The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy

When Saito woke up, he felt as if somebody had torn every single muscle of his body. His skin was red, and for a brief second he remembered the blood, which made him yelp and jump back, the flashback ripping through the fog of his sleep.

He took a deep breath when he realized he wasn't really sticky with blood anymore, and had apparently been scrubbed so clean -even behind his ears- that his skin had turned naturally red from the friction. He sighed and slumped his back against the wall he had ended up against, his muscles taking that as the cue to make their agony known to him.

Louise was nowhere to be found, but the clothes he wore were one of the other pairs he had in his backpack, so this meant that the girl had to have undressed him -and then dressed him right back up.

Or maybe she had asked Marteau? Yeah, that was probably what had happened.

The thought of having been cleaned by Marteau of all people made him shudder. It wasn't uncommon for people in public baths-but really! He would have much preferred that beautiful blond angel to wash him!

"Sir Saito! I'm happy you're awake!" Jeanette said cheerfully as he stepped out of the room, his muscles hurting, but his stomach grumbling for food demanding to be satisfied. The light purple-haired girl's eyes were sparkling in their green mirth as she stood up from a small wooden stool, a bowl in her hands. "Please step back inside," she added, "You need your rest more than any of us!" as she used one hand to gingerly push him back inside, Saito found himself not really willing to go against the girl's meager strength.

"Where's Louis?" Saito asked as he sat down on the side of the bed, wincing from the pain in his muscles.

"Oh, he woke up yesterday and has been a great help with the children," Jeanette said, holding the spoon with the broth up, much to Saito's puzzled face. "Open wide," she said with a light giggle, and as Saito did so, he was spoon fed a bite.

"It's delicious," he said as he allowed the warm broth down his throat. The girl smiled kindly at that.

"I'm glad you like it! I'll tell Tiffania about it then," she added. "She wanted to thank you for what you did! Even I-I admit I was waiting outside to thank you too," Jeanette said with fluttering eyelids. "It's the first time I meet a knight face to face, and-" she offered another spoonful of broth to Saito, "I just-I mean-I'm so embarrassed, not making any sense," she blushed, shaking her head and sitting down right next to Saito, her hair brushing up against cheek as she was quite close.

"I-" Saito swallowed heavily, "I don't swing that way-" he said, and those words came out quite pained.

"Oh-I know, that's why I feel like I can talk with you about everything!" Jeanette said cheerfully. "Just because I'm a bit more developed than Josette, some men try to hit on me. I usually hit them back," as she said that, she grinned, "but as a knight, you must have been knighted by someone, right?"

Another spoonful was fed, and as Saito swallowed it, he nodded carefully. "Well, yes-as a Knight of the North Parterre, I was knighted by Lady Charlotte-I think she's the Queen of Gallia now?"

"The Queen herself! Oh my! Then you aren't just any knight! You're a royal knight!" Jeanette's eyes widened. "That's why you and Mister Louis are so strong! You must be really something else-Square class! Mister Louis is a Square class, is he not?!"

Saito nervously chuckled, "I don't know about that. I'm just good with weapons-"

"You don't have to be so humble, Sir Saito!" Jeanette said, feeding him once more. "To be knighted even as a commoner-and to be a royal knight, charged with upholding the Queen's personal safety and laws-you must be the best there is! A legendary swordsman, a hero!"

Saito shook his head, even as another spoonful ended up in his mouth. "I'm honored you...you think this highly of me," Saito said, "But I didn't do anything special-I just helped a bit."

Jeanette shook her head, preparing another spoonful. "I'm sorry-you must think I'm trying to butter you up," she said with a small awkward smile, "But-to someone like me who's always been in an abbey, I-I was really scared about what happened. If you hadn't been there to keep us calm, you and Sir Louis, maybe we would have-Josette, Jacques and I-maybe we wouldn't have been so brave."

She sniffled a bit, and as she began to twirl the spoon in the broth that remained, Saito moved a hand to grab the bowl. "I think-I think that the ones being awesome are you three," he said in the end, pulling the bowl free from Jeanette's hands. "I mean-what you three did, going into a country that was at war just to make your Abbess happy, to make someone else happy-that's something beautiful. It shows you're kind, grateful kids to the people who raised you."

As he finished swallowing the broth, Saito smiled. "And I think that's the most important thing. You should always pay back the people who helped you when you were in need, especially if they are the ones in need now."

Jeanette smiled warmly, her smile something quite blinding -and extremely cute, if Saito could say so himself. She nodded happily, grabbing the empty bowl and skipping a step as she stood up, "Yes! I've been praised by Sir Saito! This-I'm going to tell this to Josette and Jacques, they'll both be so happy a real knight praised them! Thank you, Sir Saito!" she rushed to the door, and spun around just in time to make a proper curtsy, "I'll come by for dinner if you can't stand up by then, Sir Saito!" and with that, she rushed out giddily giggling like a schoolgirl in love.

Louise came in five seconds later, her arms crossed.

Her expression was a thunderstorm, and as she closed the door with her boot, letting it thunder to a close, Saito's smile remained frozen on his face from sheer fear.

"Saito," Louise hissed in the air, "What part of secret mission didn't you understand?"

Saito laughed weakly, scratching the back of his head. "I-Louis, I can explain."

Louise took a step forward, and then another, clenching her fists as she came to a halt right in front of him. Her hair rose, a pale white aura surrounding it from sheer fury. Saito's breath froze in his throat as Louise raised both of her arms, her fists clenched.

"You can explain," Louise said in a hiss, "You can damn well explain," she snarled.

"I-I destroyed the letters!" Saito exclaimed, both arms in front of him. "They were in the palace-together with a crazy lady-I-I got them, and destroyed them! The-The Crown's safe so the Cardinal will be satisfied, won't he? A-And that will be a good thing for your family, won't it? Like, the Cardinal won't hate on them any more, and-and please don't kill me, I'm too young to die!"

"You...you went into the palace-filled with Undead...just because you were worrying about helping my family?" Louise asked in a whisper.

"That," 'and there was this crazy water woman inside of me, and I think Charlotte is involved,' was probably not something that Louise would have wanted to hear right in that moment. Maybe he'd tell her later, or perhaps he'd speak with Charlotte first. Before unleashing Louise on people, it was best to get the other side of the story, and Charlotte was a good and kind girl, so-so maybe it was just all a big misunderstanding. "Was it," he said in the end.

The barrage of punches never came.

Saito felt only a hug that was stained with tears.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-One

The Royalist flag fluttered in the wind as the ship made a gentle landing just outside the fortress city of Newcastle, landing on the dirt and sinking deeply within it. A group of flying dragon knights made their way quickly from the city's fortified walls towards the fallen ship, and as they began to circle it, a lonely knight detached itself from the rest.

"Hark! Who are you!?" the man's voice was boisterous, and in the silence that followed, it was Louise who spoke first.

"We are Knights of the North Parterre!" she said with the manliest of voices, her mask firmly set on her face. "And assorted adventurers, and civilians, and orphan children," as if to enunciate the point, the children behind Tiffania all waved cheerfully upwards. "We come from Londinium-"

"The city was beset by the Undead," the Knight replied, landing its white dragon on the deck, and descending nimbly. "It was a given that all those that could have escaped headed for the countryside, and the Reconquista would not allow a ship to escape their blockade this easily."

"My partner burned down their palace," Louise said roughly, gesturing at Saito. "And defeated the Necromancer involved with those blasphemous acts against the Gods," she added. "If you don't believe us, then send someone to spy on the capital, and tell if their palace still stands or not."

The knight narrowed his eyes, staring at Louise first, and then at Saito. "You expect us to believe this tripe?"

"I expect you to verify it before calling it tripe," Louise snapped back, a hand rested at ease on her swordwand. "We are Knights of the North Parterre, and with the ascension to the throne of Lady Charlotte, royal knights sworn in her service! If you wish to question our word, then do so at your own risk, Sir!"

"Peace, peace!" the Knight replied with a hand raised. "If your words are the truth, then they are most welcomed, Sirs. Our scouts have yet to report on Londinium's status, but if your words ring true, then perhaps Reconquista's back has been broken, and with it, everything they wanted to obtain."

The man sighed, "The fortress has little to offer, it was under siege until just a scant week ago, but with the countryside cleared we have begun to recover what provisions we could. It also helps that the blockade has indeed been lifted."

"You were testing us," Louise said hotly.

