They have been riding for three days without stopping. They departed their camp near the bridge that leads to the Capital as soon as princess's messenger arrived. Italica was under attack by army of bandits and princess requested immediate assistance. They went on a full gallop but had to slow down few time so that their horses will be able to perform cavalry charge once they reach the city.

'Bozes' one of the knights asks her comrade at the front of the column, 'It has been three days now. Do you think…'

'No Beefeater, I don't want to hear a single word about that. They are still holding an she is still alive' the blonde female knight with curly hair had said her opinion on the matter.

'Understood, we are near Italica. Should I instruct the men to form a line as we are approaching the city?' the brown hair young female knight asks. Bozes nods her and she lowers her speed and join the knights that are galloping behind them. 'Listen up everyone, we are approaching Italica. Form the horizontal line behind the commander and prepare your lances!'

The knights obeyed the order in disciplined fashion and slowly formed the line behind Bozes. Once they have reached the edge of the last hill before the city Bozes decided to stop. Beefeater joined at her right side.

'The troops are assembled and ready to strike. We may be just 50 strong but once we charge our lancer will cut right through their lightly armored infantry.'

'Excellent, but do not be so carefree. Reports from the scout indicated that they are all infantry units with medium armor. Except few heavily armored men as well.'

'Of course, I just hope that Pina is alright. If they captured her…' Bozes drew her sword.

'Then I will hunt them to the ends of this world, to hell with Alnus and our useless guarding of that damn bridge. Assemble the troops and charge when I do' Bozes start going forward, she will stand on top of the hill and overlook the situation before issuing an attack order. Bozes rose to the hilltop and stand there, Beefeater waits with the rest of the Knights Rose in a line. But the move order never came, instead Bozes is just standing there and watching, some of the knights already start their own theories about what is happening.

'Caty, come here for a moment' Bozes says, Beefeater slowly galloped toward her position. Once she got beside here she could see as well what was happening down below.

Italica was in ruins, some half of the city was gone. And on the outskirts of city were strange iron carriages and what seems like soldiers patrolling the area. They can also see something akin to military east of the city.

'What do you think?' Bozes asks.

'I really have no idea. They certainly do not seem like bandits.'

'If I am to guess, it seems to be the ones who occupy Alnus Hill. Their appearance is too strange to be anyone else' Caty looks at Bozes, fear could be felt in her voice.

'What? Are you certain?'

'Just look at them, there is nobody else in this world with that kind of outfit. To think that they would occupy Italica…'

'This is bad Bozes, really bad. We should have back and summon the Legions.'

'And leave princess to her fate? Who knows what this strangers are doing to her right now…'

'Look Bozes, at the southern gate' Caty points towards the doors that have just opened, the figure that came out can barely be seen from this distance but her red hair was recognized immediately.

'Princess!' Caty shouted. That grabbed the attention of nearby knights who rode beside them to see what is happening.

'I do not understand… She seems fine. She is even talking to the soldiers who surrounded the city' Bozes says.

Pina had a short conversation with one of the soldiers before she walked some distance and waved to her knights who are waiting on the hill.

'She is waving us?' one of the knights asks.

'It seems that she wants us to go down there' other knight replied.

'Your order my lord?' Caty asks Bozes, who thought for a few moments before answering.

'Hmpf… Let us go down there. Hopefully we will have some kind of explanation for this situation.'

And with that said Bozes, Caty and the rest of the Rose Knights rode toward Italica. Once they meet with Pina they dismounted their horses.

'Princess, I am so glad you are alright' Bozes says and hug her, Pina embraced her.

'Bozes, I am so glad you and the others arrived' she releases her before looking at Caty. 'I see that you are here as well Caty, I am glad to see you.'

'Likewise princess' Caty bowed in respect.

'So Pina… is there some explanation why are they here?' Bozes pointed toward several soldiers who were looking them with strange looks in their eyes.

'More than that, why are they looking us like that' Caty asks.

'It's their first time they are seeing great number of female knights. So they are just curious' Pina smiles, that reaction confused both Bozes and Caty.

