Disclaimer: I don't own Kyou kara Maou.

The rock-filled plains of Yarthsura were rugged and grassy. Few lived there except for some sheep and goat raising nomads. It would have been nothing but boring scenery on the way to join Adelbert and his followers if not for the ferocious beast that dwelled there.

Conrad and Yozak had spent the previous night with a group of friendly nomads who had told a tale of a giant monster that lived nearby. It was said to be enormous, big as any dragon, with long horns and writhing legs and an extra pair of front legs that were modified into poison pinchers or poisonous fangs. It would appear suddenly and snatch a sheep or goat in its pointy legs before rapidly snaking away through the tall grass. Fortunately the centipede-beast hadn't eaten any humans…yet. Conrad and Yozak agreed to keep an eye out for the monster as they passed through.

Conrad paused as they approached a large boulder, having glimpsed movement out of the corner of his eye.

"Captain-"

"Remember what I said about being quiet, Yozak?"

"Ok," Yozak said and started unlacing his tunic.

"That's not what I meant."

Yozak pouted. "You're no fun."

Then they heard a scrabbling of many chitinous legs on rock and the beast emerged. It was reddish-brown, with hard plate armor that covered its flattened body. It reared up into the air, legs moving, and venom glinting off the poison fangs near its head.

"Watch out for the poison fangs!" Conrad shouted as the beast charged towards Yozak.

Yozak swung his sword and dodged out of the way. He plunged his sword down into the centipede's tail, slowing its charge towards Conrad.

Before the centipede had time to turn around, Conrad lopped the head off. The monster continued to writhe. Then he chopped the rest of it into smaller pieces until it finally stopped moving. He picked the head up by an antenna and placed it in a saddlebag.

"Gross, why did you keep that?" Yozak asked.

Conrad smiled, and it was a kind, deceptively benign smile. But he couldn't completely hide the twinkle in his eye.

Yozak gulped as he realized he had somehow managed to unleash a terrible pun. He felt the full horror of his impending doom approach as Conrad paused for dramatic effect, allowing the pun to slowly surface.

Conrad's smile grew wider and his eyes formed silvery crescents. "You know what they say, Yozak. It's important to keep a-head of any monsters we might find."

And the Blue Wind did unleash his terrible sense of humor once more, killing every living being within a ten meter radius with his horrendous play on words.

"I should have known better than to ask," Yozak muttered under his breath.

"Hey look, Yozak. There's a bunch of dead baby centipedes over here."

The Blue Wind had heroically saved the day once again.

Chapter 7: Wolfram Fills Conrad's Boots

Yuuri stepped out of Shinou's fountain, dripping wet. A towel hit him in the face. Yuuri wiped his face on the towel then looked up to see Wolfram glaring back at him.

"Welcome back, Yuuri." You certainly took your time.

"Thanks, Wolfram." Yuuri paused and looked around. "Um, where's Conrad?"

"Humph!" Wolfram folded his arms. "Conrad's off gallivanting around in Dai Shimaron again. I never thought any brother of mine would be so irresponsible."

"Oh, well I guess he has a reason to be there." Yuuri stepped out of the fountain.

"Yuuri, Conrad is neglecting his duty by leaving," Wolfram explained. "But I can do anything he can. I'll be your personal guard tomorrow."

"Really? Thanks Wolfram!" Yuuri said as he gave Wolfram an enthusiastic hug. "Does this mean you'll take me on a morning run and play baseball too?"

Wolfram blushed, and gruffly tried to hide his pleasure. "Of course, isn't that what I just said?"

~o~

The next morning Yuuri awoke to a sleeping Wolfram. An angelic, sleeping, snoring Wolfram who kicked him out of the bed as usual.

Yuuri leaned over and poked Wolfram in the shoulder tentatively. "Hey, uh, shouldn't you be getting up for our morning run?" He tried pulling a corner of the covers away. "Well, that is, if you still want to go on a run, you should probably get up now," Yuuri said and started making a mental list." "Otherwise we won't have enough time to run, wash up, and eat breakfast. You don't want to be late to breakfast, do you, Wolfram?"

Wolfram grumbled in his sleep, then turned over and snored louder.

Yuuri sat down on the edge of the bed. "Well, I guess I'm not going on my morning run after all."

~o~

Wolfram sat up in bed and blearily rubbed his eyes. Yuuri was still in the bedroom and was looking at him expectantly. Wait, did they have something planned for today? Wolfram thought back to the events of the day before. Oh yes, Wolfram had volunteered to go on a morning run with Yuuri, even though two activities that he despised were getting up early, and running. Wolfram glanced at the sun. Drat! He'd overslept.

"WIMP! Why didn't you wake me up?" Wolfram demanded.

"I tried to, but you wouldn't wake up."

Wolfram crossed his arms. "Well you should have tried harder, wimp. How do you expect me to take you on a morning run if you can't even wake me up on time?" He climbed out of the bed and continued glaring at Yuuri.

