The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty

Saito knew that this was the fault of an Alchemist. He was so sure this was the fault of an Alchemist that he didn't even bother with screaming at the sight of a carnivorous plant with teeth snap its jaws an inch away from his face. He just pulled out his sword and sliced the thing's blossom-like face letting it shriek as it died, spluttering green blood everywhere on him and on Luise's back, since he had moved from a bridal carry to a shoulder-carry.

He had been so set on the idea it was a ghost that it took him the sight of carnivorous plants to realize he wasn't back on Earth anymore. He wasn't in Kansas like Dorothy. 'Magic' was real.

This could just as much be a Mage doing Mage stuff that resulted in murderous suits of armor and carnivorous plants.

Frankly, considering how these plants were definitely not the type you'd gift to people, he was opting that whoever was the 'Alchemist' behind this sort of stuff, they had probably ended up either dying badly to them, or were responsible for the house trying to murder them.

"All right," Saito muttered as he held his sword aloft in front of him. The runes shone briefly on the back of his hand as he charged ahead, screaming as behind him the greenhouse's door shattered to reveal the suit of armor still in pursuit. The plants snapped their salivating jaws at him and Luise, but he was faster than them, and thus easily passed through the deadly greens -whoever said that vegetables were good to eat had never thought they might one day grow teeth to bite back.

The suit wasn't that lucky, and as the armor slowed down considerably, Saito came to a halt on the other side of the greenhouse.

So, from what he knew of Mages, they had wands and needed to pronounce spells to make magic. This mage was probably watching them with a form of magic-camera, and if that wasn't possible, then-

Of course, Mages had familiars, didn't they?

Could it be? Anytime he had lecherous thoughts, Luise would kick him even when asleep. Could that be it?

Swallowing his nervousness, Saito ended up past the greenhouse and once more inside the mansion, this time in a hallway that ended with a library of all things.

The mage's familiar had to be something small, or he would have noticed him sooner. Something small, and normally insignificant in an old and abandoned mansion that could however move fast enough to keep up with him.

A spider? A rat? A fly? A-

Saito held his breath as he walked past a set of books, the clanking of the armor not far behind him. In such a huge mansion, how could there not be a mirror? The windows themselves were shiny enough to-

"Got you," Saito said, quickly swatting out of his hair the spider that had hidden amidst his dark locks, and as the creature fell on the ground, he hastily slammed his sword down in front of it, grabbing the creature and holding it right in front of him. Under the light of the moon, thin glittering symbols were carved on the creature's back, signaling that it was indeed the mage's familiar.

"I've got your familiar!" Saito said. "If you care about him-"

The suit of armor didn't stop. No, the suit of armor simply flung its poleaxe in a spinning pattern towards Saito the moment he had him in view, forcing the boy to avoid it or end up sliced in half. "Don't you care what happens to him!?" Saito yelled.

"He's just a spider." The voice came from the spider itself, no longer 'ghost-like'. "Kill him, I've got dozens around."

The suit of armor charged at Saito, swinging its fists of steel, and as Saito hastily threw the spider, the poor creature was squashed against the nearby wall by the armor itself.

As Saito had to hold on to Luise, and was currently without his sword, he reverted back to his dagger just to acquire that boost of speed that would enable him to get back his sword-which the suit of armor stole from him, making him hastily roll away from the golem itself.

The poleaxe had been slammed into the wall up to the hilt -thus, quite a considerable length- but Saito had to merely grab the shaft and pull to free it, as if it had never been 'trapped' within the wall at all to begin with.

Holding the poleaxe in one arm and Luise on his other shoulder, he stood in front of the golem with his heart throbbing wildly a thousand of heartbeats a second.

The suit bent its knees and swung the sword, charging ahead in a devastating leap. In that moment, Saito knew what he had to do.

He was the shield.

As he dropped Luise against the wall, he clutched the poleaxe with both hands, the familiar symbols shining brightly as he narrowed his eyes and thrust forward, hitting with the tip the sword itself, which made sparks fly through the air. The hallway was narrow, and the movements limited, but Saito did not retreat even as the suit of armor could not advance.

The first of many nicks formed on the plate, and yet Saito did not take a single step back. The boy took one step forward, and the suit of armor took one back. Kept at poleaxe length, the suit of armor could do little but defend itself even as it lost a shoulder-pad, and then the left gauntlet.

Still, it did not stop fighting.

"Enough!" a raspy voice snarled from behind Saito, making the boy stop. Thankfully, the golem stopped too. "This much noise will have attracted the guards by now," a dry looking man with thin mustaches and a rat-like face hissed from behind Luise, the girl held by the man's left arm upwards as his left had a dagger poised to strike at her neck. "Now listen here adventurer, you couldn't have come by another day? I was already set on leaving after taking care of my last few dealings," the man curled his lips in disgust. "But no, noble types like you couldn't just leave when asked."

Saito would have liked to point out how the door had closed on them, or the windows had felt like steel when he had tried to jump out of them. He had a feeling that if he did though, the man wouldn't hesitate to strike at Luise.

"Look," Saito said. "We can make a deal."

"A deal?" the man raised an eyebrow. "What deal?"

"We're adventurers, Luis and I," Saito said, an eye on the golem and one on the man. "We-We don't care what you're doing or why, really! We just thought there was a ghost to exorcise, so if you're leaving, then I can give you a hand in packing up!" Saito added quickly. "And you can let go of Luis. I mean, it's not like you want to add murder to your list of crimes, right? I think there are pesky sentences for murder."

The man actually made a face as if he was considering it, "And how do I know you're telling the truth about the deal?" the man asked, his dagger still poised on Luise's neck.

"Because we're not getting paid to fight you, or die fighting you, so we have no reason to fight," Saito replied.

"Ah, so I misunderstood your type," the man said with a nod. "Well, indeed-if I leave, you get paid for your exorcism, don't you? And I get to leave with more stuff than planned if you help me pack. Sure, why not?" he shrugged. "You think me an idiot?" he snapped next. "Someone capable of surviving a triangle-Earth golem is no shoddy adventurer who's in it just for the money! Your friend here uses very complex magic without chanting! The moment I stop holding her, you'll just kill me and take everything I have for yourself!"

"That's not really what I want to do," Saito said. "Really, please."

Rat-Face hesitated briefly. "I never wanted to start this line of work," he said in the end. "I was a noble, a rich, fancy, overweight noble. I lost fifty kilos since I was found 'unworthy of my title' for having entertained one too many experiments involving plants. But what did they know? Sure, sure, a few maids had been nearly eaten alive, but the plants were perfectly safe around me! And there was that time with the royal guardsman, but Betty was just defending me from his pushy ways! He had no right to barge in the greenhouse during feeding time!" the man snarled, his eyes slightly crazed and his breath uneven. "So I had to change city, and when I found this abandoned place I decided I would settle right in!"

So this was what Luise meant with the 'pitiful backstory'. Saito gave a quick look to the Golem, who had outright 'stopped' and was standing still. He could do it. He had to do it before Luise woke up and tried to free herself. The dagger was too close to her neck that it would take even a single uneven movement for her to end up with a second smile.

"Look, I understand you went through a lot," Saito said. "Speaking of plants-what's your favorite?"

"My...favorite?" the man said, puzzled. "My favorite...plant?"

"Yes," Saito nodded as he clutched the poleaxe tightly. He had one shot at this. He had no more than one shot at this. The moment the man's arm would tire slightly, he'd 'pull Luise' back up, in so doing, he would show off his shoulder.

"Well, my favorite plant is-"

There.

The Poleaxe stopped being a poleaxe for those brief two seconds it took for it to travel at the fastest possible speed for a human -no, scratch that, beyond human- and instead became an arrow, an arrow having been thrown by a missile launcher, all things said and done for the effect it had.

Saito hadn't planned on severing the man's arm by the shoulder, nor had he planned on hurting anyone. However one could only throw a poleaxe in two possible directions, and Luise's life was at stake.

The Golem crumbled down within mere minutes, and Saito rushed ahead to grab the still asleep Luise, who was peacefully snoring away. The man was instead screaming as he clutched his shoulder, having been literally 'pinned' to the wall on the other side of the hallway, the poleaxe remaining firmly planted in his shoulder-bone.

Taking a deep breath and holding Luise once more in bridal carry, he looked at Rat-Face. "You really should have taken the deal. I was being honest."

He then neared the closest window, and with a kick shattered the frame, revealing the gardens outside and a few guards who were already stepping into the gardens from the gates.

"Over here!" Saito yelled, waving at them.

He didn't expect to have to spend the reminder of the night in a cell by the guards' barracks together with Luise, a patched up Rat-Face, and a group of very disreputable folks that seemed keen on making them eat their own teeth.

"By the way," Rat-Face said as a mean of conversation while holding his wounded shoulder. "My favorite plant is the Hydrangea, and thank you for not severing my arm."

"I like Cherry Blossoms," Saito replied honestly. "And you're welcome. But you could have just left the door open, we would have left."

The man frowned. "But I didn't close it. Your other friend did."

Saito blinked. "What other friend?"

"That guy with the leather armor badly patched up and a small sword that was behind you and your friend. He bailed on you, didn't he?"

Saito frowned. "It's always been Luis and I. I thought you had closed the door."

The man paled.

Saito paled.

They both looked away from one another and laughed nervously. "Hallucinations!"

"Hallucinations!"

No more words were spoken.

No more words needed to be spoken.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-One

Luise was not pleased to wake up in the gallows. She was pleased it hadn't been a ghost but a bandit-mage, and she was also pleased that the man who had hired them had also come to prove their innocence, bailing them out and paying them in turn.

So, after finding a water mage and haggling a bit, Saito's teeth were now perfectly fixed back to their charming normal self.

"Don't break them again," Luise said hotly.

Saito, in answer, pulled out the helmet from his backpack. "That's why I brought this along." He then put it back inside. "Once we have enough money to fix it to my size, we'll be set."

Luise nodded, and then frowned as she looked at the weapon hanging from Saito's back. "Wait a minute. Since when do you have a poleaxe?"

"Well, it was thrown at me, so I sort of held on to it. The guards handed it back when we left, so I think it's mine now?" as Saito laughed nervously, Luise simply scoffed.

