Tales of Vesperia: Royal Engagement
Chapter 1: Proposal of Unity
In the capital of the Illycian continent, Zaphias, all is peaceful and bright since Yuri Lowell left the capital with Estelle and his friends to save the world from the dangers of the Adephagos. The sky over the large city was bright blue as clouds slowly drifted through the sky. Estelle was seen on a nearby balcony of the castle, sipping tea as she read a book on the table.
"I'm glad I finally got to read this again. I almost finished it before I met Yuri." Estelle thought. As she continued to read, a strange humming like sound could be heard in the far distance, approaching the capital.
"Hmm? Hey. Does anyone hear something?" a man in the lower quarter asked. Soon, the inhabitants of the lower quarter were abuzz with concern as they heard the same strange sound. Nearby the lower quarter's aqua blastia, Hanks looked to the sky.
"That sound...could it be...?" Hanks thought. He suddenly noticed someone flying through the skies above the capital. It appeared to be a young teenage girl with a strange device strapped to her back, goggles over her eyes and a crash helmet strapped to her head. Hanks chuckled, recognizing her as Rita Mordio.
"If it ain't Miss Mordio. Wonder what she's doing here?" Hanks thought, giving a smirk as Rita continued to fly through the sky. Rita had both hands firmly grasped to two handles extending from the device on her back, her personal flying machine. It was a large fan with the propellors spinning at intense speeds, keeping Rita airborne.
"Now then...Estelle should be..." Rita thought. She looked around the ground below her, searching for signs of the castle. She then noticed Estelle out on the balcony and grinned.
"Ah! There she is!" Rita thought. She turned her body towards the castle and aimed for the balcony. Estelle heard the machine whirring and looked up. Rita laughed and waved to her still in midair. Estelle laughed and waved to her.
"Rita! It's you!" Estelle cried. As Rita continued to wave, she remained unaware that her flying device was starting to crap out behind her, spurting and ready to break down. Rita gasped once she noticed.
"Oh man! Not now! Not now!" Rita thought. Estelle soon stopped waving as Rita was swinging her arms frantically, causing Estelle to gasp.
"Estelle! Look out! Move out of the way! I'm coming in too fast!" Rita exclaimed. Estelle screamed and hurried aside.
"Mayday! Mayday!" Rita exclaimed. With her eyes covered by her hands, Estelle heard Rita crashing hard into the balcony. Her device was smashed to pieces, flying all around the area. When Estelle peeked again, she found Rita upside down against the nearby wall with her device still spurting. The table and chair that Estelle sat in nearby had been flipped by Rita's impact.
"Oh my gosh! Rita! Are you all right?" Estelle exclaimed. Rita nervously chuckled.
"Sorry Estelle. Guess I haven't FULLY got the kinks out of this crappy flying machine yet." Rita said. She quickly flipped herself over and unfastened herself from her device. But soon after, Estelle rushed over and hugged her tightly.
"Oh Rita! I'm glad you came to visit!" Estelle exclaimed. Rita began to blush, feeling Estelle pressing up against her. She started stuttering as she pushed herself free from Estelle.
"Uhh...duhh...y...yeah! Nice to...see you too!" Rita stammered. Estelle giggled.
"H...Here Estelle. Lemme just...help clean this mess up." Rita stuttered.
~ Tales of Vesperia ~
After helping Estelle clean up the overturned furniture, Rita joined Estelle at the table for a cup of tea. She set her destroyed invention by her chair.
"Thank you for visiting today Rita. I was afraid you weren't going to." Estelle said, pouring Rita's tea. Rita blushed a bit.
"Yeah. Well, repairs in Aspio are kind of still underway. I've been working on my own stuff as well as helping repair Aspio. Hmph. To think the city suffered that much damage when Tarqaron ripped it out of the ground." Rita said, glancing off. Estelle sighed lightly.
"At least you were not in it when it happened and everyone did get out safely. If you wanted our help, you could've submitted a request to the council about sending more support to help rebuild Aspio." Estelle said. Rita huffed.
