Later That Same Day

Yami silently flew to the Hideout. His mind just kept going back to the memory of William coughing in the hallway and looking pale. They both knew he was lying when he said he was fine, or that he would be fine. But Yami hadn't wanted to call him out on it, William needed time to accept it himself and tell his son just how sick he really was and he was going to give his old friend that. Yami sighed and rana hand over his tired face, how he wished he hadn't quit smoking right now.

He finally landed outside the much expanded Hideout. Over the years, as the Black Bulls each got married and began having their own families, Yami had asked Henry to give everyone their own living space. That way the Bulls could all be together but also have some privacy. And so far it had worked out very well, but now that meant the Hideout had expanded up and out in order to accommodate them all.

But Yami and the others didn't mind. Because it meant they could all stay together.

Yami set his broom down against the wall of the Hideout before he moved towards the front door. Before he even opened the door he could already hear all the chaos and laughter happening on the inside, he couldn't help but smile a bit. This is something he had always wanted for his brats; them to be safe, happy, and laughing.

He opened the door and immediately had to dodge a misdirected spell that came at him. He sighed and shook his head before he moved out of the way and closed the front door. The ones sparring were, as usual, Luck and Magna. Even as those two idiots got older they still sparred like they were teenagers. Meanwhile Magna's kids Corduroy and Chenille just watched, Chenille with a nervous look on her face, and Corduroy with a grin on his face.

" Wow dad you're so cool!" Cory shouted as he watched his dad dodge one of Luck's spells, Magna turned and gave his son a thumbs up.

" Thanks son, that means a lot!" But as soon as the words left Magna's lips he immediately got hit by one of Luck's spells.

" You shouldn't have taken your eyes off your target Magna!" Luck laughed cheerfully as Magna growled.

" I should have gone with mom to the fabric store," Chenille said quietly.

Yami shook his head once again before he looked around the room. Henry's daughter Alice was sitting on the couch, quietly reading the same book that she always read. Despite inheriting her fathers magic, luckily she hadn't inherited her fathers illness so she could freely be around the other Bulls without the fear of siphoning their mana. Beside her was Aloys Adlai, who was also reading a book, he was exactly like his father but with his mothers magic. Beside him was Wendy Agrippa, Gordon's eldest child and only daughter, she was sewing a doll just like father always did. She had the face of her mother, but her eyes and hair color were that of her fathers, and her magic was a variation of her fathers. On the other side of the room was Wendy's younger twin brothers Thomas and Nicholas, they were the spitting image of their father in appearance and, in Nico's case, magic as well. Thomas kept his hair slicked back like his father, while Nico kept his hair messy, that was the only way to tell them apart. The two were talking and playing with Maelie Adlai.

Yami heard a shout in the kitchen and watched Charmy and her daughter Lovely walk out with a group of sheep following shortly after. They had plates and plates of food and were setting them out onto the table. Lovely had inherited her fathers blue hair color and her eyes were the same color as her mothers, her younger brother Vincent followed behind all the sheep and began to set out the drinks. He didn't like cooking or food as much as his mother and sister did, but he had inherited his fathers love of art and painting. Vincent's hair was black like his mothers but his eyes were pink like his fathers.

Yami still had a hard time believing that Charmy had fallen in love with Rill Boimortier even though it had been nearly 15 years now since they had gotten married.

" C-Captain Yami sir, you're back already!" Ezio Roulacase exclaimed as he ran over. The young man looked identical to his mother, but his personality and magic was the same as his fathers.

" Of course I am, did you expect me not to come back at all?" Yami asked with a raised brow, Ezio's demeanor immediately grew nervous and he shook his head.

" N-No sir! We just thought the meeting would run late." Ezio said with a sheepish laugh.

" How did Asta do at his first meeting?" Vanessa asked as she walked over. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at their Captain. He grinned at them.

" He did great, so you guys can stop you're worrying." Yami told them and he heard everyone collectively sigh in relief. He knew everyone had been anxious and had wanted him to do well, so now that they had confirmed that he did, they all felt a weight fall off their shoulders.

" At least we know we raised him well,'' Finral said with a laugh as he walked over to his son and wife. Yami nodded, they all had raised Asta well.

" Where's my brats?" Yami asked curiously, he saw everyone else's kids but his own. Charmy suddenly pointed towards the back door with her thumb.

" They're outside with Ms. Charlotte," She said as she watched their Captain make his way towards the door. " Tell them to hurry up and come inside since dinner's ready!"

Yami walked outside and saw Hikari sparring against her mother as Hana and Einar watched. He crossed his arms as he silently watched his wife and eldest daughter, they looked nearly identical in their fighting styles, except Hikari had adopted a lot of Yami's fighting style as well. She was like the perfect blend of her mother and father. Yami was pulled out of his thoughts as he noticed Einar turn to look at him.

" Papa!" The young boy shouted excitedly as he jumped up and ran towards his father. He jumped into his arms and Yami held him.

" Hey kid," Yami said warmly. " Who's winning so far?" He asked and Einar grinned.

