Dire Wolf

Chapter 9

"Why are we here?"

My companion looked at me in confusion as if I am saying something bizarre, "What do you mean why are we here?"

I looked around at the brooding and almost suffocating military port authority building in the Tienan Province. It is filled with regiments of scowling marines looking at the two of us suspiciously as if we are a threat or something.

"Shouldn't we be at the Nunat International Airport instead or maybe the industrial port of Fasera at least? Why here at the Tienan Military Port?" I asked in a whisper as we continued walking towards the receptionist dressed in a military uniform and waiting for us patiently.

My boyfriend just smiled in my direction sadly and sighed, "Well, I am sure that the cargo ships of the Fasera Province can cross the foggy waters of the dukedom but certainly not where we are headed. We needed military vessels for that, Keenan."

"And planes won't do? Well, I am not complaining about that one not being an option. But still..."

He then glared at me, and I know it's a sign that I should shut up now and let him do the talking.

"Surt von Ogawa, Lord of the Ogawa Dynasty, Province of Ogawara, reporting for duty, ma'am!" he roared that made my eyes widened when I heard him used not just the last name of his uncle but also his position as the dynast of his home province before saluting snappily fitting for a seasoned soldier.

The receptionist beamed at him and saluted back respectfully, "Welcome back, Lord Surt! I am very pleased to see you again for a decade now! Oh my, it just brings back memories. I can still remember when you are this small."

"Major Beatrice, please," he beseeched her as he started blushing when the kind receptionist began telling stories about his earlier years back then.

The woman blinked and looked at me before dropping her jaws in surprise because, as a woman, she realized immediately what is going on between Surt and me.

"Oh my! Oh, dear! Goodness, gracious! But of course! Of course, Lord Surt, I understand completely. Work first before talking!" she said meaningfully before winking at me, "Anyways, I doubt you are just bringing your "friend" here for a tour. He is going into the immersion, right?"

Surt nodded and clapped my back before pointing at the folder that I am holding, telling me silently to give it to the charming receptionist, "He is Keenan Loussier! Ms. Peregrine herself personally gave him her seal of approval!"

"Why, yes, you are absolutely right. Here is Ms. Peregrine's personal seal and a letter of recommendation. Oh wow, you passed the first year of her course with flying colors, Sir Keenan. This is the first time I've ever heard of someone even getting a generally weighted score of eighty-nine in her class at all!" she said in surprise before beginning to type on her keyboard to input the details quickly of my recommendation papers, "How about you, Lord Surt?"

He chuckled and smiled lopsidedly as Major Beatrice look at him inquiringly, "I passed, Major. I guess that's all that matters, right?"

"Right, my Lord. Well, I have successfully encoded and submitted the recommendation papers to the Central Royal Command back at Nunat. Give them a few short minutes, and you will be cleared for departure," she said in a confident tone that made me feel at ease, but her eyes suddenly looked behind our backs, and it widened with absolute shock and disbelief, "You've got to be kidding me. I didn't receive any missive or memo about this."

I give my boyfriend a curious stare, but she just shrugged her shoulders in confusion as we turn around, and the moment I saw the woman walking towards us, I know the jig is up.

And here I thought I can hide indefinitely.

Welp, who am I kidding? 

How can a pathetic little boy like me hide from the most powerful and influential woman in our world?

"Hello, Beatrice. You look blooming this year. Tell me, what is your secret?"

The Major quickly stood up from her seat and bowed as low as her back can allow to the woman in front of us, "Your Royal Majesty! I was not given any directives to prepare for your visitation! Please, accept my sincerest apology for this disgraceful oversight."

"No need to apologize, Beatrice. I am here on a mere whim, that is all. If I announced that I will have a visitation at this very day and time, someone might just slip past again," she said calmly that made the major heaved a sigh of relief as the newly arrived woman suddenly grabbed our arms and pulled us towards the exit on the other side of the reception hall, "I will take it from here, dear Beatrice. Just give me an hour, or so then we will have our lunch."

Even Surt can't believe who he sees right now as if it's too shocking to be accurate at all, "What are you doing here, Your Royal Majesty?!"

