The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty

Father Christoff gave them a warm bed for the night, and provisions for the weeks they needed to travel before reaching the capital of Tristain. "Once you arrive there, head to the cathedral and speak with the head priest. He'll be the one to set an appointment with the cardinal," Father Christoff spoke as he saw them leave in the early hours of the morning. "And Luise-know that no matter what happens, or where your promise will bring you, my door will always be open."

Luise nodded with a warm smile on her face, and as she turned and began to leave, Father Christoff quickly gripped Saito's arm and brought his face close to the boy's ear. "Just so you know, I expect you to treat Luise properly." His eyes narrowed into thin slits as Saito swallowed nervously. "You will not like it when I'm angry. And I will be angry if anything happens to her." Then he let him go, putting his smile back up as he waved them goodbye.

Saito scrambled to stand by Luise side, a thin sheet of sweat on his forehead as he gave what he hoped was the most reassuring nod of the head he could manage.

"We're headed for the capital," Luise said cheerfully as they reached for the city's gates, and then past them into the empty roads that stretched to the end of the horizon and beyond. "They say Tristain is a wonderful city filled with greens and fountains, bigger than this city too!" her eyes shone. "There's even a palace! A proper palace with a pretty princess and hordes of dashing knights in white armor-"

"If you say so," Saito said. "What about Germania? Don't they have a palace too?"

Luise rolled her eyes. "Duh, no. There's Black Rock castle, the seat of power of the Emperor. It's a fortress city, all hard rock and impenetrable to boot, but no pretty princesses." She mumbled something that felt distinctively like a 'pretty things don't live long in there', but shook her head the next moment.

Her strawberry-blond hair was hidden by her cowl, and her face rested behind her mask. To any outsider, she looked like a small boy wearing a mask, with maybe a single strand of pink hair that sometimes slipped out from the edge where the mask and the cowl met, but which she quickly slid back in.

As their feet crunched on the gravel of the road, the silence felt pretty unrealistic to Saito. If he hadn't been used to it already, he would have felt quite out of place. It was so different from the bustling streets of the city, where cars beeped and pedestrians trudged by the thousands. It felt as if Luise and him were the only two living being in the world, and since they were-

A crudely shaped arrow struck against the front of Luise's mask, bouncing off as the girl lost her balance for a brief second, and as Saito whipped his shield out with the speed only the grip on his dagger could allow, a half dozen of arrows struck the wooden shield next as he proceeded to cover for Luise.

They were beyond the sight of the city's walls, but to be ambushed by brigands so soon-

From the side of the road, hiding in the undergrowth of a nearby mass of shrubs, a group of red and black colored men emerged carefully. With their bows tensed, they held the duo under their sights.

"Behind us," Luise muttered, making Saito turn his head just ever so slightly to realize that it was indeed an ambush, and that there were indeed more than just six bandits.

"What do we do?" Saito asked. "Can you put them to sleep?"

"Can you protect me?" Luise asked back, and as Saito squared his jaw and nodded, Luise entrusted her safety to him and began to chant, her wand's tip igniting with that very familiar white sphere she had used once before.

The group coming in from behind charged to the cry of 'Off the mage quickly!' while the archers opened one last volley of fire before deciding to rush in too, since they would have hit their comrades if they had kept firing.

Saito easily blocked the arrows, before throwing his dagger at one of the loosely armored men that was coming at him with a sword and a small round shield. The pommel of the dagger hit the man squarely on the nose with enough strength to shatter it, and send him tumbling on the ground together with the one charging right behind him.

Two more drew closer, and as Saito unsheathed his sword, he rushed forward with blinding speed, slamming his sword against the shield of the first -and cracking it asunder- before pummeling the man's face with the edge of his own shield. The second man ignored him in favor of Luise, as did the six archers, but Saito was faster than them, and within seconds he was back in the fray, slamming the back of his sword against the neck of the first, and standing right in the line of fire of the archers who had yet to reach Luise.

The archers warily stopped, looking at one another for a brief second as if considering their chances, and then they began to step away.

"Sleep!" They came to their decision too late however, as the spell left Luise's wand and hit the chest of the first archer, before expanding as they all screamed in fear, their bodies falling limp on the ground.

Taking a deep breath, Luise groaned. "Can't believe we've been out of the city for a few hours and we're already being assaulted by bandits."

Saito turned to the knocked down warriors, and delivering a firm boot to the back of their heads, knocked them out -if less graciously than Luise, and with quite the bigger bruise.

"Should we return to the city and call the guards?" Saito asked.

"And waste time?" Luise grumbled, "Gather their weapons and armor. If you find something you like just pick it up. I'll blow their stuff to cinders and then they'll have no reason to come after us again."

Saito frowned, but easily unclasped the breastplate from a sturdy looking man who was seeing stars, grabbed the leather shin guards from a second one, and as he picked up a bow and filled a quiver with all the arrows he could find, he felt more and more like a roleplaying game character.

"When do I level up so I can add new skills?" he mumbled as Luise had quickly finished emptying the men's pouches and moving their stuff into a big pile.

"What did you say?" Luise asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Nothing," Saito said quickly, standing in wait as Luise pronounced the words for a Fireball. Of course, what came out was simply an explosion strong enough to turn into molten slag everything in front of her. In this circumstance, it was warranted.

"Are you feeling fine?" Saito asked next as Luise began to walk once more on the road, trying to leave as much road behind them -and the knocked out bandits- as possible. "Do you need to rest? I can carry you-"

"Please," Luise rolled her eyes. "Don't try to act all strong-man dur-hur to the damsel in distress," she kicked her right booted foot on the ground, a light skip on her steps as she was probably smiling behind her mask. "My willpower's fine. It's not as costly as it was before, and didn't you see? I did magic exactly as I wanted it to go!" she cheerfully giggled. "I wanted them to sleep, and they slept. They didn't blow up in chunks of gore, and they didn't end up in a cloud of dust, or with singed hair or soot covered faces! They fell asleep!"

"The explosion was pretty powerful too," Saito remarked, "You're getting stronger-or is it 'wiser' or 'smarter'? What's the main thing you need to cast magic anyway? Strength of heart? Will?"

"It's called 'Willpower'," Luise snorted. "What do you think is needed? Certainly not brain smarts, or I'd have been the first in my class back at the academy," she sighed. "I'd give anything to go back there and point my wand at my professors just so I can show them what 'the failure' can do now! I'm sure they'd be changing their pants!" she laughed. "No wonders I couldn't cast spells. Mine was never a fire affinity!"

"What?" Saito frowned.

"Clearly, the 'Sleep' spell belongs to the Water affinity," Luise nodded eagerly. "I mean, it's obvious isn't it? Water mages can put people to sleep, and I've always been asked to throw a fireball, or to move a small cup of water, but I was clearly way, way better than that and so my cup exploded, and the mannequin exploded -which, while it was kind of the point, it didn't burst in fire like it should have, so it was always half-marks for it." Luise grumbled and shook her head. "Stupid professors and their stupid fixed grades."

Saito scratched the side of his chin, an awkward smile on his face. He knew all about 'stupid teachers', especially his physical education one. "If you say so-"

"You don't believe me, do you?" Luise retorted, eyes sharply narrowing.

"Ack!" Saito nearly jumped back. "With the mask, when you narrow your eyes you look positively scary!"

Luise blinked, and then giggled. "Good! And remember, when in public, you have to call me 'Luis'. It's the only way to make sure they don't realize I'm a girl." She groaned. "To think that being without curves would make it easier to hide myself-" she slumped her shoulders down, looking clearly defeated.

"It's-It's all right," Saito said. "Big boobs or small boobs, real men love them all the same equally!"

Luise looked up at Saito, and clenched her right fist. "What sort of encouragement is that!?" she yelled next, making Saito jump back yet again. "That's not what you say to a girl, you stupid dunce! And Father Christoff is definitely not a pervert! And neither were the kids of the orphanage! You-You serial pervert!"

Luise's shoulders were shaking however, and a few seconds was all it took for her to start giggling, and then laughing. Saito joined in shortly after and, under the sound of laughter, they both began to walk forward towards the horizon.

They had a steep path ahead of them.

But it wouldn't be that hard as long as they traveled it together.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-One

The bandits didn't bother them any more, and as the days passed, Saito winced slightly after a particular hot day. "Can't we find a river to bath in?" he asked.

Luise snorted. "I'm not from around these parts. Sure, Tristain's the region of rivers, but if you don't know where you're going and you get lost, we'll never find the way back to the road. So we'll stick to it. We're bound to find an inn sooner or later along it."

Sooner or later turned out to be two more days, and the inn in question screamed 'shady' up to the point where it seemed to cast a shadow on all four sides of the walls, if such a physics-defying thing could ever be possible. It wasn't, of course, but all of Saito's instincts told him to keep a hand to his pouch, a hand to his sword, and a third hand to his shield which he unfortunately didn't possess.

Luise adjusted her mask and began to walk like a 'manly man', or so it seemed. "Let me do the talking, rawr," she said with a gruff voice. Saito already predicted blood, or death, or carnage, or explosions. He still went along with it, but he was sure it would end up badly.

As Luise kicked the door open and stepped inside, the feeling of dread intensified. The amount of people that turned to look at them was staggering, and not one appeared to have come into the inn looking for a 'bath'.

"What are you looking at you unwashed peons?!" Luise growled, waving her wand once, and as she did the majority of them turned stiffly back to their businesses. With a snort, the masked figure marched resolutely towards the counter, Saito following her with a really bad feeling.

