Serrano and Setsuko arrived at the park that Rosalba had specified. It was only a few miles west of the palace and laid in the view of the tallest and widest skyscraper in all of Kuroriku, Crystal Spire. The park itself was large, encircling the entire western area of the tower and spanning on for several miles until one arrived at the residential district.

Serrano stared at one of the cherry blossom trees as they moved toward the center of the rim closest to the tower. There was only one flower left on the tree.

"They're pretty, aren't they?" Setsuko said, putting her hands behind her back. "Too bad their flowers are short-lived. Not to mention, their petals are easily blown away by the wind like a small flame."

Serrano stopped as he felt a gust of wind against his back. He watched in dismay as the wind took away the petals of the last flower, rending the tree devoid of them.

Setsuko lowered her head and grabbed his hand. "Come, let's go."

He nodded and followed her.

"Hey, mommy!" he heard a kid yell as she ran past them. Serrano turned around and watched as the kid ran to one of the hundreds of benches spread throughout the park. Seated on one of them was a woman with a phone.

"Want a lick?" she asked with a wide grin.

The woman glanced up from her phone and glared at the child holding up an ice cream cone. She swatted it out of her hands, sending it into one of the bushes behind the bench. "I told you not to buy that stuff! You'll end up fat! Do you want to be made fun of?"

"N-no..." the child said, lowering her head as tears threatened to spill over. "B-but I wanted to share with mommy."

The woman scoffed. "Please child, leave my sight and go and play with your friends or something. I'm busy working on this deal."

"Is that any way to talk to her?" Setsuko snapped as she clenched her hands tightly.

The woman looked up from her phone once more and saw the young woman dressed in short jeans and a simple blouse. "Who are you to tell me how to raise my children? Do you have any of your own to judge? Now run along, you stupid peasant. Not sure why they even allow people of your caliber here." She stood up and walked away. "Well, at least you aren't one of those slum dwellers."

Setsuko raised a fist, but Serrano pulled it down. Her arm shook. "Let me go," she said in a low voice.

"Don't," Serrano whispered.

The little girl tugged at Setsuko's shirt. "It's fine... Maya doesn't mind... Mommy's right. Maya will get fat if she eats ice cream." The girl let out a choking sound. Tears and snot spilled down her face. She sniffed and let go of the princess and ran off in the opposite direction her mother had gone.

"I'll go look for that sorry excuse of a mother," Setsuko muttered as she turned around. She expected Serrano to stop her at any moment, but it didn't come. She turned around and saw he was gone.

The silver-eyed knight had chased after the crying little girl who was running without looking where she was going.

"Hey, you're going to get lost!" Serrano yelled. He sighed as she continued to run. He sped up and appeared in front of her.

The girl blinked and glanced up to see him. "Wah, who are you?"

Did she not pay attention to me back there?

"I'm the boyfriend of that girl back there. I saw you run off, so I chased after you," he responded as he squatted so that he could be at her eye level. He took out his handkerchief and wiped the little girl's tears. "It's not a good idea to run off like that."

"Why do you care?" the girl shouted before turning around.

"Wait!" he shouted, appearing in front of her again.

"Wah!" she yelled. "Somebody... help!"

Serrano tipped his head down and sighed. "I'm not a creep. I'm just trying to help is all. Your mother will be worried."

The girl stepped back and rubbed her eyes. "Mommy doesn't care. All she cares about is herself... I bought her ice cream, and she tosses it away! It'll be best if I just vanish, then mommy will be happy!"

Serrano hugged the girl. "Don't say that... Please don't."

***

[14 Years Ago]

"Mommy!" a white-haired boy with large red eyes called out as he ran up to a black-haired woman.

The woman looked up from the magazine she was reading and stared at the child. "What are you doing out of your room? Didn't I tell you to study?"

"I finished!" the child said, raising his hands to show his mother his work. "I did as big brother taught me last time."

Serrano watched by the stairs and smiled.

The woman tore the papers in half and tossed them to the child's face. "Go back and do it over, this time I hope correctly."

"It... was wrong?" the child asked, lowering his eyes.

"You only got eight of the ten right."

"Isn't that a B?" he asked hopefully.

The woman clicked her feet against the wooden floor and narrowed her eyes. "A B isn't enough. You have to try harder. Try to be more like your big brother. He strives to be the very best. Do not wallow in mediocrity, or you'll end up like your father, a good for nothing."

