Yuuri's first stop was a city-state due south of Shin Makoku's border, the Principality of Qandar. It took Yuuri a week's journey to get there, and he was in for a shock when the treatment he got was far from warm.
Everywhere that Yuuri went, townspeople whispered at his back, saying that he was just another high-browed prince who knew nothing but vanity. This disappointed Yuuri, as back in his kingdom, his people genuinely liked him and greeted him cordially when he inspected his realm and made sure everybody was faring well.
In Qandar though, he got no hospitality. Not even the bartender he bought a glass of milk from gave him the time of day. Not even his irresistible smiles and hello's got him any sort of welcome. Heck, even the ladies ran away, gossiping vehemently, and even within earshot of him.
"Well, at least Wolfram would like my being here," Yuuri joked to himself to try to ease the frustration he was feeling. How was he going to find this Wahrheit person if there was no one he could ask? The only information he got from Gwendal about this supposedly "all-seeing" person was that he lived in this city.
Yuuri sulked in his stool at the bar. It was already getting dark outside and the first of three moons was out, her face smiling gently at the world and cloaking everything in silver. Yuuri wondered if Wolfram was looking at the same moon, or if it was a different side of it that he saw.
Then he caught himself, shook the sadness off and started. Like Conrad said, the sooner he found the soul, the sooner he can go home. Pining for his spouse would just not do at the moment. He at least had to get a move on first.
Yuuri downed his milk like a man and got off his stool. He'd asked everyone he came across if they knew an all-seeing person but they all either chose to ignore him or deliberately avoided him; he was not really sure. All he knew was that he would try again. When Yuuri decided something, he threw himself into it, especially if his family depended on it. From baseball kid to family man, Yuuri's transition was seamless.
Just as Yuuri was about to get up, a young boy stopped in front of his seat and blocked his path. The boy had short red hair, brown eyes, a heart-shaped face and wore a peasant's clothes so that he looked ordinary enough, but he was the first person who smiled at Yuuri all day, and it was like an oasis for the young monarch who'd been laid weary by the bitter treatment he'd been getting all day from all the townspeople.
"Can I help you?" Yuuri asked the boy.
The boy smiled and shook his head then answered. "No, Your Majesty, but I can help you," he cheerfully said.
"Help me?" Yuuri said, now curious. All day people have been shirking away from him. Why was this young man so eager to help?
"Yes, Your Majesty. I am a page from Blood Pledge Castle, sire. I was sent here to deliver you a message from Her Superior Majesty, Former Queen Cecilie von Spitzveg," the lad replied, after which he produced Cecilie's seal, a golden pendant studded with jewels that formed Cecilie's coat-of-arms: on the gold medallion a plain white shield in ivory with three jeweled flowers on it – a yellow Beautiful Wolfram, a red Conrad Stands Upon the Earth and a green-and-grey Secret Gwendal. This kid is the real deal, Yuuri thought.
The next second, all the color drained from Yuuri's face. His mother-in-law never interfered with affairs of state after her abdication more than a hundred years ago. This could only mean that someone in the family was in trouble, and at the moment, the only vulnerable member he could think of was Wolfram. Yuuri sprang up at once. Wolfram and their baby… he could be --
A firm but gentle grasp stopped Yuuri in his tracks.
"Where are you going, sire?" the boy asked.
Yuuri was almost beside himself with worry. "Wolfram! I need to get back to Wolfram! I—"
A sound backhand slap put Yuuri back in the moment. Backhand slaps were wake-up calls in demon custom, unlike the open-palm slaps used in marriage proposals.
When Yuuri came to, the boy was bowing repeatedly before him, asking him for forgiveness. It was not improper or anything, but it looked really, shall we say strange from the angle most people could see them from. Then it looked very improper indeed.
"Sir I—"
Surely enough, people in the bar stared at the two of them, so Yuuri had no choice but to hurriedly ask the bartender for a room. The bartender, looking thoroughly annoyed, motioned with his head to the single loft upstairs of the bar to which Yuuri dragged the young man so fast the latter could not even protest.
"Mazoku nobles are such lustful creatures," was the last thing Yuuri heard when he shut the door. Well, he couldn't help their gossiping right now. When he turned to the messenger, the young king forced himself to smile.
The boy at last realized his blunder and turned a deep shade of red. "My liege, I apologize, I—"
Yuuri laughed. "It's perfectly fine. I'm kind of used to being misunderstood by now," Yuuri answered good-naturedly, if a little dryly.
The boy squared his shoulders and stood in attention as he started to report, "Sire, I am directly in Queen Cecilie's service, but the news that I bring from you is from Shin Makoku Intelligence under Lord Gwendal von Voltaire," he began.
The boy then seemed to struggle with his next statements. "I understand that you are in search of your and Lord Wolfram's child's soul. Directions to where it can be found can only be gained from a man named Warheit Sagen who lives in the very heart of this city," the boy said.
Finally! A lead! Yuuri's heart jumped for joy.
"That's great! That should be easy enough then! From the looks of things we should be very near the center of this town!" Yuuri exclaimed.
The messenger looked thoughtful. "There's a bit more to it, sire. Wahrheit Sagen resides in the center of Shinzo Ningen territory,"
Yuuri saw no problem in that. "So..?"
"--and the Shinzo Ningen are the most dangerous group of humans known to demonkind,"
"Oh," Yuuri flatly said.
Somehow, Yuuri saw that curveball coming. Nobody said it would be easy. Even Wolfram told him he might not get out of this alive.
Yuuri gestured for the boy to sit on the small room's lone chair at the dressing-table while he seated himself on the bunk. "Please tell me more about the Shinzo Ningen, lad," Yuuri entreated.
"The Shinzo Ningen are reclusive and are said to live by a law even more ancient than the demon race. It was even rumored that they are not of this world, and no demon ever went near them in a thousand years,"
Yuuri was confounded. "But why?"
"They have a different kind of anti-demon charm that Mazoku are loathe to speak about. It is said that the anti-demon charms they used not only weakened but killed Mazoku,"
Yuuri shifted in his seat, suddenly uneasy, but he decided to probe further. "And what of Wahrheit Sagen? Is he not Mazoku? Gwendal told me that he's more than a thousand years old,"
The boy exhaled nervously and continued, "It is said that Warheit Sagen is immortal, Your Majesty."
Sayo's note: "Wahrheit Sagen" means, quite literally, "truth telling" in German.
