This chapter is dedicated to all my reviewers who made me get off my lazy arse and write this chapter. lol ^_^
Dragon warrior of shin makoku theme song: fable of dreams by lunatic
Dragon warrior of Shin Makoku
Warning: this anime/manga doesn't belong to me (I wish it did lol), it belongs to Tomo Takabayashi and I'm really bad at tenses, so if hardly anything makes sense that's why. Sorry.
Subbed anime: Kyo Kara Moah
Type: Gunter/OC….yaoi (boyxboy)
"hello"…..means speaking
"hello"…..means thinking
"hello"….means flashback/memory
"Stolen Treasure" (part 2)
Clouds now cover the moon destroying what little light there was. Unfortunately for the people of Shin Makoku, it is the perfect cover for our male figures dressed fully in black. Three of said male figures run, in un-natural silence, down the open planed corridors of the castle where you can directly see the second inner courtyard garden.
…Outside Yuuri's bedroom…
Gwendal, in his statue-like posture, stands in front of the bedroom door holding his sword, the tip of the blade pointing to the floor, in front of him. His eyes snap open and widen, as he feels a presence in the corridor with him; grunting he spins around quickly to face the unknown presence, only to see Conrad walking up to him with a serious and worried expression on his face.
"It's reassuring to have a Von Voltaire family member come by as a bodyguard." Conrad comments in relief, though his tone is anything but light and carefree.
Gwendal's posture relaxes slightly but keeps one hand on his sword, "I just stopped by while on patrol." He replies as if it was and meant nothing to him.
Conrad stops beside Gwendal as worry flashes in eyes, on his otherwise expressionless and slightly un-naturally pale face. "How is his majesty? " He asks anxiously.
Gwendal sighs as he looks down closing his eyes, "He is sleeping well. How carefree of him." He informs Conrad feeling slightly bitter about how Yuuri is being kept in the dark about tonight's disturbance, while he has to patrol the whole castle all night.
"Urg! The amount of paperwork I'm going to get after tonight. Then again I could always have lord Ryuu help." Gwendal thinks his lips stretching into a smirk, lucky it's unseen by Conrad.
Conrad visibly sags in relief at the news, "I see." Conrad comments once he has straightened himself. He also couldn't help feeling slightly bitter at the situation, but his fatherly love and relief for Yuuri over-rides that feeling easily.
It suddenly registers to Gwendal that he's talking to Conrad, who should right now be in the castle town. "How was it in town?" He enquires as he opens his eyes, lifts his head up and looks at Conrad.
Conrad stiffens his relaxed posture; remembering why he came back to the castle in the first place, his eyes narrow as his face pulls into a frown showing just how serious his reply is, "It was not an ordinary break-in, since the victims had nothing stolen."
Gwendal grunts in confused frustration, his brows drawing together as he scowls at the wall in front of him. "I don't like it." He states realizing just how complicated the situation has gotten.
"I'm going to increase the number of guards." Gwendal informs Conrad as he turns in back to him, "You take command." He orders with a no nonsense tone.
Without even a goodbye Gwendal leaves Conrad standing in the corridor, who watches Gwendal walk away, to patrol the whole castle again now the situation has changed. "It is not certain that these vermin are targeting the Moah. The castle defences takes priority. " He comments before stopping at the corner at the end of the corridor, which connects that corridor to the next one that's on his left.
In the next corridor on a few feet away, two low-level guards, holding tall spears, stand in front of a random door unaware of Gwendal's presence. "Hey!" Gwendal shouts catching their attention.
The two guards jump in surprise at Gwendal's voice; noticing it to be their commander they run over to him, before stopping directly in front of him. "Yes sir!" They salute him just like perfectly well trained soldiers under his command should.
All gwendal does is point to Yuuri's bedroom door behind him, before leaving to patrol the castle again. In an instant the guards are standing in front of the door, guarding it with their weapons at the ready. Conrad follows Gwendal; smiling at his half-brother Conrad knows that, despite how Gwendal acts, he cares for Yuuri.
While both are patrolling they pass another two low-level guards. Gwendal stops in front of said guards, and orders them to stand guard outside Ryuu's bedroom door. Both watch as the guards run down the corridor and around the corner, as they go to Ryuu's bedroom to do as ordered. With a grunt Gwendal, with Conrad following behind him, leaves to finish his patrol of the rest of the castle.
…Yuuri's bedroom…
It's completely silent in the room beside the quite snores coming from the bed. A thin shadow dances across the floor, in front of one of the two huge windows in the room. The reason for the shadow is because a long rope dangles outside of said window; swinging lightly back and forth one of the male figures, climbs down the rope, stops to check inside the room, opens the window which Yuuri forgot to lock, and silently climbs through the now open window and into the room.
Being extremely quite the man creeps towards the bed, reaches out both black gloved hands, grabs the quilt and lifts it up uncovering the person that's sleeping on the bed. The man stares at a sleeping Wolfram momentarily confused as his intended target, Yuuri, is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, thinking he is in the wrong room, he lets go of the quilt and jumps back in surprise before slinking back to the window and leaving. Unknown to the figure that the room he was in is the correct one, as Yuuri is sleeping on the floor on the other side of the bed out of sight, because Wolfram had kicked Yuuri off and to the floor in his sleep.
…Treasure room/basement…
A bored sounding sigh is heard in the once silent room, footsteps and tapping are heard not a second later. The culprit is Ryuu with his cane who has decided explore the treasure room, seeing as though Morgif, who Ryuu was talking to, has seemingly fallen asleep. Holding a lit torch in one hand he weaves through closed wooden boxes, passing tall wooden shelves displaying treasures he deems uninteresting and he even tries to open some of the doors only to find them locked. A few scrolls, written not long after he left for earth when he was Rikiya, catch his attention the author of the scrolls unknown. He puts them back after reading them, sighing in disappointment as they are only old peace treaty agreements.
"They should be in the library, not down here. And now that I think about it, where were the guards that are assigned to this room?"Ryuu thinks irritably as the torch light causes something to shine slightly in the dark room, catching his attention from the corner of his eye.
Ryuu walks towards it curiosity picking at him; once close enough Ryuu brings the torch forward a little, the fire light from the torch lights up the shinning object. There on a wide light purple cloth covered stone pedestal sits a gold arch shape plated and red velvet crown; small purple jewels go around the crown on thin little stands in-between and slightly above the gold plates, but there are two bigger than the rest one right in the middle on a gold plate, at the front of the crown and one on top of the grown sitting on top of the red velvet. The shinning glint that caught his attention is coming from said bigger jewels, and the gold parts of the crown.
"It must have belonged to a king, because the crown is far too big to fit on a women's head," Ryuu thinks as he examines the crown closer, looking for anything that will tell him who it once belonged to.
The creaking of a door opening echoes throughout the room, making Ryuu spin around in a circle as he inspects all the doors in the room, that he can see from where he is standing, and the main entrance.
"If it's not the main entrance then…" Ryuu ponders as he turns sharply away from the direction of the main entrance as realization hits him, "It could be any of those doors I can't see from where I'm standing! Why do I have a very bad feeling about this?"
Ryuu looks around for somewhere to hide not wanting to be caught by the intruder, while at the same time strains his ears as he tries to pick up the sound of the intruder's footsteps or breathing. When he hears nothing Ryuu, with a quiet grunt, dives behind the wide cloth covered stone pedestal; crouching in a frog like position he cautiously peaks around the pedestal, not before extinguishing the fire of his torch by dumping water, from a deer skin canteen he brought with him to drink from as he talked to Morgif, all over it soaking the wood right through rendering it useless.
Ryuu stops breathing for a few seconds as he spots a male figure, dressed head to toe in black with only a little slit in the mask for the intruder to be able to see, appears from between the wooden shelves. Ryuu slowly lets out the breath he has been holding when his lungs begin to burn; he watches the male figure approach the pedestal with hawk-like eyes, his whole body tense and on alert waiting to see what the intruder intentions are.
Quickly but quietly Ryuu moves his head back around the pedestal, and out of sight not wanting the intruder to see him. "I need to stop him, but how?" Ryuu ponders.
The man stops in front of the pedestal staring at the crown, before he looks from right to left as if checking he's alone. The man then reaches out a black gloved hand towards the crown, his target the second largest purple jewel sitting innocently in the middle of said crown. Placing his other gloved hand on top of the crown to keep it steady; he tightly grasps the jewel and gives it a hard tug, not before sliding a very thin strip of metal under the jewel, and wiggling it about a bit to loosen said jewel.
The man grunts as he stumbles back nearly falling flat on his arse. Once he steadies himself he opens his closed fist, and lying there in his palm is the jewel. With another grunt he takes out a beige draw string pouch, opens its quickly then drops the jewel inside before closing the pouch, and stuffing it back into the pocket in his top.
Ryuu peaks around the pedestal watching the man pocket the jewel then turn to leave. Ryuu slides his hidden sword out of his cane leaning said cane against the pedestal, takes a deep breath before slowly letting it out, then jumps from behind the pedestal and charges towards the man with his sword raised.
"Oh no you don't!" Ryuu thinks angry at the fact someone has broken into his home, and is now trying to seal something that is obviously very important.
The man quickly spins around after he senses someone behind him; shame to say he didn't sense Ryuu fast enough because as soon as he has turned around, Ryuu brings his sword down and slashes him across the chest leaving a thin but deep gash behind. Stumbling back the man lets out a howl of pain as he looks down at his wound, while at the same time his hand flies up to his chest in surprised shock; using his shaky hand to put pressure on the wound to try and stop the bleeding, he looks up with wide eyes to see Ryuu glaring at him with eyes full of killing intent.
Ignoring the wound on his chest the man glares angrily at Ryuu as his anger overrides his pain; with a snarl he takes out his own hidden sword, a long sword-like dagger, which has the blade of said sword coated with the deadly poison Gyromitrin (1). The man charges striking out at Ryuu, with his dagger once he's in a close enough distance to Ryuu.
Sorry to interrupt but I need to explain something; I will go into more detail at the end of the chapter:
Depending on how Gyromitrin enters the body and how severe the case of poisoning is, depends on how on long the poison starts to 'really kick in' and for the symptoms to show. In a less severe case of poisoning the symptoms will occur within 6–12 hours, or in a severe case of poisoning the symptoms will occur within as little as 2 hours.
Ryuu expertly blocks the attack with his rapier thin sword, making their swords clash together with a metal sounding twang. Ryuu grunts as the man, using his weight, bears down on both their entwined swords pushing Ryuu back slightly. In retaliation Ryuu tenses the muscles in his arms and legs then pushes back, causing said man to stumble back with a grunt nearly falling to the floor, as their swords separate from each other with an ear piercing screech.
