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Title: A Day Late

Summary: Yuri arrives in the other world late, and the race for the Boxes has already begun.

Notes: Yuri gets into a fight. Failure to keep identity secret count: 2.

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Part II, Chapter 2

Who can you trust?

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Fortunately, Nicola had been finishing up her rounds, and the two soon made their way down to the ground floor of the castle. The hallways were filled with people, maids, soldiers and the occasional stunning individual that could only be a noble, judging by the way Nicola bowed to them.

Yuri had been a little worried that some of them might recognize his face, but no one even looked at them twice, and Yuri began to think he might actually be able to slip away without any fuss.

All that changed when they were crossing the courtyard.

Despite her upbeat disposition, Nicola had begun to tire as they were coming down the stairs. Though she put on a determined smile as they navigated the crowded corridors, Yuri could see that she was sweating and flushed.

"Let's rest," he suggested as they were passing the fountain he had glimpsed from the window. As he made a great show of setting down the laundry basket, Nicola gave him a grateful smile.

Looking at the flowerbed, in full bloom next to the fountain, Yuri smiled as well. 'I can't believe it took me so long to realize that this is the Demon Kingdom,' he thought. Crouching next to the flower, he breathed in deeply. But as his eyes looked over the riot of color, Yuri felt a crease start to appear between his eyebrows.

'Red, white, yellow... Isn't there something missing?' Yuri wondered. He couldn't pin it down, but something felt off.

Turning to Nicola, Yuri intended to ask about the flowers, but instead he found himself frowning. One of the nobles, a young man with sunny yellow hair and lovely features, had stopped and stood glaring at Nicola. His eyes slid disapprovingly to the laundry basket Yuri had left next to her.

"You there, human!" the noble called out harshly, approaching Nicola. "Don't just sit there daydreaming! Don't you have work to do?"

Nicola accepted his rebuke, only bowing and moving to take up the laundry basket, but Yuri felt indignation coil in his gut.

"Hey! Leave her alone! Can't you see she's pregnant?" he demanded, stalking over to stand between the two.

"Yuri, it's alright," Nicola tried to tell him quietly, but Yuri refused to just let her get bullied around by some arrogant-looking princeling.

The blond boy sneered at him. "And just who do you think you are, to tell me what to do? Do you know who I am?"

"No, and I don't care. Nothing would give you the right to harass her!" Yuri shot back.

"I am Lord Wolfram Von Bielefelt! I'll teach you your place, you common upstart!" the young lord declared, his hand going to his sword.

His intention was obvious, and Yuri knew he could dodge with ease. But Nicola was behind him. What if she was hit? Instead, Yuri closed in, crowding Wolfram back and forcing him to retreat before he could draw his blade.

"Nicola, go!" Yuri called over his shoulder.

"Yuri," Nicola uttered pleadingly, but she moved away as quickly as her state would allow.

Wolfram had drawn his sword, and he swung it loosely at Yuri, aiming to injure and scare, but not kill. Yuri ducked the first swing and jumped away as Wolfram drew back to strike again.

Landing on the edge of the fountain, Yuri considered his options. They were overall rather few. He wasn't much of a fighter. His specialty was illusions, which wouldn't be much good in a straight fight. When an opponent was already looking at you, they could easily break out of any illusion you cast. That was especially true for Demon Tribesmen.

There were a few techniques Yuri knew that could work in battle, but they were really intended more as distraction to cover your retreat. In a situation like this, Yuri refused to run. This wasn't even about winning - it was about standing up for what's right.

"Running away?" Wolfram taunted, as if reading Yuri's thoughts. "I suppose that's all someone like you can do. You seem to like that woman. You're like her, aren't you? A filthy human, or maybe a half-breed. You have no chance against a pure-blooded Demon Tribesman like me."

"You got something against humans?" Yuri demanded.

"That's right! They're scum!" Wolfram yelled back, his fine features twisting with a deep anger. "We should have wiped them all out in the war! And those of mixed blood are the worst abominations of all! Creatures like that shouldn't exist!"

Watching their fight with fear, Nicola curled her arms protectively around her unborn child, the fruit of her love for a man of the Demon Tribe.

