Shinigami-cat: Hey there everyone. I hope you all are having a good time. I still don't have my laptop back… but I really hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderfully, happy holidays. Also, this chapter is pretty long by my standards… I OWN NOTHING!

The Western Front

The morning came all too quickly for Gilbert, and before he knew it, he was getting ready to leave for the Western front. He got his horse ready and petted its neck. "Ready to go girl?" He asked the horse. In response the horse snorted at him. Gilbert chuckled. "Yeah, you're ready."

"We're both ready to go."

Gilbert looked over and saw his father riding on the back of a horse too. "… And where might you be going?"

"Bandi asked me to come with you." Said Maverick with a grin. "Besides, this could be a rather fun father and son trip."

"… I'm assuming your wife knows about this?"

"Ula knows." Said Maverick. "She also said that unless I come back with a jug of freshly brewed beer I might as well not come back at all."

"And does the Queen know of this?"

"As soon as she told me you were leaving I asked to go with you. Just for Bandi's peace of mind."

Gilbert sighed a little and got onto his horse. "Okay… We should be back in a day or two. A week at the most hopefully."

Maverick nodded and started to ride down the road towards the west. Gilbert quickly followed. They would probably get there a little bit before sunset if things all went well. If not, then a little after sunset.

Nothing very interesting happened on the way there. Everything just changed from a city area to a more rural setting; buildings getting shorter and smaller, roads turning to dirt, larger patches of grass, and much more trees then closer to the castle.

Maverick decided to try and lighten the mood with a bit of conversation. "So…"

"So?"

"How is your arm going?"

"…" Gilbert looked down at his arm and frowned a little. His arm had good and bad days. Sometimes it was really itchy and other times it was alright. "I have an ointment for it." Said Gilbert. "It manages it pretty well."

"You have it with you?"

"Yep." He gestured to a small leather pouch hanging off his belt. "Might need to get a few bandages while we're there… Have you finished fixing the roof yet?"

Maverick chuckled nervously. "As long as it doesn't rain while we're gone it should be fine… Hopefully no animals are going to come in and make a home in the attic…"

"… You're a dead man."

"Yep… I should have done more than stick some plywood over the top. There is a reason I'm not a carpenter… Which is also the reason I'm probably going to get murdered by your mother." He sighed a little. "If I happen to vanish when I get home don't eat any of her cooking for the next few weeks… She could be getting rid of my body."

Gilbert shuddered a little. "… That is a creepy thought dad."

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After several hours the pair finally got to the western front. A couple of the guards the recognized them and waved in greeting. Maverick happily waved back, but Gilbert just nodded a little. He was really, really tired and kind of just wanted to sleep.

"Eh… Liz is staying with the lord, right?" He asked Maverick.

Maverick nodded a little. "Yeah, I think so… It'll be around here somewhere…"

Luckily for them the house wasn't too hard to find the house. It was the largest house around in the general area. The pair got off their horses, tying them to the fence for the time being and went to the front door.

The Lord answered it, looking rather surprised. "Oh, I'm surprised to see that the royal bodyguard actually showed up… and another guard too?"

Gilbert shrugged. "Yeah well, what can you do? The Queen sent us. Where's Liz?"

The lord looked a little nervous. "Um well… she is um…"

Elizaveta quickly appeared in the door way and grinned. "Hello you two. It's nice to see you both here. A bit of a surprise, but it's still nice." She looked at Maverick. "Maverick, I'm sure the lord would be happy to show you around the house and give you the basics about what is going on." She then took Gilbert by the hand and pulled him outside. "Gilbert, I'll show you some of the main strategic points around the house then, shall I?"

Gilbert was about to protest about being manhandled by her, but quickly decided against it. She would have dragged him off anyway and at least this way it was less likely she was going to punch him and then drag him off anyway.

She took him over to a fence over the far side of the house, Elizaveta smiled a little. "So I'm guessing my dad decoded my letter?"

Gilbert nodded. "Yep… So what's going on here?"

Elizaveta hesitated a little and quickly looked around to make sure that no one was close. "Look, there doesn't seem to be many bandits here or much damage due to said bandits… I also haven't seen the lord's wife or their children since I have been here."

"Then where are they? Have you asked the lord? Asked around?" Asked Gilbert. A missing wife and children was something to get really worried about.

Elizaveta nodded a little. "Yeah, but he keeps saying that they have gone to visit family out east… but he looks really worried. When I asked the lord about it he kept looking at his maid…"

The suspicious maid that she mentioned in her letter no doubt. He nodded a little. "We should go back to the lord's house… I want to meet this maid you were talking about."

Elizaveta nodded in agreement. "Yeah… She is kind of um… She's pretty cold towards people and well… She can be a bit rude…"

"… You want to call her a bitch, don't you?"