"I am here to meet my new two shipping perspectives," the almost ethereal woman said sadly as she smiled at us motherly, "Though I guess I am fortunately too little, too late. Your ship has already sailed, thankfully. Anyways, I have instructed the excellent chef of the ship you will be using to cook a grand feast for you two."

I honestly don't know what to say. I just met her twice, and she is as bigger as life as ever.

The moment we stepped outside the port and into the cold morning breeze of the Tienan coastlines, we saw almost a hundred ships of the Plurinational Alliance Nation's Kalalit Navy.

"Goodness, where are my manners? I forgot it when I saw you two staring at each other lovingly," she said gleefully before stepping forward and spreading the skirts of her simple, yet elegant white gown respectfully, "Kady von Dahl, Queen Regnant of the Feudal Kingdom of Kalalit, an honor to meet you two again."

Surt furrowed his brows and looked at me inquiringly, "I have met Queen Kady several times whenever Uncle Ren is lazy to go to parties at the capital but you, Keenan, have you met Her Royal Majesty before?"

"Keenan?" 

I just bowed my head in embarrassment and shyness when the queen pronounced my name as Kee-nan and not Kai-nan, my accurate monicker.

"You didn't tell him at all, child?" 

"Tell me what?" 

No use hiding it at all. He will find it out soon enough anyway, so I decided to suck it up and look at him straight into the eyes and tell him who I really am.

"Kynan von Rosenbaum, Trarevich of House Rosenbaum of the Democratic Empire of Scania, Branch Family of the Imperial House of the House Faulken."

He gasped as if everything was making sense to him now at last, "Your weird gambling prowess, the amount of money you can spend on your own, this strange aura of prestige, and your aversion to flying. You are part of the second most powerful Imperial Nobility, and you didn't say a thing?"

"Says the guy who didn't even mention that he is the heir to the Ogawa Dynasty," I snapped back angrily that made his eyes glow a bit and turn into a yellow and black slit, "You have no right to call me out for hiding something important when you did the same!"

He suddenly grabbed the scruff of my shirt and pulled me towards him angrily, "Say that again to my face, you little prick!"

"Why you..."

I was about to punch him as hard as I can with my clenched fist, but we heard a giggle from the queen that made us remember that we are in front of the most influential woman in the world and our liege as well.

We immediately pushed each other away and mumbled our apologies to her.

"Oh please, don't mind me at all. I just remembered Lexei and Galion," she said nostalgically before motioning us to follow her immediately, "Wouldn't it be grand if the Ogawa and my Rosenbaum will mix blood? Goodness knows we need more like my twins."

I heaved a cough as Surt blushed profusely when she drops that without batting an eyelash at all, "Isn't that a bit too early for that, Your Majesty?"

"Yeah, we are just celebrating our first anniversary tomorrow. I think we still need a lot of time to know one another," my boyfriend followed before giving me the stink eye, "How many more secrets are you hiding behind that pretty face of yours, my Keenan? Or should I call you Kynan instead?"

"Whatever you like, Surt. It's not like I can change your mind or make you spill secrets you don't want to share, right?" I throwback at him that made us just look at each other and throw a knowing look.

We will discuss this later after dinner, privately. 

"If you are worried that I am here to drag you back to Scania, then you are right to be scared. I have the half of the Imperial Navy to haul you to your manor at Morvia," she said nonchalantly, and to my surprise, dozens of her special forces marines jumped from the imperial ships and encircled my boyfriend and me immediately, "You just don't know how much I have suffered this past year trying to find you. How can you make a woman in my position feel so helpless and powerless to find you? My failure to find you made me the laughingstock of the Pax media for such a long time. Now, it's time for me to correct my mistakes and bring you home at last."

I took a step back because I know she is not kidding at all, and with the power she wields, she can easily do it with me kicking, screaming, and crying helplessly.

"I'd rather not, Your Majesty. I am happy right now with my life. Besides, I already transferred all the financial assets of my house to yours. All that is left of me is the trust fund they set up for my personal use. If you want it as well, then go, take it. Just let me live my life the way I wanted it to be, please."

