Author's Note: Well, here is the long-awaited (I assume awaited, anyway) sequel to With Love. It don't promise updates on this one as frequently. I'm getting busier and busier and I'll be back at school pretty soon. With my course load next semester, writing's going to be hard to work in. That said, please enjoy the story the best you can. If you haven't head With Love, you really should. Admittedly, not much actually happened in that story, but the stage was set. Also, it's a nifty story. With Love was a prologue. Only the Moon Howls is meant to function as a third season of Kyo Kara Moah—sure to be quite contradicted by the OVA, but I'll live with that. I even have it planned for thirty-nine chapters. (Though With Love was conceived as a two-parter, so that's how good I am at planning.) Be nice and let me know how well I'm doing at making it feel like the show. I try not to beg, but reviews make me super happy.

So, in summary, read the first one, read this like episodes of the show, and be made very happy. It's got it all. Fan service, pointless and amusing antics, snarkiness… I live to gratify.

Yuuri stood with his hands behind his back, an uncharacteristically pensive frown on his face. He was in the dungeons of Covenant Castle, shivering a little. Though the jail cells were as comfortable as Yuuri could convince his subjects to make prisoner's accommodations, it was deep underground. The chill and damp was unavoidable.

The object of his thoughtfulness was the pale, skinny young man beyond the bars, sleeping fitfully. He was remarkably ordinary, somewhere between fifteen and twenty years of age. His hair was dark brown, his snub nose and cheekbones spattered with freckles. He seemed a bit unhealthy, shivering occasionally with dark circles under his eyes. His general aura was utterly pathetic, a harmless, childish figure.

And he had nearly taken Wolfram from Yuuri forever. His botched assassination attempt still haunted Yuuri's dreams, though his fiancé was safe and nearly healed. He could hear the ugly shattering sound as Wolfram landed from a three-story drop on his feet, bones snapping, the spatter of blood and the hollow scream… He shook his head.

Yuuri had been the intended victim and his precious Wolfram had suffered for it. Part of him wanted to order the boy executed, hanged and then drawn and quartered in some public place. He didn't think he'd ever get over feeling Wolfram's heart stop a second time, even for that brief moment.

But that wasn't Yuuri. And the boy's attempt had struck right at the heart of the alliance, the peace and understanding Yuuri had devoted his life to promoting. To respond with anger would betray his every ideal. He sighed. Answers had been pouring in from all his allies, and nearly every other ruler in the alliance wanted to execute the boy, regardless of the symbolic betrayal that seemed to Yuuri. If all his allies wanted the boy dead, he'd be betraying them if he didn't acquiesce.

If only he could find out why the boy had done it, what his motivation had been. Assassins had been forgiven before, once Yuuri had come to know why they'd struck. Admittedly, he'd hurt Wolfram, and Yuuri was having a much harder time forgiving that than a personal attack.

The boy stirred and sat up. His eyes were an odd ice blue, dull and haunted. Yuuri forgot his brooding for a moment. Here was a chance. This was the first time he'd trusted himself to come down and see the boy, known he wouldn't lose his temper. Wolfram had had the bandages taken off his legs the night before, and he was in a good mood.

"Hi." Yuuri leaned against the bars, ready to jump back in case the prisoner decided to try something.

The boy shrank back in obvious terror, moving into the corner and cowering. Yuuri had been used to such responses once, but humans had begun to believe tales of the maou's kindness. The boy's recoiling stung once again.

He tried again. "My name's Shibuya Yuuri. What's yours?"

"Just kill me already!" His voice was high, and cracked twice. Yuuri thought he might be even younger than he looked.

"I…" He supposed he shouldn't promise. "I'm not going to hurt you if I can help it." The best he could do. "Why don't you tell me your name?" He tried to smile.

"Where's that woman?" His eyes darted around erratically. "That woman and her demon machine?"

"Oh, Anissina? She's probably still asleep. It's pretty early." Yuuri had woken up and not been able to get back to sleep, so he'd left Wolfram and Greta to sleep and wandered down in hopes of accomplishing something. "She's pretty scary, isn't she? But she's been working on a pitching machine lately." It pitched too well at the moment, throwing balls with such force that they shattered bats. And wrists.

"So come on, tell me what your name is." Yuuri tried to smile. Being pleasant with an assassin was hard even on Yuuri. He wondered if he should borrow Mr. Don't Even Try Lying to Me.

"I won't tell you anything!" He tried very hard to look imposing Yuuri recognized the effort because he had to make it himself sometimes.

"Then what did you just say?" Just a brain teaser. Yuuri thought of things like that sometimes. He could tell he'd utterly confused the boy, but his line of questioning seemed to have backfired. The young assassin slapped both hands over his mouth and continued to huddle.

Yuuri asked a few more times and gave up. He was getting hungry anyway. It was about breakfast time, as well as about Wolfram waking up and being irritated at Yuuri's absence time. He bid a very polite farewell to his prisoner and tiptoed upstairs, hoping no one would catch him. He doubted his devoted retainers would approve of him casually conversing with someone who'd tried to murder him.