"I was merely making sure you were whom you said you were, Knights of the North Parterre," the knight answered. "I am Sir Lohrac Vale, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. But please, have patience just a little bit. We have to check the ship from scaffolding to anchor before allowing it to dock properly."

"Fine," Louise huffed, "We'll wait. Captain Bleu? Lower the boardwalk. The children could use some running around in the fields, unless they are dangerous criminals in the eyes of Sir Vale?" Louise added, giving a dry smile at the knight of Albion who simply chuckled, and gestured for his men to descend.

The children were quite happy to touch solid ground after a long time spent confined in the ship itself, and as they ran around cheerfully, the rest of the men proceeded to check the ship from top to bottom, spending most of the day tapping on the wooden walls or opening up crates and boxes.

When the Albion knights were done, and felt confident enough that there wasn't a secret Reconquista army inside the ship, they allowed them to embark and follow them to a proper docking pier within the fortress city itself. Disembarking for the second time, Saito scratched the side of his head at the amount of people pressed into the city. While there weren't nearly as many beggars as there had been in Valier, those who were indeed watching them felt as if they had seen true horrors, and survived to speak the tale.

"It helped us that most of the country saw us as nearly defeated, and backed in a corner," Lohrac spoke at Saito's inquiring gaze, "We did not have much in the way of provisions, and mostly only those loyal to the Crown of Albion and their families kept following his Highness. When the army broke, we were pretty much resorting ourselves to a final charge," the man sighed, "It would have been glorious, but again, if the Gods did not wish for it, then so be it."

"The Gods don't want men to waste their lives away," Louise said dryly, "Not when they can serve the Founder better by being alive."

"We would have died anyway, killed by those traitors!" Lohrac said while spatting to the side. "The Undead plague was the answer we needed from the Gods as proof of their unworthiness! Let us see them now convince the commoners that they'll bring food to their tables! Let us see them, their bodies eaten alive by the dead, speak the same!" he lifted a fist to the air. "The Gods have spoken! The Crown is the sole rightful ruler of Albion, and let those who claim the opposite meet their end passed by the sword of justice!"

"Long live the King of Albion!" one of the knights nearby said.

"Long live His Highness, Wales Tudor, By the grace of the Gods, King of Albion!" a few other knights soon joined in cheerfully. The procession stopped in the halls of the castle, where only the two Knights were allowed to proceed further in order to meet with the King in person.

"We'll be fine, Sir Saito, Sir Louis," Josette said cheerfully, "Captain Bleu said he'll need a hand preparing the ship for departure once more anyway-so we'll help him!" she waved them goodbye like an over-excited kid, right in the middle of a group of knights who could not help but chuckle at the affectionately childish display.

Jeanette blushed lightly as she waved goodbye, "Sir Saito-thank you once more for your kind words," she made a prim and proper curtsy, before averting her gaze quite shyly.

Jacques was a simple man, so he simply nodded his head towards Saito and raised his thumb up, as if approving whatever was in his head concerning the boy and Jeanette. This did make the Japanese splutter, but also smile warmly at the faint sense of praise and approval he was receiving.

Captain Bleu simply pulled his foppish hat off his head, and then made a nice, flourished movement with it. "Till we meet again, Sir Saito, Sir Louis!"

"I'll be glad to have something better than salted pigeon in my stomach," Marteau said with a chuckle, waving his goodbye too. Tiffania simply bowed as gently as she could, still slightly fearful as she clutched her hat tightly. It was what she did when she was afraid, which simply made her look all the more cuter with the way her elbows ended up pressing against her two noticeable qualities.

"Keep a spot for us," Saito said. "We'll need a brave captain to sail us back to La Rochelle."

"Of course!" Bleu said with a smile, "I'll be waiting for you, Sirs!"

And that was that.

When Saito stepped inside the great room that had been prepared specifically for the King to grant them audience, the first thought that crossed his mind was that the King was quite a sight. He had blond hair, blue eyes, a serene smile and seemed to be holding up pretty well considered what had happened across his lands just a short while before.

The Knight that had led them here -and sent a messenger ahead to relay their story- stepped aside at the entrance and declared with a loud booming voice, "You stand at the presence of His Grace, the Most Rightful King-"

"Enough Lohrac, enough," the King said with a soft chuckle. "I am sure they are tired from the trip, and the search, and would probably love nothing more than a good bed for the night," his eyes moved on to them both, and then he smiled. "Also, do leave us alone, Lohrac." He stood up from his throne -which was simply a slightly bigger chair than the others around the room, and as the knight bowed once and left, closing the doors behind him, the King of Albion drew close enough to both Saito and Louise that it was apparent he had recently bathed in some form of peppermint-scented bath.

"Well," the man said. "Tell me, strong Knights of the North Parterre," Wales had a hint of a smile on his lips now, "How fares my beautiful cousin Henrietta?"

"Henrietta? What Hen-"

Two things happened in quick succession. The first was that Louise's hold on Saito's neck made the boy slam down on the ground faster than the King himself could blink, and the second was that she actually shot him a glare deadly enough to silence him in a split-second. "Kneel you moron!" Louise said in a hiss, "And we apologize, your Highness, but as Knight of the North Parterre-we serve the Queen of Gallia. We have-"

"Everything is all right, Lady Louise," Wales said with a small smile, making Louise catch her breath. "The Cardinal warned me you and your partner would come by," he chuckled. "But you have nothing to fear. Your secret is safe with me," he added with a wink. "Just like I hope mine is with you?"

"The letters were destroyed," Saito said. "I-I saw to it," he added.

The King smiled, and lifted the boy's left hand with both of his own. "I see," he said with a small grin. "No reason to doubt your word, Sir Saito. You did me, and the country of Albion, a great service in also taking care of the Undead from what I am to believe?"

"It was mostly Louise," Saito said, embarrassed. "She took out the majority of their army outside the city. I just-I just cut the head off the snake."

The king nodded, letting the hand go, "I understand," he added. "Still, such acts must be rewarded. I would see you titled, give you land-but you are a Knight of Gallia and a noble of Tristain I am to believe? That does make me wonder on what I could possibly gift you," he tapped on his scepter with his left hand, the right one holding on to it.

"Your highness-if I may be so blunt as to ask," Louise began speaking, and to Wales' nod of the head, she continued, "The Cardinal exchanged letters with you? You, the King of Albion, were supposed to be our...contact."

The King smiled, and then chuckled for a little bit before answering, "Of course, the Cardinal has...a history, of aiding me and my cousin-well, now that is quite the improper thing to say to a Lady of your standing so I shall refrain, but there is little the Cardinal wouldn't do if Henrietta were to ask him, in turn, it is just proper that for her happiness I would do anything, even allow for the proof of our eternal love to be burned rather than recovered. Why wouldn't I? I have been offered the chance to marry her."

"Sorry to bother-" Saito said, "But-well, why didn't the Cardinal just say it outright that we had to reach Newcastle to find his 'like-minded men'?"

"The Cardinal...probably did not trust you with that knowledge," Wales said. "The fact that I am in contact with him, and in turn my cousin Henrietta, might be dangerous fuel added to the scorching fires of Germania's ire, were they to be raised. You might have been captured trying to pass the blockade-or perhaps ended up too drunk during a night of revelry, such knowledge could not be allowed to so casually slip out-"

"But we didn't know where to even start looking for the letters! I found them by luck!" Saito exclaimed, only for Louise to stomp his foot and glare at him.

"You're in the presence of royalty, Saito! You don't question -or interrupt- royalty!"

Wales blinked, and then awkwardly coughed in the palm of his left hand, closed into a fist. "Well, he...probably did one of his 'box within a box' thing. I do not fully understand how the man thinks. Perhaps he has forgotten how he thinks too. He might have suggested you a place to start your research from? He was so sure you would acquire those letters, he wrote he had already begun mobilizing the royal navy of Tristain in his last missive-"

Saito stared at Louise.

Louise stared at Saito.

"No?" they both said at the same time, actually interrupting the King once more, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Well," Wales said, "You will have to ask him yourself then. We have a meeting arranged at La Rochelle a week after Reconquista's hold on Londinium has broken, together with my dear Henrietta to discuss our upcoming marriage," he smiled. "But before that, I still need to reward you for the service rendered to the Crown of Albion."

Saito broke his silence long enough to actually ask for something that couldn't be, in any way, shape, or form, a bad thing.

