The Silver Eagles captain was hoping to have a good morning, Nozel walked through his base receiving the usual salutes from his knights. What was unusual is how awkward some of them looked as he passed them. A newer recruit was reading a newspaper, folding it closed as Nozel approached and saluting. The knight's face was twisted in a mix of emotions before Nozel motioned for the paper.
The Silver Eagles base was almost immediately devoid of any newspapers. The gross article managing to get under the captain's skin, and resulted in him ordering everyone to forget the paper existed. The man threw all papers with that insult to his family into the fire as he marched out into the capital, looking for the authors to educate them on their mistake.
His siblings walked after him almost confused as to why he was so outraged; he stopped their questioning with a look.
"I may not like it," he thought, still walking in the early morning streets of the capital. "But, I gave her my word I wouldn't interfere, and that means no one else can either."
Yuno had woken up earlier than usual, he was being forced to take a mandatory day off, and he was going to use every minute of it training. He grabbed a light breakfast, despite having a lavish cooking staff for the base he rarely took advantage of it. He preferred the simpler foods, they reminded him of Hage Village and helped keep him from getting a big head. After he ate, he walked back to his room to grab a few things for training.
"Yuno," Klaus said, the senior knight walking towards him from the other end of the hall. A newspaper was crumpled in his hand, the knight gently handing it to him as he pushed up his glasses. "You should probably read this."
Yuno took the paper, knowing that Klaus would pester him about it until he either left or read it regardless. He sighed and unfolded it, his eyes widening at the title of the article. He scanned through it before taking a breath.
"And you're showing me this why?" he said, folding the paper up and handing it back to his superior. Klaus was taken aback by his calm demeanour. He pushed up his glasses again.
"So I could make sure you don't do anything reckless," The older knight said.
"Since when have I done anything reckless?"
"Do you want the list of times you have disobeyed orders and rushed in without following the plan?"
"I followed the plans," Yuno said, slightly embarrassed that Klaus had a list of all the times he disobeyed orders. His superior gave him a quizzical look before sighing.
"If you want to do anything regarding that story, be subtle and don't get caught," Klaus said, "I can't stop you from doing anything since you ignore my rank, but at least TRY to act with discretion."
Yuno paused and took another look at the crunched paper in Klaus's hand. "I won't do anything reckless Klaus, you have my word," he said, trying his best to give an encouraging smile. Klaus nodded and walked off, giving Yuno one last warning about not being reckless. Yuno continued on his way, grabbed a broom and flew off.
A similar situation was happening at the Crimson Lions base, with Leopold doing his best to calm down after reading the article. A few of the other crimson lion soldiers were helping, at least until their captain walked in.
"Get to work you lazy assholes!" Mereoleona yelled, getting everyone but her brother up and moving to their duties. A flaming paw grabbed Leopold's head since he didn't move. "That means you too shrimp."
"Yes sis," he said, almost folding up the newspaper before the captain took it.
"Oh good," she said, "you already know what I want you to do today."
"I do?" her younger brother said, still floating helplessly in the flaming paw.
"You do," she said, holding up the paper and grinning maliciously. Leopold taking just a moment to follow her logic, before grinning as he was set down on the ground.
"I'm coming to help, my Rival!" Leopold shouted triumphantly before sprinting out the door of the base.
"You're really letting him go off and not train captain?" one of the knights asked. Mereoleona's grin was telling them all they needed to know about what would happen when he got back.
Nozel, Yuno and Leopold, all from their different bases went towards the capital, one single goal in mind.
"I'll stop whoever is slandering them."
Meanwhile, the Black Bull base's living area was full of noise, Asta, Noelle, Magna, Luck, Finral and Vanessa, uncharacteristically focused on the table in front of them. A map of the capital, and pins marking certain locations they would walk around in.
"So," Asta said, leaning over the map a bit too much. "Noelle and I just have to act like we normally do right?"
"Yes, just act all lovey-dovey you two," Vanessa said, using her threads to move some of the pins on the map. "Then we wait to see if whoever took those pictures is around for more."
"Then me and Magna get em!" Luck said, electricity sparking out at two of the pins.
"Yeah, alive you lunatic," Magna said, getting a laugh out of the group. "We jump them, tie them up and then we have fun."
"And we teach them not to mess with royal-, us," Noelle said, holding Asta's hand as they rolled up the map.
