A/N
First of all...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS MANGA IS NEARLY DONE!!! THE LATEST CHAPTER IS SO PURE!!!!!!!
ugly sobbing noises*
Okay I'm done now
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Third person POV-
-In the demon realm-
Zeldris was stressed.
No.
He was beyond stressed.
Something was happening now that Meliodas was no longer present.
And he didn't like it.
Unidentifiable silhouettes has been spotted sneaking around the castle.
And of course it put everyone on edge, as nobody knew who, or what they were, or what they wanted.
It wasn't like such things were unheard of, but mostly it didn't lead to anything good.
In worst case scenario someone was planning a coup d'état.
But suddenly these individuals had completely disappeared from their radar, as if they knew they were onto them.
Of course this only caused Zeldris's level of stress to rise, and at the end of his wit he was writing a letter to his brother, which he had put off doing, thinking he could easily take care of the situation himself.
In his younger days Zeldris did everything he possibly could to get his brothers approval. He guessed a part of that stayed with him till now.
Wanting to proof to his brother that he was good enough to take care of the duties of a king on his own.
With that in mind Zeldris sighed and rolled up the now finished letter, put it in a small cylinder, stood up and went to find someone who would deliver the letter.
"Young zeldris! If anybody should deliver the letter to master then it should be me!" Chandler whined.
Chandler had asked 5 time already, but Zeldris knew that if Chandler would go then it would only trouble Meliodas.
"Chandler...shut up" Zeldris said, clearly at his wits end with the old demon.
"Calzzo!!" Zeldris called as he bursted into a barrack on the south side of the castle grounds.
A blue demon, fairly small build looked up from a game of cards, and when he saw that it was zeldris that had called him he threw his cards up in the air out of surprise, quickly hit up and saluted.
"To my office-" that's something zeldris has always wanted to say.
"We need to discuss something"
With that Zeldris turned on his heels, returning to his office, quickly followed by a grumpy Chandler, and Calzzo who feared he had done something wrong.
When they got to the office Zeldris did a little maneuvering, and successfully got him and Calzzo inside the office first which made it possible to lock the door so chandler couldn't follow, much to his dismay.
Angry, Chandler slammed the door with his cane a few times out of pure frustration, and then he went on his merry way with a huff.
"Now that that's taken care of..-" Zeldris started sighed, and turned away from the doors to walk to the desk where he picked up the cylinder containing the letter for his brother.
"Calzzo, I need you to deliver this message for me. I know your speed is unrivaled, that's why I've choose you for this as the message have to be delivered quickly. It is crucial"
"Yes sir...where will I be going, and who is the message to be delivered to?"
"The message is to be delivered to the king himself, Meliodas. He is currently at a political meet up in the capital of the kingdom Liones...I do warn you, it might be rough as the humans still haven't softened up to us demons...not have the other races for that matter" Zeldris warned and held out the cylinder for Calzzo, a unspoken question, if he was willing to take up this task, as he had the rights to refuse.
Without much hesitation Calzzo reached out and took the cylinder, which had a rope attached to it, making it possible to strap around his waist.
"I shall take my leave immediately" Calzzo says and bowed, ready to be dismissed.
"Yes, but before I leave could you tell me approximately when Meliodas will have arrived the message?"
"At the very least in 2 days...unfortunately Liones is a distant kingdom"
"Yes I see...dismissed...save travels Calzzo.." Zeldris says and have a small wave with his hand.
Calzzo merely bowed and left the room, whereas he found a balcony to take off from.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
-In lioness-
The next few days were spent in meetings, trying to establish treaties, or at least a understanding between territories.
For example, it gave Meliodas the perfect chance to clear up a few routers about the demon clan, and he had even managed to soften up the fairy king.
Become friends with the beat-men's representative, Ban, the queen of the giants, Diane, and the king of Castellio, Escanor, who had take over the throne after his elder brother died an unfortunate death when he was young.
Meliodas was also able to make out what kind of relationships the other countries and races had established till now.
But mostly what kind of relationship the individuals had.
Diane and Elizabeth was best friends.
King and Diane were a couple.
Escanor is kinda always a third wheel, but practically friends with everyone.
The leader of the Druids were goddesses, not anything anyone else apparently knew, but Meliodas could feel it.
In some kind of context Gowther's name was mentioned, but Meliodas wasn't listening well enough to hear why, and didn't question it, but made a mental note to ask Gowther the next time he came to visit.
"-you meet ms. Merlin?" A question asked by the King of castellio, Escanor snapped Meliodas out of a set of thought he had had.
"Sorry what was the question?" Meliodas asked.
He did realize he had not been the one to get asked, but he felt more comfortable knowing what a Merkin was about to answer before she actually began talking.
"Oh I was just asking ms. Merlin how the two of you met.. since she's human I mean.." Escanor says timidly and twiddled with his thumbs, making his advisor sigh and Shane his head.
It wasn't a question meliodas felt bad at letting Merlin answer, but then again he didn't feel particularly good.