Louise pretty much asked for the same thing.

As agents of the Crown, glory and honor were everything they needed.

As adventurers, gold was a good enough substitute.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Two

Saito fidgeted and groaned, trying his hardest to move and failing miserably at that too. "This is heavy," he groaned, clutching on to the helmet beneath his armpit, the full plate armor that encompassed most of his body strapped on tightly. "Why do I have to wear this?" he asked next, receiving a roll of Louise's eyes in answer.

"It's just twenty, maybe thirty kilos of stuff," Louise said. "And you don't even have to carry your backpack. Come on, it's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" Saito bristled. "It's uncomfortable-I need to scratch my chest something fierce now-"

Louise patted his shoulder-pad and chuckled, "Stop being such a baby, Saito. This was one of the best armors that Albion had to offer. If we are going to dine with knights, then we'll need the best possible armor to make sure they take us seriously."

Louise herself had apparently ended up with what appeared to be a light and small breastplate of sorts, thin-looking gauntlets and leg guards. "If I can wear this-"

"Yours probably weight less than a kilo all put together," Saito said, earning a chuckle from the girl. "The blacksmith just melted a single piece of steel and made do with it."

"Now that's rude to the blacksmith, Saito," Louise said with a huff, a hand on her hip. "As adventurers, we should be thankful to those who provide us with the tools to do our job better."

They were in a room assigned to them by the head butler of the palace, finishing preparations before dinner. "Normally nobles don't wear armor unless they're Earth mages, or knights," she added with her index up, her teacher-mode activated all of a sudden, "That's because against another noble armor is pretty much useless, but with things like arrows and swords, then it can save your life. Careful with maces-armor won't help with that."

Saito chuckled. "I'll be very careful during dinner, Louis," he said. "I am sure we'll be assaulted by Undead roast and we'll need to defend ourselves."

"You'd better," Louise said with a huff. "It's not everyday you dine with royalty."

True to his word, the King of Albion had gathered what army he still had and marched on Londinium, where the Cardinal's own forces had come from behind the blockade to aid in the capture of the city and the breaking of the Reconquista's army. Their leadership mostly murdered, those that had survived the Undead plague were quickly executed for treason, leaving the streets to run red with their blood.

A week later, with the people still flocking in Londinium from the countryside to start again, Saito and Louise had accompanied the King of Albion to La Rochelle, where the meeting with the Cardinal and Princess Henrietta would take place.

"I hope Josette and the others made it back safely to their abbey," Saito muttered as he gave a quick glance outside the window, where the port-city of La Rochelle stood in all of its glory. "And Marteau-I would have liked to go with them."

"When the King of Albion asks you to accompany him, you don't say no," Louise answered primly. "And it's not like they'd have any problem returning home with the blockade broken. Come on now, act more like the Baron you are."

"So you'll remove your mask too?" Saito asked, watching as the girl fidgeted with it slightly.

"I should in the presence of royalty, but if I'm to play the part of the knight, I can't pretty much do that. And if I play the part of the knight, I can avoid having to wear a ballgown. You have no idea how itchy those things are!" she snapped hotly, "I kissed my trousers the next day, I swear-I have a newly found respect for those poor women who have to wear those things."

"I find it unjust," Saito said dryly. "I have to wear this armor, and you get to avoid wearing the ballgown. It's not fair, not fair at all!"

Louise hummed, "You'd rather see me in a dress, uh? Well, I'm sorry to displease you, your pervertedness, but the answer is no." She crossed her arms in front of her breastplate, letting the gauntlets strike it with a soft 'clink'. "I rather prefer the freedom of being a knight to being a lady. Mother was pretty much the same," she added with a giggle. "You could say I'm retracing her footsteps."

Shaking her head, Louise walked towards the window, and opened it up to change the air. "To think there was an Undead army above their heads and nobody noticed it. Then again, that's the point of a blockade, wouldn't you think?"

Saito rattled as he walked, "Yes," he groaned out. "Whatever. Why can't I wear my old comfy armor?"

"Oh come on, you just need to break it in a bit. It should be even more comfortable than the one before!" Louise snapped. "At least, I think. That's what the blacksmith said!"

"Sure, sure," Saito hissed. "But I'm the one wearing it," he added. "Can you scratch my head a bit at least? These gauntlets make me rip my hair off if I try," as he bowed his head down, Louise sighed and did just that, much to the boy's satisfaction.

"There," Louise said after a few minutes, patting her hands. "Now let's get ready. I am a Knight of the North Parterre, so I need to bow to pretty much everyone. You are a Baron, so...you need to bow to pretty much everyone but other barons-"

Saito's shoulder slumped. "Seriously? I want to be a knight too."

Louise glared at him. "No. You get to be the Baron, so you get more titles plopped on your back and that makes you a better catch, which in turn means that other nobles competing for Lady Valliére's hand will need more titles under their fat bellies if they wish me to break off my engagement with you."

Saito sighed. "Fine, but I demand to see you in a ballgown while I get to wear something comfortable," he said firmly.

"What's fair is fair," Louise nodded. "If they are really hashing out a political marriage between Albion and Tristain, they won't decide everything on a single dinner night. There will be other occasions-"

Through the open window, nimbly, a figure with blue hair jumped inside.

Saito and Louise stared at each other blinking, and then looked at the person that had landed neatly inside their room, her red-rimmed glasses firmly planted on her face and a black cloak covering most of her body.

When she turned, staff in hand, she smiled softly.

"Good evening," the Queen of Gallia, Charlotte Helene Orleans de Gallia said. "Forgive my intrusion, but I felt it best if we talked now, rather than later."

There was silence in the room.

Even Louise's brain with all the 'noble etiquette' that needed to be followed came up blank on what to do when a member of royalty jumped inside a room through an open window. She resorted to kneeling, just because it felt the less offensive action to undertake.

Saito took that as the cue to kneel too.

When in doubt, doing as Louise did when dealing with nobility was the optimal solution.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Three

Charlotte hadn't changed much. Frankly, it was as if she hadn't changed at all. If it weren't for a small crown on her head, which was apparently so small she could keep it in a pouch of sorts, there were no noticeable difference.

"Please stand," Charlotte said, "There is no need for you to kneel. I am sorry for interrupting your time together, but I do not think we will have much time to talk once dinner starts," she added. "And I felt it important to explain my actions."

"Your...actions?" Louise asked, her brows furrowing together. Her head turned to Saito as she stood quickly up. "You-She-Saito! Seriously!"

"N-Nothing happened!" Saito exclaimed, standing up in turn with both arms raised in surrender for a brief second, "And it's not my fault you didn't believe me!"

Charlotte giggled, a hand to her mouth. "Please, Lady Louise-do not be angry. Lord Saito did nothing wrong," she spoke kindly, stepping closer to them both. "I am the one who has to apologize."

"Apologize?" Louise blinked. "Apologize for what? Your Highness-I'm sure this perverted dog did something that-"

"No, no, it is not that," Charlotte added. "It is something else," she said quietly. "I wished to apologize for having used an assassin to murder Lord Saito," she smiled softly, as if the mention of 'having murdered' someone was something to think back fondly to, "And for having used the forbidden spell Contract on him to have him murder the previous King of Gallia."

"Your Highness doesn't need to apologize for-for-wait," Louise had begun speaking even before her brain, and ears, had connected together the words that the petite blue-haired girl in front of them was saying. "Wait," Louise stammered, "Wait-just a-what."

Charlotte smiled, but the smile wasn't really a 'cute' one. It was sort of icy. It was kind of cold. It made the girl holding on to her staff look slightly less 'cute' and a bit more -a hell of a lot more- 'scary'.

"I should apologize," Charlotte said, "And I will," she added. "It is my understanding that-"

"No! No! Wait just a moment!" Louise's scream made Saito flinch, and Charlotte blink. "You-Your Highness must be suffering from a very high fever-that sort of thing, that sort of-"

"Where would you like me to start explaining, Lady Louise?" Charlotte asked kindly, her staff held in her hands as a cold breeze closed the windows, while thin frost began to form across the doors' edges and hinges.

"From the beginning!" Louise snapped curtly, her breathing uneven. "Like-Like you paid an assassin?! Why!? When!? How!?"

