Chapter Five
Yuri woke up in his usual fashion, immediately coming to awareness without delay. Stretching, he checked the clock, nine forty-nine. Well past time to get up anyway.
He grabbed his robe and made his way to the kitchen to get a start on breakfast, when he remembered his newest houseguest.
'Might as well get her and Eve up.' He thought.
He opened the door and stuck his head in, only to get a pillow hard to the face.
"G-go away! Who are you?"
Estelisse was panicked, eyes hazy from sleep where she sat huddled against the headboard. Yuri chuckled at her frazzled appearance and messy hair.
"Morning there sleeping beauty." he said teasingly. "You've got pretty good aim for being half asleep."
She blinked, clearing her vision and taking closer note of her surroundings. "Yuri? Where is this?"
"My apartment. And before you ask, my friend Eve was the one that changed your clothes, not me."
She looked down at herself and noticed the cutely patterned pj's she was wearing. "Oh, well I'm glad." she said. "Where is this friend?"
"Sacked out on the floor here." Yuri chuckled, nudging said girl with a slippered foot. "I swear she can sleep anywhere, hard."
He laughed again and pulled her sleeping bag out from under her, rolling her onto the carpet to a chorus of cursing.
"What the bleeping hell was that for?" Eve snarled, her hair obscuring her face.
"Time to get up, we slept in." Yuri said calmly. "Get dressed and see if you can find something for our little princess to wear would you? I'll get breakfast started."
He left the room and shut the door in time to block another thrown pillow, followed by muffled swearing, and smiled. Eve was not a morning person.
Fifteen minutes later the two women came out of the bedroom, Estelisse dressed in a pair of Eve's sweat pants and a t-shirt, both fitting quite loosely on her. Yuri shook his head sadly, Eve was only just barely as tall as the younger girl, but at least he was a healthy weight for her height.
Well, if she was going to be under his watch he was definitely going to make sure she ate properly.
"Hey there, you like omelets?" he asked, getting out the eggs.
Estelisse nodded, giving him a shy smile. "I love them, especially with bacon, but my etiquette instructor always said that such things are too 'common' for nobility, to much fat."
Yuri scoffed. "Let me guess, stuffy old bat with the sharp nose and her hair pulled way too tight?"
"You mean...Madame Ursula?"
"Yep, met her a couple times when I was in Knight's training. I was supposed to end up being some noble's bodyguard before I wound up quitting."
Eve snorted into her coffee from behind the newspaper. "You, a noble's bodyguard?"
Yuri only looked smug. "That meant I was good Eve, way better than an common soldier." he said flippantly. "Anyway, the Agency snapped me up before I got in too deep with the Knights. How do you like your omelet?"
Estelisse blinked at the sudden change in topic, but dismissed it for the moment. "I like them with just about everything sir."
"Sure thing, but don't call me sir. I'm not a Knight."
Yuri set to work and cracked the eggs into the skillet with a bit of bacon grease, scrambling them as he went and tossing some of each ingredient he had prepared while the girls were getting dressed. Estelisse watched him intently, fascinated.
"If you'll forgive my saying this, I didn't imagine you as a chef."
Eve laughed. "I wouldn't peg him for a lot of things, but I've known him for three years and he still keeps surprising me."
"Really? How did you meet?"
"We work together, somebody had to keep an eye on him while he was out in the field."
"Field?"
"I'm an active field agent, specializing in combat and high-profile infiltration." said Yuri, flipping the finished omelet onto a plate with a few strips of bacon then placing it in front of the girl. "If you've ever seen super-spy or thief movies, it's kind've like that only in the real world."
"You're a spy!" Estelisse cried, shrinking back. "Then you kidnaped me?"
Both Eve and Yuri laughed. "Relax, our agency is trying to protect you Princess."
"Why?"
"Think about it, you're the heir to the throne, but the Empire is traditionally ruled by men." stated Eve, poring herself another cup of coffee. "You're a prime target for anyone with plans on controlling the world's biggest nation, and the easiest."
"Exactly. I was under orders to retrieve you from the mansion if I saw you while I as looking for Flynn. He's got a mark on his head too, but by our enemies."
The princess relaxed slightly. "Oh, but is it alright for you to be telling me this?"
Yuri shrugged. "The commander can tell you more tonight when we take you to meet her. She trusts me with sensitive information. So eat up, we've got a pretty long day ahead of us."
Of course, what Yuri saw as a 'long day' was entirely different from a woman's point of view. He hated shopping for clothes, even more so when in female company, but Estelisse needed street clothes that fitted her properly.
