Disclaimer : Growlanser Wayfarer of Time and it's character doesn't belong to me, only few OCs here and Lyn Ordinale.
Warning : Incest, M-rated
Enjoy!
1
The Morning Letter
"Father! What do you mean by 'engagement'?!"
Edwin Lorchgard slammed his fist on the long, wooden desk as he glared at the man sitting across him.
"I will not say it twice, son," said Edward Lorchgard in a stern and austere tone, which Edwin had recognized was the same tone he often used to issue orders for the troops. The man calmly returned his glare with a blank look, before shifting his gaze to the letter at his hand.
"His Highness had ordered me to wed you with the Ordinale's daughter. Supposedly, in two months."
Edwin groaned.
"Father, this is preposterous! Have you lost your mind? This is an engagement we are talking about!" Edwin roared, his hand making another contact with the working desk. The loud sound was probably enough to be heard from the soldiers stationed outside the door, but Edwin couldn't care less. He was angry—no, furious even—at his father's nonchalant behavior.
"You really need to work on your temper, Edwin." Remarked Edward, opening one of the drawers to take out a pack of cigar and a box of matches. Edwin watched as he flicked the match to create a burning fire on its tip, before the cold winter wind of Iglesias flew past by from one of the opened window, dousing it in the process.
Edward sighed.
"You are the first son of the Lorchgard, Edwin." Edward continued, trying to lighten another match. "One day, you will be replacing me as the Supreme Commander of Iglesias Army. Such reckless temper can be your downfall."
"But that is the problem here, father!" Edwin rasped, shaking his head in exasperation. "What will the citizen say when they know about this? The next in line to be the Supreme Commander marrying a girl from Valkania? Marrying an Ordinale, no less!"
Edwin fell back to his seat, tired from all the outrageous shouting he had thrown at his father.
"Really… Calum could have done it." He muttered, thinking about his cheerful, playboy brother. "Marrying would have stopped him from his playboy streak."
"Calum may have been a perfect candidate for any engagement, but not this one," Edward commented. He had succeeded in lightening his cigar and was now contently exhaling smoke from his mouth "Yet, this engagement was far from any normal engagement. At least, this was the very reason I agreed in the first place."
"What do you mean, father?"
Edward glanced at him.
"Tell me, son. What do you know about the Ordinale?"
"I know they are a royal, having a town on the border of Marquelia and Valkania—"
Edward shook his head disapprovingly. "No, not that one. It is practically a common knowledge. Let me correct myself. What do you know about the Ordinale twins?"
"Christopher Ordinale and Alfonse Ordinale?" asked Edwin, slightly wondering if this was one of his father's test to see his knowledge. "Well, I think it was a rather common knowledge too that the younger one—Alfonse Ordinale—was accepted as one of the three Royal Guard in Valkania. As for Cristopher Ordinale, wasn't he just like Calum? From the way people talks about him, I guess he too, was quite a player—"
"I see. Sounds like you did your homework." Edward said, slowly rising from his seat. He walked to the right side of the room, where a map of Noryeval with its four nations—Dulkheim, Iglesias, Marquelia, and Valkania—was plastered on the wall. "What about their sister, then?"
Edwin shook his head.
"I never heard of her."
"Hm…." Edward hummed, inhaling his cigar before exhaling its smoke into the air. He repeated the same manner twice before he looked at Edwin again.
"The former Lord of Ordinale hid his daughter well," He trailed off. "If I wasn't one of the higher-ups, I probably would never know. No wonder you wouldn't know."
"Why must he do that?" Edwin asked, feeling a little intrigued by it.
"Who knows? Maybe because of his protectiveness." Edward shrugged. "By the way, give me that astray, will you?"
Edward motioned at the ashtray on his desk, which Edwin immediately gave to his father. He stared silently as his father put the cigar's ash inside, before going back to smoking it again.
"Well, I can't tell you much more about the girl herself. I only met her once at the Mayfield's, and she was very small at that time," Edward began, which Edwin nodded his head in agreement.