"To ingratiate myself into your eyes of course," Charlotte said. "A savior is usually seen as a good figure, I know that by experience. I was saved by a hunter once, at least-before she died eaten alive by a Chimaera in front of my eyes and I had to kill the beast holding on to that hunter's face," Charlotte shook her head lightly, "the reagents to restart a dead heart are not that typical, and most certainly cannot be bought in a town. One needs to speak with a powerful spirit, like the spirit of water of Ragdorian Lake, to acquire such a thing," Charlotte said. "When I realized how ignorant you both were, or perhaps, how trusting, I decided to give you a list of ingredients to gather for my benefit, in order to toughen your bones."

Charlotte nodded pointedly at that. "I would think that much is obvious now?"

"The Cardinal-" Louise said quietly, "He told you?"

"He was quite happy when you gave him an excuse to stop you from leaving immediately. Had you not angered Count Mott, perhaps I would not have been quick enough to call on to my assassin to do his job, and would have needed to get more inventive," Charlotte added. "I was sure I could come up with something anyway, your horse did have a small spell to track you."

"Just-Just to ask," Saito said nervously, "Why? I mean-why would the Cardinal tell you about it?"

"That...is a misunderstanding," Charlotte said. "The Cardinal is not the one who contacted me first. I am the one who contacted him," she took a small breath. "I needed someone to help me plan my uncle's demise. He-He wasn't really a good King, and there were rumors of treason, but-but before my cousin," Charlotte's face turned slightly green, "Before she died, I wasn't treated much better than the common thug. I knew what he was up to, and I knew he had the traitors all penned down. I couldn't go to them. I-I was glad when he sent me off to Tristain's Magic Academy after the death of my cousin-away from him, free to think."

She took a deep breath. "I-I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wanted to see my Uncle dead with such a fierce passion that when I heard about the Cardinal's movements through the court to isolate the Valliére, I understood he had something I needed, and I had something he needed. So-So I contacted him. And together we came up with a plan to kill the King."

Louise shuddered. "No," she shook her head. "That's-The King is sacred. You can't kill a King, or a Queen-why are you telling us? Queen or not, if this comes out, you'd be sent to the chopping block. And we're not two random adventurers-if the nobles hear of this-"

"Hear of what?" Charlotte asked with a soft chuckle. "There is no proof. Your word might be worth something, but is it truly as powerful as mine, and that of the Cardinal? The same Cardinal who is right now combining a marriage of love between two countries, and whose regents will look up to him like a savior for allowing it?"

Louise clutched her shoulders with her hands. "So," Charlotte continued as Louise chose to stay quiet. "I contacted the Cardinal. He needed a strong political ally, and while he had turned to isolating the Valliére out of a desire to appease the Germanian Emperor, it was clear he wouldn't refuse a powerful ally like the heir to the throne of Gallia. Between the two, he'd choose us over Germania every single time," Charlotte smiled softly. "I wanted my uncle dead, and he wanted Tristain's independence safeguarded, and the royal family safe. I could guarantee both if I rose to the throne," Charlotte smiled. "I am sure he used me for yet one more purpose of his, but what that is isn't something I know, nor did I desire to pry. I know he will deny it until the end however. He is a consummated actor."

Louise shook her head. "I-I don't understand," her eyes moved from Charlotte to Saito, "When did you put him under the Contract spell? That's-that's a forbidden spell, it takes a while to chant, and-and I saw him talk with Wardes when the King was assassinated."

"The Contract spell can be cast and activated upon the use of a command sentence, making for the perfect assassin who does not know he is one, and Lord Saito was so naive he believed me when I told him I had to knight him using 'the tongue of Gallia', so he never suspected I was actually chanting the spell upon him," Charlotte said. "As for the reason he appeared to be in the same room, it was because there are spells like Illusion magic, after all. And all eyes were on you, the returned daughter of the Valliére house," Charlotte added with a smile. "Thinking about it, perhaps you are the one I should thank the most. You made everything so smooth, it felt preordained by fate itself. Again, perhaps the Gods were watching, and smiling, over my actions from the very beginning."

Louise stared at Charlotte's simple smile, and her first impulse was to wipe it off her face with an explosion spell. She held her hand, but even then it kept trembling -and not from the cold, but simply from the sheer fury that emanated across her body.

"Why choose Saito?" Louise asked. "Out of everyone-why him? Surely, the same assassin who had killed him would be stronger, no, most definitely it wouldn't make sense to use him. There was no guarantee -no guarantee at all- that he'd end up in the palace on the night the king was there. You could have poisoned the King's food, or stabbed him in his sleep-you didn't need to use Saito. You didn't need to use me. How could we both make things easier? We were two adventurers with barely a few months of experience-there had to be better choices."

"Perhaps," Charlotte said, "but the power Lord Saito has as the Gandalfr is not something that can easily be ignored. The Cardinal was sure that by using you two, I would achieve everything I needed. And he was right."

Louise faltered slightly, "The Gandalfr? That's-That's just a legend. I mean, if Saito's the legendary familiar of Void, then what would that make me? I can't even cast a simple 'clean blood' spell-"

Charlotte interrupted her, grinning brightly as she kept speaking. "The Cardinal told me that we could use my uncle's obsession with the Valliére to our advantage, and by showing you off as the returned heir, he would desire to be present at your return to society with such strength, that he wouldn't care about having to go without a wand for the evening. Do you want to know something fun?" Charlotte said with a smile on her lips. "My uncle wanted you dead. The 'noble retinue' that followed him were in fact members of Gallia's Knights, used to murdering and assassinating targets of interest. He had given me the order to kill you right in front of everyone in the ballroom, and to use the knights as I saw fit." Charlotte giggled. "He was amusing like that, my Uncle. He delighted in it, you see. It made his heart beat, that's what he said," Charlotte nodded.

Charlotte clicked her tongue against her teeth, looking outside the window with a soft and slightly sad look. "To the last, to the very last, I thought he had managed to escape somehow," she took a deep breath, "I thought that he was lying, hiding and waiting for the chance to pop back up and say how he had enjoyed faking his death and how displeased he was in me for trying to assassinate him. He didn't. He was really dead. The Gandalfr had truly killed him for good," Charlotte smiled, and then giggled. "That was why I was so happy," she made a small twirl, holding her staff with both hands. "He was dead. He was really dead for good."

She drew near Saito, grabbing hold of both of his gauntlets. "But there was still the problem of the letters and of Albion. It was also part of our deal -I had to take care of that problem. The Cardinal really does cherish the Queen and the Princess, not just the Crown, but their happiness too." Charlotte's eyes had that kind of 'innocent' glint that Josette's own had, if for a brief moment before she stepped away from Saito. "So we collaborated in order to get people who could do the job together with people who knew where the job had to be done," she added with a light giggle, "I was not going to let you go alone in the middle of a country at war. I'm not my Uncle."

"Josette," Saito said softly. "Josette was you?"

"No," Charlotte said with a chuckle. "I'm not capable of being in two places at once, but you are right that Josette was involved. You see, the Cardinal honestly had no idea who would have switched the letter meant for the Duchess, and never did I. If he had told you where to go, chances were that whoever had done so would set an ambush up for you. But I did know where the letters were. My Uncle's familiar, you see, was in charge of holding on to them."

Charlotte stopped smiling. "I did not honestly think she'd go mad like that. I thought she might try coming back to Gallia, or perhaps she would go into hiding in Albion. It would have honestly been possible for her to reveal the letters, but since my Uncle had told her not to, and she obeyed him faithfully, I was pretty sure she would uphold her master's wishes until the end." Here the girl sighed, shaking her head. "She was aiding Cromwell as his secretary, and the adventurers that followed you, they were in fact-"

"I knew she was too innocent to be real," Louise said bitterly, "I told you she was too innocent to be real!" she yelled at Saito, who flinched back.

"My knights," Charlotte said. "They knew where to go, and would have directed you there subtly. Even if you had refused their help, Saito would have known where to go subconsciously. And the rest played out pretty much as I had expected, if...without the addition of the Undead."

Saito clutched his chest. "The-That thing-"

"What thing?" Louise asked, her eyes moving from Charlotte to Saito. "What. Thing!?"

"Well, you see," Charlotte said softly. "My Uncle got a ring for his familiar, the Ring of Andvari, by stealing it from the Water Spirit of Ragdorian Lake. When the Spirit took offense, and began to raise the water level, he decided something needed to be done. What he didn't expect was for my familiar to be a Rhyme dragon, capable of talking with Spirits, nor that we would both come to an agreement." Charlotte's eyes hardened. "That was why I carried a piece of her around. I admit-I might have lied to her about not knowing where the ring actually was, but I needed to wait for the right moment. If I killed my Uncle's familiar without killing him, he would just summon another," Charlotte shook her head. "And I would waste my one chance."

