Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Grimmtowne
Somewhere in the Grimm Castle

"Combination Magic: Dance of a Billion Cuts," said Zora and Kirsch together as they used Zora's "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust" spell and Kirsch's "Dance of 100 Million Cherry Blossoms" to get sharp deadly particles of the cherry blossoms turned to ash, swirling about the large room. Sal used a lightning shield to surround herself, as the little ash needles went straight for the witch Tuccia.

Kirsch was glad that there was no time to dwell on what just happened. The witch was unprepared for the power of two strong spells from Kirsch and Zora.

Tuccia panicked one she began getting tiny cut after tiny cut from the spell. The sheer amount cause the illusion on the castle to fall and soon they were standing in nothing but a dilapidated castle. The room that had been her room for the grimoire had no roof and thankfully it was sunny and not raining, as that would have ruined the power of their spell. Blood dripped down Tuccia's pale skin as she struggled to combat it.

Kirsch almost felt bad for her, if not for the fact that Tuccia was responsible for many deaths of the people in Grimmtowne. As a Magic Knight, he had a duty to protect the citizens of the Clover Kingdom. Thankfully, she passed out, falling to the ground with a heavy thump. Sal flew down and checked her. Zora took out some rope and went over as Sal took off any weapons.

Since they had Tuccia, Kirsch had to contain the witch's grimoire. As Vice-Captain, he had a magic item to lock enemies' grimoires from use. It was especially handy in moments like these when the enemy could became dangerous again at any minute. Once the grimoire was secured, Kirsch took out of his communication magical device. Now that the Tuccia's magic was down, he'd be able to get back up in no time. "Lord Marx, this is Vice-Captain Kirsch Vermillion speaking! Zora and I need enemy retrieval, we have a witch that needs bringing in for crimes against Grimmtowne."

It took a few moments but he got a response, "Understood Vice-Captain! Is Lady Sal unharmed?"

Kirsch looked over to Sal, who was in the middle of bickering with Zora about tying knots. Ginning, he said, "Yeah, she's fine."

With those two duties out of the way, Kirsch sat down. He needed a minute to rest. Honestly, he couldn't bring himself to go over to Sal and Zora because there was no way that he was ever going to be able to look Zora in the eyes again. And there was no way that he wanted to talk to Sal, who probably knew everything about the awkwardness between Zora and Kirsch.

The fact remained was that Zora kissed Kirsch to wake him up from some fairy tale spell and Kirsch's heart took another beating. After having to confess his feelings for Zora or face imminent death, he had tried to deal with the changing relationship he had with Zora as friends, because even if it was awkward, Kirsch didn't want to lose Zora's hard-earned friendship. But now, Kirsch had no idea how he was going to recover from this incident. It was like the universe was against him being happy.

Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Grimmtowne
Downtown

Zora had to meet Sal, Kirsch and Finral (who had been on the backup team) in about fifteen minutes so that they can get to the Capital to report in and then go home. Having Finral there made the trip infinitely quicker. However, there was something that had been bothering him throughout this whole mess. The witch Tuccia had mentioned that someone did write the fairy tales that the lite boys and girls of the Kingdom were read, even if there was only kernels of truth in those tales.

It was why he found himself on the streets of Grimmtowne for a few answers, despite needing to go home.

"Oh, back are we, young man," asked Old Baba, who was sitting in the same place she had been two days ago when he first encountered her. "Want to buy my medicine?"

"No," said Zora, hands in his pocket. "Did you know who was in that castle?"

Old Baba smiled, making her seem more lucid and younger, "Mayhap, young man."

"For the writer of the most famous fairy tales in Clover, you sure suck at telling proper stories," said Zora, hoping that the woman would take the bait. He had his suspicions about how and why Tuccia's "Prince" got the tales written. "Like a witch hiding in a castle should have been the first thing you told my friend."

"The world isn't that simple," said Old Baba, sticking her tongue out at him. "Stories aren't that simple."

He spotted the curse mark on her tongue. "Makes sense. The past King got you to tell the tales he wanted and then he put a silence curse on you, meaning that you'd never were able to tell what really happened. The witch Tuccia took advantage of that fact and bided her time." Tuccia had to have been aware of Old Baba's curse.

"Mayhap, mayhap," said Old Baba. "Now, don't be hangin' 'round here. You got people waitin', I'm sure."

Zora sighed and took out some money. He handed it to her. "Take care of yourself, Baba."

