Author's Notes:

Hey there, guys! We made it to 10 chapters! It's a big milestone (kind of)! Now, before I start, I'd like to clear something up. I received a private message from a viewer asking if this series would include Lemons. It definitely will in the near future. Perhaps this chapter or the next one. Who knows? I haven't decided yet. It will definitely happen within a week. I know that probably puts some (or most) of you guys off, but this series is rated M for several reasons, explicit sexual encounters being one of them. I'll openly admit that Im probably not the best at writing them, but I'll do my best. Anyway, now that I got that out of the way, enjoy Chapter 10!

Chapter 10: The Three King's Mission

Albrecht III of Germania was wearing a mask. He was sitting in a pub in the capital of Germania, Vindobona. After about an hour, a person in a mask sat in front of them. They used some sort of magic to distort their voice.

"Payment."

Albrecht pulled a large bag of gold coins from under his coat and handed it to the person. The person looked inside the bag, verifying the amount of gold was correct. They looked back up at Albrecht.

"Mission."

"Your mission is to assassinate Joseph of Gallia. You will be working with a team."

The person nodded. "And?"

Albrecht was silent for a moment. "There will be a boy who has black hair on your team. He is a foreigner. One of his eyes is orange and the other is blue. His name is Saito Hiraga. When Joseph is killed, dispose of him. If anyone sees you, kill them. If possible, make it look like the enemy killed them. If you can get out without being seen killing the boy, I will quadruple your payment when you return."

The person nodded.

"I will inform you when it is time for the mission." Albrecht said. "Until then, prepare."

Albrecht stood up and left the pub, a smile on his face.

In Louise's room

Saito sat on a chair at Louise's desk. Louise had decided that he had to learn how to read and write in her language, Halkeginian. She had gone to take a bath, leaving him alone to study. He was never very good in school, so it was torture for him. He eventually began to slack off and daydream. In his head, he and Louise were laying together on her bed studying the book. For every question he got right, she would remove a piece of clothing.

He was making an extremely perverted face as he indulged himself in his daydream. Unfortunately, his daydream was interrupted as Louise kicked him, making him fall from his chair onto the floor.

"You're supposed to be studying!" She said angrily.

Saito had to think of a way to defend himself. It was then that he had what he thought was a stroke of genius.

"I know I should be studying, but it's really hard to keep going. I need some sort of…motivation." He couldn't help but look down at her body. She had just gotten out of a bath, so she was only wearing a towel. Her skin was slightly red and very soft. Even her pink hair and eyes seemed to glow.

"What do you mean by motivation?" She said, suspiciously.

Saito got up and went to sit on her bed. "I'm sure you'll figure something out. You're a smart girl."

He laid on the bed and closed his eyes. She thought for several minutes about how she could get him to work harder. After a while, Saito felt her climb onto the bed with him. When he opened his eyes, her face was directly over his.

"I-I-I'll give you a kiss for every question you get right. F-For every unit you complete, you get to make out with me. If you learn the entire language, I'll give you a bigger reward." Her face had turned bright red in embarrassment. It took Saito a few moments to realize what she meant by 'bigger reward'. When he finally did, he started to chuckle in embarrassment.

Saito gave her a soft kiss. "Deal."

She got off of him and walked back into the bathroom to change. "Get to studying, you perverted dog!"

Saito, properly motivated now, immediately sat at the desk and began to study. He remained there for the entire day, making sure to take in every word in the book. Louise helped him translate the letters into sounds. She was surprised and, for her own sake, somewhat worried at the progress he was making. At the end of the day, Saito had finished one unit, but Louise made sure not to address this, hoping he had forgotten what she had said.

Saito closed his book and went to freshen up in the bathroom. When he came back, Louise was already in bed, waiting for him to return. She had developed the strange habit of waiting for him to come to bed with her, as she could not sleep when he wasn't there anymore.

As Saito climbed into bed, Louise laid down. "Good night, Saito." She said.

Saito held her close to him. "Good night, Louise."

She was surprised and quite offended that he hadn't made a move on her. She turned around to look at him. "Don't you remember what I said earlier? You completed a chapter didn't you?"

Saito didn't look too bothered. "Well, you never mentioned it after that so I assumed you wouldn't want to do it. If it makes you uncomfortable, then it's fine." Saito smiled and then closed his eyes, preparing to fall asleep.

