CHAPTER 3: Somebody I Used To Know
This chapter has a bit of Angst.
When they arrived at Blood Pledge Castle, Wolfram instructed one of the maids to clean his old room as he had planned on sleeping there that night, it was hard to talk to Elise when someone was in the room, and frankly he would look less crazy talking to himself if he was alone.
He had gone to Yuuri's Chambers to take a little nap while his room was being prepared; he was worn out from mentally arguing with Elise for days. Honestly he loved having Elise but sometimes she was impossible to deal with. She had decided to explain male on male sex in very explicit details that couldn't be found in a book. The whole time he was choking and his face was as red as a tomato; luckily Yuuri believed that he was sick, although Murata did not look convinced.
Wolfram was already fast asleep when one of the maids, had come to let him know that his room was ready, unfortunately the damned maid's timing sucked. Because Yuuri, Conrad and Günter were also in the room. Needless to say, Yuuri was starting to think he really had done something to annoy his beautiful fiancé… (Yes he knew Wolfram was beautiful, Wolfram's beauty literally cured the sick once; then again he would never admit that to wolfram. As per the fiancé part, he knew they were engaged, he just wasn't comfortable with the fact that they were both guys. He wasn't gay).
"Heika, what happened during your trip at Hildyard? Why is Wolfram moving back to his old room?" Günter asked (more liked wailed dramatically).
"Gunter I really don't know what I did wrong, he has been different; he even called me Your Majesty once. I think he is angry at me but I don't know what I did wrong, I have been apologizing since we left the castle in Hildyard, but he keeps saying there is nothing wrong."
"Did you two fight during the ceremony?" Gunter asked, the lilac haired Mazoku was starting to get worried, Wolfram had literally moved in to Yuuri's room when they got engaged, him moving out might signify that there was a major problem in their relationship.
"I don't know, during the ceremony he left in the middle of the night without saying a word and came back the next day." Yuuri was worried. Had something happened to Wolfram when he left the ceremony? Where did he spend the night?
"He left the ceremony? Heika that is unheard of, where did he go? who accompanied him?" Gunter was starting to get more worried which only helped in making Yuuri panic. The only person who seemed a bit composed was Conrad.
"Conrad, do you think someone did something to him?"
"Heika, Wolfram is strong, I'm sure that wasn't the case, also I didn't see any bruises on him."
"It's Yuu..ri, after all you are the one who named me. And even if he wasn't physically injured, he has been different since he came back." The noise woke Wolfram up.
"Yuuri, please be quiet, I'm trying to sleep."
"Ano.. Wolf, are you mad at me?"
"Yuuri for the last time, I'm not mad at you, I'm just tired and sleepy."
"One of the maids came to tell you that your room is ready, why are you leaving our room?"
"Yuuri it's not our room, it's YOUR room, besides you have always complain about the way I sleep, it would benefit both of us if I moved back to my old room." Wolfram yawned.
"I never said I wanted you to leave, what's going on Wolf? You've been different lately."
"Yuuri, I'm fine, nothing is going on I'm just tired and feel like sleeping alone."
Wolfram moved into his own room that day, rumors were starting to spread in the castle that Wolfram and Yuuri were about to end their engagement. Yuuri had noticed that Wolfram was starting to become a bit distant, he was always lost in thoughts. Greta had asked about who he was with the night he disappeared from the ceremony in Hildyard, but apparently Wolfram was with a lady named Elise.
Today was the fifth day since they came back from Hildyard, Wolfram was still acting different; the blond was nicer, smiled a lot, stopped yelling at him, stopped calling him a cheater or declaring that he was his fiancé every five minutes like he used to. Yuuri wasn't stupid he know they were drifting apart, ever since Wolf moved out of their room, things changed, Wolfram no longer got jealous even when he purposely flirted with the maid, Yuuri was starting to think that Wolfram had found someone else or was no longer in love with him, and somehow he knew that "Elise" was the cause.
*******In Wolfram's room********
"Wolf, I want to spar with your soldiers, I've missed the thrill"
"And how are you going to do that, do you even know how to use a sword?"
"One of my past hosts Elizabeth Von Ludwig was called the 'sword dancing fairy', I'm pretty sure I could handle three of your best soldiers."
"I seriously doubt that, but it would serve as a good training for them, so how are you going to fight them?"
"I'll do a takeover of course but I must warn you that it would take a toll on your body if you are not physically fit."
"What nonsense! Are you calling me fat?!"
"Oh, chill, you sound like a girl. You should probably stretch before we start, oh and one more thing, the spar would be solely with sword, I won't be using your maryoku."