"Yeah… but she might be nice under it all…"

Gilbert shrugged and headed back to the house with Elizaveta. "Anything else you need to tell me?"

"Not really…" Said Elizaveta. "What about you? How are you and the Princes going? Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

The red eyed man couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Well, Prince Alfred's now engaged to the Emperor's son, the one from that fishing place we went to."

"I know the one."

"Yeah, well that's what happened to him… As for Prince Matthew, he's still pretty much the same as ever… Just waiting for the day the King marries him off to someone… He has a crush on someone at the palace too. Poor guy."

"Ah, that sucks…" Muttered Elizaveta. "Any idea who he's crushing on?"

"Not one clue."

"…" She sighed in an exasperated manner. "Gilbert, you are clueless."

"What is that meant to mean?"

"Nothing… Just… Nothing…"

The pair went inside. The house was larger on the inside then he expected and decorated with all manner of rugs and mounted animal heads and antlers. He didn't really see why someone would put up animal heads and antlers as displays in their home, but it wasn't his place to judge someone else's decor. Even if it did look creepy to him.

They walked past the dining room and Elizaveta gestured to the woman in there. Gilbert quickly looked in at her and then glanced back at Liz who nodded. She must have been the maid. Gilbert approached her.

The maid in question had long platinum blond hair, coming down to her hips. She wore a white bow in her hair and a long brown dress and black leather boots, caked with dry mud. Her deep purple eyes were emotionless and calculating.

"… So what's your name?" Asked Gilbert.

The maid looked a little surprised that Gilbert was there, but she curtsied anyway. "My name is Natalia, and you are, Gilbert?"

"Yep."

"… Bodyguard to the Prince's?"

"Yep."

Natalia nodded. "Alright." She went back to her work, which seemed to consist of setting the table for dinner. As she quickly moved around the table, Gilbert noticed she seemed to be tracking a bit of mud around with her.

"… Why are your shoes so muddy?"

Her head snapped up to look at him. "Pardon?"

"Your shoes are muddy. As a maid you shouldn't be working outside." Said Gilbert. "Maids tend to work inside, not outside."

"Since when is a bodyguard completely knowledgeable about the duties of a maid?" Snapped Natalia in an agitated manner.

Gilbert shrugged. "I'm just saying it seems a little odd to me."

Natalia huffed a little and stormed off to the kitchen. "If you excuse me, I have dinner to make, and it looks like I'm making some extra soup."

"Oh, I'm actually heading out to do some patrol!" Called Elizaveta. "I'll just pick something up at a pub!" She smiled a little at Gilbert. "Hey, keep your wits about you tonight. Don't forget, there's something messed up going on here."

"You could have told me you were heading out earlier." Whispered Gilbert. "I thought you could help me get acquainted to this place."

"Ah, you'll be fine." She turned to walk out of the room, almost walking into Maverick and the Lord. "Hey you two, I'll be heading off now. I think Natalia is going to bring out soup for dinner or something. Have fun you guys."

"You too Liz. Your father says hi." Said Maverick.

Elizaveta smiled. "Thank you Maverick." She left the house.

With her gone the lord ushered the two men to sit at the table, saying that Natalia would be back at any moment with their food. Sure enough as soon as they were seated, Natalia brought out three bowls of soup. Two in glazed brown bowls and one glazed green. She gave the green bowl to the lord and the brown ones to Maverick and Gilbert.

"… Eat up." She said. "It's chicken and vegetable soup."

The lord smiled nervously and started to eat. "It's lovely, Natalia." Natalia just glared at him and walked out of the room.

Once he was out of earshot, Maverick voiced his concern. "My lord, is something the matter? You are very jumpy." He ate some of his soup.

"Just the thought of the bandits robbing us blind." Muttered the lord. "It just… You don't have to deal with these kinds of things at the castle I'm sure, but it's very hard to keep people confident about their livelihood when the King and Queen don't seem to care about us."

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "The King would have been more generous about helping you if you hadn't insulted the female gender. Don't bother trying to deny it. I was there."

Maverick sighed a little. "People say stupid things when they are forced between a rock and a hard place. Don't hold it against the man. Now eat your soup."

The silver haired man didn't appreciate his father talking down to him like that, but Maverick was his father. He had to just bite his tongue and eat his soup. It was kind of bitter, but it was okay.

Instead of talking he just listened to his father and the lord talk about this and that. Things that didn't really matter that much to him. It was mainly about agriculture. Not really something he cared too much about.

As the minutes dragged on, he realized he was getting really, really tired. Even Maverick seemed to be nodding off a little. They had been riding for most of the day after all. It was only natural that they would be tired.

He slowly stood up, earning looks from both the lord and Maverick. "… I feel really tired… I'm going to go to bed…" He attempted to walk but fell over instantly. His whole body felt like it was being held down by weights. Even keeping his eyes opened was an effort.