The man growls in frustrated annoyance as he charges again; just like last time Ryuu blocks the attack but this time Ryuu punches the man in the face, busting his lip open which Ryuu can tell by the blood stain on the mask, all to push him back and make sure their swords don't entwine again. This happens at least five more times with the man gaining two more shallow gashes, one on his thigh and the other on his forearm, while Ryuu only gains a bloody nose.
What Ryuu didn't count on is the man, who remembering the deep gash on his chest, decides to take it as an opportunity and falls to the ground seemingly to 'pass out' from blood loss. Ryuu panting slightly stares in confusion at the sudden turn of events; lowering his sword Ryuu warily walks towards the unconscious man stopping only to stare down at him, and kick him lightly in the side to check if he really is unconscious. Once Ryuu decides that the man is really unconscious, he walks back over to the pedestal, picks up his cane and puts his sword away, before using his cane and noticeably limping (the fight made his leg act up) back over the man lying on the grey stone floor.
Its then that Ryuu makes his first fatal mistake, he lets his guard down even if it is only slightly; using his cane to keep him steady he crouches down beside the man, reaches into the man's top and takes out the beige draw string pouch before standing back up. Ryuu limps three steps away from the unconscious man then stops; he puts his cane under his arm while he opens the pouch, intending to return the jewel to its rightful place. That's when Ryuu makes his second fatal mistake he turns his back towards the enemy, so he didn't notice the man get up from pretending to be unconscious, and by the time he does notices it is too late for him.
In the matter of seconds it took for Ryuu to sense the man is directly behind him, said man has stabbed Ryuu in the top of his back, or more precisely in his shoulder blade with the poison coated dagger. The man feeling satisfaction slowly slides the dagger out of Ryuu, who winces as he bites his lip to keep from whining, before watching Ryuu drop to the floor in pain his cane rolling three feet away from him (2).
Ryuu goes to get up off the floor but the man tenses his leg and kicks Ryuu in the side; a snapping noise echoes throughout the room, and not a second later Ryuu lets out a yelp of pain as he falls back to floor holding his now broken ribs. The man sniggers as he put his dagger into his hidden pocket then bends down at the waist, picks up the beige pouch that Ryuu dropped as he was stabbed, and puts it back in the hidden pocket inside his top.
With a sneer the man kicks Ryuu in the head knocking him out, then goes to leave but stops and walks back over to Ryuu. He stares at Ryuu for a few seconds before bending down, grabbing Ryuu by the legs and dragging him behind the pedestal to hide him. It's then that he leaves the treasure room, after cleaning up the blood from the floor, happy at the fact his mission is now complete. It's unknown to the man at the time, that as he hid Ryuu behind the pedestal his dagger fell out of his pocket landing near Ryuu's head, he only realizes once he has left the castle the next morning and is writing up a report about the mission.
…Day time-morning; Yuuri's bedroom…
The only thing that could be heard in blood pledge castle, on this fine morning is the grunts of soldiers training, the chatter of bustling maids and a loud thump originating from Yuuri's bedroom. The cause of the thump is Yuuri once again being kicked off the bed by a sleeping Wolfram; as Yuuri lies on the floor in a C/L mixed shape, head on the floor with his arse and legs in the air, does he finally decide to wake up.
Yuuri blinks once, twice, three times as he rolls onto his side, and then sits up crossing his legs as he did so. "What the? What was that?" Yuuri mutters thinking about the strange dream he had about him and Wolfram.
Light snoring catches his attention causing him to look behind him. His eyes go wide as an annoyed expression sweeps across his face, once he sees a sleeping Wolfram spread eagle on the bed. "Hey, you wimp," Wolfram mutters in his sleep.
"Wolfram!" Yuuri exclaims glaring angrily at a sleeping Wolfram. At that moment the door to the bedroom opens, revealing a cheerfully smiling Conrad.
"Good morning, your majesty!" Conrad greets happily, trying not to laugh as he stares at the scene before him, Wolfram snoring away as Yuuri glares angrily at Wolfram.
Yuuri glares half-heartedly at Conrad, "Conrad, don't call me 'your majesty." Yuuri complains then states his point of why he doesn't want Conrad to call him 'your majesty', "You're the one who named me after all (3)."
Yuuri hears light snoring reminding him about Wolfram, then turns to stare at said boy with a pained expression. "By the way, could we do something about this? I thought I made him leave, but he's back in here again."
Yuuri suddenly remembers about his strange baseball dream he had, and the weird thing to Yuuri is that Wolfram was in it on the opposing team playing against him. "Because of him, his team got the 'forced victory."(4)
Yuuri once again glares at Wolfram as said boy, rolls over in bed to face Yuuri muttering 'wimp' in his sleep. "Don't call me a wimp!" Yuuri exclaims in annoyance, knowing full well that Wolfram can't hear him.
Conrad couldn't hold it in any longer and lets out a loud round of laughter, "Well then, would you like breakfast now?" Conrad asks once he has calmed down.
"No, morning training first." Yuuri declares with a grunt, to which all Conrad does is just bow at the waist in acceptance, with his hand over his heart and smiling cheerfully says, "Okay, then please change out of your pyjamas."
…outside; the courtyard in front of the castle entrance…
Yuuri after a struggle of getting Wolfram out his room, so he could get dressed in his normal black school uniform, now stands in the courtyard stretching while doing some strange breathing exercise. "The morning air is very refreshing," Conrad comments as he walks up to stand beside Yuuri.
Yuuri looks at Conrad in confusion, "Oh, are you going to run too?" Yuuri asks curiously wondering why Conrad would need to, but isn't complaining about having company on his morning run.
"I will accompany you." Conrad informs Yuuri smiling just like always, as he is quite content to just be next to his godson even if it is as his body guard.
"That's fine," Yuuri beams at Conrad still a little confused but happy none the less. "But why don't you leave your sword?" He wonders out loud thinking how hard it must be, to run with a heavy metal sword strapped to his side. "Isn't it heavy?"
Conrad chuckles lightly as he grasps the handle of his sword, "I'm used to it. The sword is a part of me." He explains to Yuuri not wanting to part with his sword, but will if Yuuri commands it.
"Oh, I see." Yuuri says as if he understood but you could easily see he didn't, and that's because he has never fought in a war or been a soldier.
Conrad chuckles again at Yuuri, "Well then, shall we?" Conrad asks as he runs pass Yuuri expecting Yuuri to follow him, so they can start their morning run.
"Huh! Yeah!" Yuuri stumbles out in reply as he follows Conrad.
…Treasure room/basement…
A heavy atmosphere hovers throughout the room, suffocating anyone who dares to enter. Only a subtle smell of blood hangs in the air, as the musky smell from the years old dusk in the room overpowers it. Suddenly something moves, only a small movement akin to a twitch, behind a pedestal which has a fancy gold arch shape plated and red velvet crown resting on it. It twitches another three times before going still and upon closer inspection it's a pale hand, a hand that belongs to an unconscious and sweating with a high fever Ryuu, who has a puddle of mostly dried blood surrounding him.
…Stoffel von Spitzweg's mansion…
Stoffel sits in a chair behind his desk, that he's turned to face his balcony, brooding as he watches Raven talk to the kotsuhizoku on said balcony. He grunts as he places his elbow on the arm of the wooden chair, and then closes his fist before placing his chin on that fist.
Stoffel sits up straight in the chair once he sees the kotsuhizoku fly away, and Raven walk back into the room towards him. "How did it go?" Stoffel enquires almost begging to know, but as a noble and a Spitzberg he would never lower himself to do that. He still has his pride, damn it!
Raven makes sure to keep a blank expression in front of his master, even though he's in shock and quite angry at the slight upset in their plans, he was just informed about by the kotsuhizoku. "They have succeeded in entering blood pledge castle." Raven informs Stoffel frustration slipping into his voice not that Stoffel notices.
A look of happiness and relief washes over Stoffel's face, "I see." He breathes out heavily as he slumps in his chair, not noticing Raven shift uncomfortably from one foot to the other.
Raven really didn't want to say anything about the slight upset in their plans, but he knew he has to because Stoffel will find out one way or the other, be it from him or from someone else. "Everything is going according to plan…" He says with a slight twitch of the corner of his lips.
Stoffel quickly interrupts Raven as a smirk appears on his lips, "Good! Good!" Stoffel could easily hear the 'but' in Raven's tone of voice, and he could tell he wouldn't like what that 'but' entails.
Suddenly he remembers then first time he met Yuuri, it was two days after Yuuri first arrived in the other world, and a day after Yuuri arrived in Shin Makoku. That day he faced utter humiliation caused by two of his nephews, Gwendal and Conrad.
…FLASHBACK…
It was around mid-day at blood pledge castle, the excitement of the arrival of their new king had finally died down. Stoffel, the former Moah's brother, had been looking for Yuuri nearly all day; it was by chance that he happened to see Yuuri with Gwendal and Conrad, who was just about to go into the throne room.
"Your majesty!" Stoffel shouted while he ran down the corridor, that leads to the throne room, as he wanted to introduce himself to Yuuri.
The trio turned around to see Stoffel stop in front of them, which caused Conrad and Gwendal to glare at him and Yuuri to look confused. "Huh?" Yuuri muttered.
Stoffel smiled at Yuuri as he ignored the other two, "Your majesty, I am Stoffel, the previous Moah's –Cecilia Von Spitzberg's- older brother and former regent. I have come to introduce myself to you." He said as he placed his hand over his heart, and bowed at the waist before he straightened himself.
"Thank you for the proper introduction," Yuuri said as he smiled at Stoffel. Gwendal and Conrad looked at each other in disbelief and anger, before they looked back to the other two to make sure Stoffel doesn't do anything shifty.
"I plan to serve you faithfully, your majesty." Stoffel told Yuuri as he started to cringe under Gwendal's and Conrad's intense glare, especially under Gwendal's 'demon' glare.
To say Yuuri was surprised was an understatement, but he just smiled as he tried to hide his surprise. "Really! Thank you. But I have to go. Bye," Yuuri said cheerfully then waved goodbye, as he walked into the throne room.
Stoffel's body jerked back slightly in shock as he watched Yuuri, his last chance at gaining back his power, just leave, "Your majesty!" He exclaimed and went to follow Yuuri, but he was stopped by a smug Gwendal and Conrad.
Gwendal just glared at Stoffel with a smirk on his face, before he followed Yuuri inside the room. "Conrad!" Stoffel called out with hope that Conrad would help him.
Stoffel inwardly seethed in anger as he watched Conrad glare and scoff at him, then disappear into the room closing the door behind him. The silent message clear as day….
