Author's Note: I'm going to try something a little different for a page break since the ones I keep putting in get deleted.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kyo Kara Maoh or any of it's characters.

Bonds of Eternity

Chapter 14

Yuri walked down the front steps of Blood Pledge Castle as his friends rode into the courtyard. Ari saw he had his brightest smile on, which was saying something for Yuri. He raised an eyebrow to see her riding with Murata. She noticed several men coming down the stairs behind the young king.

Ari vaguely remembered the brunette with the kind smile and haunted eyes. He came forward to help her from the horse.

'Definitely a Weller. He looks so much like Lawrence it's kinda creepy.'

When the raven haired girl was back on the ground, she gave a sigh of relief. Horses were a bit intimidating for a city girl. The descendant of the House of Weller bowed to her and stepped back as Yuri came forward.

"Welcome to Blood Pledge Castle, Ari." He pulled his childhood friend into a hug. "I'm so happy you're feeling better."

She looked behind his shoulder to see a man in white and another in green. They were holding back a furious looking blond in a blue uniform. Said blond looked ready to kill and like a younger version of Shinou.

'Okay, now that's creepy.'

Murata came up behind her.

"Let me introduce everyone." Yuri turned first to the brunette. "This is Lord Conrad Weller, my godfather."

The taller man moved to bow again, but Ari stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"Please, you saved my life last night. I would've drown if you haven't been there." The former queen bowed. "Thank you."

"It was an honor to be of service."

Yuri turned to the others and saw the scene behind him. His smile became pained. Murata tried to smother his amusement.

"Wolfram! This is an important guest and you will conduct yourself with dignity." The gray haired man began to lecture the younger blond.

As their talk continued, the maoh waved the man in white forward.

"This is Lord Gunter von Christ."

"It is an honor, your highness. I have the pleasure of being his majesty's royal aide and historian, as well as his tutor." The silver-haired man bowed low, obviously excited.

"It's very nice to meet you, Lord von Christ. I'm sure you're the reason Yuri became such a responsible student during our last years of high school." She smiled and the man's excitement overwhelmed him.

"Oh, I'm so happy! Another majesty to serve. First his eminence returned to us and now our beautiful, first queen...

"Gunter!"

'He must be the warden.' Ari thoughts turned to the man in green as Yuri led her to him next.

"This is Lord Gwendal von Voltaire."

"Your highness," he bowed low. "It is my honor to serve as his majesty's chief of state and general of the mazoku army."

"You have the same pride and serious nature that I have seen in many of the Voltaire line. I'm sure Yuri's trust is well placed in you to run the country in his absence."

Ari almost laughed when the gruff man blushed at her praise. The maoh noticed his retainer's discomfort and quickly ushered the girl to the last. The blond in the blue uniform was still upset but appropriately chastised.

"This is Lord Wolfram von Bielefeld."

"Yuri's fiancee." He sniffed importantly.

Ari's icy blue eyes were huge when as she looked back at her childhood friend. The sage was quickly losing the battle to keep his composure.

"Wow, I never knew you were batting for my team. It explains so much."

Yuri sputtered and the courtyard rang with Murata's laughter.

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The three friends walked the promenade that surrounded the castle gardens. Yuri had insisted on giving Ari a tour of the castle and grounds. His reason being that 'Ari' had never seen Blood Pledge. Gwendal and Conrad had held Wolfram back so that they could have time between the three of them.

Something caught the double black king's attention in the central garden.

"Come on, Ari." Yuri pulled her onto the grass. "Greta!"

She saw a pretty girl stand from watering the flowers. The girl sat her watering can on the ledge of the flower bed and turned. Greta had a large smile for her father and ran to hug him.

"Ari, this is Greta. My daughter."

"What?"

"His adopted daughter," Murata whispered in Ari's ear.

"Oh," she let out a breath. "That's different."

"Hello." Greta smiled, obviously used to this reaction.

"Hi, I'm Ari. It's nice to meet you."

"How do you do?" The little princess executed a full, court curtsy and was praised by her father.

"Princess! Lady Anissina is waiting for you." Doria called as she walked into the garden. "Oh, good afternoon your majesties."