"If we start now, we'll be late for breakfast," Yuuri said. "Maybe we should skip the run today."

Wolfram turned red. A dark aura filled the room. "Yuuri - you're going on your morning run. Whether you like it or not."

~o~

They arrived at the breakfast table exhausted and out of breath. "Sorry I'm late," Yuuri said, noticing that everyone was nearly finished eating. "Wolfram overslept."

"Wimp! Don't blame this on me," Wolfram said as he sat down and gave Yuuri the evil eye.

Gwendal grumbled into his cup of coffee. "Perhaps Your Majesty should try using all that energy for paperwork." Then he twitched a grumpy eye and grumpily stomped away to grumpily sign royal documents in his office.

"Oh my," squealed Celi, glancing from Yuuri to Wolfram. "Does that mean the engagement is going well?"

"Am I going to get a new brother or sister?" Greta asked.

Wolfram choked on his food.

"Ah, ha ha ha! That's not what I meant at all," said Yuuri, flustered, "Wolfram just agreed to do everything that Conrad usually does, since Conrad isn't here."

"Oh, my," said Celi, and leaned over to pull Yuuri into a boob-hug. "I didn't realize you were so interested in free love, Your Majesty."

Yuuri blushed and pulled away. "No, that's not what I meant either. This is just all a big misunderstanding!"

The maids giggled and raced away to the kitchen to place new bets on the Maou's love life.

Wolfram's face turned a dangerous shade of red. His fists shook. "Mother-" he began.

Before Mount Wolfram could erupt, Greta starting shoving forkfuls of scrambled eggs into his mouth. "Eat your breakfast, Papa Wolfram, before it gets cold."

Yuuri picked at his breakfast. "Why does everything here have to be so complicated?"

~o~

Gunter's eyes sparkled. His lavender hair twirled around as he danced with the precious history book and taught his beloved King every minute detail from the reign of Rosalinde the humorless. Rosalinde von Voltaire was best known for implementing a revised legal code for the Mazoku, and then grumbling over the mountains of paperwork that the new laws produced. Gunter was currently about half-way through reading Rosalinde's two-hundred page legal masterpiece, and Yuuri felt his eyes begin to twitch. Just when Yuuri felt as if he couldn't take any more, Wolfram appeared.

"Hey Wolfram, did you come to rescue me from my history class so we could play baseball?" Yuuri whispered as Wolfram sat down next to him.

Wolfram snorted. "Of course not, wimp. You need to finish your lessons first. How do you ever expect to become a good King if you skip your lessons?"

"But exercise is good for the brain," Yuuri protested. "Ask Gisela, I'm sure she'll agree."

"Oh Majesty!" Gunter noticed that Yuuri wasn't paying attention. His bottom lip trembled, and his entire body drooped. "Do you hate me so much that you feel the need to escape my classes?"

"Haha, of course not, Gunter." Yuuri scratched his head. "It's just that after hearing the part about mandatory pruning of tree limbs near all walkways, I wanted to go outside and uh… look at the gardens."

"But that was fifteen pages ago!" Gunter flipped back to re-read the law Yuuri had mentioned.

Yuuri slumped back down onto the desk. "I'm doomed."

Wolfram pounded a fist on the table. "Yuuri, pay attention or you'll never finish."

Yuuri continued his history lesson while Wolfram watched.

~o~

It was nearly dark out by the time Yuuri had a chance to play baseball. The second throw of the evening was high and fast and hit Yuuri directly between the eyes.

"WIMP! How could you have missed that?"

Yuuri rubbed his forehead. "Ow, Wolfram, you need more practice pitching."

Wolfram walked over and grabbed Yuuri by the collar of his shirt "Yuuri, are you insinuating that I can't do something as well as my brother?"

"Conrad's had a lot more time to practice. You just need to be patient and have fun." Yuuri gave Wolfram a smile. "That's what baseball is about after all, having fun."

"Maybe that's why you're such a wimp." Wolfram said and released Yuuri. "Games should be about preparing for combat, not just fun."

Yuuri re-adjusted his uniform and sighed. "Maybe we could try a different game. Do you have any that you enjoy, Wolfram?"

Wolfram smirked. "I learned a new game while practicing baseball with Conrad. Would you like to try playing dodge the fireballs?" Wolfram held his hand up and a fireball formed.

"How is this supposed to prepare me for combat?" Yuuri shouted as he ran away.

"Yuuri! Get back here and have fun!" Wolfram raged.

~o~

The next morning, Yuuri skipped his morning run since playing dodge the fireballs last night had given him enough exercise for the rest of the week. He started his paperwork in Gwendal's office, on time for once. After finishing his first stack of papers Yuuri asked, "Hey, Gwendal, how much longer until Conrad comes back?"

"Perhaps if Your Majesty spent more time on paperwork and less time asking questions you'd be done by now," Gwendal said.

A.N: Thanks for reading! Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Up next: Conrad and Yozak meet up with Adelbert and prepare to go undercover. ;) heh.