He had heard from Calum that Lord Mayfield of Fandelcia was a friend of them since their daughter frequently visited the Ordinale's Mansion. Edwin never met the Mayfield daughter in person, though. He was too busy preparing himself for the next Supreme Commander to get acquainted with girls from other royal families. Yet Calum had met her once—and of course, flirt with her—but that ended up with him having a red mark on his left cheek for almost all day.
Edwin smiled a little, remembering that small event before realizing this is not the time to do that.
"But, what about the engagement? You haven't explained it yet."
"Relax, I was just getting to there," Edward said, waving his hand at the map. "Come here."
Knowing better than to ignore his order, Edwin stood up and walked to the map. Now standing beside his father, he could see that the map was actually pretty big and detailed. He could see the Lorchgard name on the map, along with some other surrounding towns in Iglesias. Had this been the map his father usually used to plan for battle?
"Now this here is Kilgrid, where Royal Guards are usually stationed," Edward said, pointing at the capital of Valkania. "Sir Muntzer, Diana Silverneil, and Alfonse Ordinale often stayed in the city, all to ensure the King of Valkania's protection. You see how far it is from the Ordinale?"
"Yes, father. It would probably take almost two days from Kilgrid to Ordinale, with monsters probably interfering along the way." Edwin answered, espying the 'Ordinale' name marked near Marquelay. "Yet for someone like Alfonse Ordinale, it might take less than a day."
"I have to agree with that." Edward sighed, exhaling another smoke as he leaned against the wall. "As for Christopher Ordinale, I guess I don't need to explain any further. His nomadic soul was too much to make him stay in one place for a long time."
"Now, have you ever wondered how Ordinale could still function like any other town when those two brothers rarely ever home?"
Edwin fell silent for a moment.
"Father, you mean—"
Edward nodded.
"The youngest of the Ordinale certainly took care of that." He said, walking away from the map and going back to his seat. "Rather impressive, isn't it?"
"I don't know if it can be called impressive or not," Edwin answered, following his father to his own seat. "But is that the reason you agreed to this engagement? You want me to help her in controlling Ordinale?"
"I wouldn't say 'help', son." Said Edward, giving the letter to Edwin for him to read. "This is your first mission in becoming the next Supreme Commander of Iglesias."
"Get closer to the Ordinale's daughter and take control of the city. From there, we can break the engagement if you want."
It was the reason why two mornings later, a courier from Iglesias knocked on the double doors of the Ordinale Mansion.
"That is all for today, Muntzer. I certainly hope you can relay the message to….Alfonse and Diana." Muntzer nodded, watching as the King of Valkania shifted nervously in his seat. The letter brought by the courier this morning had been opened and laid on his lap. "I'm sorry to trouble you with this, Muntzer. But I have heard about Diana's favor for the girl."
Muntzer shook his head.
"It's alright, Your Highness. It surely was my duty to inform the other two."
"Do you think it might be a trap?" asked the King, leaning back to his seat. He gave the letter to the young, probably new butler standing beside him, before motioning for the butler to take the letter away, which he quickly did. "I talked with the advisors, and they all said it might be."
"Pardon me, Your Highness. It was a definite trap. Iglesias never play fair in the war." Muntzer explained. "Their manpower is very limited, not to mention their fare of strength."
"But not to worry, Your Highness." Muntzer quickly said, not wanting to worry the King more than he already was. "This may be a good opportunity that we can't pass. Iglesias making the first move, here. Therefore it might be better for us to just follow this through. Of course, I would have to talk with the others for a plan to counter this move."
"I see…" The King nodded, a sign that he agreed with Muntzer. Heaving a rather frustrated sigh, the King shook his head displeasingly. "I think I will discuss it with the advisors. You may go, then. Sorry for keeping you."
Muntzer nodded, curtsying respectfully before turning to the doors. Both of the guards opened each, giving salutation as he passed by them to the corridors. Muntzer himself doesn't even turn to look as the doors closed behind him, the sound of it reverberating through the long corridors.
Muntzer trudged down the stairs, hoping he could find one of his partner—Alfonse—in the training ground below. He didn't know about Diana, but he remembered Alfonse inviting him to spar this morning. Hopefully, the young boy would be there—he should have known about this displeasing news before anyone else.
"Sir Muntzer! It's nice to see you well!"