"O-okay," the child said, turning around.

"And no crying! If you cry, then I'll give you a reason to cry."

The boy raised his head and ran upstairs as fast as he could. Serrano watched as his little brother closed himself up in their room. The future knight stared at his mother as she picked up the torn pages and crumpled them into a ball.

"M-" He bit his lip and turned around. He knew best not to anger his mother. Ever since their father left, she had gotten harder to deal with. He was lucky she didn't lash out on him as much as she did toward his brother.

"Conrad?" Serrano asked, opening the door. He saw his brother scribbling on a piece of paper.

"Need to do better. Must show my mommy that I'm not an idiot. Must make my mommy proud of me," Conrad muttered to himself.

Serrano grimaced. Seeing the usually cheerful and happy Conrad act like that was odd. It was usually he who found himself pushing himself.

He locked the door behind him and walked over to Conrad. "Hey, lil bro. Mind if I help?"

"No, I need to do this by myself," he said, scribbling harder. Conrad shouted as the pencil tip snapped. "Nooo! What now?"

Serrano felt tears swell up. He didn't wish for Conrad to lose his smile, like how he had. "Stop it!" Serrano yelled, grabbing his little brother's hands. "Take a deep breath. Nerves only make things worse!"

"B-but I need to be better, to make mommy happy," Conrad said, sniffing. He slapped himself. "Argh, I mustn't cry. Gotta be tough!"

Serrano hugged his little brother tightly. "You are tough, Conrad. Much more than me! There's no need to punish yourself."

"B-but..."

"Listen, let me help you out," Serrano cried as he hugged Conrad tighter.

Conrad hugged him back and cried into his older brother's shirt. "You ever think Mommy would be happier if she didn't have us? At least me."

"Don't say that, please don't!" Serrano said, petting his little brother's head. He closed his eyes and cried alongside him. He wanted it to stop, the pain to go away. Yet it wouldn't. No matter how much he prayed it would, it kept coming back even when he thought things were finally looking up.

Save me, Sky Father! Or send someone to do so. Anyone!

"Serrano!" he heard his mother yell.

The two brothers split apart. "You better go. I'll return to my work," Conrad said, wiping his tears away with the sleeve of his white t-shirt.

Serrano wiped his own tears away too. "O-okay," he said, his voice somewhat devoid of emotion. He tried his best to smile for his brother but couldn't. Instead, he ran out of the room and went to see what it was his mother had wanted.

***

['Present']

Serrano let go of the little girl. "Sorry about that."

"Mister, you're crying," Maya said, sniffing.

The knight touched his face and felt a tear. He quickly wiped it away and tried his best to smile. He held out his hand to her. "Hey, how about I buy you some ice cream while my girlfriend locates your mom for you?"

"O-okay."

Serrano held her hand and walked back toward the eastern rim of the park. Luckily for them, there was an ice cream truck not too far away. "So, what do you wish to order?" Serrano asked.

"Mommy threw my hazelnut vanilla cone, so I'll order that again."

"Alright! Want to make it a double scoop?"

"Wah? Really?"

He chuckled. "Yes."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You really aren't a creep?"

"No, but you are wise to doubt. Better safe than sorry."

She smiled. "Alright, I'll have the double scoop! Except, this time, I'll eat it before going back to Mommy."

"Sounds good," Serrano said as he looked up ahead. Hope Setsuko hasn't done anything stupid.

"Serrano!" Tetsuya yelled, waving at him as they neared the ice cream truck.

"Where are the others?" Serrano asked. He only saw Tetsuya, Rosalba, and Roa.

"They went off to play. We were too, but we saw you, so we came running over."

"Where's Setsuko, and who is this little girl?" Rosalba asked, squatting down to her eye-level.

"Perhaps she's his love child," Roa muttered as he stifled a laugh.

Tetsuya chuckled. "I doubt it. She looks nothing like him, and she's got to be around eight. Serrano is only twenty-one, soon to be twenty-two in a few weeks."

Rosalba stared at the little girl with a sad look on her face. "Did this girl run away from home?"

Serrano lowered his eyes. "No, but she did run off on her mother without telling her a word of where she'd be."

"Woah, who are these gorgeous people?" Maya asked, eyes wide.