Luise jumped on the free stool with grace, slamming a hand on the counter. "We've been on the road for ages!" she gruffly said. "What does a man have to do to get something to drink?"

"Pay," the owner of the inn replied, appearing utterly unperturbed.

A few copper and silver coins dropped down from one of the pouches 'liberated' from the bandits, and as the owner nodded and proceeded to fill two large tankards with beer, Saito decided that even if he didn't like beer, he had no choice but to drink beer -or they'd probably be killed by the glaring people around them.

Luise gave one look at the tankard in front of her and snorted. "You have a tub for a bath too?"

"If you pay," the owner of the inn said with a lazy shrug as Luise grabbed the tankard and looked at Saito, who had uneasily sat next to her.

"Cheers!" she said, lifting the mug, and that he mimicked.

The beer...didn't taste like what Saito thought beer tasted like. It was mostly dirty water with a strange grass-like aftertaste, and was definitely not something to even be tipsy for. At least, not at first. He reckoned he could finish the tankard and still walk.

His theory was proven largely correct. The owner of the inn had no intention of serving 'pure' beer to his patrons, and thus diluted stuff was the norm. Nobody cared since at most all he got was this or that farmer, this or that farmer's son, and this or that 'merchant' with no goods but with quite the bloodied sword who had too much stuff to carry it far.

The only reason his stuff didn't end up as part of a 'merchant' new wares was simple. He had four tough-looking guys, one of which a fallen noble, that kept the inn clean of troublemakers. It had taken him at most five seconds to understand he had two new kids in front of him who wished to play at being adventurers. The fact the boy's blade wasn't even dirty with blood proved it, and if not for the other boy's wand, he wouldn't have wasted time pushing them out of his inn.

Mostly for their safety, since it was one thing to try to act tough in front of him, but if they tried that with 'Skullbreaker' or 'Boneshatterer' in the back, the two would just smash them to bits and hang their bodies to dry outside.

He probably wouldn't even stop them.

But the two were currently knocked out with a heavy dose of wine, and with warm food in their bellies.

'Keep them happy, keep them fed' was a key tenant that the owner of the inn had learned in all of his years of honorary service. So, he waited for the wench he had hired -a farmer's daughter, because if she wasn't the daughter of a bandit she was the daughter of a farmer around these parts- to bring out the newly roasted pig, and meanwhile mentally kept notice that she'd have to draw a bath for the boy with the mask.

How much would he make them pay for it? He frowned and looked at their appearances. Shoddy armor, scraped off a dead body or found in a ditch, and while the mask looked the work of an artisan, it didn't mean much. Still, they didn't mean trouble, and so he didn't sign for any of his 'guardians' to come deal with them.

And the money was good. Certainly not that 'fool's gold' that Earth mages were so proud of creating.

So he had no qualms telling the waitress to hand the duo a dinner and then prepare the tub.

"Oi, Siesta," the innkeeper said. "When you're done with cutting the pig, get the water from the well for a bath!"

The dark haired girl with slightly tanned skin -was it tan, or was it her natural olive color? He didn't really bother much with it- nodded graciously as she proceeded to do just that. From what he knew, she had worked as a servant in that fancy magic academy further south -near the capital- but had moved back home due to 'problems'.

Well, it didn't matter to him.

He was just an inn keeper. As long as troubles didn't come to him, he didn't care.

"Stop gawking at the waitress, you pig!" the masked boy said hotly, receiving a gasp of shock from the other one, who sheepishly looked away.

Well, that was even better. Prudish adventurers were way better clients than non-prudish ones, first of all because they didn't let their hands wander, and secondly because it meant they were at the very least 'honest folks'.

So when Siesta moved upstairs to prepare the bath, followed by the two 'would-be manly men', he simply resumed scrubbing the empty tankards.

When the doors swung open harshly, accompanied by the sound of metallic boots striking the wooden floor, the inn keeper suddenly regretted thinking 'troubles' were not his business.

For when a small amount of men with the motif of the Royal Messenger marched in, he just knew he shouldn't have opened up shop on that day, or got up from the bed to begin with.

But he was just a meager innkeeper.

Certainly, this couldn't end badly for him, could it?

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Two

Luise did not know when things had started turning bad. What she knew was that she had barely touched the hot water of the tub, nodded to the waitress who had been about to leave the room, and as Saito was about to leave too to give her privacy, the door had swung open -more like broken.

The maid had dropped the bucket of hot water as armored men had stepped inside, and in a second, there were knocked out men slammed against the walls as Saito hadn't just allowed random strangers to barge in with their weapons drawn for no reason.

It took a few seconds for Luise to understand that Saito had knocked out two men in full plate by slamming the pommel of his dagger right against the side of their helmets, hitting their temples squarely. She wouldn't have believed it possible herself, but she had to change her opinion the moment she saw it happen with her very eyes.

"Are they the bandits from before?" Saito asked.

Luise just stared. "You-" she looked at the armored men. "Th-They were in full plate!" she snapped. "Bandits don't have that kind of money! Mercenaries don't have that kind of money! Nobody has that kind of money!"

"T-The royal messenger," the waitress muttered. "He does. That's-That's his banner on their armor."

"What," Luise's eyes widened -and if Saito could see that even through the mask, then it meant they had to be quite wide- "B-But why!?"

"Luis-ahem," Saito coughed. "Luis, do you remember Valier? The crowd outside the church?"

Luise bristled at the implied accusation. "They wouldn't send armored men for that sort of thing! It's like they think we're spies or something!"

"The...The Royal Messenger's lands are close by," the waitress mumbled. "If you-if you adventurers angered him in some way-" as she stammered, trying to recover her breath, Saito looked at Luise.

"We'd better leave before we cause more trouble."

"We've got to explain things properly," Luise said. "We can't just run from the royal messenger's men! We need to head to Tristain, and we can't do that if we're being hounded every step of the way."

The waitress had meanwhile peeked out of the door, and then abruptly closed and locked it. "M-More are coming, kind sirs!" she exclaimed as she stepped away from the door, seconds before a large ax came crashing through it, soon followed by the full-armored man wielding it.

"We'll drag you to Count Mott by the hair if we have to, you wretched bitch!" the man snarled.

"Wait just a moment now-" Saito said, a puzzled look on his face as he took a step forward, only for the man to backhand him with his gauntlet, sending him to crash against the wall. Groaning in pain, Saito spat out a few shards of broken teeth, his eyes crossed.

"Saito! Why you-" Luise whipped her wand out and as the tip ignited, a thundering explosion rocked the man off his feet and through the nearby wall, all the way out of the inn. His fellow colleague watched from the side of the door the human-sized hole and then screamed as he rushed back downstairs.

The words 'reinforcements' was all that Luise needed to hear before deciding that bailing was definitely the best possible solution. She grabbed her backpack and slung it back on her shoulders, before pulling on Saito's own to bring it closer to the boy.

She neared Saito and hoisted him up, handing him his own backpack. "Can you walk?" she asked him, and when Saito shakily nodded, she sighed in relief. "We've got to leave."

"They'll be waiting for us downstairs," the waitress said as she steeled herself, heading down along the first floor's hallway until a specific room, which she opened with a key. Once inside, the waitress opened the window and looked outside. "We can jump from here to the stable's rooftop. There are horses in the stables-"

"I can't ride one," Luise said. "Saito?"

"Never rode one," Saito mumbled.

"I know how," the waitress said. "You're adventurers, and-well-I'm sorry, but please bring me with you!" she exclaimed, clutching her hands to her chest. "I'm scared of making the trip myself, but I can't stay around much longer. I've got family in the capital that can hide me-please-"

"So you're the reason those soldiers barged in like that!?" Luise snapped. "What did you do to get someone as important as a Count on your case like this!?"

"Later," Saito hissed, wincing as he touched his broken teeth with his fingers, holding back a few hisses of pain. "We-We leave first, talk later."

Luise grumbled, but nodded. "It's the boobs, isn't it?"

The waitress inclined her head to the side, and as understanding dawned, her lower lips trembled. "P-Please, if it means getting me to safety-as long as it's not that old fat count-"

"What? No! No!" Luise shook her head and crossed her arms in front of her. "You got it all wrong!" she snapped hotly. "He's the pervert!" Luise jabbed a finger at Saito, "But I'm keeping him under check! Let's just move it. Pull your weight or we're leaving you behind!" with that said, Luise brought a foot on the windowsill, and then took a deep breath. "Let's go, Saito!"

"Uh-uh," Saito grumbled back, heading for the window and jumping out, clutching Luise in his arms as he landed with a hiss on the stable's roof. The waitress jumped shortly after, and in her landing, the roof creaked.

"See? Big boobs simply mean more weight," Luise grumbled hotly under her breath, and Saito was the only one who heard. They jumped down once more, reaching for the ground as two more guards stood by the horses.

"I can't believe someone as powerful as the royal messenger would send so many men after-after a lonely girl! What are you, his daughter or something?!"

The waitress looked fearfully from above the stable's roof, the height difference quite bigger than before. She also didn't have someone as strong as Saito to dull the blow of the fall, so she decided to aptly let herself dangle from the edge of the roof while the boys proceeded to deal with the remaining guards.

"Saving damsels in distress was not part of the plan, Saito!" Luise snapped angrily as Saito's sword held in a deadlock one of the men's own. "It was supposed to be a simple thing! We just had to walk from city A to city B! We didn't have to start a crusade for the purity of all bar wenches!"

"Hey!" the waitress snapped hotly, "I'm not a wench! I'm a waitress!"

"Shut it and be glad my comrade's a moron with a big heart," Luise retorted with a snappish tone.

