New characters: The guards—Ludwig (Germany), Feliciano (North Italy), Alfred (America), the royal guard's sniper—Vash (Switzerland, only mentioned)

CHAPTER NINE


Castle Bavras was even more impressive up close. Aksel set his gloved knuckles on his hips with a smug air. "Told you I knew the way," he declared proudly. He darted a glance over at Xiang, who was looking up at the castle with awe. Aksel grinned, pleased with himself.

"How are we going to get in?" Yao asked, eyeing the guards apprehensively. One of them—a big blond man—was being pestered by the littler guard, who was chattering on very quickly and with energetic bounces punctuating his words occasionally. Though they seemed lax, they probably weren't going to let them in if Yao just said "hey, I've got a really important letter to give the king".

Matthew let out a loud, abrupt sigh. Lars glanced over at him curiously. The two of them had decided to accompany the group to the castle—in fact, the sharpshooter had been the one to suggest it (he had looked like he'd rather stab himself in the throat as he'd forced out the offer, though, Yao recalled). "Leave this to me," he now said and made his way over to the guards.

The group watched with curiosity as Matthew halted before the guards. They turned to look at him and he said something, his posture abruptly changing. His hands moved to rest on his hips, his head cocking to the side arrogantly. Yao couldn't see his face, but if he could he thought Matthew would be smirking with his glasses glinting.

Lars was abruptly worried.

Eventually, though, the guards bowed to him.

As Matthew returned, Yong Soo looked at him wonderingly. "What did you do?" he asked, amazed.

Matthew glanced away. "I'll tell you later. Come on, we can go in now."

"You're my new best friend!" Yong Soo exclaimed. Yao made an unpleasant noise and the younger man looked over at him with a grin. "Don't worry, brother! I said 'friend'! I love you the most! No need to be jealous!"

Yao flushed. "I never said anything!" he grumped. "Let's just go."

Lars looked over at Matthew with a doubtful expression, wondering what exactly he'd said to get them into the castle so effortlessly. Nevertheless, he followed the group. The guards moved and opened the castle doors for them, inclining their heads slightly.

"Awesome," Aksel said once they were inside.

Yao had seen the castle quite a few times from the outside. He'd never seen the inside (of course), but it was just as lavish and ridiculously impressive. The floors and walls were polished marble, and besides the regular huge, domed windows there were ones of stained glass, depicting knights or kings or dragons. The light filtering through them flickered colourfully over the floors.

They walked down the quiet entrance hall (this section of the castle was empty and practically silent), looking around with awe, all except for Matthew and Lars. Matthew just looked as though he wanted to go right back the way they had come. Lars just kept stealing glances over at him.

They halted before a pair of polished oak doors, stone lions on pedestals to either side of them. "The throne room," Matthew said, indicating it with a hand. Yao reached into his jacket and pulled out the letter, wetting his lips. Yong Soo thumped his back encouragingly and Aksel and Lars moved forward to pull open the doors.

The throne room was large to an unnecessary degree, made of marble like everything else. The golden throne was also unnecessarily large and extravagant. The room was empty, however.

"What," Aksel said, voice echoing in the huge, empty room, "He ain't even here?" He strolled inside, Xiang at his heels, looking towards the throne thoughtfully. Their footsteps echoed loudly. "Heh, let's play 'be the king', huh?"

"Oh, I wanna sit on the throne first!" Yong Soo flapped his sleeves excitedly and made to run towards it, but Yao's hand gripping the back of his shirt halted him. "Ack—!"

"No playing! We've got to find the king and deliver this letter!"

"Letter?" said an unfamiliar voice suddenly. Matthew edged slightly behind Lars' taller form. A young man sidled out from behind the throne. His blue eyes gleamed out from behind a pair of glasses. His hair was blond—more vibrant than Matthew's—and he wore plain clothes but an overdone jacket with a furred collar. A crown was haphazardly set on his head, gold and inlaid with precious gemstones.

"So, you're not guys that crazy advisor sent to find me?" The King of Bavonia held out a hand, grinning. "Give it here."

Yao hurried to him and handed him the letter. "We came all the way from Heldere," he said as the king opened the letter and pulled out a thick sheet of parchment. He watched as the king read it, expression going from curiosity to alarm and then it suddenly morphed into a grin and he laughed.

He threw the letter and Yao scrambled to catch it. "Why did you—" he began.

"Is this some kinda joke? Tell Artie I don't believe in that magic and demon mumbo-jumbo," the king said, flapping a hand, rolling his eyes. "A poor country getting ready to sacrifice a bunch of people to summon a demon army to kill me and take over Bavonia? Please."

"What?" Yao gasped, paling and turning his eyes to the letter. It had been written in jerking, shaky handwriting, dark stains marring the paper. Of course Yao believed in demons—there were faeries around, after all, and dragons had lived long ago before they'd gone underground. What the king had described was indeed written in the letter (though with far more seriousness he'd given it), and the entire thing seemed to be being orchestrated by some man in the warlord-run, chaotic country of Talyin. The man had amassed quite a force and had been capturing people for weeks now. It had been penned by a member of the 'Talyin Resistance', but the name was shakier than the rest—it began with 'Rai', and that was all Yao could distinguish.

"T-this is," spluttered Yao, "horrible! Your Majesty, you have to do something right away! The whole country is in danger—and not just this one!" The king looked at him strangely.

"Demons aren't real," he scoffed.

