Chapter 13:

After several days of travel, the newlyweds finally reached their destination, the Germanian capital, it seems that what Al said about him not being popular was true, there wasn't any commotion or anything that celebrated the return of a prince, to be honest while she was little relieved with that, it also surprised her just how indifferent people were to him.

Once they arrived at the royal castle, they were received by several servants as well as two people that stood out among the rest; Eléonore assumed they were Al's brother and his wife, the future king and queen of this country.

"Welcome home brother, mother and Kirche san, nice to see you returned safely."

The prince was the first to greet the arriving party, immediately after he went to where Eléonore was, luckily it seemed that he wasn't going to grab her breast or hips or anything else.

"You must be Eléonore san, I'm Albert and this is my wife Elizabeth, it's a pleasure to meet the women that finally made my brother get married."

"Likewise, it's a pleasure to meet you Albert sama."

She made a little bow to show her respect.

"Never mind the formalities, we are family, you can call me Albert."

"Yes.. Ok Albert…" Eléonore nodded.

And just like that Eléonore's life in Germania began, at first it was hard to accustomed to her new home, first thing she noticed was that they treated the servants far more friendly that in Tristain, "When in Romalia, do as Romalians do" she thought and began treating them just as they did here, she even knew the name of most of them and some she could even call friends.

Another thing she noticed was that despite living in the same place, she barely saw her brother in law and his wife, while he was always busy with his duties, Elizabeth was tending their children (which by the way, were as cute as Al described them to be, she just couldn't wait to have her own), and if they had some spare time they usually spend it as couple, mostly alone but every once in a while they drank tea with the whole family.

The queen on her side, was usually unoccupied, so she had tons of time to nag Eléonore about her future grandchildren, at first she only asked whether or not they had been "planting seeds" the night before, later she became even more annoying, demanding that Eléonore reported the dates of her periods (in order to keep a detailed schedule of which days were more fertile), and even gave her several "Aphrodisiacs" that more often than not sent the couple to the bathroom rather than the bedroom… well except for those that looked like plain white cookies… those were so good Eléonore even asked her for the recipe… they really didn't need them right now, but they might come handy in the future (I mean those things did lock them up in their room for almost half a day).

She was also taking a few cooking classes with the queen, as it was the only way that she would leave her alone about her private life, and to be honest she kind of enjoy it, they mainly did pastries and it was kind of fun to prepare a cake or something else, take it to Al, watch him eat it, and get praised because it tasted good, according to the queen she was really talented and could even be good enough to be a royal baker if she kept practicing.

In the end however, most of her time was spent with Al (or Alphonse as she had to call him to prevent confusion), usually in his office since tradition required her to accompany him as he worked, to make matters worse both his brothers took care of both the army and the people, while Al was to take care of… paperwork, and god he was slow at it, he would take an eternity to read the whole thing and she just had to stand there looking pretty while he did it (the irony was killing her), but not anymore, she was going to help him, he wanted or not.

"Alphonse honey, let me take a look at those papers will you?"

She took a little portion of the papers on the desk and began reading them, without even waiting for his answer.

"Elle chan… I don't think that's…"

She placed the papers back on the table and said a little "done" before taking another pile.

"What you read them already?" She just read in 2 seconds what would have taken him 20 minutes.

"Yeah, didn't I told you I was good at my old job, that was mostly paperwork as well… done"

Ok he definitely hadn't noticed that.

"So what do you say, I could sit over there bored out of my mind for the whole day or we could finish this job in a few minutes and go on with our lives, you know I really think we should spend more time together…" She got really close to him and whispered on his ear "I need you… " he just nodded and happily accepted.

Ever since that day, they usually finished all the work before noon, and spent the rest of the day together, whether it was in cooking class, drinking some tea, 'planting seeds', having a conversation or anything else, Eléonore just loved to be with him, she had yet to accept her feelings… but it was getting more and more clear for her that she was in love with him.

Unfortunately not everything was perfect, there were several people that made her stay far less pleasant, mainly officers of the royal army, while she had yet to meet Al's little brother, his subordinates sure spent a lot of time in the castle complaining about… well anything.

"Your majesty, I believe that you should take action and seize the crown yourself."

Today was General Bismarck turn, he was obsessed with the idea of Albert making a coup d'état to his father.

"That would only make things worse, the people will lose all the confidence on the royal family if we do that."

"But your majesty, the king had damaged the reputation of the royal house already, it would only be for the best if we…"

"Enough… I'll take the crown when it's appropriate"

"Yes… I understand."

The general took his leave after saying these words, he looked angry and frustrated, to be honest she didn't liked that guy, and of all the officers that paraded around the castle, he was the one that she hated the most, and there were even rumors she heard for the servants that he was the one behind one of the factions that desired the end of the monarchy.

As he was going out, he noticed Eléonore was looking at him and just couldn't resist the temptation of wasting his anger on her.

"So you must be the prince Alphonse new wife… seriously why did the prince had to marry someone from another country, at least he could have picked one that was a little younger and with a bigger che…"

Eléonore glared at him as strong as she could, and that alone was enough for him to shut up and leave the castle as fast as he could… seriously, who would have thought that the eyes that prevented her (among other things) for getting a boyfriend for so long could be so useful.

Anyway, bad things aside, she was really enjoying her life at the castle, being a princess was way too different to what she had anticipated, kind of fun even, her new family was nice and kind (her mother in law was little annoying from time to time, but she was nice too), and to be honest she wished things remained as they were.