"Could I have a hand?" Saito asked dryly, "I'm missing the DPS here," he said, "All the DPS."

"The...what?" Luise asked, blinking. The warrior in front of Saito was puzzled too, so much so that he didn't even notice when the waitress slammed a large iron skillet against the back of his helmeted head.

"Spells," Saito said. "Where is the magic?"

The second warrior had meanwhile managed to hide his presence long enough to draw close to Luise, and as he jumped on her, grabbing her wrist with his gauntlet, he held her at sword point in front of his breastplate. "Well now!" the man in armor said raucously. "We've had our fun, but nobody died and nobody has to die yet."

Saito froze, his sword still held in front of him and his eyes narrow.

"We just want the girl," the man said. "Count Mott wants her, and whenever he has a fancy, he always gets his urges scratched. It's the way it goes. And yes, you're good with that blade of yours but trust me, you don't want to earn a personal vendetta from the Count. He knows people, unsavory people. Just...look, just shut up and hand over your sister."

"She's not my sister!" "He's not my brother!" both Saito and the waitress snapped at the same time.

"Never thought I'd be on the other side of a misunderstanding," Luise said dryly, "Look Saito, since it's my neck on the line here-how about you just knock that waitress out like a light and we go our merry way?"

Saito blinked. "Luis?"

"Look, we have no obligations to help her. We have no real reason to help her. A faithful nun of Brimir would help an innocent in need without question, but I'm a tough manly adventurer and so are you. Just, you know, knock her out, let this guy get her and we'll be out. She didn't pay us enough for this shit," as Luise droned on with a gruff voice, Saito caught on. He nodded and slammed the back of his sword against the waitress' head.

"So, how about you let my partner go now?" Saito asked, the waitress crumbled down at his feet and utterly unconscious.

"Glad to see you kids have some wisdom in your skull," the man said, opening his arms to let Luise down. "See, now we can even head inside and have a laugh about this over a bottle of wine or something, well, maybe just half a bottle-"

Luise placed the tip of her wand to touch behind the man's armor with a flourish, and then said a single word. "Boom."

The armor was the only reason the man didn't die, but he was catapulted at great speed forward, impacting first against a tree nearby and then ending up in the middle of a bunch of shrubs, out like a light from the strength of the impact.

The waitress carefully opened one eye, and then the other, before standing back up and dusting herself. "T-That was-"

"Later," Luise said quickly. "The horse, the escape, and then we can talk about the mess you landed us in!"

The waitress hurried into the stables, cutting loose a few horses and finally climbing atop a bay one that seemed to dislike the situation at hand. It didn't whine about having to carry three people -Luise had to count like a hand luggage to the weight limit, probably.

"Did you just think something rude?" Luise asked with a gruff voice.

"No," Saito replied, before wincing as his tongue passed over his broken teeth. "My mouth hurts."

"I'll look at it later," the waitress said as she kicked the horse's flanks. "Just hold tight for now, kind sirs."

As they galloped into the far off distance, only one thought crossed Saito's mind, and it wasn't the striking resemblance to the Japanese people that the waitress seemed to have, or the fact that Luise was practically pressed against his body and he was holding on by clutching her stomach.

The one thought that crossed Saito's mind was very simple, and yet utterly life-threatening.

Did they even have dentists around these parts?

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Three

Saito groaned painfully. "Stop whining, it's just a chipped tooth or two," Luise said, although her worried expression told a different story from her words. "It's nothing that can't be healed. Well, if we had the money for it, but we don't, and we won't have any for a long while, because someone made us leave the inn in a hurry and we won't find any work with those men on our tails."

"I'm sorry," the waitress said sheepishly, bowing as deeply as she could. They had ditched the road in favor of the countryside, and were now walking alongside a row of shrubs with a small rivulet of clear water nearby, the horse's reins in Luise's hands.

"Sorry doesn't cut it, miss," Luise snapped. "My partner's teeth are broken, we stole a horse, we have an important noble's men against us, and all for what? You are lucky we are headed to the capital to speak with the Cardinal, and maybe he'll smooth things over for us, but you'd better disappear real good so that not even we can find you once we're done with our partnership."

The waitress winced, fearfully looking from Luise to Saito.

Saito simply groaned and kept rubbing his cheek.

"You really have no tolerance for pain, do you?" Luise muttered hotly, "Come on now, open up, I'll see what I can do with-"

"Nuh!" Saito shook his head firmly. "Nuh-Nuh-NUH!" he brought both hands to protect himself as Luise held her wand up.

"Oh come on!" Luise snapped. "I'll see if I can't put your mouth to sleep. It might dull the pain or something-"

Saito gave her a wary look, but Luise simply drew near and held her wand in front of her. She began to chant, whispering the words that she seemed to know by heart now, and as the tiny sphere of brilliant white light left her wand, it touched Saito's mouth and dispersed.

"There, see?" Luise said triumphantly. "I fixed-"

Saito fell down like a bag of potatoes, sound asleep.

Luise slumped her shoulders. "If we're ambushed and you sleep through it, I'll never forgive you," she said as she hoisted him on the back of the horse, before starting to walk once more.

"Uhm-" the waitress said. "I-I apologize," she added. "I know I shouldn't have dragged you two kind sirs in this, but I didn't want to-to-" she stammered out a few words that made no sense, and shook her head. "I-I used to work at the Magic Academy in Tristain, you know? It was a good job, a friend of my uncle had managed to secure me a spot. The pay was good, I was just a background worker, and not once was I mistreated. But-but then the royal messenger came one day and he gave one look at me, and it was only that, I swear-just one look and he decided he wanted to have me. The headmaster was kind enough to warn me in advance and gave me the month's pay with the counsel of disappearing back in the countryside-"

"It's all very interesting, I'm sure," Luise said gruffly, "But I don't care about how you ended up working in that inn or why the Count's following you. It's in the past, and you can't change the past. We are just adventurers doing our jobs as couriers of very important letters, but that's it. We aren't heroes, we aren't knights, and right now?" Luise gestured at Saito, "My friend is knocked out cold because of the pain one of those guards inflicted him. You can waste time giving me your sob story, and I've heard a lot of those," she said with a rough voice, "Or you can start paying us back for the trouble you caused us by telling me what you can do."

The waitress swallowed nervously. "I-I can sew, and cook, and-clean-a-and-"

"You can start by giving me your name," Luise said. "I am Luis," Luise added. "It is nice to meet you, even if circumstances were not the best. My partner's name is Saito. We are adventurers travelling together, making money by defeating vile beasts and carrying around important letters."

"Ah-Of course!" the waitress said with a light blush on her cheeks. "I'm-I'm Siesta! I'm-well...I'm a farmer's daughter...and not much else," the girl looked downcast, "But I'm a hard worker kind adventurer! I promise I won't be a weight! And I know where we can rest for the night too. There's a creek nearby that has a small lake filled with fish, if you wish-I could catch a few for dinner."

Luis nodded. "That's something to look up to then. Think about that. A dear friend of mine used to say that we must not worry about the past, or about our situation, but have faith in the future and what it might bring."

Siesta's eyes somewhat shone. "I-Is that the Brimir nun you spoke of to make Mister Saito understand you were bluffing?" as she asked that, she clasped her hands together. "Is-Is she your beloved?!"

"Uh? Uh-wh-what!?"

"A forbidden love between an adventurer and a nun! Oh! Is she a holy maiden, a fair lady who took her vows out of faith and love for the Gods? Is it a love that has blossomed during childhood, or maybe you were wounded by a vile beast and she tenderly treated your wounds? Was it something that you consumed during a night of sin or maybe you held steadfast to your-"

Luise pulled out her wand and pointed it, with her hand shaking, at Siesta. "P-Pervert! Unholy blasphemous pervert!" as she screamed that shrilly, she took a step back. "Now I get it why you and Saito look similar! You're both heirs of a perverted bloodline! You belong to a race of perverts! You are perversion made manifest! You are scions of a hellish landscape where lecherous thoughts rule supreme! Be gone vile demon! Be gone!"

Siesta blinked, and then giggled. "Oh-Forgive me, kind adventurer. I thought-you had a very sheltered life, didn't you? I understand now. You must have been brought up in a church together with your friend, and while she took the vows, you didn't and became an adventurer instead. I understand now the cherished memories, the sadness-the-the-" Siesta began to sniffle, a handkerchief to her face. "It's just so sad-to see such beautiful love never bloom-"

Luise looked at the horse. "Can you carry two knocked out people?"

The horse simply neighed.

"I'll take that as a yes," Luise said flatly.

A knocked out girl soon ended up pushed on the back of the horse together with a knocked out Saito. Luise, satisfied by her work and by her prowess with her magic, decided to follow the rivulet of water until the creek -where she'd wake up the waitress and get her to start fishing, and cooking, and generally do the stuff she said she could do while Luise gave one more look at Saito's mouth.

While regenerating broken teeth was possible thanks to Water spells, it required reagents that weren't really cheap to procure. Now, if they somehow managed to find the liver of a magical snake, then maybe they'd have a chance at healing his teeth.

But better to just let a barber pull them loose and be done with it. With time, patience and care, they'd get enough money to have a water mage regrow them.

That was a great plan.

She'd just have to knock Saito out like a light before the barber started his work on the boy's teeth, but well...he'd thank her later, when he'd finally stop hurting.

Maybe.

...

She'd let him have a go at a whorehouse afterwards.

...

Maybe two goes.

That would pacify him.

...

No. It wouldn't do to let him start on a path that definitely led to one's soul being corrupted. She was still responsible for him, and so she'd offer him a nice cup of warm tea at some fancy cake shop in the capital. That was going to be more than enough for him, and he'd enjoy it.