Doria and Sangria were setting out breakfast dishes and Lasagna pouring tea. The table was full of the usuals, Conrad and Gwendal sitting next to each other wordlessly, Lady Celi chattering at them both (Yuuri had determined she was staying at the castle until Wolfram was fully recovered), Greta making faces on her toast with jam, Anissina drawing a diagram of some sort on her napkin, Wolfram looking like he hadn't slept enough, and… And an empty seat.

"Where's Gunter?" Yuuri asked as he sat down. His devoted advisor was far too decorous to miss a meal with the king and close compatriots.

"I haven't seen him this morning," Conrad said, with the look of one who'd just noticed something he really should have been aware of. Yuuri supposed that, as everyone else didn't get immediately tackled by Gunter upon walking into a room with him, they might not be so alive to his absence.

Yuuri had done a lot of work the day before. Maybe Gunter simply had nothing to bother him about. But he should still be hovering. Yuuri's stomach growled and he decided to worry about it later, taking his seat between Greta and Wolfram.

His fiancé glared sleepily at him. "Where were you this morning?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I was taking a walk." Not technically a lie. He'd walked to the dungeon.

"You were up as late as I was. Why couldn't you sleep?" Yuuri had a sense Wolfram was just griping for the sake of it. He didn't care. And he was exhausted from giving Yuuri a private concert the night before. They'd gotten kind of carried away with that, but mostly Wolfram's zeal had been the driving force.

So Yuuri felt no remorse for messing with him. "You snore."

"I do not!" Wolfram smacked Yuuri with a spoon.

"You didn't just challenge me to go find you a sacred moonflower and fight a duel with your chosen champion or anything, right?" It seemed prudent just to be sure.

"What? With a spoon? No. That's stupid." Wolfram sniffed and Yuuri rolled his eyes.

"But you do snore," Greta said through a mouthful of toast. "And I do too. Yuuri doesn't unless he's got a stuffy nose or you keep him up really late being naughty." Both Wolfram and Yuuri shut up, knowing that if Greta felt like babbling she could easily humiliate them both. Her not-so-innocent goal accomplished, the princess returned to fashioning toast people.

After he finished, Yuuri got up to go find Gunter. He wanted his opinion on what to do with the developing situation with the assassin, and see if his notes on Anissina's interrogations were any help. He wasn't haunting the office like he usually did, so Yuuri wandered up to Giesela's room, in case she knew.

The door was open, and Yuuri peaked insid to see Gunter sitting with his daughter at a small table. They were beautifully posed, a perfect tableau. Gunter's eyes were half-closed, introspective, his head bowed. His hair spilled over his shoulders, obscuring his face. Giesela held both his hands, her head up with a sad smile on her face.

Yuuri was loath to interrupt and about to step away when Giesela noticed him. "Good morning, Your Majesty."

Gunter snapped his head around so hard Yuuri could hear his neck crack from across the room. "Your Majesty!" He immediately leapt up and bowed, his face transforming in an instant to placid helpfulness. Almost. His eyes still seemed far away. "Do you need my assistance in any way?"

"Um…" The assassin could wait. "No, I'm fine. I just noticed you weren't at breakfast." Realizing he was still standing in the hall, Yuuri stepped into the room and walked to the table. Conversations from twenty feet away didn't appeal to him. "What's wrong, Gunter? You look so sad."

"Forgive me, Your Majesty." He bowed. Before Yuuri had time to tell him off for asking forgiveness for having emotions, Gunter went on. "Today is the anniversary of a terrible tragedy in my life. It's difficult to be in high spirits."

"Well, of course it would be difficult." Yuuri wished Gunter wouldn't be so servile. He reached up at patted Gunter's shoulder, earning a look of such devotion it embarrassed him. "Take the day off, if you want." He was curious, but it seemed so impolite to ask…

"Your Majesty is so gracious and kind!" His eyes were shining. Yuuri decided to ask anyway.

"Um, what was the tragedy? If you don't mind…"

"Of course, not, Your Majesty!" He looked very pleased, actually, and Giesela smiled at Yuuri. He had a sense Gunter had wanted to tell the story pretty badly, and his daughter surely knew it much too well. It seemed likely it was her tragedy, too.

Gunter motioned Yuuri into a third seat at the table and sat down beside him, looking rather grave. "I was very young when it happened, about the princess's age. Shin Makoku was in the grip of an ugly war, a long-standing conflict with several human countries banded together."

"Oh, the war against Big Cimaron?" Yuuri realized even as he was speaking how stupid that had been. That war had been only twenty years ago.

"Big Cimaron was involved, yes," Gunter said gently, ignoring Yuuri's mistake. "It was two hundred and thirty eight years ago. My family had withdrawn to a small summer villa out in the country. Neither of my fathers was up to military duty, you see." Yuuri was about to say something about "fathers" and decided against it. "Lord Von Christ was an invalid, you see, crippled by an older wound, and Papa had a weak heart. My brother and I were both too young to serve, though Arianwyn was nearing sixteen and very excited to be joining the army in a few more months."