"Well, at least now we don't have to worry about money for a while. Let's go to a blacksmith while we wait." Even if they were adventurers, they couldn't just enter into a royal palace without reason. The cardinal would receive notices from the head priests of the nearby churches each day, and so Father Christoff had told Luise to simply warn a head priest about the urgency of their mission.

The head priest had nodded and accepted most gracefully to do that, but he wouldn't have an answer until later in the evening -when he would come back from the palace.

So now Saito and Luise were walking through the capital looking for a good blacksmith. They ended up settling for a small cornerstone shop, which had a variety of weapons inside.

"Oh, adventurers! You are already my best customers!" the man said graciously as they stepped inside. "What will it be?! Poisoned arrows? Barbed arrows? Grappling hooks? You want a special boot dagger? We even have cute hairpins that turn into deadly caltrops!"

Saito and Luise blinked at the same time. "Swordwand," Luise said. "Do you have a swordwand?" she asked.

"A? I have all types! Good and light for the swashbuckling pirate, heavy and sturdy for the northern barbarian who wishes to add spells to his mighty cleaving-"

"A swordwand for someone like me," Luise said flatly. "I make things explode."

The blacksmith raised an eyebrow. "Fire mage?"

"And water too," Luise said.

"Oh, a Line Mage? Well, that's a fun combination! I've got just the thing-from the highest peaks of Albion's soaring-"

"Could you please finish it with the sale pitch?" Luise said hotly. "We are not here to waste away our money on frills."

The blacksmith visibly deflated, "Let a man try to make a quick buck on the side, will ya? Here you go, a good and standard swordwand from the Germanian tribe wars," as he spoke, he pulled out from beneath his counter a sturdy looking rapier, which however seemed to have a slightly thicker blade by the hand-protector, which opened up towards the end. "Place your wand in the middle of the guard, it will serve as the handle of the blade. Takes a bit to get used to, but the movements remain the same. Just now you've got to be careful because you're swinging a piece of steel and no longer just a piece of wood."

"I see," Luise said, looking down at the swordwand and moving it a bit. "How much?"

The blacksmith rattled off a price, and Luise blinked and rattled off another.

The two began to haggle, and as they did, Saito moved towards a barrel filled with rusty swords. 'Occasions! Only five Ecus each!' was written above it. At least, he hoped he was reading it right.

"Saito, we are not buying you more swords," Luise said hotly from the counter, where she had just finished haggling with the blacksmith, who was sweating, yet satisfied with the price bargained for in the end.

"Just looking. Usually blacksmiths have magic swords or the like, right?"

"You're out of luck, or maybe you are in luck," the blacksmith said. "I had a magic sword, but all it could do was talk and insult my customers. A blue-haired girl came by and bought it just a few weeks ago, so, well, no magic swords. You'd have better luck asking an Earth mage to reinforce it."

"Oh," Saito's shoulders dropped slightly. "About modifying a helmet instead-"

The blacksmith smiled, ready to rattle off a price. Then he saw the fierce gaze coming from Luise's masked face, and somehow he began to sweat even more.

In the end, the helm was adjusted, and as the duo walked out of the blacksmith satisfied and well-equipped, they came to a halt in front of a crepes stall vendor, who was selling the tasty treats to a line of eagerly waiting young women.

"Want one?" Saito asked, his stomach grumbling.

"Just because we have a bit of spending money doesn't mean we have to spend it all," Luise said, but as she eyed the whipped cream apparently put over one chocolate-covered crepe, her resistance waned and disappeared like ice in the middle of a volcano, because even ice can have suicidal tendencies.

In front of them, a cowl-hidden figure was in wait, but was also nervously looking back and forth as if afraid somebody would catch up to her soon enough. The line meanwhile kept moving forward, and as it did, the woman began to calm down, visibly interested in getting a crepe more than in being 'found' by whoever was looking for her, apparently.

Luise didn't really care if she was a thief trying to hide her face from the guards or whatever it might have been. She just wanted her crepe, just like Saito wanted his.

The man selling the crepes didn't even bat an eyelid at the cowl-covered woman, just like he didn't at the mask-covered Luise or at the weapon-holding Saito.

As fate would have it, there was a nearby bench that was free for all three of them, and so as the trio began to eat into their crepes without care for the outside world, the cowl-covered woman was the first to break the silence.

"Uhm, forgive me for asking this of you-but are you two sirs adventurers?" as she asked, her female voice came out clearly, just as her shyness, apparently.

"Yep," Luise said, giving another bite to her crepe. "I'm Luis and this is Saito," Luise said gruffly. "We hunt monsters, defend ladies in need and everything else a customer might need," she said with the 'manliest' tone she could muster. "What about you, mysterious lady? Do you have a name?"

"Oh-Well," the mysterious woman said, "Anne. My name is Anne," she said in the end. "You must have some bold tales to tell, don't you? If-If I'm not bothering you, kind sirs-"

"It is no bother at all!" Luise said, clapping one of her hands against her knee as if that was what all males did. "Let me regale you with this most excellent tale then! My partner and I were tracking this dangerous gryphon through the wheat fields-"

Saito couldn't believe Anne was buying Luise's tale, but she apparently was.

"And then I carried my wounded comrade who was bleeding most grievously to the closest village, where I had to nurse him-"

The woman had both of her hands to her mouth, looking wide-eyed as she had stopped trying to hide her face with the cowl and was simply listening on keenly.

"Really Saito, where would you be without me?" Luise said with a manly chuckle.

"Back home eating my mother's cooking," Saito replied offhandedly, making Luise nearly choke on her spit.

"Right," Luise said, coughing a bit in her hand closed as a fist. "Saito did his best too though! The number of times he saved my life are really too many for a single day, but there was that time with these vile brigands and their deadly axes-"

Saito was honestly surprised Anne kept believing the tall tales that Luise spouted. It wasn't that they were outright lies, but they kept growing wilder. He had apparently defeated more than fifty armed men in a bandit camp and saved a few dozens of damsels in distress -was Luise actually having fun telling these stories?

Perhaps she was.

So as he watched the two girls speak with one another and simply have a good time, he frowned when he saw 'Anne' tense, and he narrowed his eyes when a man with a large feathered hat stepped into the square. The way Anne settled her cowl tighter in front of her face clinched the deal.

"Are you running away from a perverted noble too?" Saito asked.

"Uh?" Anne said, puzzled.

"If you are, then we know a place you can crash for a while. The owner's a kind man, and when we're done here, we can escort you back home, or wherever you want to go, really," Saito added. "We can do that, right, Luis?"

"W-What, of course," Luise said sharply. "It's the blond fop with the large hat, isn't he? He screams of 'smug smirk' and 'air of superiority cause I'm a filthy rich noble that can get all the women I want'."

"Yeah," Saito nodded.

"Ah, no, no," Anne said shaking her head. "It's all right. I'm just not supposed to be out for long period of times. I must have spent too much time speaking with you kind sirs, but I am glad you are valiant adventurers willing to help a stranger in need." Anne had a wistful smile on her face. "He is merely my guardian."

"If you do need a hand though, we'll be hanging by the church until the Cardinal calls for us, and then we'll be at the Charming Fairy Inn until tomorrow morning," Saito said, "He can't be that great of a guardian if you're trying so hard to hide yourself from him," Saito added as Anne looked at him with a puzzled look, before giggling lightly.

She waved them both goodbye and walked primly towards the man, whose eyes widened at her sight, and after a few tense words exchanged, they both departed the square.

"Back to the church," Luise said with a huff. "Come on Saito, you can't save them all-especially if they don't want to be saved. You're no hero of legends after all."

Saito chuckled and stretched as he stood up, "It feels like I'm leveling up to become one though-really, have I ever told you about 'RPG' games from my hometown?"

Luise sighed. "No, but I am sure you will."

And Saito indeed did.

Luise kindly listened. It was in part her fault. She had brought up, unwillingly as she had, Saito's memories of home. It was only just she listened on to him speak with nostalgia about it.

It made her slightly bitter though.

At least Saito had memories of a loving family and a happy household to speak of.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Two

The head-priest of Tristain's church was more than happy to tell them that the Cardinal would receive them with all due haste by the end of the day, and as both Saito and Luise made their way to the palace's backdoor, the Japanese boy couldn't help but ask.

"Why aren't they letting us in through the front door?"

"Forgive me, your majesty, I did not know you were a king, or the son of a noble," Luise replied dryly, earning a sheepish look from Saito. "Be thankful the Cardinal's taking some of his time to receive us. I hope we don't stink too much. You think he's going to care? Let me do the talking. You're just going to end up getting us both excommunicated if you speak."

Saito chuckled nervously. "It won't be that bad, will it?"

"Maybe he'll have us beheaded after excommunicating us, so our souls will be damned to hell for all eternity," Luise mumbled once more, her face pale -from what little could be seen beyond the mask. "Saito, keep your mouth shut all right?"

"Fine," Saito replied while rolling his eyes. When they did enter the palace, Saito was deprived of all of his weapons, a few guards sighing as they had to 'disarm' an adventurer.

"You'll get your stuff when you come out," one of the guards said. "The miss can keep her wand, but not the swordwand."

Without weapons, Saito felt kind-of naked. He still had his armor, but he was without weapons, so if they ended up being in a pinch he would have to improvise. Although judging by the amount of suits of armor standing to attention by the sides of the hallways they walked on, following behind a servant, finding a weapon in the palace wouldn't really be much of a problem.

The cardinal received them in a small room with a crackling chimney and a couple of plush armchairs. There was a small table in front of him, and a teapot.

"Your Eminence," Luise said, kneeling down. Saito quickly followed, ending up on one knee just as Luise had.

"Do rise and deliver the letter," Cardinal Mazarin said, his eyes fixed on them both, and then squarely on Luise as she drew near to hand over the letter. The Cardinal opened it with a small letter cutter, and as he read the contents, he began to shift his eyes from the letter to the duo. "That is amusingly ironic. I think poor Father Christoff had a heart attack at seeing you with a mask, dear child. Could you remove it?"

Saito frowned, but Luise quickly obeyed, pushing back her cowl to reveal her hair too. "Your Eminence?" Luise asked, not really understanding the order.

