Emma's head turned slowly. Her emerald eyes fixed on Amy, and for a moment, they seemed to glow with a feral, predatory light. A low, almost inaudible growl vibrated in her tiny chest. Her fingers twitched as if longing for the feel of her rusty dagger. Feeling nothing in her grasp, the feral light in her eyes grew even more.

Grey and Melissa squinted seeing this, while Amy raised a brow.

But before the moment could escalate, Snow reacted, She didn't turn her head, but her icy blue eyes shot Emma a sideways glance.

Emma flinched as if struck, she senses that the icy warning in her gaze was without a doubt, genuine. The feral light in her eyes vanished, replaced by an irritated look.

She scoffed before she shrunk back into her seat, turning to stare mutinously out her own window.

A soft, barely audible sigh of relief escaped Melissa. She finally broke her silence, her voice gentle but firm. "Amy, dear, I think it's best if you try to relax. Perhaps read one of your books. They," she said, with a slight nod encompassing the three girls, "need a little time to... adjust. Pushing them won't help."

Amy pouted, her shoulders slumping in defeat. She knew Mrs. Melissa was right. She was an intruder here, a declared rival in their tightly bound circle but even then.

She caught Snow's eye and flashed her a bright, utterly cheeky smile, just to show she wasn't intimidated. Then, she turned her own gaze to the passing forest, feigning a sudden deep interest in the patterns of the bare branches.

Snow's lips tightened, the only sign that the jab had hit its mark. Fortunately, for everyone's sake, she didn't react in anyway.

******

" So this is really it. We finally left the village."

In the lead carriage, the atmosphere was different, but no less strained. Adrian had been trying to watch the passing scenery to calm himself, but he could feel a persistent weight on the side of his face.

He turned his head to find Leo staring at him, an unreadable expression in his eyes. If that was all, he wouldn't have bothered but what annoyed him was that he'd been doing it for the last mile.

"Leo," Adrian said, his eye giving a slight twitch. "Is there something on my face? Or did you suddenly forget what I look like?"

Leo who realised he'd been caught, began blinking rapidly as if coming out of a trance. A faint blush colored his cheeks. "No! No, of course not. My apologies. I was just... thinking."

" Thinking huh?"

Adrian sighed, leaning back against the hard bench. The formal, silent presence of Ignatius beside him made everything feel more awkward. "Well, out with it. Whatever it is, it's clearly bothering you."

Leo rubbed the back of his neck, looking every bit nervous.

A hesitant, lopsided smile appeared on his face. "It's just... I never took you for such a player, Adrian. Three wives? And another one declaring her love publicly as we left? I'm afraid even I am still a bit shocked by those turn of events."

' Shocking? Is this idiot trying to mock my situation...'

A vexed, tired smile tugged at Adrian's lips. "Trust me, it was never my intention. None of this was part of any plan."

' If I could help it... I wouldn't have wanted things to turn out this way.'

Leo let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head. "Then you must have the most extraordinary luck. Or the strangest curse I've ever seen in my life." His chuckle faded into a genuine sigh.

He looked out the window, his expression turning wistful. "I wish I had a fraction of that luck of yours to be honest."

" I'm eighteen, you know. It's been three years And I haven't even found one spouse, let alone inspired a... a queue."

' W-wait a minute...'

Adrian's eyebrows shot up. He turned fully to look at Leo. "You're eighteen? We're the same age?!"

Leo blinked, then nodded. "Yes. Why? Do I not look it?"

' Not look it?' Adrian said to himself, taking a good look at the performance seating opposite him.

' To be honest... You look like you could still be sneaking extra sweets from the kitchen.' Adrian said to himself before sighing at his own words.

" I actually never took you to be that old."

" When I first saw you in that cave, I thought you'd just turned 15."

Leo's smile turned awkward. ' You don't say...' he said to himself.

A few more minutes of rattling silence passed, filled only by the sound of hooves and wheels. Then Leo spoke again, his voice quieter. "So... what are you going to do?"

Adrian squinted at him. "About what?"

"About Amy."

Adrian's raised a brow. "What do you mean what am I going to do?"

" You're not planning on playing around with her are you." Leo said, looking a bit serious.

" Of course not, why would I?" Adrian retorted before pausing. " Hold up... Why do you seem so concerned about that any way."

Leo's serious look vanished the next moment. He fidgeted, looking everywhere but at Adrian. His ears turning pink. "No reason. Just hoping you're not planning on doing anything you'll regret."

' Wait a minute...'

A sudden, startling realization dawned on Adrian. His eyes widened. "Wait. You... you actually fell for her? For Amy?"

Leo flinched, then his shoulders slumped in defeat. He finally met Adrian's gaze, his expression a mixture of embarrassment and misery. "Is it that surprising? She's brilliant. She's passionate. She has this... this light. Even when she was fussing over my bandages and telling me I was an idiot for getting caught by goblins, she was amazing."

Adrian stared, dumbfounded. The pieces clicked into place—Leo's eagerness to have Amy come along, the way he'd spoken about her at the cottage. "Then why don't you just tell her? Ask her directly?"

Leo gave him a look that was so flat and hopeless it was almost funny. "Adrian," he said, his voice dry as dust. "It is painfully, blindingly obvious that she likes you. She just declared her eternal love for you in front of the entire village and volunteered to be your fourth wife. What possible chance do you think I have?"

The carriage jolted over a particularly deep rut, the movement mirroring the sudden, complicated lurch in Adrian's stomach. His problems, it seemed, were not just his own. They were a tangled web that now ensnared everyone around him. He looked at Leo's bitter, resigned face and had no idea what to say. The road to the capital, he realized, was going to be very, very long.

The constant, monotonous clatter of hooves and the creak of wooden wheels became the only measure of time. The world outside the carriage window had become a blur of grey tree trunks and white snow, an endless, unchanging scenery that pulled one's own mind into a numb haze.

Inside the leading carriage, Adrian could feel the stiffness settling deep into his bones. He slouched back against his seat, a deep, weary sigh escaping his lips.

"Who knew this trip would be so long?" he muttered, more to himself than to his companions. A wave of depression, small but persistent, continued to plague him. He understood it was to be expected, traveling from a remote village to the heart of a kingdom, but the reality of the distance was more surprising than he expected, due to this, he began to appreciate the common Uber cars he once took to get around from place to place.

His mind, desperate for distraction, began to move like churning gears.

' If this kingdom is as big as a state back home, then it stands to reason we might take a few days to get there with how slow this horse-drawn carriage is.'

The thought was daunting enough. But a darker, more dreadful possibility surfaced.

' What I fear the most is if it's actually as big as an entire nation...' He groaned inwardly. Being stuck on this seat, no matter how comfortable, in this tense silence, for weeks, was a torture he hadn't prepared for nor did he want to experience.

' There's no way that's possible, after all. I have a rough estimate of when Leo sent his letter. Ignatius got here in a reasonable time.' He tried to reassure himself.

He let out a shaky breath of relief, but the uncertainty still gnawed at him.

"Hey, how long will it take for us to reach the capital, anyway?"

He finally broke the long silence, turning to Leo who sat opposite him, looking equally worn by the journey.

Leo, who had been dozing with his head against the window frame, blinked and straightened up. It looked like even the so called young master, hadn't gotten used to carriage life.

"H-how long?" He held his chin, his brow furrowed in thought as he quietly retraced images of maps and merchant reports in his head.

A

fter a moment, he answered, "At most, three to five days. Give or take an extra day, depending on the weather and... other factors."

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