Yuuri was very confused now. He was willing to accept that Gunter had two fathers. Greta did too, after all. But he hadn't known Gunter had a brother. An older brother. Logically, shouldn't this Arianwyn be Lord Von Christ now? He bit his lip, suddenly guessing what the tragedy was.

"The day has been etched in my memory since. I was in the courtyard, watching Arianwyn practice. My older brother was my idol. Even at his young age, he was hailed as one of the greatest swordsmen in the land, elegant of technique and truly deadly with a blade. He was wonderfully gentle and kind, perfectly thoughtful of his little brother."

"He was also dumb as a brick and the most shameless of flirts, to be fair," came a high, bell-like voice from the door. Yuuri turned, rather annoyed on Gunter's behalf, to the door. Lady Celi was standing there. She shocked him by walking right past Yuuri and pulling Gunter into a hug. "Arianwyn would have wanted to be remembered as he was, Gunter, not the epic hero you're speaking of."

Gunter coughed. "He was rather unruly, it's true, but…"

"Oh, but nothing, Gunter. I miss him too, but you're giving His Majesty entirely the wrong idea. You sound like you're talking about some hybrid of yourself and Conrad, not Airhead."

"Um, you knew Gunter's brother too, Lady Celi?" Even Yuuri wasn't so thick as to not have figured that out. He was just trying to keep her from saying anything else to bug Gunter.

"Knew him? We were engaged!" Lady Celi smiled at the maou's consternation. "It was arranged by our parents, of course. I wasn't much older than Gunter! But I did like him. He was very handsome and funny, and certainly wonderful with a sword. I suppose he was even kind, when he wasn't teasing or just being oblivious to others' feelings. A wonderfully likeable man. But he was as dim-witted as a donkey and would flirt with anything pretty enough to catch his eye. Not bad things, just important parts of his personality that shouldn't be neglected!"

Yuuri and Gunter exchanged looks and Gunter tried to get on with the story. "Well, um, we were in the yard, I with my little wooden sword and Arianwyn executing perfect form." He glared at Lady Celi, daring her to interrupt again. She smiled winningly back at him. "We heard a commotion outside. My, um, nanny came to warn us of an attack, and took an arrow in the back as she delivered the news, the poor woman. There was no saving the house. The place was not well protected, secluded in the outskirts of our territory and intended to merely serve as a summer home. It is… likely that both my parents were already dead by the time we had the news. The war at that point was driven by pure hate and fear, ignorance on both sides and vicious aggression. The attackers were after nothing but slaughter." Gunter took a moment to collect himself. Giesela, Celi, and, after a moment's hesitation, Yuuri set hands on his shoulder.

Once the shoulder was too crowded for more comfort, Gunter resumed his tale. "Arianwyn wasted no time. He picked my up and fled the courtyard through the servant's quarters, where the stairs were narrow and pursuit seemed unlikely. But we were followed nonetheless, and, cornered, Arianwyn ran upstairs. He hid me in a closet and told me to be silent. He closed the door on me and I never saw my brother again. I heard men run into the room, heard him crash through the second-floor window, shouting taunts to draw them from me. I stayed in the closet until I was found two days later by Von Voltaire soldiers."

"That's horrible, Gunter." Yuuri felt like crying. Empathetic as he tended to be, he had immediately substituted himself and Shori. He didn't remember ever idolizing his brother in such a fashion, but maybe death did that. Gunter might have thought Arianwyn was a self-important, overprotective pest, too, when he'd been alive.

"Yes, quite an ordeal. The anniversary has always unnerved me. I'm afraid I won't be of any use to you today, Your Majesty."

"Um…" Yuuri wasn't sure about death-related traditions in Shin Makoku. He'd avoided them so far. "Would you like to visit their graves or anything?"

"Well, there's actually a monument." Gunter looked very uncomfortable again. "My fathers were dismembered rather nastily and Arianwyn's body wasn't recovered."

"Oh." Yuuri cursed mentally. He shouldn't have said anything…

"It would be very pleasant indeed to pay my respects," Gunter said quickly, perhaps seeing he had disturbed His Precious Majesty a bit. "But I wouldn't want to shirk my duties…"

"Oh, no, Gunter, go and visit." Yuuri wondered how he could convince Gunter to go. There'd be a pileup of work, but it would cheer him up considerably. And even with the castle in its current disarray, Wolfram recovering, assassin languishing in the dungeon, Lady Celi popping up everywhere to make sure no one was comfortable… Yuuri could always use a little Gunter break.

Giesela coughed politely. "The villa itself is only about a day and a half's ride from Covenant Castle, Your Majesty. If you were to come along you would see a very pretty piece of the country, learn a little history, and keep abreast of most royal duties on the way back and forth." Her expression clearly said "You owe me," and was directed equally at Yuuri and her father.

