DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN BROTHERS CONFLICT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Tsubaki as he felt himself losing his balance and falling towards the moat under him. Suddenly a hand grabbed his arm tight.
"Hold on!" Beatrice shouted as she tried hard to pull Tsubaki back up. In a mere second Natsume grabbed his other arm and tried to pull him back up as well.
"Easy Tsubaki!" he said urgently.
"This would be a bad time for you to get back at me for dumping you in the lake that time huh?" Tsubaki said as a joke weakly.
"Oh please, I'm not that petty!" Natsume said.
"Oh no, Tsubaki!" Ema shouted in fear. Suddenly she felt someone push her aside and saw Richard dash past her and managed to get into the moat and come up the other side behind Tsubaki and helped to start pushing him out of the moat as well.
"Steady there Master Tsubaki!" he said as he, Natsume and Beatrice all managed to get Tsubaki out. As they did, Tsubaki stumbled a bit until he accidentally fell towards Beatrice, unintentionally pinning her to a nearby wall.
"Hi," Tsubaki said calmly.
"Hi," Beatrice replied with a smirk, "is this how you usually thank your saviors?"
"Only the pretty ones," Tsubaki joked.
"Get off my fiancee!" Robert snapped as he grabbed for Tsubaki again.
"Get off of him!" Richard shouted just as loud as he grabbed Robert by his arm and yanked him back.
"Just what do you think you're doing Richard?!" Robert asked mad.
"Robert, you're an idiot!" Stephon suddenly shouted from the other side of the moat right as Ema and Azusa made their way to the stone bridge.
"Tsubaki, are you okay?!" Ema asked as she ran to him and hugged him.
Tsubaki looked amused.
"Yeah I'm fine, considering all this attention I'm getting from beautiful women lately," he said with a smirk.
"Emma, you know these guys?" Robert asked confused.
"Yes!" Ema said looking at him mad, "they are two more of my stepbrothers, Tsubaki and Natsume! They're Azusa's triplet brothers!"
"I had already mentioned that!" Richard added, "or did you forget that so soon?!"
"Well sorry, I was just eager to find my girlfriend," said Robert.
"Girlfriend? Since when did you decide to start calling me that?" Beatrice asked out loud.
"Robert, you moron!" Stephon shouted mad.
"Uncle please!" Robert whined.
"Apologize to Tsubaki and Natsume for that matter!" Stephon demanded.
"For what? It was just a big misunderstanding!" Robert said folding his arms.
"Sure that was it," Tsubaki said as he looked back down at the moat, "thank you so much for the history lesson. I'd hate to be a boyfriend to a queen in the older times."
"Are you getting smart with me, what was your name again? Tsubaki?" Robert asked. "What kind of name is that anyway? Tsubaki? What was your mom drunk when she named you?"
"Oh my god!" Stephon moaned.
"Tsubaki is actually a common name in Japan," said Natsume, "and I can assure you our mother wasn't drunk when she named us. She's more responsible than that!"
"Well excuse me, Mr. what is it? Naughty? Your mother seriously named you Naughty?" Robert said scratching his head.
"It's Natsume," the man said annoyed.
"Oh no!" Stephon moaned, "Robert, maybe you should go home until you learned how to say Ema's brothers' names properly and how to show them some respect!"
"Oh don't be like that Uncle!" Robert called out to him and walked back to the bridge. Richard quickly headed after him
Ema was about to follow Richard when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see the young woman who had saved Tsubaki.
"Hi, figured I should introduce myself, I'm Beatrice Matters. I'm Robert's betrothed," she said kindly.
"Uh, hello nice to meet you," said Ema. She studied Beatrice's outfit, "were you going to do some riding today?"
"I think Robert wanted to. But seeing how much of a fool he's acting, I don't know how much longer we're going to stay," said Beatrice
"Oh, it's too bad you can't stay and just have some fun with us ," Tsubaki said as the group headed to the bridge themselves.
"Well, given the new company they have here, I actually agree with you," said Beatrice.
"Uncle, please don't get overwhelmed by this!" they heard Robert shouting, as they noticed Stephon walking back up the stairs with Robert and Richard behind him.
"I would have thought you wanted me to! Less I get overwhelmed to the point I have a heaet attack and die, leaving you in charge!" Stephon shouted back.
"Oh Uncle, give me a little credit," Robert pleaded.
"What would it take to finally really kick Robert out of line to the throne, do you think?" Azusa asked as the young people's group walked back up the stairs.
"I gues the main way would be if I were to step up and say I'm willing to take grandfather's place when he dies," said Ema.