Yuri could feel his own rage building. No matter what this young lord's reasons, saying that any life, especially one that hasn't even had the chance to properly begin, doesn't have the right to exist was too much. Everyone had the right to live.

Behind him, the water in the fountain exploded upward in a tornado.

"Who are you to judge the value of another life?" the Demon King roared. "You will be the one to receive Judgment!"

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Returning to Covenant Castle from the Tomb of the Great One, Murata and his escort had just passed through the castle gates when they noticed the commotion. Servants and soldiers were running around in a panic, though the cause wasn't visible.

"Report!" Gwendal barked, gesturing to the first unfortunate soldier to come close to their party.

"Sir!" the poor man saluted sharply, his expression showing absolute terror. "Lord Von Bielefelt is fighting with... with..."

"Wolfram?" Gwendal repeated, his brows furrowing in confusion. "Well, with whom? Spit it out!"

"I think... it might be the Demon King! Sir!" the poor soldier stammered.

Behind him, the sleek, serpentine form of a water dragon rose up into the air and roared.

Murata could only sigh. Of course Yuri would get into a fight - with one of the Ten Aristocrat Families, no less! - the moment Murata left him alone.

Without waiting for the others to absorb what they had been told or pausing to explain, Murata spurred his horse in the direction of the water dragon. As he galloped closer, Murata could see that it originated from a fountain. Young Lord Von Bielefelt was indeed present, his sword drawn and remaining wisps of fire magic still lingering around him, but he had backed away in surprise. His wide eyes were fixed on Yuri's figure.

Yuri himself stood on the fountain's edge, his hair and eyes both painfully black in the bright sunshine, looking down on Wolfram as streams of water swirled around him. His dragon loomed over his shoulder, but Murata could already see that it was barely holding its shape.

'He hasn't recovered properly,' Murata thought, just as Yuri himself wavered on his feet, the water he had been controlling beginning to disperse.

Noticing his own weakness, Yuri gritted his teeth and gestured sharply. What water remained under his control surged toward Wolfram, blasting him away. Exhausted, Yuri tumbled back into the fountain, while Wolfram was left on the other side of the courtyard, soaked and sputtering but largely unharmed.

Murata jumped off his horse as he drew up to the fountain, already reaching in to help Yuri. "Shibuya, are you alright?" he asked.

Yuri groaned and coughed, but he seemed uninjured, if exhausted.

"Honestly, what were you thinking?" Murata complained, helping his friend to his feet. "Now look at you. You're absolutely soaked."

"My head is killing me," Yuri mumbled. "What happened?"

"You called on the spirits and used water magic," Murata said. "While you were still recovering from your last stunt."

"Yeah, I don't feel too well," Yuri agreed. As he drew his hand away, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"The Box is in the Tomb of the Great One. It's safe there. And I had the priestess dispose of the Key," Murata replied, easily able to follow Yuri's train of thought. His friend shot him a grateful smile.

Gwendal, Gunter and the rest of their group finally burst onto the scene. Lord Von Voltaire surveyed the impromptu battlefield quickly before his eyes settled on Yuri, just as Gunter let out what sounded like a girlish sigh of admiration.

"This isn't how imagine things would go," Murata said, turning to face them, "but I would like to present to you His Majesty, the 27th Demon King of the Great Demon Kingdom, Yuri Shibuya."

Sheepishly, Yuri waved.

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For a moment, everything stopped.

"That's ridiculous! I refuse to believe it!" Wolfram was the first to break the silence. Despite his drenched and miserable appearance, he had dragged himself to his feet and was stalking back toward Yuri and the others surrounding him.

"I can assure you, Lord Von Bielefelt, that this individual is indeed His Majesty!" Gunter protested. "I saw his power for myself in Caloria, as you did just now. And what's more, you can clearly see his noble double-black appearance!"

"His hair and eyes were brown before!" Wolfram protested.

"That was an illusion I created," Yuri spoke up. He squinted up at his soggy bangs, now once again their proper black color. "I guess it dispelled. I wonder if this means I can't use both kinds of magic at once."

