Author's Note: I apologize that the hiatus went on a bit longer than I'd initially planned. These past few months I've been super busy with my day job, dealing with an intense case of writer's block, and planning a wedding! So there have been both good and bad things keeping me away from writing.

But now I'm officially married (yay!), past my writer's block, and less busy at work, so hopefully I should be able to get back to regular updates. Thank you to everyone who's been patiently waiting for me to return, and I really hope you'll all enjoy this fun, romantic side story before we hop back in with Book 3 of The Saintess and the Villainess! 

For my patreon, S&V merch, and more, check out my linktree: https://linktr.ee/teddyasplund

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"A large force of human soldiers has been spotted leaving the capital in the direction of Longren. They appear to be led by Grand Duke Marshal."

Elyon raised an eyebrow. "Appear?"

"Yes, sir," Lieutenant Landeriell (Landi to her friends). She was a tall elf with long, platinum-blonde hair and heavy-lidded eyes. "There were more patrols than expected, so our scouts weren't able to approach closely."

"Hmm." Elyon marked some notes on the large parchment map in front of him. "Instruct the scouts to keep an eye on their movements, and see if we can get confirmation of Duke Marshal's involvement. But they shouldn't take any unnecessary risks. We can survive a lack of information better than we can survive a lack of personnel."

"Yes, sir." Landi saluted.

"And one more thing before you go." Elyon set down his quill and looked up at his second-in-command. "How is the human prince settling in? I know we emphasized that he should be treated with the utmost courtesy while he remains in our custody, but he is, after all, the crown prince of our current enemy nation. I'm concerned he may be experiencing some level of ostracism."

"Oh," Landi shuffled her feet, almost looking embarrassed. "I really wouldn't worry about that, sir..."

"What do you mean?" asked Elyon. "Have you spoken with the soldiers to see what their general feelings are?"

"No, but, well..." said Landi. "You should really just see for yourself."

The Lieutenant led Elyon out of the command tent and around to one of the common areas of the camp, where an unusually large group of elves had all congregated. They were all talking and laughing loudly, and at the center of them all, with a big grin on his face, was Prince Sebastian. He had exchanged his fine clothing for a standard Elven Royal Guard uniform of simple green cloth and brown leather, and he was happily pouring drinks for the elven soldiers.

It was... unexpected. Elyon's subordinates usually behaved with more discipline. And after such a prolonged war, resentment towards humans was at an all-time high. And yet here they were, elite elven soldiers chatting pleasantly with the enemy prince.

It was almost unsettling.

"Don't they all have duties to attend to?" said Elyon.

Landi nodded, catching his meaning. She strode over to the group of laughing soldiers, and with a loud clap of her hands, began barking orders.

"Alright, you lot, I know you all have jobs to do, so hop to it! And if you don't have a job to do, please feel free to let me know and I can give you a damn job to do! We are at war here, people, not some sort of festival feast! Get moving!"

Elyon continued to watch as his subordinates scattered off back to their various duties. Prince Sebastian smiled and waved and generally sent them off pleasantly. But as soon as the last soldier had gone, Sebastian's smile fell from his face and he sighed heavily, resting his head in his hands.

Aha, thought Elyon. So I did have cause to worry after all.

"Lieutenant!" shouted Elyon, and Landi ran back up to him with a salute.

"Please escort Prince Sebastian to the command tent. It's high time he and I had a conversation."

"I am curious, what would you say is your philosophy of leadership? Do you believe it's a leader's duty to personally oversee every major decision? Or would you say a good leader is someone capable of seeing value in others and delegating duties according to merit? Or perhaps you have another approach altogether?"

"Um... what?" Prince Sebastian stared blankly at Prince Elyon, who was staring back at him from across a small conference table.

"It's not often I have the opportunity to converse with a foreign Prince," said Elyon, with a polite smile. "I thought this would be a good opportunity to exchange knowledge."

"Oh..." said Sebastian. "Sure, right."

Elyon's gaze was oddly intense, and it was making Sebastian squirm in his seat a little bit. It didn't help that Sebastian didn't really know what to say about high-minded stuff like this. He hadn't actually been raised as a leader, not properly. It was Marshal and Corvina who had been taught this sort of stuff.

Should a leader personally oversee all major decisions? That's certainly what his father did. Should a leader be capable of seeing the value in others and delegating according to merit? Well, being a useless figurehead wasn't exactly the same thing as delegating. How was Sebastian supposed to answer a question like that?