"What an excellent plan, Giesela!" Gunter looked ecstatic. To not only visit his lost family but to have his beloved maou at his side was a dream come true. "That is, of course, if you find it an agreeable proposition, Your Majesty?"

Yuuri nodded. Not exactly what he'd wanted, but he wouldn't mind a bit of a vacation. And it would apparently be a rather short trip, so he wouldn't have to feel too guilty about everything he was leaving behind. He wondered if it would be terrible of him to bring Wolfram. He and Gunter would end up at each others' throats, and he couldn't see Wolfram being exactly desirable on a solemn memorial excursion anyway.

But Yuuri knew he'd miss his fiancé a lot if he left… And have hell to pay when he got back.

Lady Celi, not for the first time, saved him. "Oh, Gunter, would you let me come along as well? I'd like to visit my old fiancé."

Gunter smiled. She was annoying, but sincere in a few things and this was one of them. There'd been many years she's commiserated with him, though she'd let Giesela take it over when she got old enough.

Giesela smiled. "Well, it's a safe road and an unofficial visit. We should only need a few retainers, really only for form's sake."

Yuuri nodded. Small was what he wanted. He was about to answer when once more Celi went over his head. "I'll organize things. I'm sure I can have an expedition ready to go by lunchtime!"

And sure enough, she did, though it consisted of herself, the Von Christs, Yuuri, Dorcas, and Wolfram, whose legs weren't sufficiently heeled to handle a horse. He had to ride behind Yuuri, which amused everyone, even Gunter. It also made them both a little uncomfortable. Giesela knew about… their new understanding, but had been pleasantly circumspect about it. Lady Celi knew Wolfram was wearing Yuuri's ring, but was left to herself to deduce.

Yuuri knew that not much had really changed. They kissed before bed, and sometimes in bed (which Greta referred to as "being naughty," despite the fact that they'd never even loosened their collars). They held hands when no one was around to see, or very circumspectly, under the table. Yuuri had Wolfram play for him and left flowers in his room sometimes.

And, really, everything felt different since he'd said those three earth-shattering words. But he liked to think no one knew. It had only been a week since the night he'd given Wolfram the ring, had his first kiss and his second in very rapid succession.

Yuuri had thought Wolfram would insist on telling everyone, but he'd proved surprisingly shy, no more interested than Yuuri in spreading the word. Maybe he, like Yuuri, was waiting for the dream to end, for the other shoe to drop.

Either way, they were in the awkward throes of really being in a relationship, not just a comic accident of an entanglement, and now they were going to share Ao's saddle for a day and a half. Wolfram's arm was casually around Yuuri's waist, so casually one couldn't help but note. Yuuri was fighting the urge to turn and kiss Wolfram and he had a sense his fiancé had a similar compulsion. They'd have to go for a ride together sometime when there weren't so many eyes on them.

Gunter led the way onto the road. Yuuri rode up beside him, mostly to distract himself from the fact that he could feel Wolfram's breath on the back of his neck. "So, Gunter, were you and your brother adopted…?" He couldn't see any other way, but he figured he'd check. Shin Makoku had surprised him before.

"Oh, yes. Our natural mother was Papa's sister. Our parents died when I was an infant, though, more victims of the war. It was a long one. Von Christ needed an heir and they both wanted children." He smiled gently. "While it lasted, it was a wonderful home."

Yuuri nodded. From behind him, Wolfram spoke. Probably, Yuuri guessed, to distract himself. "Your uncle was Odell Karbelnikoff, right?"

"Correct." Gunter nodded.

"Wait, would that make you Anissina's… cousin or something?" That was news to Yuuri.

"Second cousin once removed. Papa was from a different branch of the Karbelnikoffs." Gunter smiled. "Most of the great families are interrelated."

Pleasant, rather bland conversation ruled the rest of the day. Yuuri didn't want to ask more about Gunter's horrible experience. It would just make Gunter hurt worse, and Lady Celi didn't seem like a reliable source. Or maybe she was too reliable a source. While he approved of the honesty, it seemed to Yuuri that once someone was dead, sugarcoating a few faults wasn't exactly a sin. He could have asked Giesela, but she hadn't been there any more than Yuuri had. So he made pleasant conversation and was awkwardly aware of Wolfram sharing his saddle.

And that carried them through. Yuuri felt increasingly silly for not bringing up any of the reason they were going when it was so important. They also didn't talk at all about the assassin or any affairs of state. He wished Gunter would raise some important issue, but he seemed to be avoiding things as stringently as Yuuri. He was also avoiding looking at the maou and his fiancé, and Yuuri suspected that secret might be out.

Which probably had something to do with the fact that he and Wolfram had ended up making out—just a little!—while everyone was supposedly asleep. They'd stayed at a small country inn and all shared a single room full of bunkbeds. And of course Wolfram insisted on sleeping with Yuuri. It had seemed safe at the time, especially after a day spent in very close quarters with no snuggling allowed.

