Chapter 10

"The child was a Wincott."

"Your Highness! Your Highness!" A wailing sweet voice echoed as the maiden forcefully opened the doors to the library. Murata quickly got back up on his feet and adjusted his spectacles.

"What's wrong? What's the hurry Milady?" The sage coaxed as he waited for the shrine maiden to catch her breath before continuing,

"Sir Weller and Sir Gurrier have arrived!"

Murata walked as slowly as he could towards the duo, trying to pick up from where he left his reminiscence. Despite doing so, he wasn't able to as he watched Conrad and Yozak turning when they heard their sage approaching them.

"You guys came too early. I was finally about to retrieve the information we needed until you two interrupted." Murata started, annoyed.

"I'm sorry Your Highness, but we can't wait any longer!" Yozak yelled, failing to keep a professional attitude.

"I was this close, don't you know that? Just a little bit more, Yozak! Patience is one of the traits of an effective spy!"

Before Murata knew it, he was yelling as well. Conrad was about to interrupt the heated conversation but Yozak's shout got to it first.

"The higher ups are DYING Murata! Gwendal, Gunther, Cecilia! And for all we know, Wolfram might be lying somewhere in the castle, DEAD!"

"Sir YOZAK GURRIER!" Conrad clamored while grabbing onto Yozak's arm. The spy shrugged defiantly.

"I don't care about the hierarchy that we have right now. People are dying, Conrad. Sooner or later, His Majesty is about to find out what is really going on here. If he finds out before we know what's really going on here, then it will just be another wild goose chase with her duckling tagging along!"

Murata sighed and took off his glasses as he rubbed his eye.

"You have a point. I'm sorry for yelling, you two. Even the sage can't keep his cool this time."

Both soldiers kept silent. They watched as their Highness continued on cleaning his glasses with the edge of his shirt.

"In any case, at least I know that the disease isn't new. "

"What do you mean disease?"

Murata widened his eyes in astonishment but didn't turn his head to see what he wasn't ready to see.

"Your Majesty…" Conrad finally broke the silence, addressing the King hesitantly.

"See what I mean, Your Highness."

The 27thKing walked towards his subordinates slowly, examining their body language and expressions.

"Speak Murata. What's going on here?" Yuuri asked, discreetly.

"It isn't pleasant, Shibuya. And it's not the right time yet." The spectacled man muttered, still not wanting to turn to see his friend.

"SPEAK Murata! It's an order." Yuuri was standing behind Murata now, frustrated.

Murata turned and said, "No."

In a spur of moment, the sage was sent flying from the ground. He rubbed his cheek as he opened his eyes, to see everything in a blur.

"What the hell Murata! This isn't the right time be stubborn!" Yuuri cried

"Your Highness!"

Conrad and Yozak sprinted towards the great sage, who was trying to locate his fallen glasses. Yozak examined Murata's body, making sure he was not injured in any particular way while Conrad handed out the spectacles that the young man was looking for.

Murata simply muttered thanks as he slowly gets up from the ground.

"Shibuya, please-"

"Murata!" Yuuri glared towards his friend with impatience. However, before he could demand an answer, he felt a hand gripping lightly onto his right shoulder.

Lord Wolfram Von Bielefeld attempt to stop his King from screaming to his closest friend worked. He didn't wish the same situation to happen again, as they did when they just left the outskirts of Caloria after retrieving the box.*

Yuuri didn't turn to face Wolfram; he simply just stopped, waiting for the blonde to speak.

"Your Highness. Greta was crying. And we just visited Cecilia von Spitzberg. She was suffering and crying in her sleep. Her skin was so dry and cold that I had thought she was dead when we first entered the room."

The room was silent. Wolfram took this as a sign that he was allowed to continue speaking.

"Your Highness, with all due respect, even if you won't tell us what is going on to our country; we aren't fools to believe that everything is doing alright. Even so, won't it be good to explain-"

"Lord Von Bielefeld."

Wolfram stopped talking and examined Murata's expression. The double black looked more of worried than furious.

"Are you alright?"

The soldier was taken aback, confused by the change of subject. From the corner of his eye, he saw Conrad and Yozak turning their attention to him with concern.

A few seconds later, Wolfram finally replied with a soft, "Yes."

"Enough, Wolfram." The 27th Demon King voiced as he moved closer towards his junior high school classmate.

"Wolfram knows as well as I do that he's not alright." Yuuri was standing a few inches away from Murata now, with his other two subordinates growing more concerned about what their King had just said.

"Tell me, Murata. How do I get rid of this disease threatening my country?"

"You can't"

Gritting his teeth, Yuuri grabbed Murata by his collar and brought his face closer to him aggressively, ignoring the "Your Majesty!" screams echoed in room.

"What do you mean we can't?"

Murata closed his eyes for a moment, trying to recollect the memories he was retrieving before he was brutally interrupted. After a minute, he opened his eyes slightly and said with regret;

"I was killed before I could finish the antidote."

Note/Spoiler*: The situation that Wolfram does not wish to see again happened only in the novels and manga. It was when Yuuri was mad at Murata for not telling him that he was the Great Sage and Yuuri was yelling about Murata being a better King than he is. This happened when they were on the boat to Big Shimaron, after they stopped the box from acting up. In the anime, Yuuri wasn't portrayed angry with Murata, just glad that Murata is still the Murata he knew despite the story he just told Yuuri. – End of spoiler

Author's Note : After seeing so much of KKM fandoms rising up again in Tumblr and I recently been playing one of the games, I was inspired to continue this fanfiction again. I hope I won't go on hiatus again though! For all my readers from the beginning, thank you for following and reading. I would love to take this opportunity to apologize for updating so slowly (years in fact!)

And to the new readers, I am sorry for the very strong grammar mistakes and the weird plot in the beginning chapters. I only realized it recently and I felt so foolish of myself. I was young back then (lol)