'Leave His majesty alone. If you come near him be ready to face the consequences.'
…END OF FLASHBACK…
Stoffel shakes his head at the memory while huffing in annoyance, "Damn them! I was the regent and they leave me out of everything. I will never forget the humiliation they gave ME." He spits out in anger.
"Your Excellency, your breakfast has been prepared," Raven informs him in hopes that Stoffel didn't catch the 'but' in his voice from earlier, as he really doesn't want to tell Stoffel the little problem in their plans.
"I'm not in the mood for it!" Stoffel exclaims his anger still a burning flame within his chest. All Raven does is sigh nervously, once again shifting from one foot to the other.
"Today's breakfast is your favourite, sautéed Neguroki no Mayakishi," Raven tells Stoffel as he tries not to laugh at the Stoffel's now hungry expression.
"Your Excellency, please calm down and be patient. Soon, your Excellency's worries will be no more." Raven reassures Stoffel thinking he has gotten away, without having to tell him of the little 'hiccup' in their plans.
Stoffel suddenly grind his teeth together in anger as he remembers that, Raven has some bad news for him regarding their plans. "It seems you have some bad news for me, Raven," Stoffel says strangely calm, his expression blank.
"Erm…yes…there seems to be a slight problem," Raven tells a now scowling Stoffel. "One of my men, Aldam it seems, has had a run in with the dragon warrior, as he went to retrieve the jewel."
Stoffel's calm façade disappears in an instant; you could almost see the steam coming out of Stoffel's ears, with how angry and irritated he is right now. "But, we have the jewel, yes?" He barks the question out as he glares at Raven, daring him to say otherwise.
"Yes, but in the process a fight broke out and Aldam has, in his anger, stabbed the dragon warrior with a poisoned dagger." Raven says as he cringers away from Stoffel's glare before noticing what he's doing, and quickly steels himself hoping Stoffel didn't see his reaction.
Stoffel's face begins to turn a vibrant shade of red, and then reddish-purple as Raven continues speaking. "The dagger was poisoned with Gyromitrin, and Aldam has somehow lost the dagger in the castle."
Finally Stoffel's anger explodes in the form of an enraged roar, as he jumps up from his chair and slams both tightly closed fists, down onto his wooden desk in front of him. "WHAT!"
…Blood pledge castle-outside; the courtyard in front of the castle entrance…
Conrad stands in the courtyard with his hands on his hips, and a large closed lipped smile on his face all the while humming happily to himself. Yuuri on the other hand is bent over at the waist, with his hands on his slightly bent knees, as he pants heavily with sweat dripping down his face like a small waterfall.
"Morning exercise sure is good," Conrad comments cheerfully as he breathes in the fresh morning air, letting his arms once again dangle by his side.
"You're too fast. How can you still look so fresh?" Yuuri, his voice sounding hoarse, manages to say while panting as he looks up at Conrad through sweat tinted lashes, his face a vibrant blotchy red.
Conrad lets out a hearty closed eyed chuckle before he looks down to Yuuri, "If you're in the army for eighty years, you get used to it."
Yuuri stares at Conrad in disbelief tinted with a pinch of annoyance, "Normally, before that your arm and legs should have already stopped functioning." He pants out before he falls forward, his muscles screaming in pain, as he passes out. Luckily for Yuuri Conrad, with his quick reflexes, catches him before he hits the ground.
"Your majesty!" Conrad exclaims out in concern and surprise; seeing Yuuri unconscious he, with one arm already around Yuuri's waist, slides his free arm under the back of Yuuri's knees and picks him up bridal style, and then takes Yuuri to Yuuri's bedroom.
...Yuuri's bedroom and bathroom across the corridor from Yuuri's bedroom…
Once Yuuri wakes up Conrad explains what happened, he had stayed with Yuuri to make sure he was ok, before suggesting to Yuuri to have a nice hot bath to sooth his aching muscles. Which Yuuri readily agrees with as he goes to jump off the bed to run said bath, only to groan in pain as his aching muscles scream in protest. Seeing Yuuri's predicament Conrad gently pushes his godson back onto the bed, and then leaves the bedroom to walk into the bathroom, across the corridor from Yuuri's bedroom, to run the bath.
Ten minutes later Conrad walks back into the bedroom and over to Yuuri, who somehow has a silver tray on his lap which has a half-eaten breakfast resting on it. Conrad puts the tray on the bedside table, picks Yuuri up bridal style ignoring Yuuri's protest, then carries Yuuri into the bathroom and sits him on the bench besides the floor bath (5). Conrad walks over to the door and leans on the door frame, as Yuuri undresses before he slides into the bath a sigh a relief and contentment leaving his lips.
"Moring training, then eating breakfast, and finally taking a bath is the best! If I can have a glass of cold milk after getting out of the bath, I will not be able to ask for anything more," Yuuri sighs out happily.
A calm relaxing atmosphere covers the pair, "So peaceful…Since this is the Mazoku's territory, I thought there would be more incidents, but it's actually quite peaceful." Yuuri comments with a sigh. "However, it's a little boring."
Not a few seconds later Gunter runs into the bathroom, passing a baffled looking Conrad, as he heads straight for a startled Yuuri calling out, "Your majesty!"
Gunter stops at the side of the bath panting slightly; he stares down at Yuuri with a grave expression on his face, "Your majesty, an incident…An incident has occurred." Gunter breathlessly informs Yuuri.
"WHAT!" Yuuri exclaims in shock as only one thought pops up in his mind, "How ironic!"
…Treasure room/basement…
Once Yuuri is dry and dressed the trio run down to the treasure room/basement, Gunter leading the way to said room. It isn't long before Gunter, Yuuri and Conrad stop outside a big dark wooden door, the entrance to the treasure room/basement, with a bunch of guards and Wolfram already standing in front of the entrance waiting for them.
"This way," Gunter instructs the group, more for Yuuri's benefit, as he pushes the already slightly open door till it's fully open to reveal, the marvel of what is the precious treasures of Shin Makoku.
Gunter's, Yuuri's, Conrad's, Wolfram's and the guard's footsteps could be heard echoing off the walls and around the room, as they walk down the stone steps and further into said room the guards following not far behind them. Yuuri stares in awe at all the treasures stored on the shelves and in the boxes, not forgetting all the doors everywhere in the room; he didn't even know someplace like this even existed in the castle.
"Wow! There are so many doors. Are these all treasures?" Yuuri asks his eyes wide and his bottom jaw nearly touching the floor in disbelief and awe. Gunter smiles in pride as he hears the awe in Yuuri's voice, but he quickly turns it into a frown as he remembers the situation they're in right now.
"Yes. These are the treasures that have been passed down to Shin Makoku, all the spoils of war the pervious Maoh's have collected. Also, there are presents from other countries that have prospered together with us." Gunter informs Yuuri, secretly happy to be able to teach Yuuri something about Shin Makoku.
Gunter walks over to a large white porcelain cat statue, which has a red painted stomach and one of its paws held up in a wave-like gesture while wearing a red collar, and holds out a hand towards it as if to say 'ta-da'. Yuuri, with Wolfram and Conrad beside him, follow Gunter to said statue and once near the statue, they could only stare blankly at it unsure of what to think.
"This is an item the twelfth Maoh had the entire country make in the interests of nation-building, and this wonderful item is a model of the great Maneki Neko (6)." Gunter tells the trio beside him with a smile, the said trio looking rather bored to say the least.
"Gunter!" Conrad calls sharply directing a half-hearted glare at Gunter; the sudden sharp call of his name brings Gunter out of his 'teacher mode', and back to the present and current serious situation going on at the moment.
"Excuse me." Gunter apologises and leads them over to a wide light purple cloth covered stone pedestal which has a gold arch shape plated and red velvet crown, with small purple jewels on little thin stands in-between and above the gold plates going around the crown, resting grandly upon it.
"Please take a look at this," Gunter asks Yuuri grimly as Yuuri, Conrad and Wolfram stop beside him. They stare at the crown with a mixture of expression, confusion (Yuuri), understanding, anger and disbelief just to name a few.
"Is something wrong with it?" Yuuri enquires with a confused expression as he's still not too sure on what he needs to look at an old crown for.
"This is…" Conrad trails off after he immediately discovers what the problem is with the crown; which in turn alerts Wolfram who follows his half-brother's gaze, and then lets out a sharp angered gasp as he sees it too before muttering. "The stone of the dragon king is…"
"Look carefully." Gunter advises Yuuri as by now all four of them are leaning in to take a closer look at the crown; Yuuri looks from Conrad, Gunter and Wolfram baffled at their reactions, or advise in Gunter's case, before looking back to the crown, intent on finding the so called problem this seemingly important old crown is meant to have.
Gunter points with his pointer finger to the middle of the crown, as there on the front gold arch shaped plate is a large tear drop shaped hole. It seems to be missing a jewel which Gunter confirms by saying, "There should be a jewel here that is bigger than the others. In other words, the jewel of the dragon king is missing."
"You're right!" Yuuri exclaims as he reels back slightly when realization hits him like a tidal wave; now Gunter has pointed it out Yuuri could see exactly what the problem is, even though he's still confused on why that's a bad thing.
Conrad turns to the two guards standing behind them, eyes hard and expression serious. "Who was the first to discover this?" He demands of the two.
The guards look at each then back to Conrad, "Sir, while we were patrolling, we discovered that the door was open but there was no signs of forced entry. When we came in to investigate, it was like this…" One of the guards informs Conrad warily only to be interrupted by Wolfram.
Wolfram springs toward the guard speaking, and grabs the collar of the guard's uniform in both hands. "You were on duty to guard this room. How could you been negligent?!" Wolfram rages at the poor guard.
Conrad glares at Wolfram, though Wolfram doesn't see it as he has his back to Conrad, and shuffles forward a little. "Wolfram! Stop! It's not use blaming them," He commands knowing his younger half-brother wouldn't listen to him otherwise.
Wolfram let's go of the guard's collar roughly while huffing out angrily, "Unbelievable!" The four stand there in tense silence, Wolfram's back still facing Conrad and Yuuri still staring at the crown, letting the seriousness of the situation sink into them, while Gunter hums every now and then as if he just thought of some brilliant idea to solve the problem.
"If no one was able to notice, the criminal must be no ordinary thief," Conrad comments absentmindedly with one of his hands holding his chin, and his other hand holding the elbow of his arm that's holding his chin.
Wolfram looks over his shoulder at Conrad placing his hands on his hips, "There must be more than meets the eye." He says silently but reluctantly agreeing with his older half-brother for once.
"Could it be?" Conrad mutters as something seems to glimmer in Conrad's eyes, as he looks Gunter straight in the eye, a silent conversation going on between them.
