Indebted to her twice

By the time Francis regained consciousness, they were already at the palace, he was lying on his bed and slept peacefully since they brought him there. He feel that his body was heavy and had a headache, looking to his side he saw Cain, sitting on a chair and taking his pulse, beside him Val, Sebastian and Alphonse looked worried and did all they could to remain silent. He chuckled and said,

"I am still alive so why the long face?"

"Your majesty you shouldn't be joking about this matter, if something worse happened...." Sebastian protested at Francis who looked amused by all the situation.

"It is true brother, you shouldn't take lightly your safety, you are the emperor of this empire and also it protector....." Alphonse continued with a stern expression, showing that even through they often fought, their bound was still strong.

"Well, since he is joking like that it show that he is completely fine now. Thanks to Eleanor's help, he is out of danger." Cain reassured his friends and tapped on Francis's shoulder.

"That's a relief, but Val can you explain how this situation happened? Why was Francis there? And what the hell were you doing while he got this much injuried?....." Sebastian burst in anger against Val who was tense with his fist tight on his side and standing on guard since they brought Francis back to the palace. He was feeling remorseful for not been able to protect him at that time, after breathing in and out he looked at Sebastian and answered,

"His highness wanted to go inspect the town and see if the celebration was going well. So, I quietly followed him from behind since he was disgused as a citizen. But at some point while shopping, he followed a woman and it turned out that the woman was miss Eleanor..."

"Speaking of her, how did she manage to get out without the guard knowing about it?!" Sebastian asked while narrowing his eyes in wonder.

"Ah well, I kind of let her use my carriage since she wanted to visit the town...also it is not like she is locked up in the palace. Right!" Cain responded while avoiding Sebastian's eyes and feigned to change Francis's bandage.

"Sigh! Cain, you clearly know that you shouldn't use your carriage for mere purpose knowing the privilege you were bestowed. Also she can't leave without his highness's order." Sebastian uttered while scratching the back of his head in annoyance.

Val nodded in agreement with Sebastian with a serious expression and continued his report,

"It looked like she was helping two womans, they were attacked by professional killer. Those womans were her maids, they surely came together from the palace. I don't know why but his majesty was affected by the fact that miss Eleanor was attacked and he began to lose control. When I saw that, I rushed toward him but he ordered me to help them. Then as an assaillant who looked like a citizen tried to stab her from behind, he jumped in front of her to protect her and got injuried..."

"Wait, what?! Are you saying that he nearly lost control and destroy the town because of the situation that happened..." Sebastian uttered those words with a face white from shock, and Cain and Alphonse felt the same way knowing what they avoided, a cold sweat flowed through their forehead. The secret bound to Francis is know by few people only and those in his room knew about it, that's why they knew the extent of the danger.

"But how did he manage to regain his sense?! only that woman could do that.." Said Alphonse with a pale face and worried expression for his brother.

Val frowned as he thought about it and finally said, "That's the weird part, because after talking to miss Eleanor, he naturally became normal and feel because of his wound. I don't know what she told him though.."

"Their's no need to make this much fuss about it, I didn't lose control I was fine." Francis reassured them and remembered all the event that happened while listening to Val's report. He wondered how Eleanor was doing, 'Again I own her my life, but I got in this because of her so it goes without saying that she takes her responsibilities toward me. I guess she was fine since the last thing I remember was seeing her cry because of my wound and she tried to.....' As he reminded of the last instant that he saw before fainting, Francis remembered the sensation he felt and the ligh that came from her hands. 'That wasn't an illusion, I did see a green ligh near my wound as she was pressing her hands on it.....what could that be? also the fact that she could defend herself is a new discovery from the many thing she hide from us.' He sat down and looked at his injury while thinking those thoughts. But the fact that she left the palace without his permission made him frown, because she wouldn't have been in danger if she quietly stayed in the palace. As he got aware of that he was gradually getting annoyed and continued,

"Where is she?"

After he talked, they stopped arguing and Val immediately answered,

"She's been unconcious since we got you back to the palace..."

"What?! why is she unconcious? and why wasn't I informed of this?" Said Francis in disbelieve and turned his face toward them.

Cain cleared his throat and answered with a concerned expression,

"It seem to be due to the fact that she overworked herself, and been in that frightening situation may have added to the stresses."

'Well, I can't really tell them that her body seemed to have being drained of her energy all at once. As if she had to work for month without rest and without eating much too, and since that wasn't the case for Eleanor, her condition is inexplicable. And the weirdest thing is that, I wonder how she managed to make his wound stabilise this much and stop the blood.' Cain thought as he was troubled by a lot of things regarding Eleanor but he would rather not arouse the suspicions of others and ask her directly for answers.

Francis's eyes fixed Cain with piercing glare and he said,

"Cain, I thing that you are overstepping your boundaries these days, who gave you the autority to let my guest freely leave or enter the palace?....It is not your call to let her do as she please, this is my palace!"

"That's true and I am deeply sorry your majesty. I didn't thought that she was still restricted from stepping outside since the investigation revealed that she was innocent." Cain replied and bowed toward Francis in apologize, because even if they were friends the fact that Francis is his emperor doesn't change so there is always a line that all of them must never cross.

"Her leaving the palace is up to me to decide, we don't know anything about her, the more we learn about her and the more suspicous she get. So, until I decreed otherwise, she will stay here. Is that clear for all of you!"

They all nodded in agreement and bowed toward him in respect, because Francis never had to order them like this on something. This showed how much this recent event that happened and Eleanor were important to him.