The Cardinal's breath was stolen away for a second, and then his eyes softened up considerably. "You are indeed her split image. If I didn't know any better, I would think a youth potion was used," he sighed and gestured at the armchair. "Do sit young child, we have much to talk, and much to explain." His eyes moved to Saito. "You can leave us, adventurer. I am sure you will find a servant with a bag of gold outside the door that will more than satisfy your thirst for knowledge, and will also pay for your silence."

"Uh?" Saito blinked.

"Your Eminence-Saito's my partner," Luise said. "There's nothing I'd keep from him-and I'm not planning on leaving him behind any time soon, so if you would forgive the impertinence-I'd rather he stay." Luise didn't sit however, but simply stood slightly in front of Saito.

"Oh, very well," Cardinal Mazarin said with a small nod. "Although you may soon find out that you truly should not consider yourself similar to a mere commoner, my fair lady."

"Your Eminence?" Luise asked, perplexed.

The Cardinal took a deep breath. "This story starts a very long time ago, I am afraid. It starts with the sad and harrowing disappearance of a young noble child and ends with a complex plot that has said noble child found again," the Cardinal sighed, taking a sip of the tea in his cup. "It was...unfortunate, but for the good of the country, the recovery of one Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Valliére had to be postponed until the time was right."

"Louise?" Luise mumbled. "I don't understand, your Eminence."

"Strawberry blond hair is quite uncommon in Germania," Mazarin said. "Father Christoff suspected you might have been the long lost child when your hair began to turn a shade of strawberry, and sent me a letter. Unfortunately during that time tensions between the crown and your mother, the Duchess Karin, had reached a point where your recovery might have just sparked a war." The Cardinal took another sip. "I am not proud of what I did, but what I did, I did for the country," the cardinal's eyes bore into Luise with a firm gaze.

"I don't...I don't understand," Luise said, her fingers wringing each other as she looked down at them, her eyes unfocused and glazed over.

"The Duchess, quite simply, moved the mountains to try to find you. And in so doing showed the weakness of the crown who could not stop one of their nobles from doing as she pleased. This, in turn, meant that your recovery would have made it all the more obvious how weak they were. Especially so if you were found in Germania, of all places," the Cardinal took one more sip, and Saito was already starting to dislike him sipping tea like that. "The risk of war with a country that is more than five times the military power of Tristain had to be avoided at all costs. If you had been found, on Germanian soil, well, the Duchess would have felt the need to demand reparations from the country itself."

The Cardinal placed his teacup back on the small table, letting the porcelain clink. "That could not be allowed. So, you were never found. Time passed, and the Duchess lost hope. The nobles were reined in, and as everything seemed to go the right way for once, well, one of your older sisters-I think her name was Cattleya Yvette La Baume Le Blanc de La Fontaine died." The Cardinal took a small breath. "It was an assassination. That was the elf that broke the crusade, as the common rabble's saying goes."

Cardinal Mazarin stood up from his armchair, his white hair standing out together with his cold, steel grey eyes. "And thus the Duchess stopped answering the calls of the Crown, and is spending all of her time in a self-imposed exile of sorts guarding the borders of her land and doing absolutely nothing on the day of her daughter's death, and of her other daughter's disappearance."

The cardinal sighed. "Both of those events happened on the same day after all, which means a malicious force was involved."

Luise swallowed thickly, her eyes teary as she took a step back from the cardinal, and then another.

Then she barreled head first into Saito's chest, clutching at him as if he were a lifeline. The fact her face hit his breastplate didn't really mean much to the girl, who simply hugged the boy with all of her strength, crying and cheering and generally not knowing how to react to the fact she had just been told about her family, about her having a mother, and sisters -of which one was dead which was sad, but she had never known her so she couldn't be that sad- and as with all those things, Luise simply did not know what emotions to feel in that moment.

"I will have a room prepared for you two to spend the night," Mazarin said, walking past the two. "I understand that past the moment of happiness, there might be anger, or spite, but please do not make the mistake of blaming the royal family for this," the man spoke with a firm, yet very old, voice. "All that I have done, I have done for king and country. Blame it all at my feet if that is your wish, I have already made peace with the Gods," and with those last parting words, the man stepped outside, leaving a puzzled Saito to hold on to Luise who was going through an emotional roller-coaster.

Yet he held on to her, because as he had been told a long time ago, 'when someone's crying, the best thing you can do is to hug them tight to show that you're still there and everything will be fine'.

So he did just that.

For the following minutes, that felt like hours, he did just that.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Three

Luise had been gently guided by Saito towards the room the Cardinal had prepared for them, and like a mechanical doll with springs, she had kept pacing back and forth after that, trying to piece together what she had been told.

"My mother-she's a Duchess," Luise said, walking back and forth across the entire length of the room -which was quite large, all things considered. "Her name is Karin, Karin de la Valliére. She's my-She's my mother, and that's my surname. De La Valliére. Oh, and my name's different too. It's not 'Luise' but 'Louise', 'Louise'." She mumbled her name a few times, as if trying to commit it to memory. "So similar to my own-they would have found me sooner if they hadn't been stopped-I was wanted!" her eyes shone. "My parents wanted me! They loved me so much they kept looking for me even when it put them in trouble-" she wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand. "I wasn't abandoned-I was stolen."

"Luise-" Saito hazarded, only for Luise to shake her head.

"It's Louise," she said. "Louise Le-whatever, just...Louise. And Valliére. Louise Valliére." She giggled at that. "I'm the daughter of a Duchess-does that make me a mini-Duchess? A lady? Saito! Do you think people are going to call me 'Lady Louise' or 'Lady Valliére' now? Perhaps 'Milady' or 'My Lady'. Oh, now when someone will call me 'My fair lady' he will be telling the truth!"

She exhaled in relief, her hands to her chest as she stomped her feet on the floor hard, excited like a kid on a sugar rush. "I can't wait to meet my parents!" she said giddily. "I'm sure they'll be just like I imagined them-I always thought they'd be really rich, and my father would be a big, menacing man with thick muscles and he'd just, you know, swat all the nasty kids away-and my mother would be the sweetest ever, and give me candy and brush my hair at night and, and-"

She took a deep breath. "This...This is real right?" Louise asked, looking at Saito. "It's real. I'm not dreaming. I'm not, like, dying in that haunted mansion because you couldn't wait the next day to meet the cardinal right?"

Saito blinked, and then did one very simple thing. He pinched Louise's cheek and pulled, making the girl wince. "Real-all right! It's real now let go!" Louise whined as Saito stopped pulling, letting go of her cheek.

As Louise grinned at Saito, the boy smiled back. "So, Lu-Luis, or should it be Louis now?"

Louise looked at her mask, still in her hands, and then back at Saito as understanding dawned on her that if she was a noble's daughter, an important noble's daughter, then-then she couldn't just be an adventurer anymore, could she?

She-She couldn't-

She could.

"Of course," Louise said hotly, putting her mask back on. "It will have to be Louis. We'll meet my parents, stay around for a bit, and then we'll be off!" she nodded eagerly. "I mean, I'm practically an adult now. I'll get my fair dose of cuddles-do nobles hug each other, Saito? Not that you'd know, but well-maybe there will be a few parties, which I'll have to attend, but...but I'm not going back on my promise. And anyway there are so many fallen nobles going around, why would a simple travelling noble such as myself be much more of a problem?" she puffed her chest out in pride, and looked upwards to the ceiling. "And this way, after you've gone back home, I'll have something to look up to when I make my way back-"

Saito hugged her firmly, his arms having kind-of started shaking at the prospect that he might really have to make his way back home alone. As he did that, Louise's eyes softened. "Hey now, partner," Louise said with a giggle. "Don't you dare cry on my shoulder-it's a noble lady's shoulder! It's not made to cry on-I think. And really, you think so little of me I'd abandon you just because I've found out I'm a rich noble who's the daughter of a duchess? You wound me, partner! You really wound me! Trust in Louis the masked adventurer a bit more!"

"Sorry, it was something in the eyes," Saito replied as he broke the hug, wiping his eyes away. "So-what now?"

Louise looked at the beg and smiled, chuckling darkly. "The bed looks so comfortable people would kill to sleep on it. I take the right side."

"Then I'll have the left one," Saito answered in kind as they both jumped on it at the same time, laughing madly as they did so.

As the two youngsters stared at the ceiling of the guest room in the palace, they took turns chuckling. "Maybe we can get you into one of those full-plate armors-"

"I wouldn't even know how to move in one," Saito answered in kind.

"Uh-What if we get a dragon? Some can be trained as mounts like horses-"

"Can we call it Lizzy?"

"Saito, you suck at names."

"Sorry, my noble lady Valliére, I will have to improve my fantasy."

"You do that," Louise said with an overly mocked sniff of her nose, before she snorted. "I think-I think I'm glad I summoned you. I mean, I wouldn't have come this far with a lizard of all things, or maybe even a dragon."

"Well," Saito said softly, "This...This world's not so bad, all things said."

"But it's not like home, isn't it?" Louise asked.

"No, it's not home," Saito acquiesced.

A comfortable silence settled between the two. The servant that would have brought dinner to the two guests found them both politely snoring into one another's arms, and left them at that. It was quite bold of them, all things said.

Two male adventurers sharing the same bed wasn't unheard of, but being in each other's arms like that-oh my, the scandal that had been consumed under these royal halls! She'd have to tell her friend about it -she was the one assigned the laundry, and she'd have a giggling fit when she began working on those sheets, oh if she would!

The next morning, the Cardinal received them in his office with a sealed letter in his right hand. "I hope you had a pleasant night, and-"

"Your Eminence, Founder Brimir teaches to forgive those who earnestly wish to be forgiven," Louise said calmly. "Since I was training to become a nun, I know that what you did must truly hurt your conscience, so...so I forgive you," she said with a nod of her head and a small bow. "And, well, there is the matter of Count Mott if you had the time to listen to it-"

The Cardinal raised an eyebrow, but he did listen keenly on as Louise told the tale of the Count's abuse of power with his men and of the way he went 'skirt-chasing' in a forceful manner.