'Pina…' Bozes started, Pian realized the situation and bowed.

'I apologize. You are probably all confused about the overall situation. Long story short, the Soviets helped us defend against the bandits and they are currently safeguarding and rebuilding the city.'

'The Soviets?' Caty asks.

'That's how they are calling themselves. And yes, they are the ones who currently occupy Alnus Hill.'

'And they are not attacking us, is there any reason to this?' Bozes asks.

'Actually there is, I made temporary ceasefire with their commander in order to save the people of Italica. Now I am making my plans to start peace negotiations. And you arrived just in time to help me with that' her knights looked at her like she is crazy. Few of them even scratched their heads.

'Peace negotiations?' Bozes asks, Pina can sense irritation in her voice.

'It is the only way Bozes to keep the Empire safe. You at this' she points toward ruined city, 'you saw it from the hill. Half of city destroyed. Want to know how? They did it, and it took them only few seconds for this' her knights starts silent discussion. Bozes is speechless. She is unable to respond at all.

'They did this?' Caty asks.

'Yes, they lured bandits inside and then raized half the city to the ground. This is the level of power Empire cannot hope to match. I hate to admit it but it's true. Our only hope is peace negotiations with their commander. I will see that we try to limit their expansion to Alnus Hill alone. That will give us some time to…'

'Princess?' Pian turned around and saw Lelei, behind her is several sodeirs. Fur of them are holding what seems to be two big canisters.

'Yes Lelei?'

'Comrade Sergeant here asks if you knights are thirsty, they have brought them fresh water and several jugs to drink from them.'

'I see. Tell them to put them here' Pina shows to a place right next to her. The four soldiers put the canisters to the ground and opened them. Then few of them proceeded to fill the mugs and offer them to Caty, Bozes and several others. The knights are still confused and reluctant to take the water from the arm of the men who are basically their enemies.

'Drink, you must be quite thirsty after three days of riding' Pina says, and with that Caty and Bozes took the first mugs. Thank the soldiers and start drinking, then the soldiers filled the rest of the mugs and gave them to every knight that approached to drink some water.

'Why are they giving us water?' Bozes asks.

'Is there any reason for them not to give you?' Bozes look at the little blue haired girl with magical wand in her hands.

'But we are their enemies…' Bozes started saying.

'Did you not agree to temporary ceasefire? As far as they are concerned you are not the enemy anymore. You also rushed with all you might to help save this city, they know that as well and because of that they are respecting you' Lelei explains.

'And who are you little girl?' Caty asks.

'Her name is Lelei and she acts as mediator between us and the Soviets, she even understands their language' Pina answers. That made Bozes to look strangely at her.

'And how do you know their language already?'

'I have been living with them for more than half of week now, in their base they gave me access to books about their world while I gave them knowledge about our own' that made Bozes little nervous.

'You are human and by the looks of it you are imperial as well. How could you go and share information with the enemy?'

'Bozes…' Pina started, but was cut by Lelei.

'First of all my people are nomads, we were never part of the Empire and we never swear any loyalty to the Emperor. Secondly, when Fire Dragon attacked our village the Soviets were the only one who came to help us. Imperial Army was nowhere in sight' Lelei replies n her cold, stoic fashion.

'Ugh…' Bozes is speechless, the girl certainly have a point.

'Wait, the rumors that they defeated the Fire Dragon…' Caty starts.

'Are true' Lelei interrupts again, 'I was there when they blow it up in hundreds of little pieces. They also did it with less than fifty men. They defeated the ten thousand strong bandit army with less than forty of them. They are force to be reckoned with and you are lucky that their commander is a man who wants to solve this war in peaceful matter.'

Her speech left everyone speechless, Pina winked to her. "Good job" she thought as she turn around again and face her knights.

'I do not like it any more than you do. But all of us have to face reality one way or another. Bozes and Caty will follow me to the Clan Formal Household, Hamilton and Grey awaits us there. The rest of you take your horses and follow this Soviet officer' she points to the sergeant left of Lelei, 'he will show you where you can rest and feed your horses as well.'

