Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Escaflowne: All you need is Love, Isn't it?

Chapter 31

At the Palace in Palas, in the Queen's private dinning room

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As they sat down to enjoy a final meal with Queen Millerna, Princess Eries, Prince Chid and Sir Allen Schezar before leaving for Fanelia the next day, King Van Fanel, Sir Charson, Lady Hitomi Kanzaki and Merle each raised their glasses and toasted their hostess.

The conversation during dinner was light and lively as much of it centered around the tournament and especially the match between Van and Allen.

"You know Van, you've done my kingdom a great disservice." Millerna teased.

"How so?" Van replied not understanding what she was referring to.

"For years now, Asturia has had the reputation of having the finest knights in all of Gaea. Now that you've defeated Allen, the best of our best, other kingdoms may start getting the idea they can challenge that reputation as well." She smiled.

"Well, I'm sure Allen and the other Knights of Heaven would welcome the opportunity to prove the reputation is well deserved." Van answered back with a grin. "Am I correct in my assumption Allen?"

The knight smiled as he took a sip of his wine. "Perhaps you did do us a greater service by beating me. Now maybe the knights of the other kingdoms won't be so reluctant to participate in the next tournament."

"I don't know about that." Prince Chid said. "If anything, I think perhaps even your own knights will think twice before even considering a challenge to either Allen Schezar or Van Fanel. I may be young and I may not have seen nearly the number of tournament fights as the rest of you but unless the two of you plan to make your fights a regular occurrence, I don't expect I will be witnessing a match like that ever again. It was truly amazing."

"Yes." Agreed Hitomi. "Compared to the young knights who fought before you, it was like they were fighting in slow motion."

"Agreed." Charson replied. "Lord Van, I've seen you fight many battles and train with our new knights in order to rebuild our army over the past six months but I've never seen you fight at that level. Not to sound like a kiss-ass my Lord but your were amazing."

Everyone laughed hardily at the minister's statement.

After getting his laughter under control, Van replied. "Don't worry Charson, we've had too many battles over our kingdom's trade policies to ever consider you a kiss-ass."

This elicited another round of laughter.

As the laughter died down, Van continued. "Actually, you're right. I know I fought over my head. Thinking back on the match now, I know I would have lost rather quickly had it not been for my source of inspiration." The king reached over and placed his hand over Hitomi's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

The teen smiled at the king then quickly glanced around the table to see all eyes on her. She blushed timidly and took a quick drink to hide her embarrassment.

Raising her glass, Princess Eries offered a toast. "To Lady Hitomi, the woman with the power to inspire a king."

All the others raised their glasses and replied. "To Lady Hitomi."

This just caused the teen to turn a deeper shade of red as she took another drink then hiccupped. 'Oh no, not again.' She gave a silly grin and went right on drinking as she looked over at Van then down at their hands. Slowly she turned her hand over, palm up, and squeezed his hand back.

While Merle raised her glass during the toast, she remained silent, a look of deep sadness filling her expression. An expression that remained unnoticed by everyone at the table but the queen.

As the topic of conversation changed and the evening went on, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly, except for Merle who remained melancholy throughout the evening.

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AN: Well, this chapter was going to be longer but I was on my fifth page and didn't like the way I was ending it so I decided it needed more but I felt it was already getting too long so I decided to split the chapter. That means they don't head out to sea till the 33 chapter.

By the way, it was so wonderful to come back from ACEN and fine so many reviews waiting for me. You guys make my day.

A. Amishi