He walked away from her and headed toward the front gate of the town. There, Sal was waiting impatiently tapping her foot. Kirsch and Finral were in the middle of a conversation, which trailed off when Zora approached them. It hurt that Kirsch hadn't looked at him or spoken to him since the battle.

Emotions sucked. He was going to have to talk to Kirsch in private at some point soon. "We ready to go?"

"Yes," said Sal, "Man, I'm ready for a good rest."

"Great," said Finral, opening a portal. Sal wasted no time and rushed through it. "Come on you two, don't take your sweet time."

Kirsch rolled his eyes and walked through the portal. Zora stepped in after him. He landed in the courtyard of the Magic Knight Headquarters where the Wizard King Fuegoleon Vermillion waited.

Clover Kingdom
Noble Realm
Capital City
Magic Knights Headquarters
Courtyard

Kirsch smiled as Sal bounded up to Fuegoleon, with no regard to propriety, and hugged her husband. Fuegoleon looked relieved and even broke his own rule to hug her back. It warmed Kirsch's heart to know that they loved each other so much. "You want our verbal report now and written report sent in later?"

Fuegoleon, smiling, stood up straight, though Sal made no move to leave her husband's side. "Yes, thank you so much, Zora, Kirsch. I knew I could count on you. Tell me the summary of what happened. I'm sure that Sal will fill me on the rest."

"You're the Vice-Captain, you do the summarizing," said Zora, arms crossed, but not looking at Kirsch.

Feeing bad that Zora was feeling bad about what happened, Kirsch powered through his second heartbreak by the same man and reported to the Wizard King on their mission. He told him about the reports of missing people, Old Baba, the traps, and the witch Tuccia, who was being sent to the Clover Kingdom's brand new prison in the Forsaken Realm. The prison was being used for housing dangerous enemies, instead of the dungeons in Magic Knight Headquarters.

Nodding, Fuegoleon said, "Excellent news. I'll have to send a team of Magic Knights to help Grimmtowne with any rebuilding and send a report to the King. Great work. All of you. Kirsch, Zora, Finral, you are dismissed. Thanks again for everything."

Kirsch, Zora and Finral saluted Fuegoleon, as he and Sal headed into the Magic Knight headquarters. Before anymore awkwardness could surface, Kirsch said, looking at Finral and not Zora, "Well, I'm headed out. Be careful, you two."

"Let me open a portal for you to the town closest to your headquarters," said Finral.

Kirsch shook his head, "Don't worry. I need a flight before going back to that mad house I call home." He summoned his broom from his grimoire and flew off towards home.

Clover Kingdom
Noble Realm
Coral Peacocks Headquarters

Kirsch had a nice flight to think about nothing as he kept his mind blank and focused on flying home. However, as soon as he entered the Coral Peacocks Headquarters, he hunted down Levi in the kitchen. With much protest from the third-in-command of the Coral Peacocks, Kirsch paid no mind to Levi and dragged him off to Kirsch's own Vice-Captain's office.

"What the heck, Kirsch," demanded Levi, once Kirsch let the other man's arm go.

Kirsch looked at the friendly face of Levi (though he was glaring at Kirsch at the moment for interrupting a meal) and said, "Zora kissed me."

Levi stilled and said, "What the fuck happened on that mission? You were only gone for two days!"

"There was a witch and she put me under a sleeping curse that only would be broken by my true love kissing me," blurted out Kirsch. He sat on the couch he had his office and gripped his beautiful hair in frustration. "Zora had no choice. Sal was fighting the witch. We needed to defeat her together in order to win. But he kissed me. It was amazing, by the way. But now, I can't look at him. And he can't look at me. I wanna curl in a ball and never leave my room again!"

Levi grimaced. "How do you even get yourself in this situations, Vice-Captain, geez? You already got rejected from Zora once. You know it didn't mean anything."

Kirsch leaned back on the couch and grumbled, "I have a fragile heart, Levi. I want it to mean something." He sighed. Kirsch felt like crying in the safety of his own office in his home.

"Talk to him, don't let this drag out," said Levi, sitting next to Kirsch on the couch. Levi sighed. "I know this is hard for you. I'm sorry I can't help more."

Eyes tearing up, Kirsch said, "You listen to me, so that's more than enough."

Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Black Bulls' Headquarters

Zora stepped onto the familiar turf outside of the Black Bulls Headquarters, as Finral came through the portal and shut it. Kirsch had left abruptly, even declining a portal home, so Zora didn't get a chance to talk to him or apologize again. Zora didn't know when he was going to be able to see Kirsch again, since normally they were busy on their missions, but Zora knew that he had to talk to Kirsch before Zora hurt Kirsch's feelings even more.

