Next Morning
As Yusei gets dressed a guard knocks on his door to enter. "Your Majesty, what are your plans for the evening?," the guard asked.
"Well, I plan on taking Lady Aiko through the capital and hopefully I'll get to know my people at the same time, as I show her different places and shops." Yusei tells the guard.
The guard replies to Yusei"As you wish, your majesty, I'll let Lady Aiko know..." Yusei interrupts the guard, "NO! I'll tell her, don't tell anyone about this okay," Yusei says with an intense tone in his voice.
Yusei finishes getting dressed as Julius enters the room. "How do I look?," Yusei asked, wondering with a distressed look on his face.
Julius looks at him up and down and answers him, "You look fine Sir," he said with a brassy snicker, "But the reason I came today was to tell you that the kids have grown tremendously."
"Thanks Julius. So do you think they're ready for a journey?," Yusei asked as he walks out of the room.
Julius scratches his head and replies, "I think they're ready, but I don't know what you have in store for them, so I think you should test them yourself first, Sir."
"Alright, I'll test them later but I'm busy today," Yusei says.
Julius, with a curious look on his face, asked him, "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing today to make yourself so busy?,"
"I'm taking Lady Aiko through the Capital," Yusei says with a nervous look and a smile.
"Ohhh okay," Julius replies as he starts leaving before he can, Yusei grabs his shoulder.
"Yes Sir?," Julius asked.
"You're coming with," Yusei says with a grin.
"ME! But why sir?," Julius asked.
"Just in case anything happens, Cool, okay, thanks!" Yusei says to him decisively, as he runs away.
Julius sighs, "Ugh fine, This is going to be a long day..."
A Short While Later
Aiko and Hana are sitting on the window bench eating breakfast in their room talking.
Do you have any plans for today, Lady Aiko? Hanna inquires as she pops a strawberry in her mouth.
Aiko spits out a burp and replies, " Excuse me! Please, stop referring to me as Lady, it's just Aiko. Also, I was thinking I would go to the hot spring and chill. Maybe make it like a spa day at home. Why? What did you have in mind?"
"I have called you Lady my entire life. To call you anything else would be disrespectful to you and your family and I have the highest respect for you ,not only because of your family but because you are my best friend too." Hana says as she pops another strawberry in her mouth.
"Awe, that is so sweet but the rules of the village do not apply here, remember. After all, you are my friend and friends don't have to always be so formal.' Aiko points out with a smarty pants grin.
"Fine Aiko, I'll try to remember that. Now, tell me, when are you gonna talk to Yusei? You have been eyeballing him for a minute now." Hana asked fantastically.
Aiko her face red as a beet, "Don't tell anyone else that. But he does have a really nice tush, doesn't he? There is definitely an allure about him. I get butterflies when he stands next to me. It's so weird, isn't it."
"Not weird at all, but I wouldn't have expected you to have butterflies." Hana replies, "You have to like more about him than his tush."
Aiko looks up into another world and quietly says, "His power is completely overwhelming but what gets me are those eyes. Amazing eyes, it's like he can read me all the way down to my soul and back with those eyes. And that hair, it's so perfect. I just don't know how he does it."
Hana giggling nudges Aiko with her shoulder, "Somebody's got a cruUush."
There is a knock at the door. Aiko goes to look through the peephole. "Oh NO!!! It's HIM! I can't answer the door like this. Hana take care of this", as she runs into their oversized closet.
Hana slowly opens the door and looks at Yusei and asks him, "How can I help you this morning, Your Majesty?" she says with a nervous look on her face.
"Umm may I speak to Ms. Aiko?", He asks as he scratches his head nervously.
"I think she's getting dressed at the moment, umm do you mind waiting out here for a minute?", Hana asked him.
"OH! Not at all, not at all," answered Yusei nervously.
A Few Minutes Later
Aiko walks out of the room quietly while Yusei stands at the opposite side of the hall looking out the window at the courtyard. She sneaks up behind him and, "BOO!! I got you!" Aiko yells.
Yusei almost jumps out of his skin, "BLOODY HELL Woman!!" After composing himself, "you could give a man heart failure pulling stunts like that."
Aiko giggles in a flirty way and says, "what brings you to my door today, fraidy cat?"
Standing up tall he replies, "Well, I was wondering if it would interest you to join me in a trip to the capital. It would allow us both to get acquainted with the people and the culture."
"It seems odd that a king needs to get acquainted with his people, I would think the king would already have that. So tell me Sire, Whhyyy do WE need to get acquainted with the people?," Aiko responds pryingly.
Tripping on his words Yusei answers,"I-I was thinking we might enjoy an afternoon outside of the castle. Would you be interested in joining me?"
