DISCLAIMER: I DO NOY OWN BROTHERS CONFLICT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM
Ema dropped her fork as the king uttered those last few words, "the rightful princess of Elence."
King Stephon looked at her seriously, waiting for her to respond.
"What do you mean she's the princess?" Yusuke finally asked for her, "that doesn't seem possible!"
"So sure, are you, young man?" King Stephon said. He snapped his fingers and immediately one the nearby servants walked away, "There's a little more evidence besides just her fathers' names being the same as man my daughter loved and his friend."
"Like what?" Yusuke asked.
"Her name for one thing," said Stephon with a smile, "Ema. It's similar to the name Emma, wouldn't you say my dear?"
Ema didn't reply. Instead she looked down at her plate in confusion.
"What about that?" Yusuke said, "What difference does that make?"
"Yolanda, always said she'd love to have a daughter named Emma someday. She'd talked about it a lot. It's a small coincidence that Ema would have two fathers with names of the two men Yolanda had apparently disappeared with, and would have a name so much like the name Yolanda always wanted to name her daughter."
"Eh, so what? Big deal!" Yusuke kept arguing on Ema behalf, as the girl kept starting down in a daze.
"There are other factors," said Stephon as the servant finally returned, holding a picture frame in his hand, "Thank you," Stephon said as he took the frame and looked at it. A small smile graced his face, "I found myself staring at this picture long after Yolanda left, hoping that someday I could update it. I knew why she would leave, but I also had faith she would return. She was too good of a girl to simply run away from her responsibilities as princess and future queen." He looked over at Ema who slowly raised her head at the king's words.
Stephon started to turn the frame around slowly as he spoke again, "This picture was taken not long before both the big assassination attempt and Yolanda vanished, with Kenji and Rintaro and myself."
Ema took a deep breath to prepare herself as the king finally showed the picture fully. There, no doubt was, was Ema's dad Rintaro and the two people she had always seen in the picture she had seen of her with her real parents and King Stephone himself.
Her mother looked elegant in a big blue sparkly dress with a white sash draped across the front and even a small yet gorgeous crown on top her head. Her father, Kenji was in a suite, and had a small medal on his jacket with a blue cummerbund on that matched her mother's dress as well as the uniform King Stephon was wearing. Her dad Rintaro was in a similar suit to Kenji's, but with no medal or cummerbund.
"Hey, that's Rintaro in that picture!" Yusuke started to say as he looked at the picture too, "and, and, I've seen those two before, in that baby picture with your…,"
"My parents," Ema finally said, "Those are my parents, aren't they? All three of them!"
She started to breath heavily.
Yusuke quickly grabbed her hand. "Hey, hey, calm down!" he tried to coax her.
"Ema?" Stephon said in alarm putting the picture down.
"I need some space!" Ema said loudly as she jumped up from her seat. She headed down a path further into the conservatory, not carrying if she didn't know where it would lead.
"Hey, come back!" Yusuke tried to call out after her.
"Yusuke," Stephon as he managed to help himself stand up with his cane, "allow me to go talk to her."
"Are you sure that's a good idea, your majesty?" Yusuke asked.
"I'd like the chance at least," said Stephon, "There's something else I want to talk to her about in regards as to why I believe she's my granddaughter." He hobbled down the path as best he could.
"Is this really all happening?" Yusuke asked.
"Why don't you go back your room? If you're still hungry, we can bring some more food there," Richard suddenly suggested.
"No way!" said Yusuke, "I'm not leaving here until I know for sure Ema's alright."
Richard looked at Chrissy who shrugged her shoulders.
"Alright, but you're going to wait in the spot we tell you to wait at," Richard decided.
"Fine," Yusuke muttered reluctantly as he did let Chrissy escort him to a nearby bench.
'Ema, a princess? There's no way!' Yusuke kept telling himself in thought.
Ema hurried until she came she came to a random spot and put her hands on her knees still breathing heavy.
"No, no, this can't be happening to me! This can't be happening! I just found out about my birth parents and now, now I find out they were royalty! There's no way! I can't be, a princess! This is the sort of things that happen in movies or books! Not in real life!"
"Ema, here you are," she suddenly heard King Stephon.
"Your Majesty," Ema said turning around to look at him, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…,"
"No, it's alright," Stephon assured her, "This is the kind of news that's hard to take no matter what. But I couldn't think about how else to go about it delicately. No matter how I told you, it'd end up being a really big blow."
He walked over to a nearby marble bench with no back and patted the spot next to him, "Come sit with me for a little bit. There's something else I want to tell you. Something else that has me convinced you are in fact my granddaughter."
Ema reluctantly did as she was told, deciding it was best not to ignore a request from the king.
"I heard you have a little pet at home, a squirrel of sorts?" King Stephon asked.
"Uh, yes, I do have a pet squirrel at home," said Ema.
"His name wouldn't happen to be Juli would it?" Stephon asked.
