~.~.~
Title: Maoh, A Day Late
Summary: Yuri arrives in the other world late, and the race for the Boxes has already begun.
Notes: They come home.
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Part III, Chapter 10
The forgiver and the forgiven
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"Back here again," Yuri sighed, looking around a comfortable room in the familiar villa-castle in the Karbelnikoff territory.
He and the rest of his party had been led to the meeting room after Fanberlain dropped them off and were asked to wait for Gwendal. Yuri just barely suppressed a shiver. He wasn't looking forward to that.
The sound of the door opening made Yuri shudder, and he had to force himself to turn to face it - and the man in the doorway.
Gwendal's expression could perhaps be described as thunderous, with a dash of violently displeased.
Next to Yuri, Wolfram gulped and straightened his spine, like a man about to face a firing squad. No doubt remembering the last time they had reported to Gwendal, even Murata looked a little uneasy as he pushed up his glasses.
For their part, Conrart and Josak both put on their poker face expressions - a bland smile and an easy grin, respectively. Yuri envied them a little for being able to hide their unease so well. Maybe it was an adult thing.
Only Celi was completely unaffected by her oldest son's aura of doom. Instead, she stared out the window and sighed dreamily, watching the disappearing speck of Fanberlain's ship. Thinking about it, that might have been her poker face. Being an adult even to Conrart and Josak, she must have been absolute master at hiding feelings.
Stepping inside and allowing the door slam shut behind him, Gwendal let his narrowed eyes pass over everyone assembled. 'At least they have all their limbs,' he thought. 'And we're not missing anyone.' In fact, there was an extra. Gwendal stared at Conrart for a moment, but he honestly couldn't even work up any surprise or real anger.
'I should have expected that from our king,' he mused, fatalistically. 'First Hube, now Conrart... What's next, Von Grantz?'
He had to make an effort to make sure his expression didn't soften. Just because he was more grateful than he could express wasn't reason to go easy on their fool of a king.
"You will be happy to know the Box arrived safely," Gwendal said, crossing his arms. 'And you were not with it, which I was not happy about at all,' his tone implied. "The king of Francia and his aide have departed for their homeland, although they left their well-wishes. They seemed quite certain you would be arriving shortly."
Gwendal, in did not need to be said, had not shared their certainty.
"We... had a bit of a delay," Yuri said, hoping against hope that Antoine and Lyla hadn't told Gwendal why, exactly, everyone had remained behind. "But it all worked out!" he concluded, smiling with forced cheer.
Gwendal continued to look unimpressed.
"Did it," he said flatly. "And was this the reason?"
His steely gaze turned to Conrart, trying to convey how very unimpressed he was with whatever nonsense his brother had been pulling. 'Mother cried, you idiot,' his glare seemed to say. 'Do you know how worried we- she was?'
Really, their king forgave just too easily. Some kind of punishment was clearly in order.
Shoulders tense, Conrart drew himself up straighter, but his eyes wouldn't quite meet Gwendal's, staring instead somewhere just past his shoulder.
"Now that we got the Box from Big Cimaron, there's no reason for him to stay there," Yuri pointed out, as if that was completely obvious and reasonable.
At this point, he realized they hadn't actually decided whether to mention the Great One's involvement. There wasn't necessarily a reason not to, but something about the quiet revelations they had made in the dark cargo hold, huddled together in a circle and surrounded by a fortress of crates and barrels, felt like they should go no further than their small group.
'It doesn't matter either way,' Yuri decided. 'Knowing or not knowing doesn't change anything.' For him, that was true. Whether Conrart had acted on the Great One's orders or of his own volition, Yuri's opinion and actions toward him wouldn't change.
Yuri often forgot that most people did not share that perspective on things.
For a moment, Gwendal simply stared at Yuri, then at Conrart again. With a hint of despair, he realized that his mind was already churning to figure out how fit this turn of events into his plans and what paperwork he would need to file. There was no fighting the king's willfulness.
"Is that so," Gwendal said, trying hard not to let up in his displeased glare.
