The gang's all together for one final lesson, and they're as dense as ever. With only a day left before he leaves, Magna wonders how much of his mission he should let them in on.

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Magna felt his strength waning as he moved the quill to finish the letter, but he pressed onwards until the calligraphy was complete, and fell face-first onto the desk before him— drained of all his magic and stamina. Writing lessons under Henry were brutal, but not even his teachers assistant Gauche had calligraphy so clean.

What option was there other than to occasionally black out during class?

A five-thousand volt zap in the ribs jolted Magna back awake, and as his mouth opened with a shriek, a spoonful of food was placed inside.

"Thanks, miss Charmy… screw you, Luck…" He said as he chewed, being propped up by the diminutive woman while his magic returned. This training was particularly tough for someone with as little mana as Magna, but with his gluttonous compatriot lending her aid, he could handle even Henry's calligraphy class.

Smiling softly as he ate more of her food, the street punk-turned-dignitary leaned back to watch as Asta, Zora and Luck finished up with their writing. Magna let his grin grow a good bit wider when he remembered that practically his entire squad was here at once— they rarely had the chance to hang out with Henry, and this was his final lesson, after all.

Allowing etiquette to slip in his excitement, the fire mage pulled Charmy into a hug like she were a teddy bear. As Magna tried not to squeeze his senior too hard (or preferably, at all) the sickly teacher got up from his chair in much the same way a mummy rises from a sarcophagus. Walking to pick up the papers with his limbs creaking at every minute bend, Henry assessed the ambassador's writing.

"Exxeeeeleeeenttt wooorrk, Maaagnaaaaaaaa. Thhiiiiiisssss looooksssss juuuussst liiiikeee," the blue haired boy violently cleared his throat, "the book. Why, I think you might—"

"—Don't praise him too much, let me take a look…" Gauche butted in, taking the paper to examine it more critically. Both eyebrows raising, the "Oh. You're right, this writing is perfect, just like—"

"Don't say Marie!" The room shouted, in both unison and desperation.

"—Like the book. But also like my darling little sister now that you've mentioned her."

Everyone present felt sweat drops form on their foreheads, but appreciated his progress. As the room paused to laugh, the actual teacher grabbed the papers back, and prepared to make an announcement.

"Wiittthh thiiiissss, Maaaagnnnaaaaa, yoooouurrrrr—" Henry gathered all his strength and shouted, "Your training is complete!!"

There was a moment of deafening silence, before the room began to cheer; every ounce of effort they'd put in had paid off, and with Henry's words, it was official. After those endless classes on etiquette, dance, dress, and torture resistance(etiquette) Magna was the Clover ambassador.

But one person wasn't reveling, even while all his family hurrahed, he remained quiet.

"Thank you. Really, thank all of you." Magna said, quietly, but dripping with emotion. Although the yankee was smiling, there were teardrops welling up as he spoke, "I know I gave everyone a hard time, like, a really hard time, but I couldn't have made it this far without you idiots giving me Hell."

"Except you, Gordon. You and your creepy dictionary fort got me into this whole mess."

Beneath anyone's hearing, Gordon mumbled back, "I'm fairly certain that had nothing to do with your mission. I've only been trying to help…"

"Aw, screw it— come on in here too, big guy!"

The poison mage found himself in a rare moment of bliss as he was yanked into the biggest group hug he'd seen all week.

Refusing to look in the direction of her squad mates, Noelle cleared her throat and told Magna, "We've put you through so much lately, we figured we could give you a little something before your big day. A very small surprise."

"Huh?"

Asta pulled him down by the ascot, and gave him the good news, "We managed to keep your pudding away from Luck all day!"

"What!?" Magna gasped, a hand held daintily over his mouth, "You mean I get to have two desserts!? You guys really are the best!"

The Black Bulls shared a hearty laugh as their new dignitary bolted out of the room with all the grace of a narcoleptic fawn, but one man's chuckles seemed less… goodnatured than the others.

"Zora…" Asta asked, "why are you laughing so ominously?"

Scarcely managing to choke back his cackling, the redheaded prankster said, "I spiked that idiot's pudding with Clover Undertaker peppers. "

"You mean the hottest known pepper!?" Finral yelped, gesticulating right up in Zora's business, "Are you trying to kill him!?"

"We were supposed to let him relax!" Grey squeaked from behind Gauche's shoulder.

Rolling his blue eyes, the boy on trial replied, "Well, maybe somebody should've said we weren't screwing with him today."

"Dang it Zora, that should go without saying!"

"How would that go without saying?" The redhead asked as annoyance furrowed his brow, "Everyone's always dunking on Magna!"

"Yeah, and we wanted to give him a break for once in our Goddamn whole lives!"

"And maybe I didn't!"

In the midst of their arguing, an unholy scream rang out from the room where Magna had just fled. Everyone leapt after the sound at once, tripping over each other to see whether their friend was alright (or to laugh at him).

As the group rushed into the mess hall, the first thing they saw was a chair knocked to the ground where the street punk always sat. Creeping closer, they saw that on the floor Magna was visibly crying, tears running down his face with his dessert in hand.

Already running damage control, Finral asked the figure twitching on the floor, "Oh my God, are you okay!? We heard a scream, and—"

"—This… this is… this is the best pudding I've ever had in my life!" The manly mage effused as he jumped to his feet, still crying. "The spicy mixes with the sweet to create the perfect flavor~! It's sogood my tongue's going numb."

Creeping closer than anyone else to the man, Zora gawked, "What? He should be dying right now."

