Shopping for disguises done, Gourry and Leon headed back to their inn, while Amelia went to the local Sorcerers' Guild library. Both men's arms were loaded with packages. As they walked along, Leon peered over his stack and queried, "While we wait for the others, you want to tell me what those long stories were about you dressed in drag and as a butler? And what happened to the Sword of Light? That's not it at your hip."
Gourry responded, "I will if you have any news about what has happened to family."
"I have some news, but it isn't good so far. One reason I didn't leave for home before you arrived is I'm waiting for a merchant friend to bring me more news. Let's have a bottle or two of wine while you tell me your stories. You may need the wine to hear mine."
Gourry gave Leon a worried look but agreed to wait. The rest of the walk was short, and after arriving at the inn and depositing the purchases in their rooms, they met in the dining area. Gourry's memory was much better than Lina's complaints, and wine helped remove any blockage his subconscious set up.
"Three times the girls had you dressed in drag? Are you sure you didn't enjoy it?" Leon teased. "You did get that makeup kit."
"No! No way was it enjoyable! I was just being prepared for the inevitable with those two."
"Uh-huh. Right. Now what about the Sword of Light? Last I saw you, you still had it."
"It's no wonder it caused such family strife. It was a mazoku from another world and was sent back to that world. I have a better blade now, the Blast Blade. It is so sharp a golden dragon had to put a spell on it so it could be sheathed. It can absorb and cast spells as well. Now, that news from home..."
"Let's get a third bottle, because here comes Stefen, my merchant informant. Miss, another of the same and another glass, please," Leon ordered.
A prosperous looking older man with a touch of gray in his dark brown hair and clad in tastefully embroidered brown velvet, approached, did a double take, and exclaimed as he went down on one knee, "My lord!"
"Stefen, get up!" Leon glared and told him in a low voice. "We don't need attention drawn to us."
"There is no lord here. He forfeited all when I left Elmekia," Gourry admonished the man, "There is only Gourry Gabriev." He said as an aside to Leon, "Thank goodness Lina isn't here yet."
"What? You haven't told her about who and what you are?" Leon exclaimed.
"Were, Leon, were. Lina suspects I was a Gunginiel Knight and knows I stole the Sword of Light from my feuding family, but nothing actually about my family. We've trusted each other too much to pry into each other's past. Amelia has her suspicions, thanks to what little I told them about my engagement to Katarina."
"Well, you are going to have to tell tall of them more before events happen in Elmekia that could expose your secrets, especially after I tell you what has gone on. Ah, here's our wine and extra glass for you, Stefen. So, what news... "
[break]
Lina didn't need to worry about Gourry eating all the food at the inn after all. To her surprise, he wasn't in the dining area. Looking around, she spotted Leon and went over to him.
"Where's Gourry? Did he get lost going from the entrance to here?" she joked, but with a tinge of worry in her voice.
"He went up to your room, I think he needs you right now," Leon told her without looking up at her. "And I need more wine."
"Looks and sounds like you've had enough already," she observed.
"You know nothing, Lina Garbrieva."
Although she was tempted to correct Leon to tell him she had kept her Inverse surname because that was how she was best known, Lina turned around to give a hurried order to a waiter. She asked that it be sent up to her and Gourry's room, before rapidly going up there.
Gourry was lying on their bed, an arm over his eyes, when Lina entered the room.
"Gourry?"
He sat up and slung his legs over the bed to put his feet on the floor and knees apart. He bent over, resting his elbows on his spread out thighs and his hands dangling down between them. His long locks obscured his face. In a dejected voice he said, "I've had bad news. Most of my family are now dead. Only a sister remains. Taking the sword was truly for naught."
Lina sat herself next to him and put an arm around him. "Oh, Gourry! But it wasn't really for naught. We wouldn't have met otherwise, and together we've saved the world more than once. But I'm so sorry you've had to pay such a high price for saving the world. You have me and my family, though. Amelia and Zel are almost family. And there's Leon."
Gourry gave her a sad smile and looking away, whispered, "I don't know if you will still want to be with me, because I haven't told you this before..." He swallowed and paused.
"Well, Jellyfish, out with it. If you don't tell me now, I will be pissed off."
"Elmekia is like Seyruun. Even though my sister is the only other family member alive in the direct line, women can't inherit certain titles. Perhaps just as well. She's married to that sorcerer. I'm sure she was forced to it."
Lina cracked her knuckles and assured him, "We'll find out soon enough why she married him. I just hope we can put an end to this guy before he sacrifices her for his power. Yeah, he'd be a bad in-law to have, but that's not the only thing upsetting you, is it?" She raised an eyebrow. "What's with "direct line?"