He heard Maverick getting up and falling over too, saying something about being poisoned and accusing the lord. Something like that. Gilbert's body was too tired to care. His eyelids slipped shut as his whole world turned into a dark, inky , sleep.

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Gilbert groaned a little, trying to regain his senses. He quickly realized that his hands were tied together, same with his feet, and just to make sure he really couldn't move, he was tied to a tree. He was also missing his daggers. Looking to his left, he saw Maverick was also in the same situation, except his feet weren't tied together. Maybe the captors ran out of rope.

Speaking of his captors they seemed to consist of Natalia, a woman with short platinum blond hair and a rather large bust size, and a man who also had platinum blond hair and wore a pinkish grey scarf around his neck. Looking past them, Gilbert could see three horses, one of which was pulling a cart with a cage built into the back. Inside the cage was a woman and three children.

Gilbert slowly put the pieces together in his mind. From what he understood so far it seemed like these people were the bandits and had kidnapped the lord's wife and kids. Possibly holding them as ransom of some sort. Natalia then posed as a maid at the lord's house to make sure he kept his end of whatever deal they were forcing him to make. He probably had at least half of the puzzle sorted out in his mind.

"Three weeks!" Snapped Natalia. "It's been three weeks since we've been here and I can't stand spending one more night in that place."

The man sighed a little. "Natalia, please…"

"Ivan!" Snapped Natalia. "I am not going back there! I hate that man and I hate that place! You should have sent Kat there or did my dearest big brother forget that our big sister is better with people?"

"But we have captives." Said Ivan. "Kat is better at making captives feel comfortable and se remembers to feed them and give them water." That statement didn't seem to make Natalia too happy.

Kat smiled nervously. "Well, we can head off now. You don't have to go back there anymore."

"Good." Muttered Natalia. She glanced over at Maverick and Gilbert. She smiled a little and pointed at Gilbert. "Hey, he's awake.

Ivan and Kat looked over at their captives. Ivan hummed a little and walked over to the tree Gilbert was tied to.

"What the fuck do you want?" Snapped Gilbert.

The man called Ivan, smiled and crouched down to his eye level. "It's quite simple really. We were hired to get a Prince or a way to obtain a Prince for the one who contracted us. Naturally the first option is the best, but the second will do just fine. What is your position again? Just to make sure you're useful to us."

"At the moment it's sitting." For some reason being in life or death situations always brought out the sarcasms in him.

Ivan's smile twisted into a dark grin. He grabbed Gilbert's face and slammed his head back against the tree a couple of times. "Now, I'll ask you again. What is your position?"

"Fuck you."

"He's a guard." Said Maverick quickly. "The both of us are. We were just sent as reinforcements by the Queen…"

Ivan stood up and walked over to Maverick. "It's interesting that you say that. Natalia told me that this albino over here was a bodyguard. Someone of much higher importance than just a normal guard."

Natalia walked over to Ivan. She took some paper out of her pocket and showed it to Ivan. "Hey, we can go and collect out bounty now. Just take what we need and kill the rest." Gilbert frowned a little. These people were after money or at least something of value. Then these would make these people mercenaries and not bandits at all. Mercenaries were highly dangerous. More dangerous than random bandits. Bandits just killed and took money.

"Hey, you promised me no unnecessary killing." Said Kat in a rather unhappy tone. At least this seemed to calm Natalia's blood lust a little. It looked as though her consent was needed to carry out murder with Natalia at least.

"And when they come back for revenge?" Asked Natalia. "What then? It'll be on your head, dear sister."

"I guess it will."

Ivan sighed a little and took out a small dagger. "Sisters, please don't argue. Here is what we will do. We will get ready to go, take what we need and then leave a knife just out of reach of the remaining captives. By the time they get free, we will be long gone. Agreed?" Neither woman seemed too happy, but never the less agreed with their brother. "Wonderful." Ivan crouched down next to Gilbert and cut him loose from the tree and picked him up.

"Hey! Put me down!" Snarled Gilbert.

Ivan ignored him and walked over to where the Lord's wife and children were being held. He opened the door and let Kat help them out. Once she and her children were out, Ivan dumped Gilbert inside and locked the door. "Okay, let's go."

He got on his horse and started to go off down a dirt trail. He was quickly followed by his sisters, one of which actually left a small knife for them to free themselves from their rope constraints. More than likely it was Kat.

Gilbert sighed a little. He had been captured. There wasn't much he could do now. He had to try and figure a way out and possibly find out who hired these mercenaries and what they wanted with the Princes.

TBC

Shinigami-cat: Hope you all liked this chapter. During the making of this chapter my mouse broke… Braving the Boxing Day sales just to get a mouse was one of my biggest mistakes of 2014… Never again… Please review.