Disclaimer: I do not own Kyou kara Maou.
King Saralegui sat on his throne and sensually shifted one of his legs underneath the other. "Is everything going as planned, Beries?" he asked as Beries approached the throne to report, as expected.
"Yes, your Highness. You have a meeting with the TQ Lumber Reforestation Company this afternoon."
Sara twirled a lock of silky hair around one finger. "And they have been 'briefed'?"
"A few soldiers have been sent to better explain your position," Beries said with an almost imperceptible upward twitch of his mouth, "I am sure they are now in a mood to reach an agreement with your Highness."
Sara leaned forward. "Very good, Beries. Is that all?"
Beries paused, "There is one intelligence report that claims Lord Weller entered Dai Shimaron nearly two weeks ago."
"Oh?" Sara asked with a raised eyebrow, "Lord Weller is in Dai Shimaron again?" he said while tapping his chin thoughtfully, "I wonder what he is up to this time?"
"We received reports that he had been seen in Xursa, but we are not certain were he is now." "He appears to be…helping people."
"Hmm," Sara said while removing his glasses, twirling them around, and sticking the tip of one end suggestively into his mouth, "I trust you will ensure Lord Weller won't be around to cause any trouble for my plans, Beries?"
Beries knelt in front of the throne and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, "I will personally see to it that he does not interfere."
"I certainly hope so Beries," Sara said as he put his glasses back on.
Chapter 4: Salsipuede
Conrad and Yozak carried Iridina's mead and wax down the mountain to the nearest town. Or rather, Yozak carried the mead and wax down and Conrad supervised.
Salsipuede was a medium-sized town large enough to have a few small shops and an inn and a tavern, but lacked the sparkle of cities closer to the capital. It had more of a dusty, border town feel to it. Yozak was immensely disappointed by the lack of jewelry shops and discos in town.
Still, Salsipuede was large and populated enough that Conrad decided to travel incognito for the time being. Or in other words, he wore his brown Shin Makoku military uniform.
Their first stop was to drop the wax off at a candle-maker's. Much to Yozak's delight, the store owner also sold cosmetics, most of which were beeswax based, and offered him a discount.
"You already have make-up," Conrad said. "Why do you need more?"
"These are colors and shades I don't have yet," Yozak explained while stacking 10 containers of eye shadow, 5 sticks of lipstick, and some mascara. "I need to stock up too. What if I run out?" Yozak asked while adding several more containers of make-up to his stack.
Conrad grumbled something that sounded like "Don't take too long," and went outside to wait.
"I've never used purple lipstick before," Yozak said while examining one of his many purchases while he exited the store.
"You can do that later," Conrad said as he shoved one of the barrels of mead into Yozak's arms.
Yozak sighed. One of the few disadvantages of having enormous muscles was that everyone always wanted you to carry things around for them. Did Conrad ever stop and think that maybe Yozak wanted to keep his hands free to fix his hair or arrange his purse? No. It was always Yozak, carry this big heavy thing for me since you have giant biceps, all the time.
Next they went to the only inn to drop off the mead. A cheer went up as Conrad and Yozak entered the building. Apparently Iridina didn't make very many deliveries.
The inn keeper was so pleased to have a fresh delivery of mead that he offered to give Conrad and Yozak meal discounts and a discount on their stay at the inn as well.
~o~
Conrad started his meal of stuffed quail and wild rice, and noticed that Yozak was missing. What could Yozak be up too? Maybe he was trying on his new make-up. Still, he doubted that Yozak would miss a meal just to paint himself up.
Come to think of it, Yozak had gone missing in Xursa as well. Could Yozak in fact be up to something? Whenever the Vedalia Beetle had tried planning something behind Butterflyman's back it had never ended well. Yozak would learn his lesson eventually. Either that of he could leave him behind in Dai Shimaron along with Adelbert. Maybe it had been too long since Yozak had been thrown off a cliff? Yes that whad to be it. Yozak needed to be thrown off something at the earliest opportunity.