With that said, Pina, Leleo, Caty and Bozes start walking toward center of the city while the rest of their knights followed Soviet officer to the camp they established for civilian use.

As they walked through the city both Bozes and Caty could see the level of devastation inflicted by the red army. There was no single building left standing, and there were major craters all over the street. But Soviet soldiers were quite busy, clearing out debris and restoring some of the houses. As they went closer to the household they could see that few of the houses that were not so badly damaged were restored and their occupants returned to live in them.

Just by seeing that both Bozes and Caty finally understand what princess Pina is talking about. The enemy that can wipe out more than half of their armies and do this kind of damage in mere seconds is not something the Empire can handle in this time. The peace treaty right now will give them a chance to recover some of their losses and learn a thing or two about their new enemy.

As they entered household yard Bozes and Caty could see Grey and Hamilton at the main entrance, with them were two figures. One is young blonde Elf and the other way too familiar.

'Is that Rory the Reaper?' Bozes asks.

'It is, she is under contract with the Soviet leader. So it's only natural for her to follow them wherever they go' Pina answer.

'She made a contract with their leader?' Caty asks.

'Indeed Caty, I could not believe it myself at first but once I heard backstory form her there was no more doubt in my mind about it.'

'Their leader sounds like one hell of a man' Bozes says, Pina slightly smile.

'You have no idea how right you are Bozes.'

Her response made both Bozes and Caty confused. They agreed to not ask any more questions until they meet the enemy leader himself. As they approached Grey noticed them and went ahead to give his formal greeting.

'Princess Pina' he greets and nods to her, she nods back. Grey then turns his attention to two other female knights 'Madam Bozes and Madam Beefeater, nice to see that you finally arrived. I hope that your trip was not too exhausting?

'Nice to see you alive and well Grey, as for our trip – it was not as exhausting as we are confused about the entire situation here' Bozes replies.

'I can understand, a lot has happened these past few days. But I can say one thing. The things are definitely going in the right direction.'

'How can you be so sure about that Grey? To me it seems quite desperate as we do not have enough strength to oppose this kind of power' Caty says.

'That is exactly why princess Pina is looking to establish peace treaty. Not only it will end the unnecessary bloodshed but it will also give us a chance to acquire some of the other world knowledge and use it for our own good' Hamilton joins the conversation.

'You really think that they will share their knowledge with us?' Bozes asks.

'They will, they have shared it so far with us. I am sure the Empire will be treated the same once normal relations are established' Lelei answers.

'Father really has the best interest for everyone here. He is kind soul that wants for everyone to be happy' Tuka says after overhearing their conversation. The two knights stumbled at the word "father".

'She speaks the truth, the men is calm and concentrated. Unlike your commanders that rushed through the GATE like little kids in candy shop' Rory added her opinion. Bozes and Caty could do nothing but stay silent at her holiness's words.

'So, shall we go inside? The talks between counts Formal and Soviet commander will start any minute now' Pina says.

'Wait a minute, they are going to talk?' Caty asks.

'Yes Caty and I have no idea, but I guess we will see once we get there' Pina says and starts heading toward the household entrance. The others followed in her wake. Once inside they entered the main throne room where they were greeted by miss Kaine and young Countess Formal, all of them sit down and Kaine's army of maids prepare them some tea and cookies.

'Even if you were not here for the battle I still must thank you for rushing here either way to assist us brave Knights of the Rose, this town will forever be in debt to you.'

'Thank you Countess Formal, you are very kind.' Bozes replies to Myui.

'I am surprised you are this calm even if the Soviets raized half of your city' Caty asks.

'While destruction of the city was indeed regrettable they did agreed to rebuild it from scratch. In three days they have repaired as many as twenty houses. If they keep it up with this speed they will be finished by the end of the month' miss Kaine replies. Her reply impressed Bozes and Caty.

'Only a month for a city this size, they are surely skilled engineers' Caty says.