Saito instead had nightmares, as well as his grandfather standing tall and proud in front of him militarily saluting, as if Saito was a fallen comrade.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Four

At least Siesta knew how to cook. It was a good thing. Saito wasn't really in a good mood due to his broken teeth, but as Siesta gently mashed his portion of fish into paste, he cheered up noticeably.

Luise instead took her plate and moved away from the waitress, standing over her plate and hiding her face as much as she could while eating. The mask made it impractical, but not impossible.

"Did something happen?" Saito asked as he looked from Luise to Siesta and vice-versa.

"I'm sorry," Siesta said with a bow of her head. "I think I angered your partner-my name is Siesta, Mister Saito," she added next. "I hope I can repay you at least a little for the trouble I put you through."

Saito awkwardly laughed. "It's all right. I wouldn't have allowed them to hurt you anyway. We're the good guys," he brought his thumb up and pointed at himself and at Luise. "We are, right?"

"Yes," Luise grumbled. "We are the good guys, Saito. Your teeth still sore?"

"When I chew," Saito answered. He hesitated for a brief moment. "Are there dentists around these parts?"

"Dentists?" Luise muttered. "You mean a Guild or Lay Barber."

"My uncle knows a very good Guild Barber," Siesta said, suddenly recovering her lost spirits. "He can do lots of tricky operations!" she nodded resolutely. "Please allow me to help you in any way I can, kind adventurer, to pay you back," as she spoke, she gripped Saito's hand with both of hers, eliciting a grumbling from Luise, who proceeded to gingerly hold the tip of her foot against Saito's back.

"Oi Saito," she gruffly whined. "Come with me for a minute behind those shrubs, you and I need to talk a bit." As she dropped the empty plate into Siesta's hands, she dragged Saito off with a yelp from the boy.

"Let me be clear," Luise said as she pulled off her mask temporarily, narrowing her gaze at Saito. "I think that I can trust you because even if you're perverted like hell, you didn't even touch me once while we slept alone, and there were ample chances for that-"

Saito aptly refrained from mentioning that flatboards weren't really his type-and he received a kick in the shin. "I know you thought something rude right now!" Luise hissed, "But it doesn't matter. You will not take advantage of that poor girl!" Luise gripped Saito by the scruff of the neck. "Are we clear? I swear if you do, the Holy Founder will be most displeased and I, as the instrument of his will upon this land and closest of all to you, will make sure to smite you unless you take responsibility!"

Saito stuttered and shook his head vehemently. "Woah-I wasn't going to!" he hissed. "Come on-don't you trust me?"

Luise rolled her eyes. "It's not a matter of trust or not. The flesh is weak. It's one of the maxims of the Founder. And do you know what happened to him when he trusted too much upon an Elf who swore she was redeemed? The elf murdered him. The elf murdered him, cut his heart out of his chest while still beating and then devoured it while screaming her blasphemous chants to push the holy crusaders out of the Holy Lands." Luise slammed her index finger against Saito's chest. "So be on the lookout."

Saito blinked. "Elves exist?"

Luise spluttered. "O-Of course elves exist! They're the great menace that holds the Holy Lands from us, Brimir's faithful!"

Saito frowned. "Are they with pointy ears, dressed in green, pretty and-"

The roundhouse kick stopped an inch away from Saito's face. Luise's right fist was clenched in a punch that the girl definitely wished to throw, but dared not. Carefully, she proceeded to drop her leg back down on the ground and take a deep breath. "You know nothing, and that's why you're speaking like that. Look-elves are monsters. They kidnap and eat children, they can bend a grown man's spine and snap his head cleanly off with a thought-they can burn down villages, and tear apart walls with a few words! They're so dangerous, it takes a dozen of triangle mages just to balance the odds against a weak elf! You can't just-you can't just call those demons 'pretty'!"

Saito swallowed nervously. "R-Really?" Luise nodded at that. "I-I didn't know. They are kind of scary if that's true."

"It is, the Founder's Book says so," Luise replied firmly, nodding to herself as she said that. "See?" she tapped her knuckles against his chest. "Just-be careful. You've got that silly familiar magic that makes you fast, but it doesn't make you tough. You flew across a room just because someone backhanded you, so be careful. Do you have any idea how troublesome it would be if I had to drag your corpse back home to your parents and explain it to them? Better to have you walk your way there, no?" Luise put the mask back on her face. "I promised I would bring you home and I intend to keep my promise as a future nun. Don't make me break a promise to a friend, all right?"

"Sure," Saito whispered in reply. Luise nodded, and then began to walk back to the camp with exaggerated 'manly' movements.

"Glad we cleared the air a bit!" Luise snapped. "Just like manly men do!"

Apparently, a horse could leave on tiptoes.

"The girl left," Luise said calmly. She said that very, very calmly. She said that with an air of utter calmness even as her hair began to rise to the edges of her cowl, slipping out from it as fury seemed to overtake her entire frame, which began to shake from pure anger.

"She didn't steal our stuff-" Saito pointed out, gesturing at the backpacks. "Maybe she was afraid we'd do something to her?"

Luise growled, her fists clenched. "Saito," she snarled. "You better hope you are right, or this is the last time we save bar wenches from armored men looking for them!"

As Saito hurried to check the content of their backpacks, which was all graciously still there, Luise began to walk back and forth in front of the lit fire. "Why would she leave in the middle of the night anyway!?" Luise snapped angrily. "There's no way she can go far with a tired horse. I'll just have to show her I'm a girl, and that should calm her down."

"Everything's here," Saito said.

"Grab your stuff and I'll grab mine," Luise grumbled, grabbing a long wooden stick from the pile near the bonfire and lighting it on fire to make a makeshift torch. "And let's go look for that stupid wench."

"Waitress," Saito said. "Wench sounds rude."

"I'll call her wench for as long as she'll act like one!" Luise snapped back hotly. "To think I was even nice to her because I thought she was still scared! Argh! Next time I hear her say something perverted, I'll just slap some modesty back in her."

"Not going to use a paddle?" Saito hazarded, the mental image quite convincing.

"Why would I use a-Saito," Luise stopped mid-step and turned, glaring at him. "I have a wand."

"Let a man dream," Saito replied with a forlorn look.

"Fine," Luise said with a gruff nod. "But I'm cutting down your whorehouse visits from 'only in extreme circumstances' to 'absolutely never'."

Saito blinked at those words, and looked in shock at Luise. "L-Luis! Let's talk about this!"

"No," Luise gruffly said. "Real men don't get laid in whorehouses. Real men act like knights and find a pretty damsel to court, and you will do the same!"

"B-But at least once in my life-come on! Have mercy!"

"No," Luise said firmly, planting her foot down. "Now shut up and keep looking for horse tracks. We came through here, didn't we?" as Luise neared the torch to the ground, to where the sets of the horse's hooves were present, she kept walking forward until she came to a halt at the sight of a pair of hooves planted on the ground.

Saito gasped behind her, but she simply lifted her torch, and then her face, to look at the owner of said horse.

"So we meet again," the man standing in a slightly charcoal-colored armor said from atop his horse. His fellow comrades stood on their own horses, and they all looked pissed. They all looked greatly pissed.

"We've been had to," Luise said hotly, taking a step backwards, "She stole the horse."

"The horse that you stole from us," one of the guards said gruffly as the remaining ones began to slowly trot in order to encircle them. "Look, we're not heartless monsters," the second guard spoke. "Sure, you threw Richards through a wall, but your friend just knocked us out. We appreciate that. It's good mercenary etiquette to do that."

The charcoal-armored man spoke once more, "That's why we're not going to beat you to an inch of your lives and leave your broken bodies in a ditch somewhere," he nodded wisely as did the other men. "We're going to bring you -unharmed if you don't resist- to Count Mott. And then you'll explain to him why you thought it would be wise to attack us."

"You broke the door first," Saito pointed out, "And my teeth."

"Your friend threw me in the middle of poisoned ivy," the charcoal-armored man retorted hotly. "Let bygones be bygones, I say. You speak with the Count, you explain, and rest assured that the Count is a reasonable man. As long as you're not a pretty girl, he won't do anything needlessly cruel. And you're adventurers too," the man said with a nod. "I'm sure you'll find a way out of the pinch with a few words."

"You're being very reasonable," Luise said. "Why is that?"

"Nobody likes to spill blood for no gain," the man shrugged. "I'm Roberts, the leader of this merry band of tax collectors. So, do we have a deal? Or we can fight and you can knock us out, maybe-and we can wound you-definitely- and then we'll be stuck like this again. Come on kid, I don't have all night."

Luise slumped her shoulders and sighed. "Saito?"

"Does the Count have a...Guild Barber?" Saito hazarded, and to that, the men simply laughed.

"Sure! We'll get him to fix your teeth before you speak with the Count. It's going to take us days to reach the mansion anyway," one of the men that Saito had knocked out said. "And you pack a mean punch for being such a scrawny kid. Never thought I'd see the day someone with a dagger could knock me and Gaston down."

Saito nervously laughed at that, scratching the back of his head nervously. "We keep our weapons," Luise said firmly, with a voice that brokered no argument.

"I think that's fair," Roberts said. "Just remember that if you try anything, this time we won't show any mercy even if you're kids."

Saito slumped his shoulders as he watched the men descend from the horses, all eager to get a camp started. He had a really bad feeling about this. He had a really, really bad feeling.

The moment Luise began to chant, he knew he should have trusted his instinct.