Yuuri turns from staring at the crown to looking up imploringly at Gunter, "Hey, Gunter. Is it really that important?" Yuuri asks once Gunter turns his head to look down at Yuuri.
Gunter bends down to be face to face with Yuuri and says, "It's the past Maoh's important jewelled crown, which is considered his symbol. This is Shin Makoku's treasure of all treasures."
Gunter stands straight as he faces forward with his eyes closed tightly, "And now, the jewel of the dragon king, which was on the crown, has been stolen." He sighs out sounding as if he's in pain.
Yuuri looks as if he suddenly doesn't want to know why it's important, "So you're saying this has a direct connection to the Maoh." Yuuri questions a horrible feeling settling in his stomach.
"That's correct," Is all Gunter replies Yuuri's enquiry with. Yuuri puts a hand to his chin in a 'thinking pose' and after a couple of minutes he gets a strange look on his face, "Okay! Then I will solve this case!" He exclaims as he slams a closed fist into the palm of his other hand.
It's an understatement if anyone says that Conrad, Wolfram and Gunter are only a little surprised and concerned. "Detective Shibuya Yuuri, moving out!" Yuuri shouts out with a big smile on his face, getting rather excited about solving a case just like the great Sherlock Holmes.
Suddenly a guard stops beside the group panting as if he's been running, "I…I…It…It's Lord Ryuu! He's…He's not in his room, nor anywhere in or around the castle!" The guard manages to exclaim through his panting.
The four stare at the guard blankly in silence for a moment before it registers what he's just said, then before anyone could say anything a pained groan mixed with a whimper resounds throughout the room. Conrad's, Wolfram's and Gunter's heads whip around to face the pedestal beside them, while Yuuri is the only one to be looking around trying to find out where the sound came from.
Gunter, being the nearest, slowly and warily walks around the pedestal. He stops when he sees a hand just poking out from behind said pedestal; for a few seconds he stares at it but when it twitches as another pained moan resounds throughout the room, he rushes around to the back of the pedestal. He jerks to stop nearly chocking when he suddenly becomes breathless, his eyes going wide in horror at the scene before him.
To Gunter time seems to have come to a standstill so much so that it doesn't even registers to him, when the others stop behind him or the sharp gasp that comes from Conrad and Wolfram, nor the chocked sob from a distraught Yuuri because there lying on the ground with a puddle of blood surrounding him is, Ryuu.
Ryuu's face is a deadly pale with blue tinted lips and dark shadows under his eyes, his whole body shakes and sweats glistens on his furrowed forehead because of the high fever running through his body. His breathing comes out in, almost none-existence, light hot puffs as a whimper escapes his chapped lips, knocking the group but Gunter mostly out of their shocked and horrified silence.
Gunter rushes forward to kneel next to Ryuu, placing two fingers on the side of Ryuu's neck to check his pulse, which is beating erratically against Gunter's fingertips. While behind him everything is in chaos with Conrad holding a struggling Yuuri back from going to Ryuu, and Wolfram shouting orders at the panicking guards to tell the healer (physician) Gisela get herself ready for Ryuu coming. Gunter sees a dagger next to Ryuu's head, picks it up and stores it into his pocket before he slides his arms under Ryuu, one around Ryuu's shoulders and one under the back of Ryuu's knees, and picks him up bridal style being careful not to irritate the knife wound on the top of Ryuu's back.
Gunter, followed by the others, runs out of the treasure room/basement with Ryuu in his arms and through the seemingly endless corridors of the castle, till he reaches a pair of wooden double doors with red crosses painted in the middle on them. He kicks the doors open surprising the healer Gisela and the nurses who are setting everything up to take care of Ryuu; Gunter rushes over to Gisela who directs him to put Ryuu on one of the forty hospital beds in the infirmary, before ordering one of the nurses to shove him out the room who does just that, much to his protest, and after following his gut instinct causing him to give Gisela the dagger, he's finally kicked out the room as the doors close behind him.
The four stands outside the room in tense silence only to have Wolfram break it, "What do you think happened to Lord Ryuu?" He asks quietly his expression showing only slight worry, as he's trying to hold back most of what he's feeling right now.
Conrad, who has an arm wrapped around a shocked and slightly crying Yuuri's shoulders, lets out a grunt as he thinks of what to say without sounding too blunt. A blank expression that appears on most well trained soldiers faces in serious situations, and with the only hint of concern flashing in his brown with flecks of silver eyes, Conrad states his idea on what he thinks happened.
"Well, I'm not too sure but from the looks of lord Ryuu's injuries, I'd say that lord Ryuu stumbled upon the act of the thief stealing the jewel. That, of course resulted in a fight between the two as lord Ryuu probably had tried to stop the thief, and the outcome of the fight is obvious." Conrad states calmly while silently seething in anger and concern, as he nods his head towards the infirmary.
"But considering how well lord Ryuu can fight, I don't think our little thief got away scot free, not without a serious injury of his own anyway." Conrad comments jokingly with a small smile causing them all to laugh, the tense and depressing atmosphere around them disappearing instantly.
…Outside a random room…
Seeing as they could do nothing for Ryuu at the moment and knowing Gisela will get them if anything goes wrong, they all busy themselves with solving the case of the missing jewel of the dragon king. So that's how Gunter, Yuuri, Wolfram and Conrad with fifteen or so guards, find themselves standing outside a random room staring at a sign on a board.
"What does it say?" Wolfram asks in confusion tinted slightly with curiosity, as he leans forward a little to take a closer look at the Japanese writing on the sign.
Yuuri places his hands on his hips and says proudly, "The Shin Makoku's treasure of all treasures, 'The jewel of the dragon king' has been stolen. What will you do, Yuuri?! The 'finding the criminal to solve the case!' Investigation headquarters."
Wolfram stares blankly at the sign then at Yuuri then back at the sign, unsure of what to say or to think so he just settles for saying, "What the heck?!"
Gunter walks up to stand behind Yuuri so he can also get a closer look at the Japanese writing on the sign, which he finds absolutely beautiful because it is so much more elegant than his own world's writing. "This is the writing of a foreign country, your country. What powerful and beautiful writing."
Yuuri puffs out his chest with an arrogant smirk on his face, "Investigation headquarters need to be like this." Yuuri states rather smugly.
Yuuri then turns around to face the guards standing behind him, "Line up!" He barks out with his hands still on his hips and an oddly serious expression covering his face, though you could see the twinkle of mischief and excitement in his black eyes.
All the guards including Gunter do as ordered with a shout of 'Sir!' While Conrad and Wolfram, just silently watch the scene unfold in front of them quite amused. It's then that Yuuri notices Gwendal isn't here with them, which is unusual considering the seriousness of the situation, "Where's Gwendal?" Yuuri enquires curiously.
"He has gone on a solo investigation with his subordinates," Gunter informs Yuuri still looking forward like the rest of the guards, and not moving out of his soldier-like position.
"He's quick," Yuuri comments as smiles like a proud father to himself as he hears this, which is rather strange seeing as Gwendal is hundred and thirteen years older than him.
"Okay! We can't lose to him," Yuuri announces as he points to the first group of the guards, that's standing on the right side of him before continuing, "First group. Check for fingerprints and footprints. Once you've finished collection, take it to the research lab. (7)"
The guards stare at Yuuri baffled as they all whisper the same word 'judgement?' in confusion, unsure if that's what Yuuri means but are too afraid to ask. Yuuri doesn't notice this or is ignoring them, and points to the second group of guards standing on his left.
"Group two will go around and gather information. Gather any evidence from the witnesses," Yuuri orders them gaining a 'yes sir!' from said guards.
Yuuri doesn't point to the third group of guards but he does turn to face them, "Group three. The criminal might still be in the castle. Don't let even a cat leave!" He tells them gaining a 'yes sir!' from these guards as well.
Wolfram watches the scene in front of him play out, with an expression crossing between pain, annoyance and tiredness. Yuuri is oblivious to this as he once again places his hands on his hips, and states the last of his orders, "The rest of you will come with me and examine the scene of the crime. Follow me!"
Yuuri runs off down the corridor with Gunter, Conrad, the first group of guards and Yuuri's group of guards following behind him. "What great leadership! This is truly the greatness of the Maoh. I, Gunter, am in awe." Gunter exclaims happily like a love-sick school girl; the happiness in his voice sounds somewhat forced almost fake as an air of sadness still lingers around him.
"Call me 'chief," Yuuri says as a smug expression washes over his face, determination flashing in his eyes and yet you could see anger and fear for Ryuu, buried deeply behind that determination and smug expression.
…Treasure room/basement…
As soon they get to the treasure room/basement Yuuri set the guards to work; while the guards open and rummage through boxes, barrels, shelves, chests and the other rooms connected to the treasure room/basement, Yuuri stands in the middle of said room contemplating on how to solve this case as he looks around.
Yuuri walks over to a shelf in front of him, "This is supposed to be the treasure room but there is a lot of junk." Yuuri comments carelessly as he opens a box, that's the size of a jewellery box, resting on the shelf only to close it quickly, as a horrible smelling smoke puffs out of said box and into his face.
Once it's closed Yuuri jerks back with a startled slightly chocked out yelp, and in doing so gains the guard's, who is closest to him, attention. Said Guard walks over to Yuuri to see if anything is the matter, and when he's beside Yuuri he sees Yuuri glaring at the box.
"This is a special item from the Rosfuroche. It's a delicacy," The guard informs Yuuri as he opens the box up again causing Yuuri to hold his nose, and not bothered by the smell pulls out a dead green frog by its leg, then holds it up in front of Yuuri and him with a smile.
"This is food?!" Yuuri exclaims in disgust and disbelief while staring, well more like glaring at the dead frog in the guards hand, wanting nothing more the to throw it away so he will never see it again.
With a huff Yuuri turns around to investigate the shelf behind him, only to see Gunter already doing just that. "Do you find anything?" Yuuri directs this question to Gunter.
Gunter doesn't turn around to face Yuuri nor does he stop his search of the tall shelf, when he replies with a hint of annoyance and sadness tinting his tone of voice, "No, chief, I haven't found anything that could help us."
As Gunter is saying this he reaches up to the very top of the shelf, grabs hold of a small blue box and as he goes to pull it down, a gold circlet (8) falls off the lid of said box and onto Gunter's head coming to rest upon his forehead. Gunter instinctively closes his eyes in reaction to the circlet falling on his head; with a grunt he opens his eyes, puts the box back on the top of the shelf and grabs the circlet, so one hand is on either side of his head, then starts to pull at it. A sinking feeling suddenly appears in his stomach as he realizes that the circlet isn't going to come off.
