13 Chapter 12 - Bring Me The Girl

Ryota glared at the fox around Miyu's feet as she giggles. She looks at Ryota and says, "Never thought a fox would threaten you, right? Guess there's a first time for everything."

Ryota lifts his gaze from Arata to her and relaxes, "I need to leave before I arouse suspicion. Thank you for your cooperation, Miyu."

Ryota go's to her window and jumps out, leaving Arata and her behind. Arata jumps o. her shoulder and looks at her, "I don't like him."

Miyu raises a questioning eyebrow, "Why?"

Arata's eyes close slightly, "He's arrogant."

Miyu laughs, "So are you."

She gets up from the bed with a sigh and to her desk, "Let's get our work done then we can enjoy ourselves, yes?"

*****

A couple of hours later, Miyu finishes up with work. Her work consists of organizing her coins, doing her sister's homework, managing the money in the Fujimura treasury, and, finally, working on what Ryota assigned her. She looked through all the Lord's and lady's history, trying to find some bad blood between them his Royal Highness. After she's gotten a few suspects down, she leaves her room and towards her father's study, knowing her father is in there doing paperwork. Even though there is no war going on, all three empires are a little tense with each other. Everyone is training there armies to perfection, making sure they're ready if a war occurs.

Half way there, she hears a giggle and light footsteps near her. Miyu doesn't turn around, letting Kasumi 'catch her off guard.' Kasumi shoves her and Miyu falls down. Miyu sits up and rubs her knees, acting poor and pathetic.

Kasumi giggles, "Well, well, well. Look what we have here. The piece of trash! Oh, I wonder, how did you get the prince to look through your trashy room."

Kasumi steps on Miyu's hand and she fake winces, even though it doesn't hurt on bit, "Did you blackmail him? Did you sleep with him? Did you pay him? Well, you can't pay him, you don't have any money!"

She cackles like a witch when she kicks Miyu in the gut. Miyu falls and circles her hands around her body, feigning hurt. Kasumi continues to laugh as she walks away, happy with her bullying. After Miyu hears her footsteps quiet, she gets up and brushes the dirt of her kimono. She pulls her hair up into a neat bun and continues her journey to her father. She knocks on his door, weakly, and hears her father bark at her to come in. She opens the door and stands in front of him, quivering.

Father glares at her, "What do you want, you little mutt?"

Miyu lifts her face slightly to meet her father's eyes, "I was wondering, may I visit mother's grave?"

Father softens his gaze for a moment, before saying, "Yes you may, but don't take a lot of guards. I don't want them to waste their time on you."

Miyu nods her head and leaves her father. Mother's grave is at the Empire where most of the Lord's and lady's live. Her mother died from a carriage accident, but Miyu knew her step mother staged it. Her mother, Megumi, and her step mother, Kokoro, we're both concubines of Kenta. Kokoro really wanted to be the main wife and safe Megumi as a challenge. Her mother never wanted to put herself out there and was happy with just being a concubine, but Kokoro still killed her. Miyu wept for her mother for days and swore to have her revenge on Kokoro. But now isn't the time, she doesn't have any power, technically. But Ryota has given her an advantage, and she'll wait patiently till the day she can see Kokoro cowering at her feet and begging for mercy she'll never get.

*****

Ryota arrived home with a blank face, already knowing that his father will yell at him. When he enters the palace, a trembling guard approaches him and tells him that his father is expecting him. Ryota nods and heads towards the throne room, where he can already feel the suffocating aura.

He enters and sees only his father. His father ris on his throne and the rest of the room is empty. Ryota closes the door and waits. His father glares at him before saying, "Ryota, first I heard that you're not home. Then, I hear that you did a search for who knows what. And finally, I've heard you skipped out on your military meeting. Now, may you explain any of these things to me before I get really angry."

Ryota opens his mouth but his father slams his sword on the ground in anger. The sword slides till it lays right next to Ryota. Ryota lifts his eyes from the sword to his father who's burning in anger.

"Do you know what embarrassment you've caused me, not having control of my own son, my heir?"

Ryota closes his mouth and waits patiently for his father to stop his rant. After a few minutes, his father let's out a slow sigh and looks at Ryota.

"Tell me, why are you doing what you're doing. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"No father. Now, will you let me explain?"

His father nods his head and rests his head on his hand.

"Father, for me skipping out on military meetings, I've thought I've had enough of it. There's too many for me to manage and I wanted to see my people. For not returning home on time, I was searching for the woman named Hood. Also, Hood is the same reason for the search. It turns out, there is a lady hiding from us with very powerful gifts and she's been using them only in bar fights and similar reasons. I've met up with her and asked for her hand in marriage. She said yes, but doesn't want to reveal her identity till she has reached marriageable age."

When Ryota has finished explaining, his father didn't say a word for a few minutes. Then, his father opened his mouth.

"Bring me the girl."