Chapter 5: A Wolfram Scorned Part I

Wolfram had never wanted to be in love. Frankly speaking, it was asinine. Love was what made men lose their head around his beautiful mother. Love and that thing between their legs. He had no intention of being ruled thusly.

Wolfram had never planned on being engaged.

Yet days later, he stood next to his fiancee as she had another one of her little melt downs in the gardens.

"Engaged!?" Yuuri shrieked as she curled up into a little ball on the floor. No matter how much her legs kicked, she was still spinning round in the same little circle. "I'm too young to be engaged! I haven't even graduated high school!"

Wolfram crossed his arms and looked away. "At this rate, there's nobody that would accept me if I left you. It's all and well if you cancel it, since you're the Queen, but as for me…" he let out an annoyed huff. "The rumors have already spread too far. As far as they and everybody else is concerned, you proposed to me in the most ancient fashion and, as is custom, had your wicked way with me in the gardens while promising me-" a delicate red flushed his cheeks "-flowers as golden as my hair."

"But-" her protests died at the look on her face. As expected, she was far too weak to these handsome men. "Aren't…" she stood up and meekly tugged at his sleeve.

Wolfram refused to be seduced by it or by that sweet face with those adorable round eyes. That face of hers was the greatest weapon in all the kingdom, far outstripping his mother's looks by miles. Then she finished her sentence and nearly all of his reluctant admiration disappeared into the dust.

"Aren't foreigners more free about this kind of thing though…?"

Wolfram glared. "No. And what do you mean by 'foreigners'? Do you still consider yourself human after all this-" he waved at the damage to the gardens. They were now The Water Gardens and this was a literal statement - a fact - rather than an over-exaggeration on his part.

Yuuri covered her eyes and squealed. The high pitch of it made Wolfram want to pinch her cheeks and pull. "Nooooo don't make me look!"

"I'm making you look right now." Wolfram said as he firmly put his hand over her squirming shoulders. "As your fiance, it is my duty to make you face the facts."

"Nooooooooooo!"

What had happened within the span of two to three days? There was only one reason.

"Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned."

The Mazoku did not know Shakespeare but had they, they would have heartily agreed. They also would've added a slight change due to differences in their culture: "Hell hath no fury than an angry lover." Or in Yuuri's case…

Hell hath no fury than a Wolfram scorned.

This was the beginning of the end:

Blood Pledge Castle had finally allowed Conrad to escape the maze. He ran towards his Maoh, hearing more than saw Yuuri's babbling as she began to talk about her older brother, how she despised him as much as she loved him, and her loud denials of how she most definitely did not miss him and how he bought her snacks whenever he saw her studying. All the while, she was shoveling away dirt without missing a beat.

As for Wolfram, Wolfram had given up on pretending to be unconscious.

Yuuri was so intent on making a "worthy and proper hole" for "the angel" - Conrad avoided thinking too much about her choice of words - that she had yet to notice that Wolfram was not only not dead, but lazily lying on his side with his elbow propped up, nodding along to her every word.

In fact, Wolfram was listening with rapt attention. There was a look in his eyes that Conrad most certainly recognized, but now was not the time for it. Now was the time to save both their reputations and prevent and unwanted marriage.

That was when he saw what Yuuri was working on.

There was a large, Wolfram-sized hole in the ground. There was a large, Wolfram-sized hole in the ground. The sight of that hole made something in Conrad's brain snap. Were you to ask him even now, Conrad could not tell you why he did what he did.

Perhaps it was due to fighting in a war for so long and seeing so many of his comrades die and be buried. Maybe it was due to the instinct that all older brothers had when it came to the baby of the family. Whatever the reason, Conrad made a mistake.

He sprinted over to the hole and ignoring the protesting Maoh, picked up the equally protesting Wolfram, and ran.

"Trust me, I'm his brother." He said as he fled with the squirming Wolfram.

"No!" Screamed the new Maoh. She tossed the shovel into her freshly dug hole and gave chase. "There's no way I can trust such a phrase! Anybody who says that is a liar!"

Just as she was about to follow, she tripped over a small pebble and slammed face first into the ground.

Hidden behind the bushes, Stoffel turned to his subordinate.

"Are you seeing this, Raven?"

"Yes, my lord. This girl..." Raven restrained a shudder at the level of ruthlessness he was witnessing. It would not do to show his true fear. He amended his words. "This new Maoh is truly a formidable opponent. To go as far as to lay down on the earth in order to commune with its spirits so that she can bury them both…"

His master's hands were tight and tense, pulled into fists. The shadows over his lowered face obscured his true thoughts.

"How ruthless!" He declared as he squeezed his fists. "How cunning, this new Maoh is! What an inspiration! Even when caught, she still perseveres! As expected of the new Maoh! It seems even I have something to learn."

From where she'd slammed into the ground, Yuuri slowly got up. She winced in pain at the dull ache on…her everywhere. It was a lucky thing she wasn't in her school uniform, otherwise she would've gotten skinned knees.

"Ite-te-te-te-te"

"Her Majesty's battle cries are as fearsome as they are bizarre. What shall we do, My lord?"

"The only thing we can do! Let's…ahem. Let's go home, Raven. In order to observe from afar, of course. No need to put ourselves up in the front lines when there are already so many willing opponents to put their lives on the line for us."

His assistant bowed his head. "Right sir. Yes, yes, of course."

The two returned to their rooms to bid a hasty retreat. As a wise military commander once said, it is better to fight and live another day than to never fight at all. Of course, Stoffel, ever the thoughtful brother, made sure to leave behind an explanation note for his beloved younger sister.

"To my dearest little sister, '

I have some urgent and important business to attend to. Raven and I shall return home first. Please pass on the other letter to the new ruler. It is an official letter declaring my true and faithful loyalty to Her Majesty, the Maoh.

With love,

Your beloved older brother.

"PS: It is most definitely not because I watched Her Majesty the Maoh bury your youngest son in the garden after she chased off the first one and seduced the second. I am most certainly not outwitted nor am I intimidated by that little girl!

PSS: Please don't tell Her Majesty I said that about her."

"Oh my," said Cheri. The former Maoh didn't bother hiding her red-lipped smile, nor her glee. "I did not expect Elder Brother to misunderstand The Chase so thoroughly." She laughed at the thought of it. "Poor Elder Brother…he must have been so frightened!"

As for the letters, both were carefully kept so that Cherie could gloat about it to her sons later. There was even a notation of it in their records. Stoffel's letter to the Maoh would not be passed on. Haha. Let that power hungry brother of hers sweat a bit. A little anxiety was always good for keeping a person on their toes.

"I wonder how my successor will view this misunderstanding?"

The maids were treated to the sight of the former Maoh's secretive laughter as she sashayed through the hallways. Into the rumors pile it went. Within three hours, the whole castle already heard it more than three times over: Lord Stoffel von Spitzweg fled in fear of the new Maoh.

"Good riddance," sniffed the maids.