I didn't think I would get another chapter out so soon, hope it doesn't sound rushed or anything. Other than this,trying to update the other stories and that I just put a poll on my profile, nothing much new. Well, hope you enjoy!

As Yuuri stepped into his room and closed the door he slowly looked up. "Conrad?" was the questioned greeting the boy gave to the soldier that was standing in his room not more than five feet away from him. Conrad could tell something was bothering Yuuri a great deal at the soft sound of his voice, but decided to reply as he normally did.

"Yes Heika?" Conrad calmly questioned back, but was surprised and disturbed at the reaction he got. He saw Yuuri visibly flinch at the title. Normally the boy would reprimand him for using his title rather than his name, but not this time. Yuuri had looked back down to the side and at the stone floor after that and hadn't yet looked back up. He gave him a moment, but the boy didn't look like he was going to say anything.

"Conrad, why are you here?" The question was so softly spoken that even the trained soldier had problems hearing it. As he was about to explain that he was here with Gunter only minutes before to try and calm the adviser down, he was given a rather unpleasant shock. He had stepped forward to place a comforting hand on Yuuri's shoulder only to watch as Yuuri stepped back and away from him once in response to his approach.

Conrad could swear he felt his heart clench in his chest. He didn't know what he had done to the young maou, but he dearly wanted to fix whatever was wrong. And he knew for certain now that something was horribly wrong. "Excuse me." Yuuri turned and now had his hand on the door handle and looked like he was about to leave, that or run away from him. Conrad didn't like that thought and just as Yuuri had his back fully turned to the solider and was opening the door he quickly closed the gap between them and firmly but gently placed the full weight of his hand on the boy's shoulder. He could feel the muscles under his hand tense at the action.

"I'm sorry" was the only reply he got from the young maou as he shook off the soldiers hand and sped walked through the open door and down the empty hall away from him. Conrad was speechless as Yuuri's hurried pace echoed in the stone hall. Yuuri had never just run away from him before, not even when he was working for Big Cimaron. His heart may have clenched before when Yuuri had stepped back, but at the boy's almost flat out running, it now felt like it was in a vice.

"Yozak, I think we need to have a talk" was Conrad's comment to a seemingly empty hall. Not a moment later the spy stepped out of the shadows and gave his captain a serious faced nod. He had seen the expression the boyo had as he bolted down the hall. He had also heard the slight hurt hidden in his best friend's voice. The spy had a fairly good idea of what was going on, but he didn't want to say anything until he had something more concrete to prove it. Ever since he had been assigned to watch the boyo when he had started to act strange, he had started to notice a couple of things. If what Yuuri was doing was what he thought he was doing, Yozak wanted to make sure no one interfered, which the captain was almost certain to do. But by the look on Conrad's face, he was going to have to spill the beans. He hoped he could buy enough time for the kid to get it right this time.

---

Yuuri felt like a wretch. Not only had he messed up, he had just flat out ditched Conrad! He knew the man was worried about him, but there wasn't anything he could do about it yet. He had to get this over with and soon. He sighed and nearly gagged at the nauseating smell of the corridor he had just taken. His eyes started to water against his will as he continued on deeper down the hall and toward his destination.

Yuuri didn't try to take in a calming breath this time as he opened the door. He feared that if he did the noxious spelling paint would get to what little was currently in his stomach. As he entered the room he saw Wolfram at the easel painting on a large canvass sitting by the only open window in the room. The blond prince looked up at the intrusion and blinked.

"You're late!" was the resounding indignant cry. "Wimp, you should have been here fifteen minutes ago!" Wolfram took a breath of air facing the open window and turned back to Yuuri who was now sitting on a stool in the middle of the room. He continued to berate his tardy fiancé."I, unlike you, am not a slacker and don't have time to waste sitting around and doing nothing." With a 'humph' he turned from glaring at Yuuri to the blank canvass and started to paint.

No more than three minutes had passed before Yuuri decided to finally broach the subject to Wolfram about what had been plaguing him for over a month now. "Wolf, there's something I think we need to talk about." The blond stopped his artistry and looked up at his fiancé. "And what's that?" came the slightly annoyed voice from behind the canvass. Wolfram had just been trying to get the maou's mouth right when said subject had moved his.

"I've been thinking about this for a long time now, and I've finally come to a conclusion." Yuuri was looking straight at Wolfram now and had a slightly pained, though determined expression on his face.

"About what?" Wolfram was starting to get seriously annoyed at the continued interruption of his work. If Yuuri didn't stop changing his expressions like this he would never get the portrait done.

"I think it's time we end our engagement."