"Okay, what's up with you," asked Finral, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothin'," replied Zora, as he tried to go into the Black Bulls house and get some food before he took a bath and went to sleep.

"Nice try, but you hadn't said anything snarky since I got to Grimmtowne," said Finral, crossing his arms. "Either you talk to me now or face Vanessa's questions. Because I can tell something is off."

Zora sighed, "It's complicated."

"Complicated like how I was in love with my brother's betrothed for years and didn't expect anything to come out of it? Or complicated like Asta being so in love with Yuno that it took imminent death for him to realize it," asked Finral.

Snorting, Zora replied, "Okay fair point, but you can't tell Vanessa or Charmy because then everyone and their mother will know by tomorrow." Finral didn't say a word and let Zora know that he wanted to know. "Kirsch got put under a True Love's Kiss spell by the witch Tuccia and I had to kiss him to wake him up so we could defeat her."

"Oooh, boy," said Finral, whistling. "That's complicated. And it's got you bothered because you don't want to hurt him unnecessarily because you can't return his feelings. Or maybe, you're more bothered because you liked it and you want to do it again."

Zora glared. "It's not like that, shut up. And he clearly doesn't want to talk to me."

"Give him some time to process and then talk to him," said Finral. "Trust me, communication is key in any relationship. Don't let misunderstandings pile up. It'll just hurt more in the end."

"Thanks, I guess." Finral was right. Zora needed to give Kirsch some space and Kirsch would come to Zora when he was ready. But they were eventually going to have to talk.

"What are friends for?"

"To annoy the hell out of me, but I guess sometimes, you're useful."

"Gee, thanks, Zora," replied Finral, sarcastically.

Clover Kingdom
Noble Realm
Coral Peacocks Headquarters
Vice-Captain's Office

Dear Kirsch,

I visited with Lady Esmond as you asked me. You, myself, Mimosa and Papa are going to have a formal dinner with the Esmond Family so you can meet your future wife on XX/XX.

Now with that out of the way, can I just tell you that I don't think this is a good idea? Papa and I just want you to be happy. The Esmond family gives me the hives, except poor Clarity (thank goodness that Azure Deer treats that girl right). I haven't met the Lady Esmond you're going to marry, but I don't like the things I hear, Kirsch.

If you change your mind, not matter if it's after meeting her or the day of the wedding, I can and will get you out of this, but it has to be up to you. I can only tell you what I think.

Love from,
Mom

Kirsch sighed and put the letter from his mother down. He resigned himself to the fact that his mother was going to disapprove of him marrying someone that he didn't love. Kirsch didn't want to falter, as this marriage would be a good thing for his family and it could very well take his mind off of Zora. (Even if, Kirsch's heart never moved on from Zora, Kirsch would have kids with his future wife and that'd be good). He took a breath moment, at his desk, and held his head in his hands and let out one huge sigh.

He got up from his desk. There was a dinner outfit to be put together and plans to be made concerning his squad. Kirsch had no time to dally.

Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Black Bulls' Headquarters
Outside

It was too loud at the house, so Zora was trying to take a nap in one of the trees on the outskirts of base. Zora hadn't slept well last night, despite being fed by Charmy and he even took a bath before bed. His thoughts and dreams were plagued by a certain pretty-boy Vice-Captain and Zora hated himself for overthinking things. Trying to nap, Zora felt someone's mana and that someone was not a Black Bull.

"Who's there," drawled Zora, ready for a fight.

"Mr. Zora! It's me, Clarity," said the girl, standing at the base of the tree where Zora had been lounging. "I need to speak with you."

"Oh?"

"When you came to ask about my sister, it got me thinking," said Clarity.

Zora tried not to be interested, but got down from the tree. He stood in front of the short artist from the Azure Deer and crossed his arms. "About what?"

"I didn't tell you everything about my sister. And I think I should," said Clarity, softly. "Vice-Captain Kirsch and his family are having dinner with my family in a week. It's not too late, Mr. Zora, to stop Vice-Captain Kirsch from making a mistake."

Zora stared at her. Reasonably, he ought to turn her away as it wasn't his business what Kirsch did with his life. It would be better for both Kirsch and himself if Zora didn't meddle. Clarity's solemn demeanor and the fact that she came to Zora, however, set off red flags in Zora's brain. His protectiveness of his friends was winning this internal debate, as Zora said, "Okay, I'm listening."

~to be continued

Notes:

Next month you're getting THREE CHAPTERS!