'Countess, do you perhaps have any idea what they will talk to you about?' Bozes asks. Myui bowed her head.

'Unfortunately no, we do not know yet. But we suspect it may very well be their terms of compensation for their assistance.'

This is one thing everyone feared. When army helps out some town or village it usually asks for some kind of compensation. Sometimes its money, other times its food and drink. And sometimes it's women. While the Soviets do look like nice guys but there is always a chance that they will ask for some of them as compensation for their trouble.

'Why are you guys worried?' Rory asks. Her faint smile as she is basically laying at the edge of the sofa send some kind of relaxation in everyone's mind. 'I can see that all of you have wrong opinion about them. I will surely enjoy it when they prove you wrong.'

'What do you…' Caty starts but she didn't finish it as the doors to the throne room opened and the official Soviet delegation entered inside. They choose to stand exactly opposite to the throne, with imperials to the left of them and Lelei, Rory and Tuka to the right of them.

In the center of the stood Alexei, to his immediate left and right are Lieutenant Nikolai and Sergeant Ivan. Following them are Sergei and Natasha.

Bozes and Caty look at them and do not see anything out of the ordinary. To them the guy in the middle seems like he is too old for military, in some way he reminded them of Grey.

'Would you look at the old men in the middle, he seems way too and too funny to be their leader' Caty whispers to Bozes.

'I know. He must be a messenger. I do wonder who of those remaining three the Soviet commander is as all of them look alike. There is no special heraldry or clothing to tell them apart.'

Alexei stepped forward and took a note. He cleared his throat before he began his speech.

'Honorable Countess of the Clam Formal, as the overall commander of the Red Army forces and official representative of the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics I came here today to offer you this trade agreement.'

His introduction shocked both Bozes and Caty. "This… this old men is the guy who lead the Soviets?' Bozes though, still unable to believe what she is seeing. Alexei continues:

'I am offering you limited access to some of our goods as well as well as some of our plans on certain things that will help the development of the city. Like city plumbing, constant fresh water supply, some simple administrative tips on how to improve city administration and trade, solution to city squalor problems and much more.'

"They are not asking for any compensation? Instead they are giving them stuff for free?" Caty thought while not being able to hide her amazement.

'As compensation for that we ask two things. Each will come with few details I will explain after presenting the whole deal. First thing is that city of Italica, as main transportation hub for this area, will establish trade route with the town of New Moscow as well as allowing us to create depot here for all the trade goods and material we are going to trade in the future.

Second thing is to allow us to dig for certain recourse on specified locations. Recourse will be extracted and used by us. But we will teach you how to utilize it and as the time goes more and more of the resource will be transferred to your hands. When the time comes and you master the use of this resource we will transfer all the rights for it to you and establish a fair price tag that will benefit everyone.

Does this sounds fair to you young Countess? If you want I can answer any questions you have regarding this deal' Alexei put the note to the side, smile and stood ready to answer any question Myui might have for him.

'You are not going to ask for money or women as compensation for your victory here?' Bozes asks, Alexei looks at her and raise his right eyebrow. Both Bozes and Caty are wondering what they did wrong. It cannot be possible that these men really do not take any money and women after they have won the battle?

'You are expecting us to take women as a reward for our victory, and against their will to that? What are we, savages?' Sergei asks.

'Alexei, I know that things in your world are different but here the victorious army usually asks for something in return for their involvement in the battle from the people they saved. They are just surprised as you are the first one who did not asked for compensation, even the Imperial Army asked that form their own towns' Lelei explains.

'I see, Sergei take it easy on them. We were not that different as well when we were on their level of advancement.'

'I understand comrade general' Sergei noted and bowed to Bozes and Caty 'my apologies ladies.'

'No, no… we are sorry for asking such a question. But you have to understand…' Bozes started explaining.

'I do, it's just that Sergei is little more emotional than the rest of us' Alexei explains.