"What is this? It won't come off!" Gunter exclaims as he tries even harder to pull it off his forehead; Yuuri and the guard, who's behind Gunter and has gone back to searching their shelf, hasn't noticed his little problem with the circlet much to his annoyance, so to rectify that Gunter calls out to Yuuri, "Your majesty!"
Hearing Gunter shout for him makes Yuuri turn to face said man, "What? What's wrong Gunter?" Yuuri asks as he walks over to stand beside a distressed Gunter, "Gunter?"
Yuuri says Gunter's name again in confusion, after Gunter yells out in pain causing him to pull at the circlet. Suddenly Gunter turns away from Yuuri before taking five steps forward and kneeling on the floor, "Your majesty, please wait a moment."
Yuuri ignores Gunter and takes three steps towards him, muttering under his breath still very confused with the way Gunter is acting, "Huh? What?"
Gunter, hearing Yuuri walking closer, runs out from between the shelves they were searching, only to run down other aisle of shelves leaving a baffled Yuuri to call out to him from behind him, "What are you trying to say?"
The top of Gunter's body peeks out from the aisle of shelves he ran down; he stares at Yuuri with tears collecting in the corner of his eyes, and his hands still holding onto the circlet as he whimpers out, "Please don't come near. When you come closer, my head…"
Gunter steps out from between the shelves only for him to scream out in pain, as the circlet shoots 50,000 volts of electricity through his body for being one step to close to Yuuri. So to be rid of the pain Gunter runs away screaming once again leaving a confused and concerned Yuuri behind him who mutters under his breath, "What was that?"
Yuuri attention is taken away from Gunter's strange behaviour, as Morgif lets out a loud moan causing Yuuri to look at Morgif who is hanging, chained, on the wall. A large smile appears on Yuuri's lips as he runs over to and stands in front for Morgif, "The demon sword, Morgif! So you are here." Yuuri exclaims happily with twinkling eyes.
Morgif only groans in response but that seems to be perfectly enough answer for Yuuri who asks, "I know. If you were here this whole time, then you should've seen the criminal, right?"
Morgif moans as he then makes a telepathic connection, with only the smallest amount of power he has left, between Yuuri and him, "Yes. Behind you." Shame to say, Yuuri doesn't notice the strange tone in Morgif's voice as he said that to Yuuri.
That's all Yuuri hears before Morgif becomes too tired and the connection breaks, but luckily for Morgif that's all that is needed as Yuuri looks behind him to see a wooden door, "Over there?" Yuuri enquires as he looks back at Morgif who can only groan in response, which in turn makes Yuuri exclaim in surprise, "He knows something?"
Wolfram hearing Yuuri's exclamation runs over to said boy, "What's going on Yuuri?" Wolfram demands but before Yuuri could answer Conrad, who also heard Yuuri's exclamation, runs over to the pair shouting in worry, "Your majesty!"
Morgif groans again which Yuuri ignores as he says excitedly to the pair beside him, "He might know where the criminal is."
…In the infirmary…
Gisela takes off her bloody latex gloves with a loud snap, the two nurses with her doing the same not even a second later. She sighs tiredly as she dumps the used gloves in the basket bin beside the bed, which at the moment is housing a still unconscious but clean and stitched up Ryuu.
"There, finished! Once those stitches come out, he'll have a scar but there's nothing we can do about that," Gisela comments absentmindedly.
"Until I analyses the dagger to see what poison it's coated with, there's nothing else we can do for him," She tells the two nurses who are cleaning up the space around Ryuu, and the unconscious Ryuu's body just making sure that all the blood is gone.
The nurses sigh sadly not stopping their work even as they stare at Ryuu occasionally, in awe at how a man can look so beautiful anymore so and he could look like a handsome women; Gisela shakes her head at the two before she walks over to her desk at the end of the room, sits down behind said desk as she opens the draw, then takes out the dagger and starts analysing it.
With the nurses cleaning the rest of the room and Gisela busy with the dagger, no one notices Ryuu break out in a sweat and his whole body start to shake, as he face scrunches up in pain whimpering out a name, "Rosa!"
…FLASHBACK/MEMORY…
It was mid-day which you could tell by how high the sun was in the pale blue sky, and because the bazaar (9) was now in full swing. It was the one day that humans and mazoku, alike, joined together for a day of festivities, a day for everyone to forget their differences and have fun, and a day for everyone to forget about the on-going war with Soshu and his army. People of all ages were laughing and smiling; a group of little boys ran around as they chased a small dog and another group played catch, while a group of little girls played hop-scotch before they switched to jump rope.
As for the adults they chatted with each other as they browsed the different stalls, of exotic fruits and spices, of beautifully coloured clothes made of fine silk, to an array of freshly made weapons for the men. While others stood and enjoyed the gypsy travellers' shows of dance, music, acrobatics and puppet shows.
"Rosa! Rosa!" A young mazoku man who looked to be about twenty-five shouted happily. Said Young man had long waist length, pin straight black hair with an M shaped fringe that stopped just above his thin eyebrows, along with two large clumps of hair that fell down the side of his face and stopped in the middle of his chest. His black eyes shined with happiness when he saw the person in front of him, while a large smile broke out on his creamy pale face.
A pretty young human woman of eighteen who's supposedly 'Rosa' turned around at the sound of her name being shouted. The woman had long wavy and side-parted blonde hair in a low ponytail, with big chocolate brown eyes surrounded by long black lashes. When she caught sight of the black haired man, a smile also broke out on her pale white face as she raised a hand and waved.
"Rikiya!" She squealed as the man, now known as Rikiya, picked her up by her waist once he was in front of her, and spun around in a circle as they laughed before he put her back down.
"Here, this is for you," Rikiya said as he pulled out a beautiful necklace, a purple crystal that hung from a sliver linked chain, out of the inside of his red and black male kimono.
Rosa gasped in delighted surprise as she stared at the necklace in awe, watching as it sparkled and shined in the sunlight. Rikiya laughed at her expression while he motioned for her to turn around, which Rosa did quickly and held up her ponytailed hair so it wasn't in Rikiya's way. Rikiya carefully undid the delicate clasp on the necklace, before he put it around his lover's neck and redid the clasp; all the while he tried not to break the thin sliver linked chain.
Rosa let ago of her ponytailed hair as she once again stared the necklace, which now hung around her slim neck as the pointed tip of the crystal rested just above the swell of her breasts. Rosa was jolted out of her trance when she felt Rikiya wrap his arms around her from behind, and hug her to him tenderly with a sigh of happiness.
"I love you, my rose," Rikiya whispered in her ear lovingly while he ignored, the slight hurt he felt when she didn't say it back like she normally does. What he didn't see at the time as he was behind her was the tears of frustration, which ran down her now red cheeks and the anger and slight guilt that shone in her eyes.
…END OF FLASHBACK/MEMORY…
Ryuu starts to toss and turn in the bed as his whimpers turn into pained moans, the rustle of damp sweaty blankets and Ryuu's moans catch Gisela's and both nurse's attentions. Gisela jumps up from her chair, runs over to Ryuu and feels his forehead to see how hot he is only to yank it back in shock; with a silent curse Gisela runs over to the sink, grabbing a bowl from her desk along the way, and fills said bowel with cold water as one of the nurses get a cloth from the cabinet.
…FLASHBACK/MEMORY…
The sun was just setting when Rikiya arrived at Rosa's cottage, which stood on the edge of a forest. Rikiya saw grey smoke coming out of the chimney; it was that long trail of smoke that reassured him that his love was home, as he walked down the stone pathway towards the wooden front door. Instead of knocking on the door Rikiya opened said door and walked in quietly, as he wanted to surprise his love with his presence seeing as though he didn't tell her he was coming over to see her.
Carefully he snuck around the downstairs of the cottage looking for Rosa, only to be baffled when he didn't find her downstairs even though there was a fire going in the fireplace. With a confused huff Rikiya decided to check upstairs to see if she's up there; slowly he walked up the stairs making sure to avoid the creaky ones, and once he reached the landing it was then that he heard it, the sounds of heavy breathing, panting and much to his growing horror, moaning.
He kept his eyes trained on Rosa's bedroom door as he walked towards it; a black numbness already started to spread throughout his body, it covered his strangely calm beating heart then drowned his soul staining it black, until finally he was left feeling hollow as he reached the bedroom door and pushed it open.
What he saw did not surprise him as he looked on at the scene, which played out before him with a blank face and cold eyes. Rosa was laid there on her bed naked as the day she was born, with a blonde haired man that was equally as naked, who was also her brother James, between her pale thighs. Her head was thrown back in the throes of ecstasy, with her eyes closed and mouth open as James, as crude as the word is, fucked her roughly.
It was then that Rosa decided to open her eyes; eyes that had darken and clouded with lust and upon seeing Rikiya stood in the doorway, all she did was hug James closer to her sweaty naked self and smirk at him over James' shoulder, before she let out a loud moan as James, with his next thrust, hit her G-spot with a grunt.
…END OF FLASHBACK/MEMORY…
Meeting the nurse by Ryuu Gisela places the bowl on the bedside table, then takes the cloth from the nurse and soaks it in the cold water. She takes it out of the water then wrings out a bit of water from said cloth, before folding it and laying it across Ryuu's forehead. Once Ryuu's pained moans have died down to whimpers and the occasional shaky sigh, Gisela goes back over to her desk to finish analysing the dagger.
"Re-soak the cloth every five minutes and check his temperature every ten, until his temperature has gone down." Gisela orders the two nurses with a glare.
...In the first inner courtyards…
Flowers of all kinds and colours fill the courtyard starting form red, white and pink roses, white orchids, and pink-purple boronias to blue and purple carnations, blue-white Delphinium Pacific Giants, and red tulips. While green square trimmed bushes are placed around the edge of the courtyard, as a green fir tree is dotted in-between every three bushes. A pink-white sakura blossom tree in full bloom stands at the edge, and on the left of the courtyard providing shade from the sun for the red painted bench sitting under it.
A slightly sad and dramatic Gunter sits on said bench, with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, as he sighs, "How can this be happening? Every time I'm near his majesty, I get an extreme headache and feel like I'm being struck by lightning. This is a curse. It has to be!"
"An ancient hatred is trying to pull his majesty and I apart," He says as he changes his position slightly by putting his face in his hands, instead of it being his chin like it was before.
Suddenly his head snaps up to look at the sun shining brightly and warmly in the sky, "I have to leave his majesty's side now. I, the Moah's assistant, am not allowed to see his majesty."
