Disclaimer: I don't own Kyou kara Maou, or make any profit from this fanfic.
Chapter 3: The Extremely Productive and Effective Royal Diplomatic Meeting of His Royal Majesty King Saralegui, Noble Ruler of Shou Shimaron, and His Royal Majesty King Yuuri Shibuya 27th Maou of Shin Makoku.
Then the valiantly brave young boy-king did venture into Blood Pledge Castle. And that cursed place lived up to its name indeed, for it was five times more terrifying and gut-wrenching within than it had appeared from the outside.
Surely only a demon-king could live in such a lair.
Moss and unidentifiable substances coated the frigid, dank stonework that lined the interior of each wretched gloomy corridor. The air was thick and putrid, with a hint of sulfur, making each breath difficult.
But the richly-garbed young king pressed bravely on, stopping only to remove the bird excrement from his silken hair in one of the washrooms.
Then the most gracious boy-king did turn and bestow a slight smile upon the loyal subjects who had dared follow him to such a ghastly place. And it was a smile so full of grace and elegance that it did appear to lighten the gloomy corridors, if only for a few minutes.
-The Epic Journey of His Most Royal Majesty King Saralegui-(may he live forever) to the Land of the Ferocious Super-Evil Man-Eating Demons.
After the bad omen bird poop had been washed out of Saralegui's hair, they all entered the conference room to get started with their diplomatic meeting.
"I see that Lord Weller isn't present," noted Sara.
"Lord Weller is currently occupied with other duties," Gwendal said with a twitch of his eyebrow.
Beries looked disappointed.
"I suppose that can't be helped," Sara said as he sat down next to Yuuri. "Shall we get started with the meeting, Yuuri?"
Wolfram sat down on Yuuri's other side and started glaring at King Saralegui. Gwendal sat down on the opposite side of the table and glared at all three of them as he started sorting through his papers for the meeting. Murata sat down next to Gwendal, and watched Saralegui, Yuuri, and Wolfram with an amused smile on his face. Anissina sat down at a far end of the table so she could watch everything that happened. As much as she would have preferred to be in her lab right now, she made a point of keeping up on political happenings. José sat down next to her.
Anissina frowned. There was something about the way that Beries hovered near King Saralegui that reminded her of Raven and Stoffel. Could there be some sort of connection between the two dark-haired, purple-eyed men? If there was, what did they want? Maybe she was just imagining it though. But after everything that Stoffel had done, one couldn't be too careful. She resolved to keep an eye on Saralegui.
Melvin pulled a chair towards one of the windows, sat down and began writing.
"Who's that?" Yuuri asked as he noticed Melvin.
"One of my court scribes," Sara explained. "Beries brought him along to document this meeting."
"Oh, what a wonderful idea!" said Gunter. "If Your Majesty King Yuuri will allow me the pleasure and honor of doing the same, I will go find some parchment in order to document this truly noble historic event!"
"Umm, I guess you can if you want," Yuuri said uncertainly.
"Oh, his Majesty is too kind to bestow such an honor upon me, Gunter von Kliest," Gunter said as he hugged Yuuri and ran out of the room. "I will do my best not to disappoint you!"
Then they all waited for Gunter to go find some parchment. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Humor is a good way to break the tension in situations like this." José said. "Does anyone want to hear a joke?"
"No," said Gwendal with a frown.
"Don't worry, it's not you, he's just always this grumpy," Anissina whispered to José.
Then Gunter ran back into the room dramatically. "Oh, Majesty, I was unable to find parchment sufficiently glorious enough for writing down the epic tale of your noble doings." He hugged Yuuri and sobbed. "I hope this ordinary paper will suffice."
"I-ah, I'm sure that's fine, Gunter," Yuuri said as he tried to pry himself loose from Gunter's embrace.
"Let's begin," Gwendal said with an annoyed glance at Gunter's theatrics.
Gunter took a seat near Melvin. Melvin glanced up, narrowed his eyes and continued writing. Gunter leaned over to try and get a glimpse of what Melvin was writing. Melvin gave him a dirty look and pulled the papers away. Gunter gasped in hurt indignation and set about writing on his own papers. Every once in a while one of the two writers would pause to give the other a calculating look.
Gwendal cleared his throat and began talking. "I think we would all agree that strengthening diplomatic ties between our two countries would be beneficial at this time," he said as he shuffled through some papers in front of him. "I see that King Saralegui has proposed an increase in trade by reducing tariffs as a preliminary step to signing a more permanent alliance."
