right?”

Alora is embarrassed for a while. almost nears tears, “but your father said I was fit to be your wife.”

He hums for a while, savoring the piece. of meat in his mouth, a habit he picked up from watching Azura eat, “I know what father was thinking, but it seemed he needed to update a few things he knew about me.”

“What is that?” Gael asked curiously.

“Well, my type has changed, I don’t like girls like her anymore. I like girls with long curly black hair and have lots of muscles, like the duchess’s daughter Azura,” he says proudly.

Knowing in the capital it was very common to meet a woman/dragon with black hair, but a woman with muscles that was impossible task he had given his father.

“Anyway, I am still going back to the north, it is fun there,” he continued with his meal, ignoring Alora, who was  seething, and mostly he was avoiding his father’s ashamed face.

Nessie could see her son’s growth, She sees this in the way he greets everyone. He used to be so arrogant and boastful, but now it seemed like he was respectful to everyone around him.

“It is ridiculous, right?” Gael barks, “when he left, he clearly said he wanted to marry a dragon. Now he wants to marry a woman with muscles.”

“He is just thirteen Gael. Why are you pushing him to marry this quickly?”

“This is the age in which you and I met,” Gael said with a heavy heart, “shouldn’t he be having his childhood romance now like other dragons?”

Nessie sighed before replying, “you and I met independently. No one was trying to push any of us to marry, we decided to marry ourselves.”

“I am not forcing him to marry. I just want him to get to know her,” Gael said, but she sighed, “I will just let this plays out, maybe he will grow out of his childishness and soon see Alora. is the right woman for him.”

On the day of the celebration, Gael insists that Adeler and Kaldor walk out with Alora. He argued about how he had taken her away from her family just for Kaldor and he needed to compensate for that.

Everyone was so happy as the three entered, many were busy praising Alora’s elegance. Many have started calling her their next empress.

This just boosted her confidence, Kaldor was not going to deny her the position of empress now that the whole empire has acknowledged her as the empress.

But Kaldor paid her no mind the whole time, he was busy thinking of ways he was going to beat Azura in the monster hunting contest they were going to have when he returned.

He also thought of how much he owed her, he made her lose her chance to win the knighthood competition, so maybe he shouldn’t be the first monster-hunting competition when they reunite. Maybe he will win the next one.

“What is your majesty thinking about?” Alora asks.

“Azura, I miss her,” he is honest, not even caring by the surprised looks on his family’s faces.

“You miss a human?” Alora roars, “I am your fiancé. Why would you miss another girl?”

Kaldor doesn’t respond, instead he shoots a disappointed look at his father, “You think she is fit to be empress, with this temper of hers and her prejudice?”

The irony in his statement is not lost on him, because he too was once prejudiced, enough to burn another man’s business down because he didn’t want to marry a human.

Alora hangs her head in shame, “she is still young. She will learn. You learnt to not be prejudiced either, didn’t you?”

He doesn’t respond, instead he stands up, takes Adler with him to enjoy the celebration. And soon he finds himself enjoying it, without the burden of forced fiancé and parents with their unreasonable expectations.

“Do you really like the north?” Adler asks.

“Of course, it is so much fun,” Adler had really opened the flood gates. Kaldor couldn’t stop telling him of his amazing experience and the peculiar north.

His older brother rarely lights up like this, but with every adventure he said he was happier. It was quite refreshing.

But one thing was common in all these stories, Azura Neferpitou is always the main character in all of Kaldor’s crazy adventures, hunting monsters, shutting down a crazy baroness, knighthood competition.

In all of them, Kaldor couldn’t stop emphasizing how strong Azura was fighting murderous wolves to save him, how beautiful it was when she was wearing a dress, how cool she looked beheading a monster.

“I will not have a childhood romance. I am too busy on my adventure in the north,” Kaldor exclaims proudly.

Adler seems to be amused by this, It seems that Kaldor has not noticed yet, but he is in his childhood romance story, he was probably too deep in it to notice.

“I am glad my brother is happy,” Adler said happily, he couldn’t wait to meet this Azura, who had his arrogant brother wrapped around her finger.

“I am so happy, you should come visit too. It would be fun. You would that spitfire,” Kaldor continued, still not noticing how much effect Azura has on him.