His shield was never meant to hold against a large two-handed ax, and thus it didn't, breaking apart into splinters and dulling the blow that hit the breastplate -thankfully scavenged from the bandits- turning a lethal 'cut you in half' strike into a mere 'It will bruise across my entire chest'.

Saito had no choice but to kick the man back with his right foot as he jumped with his left, trying to reach in front of Luise where an angered Roberts was coming with his sword drawn. Luise was using the horse as a form of 'natural barrier', forcing Saito to stand in front of her and swing his sword wildly in order to deflect the enemies' swings.

He'd have words with Luise if this worked.

He'd have very strong words.

As the blinding white light encompassed everyone on the road, Saito closed his eyes briefly, as did everyone else. When he reopened them, he was the only one standing.

Luise was woozily grinning to herself, clutching the horse by her side -the trained animal didn't bother moving an inch, his eyes covered by the blinkers. "We do not negotiate with bandits," she said cheerfully.

Saito looked at Luise, and Luise looked back at Saito. "Now," Luise said with a dry chuckle. "Let's free these poor souls from their heavy burdens. These perverted swines who serve a perverted noble will be glad to go without armor, and horses, for the time being."

She gestured at them with the wave of a hand, and yawned using the other to cover her mouth -even if she had a mask. "Sorry Saito, but-but I think I'll catch five minutes."

Saito grumbled, but kept his tongue-lashing for later.

He had to remove the armor from six men and make their horses run for the hills. And something told him that removing a full plate of armor was not as easy as removing a breastplate from a bandit.

In the end, he decided to 'cut his losses' and climb with Luise on a horse after making the rest run away. He had gathered a helmet, a new shield and a new sword -and it all looked like good steel to boot.

With the reins in hand and Luise on his lap, he gazed at the horse beneath him and took a deep breath. "Hippy-ho?" he hazarded as he kicked the flanks of the animal which, in turn, made the animal neigh as it began to trot ahead.

"OH GOD ALL-MIGHTY HOW DO YOU STEER THIS THING!" Saito all but screamed as the horse kept on galloping long onto the night, leaving behind just a trail of dust.

Unfortunately, Saito was a heathen.

Thus, no god answered his call for help.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Five

When Luise woke up, the glare on Saito's face made her squirm slightly. "We escaped?" she asked.

"Yes," Saito said. "I've got a bruise the size of an ax on my chest, but we escaped," he added offhandedly. They were on the road, the horse having tired itself during the run and having dropped down to a meager trot, which had soon moved into a simple walk. "You didn't have to do that," Saito added.

"Those fiends worked for a perverted monster," Luise said hotly. "They kidnapped girls and brought them to him, they deserved much worse! If I hadn't felt faint, I would have stomped on their family jewels until they took part in a chorus! That we left them there is a sign of mercy, let me tell you!"

"If they catch us again, we'll be in hot waters," Saito said.

"Then it's a good thing we just have to reach the Cardinal," Luise said. "Once we manage that, the Count will be powerless. He might be the royal messenger, but he can do nothing against the head of the Brimir Church in Tristain."

Saito took a deep breath, and bit his tongue. "I understand," he said in the end, "But couldn't you have waited until they went to sleep!?"

"Silly Saito," Luise grumbled. "They had no intention of leaving us with our weapons. They'd have knocked them out of our hands the moment they got near. That's why I made sure they were dismounting from their horses when I began chanting."

Luise snuggled a bit closer, gripping on to Saito's chest since they were still on the horse -the boy having no clue how to dismount, and having managed to mount it by the simple principle of 'jumping on it' with Luise in his arms and the familiar runes giving him the much needed boost.

"You couldn't be sure about that," Saito said hotly. "They looked like-well, nice guys."

"And yet they worked for a man who has no qualms kidnapping young women when it suits his fancy. Saito, they were bad people, clearly heathens who went against Brimir's word and the Gods' wisdom. You can't trust that kind of people. Just because they've got a nice face and say nice things doesn't mean they're nice people."

And that was that. Saito didn't have anything more to say, and neither did Luise. They just stood in awkward silence until the horse neighed to signal he would not move any longer, and they'd have to drag him if they actually wished to go further.

They didn't, and so they dismounted to find a quiet place away from the road to sleep. Since they couldn't light a fire for fear of being seen from afar, they ended up scuttling closer to one another with a couple of thick cloaks to cover them both as the horse rested nearby.

"Did you dry the horse?" Luise asked in a mumbled voice, her head peeking from within the cloaks.

"You have to dry it?"

"Yes, you have to," Luise said hotly. "Fine," she grumbled, pushing herself out of the warm covers. "We'll dry it and then we'll go back to sleep. Can't believe you don't know a horse needs to be dried. Do you think they do that on their own?" as Luise grumbled, she started to wipe away the sweat from the gallop from the animal's flanks, the horse merely lowering its head to look around for some grass to eat.

"We can't keep him," Luise added as she gave a flat look at Saito's hopeful gaze. "I know a horse would be nice, but we can't keep a stolen horse. We'll use him to reach the city and then we'll let the church deal with handing it back to the Count."

The horse neighed softly, whining as it looked into Luise's eyes with its own. "Just be thankful we're not evil guys who'd sell you to a farmer for some quick money!" she hissed, before blinking at Saito's teary-eyed gaze. "And don't you cry!"

"B-But Uma here-" as Saito stammered that out, doing his best imitation of a needy child, Luise's shoulders began to tremble.

"You even named it," Luise said flatly.

Saito nodded wordlessly, much to Luise's utter amazement. The girl tapped her right foot against the ground as she kept drying the horse, and once she was done she returned to the sheet fort and settled inside within the warmth together with Saito. "No matter how much you cry, I'm not letting you keep the horse."

"But aren't we partners?" Saito said. "Shouldn't my opinion matter?"

"It does when it's not stupid," Luise said. "The horse has a mark on its flank that signifies it belongs to a noble. We are not nobles. Give it a few days, and the mercenaries will tell their lord of a stolen horse, and since none of us have a symbol of Count Mott on our clothes, the guards will think we're horse thieves, and they'll punish us accordingly. If you wish to spend years in the beautiful prisons of Tristain then be my guest, go right ahead and keep the horse, but when I'm telling you to do something, maybe you should consider I'm not doing this to be mean!"

As she hissed that out, Luise nestled her head against Saito's chest, grumbling under her breath as she did so. "Sheltered merchant kids are a pain."

"You're a sheltered nun," Saito retorted. "Aren't we just two sheltered kids in the end?"

"Speak for yourself," Luise snapped. "Sheltered or not, I still know what's common sense and what's not. You think there's only one moon up in the sky!"

"My world has only one moon," Saito said firmly.

Luise huffed, and sighed. "Look," she said in the end. "Maybe-maybe it does, all right? Maybe I've misunderstood you, and you've been kept under lock by some very evil guys who played a cruel prank on you since you were a tiny kid, and if that's the case then may Brimir smite them, because such a level of cruelty is unwarranted, but this world has always had two moon. You can see them even now up in the sky," Luise said. "So, if you say you come from another world, one with only one moon-just how far should we go?" Luise asked, "And how should we reach it?"

Saito hesitated. "I-I don't know."

"Well, luckily for you," Luise said, "I thought about it. If you are absolutely sure your world only has one moon, then we'll talk to someone who has to know enough about summoning magic to know how to reverse it. When we're done with the Cardinal, let's go to the Magic Academy in Tristain and see if we can't get a professor to tell us more," she chuckled. "See? You thought you didn't have a way back home, but in fact, you just need to trust in your partner-who is me. I'll be the brains and you can be the brawn."

Saito snorted. "Wasn't it like this before too?"

"Uh, you're right," Luise said with a tiny giggle. "Now try to get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."

Luise was absolutely right.

The next day would be a long one. It would be a very, very long one.

For on the road towards Tristain they met with another fellow traveler upon a horse surprisingly similar to theirs, who gave a panicked look and a squeak at being discovered.

"Saito," Luise said darkly. "Bring us closer! I want to hit her with my sword!"

"But you don't have a sword!" Saito yelled back, even as he kicked the flanks of the horse to send it into a gallop.

"Then that's the first thing I'll buy once we've got the money!" Luise snarled as she held her wand forward. "Halt in the name of-in the name of myself and Saito!"

The waitress aptly stopped. The horse Saito and Luise were on didn't, since Saito hadn't yet learned how to stop the horse barring the 'wait for it to tire'.

So they passed Siesta by, and the waitress simply looked at them move past her with a shocked expression that soon morphed into puzzlement, and then bewilderment.

"Stop the horse!" Luise yelled.

"HOW!?"

Saito's scream was heard throughout the countryside for minutes to come.

Just like Luise's prayers, which the horse, unfortunately being a heathen too, did not follow.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Six

To say that Luise was pissed was an understatement. Luise was outright furious. She was so furious it took all of Saito's strength to hold her back from delivering a set of vicious kicks to the head of Siesta, who was down on her knees and looking outright ashamed of her actions.

"We save you, we help you, we promise to bring you to safety and you pay us back by stealing our horse!?" Luise snapped angrily, flailing her arms. "Let me at her, Saito! You're my partner, not hers! I promise I won't bash her face much! I'm just going to feed her the ground for a while!"

"Lu-Luis!" Saito exclaimed, "Calm down! Think about it! You're scaring the poor girl!"

"Poor girl!? I'll give her the 'poor' girl when I'm done with her! Discipline! She needs some good old Brimir-blessed discipline under the form of a cane on her buttocks!"

Somehow, that made Saito loosen his grip on Luise. The girl blinked, and growled with her throat. "So that's what it takes to let you go of me? Promise of perversion from your twisted mind!? You-You heretical pervert!" as she spun to deliver a devastating kick to Saito's shins, the boy hastily jumped back, avoiding the blow and raising his hands up in self-defense.