Ema started to feel alarmed again. "How did you know?"
"His aunt told me," said Stephon. He looked up at some of the trees above him, "Marion!"
The trees shook again and suddenly Ema saw the same squirrel from the night before jumping down from one of them and onto the king's shoulder.
"Yes, your majesty?" she asked kindly.
"Didn't you tell me last night that Ema had a pet squirrel named Juli back home?" Stephon asked.
"Yes, I did," said Marion. She looked at Ema. "That's what you told me right?"
"Yes, that would be correct," said Ema.
"And didn't you also tell me that you can you talk to Juli?" Marion asked.
"Yes," Ema said slowly.
"You remember that was my nephew's name, right your majesty?" Marion asked the king.
"Yes, your brother's son, correct?" Stephon asked.
Ema gasped, "Did you just talk to, her, your majesty?"
"Oh yes, I talk to Marion all the time," said Stephon, "She's always been by my side. Elence squirrels are a common pet among the royals. Mostly because of a very special reason. Would you like to tell her Marion, or should I?"
"Let me do it your majesty," said Marion, "It might be more convincing if I were to explain." She looked at Ema. "You see Ema, for the longest time, there has a been an unknow family lineage of the royal family of Elence, in that they can understand us squirrels."
"The royals can understand you, all of them?" Ema asked.
"Well not all of them," said Stephon, "Only a select few, most notably those who are worthy to king or queen of the country."
"So, the whole reason you can understand Marion is because you're a worthy king?" Ema asked.
"Yes," said Stephone, "I've been able to understand her and others of her kind all my life, so did Yolanda. As such, we royals usually take on one special Elence squirrel to be their special companion. Mine of course was Marion. Yolanda had one too, one she got at a young age."
"Don't tell me," Ema said as she slowly stood up, "don't tell me, his name was Juli?"
"I'm afraid so," said Marion.
"He was such a scamp back then," said Stephon.
Ema had to take a few more deep breaths. "and I supposed, there's plenty of pictures with Yolanda with Juli huh?"
"Oh yes, many," said Stephon, "Ema, I realize how hard this is to understand, but there's so much that would indicate that you are truly my granddaughter. And if you want, I can produce the ultimate proof by doing a DNA test, if you're alright with it."
"A DNA test?" Ema said, "I suppose that would be the smartest thing to do in this case, alright I'll, I'll let you do that."
"Good," Stephon said as he turned around, "Richard! Richard, come here!"
"What's going to happen to me if I do turn out to be your daughter's daughter?" Ema asked
"Well, I'd at least hope that you will consider at least acknowledging me as your grandfather and letting me address you as granddaughter," said Stephon.
"But what about the throne and who's the rightful heir?" Ema asked.
"That's nothing you should have to worry about now," said Stephon, "Right now, I'm only interested in finding out if I really have a granddaughter, a family member I know I have out there who's not fully evil."
Ema turned and looked at the king as he stood up with a gentle smile.
"I supposed it would be nice to know what it's like to have a grandfather," she said.
Stephon nodded in satisfaction.
"I'm here your Majesty," Richard suddenly said as he walked down the path.
"Can you arrange to for a DNA test to be conducted with Ema and myself to prove for sure if she's related to me," said Stephone.
"Of course," said Richard. He walked over to Ema and outstretched his hand, "May I?"
"What do you need?" Ema asked.
"For right now, a thing of your hair," said Richard, "We may need some more from you later."
"Oh, of course," said Ema.
"Sorry in advance, this my hurt," said Richard as he carefully managed to pull out a few strands of hair from her hair.
"Owe!" Ema moaned.
"Sorry princess," said Richard as he draped her hair in a fine cloth with great caution.
"I wish you wouldn't call me princess until we know for sure," Ema requested.
"Of course, forgive me," said Richard. He turned and walked over to the king, "And you, your majesty?"
"Take what you need," Stephon said as he actually managed to yank a little bit of hair from his mustache, giving out a little moan as he did.
"Thank you, your highness," said Richard as he put the hair into a different colored cloth, just a delicately. "I will make sure that this gets done quickly with the outmost accuracy."
"Thank you," said Stephone.
Ema suddenly felt Marion jump on her shoulder, "You know, even if he's wasn't a king, you'd be very lucky to have Chay as a grandfather."
"Chay?" Ema asked.
"Chay is a sort of nickname we squirrels have for Elence royal men, Chi for girls," Marion explained.
"Chi?" Ema said, "Oh my goodness! This is getting to be too much! Juli calls me that! And so, does…," Ema stopped when she remembered. "Marion?"
"Yes?" Marion replied.
"You and," Ema looked over at Stephon who was still talking with Richard, "I guess my grandfather, said that only royalty, mostly ones worthy of the throne can understand you right?"
"Yes, it's been that way since the olden times. Few people know about it," said Marion.
"Then how?" Ema tried to say.
"How what?" Marion asked.