"So...you saved Saito's life...by putting a piece of a Water Spirit inside him," Louise said in a quiet voice, the fury already gone past the boiling point, having reached a shimmering level that could only be defined as 'over nine thousand', "So that you could have...your assassin ready...to do the job for you."

Charlotte smiled awkwardly, but nodded. "If it was the Gandalfr, I knew he would do it."

"A lot of things could have gone wrong," Louise said curtly. "A lot of things nearly went wrong. We could have died facing a gryphon! We could have died eaten alive by a monster-"

"If that had happened," Charlotte said with a sigh, "It would have been a mercy, and we would have moved to another plan."

"A mercy?" Louise said, choking on her spit. "A. MERCY!?"

"The Elves have not the tendency of being merciful," Charlotte answered kindly. "As a user of the Void-your duty is to begin preparations for a Crusade against the Elves to reclaim the Holy Land. When you see it this way, you understand I did you a kindness."

Louise stepped forward, and then narrowed her eyes.

The thundering slap that slammed through the air was strong enough to make it ripple as it struck Charlotte's cheek with enough strength to shatter her glasses off the Queen's face, and send the girl to twist in mid-air, tumbling down and emitting a small scream of pain.

Louise held her hand up in the air, the palm an angry red, nothing like the fury that ran across the girl's entire body.

"I hope you weren't expecting anything else from me," Louise hissed coldly. "Not after coming here to gloat in our face how you used us, you bitch. You are the type of person I hate the most in the world. You smile even when you betray others! You laugh even when you ruined someone's else life! You think I'd accept your apologies? You think Saito would? What were you expecting from us? To forgive you and offer you tea and crumpets!?"

Charlotte clutched her reddening and swelling up cheek with one of her hands, and smiled softly. "I wasn't. I was just making sure you would not ask questions to the wrong parties during the feast. I did use you, but you did gain benefits from it. I will safeguard the Crown of Tristain and its family, but you just hit a royal, Lady Louise, and your partner killed one too. If that came out, it would be extremely unfortunate," Charlotte stood up, dusting her cloak a bit. "For what it matters," she added, "I am really sorry I had to use you like this," she shook her head as she headed towards the window, which opened up at her touch. "I hope you will not make this any more difficult and cooperate in the future."

Louise's fists remained clenched even as the Queen of Gallia gave them both a light bow of her head, and then stepped out, leaving behind only a half-frozen room with the doors encased in ice, and a fuming Louise whose sheer anger melted the snow around her.

Saito had remained quiet.

"Say something," Louise said suddenly. "Saito, you would do better to say something."

"Louise," Saito muttered. "Did...Did I really kill someone?" he looked down at his hands.

To that, all of Louise's anger drained away, replaced with a firm determination to see the Queen of Gallia bite the dust.

No one was allowed to make her partner cry.

No. One.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Four

The doors thawed with surprising ease a few minutes after Charlotte's jump out of the window, even as Louise had to actually wipe away Saito's tears with a handkerchief of hers. The boy was down on his knees, his head resting on her lap as she was sitting on the bedside, a hand gingerly caressing his hair.

It was kind of sad that she had to hum a lullaby to an adult who had faced all kinds of beasts without flinching and had instead broken down after being told he had murdered someone, someone completely foreign to him, and against his will too. Yet there she was.

And she would blow off the head of whoever dared to make fun of Saito's moment of weakness.

Perhaps her motherly instincts were the reason she was currently kind-of babying him. Still, Charlotte had to thank the Gods Saito was like this. If he wasn't, and thus Louise hadn't to soothe him, she'd be rushing headfirst to tackle her on the ground and then give her a good Germanian One-Two, also known as the kidney-shattering.

She kept her anger at bay though, because right now this wasn't about her, but about the boy with the head on her lap.

"Hey," she said in a soothing voice. "Saito, listen-this isn't-this wasn't your fault. You trusted someone, and they turned out to be liars," she affectionately rubbed the back of his head. "They made you do bad things, but you couldn't have stopped them. Sometimes people are powerless to stop bad things from happening to them, so when that happens, they need to pray to Brimir, or to the Gods. They-They cannot act, not directly-but they will do what they can in Heaven to soothe your soul-praying really does help," Louise murmured softly. "Want to try it out? It's not difficult, anyone can learn it. You just need to put your hands together, and close your eyes, and really believe that Brimir is listening-"

Saito opened one eye to look at Louise, who returned a small and encouraging smile. "Come on-I promised you I'd bring you back home no matter what. A life of luxury and wealth hasn't stopped me, so do you really think being a murderer would?"

"It's just...It's scary," Saito muttered. "I was-I was just-used, and there was nothing I could do. I didn't even realize until-until never, I had to be told."

"Magic can be scary," Louise said softly, "But it can also help people. Founder Brimir wanted for magic to be used for the people, to help and safeguard them. The Contract spell is forbidden, and if she were anyone else, then she would be sentenced to death for it. But she's royalty, she's a descendant of Brimir, and so-people pray to the members of royalty too, so-so I'm sorry I can't do anything about that. Yet."

Her fingers began to play with a lock of Saito's hair. "But I promise you she will pay," she whispered softly. "I promise you I will make her pay for what she did."

There was a soft knocking at the door. "Lord Saito, Sir Louis-it is time," and as the maid who said that calmly walked away without even opening the door, Louise took a deep breath and settled her mask back on her face.

"For today only, I will kneel in her presence. Tomorrow however-tomorrow will be another day," Louise whispered. "And if I have to kneel to her, you can at least stand up proudly and act like a man. Come on," she huffed, pushing herself off the bedside and lifting Saito up by pulling on his arm, "Time to become Lord Saito. My father did not make you a Baron just so you could cry a river into existence. You're not a Water mage."

Saito nodded, wiping off what little remained of his tears. "Guess so," he muttered. "You still have to wear a ballgown dress once."

"Right," Louise snapped dryly. "Sure," she shook her head. "You recover quickly. Why do I keep forgetting this?" she mumbled as she walked towards the door. "Come along, Lord Saito," Louise said as she settled the mask on her face a bit more firmly. "Let the great adventurer Louis, Knight of the North Parterre, guide you to the dining room."

She bowed properly, before opening the doors and walking ahead of him. Saito followed his expression simply saddened, but not as badly as it had been before.

Thankfully, he wasn't the star of this dinner, and everyone was more concerned about the meeting between the two royals. The Cardinal was there, his expression one of pure joy as he watched with mirth the meeting between the Princess and the King. He was...happy. That was what Saito could glance from the old man, who seemed to hold on to his staff with a content expression.

The Queen of Gallia was present too, but she didn't near either of them, her cheek no longer bruised -magic, of course- and her demeanor pleasant enough that it felt as if the words they had exchanged just a few hours before had been but a nasty fever-dream. Louise, or well, 'Louis' was nowhere to be seen. Saito had last seen her near the buffet, but she had then disappeared, perhaps after meeting her older sister who had come together with her husband -the captain of the Griffin Knights also the royal bodyguard of Princess Henrietta after all.

"Is everything all right, Saito?" Wardes asked, the grey-haired -or perhaps was it silver- man asked him, emerging from a gaggle of nobles of La Rochelle. "You look tired."

Saito sighed, and then tensed. Wardes had been the one to aid Charlotte with the Illusion spell during the murder of the King of Gallia, so it was obvious he wasn't really acting out of concern.

"I'm fine," Saito said curtly, looking kind of peeved -perhaps, probably, no scratch that, definitely- at the man. "I just feel like a big idiot."

The man blinked for a split second, and then realization dawned on him and he nodded awkwardly, "I see," he said in the end. "Perhaps this is of little consolation," he added as he stepped closer, looking around carefully, "But you should know I harbor no ill-feelings. What happened was...out of love, I guess," he sighed, looking around the ballroom. "My wife's not good with her emotions, I fear-but she was hurting for the situation with her family-I was simply asked to help-but even then, I suspect it was my selfishness that made me do that."

Saito looked quietly at Wardes, whose face really seemed saddened by what he had done. "Do you think that is enough of an excuse?"