Yuuri was very relieved when what had been described as a small, country villa came into view. It looked at least half the size of Covenant Castle to him. The country was, as promised, very pretty, a craggy landscape of foothills and small, scrubby trees. It was a wild, perhaps treacherous kind of place, not what he'd have expected for Gunter's homeland. The road was cut into hills or curving around them, trying sometimes to bend the unyielding landscape to its will, more often surrendering to the land's majesty.

"This is where I grew up, Your Majesty." Gunter was clearly preparing the grand tour in his mind. "I only wish the associations weren't so painful. It is a lovely place, if a bit modest."

"This is modest?" Yuuri supposed he'd spent too long in an ordinary Japanese house.

Gunter pretended not to hear him. He continued to describe the house as they passed, describing the gables, whatever gables were, and the origins of some balcony, and… Yuuri lost track. Coming up on the place, he was very impressed by the pretty, rambling mansion, but he couldn't care much less about the awnings. Wolfram seemed to be nodding off on his shoulder, which seemed rude even to Yuuri. But he didn't rouse his fiancé. They could see the house long before they got there, and Gunter's unwanted lecture had gone on for half an hour.

Yuuri stared up at the door as they waited for Gunter to fetch a groom to take the horses. He was getting close to having a bit of a fit about how messy he'd suddenly decided the house was. Once actually inside, all Yuuri noticed was a bit of dust, not unconscionable in a house where no one lived but a handful of servants. But he wasn't going to try to stop Gunter from fussing.

Someone else was. "Gunter, you must take His Majesty to the monument. We should all go." Lady Celi looked rather subdued, which for her meant her smile had lost a few watts. Yuuri agreed, nodding emphatically. Wolfram nodded too, at least mildly curious, if nothing else. (He'd gotten a lot brattier toward Gunter since Yuuri had given him the ring.) Dorcas nodded because everyone else did. Giesela had just walked past them all and gone straight there. She hadn't been to visit in a long time, but she loved feeling close to the grandparents and uncle she'd never known.

"It's out in the courtyard, roughly where Arianwyn and I were standing when the alarm was called." Yuuri did pay attention this time. The architectural information might still be dull, but it had significance. "The monument was designed by Yahel Augustine." Gunter held the door for everyone to pass into the bright, rather overgrown courtyard, a patch of ground that seemed to Yuuri to belong to the wild countryside around rather than the house, rocky and bursting with thorny, sturdy plants more interested in taking over than being ornamental. Pretty, but it didn't suit Gunter well at all.

Giesela looked more at home, standing inside the marble mausoleum. The others followed her. It was a sturdy, small stone house, simple in design with no adornment but a gargoyle on each corner of the flat roof and the Von Christ sigil on the door. Inside were three very elegant oil portraits. Wolfram stopped hovering uncomfortably close to Yuuri to go look at them. Poor thing. He was just as interested in painting even now that he'd given up trying.

Yuuri went to look as well as there was nothing else inside. One portrait was of a rather distinguished looking man with salt and pepper hair in a neat ponytail. His eyes were green and sharp and his expression a bit severe. Yuuri found him slightly menacing, and judged him to be Lord Von Christ, the one Gunter called Father.

On the wall opposite was a slightly younger man, his hair a soft lavender, eyes the same color. He did look a bit like Gunter, though his face was rounder. He looked very regal indeed, a perfect courtier. So this must be the biological uncle, Odell Karbelnikoff.

Between them was a smaller portrait of a boy Yuuri's age. He certainly was, as Lady Celi stated once more as Yuuri approached, very handsome. He might just rival Wolfram. He had a thin, elfish face, high cheekbones and delicate jaw making him very androgynous indeed, but definitely attractive. His hair was jet black and his wide eyes somehow a darker black, his face pale and serene. Yuuri was staring up at the portrait, imagining it was small and rather less formal because no one had thought the poor young man would have to be immortalized so soon. Then Wolfram got a hold of his ear and Yuuri was dragged backward, taken off guard but not really surprised.

Who else could be jealous of a two-hundred year old portrait?

"Wolfram, don't you like Mommy's painting?" Yuuri was sure she'd said it only so Wolfram would make that horrified little noise. He understood. He found it pretty cute, too. "I had to paint it quickly. He was so twitchy." She leaned in conspiratorily. "And Lord Von Christ smiled every moment he wasn't having his picture painted. Uncle Odell could never keep so straight a face."

Yuuri smiled and nodded. She was being nicer to them than she had to Arianwyn. And it really was interesting to think of the way death changed perception. He just didn't think it was appropriate while Gunter was posing again, breeze from the door catching his robes and hair as he gazed on the portrait of his father, crying in perfect silence beside his dutiful daughter.

They left Gunter there. He was done giving tours and lectures. Yuuri and Wolfram ended up going for a walk along an overgrown trail behind the house, hand in hand because no one was there to see them.

"Were you really jealous of a portrait of a dead guy?" Yuuri was getting bold enough to question Wolfram's behavior once in a while. Often with interesting results.