"Oh, well I've known Meliodas since...well before I could even talk" she says teasingly, clearly only targeting Meliodas with her words.
He faked winching, just to give her the satisfaction.
"Oh? How so?" Escanor says, suddenly a bit intrigued by the story he was about to hear.
"Well it's a very very short story, that being that I was simply adopted by Meliodas's family when I was merely an infant" Merlin says and took a sip of water from her glass.
Meliodas almost deflated out of relief from the answer as it wasn't at all as innocent as Merlin made it sound like.
In reality Meliodas's father had found out about this child, who was Merlin, who was born with extraordinary power.
His fathers exact words was: "she might be of use to in the near future", and with that he sent Meliodas to kidnap the baby, whereas the demon king then destroyed Merlin's home city to make sure that nobody would try to get her back.
That's why Meliodas and Merlin had such a 'brother sister relationship'.
"That's very sweet" Elizabeth said, liking the though very much.
"Is it? We've never really thought much of it" Merlin said nonchalantly and splashed the water around in her glass.
"Y-yeah" Meliodas stuttered and chugged his entire glass of water.
After that little detour the meeting continued to stay in trail, for about another two hours, but then everyone agreed that it would be a good idea to call it quits today.
As everyone left the room quietly, Meliodas made sure to slip Elizabeth a tiny note.
That had strangely become custom for them over these two days.
Since they weren't really ready to announce their relationship they had to be very subtle about when and where they would meet up, and that's what the notes contained.
Yesterday they had gone to the festival since their last outing to it had been foiled by the kiss, and then Meliodas's disappearance act.
On the way to her room Elizabeth unfolded the crumbled up note.
"Hope you know how to ride horses! Meet me at the west gates, 3pm, alright? 3" the note said, and actually had a drawn heart at the end.
'He wants to go for a joy ride?' Elizabeth thought fondly, and then giggled at her continuing thoughts.
"What does he expect? Of course I can ride horses, I'm a trained knight!'
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
"Heyyy~" Meliodas dung as he fought eye of the approaching princess.
He would've waved his he wasn't holding the reins of Sombra, and another spotted horse, an Appaloosa, named Marble.
"Good evening" Elizabeth greeted with a sweet smile and she stepped in front of him.
Meliodas was about to say something but Elizabeth cut him to the chase.
"'Hope you know how to ride horses'? What do you take me for?!" Elizabeth laughed and took Marble's reins.
"Well I've gotta admit deep down I was hoping you didn't know how to" Meliodas said with a mischievous look on his face.
Now Elizabeth was just confused.
"Why?"
"Well you've gotta admit there's something very romantic about riding a horse while your girlfriend holds onto you for dear life"
The idea caused Elizabeth to blush slightly, but she still laughed slightly at the thought of Meliodas being a hopeless romantic.
"You wish" Elizabeth teases.
"Yes, yes I do"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
So now, Elizabeth was sitting in a creek, partially submerged in two feet of water. Her dress completely soaked.
It seemed that her horse, Marble, was very capable of jumping over modestly sized streams, but also seemed that Marble was just as capable of dropping her rider into modestly sized streams as well.
On one side of the creek was a very puzzled horse wondering why there wasn't a rider on her back. On the other side of the creek was Meliodas, still sitting atop Sombra, very obviously fighting back a laugh.
When her eyes met his, he immediately cleared his throat and straightened his back like a proper gentlemen would.
"I'm sorry."
Elizabeth shook her head. "It's fine." She looked to the otherside of the creek and saw Marble awkwardly walking up to her, the regret very clear in the horse's eyes. "Marble, I'm not mad" Elizabeth giggled.
Despite the fact that she was soaked she could see the humor of the situation.
She figured that laughing at herself was a lot better than moping in her misery. At least the servants at the castle would get a good chuckle once she returned home soaking wet.
Meliodas got off Sombra and walked over to the edge of the creek.
Elizabeth looked up at him and found it in herself to grin.
Soon enough, Meliodas knelt down and reached over to Elizabeth.
"Perhaps you'd like a hand?"
Elizabeth nodded and extended her wet hand towards him. During the split second before their fingers entwined, a rather sneaky idea popped into her mind.
Once Elizabeth had a good grip on Meliodas's hand, she gave him a mischievous smile and gave a slight tug, causing Meliodas's to tumble forward.
"Whoa, WHOA! " he exclaimed, then he crashed into the creek with the grace of a stumbling drunkard.
"Never imagined you'd be one for dirty tricks" he said as he ran a bow very wet hand through his also wet hair.
Elizabeth shrugged with a laugh and started to get up, this time on her own, leaving a pouting Meliodas behind in the creek.
A few moments later however Meliodas got up too.
"Do you need to go back for a change of clothes or...something?" Meliodas asked.
He personally was doing fine with being a little wet, he couldn't be sure how Elizabeth felt about it through.
"Nooo it's not problem! The sun is out, we'll dry fast" he says and took off her jacket and boots.