"Now, now, Luis-calm down! She was just scared! Come on-please-what would Brimir do?!"

"Brimir would murder her entire family for the sin of betrayal!" Luise snapped curtly back, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Saito blinked at that tiny tidbit of information, and widened his eyes.

"Seriously!?"

"Yes!" Luise snarled. "To betray someone is the most heretical thing you could ever do! Brimir died because of betrayal! The holy crusaders were besotted on all sides because of betrayal! I lost all my money because a bastard betrayed me! I had to summon a pervert like you in the middle of nowhere because of betrayal! So I'm not letting her go unpunished just because she's pleading and has big boobs! I'd rip them off if it were up to me!"

Luise's face behind the mask was clearly red, and her trembling shoulders didn't help. "It's always like this," she sniffled. "Every single time-why is there nobody on my side for once?"

"It's-It's all right," Siesta said softly, carefully extending her arms towards Luise. "I'm really sorry about what happened-I promise I won't do that again-really!" as she spoke, Luise simply stared at her with half-narrowed eyes, but did not swat away the arms that ended up encircling her, and then dragging her close into a hug. "There's no need to cry, kind adventurer-I'm sorry I misunderstood your intentions."

Saito simply watched the scene awkwardly, not really knowing what to say except for the fact that 'not saying anything' was better than opening his mouth in that moment.

Once Luise had calmed down, Saito coughed slightly. "So," he said, "How about we all take a moment to be honest with one another and get to know each other better?" he sat down, crossing his legs. "My name is Saito Hiraga," he said. "I'm an everyday Japanese high school student who was summoned here as Luis' familiar. I'm trying to find my way back home. I like games, dislike sports and my dream is to enter a whorehouse and go back home to boast about it."

A glare from Luise made him nearly choke on his spit, but he didn't care.

Siesta instead had a pensive look, and as she nodded to herself mostly, she decided to go next. "My name is Siesta," she said. "Siesta Sasaki," and as she added her surname for clarification, Saito's eyes widened briefly at the definitely Japanese-sounding surname. "My great-grandfather," Siesta continued, "He always said he was a 'Japanese'. That's what my father told me anyway, there's-there's his tomb by my village."

"If you're lying," Luise said very, very calmly, so calmly it was kind of odd the way she said it. "If you're just lying to get Saito to sympathize with you," she looked up from her spot, her eyes firmly set on Siesta's own. "Even if Saito later forgives you, rest assured I will not."

That had all the semblance of being a threat. No, more than a 'threat' it was a promise of bloody, painful murder.

"I-I'm not lying!" Siesta said. "You can ask my uncle! And if you don't want to believe him, Tarbes, my village, is three days from the Tristanian Academy of Magic! My great-grandfather came here with a strange flying machine which we called 'the Dragon's Raiment'. You can just head over there and see for yourself!" as she proudly said that, Luise nodded once, and pushed herself off Siesta.

"Then we'll do just that after the Cardinal," Luise said. "And if it turns out it was a lie, then you'd better hope the Elves hid you, because even if I have to start a crusade, I'll bring you to justice."

"Aren't you laying it a bit thick with the 'crusader' shtick?" Siesta replied. "And-And I'm not lying! Even that horrible man said Mister Saito and I looked like brother and sister!"

"He must have sensed the perversion within you," Luise retorted hotly. "Anyway," she huffed. "My name is Luis. I'm the one who summoned Saito. He's my partner." She stressed the 'my'. "And if you're thinking of sinking your claws in him, then I'll have you know he's on my side and he'll never betray me."

"You had a tantrum not five minutes ago," Siesta began carefully, "About-"

"That never happened," Luise said, arms crossed in front of her chest. "It never happened." She said once more, strongly, as Saito was just about to open his mouth. The boy shut it a second later.

An awkward silence ensued. It lasted until Saito's stomach grumbled, and as soon as it did, Siesta's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my! It's probably time to break for lunch-"

"You don't have to stick around," Luise said. "You have your horse, you can go on your own, can't you?"

Siesta blinked. "Well-I could," she said sheepishly, "But if we travel together, isn't it safer?"

"Ah, now it's safer," Luise said with a knowing nod. "But before it wasn't, was it?"

Siesta blushed lightly from embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't understand your situation. I-I admit if I had known-"

"Known...what?" Luise hazarded.

"The way you are protective of your partner-the way you look at each other-I-forgive me, really," her cheeks heated up as a sense of dread rose through Luise's spine. "I am sure that even if-even if the priests might not agree, I think that love, even if it's between two males, is beautiful!" as she said that, the maid brought both hands to her cheeks and did a tiny 'kyaah' sound. "Oh my!" she shook her head quickly. "J-Just f-for curiosity's sake! Who's on t-top and who's-"

"Saito," Luise said with a defeated tone. "I'm honestly starting to think she isn't lying, and that all Japanese are perverts."

Saito just laughed awkwardly and looked away, scratching the side of his chin. "That's not true," he said in the end. "Just-I'm a growing boy-"

The excited maid's giggles continued way into the day, even as Luise eventually decided that it wouldn't matter if she showed her face or not to her. In the end, it was better to save one's own losses and keep the reputation of the maiden Luise safe. Thus, the Adventurer Luis turned out to be a lover of men.

...

Luise really should have stopped hanging around heretics, or she might end up becoming one herself if these misunderstandings kept happening.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Seven

With two horses, the trip to the capital city of Tristain proved to be quite quick. It still took them a few days, but since Siesta didn't leave them, they managed to eat warm food during the time they spent outside. If only the maid hadn't taken it as the norm to sleep while hugging Saito in an effort to stay warm during the long nights, much to the boy's delight and to Luise's frustration, then it would have been a pleasant trip even.

They diverted from the main road though, just so they could avoid the Count's men in the rare chance they managed to recover their horses and continue their pursuit.

Saito whistled at the sight of the walls of Tristain. "Well, that's nothing like Germania's capital, but it's a good start, I guess," Luise said offhandedly, standing seated in front of Saito upon the horse, letting the boy get used to the reins. Admittedly, she had come to appreciate not having to walk, but that form of leisure was soon to come to an end.

"Let's leave the horses outside the city," Luise said. "Wouldn't want the gate guards to detain us because of them."

Descending from the horses, the trio made their way forward and reached the gates after a short hour of walk. The moment they passed through with little trouble -thanks to their Adventurers' badges all things said- the bustling streets welcomed them.

"Follow me," Siesta said, taking to a side alley. "I know the way to my uncle's inn. He'll repay you for what you did."

"He better know a good barber," Luise grumbled. It took a few detours, mostly because Siesta didn't want to be seen out in the open, but when they finally reached the inn in question, Luise halted nearly instantaneously at the sight of the insignia.

"Luise?" Saito asked, puzzled.

"The Charming Fairies inn," Luise said. He looked at Siesta. "It's a whorehouse, isn't it?"

"What? No!" Siesta said hotly, "It's not! My uncle's a nice man, and he'd never do something as improper as that." As she opened the door and stepped inside, scantily clad girls came to welcome them with bright cheers and a lot of skin in good view.

Saito was in heaven.

Luise growled. "This isn't a whorehouse," she said gruffly, "If this isn't a place of sin and perdition, then why are they dressed like this!?"

"Oh, no touching allowed," one of the waitresses said with a cheer. "You don't have to worry, sir," she added. "We take manners of faith very seriously. We have priests who come by regularly after all!" as she giggled that, Luise nearly choked on her spit.

"Luis, don't make a scene," Saito said in a whisper, smiling warmly as a peculiarly busty waitress came closer to them, eyeing Siesta first.

"Siesta?" the woman said, "Is that you?"

"Oh, Jessica!" Siesta exclaimed back, hurrying to hug her. "Is uncle Scarron in the kitchens?" she added in a hurried whisper. "My friends and I need to talk to him urgently."

"Since when are we her friends? More like her unwilling partners," Luise grumbled.

"Weren't you and I the same at the start?" Saito retorted offhandedly, his gaze drifting to this particular tight, or that very nice looking corset, or even to those bountiful mounts that-Luise's foot mistakenly fell on his left foot and as weight was applied, the boy hissed in pain. "C-Come on-let me watch at least!"

"No," Luise said with a huff. "If I wanted a horny dog for a friend, I would have waited for the wolves to near me back in Germania. Move now, can't you see Siesta's gesturing at us? Stop blocking the inn's entrance." With that said, the masked girl walked forward with her most manly of walks, growling ever so slightly whenever a 'waitress' neared her too much.

Saito instead simply smiled, happy with the place he had ended up in. This was like one of those 'soap-lands' where adults went to drain their stress away with relaxing baths. He didn't see anything bad with it -and if priests visited this place, then they couldn't be blasphemous now, could they?

"Oh my! My poor little niece!" and suddenly, Saito's brain stopped working.

A man, a muscular, chest-hair covered man with big full lips and dark hair and eyes stepped out from the kitchen while sashaying his hips. Luise emitted a small scream, and his behind Saito abruptly. "P-Protect me from that thing!" she ordered fearfully as the 'man' walked forward with a full smile.

"Oh, my little dear!" as the man proceeded to hug Siesta and spin her around a bit, the girl simply returned the hug with a giggle. "Your father was so worried about you! Are you all right now? And who are your friends?" as the man turned towards Saito and Luise, Luise made a small strangled cry and clutched tighter to Saito's clothes. "I am Scarron! You can call me 'Mi Mademoiselle'! Any friend of Siesta is a friend of mine!"