Yong Soo puffed up his cheeks at him, waving his droopy sleeve back and forth. "If faeries exist, so do demons!" he said, in a very 'I know more than you do, so shut up and listen' way.

"Faeries don't exist, either," said the king, turning away, hands on his hips. "Why are there so many stupidly superstitious people around?" Yao's cheek developed a tic and he fought the urge to just kick the king in the back of the head.

"Just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean it's not real! You idiot!"

The sudden shout came from Matthew, who had stepped out from behind Lars. He glared with angry violet eyes. The king whipped around, his own eyes wide.

"Mattie?"

"If there's any kind of threat to your country, no matter how fantastic and ridiculous it seems, you should investigate it, Alfred!" Matthew said, mouth set in an angry scowl Yao had never seen on his face before.

"Uh, Mattie—"

"You haven't changed at all! Why shouldn't demons be deal?! Not even that, but if there's a dangerous man in a country filled with civil war and death sacrificing innocent people, you should act on it anyway! Why are you so irresponsible all of the time?" He was really winding up, getting angrier and angrier, and Yao sensed a rant the like of which the world had never seen.

"Pet," Lars said and wrapped his arms around Matthew's waist, pulling him back against his chest. "Calm down—here, deep breaths." Matthew breathed in and out harshly, still angry.

"Hey! Hands off my brother!" the king shouted, pointing angrily at Lars.

"Shut up, Alfred!" Matthew seethed.

"Brother?" chorused Yong Soo and Aksel. Xiang looked between the king and Matthew thoughtfully and Yao ran his fingers repeatedly through his ponytail.

"Brother?" Lars asked, voice hushed.

Prince Matthew of Bavonia—the 1st heir to the Bavonian throne. When he'd lived in Bavonia, he was ceaselessly mistaken for Alfred, and he thought that—as a king—he would be too unremarkable to be a commanding presence. Though he'd been good with diplomacy and history, his younger brother Alfred was the well-known one, the charismatic one, the likeable one. He was often said to be the heir and the older brother (if they even remembered there were two brothers at all), when it was vice versa.

Matthew had gotten sick of being overshadowed and forgotten. Everyone in Bavonia seemed to want the energetic, affable Alfred as king. Many didn't even remember that the soft-spoken, even-tempered Matthew existed. This had made his slipping away easy, and Matthew had merely left a letter for his father telling him that he was leaving and he should give Alfred the throne.

Nobody had come looking for him, which was just as well. He'd turned his skills with shooting (learned in secret from the skilled sniper who worked in the royal guard) to become a sharpshooting bounty hunter.

Lars seemed a bit troubled by all of this as they sat in the (too big) sunroom.

"I just wanted to leave it all behind," Matthew told him, his expression sad. "I understand if you don't want to be with a liar like me."

Yao was sure he wasn't just talking about being partners in bounty hunting.

"You kidding?" Lars exclaimed. "My feelings for you haven't changed at all! I just don't know how to deal with that." He jerked a thumb at Alfred, staring daggers from the chair opposite them.

"I could have you beheaded," Alfred warned.

"Beheading is illegal, Alfred. And I wouldn't let you." Matthew looked at him flatly.

"I'm best friends with a prince!" crowed Yong Soo. Aksel seemed to think the whole affair was getting boring without any violence involved. Even a punching match, he reasoned, would've been good.

"When are we gonna go over to Talyin and kick some ass?" Aksel asked. He helped himself to the plate of snacks on the table, only offering some to Xiang and making a face at Yong Soo as he made attempts to get one.

"While I don't necessarily want to 'go over and kick some ass', we should discuss this," Xiang said. His expression and statement sobered up the atmosphere in the room. Save for Alfred, who snorted quietly.

"Going into enemy territory…if you thought being chased in Ganmu was bad, this will be like falling into a pit of vipers," Lars said.

"Why do we gotta solve this?" said Yong Soo. "That king should do it!"

"It's not real," Alfred snorted.

"Useless idiot. Stupid Alfred," Matthew muttered viciously to himself, then raised his voice. "If we don't do something, though, who will?" Yong Soo mumbled grudging agreement.

"Where does he make his base?" Aksel wondered.

"Good question," Yao mumbled. "A better question would be who this crazy man is."

Matthew seemed thoughtful. "We could ask someone I know." Alfred groaned loudly, almost as though in protest. "Shut up, you've made this my problem, so you aren't involved anymore!" Lars nuzzled his hair.

"You're hot when you're mad," he murmured quietly. Matthew went bright red, frown disappearing. Yong Soo was watching them (as if he were trying to learn something) and kept looking over at Yao, who avoided meeting his gaze, cheeks warming.

Yao cleared his throat. "Who is it that you know that we could ask?" he questioned.

"The old court magician—who Alfred stupidly ordered removed from his position because he didn't believe in the magic. If anyone can find this guy, it's him."

"A magician, Xiang," Yong Soo hissed in his ear. "Coolest trip ever."

"We're not on vacation," Xiang muttered. "This is serious." Yong Soo made a face at him, folding his sleeves together. Under his breath he mumbled "stick in the mud".

"Let's go see him, then," Yao said. "And see if we can do something."

'When I start something,' he thought wearily as they all rose, save for a slightly pouting Alfred, 'I can't just leave it alone. No matter how much trouble it causes me. Delivering the letter—how could I be expected to just go home and do nothing when something like this is happening?'

END CHAPTER NINE


I'm sure you can all guess who the former court magician is. Heh.
Some characters will be returning next chapter.