Kyou Kara Maou Fan Fiction ❯ Between Two Worlds ❯ Shinou's Decision ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Kyou Kara Maou. Tomo Takabayashi does.

Summary: Young Wolfram's world is thrown into chaos when his uncle Waltorana attempts to gain his custody from Celi.

Title: Between Two Worlds

Ch.2 Shinou's Decision

 

It wasn't the morning sun streaming in through the windows that awoke Gwendal vonVoltaire, but rather a series of continuous drips of a green liquid from the inside of an overturned beaker that rained down upon his head. Gwendal, once realizing he was in the direct path of vile concoction whose potential destruction knew no bounds, rolled himself out of the way with all haste. Once safely out of the reach of the doomed experiment, he glanced about for his brothers and found them on the floor, snoring softly, both still lost in the throes of sleep; Conrart's arms were wound protectively around Wolfram and his younger brother's head was nestled under Conrart's chin, his golden hair sticking out in unruly tufts every which way.

 

Gwendal ran a weary hand over his hand and sighed. He knew he had promised Conrart that they would find a way to keep Wolfram with them, however he could not think of any possible course of action they could take that would halt Waltorana's plans, short of kidnapping Wolfram themselves and locking him up in a tower until someone worthy of him came along.

 

Actually, that's not a bad idea, Gwendal mused, and was in the process of deciding just where the tower should be built and how there should be several dragons guarding the location, when Conrart finally stirred.

 

Blinking sleepily, the brown-haired boy gently extricated himself from Wolfram, whose hands were clenched fast in his shirt in an unrelenting grasp, as if the child had feared he would be ripped away in the night, and sat up, staring at his older brother.

 

“He's going to take him away today,” Conrart said numbly, his face filled with an unsettling emptiness.

 

All of Gwendal's plans dissolved at that moment. Who was he kidding? A tower? Dragons? It was nothing but wishful daydreaming. The cold facts lay before them bare: Waltorana was not a man to be outwitted by childish schemes. He was going to take Wolfram away from them. This could be the last time they saw their little brother for a long while.

 

Or perhaps, not ever again…

 

The brothers' silent anguish seemed to seep throughout every available space in the room at being face with an obstacle they were unable to overcome.

 

“AHA!” Anissina crowed triumphantly, her blue eyes flashing wildly as she threw open the door to the lab and spotted the intruders inside, “I KNEW I'D FIND YOU HERE!”

 

“What do you want?” Gwendal snapped, not feeling up to any of the mazoku girl's crazy antics.

 

If it was true that this was the last time they were going to have with Wolfram, then he wanted to make time to say good-bye and create a few more pleasant memories for his youngest brother to carry with him to Bielefield.

 

That way, it would be more difficult for Wolfram to forget them…

 

“Did you know the entire castle is in an uproar looking for you three?” Anissina asked loftily, answering a question with a question, “Sir vonBielefield thinks you made off with his nephew in the night under Lady Celi's orders. Oh, it's not going good for her at all. He's accusing her of everything he can possibly throw at her, right down from kidnapping and assault up to negligence against the kingdom. It's a pity too, right when Ulrike sent word that nothing disturbing the balance of the castle and kingdom could be done without first consorting the Great One.”

 

“You mean Waltorana doesn't have the authority to take Wolfram away then?” Conrart pressed eagerly, his heart racing.

 

“Well, not at the present moment. Not until you travel to the temple and find out what His Majesty Shinou's decision on the matter is. However, if you don't appear with Wolfram soon, that little blessing won't be on your side much longer,” Anissina explained with a flip of her red twin pony-tails.

 

For the first time since Waltorana had declared the terrible statement of taking their brother away, Gwendal felt the first stirrings of hope rise in his heart. Perhaps there was still a chance to keep Wolfram after all! Locking gazes with Conrart, he saw the same thought openly on his brother's face.

 

“Wake him up and let's hurry back to Mother,” Gwendal said, nodding to Wolfram, who was curled up on the floor, smiling blissfully at something in his dreams, a picture of perfect contentedness.

 

“Wolfram, Wolfram,” Conrart called his little brother's name, shaking his shoulder gently.

 

The blissful smile on the young boy's face turned into a downward pout as his eyebrows furrowed, however Wolfram did not budge an inch from where he lay, a clear sign that he was desperately clinging to the last vestiges of sleep and did not want to be disturbed in any way.

 

“Wolfram,” Conrart tried again, shaking his brother's shoulder a little more firmly.

 

The small blond not even bothering to open his eyes, wrinkled up his nose and gave an almost inaudible warning growl from the back of his throat.