"I'm Saito, sir," Saito said as politely as he could. "And this is Luis, we're adventurers. We saw your niece was being harassed," he added in a whisper, "So we came to her rescue."

"My!" Scarron said, a hand to his cheek as he shook his head in disbelief. "Such noble souls!" he neared faster than the Gryphon ever had, and engulfed Saito in a hug that ended only when one wet sloppy kiss was planted on the boy's cheek. "Thank you for saving my niece, noble adventurer!"

As he dropped Saito on the floor, where the boy stood dazed and paralyzed from sheer horror, Luise remained without protection from suffering the same fate, if not for the mask she wore.

"Listen here," Luise said, both hands raised in front of her. "I have a wand and I am not afraid of using it. Keep your thanks to my partner-"

"H-Hey!" Saito whined.

"Shut it," Luise snapped curtly. "Look, not to sound too crass about it, but my partner had his teeth broken in by one of the guys who was after your niece while we saved her. She said you knew of a good barber to fix his problem-"

"Oh, oh of course!" Scarron said. "Siesta dear, you go upstairs and freshen up a bit. Jessica, be kind enough to watch over your cousin, all right?" as the feminine dressed man finished giving orders to the two girls, they both walked upstairs leaving the trio by the counter of the inn.

"Marybeth! Marybeth my little darling fairy, be a dear and hop over to Derevan's shop. Tell him to come with his tools." Scarron winked at Saito as the 'fairy' in question grabbed a cloak from a hanger near the door and walked out the inn. "He's got angel hands that man. He does it all. Hair, teeth, blood, I had an infection once and after five minutes he was done already! Really-would you like some liquid courage in your veins?"

"What." Saito blinked.

"Don't worry," Luise said as kindly as she could, pulling her wand out. "I'll knock him out so he won't feel a thing."

"What."

"Can't let the teeth rot and all of that," Luise said with a knowing nod. "And maybe he can repair them, you never know-like, hopefully?"

Saito sat at the counter with a half-defeated look. "My teeth stopped hurting a couple of days ago-" as he tried to weasel out, Luise took the seat next to him -and Scarron manned the counter, apparently the one thing every innkeeper did even if they were dressed in female clothes.

"Don't worry Saito," Luise said. "I had a few teeth pulled out too, and it doesn't hurt that much," she added. "You just need to find something strong to hold on to, and they give you this funny tasting medicine to drink before that makes you see things all woozy. Really, it's quite a trip."

"Ah, yes," Scarron nodded as he pulled out a clean glass and a dark amber colored liquid from a bottle hidden below the counter. "This will start you off nicely. Trust me, I have seen men scared of their shadows face off mighty dragons with enough of this in their veins."

Saito blinked. "Really?"

Scarron laughed loudly as he poured a full glass of the stuff. "Sure, pretty adventurer-sure!"

Saito shuddered briefly, but after grabbing the glass, he drank it in its entirety much to Luise's deflated expression. He was out like a light a few seconds later, his head hitting the counter at surprising speed.

"Always works," Scarron said with a wink towards Luise. "Herbal Whiskey, strong stuff, even stronger than the normal thing. We give this to the patrons with grabby hands to knock them out politely," he whispered to her in a confidential tone. "Now let's bring him upstairs and wait for Derevan. He'll deal with him in no time. Do you wish to stay close to your friend?"

"Course," Luise said. "We have a letter to deliver, but we can do that together."

"Ah," Scarron said, with a twinkle in his eyes. "Such a pity he's already taken then. He really was cute," as Scarron sighed, Luise did not utter another word.

She had just saved Saito from a very horrible fate, especially when she helped Scarron bring him upstairs, rather than leaving it only to the man himself.

The man known as Derevan was, true to Scarron's words, a professional. He also had a long debt with the owner of the Charming Fairies' Inn, so he did the job without asking for pay -only for a bit of his debt removed and a few drinks afterwards. Luise remained impassive as the man worked on Saito's teeth, humming a small song as he finished and rinsed them off with a small wet cloth.

"There. They should be sensitive for a while, but he's a lucky fellow. I just had to pull one out, and he won't notice a difference."

With a nod, Luise stretched and yawned, waiting for the man to be out of the room before dropping down like a heavy weight on the side of the comfortable looking bed. It really was a comfortable looking bed -she hoped the price for the room was cheap. She wouldn't dislike sleeping in such a place for the night -even if it was a poorly hidden brothel, because she would eat her mask if 'horrible perverted stuff' didn't happen in the rooms nearby.

She was thus surprised when no sound came from said rooms, and even more so when it appeared pretty clear that it was just a normal inn barring the strange clothes the waitresses wore.

As she clutched a pillow and hugged it tightly, resting her head against it, her eyes gazed at Saito's sleeping face, with his mouth wide open as he snored peacefully the 'liquid courage' away.

Her own gaze softened at the sight of how defenseless he looked.

They were safe now, and they could rest.

They'd head to church the next day, and then meet up with the Cardinal when he found it suitable. They'd deliver the letter, and then-then they'd be off on their great adventure.

She wasn't scared about that though.

Luise was anything but scared. She was excited.

There was an all new world out there, and she was going to visit it all together with Saito.

Before becoming a nun, what more could she wish for?

Maybe to find the family she never knew of.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Eight

When Saito woke up, the sun had died over the horizon to leave the place to a brilliant and starry night. One thing he found breath-taking was the night sky around these parts, so clear and crystal-like in quality that it seemed he was watching it through a high definition television, rather than his own eyes.

The twin moons, as foreign as they were, were also quite beautiful.

The masked figure sleeping by his side on the bed was creepy to be honest, but Luise had probably been tired from the trip and nervous for the manhunt, so she could be excused. Saito might have been a self-declared pervert, but he also was a gentleman at heart -or so he hoped.

It was as he was contemplating whether to remove Luise's mask or not to make the girl sleep more soundly that his mouth took that as the cue to awaken an whole new world of pain in his jaws.

With tears in his eyes, the boy clutched his mouth and carefully rolled out of the bed and on the floor, holding a clenched fist against the cool wooden surface as he kept his mouth as open as possible, wishing for the pain to subside.

It felt as if someone had rubbed garlic and vinegar on his gums.

No, it wasn't a feeling. Someone had truly rubbed garlic and vinegar on his gums. He was also missing a tooth, his tongue made sure he knew that. As much as he would have loved this to be a game where a quick heal to the Hit Points would have fixed his wounds, he knew better by then. They'd probably need money for costly reagents and a willing water mage.

So it was better to start looking for work.

When Luise woke up, Saito wasn't in the room. This bothered her, because considering the place of perdition they were in, it was highly probable the boy had gone skirt-chasing, or seeing how scantily dressed the 'fairies' were, 'knee-sock' chasing.

When she left the room half-grumbling about perverts and how not even a whip could fix their attitudes, she crossed paths with a truly despicable and annoying creature.

The wench.

"Ah, mister Luis, you woke up," Siesta said, a large basket filled with clean laundry in it within her arms. "Your partner is downstairs with my uncle," she added with a cheerful smile. "Thank you once more for saving me," she bowed her head -basket of laundry miraculously not falling down- and then stood back up straight as she continued down the hallway.

"Sure," Luise grumbled. "Stay safe now," she added as a parting word of advice. "As safe as anyone living in this place of sin can be," she mumbled to herself as she reached for the ground level, where there was no trace of Saito, but Scarron was behind the counter eagerly entertaining a few guests.

"Oh! The kind adventurer woke up! I was just narrating to these fellows how you valiantly fought off those dastardly brigands in an effort to bring my niece back home!" as Scarron smiled, Luise nodded stiffly.

"Sure," she said gruffly. "Where's my partner?"

"Oh, he's really a hardworking boy," Scarron said with a light giggle that was definitely wrong on his frame. "He's in the back with my daughter, Jessica."

"In the back," Luise said flatly, following Scarron's hand that pointed at the kitchen.

"You must rub them harder, Saito," Jessica exclaimed as Luise opened the door, and had Luise not possessed a pair of perfectly working eyes, she might have easily misunderstood, but thankfully, she did have eyes. So what she saw made her twitch her lips up in relief, and a smudge of amusement.

Saito was currently washing the dishes together with Jessica, and the girl was apparently a saint ordained with the wisdom of ages to keep her patience in check. As Luise drew near, she rolled her sleeves up.

"Let me help," Luise said gruffly. "I washed my fair share of plates at the orphanage."

"I'm not handing over my stack," Saito said quite pridefully, clearly determined to do his share of work or die trying.

"Very well," Jessica said with a huff, "I'll oversee things then," as she dried her hands off a towel, she watched with approval as Luise began to meticulously clean the dishes. "Uhm," she said after a short while, "Are you not going to remove your mask?"

"No," Luise said gruffly.

"Oh," Jessica said softly. "I'm sure it's not that bad, darling. Whatever happened-"

"Explosions," Luise said. "There's little of my face that's worth seeing."

"It's not that bad," Saito said offhandedly. "But he's pretty headstrong about showing his face to strangers."

Jessica's lips twitched upwards. "I see, I see. Siesta did tell me of your...relation," she sighed. "A pity because I was thinking of thanking the brave adventurers that saved my little cousin, but-"

"I'm-" Saito began eagerly, only for Luise to stomp his feet hard and make him yelp, "Taken," he choked out a sob, hissing as he pushed another cleaned plate on the rack to dry.

"I know," Jessica sighed, a hand to her cheek. "Oh well, I'll leave you to the dishes." With that said, she walked out of the kitchen and back into the main hall.