"I almost forgot!" Greta turned to her father. "Anissina is going to let me help with one of her experiments."

Yuri grabbed her shoulders. "You're not going to be the one trying her new invention, are you?"

"No. She's getting Gwendal to help with that part. Anissina said that I can help her observe and take notes."

The king wiped his brow.

"Whew, okay then. We'll see you at dinner."

The three stood in the garden and watched the girl wave goodbye as she ran into the castle, Doria right behind her.

"Adopted, huh?" Ari turned to Yuri. "I was going to say; you would have had to have been the most virile guy to have ever walked the planet. To have fathered a child at, what...five?"

Yuri laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head as a furious blush crept over his cheeks.

A loud yell came from the direction of the king's office, signaling that the inventor had caught her prey.

"I have got to send that guy on vacation soon." Yuri's smiled turned pained at the sound of his adviser's misery.

"It would have to be a secret or Lady Anissina will just follow him." Light reflected off of Murata's glasses as he spoke.

"I would not be surprised to see that man in a nut hut someday." Ari shook her head.

"Well, I can't really blame him. Between Wolfram and I, as well as both of us separately. Worrying about Conrad, Celi's constant gadding about, having to deal with a flaky Gunter day in and day out, running Voltaire from the castle while doing half of my job and being chased around by a crazed, childhood friend intent on using him as a guinea pig with bodily injury attached... I'm surprised he's not insane already."

Murata smirked, "maybe you need to build him a little nut hut. Just in case."

Ari grabbed the king's arm. "Panic room!"

"What?"

"Build him a panic room, or even better, a panic box. A steel box that he could put right in his office and cover with like a table cloth or something. Then if he's ready to pull his hair out or hears this Lady Anissina coming, he can shoot right into the panic box and lock the door."

"You could stock it with some knitting supplies and army rations." The sage decided to run with the idea. "You could build it out of reinforced steel so that Anissina couldn't get another earth mazoku to open it. There would have to be air holes, but nothing too big for her to stick electrodes or something through."

Yuri scratched his chin. "You may be on to something there."

The king pulled a small notepad from his inside pocket with a pen attached. "Build Gwendal a panic box."

"You could see if Bob could get a hold of steel from an old ammunition bunker or something."

"Oh, and see if he can get a hold of one of those huge door locks like they have on old submarines."

Yuri continued to note down their ideas as the trio walked to a table looking over the garden. A steaming pot of tea and three cups sat on a tray in the center. Renka's memories asserted themselves and Ari poured. Murata had to stop her from putting sugar and cream in as Daikenja preferred. Yuri smiled at the two's interaction.

The maoh sighed as he remembered the scene from earlier.

"I have to apologize. I don't know why Wolfram acted like that."

The sage laughed.

"Well, the announcing that he's my fiancee isn't anything new. But I can't believe that scene with Gwendal." Yuri shook his head.

Ari took a sip of her tea while looking at her friend over the rim of her cup.

"Probably because you hugged me." He tried to say something but she stopped him. "You also should have introduced Wolfram first. As your fiancee, he outranked the other three."

"But you're my friend. They were acting like you were some visiting royalty from another country or something." Yuri clearly wasn't understanding.

Murata pulled his glasses off to clean them as he spoke up.

"Ari is the reincarnation of the Oracle Queen. Remember how they acted when I arrived?" He waited for the king to nod. "Since she made a more decorous entrance, they were expecting a formal introduction."

"Exactly. As a king, in full view of the castle, our first meeting should have been a formal event. You should have waited until we were in private to hug me."

"Man, now you're giving me king lessons?" Yuri pouted.

"Well, you obviously need them. By hugging me and then introducing him last, you mortally insulted Wolfram. Actually, you introduced everyone backward. It should have gone fiancee, chief of state, tutor, and then bodyguard. Introducing Conrad first could probably be excused since I remembered him from last night and spoke to him."

The young king hung his head for moment before standing.

"You'll have to excuse me. I need to apologize to Wolfram."

Murata stood as well, then held out a hand to help Ari. "That's alright. We should be getting back to the Temple."

"I'll walk you to the stable before I find Wolfram."

The sage smirked, "are you ready for a long run?"