"How, could Louis understand Juli?" Ema asked.
"Who's Louis?" Marion asked.
"One of my brothers," said Ema, "he's always been able to understand Juli as well, since the day I first went to live with them."
"One of your brothers can understand Juli?" Marion asked, astonished.
"What did you say Marion?" Stephon asked, "What was that about one of Ema's brothers?"
"One my brothers, he can understand Juli too. He even calls me Chi like Juli does," said Ema.
"You have a brother that can understand Juli?!" Stephon asked as he hobbled over to her, "I thought," he looked back at Richard, "I thought you said she didn't have any biological brothers! They were all stepbrothers!"
"He is! He is one of my stepbrothers!" Ema quickly said.
"One of your stepbrothers can understand Juli?" Stephon asked confused, "Only one?"
"Well, he was adopted," said Ema.
"Was he now?" said Stephone, "What's the lad's name?"
"Louis," said Ema.
"Louis?" Stephon said. He turned and looked at Richard, "did you hear that, Richard? She has a brother named Louis. Do you have a picture of the boy?"
"Uh," Ema said, "Maybe with my phone. I left if back in my room."
"Let's go back to your room," Stephon ordered, "Someone fetch Yusuke as well."
When the party of Ema, Yusuke, Stephone and Richard returned to the room, Ema walked over to the nightstand between the two beds and picked up her phone.
"Hang on a minute, ah here we go," she said, "Here's one with him and Juli." She handed it to the king.
"Well I'll be damn!" Stephone said, "Look Marion, that's your nephew alright!"
"Not only that, but look at the young man he's with," said Marion, "The hair!"
"Yes, I see it, it looks just like hers, doesn't it?" said Stephone.
"Her what? What's going on?" Yusuke asked.
"Do you know who Louis is?" Ema asked.
"We might," said Stephone. He started to fiddle with Ema's phone some more. "Are these pictures more of your brothers?"
"Oh yes, I should have pictures of all of them," said Ema.
"Fine looking bunch," said Stephone.
"Hey, that guy looks familiar," Richard said.
"Who?" Ema asked as he moved around to see what picture they were looking at, "Oh Futo."
"Ugh," Yusuke moaned, "Do we have to be reminded of him at a time like this?"
"He's a famous idol back home," Ema explained.
"That's it," said Richard, "he's actually getting to be a little popular around here. My niece even has one of his albums."
"Does she really?" Stephone said with a chuckle. He studied some of Ema's pictures some more. "Oh, Richard?"
"Yes, your majesty?" Richard said.
"Do you know if anyone in Japan has been in contact with Ema's family in helping them possibly go home?" Stephone asked.
"I don't know sir," said Richard, "I haven't heard yet."
"Well, let me try and talk to them, if that's alright. I have something I'd like to discuss with Ema's brothers."
"It's nothing bad sir, is it?" Ema asked.
"Hardly," said Stephone, "Why don't you and Yusuke just relax for a little while? You can either stay here in your room and rest or your free to explore the palace some more."
"Thank you, your majesty," said Ema.
"I hope you start taking to calling me grandfather at some point Ema," Stephone said giving her a wink before finally walking out of the room with Richard.
"I'll have Billy stay outside the door, in case you want to go exploring," Richard made sure to mention before shutting the doors again.
"Is he seriously convinced you're his granddaughter?" Yusuke asked once the two of them were alone.
"Yes, he's hard core convinced," said Ema, "He's even going to do a DNA test to be 100% sure."
"Well how quickly will they get that out?" Yusuke asked.
"I don't know, I don't know how long those kinds of tests take," Ema said. She hugged herself tight and found herself wondering closer to the window, looking out.
"Are you okay? Seriously?" Yusuke asked as he walked up behind her, gently putting his hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know, I really don't," said Ema, "This is all too much! Just too much!" She started shaking with confusion and fear.
"Hey now, don't be like that," Yusuke said as he tried pulling her closer, "calm down a little okay?"
"I just, I just don't know how to handle all of this!" Ema shouted. She turned around and burred her face into Yusuke's shirt. Yusuke could feel her his shirt getting wet with her tears.
"Hey, hey, it'll be alright! You'll see, I'll make sure you're safe. I'm here for you!" Yusuke said, doing his best to comfort her.
Ema looked up at him, still teary eyed.
"Yusuke," she said softly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry you're getting so caught up with this!"
"Now don't talk like that! This isn't your fault. And besides, even if I had chance to bail out, I wouldn't. I'm here with you until the end!"
"You're always good to me Yusuke, even if it ends in up bad for you!" Ema said, as she trembled.
"Yeah, well, you're worth it. I mean, you are my sister after all," said Yusuke, sheepishly.
"Right, sister," said Ema. "Yusuke?"
"Hmm?" Yusuke said. Ema looked up at him, tears still in her eyes before she leaned up and gently kissed his lips.
"Hmm?!" Yusuke managed to think as she did.