"Why did you have to stop me?!" Saito hissed.

"Do you really need to ask?!" Luise retorted hotly. "You don't know where she's been!"

"She's not a wild animal!"

"And? Do you have any idea how many sicknesses are spread by bedding disreputable people? And health issues aside, aren't you planning on going back home? What if she ends up pregnant because of a one night tryst, what then? Are you going to take responsibility or leave her to fend off for herself? Do you know how many children are abandoned on the steps of the churches each year because two youngsters in love did not marry and yet did the raunchy stuff in the stables!? Think a bit before letting your underpants do the talking, Saito!" Luise sighed in disbelief, shaking her head. "Really-have a bit of decency."

An awkward silence stretched for a few seconds, before Saito spoke softly. "I'm sorry."

"Just don't do it again," Luise said firmly.

As they finished washing the dishes, and placing them on the rack to dry, Saito took a deep breath. This...this wasn't modern-day Japan. He kept forgetting it, and acting as if everything was fine.

It probably wasn't, not beyond the surface.

"Now don't act like a kicked dog," Luise grumbled as they stepped out of the kitchen. "You can have fun in other ways, I'm sure."

Saito nodded, and then stopped near the notice board that hung by the inn's wall, his eyes fixed on a particularly interesting notice. "Hey Luis," he said as he grabbed the notice. "Have you ever gone into a haunted mansion in the middle of the night?"

Luise froze.

Then she looked at the pay offered.

"There is always a first time, partner," Luise said gruffly, as a manly man who definitely wasn't afraid of ghosts would be.

The nun Luise was scared though.

The adventurer Luis wouldn't let something as pesky as the souls of the departed keep him from earning enough money to get a swordwand, or maybe fix Saito's teeth through a Water Mage.

But boy was it cold outside. She definitely wasn't shaking out of fear though.

That would be preposterous.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The mansion was an old, rickety thing that stood in-between two normal looking houses. Its owner had changed residence, leaving it behind, and then had died without heirs. It had been forgotten for years, until an upstarting rich merchant had gotten his daughter married to a noble, and that in turn had meant he had to find them a nice house worthy of a princess' dowry.

The man however was a merchant, and rather than buy a noble's house and end up as a poor merchant father, he had gone rummaging, found the abandoned house and laid claim to it quietly by paying a neat sum to the crown and citing it was going to a noble's family anyway, so the nobles nearby had no need to raise a fuss because of 'uncouth' neighbors.

And it was thus as the first workers had begun repairing it that the 'ghost' had arrived. Some said the ghost was a young woman, others said it was an old man, but what they all seemed to agree on was that the ghost wasn't making the job easy for any of them.

At first, it had been missing tools. When the tools had been replaced, the armors had begun to move. When one of the workers ended up with a poleaxe through his shoulder, the repairs had stopped.

A priest had been called, but the spirit had simply made the chandelier fall upon him, and thus -while the priest had been quick enough to save himself from imminent death- even the exorcism had failed.

So now it was up to the adventurers.

"Come on Luis," Saito said as he opened the gates with the key the merchant had given them. The man had mentioned he'd allow any adventurer to try at any hour of the day or night -which was the reason why they were there in the middle of the night, rather than wait for the morning.

"S-Saito," Luise stuttered. "W-Why don't we come back when it's daytime?"

Past the gate, the gardens under the light of the moon would have been the envy of any poet trying to find 'the most beautiful rose' to describe, for they truly were a work of art. "Because I'm not going to sleep at all tonight," Saito grumbled. "My teeth hurt so much-really, and I've slept all the afternoon so I'm not tired. And you slept too, no use hiding it, Luis."

Luise growled, clenching her hands into fists as they both came to a halt in front of the main door to the mansion. "Don't you want to meet a real ghost and ask them what's beyond death?" Saito said, trying to coax Luise to step inside as the door swung open to allow them entrance.

"Tell me you're the one who pushed it open," Luise whispered.

"Uh? Must have been the wind," Saito shrugged, and stepped inside. "Hey there! Mister Ghost-"

Then the door closed abruptly behind him, and Luise heard a blood curling scream come from inside which made the girl jump back, wand in hand.

Trembling like a leaf, Luise neared the door with her heart beating in her head. "Saito? I swear if this is a joke," she hissed as she swung the door open. And there Saito was, his shield in front of him as a spear had embedded itself halfway through it. Had it been his old wooden shield, the spear would have gone right through and skewered him.

"Hey," Saito said nervously, "I think this ghost is pissed."

The door snapped shut right behind Luise, who had entered to check on Saito's condition. In the dark entrance hall, illuminated only by the light of the moon, the fallen chandelier clinked near them, and dried blood stood clearly defined upon the bone white marble tiles. A lone stairway that split in a right and left balcony, and potentially hallways, stood with a dark crimson carpet on it right in front of the main door.

"Be goneeee," a voice said with a haunted tone from afar.

"You closed the door!" Luise shrieked back, holding on to Saito. "If you wanted us to leave, you could have just left it open!" as she brought her wand forward, she took a deep breath. "I have a wand! I have a wand and I'm not afraid of using it!"

"Mister Ghost!" Saito said, trying to sound polite even as he removed the spear from his shield, wincing a bit as he gaped at the hole made on the steel shield. "Isn't there something we can do to convince you to leave peacefully?"

"Go awayyyy..." the voice said again.

Taking a deep breath, Luise stared right ahead. "No house, no ghost, no haunting," and then she thrust her wand forward, creating an explosion that tore apart the silence of the night by breaking off the windows in the entrance hall in a shower of deadly glass -which thankfully was aimed outwards.

"L-Luis!" Saito said shrilly.

"Hush," Luise replied, tapping her wand against the open palm of her hand. "Ghosts do not exist," she said, trying to sound resolute but failing utterly at that. "And if they exist, then as a future priest it is my duty to exorcise them!"

She swished her wand once more, but this time Saito intervened, lifting his shield in time to stop a suit of armor from slamming its ax down on the girl, having come right at them from atop the stairs' balcony that overlooked the entrance hall.

The shield rang with a sort of crystalline quality as Saito's hand moved to his sword, which was a pretty nice steel longsword stolen from Count Mott's men, and as he hit the armor right on the helmet, its headless metallic form remained unperturbed by his lack of head.

Saito stared.

Luise stared.

The armor brought its arm back for another swing of its ax, and as both young adventurers screamed, Luise's wand once more moved erratically, delivering a thundering point-blank explosion that sent the armor into the realm of non-existence, but also made both Saito and Luise's ears ring.

Saito's vision was blurry, but not that much -he had learned to close his eyes whenever he saw the tiny sphere of pure white that announced either an explosion or a sleep spell, so empowered by his familiar powers, he hoisted Luise by her midriff with his shield-arm and ran out of the entrance hall, straight through a hallway filled with paintings that he could swear were following him with their haughty gazes, and right into an abandoned room to the side which he barricaded with a drawer.

"Out of the window," Saito said, resolutely gazing at...the walls, because the windows were on the other side of the hallway, which he had most aptly ignored in favor of running for the closest door. "Next time, I throw myself out of a window."

"Next time, we wait the middle of the day," Luise said hotly from the corner Saito had 'dropped' her. As she put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath, she locked eyes with Saito resolutely. "If this is a really powerful ghost, then we find a way to pacify it before it-"

A suit of armor clanked just outside the door, making both youngsters freeze and hold their breaths in.

"Go awayyyy..." Then the ax struck against the wooden door, sending the splinters to fly as the hollow suit looked through the crack with its empty self. "Gooooo awaaaayyyyy..."

Luise's wand vaporized the thing, the door, and pretty much most of the doorway and the walls attached to it. She did that without a word, her eyes wide and her skin pale and white with fear.

Saito blinked. "Luis, tone it down with the explosions or there won't be a house left-"

"Saito," Luise said quite calmly. "I-I can cast explosions without saying anything."

"Uh? Sure you can. I mean, you did it a few times didn't you?"

"No, you don't get it," Luise snapped, waving her wand around. "It's one thing to say 'Fireball' and get an explosion, it's another to make an explosion that actually vaporizes stuff! Look at that level of destruction! I just destroyed a full plate of armor! If it had been a real person, I would have killed him! Fireballs don't kill, well, the weak ones don't. They burn people! Up until now, my explosions were mostly dust clouds or soot!"

"So...you make bigger explosions now?" Saito hazarded as he peeked out into the hallway in case another suit decided to try its luck.

"Well, yes, let's go with that," Luise grumbled. "Still! Mega-Explosions! Eat your hat, Academy Headmaster! 'You will never account to nothing with a bit of soot and dust, Miss Orphan!' Ha! Showed you who's best now, didn't...I?"

With her eyes drooping down and her frame trembling from mental and physical exhaustion, Luise dropped down, and if not for Saito's quick reflexes in catching her, she would have hit her head pretty badly too.

"Notice to self," Saito said as he heard the suits of armor in the hallway come to life once more. "Taking a sub-quest just because there's time to waste before completing the main quest is not a smart move."

And then he ran for the window, which unfortunately did nothing as he bounced right back, as if they had been made not of glass, but of steel.

"GO AWAY!" the suits of armor shrieked wildly as he swung a poleaxe this time in wild abandon, slashing at the walls in an effort to hit Saito.

Holding Luise in a bridal carry, Saito ran to the end of the hallway, and past it to the left where an open door seemed to give into the gardens, or what looked like them at a first glance.

As it turned out, it wasn't a way to the gardens outside, but to an inner greenhouse.

An inner greenhouse filled with snapping, possibly flesh-eating, carnivorous plants.