Disclaimer: In these 3 days I have not yet able to become the owner of KKM! But I will still keep on hoping…..
Author Notes: Wow! It's a record! 4 days after the last update. I went on a writing spree today. This chapter isn't very long though it is still comparatively longer than last chapter. Read and review!
Review Replies:
Sawyer Fan: I hope this chapter satisfies you… for now.
Song of a Nightingale: Thanks for the support. No one likes Sara and William. They will soon get a taste of scheming pranksters and over protective brothers J
Angelanddevil2: Sorry but Miko doesn't appear too much in this chapter either. Maybe the next one. Maybe. And I did use it.
Ilovekkm: updated! Hopefully this will keep you satisfied until my next update: D
Damons-hot-as-hell: Damn indeed!
Always be planning something.-
John A. Schindle
Chapter 11: Friendships and Plans (Normal P.O.V)
The word hit Yuri like a ton of bricks. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Wolframs' boyfriend. He couldn't tear his gaze from the rather handsome man in front of him. Why didn't Wolfram ever tell him that he had a boyfriend. A boyfriend, who on earth would have been an instant super model.
He opened his mouth but no words came out. So he stuck to smiling brightly and extending his hand for a hand shake.
If he was right then Wolframs' friend- he just couldn't wrap his head around the fact that it was Wolframs' boyfriend- had a slight patronizing look in his eyes as he shook his hand.
"My name is William Randolph. Pleased to meet you." Yuri didn't trust William. He didn't know why exactly. Maybe it was because of the look William was giving him or because of the glare that Wolfram was sending William. Yuri was normally a very trusting person. But for reasons he himself couldn't fathom he didn't trust William. He couldn't trust William.
Instead, he smiled and nodded. "I am Yuri Shibuya." He introduced himself forcing himself to keep the same light tone.
"It's good to finally meet Wolframs' ex- fiancée." The smirk that lit up Williams' face was definitely evil, Yuri decided. This guy didn't have good intentions and Yuri knew that. But being the good person he was, he had to give the benefit of doubt to William. Maybe he had got it all wrong.
But he couldn't ignore the tension in the air at the words ex- fiancée. So he was thankful when Greta came running out of seemingly nowhere.
"Yuri! Wolfram!" She stopped by Yuri, her face lighting up.
"Greta." Yuri smiled. "Did you enjoy the market place?"
Greta nodded vigorously. "I even bought many gifts for everyone." Yuri found himself melting. Their daughter was just too cute. He couldn't think of Greta as his daughter only. Wolfram had taken care of her as much as he had so Wolfram too had the right to call her as daughter.
"His Majesty's daughter is very cute." Yuri's smile became fake.
He decided not to reply to it.
If things couldn't get worse, Conrart appeared.
"Greta, Anissina is searching... "Yuri turned back as he heard Conrart's voice trail off. The slight shock that was dominant in Conrart's expression made Yuri frowned. He had never seen Conrart shaken out of his usual demeanor. Even when he was angry, there was a certain confidence in him.
But looking at Conrart's wide eyes, Yuri understood that there was more to William than others were telling him.
"Weller. It's been a long time." William smiled.
Conrart soon recovered. But instead of the usual smile lighting up his face, the smile that appeared was stiff and fixed. It looked completely fake to Yuri.
Conrart nodded. "What brings you here?" Even though his voice was perfectly civil there was a cool undertone to it that was not lost on anyone. Lady Celi simply frowned while Murata looked amused. Yuri glanced at Sara. He was standing quietly, observing the scene with interest. Yuri shrugged and returned his attention to William.
"I am here to train the new solider regiment." The slight smile playing on his lips put Conrart on his guard. He still remembered the last time William had come to the castle. Most importantly, he remembered Wolfram's reaction after that incident. He had never seen Wolfram so hurt except for during the annulment.
Conrart again nodded and turned to Greta who was watching the exchange with wide eyes. "Anissina is looking for you." Just as he finished his words, Greta rushed away.