"It wouldn't do to have you sent back through Count Mott's lands like this then-" the Cardinal frowned. "You will be guests of the palace for the following days, until I clear the air with the royal messenger." He smiled. "It is not uncommon for the crown to finance particularly strong adventurers-I will write you a writ of passage so that you may come and go from the back doors at will."

As he deposited the written letter on the desk, he picked up another parchment and began to write on it. "Here you go," he said, handing it over. "Please be advised that the guards will not let anyone in after a certain hour, no matter the papers showed."

With another bowing of the head from Louise and Saito, the duo left the cardinal to his own devices and walked out with a skip to their step.

Having his weapons handed back at the door made Saito all the giddier.

"Ah, I missed you so much!" he said to his steel sword, sheathing it by his side. "And you two, poleaxe-chan!"

"Saito, no, act more dignified," Louise said curtly. "My swordwand! Aw, come back to me my belov-" as Louise proceeded to gaze at her reflection in the swordwand, it was Saito's turn to cough. "What? My swordwand's shiny, and it cost me five times your poleaxe."

"I got the poleaxe for free," Saito snapped back as they made their way bickering good-naturedly out of the gardens and through the backdoor -more like the back gates, really- all the way into the city proper.

"That just makes my swordwand all the more precious," Louise said.

As their steps brought them in synchronicity towards their intended destination, everyone looking at the two of them could but think the same thing.

Those two adventurers couldn't possibly be that cute!

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Four

It had taken some time, but not much, for Count Mott to be 'pacified' by the Cardinal. Whatever it meant, it made Siesta safe to return to the magic academy of Tristain, which was apparently something she could still do, as the headmaster of the academy was glad to hire her back with all the troubles nothing more than water under the bridge.

Things were looking up. With a letter from the Cardinal hidden in her clothes, and trying their best to avoid being noticed at the Cardinal's suggestion -travelling under the cover of being adventurers was a better defense against assassins than the Cardinal could offer with a mounted guard, believing him- the duo left the capital in high spirits, and with quite the amount of provisions.

"We could have taken a carriage," Saito said as he held the reins of the horse, Louise once more seated in front of him. "Travelling long distances on a horse isn't really that pleasant-"

"Oh, shush it you. You just need to break it in," Louise said, and then blinked as she giggled. "Jessica was a bad influence."

"Glad you at least admit it," Saito said with a dry chuckle of his own. "So," as the horse trotted along the road without particular speed, "Excited?"

"Yeah," Louise nodded. "If only Tristania had flying dragons, we could have taken one of those."

Saito hummed, "I know how to ride a horse, somehow. Let's not add a flying creature to the list until I can make this one obey all of my commands, all right?"

Louise nodded in agreement, and dropped her head against Saito's breastplate, using it as an impromptu pillow as she watched the road stretch out ahead of them. "If it were up to me, I'd run straight ahead," Louise said. "I think I wouldn't even catch breath-"

"Do you want me to make the horse go faster?" Saito asked, holding on to the reins. "I think I got the hang of it."

Louise looked up to meet Saito's gaze, and then shrugged. "Try not to get us killed. I'm an important noble's daughter after all!" she chuckled. "The Cardinal even had a maid wash my hair thoroughly, just to be sure it was the same color as my mother's," she rolled a lock of her hair around her index finger. "If I had known this was mother's color and not a cruel joke of nature, I wouldn't have covered it-" she sighed.

"Why would anyone say it's ugly?" Saito asked. "From where I come from, it would be viewed as a very pretty color. Like the cherry trees from home," he added. "They're that same color."

"Oh? I see," Louise said. She frowned after a few minutes. "Saito-you aren't trying to court me, are you?"

Saito blinked, and then spluttered. "What? No!" he shook his head vehemently. "I just like that shade of pink!" he clutched on to the reins a bit tighter, "And you're not my type," he added. "You know, washboard and-"

"I have a swordwand," Louise said firmly, swordwand in hand and its tip touching Saito's chin.

"I have the reins," Saito replied, "Shall we see who holds on to dear life when I make this horse gallop?"

Louise laughed merrily, and holstered the swordwand once more. "Fine, fine," Louise said. "Were you already engaged to someone back home?" Louise asked, her voice unconcerned, as if merely asking a routine question.

"Well, I didn't have a girlfriend," Saito said, a small awkward smile on his face. "Not for lack of trying, but I never was interesting enough for them, I think."

"Uh-uh," Louise said. "Sure. Nothing to do with you being a pervert, clearly, you were the perfect gentlemen for their tastes."

There was a teasing tone in her voice, which simply made Saito chuckle again. "Maybe," he said.

"Definitely," Louise said.

In answer, Saito merely clicked his tongue against his teeth and kicked the horse's flanks, making the beast neigh and then start galloping, forcing Louise to emit a small shriek and hold on to Saito in an attempt not to be thrown off.

"He who holds the horse's reins holds victory!" Saito proudly proclaimed as Louise growled.

"You'll have to stop the horse eventually-and when you do, I'm going to kick you until your ankles bleed!"

Saito did have to stop the horse when it got tired. This didn't mean he had to dismount and stand still to take the murder of his ankles without fighting.

As the duo ran in circles around their horse, the poor beast having come to understand that it was better if it didn't move, a sudden shadow passed over them, one that made them both freeze. A gryphon came crashing down in front of the duo, one which looked as if somebody had taken great care in ruffling its feathers, cutting its tail, and generally-

"Great, he's back," Louise said.

"I think he was tracking us," Saito added as he moved his hand to the poleaxe. This time though, the gryphon squawked loudly in a shrill voice, and shadows fell on Saito and Louise from high above.

Saito had barely the time to push Louise aside as two gryphons came crashing down on him, his poleaxe used to halt their terrifying beaks from snapping their heads in half.

The poleaxe did not survive unscathed, and as the wooden shaft shattered, Saito unsheathed his dagger to run back.

"He went and called his friends," Saito said nervously, dropping the dagger in favor of the sword and the shield the moment he had a breathing area guaranteed.

The two gryphons swished their tails in unison, and as their bodies were slightly larger than those of the third, wounded one, it suddenly became clear to Saito what was going on.

"The one we knocked out was a female!" Saito said.

"I'll take all of them out with a Sleep spell," Louise said, "You just have to keep protecting me!"

"Against three of them!?" Saito turned his eyes to the female Gryphon, who was content to simply croon on her two 'champions'. "Maybe two and a half," he said in the end.

Louise wasn't listening any longer, busy as she was chanting and moving her swordwand around. One of the gryphons charged at Saito, its beak slamming steadily against the boy's shield as the other one rushed by his side, lounging for Louise. Using his shield arm, Saito's fingers grabbed on to the creature's tail and pulled, slamming it against its fellow as they both rolled on the ground in a tangle of limbs and feathers.

Saito's sword came cruising through the air as it hit one of the gryphons straight in the right eye, making it scream loudly in answer. Saito's ears began to ring, and the boy took a step back. The blade didn't break free however. Clutched firmly into the other gryphon's beak, the creature narrowed its eyes as it thrust the blade out of Saito's hand, plunging it even deeper into his 'rival' and killing him on the spot.

The gryphon flapped its wings as it prowled closer to Saito, eyes shining with promise of sweet murder for the humiliation he had suffered to his beautiful tail.

Saito's fingers hastily clutched the bow before it was too late, allowing him to hoist his shield just in time to avoid a swipe that sent him to careen back from the strength of the impact.

The gryphon stopped suddenly however, and jumped back as a tiny sphere of light appeared on the spot it had been before. The sphere expanded, but the gryphon flew away from it, as if knowing it was magic, and that it could hurt it.

The female didn't exhibit the same surviving instincts of the male, and so drew near to it with a howl of anger, receiving the full effects of the sleep spell. The other gryphon though, it didn't return to 'finish the job'.

Saito stared warily up in the skies, and then back down to the broken remains of his poleaxe, and to the dented shield he had. He doubted he would have survived another attack run from such a beast, but perhaps the creature hadn't know? It had showed surprising cruelty, disarming Saito at the expense of its friend's life.

"So," Louise said, "What do we do now?" she asked, staring at the wounded gryphon while Saito pulled free his blade, trying not to think too hard. "She'll keep following us I guess. That's her mate that died," Louise said. "Gryphons are surprisingly loyal to their pack-when we first met her, she was probably looking for a good nesting place."

"What about the other one?" Saito asked. "It-It drove the sword-"

"It probably didn't know any better," Louise said with a small shrug. "It thought it was helping its friend, so-"

"It ran away afterwards," Saito retorted. "The female didn't."

Louise shrugged. "Unless it was a familiar, but why would anyone go to such lengths? It's not like-" she froze. "Saito," Louise asked. "Where's the horse?"

Saito blinked, and looked around. "Betty? Betty?! Betty!" as Saito called the horse, but the animal didn't answer, a sudden chill crept across the backs of both young adventurers.

"The provisions were on the horse, weren't they?" Louise asked.

Saito didn't answer.

His silence was damning enough.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Five

Without food and with only their water flasks by their belts, the trip suddenly became more daunting than before. It was still totally doable. It just meant they'd have to walk back to the city -it was closer than going ahead- and maybe take a carriage next time.

Still, as they began to walk with their spirits downtrodden but pretty much 'averaged' out by the looting of the gryphons' rare reagents, a lone shadow passed over both of them, as a crackling sound echoed near them.

The lightning bolt that slammed on the ground near Louise made the girl scream as she was flung backwards from the strength of the blow and right into Saito's arms, who ended up clutching on to her as his eyes turned upwards, where a gryphon was now flying with someone atop it. The man in question wore a mask of dark leather as he descended right in front of the duo, tipping its broad hat in their direction as he dismounted, the gryphon growling while the man began to walk forward silently.

"Oi!" Saito snapped. "What's the big idea!?"

"I apologize," the man said with a soft voice that reeked of kindness. "It is not normally asked of me to murder children," he added as he raised his swordwand. "Now, face me to the death and die bravely." In a split second, the man's charge was already finished with the swordwand impacting against Saito's sword, the boy deflecting it as words were pronounced by the mage in question.

Word after word came just as thrust after thrust was met with Saito's shield parrying the blows or his own sword deflecting the enemy's swordwand. Louise's hand was clutching the right side of her head, groaning in pain.

