Conrad motioned his horse towards the door then stopped and said, "It does matter if I..if we…"

"So what you think that if you hadn't kissed him he wouldn't have done this, maybe your right. But then he would still be stuck in a farce of an engagement."

"Wolfram was a good match for him, though."

"Oh, so what now you think he's just a small child and that he shouldn't know what's in his own heart. Is that what you're trying to say?"

Conrad closed his eyes and looked away, "Even…" He opened his eyes, "Even if his feelings for me were real and I were to return said feelings the 10 Nobles would never allow us to date much less marry."

"Heika is not one to let a little thing like that, stop him."

"No, now that his engagement to Wolfram is gone and no way of getting it back he should take this time and find someone who is worthy of him. After all he's never dated anyone and when he came here he accidently wound up engaged to Wolfram. Besides that how many times has he said he is into girls."

Yozak shook his head, "Well maybe he's been bi this whole time and is just now discovering it."

"All the more reason why he shouldn't try to just jump into a new relationship!"

Yozak knew from the start it'd be an uphill battle he just didn't want to believe Conrad was really this hard headed. By the time he was able to think of something more he looked up and sighed as Conrad was already gone.

x-x-x-x

Murata and Yuri did their best to clean up the forks and things in the dark. Then Murata sensed they were being watched. He looked over and glared at Shinou.

"You could help us you know."

Shinou smiled, "Ah but I am merely an observer. I am simply overseeing things as I have from the start of this. Though I never thought that after seeing him cut his hand you would still take his hand instead of his arm."

At that Yuri looked up curios. "Huh, you mean they wouldn't have been married if he had taken his arm?"

"No, had My Great Sage simply taken his arm rather than his hand they wouldn't have been instantly married."

At that Yuri frowned "Then why did you do it, knowing you'd be instantly married forever!"

Murata sighed, "If I hadn't went ahead with it two things could have gone wrong."

"Like what?"

"If he had broken away from me and taken your hand."

Yuri's eyes widen, "Are-Are you saying that if, if you had grabbed his arm and helped him up and he grabbed mine we'd have been instantly married!"

"Anyone he took the hand of while it still bleed, after this ceremony would have been instantly married to him." Shinou said.

That thought sent chills up Yuri's spine. "Well do I want to know what the second thing was?"

"Well the second is if he had cut his leg lost his balance then he might have pulled me down with him. Then we'd really be in trouble if I had cut myself."

"Why?"

At that Shinou said, "Well knowing you you'd have run over and tried to help and if you had touched Lord von Bielefeld then you would have been instantly married to him. Then without of this new dilemma and my Great Sage would probably not have noticed it being dark and having the ceremony go downhill like that and allowed you to help him up."

"And that would have been bad?"

Shinou shrugged, "Only if you don't mind being engaged to him as well as be married to Lord von Bielefeld."

"W-What?"

Murata groaned, "Or I could have cut myself and you had helped me up we'd been married instantly too."

"Y-you mean I can be married to more than one person at the same time!"

"It's not standard and generally frowned upon but yes. You can be married to more than one man at a time. Take Lady Cheri for example. She was briefly married to three different men at the same time; before Lord Ellison von Voltaire was assassinated by a comrade turned traitor when he's young son Gwendal von Voltaire was merely six. Then Entwolfren von Bielefeld she dumped after catching him on her with Lady Reiss Yonduda from Kurstrikeden. He was later killed in a riding accident soon after young Wolfram was born." Shinou told him.

"Kurstrikeden? Never heard of it."

"It was at that time a very large country but as time went on enemy invasions, human invasions, things of that nature soon had the country driven down to be fairly small. I'd say it's probably smaller that Lord von Spitzweg's kingdom now. It was eventually stripped of its title as a country and absorbed into the land of their distant cousins the von Grantz's."

"How do you know all of this?" Yuri asked.

At that Murata smirked, "Don't doubt his power of spying on people and pretty much knowing what's going on around him. Even possessed it didn't change him enough to keep from snooping into other people's business."

x-x-x-x

Later that night, Murata walked out to find Yuri staring up at the stars sitting on the fountain his legs outstretched with one ankle crossed over to the other.

"You're going to catch a cold sitting out here. Why don't you come and help me get things set up for the night?"

Without looking at him Yuri said, "Thanks but as tempting an offer to sleep on a futon is, I think I'll just wait here for now."

"You're not thinking of returning to earth after everything we just did to avoid confronting Lord von Bielefeld for a while, are you?"

At that Yuri blinked in surprise, then smiled and said, "Aw, are you scared that he's going to come down here and insist that since you're married now he wants to sleep with you."

At that Murata paled causing Yuri to laugh.

