Chapter 4: Complications
A/N
And here's chapter 4 ladies and gents. Sorry if it seems like the plot is getting a little mixed up. I'll try to explain some things at the end.
Puppet? No... a scarecrow! It was a trick!
"Hahahahaha looks like you've figured it out eh? Nice job destroying a puppet!"
Mercedes growled at the taunting tone.
"You... you won't get away!"
"Oh? I beg to differ, your highness" The figure called out tauntingly.
"You'll be begging to LIVE when I catch you!"
"Well it's been fun, but I've got to go. Goodbye for now!"
Mercedes took one last lunge at the figure but missed as he once again became a swirl of cards and retreated to his ship.
Mercedes mentally swore. 'Dammit! You wait thief, I'll definitely catch you, and then you'll rue the day you messed with me!'
She turned around to see, among others, Danika, Philius, and Freud running towards her.
'Here comes the cavalry, only a minute too late to matter… No matter I will catch that thief one day!'
'But now' she thought, 'it's time to perform a happier duty…I think…'
"Danika! You wished to court Freud correct? I now grant you my blessing."
There were three gasps, one of happiness, another of surprise; and yet another of outrage.
"Thank you your highness!"
"What?"
"This is insanity!"
Mercedes tilted her head to the side and blinked in confusion.
"Danika, you didn't tell Freud of your intents?"
The elder addressed tried to keep her composure but failed brilliantly as her face skipped pink and went straight to a dark crimson.
"Well I was planning to tell him after I received your blessing…" she mumbled almost inaudibly.
Mercedes sighed, even if she was 26, Danika acted like a child at heart.
"But your highness you said that I had to face you in a duel!"
"And so you did, I never said that you had to win now did I?"
"Oh well no but…"
Danika you wanted to go out with pretty boy here in the first place so why are you complaining?"
Danika seemed to have temporarily forgotten how to speak, until the object of her affections appeared in front of her.
"Are you alright Danika?"
"O-Of course!"
An awkward silence filled the air until Danika finally broke it.
"So Freud would you erm, like to go out?" she squeaked.
"Of course Danika!" he said while smiling.
Mercedes gritted her teeth, 'Of course he flashes that annoyingly perfect smile that makes him look ever so handsome.'
There it was again, that damned twinge in her chest! She would have to get that checked out by Astilda later.
And of course, Freud was seemingly taking this all in stride but inside he was panicking.
'Damnit Phantom! I thought I told you to keep your hands to yourself! And what should I do? I don't want to hurt Danika but I can't get in a relationship with her either!'
A nasty no-win set options.
"Chapter 26: Sub-chapter 10: Clause 46: Rule 1738 of senior apprenticeship: No personal relationships with any other species as sharing magic secrets, accidentally or on purpose, could threaten the purity of the ancient art of spell-casting. -Grendel the First"
'Looks like I'll be hearing this from Grendel…' he thought as Danika half dragged him to the park where the children were.
~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile with Mercedes and Philius~~~~~~~~~~
"Queen Mercedes, in the best interests for this city, Elder Danika and for the alliance, you cannot allow this." as he jabbed his thumb in the direction of the disappearing figures of Danika and Freud.
Mercedes sighed, "I know Philius... I know..."
"Their relationship could ruin- Wait, what did you say?"
"I said I know Philius, but I haven't ever seen Danika so happy. For now let's just let her be."
Philius inspected his Queen's face carefully. Her face held a melancholy smile, while her eyes told of regret. He could guess what that regret was for. Mercedes had long since confessed to him that she was uncomfortable about taking away Danika's childhood. Though there was something else that he couldn't identify in that look…
"Your highness, the longer we let this drag on, the harder it will be for her."
"Yes but I want her to be happy, if only for a short time. Happy moments are sparse enough as it is Philius."
Philius grimaced, it was Mercedes' way to reminding him that the war effort against the Black Magician was not going well. This month alone they had lost parts of El Nath to Von Leon. There were also rumors of a new commander who flew through the air and delivered devastating blows with dark energy.
"Well I suppose it may be for the best you highness… I'll see to it that they aren't bothered by the citizens, much..."
Mercedes gave Philius a thankful look as she stood to return to her chambers. Wearily, she walked slowly back.
"Thank you Philius, now if you'll excuse me I must attend to matters of state."
'No matter how weary I am.' she thought.
Philius sighed, if there was one thing his queen was not it was negligent. People always wondered why he, an advisor to the previous queen, would serve such a young ruler. There was a very simple reason. Her thoughts were always towards her people, that was why he would serve her, as best he could to the limit that life would allow.
~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~~~
'Phew, that was nerve wracking.' thought Freud.
