Things were already planned beforehand when Lady Cocoa arrived at the auctionary, after succeeding to obtain the Crystal Grain, she was going to head back to the main Fudge residence and report to her father about the item.
She was going to use it to strengthen her position as ducal heir in the Fudge Dukedom, and trade it to the royal family in exchange for the annulment of her engagement and some compensation for all the damage Prince Sugar Cube XI has caused her.
"Change of plans, head to the Lemon Villa." She ordered the leading coachman.
After she coincidentally found her brother at the auctionary venue, she had to change destinations to the nearest villa located at Lemon Tart City to sort things out.
"What, no hug?" Choco broke the silence as the three of them rides the carriage together, it's been a while since he saw her deathly glares so his trained immunity wore off.
"We've got a LOT to talk about, Choco." She stressed, "Many things happened while you were gone—I had to clean up the mess you made for disappearing, and now I have to deal with YOU, again."
Then as Marsh met gaze with Lady Cocoa while he was watching them, he smiled awkwardly and scooched over to the window seat, looking far and away from her. "D-Don't mind me, I'm invisible."
Fearing this confrontation is happening, Choco knows he still have to face his sister's wrath head on properly. "I... I'm sorry." And that was all he can muster.
Lady Cocoa crossed her legs as she continue to reprimand him for his actions, "Sorry means nothing if you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over... don't you know how tired I am, cleaning after every damn mess you make?"
Choco hold on to his knees, looking down to avert his gaze from his sister. "I don't even want to know the reason why you keep running away all this time—you don't really care about the people around you, the problems you caused that affect other peoples lives."
"I'm sorry." Choco repeated, incapable of handling the intense glare from his sister.
"That's not going to cut it, Choco." Lady Cocoa grabs the bottle of wine from the freebies she received at the auction earlier, "Your words hold no value because all I see infront of me is a selfish lying coward that keeps running away from his responsibilities." She pried open the cork in the wine, and chugged it as soon as it opened.
"And I hate the thought of Father welcoming you back home with open arms." She takes another drink and glared at Choco, "You can't keep getting away with this, Choco. It's time the consequences of your actions catch up to you or I'll be damned if this patriarchal society gets in the way again..."
Lady Cocoa lays down after emptying the bottle, feeling a little tipsy and yawned, "I'll be taking a nap for a while... wake me up when we get there." Then as his sister fell asleep, Marsh turned to Choco to see how he's doing.
"Dude..." he gently placed his hand over Choco's shoulder, he seemed to seriously ponder over his sister's words. "...I'm not in place to chip in this conversation, but I think you should consider how your sister feels... how everybody else feels about you turning away from your life back at the kingdom."
"Marsh..." Choco sighed, "I thought you'd be the one to understand me the most." He glanced at Marsh with a pained look on his face.
"W-What do you mean?" Marsh scratched his head, "I mean, didn't you run away because you can't handle your life's pressure?"
"That!... that is true." Choco shifted away from Marsh and held his head low, "I thought you'd get what I mean... but it seems like you're like everybody else, you hear me but you don't actually listen."
Marsh scoffed, "What are you going on about exactly!?"
"I'm not made for THAT life, Marsh!" Choco bursted, "I tell you, I don't get it and I probably never will. I'm not made to be a ducal heir, I never wanted to be ducal heir, so I can't be ducal heir!—and yet they all keep FORCING it on me when they already have her!" He pointed to his sister.
"Oh dude... you can't just shove your responsibilities to your sister." Marsh shakes his head, he understood his point but he can't bring himself to say the words Choco wants to hear.
Choco clicked his tongue and leaned to the opposite window from Marsh, "You know what, I can't do this right now. I'm tired, so let's just... stay quiet."
Marsh sighed and leaned to his side of the seat, peeking through the window showing the lands of Gumdrop Coast before they enter a dark secret entrance leading back to the Sweet Kingdom.
For long hours of riding the carriage, Lady Cocoa and the boys have finally arrived at the Villa. All the servants gave their lady a warm welcome for her sudden appearance, "My Lady, this is rather sudden. Are you here to unwind from the life at the capital?" Asked Pecan, the head maid of the Villa.
"Hmph, I've got some stuff to sort out before I report to Father." Lady Cocoa grunted, turning to the carriage and yelled at the boys, "Don't make me drag your lazy bums out that carriage!"
"Err, you don't have to be so loud." Choco complained as he stepped out the carriage with Marsh, and everyone who witnessed their long lost young master return gasped in a mix of shock and delight.
"Woah, that's a lot of people..." Marsh got overwhelmed with all the servants around them, making him anxious and cover his face with a mask in fear of getting recognized as a fugitive.
Though everyone is more distracted by the fact that Choco returned, "The young master is here!" The head maid cheered, "We must inform the Duke immediately!—"
"Hold your horses, Pecan. Nobody is telling Father about Choco until I say so." Lady Cocoa ordered, "For now, I want you to clean up these kids 'cause they stink like they haven't cleaned up for months."