"Actually no, I'm not thinking of returning to earth, I'm waiting for my ride back to Blood Pledge Castle and sleep in my nice big bed! Which with you now married to Wolfram perhaps I can finally have the bed all to myself for a change."

Murata frowned, "Shibuya it's almost midnight, what makes you think anyone's coming?"

At that Yuri smiled up at him and said, "If Conrad knows I'm here, even at two in the morning he'd come. Even if I am safe here, Conrad wouldn't be able to sleep if I wasn't either in the castle or him here with me."

"Mmm…so you guys really are into this kinky stuff huh?"

At that Yuri's eyes went wide and he started to blush furiously, "That's not what I meant!"

Just then as if on cue the doors open and Conrad comes in. Murata is a little stunned, unlike Yuri he didn't really expect anyone to show up till morning.

Yuri pulls his feet in and plants them on the ground and as he pushes up he loses balance and almost falls into the fountain but Conrad's lightening quick reflexes saves him from getting wet. Yuri felt himself blush even deeper when Conrad pulled him close to his chest.

"Are you all right, Heika?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. And it's Yuri."

Conrad just smiled and said, "Hai, Yuri." Then let go when he was certain Yuri was stable on his feet, he removed his hand and took a step back, much to Yuri's disappointment.

Murata shook his head, "Well I can't believe Shibuya was right. I honestly didn't expect anyone to show up till morning."

"Well when Yozak told us that the two of you were here and about the ceremony I had to come and get Yuri and take him back to the castle." Yuri shot Murata a look that said I told you he'd feel that way. "I'll send someone with a horse for you in the morning Geika, I'm sure Gwendal will want a full detailed report from you and Heika about what went on here."

Murata nodded, "Yes, I'm sure he will. I'll be there tomorrow."

Conrad nodded in response and turned to Yuri and said, "Are you ready to go Heika?"

"Yes, whenever you are."

They went out to where Conrad left his horse and Yuri felt his heartbeat faster as he noticed that Conrad didn't bring Ao, meaning that he'd have to ride behind Conrad. Conrad didn't think anything of it till he helped Yuri up behind him and felt Yuri wrap his arms around him. Then he realized he should have brought Ao as he tried to calm his racing heart hoping Yuri wouldn't notice.

x-x-x-xx-x-x-xx-x-x-xx-x-x-xx-x-x-xx-x-x-xx-x-x-x

A/N: PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I know I haven't been using Hai at all but I just could get around NOT using it this time! I just could not get Conrad to say 'Yes Yuri' or 'Okay Yuri.'. It just didn't sound right to me at all! FORGIVE ME! I thought about it and it just couldn't do it! Wouldn't sound right to me any other way!

Though I appreciate the reviews to make me work, both times I was working on my Gravitation story (again see Mew Mokuba for that story). Then I started on this one. If anyone wishes to be my Editor or sounding board let me know. You must either be willing to send me your email or have an account and we can do it that way. By sounding board I mean I was having a touch of trouble trying to come up with a second problem with if Murata hadn't taken Wolfram's hand and if you were my sounding board I'd pm or email you and ask what your you think that should be.

The only reason I said Cheri was married to 3 men at the same time I don't believe Divorce has ever been brought up or hinted at and Yuri despite his not wanting to be married by all indications he can't get out of it, himself. But yet if you can't be married to more than one person at the same time where did Wolfram come from? Was he illegitimate? When Conrad's father returned to take Gwendal on that final trip Wolfram was already there. So if Cheri wasn't allowed to divorce and since two men are allowed to marry even royal ones I can't see why being married to more than one person at the same time would be illegal.

Since only Conrad's father is ever made know, I made-up Gwendal's father's name, I put in von Voltaire in the search engine and of course Gwendal showed up but the so did the name Ellissen which I think is Greman it was with a full name and spell check said change it to Ellison so I did! Wolfram's father's name was harder to choose. I thought of choosing one that I'm not sure if it's a small country or city but decided against it. Instead again with the German I chose Entworfen I thought it was so funny it'd work perfectly. I think it was so guy's last name but since I only want that as a first name and wasn't interested in what the German read I just went with it I just changed it up a little so it read Entwolfren.

Kunststrickdecken again I think it's a name and why German beats me ask my stupid search engine! But I wasn't entirely sure I wanted something so long and nearly impossible to pronounce so I changed up a few letters and made it Kurstrikeden. I wouldn't have bothered but I'll need a countries name later in the story so I figured I might as well introduce the country now, so that when it's brought later no one can claim it's never been heard of before.

I had a scene I started but then I remembered it was night time and it wouldn't work. So I'm saving it for the next chapter where of course we all know how fast news travels around the castle and Cheri and the others find out about Wolfram's new marriage! How do you think Greta will react to the news?