"Believe me. I've tried that." Rita said. She glanced at her tea cup before taking a light sip, lightly sighing afterwards.
"Hmm? What?" Estelle asked.
"Your tea is delicious Estelle. It's so refreshing. I always like this when I come to visit." Rita said. Both girls started to lightly chuckle. Down below, in the city streets, another familiar face was seen strolling in from the lower quarter entrance. As he carried a sword at his side, a blue furred dog remained along his side. Behind was a young boy with spiky brown hair, a middle aged man wearing a large purple coat and spiky hair and a girl with two long antenna from her head. The townsfolk in the lower quarter knew him right away.
"H...Hey! It's Yuri! Yuri came back!" a boy cried. Sure enough, the new face entering the town was Yuri Lowell, joined by his faithful dog Repede and his guildmates Karol, Raven and Judith. Yuri smirked as he looked around.
"Hmph. Looks like the lower quarter's been doing just fine." Yuri said.
"Yeah. Considering the fact that every town on the whole planet doesn't have barrier blastia anymore, I say the capital seems to be doing just fine." Raven added. Judith chuckled.
"You always act like this whenever we come to visit. You really miss your home, don't you Yuri?" Judith asked. Yuri glanced back at Judith with a smug grin.
"This coming from the girl who previously kept her whole life secret from us." Yuri said. Karol chuckled.
"Who cares? We came to visit Estelle, right? So...let's save all this "homesick" stuff for later. I bet Estelle will be surprised to see us." Karol said. Yuri smirked as Repede barked.
"Okay. Okay. Let's go pay our princess a visit." Yuri said. The group continued on through the city, waved to and greeted by everyone in the lower quarter. But as Yuri left the lower quarter and went up higher, he found three "unfriendly" faces waiting. It was LeBlanc with Adecor and Boccos at his side.
"Well, well...so we meet again Yuri Lowell." LeBlanc said. Yuri sighed.
"I had a feeling I would be seeing you again captain. That goes for you too Tweedle A and Tweedle B." Yuri said. Adecor and Boccos groaned.
"I say, that gets rather tiresome after so many times Yuri." Adecor said.
"Can't you come up with any better names for us than that?" Boccos asked. Yuri smirked, glanced upon by Raven and Judith.
"I would...but that would be rather insulting to your images as knights. So...I'll stick with the nicknames I gave ya already." Yuri said "Now if you'll excuse us, we came to visit Estelle." Adecor and Boccos laughed.
"Not this time I'm afraid Yuri Lowell! This time...you will FINALLY be put on trial for all the uncouth actions you have done in the past. This is where you finally lose!" Boccos cried.
"I say, we have you now!" Adecor exclaimed. Suddenly, Raven stepped forward, facing the Schwann Brigade.
"Men! Ten hut!" Raven shouted. The knights gasped, quickly standing upright and saluting with their eyes close. Raven glanced back at the others and winked. As LeBlanc and men stood proudly, thinking Raven was still there, the group quietly sneaked past while stopping to make teasing faces at them. By the time LeBlanc noticed something was up, Yuri's group was gone.
"Wh...What? C...Captain Schwann? Yuri? D...Damn! NOT AGAIN!" LeBlanc exclaimed.
~ Tales of Vesperia ~
Inside the castle, Estelle and Rita were still on the balcony talking between one another when a knock came at Estelle's door.
"Hmm? Come in!" Estelle called. The door opened and Yuri entered along with the others.
"Hey Estelle, what's up?" Yuri asked.
"Yuri! Oh! And Karol too! It's so great to see you all again!" Estelle cried with cheer. Raven smirked.
"Aww shucks. Glad to see you yourself princess. How about a hug for ol' Raven?" Raven asked, opening his arms. But without a sound, Rita got up and approached Raven. She then punched him smack on the nose. Raven yelped and covered his face with his hands.
"OW! Hey! What was that for?" Raven asked.
