Akikee: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I hope you will enjoy this chapter.

Akirina: Sorry for the late update! Enjoy! :)

Chapter 7

Yuuri grunted as he stumbled over some loose rocks, glancing behind him every now and then to check that no one was chasing him. He had managed to escape the prison—what joy!—and he was now running away from it, hopefully to a better place… and hopefully to Conrad…

In the meantime…

"Conrad…"

Turning towards the flap of his tent, Conrad saw that it was his brother, Gwendal. Confusion and a well of emotions swelled from within as he questioned himself whether should he answer to the call. He was ashamed of himself letting his personal affairs getting into his head and quarrelling with his brothers.

"Conrad? Can I enter?"

Heaving a deep breath, Conrad murmured a yes before turning back to the map he was looking at earlier on. Gwendal stepped into his tent and walked towards him, but Conrad felt that he couldn't face his brother.

"Are you alright?" Gwendal asked hesitantly, noticing that the ambience in the tent seemed to be very tense. "I uh…. I'm uh…"

Gwendal wanted to slap himself in the face for stammering. Conrad refused to look at him…would his brother hate him for what had happened to Yuuri? He remembered he had yet to apologize for what had happened.

"I'm sorry."

Shifty grey eyes met the soft olive ones as both brothers uttered what was on their mind in unison. A second passed, then two, followed by a series of laughter from both of them.

Smiling warmly at Gwendal, Conrad was relieved that the awkwardness between both of them had dissipated. Patting his brother lightly on his back, Conrad said, "I'd never blamed you."

"I would have understood if you did," Gwendal replied softly, earning a muddled look by Conrad. "Don't deceive yourself. It was clear that you loved Yuuri. Anybody would have seen that. You're worried for him."

"I—"

"Stop denying, Conrad. We both know that you love Yuuri. And he seems to have some reciprocal feelings for you too…" Gwendal asserted firmly. "Just admit it."

"Gwendal…" Conrad said, rather helplessly. He looked away from him. "I couldn't…"

"Look… just listen, alright?" Gwendal pressed. "Yuuri must realize it now… although he might not have been really aware of it before. That he loves you. Propose to him as soon as he returns to his natural form… will you?"

"I…" Conrad returned his frantic gaze to Gwendal. "I can't! He's my king, Gwendal! I'm just a soldier! You of all people should know that. Regardless of whatever feelings I harbor for Yuuri…"

"Then you'll just have to be honest, wouldn't you? I trust you to make the right decision, brother," Gwendal retorted.

"Gwendal!"

"My Lord, the Dai Shimaron's soldier are in the vicinity. We suspect they might have found intruders!"

Well, this was certainly not the best time…

Meanwhile…

"Well now, who's the one who messed the plan up?" Adelbert scoffed. "And you were saying that I had no brains. Better take that back, kid."

Saralegui flushed in embarrassment. "It's not as if I wanted to botch it!" He protested. "And I did tell you to get your hands off me, so you are in the wrong too!"

Adelbert opened his mouth immediately to rebut, but he was stopped by Belias. "Sh." Belias hushed them, looking behind them. "Do you feel as if there's someone else around?"

"Yes." Adelbert replied immediately while Saralegui frowned, his senses not being as sharp as the other two.

"Heellooo?"

The trio whirled around, on their guards. Belias and Adelbert drew their swords immediately, moving in front of Saralegui. Saralegui prepared himself, ready to use his powers if the situation called for it.

"Helloo?" the person was nearer, now. The trio noted that the caller sounded very young… As if it were a child. They exchanged glances with each other. Could it be…?

The bushes rustled and a child stumbled out, his black eyes searching his surroundings. He spotted them immediately and grinned. "Hello!" he chirped. "I'm lost. Can you help me?"

"Uh…" Belias stumbled over his words, glancing at Saralegui for help. Saralegui looked just as shocked as he was, but recovered quickly.

"Hello," Saralegui greeted casually. "Are you Shibuya Yuuri?" It didn't hurt to be careful.

"Yes." Yuuri nodded. "And you are…?"

"I am Saralegui, King of Small Shimaron." Saralegui replied. "And this is Belias and Adelbert."

Yuuri nodded cheerfully, turning to Adelbert. "I know you. Well, Julia knows you. She says that you were her… fiancé, many years ago." Then ignoring the shocked look on Adelbert's face, he turned back to Saralegui and Belias. "Julia also says that you can bring me back to Conrad." He mentioned. "Can we get going now?"

Saralegui and Belias exchanged glances, before Saralegui nodded and held out a hand to Yuuri. "Of course, let's get going." He replied, and led Yuuri through some more underbrush before Yuuri spoke again.

"Julia asks why do you not have horses? Wouldn't it be much easier to go back home with them? And why is it only you three who are here? Where are Conrad, Wolfram and Gwendal?"

"Ah," Saralegui scrambled to say something. "Uh, actually, we came out here to save you, Yuuri."

"Really?" Yuuri asked him, his eyes shining in amazement before he drooped. "Well, if I had known that, I wouldn't have tried to escape."

"About that," Belias broke in. "How is it that you managed to escape? We didn't feel anything…"

"Feel anything?" Yuuri asked in confusion before he replied to Belias's question. "I just pushed the wall down."