"I am the sole heir to a barony, were I to claim it, now that all my siblings, except my sister, are now dead."
Lina sat back from him in shock and then got red in anger, "And you never hinted about this to me, even after we were married?! You sure never acted or talked like nobility, except you do seem to have a distinct chivalrous honor code."
"The warrior culture of Elmekia is not a gentile one, and before I met you, I spent six years hiding in a mercenary army, not exactly a place to keep up courtly ways and talking. I thought after escaping with the Sword of Light, that I had forfeited any claim to the title. But today I just heard my father's former vassals want to pledge themselves to me, now that there is a new emperor more friendly to our clan. What's left of Leon's family is too removed from the line. His last link to it was through his mother. Today he heard he was too late to see her before she died."
"Oh, that explains his wanting more wine. Poor guys. You've both had bad news today." She put one of her arms around his body again and leaned into him for a sideways hug.
After several moments of comforting silence and thought, Lina suddenly burst out with "Is there a castle? Treasure?"
Gourry shook his head, half amused by his wife's typically eager greed, "Sorry, during the war, it was razed. Wasn't much of one, however. Most of the riches were carted off, although my sister seems to have salvaged some of them, probably through her marriage. The sorcerer apparently has a lot of influence on the new emperor. She always had a good business sense, though. You two might get along well."
Lina cracked her knuckles and said, "First we have to deal with her husband, and convince the emperor we did the right thing before she and I can get acquainted."
"Yeah," Gourry sadly agreed. "So you still want to stick with me?"
Lina stood up in front of him and pushed him back on the bed. Straddling him. she sexily growled, "Whaddya think, Baron Gabriev? Castle or not, treasure or not, you're stuck with me. I married you just as you are, were, whatever." With one hand she tugged up his shirt and the other grabbed his hair to pull him up for a passionate kiss.
The swordsman broke off the kiss and gasped, "Silencing spell, Lina. We're going to need it!"
She grinned and wiggled her nether half suggestively against him. "Yes, my lord."
"Since when have you ever been a submissive wench?"
"Idiot, I'm teasing!"
"Yes, you are! Please, the silence spell!"
She applied it and he rolled her over on her back.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
"Ma'am, your food order," a struggling voice called.
"Damn," Lina whispered and canceled the silencing spell. "Just a minute while I find a tip," she yelled.
Gourry muttered in her ear, "Well, you were about to find it before he knocked."
Lina reached around to slap his back and rolled out from under him while managing to grab his wallet from his pocket at the same time. She opened the door, relieved the overloaded and exhausted room service man of his burden, and gave him a generous tip. The man pocketed it and left rubbing his arms and shoulder.
Gourry mock wondered, "Wow, Lina, marriage has mellowed you. You didn't mono volt him for interrupting us."
"Shut up, Jellyfish! I guess we'd better indulge our now second favorite activity together while the food is still hot," she said drooling over the feast.
"And then our very favorite activity?" Gourry asked.
"Heh, heh. You betcha!" she answered in a sultry tone of voice.
A good while later with all appetites sated, the couple lay in the bed and enjoyed the feeling of each other's presence, skin on skin.
"Do I know how to cheer you up or not?" Lina smugly remarked as she snuggled into her husband's side.
"Yes, you do," he agreed and ruffled the hair on the top of her head.
She removed his hand, placing it on her stomach, then thought out loud, "I guess we'll have to change our plans about disguising ourselves, since Leon's mother died and you've got a barony to claim."
"Leon still wants to go visit his mother's grave, but we could still go as ourselves, I guess," Gourry informed her. "
"On second thought, until we can actually see how things really are, and not depend on one man's report, it might be a good idea to go in disguised at first," Lina advised as she sat up and stretched. "Besides, we just spent a lot of money on those disguises!" she exclaimed.
"Any excuse to have fun with disguises, huh, Lina?" the swordsman laughed as he raised himself on an elbow to admire her hair and backside.
She looked around at him seriously, "Hey, baddies as well as good guys might be watching out for us, if what I've heard about Elmekians is true. Amelia still should be the one to deliver Katarina's things. We'll have to talk things over with her, Zel, and Leon tonight. In the meantime, it'll be better to reconnoiter undercover before we let people know who we are."
"Recongoitering under cover? Didn't we just do that"
"Idiot. Re-con-noitering means to examine a place for planning action. But I could be persuaded to reconnoiter certain regions under these covers once more."
"Eep!" the swordsman exclaimed, as she chuckled wickedly and dove under the bed clothes to give his belly a fluttering raspberry.