But she just shook her head slowly as her marines slowly closed in on me, "You know full well it is not about the money, Kynan. It is about the simple fact that you are the very last member of the House Rosenbaum. As a member of the House Faulken, I have to safeguard the precious last remnant of our branch family and save the sanity of my brother, who is worried sick about his cousin's son. Not allow him to go missing and, for godssakes, go into the "immersion"! This audience is over. Bring him back to my ship and be quick about it. I still have lunch with Beatrice."

"Get back! Get back! I said, get back! You're not taking him away from me. He's mine! Get back! Get back!" 

To my horror, I saw Surt losing it entirely, and before I can calm him down, his clothes are torn apart when he transformed violently in a flurry of fur and a loud howl that echoed throughout the port.

Surt blasted back all the marines to the waters with a blast of air from his mouth before bashing the reinforcements streaming out of the port building in droves, firing stun bullets and smoke grenades which doesn't seem to affect him at all.

"CONDITION RED! CONDITION RED! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT, CONDITION RED, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! SUBJUGATE THE RAMPAGING DEMIGOD! DEFEND HER MAJESTY AT ALL COST!"

When Surt heard the announcement, he turned his attention to the queen, who is keeping calm despite his soldiers streaming out of her ships and the port itself to throw themselves at my boyfriend, who is seemingly unstoppable right now as he leaped towards her direction.

"DEFEND THE QUEEN!"

"USE YOUR BODY IF YOU MUST"

"YOUR MAJESTY, PLEASE, YOU HAVE TO EVACUATE!"

But the defiant queen just waved away her panicking guards and began walking towards my boyfriend, who is now rampaging towards her and mauling several sailors trying to restrain him with nets and rubber bullets.

"Looks like Ren was not kidding when he said that his chosen successor is his biggest middle finger to the Royal Family from the Ogawa Dynasty," she said calmly as I shouted in horror when Surt lunged at him with his fangs bared, ready to ravage the seemingly defenseless queen without mercy, "Thank goodness he is still a kid. A little older, and I would've returned home bloodied and bruised."

She then raised her arms towards the incoming giant dire wolf and chanted an invocation, "Sway and swing, prancing flares defend me! Fire Element: Dancing Flames!"

Finally, I saw the Hausen Fighting Art native personally to the Aristocratic Dukedom of Riksent in action.

She gracefully twirled around in a graceful motion in a large arc with her gown following her subtle movements as white flames appeared from thin air started to follow her movements as if they are part of her very body until she is completely protected by a circular dome of whirling flames.

The gigantic wolf collided with it in a sickening crunch and surprised yelp as he too was engulfed in the very same flames after being thrown several feet away back to where he started.

I quickly rushed to his side and used my coat to disperse the flames from him that thankfully didn't burn him at all.

"Heir to the Ogawaran Province, you may be. Please allow me to remind you that it is high treason to turn your weapons, or fangs, to your reigning monarch..."

We looked up and saw the queen regnant looking down on us rather imperiously as the white flames are still dancing on her hands beautifully and dangerously.

She then smiled motherly as her soldiers assembled around her, looking oddly pleased with the dire wolf using his own body to shield me away from them while snarling angrily.

"What do you think, everyone? Surt here is good enough to defend Kynan, right?"

They all saluted at the queen snappily, "Ma'am!"

"Well, I guess that's it for my last-ditch attempt to bring you home, Kynan. You're free to go, child."

I looked up at her in confusion as she waved her flames away, "What do you mean I am free to go? With all the manpower you have, you can just tire Surt out easily. Heck, you are just halfheartedly trying to stop him, if at all! What gives?!"

"Ms. Peregrine told me about a peculiar student she had last school year when she visited my citadel at Laroost last week. She told me about this rather strange kid with an obvious aristocratic upbringing appearing suddenly in her class with Surt one day. A very handsome, aloof, and logical to a fault boy who seemed to have a knack with gambling, illegal or not, that made her win the horse race just this spring. I asked the name, and yes, dear, I think you should have changed that completely rather than just changing the pronunciation and spelling a bit."

I smiled sadly and inclined my head to the queen holding back her tears, "I can't. It's the name father gave."