After three hours of mental arguments with Elise, Wolfram learned two things 1) Arguing with her was pointless 2) The damned perverted goddess has a counter for almost every point the blond brought up and when she didn't have a counter she triggered some of the blonde's embarrassing memories to make him lose. Needless to say he would never argue with her again.
Wolfram gathered his soldiers; he told them that he wanted to try a special kind of training, which involved the use of only their swords. It was going to be a simulation of a battle and he warned them that slacking would cause serious damages.
"I want to try a new fighting style I recently learnt about, I would be fighting Jason, Adrian and Luke together, the spar would be with only swords no Maryoku would be used and I want you guys to come at me with everything you've got, I'll give you one hour to prepare." His statement earned gasps, as well as cautious looks from his solders, as Wolfram wanted to spar with his top three soldiers at once, gossip about the fight had spread around the castle, Murata, Yuuri, Gunter, Gwendal, Yozak as well as Conrad had heard the news, and had tried to reprimand Wolfram for his carelessness, but couldn't seem to find the said blond anywhere. An hour was up and there was a small crowd gathering to watch the fight, all they could do was watch.
Elise was thrilled to hold a sword again, sure she would be fighting via Wolfram's body but she didn't mind, Elizabeth had almost the same physique as wolfram. And so Wolfram's body was the perfect vessel.
As the four bishounen's(All Wolfram's men were drop dead gorgeous)stood in the center of the field, the soldiers looked at their captain, wondering if he was really in his right mind, there was a glint in his eyes and for a second they could have sworn that wolframs eyes were sapphire blue instead of the usual emerald green.
The fight soon started, Jason was holding back but seeing as wolfram was serious he changed tactics, Wolfram dodged every strike, dancing, floating, there was a big playful smile on his lips, he was enjoying this, his top three soldiers felt powerless against their captain, Wolfram's moves were different from what they were used to, it was impossible to predict. It seemed their captain was dancing or flying, Wolfram laughed in pure amusement and happiness, the wind blowing through his hair made him feel like he was on the clouds, his body felt light, his body responded to every strike. The sound of clashing metals and shouts filled the air.
The onlookers watched in amazement at Wolfram fought his solders, while laughing playfully, Conrad and Gwendal had the same thing on their mind." When did their baby brother learn to fight like this?" Yuuri was stunned, he knew his fiancé was an excellent swordsman, but he had never seen Wolfram fight using this technique, when did he learn it? Had he always been able to fight like this? Were there other things he didn't know about Wolfram? Murata watched with keenness, he had seen this fighting style before, he couldn't remember where, how did lord Bielefeld learn this style? Judging from the looks on his brothers face, they didn't know their baby brother could fight like this.
The rest of Wolfram's soldiers watched in awe at their captain's new fighting style, their captain looked like the wind was moving him, the way he bent his body mid-air defying all laws of gravity, they could have sworn he had a pair of wings and was flying. When did their captain learn this? Would he teach them this new fighting style? It looked like he was dancing with his sword; even the top three soldiers couldn't land a hit on him. Their captain looked like a sword dancing god. The other surprising fact was that Wolfram was laughing playfully, which was rare, their captain seemed to be enjoying the spar, it felt like he was toying with them… not that they minded.
Soon the fight came to an end to the disappointment of the audience. Adrian looked at his captain and blushed, he had a crush on Wolfram after all who wouldn't, he was beautiful, as well as a skilled swordsman. Watching his captain "fight" did not help matters. He was trying his best to suppress the nosebleed he was about to have.
"Adrian, your swing got better, but you seemed distracted; you need to clear your mind of all distraction and focus only on the opponent in front of you. Any carelessness might lead to disastrous consequences." Adrian nodded; He couldn't tell his captain that was distracting him was his blond hair, playful smile, seductive moves (yes, he found the moves seductive)
"Luke, you kept losing your balance and your grip was weak, work on those. The fundamentals of sword fighting as maintaining your balance as well as having a strong grip on your sword. Even if your opponent has a confusing and unpredictable fighting style, you should not get too absorbed in his style that you lose your balance and grip." Luke nodded in agreement.
"Jason, you were weak during the start of the fight, I understand that you were trying to gauge my skill, but sometimes during that moment of weakness, your opponent can strike." Jason nodded, it was true he was holding back but not because he was gauging Wolfram, but because he didn't want to hurt his captain.
"I hope the rest of you learnt something during the fight?" Wolfram asked, they all nodded. "You are all dismissed."
