“Eh? He fell asleep in his office? Was he really busy?” Yue asked, worried that he’d taken up a lot of Viktor’s time the night before.

“No, don't worry, he didn’t have that much work. The young master only had a few things left to do and he just ended up falling asleep there.” Anya explained and had Yue sit down for breakfast.

“Is he awake now?” Yue asked.

“Yes, he’s changing right now,” Anya responded and served Yue’s food.

Yue didn’t start eating until Viktor came in and he saw that Viktor seemed fine and didn’t look like he was super tired or anything.

“Good morning,” Viktor said and leaned down to kiss Yue on the lips.

“Good morning…you should’ve finished your work in the bedroom or something. It must’ve been uncomfortable to sleep in your office.” Yue murmured and frowned.

“I thought it’d be quick, sorry,” Viktor said and kissed Yue’s cheek.

Yue let it go and just started to eat breakfast.

----

A week later in Russia...

----

“Your majesty, what in the world is this?”

“That’s what I’d like to ask as well!”

Elena barely spared the men a glance and Andrei did not even look up from his paperwork.

“We’re not in Belarus, do not refer to us like that,” Elena said and passed Andrei an envelope. She had been excited to show it to him so she personally went to his office but she quickly regretted it when she saw that some Belarusian officials were there.

“M-My apologies.” One of the men replied.

“B-But how could the prince suddenly be engaged? We heard nothing about this!”

“Of course you heard about it, the invitation is in your hands right now,” Elena said and rolled her eyes, watching as Andrei unsealed the envelope and saw the invitations to the engagement party. She had already sent them out but Andrei hadn’t seen them yet.

“T-That’s not what we mean, your maje- my lady. No one has ever heard of this woman or her family, wouldn’t it be better for his highness to marry someone from Belarus or from Russia? Someone with status like Miss--”

“Who are you to tell my son who to marry?” Elena said and glared at them.

“ I have no clue why people who have never even met her believe they can judge whether or not she is worthy of the Ivanov name.” Andrei suddenly said, still not looking at the men in the room.

“That’s--”

“More importantly why does someone who isn’t an Ivanov trying to decide whether or not someone is worthy of the Ivanov name?” Andrei actually lifted his head as he said this and the men almost fell to their knees.

They stayed silent for a while before realizing there was nothing they could say to change their minds and so they left.

Elena grinned as she watched them leave, and sat herself down on Andrei’s desk.

“Good job. If Vitenka had heard that I’m sure even he’d thank you for saying that.” She said and patted Andrei’s shoulder.

“I’ve told them time and time again but they don’t understand.” Andrei sighed.

“I don’t think they ever will.” Elena sighed.

The Ivanov’s didn’t like that they had ended up being “royalty”. They had always been nobles but in the end, they were just a normal family in a sense. No one tried to intervene with them before they decided to reconstruct Belarus. The Ivanov family, especially throughout the time that Andrei has been the head of the family, has always been devoted to ‘Noblesse Oblige’. The situation with Belarus is a great example of that. They felt it was their responsibility as nobles to save Belarus.

Andrei and Elena had also both experienced Belarus’ dungeon first hand. The dungeon took many lives and took months to clear even for them. They knew they probably could’ve cleared it faster if they had been on a team on their own instead of with other mages so they felt a bit responsible for the devastation that the dungeon caused. They never intended to be royalty but that was the role that ended up being thrust upon them by the mage association. It was a bit of a ploy to weaken the Ivanovs. Before then, their actions may have caused a fight or maybe an extra assassin going their way but now their actions were the ‘will of Belarus’ in a sense. Something they did could end up causing a war, and while Belarus was very strong and would take an army of mages to invade, it was still dangerous. The former citizens of Belarus, those who could not live in Belarus anymore because of what happened with the dungeon, were still vulnerable.

“I hope Yue doesn’t end up feeling too burdened because of them,” Elena murmured worriedly.

“...Tell Anya to teach him about the state of Belarus and our relationships with Belarusian officials,” Andrei murmured after thinking about it for a bit.

“Got it,” Elena said and got off the desk. She kissed Andrei’s cheek before leaving to go write a letter to Anya.

---

“I can only imagine how Mark reacted to the news.” Mark’s friend murmured as he walked into the Delov family’s manor. He was being led inside by Mark’s sister-in-law who clearly looked exhausted.

“Yeah...He’s been more of a handful than my toddlers.” She murmured.

Mark’s friend sighed. When he received his invitation to Viktor’s engagement party, he just stared at it as he recalled his conversation with Mark. He was tempted to walk back to his room and fall asleep for all of eternity but his morality stopped him from doing so. He had to make sure Mark didn’t decide to do something stupid. He was sure that Mark already knew so he needed to make sure he finally gave up before he ended up trying, and failing, to kill Viktor’s fiance.

He could hear Mark’s tantrum as he got closer to his bedroom. Mark’s sister-in-law was hesitant to open the door so he just told her that she could leave and opened it himself. He put his hands in front of his face in case his dear friend felt like throwing something at him.

“How could he get engaged to HER?! He denied so many proposals from gorgeous women so WHY NOW?” Mark screamed, not even looking at his friend.

