"I don't understand him," Wolfram declares after dinner one day, watching Yuuri talking enthusiastically to Günter on the other side of the room. It's more a statement of fact than a conversation starter, but Konrad shifts position to talk to him anyway.

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"He's never killed anyone," his brother says, as if that explains everything. In a way, it does. Even after everything he's been through since coming to this world, Yuuri is still in many ways more innocent than Wolfram has been since he was too young to remember.

"He will," Konrad says grimly. They both know it's only luck that has let the Maou keep his sword and his conscience clean this long, and they both dread the inevitable day when that luck will run out.

They sit and watch Yuuri in silence for a few minutes as he waves his arms around, his voice rising as he animatedly explains something to an enraptured Günter. Konrad is surprised Wolfram isn't jealous, and he thinks that maybe his little brother is finally growing up. Then again, maybe he's just too distracted to be angry right now.

"He thinks we can have peace." Wolfram's voice is unusually soft.

"Don't you?"

"Humans hate Mazoku," Wolfram says angrily, but he sounds uncertain. His gaze flicks up to Konrad, then quickly away. "Most of them, anyway. They even fight among themselves. How can we make peace when they don't want it?"

"If there's a way, Yuuri will find it." It's not blind faith that makes Konrad say this and believe it. Unlike every child in his adopted world, Yuuri didn't grow up knowing that humans and Mazoku are irrevocably different and doomed to fight forever. It's not a fact of life for him, and so he's convinced he can change it. Konrad hopes for the sake of both sides that he's right.

"If there isn't a way, he'll die trying." Wolfram's voice turns husky, and Konrad wonders just how much he's come to love this strange king of theirs.

He places a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder, and for once Wolfram doesn't object. "Then we'll have to find a way," he says.

Yuuri laughs, suddenly and loudly, and Wolfram nods. "We will."