"Oh my gosh! That felt soooo good; I thought I had gotten rusty."
"The spar was… interesting but thanks to you my whole body hurts, I can barely walk"
"I told you it would take a toll on your body, fatso" Wolfram hmph'ed at her annoying reply.
Conrad and Gwendal watched their baby brother talk to his men, they were still surprised that their brother could fight like that; their thoughts were interrupted when they noticed their brother walking towards them, he looked like he was in pain. Before either of them could say something Yuuri had beat them to it.
"Um.. Wolf… where did you learn to fight like that?" Yuuri asked nervously.
"A friend of mine told me about it so I decided to try it, it seems I still have a lot to learn as the training took a toll on me, I'm sore all over and I doubt I would be able to walk for a few days."
"Lord Bielefeld, can you tell me about the fighting style. I think I remember that style in one of my past lives but I can't pinpoint which one."
"No problem Geika, if you excuse me I have to go to the bath, my muscles are sore" and with that Wolfram left.
Thanks to the sword fighting session Wolfram had with his troops, he was sore; the baths, massages, sleep as well as healing session with Gisela (Who complained about his recklessness the entire time) did not help. Dinner was rather interesting that night, as everyone kept staring at him, no one refused to break the silence and for once Elise wasn't bothering him… needless to say the silence was awkward.
"Papa Wolf, where did you learn to fight like that?" Greta asked, at least someone broke the annoying silence.
"Elise told me about it." Wolfram answered without skipping a beat, Wolfram had told Greta about Elise when he found out that, someone had told her he left Hildyard in the middle of the night during the ceremony and she had been worried about him, so he decided to tell her who he was with to make her feel better.
"How?" she asked in confusion, Wolfram noticed that everyone in the room were looking at him, waiting for his answer.
"We talk to each other every day" technically it wasn't a lie, after all she was inside him and they did talk to each other every day, technicalities did not matter.
"Wait Wolf, how do you guys communicate…. Or do you guys send each other messages through the pigeons?" Yuuri asked.
Wolfram did not know how to answer the question so he decided that it would be easier to lie than to explain having crazy, perverted goddess inside him.
"Who are you calling a pervert?"
"Oh cmon, we both know you are. Yesterday you were describing what you wanted to do with the desert the maids made in a very explicit manner."
"You did not complain."
"I did…. The entire time!"
"Um… Wolf, you're zoning out again"
"Sorry I'm just tired, you were asking?"
"I was asking if you two send each other messages every day?"
"Yes we do, it's quite refreshing though, it's like have a crazy perverted best friend." Wolfram replied absent mindedly.
"P…Perverted?" Yuuri stuttered, this time Gwendal was glaring at Wolfram, Murata was looking at Wolfram in amusement, while Conrad just smiled.
"Yuuri what's wrong, your face looks red, are you having a fever?"
"What's wrong? You spent the night with a pervert, and you call me a cheater?"
"Yuuri calm down, she is just a friend of mine, like the sage is to you." This time Murata raised a questioning eyebrow at Wolfram.
Unfortunately they could not continue their argument as Wolfram, announced that he was done eating and needed to rest
The next few days was a blur to Wolfram, his muscles were no longer sore, he had talked to Elise to teach him how the Sword dancing style, he even went to the library to do some research on sword dancing but unfortunately the books gave very few information on the sword skill as it was ancient and almost impossible to learn.
Wolfram was just leaving the library when he passed by the music room, he remembered his mother putting a Piano in it decades ago, as she believed that "A man who can play the piano has graceful fingers and knows how to put it to good use" somehow he felt like that statement wasn't about music but about something else. He walked in to the Music room, the piano was covered in a blue cloth, and he removed the cloth causing the dust from the cloth to make him choke. The piano was magnificent, the mahogany wood piano stood at the center of the room in all its greatness, Wolfram had never learnt to play the piano, and thinking about it now he wondered why he hadn't learnt how to play it, He circled the piano slowly, taking a moment to bask himself in its glory, The piano was beautiful, he trailed his fingers along it and smile.
"Do you know how to play the piano?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Lady Veronica could play."
"The Sad lady?" he asked, if someone walked into the room and saw him right now they would probably think that Wolfram had lost his mind, then again they wouldn't be surprised, as they kept telling him that there was something different about him, how he had changed since he came back from Hildyard, before he met Elise.
"Yeah, she was the best, during her training she went to earth, and learnt about Classical music, pianos, sheet music. She was one of the nicest hosts I ever had, she was misunderstood by everyone, Music was the only way she could express herself yet…"
"…They couldn't see the pain behind the music" He completed.