 

Conrart refrained from trying to wake Wolfram up at that. The brothers were all too aware of the fact that Wolfram was most definitely not a morning person, and liked to lounge in his bed as long as possible before he came down for breakfast, if he managed to make it to breakfast at all. It didn't matter how early he was sent to bed; he still woke up with the idea that noon time was the crack of dawn. Celi thought it was rather cute. She called him her little “slug-a-bug” and often got him up herself each morning, since there was no one else brave enough to try. Wolfram was the quite the little horror when he was woken up not of his own accord and for one so small, could deck out some nasty punches and well-aimed kicks and also possessed a ferocious set of baby teeth. Those who were lucky enough to escape injury from those attacks, did not survive being charbroiled to a crisp.

 

All in all, it was another unspoken rule in the Demon Castle: if you value your life, you do not wake up Lord Wolfram early in the morning.

 

Both Gwendal and Conrart knew this. It would have been amusing, Gwendal supposed as Conrart gazed at him helplessly at a loss at what to do, if there hadn't been a need for speed.

“For Shinou's sake, just carry him,” Gwendal swore exasperated, walking over and reaching down to pick up his youngest brother from around to waist.

 

Wolfram had been patiently waiting for the next touch. As soon as Gwendal's hand made contact with him, the young boy's head snapped out without warning and had sunk his teeth viscously into the intruder of his rest.

 

Gwendal reeled backwards, roaring like an enraged lion and tried unsuccessfully to shake off his little brother's iron-clad jaws, and Wolfram, to his capability, hung on like a young, famished piranha.

 

“LET GO! LET GO, YOU BRAT!” Gwendal bellowed, taking hold of his brother's golden curls with his free hand and yanking at his head in an attempt to unfasten the sharp visors that way and only accomplished receiving a painful kick in-between his ribs by a small foot.

 

“Ooh! This is a great opportunity to discover if `Stuck-On-You-Forever-kun' will work in reverse!” Anissina squealed in unadulterated glee as she snatched up one of many inventions litter across the room and held up near Gwendal's face, exhibiting his would-be death as what looked like a harmless jar of paste had it not been frothing and bubbling wickedly.

 

“KEEP THAT AWAY FROM ME!” Gwendal yelped in terror and as his hands were both full, hooked a leg behind Anissina's and swept her feet out from beneath her.

 

The mazoku girl toppled over with a surprised cry, knocking into the table and sending several inventions flying to floor. Stuck-On-You-Forever-Kun slipped out of her grasp and crashed into the one of the fallen experiments, the same green liquid in a beaker, which had woken Gwendal up.

 

The resulting explosion shook the entire castle and sent tremendous tremors throughout the length of the grounds right up to the castle gates themselves. When the servants and guards finally arrived and broken in the damaged door of the lab, four very-blackened, frizzy-haired, smoked young mazoku stumbled out coughing.

 

Celi and Waltorana arrived on the scene in time to see an extremely incensed Gwendal at last released from Wolfram's biting grip, whom the explosion had seemed to thoroughly wake up. The young child decided to proclaim his furious indignation at having his morning slumber ruined by howling unceremoniously to high heaven. Gwendal noted with some satisfaction that his brother's teeth had been dyed black from the blast.

 

“Wolfram-kun!” Celi cried, reaching for him, but Waltorana beat her to it.

 

“Wolfram, what happened?! Are you hurt?” Waltorana questioned, kneeling down and grasping his nephew's and checking to see if he had sustained any injuries.

 

“O-O-Ojiiue!” Wolfram wailed, throwing his arms around his uncle's neck, acting as if he had been horribly maimed and sucking his concern and worry for all it was worth.

 

Gwendal snarled inwardly at the sight. Didn't his brother even remember that Waltorana was trying to separate him from his family, his real family? The enemy was supposed to be avoided, out-witted, not one to run straight into their arms!

 

“Is this how you raise children, Cecile?” Waltorana accused standing up with Wolfram tightly clinging to his chest, “Letting them run wild throughout the castle with no supervision, not knowing their whereabouts for hours on end, and only locating them by an explosion in which they could have been killed?”

 

Celi stared at her brother-in-law, mouthing soundlessly, quite at a loss of what to say.

 

“Oh, but Lord vonBielefield,” Anissina piped up, in an attempt to explain, “Please, sir, it was my-”

 

“I can only hope that Shinou grants the right decision to be made, which is for me to take the boy as far as possible from your jeopardous clutches,” Waltorana stated running over the mazoku girl's words as if she was not there, and walking briskly away.

 

Celi gave a strangled choking sound from deep within her throat and fled down the hallway in the opposite direction leaving her two oldest sons and their friend to ponder on to clean up the mess they had unwillingly created.

 

“So far, your plan isn't working well, Aniue,” Conrart said seriously.

Gwendal gritted his teeth and forced down the urge to lash out and bite at something much like Wolfram had done. He was far too mature to be fall prey to that childish desire.

