A/N: I'm really, really, really, REALLY sorry about the lateness of the update. College is super duper demanding…and as a freshman I felt obligated to finish all assigned readings and homework…after 2 months of torturous hard work, I felt that my efforts aren't…yielding good results…I felt very stressed for a few weeks…then I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't care so much. I studied less, and devote more time to things I like to do…like writing this fanfiction XD

Without further ado…I present you more Kranos' evilness!! YAY!!

Prisoner 02: Kranos

Part 2

'…only the Empress could have diamond-studded accessories.' Sir Anthony's words rang in Yozak's ears.

The spy's eyes widened to the size of a saucer.

"That is only proper," Kranos' voice sounded so distant. Lady Marianne, too, appeared to be moving at a slow motion to Yozak, as she sat back on the chair opposite to the ruler and brought the box to her lap before taking the pin out to admire it more closely…

Yozak's heart stopped beating at what he saw.

The other end of the hair pin was coated in a layer of dark crimson fluid.

Lady Marianne screamed and dropped her gift, rising to her feet so abruptly the box tumbled to the floor. The expensive silver linings were chipped, but nobody was paying attention to that. Before the concubine could flee, Kranos had already held her wrist in a firm, iron grip, strong fingers curled around the flesh, pressing painfully against the delicate bones. "After all, you are the Crown Prince's real mother," Kranos finished in a hiss.

Yozak's hand flew to his mouth.

"Your Majesty, please don't joke with me." The blonde woman squirmed futilely and whimpered, large eyes pleading at her husband. "My son is Miguel, not Alexander."

"Could you not recognise the pin you'd stolen from Yura to frame her?" Kranos ignored the lies uttered by the mother of one of his sons and pushed her further away from the only exit in the room, cornering her to the bed against the wall. Her knees were forced to bend when they hit the edge of the mattress. "Or you completely left the dirty works to your subordinates?" Kranos continued sinisterly as he captured the other wrist. "That's so like you," he sneered.

Lady Marianne was trapped between one of the poles of the four-poster, and the ominous form of the man whose commands were the laws of her Empire. "Your Majesty, I don't know what you're talking about," she avoided his piercing stare, before biting her rouged bottom lip, one slender leg slipping out of the slit of her gown and riding up his leg, the tip of the soft leather of her shoe rubbing against the fabric that covered his calf.

Kranos laughed at her poor attempt at seduction. He dislodged her feet with a jerk of his leg and imprisoned her long lower limbs between his knees. Lady Marianne wasn't able to move at all.

"I have to thank you for getting rid of Charlotte, though," the Emperor loomed over the terrified, skittish form of his wife, who was beginning to realise that she was completely under his mercy, and spoke to her ear, his breath stirring the fine hairs behind the shell. Marianne began to quake visibly. "If I let that Demon King take Charlotte away, Yura's plans would have succeeded. Well, I guess I was at fault for taunting him that way…" He extricated himself from her, but the couple were still merely inches apart. "I guess the Maou isn't as much as a wimp as I initially thought. I underestimated him." Kranos chuckled.

"Then…" Lady Marianne looked relieved, Yozak noted. It was easier to see her expressions from his vantage. All he could observe of Kranos was his back. She must have thought that she would get off lightly, considering Kranos' gratitude for her hand in the matter.

"I won't forgive you for trying to get rid of Yura," the Emperor dashed the blonde woman's hopes, just like that. From the strangled high-pitched yelp that escaped Lady Marianne's lips, Kranos had tightened his grip around her hands. "Do you seriously think that I will make you an Empress?

For a split second, Kranos released the woman's wrists and lunged for her collar. Lady Marianne scrambled to her feet, but the Emperor was formerly a soldier, who'd practically spent his days as Crown Prince patrolling and captaining battalions in wars. His reflexes surpassed hers by far.

The Emperor shoved the concubine to the bed, his hands enclosing her neck. Yozak could see the both of them now, Kranos straddling her lap, abhorrence teeming from his manic face. That moment, Yozak no longer superposed him to Shinou, because Kranos appeared far, far more menacing. "Why did you want to get rid of Yura? Do you think that you have a chance of ever being an Empress?"

"A-ah-" Lady Marianne choked out, before shaking her head frantically, her eyes those of a rabbit hunted down by a wolf.

"No?" Kranos reduced the pressure around her nasal passage and descended towards her. Dark blue strands tickled the skin of her exposed shoulders, curtaining parts of their faces from Yozak. "Then…" mockery was apparent in his tone, "you did it out of revenge? You hate Yura for threatening you to swap your baby with Pamellia's, condemning you to be the 'Mother of that good-for-nothing, sorry excuse of a prince', and letting Pamellia steal the glory for being the 'Mother of that brilliant, beautiful Emperor-to-be'?"