He felt like he was on an operation table as he had walked through Elluel. He tried to convince himself that this was a normal occurrence, that people were simply staring at Danika, but he couldn't quite pull it off.
Yet finally after dragging him from the park, to the market, and through a few stores, it was over. He had just said goodbye to Danika who had looked like she was on cloud 9.
Wasn't a date supposed to make you happy? Yet all he felt was exhaustion. Too bad his work wasn't done. He had one more thing to do.
He grabbed his wand from his robe pocket and concentrated mana into it, time to have a little talk with a certain infamous thief.
Calling on the power of his partner Freud casted his spell, 'Dragon Blink.'
He got the familiar feeling of being compressed into an infinitely small point as he teleported and was dropped onto an ornate white and gold ship. The Lumiere.
"Phantom! Come on out here we need to talk!"
Freud was greeted with a chilling silence. 'Fine' he thought, 'we'll do this the annoying way.'
He walked up to the door to the ship and tried to open it, predictably it was locked, unpredictably were the rigged spears flying at him from above. Freud grimaced, a trap, and worse, a purely physical one.
Freud once again concentrated, focusing fire mana. A magic circle formed facing the spears and a small ball with something resembling a face flew at the spears.
"Fire Demon!" And the small ball seemed to smirk as the flames devoured the spears in an inferno of heat.
But he wasn't done, instead he turned his wand on the door to the ship. This time he concentrated ice mana. "Ice Demon!" Instead of flames, ice burst out of the now blue magical circle and burst through the doorway.
Freud strode through the doorway, careful of any traps. "Now will you come out Phantom? We need to talk."
"About what my friend?" came a deep voice from behind Freud.
"Phantom! Don't do that!"
"Do what?" He asked innocently while his eyes sparkled with amusement.
Freud sighed with exasperation, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"You know what? Never mind, but we need to talk about what you did today."
"You have said that before my friend, but about what?"
'Oh so that's how it's going to be is it?' Freud thought, 'Well then let the games begin.'
"Well Phantom you steal any jewelry today?"
Phantom smirked, Freud had fallen for it.
"Other than your girlfriend's little crown Freud, I haven't stolen anything in weeks!"
"What?"
"I know! Why just last week they were displaying the Skaia, the fabled, "Treasure of Ereve," in honor of Empress Aria's birthday. And even if it's a dismally obvious trap, it was quite tempting…"
"No not that!"
"Then what?"
"Phantom, Mercedes is not my girlfriend!"
"Oh already on a first name basis? None of that her highness, or Queen Mercedes?"
Freud rolled his eyes, he would never win an argument against Phantom.
"Enough, what I came to do is ask that you return the tiara."
"Hmm, I don't think I will Freud. You see what a thief steals is his until he chooses to give it back or…" he droned as he pulled out the tiara, "somebody is able to steal it back from him."
"Are you going to be difficult? If you are we know where this is going."
Phantom almost tripped from his pacing. He had forgotten, even Freud could be serious.
"Afrien is only a chant away Phantom, and he hates thieves."
Phantom looked as if somebody had ruined his first magic trick.
"I hate that dragon, he and his arrogance, we never see eye to eye."
"Obviously, last time you two saw each other we had to rebuild part of my house."
"And yet, despite knowing this you'll summon him?"
"It's your ship Phantom."
The self-proclaimed, "Master of Thieves" took a moment to mull it over.
'Now what's worth it? Fun with the Elf Queen at the cost of ship repairs… actually no, ship replacement. Or give Freud the tiara…'
"Fine" he finally said, "It's yours, catch."
Freud stumbled as he caught the tiara, and almost dropped it as he fell to the ground.
"Phantom!"
"What?"
"This thing is heavy!"
Phantom snickered, this was almost worth giving the tiara back.
"Ah something the great Freud doesn't know."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Equipment meant for other classes, or in this case, specialized equipment, can only be used by the original user."
"You're saying Mercedes wears this thing into battle every time she fights?"
"Idiot, it's not nearly as heavy to her as it is to you. The tiara was designed for her after all."
"Whatever, it stills weighs a load..."
"Better get it back to your girlfriend, prince charming."
Freud flushed a bright red color. "She's not my girlfriend!"
Phantom looked at Freud skeptically.
'Poor guy, he's really completely whipped, he just doesn't know it yet.'
But Phantom had already disappeared into his ship.
A/N
So here are some things that may confuse you.
Freud does have Afrien as a partner, he (Afrien) Just hasn't made an appearance yet.
2. This is still a MercedesxFreud fic, but it's a boring plotline (at least I think so) if there isn't any conflict so sorry for any confusion.
3. There will be other pairings in this but they aren't being revealed yet. :)
Anyways hope you enjoyed it. Read and Review
-Lunarfeather
P.S. If you have any questions about this fic you can PM me from my profile.