Chapter Five: Tragedy

The crown prince managed to get his breath back and laughed a little darkly, his mismatched eyes just as moody.

"When my father married my step-mother, he couldn't decide if he liked her better as a human or a cat, so he changed her to something in between, similar to what you look like."

"Except Nana has longer head fur," his son continued, his mismatched eyes wide with shock.

Baron frowned, since his watch had apparently winded down.

"Mind if I talk with you a bit? There seems to be more going on than just an assassination threat," the Cat Creation said calmly while taking out his watch and winding it up again.

The crown prince's eyes flashed again.

"Sure, sit down." He patted the fairly large blanket as his tiny daughter climbed onto his lap. "There's plenty of room. Just wondering, but how did my father contact you?"

"Cat portal," Baron said, neatly sitting himself on the opposite side of the blanket. "He had apparently wished to hire me years before, but then forgot about it until recently."

I can't believe it. On top of everything else, he really did know how to contact the Cat Bureau. I can't wait until Haru gets back. "Well, what would you like to know?" the crown prince asked out loud.

"Well, for starters, why does everyone around here hate the king? As far as I've been able to tell, only the advisors have any true affection for him."

"It's because Grandfather's a very bad cat," the little white prince piped up. His mother shushed him.

"Haruhi, why don't you take your sister and play by that fountain over there for a while?"

"But we want to say bad stuff about Grandfather, too," the tiny princess protested as her father gently but firmly pushed her off his lap.

"Go play, Harumi. We'll call you when it's time for a nap."

"I hate naps," the prince muttered under his breath while his sister tossed the red ball at him. He caught it easily and tossed it back as she came forward.

"Careful this time! Don't toss it over the hedge again!" the white princess called out to her children. They might hit someone with that thing if they aren't careful.

"Too late," Baron muttered, feeling the back of his head. The mother looked sharply at him.

"Excuse me?"

Baron jerked, and chuckled a little.

"That ball hit me on the head, so I'm hoping they'll be more careful this time."

"Our thoughts exactly. Sorry about that."

Baron waved off the elder princess's concern.

"It was nothing. Now, perhaps you could explain why the king is so terrible?"

Lune sighed.

It's not his fault that he didn't know. There's no point in taking it out on him, and Haru would scold me for it anyway. "Well, my son actually nailed it pretty well. My father is a very bad cat. He's crazy and selfish, which makes for a bad combination for a ruler." Thoughtfully, he rubbed his left leg. "I won't deny it. Few things would give me more pleasure than for him to retire from politics, by abdication or death. I'm not terribly picky."

Baron cocked his head.

"Why don't you give me specifics? Why do you hold him in such low regard?"

The princess sighed.

"Have you learned much about the queen?"

"Only that she's young enough to be his granddaughter and that she's apparently a half-cat like me. The king didn't really want to go into details about her, but Natoru mentioned that she was once a human."

The crown prince laughed darkly.

"Of course Father didn't say much about her. He doesn't want to admit that there's a decent possibility that she could be the one to kill him."

"The king did express some skepticism in that regard. But why would she want to kill him?" the tawny cat persisted.

"She doesn't. I mean, if she had it in her to kill him, she'd have done it possibly before they got married. Haru's willing to wait for him to die a natural death so that we don't get haunted by his spirit or whatever." And she made me promise not to kill him unless he tries to hurt someone again. Blast it! I wish she was home so I could ask her if I can kill him for her yet, the crown prince thought darkly.

Baron cocked his head again.

"I think you're avoiding the question. Why does your step-mother hate your father?"

The princess sighed again.

"Let's see. First, he drowns her in gifts that she hated to thank her for saving my husband's life. Then, he sends an idiot to see if she was interested in marrying my Lune…" she patted her husband's paw, "… He believed the idiot instead of Haru after she was forcefully taken to the Cat Kingdom. Then she refused first Lune's paw in marriage, and his own after Lune proposed to me. Since she didn't want anything to do with him, the king had to hold a knife to her mother's throat until she said 'I do'."

She turned to her husband.

"Did I leave out anything?"

"No," Lune said sadly. "I think you hit everything, Yuki. Well, did that answer your question, my lord?"

Baron's eyes were wide with shock, and his mouth was open a little. The watch in his pocket was telling him very clearly that every word spoken had been true. Slowly, his eyes trailed up to the higher walls of the castle.

"Didn't anyone try to stop him?" Baron asked softly. Lune grimaced, and shakily got to his hind paws with his wife's help. Now that he was standing, Baron could see where his left leg wasn't quite aligned with the other, made even more apparent as his wife retrieved a finely carved cane from the blanket for her beloved husband so he could lean on it.

Prince Lune smiled grimly, gripping the third leg.

"Does this answer your question?" he asked a little stiffly. "I may have failed, but at least I wasn't afraid to try. For that reason alone, I earned Haru's respect. And she has ours." He raised one paw in warning.

"I realize that as things stand, you are my father's agent. Chances are we're going to be on opposite sides of this little feud over my father's life. But know this: if you hurt my step-mother in any way, shape, or form, I will kill you without hesitation. She's been hurt enough for several lifetimes, and frankly, so have the rest of us." With that, the crown prince nodded stiffly, and began walking away with his wife.

"Have a nice day, Mr. Gikkingen."

Baron watched them go, more than a little shocked that so much tragedy centered around the mysterious queen, whom he still had not met. Slowly, he looked down as he took out the list of conspirators.

"Am I all that certain I want to stop this?" he whispered to himself.