Gunter places his face in his hands again as he starts to cry; tears of fear and full blown sadness falling down his now red cheek like a small waterfall, "My sweet Ryuu! Oh god, I hope he's alright! I…I don't know what I'd do if he died. No, he can't! I won't…I won't let him leave me. I love him too much to let him leave me! Please Ryuu; please don't leave me all alone."
A whimpering cry, a kin to that of a wounded animal, escapes Gunter's lips as the tears fall fast down his face, at the direction his thoughts are taking, "Ryuu!"
Unknown to Gunter, is that at this moment in time he is being watched by a trio of maids, the same maids who were spying on Yuuri and Wolfram the night before. The three maids hide behind one of the bushes not far from Gunter, tears filling the corner of their as they all hold their hands to their cheeks or under their chins.
"Look Lasagna, its Gunter-sama!" The maid in red with blonde shoulder-length curly hair exclaims quietly, her chocolate brown eyes sparkling in awe at seeing him sitting under the fully bloomed sakura tree, albeit sadly, as the small pink-white petals of the sakura tree fall around him, creating such a beautiful but sad scene that it should be made into a painting.
"I see him Doria. He looks fabulous today, right Sangria," The maid in green with boy-short brown-orange hair, now known as Lasagna, also exclaims quietly as a large smile pulls at her lips.
"Hm, right! Those woeful eyes, I wonder what he is thinking about?" the maid in blue with green shoulder-length wavy hair and glasses, now known as Sangria, whispers.
Back with Gunter who has now stopped crying and is glaring at the floor, sighs in annoyance as he now has a mild headache not from the circlet for once but from crying, "This is a curse."
…Somewhere in the castle…
After Morgif showed Yuuri which door the criminal entered the treasure room/basement from, Yuuri unchained Morgif from the wall and directed, no ordered, the demon sword to lead him and his companions to the criminal. That's how Yuuri has ended up walking down a slightly dark and large stone corridor somewhere in the castle, as he holds a moaning Morgif, the tip of the blade pointing up towards the stone ceiling, out in front of him while Wolfram and Conrad follow on behind him.
Seemingly ten minutes later Yuuri suddenly stops at a junction in the corridor when Morgif lets out a loud groan; a look of concentration appears on his face as he tilts his head to the right slightly, as if he could hear something the others could not.
"This way?" Yuuri questions seemingly to himself, but the two with him know that he's talking to Morgif. In response Morgif moans lowly as if to say 'yes' which causes Yuuri to turn left, and to start walking down a different smaller but still slightly dark corridor; Wolfram and Conrad share an unreadable look before following down the new corridor.
"Have you noticed?" Conrad asks Wolfram as he continues to look forward, while pretending that he doesn't sense the presence of people following them, in the shadows of the darker parts of the corridor.
Wolfram also continues to look forward but glances at Conrad from the corner of his left eye; he concentrates on finding out how many people are following them as he replies, "Yeah. Two people…no, three people."
Yuuri, like always, is oblivious to their conversation as he gives his full attention to Morgif. Finally the trio know they have come to the end of the corridor, because a closed chestnut coloured wooden door stands in front of them. At the sight of the door Morgif starts to go nuts, wiggling and shaking in Yuuri's hands as he moans and groans loudly.
"Here? Is the criminal in there?" Yuuri questions Morgif franticly and all Morgif does in reply to Yuuri question, is once again moan very loudly and wiggling in Yuuri's hands.
Yuuri turns so his left side is facing the door and braces himself, as he exclaims with an expression of determination and narrowed eyes, "All right! Let's go."
With that said Yuuri rams his left side into the door with his sword at the ready; the impact of the deliberate collision causes said door to burst open, to reveal the kitchen and a trio of maids, Doria, Sangria and Lasagna, huddled together and screaming in surprise. Yuuri, Wolfram and Conrad sweat drop with confused expressions on their faces, while the same goes for the trio of maids as they stare at the three before them, in confusion, shocked, and slightly fear which is quickly changing into annoyance.
"It's his majesty!" the maid in red, Doria, exclaims to her fellow maids as she stares in awe at Yuuri, quickly forgetting how Yuuri ended up in the kitchens.
"I never imagined that your majesty would come here," The maid in green, Lasagna, comments towards Yuuri quietly and quite absentmindedly as she too stares at Yuuri in awe.
"What do you want?" The maid in blue, Sangria, asks caution colouring her tone of voice as she stares at Yuuri, more like the sword in his grip, not in awe like the other the two beside her but in suspicion.
Yuuri turns away from the trio of maids to glare half-heartedly, in disbelief and annoyance at Morgif as he enquires tightly, "Hey, are you really sure it's here?"
A smirk, which could be the equivalent to an old man's perverted grin, appears on Morgif's face at Yuuri's question as he moans lowly. The maids stare in disgust at the sword; Doria seemingly the bravest one out the group decides to speak up her voice shaking a little, "What is that?!"
Quite suddenly Yuuri tightens his grip on Morgif as he loses control of the sword; seeing as Morgif is a living sword he surprising easily pulls a distressed Yuuri around the kitchen, as he chases after the poor frightened maids hoping to get a kiss or two.
"Morgif…Don't tell me you were looking for young girls!" Yuuri shouts in disbelief while he tries to take back control of Morgif; Wolfram and Conrad just stand in the doorway of the door they came in from, watching the scene play out before them in amusement.
"Morgif, stop!" Yuuri shouts pleadingly but he's drowned out by the maids' high pitched screaming, and Morgif's loud perverted moaning who has, at this moment in time, heart shaped eyes as he chases relentlessly after the frighten maids.
…In one of the spare offices…
While all this is happening, Gwendal sits in a high backed mahogany and forest green cushioned chair behind a mahogany desk, which has several tall mahogany bookshelves standing against the stone wall on the right side of the room, as he writes down a report about last night's incident while a low level guard stands in front of said desk. A mahogany and red cushioned sofa stands against the stone wall on the left side of the room, with two five foot black potted bamboo trees placed on either side of the sofa. While a mahogany table with six chairs, three chairs on each side of the table and also mahogany and forest green cushioned, stand directly in the middle of the room with a red carpet underneath the table and chairs.
A silence develops in the room causing Gwendal to stop writing for a moment as he puts the quill (10) down, and when he opens his eyes to look at the guard he asks stoically breaking the silence, "And?"
The guard flinches at the impassive tone of Gwendal's voice, before standing up straight again and answering with, "Besides the treasure room, there doesn't seem to be any other signs of intrusion. Just that…"
The guard hesitates to finish only find himself on the other end of Gwendal's 'demon' glare, so he stutters out the rest in fear of Gwendal's wrath, "Anissina-sama is doing some weird experiment in the laboratory."
Gwendal freezes for a second as he hears the words 'Anissina' and 'experiment' in the same sentence; he forces himself to relax, picks up the quill to continue writing and gives the guard a tense smirk saying, "Don't worry about her. Leave her alone. Continue your patrol."
With a 'yes sir' the guard vacates the room leaving Gwendal to whisper, "Keep out of harm's way." Internally fearing what dangerous thing Anissina is making this time, hoping she wouldn't seek him out to be a test subject like she normally does.
Sweat starts to drip over his forehead and down his face, while an intense expression of fear twist his handsome features, as he imagines what Anissina would do if she is ever accused of stealing the jewel.
"Don't go near her," He whispers to himself under his breath; the quill falls out of his hand as he's unable to hold it due to his whole body shaking.
…Courtyard in front of the back entrance to the castle…
Yuuri sits in the back castle courtyard at the base of a marble statue, which looks remarkably like a one of those ancient Greek statues of a scribe, as he wallows in his humiliation while thinking about the earlier incident in the kitchen between Morgif and the Maids.
Yuuri sighs tiredly with a slight pink blush still staining his cheeks from his earlier encounter. He silently looks down between his bent knees at the grass, while at the same time his left hand picks at the stitching on his right sleeve.
He sighs again this time in annoyance before he states to Morgif, who is leaning against the base of the statue looking bored, "Sheesh, you embarrassed me."
Morgif just moans in reply then stares at Yuuri, looking as bored as a living demon sword can look. Yuuri notices this and feels his irritation spike causing him to exclaim loudly, "What are you looking at?! Are you trying to tell me that it's my fault that you were stored in there?"
Instead of answering Morgif just closes his eyes, and starts to snore as he pretends to be a sleep. Yuuri glares at Morgif feeling of irritation raises to new levels, while he shouts at a 'sleeping' Morgif, "Don't sleep! If you were a little more useful, I would use you."
Morgif continues to ignore Yuuri, who looks away from him and scoffs, as he makes his snoring louder. Yuuri then notices that his fiancé and godfather aren't with him, "Huh? Where are Conrad and Wolfram?"
A rustling of leaves brings Yuuri's attention to the surrounding bushes; suddenly three of the men clothed in black from last night jump out of said bushes, and stare at intensely at a startled Yuuri who stares at them in confused surprise. The three men charge at Yuuri with the intention of kidnapping him, as Yuuri lets out a 'whoa' while jumping up from his seated position and backs up into the statue, completely forgetting that he has the demon sword, Morgif, with him as he asks the men rudely, "Who the hell are you?"
Conrad then seemingly appears out of thin air, and stands in front of Yuuri defensively with his sword drawn, "That's as far as you go!" He barks with an angry glare directed towards the men in front of him, who have backed up a little in surprise and annoyance at Conrad's sudden appearance.
Yuuri exclaims Conrad's name after he sighs in relief at the sight of Conrad; the men are so focused on the pair in front of them that they, don't notice Wolfram standing behind them with his sword also drawn. Wolfram huffs quietly feeling left out, "I'm here too!" He shouts bringing everyone's attention to him, which causes Yuuri to exclaim Wolfram's name as well.
"Your majesty, Stand back!" Conrad orders pushing Yuuri behind him, but keeps a hand on Yuuri's chest. The men take out their long daggers preparing to fight, the one closest to Conrad lunges forward striking out at Conrad with the his dagger. Conrad blocks the attack with his sword, a metallic twang echoing throughout the courtyard, before issuing an attack of his own. While this is happening Wolfram gives a war cry and swings his sword at the man closest to him, who blocks it with his dagger, causing a metallic twang to echo around the courtyard again. All Yuuri could do is watch as his godfather and fiancé fight, fight to protect him, and listen to the sound of clashing swords and daggers as well as grunts and yelps.
Conrad swings his sword at his opponent but his opponent dodges the attack, by back flipping out of the way of the sword. Conrad goes in for another attack only to have his opponent back flip again, but this time landing on top of a marble statue of an open winged angel. The man on top of the angel places his fingers to his lips and lets out a shrill whistle, apparently a signal as the other two men who are with him look towards him. The one fighting Wolfram, who has his sword entwined with the man's dagger, pushes Wolfram away making their weapons separate from each other with a screech before running to the angel statue.