'This is nothing Bozes, you should have seen him when he saw Countess for the first time. He was very loud in his argument that children should not be burdened with politics' Pina further explains, after her explanation both of them looked at Sergei. He really doesn't look like the type of guy who would be so compassionate.

'What?' Sergei asks. But the two of them just kept staring at him until Countess Myui started speaking

'In any case, the agreement seems fair in the long run. I only have one question Comrade General.'

'Please call me Alexei, you have stand with Pina's knights and your own troops on the front lines despite being a kid and a political figure. You earned the right to call me Alexei.'

'Thank you Alexei, now as I was saying… This "resource" you are asking about. What is it exactly?'

'You must understand our curiosity in this matter as we are basically giving you something that we alone have no idea what that something is. We would like to know what we are essentially losing by giving you control over this resource' madam Kaine asks. Alexei smiles as he expected something like this from the old lady.

'To tell you the full truth, right now you are not losing anything as you have no use for it. In our world that resource is of a great importance as our entire society is fueled by it. In time we will teach you how to advance to the level when you will start to use it as well. But for time being I think that extracting it as a compensation for our knowledge and goods is more than fair.'

Countess Myui and lady Kaine had private talk in front of Soviets. They were whispering something to each other. After few seconds both of them nod and face Soviets again.

'We have decided to accept your trade agreement' she stood up and offered her hand to Alexei, 'let both of our people prosper from it.'

'Likewise' Alexei smiles and shake her hand, he is feeling much relived now as this is stepping stone for peace in these lands.

'Excuse me Alexei, can I have a word with you' Pina suddenly stood up and stood between Alexei and Myui.

'Of course Pina' he answers.

'I…I…I would like to request peace talks between the Soviet Union and the Empire. As princess and fifth child of our Emperor I alone have the authority to initiate them. What do you say?' She asks and stands firm, Alexei is caught in the moment. He is unable to respond.

Pina's knights are watching with great interest as well as Soviet soldiers present in the room. Bozes and Caty are the only two persons who are sceptic about this request, but even they can see that their comrades as well as city representatives are aiming for peace. After some time Alexei smiles before giving his answer:

'I cannot describe how happy I am to finally receive that request and have a chance to end this unnecessary bloodshed. However I am afraid I cannot do it right now' that made Pina quite nervous.

'You cannot? Why?' She asks, clearly upset over his answer.

'It's simple actually. I do not have the required authorization to initiate peace talks. The only thing I can guarantee you is this ceasefire. No Soviet soldier will attack any Imperial one unless provoked first. If you want real peace talks to start you will have to come with me and talk to my leaders.'

'You mean…' Grey starts.

'Yes, princess would need to come with us to our world and talk with President Gorbachev' Vladimir answer, Pina became a lot more nervous over that.

'You do not need to be afraid' Alexei put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, 'what you are doing is very brave and worthy of every praise. If you still want to do this I will follow you every step of the way. As I am sure they will as well' he points toward his men and three girls sitting on the sofa.

'You would do something for me, even if I am your enemy?'

'You have chosen to fight beside me and my soldiers, that act alone was enough for you to earn my respects as well as the respect of my men. Our two countries may still be hostile toward each other but I see you as my sister and I will do everything in my power to see your wish for peace is granted.'

Alexei's word touched Pina so much that she is blushing. She nods and afterwards both delegations left the room with new hopes for each side. Pina and her knights held a meeting where they were deciding their next step.

Pina choose to take Hamilton, Grey, Bozes and Caty with her and leave Norma in charge of her knights, she also gave orders to her knights to help Soviet soldiers in any way they can in rebuilding the city of Italica. Then they choose their formal wear and exit the city at the southern gate where two vehicles awaited them. One smaller one where Alexei and his closest men are driving and the other bigger one which is reserved for Pina and her envoy, Bozes and Caty look at the strange vehicles and cannot help but wondering about it.

'I wonder what kind of sorcery is powering this?' Bozes asks.

'They do not have magic in their world' they turn around and see Lelei, 'this is powered by something called the "engine". A mechanical device made and utilize by them, it shows how far ahead of us they are in understanding how their worlds works.'