Conrart straightened and glanced at Wolfram. His face was blank. Not a good sign.
"Well then. Let us head inside." Celi clapped her hands together as she led the way inside.
The people passing them would see a disgruntled Belfield, an unusually irritated Weller, an usually confused King, an overly amused Sage, an over excited ex-queen, a plotting King and the cause of everyone's so called reactions.
OooO
"Ahh... There! Done." Miko sighed in relief as she dumped all the things she had bought from the market down. They had run low on some basic ingredients that were needed and since it wasn't the day for delivery of goods, she had to go to the market to buy them.
This was already her third day here. She couldn't believe that the time had passed so fast. She knew that Murata and Wolfram were going to the market place today. She had hoped to meet them but couldn't spot them. According to Murata though, the plan was going smoothly so she needn't worry anymore.
"Miko-san. You bought the supplies." Doria smiled at her. Miko grinned back. She and the maids had bonded rather easily. Now she had 4 more new people to help her in the plan.
"Yes. It was good to take a bit of fresh air." Miko was delighted to go out of the castle for a few hours and enjoy the sights.
Sangria had accompanied her since she still didn't know much about the city to go alone.
Doria nodded. "Well then. We will prepare the food. You can go and rest. It must have been tedious work to carry back all these things to the Castle." Normally Miko would have protested and persuaded them to let her help but she wanted to find Murata and ask him about the plan.
So she smiled and nodded.
Making her way towards the Gardens she thought about how different this world was from hers. Yet the people were same. She enjoyed staying in such a huge Castle even though she would have preferred to be staying without the need to hide her identity.
'Oh well. Soon I would no longer need to hide my identity.' She thought as she entered the Gardens.
The Gardens took up a huge part of the Castle. She heard that Lady Celi had a huge interest in gardening and had created a lot of flowers herself. She hadn't had the chance to see any of those flowers and was thankful for the bit for free time to do so.
She bent down and lightly touched one of the beautiful blue flowers.
"That's Conrart Stands Upon The Earth." She turned around only to see a young girl with bushy hair looking at the flowers. Miko recognized her. Greta. Greta Shibuya. The adopted daughter of Yuri Shibuya and in other words, her adopted granddaughter. Miko studied her.
'She should be around 9 years if not younger. She is too cute. Yuri made the right choice by adopting her. But why the sudden decision?' Making a mental note to ask Murata later, she turned her attention back to the flowers.
"Oh really? That is an unusual name for a flower."
"Well, Lady Celi named all the flowers after people she values a lot in her life. Even Greta is going to get a flower named after her!" Miko had to smile at Greta's enthusiasm as the girl bounded up to her. She was acting more and more like Yuri when he was younger.
"That is very good Princess." Miko grinned.
Greta frowned at her. "My name is Greta. Why are you calling me Princess?" Miko had to restrain herself from fawning all over her 'grand- daughter'.
'When Wolf-Chan and Yuu-chan get back together, I am going to stuff her with cookies.' Miko promised Greta mentally. Noticing the odd look that Greta was giving her, she hastened to answer. "Well, you are Yu- His Majesty's daughter right?" Greta nodded. "Since he is a King, you are his daughter then you will be a princess."
Greta blinked. It seemed like this logic had never occurred to her. "But I don't like when others call me Princess. Greta wants to be called by her name." Miko raised her eyebrows at such a demand but decided not to ask deeper.
She smiled gently and nodded. "Why not? Greta is such a pretty name anyway."Greta smiled brightly and nodded vigorously.
"Who are you? I never saw you here." Greta inquired.
"I am the new maid." Miko didn't want to reveal her identity no matter much she wanted to.
Luckily Greta readily accepted the answer without any more questions.
"That is Beautiful Wolfram and the other flowers with slightly closed petals are Secretive Gwendal." Greta listed off the flowers. Miko studied the flowers.