"Yeah, she and her family were shunned, humiliated, burned."
"Why?"
"Because she was a human."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean" he yelled angrily.
"Wolfie, you know that Mazoku's and Humans have never had a good relationship and when they found out that a human had the ability to control all the elements, they tried to kill her, and when they couldn't they targeted her family."
"Why… why would they do something like that?" Wolfram was starting so breakdown, somehow he could feel the pain Lady Veronica had gone through, probably because Elise was inside him.
The pain was starting to get worse, his chest was starting to constrict, memories were filling his head, somehow he felt like he was Veronica, in the memories he watched the Mazoku's kill Veronica's son, he watched her scream, he watch the villagers ignore her… The pain was getting worse, all of a sudden he felt nothing , he felt like he was in a state of Limbo, then he realized that Elise had done a takeover, and was sitting on the chair in front of the piano playing her , with each note, something inside him stirred, He(Elise) was playing the most beautiful yet heartbreaking music he had ever heard, all he could do was listen to the music and watch Elise control his body, he watched the memories flood his head, but this time it didn't hurt as much as before.
The song was sad, it was filled with pain, depression, hurt, anger yet held a little happiness, the song was filled with acceptance, forgiveness despite the anger, he watched Veronica try to kill herself, he watch her try to poison herself, but the poison did not work, he watched her stab herself, but still didn't die, she was filled in misery, he didn't notice when Yuuri, Greta, Murata, Gunter, Conrad, Yozak and Gwendal came into the Music room to find the source of the beautiful yet sad music and found their brother, playing the piano with tears falling down his face, his eyes were closed for a moment and then they opened, they could have sworn they saw a glint of blue in the blonds green orbs.
Yuuri tried to reach out to his fiancé, to comfort him, but for some reason he couldn't move, Wolfram was in front of him yet seemed so far away, he didn't know Wolfram could play the piano, why was Wolfram playing such a sad song, the song was beautiful the notes were sharp and struck a chord in everyone's heart, the song was forgiving, accepting, a bit playful yet sad.
Murata's eyes widened, how could Wolfram play that song the same way she could? Why did the song remind him of her death, this feeling was the same as when she played, tears were starting to fall down his cheeks, all Murata could do was close his eyes and drown in the song, that was all he had left of her.
Wolfram watched Veronica beg Elise to cancel the contract, to let her end her life, she didn't want this anymore, she couldn't accept this power anymore, it had already taken everyone she loved, Wolfram watched as Elise nodded at Veronica's pleas, he screamed but still he was powerless, he tried running to her but there was nothing there; he couldn't change the past, he watched her slit her neck, he watched as she bled, as her life slowly left her body, the pale sad smile on her face, he was running to her to save her but she was so far away.
Wolfram stopped playing, his eyes were still fixed on the piano, the tears were still falling, he was shaking with sobs, he looked frightened, dejected even; his eyes widened as the memories of Lady Veronica came flashing into his head, the image of a young man who came back home and found his fiancés lifeless body came into his head, the young man was crying, he wailed, he tried to heal Lady veronica with his Maryoku but it was too late, he took the knife from her hand and slashed his wrist…. The memories were too much for Wolfram, he was on the verge of breaking down when something came to his head.
"Seress Reszo, Gloomy Sunday." It was barely a whisper but they all heard it but none of them knew what it meant except Murata; that was her favorite song. Murata's knees gave out; he fell to the ground and clutched his chest, gasping for air, choking on his tears.
Everyone looked at Murata and then to Wolfram, the two of them were crying, shaking with sobs, they looked grief stricken, the song was sad and depressing but it wasn't enough to make either of the two of them cry, they had to be something going on between the two of them, something was wrong but no one had the heart to say something.
Wolfram stood up wearily, he turned and saw the looks they were giving him, even the maids looked like they were about to cry, he didn't care, they knew nothing! As he walked towards the door, he saw Murata on the floor, he was shaking, tears were pouring down his face, his eyes wide with pain and shock, their eyes caught for a moment, Wolfram looked at the black orbs in front of him, something about it was similar, and then he remembered Veronica's fiancé. He was filled with guilt; he hung his head in shame.
"I'm sorry" he whispered before leaving the room, it was obvious the apology was to Murata. Murata eyes widened at Wolfram's apology, he sounded like her. The sage slowly and wearily got up, leaned against the wall and walked out of the room to the temple ignoring all the stares and looks of concern that was on everyone's eyes.