"I'm Rosa," the second princess said, waving at her. "While these two behind me are Tetsuya and Roa. And you are?"

"Maya!"

"Can you buy her a double scoop hazelnut vanilla cone?" Serrano asked as he took out some bronze coins from the pockets of his blue jeans. He handed them over to Rosa and turned around. "I'm going to go look for Setsuko... I'm afraid she might get into trouble again."

"Okay!" Rosa said, taking the little girl's hand.

"Trouble? Again?" Tetsuya asked.

Rosa laughed nervously. "My big sis can be a bit of a 'troublemaker'. At least that's how Dad sees her. But I think that there's an order in her 'chaos'."

"Order in chaos, eh?" Roa said, putting his hands behind his head.

"Maya, stay here with these people, okay?" Serrano asked.

Maya nodded.

The blue-haired knight smiled. "Alright, I'm off!" he yelled, waving goodbye.

***

Serrano stared at his phone. He didn't have to travel far to find his fiancee. Setsuko and Maya's mother stood by the entrance of Crystal Tower.

"You again? Stop bothering me, or I'll call the police!"

Setsuko grinned. "Fine by me, go ahead. Though you should be concerned about finding your daughter."

"Maya? She'll be fine," the woman said, exasperated. "That girl can find her way easily. Now leave, or I really will call the police."

Setsuko turned around and smiled impishly as she saw Serrano coming her way. "Hey, Serra! Did you get the girl?"

"Huh? Yeah, I found her."

The crowned princess snickered. "Good, then let's get going before this woman here decides she wants to actually care for her. Say, how much do you think we can get for her organs?"

"Huh?" Serrano asked.

Setsuko elbowed his side and gave him a stern look.

"Ohhh. I mean, probably a lot. You know how child organs are hard to come by. The parts are so small that even modern organ printers have a hard time replicating them," he said in a voice loud enough for the lady to hear.

The two glanced back at the woman who narrowed her eyes at them before returning to her phone.

"I don't think this is working?" Serrano whispered.

"Such a heartless... Argh, can't I punch her, just once?"

"Or maybe it's because our acting is atrocious?"

"Yours is, not mine!"

Serrano took a deep breath and pulled her. He ran until they were back to where the ice cream shop was.

"You're back so early?" Rosalba asked. "What happened? Did you locate her mom?"

"We did, but that woman doesn't seem to care for her. We even pretended to be black market folks, and yet she didn't as so much bat an eye. Can you believe that?"

"Black market?" Maya asked, tilting her head at them.

Rosalba smiled at the girl. "How about we go sit down and enjoy our ice cream, huh?"

"Okay!" Maya yelled.

"What now?" Serrano asked. "Should we just drop it?"

"I hate to give up, but perhaps we do. Don't think that woman will listen to reason, no matter what we do."

"Halt!" a voice yelled behind them. "Step away from the little girl!"

"Huh, I know that voice," Setsuko said as she looked behind her. Standing behind them was a tall man in a blue uniform. "Oh, hey, Dad. Playing cop again? By the way, you look nice shaven."

'Wow, I barely recognized him,' Serrano thought.

The king's left eye twitched. "Setsuko?"

"So your daughter has fallen to this level," Eiko said as she emerged from bushes behind the bench Maya and Rosalba were sitting on. "Well, both as it appears, the other one is an accomplice."

"Maya! Maya!" the girl's mother yelled as she ran over to her daughter.

"Mommy?" Maya asked. She glanced down at her ice cream and began to eat it as fast she could.

"Stop that, you're going to choke!" she cried, grabbing the cone. "If you're going to eat this stuff, at least do it slowly."

King Osamu took a deep breath. "Setsuko, Rosalba, explain to me what's going on here?" he said, rubbing his forehead.

"We were trying to teach this lady a lesson, so Serrano and I pretended to be kidnapping her."

"Isn't that a tad cruel?" Rosalba asked as she stood up. She turned around and waved at Eiko, who was staring at her suspiciously. "Not to mention you got others involved in this."

"What's going on?" Tetsuya asked as he and the others ran over to them.

"Nothing more than another one of my daughter's misadventures."

The shield knight glanced at Rosa. "What did you do now?"

"Not mine, Setty's!" Rosa yelled, her face red.