"Are you planning to?" Beatrice asked anxiously. Everyone was a little surprised by her eager tone.
"If she did, wouldn't that mean you won't ever be queen?" Azusa asked.
"Well yeah, and Robert won't have any real need for me," said Beatrice, "I'd finally be left alone!"
"Oh, you're basically caught up in the whole political mess of inheriting the throne?" Ema asked.
"Don't let that get out through, will you please your majesty?" Beatrice asked.
"Of course Lady Beatrice," Ema promised.
"Please, call me Bea, if you don't mind," said the woman.
"Bea, I kind of like that better," said Tsubaki.
"Right?" said Bea.
"Beatrice, are you still trying to elude me?! Get over here next to me!" Robert suddenly orded loudly looking back at her.
"Fine, fine," said Bea as she hurried up to Robert.
"I better get close up to Grandfather as well," Ema decided as she did just , which just happened to make it so she was walking in front of Robert. The three brothers could tell from the back he wasn't happy with that.
"That's one way to snub that jerk," said Azusa.
"You know, having only met him this one time, I can't help but feel nervous what kind of king he's going to make," Natsume said.
"Yeah, I don't see him as staying in the good graces of most other world leaders," said Tsubaki.
"What about...," Azusa started to say.
"Well pricks got to stick together," said Tsubaki with a smirk.
"Honestly Uncle, it almost feels like you're getting worked up about this just so you have an excuse to get mad at me!" Robert continued to whine.
"I need little to get mad at you!" Stephon declared without hesitation, "and it's not just the fact that you insulted and attacked Ema's brothers, but that you made fun of their names the way you did!" He turned around fast, startling everyone, "you are to be a future king! A king should know better of how to address all people from all over the world! Do you honestly think the whole world is filled with Roberts, or Stephons?! Would you address the Japanese Prime minister in such a way?! Or the emperor?! Or what about other countries?! You go around speaking like you did to those men back there and I guarantee, you will become a laughing stock and a disgrace! And no doubt go down in history as one of the worst kings Elence has ever known!"
Ema watched as Robert turned to one of the darkest shades of red she had ever seen a person turn. As he made a move, Ema felt the need to grab her grandfather's arm as a means of protection. Richard seemed to have the same feeling as he came and stood right behind the king, giving Robert a warning look.
Robert, swiftly maneuvered around the king and Ema and headed back towards the palace.
"Let him go, he no doubt needs to calm himself," said Stephon, "and once he's calmed down, get him to leave."
"Yes your highness," said Richard.
"Um, I assume this means we're not going to go riding today," Bea said, "may I have your majesty's permission to go change?"
"But of course Lady Beatrice," Stephon allowed, "I'm sorry you had to witness that."
"Well, it's not like I haven't seen it before, if not worse," said Bea. She bowed and headed off to the palace herself.
"She seems nice," said Ema.
"She is," said Stephon, "the one good thing that would come when Robert becomes king. She'll make a good queen, even if she doesn't want to be."
Ema squeezed his hand.
"Should we go back to my dance lessons, Grandfather?" she asked.
"Oh, yes, yes, good idea dear," Stephon said. He looked towards her three brothers catching up to them. "Do any of your brothers know how to dance?"
"I don't know to be honest," said Ema.
"Tsubaki, Azusa, Natsume," Stephon called out.
"Yes your highness?" Natsume replied.
"Do any of you know how to dance?" Stephon asked. The three looked at each other.
"Like ballroom dancing or something?" Azusa asked.
"Yes," said Stephon.
"Oh, yeah we do," Tsubaki said.
"Our mother made us take lessons, along with riding," said Natsume.
"Wonderful!" said Stephon, "then one of you can step in and be Ema's partner during her lessons."
"Oh, say no more, your majesty," Tsubaki said eagerly as he walked towards Ema, "shall we princess?"
"Uh," Ema sputtered.
"Maybe the princess should change first," said Richard.
"Good idea," said Stephon, "Ema go back to your room and we'll send a maid to bring you a new dress to wear for your lessons. You men as well."
"With all due respect, your highness, I'd like to get back to work on your game," said Natsume.
"Oh yes of course, go right ahead," said Stephon.
"Thank you," said Natsume as he hurried off.
"I'll wait for the rest of you in the ballroom if you wish to join Ema for her dance lessons," said Stephon.
"Sure thing," Tsubaki said as he, Azusa and Ema hurried back to the palace.
"See you in the ballroom princess," Tsubaki called out to Ema when they had to split off to go to their respective rooms.
"Just get going!" Azusa said as he pushed him along.