"Hmph. As if that would make me jealous. I just don't see any reason to let you indulge your philandering ways. It's not like it hurts me any, but it's not good for the Maou to coddle his own vices like that." Wolfram knew it was a silly argument, and he didn't pursue any further.

Yuuri changed the subject. "Are you feeling alright? If you can't direct a horse you probably shouldn't be walking somewhere this rocky." They should have asked Giesela, or tried to find a cane. Even Wolfram wouldn't mind the cane if no one was here to see.

"I'm fine. That woman just likes to boss me around. And you let her."

"Yes, Wolfram, she's the doctor." Yuuri sighed fondly. Well, there was one surefire way to make Wolfram be careful. Yuuri wound an arm around his waist. Wolfram smiled much more softly and blushed a little.

Was there anyone nearby? Yuuri looked carefully over his shoulder and brought his lips to Wolfram's. They almost ever got to steal a kiss in the open, under the sun. And Wolfram's hair looked its best in bright sunlight.

His fiancé surprised him by turning away. Yuuri was about to feel rejected when he realized Wolfram hadn't actually turned down the kiss but been distracted. They had wandered to the foot of a hill that seemed to have collapsed on itself, heaps of random rubble in unlike-looking, precarious heaps. "Let's climb it!"

"Um, Wolfram, broken legs?" They weren't technically still broken. Giesela's maryoku had done most of the healing. But he was still weak.

"Yuuri…" Wolfram turned with a devilish look on his eyes. He ran one fingertip up Yuuri's chest, which just melted the maou right off. He topped that off by leaning in and speaking right into Yuuri's ear. "Climb the rocks with me…"

He was evil. Evil, evil Wolfram. Yuuri sighed and wrapped his arm even more tightly around his fiancé's waist. "Slowly." The word was a sigh. He gave up.

"There are a lot of rockslides around here," Wolfram said in his usual I-know-more-than-you tones. He was as bad as Gunter sometimes. "We're near Voltaire country. All the borders are surrounded by mountains." Yuuri just nodded. He was considering trying to get Wolfram to stop, mostly in the hopes that he'd be persuaded some more. He didn't really like being teased in retrospect, but it was nice while it happened.

He didn't have to stop Wolfram, though. The next step he took nearly knocked them both off the side of the hill, and Yuuri pulled a muscle somewhere catching him. Wolfram snarled at the ground angrily. "Something tripped me!"

"Probably a rock." First a portrait, now the ground. Wolfram was in a real mood today.

"Of course it was a rock, moron." Oblivious to Yuuri's search for what he'd pulled and how careful he should be standing up, Wolfram glared at the ground. Yuuri followed his gaze, waiting for him to get tired of being mad at rocks.

"What's this?"

"A rock, Wolfram…" Yuuri looked, just to be polite. It did seem to be a rock, but it was a weird one, at least. Completely black, but very smooth, and perfectly curved. "Oh. It's a… strange rock."

"It's an Eternity Stone!"

"Oh." Yuuri wasn't sure if he was expected to know what that was.

Wolfram noted his obvious ignorance. "It's a rare ability in certain Mazoku. Though it's hard to tell if it's there at all, because it only manifests under extreme stress. Essentially, if you're dying and there's no one to help, you can preserve yourself in that moment until someone comes along." Wolfram shocked Yuuri by dropping to his knees. It must hurt his tender legs and there was dust all over. He took off his engagement ring, tucked it carefully in a pocket, and began to pull rocks off it. "Who knows how long ago this hill fell in? Someone might have been trapped in here for a year!"

"Wolfram…" It was rather sweet of him. In someone else, it would be a matter of common decency, but even the least pleasantry was a nice surprise from Wolfram. Yuuri knelt down next to him, but he hadn't removed two stones before Wolfram shook his head.

"It's buried pretty deep. We'd better go get some help back at the house." In other words, make Dorcas do it. "It's too bad we don't have Gwendal along."

Yuuri agreed earth maryoku would have been nice and helped Wolfram up. Ouch. His back was going to complain a while. He wondered if he could get a massage out of Wolfram, considering he'd only wrenched the muscle in the first place to keep him from tumbling to a messy death, or at least serious discomfort. Then he thought a little harder about a massage from Wolfram and decided that was a much better thing to devote his thinking to for a while.

They took a long time getting back to the house. Wolfram was hobbling, Yuuri thought, a little more than he had to. Yuuri didn't object to being leaned on heavily, but the fact remained that it was holding them up.

Lady Celi was sunning by the front door, wearing a decidedly skimpy bikini, Dorcas in place to fan her. Wolfram immediately stopped being so clingy, which just seemed to cause his mother amusement. "Um, Mother, Yuuri and I found an Eternity Stone on our walk."

"Oh, my, how exciting! I hope you didn't try to open it. That can be rather exhausting." She immediately sat up, waving Dorcas back.

"Of course not. It was buried in some sort of avalanche and whoever's inside is on the edge of death." Wolfram hmphed, but only a little, because it was his mommy.