"No," Wardes replied. "Oh Gods no," he chuckled awkwardly. "There is no amount of excuses that would work, but you should know that if the child is a girl, my wife was thinking of calling her Louise," as the man said that offhandedly, Saito frowned.

Saito then blinked. "She's-"

"From one man to another, tell me you wouldn't do everything in your power to make your loved ones happy," Wardes said softly, looking at Saito. "And if your answer to that question is 'no', then I might have misjudged your character tremendously, Saito." He inclined his head to the side, and smiled. "Things never are as simple as black and white," Wardes murmured. "I hope you'll understand it one day."

And with that said he walked away to mingle back in the crowd, disappearing into it as if he had never been there to begin with.

"What did he want?" Louise's voice came out 'manly' from behind Saito, making the boy nearly yelp as he turned to stare at the masked Louise, her eyes sour.

"N-Nothing much," Saito replied. "He just wanted to apologize-"

"Apologies, uh," Louise grumbled. "He can take his apologies and-that's enough," she sighed, shaking her head. "I might have torn a couple of pillows in a guest room," she added in a whisper. "My older sister told me a great news-" the sarcasm was evident.

"Yeah, Wardes told me too," Saito murmured. "I can't hold it out against him-isn't he a victim just as much as we are?"

"Maybe he is, maybe he isn't," Louise whispered. A moment of quiet silence grew between the two, until Louise broke it with a poignant question, "How are you holding up?"

Saito exhaled, and smiled awkwardly, "I'm fine. My teachers used to say my only positive feature was that I recovered pretty quickly from the shock of having bad grades," he chuckled. "This is a bit worse than bad grades, but-but it's fine. I am fine. Really."

"Just as long as you're meaning it," Louise muttered hotly. "After this is over, we're returning to Tristain-and then we're heading South for Romalia. From there-well, I suppose we can try to aim for Rub'al Khali."

"You still don't believe I'm from another world?" Saito hazarded. "I keep telling you-"

"Then," Louise said firmly, "If you really are from another world, how am I supposed to bring you back home?"

"Perhaps...the same way Siesta's great-grandfather arrived here?" Saito asked. "I mean-the plane is from my world, and if he arrived here, then-"

Louise blinked through the mask. She looked up at Saito. "I'm stupid. I'm really, really stupid," she added. "Of course that's-that's obvious," she massaged her temples. "I was worrying about so much I didn't even think about it." She shook her head. "Then we're going to Tristain, and then-well, we'll need to know how to make that thing work, and there's got to be magic involved and-and then I'll get you back home." She took a deep breath, and looked straight up at Saito. "You game for that, partner?"

Saito smiled. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because now we have to find the maid and get her to come with us to Tarbes to convince the people there that we need the Dragon's Raiments," Louise said flatly. "And since she is the Queen of Gallia's personal maid," here she looked at Charlotte, on the other side of the ballroom and eagerly chatting with a few richly adorned noble women, "We will need her permission if we want to avoid a scandal."

Saito grimaced.

Louise steeled herself.

This was going to be tricky.

After all, Charlotte had said she had wanted to reward them. The problem wouldn't be banking on the favor.

It would be on Louise's patience to hold up long enough to actually ask for the favor, rather than just tackle the girl on the ground to teach her a lesson.

But she could do it.

She wasn't just an adventurer. She was also a judicious noble, descendant from a noble line that had showed itself capable of great acts of patience, and mercy.

That was, of course, until her mother's line had merged with her father's.

And she was pretty much her mother's spit image.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Five

When Charlotte saw them both draw near, her smile remained firmly planted on her face, even though Louise was pretty sure the girl was wondering if she'd have to hold her threats true or not. The chatting noblewomen nearby were quickly bid farewell, but as they too realized what was coming, they simply moved away with smiles on their faces. They did remain within earshot, but otherwise appeared content with simply looking at the scene.

Louise bowed, as was proper for a knight, and Saito did pretty much the same as was proper for a baron. "The heroes of the hour," Charlotte said softly, finding her voice. "You bring quite the honor to the crown of Gallia, my knights," she added. "Rest assured that you will be handsomely rewarded for your service."

"I am thankful for your kind words, your majesty," Louise said gruffly. "I have but one desire however," Louise looked up, her eyes firm, "My heart aches for the beautiful girl that is your personal maid-I would ask permission to court her."

The noblewomen all emitted various degrees of 'd'aww' and 'how romantic', not actually knowing anything more than the fact that a knight was seeking permission to court a lovely girl, and perhaps with their heads too much into novels. Charlotte, for her part, recovered quickly enough from the surprise. Her eyes moved from 'Louis' to Saito, and then back to the masked knight with a puzzled expression.

"Very...well," Charlotte said softly, "I will, of course, allow it."

"You are most gracious, your highness," Louise answered in turn, bowing deeply.

"But that would still not be enough," Charlotte added, "no, in truth, it would be far too little. You have rendered a great service, allowing for the consolidation of an alliance of Gallia, Tristain and Albion, and because of that, your reward is not mine alone to give," she turned to where, meanwhile, the other two royals had begun to near.

"For the service rendered in safeguarding the stability of Albion," King Wales spoke.

"And for aiding a trusted ally of Tristain," Princess Henrietta continued, looking at Saito, "I have decided to gift you in joined tenure the land of the Des Ornieres-" as Louise knelt down, Saito did pretty much the same. "Please, do rise," Henrietta said next with a small smile. "We are the ones who owe you gratitude," she kept the smile up, "Lord Saito, Baron of La Baume, Des Ornieres, Chevalier de North Parterre-do rise," and as soon as Saito did, Louise followed slowly afterwards.

The clapping in the room was soft and gentle, out in part of obligation, and in part of mere disinterest.

"I am sure you will find the Des Ornieres' a peaceful land suitable for courting your beloved," Henrietta said next in a soft, whispering voice to Louise. The girl nodded awkwardly, not really knowing what to answer.

It was as Saito was about to open his mouth that the windows of the ballroom shattered all at the same time, the deadly shards of glass seemingly freezing in the very air, before thundering forth with deadly accuracy. Necks were sliced before any of the nobles present in court could as much as lift a wand, or raise a scepter, or otherwise bring up any form of defense. The lucky ones were those in ceremonial armor, against which the glass shattered harmlessly.

From the windows, a single figure clad in long and baggy clothes appeared, wearing a hat with a lonely white feather atop it.

The light of the flickering candles illuminated his features as his eyes centered on the remaining survivors, those who had been out of sight when the spell had been chanted, and were huddled in corners or trying to get their wands out. The doors were mysteriously locked, even though more than a few knights in heavy armor tried to shatter through them, it failed as if they weren't made of precious and exotic wood, but of steel.

The deadly glass aimed at Saito and Louise had instead been halted by Charlotte's staff, the girl having apparently managed the feat without much of an effort. The Cardinal had done the same with quick ease, shielding both royals with his scepter held in front of him.

The Elf turned with his eyes as cold as steel -and of the same color too- towards them. The hat shifted lightly, and as elongated ears became visible, the nobles who had been in the process of lifting their wands paled and began to scream, their frantic efforts redoubled in intensity.

"Elf," Charlotte whispered, true honest fear covering her face.

Within mere seconds of whispered foreign words, Wardes was already upon the vile creature, his swordwand extended as he began to fight it. The blade itself didn't as much as impact against an invisible dome of energy, but simply slid across it. Even then, the captain of the Griffin Knights was soon joined by a few more courageous men, all clutching on to large poleaxes or spears, and yet the attacks glanced off, not disturbing the elf's chanting in the slightest.

It was Louise's chant that turned the Elf's bored look into one of pure murder. It lifted its gaze towards Saito and Louise, and then took a step forward. Blades of wind similar to those of Karin sliced with ease through the armor, the flesh and the bones of the guards standing in front of him, reducing them to mincemeat as the creature kept walking forward, his gait unhindered.

"N-Now I-I understand why everyone's af-afraid of them," Saito stammered out as the Elf kept chanting, ignoring the attacks as a blade of wind became a spear of screeching lightning, "L-Louise! Do-Do something!"

Even with his sword in hand, Saito didn't really think he had a chance against such a creature. Wardes had to be a pretty strong knight himself, but he was being pushed back no matter what he did. And the ease with which the Elf had taken out a few of the guards, and most of the nobility? No, this couldn't be normal.