Ema shooked her head as she started to make her way to her room. However she stopped when heard talking coming back downstairs. She walked back down and saw a man her grandfather's age walking into the palace and giving his hat and cane to a servant.
"Don't worry about telling his majesty I'm here right away. It's of no importance," the gentelman instructed before walking on.
"I wonder who that is," Ema asked herself. Curious, she walked back down and followed the newcomer as he walked straight to a room and walk in without a second thought. Ema hurried to the door and peeked in. There she saw the man walk over to a rather large painting of a powerful looking man and look up at.
"Ah, Great-Grandfather, what an interesting time we have now in Elence," the man said before Ema saw him walk to a booke case and pulled out a big red book and place it down on a pearl white desk. It was then Ema realized the room itself was a library of sorts.
As she leaned in closer to the room, she accidentally swung the door and stumbled in. The man looked up in shock.
"Uh, sorry!" Ema quickly apologized.
"Oh my goodness! Princess Ema!" the man said as he jumped up, "what an honor this is!" He bowed his head before looking back at her. "It's true what they say, you look just like your mother and your grandmother. How wonderful for king Stephon that you have returned."
"Um, thank you," said Ema.
"Please allow me to introduce myself, I am Lord Marcus Kindal, the royal family historian. I document and keep track of everything important that happens to the royal family. Some of which isn't even known to the public."
"Oh, I see," said Ema, "are you an actual member of the royal family?"
"Yes, I am. King Stephon and I are third cousins. That man there in that painting," Lord Markus pointed to the portrait he had ealier addressed as Great-Grandfather, "was my Great-Grandfather, Prince Rupert, brother to the first King Stephon and uncle to Queen Katherine. He served as a royal advisor to both."
"Oh, I see," Ema said as she looked at the painting, "was he well known throughout Elence?"
"Oh my goodness yes!" said Lord Markus, "it was no small secret that Lord Robert wished to be king himself but he was too noble of a man to ever try and make a move for it unless it was presented to him in a legal and legit state. He wasn't one to use shady tactics to get what he wanted. So instead he decided to focus on helping his brother and neice with running the country for the better. It was actually him who suggested that Elence allow Jewish refugees be allowed sanctuary."
"He did that?" Ema asked.
"He came up with the idea and really pushed for it. However, in the end, it was King Stephon the 1st and Queen Katherine that made it happen and kept it up," Markus said as he walked over to a book case and pulled out a book. He flipped through a few pages.
"But wasn't it risky to do such a thing? With the Nazis and all?" Ema asked.
"Oh it was, but they made one fatal mistake," said Markus as he kept flipping through his book, "they insulted the king and queen. And if there's one thing that Elence is know for, it's to not insult their royalty." He suddenly stopped flipping his pages, "ah, here we are. Right here." He turned the book around and showed Ema a picture of a king, in full royal attire, standing above what looked like Nazi soldiers pointing. Next to him Ema easily regonized a picture of Lord Rupert.
"Is that King Stephon the 1st?" Ema asked.
"Yes, your great-great-great-Grandfather," said Markus, "this picture was a depiction of when some of the Nazi first came to him about his police of allowing Jews into his country. According to records, the men that came spoke very rudely to Stephon during their meeting. They undermined him, and sometimes acted as though he was just a regular state official or something. In fact the way they spoke it provoked the king to turn to his brother during the meeting and whisper, "do they think that since my kingdom is so small that they can talk to me as though I am a small child?!"
"Is that how he felt?" Ema asked.
"Oh yes, indeed," said Markus, "then it got even better when one of the generals said something that suggested that the king didn't have complete control over his kingdom since it's so tiny and pathetic. That got the king so mad that he stood up, like he is in the picture, only he probably wasn't dressed like he is in it, and spoke so strongly as he said, and I quote," Markus turned the boom around and started to read, "do you honestly think you can just come here into my kingdom, into my house and immediately start giving me orders?! I am the king of this nation! I was born and raised to rule! I didn't have to weasel my way into power like that pathetic fuhrer with his fancy speeches or his petty war maneuvers! And I will not be bullied by him or you, his pathetic underlings! Now get out! Get out of my sight! Get out of this room! Get out of my palace! Get out of this town! Get out of my country!"
Ema was a little startled to hear what Markus had read out loud. She wasn't sure if it was the way Markus had read it or the idea itself about what happened, but in either case, it felt intimidating.
"Did they get any trouble with the Germans after that?" she asked softly.