Saito's eyes flickered for a brief instant to where the gryphon was prowling, and in that moment of distraction the swordwand of the enemy mage slammed straight through the boy's shoulder, piercing it thoroughly. "Die in peace." Lightning erupted from the wand's tip, a veritable shower of thunder that burned through Saito's body with the intensity of hot, streaming lava through his veins. The boy screamed as his hands stopped answering him, forcing him to let go of his weapon as his knees gave away, making him fall down with steam sizzling out of the cauterized hole by his shoulder.

"W...Why?" Saito gurgled out. The man's mask merely covered the upper side of his face, so Saito could see it, the bitter grimace on the man's face as he answered in turn.

"For Crown and Country, boy...the hardest of sacrifices are always for the Crown and...ah, well, you've stopped listening to me I guess," the man turned his back on the limp body of Saito, who had fallen face first on the dirt. Louise's eyes widened at the sight, before turning towards the man and raising her swordwand in turn.

The gryphon didn't waste time slapping it away from her with the strength of its paw, leaving behind a deep gash on the back of her right hand.

An inch away from her masked face, the gryphon bared its teeth and growled. "Enough," the masked man said, dismissing his familiar who growled, but carefully stepped away from Louise.

"S-Saito!" Louise turned her back on the assassin and his familiar, instead rushing towards Saito's side on all fours, her breathing ragged as she turned the boy on his back to look at his unresponsive face. "Saito! Saito-Wake up!" her hands curled around the breastplate, fingering with the straps to remove it. "Come on-" she was no longer even caring about the man behind her. "Y-You can't do this to me!"

"I will make this painless," the man said once more, raising his swordwand to strike.

"Saito wasn't guilty of anything," Louise muttered. "Why did he have to die? Why did you have to kill him? Just-Just why!?"

The man didn't answer, and simply brought down his swordwand with enough strength that, had the blow hit, it would have neatly severed the girl's head in one quick slash.

It didn't hit however, because a column of ice froze the man's hand together with his wand within instants, before a deadly wave of javelins slammed through the man's entire body and made it collapse upon itself, arcs of lightning escaping its frame as it dispersed harmlessly into nothingness.

The gryphon ran away on its powerful limbs, leaving behind only a trail of dust until it flapped its wings and took off, disappearing as fast as its wings could carry it.

Louise didn't turn. She simply clutched Saito's chest hard, even as the boy had already stopped breathing.

Powerful limbs covered in blue scales landed a short distance away, as a petite mage with a staff larger than her descended from her familiar, rushing and kneeling in a hurry in front of Louise. "How long?" the girl asked, looking at Louise.

"U-Uh?"

"How long since he stopped breathing," the girl said, pulling out from her bag a jar containing a clear liquid that seemed to shine of a light of its own.

"I-I-I don't know," Louise wailed. "It was so sudden-we were just-"

"Mage bandits are scum," the girl nodded, removing the lid from the jar and tapping at the border of the glass once, magic making the liquid emerge and coalesce around the staff's tip. "Do not distract me," she added next, plunging the water straight into the hole created by the assassin's swordwand.

As Louise looked on with a terrified expression, she couldn't help but wonder if the girl helping them was an adventurer, an experience one, a 'real' one, that had been doing this by herself every single day of her life. She had a powerful dragon, and she had used really powerful magic -she was sure those Ice spells hadn't been mere line magic, but triangle or even square. She-She looked down at the back of her hand, where the claws of the gryphon had left a clear mark.

It was the first blemish on her since she had summoned Saito.

The boy had always defended her, taking the brunt force of blows meant for her. A familiar was there to defend its master, but a partner was there to help, not to become the punching bag of the universe or a flesh shield.

"I'm a horrible partner," Louise murmured, clutching Saito's arm and looking down as the water finished seeping through the wound, removing the traces of the lightning's passage.

There was a heartbeat, and then there was a sharp intake of air as Saito breathed in and out deeply, a raspy cough escaping his lips.

"W-What hit me?" he croaked as he opened his eyes, and then he blinked and furrowed his brows. "Louise...why did you turn blue? I liked you...pink."

"He should be fine now," the mage said. "I would suggest resting, but the bandit might come back." The mage turned sharply towards her familiar. "Sylphid," she said. "Like we practiced."

The dragon nodded with a 'Kyuu' sound that would have been endearing, if it hadn't come from giant winged lizard with teeth as sharp as those of a shark. Yet it also was surprisingly delicate in lifting Saito from beneath him with its claws.

"Climb back," the mage said. "I'll bring you somewhere safe."

"Thank you," Louise said, bowing as far down as she could. "Thank you-Thank you-Thank-"

"Thanks later," the mage said as she neared the back of Sylphid and gestured for Louise to climb up first, "the bandit might come back."

Louise nodded, and hastily made her way up past the wings, and with the young blue-haired girl behind her to hold her up, the dragon flapped its wings and took off at great speed.

"Please...don't drop me," Saito squeaked from within the dragon's twin clawed hands as they left the ground behind for the beautiful sky.

The problem was...he didn't remember what had happened a few minutes before. He knew he had fought a guy with a mask and that used lightning, but he didn't remember much else. It was all a confusing blur that made his head hurt trying to remember.

And he was tired anyway. He was really tired.

Even the fact he was flying held in the claws of a mythological monster did nothing to stop him from feeling tired as if somebody had beaten the hell out of him, and left him agonizing on the ground to die.

But that hadn't happened, right?

He hadn't died, had he?

...

He hadn't.

Yeah, he hadn't.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Six

When Saito opened his eyes, he was within clean bed sheets. The sun's rays came in from the nearby windows, and the room was a white candor that made his eyes kind-of bleed. He winced from the refraction of the light, and narrowed his eyes looking sideways, where a half-asleep Louise was holding her arms crossed beneath her chin, her sleeping face all scrunched up in worry.

She twitched her nose and then made a cute little sneeze before waking up suddenly, rubbing her eyes still blurry from sleep. "You woke up," Louise said with a sigh of relief. She was without her mask, and her strawberry blond hair shone with a hundred different colors, each prettier than the last one. The mask was on the bed sheets in front of her, held with one of her hands.

"Yeah," Saito nodded. "Are we at an inn?" Saito asked, although with the fact there were at least a dozen beds around the large room, it felt more like a school infirmary than an actual inn room.

"No," Louise said, shaking her head. "We're at the Tristain Magical Academy," Louise added. "Lady Charlotte saved us while returning from her shopping trip in Tristain." She squirmed slightly. "She had to use pretty costly reagents to save your life, so-we are indebted to her."

Saito furrowed his brows. "I...see?"

"Also," Louise added, swallowing noisily. "You-You know the guy that attacked us? He-well, he didn't make much sense if he wasn't an assassin out for my life," she looked downcast. "So I opened Cardinal Mazarin's letter, I know I shouldn't have, but-but you know, I just wanted to know if the man had something to do with him or not-"

She pulled the letter out and bit back a choking sob. "The letter says I'm an impostor and that he simply left it up to the Duchess to deal with me," she clutched the already crumpled note in her hands. "Apparently Father Christoff tried to advance his position in the church by claiming I was someone I wasn't, and the Cardinal checked-and...and he found proof I wasn't who I claimed I was, and so he simply sent me to the Duchess so that I could get killed or something. He didn't sign the letter, but it's not like anyone else could have written this but his Eminence, right?"

She bit back another sob. "He-He could have just told me I wasn't the Duchess' daughter! He didn't have to send an assassin after me!"

"That-That doesn't make any sense," Saito said. "If that was the case-why not just wait until we reached the Duchess?"

"Maybe...Maybe he just thought we'd open the letter midway and forge another?" Louise hazarded. "I-I don't know how the man thinks, but I know I was simply holding on to a make-belief family that never existed in the first place!" as she wailed that out through a hiss, she clutched the sheets of the bed.

"You can't know that. Maybe he's lying in the letter just like he lied to us while we stayed at the palace-" Saito pointed out. "We could at least go and meet the Duchess. She won't kill us for that, will she?"

"Sure, why not," Louise said with a dry chuckle. "As if she'd meet two random adventurers while she's busy along the border. We'd have to catch up to her, and then near her and say 'look, my hair color's the right one, but I've got no other proof that I'm your daughter so tell me if I'm right or wrong'."

"Would you rather not ask?" Saito asked warily. "Come on-there's no harm in trying, is there?"

"Claiming to be someone's daughter from a noble family and then not being one carries the death sentence," Louise said in a whisper. "The Cardinal went as far as to hire an assassin to stop me from reaching the Duchess, and-and what if he was simply protecting the Duchess from another heartbreak? I mean," Louise sadly shook her head. "Me being the daughter of a noble? It was too good to be true."

Saito shook his head firmly. "No, too many things don't make sense, Louise-"

"Luise," Louise said. "Just-call me Luise and let's forget about this. We can continue looking for a way to bring you back home and-"

"Louise," Saito snapped at her firmly, sitting himself up and grabbing a hand of the girl, his eyes staring at hers with a firm gaze. "You have to at least try. If she sees you and doesn't think that you're her daughter, then you don't need to tell her anything. You can't be accused of faking being her daughter if you don't tell her anything, right? You could be walking down the street when she sees you, and that would be all-unless she nears you, but then it would be her starting this, wouldn't it?"

Louise bit her lips in thought. "Right-but...but what if she doesn't see me at all? You know how nobles are-"

"With the hair you have? She'd have to be blind or wearing a blindfold," Saito said. "Let's continue heading for the border, and see if we can find where she is. We will just claim we're adventurers and leave everything about the Cardinal behind us. I'm sure a mother would recognize her daughter if she saw her."

Louise took a small breath. "I-If that's true...it still doesn't change the fact we owe Lady Charlotte our lives and have to at least pay her back."

"How are our finances?" Saito asked with a wince, already dreading the price they'd have to pay.

Louise shook her head. "It's not a matter of money. Lady Charlotte actually needs a couple of adventurers to gather some things for her. Her familiar's too big and bulky to pick flowers and stuff like that. I still think it's too little to pay her back, but-" she clenched her fists, "I'm glad she seems like a nice person. She could have asked for anything, really."