The happy, cheerful sound of Christopher Ordinale stopped him in his track. Glancing forward, he saw the eldest of the Ordinale was sauntering happily to him, unperturbed by the glances sent to him from the maids passing by.
"Christopher? What are you doing here?" asked Muntzer, a little bit surprised to find him here in Kilgrid. The last he heard from Alfonse, Christopher was off in Iglesias to visit the Mayfield. "Shouldn't you be in Iglesias?"
Christopher grinned, his hand running through the messy long white hair of him.
"Of course, Sir Muntzer. As much as I would like to stay there and 'get acquainted' with those strong, tough Iglesian girl whose heart is as cold as their temperature, there is this….unsettling rumor I heard over there that I would like to confirm." Muntzer felt his face harden. He had a feeling that this 'unsettling rumor' Christopher was talking about had been the same as the one he was about to tell the younger twin.
"Do you know about this unsettling rumor, Sir?" Christopher asked, staring at him with golden eyes inherited directly from the former Lord of Ordinale, an almost exact replica to Alfonse. He must have noticed the change in Muntzer's expression. "If you aren't sure which rumor I was talking about, it was about the engagement between Edwin Lorchgard and—"
"No, that rumor was right." Muntzer cut him off, looking at the eldest of the Ordinale family in the eyes. "Your sister was going to—no," He shook his head, somehow feeling that the words weren't right. "Your sister was forced into a marriage arrangement with Edwin Lorchgard, the first son of Lorchgard family."
Christopher's eyes widen. Yet the next voice to echo through the suddenly empty corridor didn't belong to the older twin, either to Muntzer.
"Lyn….was…?"
Alfonse's usually calm and deterrent voice suddenly dropped to a whisper, unsure one that made both of the men turned to him.
"Alfonse!" Christopher exclaimed, quite taken a back by the sudden appearance of his younger brother. He regained his composure rather quickly, rushing at his brother's side to slung an arm around his shoulder. "Since when have you been there? Where were you before? I'm searching for you, you know!"
Alfonse smiled, though Muntzer can see that the smile didn't reach his eyes.
"Thank you, Nii-san," Alfonse said, moving Christopher's hand from his shoulder. "I haven't been here for long, just passing on my way back from the training ground when I saw you conversing here with Sir Muntzer."
He glanced at Muntzer.
"Also, this is not the right time and place to be angry. I supposed this is one of the things we need to discuss, then?" Muntzer nodded.
"Really? I don't think so." Christopher piped in, his almost-chesire grin making its way back to his face. "Diana left for Rebrant not a moment ago. She doesn't know about this yet, right?"
Muntzer sighed, shaking his head when he remembered there is one more person he would have to relay this news. "I guess I would go after her to Rebrant. This is something we need to discuss as fast as possible, though."
"How about you three gathered in our mansion?" Christopher said, surprising both of the Royal Guard. "We can talk more freely there, and it's been so long since we met Lyn. Besides, don't you think that Diana would like to meet her too? If this engagement really true, then this may very well be the last time we met Lyn…"
It was something of a reminder—the possibility that Lyn will have to live with their future husband in the other nation. Especially now that there is a higher possibility of marrying someone from the Lorchgard family surely wasn't very appealing, not to both of the twins or Muntzer himself. The hallway suddenly ensued with silence, as the three of them lost in their own thought while facing each other.
"As much as I don't like to tell this news alone to Diana," Muntzer said, deciding to break the silence. "You should go to Ordinale, meet your sister. I will follow with Diana—after I told her the news, of course. Wouldn't want her to explode in your mansion, aren't you?"
Alfonse smiled a grateful one where it reaches his eyes. "Thank you, Sir Muntzer."
Muntzer shook his head. "No, no. Don't thank me. Besides, I can sympathize with you, you know. Just imagining Latika in Lyn's position…"
"Ah, Latika-chan? How was she?" Christopher asked, sounding very excited. "She was my little matchmaker in Klasdahl! She matched me with the daughter of the general store there!"
Muntzer frowned disapprovingly. "Don't turn Latika into one of your helpers."
Christopher laughed. Stretching his arm, he turned to his brother.
"How about it, Alfonse? Do you think we should pay a visit to our dear little sister?'
Alfonse smiled.
"Of course, Nii-san."