" Mama of course! Tata's still trying her best, but she's still always losing against her." Einar said with a sad look on his face, he always called Hikari 'Tata', apparently it meant "Big Sis" in the Diamond Kingdom. At least that's what one of Einar's favorite books told him.

" But mama's not going easy on her anymore, and Hikari's still managing to hold her own," Hana stated as she walked over to her father and brother. Yami nodded, it was no surprise that Charlotte had stopped taking it easy on their daughter. She was a Vice-Captain now, and had proven that she was a fierce and capable warrior. So there was really no need to take it easy on her.

One of Charlotte's Briar spells hit Hikari's katana and kocked her back a few feet. Hikari was huffing and puffing while Charlotte hadn't even broken a sweat.

" I'm…not done yet," Hikari panted as she doubled over to try and catch her breath. " I still…need to surpass my limits!" Hikari continued, and Yami shook his head.

She had certainly adopted Yami's stubbornness.

" Hey brat," Yami shouted, drawing both Charlotte and Hikari's attention to him. " You can surpass your limits after you get something to eat! Charmy said if you didn't come inside and eat you'd never get another meal from her!" Yami added, of course Charmy didn't actually say any of that. But he knew it was a sure fire way to get Hikari to stop training. As he expected the girl sighed dramatically before she put her katana away.

" Alright, alright, I'm coming! Sheesh tell Charmy to hold her sheep." Hikari grumbled as she rubbed the back of her neck, mimicking her fathers habit. Yami chuckled as he set Einar down and the young boy ran to his sister.

" Take your brother and sister inside, I gotta talk to your mom for a sec." Yami told her, his eldest daughter nodded and he ruffled her hair gently as she and her siblings walked past him and into the house.

Charlotte frowned a bit as she walked up to her husband, she didn't need to be able to read Ki to notice something was wrong with him. His eyes held a seriousness in them, and maybe a hint of sadness and worry in them too. Had the meeting gone that badly?

" What's going on? Did Asta's first meeting not go well?" She asked in concern, Yami quickly shook his head.

" Nah the brat did fine,'' Yami quickly assured her. " It's William. He…announced that he was retiring as Captain."

Charlotte's eyes widened in surprise, sure he had mentioned it the day before at the party, but she didn't really think he would go through with it!

" What? What made him decide to do this so suddenly?"

" He's sick Charlotte, very sick." Yami said softly, and he swore he watched her eyes widen more and her eyebrows raise considerably.

" Did…he say what was causing it?"

" Nah, he said he needs time. So I'm gonna give him a while before I start pushing for answers. He asked that you and I not tell anyone until he's ready." Yami said and Charlotte nodded in agreement, they would both keep their friends secret for now.

" And," Yami continued. " He's appointing his kid as Captain." He watched as his wife shrugged at him.

" Okay." Was all she said, she didn't look angry or concerned, she actually looked like she had expected it.

" You're not worried at all? What if that brat loses control again and hurts someone, or worse, gets someone killed?" Yami asked as he crossed his arms, he watched his wife do the same.

" Since when did you hold a persons mistake against them?" She asked curiously. She watched a red blush appear on Yami's cheeks. She knew exactly what this was all about, and it had nothing to do with Alistar.

" He won't hurt Hikari, besides they're not even in the same squad so the chance of her getting hurt by him is very slim. And in addition to that, Alistar's gotten much better at controlling his emotions which also means his magic is under better control. It'll be fine," Charlotte assured him. " And if for some reason it's not, and he does happen to lose control and injures her, I'll kill him myself." Charlotte added firmly and Yami couldn't help but snort and laugh at her words.

People thought he was the more overprotective of the two, but in reality, it was Charlotte who was the overprotective one.

Eventually the couple went inside to have dinner with the rest of the squad.

—-

At The Golden Dawn Base

Alistar yawned quietly as he followed his father out of his office, down the stairs and corridors, and eventually outside. William had told him that he needed to tell him something privately and that he would need some help to do it, which meant only one thing: They were going to visit his mother's grave.

Alistar didn't like going to visit her mother very often. It wasn't because he didn't love her or anything, it was just…hard since he had been the one who caused her to be in the graveyard in the first place.

As the two walked into the graveyard and made their way to Zera's grave Alistar used his plant magic to conjure up a small bouquet of flowers. You couldn't show up empty handed, his father had said.

The two eventually made it to her grave and stood in front of it, William knelt down and placed the flowers on her headstone.

" I'm sorry it's been a while dear, I hope you haven't been too lonely." William said softly as he stood back up.

" Hi mom," Alistar said a birt sheepishly. " It's been a while, I'm sorry." He apologized softly and William chuckled.

" Your mother would understand. She knows how nusy we Magic Knights are, especially when they're a Vice-Captain such as yourself." William said as he patted his sons shoulder comfortingly.

The two fell quiet after a few moments. William, unsure of where to begin, and Alistar unsure of what was going on. It wasn't very often that his father would ask to speak with him privately, the last time they had a discussion like this was when he promoted Alistar to Vice-Captain status.

" What's going on father, did something happen at the meeting?" Alistar asked, a tinge of concern in his voice. William smiled and shook his head.