"Oh? Are you the one who made this the best pudding in the world? Well, get over here! Have a taste for yourself!" Magna cheered, wrapping an arm around the cool-masked jerk. Sticking a spoonful of the pudding into his friend's face with an evil smile, the punk said, "It's incredible."

Zora's eyes went wide as the spiked dessert caressed his tastebuds, and with fear striking his very soul he… agreed. That was some damn fine pudding, so there must not've been anything to worry about. Wait, sorry, scratch that, the aftertaste was literally fire.

The masked prankster howled when the spice finally hit his tongue, and collapsed like a felled tree as he tried to spit the agony-flavor away.

Magna slapped his knee as he watched Zora wind up on the receiving end of one of his own pranks. "Hahaha!! It is hilarious when it ain't happening to me!"

After a few too many seconds of watching Zora writhe on the ground, Magna scratched the back of his head and conceded, "Actually that looks like it hurts, let me grab you some milk…"

The ash mage stopped his ceaseless screaming when the cow juice calmed his scorching tastebuds, and just laid there, unmoving while the squad shuffled uncomfortably around him. He sagged like a rag doll as Magna helped pull him from the floor, but once Zora was at least vaguely upright and only half-dead, he said, "Oh God, that was horrible…"

"I can't wait to try it on someone else."

"Oh Zora, you are incorrigible." The scar-faced dignitary chided, a grin etching into his mouth as his friend got back on his bullshit.

"Wait, 'Incorrigible'?" Vanessa teased with an eyebrow raised, "The hell kinda word is that?"

Pointing a thumb straight into his puffed chest, Magna declared, "I'm proud to say I don't know!"

Even Zora started laughing at this man's idiocy, and the whole base quickly fell back into revelry. As all his friends gathered him into a giant, giggling group hug, the punk boy couldn't help but join the celebration.

Despite all the fun, there was still something grave tugging at the back of Magna's mind. It was perhaps something too important to leave unsaid, but he'd loathe to tarnish those sunny smiles; to turn his family's joy into fear.

I should tell them, but we're having such a great time…

maybe tomorrow…

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An ethereal assortment of purples and oranges peppered the horizon. The very next morning, outside the castle, the entire squad had gathered to see Magna off on his mission.

"Well, you did it ya little punk." Yami said, standing at the front of his knights, "You actually molded yourself into the manliest noble around. Which I guess means you won't pass as a noble for shit, but hey, we're proud of ya'."

"Thanks captain. I won't let our hard work go to waste." Said the prim and proper man as he saluted his squad. They'd already chartered him a ride, and Magna was never one to let hospitalities go unthanked, so he strutted towards his awaiting pumpkin carriage like some kind of prince.

Magna was excited beyond his dreams to be someone important, but all his anxieties from yesterday hit him like a punch in the chest as his teammates said their goodbyes in turn. Unlike all the knights bidding him farewell, the ambassador's face was soberly calm.

"Gosh, I can't wait to show you this technique I've been working on!"

"And a new dish I just need to figure out the spice rub for! You have to try it when you get back!"

"Tell me if you meet somebody cute out there!"

"You better bring back some candy for my little sister! Uh… Please."

"And then you can help me with our workouts! Those boulders aren't gonna lift themselves!"

With clenched fists, Magna spoke above his friends. "Guys. I'm leaving."

"Huh? What're you talking about?" Luck rhetorically asked, "You'll be right—"

"—I'll be out of the country, on a dangerous mission, and I don't know when I'm coming back. Guys, I don't know whether I'm coming back." Magna's gaze averted toward the ground, the typically headstrong man shivering with dread. "This monarch, she's dangerous, and if I don't get everything perfect, something awful could happen. I could plunge us into war, w-what if—"

His ranting stopped cold when Yami pulled him in for a hug, cupping his head with a hand. Not betraying his feelings with anything other than his words, the captain said, "Don't you say crap like that. Just stay safe. We can't have anything happen to our favorite delinquent."

As the hug got tighter, Magna looked up to see Luck holding him too. Reciprocating the embrace around them with warmth, the fiery man assured his family, "I'll be okay. I swear."

"That's what I like to hear." Yami said, graduating his hand from the man's head to his shoulder, "And listen, if you wind up dying out there, I'll kill you myself."

The tone of his captain's 'threat' washed the fears from Magna's mind, leaving behind only his excitement for the adventures ahead, at least for now. The ambassador stood to walk, but before he was allowed move, he felt a pair of lips plant a kiss on his cheek— courtesy of the blond mage holding his arm.

"Wuhhzza-Huh!?" The firecracker garbled, his face lighting up like an overripe tato.

"For luck," Luck explained, "only I'm allowed to kill you. So you can't die until you get back!"

"Heh, thanks." Magna said, skin still buzzing where the kiss had grazed him, "Way to make me feel like a real prince."

Climbing into the carriage after letting his closest friend go, he refused to let the gravity of his situation sink in again, instead focusing on the love that surrounded him. Just as the wheels began to carry him away, a manically grinning Magna stuck himself out the window and screamed to his family, "Goodbye everybody! I'll bring back all kinds of souvenirs! I promise! And I'll make peace! Hell— I'll kick peace's ass if I have to!"

As they watched his cart travel down the twisting roads until it escaped sight, a couple knights had an important question lingering in their minds. Putting voice to the query, Noelle asked, "I suppose we didn't get the chance to ask in all the chaos, but… where is he going?"

Yami turned away from the rising sun to face his squad, a neutral expression making his features unreadable. Taking a drag from the cigarette hanging between his teeth, he answered.

"The Witch's Forest."