"Aren't you clever, Wolfram." She stood and leaned down to pinch Wolfram's cheek, humiliating him deeply and amusing Yuuri just as much. Though he did wish he wasn't staring into Lady Celi's cleavage… again… "We'll need a competent healer and a few strong pairs of hands… and I suppose Gunter can come along." She snapped her fingers and a rather pleased looking Dorcas draped a robe over her shoulders.

Dorcas went in to fetch the household and it was discovered that one of Gunter's servants had a knack for maryoku and a specialty in shifting earth. Giesela brought her field kit and that dangerous glint in her eye. Gunter came out soliloquizing.

"Some poor citizen under my rulership is bound, unhelped, and has perhaps lain in such a fashion for years. I have been derelict in my duties, and once more the kind wisdom of the Maou has shown me the dreadful error of my unfeeling ways."

"At least three of those words were made up, right?" Yuuri whispered to Wolfram, who was all of a sudden perfectly able to walk unaided.

"I think so." Wolfram snickered a tiny bit and they let Gunter go on. He seemed to have the intensity turned all the way up today, ready to direct fiery eyes and a perfect pose at any situation that might arise. Admirable, but a little disturbing.

"I've walked this road a hundred times or more and never noticed the least thing out of the ordinary. I vow henceforth not to fail the least one of my people, in my flawed but earnest imitation of His Majesty the Maou!" It had been going on like that a while when Wolfram stopped and pointed up the hillside. He knew he wouldn't be able to climb far without leaning on Yuuri, and with the audience he was a bit more reticent.

Yuuri stepped up for him. "It was right here that Wolfram tri—noticed that something was out of the ordinary." It was easy to scramble halfway up the hill without half-carrying his fiancé. He found the curved black stone with relative ease, remembering the shelf of rock Wolfram had almost fallen off to certain jabbing with many pointy rocks.

Extracting the Eternity Stone was fairly easy. The steward, a thin, gray-haired man named Petar who spoke to Giesela like she was Greta's age, drew away the other stones that covered it. He looked thoughtful. "There's been a couple good rockslides on this here hill. One just a week or two back. No telling when this poor bastard was buried."

"It's a strange place for someone to trigger the Eternity Stone. The villa is in sight, and the Von Christs have a very good standing with their vassals." Giesela was very matter-of-fact about it, not bragging but stating a fact. Yuuri wouldn't have blamed her for a little bragging. She walked to the stone and considered. "It's easy enough to unlock it, but it can take a lot of power, depending on the age of the seal. Someone who won't be needed to take care of whatever was in the midst of killing our poor victim should release them."

"I've never been very gifted at healing," Lady Celi said cheerfully. She leaned over the stone, examining it carefully. Yuuri couldn't tell what for and looked to Wolfram.

"There's a single fault on any given Eternity Stone. That's the keyhole, and anyone with a bit of maryoku can open it. You never know who will find you." Wolfram tilted his head, considering. "Though most people claim not to have even known they did it. It just happens. No one knows if it was something created in ancient times tied to bloodlines or a spontaneous development. As it only happens when you're about to die alone, it's likely that many people have it and never use it." Yuuri nodded. Wolfram got such fun from being a know-it-all, and for once it was useful.

"Aha!" Lady Celi beamed and ran a delicate finger over a tiny vein of white crystal in the stone. There was a blinding flash of light and she was on the ground, looking very spent, like she'd nearly fainted. But Yuuri was much less interested in Lady Celi's situation than that of the boy who had sprung up when the black crystal dissolved into light.

He was holding a small, light sword and lunged immediately at Dorcas, who had the misfortune to be standing conveniently nearby. The sword missed, though, a wild, desperate swing from exhausted, trembling arms. The young warrior was clearly spent. He was battered and bruised, cut in several places and slashed viciously in the side, blood streaming out as though it had never been interrupted. He looked very young and frightened, and was even shorter than Yuuri.

He then got a proper look at Dorcas and dropped his sword. "This is different… you're Mazoku… Where are they? What happened?"

His voice sounded very familiar. Yuuri had heard it many times before. For a moment he couldn't place it, but then the exact same voice came from behind him. "By Shinou's power…" Oh, yes, that was Gunter's voice when agitated.

And this was unquestionably the boy from the portrait. Arianwyn.

This fact had dawned on everyone else rather faster than Yuuri, and all were staring in shock. Except Giesela, who strode forward in her usual no nonsense fashion and wrapped her arms around the shaking boy, feeding her gentle healing power into the wound. The bleeding slowed, as did the shaking, and color crept back into his cheeks. Only a little. That face didn't look like it had ever seen much color, but at least he seemed far less corpselike.

"There you go. The wound wasn't deep. It was just the combined stress and blood loss. A day's rest and I bet you'll be right as rain." She smiled pleasantly.

Maybe Giesela had shamed them into it, maybe the shock had just worn off, but the others snapped out of it. Gunter was the first to actually speak. "Ari…"

The boy looked over in confusion, eyes slightly out of focus at first. Comprehension dawned with disbelief in his eyes. "Gungun?"