But before he could say anything further, the door behind him slammed open. A feeling of impending doom and terror at Gwendal's back made him break out in cold sweat. Knowing instinctively what he would see, he didn't dare to turn.
"I see you've returned! Welcome back to the Karbelnikoff lands, Your Majesty!" Anissina exclaimed cheerfully. She stalked into the room, ignoring or perhaps just not noticing the way Gwendal flinched as she passed him. "I must thank you, Your Majesty, and your wise mother! I've had such a breakthrough in my research! How did my invention work, Celi?"
As Anissina's gaze swung to her, Celi smiled and cooed, "Oh, like a charm, Nissie! It led me right to my boys!"
Anissina's eyes flickered to Conrart, and after quickly looking him up and down, she nodded briskly. "Done being foolish? Good," she said and turned away again. "But now that such a new, exciting avenue has opened in my research, I need subjects! I wanted to use that Gunter, with his deep love for His Majesty, but he ran off to Covenant Castle. And when I tried to use Gwendal and his love for all things cute, he just kept avoiding me!"
'Gwendal? Love? Cute things?' Yuri wondered, making an almost comical shocked expression. He couldn't figure out how those words would even work together.
"But then," Anissina continued, ignoring the way Gwendal was cringing behind her, "I thought of Your Majesty! Certainly, your love for our kingdom must the most powerful!"
That started Yuri out of his frantic attempts to reconcile frowning Gwendal and "loves cute things." 'What? What?!' he wondered frantically, as Anissina turned to him.
"Ahahah!" Yuri laughed nervously. "S-sorry, but I've got this thing... I need to... uh, go the capital! T-to do king-ly things!"
Disappointed, Anissina drew back and sighed. "I suppose it can't be helped. Be a good king, Your Majesty," she said, meeting his eyes evenly with a smile.
'...She's pretty amazing,' Yuri thought, smiling as well. 'Scary, though.'
"Um, well, I think Miss Celi could help you most," he ventured. "After all, she's a mother with three wonderful sons. And I think she shares her love freely, you know?"
Celi herself had come up behind Yuri and now lay her hands gently on his shoulders. "Thank you, Your Majesty," she said, leaning in to breathe lightly in his ear. "You're so kind, and so cute... Mm, I know~ Why don't we combine our love? Would that be something simply wonderful?"
Yuri made a choking sound, completely frozen in place. He could feel two soft somethings pressing against his back...
In front of him, Anissina just continued to watch calmly.
'H-h-heeeeeelp,' Yuri wailed in the confines of his own mind.
"Mother!" Wolfram protested loudly, reacting first, and Yuri could have kissed him. As Celi drew back and pouted, Yuri slumped, trying to catch his breath. He wasn't sure if he had just been given a vision of heaven or hell itself.
"Yes, please stop that, Mother," Gwendal agreed, reaching up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. "The former Demon Queen having an affair with the current Demon King would be a terrible scandal, one that we don't need." Looking meaningfully at Josak, Wolfram and Conrart, he added, "Let's end this here. I need to have a full debriefing before we head out to Covenant Castle."
Wolfram shuddered subtly.
Darting forward, Yuri clamped his hand around Wolfram wrist and pulled him toward the door. "I need to talk to Wolf about, uh, stuff!" Yuri declared over his shoulder, ignoring Gwendal's scowl. "We'll catch up with you later! Bye!"
Rather than wait for a reply - or, more likely, a demand for them to stop - the two boys burst into a full sprint down the hall and didn't pause until they were both out of breath. They finally drew to a stop at one of the castle's large balconies, looking out across the sea.
"...Thanks," Wolfram muttered, his shoulders heaving as he tried to catch his breath.
"No problem! That's what friends are for," Yuri replied, beaming. Turning to look out across the water, he added, "And I really do need to talk to you."
He could feel Wolfram's heavy gaze on him, but although the other boy's lips pursed into a frown, he didn't burst out with loud demands or questions. Coming to stand beside Yuri at the balcony railing, Wolfram waited patiently for him to start.