Elves were supposed to be cute girls wearing skimpy green dresses who specialized in Healing! They weren't supposed to be dark and murderous men who had turned a ballroom into a gore-splatter festival in less than one minute!

"Devil-" the Elf spoke calmly, his voice quite at ease even in the hellish situation around them. "Your life is forfeit." And the lightning spear rushed forth with such haste that Saito couldn't even see it, let alone block or counter it in some way or form.

It was because of that thought that he was honestly surprised when he found himself moved from one spot to another, right in front of the lightning spear with his sword drawn. As the scorching hot bolt slammed into the blade, he expected it to melt or burn, but instead it simply held on as it began to shine a brilliant white light.

Crackling with thunder, Saito's next move was clear.

He roared as he swung the blade down, returning the energy of the lightning upon the Elf, who simply dismissed it with the wave of a hand.

"Gandalfr-as an unwilling slave, I will give you mercy if you step aside-"

"Unwilling slave? Gandalfr? I don't know what you're talking about!" Saito snapped back hotly, "I just know that you killed all these people and tried to kill Louise!" as he snarled that, and Louise finished her chanting, the girl's beads of light rushed forth past Saito, their numbers quite high.

For the first time, rather than hold the line, the elf disappeared from sight, reappearing high above on the ceiling. "Then you are already lost," the Elf spoke firmly, "If you choose to protect a devil, then be ready to be-"

Louise appeared right behind the Elf, her eyes narrowed in fury as the swordwand sliced the creature's cheek. Saito blinked, not knowing how the girl had managed such a thing, but apparently the fact that she was chanting the same word over and over had something to do with it. The Elf himself was far more puzzled than before, and as he tried to put distance up, Louise's swordwand pierced through with all the fury that such a lithe girl could possess.

She chanted a word, and she disappeared briefly, reappearing immediately behind the Elf. To Saito's eyes it was as if she was teleporting, like in-well, that famous fighting manga.

The Elf spun abruptly however, and with a thundering backhand crackling with electricity slammed the girl against the nearby wall, and then extended his arm ready to finish her off. Saito ran with far more speed than he had ever believed he could possess, rushing up the wall with his feet digging holes upon the paint as he screamed, jumping off at just the right time to swing his sword down on the arm of the elf itself, who turned his head sharply at his sight.

The explosion of electricity sent the boy to fall out of the palace's window and down two floors, his fall cushioned only by a tree and its branches, which however couldn't withstand his weight plus that of his armor, resulting in him hitting the ground and breaking a good way through the dirt, his vision woozy and dark.

Inside the ballroom, the Elf looked at the mangled remains of his left arm without as much as a flinch in his gaze. Louise's shocked expression still did not stop him from raising his other hand, preparing one more devastating blow.

"He who wounds with electricity, by electricity he shall perish!" as a rapier pierced nimbly through the Elf's back, the creature's eyes widened in disbelief as Wardes stood with his face an inch away from the Elf's own. Then, thundering lightning burst through the creature's whole frame.

Louise would have wanted to remark on how similar the attack had been to that of the assassin, but she couldn't. She couldn't because even with the heart impaled by Wardes' sword, the electric attack aimed at her did not seem to come less, and if anything, the energy of the lightning spell had been poured into the Elf's own spell, which sizzled as it departed straight for her.

It was Charlotte who saved her, prying her off from the wall and gripping tightly onto her shoulders as, with inhuman speed far superior to even that of Saito in one of his good days, they both tumbled on the floor amidst a sea of blood and dead corpses, which dulled the fall -and would give Louise nightmares for the days to come.

"D-Devils," the Elf hissed, coughing out blood. "You...humans-y-you will-catastrophe-"

With a final twist from Wardes' sword, the blade was pulled out as a fountain of blood erupted from the creature's chest, making him fall down like a rag doll, hitting the ground with a last sickening crunch of broken bones.

The Elf was dead.

Just like most of the nobility of La Rochelle.

"S-Saito!" as Louise winced, trying to stand up and removing her breastplate -dented by the thunder-fist of the Elf- she rushed for the window and looked down, "Saito! Saito!"

When she received no reply, she nearly jumped out of the window, only for Wardes to catch her by the midriff. "Easy now!" the captain of the Griffin knights said, "Take the stairs or use Levitate first!"

Louise nodded, and hastily jumped out of the window all the same, flickering out of sight to land on the ground with her knees bent, before rushing towards Saito's fallen form.

Wardes turned away from the window and swiftly walked past Charlotte's prone form, the girl standing up by herself, and reached for the corner where a few of the survivors still lingered, and one far more important than all the others.

"Eleonore-"

The woman's first reply was of slapping him, which was pretty much normal business.

The second reply was to clutch him firmly and cry against his chest, mumbling the usual tirade of words like 'foolish brave man' and 'attacking an Elf is suicidal' and 'think about us would you' and so on.

It was kind of endearing, if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't really care less about her.

He cared about his unborn son, or perhaps daughter.

And the powers of the Void he would possess, eventually, one day.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Six

Saito woke up with a groan, but barring the light headache, he felt pretty much alive and fine. Holding a hand against the side of his head, he made to move only to find the path blocked by a weight of sorts, which soon turned out to be Louise. The girl grumbled in her sleep, her head resting against his chest as she clutched on firmly to his clothes, as if afraid he'd slip away if she did let go.

The image of the strewn corpses reached Saito's head in a flash, soon followed by far more gory images than what he would have liked to remember. He understood now why people hated the Elves. A single Elf had pretty much murdered a whole room filled with nobles, nobles who should have known magic -and should have been capable of using it- but were too slow.

The Elf hadn't even looked interested in their deaths. He had simply marched over their bodies as if they meant nothing to him, going as far ripping people to shreds just because-just because.

He needed a bucket.

Saito Hiraga needed a bucket.

This wasn't the time for being delicate, so he pushed Louise off and stepped out of the bed, grabbing a bucket filled with water and a washcloth nearby. He was quick enough to throw the washcloth out, but then he did indeed heave within it, emptying his stomach of what little he had eaten the day before.

This was too much to withstand. The day before was like a nightmare, a nightmare given the form of a reality which he didn't wish to understand, but which he was forced to.

"Urgh-Hey!" Louise's voice broke through his thoughts, "Saito! You're sick?" she asked next, as Saito gingerly deposited the bucket between his feet, taking a deep breath.

"I-No," Saito said in the end, shaking his head. It finally dawned into him to put the room into focus. The floor was wood, and the room was relatively small. "W-Where?"

"An inn by the docks," Louise said hotly. "We-I'm sorry, Saito," she said next, meaning it. "But after that-that devil attacked, the Princess asked me to escort the Queen of Gallia back home-and so we are going to do that. I should have said something, but-but you already called my name, so the Princess knew and..." she twitched slightly, looking ashamed. "I'm sorry, but we'll have to suffer through this."

"It's-It's all right," Saito nodded awkwardly. "When are we leaving?"

"The ship's set to sail this afternoon," Louise said calmly. "We'll have to escort the Queen of Gallia all the way to Versailles, which is past Lutece, Gallia's capital." Shaking her head, the girl groaned, "I would dare to hope the trip to be uneventful, but considering that-that monster of all things-is it ballrooms? Are we cursed with ballrooms?"

Saito smiled awkwardly, shaking his head as he managed to regain his balance long enough to stand up from the side of the bed and walk a few steps. "Why was it there?" Saito asked softly. "I-There was a reason he was there, right? He just-he just stepped through-"

"Elves-well, you have to understand this," Louise took a small breath. "Normally, Elves are content in staying in the Holy Lands, but sometimes a couple, maybe three at most, they start to travel around the proper faithful countries. They're-look, you'd need six nobles to face a single Elf, and those six nobles would need to be Triangle-class at least. And the Elves-they're not really in the business of telling why they do things. They move, they kill if that's what catches their fancies, they kidnap children-some did that-they poison people-but you can't trust an Elf, never -ever- make the mistake of trusting an Elf."

"They're that bad then?" Saito hazarded.

"Of course they're that bad!" Louise bristled, "The Founder's death is because of them, each time the chances of reclaiming the Holy Lands fail because of them, their envoys are nothing but murderers set loose-they're horrible monsters that eat children and drink the blood of virgins!" the girl clutched her arms around her body, trembling slightly, "I was so scared-it was effortless. His slaughter was effortless. He wasn't even breaking a sweat! How can you face something like that? I used my spells, but so what? They didn't work! He just dodged them! When he threw me against the wall-when he threw you out of the window! What kind of legendary power is 'Void' anyway if a single Elf can do this? What kind of power is that!?"