As Aiko begins to answer, they hear Hana shout through the door, "JUST GO ALREADY!!", making Aiko's face blush beat red.
"Shall we go?", inquiring to Aiko as he offers his arm for escort.
As they reach the gates to the capital the guards open the gate. "Have a wonderful day Your Majesty and Lady Aiko." The guards say as Yusei and Aiko walk through the gate towards the capital.
"So what do you have planned for the day?" Aiko asks Yusei.
"First I was planning on having us watch a magic performance in the town square. We can look at anything you want on the way there and after the performance we'll just wing it." Yusei replies to Aiko with a smile as he puts his hand on hers.
Aiko notices his hand and starts to blush and looks away. "Sounds like fun, I can't wait." Aiko said flustered.
They walk towards town square looking at stores full of clothes, jewelry, etc. As they reach the square they can see a magician shooting fire out his mouth while spinning fire sticks around him.
"I've never seen that kind of magic before. What kind of magic allows that man do that?" questioned Aiko quizzically.
Yusei answers, " Well, that is fire magic. It works just like your blood magic. Many people can have the same element but have different power from that element."
Aiko curiously asks, "How do you know about blood magic?"
"I have read many books in my library that tell about different creatures and the various magic they can have. Many of the books go as far as telling you how they use the magic," replies Yusei.
Surprised Aiko inquires,"How are there books on vampires and blood magic? We have kept ourselves hidden for centuries. Our mere existence has been concealed from most of the outside world."
"My mother had spies everywhere," Yusei replied,"I doubt there is much of anything that she did not have knowledge of in this world."
Aiko sees something in a store window," Yusei, lets go look at that."
"Go check it out, I'll be there in just a minute." Yusei says looking back at Julius.
As Aiko enters the shop, Julius approaches Yusei,"My Lord, is it wise to be revealing secrets of that caliber to someone that is not in your inner circle?"
"I don't know why I told her that, but perhaps you are correct," Yusei answers with an unsure tone," but let's leave it at that for now."
Yusei walks into the shop to find Aiko arguing with a salesman about a pure gold necklace with a deep red ruby. "Are you sure this is something a woman of your degree would want. You could get two of these for the cost of this one," the salesman suggests looking into the case at the end of the counter.
Aiko, rather insulted, replies,"This ruby is abnormally dark for this kind of cut. Are you sure it is real?
"Well if it is, can you even afford it," the salesman shouts in an outraged,"this is one of the most lavish stones in the realm."
Looking through the loupe, Aiko adds, "This stone is really hazy to be a stone of the quality and value that you are promoting."
"It isn't possible for a simple woman, such as yourself, to know this much about valuable stones. You must be a thief, looking to steal from me." the salesman insinuated.
Yusei approaches the counter, "Do we have a problem, sir," looking at the salesman infuriated.
"Oh no Your Majesty, I was just about to call the guards to arrest this thief." the salesman replied thinking he'd won the argument with Aiko.
"Thief? I'm no thief you ass," Aiko yells in anger. Suddenly she feels a hand on her wrist and looks at Yusei with bright red eyes.
Yusei looks back at her, not fazed by her look. "Calm down Aiko, It's not worth the energy. Now let's just go," Yusei says calmly and gently pulls Aiko out of the store.
"Can we just go back to the castle?", Aiko asked under her voice.
"Why, the night has just started?"Yusei asks.
Julius, still following behind the couple, thinks. "Why am I here? You know I'm just gonna leave."
Julius walks past Yusei and pats his shoulder and tells Yusei, "You got the rest of this."
Julius starts walking toward the castle leaving Yusie and Aiko by themselves.
Yusei and Aiko continue toward the center of the capital city, "We still have so much to see Aiko. Don't worry about that pompous prick," Yusei insists.
Aiko follows Yusei mulishly as they move deeper into the city. Yusei looks at Aiko, "I'll be right back." While Aiko waits for Yusei she bumps into people dancing in the square. She looks up and round and notices all the beautiful decorations and lights, then approaches Yusei,"May I have a dance on this amazing night?"
Embracing the beauty of the decorations and lights, Aiko blushes, and replies, "sure."
As Yusei takes her hand, he pulls her in and they dance to the soft sweet music in the background. So distracted with each other they don't realize the music has stopped and everyone is starting to stare at them, whispering,"Isn't that the king?"
As the two continue dancing, Aiko says,"Everyone is staring." And he replies,"Don't worry about them." Then they danced until the city became quiet.
As they make their way back to the castle, Aiko spinning as if she was still dancing and the two laughing and carrying on like school children, they say goodnight and continue to their rooms.
Ch 7 End