"I'm sure you noticed some things didn't add up. Murata and I left some stuff out, too. It would just make everything more complicated, and it doesn't matter much in the end," Yuri said. "But... you want to know, right?"
Wolfram closed his eyes, snorting quietly. "Yeah. You left out quite a bit. I can guess some of it," he said, glaring down at the stone railing between his hands. "Why you can't read, why you wanted to talk to Von Grantz... it's because your soul used to belong to Susanna Julia Von Wincott, right?"
"...Yeah," Yuri admitted.
"Is that why you were like that about Weller?" Wolfram wondered, his brows furrowing in thought.
Yuri shook his head. "I didn't even realize he was her friend until Murata explained that the pendant he gave me was from the Wincott family. I told you, most of it doesn't matter much in the end. I wouldn't have done anything differently."
"I suppose not," Wolfram muttered. "Stupid wimp."
Turning to him, Yuri waited.
"But Lady Julia was blind," Wolfram finally said, "she couldn't know the color of those flowers." And, though he couldn't say it, he felt she couldn't have known their significance either, a meaning that had been given to them at dawn, twenty years before.
Yuri nodded. "That's true," he agreed. "To be honest, I never even touched most of Miss Julia's memories. The ones I did receive really did fade away very quickly. Those memories were never mine, and I couldn't keep them. All I really remembered were the things that related to me directly. Like the fact that I was to become Demon King and..."
Waiting, Wolfram watched him expectantly.
"...The circumstances of our meeting," Yuri concluded. "I don't know why he did it, but the Great One chose to send my soul to the past. It was just for a little while, but I was able to meet Miss Julia and... she was able to meet me." He sighed. "It was like a dream, fading away in the morning light..."
For a moment, both of them were silent, staring around across the water.
"...I didn't want to bring it up because it doesn't change anything. In the end, it didn't matter," Yuri said, his expression pensive. 'I wasn't able to change anything at all.'
"You're wrong," Wolfram muttered, too quietly for his companion to hear. "It mattered..." 'That the boy back then was definitely him,' he mused, smiling faintly. 'Of course. Who else would be like that?' Shaking his head, Wolfram said, "It must have mattered. Otherwise, why would the Great One do it?"
Strangely, Yuri frowned. "I don't know. Miss Julia... had already accepted her fate. Meeting me didn't change her mind," he said. He had to believe that, for his own sake. Turning his face up to the sky, Yuri added quietly, "But... I think he wanted to give Miss Julia just a little hope. Even though he gave her such a cruel fate, I think he's a kind person, so he wanted to comfort her in the only way he could."
'Come to think of it, he only seemed to decide to do that after I yelled at him,' Yuri thought. 'Was it something I said? He apologized again. And then... he asked me to give a little of that light to her too. I wonder what he meant.'
Next to him, Wolfram bowed his head and forced himself to breathe deeply. 'Fate?' he thought. 'So that was her fate... You're saying something like that too casually, idiot.' "You're spending too much time with the stupid sage," Wolfram grumbled under his breath.
"It was just the two of us for three years," Yuri said. He felt a little nostalgic thinking about that time. Raising his face up to the sun, he felt the wind ruffle his hair. "I guess it's true what they say - sharing secrets binds people together."
Wolfram's hands curled into fists as he glared down at them. Straightening suddenly, he barked, "It's not just you two anymore! Don't forget that! You've dragged me into this mess, and you've got my brothers too! All of us will support you, just like Mother said!"
Yuri's surprised look slowly melted into a sincere smile. "I know," he said. "You've all got my back. I know... I wouldn't have made it this far without you. Thank you, all of you."
'I know,' he thought, 'I just a naive kid. But with all of you helping me... it'll be okay. We'll make their dream come true and keep that promise.'
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"Woah..." Yuri drew out, looking across the grand panorama of Covenant Castle and the capital city.
