Hi, I am back from my trip~ But I have quite a problem right now, so I don't know if I could update as often as before my trip.

Anyway, I planned to write the story about the past as one special chapter, but after some consideration, I will break it and put it as normal chapter. Well, it is also apparently longer than I expected, so yeah. I hope people still enjoy this story.

Do leave a review and tell me what you think. I feel that there maybe some inconsistency between this and the past chapters. Sorry if that happened cause I don't really reread the past chapters often. But yeah, just enjoy the story~

It was the day of the opening ceremony, the day when the prince was supposed to be introduced as the official heir of the kingdom. People from all around the country paid a visit to the palace for this special occasion. They were curious of the Prince, of the successor to the large and powerful Kingdom of Roma. They come from near and far, a lot seeking to build a long term connection to the Kingdom as well.

And then there was this boy. Gilbert Beilschmidt, he was the first son of the Duke of Romania, one of the highest nobility within the Kingdom of Roma that specializes in trading of goods inside and outside of the country. He was thirteen at that time, but what made him sticked out the most was his uniquely silver hair and red eyes. It was something rare, people who saw him for the first time would surely have their attention on him.

That day, he visited the palace as noble guest, to witness the Prince as the Kingdom's official heir. A lot of people, his parents, his relatives, had encouraged him to make friends with the Prince since he was of similar age with the sole heir of the Kingdom. Of course, it went without saying that a lot of them had further motives and intentions. For Gilbert himself, he did want to make friends with the Prince, but not because of any hidden motives, he just wanted to have a friend around his age. He had been surrounded by older people who kept giving him responsibilities one after another and Gilbert wanted to feel how it was to have a friend, someone around his age who could understand him and his playful nature.

Honestly, Gilbert did not know whether he could actually do it or not though since it would be hard for him to actually meet the Prince personally. Despite of his nobility, the Prince was still something out of his league. Gilbert was in the middle of the ballroom when the Prince entered and he was presented to the guest. Everyone cheered, giving a lot of praises to the King and the Prince himself. He used this occasion to study the Prince, he still looked so young and adorable, not one that he would expect to be the heir of such a powerful Kingdom. Before Gilbert had enough time to actually try to approach the Prince though, the Prince had retreated from the ballroom.

Gilbert was disappointed, but he knew better than anyone about his own position so he did not try to press it through, until he saw a troubled looking man near the balcony. He saw this blond man with thick eyebrows around the balcony area and he seemed to be looking for something, an obviously troubled expression was plastered on his face.

"What should I do?" he said as he scratched the back of his head. Normally, Gilbert would just ignore him, but when the man saw him, he immediately get approached, "Ah, excuse me, young sir."

Gilbert was a bit surprised, but he managed to reply properly, with some degree of manners he had learned to address people older than him, "Yes, sir. Is there anything I can help you?"

"May I ask a request out of you? My name is Oliver, I'm actually one of Prince Vargas' attendant and I'm currently in a big trouble."

The word 'Prince' pique his interest and he stopped to listen.

The man smiled slightly, seeing that Gilbert paid attention to him, "You see, I promised the Prince I would watch the fireworks with him tonight, but I suddenly have an urgent matter to attend to. Would you be willing to go in my stead? I believe he would love a new company as well."

"Really? That's awesome, I would love to of course!" Gilbert excitedly replied the man, realising that he was just presented the chance to have an audience with the Prince. With his excitement, most of his formality was gone.

A small laugh was heard, "May I know who you are though? Just in case."

"I'm the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt, son of the Duke of Romania," he answered proudly.

"Alright, young master, I would open up the way to the main corridor and you can invite him then. Just be careful not to make a ruckus."

"Will do!"

With that, that man showed Gilbert the general direction of the main corridor and Gilbert left with excitement. He never thought that he would actually get a chance to meet the Prince because of some coincidences, but nevertheless he would take the chance.

The man stood around the balcony for a little while, he peeked at the large clock tower from the window glasses. The time indicated was thirty to nine.

"You're such a good actor, Oliver." suddenly someone said mockingly.

He did not turned around, he recognised the voice and he did not need to see him in order to identify the other person. Behind him, stood a man visibly taller than himself, one with blond hair as well, but of darker shade than his.

"Shut up, don't you dare call me by that name. I hate it."

"I know, but that's exactly why I should call you that, right?"

He did not answer that seemingly joking question. Instead, he just walked away, bumping the other man's shoulder on purpose when he made his way out.

"Get ready, we will proceed when the clock strikes nine exact."

Gilbert did not waste his time, he made his way to the large corridor that the man had told him about. Not even once that he doubted his words. However, Gilbert was not especially good with direction. After a few turns, he started to wonder if he was on the correct track all along. His doubt was quickly cleared when he arrived in a room at one of the corner though, it actually looked like a pantry or something similar, but he did not care as he found what he was looking for.