"Should I be offended?" asked Elyon, mildly.

"What? No!" said Sebastian, sitting up straight in his chair. "Why would you be offended?"

"Because you seem to be able to converse with my subordinates so easily," said Elyon. "And yet I'm struggling to get you to say more than three words to me."

"Oh, well." Sebastian tried to figure out how to explain himself without just openly admitting his own stupidity. "They don't really ask me about serious stuff."

And they were never quite as openly hostile as the rebel soldiers were, so they were a lot easier to start talking to, even if they were a bit standoffish at first, he thought to himself.

"Then what do you talk to them about?" asked Elyon.

Sebastian shrugged. "A bunch of stuff. Nothing."

Elyon smiled again. "I've never quite mastered the skill of talking about nothing."

Sebastian laughed a little self-consciously. "It's the one thing I'm really good at," he said. "That, and horse riding."

Elyon nodded and gave a slight hum of acknowledgment, pulling a piece of paper over to himself and scribbling something down before handing it to his Lieutenant.

"Well, I'm pleased to see that you've been settling in alright," said Elyon. "I would prefer that you thought of yourself as our guest rather than as our prisoner. That said, we're a small team operating on tight margins, so everyone who stays in this camp needs to contribute to the best of their abilities. Starting tomorrow morning you'll be taking on various duties around the camp in order to support our little community. Understood?"

"Uh... yes, of course," said Sebastian, already dreading it. He already knew he was useless. Did he really need to fail at a bunch of pointless chores just to find that out again? But if that was what they asked him to do, he'd just have to do it.

"Excellent," said Elyon. "Lieutenant, please show Prince Sebastian out."

Sebastian stood up to leave. He knew in his heart that he was just killing time here; that he was contributing to his sister's plan just by being in this place until the time came where it would be more useful for him to be somewhere else. It didn't actually matter what anyone here thought of him, as long as they let him stay.

But still...

"The delegation one," said Sebastian.

Elyon, who had already begun to get back to his work, looked up. "What was that?" he asked.

"The leadership thing that you asked me about earlier," said Sebastian. "About which style of leadership is better."

He thought about the ways his father used people, and he thought about the ways Anne worked with people. Maybe it was naive to think that Anne's way was better, but look at how much they'd accomplished already...none of what their little group of allies had done as a group would have been possible for any of them individually.

"I think a good leader can see the value in others," Sebastian continued. "Not just as tools, but as collaborators. No matter how smart or skilled someone is, there's a limit to what anyone can do alone."

Elyon smiled. His previous smiles had been short and perfunctory, almost a sort of punctuation to his speech. But this one was wide and genuine, almost a grin even. It made him look boyish and handsome and just a bit mischievous.

"I couldn't agree more," he said.

Sebastian felt his heart skip a beat.

Sometime later, Landi re-entered the command tent, standing politely at attention until Elyon acknowledged her.

"Yes?" said Elyon, looking up from his documents.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" said Landi. She was holding the piece of paper on which Elyon had written a proposed schedule for Prince Sebastian over the next few days.

"It's merely a modified version of the standard training every new recruit goes through," said Elyon.

"Yes, but he's not a new recruit," countered Landi. "He's the Crown Prince of the Wyernwolf Empire. He's the only son and heir of the greatest enemy of the elven people."

"No one deserves to be judged for the behavior of their parents," said Elyon, with just a hint of bitterness. He rested his head in one hand and stared off into the distance for a moment. "Prince Sebastian is clearly bright and naturally good with people. But it's also clear that he lacks confidence and practical skills. This program will help him to gain a bit of both."

"And what if, in the future, he uses that confidence and those practical skills to wage a better war against us?"

Elyon sighed, sitting up straight again. "I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Is that all you had to say?"

"Yes, sir."

"You are dismissed."

Elyon understood why Lieutenant Landeriell was concerned, but integrating Prince Sebastian more closely into the community could actually make him feel more endeared to elves as a whole, and reduce the chances of this war continuing on to the next generation. And if they were truly able to instill some confidence in him, he might even view elves in general with gratitude.

It was also extremely cute how pleased with himself Prince Sebastian looked when I agreed with his conclusion on leadership practices, thought Elyon, remembering the way Sebastian had blushed slightly. I would enjoy seeing that look on his face more often. Although, of course, that's a secondary goal here.