Caspar rushes to the door with his casual clothes as he confronts the smiling Prince.
"Y... Your highness, What are you doing here?"
Lothar pats Caspar's shoulder as he replies.
"Why? Am I not welcome here?"
"That's not what I meant, your high..."
"Lothar!"
Lothar cuts him off.
"We are not in any official setting, so call me Lothar."
Caspar stands there, dumbfounded by the Prince that decided to visit his house without prior notice.
'Oh right, he did say that we would meet today, BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT.'
Caspar broods to himself before replying to the ever-smiling Lothar.
"Lothar."
Caspar replies after a minute of silence to hear a harrumph coming from behind Lothar.
He looks at the man who made the sound before calling out.
"Carsten?"
Carsten frowns at the rude boy before replying.
"It's Sir Grau to you, Sergeant Hahn."
"Oh come on, Carsten, we have been through a lot together, haven't we?"
Carsten's frown deepens as he continues arguing with Caspar.
The advisor always seemed to have something against him, so Caspar decides to tease him since they are not currently in the army.
"Honestly, I don't understand what his highness finds so interesting about you!"
As they continue to argue in front of Caspar's astonished family, Jakob, Caspar's father, walks up to Caspar and asks.
"Caspar, would you mind introducing us to your guests and welcoming them in. After all, we can't leave them standing outside."
Caspar finally realizes that he is making a Prince wait outside his house as he quickly invites them in.
"Oh, welcome in, don't keep standing out there. We are having breakfast soon, so you could join us if you wish."
Lothar chuckles at Caspar's childish behavior as he replies.
"We would love to join you."
After inviting Lothar and Carsten in and offering them seats in the living room, Caspar starts introducing them to his family.
"Everyone, This is his highness, Lothar Von Elsler, Prince of Urmacht, and commander of the eastern front during the war."
"Good Morning."
Replies Lothar as Caspar continues introducing Carsten.
"And this gentleman is Sir Carsten Grau, the Prince's advisor."
"Good Morning."
"An actual prince! Cas was telling the truth!"
Whispered Felizia as she looked at Lothar in wonder and amazement.
"It's our honor that a Prince would visit our humble home!"
Marie greets Lothar while Jakob nods at his wife's response.
"Not at all, Madam, Sir. I owe Caspar my life! if it was not for him, I might not have been able to make it back to Herzen in one piece."
Lothar turns to Caspar, who is still shocked by the strange turn the conversation seemed to be heading.
"I also would like to believe that Caspar and I had built quite the friendship after going through everything, so no need to stand on ceremony around me!"
"That can't be your highness!"
Replied Jakob.
"Of course it can, Caspar and I are already on first-name basis. You are his parents and family members, so I can't have you be so strict, or Caspar would think that our friendship is weak. Isn't that right, Caspar?"
Caspar smiles weakly as he replies, knowing what Lothar wants him to say.
"That's right... Lothar."
To which Lothar smiles proudly and nods.
Soon, the family and two unexpected guests sit around the dining table, Caspar was sitting between Felizia and Lothar, who to the left of which sit Carsten.
Breakfast consisted of fried eggs and thick slices of bacon. There were also slices of bread and a wheat gruel. It was a hearty breakfast meant to get a person ready for a day of hard work, but the prince seems to be enjoying the simple breakfast, throwing praises at Marie and Natali for their excellent cooking. Forcing Caspar to shake his head at Lothar's shamelessness.
"Excellent cooking madams, I have to say, I haven't had a meal this filling in a while!"
Felizia looks at Lothar, disbelieving that a prince would, in all honesty, like this simple meal, so she asks.
"Even though you are a prince?"
Lothar looks at Felizia, seeing the same childish mischievousness that Caspar shows to him sometimes, he smiles at her as he replies in all honesty,
"Even though I am a prince, I was also serving with your brother in the north-eastern front, so I ate the same things that the others did."
Felizia and the rest look at the Prince in amazement. They thought that the Prince would have his own different meals separately from the rest of the army.
Usually, that would be true, but Lothar decided early on to get closer to his men, so he ended up having his meals in the mess hall with the rest of the army.
Lothar smiles, remembering an incident with a certain someone weak to spicy food. He turns an evil smile to Caspar, making him shudder for a second before addressing the people around the table.
"This reminds me of the first time Caspar had Oskiuumen food."
"Really, you had food from Oskiuum?"
Niklas' eyes shine as he turns to his elder brother and gives him a wide-eyed look of amazement.
A blush creeps up Caspar's neck and into his cheeks as he quickly replies while stuttering.
"Th... That was..."
But before he is able to answer, Lothar ignores him and continues talking.
"Indeed, we had just captured an enemy hill and gained control of many Oskiuumen spices and rations."
He turns to look at the blushing Caspar before he continues.
"Caspar's role was essential in taking the hill, so I decided to reward him and the rest of the men by having the cooks use the Oskiuumen supplies, and spices to cook us an Oskiuumen meal."
It was Wulf's turn to look at his uncle in amazement and ask with his childish curiosity.
"How did it taste?"
Caspar's blush deepened as he looked down at his own meal, pretending that he did not hear the question.
Carsten, seeing Caspar humiliated, tried to further his suffering by revealing what had happened in a theatrical voice.
"The ever so brave Sergeant Hahn took one spoonful of food before turning as red as an apple."
At this point, Lothar had already started chuckling to himself as Carsten continued.
"At first, his highness and I believed that Hero Hahn was choking, so his highness asked him if he was fine. Only to finally find out that Hero Hahn could not handle spice."
As he finished his story, Carsten started laughing in an over the top manner, causing the shamed Caspar to turn annoyed, and causing a couple of soft chuckles to escape from Marie's mouth.
"Well, I'm glad that even out there in the front, you were able to find some comfort in friendship."
She addressed her words to Caspar and Lothar, causing a burst of warmth in Caspar's chest as he finally raised his head and smiled at his mother.