I don't own Kyou Kara Maou.
It will be best to treat this story as AU. There are events from the first two series, and I try to use most of the canon as I see it fit, but all the story around it will be my own making. Especially the past of mazoku and explanation, what a Maou is.
I have some thoughts about the characters and tried to give them some depth. So, let's see how it will work.
There will be some romance between adventure, family scenes, something sad, scary, and maybe graphic scenes of violence, so feel warned.
Also, English isn't my first language, so if at some point it will be terrible to read, feel free to yell at me.
Enjoy the reading :D
The last one from quite a large stack of documents was finally taken care of and signed. The twenty-seven Maou of Shin Makoku stretched and peered outside the window behind him. He was able to finish all his work before the meeting, and in addition, he still had some time left before it.
He was pretty satisfied with his progress. Yuuri still remembered being buried under the sea of documents, which only grove larger and larger. To think that he will be able to deal with it so efficiently. But, of course, he knew that this was just the most accessible stuff, and Gwendal and Gunter are dealing with the rest, more complicated, part of his work. And probably it will still take some time before they let him do it on his own. But progress is still progress.
At last, his every action isn't now taken as an attempt to run away from his job. Thanks to this, he can make himself a break in the garden.
It was the middle of the day, and the weather was great, resulting in quite the crowd outside the castle. But, as deeper he was walking into the gardens, the peoples were fever, and it was much quieter.
Yuuri was slowly walking down the path, enjoying this little time of peacefulness. Unfortunately, it did not often happen for this year.
Even if they were able to avoid pretty sure something near the end of the world, the aftermaths of this were severe.
And when they were able to get rid of most of the troubles, new ones showed up.
He sighed at the thought of the next meeting. It wasn't the nice one.
Somehow, in the middle of his walk, Yuuri spotted Rosalinde, which was gradually followed him—probably waiting for an occasion for "accidentally" bumping into him as she did for the last few days.
She was so easy to read that even Yuuri was able to notice it.
He doesn't think about himself that bad. He was more observant than when he first came to this world, but in this too, he was far behind others.
It would be better if he somehow managed to get rid of her. He has no idea where Wolfram is, which means that most likely, he will show up right after Yuuri starts talking with this girl.
Good for him; he already had experience hiding in this place. He will go into bushes right after this turn, and Rosalinde won't find him.
She was a good girl, but only on the first look. She treated Conrad and Great like air, which pissed him off. And she coincidentally arrived into the castle right before her father sent him some essential request.
"How come they think they need only a pretty girl to get something done?" Yuuri whispered to himself.
"Because this is how it works for you, wimp."
Yuuri looked at his new companion, surprised. He was sure that there was only grass on this spot just a second ago.
"How do you… Do you start training under Yozak or something?" He met Wolfram's sharp look and knew that the boy was displeased.
"That's why you shouldn't walk by yourself. You're not aware of your surrounding at all. And what if it was someone with malicious intend? You should start thinking about things like this!"
"Ok, ok. It's all right. But it was just you, wasn't it?" Yuuri was trying to stop this before this exchange became a tirade.
"That's not the point!"
His efforts were in vain, and Wolfram was getting ready for a lecture about Yuuri's safety. A loud lecture.
Only when Yuuri mentioned that all these noises would quickly gather a crowd around them and question if he truly doesn't want them to stay alone made him silent.
Dealing with his fiancé was another thing he was slowly learning over the years. And he was finally able to pretty quick end most of their arguments.
Even so, Wolfram's glare still was there. He was standing with crossed arms, staring at him and trying to look intimidating. The fact that he needed now slightly look up to meet Yuuri's eyes probably didn't make him feel better.
"Everybody around is telling you that you require proper guard on you all the time, but you still don't listen. Do you care so little for your safety?" Wolfram was now speaking in a quieter voice, a resignation heard in his words.
"I care. I just know that you and Conrad are always around, so I don't need to worry. You're doing an excellent job."
"It would be nice if you would not be trying to make this harder for us."
"I will try. But I don't think there is a need to bring a guard to the gardens." Yuuri already wanted to end this subject. He went through this more times than necessary, but he still can't get along with that. It's hard to get used to someone walking behind you step by step and don't having almost any privacy.
It looked like Wolfram was already tired by this too. He probably knew that his reminders give very little. The blonde stay silent, staring at some point between trees and lost in thoughts.
"The new flowers Mother got overseas finally start to bloom. Want to go and see?" Then, he suddenly changed a topic.
"Of course!" Yuuri answered, maybe too enthusiastically, but he was happy that they would be able to talk about something normal.
Lady Celi dedicated a whole garden section to plants from different countries. The newest one, big red flowers, was an acquisition from the country they most recently made a pact with.
"I was worried that they will not grow in such a different climate, but they do well," Yuuri said as he kneeled over the flower bed.
"Our gardeners put much work into it."
Wolfram sat down on the low wall circulating the plants and gently touched their petals.
"You're surely like red flowers, don't you?" Yuuri mused as he sat beside his friend.
"What?"
"You spend most of your time near roses and other similar flowers in the gardens. And even bring them sometimes to the bedroom."
Now Wolfram's face was a similar color to his favorite flowers. Yuuri liked catching his companion doing things when he thought that nobody was watching. And mentioning them later. It was revenge for all this arguing.