Some men at a nearby table began discussing the Blue Wind. Conrad half-listened as he continued his meal. One of the men objected to the claim that the Blue Wind could leap from building to building. "He leaps across buildings? That part gotta be a hoax. Maybe he's got ladders or something."
"Well, all I know is he can conjure up demon followers at will," the other man said while slamming his drink down on the table. "They say it's because he's half-demon."
"I thought he was an heir to the throne of Dai Shimaron," the first man argued. "How can a demon be an heir to the throne?"
Conrad ordered another glass of mead.
~o~
Yozak sat down heavily in his chair and made the legs squeak against the floor. Much to his disappointment, Conrad didn't even glance up. Yozak started his dinner. "It's cold," he complained.
"Serves you right," said Conrad.
Messenger pigeons were a useful form of communication, but trying to get one out of a tree hadn't been fun. Yozak ate a few more sporkfuls of his meal. "Oh, by the way I got a letter from Gwendal," he said.
Conrad glanced up but didn't say anything.
"He mentioned something about King Saralegui being around. "Here's the letter." Yozak said as he slipped it over to Conrad. He was disappointed that Conrad didn't react to the news that Yozak had been conversing with Gwendel behind his back. Sometimes a little drama was fun. And Yozak enjoyed being the center of attention.
Conrad skimed over the letter. Yozak knew that most of it was Gwendel's boring commentary on current events, their progress, and the fact that Saralegui appeared to be up to no good, even more so than usual.
Wolfram had left a postscript, which of course did not mean that he missed Conrad at all; he was merely doing his royal duty. Wolfram's note mentioned that he never thought his brother would be so selfish as to go off gallivanting around and leave everyone else behind when there were duties at the castle, but to make sure that they got back before Yuuri returned. Unless Conrad really was self-centered enough to abandon them all.
Conrad gave Yozak a smile. One that either meant he was in a good mood and appreciated Yozak's spy work, or that he was cheerfully plotting retribution that would manifest when Yozak least expected it. Conrad had always been hard to read. He had been slightly easier to gage during his grumpy angsty phase, but not by much.
Yozak smiled back, a predatory smile just in case Conrad happened to be in a receptive type of mood. That was the best kind of mood as far as Yozak was concerned, but it didn't happen very often. Still, his chances were pretty good whenever he was alone with Conrad. Especially since they would be sleeping in an inn with real beds instead of on the ground with tree roots sticking into Yozak's back.
"So, we've got some time before the kiddo comes back at least," Yozak said, cheerfully indicating the letter.
Conrad paused to think. "If Saralegui is planning something he'll probably be near the border."
"I overheard that some of his men often stop here, since this is the largest town nearby," Yozak said.
And indeed, Salsipuede for all its faults and short-comings was a Mecca in the midst of farm land and more farm land and scattered cottages. There were tree farms to the East and corn to the West, lots of corn. So much corn that it would remind Conrad of Nebraska, if he had ever been there. But at the very least, the endless rows of grains could potentially serve as fodder for some corny jokes later.
"Well," said Yozak, "We should probably try to get an early start tomorrow morning."
"Hmm?"
"I need to prepare my undercover masterpiece in our room, Captain."
"What do you need to do?"
"Saralegui's men are somewhere near here, right? Well they have to eat and drink sometime. I'll just go out tomorrow morning and try to get a job at the tavern." Yozak pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. "It's called Alkynes of Cleavage since the building used to be a chemistry laboratory."
Conrad frowned despite the pun. "A job, doing what?"
Yozak flexed his enormous biceps. "Serving food, I have the arms for it."
Conrad grunted and pushed his chair away from the table.
As they walked down the narrow hallway towards their room, Yozak remembered there was one slightly dangerous way to gage Conrad's mood. He reached his hand down so that it was touching the small of Conrad's back. Then he moved his hand lower.
Conrad's eyes widened in surprise, and then he leaned back and smirked.
If Yozak hadn't been busy opening the door with one hand and feeling his friend up with the other, he would have fist-pumped. He was going to get lucky tonight!