Saito took a deep breath, and then winced as he pushed his body to the side of the bed. "Seems like I slept enough then," he said. "The sooner-the sooner we get started, the sooner we can go."

"Ah! No, you've got to rest," Louise said firmly, grabbing hold of Saito's arm and pulling him back on the bed. "You can't exert yourself yet! You stopped breathing, Saito! That's-that's all kinds of bad!"

Louise's fingers trembled as she held on to Saito's arm. "Just-just stay put, and I'll get to it. You did enough protecting me, and the reagents are just in the woods nearby-it won't take me long to get them, and-"

"Louise, the assassin is still at large," Saito said. "There's no way I'm letting you go alone!"

"But-" Louise looked away. "You'll just get hurt again!" she snapped at him. "And you might die, and this time there might not be anyone nearby that can help! And I don't want that, Saito! I don't want you to die protecting me! How am I ever going to bring you back home if you die here!?"

Saito looked sadly at Louise, and then shook his head. "We are partners, right? So we do the job fifty-fifty. I protect you, and you make things explode. It's normal for me to get hurt, I'm the meat shield-it doesn't mean you're not doing your side of the job! Like how you made those armored men sleep, or blew up that golem the first time around-I couldn't have done that, but I could keep you safe until you did it."

Louise took a small breath, and nodded once. "If-if that's what you want then...then I should tell you that you are no longer my familiar-the runes...they disappeared while you slept. I think it's because you stopped breathing, but...but you're free now, Saito. If-if you don't want them-"

Saito's eyes went down to the back of his hand were, indeed, no runes were to be seen anywhere on the skin. "Ah-Oh," he blinked. "Then...I guess we need to get those back. I mean, not being able to fight makes me kind of a weak partner to have."

"Are you sure?" Louise asked once more. "I mean, really sure? We can just...I don't know, take things slower-"

"Louise," Saito said flatly. "We are not running away from the confrontation with your maybe-mother."

Louise nodded, and pulled out her wand. "Well then-by the power of the pentagon of the five elements..."

When the words were said and the wand touched Saito's chest, Louise swallowed noisily and used both hands to grab Saito's cheeks. "This-well, you know it definitely means absolutely nothing."

Her lips locked with his for just a brief instant, and then she pulled away, taking a few deep breaths. "Here, it should be done-" and indeed, on the skin the runes appeared once more.

There was a knock by the window, rather than by the door, and as Saito frowned and moved his head to look, Louise quickly put her mask back on, clutching on to it as if it were a lifeline.

"You are in a relationship?" a third voice asked, as she stepped inside from the window, it was the blue-haired girl that had saved them, and who was apparently raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"It's-it's not what you think, lady Charlotte-" 'Louis' said, sheepishly looking away.

"It is fine," Charlotte said with a nod. "Love is beautiful no matter those involved," she added before looking towards Saito. "You can walk?"

"Oh, yes," Saito nodded, getting out of the bed and stretching. "As long as I get my stuff back, I'm ready to go!"

"Saito!" Louise hissed, "Show some respect to the noble lady that saved your life!"

Saito sheepishly scratched the back of his head and then bowed deeply. "I'm sorry! And-and thank you for saving my life, Lady Charlotte!"

The girl simply shook her head with a small smile on her lips. "That is fine. This...this is the list of ingredients I need," Charlotte said, pulling out a thick looking parchment from her robes. "The majority of those...are around the woods. This-" she pulled out a thick looking book, "Has pictures of what you are looking for," she added. "Please take care of bringing back exactly what is shown on the picture. Many plants are...poisonous, a few are...venomous, and some of the animals can be dangerous."

"I'm sure it won't be a problem, Lady Charlotte," Louise said with an eager nod as she opened the parchment, and then blanched at the first item in the list -the very long list. "There's a wyvern in the woods?"

"And a basilisk," Lady Charlotte added softly. "And an Hydra, and two large worgs, a specter-a couple of young dragons-"

Louise took a deep breath, and then nodded. "We will return with the ingredients asked, or die trying."

"Please don't," Charlotte said with a worried look. "That is merely the complete list of what I need. Start with what you feel you can acquire and then move up until you have them all. Bring back what you managed to find by the end of the day-many might spoil otherwise. Don't overexert yourself too much...it's not good for your health."

The duo of adventurers simply nodded, and bowed once more before leaving.

Charlotte watched the two go and stifled back a light giggle.

She really should tell about two male adventurers being together to her friend Kirche, but if she did that, the girl would try to 'fix' the two by using herself. It was better not to.

And it was a refreshing change of pace to have people near her who didn't know she was the heir to the throne of Gallia after her cousin's...untimely...

No.

Charlotte shook her head. It was better not to remember.

"Kyuuh?" Sylphid asked from the window.

"I'm coming, Sylphid," Charlotte said softly. "I know we have lessons starting soon."

She walked out through the window soon after, and as Sylphid brought her back down to the level where her classroom was, she stepped in through the window again.

"Lady D'Orleans-" the teacher sighed. "Please...doors are there for a reason."

She knew that as well.

It was also why she refused to swing one open.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Small and green with purple dots on its leafs," Saito murmured to himself as he kept looking in the undergrowth. "Or big and shocking pink. How hard can it be to find a plant that is big and shocking pink?"

Something pink moved in the corner of his eyes, and as he turned, he sighed. Well, if he wasn't sure he'd lose Louise in a field of shocking pink flowers, perhaps he'd have better luck with it. As it was, he looked into his bag where he had found a couple of 'right' ingredients. Things weren't bad, and thanks to Charlotte they even had a bed in the servants' quarters as if they were her retinue.

This wasn't really wrong per se, since they were working for her. The job was cushy enough, the beds comfortable and the food eaten together with the servants wasn't that bad.

"Hey, Saito!" Louise hissed from nearby, squatting down to hide behind a tree. "I found traces of the basilisk!" she excitedly lifted a small rabbit paw turned to stone. Saito nervously chuckled as he flipped the book open to the basilisk voice. Thankfully, they weren't the type of creature that could turn others to stone by mere gaze. They were giant lizards, which had a poison in their fangs that stiffened the body of their prey to the point where they became similar to stone in texture.

Also, they were generally pretty pacific as far as magical creatures went. In fact, it took them relatively little to find one such lizard -the size of a cow, to be accurate- basking in the sun upon a rock in the middle of a meadow, its face definitely showing how pleasant he was feeling in that moment.

"We get what we need from him and then call it a day," Louise said. "The list says we need scales, nails and fangs-also the tail," she blinked. "We'll have to knock it out. Saito?"

Saito tensed the bowstring, the arrow already nocked. "Paw?"

"Well, if you want to kill it-but their meat tastes yucky," Louise said, turning a page of the book. "It might be the exotic taste Marceau likes to rant about 'finding out'."

Saito held his breath, and then let the arrow loose. It was soon followed by a second and a third, which all hit squarely their target with deadly precision. The lizard's eyes opened wide as it shrieked, trying to crawl away only to have three out of four of its limbs out for the count.

"Oh-it appears they have high regenerative capabilities-" Louise continued reading from the book as Saito rushed forward with shield and sword in hand. "Careful of their spit attack!"

A bolus of poisonous spit sailed the air as the lizard's paws clenched, shattering the arrows while the wounds began to close off.

"Why didn't I let her finish the description of the monster stats before attacking? Why?" Saito groaned as he rolled out of the way of the spit, before closing in with a swing of his sword. The lizard took the blow to the teeth, shattering a few as the sword rang, but they immediately grew back, shining wickedly too.

The lizard's eyes narrowed on Saito, and as it spun around with its tail ready to deliver a mortal crushing blow, the sword pierced through the creature's collarbone, severing the meaty extremity and making the creature yelp. A claw came up next, which Saito's shield deflected, the long nails of the creature leaving a distinctive mark on the shield.

Quick as lightning, Saito thrust his sword against the scaled fingers of the creature, giving it an impromptu manicure which ended with green sickly blood sprayed on the ground for a brief instant, it too suddenly coming less as the fingers regrew nearly instantaneously.

"One could solve world hunger with one of these!" Saito snapped as he angrily swung his sword at the other claw, swatting it away from his unprotected flank.

"Don't be silly, they need to eat a lot in order to do that!" Louise retorted, "Do you need a hand?"

"Everything's under control!" Saito said, keeping his gaze on the creature's snapping jaws. "Weren't they peaceful!?"

"They take the cutting of their tails as a personal offense!" Louise yelled back.

Saito grumbled a curse under his breath as he brought his shield closer to his body before letting it suddenly move to the side, opening up the giant lizard's torso to a sword thrust straight for its heart, through the creature's ribs. The Basilisk's eyes widened for a brief second, and then it fell on the ground, the green blood pouring out from both the chest wound and the jaws of the creature.

"It doesn't regenerate a heart wound," Saito said dutifully, wiping away the sweat from his forehead. "And its blood stinks."

"Oh well, let's add it to the reagents pile and bring some back," Louise said with a small shrug as she drew near with 'the bag'. The bag being a large burlap sack filled with smaller sacks, a few glass vials and bottles, and that had been given to the duo of adventurers to fill up.

"Do you think it ate someone?" Saito asked, "Perhaps there is-"

"No," Louise said offhandedly. "They don't eat people. They also don't eat poultry if you want to know. They are actually quite protective of poultry. Maybe we could have lured him with a small chick-anyway, no opening the creature's stomach up to see if it has something of value-"

Saito's lips twitched in a mocking imitation of a pouting cute girl, his eyes gone very wide and teary. Louise took one deep breath to center herself, brought a hand to her hip, and then lifted her swordwand with the other hand. "The basilisk's stomach acid is capable of melting steel, which is why few adventurers wish to fight it with their brand new weapons for fear of getting a shower in its digestive fluids-"

She had all the mannerisms of a schoolteacher down, a schoolteacher explaining the lesson to a silly child.

Saito blinked. "If that's the case-why didn't you tell me sooner!?"

"I knew you'd aim for the heart, of course," Louise said with a huff. "No need to make it a messy and prolonged death, no? Come on partner, give me some credit. I know how you think, you perverted mass of perversions."

