Chapter 5

The residence of the Duke of Elysium was quite far from the palace.

Leonhardt, let out a sigh in his nanny’s arms, looked out of the window with a bored expression and fell in thoughts.

The clock tower witch was the greatest wizard in the history of the empire.

Thanks to her, he has returned to the past.

The evidence was the sign under the room’s table from when he was a child, and the nanny who had left the Imperial Palace on the day he formally became an adult, who had turned away from him when he last greeted her.

Even today, it is no other day but the first day he’s going to meet the young lady of Elysium, who will become the future empress.

The witch gave him one last chance.

Or maybe the witch who considered her, who had not been loved all her life, had cursed him to love her for the rest of his life, but that he would not be loved back by her.

Either way, it didn’t matter. Looking back, there were two things he felt guilty for.

His last remaining conscience could not allow him to love her, to make her happy, nor to apologize.

“haizz…”

Leonhardt sighed and continued his thoughts.

In any case, he has returned to the past.

The future is set. The gamble of getting out of it has no guarantees of success and the risk of failure was too high.

Then there is only one thing to do: repeat the same future, but not repeat anything stupid.

“What if she refuses to be engaged to me?”

“Your Highness?”

Even for a guy like him to come back to the past, but there was no law that she had to be the empress.

No, rather, the Empress was the one who died for him, she deserves to enjoy a new life.

Leonhardt pledged to accept her will if she refused to be engaged to him.

“That kind of unpleasant thing won’t happen.”

…The nanny is right.

In his memory, the Duke of Elysium was the one who had the power to put his eldest daughter into his bedroom on behalf of his own daughter.

However, he still bit his lips in a feeling of somewhat dissatisfaction.

Whether the Duke’s character was an adult or a dog, the most important thing about their first meeting today was affairs about the engagement.

“But…what if she doesn’t like my first impression.-”

“No way!” The nanny shook her head.

“What kind of lady could dare to reject such a beautiful person?”

…That was also true.

Leonhardt nodded inwardly, thinking of himself in the portrait drawn when he was 13 or 14 years old.

The amethyst-colored eyes, which only featured the orthodox successor of the imperial family, and the platinum-hair, fine jawline and the tall nose, inherited from his mother, the plump chest, which have not yet been exposed. Apparently, he was going to grow up into this proud handsome man.

“If you’re so worried, why don’t you bring a small gift?”

“Gift..”

Leonhardt looked up. That’s it, a gift…

“What does Her Ladyship like?”

Leonhardt bit his tongue into it.

No matter how much he recalled, he had never given her a flower, let alone a precious jewel.

However, the crown that he put on her head on the day of the empress’s coronation could not be called a gift.

Shouldn’t I go  buy a big diamond ring or a rose made of ruby now?

“She’s also 8 years old this year. If you’re that age, wouldn’t you usually like dolls or small toys?”

Eight years old.

At the end, Leonhardt didn’t give the order to turn the carriage to a jeweler.

Young lady of Elysium, who he is going to meet from now on, was not the lady with a remote, creepy appearance on the day they got married, but a child of a young age who had to laugh and play innocently in the flower garden.

“You don’t even know what your future wife likes, you’re disqualified as her husband…”

Leonhardt clasped his head and muttered.

Shall we go to the toy store? If you go to the fabric shop, there will be a lot to choose from..

Isn’t the most expensive one the best? But what if her ladyship’s taste is surprisingly unpretentious?

So what if she took his gift as a burden and stigmatized it as a waste of money as the first impression?

Anxious thoughts continued as ones followed by the others.

Leonhardt, who was scared and frightened as he began to worry about what an eight-year-old might like.

Leonhardt, feeling a strangely quiet atmosphere, turned his gaze.

The nanny and other maids were urgently hiding their happy smiles, turning their heads, staring outside.

”.. What’s wrong with everybody?”

“No… Nothing… Your Highness. Oh, would you like a doll? It’s a white-skinned figure made of porcelain. Her eyes are made out of glass beads and wears a silk dress, sophisticated shoes made by craftsmen…”

“I wonder if there is one such thing in her room? Since dolls are boring, how about flowers? There is no woman who wouldn’t want flowers..”

“Flowers wither quickly, so what about books?”

“If her ladyship wants to become an adult quickly, children’s perfumes and high-quality shoes are not bad!”

“I’d rather wear a dress…”

“No, it must be a doll!”

“It’s flowers!”

“Books!”

“Everyone quiet ! !”

The nanny, who at once silenced the maids who were beginning to fight over whether good dolls or good books, pulled Leonhardt, who was sitting in the corner of the carriage with a little tired look, to her side.

“If your Highness truly considers the honor and chooses carefully, even if it is a wild flower on the side of the road, the lady will be happy to accept it.”

“How do you guarantee that?”

“A gift from the heart is as important as the value of the object.”

“…is it.”

Leonhardt fell into trouble again. He wanted to give her all the dolls, books, and flowers she liked.

But he wanted to give something special other than those ordinary things.

It was a reunion to himself, but it was the first time to her. He wanted to make the first impression as good as possible.

Not for atonement, but purely for her happy smile.

‘ From the point of putting the band-aid on the forehead, the good first impression seems to have already blown away… ‘

Leonhardt smiled bitterly and sighed once again.

***