"What?" the three exclaimed, looking at Yuuri in astonishment.

"Good Heavens," Belias murmured. "I wasn't aware that he still possessed such power to push down a wall…"

"Well… It wasn't that hard." Yuuri said cheerfully. "I had to dig a little, though. And what about you? You said that you were coming to save me. What was your plan?"

"Um," Saralegui said eloquently. "Well, the plan was for me to use my powers… and then get a key to rescue you…"

"That is, until the kid botched the plan himself." Adelbert said casually from behind them.

Saralegui glared at Adelbert. "Well, I did tell you to keep your hands off me!" he retorted angrily. "You were the one who didn't listen to me!"

"Keep his hands off you?" Yuuri tilted his head in confusion and the three men flushed at how wrong the words sounded.

"He tried to clap his hand over my mouth so that I would stop talking," Saralegui hastened to explain. "Unfortunately, I didn't take it very well."

"Huh," Adelbert scoffed. "He took it so well that he started shouting at me and caused us to be discovered by the guard. And then he wasn't prepared to use his powers to trick the guard, so we had to escape quickly."

"Oh." Yuuri nodded. "Then it was a good thing that I managed to escape by myself, isn't it?"

"Uh," Saralegui said, looking to Belias. "Well, I suppose it was…"

"Oh, goody!" Yuuri clapped his hands together happily. "I suppose Conrad would love to hear about this!"

The trio exchanged glances with each other again. Conrad? Considering the fact that the half-Mazoku had been slightly… unhappy when they left, they decided that it would be a bad idea for Conrad to learn of this.

"Um, Yuuri." Belias started. "Maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea…"

"Yeah, why don't you just tell him that you managed to escape and we happened to find you? Leave out the part about our plan to rescue you."

"Oh?" Yuuri blinked at them innocently before he shrugged. "If that's what you want," He replied. "I don't mind."

The three 'rescuers' sighed in relief. But Yuuri popped their bubble of relief again. "Julia wants me to tell my brother, though. I can tell him, can't I?" He stared at them with pleading eyes, like a small puppy that was being abandoned.

"Uh…" Adelbert stumbled over his words, taken aback by the impact of Yuuri's puppy-dog look. "Well, of course you can tell him!" the words slipped out, much to the trios' horror.

"Yay!" Yuuri laughed in delight and they were too entranced by Yuuri's happy face to take back what Adelbert had said.

"Oh!" Yuuri perked up suddenly as they passed by a small stream. "Is that water? I'm thirsty… and I need a bath." He looked to Saralegui. "Can we stop for a bit?"

Saralegui nodded, still shocked and Yuuri quickly scrambled towards the stream. He exchanged another glance with his 'accomplices'.

"What do we do?" he asked in despair, knowing that they would not survive to see another day if Conrad knew of this. Conrad was too protective of Yuuri—he would go ballistic if he knew of the attempted rescue and that Yuuri had to save himself.

"We'll have to persuade him not to tell his brother," Adelbert sighed. "I seen him once before, his brother is like a second Conrad… or maybe even worse."

"That's bad." Saralegui murmured, just as a loud splash sounded from the stream.

The trio spent some time organizing their plan and when they had finished, they realized that quite some time had passed and Yuuri had not come back yet.

"I'll go check on him." Saralegui told his companions as he stood and stretched. He wandered down to the stream and frowned as he saw no signs of Yuuri, the only evidence that the child had been there were the clothes that had been left on a rock.

"Yuuri?" Saralegui called. "Yuuri?"

He hunted around for the child king, but Yuuri was nowhere to be found. Eventually, Adelbert and Belias came to find him and they spent some time searching before Adelbert remembered something.

"Oh no…" he murmured, staring at the stream. "It can't be…"

"What's wrong, Adelbert?" Belias asked.

"I've heard that the king can transport himself back to wherever he came from through water… What if…?" Adelbert muttered.

"Oh no." Saralegui whispered. "Then the splash just now…"

"He's gone back to his home." Adelbert confirmed.

On the other hand…

"It's a ransom. From King Ranjeel." Gwendal gritted his teeth in frustration as he handed the missive to Conrad. "They want us to become a part of Big Shimaron… There'll be a meeting of the two countries in two days' time. We're to bring the Ten Nobles as representatives of Shin Makoku and he'll come with Yuuri…"

"This is absurd!" Wolfram yelled, frowning as he read the missive. "They can't do that! It's completely…"

"We have no choice." Gwendal sighed, still scowling. "We will have to return as quickly as we can."

"My Lord!" A soldier burst into the tent, seeming rather frantic.

"What is it?" Gwendal snapped, tired of getting bad news all the time.

"The patrols caught three suspicious people wandering around after the Big Shimaron soldiers left! They're under our watch now." Then he hesitated.

"What is it?" Conrad repeated his brother's words, although he used a gentle tone, throwing his brother an exasperated look. Gwendal ignored him.

"Well… one of them claims to be the King of Small Shimaron… and another said he used to be a general in the King's army…" the soldier said uncertainly.

"King of Small Shimaron?" the three brothers exchanged alarmed glances. "Lead us to them quickly."