'They all have the characteristics of their name sakes.' Miko thought. 'Lady Celi is truly an expert in this.'
But she knew an opportunity when she saw one. "Those 3 are brothers right?" She knew that she didn't need to specify anything. Greta glanced at her and nodded. "Gwendal, Conrart and Wolfram. Half brothers." A smile bloomed on Greta's face. "But they love each other like true brothers."
Miko looked at her in surprise. "But I never saw them together." She thought back to the time that she had seen Conrart and Wolfram talking or rather arguing at the Ball. She did not deny that they loved each other. But she did doubt that they showed each other so freely.
"Even though they all have different father they have the same heart. They care about people near them." Greta's wide eyes turned to Miko. "Wolfram always says he hates Conrart but Papa Yuri told me that Wolfram says that to him too. But even though Wolfram always fights with Yuri he still cares about Yuri. And Wolfram also used to hate humans. That's why he hated Conrart. Greta is also human. But he loves me. So he loves Conrart too."
Miko was surprised at the depth at which Greta had thought about this. But it did make sense. People had a habit to complicate things. Seeing it from such a simple point of view made it clearer. Miko made another goal in her mind.
Bring the brothers back together.
OooO
Anissina was in a good mood. Or she was until the invention she was trying to make was drenched in water.
Glaring at the culprit she picked up her invention trying to salvage what she could. "I hope you have a good reason within 10 seconds." She kept her voice low and cool. It wouldn't do to snap out. It was less of the fact that she wasn't really angry and more of the fact that her other inventions might be disturbed if she raised her voice.
Gwendal blinked in disbelief. He couldn't believe his good fortune. There was no anger, no threats and most of all no prospect of being dragged to be a lab rat. But he was sure that after the request he was about to make, he would be the only lab rat for Anissina for a very long time.
Sighing and bracing himself for the tortuous week ahead he announced the reason if stepping into her lab- the one place he had swore not to enter by his own will.
"William Randolph is back." Anissina froze with her back to him.
"What?" Anissina frowned as she spun around.
"I am not going to repeat myself." Gwendal massaged his head. Anissina might not cow the actual reason to why William had went away last time but she did have the general idea of what had happened. And being one of the few people who knew Wolfram personally she believed that it wasn't Wolframs fault.
After all, it had been the first time she had seen Wolfram so hurt.
Pursuing her lips, she left her invention on the table and gave her full attention to Gwendal. "Why did he come back now?"
"A very good question. He is up to no good. That's for sure. His excuse is that he has come to train the new recruits." Gwendal explained sitting on a normal looking chair. Emphasis on looking.
The seat sprung up and ejected Gwendal like he was a rag doll rather than a fully grown man. He flew through the air and crashed into a menacing looking invention. A blaring whistle blasted from the invention. Barely sparing a glance at Gwendal who was lying in what looked to be a very painful position on the floor; she picked up her invention and pressed some buttons on it. The blaring noise ceased.
"Thank you for testing out my invention. Next thought, wait for me to ask." The amusement in Anissina's voice couldn't be mistaken for anything else. She extended a hand towards Gwendal. He glared at her and got up, ignoring her out stretched hand.
She just shook her head, too used to his actions to be fazed.
"Is there any normal chair over here?" He snapped. His day was already going badly and now with the added pain in all the parts of his body it had taken the turn for worse.
Anissina merely gestured at a small wooden stool. Gwendal sat on it, grumbling under his breath. Rolling her eyes Anissina asked, "Excuse? You think he has some other motive?" Gwendal stopped grumbling and looked at her. "Don't you think so too?" Being friends for years had its benefits. They both were rather synchronized with each other's thoughts.
"Well then. We should find out what it is." A maniacal gleam appeared in Anissina's eyes. A new test subject was always an appealing idea.