"Damn right!" Magna shouted, "We'll teach those bastards to mess with the Black Bulls."
"Yeah!" Asta shouted, Finral opening a portal to the capital as everyone ran through it. The streets were bustling, families out shopping, knights patrolling to keep the peace, everything was just as they wanted it. Noelle took Asta's hand as they walked out into the street, and the rest of the Bulls following a few moments after them.
"People are staring," Asta whispered, Noelle, gripped his hand tighter as parts of the crowd looked at them. "I didn't think it'd be this fast."
"Then we just do what we planned," She whispered back, both of them nodding.
"Oh, my darling Noelle!" Asta said his tone far too regal sounding. "It's so wonderful not to have to hide our love~." People looking directly at them as Noelle continued.
"It's true my sweet Asta~," She said, more heads turning as they walked down the street. "though the papers definitely exaggerated our love~!"
"If only we could find the people who wrote it!" Asta said, throwing his voice as far a distance as he could down the street. "Then they could get the whole story!"
"Come on, take the bait" all six of the bulls thought, their various positions around the area. They waited, Asta and Noelle still loudly announcing themselves for a while. Civilians were applauding and congratulating the princess on the relationship. They were directly asked about the rumours and got some disappointed looks when they confirmed the story was full of exaggerations. The crowd dispersed after a while, as the Knights regrouped in a side street.
"Anything?" Noelle asked, sighing when the other four shook their heads. "I knew this wouldn't be that simple."
"There's always the chance they're making up new stories about you two," Vanessa said with a grimace. "You two were out for a long time yesterday." Asta and Noelle both flinched at that.
"Great so the bastards could be anywhere," Magna sighed, running a hand through his hair. "And who knows how many weird ideas they got about you!"
"Are you sure I can't kill them?" Luck said, his voice low and dangerous as he bounced around on the tips of his feet.
"No killing anyone! we went over this!" FInral shouted, getting a laugh out of the battle maniac. "I think just us finding them will be enough, but we have no idea where they are."
"The problem is that they aren't coming to us," Vanessa mused, her fingers cupping her chin. "I think our only option is to walk around and do more of what you did yesterday. But even more intense.”
Asta and Noelle looked at each other, Vanessa whispering something to the other three with all of them grinning.
“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” the couple said, four pairs of hands grabbing them and dragging them further into the alleyway to concoct a plan.
Elsewhere in the capital the two reporters were coming into their office, dozens of bags of yule laying on a safe near the back of the main room. The smaller of the two almost dove into the pile, greedily rolling in the loose coins as her employee sighed.
“Really boss?” Bernstein said, sitting down and starting to look over responses to their story. “Well hot damn, looks like people are loving it.”
“And the PILE OF MONEY I'M ROLLING AROUND IN wasn’t the proof of that?” Aria laughed, throwing a few bags up into the air and catching them.
“We easily got a few hundred thousand Yule!”
“Which means,” the man grinned, setting his papers down. “We don’t have to worry about food or anything for a long while!” His boss staring at him while reaching for a half-empty bottle of brandy.
“…oh, right. Rent and stuff. Yeah that.” She said, slowly backing her hand away from the bottle. “Yes, definitely thinking about that Bern old buddy old pal!”
“We’re not doing another pub crawl,” he deadpanned. Getting a pout from his boss as she started putting money in the safe. “Wait why am I the one acting like the boss here?!”
“Because you’re a stick in the mud and I own the business,” the shorter reporter said, cheerfully counting any loose coins and sticking them beside the bags of yule. “But with the luck yesterday, maybe we’ll be on a hot streak! Let’s hit the streets after this!”
“You sure?” Bernstein muttered, “I have more than enough material for a few more stories.” Some photos of Asta and Noelle getting packed into a bag.
“And miss a chance to get even more?” Aria said, hopping around in front of the door. “A princess getting married is going to cause a big stir! There’s bound to be a ton of people we can interview for this!” Her subordinate nodding and grabbing a few extra sheets of paper.
“No drinks afterwards though,” he said, his boss once again giving him an upset look. Sighing he locked the door as they stepped out into the capital, unknowingly walking to the end of their careers. In one part of the capital, the Bulls prepared a trap for them, even if it was to the couple’s chagrin. In three other parts, Leopold Vermillion, Nozel Silva, and Yuno all searched to find who would defame the couple.
A storm was coming, and the reporters were walking directly into it.
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