Standing near the window of the room was a small boy. Gilbert recognised the brown hair and curl of the boy, it was the same with what he had saw in the ballroom. The boy was peeking out of the window, his head barely over the lower frame of the window. From Gilbert's point of view, he could see that the boy was looking at the ballroom where he came from. It was still bustling with musics and crowds. Now he realised that he apparently had walked quite a distance from the main ballroom.

"Hi!"

The boy was startled when he heard his voice, he stumbled a bit and pressed himself to the wall. He looked like he was ready to run away sooner or later. Gilbert realised this and he quickly raised up his hands, trying to show that he means no harm, "Ah,I didn't mean to scare you. You see, my name is Gilbert, the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt to be exact! Would you like to be my friend?! And you are?"

He said as he stepped closer and stretched out his hand to the younger boy.

The younger boy seemed to be surprised by the gesture and he retreated back further. The boy studied Gilbert for a while, eyeing him from head to toe. At last, after moments of silence, he stretched out his hand slowly and muttered, "I-I'm L-Lovino."

Feliciano had lived in the castle as long as he could remember, but he was just the child of an attendant. He spend his daily lives in one of the side towers in the palace ground and he was never allowed to go outside by his parents. It was just on that day, Feliciano had heard about the ball, about the ceremony. He wanted to see it, the notion of party always interest the young child, but he had never went into one as his parents would object. However, as one growing and curious boy, he really wanted to see the party. Thus, on that day, Feliciano slipped out from the tower, trying to find a place where he would be able to watch the ceremony without getting caught. And there he found a place, in a small side kitchen near the main palace, no one would go there on such a grand occasion since everyone would be using the main and larger kitchen.

He was observing the ballroom, it was very grand and beautiful. He could hear the music faintly from that place and he enjoyed it. He could not stopped thinking about how nice it would be if he was able to be there, to be in the middle of the party, enjoying the company of people, dancing to the music and savoring the food. Feliciano knew it was just a whim of his and he just stared at the ballroom, lost in his own imagination.

That's until he heard a sound that broke his thought.

"Hi!"

There was someone else. Feliciano was scared, he did not want to be seen. He was scared that his parents would scold him if they knew that he had actually get out of the tower to see the party. So he just kept quiet, now, he just wanted to get away.

"Ah,I didn't mean to scare you. You see, my name is Gilbert, the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt to be exact! Would you like to be my friend?! And you are?" the boy continued as he stretched out his hand.

Friend? The word made Feliciano flinched. He did not have any friend in the tower and it was a lie if he did not want any. He actually thought maybe it was okay for him to make friend. Thus, Feliciano observed the other boy who introduced himself as Gilbert. He looked around his age indeed and he said he did not mean to scare him, he did not look harmful as well. Was it okay for him to accept his offer? He did not know, but Feliciano just could not resist the child in him, the child longing for a friend, for a companion.

He stretched out his hand slowly, trying to reciprocate Gilbert. At that moment, he was reminded of his parents words. His parents had warned him before, just in case, just in case that he got out and someone found him. That he should never tell his real name to anyone. That he must introduce himself as the Prince, Lovino Vargas instead. He had asked his parents of the reason, but he never got an answer and when he looked at their expression when saying that, he decided that he should not press the matter.

And so, as an obedient son, he followed his parents words, "I-I'm L-Lovino."

Meanwhile, Lovino just got back to his room from the ballroom. He had originally wanted to retire for the day but something made him dismiss the idea. He had overheard his father's conversation with his attendant, Sir Edelstein, earlier in the day. He remembered vividly some of the lines that had come out from the King's mouth.

'Should we tell him that he actually had a brother?'

'Should we let them meet?'

It came quite clear to him that the conversation was centered around himself and if that was true, that meant he had a brother! It was not some kind of development that he would expect, but he was curious. If he had a brother, there should be a reason why he never met him before. There should be a reason why his father had not allowed him to meet him before. In the end, he decided that if his father were not going to make him see his so called brother, he would look for him himself. Tonight was a perfect timing, the palace was busy and he would use the chance to walk around in search of the mentioned brother.

With no clue at all, Lovino got out of his room and proceeded along the corridor. He decided that he would start looking near the area, not the ballroom since he would not want to entertain the guests. Just as he turned at one of the corridor, he spotted someone. He did not want to be spotted by the adults, he knew that either he would be brought back to his room or he would end up entertaining them. However, what he saw was a boy around his age and he let his guard down, causing him to actually stumble and make a sound.

The boy turned to the direction of the sound which was where Lovino was. Upon seeing Lovino, the boy's eyes gleamed.

"Oh, you are the Prince, right!"

Lovino was a bit startled, but he remained there, studying the other boy's figure. He did not recognised him. The boy had a slightly curly dark brown hair and bright green eyes and he seemed to be only slightly older than himself.

"I am," he replied curtly, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"My name's Antonio! You can call me Toni though! Can I call you Lovi?"

Author's Note :

I just want to make one thing clear in case that some people are still confused. It is Arthur who talked with Gilbert, he just used the name 'Oliver' cause I am lazy to think of any other name~