"That was my thoughts exactly." The smirk that had formed on Gwendal's face was far from normal. Of all the years Anissina had known Gwendal there were a very few times that Gwendal had sported that smirk. And it had never turned well for the opposite person. But this time, she had to agree that the opposite person deserved it.
Anissina leaned in. "Well I think I might have just the thing..."
OooO
Conrart sighed for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day. Things, instead of getting better, seemed to be getting worse. When he was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, Wolfram would have his happy ending, William had to come around and ruin things.
William. Conrart's lips curled into a grimace. He had never trusted him. Since the day he had met him until the day William broke Wolframs heart. Never had and never will.
He had tried to warn Wolfram. Had tried to tell him that William wasn't the right person for him but since Wolfram had still harbored resentment against him, had refused to listen. Conrart's distrust for William grew more when he heard William talk about how 'worthless' Conrart was and how he couldn't understand how 'a half breed like Conrart could be related to a beauty likes Wolfram'. These words hadn't helped Wolframs attitude towards Conrart.
"Captain. Why so down?" Conrart glanced up only to be met with the smiling face of his long time friend Yozak. A small smile slowly formed on Conrart's face.
"Multiple reasons." Conrart answered. "When did you come back?" He asked curiously. Yozak was supposed to be in Big Shimaron finding out if they were planning anything against Shin Makuko.
"Just now." Yozak waved his hand. "By the way, did you know? They made 'Wanted' posters for all of us." Conrart's interest was piqued.
"Wanted posters?"
Yozak nodded as he extracted a couple of papers from somewhere on his body. Conrart took it and had to immediately suppress his urge to laugh. The posters were amateur drawing of him, Yozak, Yuri, the Sage and Wolfram. It looked like a 5 year old with no talent had drawn these pictures.
"What are these?" Conrart indicated to a drawing which, even though was not understandable, was clearly showing someone in a gown.
That statement made Yozak to break into a larger grin. "That is." He paused for dramatic effect. "Lord von Belfield and His Majesty." Unable to hold it in anymore, Yozak burst into laughter. Luckily the corridor was nearly empty with only a few passing soldiers who didn't say anything but just gave him a few weird looks.
Conrart on the other hand just stood there in shock. He couldn't even begin to fathom why they had made Wanted posters of Wolfram and Yuri in dresses. Then it struck him. The last time they had gone to Big Shimaron, they both had crashed the ball dressed up as girls. Big Shimaron thoughts that they would try the same thing again... Soon he too started laughing though not as loud as Yozak.
For a few minutes, they were just two best friends enjoying each other's company.
As the laughter died out, it left a smile on Conrart's face. He felt better than before.
"Better?" And just like that his good mood was forgotten as a slight frown settled on his face. Giving back the papers to Yozak Conrart decided to confide what was troubling him.
"The Evil Pig is back."
Blinking, Yozak looked at Conrart in surprise. Conrart wasn't the type to keep such nicknames for anyone. The only person he had kept a nickname for was..,"William." Yozak didn't need to look at Conrart for confirmation. He still remembered the temper tantrum that Conrart threw all those years ago when he had heard William talking about him to Wolfram. Yozak had listened to him quietly that time and supported him silently by making him smile.
"And that doesn't mean anything good." Yozak continued as all traces of laughter disappeared from his face.
"Of course it doesn't." Conrart snapped. At Yozak's raised eyebrows, Conrart shrugged. "Sorry. I really didn't mean to... It's just that, Wolfram has started to accept me now. I don't want him to ruin it."
"You think Wolfram will listen to him after all that?" Yozak asked surprised.
"Well Wolfram was very close to him that time. And people find excuses to forgive the people they care about. Since Yuri has broken the engagement... "Conrart trailed off.
"You think Wolfram will run to William." The flat tone Yozak used made Conrart frown at him.
"No, I think William will manipulate Wolfram to fall in love with him again." Conrart corrected. Yozak just snorted in disbelief.