Wolfram growls, "I won't let you get away!" He shout over the roaring in his ears as his heart still pounds erratically from the fight, not once slowing down as it's fuelled by the adrenaline pumping through his blood.
With his sword in his left hand, Wolfram swings his right arm out in front of him making a C shape; a line of blazing orange-red fire follows his arm originating from the closed fist of his right hand, "All the beings that make up the element of fire." He states loudly.
He then swings his arm up over his head so it's pointing towards the sky, and keeping his arm pin straight opens his hand as a ball of fire, slightly bigger than the size of a basketball, begins to form in the palm of his hand. The ball of fire flares reminding anyone who looks upon it of a solar flaring sun; it flares again but this time a thick line of fire shoots from it, and towards Wolfram's ex-opponent, who stops three steps away from the angel statue, before it hits the base of said angel statue leaving a large black scorch mark on the marble.
Seeing Wolfram's ex-opponent distracted by Wolfram's unsuspected attack, Conrad creeps up behind the man and using the side of his hand hits the man on the back of the neck, making sure to hit the pressure point in the man's neck hard enough to knock the man out but not kill him. Conrad knows that he's got the right place when the man falls to the ground unconscious; seeing as though both Conrad and Wolfram are concentrating on the now unconscious man, the other two on top of the angel statue escape by grabbing onto the legs of two kotsuhizokus, who suddenly appear out of nowhere at Conrad's ex-opponent's whistle.
The sound of whistling catches Conrad's and Wolfram's attention, "Damn you!" Wolfram growls as he tries to run after them only to stop when Conrad shouts, "Wait, Wolfram!"
Wolfram looks over his shoulder with a confused expression on his face to see Conrad, with the unconscious man over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, "Don't chase them." Conrad orders Wolfram lightly knowing how angry he can get about being ordered around.
Wolfram just grits his teeth as Conrad and he watch, the other two men and the kotsuhizokus fly away. While the men in black, Conrad and Wolfram were fighting, Yuuri had sat down at the base of the statue and watched them fight in bewilderment.
That's where he still is when the two men and the kotsuhizokus fly away, "What was that all about?" He questioningly mutters to himself, Morgif just snores in reply which causes Yuuri to glare at him.
…In the tower of Shin Makoku behind the castle; interrogation room… (Name is inspired by the tower of London)
The tower of Shin Makoku is not actually just a tower, but a whole castle-like structure made of black-brown stone which is heavily guarded. It was built, the same time Shin Makoku was first founded, as a prison four thousand years ago not long after the first Maoh, Shinou, defeated Soshu and his army.
After two thousand years the prison was changed into the main castle, or home if you like, for the 14th Maoh's mistress, Eleanor Thorn, before being changed back into a prison seven hundred years later by the 16th Maoh and it has stayed a prison ever since.
When the prison was first built it used to be able to hold about 3,000 inmates at a time, and then when it was changed back into a prison it could hold up to 5,000 inmates, only for it to have shot up to 7,000 when the 22nd Maoh added another nine thousand prison cells underneath the prison. Said prison now has thirty five thousand prison cells, which will house two inmates per cell, not including the two kitchens, two bathrooms, fifteen torture rooms and ten interrogation rooms.
Also the tower of Shin Makoku is only Twelve hours away while walking, approximately thirty six miles, and 4 hours away on horse, ten miles to every hour, behind blood pledge castle. The tower of Shin Makoku as of right now is where Yuuri, Conrad, Wolfram and Gwendal are as they sit, or stand in some cases, in one of the interrogation rooms while Gwendal, after hearing of the criminals capture, questions their now awake prisoner.
The interrogation room itself is made up of black-brown stone, with only one small window on the back wall. While in the middle of the room stands a brown wooden table and two chairs, which Gwendal and said prisoner are sitting in as the others stand around the table. The fire light from the lit gas lamp, the only light in the room besides the sun shining through the window, which rests on the small table, casts dark shadows across Gwendal's scowling face making him seem rather demonic to the prisoner sitting in front of him.
Gwendal glares at the unmasked prisoner, "So, this is one of the criminals." He asks Conrad who, with Wolfram, is standing on the left side of him and the table.
Conrad goes to answer but Wolfram answers Gwendal's question before he can, "The rest got away. Damn it, if Conrad didn't stop me…" Wolfram states as he clenches his right hand into a fist, while his other hand rests on the handle of his sword.
Needing something to take his anger out on Wolfram slams his hands onto the table, as he glares intensely at the light brown haired prisoner, "Who ordered you?!" He demands.
The prisoner doesn't answer but grunts and looks away from Wolfram, making an already angry Wolfram furious, "It's not use trying to act innocent!" Wolfram growls through clenched teeth; the prisoner just ignores him once again by looking down at the table.
Wolfram grabs hold of the brown scabbard *sheath* of his sword with his left hand, as he uses his right hand to grab hold of the sword's handle which causes the criminal in front of him, to finally look at him with confusion and fear shining in the criminal's brown eyes. Seeing this Wolfram leans closer to the criminal in question, "Stealing the Maoh's treasure means death. Prepare yourself!" He states threateningly.
The criminal jerks back into the chair in fright; before Wolfram could even draw his sword Yuuri, who is standing on the right side of Gwendal and the table, interrupts Wolfram by quickly placing his hands on said table, and leaning slightly closer to Wolfram and the criminal says, " Wait! If you do that, we won't know the truth."
Wolfram grunts, let's go of his sword, then straightens up and glares at Yuuri in annoyance, "No, this guy won't confess even if he dies." He states with an annoyed huff.
Yuuri holds up his hand in front of him, his palm facing Wolfram, as he closes his eyes with an annoyed huff of his own, "Now. Now. Let me, the chief, handle this." He tells Wolfram carelessly.
Wolfram's annoyance melts away to confusion as Yuuri tells him this, "Chief?" Wolfram mutters under his breath, while this prisoner looks from Wolfram then to Yuuri with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
Yuuri ignores Wolfram's mutterings as he waves his right hand up and down three times, "It's okay, it's okay. Conrad, untie the ropes." He orders as he points to the ropes tying the criminal's hands together.
Gwendal and Conrad, who were watching Wolfram and Yuuri argue, are now looking at Yuuri as if he has lost his mind. What Conrad does next surprise Gwendal, Wolfram and even the prisoner, "Understood." Conrad says as he walks over to the criminal and unties the rope.
Four hours and ten minutes later Yuuri is now the one sitting at the table, with the criminal sitting in the same place as before, as he begins to write down said criminal's statement. Within those four hours Gwendal sent a letter to Gunter informing him about the capture and interrogation of the criminal, and asking him to bring some paper, quill and inkwell to write down the criminal's confession as they forgot to bring said things with them.
"Well, I'm sure you have your reasons, there's bound to be good and bad in a long lifespan," Yuuri states as if he knew what he's on about, but it is clear to every in the room, even to the criminal, that he doesn't which would explain said criminal's 'are you kidding me' expression.
Both Conrad and an in pain Gunter, who is still wearing the circlet, stand on either side of the door to the interrogation room, Gunter on the right and Conrad on the left, with their backs to the wall paying close attention the interaction between Yuuri and the criminal. At the same time Gwendal and Wolfram, who's glaring at the criminal as he's still slightly angry from the way the criminal ignored him earlier, stands behind Yuuri.
"So, how's your mother?" Yuuri randomly asks catching the prisoner off guard. Said prisoner stares at Yuuri with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open, only just managing to utter 'what' rather breathlessly in fact.
Yuuri gives the prisoner a hard stare and takes a deep breath, "If your mother in the countryside sees you like this, what would she say?" He rants adopting a rather strange and unknown accent.
The criminal sweat drops multiple times, "What are you…?" He starts to ask confusion lacing his tone of voice, only to be interrupted by a seemingly unfinished Yuuri.
Yuuri raises his right arm with his fist mostly closed beside his pointer finger, and waves said finger from side to side, "You need to take care of your mother. I'm sure she didn't raise you to do things like this. " He scolds the dumbfounded criminal.
Gwendal and Wolfram, excluding Gunter and Conrad, are once again staring at Yuuri as if he's lost his mind; Yuuri just hasn't noticed or is ignoring them, and continues on with his ranting, "Your mother nursed you all day when you became ill as a child. Your mother sewed all night so that you could have gloves. If you think about that, don't you think you should live a normal life?"
By the end of Yuuri's rant everyone in the room is holding back their laughter; well everyone beside Conrad as he leans his back on the wall for support, while at the same time sniggers quietly into his right hand. The only indication that says he's laughing is his shoulder's as they shake up and down, and the slight laughter lines around his eyes. The criminal on the other hand hasn't a clue as to what to say to Yuuri, and so all he can think of doing while staring, with a rather clueless expression, at Yuuri is grunt.
Much to the other's amusement and the criminal's annoyance, Yuuri takes the prisoner's grunt as a sigh of agreement, "Right? You think so too, right?" Yuuri exclaims loudly.
Conrad suddenly stops laughing to stare intensely at the prisoner, and at the time Gwendal narrows his blue eyes as he draws his sword from its scabbard *sheath*. The criminal looks over to Gwendal and stares at him, more the drawn sword than Gwendal, in fright only to jerk back into the chair in fear, when Gwendal turns his sword so it catches the sunlight causing it to glint and in doing so makes it look a hell of a lot sharper.
"You didn't really want to do it, did you?" Yuuri says with his eyes closed as he starts on another rant, so of course he doesn't see Gwendal use his sword to strike fear into the poor prisoner, which causes said prisoner to crack.
The prisoner quickly places his hands on the table, and bows his head very close to said table, "I'm sorry! I'll confess everything!" He exclaims interrupting Yuuri's rant.
Yuuri looks at the prisoner in surprise before a smug expression sweeps across his face, "Good, good. That's good." Yuuri coos as he pats the prisoner on the head with his right hand.
"Now, you're hungry, right? Hey, can someone go ask for two bowls of pork cutlet with rice? Oh, with pickles," Yuuri asks while unbelievably not noticing Gwendal putting his sword away, as well as Gwendal's tiredly annoyed expression at Yuuri ignorance.
An hour or so later Gwendal and Conrad leave the room with scowls on their faces; as they walk down the corridor Gwendal thinks back to an hour ago, still rather shocked about the nature of the criminal's confession. Which is shockingly treason *betrayal of the crown*.
…FLASHBACK/MEMORY…
Gwendal glared at the criminal, who had his head down and was staring at the table, as he placed his left hand on the table and leaned closer to the criminal, "So that's it?" He growled.
