They had a day to prepare before they had to set out to Shelion. The Wizard King had stressed that this was to be as secretive as possible, since the vast majority of the Magic Knights are still unequipped to face the threat that is the Spade Kingdom. Exposing themselves could open them up to facing a battle sooner than they were prepared for, and the kingdom was still recouping from the damage inflicted by the battle against the elves.
With this in mind, Marx severely emphasized the importance of using a proper disguise. In his former reconnaissance mission with Nozel and Fuegoleon, they all stood out like sore thumbs — not a terribly big deal, since they were only dealing with Clover Kingdom citizens, but this mission requires some subtlety.
Both captains were still perplexed as to why they were assigned such an important mission, but the Wizard King's intuition was often too – somewhat annoyingly – accurate to be ignored.
Nevertheless, Yami and Charlotte obeyed. Julius has his reasons, after all.
The captains had agreed to convene at a small café on the outskirts of town near the Black Bulls' base to discuss how they should approach the situation.
Prior to their meeting, Charlotte, surrounded by a few of her Blue Rose knights, fretted over the perfect outfit to wear.
Puli Angel urged the captain to wear something revealing, to catch Yami's eyes. Puli picked out a blue blouse with a plunging neckline, which revealed a fair bit of cleavage.
Sol protested against this choice, although noting that "Sis will look good in anything!"
Selena had picked out a white mid-length dress. "This would complement Yami's white tank top!" she squealed in delight.
Charlotte blushed, but again, the choice was vetoed by Sol. "It's not practical if they get ambushed! It looks amazing on Sis, of course, but I would hate for that Black Bulls captain to see up her skirt if an enemy came by!"
Charlotte glanced at the clock in her room. "It's 3pm! I'm going to be late!"
"While I am touched by your efforts helping me, this will not do. We're not going on a date," she mumbled, "We're just two captains discussing our strategy. I will wear my uniform."
The girls all sighed in unison. They know that no man could deny the beauty of the Blue Roses' captain, but Yami is incredibly thick— in more ways than one.
Still, they relented and let her leave.
Meanwhile, Yami fought a hard battle against his mortal enemy: the shitter.
"I can feel it's about to come out—"
"Captain Yami!" shouted Finral, a portal appearing to the left of him, with the spatial mage's hand floating in mid-air holding onto a roll of toilet paper.
"You bastard!" roared Yami, "I was just about to—"
"You need to finish up right now," Finral demanded.
"Who the hell do you think you are, you slacker—"
"Captain Charlotte Roselei's here!!" pleaded Finral.
"Well, you should've said that right away, moron." Yami washed up, a little bit more than usual, before meeting his guest.
"Oy, Prickly Queen," his gruff voice echoing through their hideout. "I thought we were going to meet up?"
"I just came a little early, that's all."
He eyed her approvingly. She was wearing her usual uniform, though she was not wearing her helmet. Instead of her usual braided updo, Charlotte let her beautiful blonde locks loose on her shoulders, with a simple braided strand to keep her hair out her face.
To Charlotte, Yami appeared annoyed. He did feel a tad embarrassed that he wasn't the one to pick her up at the Blue Roses' headquarters, and he wasn't alone. Finral was also quietly crying over the fact that he couldn't see the beauties of the Blue Roses today. Well, no matter, for he got to see the most beautiful of them all.
For once, being Captain Yami's wheels brought satisfaction to Finral. He was more than happy to use his magic to teleport Captain Yami and Captain Charlotte to the café.
Finral practically drooled at the sight of Charlotte, just about to head into the portal after her, when Yami's hand stopped him from coming along, and the portal was no more.
The two stepped out into a quaint little café situated just outside the town closest to the Black Bulls. It was ran by an older couple, whom Yami and the Black Bulls have helped over the years.
They instantly recognized Yami, and greeted him.
"Yami, nice to see ya around here, son!" boomed the old man.
"Thanks again for helping us dig out the soil in the spring so we could plant our crops," smiled the old lady.
"Say, you finally brought a girl here, eh?" winked the old man, "What's yer name?"
Charlotte became flustered, unable to look the kindly elder in the eye after being mistaken as Yami's girlfriend.
"Not my girlfriend, old man," Yami interrupted.
A sharp pain pierced through Charlotte upon hearing Yami's remark. "Focus, Charlotte," she thought, as she steadied the thump of heartbeat.
The couple only smiled, and resigned themselves to looking after the other patrons of the café.
"So, how should we disguise ourselves?" Charlotte was the first to break the uncomfortably long silence.
"Hm, I don't know. Wear a moustache?"
"Get serious, Yami. Lives could be endangered if we don't think of a perfect disguise."
"It was a serious suggestion."
"A woman with a moustache wouldn't alert any bells for you?"
"Well, when you say it like that..."
The old lady somehow sneaked up on the two and set a teapot on their table.
"What if you went together as a couple on a honeymoon?" her eyes twinkled somewhat familiarly, though neither captain could not place where they've seen that twinkle before. Yami's gut sensed a familiar ki as well, but he shrugged it off as nerves being around Charlotte.
Charlotte seemed infuriated by the suggestion.
"M-me?! Pretend that I'm m-m-married to Yami???" she said, desperately trying to control the volume of her voice to prevent any chance of their plans being leaked. "What a ridiculous thing to suggest!"
"That hurts my feelings, you know?" Yami retorted.
This stopped Charlotte from screaming her head off and running back the Blue Roses' base.
"Yami, I didn't mean it that way—"
"It's okay, Prickly Queen. We'll think of something else."
"Charlotte, you absolute fool. Take advantage of this situation! Aren't you trying to get closer to Yami? Or are you satisfied with that elf having alone time with Yami and you're left with the barest memory of fighting alongside him?"
For once, she steeled her resolve.
"It's okay, Yami. That's not a bad idea."
Yami was surprised by this sudden tenderness in Charlotte's voice that he's only heard once before.
The old lady smiled in delight before offering a grilled purple snake, to which both Yami and Charlotte declined. The old woman sauntered away to the kitchen, happy in her contribution to their discussion.
"I guess we'd need some kind of backstory," Yami pondered.
"We'd need some names, too," Charlotte added.
It was at this moment that an old story her servant would tell her before going to bed as a young child, popped up in Charlotte's mind. A story about a young girl who fell into a deep sleep after pricking her finger on a spindle, only for her curse to be broken by true love's kiss...
"What if you went with the name Philip?" Charlotte slyly suggested, "I could go with the name Briar."
"Sounds good to me," Yami said indifferently.
Charlotte was pleased with herself. "What should our story be?"
"Just a young couple who recently got married. We're not rich enough to go to Raquey, so we decided to go to Shelion instead?"
She agreed with that simplistic answer. She knew it was not real, yet she felt giddy at the prospect of discussing what her honeymoon with Yami could be like.
The Black Bulls' captain felt strange throughout this discussion. He couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that he had to somehow pretend that he and Charlotte were newlyweds going on their honeymoon. Maybe it would be better for them to be an old married couple, since she nagged him all the time.
In spite of his reservations, Yami felt a twinge of curiosity. He wanted to hear more, to see more of the softer side of the Prickly Queen. The only time he'd gotten close enough was during the battle against the Eye of the Midnight Sun, when he had fought alongside an elf who took over her body, but Yami didn't consider that to be Charlotte at all; it was a pale imitation to the real thing.
He was tired of thinking, and settled for just winging it. He had surpassed his limits against a devil, for crying out loud. What's a small reconnaissance mission compared to that?