'And they gave you access to this knowledge?' Caty asks.

'I cannot say that I fully understand it as their language is very hard and there are many things that seems spectacular to us but they take it for granted' Lelei look at the two knights. 'Only thing I can say for sure is that this peace talks will benefit the Empire greatly. We can learn a lot from them.'

'Come on Lelei' Tuka calls for Lelei. Both Lelei and two knights enter the back of the truck, they are soon joined by the rest of the Rose knights and two Soviet soldiers. One of them is Vladimir from the negotiation team while the other one is unknown.

The Soviet soldiers outside raise the back door and shut it, then the truck started moving. The imperials are very surprised to be driving in motor vehicle for the first time. Compared to them Lelei, Rory and Tuka are all quiet and calm. Two Soviet soldiers cannot help but laugh a bit.

'They are like kids on their first ride. Shame that we are enemies as they look so adorable' Vladimir says to Lelei who nods, his talk draw Pina's attention as well as attention of the rest of Rose Knights.

'You can understand our language as well?' Pina asks.

'Of course I can, my grandmother was from Italy. Grammar is not the same but my old comrade Abram here with me to help me out with that problem' Vladimir pats Abram on his shoulder.

'Comrade Sergeant, please…'

'Alright, I will not bother you anymore. Just do not come later on and ask for any Vodka.'

Two of them star arguing about what is fair and not, the three girls watched them and laugh to their insults that they are sending to one another.

'You seem to be getting along very well' Pina is commenting how the three girls and two Soviets enjoy their time together. 'I sure hope that our people can reach that level of friendship one day.'

'I am all for that miss, if my life experience thought me something is that war usually brings more harm than good' Vladimir replies.

'Why should we trust you at all? For all that we know this peace talks could be an interlude into our own occupation. How can we be sure that you are not buying time with this peace talks?' Bozes asks, her question shocked even other Rose Knights.

'Bozes, what are you doing?' Caty asks.

'Asking the obvious question, if they are men of honor they will reply honestly.'

'Bozes…' Pina starts. Grey also seems that he wants to say word or two to her.

'It's alright miss, I will handle this' Vladimir says and then looks at the blonde curly haired girl. 'I will ask you a question but before that but let me say something first' Vladimir removed his helmet and cleaned his forehead.

'This GATE thing suddenly opened in the middle of our capital. And from it came your army that immediately started to slaughter and capture our civilians. You didn't try to establish contact or to send a delegation. You outright rushed from the GATE and murder everyone you could find on the other side.

To say that our leaders were mad would be an understatement. Alexei was chosen as a leader of this group because every other general in the union wanted to gather and army and march straight into your capital and occupy it' the Rose Knights felt cold sweat going down their forehead. Pina and the others who witness the battle realized how close they were to total annihilation of the Empire.

'Now let me ask you, why should we trust you?' He points his finger toward Bozes, 'you who attacked us first without any warning or provocation from our side, who killed and enslaved our people and who openly declared war without any kind of sensible reason.'

Bozes has no response. She bows her head as she realizes that the old soldier is right. The Empire invaded them first and it is only natural for that force to retaliate in return. It's like he said, they are lucky that the person who got to be in charge here has no intention of conquering them.

'I wanted to ask about that Vladimir, why is Alexei the only one who didn't want to assault us?' Pina asks.

'Because he is pretty much the only one who is educated among that pile of buffoons that call themselves "generals", he was the only one who came and explained to the Politburo why did you attacked and how peace would be much more beneficial then sudden occupation.'

'Comrade, you cannot name the members of the military or Politburo like that' Abram says, not hiding how nervous he is about the whole thing.

'I can say whatever the hell I want about them, especially the truth. That is the freedom our general gave to us and I for one are not taking it lightly. In the end, these kids need to know with what kind of political animals they will have to deal with.'

'Your world sounds like very interesting place' Grey says, putting a smile to ease the tensions that Vladimir generated.