"Well, for the most part no. Fortunately, they had to focus on other than Elence. The worst that happened was they would try intervening with parties of Jews trying to make it to Elence. The worst they did was trying again to get Elence to overthrow their policy once Queen Katherine came into power," Markus said as he put down his book and pulled out another. He opened it to to certain page and showed it to Ema. This one had an actual black and white photo of a young woman, not much older than Ema herself, pointing above the heads of two German generals looking furious.
"Is that Queen Katherine?" Ema asked.
"Correct again," said Markus, "this happen only three months after she was officially crowned. She had been contacted practically the day he died by the Germans under the guise that they wish to offer their condolences over her father's death and work out some of the tension between the two countries."
"And she agreed?" Ema asked.
"Her Uncle Rupert encouraged her to, said it would do go to really show that she was the queen and nothing would change that. Some of the officials of Elence at the time had tried working with Rupert to get him to replace Katherine as king merely because she was a girl. However Rupert refused since he was like I said, an honorable man. He wouldn't refuse his niece her birthright merely because of her gender. And besides if he did take the throne, he would have been succeeded by a woman himself since all he had was daughter himself, my grandma, Lady Sophia," Markus explained.
"Was be with her when it happened?" Ema asked.
"He had tried to, but the day of, he got cought up in traffic. Queen Katherine had been encouraged to wait for him until they really began talking and just engaged in small talk. However, again the Germans weren't exactly polite with their tone and actions. They kept talking about how silly King Stephon had been defing them like he had and got lucky because Germany had bigger fish to fry. And then they started basically saying to the queen face that now that she was in charge, they could do what they wanted."
"Is that when she stood up and like she is in the picture?" Ema asked.
"Mmmhmm," Markus said with amusement, "here, listen to what she said when she did.
"I see, you didn't come here to pay respects to my late father! That was never your intent at all was it! You merely came here because you assumed you could just walk in here with no trouble and do whatever you wanted like you've done all over Europe?! Well that will not be the case! I will not let you try and control me or my country! I am the queen here! Not you or your fuhrer! I have been raised to be a queen since the day I was born and I will remain so until the minute I die. And as such, I, Queen Katherine, order you to be gone! I want you out of my sight! I want you out of this room! I want you out of this palace! I want you out of this town! I want you out of this region. I want you out of my country!"
"That was almost exactly like what her father said," said Ema.
"Exactly, that's what a lot of people there noticed. Heck, her uncle arriaved right as she was saying that and heard that whole speech. It almost made him cry, thinking about how his brother had done the same," said Markus, "he was so proud that he had the German photographer bribed to save the picture he took of her telling the officers off just so they could document the historic event. They had brought the photographer with them in the hopes I'm sure that they would document how easily it was to walk over Queen Katherine."
"And did they ever try to retaliate?" Ema asked.
"A little, but fortunately, again, other bigger forces were taking up Germany's attention at the time," said Markus, "it did though, fully cement Katherine as a queen her country would respect and follow. Even if she was still scared of ruling for a while after that. She did rely heavily on her uncle for a long time who helped her through a lot of rough patches. I don't think Katherine would have gone so far without her uncle helping her."
"He almost sounds like the anti-Robert," said Ema.
"You know, that's what a lot of people say about Rupert and Robert. I don't think Great-Grandfather would be pleased with Robert at all if her were alive today," Markus said.
"Do you think your my great-uncle would approve of me?" Ema asked.
"I think he'd see a lot of Katherine in you. Someone who has potential to be a great queen herself, she just needs the right help and guides to make it," Markus said kindly.
"You think I could make a good queen?" Ema asked.
"With the right guidance, I think you could be as good of a queen as Katherine or any king that came before you," Markus said kindly.
"Like who?" Ema asked.
"That something you'd have to find for yourself. Although from what I've heard, you have 13 good guides already," said Markus.
"You mean my brothers?" Ema asked.
Markus tapped his nose.
"Princess Ema here you are!" Billy suddenly said coming into the room, followed by Yusuke, "oh Lord Markus!"
"Hello Billy, forgive me for not announcing myself. I just came to add the details of Princess Ema's arraival," Markus said, "don't bother the king about it."
"Uh sure," said Billy, "Um Princess Ema, you still need to go change for your dance lessons."
"Right excuse me," Ema said as she headed to the door. She stopped and looked back at Markus who was returning to his desk.
"Lord Markus, if need be, could we meet again so I can learn more about Elence's history?" she asked.
"It would be my honor," Markus said, "I am at your call, Princess."
"Thank you," Ema said as she left. Billy and Yusuke followed close behind.
Markus looked back at the painting of his Great-Grandfather.
"I think she has what it takes, and I'm sure you would agree 100%. She just needs to find the right motivation to take it."