Yozak took a deep, deep breath, and thanked Shinou, again, that he was already seated. His knees wouldn't be able to hold at the startling epiphany. The intrigues of Yekaterina's court baffled him. It struck him how wise Shinou had been, to have laid the foundation for Shin Makoku's monarch, shielding it from such complicacies. ('Because he was a simple-minded warrior,' Murata would have retorted)

Lady Marianne had the 'deer-caught-in-the-headlights' look on. "How do you know?"

Kranos threw his head back and barked his laughter, the sound pulling Yozak's attention back to the scene. "You had been such a good instrument," he was shaking in mirth. "Too obsessed with your own petty pride to ever question yourself why things were running…" the Emperor paused dramatically, "too smoothly."

"The ease of obtaining such a rare, toxic ingredient obscurely," Kranos counted, folding his fingers one by one as each factor was listed, "the ease of stealing a diamond-studded hairpin without Yura ever realising and how easy it had been to get the servants to join your life-threatening conspiracy."

The man turned to look at the other side, showing his back to the closet and when the timorous maid entered Yozak's limited view, the spy realised Kranos was summoning her. "This maid used to belong to Charlotte. Do you not recognise her?"

The pieces of puzzle fitted together. That maid had been Kranos' ears and eyes. No wonder Yozak felt that she was so familiar.

Lady Marianne was so red in the face, her stare indignant…and a tad bit embarrassed. "You betrayed me," she accused the small, rodent-like girl, who flinched at the concubine's words as though she'd been splashed with acid.

Kranos laughed contemptuously. "She would be betraying me if she were to be loyal to you, Marianne." When the odium in the noble lady's glare exacerbated, the Emperor's sneer widened. "Marianne…Marianne," Kranos sang her name in travesty, "You can't expect a donkey to climb a mountain without dangling a juicy carrot to its face."

The blue-haired ruler gave a 'come-hither' look at the maid, and jerked his chin, a clear non-verbal order for her to come even closer. It was obeyed with small, shaking steps until Kranos could lay one of his hands on her shoulder. "For her devotion to me, I've promised her this room and the title that goes with it. From now on," he shifted his amethyst gaze back to the blonde woman trapped beneath him, "she will be a Lady of Grand Harmony." The ruler announced with a flourish.

Any struggle died after the declaration, every line of tensions melting as Marianne dropped her hands to her sides. The beautiful concubine's face was frozen in a state of horrification for a while before she took a deep, shaky breath. "You're going to ruin this empire." The noble spoke, her voice monotonous and bleak, her violet eyes dulling, deprived from even a spark of hope.

"Ruin the old ways you're so proud of, yes," seeing that he had beaten every resistance out of his wife and taught her a lesson not to mess with him, the Emperor extricated himself from the woman. "But I'll never, never ruin this empire," he brushed down imaginary lint off his clothes and looked down at her with contempt and arrogance, his thin lips curled to the left.

Marianne rolled away and curled to a foetal position, hiding from the humiliating smirk. "What now?" her question was muffled against the palms pressed against her face. "Are you going to apprehend me…?"

"That was the plan," the Emperor turned to make his leave. He told the maid-turned-concubine to exit the room. The rodent-like girl seemed immensely relieved at the command; she darted outside in no time. "However…" Kranos trailed, a pair of sharp, knowing amethyst eyes fixing on the closet Yozak was hiding in.

The ginger-haired spy froze. He was so tense he couldn't breathe, didn't want to move even a fraction of an inch. Adrenaline rushed through his bloodstream, his heart thudding harder under his ribcage.

The half-mazoku didn't want to think of the ramifications of being caught.

Lady Marianne reacted to the long-drawn silence. "However…?"

The smirk on the Emperor's face spread slowly, silkily. The expression on the human's face was so, so evil it was ironically demonic. "Since you've set this wonderful stage for me," he ruffled her hair, mussing the sunny locks so thoroughly as though the woman was not his wife but his pet, his dog. "I shall use it to thoroughly shatter what my dear Yura had been trying to accomplish by inviting that wimpy king here…and spare you for now. But," Marianne cried when he yanked on the blonde locks. "Don't ever try anything again." He hissed.

Kranos pulled the noble up and dragged her to the door, kicking her out of the room. Just as Yozak released the pocket of air he'd been holding in his chest, the Emperor stopped the door from closing with his forearm.

"I wonder if your blonde…" the man turned his face halfway and raised his voice, "is as fun to torment."

Yozak's heart stopped beating. Again.

TBC to part 3

A/N: I'm cutting it again not because I'm evil…but because I can only give you this much now. I'm sorry…