'Indeed it is friend, shame that we always live with the threat of total annihilation.'

Vladimir's sentence throws Rose Knights of course, they start to imagine what kind of power must exist in the other world when the country as powerful las the Soviet Union is under constant threat of annihilation.

'Their world is divided among two great powers. Each is trying to fight for dominance over the other. It has been like that for the last 40 years' Lelei explains.

'If you are so powerful why don't you destroy that enemy?' Caty asks.

'Two things miss, first is that both we and our enemies are on equal terms of destructive power. Second is that if we ever go to war the entire world will cease to exist.'

'Ridiculous, are you saying that you have the power to destroy the world?' Bozes asks.

'Several times over actually, not the planet entirely but we can eradicate pretty much entire living world. And that is if we use only one type of weapon' Vladimir's answer sent chill down Bozes's spine. There is no hint of hesitation or lie in his eyes, they really have the power to destroy the world and that made Rose Knights shiver in fear.

'Sorry for scaring you, but that is the truth as much as it hurts. We may seem like monsters to you now but alongside that much horror we also have the equal amount of good things that we have done and made' Vladimir puts smile to ease the Rose Knights. Among all of them only Pina and Grey relaxed and smiled, the rest are still in shock over what they just heard.

'If nothing else your worlds sounds very interesting. I hope to visit it one day and enjoy all the wonders it can offer' Pina says.

'Well your wish will come true sooner then you expect princess' Abram says, 'because to meet our officials you will need to travel to our world.'

'That means….' Pina starts.

'Exactly what it sounds like princess. You are going to pass through the GATE and into the other side.' Vladimir answers.

Pina got nervous, what horrors and wonders might be on the other side of the GATE? What kind of strange land and exotic creatures? Her mind is filled with images of what they might find there and what might happen to them.

'Mister Vladimir, can you tell us what is your country like?' Hamilton asks.

'I am also interested in hearing this, father never talked about home' Tuka says. Vladimir took of his helmet and sighed. Everyone could see that he is very happy for someone to ask him this kind of question.

'Our land… our Mother Russia… is country filled with wonders of our world. From the arctic ice to the Asian desert, from high mountain chains to the deep lakes and long rivers, from the harsh winters and hot summers you name it and we have it. Our country is biggest one in the world so it's only natural that we have many great things in it.'

'How big is your country exactly?' Caty asks. Vladimir scratched his head for a bit.

'It is hard to show you without a map or metric units that you use to calculate something… But, let's say that you travel through our country with horse… you would need at least half a year to travel from one end to another.'

'Half of year, you need that long to travel from one end of this continent to another' Grey says.

'So there are oceans around your continent?' Abram asks.

'Yes as far as we can say, we know about Eastern, Southern and Western Ocean. We know that Northern Ocean exists as well but that area is not fully mapped yet due to hostile species living there' Lelei says.

'What hostile species are we talking about?' Vladimir asks.

'For beginning there are various forms of dragons. They are not as big or powerful as Fire Dragon but still numerous' Tuka says.

'And then you have Orcs and Goblins, they are mostly fighting among themselves but when they unite form time to time they can pose an serious threat to even Imperial lands' Lelei says.

'Orcs and goblins exist here as well, who would have thought…?' Vladimir says.

'Do you not have such dangerous races in your world as well?' Hamilton asks, noting the reaction of Soviet soldiers at the mention of two races.

'As far as sentient beings go only humans exists in our world. We do have our fair share of dangerous wild life but that is still nothing when compared to dragons you guys have here' Vladimir answers.

'Only humans exist in your world? There are no other races?' Bozes asks.

'As far as we know no other race except humans existed, our history varies from six to ten thousand years in the past and in its entirety there are no records of other civilization beside humanity' Abram gave the answer to Bozes's question.

'It must have been nice to have entire world for yourself, free to explore and shape it as you want' Caty says.

'I would not say it was quite as easy as you say Caty' Grey says.

'Why is that Grey?' she asks.