"As a matter of fact, we do." Choco added with Marsh nodding along.
"Gross! Clean them up now!"
Then the servants quickly dragged the boys inside the manor. Marsh was in awe seeing the ravishing view inside the villa with the illuminating sugar crystal chandeliers, fascinating carved patterns on the bright yellow walls, seemingly expensive furnitures, to the fancy scarlet carpets.
"Wow." His jaw dropped at the sight, and one of the servants lifts his chin to close his mouth. And what caught his attention the most was the huge portrait of the Fudge Family where they were all smiling happily.
As they reached the bathroom, the servants draws them a bath and a few maids began taking off their clothes, "Ack! Stop it, I can do this myself!" Marsh pulls off a servant's hand that was taking his mask away.
"Ow!" The servant winced.
"Sorry, I don't like people invading my personal space."
"Let them do their job, Marsh. That's what they're paid for." Choco stated, letting other people stripping him like a natural occurence in his life as a nobleman.
"Hm, excellent biceps like always, young master." One of the maid complimented, putting a grin on Choco's face. "Hah, I still got it."
Marsh pushed the servants off him and went to Choco, "Can't I at least take a bath privately? You know I've got something under this shirt that no one should see." Referring to his curse.
"Crumbs!" Choco flinched as he recalled, and quickly dismissed every servant in the bathing area, "Alright everyone! I need you all to get out of here right now."
"But young master, Lady Cocoa has ordered us to clean both of you."
"We can do that ourselves!" Marsh pressed.
"Yeah, I'll have this guy scrubbing my back for me, so you don't have to worry about that! Just go and prepare our rooms for later, ciao~" Choco said, pushing out all the servants on his own and slammed the door shut. "Phew! Glad that's taken care of."
Marsh finally got to breathe as he took off the mask, "Thanks, I thought I was done for." He sighed in relief.
"We can't let them know about it, I'm sure they'll report it to my sister and that will freak her out." Choco dipped into their bathing pool filled with warm milk and finally felt relaxed, "Though I'm still in trouble anyway, but now I just want to stay here for a bit... the bath here is nice as always." He smiled sinking further into the milk.
Then Marsh puts down his mask and slipped out the lady uniform he's wearing, he can't stop looking around the place, admiring the extravagant arrangement of this bathing area. Serving as a reminder of Choco's high class background, someone who's supposedly out of his reach. "This place looks awesome." He muttered.
"It's just another bathing pool, no biggie—WOAH!" Choco eyes widened when he turn around and saw Marsh, "Dude, has it always been like that!?" He points to the cracks on Marsh's chest, it seemingly grew bigger the last time he saw it.
Marsh went into the pool near Choco and checked his chest, "The cracks got bigger, huh? I really have to find the cure for this." His finger traced the cracks extending to his abdomen, giving Choco the goosebumps.
"That looks creepy." He shivered.
"Yeah, I just hope I don't crumble away too soon." Marsh laughed nervously while looking at his own chest.
"We'll definitely find the cure before that happens." Choco assured, "But first, we have to make a plan to take the orb with us and escape my from my sister."
"R-Right..." Marsh smiled but deep down, he realized that Choco doesn't belong anywhere else but here. He was reluctant to tell him, fearing that it might upset him, but that was the only truth he can see right after the moment they encountered Lady Cocoa.
"Choco, I—" he was going to attempt the conversation until Choco had some stuff to say himself, "Right, I almost forgot! I still need you to scrub my back since I got rid of the servants for you. Make sure not to miss any spot!"
And as the boys bathe, Lady Cocoa was in her office, already looking into Marsh's background. She frowned upon every detail she learned about the boy, "A troublesome drop out fugitive... That brother of mine sure knows how to make a friend." She uttered with disappointment.
"S-Shall I inform the authorities!?" Pecan panicked, she didn't expect her young master to be hanging around with a delinquent.
"No, I still got to talk with that kid first. You can go and turn in for the night, Pecan." Lady Cocoa ordered, brushing her hand through her hair, clearly stressed out by the situation.
"Understood, my lady. Have a goodnight." Then as the head maid went out the office, she quickly headed to a guest room where higher rank servants gather for a meeting.
"The young master have finally returned!" One of the servants mentioned with immense joy, then another servant prompted a question, "What do we do now, Miss Pecan?"
"The lady wants us to keep quiet of the young master's return, but we all know why she's doing this." Pecan stated, "Lady Cocoa is a great woman, and she always wanted to inherit the Duke's title but there's no doubt that the Young Master Choco is the rightful ducal heir." She pulls out a letter she wrote from her pockets, "So we must make a move ourselves."
Pecan handed the letter to the servant beside her, "Make sure the lady doesn't know about this, send this to the Duke immediately. His grace deserves to know that his son, the rightful heir has finally arrived!"
Everyone else agreed, "Yeah!"