"I think Lord von Bielefeld knows what he wants and what he doesn't. He has grown up." Yozak knew that these words would have no effect what so ever on Conrart. For Conrart, Wolfram would always be the small brother who needed protection from the cruel world outside.
Shaking his head he decided to drop the topic. "Then what are you planning to do now?" He asked leaning against the barrister.
Conrart glanced at him. "I was hoping you would ask that."
OooO
Meanwhile in Shinou's temple, Murata and Shinou were discussing the new turn of events. Murata had quickly excused himself and rushed to tell shinou about what had happened.
Now Shinou was sitting cross legged on one of the boxes while Murata was pacing in front of him.
"That doesn't seem like a problem." Shinou commented confused by Murata's behavior. "We might get another person to help us to make my Maoh jealous."
Murata stopped pacing and looked at Shinou. "What if I told you that William had broken Wolfram's heart before?" Shinou blinked and narrowed his eyes. "Well, then that puts things in a different perspective."
He glanced at Murata. "Do I want to know how you got all this information?" Murata merely shrugged and didn't open his mouth.
Shinou sighed and leaned back. "This complicates things."
"Not really." Shinou sat straight as he looked hard at his Sage. "What do you mean by that?" He asked suspiciously. Even though he knew his Sage for 4000 years he still couldn't understand his plans
"We should let William take Lord von Bielefeld for a date."
Shinou just stared at Murata. He waited for Murata to grin and say he was joking. After a few minutes of silence he decided to confirm that his ears were not deceiving him. "What?"
Murata sighed. "Have you ever heard the saying 'Two targets with one arrow'?" Without waiting for Shinou to reply he continued. "If William goes on a date with Lord von Bielefeld then we can make Shibuya jealous as well as Lord von Bielefeld can get his revenge."
Shinou's eyes shined with excitement at the prospect of revenge. Rubbing his hands together he replied,"A very good idea indeed my Sage. Shall we begin planning?"
OooO
Back in Blood Pledge Castle, the Evil Pig or the Devil as he was dubbed by Conrart and Wolfram respectively was walking through the corridors of the Castle quietly. The note he had received just a couple of hours after arriving was intriguing in the least.
He came to the place they had agreed to meet. He glanced at the person walking towards him from the other end. Stopping in the middle of the corridor William waited for him to reach.
"You seem confident that this will work." William asked leaning against the wall as he studied the petite man standing before him.
"Confidence is an important factor in success." The man replied lightly, the only thing betraying his feelings was the smirk that lit up his face. William didn't trust the man. He had a feeling that he was selling his soul to the evil by agreeing to this.
William extended his hand for the man to shake. "Well then, it's a deal." Now there was no way in hell that they would allow the ex- royal couple to get back together.
Or so they thought.
They didn't notice a shadowy figure standing in the darkness as it observed the deal taking place. "I guess things are slowly getting interesting."
OooO
Sneak Preview:
"The door is locked."" Sangria frowned, trying her best to twist the door knob and open the door. Effe, who was standing beside her looked bewildered. "But I heard noises from it just a few minutes ago."
Sangria turned to look at Effe. "Are you sure?" Effe didn't miss the slight fear in her voice and she too began to feel scared. Maybe it was a ghost or something… They both looked at each other and silently decided to come later.
If they had been able to look into the room they would be more surprised. The room was occupied by 4 people. 4 people who no one would expect to be together. Those people, Lord Weller Codename: gentlesmiler, Lord von Voltaire Codename: grumpyknitter, Yozak Gurrier Codename: secretspy and Poison Lady.
These people being in the same room was a big enough surprise but the maids would've surely fainted if they saw the heads put together as they poured over a piece of parchment on the table in the middle of the room.
Author Notes: Done! I am rather proud of myself actually. Hopefully this will satisfy everyone for a few weeks until I find the time- and inspiration- to write more. Next chapter will be very interesting. I NEED IDEAS FOR PRANKING WILLIAM.