Saito simply chuckled awkwardly at that, and as the bag was filled, both adventurers returned to the Academy with ease.

"It's been a few days, but I haven't seen Siesta yet," Saito said offhandedly, "Wasn't she supposed to return here?"

"We came by dragon, she is probably coming by foot," Louise replied. "It takes a whole day by horse, so by foot...I'd say she should be here by tonight at the latest, or maybe she's already back and you just missed her," the girl sighed, shaking her head. "We have to go to her village too. Tarbes, was it?" Louise mumbled. "And before that, once we are done with Lady Charlotte, we'll see if we can't find a professor to ask about summoning rituals."

Saito nodded, hoisting Louise's bag on his shoulder as he began to whistle, or at least trying to. "I'm carrying this," Louise said hotly. "Daughter of a noble or not, I'm carrying my bag and you carry your stuff."

"Aye," Saito replied, stopping the attempt at being gentlemanly.

He simply picked up Louise and pulled her on his right shoulder, bag and all.

The trick was to hold on to the handle of the dagger while he did that. It didn't matter how much Louise would squirm or yell, as long as he held on to a weapon, any weapon, he was reasonably sure he could counter her movements with some feet adjustments he had no idea he could even do.

Yet he could.

Exploring his familiar powers was amusing.

Teasing Louise while doing that was outright exhilarating.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Saito was nervous. Louise wasn't. Well, maybe she was. It was night, and there was not a single trace of the maid in sight. "Look," Saito began hesitantly. "Louis-" they were out in the academy's courtyard, the lights from the towers half lit and half turned off. Louise had her mask on, and as she settled it firmly, she took a deep breath.

"You want to find out if Count Mott's guilty of the maid being late," Louise said. "She might have just taken a detour back home," she hazarded. "We can't just go look for her like this in the middle of the night."

"Louis," Saito said awkwardly, "I'm still worried."

There was a brief and awkward pause between the two. "So you want to break into the Count's mansion and find out if the maid is there or not?" Louise drawled.

"She might be in danger," Saito said.

"If she was captured by the Count's men, and this is a big 'if', Saito," Louise drawled out. "She could have simply fallen along the road because of an uneven step, and might be wobbling her way here with a swollen ankle. There really isn't a reason to think it's the Count."

Saito scratched the back of his neck, and looked sideways.

He looked sideways to where the stables of the academy were.

"We are not stealing a horse from a magic academy for nobles because of a maid," Louise said flatly, arms crossed. She took a small breath, "And there is no way to cross three days of distance in one night. So-"

"Wait, this would mean anyone kidnapping Siesta wouldn't be able to reach the Count for three days too, right?" Saito hazarded.

"Well-maybe, I don't know," Louise replied hotly. "But even if you went now, what chances do you have to reach-oh, I see what you are thinking, Saito, but the answer remains no. We are not stealing horses to follow a road that a group of mercenaries would be more likely to travel-and for the sake of clarity, my answer will be no, no, and no once again no matter how many times you ask."

"We are not going to save Siesta," Saito said calmly.

Louise blinked once. "Having cheek does not equate to being wise," she said. "You might be worrying for nothing-for Brimir's sake or for the Gods...let's just get back inside and go to bed. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow-"

Saito gave one more pleading look, and Louise's shoulders fell down. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered. "I cannot believe I'm doing this," she hissed.

"Do not worry!" a proud and booming voice said from behind the two, making them jump in fright. The Chef Marteau was behind them, his arms to his sides. "We of the staff have a horse for when we need to hurry to the city to buy ingredients that are quick to spoil!" he held a hand up in a fist, "And I am worried too about the fate of our friend Siesta!" the man still had his chef hat on, and as he spoke, he took a few steps closer to the two and hoisted them both up with his powerful arms. "Let us go then!"

Saito blinked. "Us?"

Marteau laughed. "You two are young, and Count Mott's men came here once before -I never liked them, let me tell you! If they were nobles, I'd run with my tail behind my back, but if they're just commoners like you and me, boy, then I can take them on-and there's no way you'd be able to go past the guards by the gate without me, so-we all will go!"

Still laughing, and still holding on to both Saito and Louise, the man made his way to the stables.

"What is going on!?" Lousie mouthed to Saito, who merely gave back an apologetic stare, as if to say 'What do I know?'.

The horse was a large and sturdy beast that had seen its fair years of toll, and had, rather than grow fat from being used merely for carrying food and provisions, become a ripped creature of muscles and steadfast determination. It was massive and intimidating, and as Marteau neared it and easily climbed on with both adventurers on his shoulders, he chuckled as he kicked the beast's flanks, sending it to trot without even needing the reins.

"Let us go, Ginger!" Marteau said with a chuckle, the horse neighing back in reply.

Dropping Louise to hold on behind him and Saito in his lap, the man made his way past the befuddled gate guards, who simply allowed him exit from the sheer amount of cheer the man exuded.

"So, how do you know of Siesta, young adventurers?" Marteau asked as he finally decided to grab the horse's reins, which made the trip all the more uncomfortable for Saito since he was not just on the man's lap, but also surrounded by the thick haired arms that were as big as logs to him.

"We saved her from Mott's men once," Louise said gruffly, in her manly-man voice of 'Louis'. She was holding on to the chef's clothes tightly, as if afraid to fall. "We thought the Cardinal had put a good word in for her!"

"You know the Cardinal?" Marteau said. "Being in the service of Lady D'Orleans, I had no doubts you were pretty strong! Why, it's not everyday you serve the heiress to a throne-"

"SHE'S A WHAT!?" Louise shrieked, making both Saito and Marteau wince, while the horse didn't as much as twitch an ear.

"You did not know?" Marteau asked.

"No," Saito answered for Louise's still shocked form. "I mean-she saved our lives while we were being attacked by a particularly strong mage-bandit, so-" he looked puzzled, "I thought royalty was more uptight, or something like-"

"Lady D'Orleans is a special case," Marteau said, holding the reins very firmly as the horse began to gallop the moment they left the academy's sights. Only, it didn't gallop as much as run faster than anything Saito had ever been on.

Plainly put, Saito had always believed he was making the horse run fast. He was wrong. "Hold on tight!" Marteau said. "When I said Ginger was fast, I was not kidding!"

The thunderous sound of hooves impacting against the road lifted a cloud of dust as the neighing horse gave everything it could give, closing the distance that would have taken hours for Saito in merely thirty minutes, all the while not stopping once. Then the horse's speed went down for a few minutes, allowing the horse to rest, before restarting its quick pace once more.

The night had long since fallen when they came to a halt in the middle of the road, and Marteau descended, his right hand touching the ground as he narrowed his eyes. "They went this way," he said quite firmly. "A group of six horses, all travelling with a large weight. They cannot have gone far."

He gestured to Ginger, who moved on its own while Saito and Louise touched the ground as if it whispered a sweet promise of salvation from the horse's maddening speed.

"That's...That's no normal horse," Saito said with a few panting breaths.

"Course not, Ginger's a purebred stallion," Marteau replied with a chuckle. "Personally reared him since he was but a foal-before taking on the art of cooking, I did a lot of work a little bit of everywhere," he winked. "And he'll wait for us here. Now-you faced these guys?"

"Yeah," Saito said with a nod. "The first time, Louis blew them up and I knocked a couple, the second time Louis managed to put them all to sleep with his magic." He hesitated. "Perhaps we can do that again?"

"That would be best, yes," Marteau said as he pulled his chef out off his head and ripped it in half, tying one half around his face in order to make it look like a bandit's mask, and handing the other one off to Saito. "Here," he said. "We wouldn't want our faces to be recognized now, would we?"

"Marteau?" Saito asked. "Have you done this before?"

"Well, I'll tell you once we're done, to keep the mystery alive," Marteau said with a wink towards Saito, which kind-of made him puzzled. "But don't worry, it's nothing that bad-just to be clear...if possible, don't kill anyone. A dead underling of a noble is not something we want," he added, unsheathing from within his chef cloth two large cleavers that Saito had no idea how he could hold inside without hurting himself.

"Now," the chef said, "Follow me and be quiet."

The night had a cloudy sky, and as the light of the moon faded in and out, it was only after a few minutes of trudging along the path that the light of a bonfire became apparent. "Don't stare at the flames directly," Marteau whispered. "It will ruin your night vision."

It was an eerily fond voice that spoke, one that felt both out of place, and also terrifyingly in place. It was...eerie. Yes, if Saito had to define that tone of voice, it was pretty eerie.

Nobody could sleep in their armor. It was uncomfortable, and outright impossible to sustain -as Saito had discovered from his back menacing to kill him if he tried to keep the heavy weights on during the night too. Dressed with thick padded clothes, three mercenaries were sleeping with a light snore, while the two men standing guard had their backs to the fire to prevent losing focus, their eyes and ears not really alert as they shared a whispered conversation between each other, but their armors still clasped on.

Tied to a horse with the reins, and the horse itself also tied to a tree, was Siesta.

If the maid tried to move, the horse might mistakenly crush her, and if she managed to somewhat avoid that sad fate, the horse neighing would alert the guards.

Louise brought her swordwand up and took a deep breath. "I'm ready," she whispered.

Marteau gestured for Saito to move slightly to the left, as if to allow a clear line for the enemy to rush for. With a nod, Saito hid his body behind a tree, dagger in hand and throat constricted from nervousness.

Louise's first words came out as the tiny sphere of bright light shone in the dark, right in front of the pink-haired girl.

"The he-it's them again!" one of the guards snarled, rising up with a sword in hand and rushing straight for Louise, the man's eyes narrow. The full-plate shattered the branches it impacted against, and as the man's charge seemed unimpaired, he came to a terrible discovery the moment he found his footing lost through Marteau's swinging of his blades.

The blades both impacted against the lower metallic shin with enough thundering strength to make the man yelp and lose his footing. Faster than Saito would have ever suspected, the cook spun both of his cleavers above his head, and then brought them both down in a swinging motion that dented the iron armor.

The second one managed to cover slightly more ground, at least until Saito's dagger-pommel came right for his face, shattering the helmet and driving the deadly metal shards through the face, making the man reel back and scream in pain. The mercenary clutched his face screaming, but still, the chant went on.