So, he had to grit his teeth and bear it, especially since the princess had never been shopping before.
The slight girl fluttered about the colorful displays like an inquisitive butterfly, but had absolutely no idea where to begin. Yuri had to bite back a long suffering sigh at every innocent question she asked him about the various articles of clothing, having never seen any casual clothing before.
Eve finally took pity on the agent and pulled Estelisse along to the appropriate side of the store to get her started and sent Yuri off to do his own thing.
They spent over an hour in the lingerie department alone. The overly sheltered girl didn't even know what a bra was, having only worn corsets under her gowns and absolutely no contact with the outside world. Next it was off to clothes, where they gathered enough outfits for the princess to get by comfortably with a bit of growing room.
They met with Yuri again in a music store a few shops down. He was contentedly browsing through a selection of various heavy metal artists that he liked when the girls caught up with him.
Looking up, he studied Estellise's new clothes before nodding in satisfaction. "Much better." he said. "Now you look like a normal teen."
The princess tilted her head to one side cutely. "Oh? Is that a good thing?"
"In this case, yes."
Estelisse was wearing a two toned pink tunic shirt over brown leggings with white walking boots and a gold-edged white jacket. Several shopping bags sat at her's and Eve's feet.
"So what's the damage?" he asked.
Eve merely handed him a small collection of receipts and his credit card back. Scanning them and calculating their total he gave them a small smile. "Under fifteen hundred, nice bargain hunting."
"Nice, isn't it?" laughed Eve. "Anyway, I got a call from my aunt, she want's us to come in, ASAP."
"Ok, we'll drop this stuff off at the apartment and head down, shouldn't take long."
As per Yuri's prediction, they were in headquarters in under an hour, seated in Cerius' office.
Estelisse was thoroughly intimidated by the stern woman, and fidgeted through the entire meeting, not that Yuri or Eve could blame her.
"Well then Agent Ashce, do you understand your orders?" Cerius asked.
"Crystal clear Ma'am." Yuri quipped. "Get out of the capital and track down Lieutenant Scifo, meet up with the other agents, dig up what dirt I can on the mercenary guild Blood Alliance and the black market guild Leviathan's Claw, get in contact with the other Agency leaders and the Don if I head that way, and keep the princess out of enemy hands. Is that it?"
Cerius nodded. "Good. You are to be equipped for a long range mission with your partner Repede. If you need assistance or restocking of supplies any Agency outpost will oblige you. Keep on the lookout for your fellow high agents, and don't, under any circumstance, allow sensitive information or yourself to fall to enemy hands. You are far too valuable to both us and them with that blastia." she said sternly. "You are to set out as soon as possible, you are dismissed."
At the command they left the office and headed towards the labs, Eve muttering to herself as she scribbled on her data pad.
Estelisse looked nervously about her when they entered the armory, but Eve looked right at home. "Ok, gonna have to requisition some semi-autos, lots of ammo, maybe that jeep with the hidden mounted gun, EMP device? wait, no, don't need that."
Another tech emerged from the isles of weaponry. "You can't take normal vehicle outside barrier limits or the established roads you know." she said. "Monsters attack anything that goes offroad that isn't armored to the nines."
Yuri nodded. "Yeah Eve, a vehicle will just be a hindrance once we get to Deidon Hold. Ten to one chances say that monsters are attacking early this year."
"You are right agent Ashce. Lately the Aer conditions have been unstable, so monsters are getting more aggressive than normal." said the tech. "If you're heading north to Halure you'll be fighting a hell of a lot, and bullets aren't working anymore."
Estelisse looked stunned. "What do you mean?"
"Just like I said. We've been getting reports that monsters are becoming more resistant to conventional weapons. Seems only so called 'archaic' weapons are effective anymore, Aer inscription and embedded skill sets with bohdi blastia are the only things keeping people alive out there."
The princess gulped. "And we're going out there?"
"No choice. I have a mission to protect you and hunt down Flynn. At any rate you'll be a lot safer with me out there than anywhere in a barrier protected city."
"I don't like this." she said demurely. "I don't like fighting or killing."
All three of the agency members smiled. "Aw, that just means you're a decent person. You don't have to like it, but you need to admit that you have to if you're going to survive. There is no such thing as a conflict-free resolution, human nature does not allow it."
"Yeah, like Eve said, humans are violent creatures." said Yuri. "Even dainty princesses aren't excluded from this rule."
"But..."
"No buts. This is a war we're fighting, it's just not visible to everyone. Out in the real world you're as experienced as a kitten, so you'll need to stick to me as much as possible, I'll look after you."