Gunter ran to him, pressing his big brother, now a head shorter than he, to his chest with tears in his eyes. "Ari!"

Giesela pitied him. Leaning in a bit to speak around her father's hug, she greeted her uncle. "Hello. I'm your niece. You've been in an Eternity Stone for two-hundred and thirty eight years, which is more than two-hundred over the record."

"Oh." He blinked a few times. "Well, that's completely unfair. Gungun doesn't get to be taller than me. I better grow some more, damn it!"

"I think he may have become a bit unhinged in that rock," Yuuri whispered, looking askew at the boy.

"No. That's about usual for Airhead." Lady Celi picked herself up and dusted off with a glove. "Hello, Arianwyn, darling!"

"Lili! Oh, hell, everyone's taller than me. …I think I'm going to faint. Just so people know." He closed his eyes and neatly tipped onto Gunter's chest.

Ten minutes later, everyone but Yuuri and Wolfram were gathered around a bed that hadn't been touched in centuries. In another five minutes, Wolfram limped up behind them, once again gaining the ability to walk alone when there were eyes upon him. Yuuri was going to ask for that massage just to see the look on his face. Revenge.

Gunter paced, muttering and grinning and proving the two could be done at the same time. "With no body every recovered it was feared for some time that he might have met with a worse fate than death on the battlefield, but after a year passed with no request for ransom or any word one naturally assumed he had been basely murdered by those brutal assassins, never imagining he lay under a layer of rubble waiting to be found, and come to think of it I believe I remember their being a rock slid the very day of the attack, popularly viewed as the very land mourning the brutal strike against its rightful rulers and the heart of its people…" Yuuri stopped listening, though he did wonder how long Gunter could keep his entire rant in a single sentence.

"Alright, I'm sitting up now. Really. Me lying completely still is all an illusion. And illusion of laziness. Okay, I guess I'll actually get up now… Someone want to loan me a hand or two? It's nice to have a spare. Ha. I can't believe that sounded funny in my head. Think I should open my eyes now?" Arianwyn sat up and blinked. "Hello. So, I missed two hundred years, did I? Anything good happen?"

"Brother!" Gunter threw himself at Arianywyn to hug him again. Knowing what an unexpected Gunter hug could be like, and that the delicate looking boy was injured, Yuuri took a step forward to suggest a different course of action. Before his foot touched the ground, Arianwyn had jumped up and vaulted onto Gunter's shoulders, crouching there like some odd little pixie on a very confused flower.

"Hmm, I could get used to tall Gungun." He jumped off onto the bed again. "Glad you got away okay. Or hid in a closet okay. Whichever." He kissed the tip of Gunter's nose. "Um… Father and Papa…" Gunter shook his head sadly and the mindless exuberance slipped out of the boy for a moment, replaced by a frown that really didn't suit his spritelike face.

There was a long moment of silence. "So… Um, who're these guys?" He looked a bit strained, grasping to get his enthusiasm for cheerful chaos back.

Gunter smiled. "Dorcas, a loyal servant of Covenant Castle. Lady Celi you know, of course."

"And she's much cuter since she grew boobs." Everyone but Arianwyn and Lady Celi blushed. The lady herself bowed with as much elegant composure as if she'd been told her dress was becoming.

Gunter coughed, and then moved on to his usual favorite subject. "This is the current Maou, the great Shibuya Yuuri, who discovered the Eternity Stone in which you were sealed."

"Oh, really, that was Wolfram." Gracious with credit where credit was due, Yuuri nodded to his fiancé.

"I see…" Arianwyn's face took on a look Yuuri wished he recognized, as Gunter and Lady Celi clearly did. "Well, I owe you then, don't I?" With a flip of his long, midnight-dark locks as elegant as any of Wolfram's, Arianwyn rose with perfect grace and gripped Wolfram's hand, raising it to his lips and lingering much too long for an innocent gesture. "Any debt a man of your loveliness would seek to collect may be wrung from me without complaint." His smile was far more wicked than any Wolfram could have managed.

Yuuri bit back a growl and instead made the kind of noise a punch in the stomach might draw from him. Wolfram paled slightly, then blushed, then paled again. No one had ever dared flirt with him so brazenly. He'd scared off most admirers in the past with icy politeness and, when that didn't work, glowering, insults, and the occasional challenge to a duel.

"Wolfram is His Majesty's fiancé," Gunter said a bit weakly. Lady Celi was laughing delightedly, and even Giesela joined in with a giggle. Dorcas was trying to keep himself from laughing.

"So just engaged? Excellent. I can work with that." His smile made Yuuri want to steal Wolfram's dagger and drop it at Arianwyn's feet. He restrained himself with minimum difficulty. Even where Wolfram was concerned, he wasn't the dueling type. And he sensed he was in trouble for that.

"Brother, please don't get yourself executed just when I finally have you back?"