"This will be a perilous quest, Your Majesty. Please be reasonable! One platoon won't call a lot of attention! Besides, you've never gone unescorted anywhere in the kingdom before!" Gwendal argued. He doesn't show it too often, but he's taken a liking to his royal brother-in-law.

"Exactly," Yuuri calmly answered. "I'm going to be outside the kingdom's borders looking for my heir's soul. The last thing I want is for other rulers to think I'm invading their turf. We've worked too hard for peace," Yuuri reasoned.

Gwendal nodded slowly, his arms crossed over his chest. Even he couldn't argue the soundness of that logic. But he would not back down so easily. Shin Makoku depended a lot on Yuuri staying alive to stay as it is. So he did what he needed to do. He threw Conrad into the fray by signaling to him with a cold, imperative look.

Conrad took his cue flawlessly. He and Gwendal have been a great debate tag team for decades. "A small group at least, Your Majesty. Just me and a few bodyguards to make sure you won't get in any danger," Conrad interjected.

Yuuri smiled amiably at his brothers-in-law. "I'll be fine. Besides, I will take Morgif with me,"

"A fat lot of good that will do you, wimp!" said Wolfram said, beads of perspiration dotting his forehead. The room was cool enough what with the windows open, but Wolfram was having hot flashes from his pregnancy.

Yuuri turned to Wolfram and affectionately fanned his consort with a few of the documents on the table to help make him comfortable. "Dearest, I love you, but I've made my decision. I'm going it alone," Yuuri said. "I can't let anybody else get hurt for this. It's not even a national security issue!"

Wolfram turned away from Yuuri violently and crossed his arms across his chest, pouting like a spoiled child. "It is TOO a national security issue! The safety of the KING is a national security issue! You're such a big idiotic WIMP for not recognizing that!" Wolfram cried, after which he fled the room in tears. Everyone knew where Wolfram was going – to the kitchens to make sweets. Somehow making mochi made him cool down reasonably.

Yuuri woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the fire's crackling. He and his new Man Friday were encamped in an oasis just a few last miles from the Shinzo Ningen settlement and it seems he was having a dream about his last Council Meeting before he left Shin Makoku. Yuuri shrugged his shoulders in resignation, sat up and just manned the fire.

He'd built himself and his young friend a respectable tent which proved sturdy enough in the desert wind. Wolfram would have been proud, Yuuri thought wistfully. But the fire was starting to die out and needed stoking, so Yuuri got Morgif out and poked at the embers with him.

Understandably, old moaner wasn't too pleased with the idea, but kept his thoughts to himself, lest Yuuri keep him in a box instead of at his side, sheathed. How then would he be able to see if there were any young girls about?

Yuuri squared his shoulders and stared into the flames and watched as the tongues of fire seemed to form the characters that had populated his dream of just a few minutes before.

"Let him be for a while, Your Majesty," Gwendal had said, and Yuuri had backed down into his seat. "We need to go over a few details we've been handed by Yozak Gurier from the south anyway,"

Yuuri sighed, still a bit uncomfortable after Wolfram had left crying. He knew though that the discussion afoot was important. He would just need to make it up to Wolfram later tonight.

"Please continue then, Gwendal," Yuuri said, giving him his full attention.

"Yozak and his comrades were able to trace the whereabouts of the omniscient Warheit Sagen in Qandar, which is in human territory,"

"Okay..?"

"You need to be careful, Your Majesty. Qandar is a fiercely independent state, and we have neither diplomatic nor strategic ties with their government," Gwendal went on.

"Would it be possible for us to hold an audience with the rulers?" Yuuri asked.

"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty. Whatever business you have in the city you must conduct in secrecy, as the group that rules Qandar does not trust foreigners nor do they favor outside dealings," Conrad answered.

"I see. Can't we at least try then? I'm sure we'll be able to work something out –"

"King Yuuri, please believe us when we say that to search for Wahrheit is the best option you have of settling this without initiating a conflict," Conrad had said.

And that had been that. Sometimes Yuuri wondered if he would ever be told anything straight in Shin Makoku. Then again, it wouldn't be Shin Makoku then, would it?

A stirring sound drew Yuuri's attention to the sleeping bag beside his. The boy had awakened, and was blinking at Yuuri sleepily.

"Hey," Yuuri greeted the lad.

The boy stood up straight at once and bowed low. "Your Majesty!"

Yuuri laughed good-naturedly and motioned for the boy to assume a sitting position beside him. He'd tried to dismiss the young man several times but the boy had followed him over and over in the last week that Yuuri'd given up all hope of ever sending the boy away.

After all, boys are boys, Yuuri surmised. He himself was still in his teens. He understood that boys wanted adventure. Yuuri wondered if his baby would be like this later on, and he'd kept Glenn around for company after all.

Yuuri showed Glenn a boyish grin. "You sure you don't want to go home in the morning?"

The boy shook his head and grinned back. "I'm sure. Please let me be your guide, Your Majesty! I was sold as a slave here when I was younger but I'd managed to escape. I'd be able to help you," the boy begged.

Yuuri smiled indulgently. In the past week, the boy was starting to remind him more and more of Wolfram. WAIT. Sold into slavery?

The boy started at Yuuri oddly. "Your Majesty? What's wrong?"

But Yuuri said nothing and just held the boy in his arms. "How could your parents do that to you?"

The boy looked away, and Yuuri heard the righteous anger in his voice. "It's not their fault they died, Your Majesty," then he turned around to face Yuuri again. "Besides, I'm happy as I am now," he said, smiling brightly again.

Yuuri smiled back. "I'm glad," he said. Then he remembered the time and asked the boy to go back to bed.

While Yuuri was tucking himself in, his last thoughts were of asking Wolfram to let him adopt Glenn.