Sleep, however, did not come. Louise kissed Saito without warning. He was very surprised and didn't respond. When she finally pulled away, Saito finally managed to speak to her.

"I told you that you don't have to if it makes you don't want to." He said, feeling confused.

"I want to…" Louise said quietly, looking away. Saito smiled and kissed her. They remained kissing each other for hours that night, with Saito enjoying his reward for all of his studying.

The next morning, Saito and Louise were fast asleep. They had stayed up for hours the previous night, enjoying each other's company. However, they were rudely awoken when they heard loud knocking on the door. Saito was half naked, so he got up and dressed quickly. Louise covered herself with her blanket, as she was only wearing her slightly transparent nightgown and some panties, leaving her chest bare. Saito waited for her to cover up and then opened the door. It was Agnes.

"Chevalier de Hiraga, you have been summoned to the Royal Palace. You must come with me immediately."

Saito was confused. He looked at Louise and sighed. "Alright. Louise, let's go."

Agnes held Saito's arm. "You must come alone. Those are the Queen's orders."

This made Saito unhappy. He looked back at Louise, whose eyes were filled with confusion. She simply sighed and smiled at him. "It's okay, Saito. You can go. Just make sure you study while you're gone, okay?" Saito walked to her and gave her a long kiss.

"I'll be back before you know it." He said. He picked up Derf and walked out of the door, giving Louise one last look before closing her door. As he walked down the stairwell with Agnes, he thought about what was happening.

"Agnes," He said, "what's happening?"

Agnes paused for a moment and then kept walking. "They will explain it to you."

She then lead him to her carriage and they set off towards the Royal Palace.

In Henrietta's Palace

Agnes led Saito into a large room. When inside, he saw Henrietta sitting at a round table with Wales and Albrecht III. Agnes left the room and closed the door. Saito noticed that there were two other people in the room. One, standing next to Albrecht, was a person wearing a black mask and wearing black clothing which disguised every feature about them. Their mask was completely featureless, showing no designs of any kind.

The other was a young man with long black hair. He had grey eyes and a scar on his chin. He seemed to be younger than Saito. He could easily have been mistaken for a 12-14 year old boy. A head band wrapped around his head. He dressed similarly to the person standing next to Albrecht, wearing a completely black outfit. However, his was more fitting to his body, instead of being made to hide his features.

Saito looked at Henrietta. He was very suspicious of this whole arrangement. "Your Majesty, what is this?"

She was silent and instead looked at Wales to explain. He sighed and looked at Saito. "Saito, you have been called here on a mission. As you are well aware, Joseph is not someone we can allow to be the leader of a nation. That's why we called you here." He pointed at the other two in the room. "These two will be your team members. We originally planned to have 5 people go on the mission instead of 3, but the other two refused to take it."

Saito looked at the two and then back at Wales. "What is the mission anyway?"

Wales looked at Saito. "You are to assassinate Joseph and his familiar."

Saito's eyes widened. Saito had, of course, killed before, but he had never done anything as covert as an assassination mission. He didn't know what to expect. Although he wasn't sure about undergoing such a mission, he knew that it was probably the easiest way for Tristain, Germania, and Albion to deal with Joseph without risking a war.

"I understand." He said.

"You will be heavily awarded when you return, I assure you." Said Henrietta. Wales and Albrecht nodded in agreement.

"I'm sorry to take you away from your life with Louise." Henrietta said.

"I knew this would have to be done at some point." Said Saito. "Please do not apologize, Your Majesty."

"You leave tomorrow morning before sunrise." Said Albrecht. "Be prepared by then."

The leaders left the room, leaving the assassins to weigh each other out. The one who stood next to Wales was the first to speak.

"I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Alexandre. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He reached out to shake Saito's hand, smiling. Saito was very suspicious, but played along and shook his hand.

"I am Hiraga Saito. Pleased to meet you." They both turned to the masked person who was now sitting in one of the corners of the room.

"I am Shion." The person said before Saito and Alexandre could ask. They couldn't make out whether it was a male or female, since Shion's voice was heavily distorted.

"Shion? That's a Japanese name…" Saito thought to himself. Alexandre interrupted his thoughts. He was looking at his face.

"Saito, you okay? You're spacing out." Saito looked at Alexandre. He made Saito uncomfortable.

"You're an assassin?" Saito said. "You sure don't act like one."

Alexandre started to laugh. "Just because I'm an assassin doesn't mean I'm not a hu-." Alexandre checked what he was saying. "It doesn't mean I'm not a person, right?"