Mark’s friend almost immediately felt his resolve slipping away. ‘Maybe I should just let him get his punishment.’ He sighed and opened his mouth to speak but he was cut off by someone who entered the room and immediately made Mark shut up and look at him.

“Mark. I’m telling you right now, Give up already. They’re already engaged, this party is just a formality. If you try anything you’ll definitely regret it. So don’t act out.” Mark’s brother, Leonid, said and glared at Mark. He had just arrived at the manor as well, he knew the chaos that he’d see and so he decided to just put an end to it.

“Do you understand?” Leonid asked. Mark’s friend flinched a bit, he had almost said ‘yes sir’.

“Yes, Brother…”

Leonid left and Mark’s friend was just glad that he didn’t have to try and convince Mark. Mark’s expression became spiteful again once Leonid left though. Mark’s friend sighed, he spoke too soon.

--

“So essentially we’re on bad terms with everyone except the families of the lords?” Yue asked Anya as he looked through the book Anya had made for him to study.

“Not bad terms but...Don’t be too kind to them and don’t agree to anything they suggest. “ Anya explained.

“Sounds complicated,” Mai murmured, looking over Yue’s shoulder at the list of officials in Belarus.

“It is...But It’ll be fine, the young master will usually be with you.” Anya said and smiled a little.

“By the way, Where is Viktor?” Mai asked, looking around the lounge room they were in.

“Training grounds,” Yue said and pointed toward the windows. Mai got up and looked out of the window and spotted Viktor practicing sword fighting against a golem.

“Hmmm, he seems tired,” Mai murmured and Anya flinched a little.

“He’s doing a lot of work lately,” Yue murmured, looking up from his book for a second and glancing at the window.

“After the engagement party, he’ll probably be less busy,” Anya assured Yue.

“Okay…”
—

“My lord, welcome back. We’ve got everything ready.” Jinghua said and led Yue to where the followers had prepared a decorated chest with the ‘dowry’ they’d prepared. Yue saw the chest and only felt burdened.

“This...Is a very large chest for what should only be 3 things.” Yue murmured and the followers flinched.

“The Hanfu you ordered is also packaged in there, and my gift is also in there,” Jinghua said and smiled. She didn’t falter for a second.

“What did you…?” Yue asked.

“I hope that you can open the dowry with your fiance,” Jinghua said and stopped Yue from opening the chest. Yue would’ve been more suspicious but Jinghua’s expression made him decide to trust her.

“Well… I still have time so... Is there anything that you need my help for?” Yue asked the followers.

He helped out with their requests until when he was scheduled to return, Jinghua and some elders stopped him on his way out though.

“My lord, should we build a teleport pad? Previously you lived in the temple and so we had no need for one but it seems inconvenient for you to have to go so far to get back to Europe.”

“No need, It’s far too expensive,” Yue murmured shooting down the idea.

“That’s what we thought at first as well but because your mana is heavy in this area we could use stones from the bottom of the lake rather than the expensive mana stones that are usually used.” One of the elders explained, showing Yue a whole plan for the teleport pad.

“...We would still need other parts right? Write up the total costs and give it to me when I return,” Yue said and went on his way. If it didn’t cost the temple much then it would be worth it but a little traveling every now and then wouldn’t hurt him.

--

“Wow, I didn’t expect a whole chest since you told me you had them limit how many items they brought,” Viktor said and chuckled as he watched Yue drop the chest down on the floor of the bedroom.

“I did limit them but they probably didn’t follow what I said...or maybe they put a weight in here or something,” Yue murmured and went to work opening the chest.

He immediately recognized the hanfu in there and handed it to Viktor, “Put this on for me later.”

“Yeah yeah.” Viktor chuckled, while he was amazed by the embroidery of the Hanfu and was honestly a little excited to see it, he was curious to see what else was in the chest. Yue quickly took out the more embarrassing gifts as he saw them, he didn’t want Viktor to see. He knew Viktor had learned about the dowry so he didn’t want Viktor to see something and make him embarrassed. Viktor did manage to catch a glimpse at a set of bowls and chopsticks and of a bag of seeds, both of which symbolized fertility. He didn’t mention it because Yue cut him off before he could tease him.

The other gift was two sets of gold jewelry. Yue was a bit curious about whether or not Viktor would wear the gold jewelry. He tended to not wear much jewelry and usually only wore silver.

“This must be Jinghua’s gift,” Yue murmured and pulled out a large red embroidered silk tapestry.

Viktor helped open up the folded tapestry and they both looked at it in awe.

“A dragon and a tortoise…Haha, my mother would love to see this.” Viktor chuckled and looked at the intricate details of the tapestry. Black Tortoise was usually represented by the tortoise entertained together with a snake but in the depiction of the tapestry, it was intertwined with both the snake and blue-green dragon.

Yue looked amazed by it as well and smiled.

“I don’t know where we’ll put this but, it looks great.” Yue giggled, “I didn’t know she was so good at embroidery though,”

“There are only a few days left now,” Viktor said and hugged Yue from behind.

Yue nodded and smiled a little. He was a little nervous but overall he was excited about the engagement party.

“I can’t wait.” Yue grinned.