 

So he settled for giving Anissina's twin ponytails a good hard yank, relishing the sound of her startled squawking.

oOoOoOo

 

The carriage ride to Shinou's temple was rather subdued. Wolfram, now newly-clothed and soot-free sat in his uncle's lap and amused himself by making faces at his brothers seated opposite him with Celi. Gwendal smugly viewed that it appeared the boy's blackened teeth were going to remain so for quite some time. Waltorana seemed caught between the choice of who exactly he should glare so he resolved to frown at some point over all their heads. Conrart's mind was clearly elsewhere as his vacant gaze implied and Celi was making little sobbing cries into her handkerchief while her eyes flashed dangerously over to Waltorana's direction. It was quite the relief to all to leave each other's close company when they arrived at their destination.

 

The shrine maidens led them to the interior of Shinou's resting place where Ulrike waited, her long silver hair pooled around her feet, and her eyes wide and sad, as if asking for forgiveness.

 

“You have the answer already,” Waltorana stated pretentiously, overly-confident that the news about to be announced would be in his favor.

 

Celi bit her lip and Gwendal and Conrart waited with bated breath.

 

“This is the will of His Majesty the Great One,” Ulrike spoke, her small voice echoing around the shimmering walls of the tomb in a lost fashion, “That His Excellency Wolfram vonBielefield be given into the custody of his uncle, Waltorana vonBielefield-”

 

Conrart could not stop his outcry of dismay and Gwendal had to quell down his own sudden burst of panic. Celi herself, had collapsed to her knees on the floor and was trembling in consternation.

 

Gwendal resisted the compulsion to sock Waltorana directly in the face and knock the bastard's vainglorious smile off.

 

“Only,” Ulrike added and everyone stilled, waiting for the remainder of the sentence, “If Her Majesty Cecile vonSpitzveg does not step up in her duties as Demon Queen as she should have been doing all along and only if she acts in a manner which His Majesty the Great One finds disapproving in her trial period.”

 

“Trial period?”

 

Waltorana was no longer smiling. If anything, he competing with Gwendal for a deepening frown-line between his brow.

 

“His Majesty Shinou understands Lady Celi has been entirely attentive in her obligation as Demon Queen,” Ulrike explained, “The Great One realizes that His Excellency Wolfram would be under better care and watch with his uncle Lord vonBielefield, however he deems it unfair that a child should be ripped away from the only family he has known without that family given a chance to redeem themselves. Lord vonBielefield may only take His Excellency Wolfram if the extenuating circumstances hereby proclaimed are a risk to the child's livelihood.”

 

Waltorana looked positively infuriated, but Gwendal felt the beginning twinge of desire to fall down on his face and worship Shinou in full according for the first time in his life. The message was clear: their mother had best clean up her act and start acting like a real ruler, and if she slipped up under Lord vonBielefield's scrutinizing eye, he had full authority now to take his nephew and never look back twice.

 

“Do you accept these terms, Your Majesty Cecile vonSpitveg?” Ulrike asked as Shinou's mouthpiece.

 

“Yes, yes!” Celi sobbed, willing to agree to anything that would enable her to keep one of her beloved children.

 

“Then His Excellency Wolfram may reside under your care still unless you break the contract withheld in your trial period,” Ulrike declared, giving a great sigh as if she had been released from some great pressure.

 

Celi embraced her youngest son tightly and smothered his face in her ample bosom, tell-tale signs of tears edging out of the corner of her eyes, clearly shaken at how close she had come to losing her child.

 

Gwendal met Conrart's gaze and nodded discreetly, able to read the unspoken message. Celi just might actually try to uphold her end of the bargain at becoming a better Demon Queen, however if she failed at that there was nothing they could do to help her. On the other instance of refining her parenting skills, her sons were not about to let her mess up. If needs be, they would make sure Wolfram was properly looked after. They would not give any leeway for his uncle take him to a distant land.

 

Waltorana had better beware.

 

Woe betide any person pompous enough to think he could disrupt their family and steal their little brother away.

 

Waltorana smiled scornfully at his nephew's two older brothers who were both staring challengingly at him. The aristocrat took off his hat and bowed mockingly at them.

 

Oh, so it's a fight you want then, boys? He thought in his head, Then let's soon unveil the victor. There's a prize to be won!

 

A/N: So, I just had to watch the 3rd ep of Season 3 before I posted the next chapter! Mweee! More Wolfram/Waltorana interaction! X3 I must say, I adore Waltorana now. The vonBielefields sure have handsome genes, don't they? So, what did you think of this chapter? What did you like about it? Feel free to quote your favorite parts, express musings on what may happen and generally gush about whatever character you love: winks: Thank you for reading! Please review!