Chapter 3
Barren had once been a part of Liones, until centuries before the king of Liones annexed it because it was…
Well, barren.
The second the cadre of knights, with Ban and Meliodas in the lead, crossed the border into Barren the air itself seemed to change; a mist seemed to float out of the ground and weave through the permanently damp trees, the sky overcast no matter where they were.
"This place is certainly… eerie," Gustaf, one of the knights in the escort observed.
"You just don't want to offend the Crown Prince - 'creepy' is the word you're looking for," one knight named Simon declared.
"No need to worry about offending me!" Meliodas assured them. "I know all-too-well how creepy this place is."
"Any idea why it's so creepy?" Ban was the first to ask.
"A curse," Meliodas summarized. "Centuries ago, a demon laid waste to this land in pursuit of a princess. The king of Liones at the time annexed it and put a spell on it so the curse would spread no further."
"Sounds like a dick move~" Ban drawled, frowning at the overcast sky.
"On the plus side, we're very wealthy in iron and precious jewels," Meliodas shrugged, "but farming is the most difficult of any service in Barren, and farmers are treated the worst. A few years ago I suggested to my father that we spend some money from our kingdom reserve to make a trade with Almora, since their kingdom is known for its agriculture."
"And the mere suggestion had you exiled?" Another knight asked quietly.
"No, it had me sentenced to death," he said, stroking his chin as he looked towards the sky. "But, surprisingly, the entire castle staff helped me escape in the night and covered the whole thing up so it looked like I made it out on my own."
"If you're as kind by comparison, I don't think it was a surprise," Gustaf said with a small smile.
"Thanks, Gustaf - that means a lot," Meliodas said, his cheerful voice showing that he meant it.
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"Is it just me, or does the weather get gloomier the closer we get to the castle?" Ban observed as they travelled onward.
"Wait until you see it," Meliodas muttered, unsurprised by the noises of awe and fear from his travel companions when the reached the damp walls of the capital city - the center of the massive castle, a great spire grew towards the sky.
At the very tip of the spire, a dark, swirling cloud originated from it.
"So the curse is real?" Ban said, looking towards Meliodas; the prince nodded.
"I used to wonder how to break it," Meliodas admitted, "but I was never able to find a way to the top of the tower. And the only way to destroy it is to destroy the whole castle." Ban hummed as he stared up at the spire, becoming lost in his thoughts as they approached the castle. He came back to reality when the massive gates swung open, noticing that the knights who let them enter watched Meliodas with a mix of hope and fear.
"You've got a lot of pressure on you, Meliodas~" Ban murmured to him as they all approached the castle doors, knights lined up at attention and two men standing at the top steps.
"I'll handle it," he muttered as their horses came to a stop and Meliodas dismounted, striding towards the men at the top steps. "Is that Estarossa and Zeldris I see?" He asked rhetorically, stopping at the step below them.
"So the prodigal son returns," the taller of the two, Estarossa, said to Meliodas, his smile clearly forced. The shorter brother made no attempt to hide his disdain for Meliodas.
'We're gonna have a tough time figuring out which one of them wants him dead,' Ban thought to himself as he dismounted, the knights who were sent with him following him in two lines, 'it's probably both.'
"You brought a guard with you?" Estarossa said, looking over Ban and the knights.
"Six were sent by the king. Ban is my friend," Meliodas said, gesturing towards Ban, who bowed lazily.
"I'm glad to see that the type of company you keep hasn't changed, brother," Estarossa said, stepping aside and gesturing for Meliodas to enter the castle as the doors swung open. "The members of parliament insisted that they throw a ball to celebrate your return."
"I would say that won't be necessary, but I'm guessing it's already underway," the future king responded, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"You would be correct. Most of the guests have already arrived, and it's scheduled to be held tomorrow night…"
'I don't like this at all,' Ban thought as he made extended eye-contact with the youngest brother. 'Not one bit.'