"Oh-I've had enough of this!" the leader of the mercenaries had gripped Siesta by the throat, "I've had enough-Enough! She's just a maid! There are hundreds like her and we need to fight adventurers each time we go grab her! I'm done! This is the last straw! Count Mott can keep his desires in his pants, all the gold he pays us isn't worth this shit!"

As the man squeezed the maid's neck and Siesta groaned in pain, the other two went for their bows, nocking arrows on the bowstrings.

"This dagger here is an inch away from your friend's neck!" the man snarled. "Stop your chant or if I fall asleep, I swear to frigging Brimir I will slice her neck as I fall!"

Louise hesitated, and then broke the chant off. The man with the broken helmet was down on his knees, and as he barely could see, Marteau didn't waste time putting the sharp side of the cleaver against his neck, just like he did for the other one.

"The good old hostage situation," Marteau mused. "How shall we do it? Gallian, Albion or Germanian?"

"Let's go with Albion," the man snapped, giving a nod to the two by his side. "Careful the boy is still at large," he narrowed his eyes back to the chef. "You fight well with those cleavers. Ex-Mercenary?"

"A side job," Marteau acquiesced with a throaty chuckle. "Now-Siesta, can you hear me?" Marteau said.

The terrified girl squeaked out a terrified yes as the grip on her neck loosened up. "You need to be strong. The Albion's way of exchanging hostages is really simple. They have them fall down from high above and grabbed by the other side, and the other side does the same. So-basically, you have to run towards the young adventurer over there," he inclined his head to point at Saito, who was slightly distant from Marteau.

One of the archers aimed his bow in the direction the chef had indicated, and as Saito held out a hand for Siesta to see, he also gripped his shield tighter.

"Now, when I release these guys, they'll start to walk until they're out of arm's length, and then they'll break into a sprint. You have to do the same, all right? Walk and then run. If you run immediately, he'll stab you in the back. But he won't, because there's really no point in killing a maid."

"I do have a grudge with your two friends, bandit with the white mask," the mercenary leader said gruffly. "But I'm not one who likes to kill gratuitously, especially without pay attached."

"And your odds are bad," Marteau added lightly.

"Yes, my odds are bad," the man said gruffly. "Don't make me even them."

Marteau nodded slowly, and as he did, so too did the leader of Count Mott's men before freeing Siesta and pushing her ahead very slowly. The chef did the same with the two knights, at least until the tip of his knife was no longer near their necks.

The moment Siesta started to run, the two knights turned on themselves and backhanded with their armored gauntlets Marteau's weapons, making the man blink in surprise as they threw him against a tree to the point where the trunk cracked under the strain.

Siesta had barely made a run that an arrow slammed into her shoulder, knocking the wind out of her lungs and making her fall on the ground.

Louise jumped behind a tree to avoid the arrow aimed at her, but as the archers quickly nocked another set of fresh arrows, the mercenary twirled his dagger and brought it close to the whimpering maid on the ground.

"Fool me once!" he snapped, "Shame on you."

He grabbed Siesta by the hair, "Fool me twice though, shame on me," he narrowed his eyes. "Now drop your weapons and come out, or we'll kill both of your friends!"

"W-We surrender!" Louise barked out. "We can strike a deal-"

"Ha! I heard that already!" the man said, a short bark of mad laughter leaving his lips. "Not falling for that again!"

Siesta screamed as the man held her hair tighter still. "I said to drop your weapons! And that includes your wand boy! I want it in pieces, thrown at me, right now!"

Louise held her breath.

Saito swallowed thickly.

This was bad.

This was all forms of bad.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"Can't I just throw the wand your way?" Louise tried to reason with the man, who still held Siesta by the hair.

"No," the man replied. His name was Roberts, wasn't it? At least, that was Saito's thought as he kept his back against the trunk of the tree, taking deep breaths to keep calm. "I want to hear it snap, and I want it thrown my way in two separate pieces. If I don't get it, then to hell with Count Mott's wishes. I'll kill this girl if it's the last thing I do."

Louise hesitated, staring from behind her cover at Saito, who in turn looked at her with a wide-eyed look. Louise closed her eyes, and then pulled her wand out of her swordwand, clutching it tightly for a brief second.

There was the sound of something snapping in half, and then two pieces of broken wood flew in the air and landed roughly by Roberts' feet.

"That's a twig girl!" Roberts snarled, "Seems like you don't really care about your friends then!"

"Louis!" Saito snarled, locking eyes with her.

"T-The wand-the wand's all I have-" Louise stammered, "It's all I have that proves I'm a mage, that I'm worthy of something, please-don't make me snap it."

"Enough dallying," Roberts growled, yanking Siesta back by the hair and cutting driving the knife up against the girl's cheek, drawing a long line as a thin dribble of blood went down along the blade. "Maybe I'll give her whiskers like those of a cat! Let's make a tally of the amount of times you manage to piss me off before I decide enough is enough."

He nodded to the two holding Marteau up against the wood. "Rough him up. I'm sure when they hear a grown-up man weep to stop, they'll understand."

The first blow did not make Marteau cry out, and neither did the second.

By the fourth however, tiny grunts began to emerge from the man's lips together with specks of blood.

"Enough!" Saito snapped, emerging from his cover and rushing towards Louise, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her aggressively out, wrestling the wand off her hand. "There!" he threw it on the ground and crunched on it with his left foot, throwing down his sword and shield at the same time. "We're unarmed now!"

"Good," Roberts said with a nod. "Now step closer," he added. "Hands where I can see them," he narrowed his eyes, gesturing with his head to one of the archers. The man neared warily, and after taking a large turn around the two gave a curt nod to his leader. "They're unarmed as far as I can see."

"Remove the mask!" Roberts barked, "Slowly now, boy!"

Louise hesitated, her fingers moving down from the air towards the clasps that kept it tied around her face. She gripped it, and then slowly pulled it loose to reveal her face.

"That's better boy," Roberts said with a snort. "Pretty face-afraid of nicking it? Maybe the Count might like some-" and then Louise's hair broke out next, coming down behind her. "Oh-" the man's eyes widened. "Oh shit."

Saito held his breath as the man stared at Louise for a brief moment, before starting to laugh loudly. "Oh gods! That's why you hid your face! Man! Your luck sucks hard! Pink hair on a boy's face-seriously!" Roberts howled from laughter. "What kind of man goes around with that hair color? Dye it or something, for Brimir's sake!"

He nodded at the man closest to them. "Now tie their wrists tightly. I swear if they manage to knock us out once more, I will come for you next, Rudolf!"

The man known as Rudolf snorted, and as Saito found his hands tied behind his back, he hissed from the pain of the coarse rope used. Louise didn't fare any better, but at least she didn't fight them. Soon, all four of them were tied up near the horses.

Roberts looked at his men, and then cracked his knuckles with a smirk. "Well then! The Count did say we could rough you up before delivery," he grabbed Louise's chin and pulled it up. "So-now we are going to take turns caving your faces in. This is purely personal," he added. "Next time, when you say you surrender, then you better mean it."

"You...You won't kill us?" Saito asked.

"No," Roberts said. "You made us look like fools, but we were commoners against a mage, so that's to be expected. Still-you didn't kill any of us, so there's no reason to kill two kids who still believe in fairy tales about the knight Ivaldi or shit like that," he looked at Gaston, who had finished spitting on the palms of his hands and rubbing them together. "We are going to get even, and you are going to meet the count because he wants to meet you, and you'd better have a honeyed tongue because he might just order us to kill you and throw your bodies in a ditch if he's not pleased," the man stood back up straight. "So, personally, I'd start with the pretty face."

Louise took a deep breath.

"Are you sure he's not a girl though? The Count might want her if she's-"

"If she's a girl, she's flatter than the plains of Gallia," Roberts answered in turn with a shrug. "Have you looked at him? Sure, as a girl maybe the hair's nice, but that chest? Only a boy could have a chest like that."

Louise took another deep breath, and sparks of electricity began to sail across her hair, which started to pulse and shine lightly.

"And with the way he's doing that glare of his, it's not even that much of a pretty face-I say start by cutting his hair a bit. Cover it in horse dung, the usual humiliation routine-"

A tiny sphere of white, brilliant light simply appeared in the middle of the mercenaries discussing how to go about roughing up the prisoners. It flickered to life, and it ignited with the intensity of a thousand suns.

"Just...Just die, kay?" Louise said sweetly as the flash of light blinded everyone. When the sense of his surroundings returned to Saito's poor eyes, he realized there was no longer a campfire.

There weren't any horses either. There also wasn't a good chunk of the forest.

There was simply a crater.

A crater in which six mercenaries were peacefully snoring away without a single shred of clothing on, and as Louise stood up, the rope somewhat incinerated, she neared the mercenaries with her right boot raised.

Saito and Marteau averted their eyes in sympathy as pain rained down under the form of a steeled boot, while Siesta had simply fainted.

"Your...friend...really likes his hair," Marteau whispered with a broken lip and a swollen eye.

"Yeah," Saito muttered, carefully massaging his wrists now that the rope had been vaporized into sheer nothingness.

"And he's really powerful," Marteau added. "There's...there's only one other mage who can use magic without a wand, you know?" he looked warily at Louise. "I-I have to ask if he's-you know, maybe a bastard."

"We're still discussing it," Saito said with an awkward nod.

Louise turned back to Saito and walked off to where she had left her mask. Putting it back on, she gathered her hair back inside her cowl and then nodded to herself. "Now," Louise said, "We can leave. The maid comes with us too, I guess."

Marteau stood awkwardly up, and as he grabbed hold of Siesta and pulled her on his shoulder, he began to walk behind Louise.

Five steps later, and Louise fell flat down on the ground, her energies spent. Well, she would have, had Saito not caught her.

Thus, as Marteau and Saito walked away each with a girl on their shoulders, leaving behind six naked men who would wake up to excruciating pain, the young Japanese boy couldn't help but lift his left fist towards Marteau.

Marteau, simply, neared his own fist to bump Saito's.

An explosion would have made everything a hundred percent cooler.

But Saito took his victories wherever he could find them.

Just like Louise's kicks into his back for having dared to break her wand did not waste time in coming.