Having been unconscious the last time he was brought to the capital, and then leaving surreptitiously in the middle of the night, Yuri hadn't yet had the chance to appreciate how amazing the castle and city looked from the main approach. It was a sight calculated to impress.
The highway had been all but cleared for them by the large contingent of soldiers Gwendal had gathered, despite Yuri's protests. Beyond the moving perimeter of guards, travelers who had moved off the road stood and whispered, watching the procession.
They must have made quite the sight. All three of the former Demon Queen's sons, Gwendal, Conrart and Wolfram, rode around the carriage containing their mother, while Celi occasionally waved out the window to a particularly good looking man. Glimpses of double black Murata could be seen across from her, since the Great Wiseman hadn't felt any need to ride a horse if he could just relax instead.
Yuri hadn't been trusted with any of the horses available, but he nonetheless had managed to bully his way out of joining the others in the carriage and instead rode beside Josak in the driver's seat. It felt a little like riding a parade float.
Most of the whispers and pointing was probably directed at him, since Gwendal had told him not to bother with masking his double-black colors. Yuri tried not to think about that, since such concentrated attention still made him feel incredibly self-conscious.
"We'll go through the main gate," Gwendal said, pulling up beside the carriage. He looked around with a frown that made some of the spectators cower away, even though his gaze didn't linger on anyone. "Might as well. It's already become a spectacle. I'll send ahead for a horse for the king..."
Yuri frowned thoughtfully and tried to catch Wolfram's attention. Leaning over as the blonde pulled up beside him, Yuri said quietly, "Hey, which gate did we go to that time?"
Wolfram's eyes narrowed as he realized what Yuri meant. "The northeast one," he said. His eyes darted to Conrart, and he huffed. "Fine. I'll explain to my brother."
Watching Wolfram move to ask Gwendal to change their route, Yuri smiled. Gwendal frowned as he listened to Wolfram's request, his gaze also turning toward Conrart for a moment. 'They're both worried about how he'll feel,' Yuri thought fondly. 'They all really do love each other.'
Yuri didn't know what Wolfram told Gwendal or what rationale he used, but the oldest brother nodded, somewhat reluctantly, and gave new orders to the troops. Conrart and Josak, who had been listening as well, shared a quick, meaningful look.
Josak's lips narrowed in an angry frown, but Conrart simply looked resigned.
They probably thought it was some kind of punishment, and Yuri watched them a little sadly.
But the scene in the city, down that wide street, was very different than it had been that morning. People lined the streets, the rumors having reached them about the procession - the arrival of the Demon King. They cheered, making Yuri blush a bit as he looked around, smiling sheepishly.
Looking up, he watched the inner wall and gate draw nearer.
"This is it," he said, standing suddenly. Surprised, Josak had to correct quickly as the horses broke their even gait, making Yuri sway as the carriage weaved slightly. Poking her head out of the carriage, Celi looked up at him questioningly.
Yuri smiled, gathering his magic. He turned to face Conrart, meeting the man's gaze squarely.
"It's time to keep our promise!" Yuri declared.
Throwing one hand up, he let the flower hurricane illusion engulf the street. Familiar blue flowers swirled through the air, falling endlessly from the sky. For a moment, all those watching caught their breath, then a renewed cheer split the air.
Conrart's eyes were wide and stunned as he stared up at Yuri.
"Welcome back to the Demon Kingdom," Yuri said, smiling and spreading his arms wide. "Everyone's been waiting for you. Welcome home!"
Slowly, Conrart let his gaze pass over the people around him - his oldest friend, his brothers, his mother... and Yuri. All of them were smiling at him, from Wolfram's almost hidden grin, to Gwendal's tiny smile of relief, to Yuri's open laughter.
He had thought that returning to the Demon Kingdom would be the end, when everything was finished, for better or for worse.
But this... felt like a new beginning.
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((This is it. The end of what I had planned to write.))
((Will there be another part? It's up to you.))
You know what to do. REVIEW.
((Either way, there'll a bit of a break while I (perhaps) write up a good backlog. Also, ask away if you have any questions.))