Humorously neigh, when she turned the boots upside down water poured out of them, causing both of them to chuckle.
"Such a laid bank queen you are" Meliodas teased and kissed her cheek while sitting down next to her.
"I could say the same thing about you, oh mighty demon king"
As if one cue Meliodas felt the presence of a demon nearby.
He carefully stood up, confusing Elizabeth.
He looked around, thinking it might be a pack of white demons, as Gaharch had said "we" when he explained that he lived in the lands of Brittania.
Luckily Meliodas was quickly able to spot the blue demon high in the sky.
It was one of the royal messengers, Calzzo.
Which meant he probably had a message for him.
Elizabeth followed Meliodas's gaze and sprung up in shock and partial fear when she saw the blue creature making a turn to fly down towards them.
"It's okay" meliodas told her quietly had stroked her arm.
"Your majesty.." Calzzo said and bowed after he had landed on a rock a few meters away.
"Calzzo..what are you doing here" Meliodas asked firmly while continuing to strike the slightly terrified Elizabeth's arm.
"Lord Zeldris asked me to deliver this to you.." Calzzo says and I strapped a cylinder from a rope attached to his waist.
Meliodas knew that the cylinder would contain either a important cucumber or a letter.
"Thank you...here-" Meliodas says and threw Calzzo a good coin, which he looked at in confusion.
"Get yourself something to eat on the way back" Meliodas continued, and with that Calzzo lightened up
In absolute joy, saluted and quickly took to the sky again.
"Zeldris...your brother right?" Elizabeth asked, clearly much calmer now that the blue demon was gone.
"Yeah, he's the acting king while I'm gone...I hadn't expected him to contact me though, he normally knows how to handle pretty much anything..." Meliodas says nonchalantly as he popped the cylinder open and took the letter out.
Suddenly Elizabeth was very worried.
'What if something has gone terribly wrong?'
She looked over his shoulder as he unfolded the letter and read it.
"Dearest brother, Meliodas.
I hope you are well, unfortunately though things have taken a dire turn in the small amount of time you have been absent.
Mere nights ago unidentifiable individuals snuck around the palace grounds, and then immediately disappeared from the realm as we were getting on their trail.
I worry what this could mean.
I found the need to update you on these news, but I can reassure you that we are taking every precautionary measure we can here, so you need not worry too much about us, as I know you would had I not written these last couple of sentences.
Stay well till we'll see each other again.
-Zeldris" the letter said.
While Elizabeth was worried about what was going on in the demon realm she had to hold back an "aww" from how sweetly Meliodas's brother expresses himself on paper.
"I'm sure he rolled his eyes as he wrote this" Meliodas laughed.
"Why do you think that?" Elizabeth asked, genuinely curious.
"Zeldris is a very reserved person and don't particularly like talking to me in this kind of sweet way, but in these kind of situations he will, just to make sure I didn't go "big brother mode" Meliodas explained and laughed at the last part.
Meliodas had been known to be a bit too much...
"Oh, I see...but either way..even if he doesn't like talking about it much, I bet this is actually how he feels, and he just doesn't feel confident enough to let it out that often" Elizabeth said abc put a finger of the letter.
Meliodas had guessed that himself, but he didn't like pushing his brother too much.
He was just happy that they were now closer than ever, and had in fact been for the last 300 years.
After all they were bitter enemies at one point.
"Anyways...it says that these unidentified individuals escaped...so what do you think?" Meliodas said and turned all the way around to look Elizabeth in the eye.
"What do you mean with 'what do you think?'?"
"You're not worried they will come here? This could be some kind of conspiracy..." Meliodas was overthinking, and was immediately getting worried.
"If it makes you more at ease I will have more guards, and knights on duty. Okay?" She said relatively calmly and put a still cold hand, cold from the cold water, on his cheek.
Despite the touch being cold it was much needed and he leaned into it, whereas he gently took her hand and moved it down on his cheek till he could turn and lightly kiss her wrist.
"It'll be okay" Meliodas mumbled against her wrist.
He says it to reassure himself more than her.
She knew this, and understood, so she stroked her lower cheek with a few fingers, without moving her wrist away from his soft, warm lips.
"Of course it will" she said so softly that it nearly morphed into a whisper.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Garharch, the white demon currently trapped in a bottle on the drawer of Merlin's desk, was panicking.
"Get out...have...to...GET OUT!!" He yelled and kept throwing himself against the glass of the bottle.
But in his shrunken state there wasn't much power behind that push of his at all.
He knew what awaited him if he stayed within the castle.
"Soon...SOON...HAVE TO GET OUT!" He shouted and kept trying to break free.
Unfortunately the demons distressed cries could not breach the bottle's thick layer of glass.
Meliodas had been so caught up with Gaharch when he found him that he hadn't even noticed the 2 other white demons who had barely managed to get out before Meliodas turned that corner.
Gaharch and his companions were merely a scouting team, to gather intel on where who would be, and when.
They had reported that the dinner time was probably the best time to attack.
No one would see it coming.