" No, it's nothing like that. The meeting went very well, and I think Asta will make a fine Wizard King." William said genuinely. Alistar nodded in agreement, he didn't know Asta as well as everyone else did but, from what he had seen, Asta really was an amazing and kind person.

" If the meeting went as well as you say it did then what do we need to talk about?" Alistar asked with a small frown and William sighed, silently asking his wife's spirit to give him strength.

" I-" William began but was cut off by the sound of a familiar static noise. The two men turned and saw Marx's face staring at them.

" Ah Captain and VIce-Captain Vangeance there you are, I was looking for you all over the place!" Marx said in relief, but his eyes began to move around as he noticed where Alistar and William. " Um, is now a good time? I can go to another squad-?"

" What is it Marx?" William asked patiently, he couldn't help but be silently thankful that the memory mage had interrupted them.

" Ah right, well," The man cleared his throat. " I just received word of a remote village being attacked by bandits. And supposedly these bandits are former Magic Knights. So the village leader requested our assistance. I thought maybe The Golden Dawn and the Black Bulls would like to take it on as a joint mission." Marx finished as he looked between the two.

William noticed his son's light up just a bit at the mention of the Black Bulls. Of course the young man was able to hide his feelings from everyone else, but he wasn't good at hiding them from his father.

" We'll take the mission, but," William said before he turned to look at Alistar. " Alistar will be the one to lead them and will get to choose the members he wants to take along." He watched his son's blue eyes widen in surprise.

" What? Why? Shouldn't you be the one to lead this kind of mission?" Alistar asked in confusion as Marx quietly agreed with William's statement before disappearing. William smiled gently before clapping his son on the shoulder.

" Consider this your first real mission as the newly appointed Captain of the Golden Dawn." William said before he turned around and began to walk away, leaving Alistar to stand there completely stunned.

" Come on Captain Alistar Vangeance, you need to hurry up and head out." William called as he noticed his son hadn't snapped out of his daze. The young man quickly shook his head before nodding and running after his father.

—-

In The Spade Kingdom

Yuno, Neva, and their three children quietly walked into the Castle with their guards and Castle servants behind them. Yuno hadn't wanted servants when he first became king, but after a while he realized just how much they did to help the Royal family and keep things in order. So when Yuno officially became king he immediately raised all their wages to reflect how much he appreciated them and their hard work.

" Your Majesties!" Ralph saluted as he and the others watched them walk by. Yuno instantly waved their salutes away.

" You didn't need to stay up and wait for us, you all should have gone to sleep." Neva said quietly as she carried a sleeping Kya gently in her arms while Yuno carried Kito and Miku sluggishly walked beside her parents while holding each of their hands.

" It's alright, I had something urgent that I needed to discuss with King Yuno." Ralph said with a serious expression, causing Yuno to frown.

" It can't wait until morning?" Yuno asked quietly, and when Ralph shook his head, he nodded before handing Kito off to one of his guards. " Alright, I'm sorry about this," Yuno added to his wife, who only smiled and shook her head.

" It's fine, just go do what you have to do." Neva said softly in an understanding tone. Yuno smiled gratefully at her before he kissed his children on the head and gave Neva a gentle kiss on the lips.

Yuno quickly followed Ralph down the halls until they came to Yuno's office. They walked over to the desk and Yuno looked down at a bunch of papers and maps that were sitting on the surface.

" What's all of this?" Yuno asked curiously and Ralph sighed.

" Honestly we aren't too sure ourselves. These coordinates are the last known locations of about 20 merchants that have gone missing in the last two weeks." Ralph said seriously as Yuno's brows raised in surprise.

" 20 merchants in 2 weeks? How are we just now learning about this?" Yuno asked and Ralph shook his head.

" We initially thought it may have only been a coincidence, or that people were making up false reports. Until we began noticing certain patterns," Ralph suddenly began moving papers around until he found the right documents.

" The merchants all had deliveries in the Lumi Kingdom?" Yuno asked with a frown as he began to read the papers over, and Ralph nodded.

" That's right. Now merchants go missing all the time due to the treacherous terrain that's between us and Lumi, which is another reason we didn't pay much attention to this, but according to these letters and other documents all the merchants that had been reported missing all made it to Lumi." Ralph said as he began pointing at letters and receipts. Yuno's frown deepend.

" Are there any records showing that they left, or attempted to leave, Lumi? Maybe the merchants decided to stay there a while longer? Or maybe they died on the way back?" Yuno pointed out and Ralph shook his head.

" That's what I thought too. But from the witness statments and letters and documents it shows that all the merchants had plans to return to the Spade Kingdom. As for if they died on the way back, that's someting I want to go and investigate if you'll allow it. Things…just aren't adding up,sir."

Yuno placed a thoughtful hand under his chin as his mind began to race. Could ther be something to this? Or was it just a simple missing persons case? His gut began screaming at him.

" Investigate it. And ask for the Lumi Kingdom's cooperation." Yuno said seriously and Ralph nodded before saluting his King and walking out of the office. Yuno sighed quietly before he sunk down into his office chair.

There was certainly no rest for the wicked.