Setsuko chuckled. "Come on, it was just a trick. And look, seems everything is better," she said, pointing at Maya's mother hugging the child. She lowered her head at him. "You know... No child wishes to be ignored by their parent."

Osamu turned his back to her. "Stop acting like a child. As for you, Serrano."

"Yes, sir?" Serrano asked, straightening himself.

"I counted on you to stop her hi-jinks, not to participate in them. I'll try to think up a punishment for the both of you," the king said before walking away. "Let's go, Eiko."

"Yes, my liege!" Eiko yelled as she jumped over the bushes. She ran to join the king like a dog does to its owner.

Setsuko stuck out her tongue at her father. "Like there's a punishment big enough for me!"

"So both princesses are childish," Tetsuya said, scratching his head. He sighed. "The kingdom is in dire straits even without the upcoming threat."

Rosa pouted. "We're serious when it comes to royal matters..."

Tetsuya side-eyed her. "Kinda have my doubts on that."

"I'll show you one of these days," Rosa said, grinning. "I'll make you help me too!"

"Ehhh, it's not paperwork, is it?"

She nodded. "Yup! You'll love it!"

Tetsuya stepped back. "I take back what I said before. The kingdom is in good hands!"

Rosa giggled.

"I can see why you changed," Setsuko whispered to Serrano.

"I'm more mature than that guy, though," Serrano whispered as he tried not to laugh.

Setsuko grabbed his hand. "You know, you really surprised me back there. Running after her like that. Kinda makes me glad that out of all the guys, it was you I was engaged to."

The knight covered his face with his free hand. "R-really?'

"Little Serra is blushing!" Teresa said.

"Someone hurry up and give me a camera!" Tetsuya yelled as he formed a rectangle with his thumbs and index fingers.

"He's just like his cousin," Roa mumbled as he gave him a deadpan look.

"And the princess is like the one we all know and love!" Etsuo said, chuckling.

Roa scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Speak for yourself, I don't love her. I barely even like her."

The white-haired teen giggled. "Come on, be nice!"

***

[Top of Crystal Spire]

Satoru glared at Roa, Etsuo, and their companions.

Look at them laughing with the enemy. Those fools are growing too attached. Perhaps it's about time for me to do something about that.

Satoru raised a hand into the air.

No. I need to wait for them to go north. Then taking over this kingdom will be easy. Once that's done, the others shall fall easily, lacking this nation's superior military might.

"Hey, there," someone called out.

Satoru gasped. He hadn't been able to sense anyone until now. He turned around and saw a gray-haired man wearing a fox mask.

"Who are you?" Satoru snapped, standing up.

He chuckled in the same manner that Satoru had. "I should be the one asking you that, Satoru," he said as he walked toward the edge of the tower.

He lowered his golden eyes down at the others. Though they seemed to widen as soon as he saw the reddish-orange haired guy with the freckles.

"Nico..." he whispered.

Satoru took a step away from him. 'Now is my chance to get away.'

The man raised a hand up. "Hey! Don't flee, Satoru. I would like to offer you something..."

"What?" Satoru asked with narrowed eyes. 'How does this guy know my name?'

The stranger turned around and stared right into Satoru's eyes. "A job."

Satoru chuckled. "A job? You're offering some strange guy you found on top of a roof work?"

"Yes. Though not just any job." He turned around and waved. "Come. Follow me. We can discuss this over some black tea."

His ears twitched. Does this guy know that that like black tea?

The stranger snickered. "I know a lot about you, Satoru. Including what you're thinking right now. Come now, let's not delay. Your doubts will vanish once you hear what I have to say."

**Character Section**

Osamu Kuroriku- Sex: Male Age: In his forties Titles: Lion King, King of Kuroriku, King of Wrath and Greed, Modeling King (due to his job as a young man), Most eligible bachelor, Beautiful Prince (when he was a prince), Warrior King, Tsundere King (by Kuroshi) Likes: Peace and quiet, power Dislikes: Kuroshi, Tekeshi, Eiji

Conrad Kuroriku- Sex: Male Age: (Flashback) 5 Likes: Spending time with his big bro, Running outside Dislikes: His mommy being unhappy, making mistakes

*Solar Note: And this was the 2nd chapter of my 20K reads celebration :D! Hope that you enjoyed it :3. What did you think of Serrano and his little brother? Thoughts on Satoru's meeting with the strange gray haired guy?**