"Illusion? Some kind of esoteric skill?" Wolfram shot back. "What kind of Demon Tribesman are you, dabbling in that kind of thing? Just what I would expect from a human-loving-"

Wolfram broke off as Yuri glared at him with narrowed eyes, clearing remembering the way Yuri's magic had pressed against him and how helpless he had been against that force. Yuri's power, at least, wasn't in doubt.

Huffing, Murata nudged his friend. "Cool it, Shibuya. You're in no condition to pick a fight," he muttered. Raising his voice, he told the others, "Illusions are a branch of magic used on Earth. The elemental magic the Demon Tribe in this world uses relies on the pacts with the spirits. On Earth, few spirits are... amenable to lending their assistance, so the Demon Tribe there uses magic in other, usually less powerful but more subtle ways."

"You mean like healing magic?" Gwendal suggested thoughtfully, getting a nod in response from Murata, while Yuri and Wolfram both grimaced a little.

"Oh man, I'm so bad at healing," Yuri muttered to himself.

"Hmph. Healing! A soldier should fight, not heal!" Wolfram grumbled under his breath.

"Your Majesty! Your exotic skills are simply amazing!" Gunter gushed, making Yuri stare at him oddly.

"Um, no, I'm not that good, really," Yuri tried to wave away the compliments. "I'm still a beginner. I just started a couple years ago, and I can only do little things."

Gwendal's gaze shifted to Yuri, pinning him in place. "Is that how you were able to leave your room unnoticed?" he asked, having already realized the only way this situation could have come about.

"No, I just climbed out through the windows," Yuri replied honestly.

Snorting, Gwendal turned away. "I apologize for my brother's insult toward you," he said, though his tone conveyed no apology. "I regret that I will not be able to properly welcome you to the Demon Kingdom, but there are urgent matters demanding my attention, and I will be departing shortly."

'This guy might be an iceberg to his brother's spitfire, and they might look nothing alike, but somehow I still see a resemblance,' Yuri thought irritably. 'They're both so stuck up.'

"You must at least attend the dinner party being held in His Majesty's honor!" Gunter protested.

"There's no time for that," Gwendal said shortly. "I need to begin preparations."

"Preparations for what? What's going on?" Yuri demanded, his eyes narrowing as he straightened. It still seemed a little unreal to him, that he had finally arrived in the Demon Kingdom and that he was the King of this land, but in his own way, he had already accepted that responsibility. If there was something so important happening, he needed to know about it.

"With His Majesty's display of power, attention is turning to us again," Gwendal said, somehow conveying disdain despite his tone and expression remaining unchanged. "The rumors of Big Cimaron being in possession of a Forbidden Box draw some of the pressure away from the Demon Kingdom, but nonetheless, war is looming on the horizon. We have many enemies. Our borders will need to be reinforced, on all sides."

"War?!" Yuri yelped in surprise. "We can't go to war! I won't let that happen!"

"Our enemies disagree," Gwendal said shortly. "Now, if you'll excuse me. Lord Von Crist, I leave the castle in your hands." Rather than wait for dismissal, he nodded perfunctorily to Yuri and a little more neutrally to Murata before urging his horse away from the scene.

"Really, Gwendal," Gunter protested his rudeness half-heartedly.

Yuri watched him go, caught between worry and annoyance.

Turning to his king, Gunter bowed deeply. "Your Majesty, let me be the first to welcome you to the Great Demon Kingdom," he began. "I am truly sorry that circumstances do not allow us to greet you properly, as befitting your majestic self. As Lord Von Voltaire said, there are many pressing issues that must be addressed at once."

"That's alright, I understand," Yuri assured him, though his smile was still a tad uncertain.

"Tonight we will hold a dinner party to properly celebrate your arrival," Gunter continued. "Rest assured, it will be suited to one of your standing. Nothing but the finest will be served!"

"Thanks, I guess," Yuri said. "I'll see you then?"

Gunter beamed, bowing deeply again, before departing, leaving Yuri with Murata... and Wolfram.

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Oh Wolf, you should really learn not to direct your frustrations at uninvolved innocent parties. Next chapter, some explanations. ...Maybe.