"Hmph. Still the same perverted old fart from before. You'll never change old man." Rita said. Raven huffed.
"Y...Yeah. Hmph. Nice to see you too little missy." Raven said, rubbing his nose. Rita glanced around at everyone.
"Hey wait. Where's Patty? Didn't she come with you guys?" Rita asked.
"Oh. Patty? She said she had some stuff to do at Torim Harbor and might not be joining us for this little visit of ours." Yuri said. Estelle smiled, saddened a bit to hear that. Just then, another knock came at the door. This time, it was Flynn Scifo with Ioder behind him.
"Excuse us...Lady Estellise. May we...? Huh? Yuri?" Flynn asked. Yuri smirked.
"Hello to you too Flynn. Nice to knock when the door is still wide open." Yuri said. Ioder smiled at the sight of everyone.
"Oh. This is good. You came after all Mister Lowell." Ioder said. Yuri looked on with intrigue as Flynn and Ioder entered, closing the door behind them. As Yuri took a seat nearby, Ioder and Flynn stood out on the balcony with Estelle.
"Flynn? What's going on?" Estelle asked.
"Yeah. Your entrance seemed rather timed." Yuri said. Flynn paused for a moment to clear his throat.
"Well, actually, there's something we wanted to talk to you about Lady Estellise. I don't know if any of you are aware of this...but it seems things between the empire and the guilds is starting to take a turn for the worst." Flynn said. This caught Raven's attention very fast.
"I heard something like that too. Supposedly, those who can't really stand the idea of the empire and the guilds being all "friendly" with one another are turning their backs from helping the empire, that right?" Raven asked. Ioder nodded.
"Yes. Because of this, we're afraid that our peace treaty between us will surely break and war will start again. We're losing more and more support from the people of Dahngrest with every passing second." Ioder said. Yuri glanced on.
"So...what does that have to do with us?" Yuri asked. Suddenly, Flynn began to blush, making Yuri feel highly uncomfortable for what was coming next. Everyone looked on with anticipation as Ioder prepared to speak.
"Master Ioder believes he may have come up with an idea about how we can avoid an outbreak between the capital and Dahngrest...and it involves you, Yuri." Flynn said, still blushing under his eyes. Yuri suddenly sat up.
"Well? What is it? Don't keep us in the dark Flynn. Somebody tell us." Yuri said.
"Well, the idea is that if we can bring together two people, one from each side, the guilds and the empire, then perhaps their unity will send a message to the people of Dahngrest that we in the empire truly wish to seek peace with them." Ioder said. Everyone continued to watch as Ioder adjusted his jacket collar.
"We...We propose a marriage...between Princess Estellise Sidos Heurassein and...Yuri Lowell, hero of Terca Lumireis and member of Brave Vesperia." Ioder said. The impact of the news shocked everyone, including Repede. It hit Yuri so hard that he practically fell out of his chair at the sound of it. Rita was left with her mouth gaping open.
"Wh...WHAT? MARRIAGE? Between Estelle and...HIM?" Rita screamed, pointing angrily at Yuri. Karol's eyes almost seemed to pop from his head.
"You...You've gotta be kidding!" Karol exclaimed.
"Yeah! If anyone ought to be marrying a cutie pie like Estelle, it ought to be...DOW!" Raven cried, kicked hard in the gut by Rita. Judith looked away with her face bright red.
"Wh...What kind of crap is this? You can't be serious!" Yuri exclaimed. Flynn groaned, looking away to hide his embarrassment.
"Sorry Yuri. But this was all the council could decide on. Besides, you and Lady Estellise have been together so long that it would seem fitting for you two to ever be wed. You're very close friends, are you not?" Ioder said. Yuri and Estelle suddenly turned to each other, blushing brightly as their shaky eyes looked on at the other.
"The two of us...married?" Yuri and Estelle muttered. Everyone else watched Yuri and Estelle, still blown away by the sudden proposal and waiting to see what they would say.
TO BE CONTINUED...