But also, getting some new reaction other than anger from him was refreshing. And he looked pretty cute then.
"But, I think that you like the red color. Even if you're wearing this blue uniform all the time."
Wolfram fast calmed down and looked at him skeptically. "Blue is a Bielefelt color," he said, without denying the fact about the red color.
"Isn't it too much… stand out? For a uniform, I mean." Yuuri asked, looking at Wolfram's clothes. He was clearly visible from afar.
"Our territory army is mostly a navy." Now he got a look telling him that he should know that.
"Being seasick is a little ironic then."
"Shut up. It's not like being in the navy is some family tradition for us. It's just because we don't need the other armies that much," Wolfram yelled and turned his head away.
There was the thing again that he had been noticing for some time. Wolfram was getting angry and yelled at him, but it was only acting anger. Still perfect acting, he must tell. Most of the people around the caste couldn't tell the difference. But for him, Conrad and Gwendal, it was the reason for recent worries.
Wolfram was gradually changing with time for the better. Even so, there were always things, which in Yuuri's head, made him Wolfram. And his ease of getting angry was one of those things.
All of this made him think that maybe he was sick of something similar, but the healers didn't report anything about the blonde, and suggesting this to him would probably make him this time angry for real.
"Shouldn't you get going on the meeting?" Wolfram suddenly broke him out of his thoughts. They were sitting there for some time in silence, but his companion seemed to don't care that he stopped responding.
"Yeah. I think I will be going." Yuuri stood up and started marching towards the castle, but he was alone on the way. It looks like it was all from his "need to have a guard on him all the time" thing.
It was already meeting time, but all the attending stood outside the conference room instead of inside. Given the topic of incoming discourse, all of them wearing concerning looks wasn't something strange, but the heavy atmosphere around them was making Yuuri unsure. Does another bad thing happen?
"Shouldn't we start our meeting?" Yuuri asked after approaching Gwendal.
"It must be postponed. We have an unexpected guest." By his tone, it wasn't a welcomed one.
"It's someone of high status, who His Majesty did not meet earlier, so it will be wise to greet him officially," Gunter said and already prepared to lead him to meet the newcomer. It looks like there's no way of avoiding this.
Before he started going, Yuuri yet turned away to look at Conrad. His godfather gave him a reassuring simile and gently squeezed his shoulder.
They don't go to the throne hall, but one of those fancy rooms for the reception of important guests. It was still too fancy for him, but much better than this big room, bigger even than the gym from his school. Speaking there with someone far away from him and, in addition, sitting on a golden throne while doing this was just too much.
When they arrived, their guest was already sitting by the table and drinking tea. He was wearing a stern expression, much familiar to Gwendal's, and when he looked at Yuuri, he had an impression that he had seen those evaluating gaze before.
Is that the new Maou?! he can already hear in his head. And this stranger similarity to a person he met not some time ago on ten aristocrats meeting…
For some reason, Yuuri suddenly started sweating.
The guest got up and bowed slightly. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Your Majesty." His voice was deep, and there was definitely no pleasure. He has vibes of a scary teacher who doesn't like you. And he just caught you skipping a class. "I'm Adelhard von Bielefelt. And I suppose you're my future son-in-law."
He guessed correctly. But he doesn't like the way the man named it. It resulted in even more sweating on Yuuri's side. He lifted his palm on the back of his head and laughed nervously. "Well… that…" But he wasn't able to find a good answer to that. He looked around other people in the room, seeking help, but nobody even attempted to give it to him.
They all looked concerned, like something terrible was about to happen, and Yuuri started feeling panicked.
Lord von Bielefelt was now in his eyes an overprotective father, who will kill you if you're going even try to hurt his little girl. Or his little boy. He can already see a death treat in those ice-blue eyes. Thanks to the Great One, that Wolfram doesn't inherit them.
Yuuri was standing, not being able to say a thing, slightly trembling, already imagining himself his death in the fire. The man opposite him was staring, more and more intense. Nobody in the room moved or said a thing.
"What are you all doing?" suddenly came a voice from the door. Yuuri looked in this direction at once, relived. Staying in this situation any longer will undoubtedly kill him.
Wolfram was standing there, with his hands crossed. He wasn't angry or even irritated. Just confused. His eyes were slowly wandering between the occupant of the room.
"Wolfram, it's good to see you." The sound of this voice was so different that Yuuri felt like there was someone else in the room who he didn't see.
"It's good to see you too, father, but it will be good if you already stoop these games of yours. At last before the king." The younger Bielefelt just sighed and came beside his father. Who wore now much warmer expression.
"You have to forgive me. I was just trying to make a little test. Nothing bad happened." The man gave an apologetic smile to his son and then also Yuuri.
The black-haired boy was confused. He looked around at the others. Gwendal and Gunter were avoiding his gaze, and Conrad gave him a similar smile to this of Wolfram's father.
He felt betrayed.
I know that there's nothing much happens, but I, at last, introduced a new character :D Meet Wolfram's father! A little eccentric, but he is a nice man. I made him as someone who I think Celi will want to marry. In the next chapter, I want to focus on his relationship with Wolfram, so I hope you will like him :)