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"Chances are the first attempt is going to be here," Meliodas muttered to Ban the following evening, the knights of Liones off to the side.
"And I thought the castles in Liones and Almora were excessive~" Ban said to him with a heavy scowl.
"I'm sorry." Ban looked to Meliodas, smoothing his face to impassive when he saw the remorse in Meliodas' eyes. "I know you want to be with Elaine right now."
"And you want to be with Elizabeth~" Ban responded, smirking at him before looking out over the crowds of stuffy-looking diplomats and nobility. "I think it's about time you get this show on the road~"
"There's a staircase behind the throne that leads up into a walkway, which surrounds the entire castle - throne room and ballroom, used for hanging those tapestries. Perfect positioning for a sniper," Meliodas said quietly.
"The tapestries hang too far out, they couldn't be moved without drawing attention~" Ban said, looking around the edges of the throne room. "I'm sure you can position yourself so a sniper wouldn't be able to see you from around the edges without moving the tapestry?"
"Oh, definitely," Meliodas hummed.
"Alright - you have fun mingling and keep your eyes open, I'll do rounds of the walkway. Don't eat or drink anything." On that note, he slipped into the passage for the walkway, moving silently up the steps.
His years of training heightened his senses in the evening dark as he sniffed the air, his eyes narrowing as he looked to the left.
'This place is even easier to sneak into than the castle in Almora,' he thought, moving stealthily along the wall of the walkway and scowling at how every window to the ballroom was open; luckily, the night air was still and left the tapestries inside remained unmoved. 'This was planned,' he determined, knowing that he wasn't drawing attention to himself in shadows.
He must have circled the walkway two full times before he heard a scuffing sound and froze, pressing himself against the wall. He moved carefully, his eyes landing on a figure just as shadowy as himself. His eyes lit up with realization when he saw the figure reaching behind themselves and removing a composite bow. He slipped through the shadows easily as the would-be assassin stared into the ballroom, clearly trying to locate Meliodas from his position.
He made a noise of confusion when Ban tapped his shoulder, grunting when Ban's fist collided with his jaw; he kicked the bow to the side so it went skittering away, kneeling in front of the man as he slumped against the wall beneath the window.
"Hey, Weinheidt~" he drawled, the other assassin grunted as he looked up.
"Fox?" He spat. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Working for a better price~" he said with a shrug. "I should be asking you the same thing. Trying to kill the Crown Prince on his second day home? That's rude~" When the archer assassin didn't say anything else, Ban grabbed his throat and pinned him to the wall, choking him. "Who hired you?" He demanded.
"I don't know!" He choked, Ban's grip on his throat just lax enough to let him speak, but hard enough to make it difficult. "The job came through a broker!"
"What did the broker look like?"
"Tall, shaved head, glasses - hurk!" He choked when Ban tightened his grip on his throat.
"Did he have a tattoo of a black spiral with spikes coming out of it on the side of his head?" Ban demanded, Weinheidt barely nodding. "Thanks, Wein, you've been a great help~" Ban told him, releasing his neck.
"You gonna kill me?" Weinheidt gasped, looking up at him while grasping at his throat.
"Nah~" he said, picking up his bow and breaking it over his knee. "I only kill if there's money in it, remember? But I'll be keeping this~" he wagged the broken bow in his hands. "Now, I'm gonna tell the rest of security that I saw you, got your bow out of your hands, and you ran. They're gonna be scouring this castle for you in the next fifteen minutes, so I suggest you skedaddle~" Weinheidt glared at him before scrambling to his feet, vaulting over the side of the wall.
He strode leisurely down the steps and around the throne, brushing passed the guards and towards Meliodas in the center of the ballroom. When he was at his side Meliodas immediately turned away to look at him.
"Back so soon?" He asked, looking down when Ban held up the broken bow.
"I thought I knocked him out, but as soon as I broke his bow he was over the side of the wall~" Ban drawled.