"Well, what do you think, Yuuri?" Sara asked as he leaned forward and stared into Yuuri's eyes.
Wolfram turned beet-red and looked about to spontaneously combust. Gwendal glared at his youngest brother. Then Wolfram turned away and feigned indifference.
"I, uh, that sounds good, doesn't it Gwendal?" Yuuri said. "In order to get humans and mazoku to trust each other more, they should have more contact with each other."
"Oh Majesty," Gunter said, "I fear I will never be able to properly convey the noble greatness of your deeds and actions with mere words." Gunter wailed.
"I'm sure it's fine, Gunter," Yuuri said.
"Oh, Your Majesty is too kind to his humble servants," Gunter said, "Allow me to read an excerpt that details your noble deeds."
"Uh, you really don't have to," Yuuri said uncomfortably.
Gunter ignored Yuuri's objection, put a hand on his chest, and began reading, dramatically. "With a sparkle of his most noble majestic royal black eyes, His Majesty King Yuuri, 27th Maou of Shin Makoku did commence the most imminently important diplomatic meeting between Shin Makoku and Shou Shimaron."
"That's wonderful, Yuuri," Sara said while running a hand up Yuuri's arm.
"I hope I never have to read that in one of my history lessons." Yuuri muttered.
"That is an excellent idea, Your Majesty," said Gunter. "I will look into making the documentation of this meeting a required reading for all schoolchildren in Shin Makoku."
"Now all the kids here will have a reason to hate me," Yuuri said with a groan as he slumped forward onto the table.
"Mmm that's an excellent idea, Lord von Kliest," said Saralegui. "But I wonder what Melvin wrote? Perhaps we could use both versions as history lessons," Saralegui said as he cocked his head to the side. "Beries, why don't you go read an excerpt from Melvin's writing?"
"Of course, King Saralegui," Beries said. He bowed respectfully to his king, then walked over and picked up one of Melvin's papers.
"But within the blackened hole of villainy and filth, there emerged a voice of reason. And the dulcet tones of the young boy-king filled the dark room with warmth and joy. The demon king was so moved by King Saralegui's heavenly voice that he did agree to a reasonable position regarding the trade negotiations between the two countries. Then a silver tinged wraith did interrupt the noblest proceedings with his obnoxious dull clanging voice…"
"How could anyone ever write such a thing?" sobbed Gunter. "How could anyone be so inept at their job as to neglect to mention that King Yuuri is most royal double-black 27th demon king of Shin Makoku?"
"Oh dear," Saralegui with a barely contained smirk. "It appears there are going to be two very different versions of what happened."
"Uh, I'm sure we can sort all this out later," Yuuri said while scratching his head. "It's always good to have two versions of a story, right?"
"Oh Majesty, you are too diplomatic and kind." Gunter said. "But what about my voice? Is it really dull and clanging? Have I been bothering Your Majesty with my interruption?"
"Could we please get back to the topic at hand?" Gwendal rumbled.
"Ha, ha, ha, where were we?" Yuuri asked as he laughed nervously.
"We were discussing reducing the tariffs in order to stimulate trade between Shin Makoku and Shou Shimaron." Gwendal said.
"Oh, right. And that's a good idea, right?"
"Hmmph!" said Wolfram. "I still don't trust King Saralegui."
"Oh, but it appears you are the only one opposed to the deal, Lord von Blielfeld," said Sara sweetly.
"I'm not opposed to the deal," Wolfram said. "Yuuri knows what he's doing. I'm just opposed to you."
"Is that so?" Sara asked with a predatory smile.
"Well, that's settled," Yuuri said loudly before Wolfram could say anything else. "We can sign everything later. Maybe now we should all take a break to drink some tea and get something to eat."
"That sounds excellent, Yuuri," Sara trilled.
Everyone else also agreed that this was a good idea. It was hard to work on an empty stomach.
Before he stood up, King Saralegui coughed discretely into a silken handkerchief and placed it on the table near Yuuri's hand. No-one noticed but Anissina. She waited until everyone else had left the room, then picked up the handkerchief and placed it in a vial that she had conveniently brought with her.
Now that the Poison Lady had used her superior skills of observation to find a potential clue, she would rely on her amazing laboratory skills to get to the bottom of this mystery. José could help too, if he wanted, since he knew some things about science as well.
"Let's go back to my lab," Anissina said as she dragged José down the hallway.
"I guess that could be fun," said José. "Can we eat first?"
"Science always comes first," Anissina informed him.
And indeed it did.