The criminal squeaked in fear of Gwendal's 'demon' glare, as he brought his shoulders up to his ears and tried to curl up into a ball, only to be stopped by the table in front of him, "Yes. It was Von Spitzberg's orders." He stuttered.
Gwendal turned to look at Conrad with a sadistic smirk on his face, "It's Stoffel. " Gwendal stated loudly enough so everyone could hear him; Gwendal didn't even try to disguise the happiness and anger in his voice when he said that, happy that they finally have some hard proof of Stoffel's to show people Stoffel's true nature, and angry that Yuuri nearly being kidnapped is what brought about the evidence.
The criminal still shook with fright as he kept his eyes locked onto the table, "He said he wanted to see the Maoh and to tell him in person." He stuttered once again.
Gwendal Scoffed in disbelief and shared an unreadable look with Conrad, before he turned to stare at the criminal, "If he wanted to be received in audience by his majesty, there are proper procedures for that." He stated and made sure that the criminal heard the disbelief in his voice.
"Well, the truth is…" The criminal started to say with a stutter but stopped and took in a deep shaky breath, before he then tried to continue his sentence without stuttering, "He wanted to meet his majesty alone."
…END OF FLASHBACK/MEMORY…
"That man wanted to see his majesty without us by his side," Gwendal all but growls in anger at the thought of Yuuri even being alone with that man, that bastard of an uncle, Stoffel Von Spitzberg.
The expression on Conrad's face changes into one of extreme concern, "He probably wanted to get his regency back by influencing his majesty." He says voicing out what he thinks Stoffel's intentions are for Yuuri.
Gwendal suddenly stops and spins around to face Conrad, his eyes wide in shock and sudden realisation, "The jewel as a bargaining chip?" He asks curiously voicing his thoughts.
"It would explain things if the mysterious incidents in town were a part of his plan to steal the jewel," Conrad says agreeing wholeheartedly with Gwendal's logic.
Annoyance sweeps across Conrad's face as he narrows his eyes, "However the prisoner is denying vehemently that they stole the treasure." He states with a tired sigh.
Gwendal glares at the wall in front of him while he too starts to feel annoyed, "We must find out that man's purpose." He declares with determination lacing his tone of voice.
…Blood pledge castle; the courtyard in front of the castle entrance…
A platoon of Shin Makoku's finest stand at attention in the courtyard; each soldier is fully equipped in grey amour and holding a long spear with their swords strapped to their sides. Only two soldiers out of the whole platoon are sitting perfectly on the backs of two brown horses, one on either side of the platoon itself, as they hold onto long poles which have the Shin Makoku flag flying on them.
The trio, Wolfram, Conrad and Gwendal, are in front of and facing said platoon of soldiers as they each sit on the backs of their own horses. Wolfram sits on the back of a white horse with a scowl on his face; while beside Wolfram sits, Gwendal, on the back of a dark brown horse, and beside Gwendal sits, Conrad, on the back of a light brown horse with a smile.
Gwendal holds up his hand asking for silence and once the soldiers quieten down, Gwendal begins to inform them, Conrad and Wolfram inclued, on which course of action that has been decided they should follow upon, "If we have proof that stoffel was responsible for the theft of the jewel of the dragon king, we will make our move."
Conrad turns his head to look at Gwendal and Wolfram, "But he probably won't let us find that proof easily. Anyway we will pursue the intruders." He says to a glaring Gwendal.
Everyone in the courtyard suddenly hears a male voice shout 'hey', but it's only the trio in front that react to it as they recognise it as Yuuri's voice. The trio look over to the right to Yuuri sitting on the back of his black-blue horse, Ao, as he trots over to them.
Yuuri breathes out of sigh of relief, "I made it." He says rather breathlessly as if he and horse have been running, and by the way the horse is panting it seems that the assumption is correct.
Wolfram stares at Yuuri quite surprised and annoyed by Yuuri's sudden appearance, "Yuuri, what are you doing here?" Wolfram asks his voice sounding rough, as he tries not to growl out the words.
Yuuri stops his horse beside Wolfram's, "What, you ask? I'm coming along, of course." He questions very confused as to why Wolfram and Gwendal are staring at him like he's an idiot.
Wolfarm glares intensely at Yuuri as his shoulders tense in anger, "Don't be stupid. We are going after the thieves. On a dangerous trip such as this, a wimp like you will only get in the way." He angrily exclaims as he tightens his grip on the horse's dark brown and leather reins.
Gwendal gently tugs upwards on his horse's black leather reins, to bring his horse's head back up as he glares at Yuuri, "Think about your position. For now, you are the Maoh!" He scolds Yuuri sharply reminding Yuuri of who he now is.
Yuuri slumps in the saddle as looks down at his horse's jet black mane, hurt shining brightly in his black eyes, "Sorry if I'm just 'for now." He says so quietly that the trio has to strain their ears in order to hear him.
Conrad seems to be the only one that notices how hurt Yuuri is, by what Gwendal and wolfram have so harshly and bluntly said, "Your majesty." He mutters underneath his breath as he forces himself to sit still, and to not go over there and comfort his godson even though he really wants to.
"I'm going too! If you guys make decisions without my presence, it will affect the Maoh's dignity," Yuuri states calmly as he straightens up the saddle while making sure the fires of hell burn brightly in his glaring eyes, to cover up the hurt he feels from Gwendal's and Wolfram's sharp words.
Gwendal and Wolfram stare wide eyed at Yuuri rather impressed but also dumbfounded, as for Conrad he's also impressed but oh so proud of his godson for standing up to the pair, "It's true that I don't know what happened in the past between you. That's why I want to see him and confirm everything personally." Yuuri says sharply.
A tense silence appears between the four and continues to grow, daring anyone to speak and break it which just happens to Conrad, "Understood. As your majesty wishes." He says causing Gwendal and Wolfram to quickly look at him in shocked surprise.
"Yeah!" Yuuri exclaims happily as Gwendal now glares at Conrad for agreeing, while Wolfram closes his emerald green eyes in frustration and pinches the bridge of his nose, with his thumb and pointer finger.
"WELLER!" Wolfram shouts at Conrad, who ignores him and smiles happily feeling rather content now Yuuri is happy, as he opens his eyes to glare heatedly at Conrad.
"All right! Let's go, Wolfram!" Yuuri cheers while smiling at the trio before him; he gently pulls his horse's brown leather reins to the side, making said horse turn around before gently kicking his horse's flank with the heel of his black shoes, then galloping around the platoon of soldiers and towards the gate of castle 's front entrance.
"Wait, Yuuri! Hey!" Wolfram shouts as he too gently kicks his horse's flank and gallops after Yuuri, leaving a smiling Conrad and a frustrated Gwendal behind watching them go.
…Stoffel von Spitzweg's mansion…
A peaceful and calming atmosphere surrounds Stoffel, as he stands on the balcony above the front entrance of his home, staring out at the beautiful forest that surrounds the mansion, "Your excellency!" Raven lightly exclaims but with an urgent undertone in his voice disturbing the once peaceful and calming atmosphere.
Stoffel looks over his shoulder and watches for a few seconds as Raven approaches him, who has a panicked expression on his face, before deciding to speak, "What's wrong?"
Raven stops five steps behind Stoffel wringing his hands together behind his back, "One of my men was captured." He informs Stoffel with regret unable to look Stoffel in the eyes.
Stoffel spins around to face Raven with his mouth open, and his eyes almost falling out of their sockets in horrified surprise, "What?!" He exclaims.
Raven forces himself to look into Stoffel horrified eyes for a couple of seconds, before looking back down to stare at the beige stone floor of the balcony, "Your Excellency's involvement has probably been revealed by now." He says quietly.
Stoffel takes a desperate step closer to Raven, hoping against hope that this is all a bad dream, "Raven, then that means…" He utters in disbelief as terror covers his gracefully aging face.
Seeing this Raven decides to reassure him, "Don't worry. This is all still going according to plan. The Maoh is straightforward and simple. I'm confident that he will act as we expect."
Stoffel gives a huge sigh of relief as he closes his eyes for a moment, "Please be prepared, your excellency. There's no turning back now. All you can do is walk forward towards the glory." Raven encourages Stoffel in hopes of easing some of the burden off of Stoffel's shoulders.
Stoffel just grunts before turning away to look down into the courtyard; a platoon of soldiers in red and brown amour and holding spears with a red cloth tied around the pole of said spear, stands at attention in the courtyard as four of the soldiers, directly in the front of the platoon, sit on the backs of four brown horses. While two of the soldiers stand directly in of the row horses, and on either side of the platoon, holding long poles baring a green flag with the Von Spitzberg family's coat of arms on it.
"For your excellency, I will put the Maoh under our influence," Raven declares with determination also showing the unwavering loyalty he has for his lord Stoffel, causing said man to stare at Raven in awe before smiling gratefully.
…End of part 2…
(1) Side note: Gyromitra esculenta and Gyromitra infula are a type of fungus mushroom, which the poison Gyromitrin comes from. The symptoms of poisoning are typically gastrointestinal and neurological; meaning the stomach and intestine and sometimes including all the structures from the mouth to the anus (gastrointestinal). Also the nervous system (neurological) though which part of the nervous system, central or peripheral, I'm not too sure.
As for the treatment that is mainly supportive e.g. checking up on the poisoned patient, keeping track of the poisons development inside the patient etc… If caught early enough, within a few hours after consumption, a gastric decontamination *forced diarrhea * with activated charcoal *powdered charcoal* can be done. The symptoms often take longer than a few hours to develop, which causes the poisoned patient to not turn up at the hospital in time, limiting the activated charcoal's effectiveness.
(2) Side note: 1m is just a little more than 1 Yard - so that would be 3 feet
(3) Side note: a couple of hours before Yuuri was born his mother, miko, met Conrad, who was there to make sure the birth went smoothly, by sharing a taxi with him. Conrad ended up telling her that a baby's birth in July in his home town is celebrated, and is called 'Yuuri' which Miko took a liking too and that's how Yuuri got his name.
(4) Side note: a forced victory is when the home team wins by scoring in the bottom of the final inning in baseball.
(5) Side note: a floor bath is just a whole cut in the ground or a platform with a bath placed inside it.
(6) Side note: maneki neko (Japanese in origin) is a beckoning cat that is believed to bring good luck.
(7) Side note: Yuuri says 'research lab' in modern language, but the guards would have no idea what he's talking about. Hence they would take the literal meaning of the term, which is 'judgement'.
(8) Side note: a circlet is a crown of gold or silver with neither arches or cap, that rest on the wearers forehead instead of on top of the head.
(9) Side note: a bazaar is a Middle Eastern market.
(10) Side note: an old fashioned pen made from the shaft of a feather.