Estarossa was the first to react, turning towards a nearby knight and saying, "Collect half of the royal guard and search the castle grounds." Ban didn't miss the way his fists clenched against his sides as he kept staring ahead when the knight had left.
"Something wrong, your majesty?" He asked; Estarossa looked at him with a dismissive expression before shaking his head.
"Nothing, Sir Ban," he said casually before bowing to Meliodas, "brother, I must request that I take my leave. I wish to supervise the knights in their search."
"Aw, you don't have to do that Estarossa!" Meliodas said cheerfully, clapping his shoulder. "But, if it makes you feel better, then go ahead and do what you'd like. I'm not gonna stop you."
"And back to the shadows I go," Ban said, bowing to Meliodas and the people he was speaking with before going to the edges of the ballroom and scanning the area for Estarossa. When he spotted him he frowned.
'None of the guards went that way,' he thought, following the second prince down the hallway he had taken. Luckily for Ban, the torches that lit the corridor cast plenty of shadows, and there were multiple suits of armor on pedestals that were easy to hide behind. 'What are you doing…?' Ban thought as he followed him, sticking to the shadows.
The corridor branched and winded, and Estarossa walked with so much purpose Ban nearly lost him a few times - but he refused to abandon stealth.
"Lady Caitlin." Estarossa said after rounding a corner, compelling Ban to stop. He frowned when he heard a woman's soft gasp at the opposite end of the hall.
"Prince Estarossa," the woman in question said, her voice icy. "Have you been following me?"
"Isn't it obvious?" He responded; Ban could hear his footsteps walking further away from him and towards the woman. "What makes you wander so far from the party celebrating my brother's return?"
"I wanted to think, and it was too loud."
"Think about what?" There was an edge to his voice; Ban heard the woman's breathing shudder.
"That's… none of your concern," she said, a tremor in her voice.
"I'm the prince," he said; Ban could hear their footsteps shifting, the scrape of her heels on the plush carpet transitioning to clicking on stone telling him that he had backed her against the wall. "Everything is my concern."
"Are you threatening me, your majesty?" She asked him, her voice breathy.
"No, Caitlin, not you - never you," Estarossa said, his voice gentle. "I'm threatening that impudent foreign knight who would have the audacity to dance with you."
"I wanted to dance," she told him, "and since you were too busy shadowing your brother -"
"-What did he say to you?" He ordered. When she failed to respond, Ban heard shifting fabric and her moaning softly, punctuated by Estarossa commanding, "Caitlin, what did he say to you?"
"He was romantic," she gasped, moaning again. "He-he complimented me-"
"-He made you blush. And laugh," the prince sounded disgusted.
"Is that so wrong?" She asked him.
"Only I get to do that," he said, "I should kill him -"
"Estarossa, no!"
"He asked you something. He asked you something and you dismissed yourself, your cheeks redder than I've ever made them."
"Estarossa, please -" she sounded frightened; Ban cringed at the wet kissing noises that silenced her. "-He asked me if I was happy here," she gasped when the kiss ended.
"And what did you tell him?"
"I-I didn't tell him anything - I excused myself -" she was interrupted by another kiss, judging by the wet noises Ban overheard.
"Know this, Caitlin," Estarossa said when they broke apart, "as long as you stay by my side, no harm will ever come to you. But if another man ever steals you away from me, I will slaughter an entire army and whoever took you from me - and you're far too gentle to let that rest on your conscience."
Ban determined that he had heard enough, sneaking away to return to the ballroom. He had a gut feeling that the lovers' quarrel he had just eavesdropped on had given him some very important clues that put him a bit closer to returning to Elaine's side.
But first, he had to warn the poor bastard who had danced with the woman.
A/N: So, being in my mid-twenties, I thought I had outgrown sex dreams about anime characters, but NOOOOO...
Last night I had a dream that I had sex with Estarossa. Like, constantly. And as a consequence I had to throw something in, to satisfy my own thirst.