Saito sighed in defeat. "I guess you're right, Alex."

Alexandre put his hands behind his head. "Whatdya say we go get some lunch? Hey Shion!" He looked in the direction where Shion had been, but there was no one there. Alexandre shrugged and looked back at Saito. "Guess it's just us, huh? Let's go!"

"I never agreed." Saito thought to himself as he was effectively dragged away.

Saito and Alexandre spent the rest of the day talking about each other. Saito couldn't get too much out of Alexandre when it came to his past or his age. Every time he asked him how old he was, Alexandre would simply say, "Old enough to be an assassin!"

"I'm from a far away country. I used to be the equivalent of an aristocrat, but I had that taken away from me. So here I am!" Saito was unnerved by Alexandre's mannerisms. He acted, and rather looked, like a child. As Saito was weighing him out, Alexandre began to analyze him.

"You're clearly not from around here and…"He looked at Saito's arm. "judging from your glowing runes, you're some kind of special familiar. From your unusual and rather plain clothes, you're a plebian. You have several light scars on your body. I assume your master caused them, but yet…I can see in your eyes that there's someone you have to return to after this mission. Perhaps it is your master. That must mean your master is a woman who although is somewhat abusive, you love with all your heart. You also seem to know quite a lot about Joseph of Gallia considering how you never protested assassinating a king."

Saito was shocked at Alexandre's analytics.

Alexandre was excited. "Yes! I was right!" He started to laugh.

Saito looked at Alexandre with a large amount of suspicion. "How could you possibly figure all that out?"

Alexandre stood up and shrugged. "I'm just good at reading people." He yawned and started to walk away. "We'd better get to sleep. We have an early start tomorrow. See you tomorrow." He ran into the Palace, leaving Saito alone in the room they were sitting in.

Saito got up and went to his room. He wasn't comfortable with either of his teammates. One knew too much about him and the other was extremely mysterious. He laid in bed and fell asleep within a few seconds.

Saito woke up in front of Gandalfr's gate. It was the first time he had been able to do so in weeks. Gandalfr didn't wait for him to speak.

"The black haired one is strange. I feel something strange about him." He said. He seemed very angry when he said it. Saito didn't say anything for a while. He then looked up at Gandalfr.

"The other one, Shion. He…She…whatever they are, they worry me. That name, it's Japanese."

Gandalfr stared at him. "Could be coincidence, but I urge you to be cautious."

They chose to end their conversation on that matter. For whatever reason, it stressed Gandalfr out to talk about it. They made small talk about the battle in Albion, as well as Saito's exploits with Louise. Gandalfr had become increasingly interested in Saito's relationship with her. He considered it as entertaining as watching a television show.

After what seemed like a few hours, Saito stood up. "Looks like it's time for me to wake up. It was great talking to you again." Gandalfr simply scoffed and closed his eyes.

Saito woke up in the early morning, perhaps 4 or 5 AM. There were pieces of clothing laid out on his nightstand. They were identical to the ones he bought in Akihabara. The only difference was that all the parts that were formerly white were made black. A hood was also attached to it, allowing him to hide his face. He didn't know who gave him the clothes, but he quickly put them on and ran outside of the palace. He stood at the front gate, waiting for his colleagues to arrive. Alexandre was the first to show himself. He slowly walked from the palace to the gate, looking very groggy. He looked at Saito slowly, then began to whine.

"Why did we have to wake up so early!" He shouted. He then sat on the ground and began to doze. As Saito looked at him with disbelief, he heard Shion next to him.

"Time to leave." Shion said. Saito wasn't sure when Shion had arrived, but decided to ignore it. He forced Alexandre to wake up. Alexandre noticed that all three of them were there. This made him wake up entirely, becoming the easy going, energetic self that made Saito slightly cringe.

Saito looked behind him at the Palace. The sky behind it had gone from black to dark blue as the sun began to rise.

He looked at Shion and Alexandre, who were standing behind him, waiting to disembark.

"Let's go." Saito said. They quickly ran away from the Palace, seemingingly disappearing into thin air with their speed, and ran towards their destination, Gallia.

Author's Notes:

Well, that one was slightly easier to write than the two before it. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please leave a review! It really helps me out! Also, sorry for posting this quite late in the day, but I had some stuff to do so I hope you understand. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed chapter 10 (woohoo! 10 chapters!). See you guys next time!