'You see little knight, when humans have no other enemy to fight against they turn on themselves. It happened few times here, I don't see why it would not happen in their world as well' Rory says.

'What she says is truth, if I could describe our entire history in one word it would be war. And we only got better in at as time go on' Abram says. The look in some of the knight eyes is slowly getting filled with disgust, Vladimir could tell as much.

'Hey, I never said that our world is all sunshine and candy. But it has its good points. After all, you will see once we get to Alnus' Vladimir says, what followed was an awkward silence between the two groups.

'You should relax honorable knights, these men have no intention to harm you' Lelei says, breaking the awkward silence. 'You are after all their long lost brothers and sisters. I am sure thye will be delighted to live with you in peace rather than trough the look of their weapons' that statement kicked another fire among Rose Knights.

'What do you mean mage that we are their lost kin?' Bozes asks.

'Ever heard of Rome?' Vladimir asks. Few of the Rose Knights looked into each other.

'It is the most famous legend among our people. Rome is the founding father of our nation and our guardian. But that is ancient legend so old many scholars consider it a myth these days. How do you know about it?' Pina explains and asks, she got even more interested after she saw Vladimir and Abram smiling like they have some kind of great revelation to deliver them.

'You see princess… Our capital in our world is considered "Third Rome". Since first two have fallen long time ago and we have continued the tradition and spirit of the second one' Vladimir's explanation shocked all Rose Knights.

'You are telling us that Rome is real?' Grey asks.

'Imperium Romanum, one of the greatest empire that has ever existed in our world. For over two thousand years it has endured great hardships and expanded its influence all over the world. In the end, it was destroyed by hordes of enemies attacking it from all sides. But even if the empire has perished their culture, religion and achievements survived to this day and many of them represent founding stones of our own civilization' Abram explains a brief history of Rome, Rose Knights cannot help but feel amazed while listening to it.

'We are considered "Third Rome" because we have continued legacy of the passing "Second Rome" to some degree. They gave us culture and religion, and when their capital city finally fell to the enemy the last descendant of their imperial family married to our leader at the time. For us that alone is enough to consider ourselves their successors even if many try to dispute those claims, but you are different story altogether' Vladimir says.

'Yes, you are true descendants of Romans. Even if there are some differences like the language and culture, the overall feel is still there. You are literally a living lost treasure form our past. I think that Alexei knows that and it was most probably the main reason why he is advocating so much for peaceful solution' Abram says.

The talk at the back of the truck quickly became brief historic lesion as Rose Knights wanted to know more about Rome and why it fell. Meanwhile, in the front car Alexei is reading the reports that Pavel sent him via radio. He smiles, because among them he can see the name of an old friend who is going to wait for them once they reach Alnus Hill. They were now literally five minutes away from Alnus, Alexei cannot wait to get there and shake hands with an old friend again.

At the same at Alnus Hill Pavel with the rest of officer's staff and honor guard are standing at the front of the GATE, waiting for their newest arrivals. Pavel can see that most of the people gathered here are nervous, some of the mare even complaining quietly amongst themselves. The situation only became worse once the new arrivals start arriving through the GATE.

'Comrade Colonel, I must file up complain about this' one of the young officers says. He is quite nervous to the point where he is almost shaking like crazy.

'Dully noted comrade, now return to your post.'

'Comrade Colone…'

'I said return to your post!' Pavel shout, that was more than enough for the young officer to step back and get into the line with the other officers. 'I do not like it any more than you do but such are the orders from Moscow' He turns around to see the newcomers as they slowly march from the GATE, he can see that they even brought tanks and heavy equipment.

'Well, I guess not everything is bad…' Pavel, says as he noticed familiar face going toward him. Pavel offers his hand and the other person shakes it.

'Nice to see you again Colonel' the other figure says in soft friendly voice.

'Likewise general' Pavel replies.

'So tell me, where is my pal Alexei?'

'He will be here shortly, please allow me to show you our HQ' Pavel and the newly arrived general head toward HQ building. Just in time when Alexei's envoy has passed the first Alnus Hill checkpoint.