"A broken power," a calm voice spoke gently, the door opening slightly, "You should not speak so loudly in such a place," Charlotte added smoothly, "I bought the whole inn, but-"

"You are not Charlotte, are you?" Saito remarked, and the girl blinked, and then grinned cheekily.

"Aw! You caught on quickly!" the girl stepped right through the door, the short blue hair holding the same color as that of Charlotte, the face practically the same, but the cheerful tone with which those words were said, they were completely different. "I'm Josette," she winked, "Nice to meet you in my official capacity as a fellow member of the Knights of Gallia!" she clapped her hands excitedly, "Well-Jacques' downstairs keeping an ear on the ground-literally too! And Damien's by the street, there's Bleu on the roof, and Jeanette's keeping an eye on the docks. She's really dependable," Josette grinned excitedly, and took a step inside only to come into quick contact with Louise and her swordwand's tip.

"Eavesdropping is rude," Louise said as calmly as a storm crackling with thunder over the horizon before the sudden summer downpour could be. "And didn't that woman tell you to leave us alone?"

"Aw, come on!" Josette pouted. "It's not like I did anything bad, did I? We even helped you! We risked our lives together! And you shouldn't be that angry, my sister saved your life, didn't she? She didn't have to, but she did it all the same!" Josette used two fingers to move the blade away from her face, "And now that we don't have to play the part of the meek adventuring party, we can get to know each other and form a cherished bond of trust and sincerity! Think about-"

Saito had never expected Louise to be capable of withering a plant with her gaze, but the way Josette shrunk on herself and began to slowly walk backwards, both hands raised in a 'I surrender' gesture told him that he should not satisfy his curiosity either. With a strong enough slam to make the wall quake, Louise closed the door and huffed, sheathing her swordwand with a 'tsk'.

"Saito, if they offer you something, just plain refuse it," Louise said, stretching a bit before walking to the window with a growl in her throat. "I'm feeling restless," she said suddenly.

"Well-" Saito's stomach chose that as the moment to grumble. "I'm hungry."

Louise's stomach answered in turn, like a whale-call of sorts. The girl didn't blush however, but merely lifted an eyebrow. "Food means going down in the kitchens. I-I guess we can survive eating something with the Queen staring at us."

"Charlotte's in the kitchen?" Saito asked, feeling his eyebrows rise in surprise.

"It's in the back of the inn, and she came in through the window," Louise said flatly. "Her royal highness' fear of doors is such that she would rather enter from a window than take the door like commoners, and so she levitates from her room to the kitchen and back. That way, she stays out of sight of the people walking down the main street."

There was a knock at the door, and Louise grumbled as she opened it. Josette stood out there, the smile still on her face. "Hey! I also wanted to tell you that lunch is ready and we'll be eating in the kitchen! Why don't you join us for-"

Louise was about to slam the door shut on the girl's face. She didn't because Saito stood up and moved towards it. "Well-then why don't we go too?" he remarked with a small smile.

"Saito."

"Louise," Saito replied in a soft whisper. "They didn't choose who to serve," he added. "You can't blame them for what isn't their fault."

"Now that's not right," Josette said. "We did have a choice. We could have died of starvation," she smiled as she said that, her cute smile not leaving her face. "Or ended up in a brothel. Some fallen nobles do a pretty good job as bandits, and a couple get by razing down villages. I guess-perhaps," she scrunched her face up in a thoughtful manner, stepping away from the door to let them both follow her in the hallway. "But in the end we did have a choice. We chose the way that gave us warm food and a roof on our heads, and money-all the money! I can buy a pretty dress and go out on dates all week if I wanted, well, and buy a different dress a day-at least, that's what Jeanette says-and does."

"This-This isn't an act, is it?" Saito asked, warily eyeing Josette as if she had grown a second head.

"No silly! Why would I?" Josette said with a small smile. "I mean, we're brothers in arm! We must trust and look after each other! Now let's hurry up, I'm hungry!" like an excited child, Josette proceeded to grab Saito's wrist and pull him along, the boy not even making an effort to pull back.

This...This angered Louise.

And she had no idea why.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Saito had expected the Gallian knights to assemble in the kitchen, but he had not expected the 'Twin Mountains Goddess' to be present either. The girl had her hat firmly planted on her head, and seemed to be kind-of fearfully stuck between Jeanette and Jacques.

"Tiffania?" Louise muttered, "Really?"

Charlotte was at the head of the table, a goblet of wine in her hand. She had long black hair like Josette had at first, meaning that she was using the girl as a body double, and was otherwise perfectly identical to the girl herself. It was as if they were twins, but magic could do a lot of things, couldn't it?

"Ah-Hi," Tiffania said meekly, fidgeting with the hems of her hat.

"She is not a part of any conspiracy, if that may calm your paranoia," Charlotte said offhandedly. "And the food is not poisoned, you do not have to poke it with a stick to check."

"Would poking it with a stick work?" Josette asked innocently enough as she took a seat by Charlotte's free right side. "Wouldn't that work only if it was meant to go kaboom?"

Bleu chuckled nicely as he removed his foppish hat, "Ah Josette, I think our lovely Queen was meaning that in jest."

"Look," Louise said as she sat down, "Are you expecting we act as if nothing happened? After what you did?"

"No," Charlotte said with a small smile, "I would not expect you to believe me, or my words. I-honestly, perhaps if I had told you, you might have helped me. I did ponder on telling you the truth at first, but...you were too nice," she added kindly. "Being nice is good, but it also meant I couldn't ask you upfront."

Damien hummed as he began to serve the food, a trumpet hoisted on his back. "Food's hot and the wine is delicious, so why don't we talk after we've had our fill of both?" as he gingerly proceeded to serve quite the abundant portions to everyone on the table, he took the last free seat.

"Fine," Louise said briskly, clasping her hands in prayer. "Oh Founder Brimir-thee who art in heaven, bless be to you who guides us with your words of wisdom, steels our hearts against injustice and loss, grants us courage to face our foes-Oh Founder Brimir, we thank you for the food upon our tables, which the sweat of our brows has brought to us. We thank the kind descendants of your blood, those just and honest rulers who with their efforts guide us into a blessed age of peace and prosperity-"

Louise was apparently on fire, because by the time she was done, the food had gone from hot to lukewarm. It was still enjoyable, but it seemed pretty clear that the girl could nurse a grudge, and was not about to just drop it. "The food's good!" Saito said with a honest exclamation of joy after a few bites.

"Ah! Thanks," Damien said cheerfully, "I just served it though-Jacques the one who cooked it!"

The quiet giant nodded once, looking slightly down, embarrassed from the faint praise. "Thanks," he said as he took a bite himself.

"So," Louise said slowly, "Why is Tiffania here if she's not part of whatever conspiracy you have concocted this time around?" her eyes went from Charlotte to the girl, her eyes resting far more than what was needed on the bountiful bouncing spheres that had to be unnaturally crafted upon her by some form of pact with the devil.

"Wasn't Marteau supposed to bring you back to your sister?" Saito asked, "Where is he?"

"Ah, M-Mister Marteau is heading to Versailles separately," Tiffania said with a slight fidgeting of her fingers together, "He is with the children, and-and it wasn't wise to let them travel with us if-if an Elf attacked."

"I can see that," Louise said with a nod, "I can't see why you would be an exception."

A small box propped up from inside Charlotte's cloak, and as it settled on the table, the girl proceeded to open it up. To Louise's ears, a melody began to come out, a song that seemed to filter through her brain as something familiar, yet terrifyingly sad at the same time.

"The left hand of God is Gandálfr, the ferocious shield of the lord. His left hand wields a large sword and his right hand wields a long spear, protecting me with endless vigilance-" Tiffania's murmured voice came out softly as if there was a melody that could be heard by her, and as Charlotte nodded in turn, letting the tune continue for a little while longer, Louise's right eyebrow twitched slightly.

"So, what does this song have to do with anything?" Louise asked.

"This is one of Founder Brimir's most valued tools," Charlotte said softly, closing the music box. "It is the Founder's Music Box, and only those who possess the power of the Void may hear it. Miss Tiffania here is a user of the Void, just like you, and me, are."

Louise bristled, "You keep saying that, but frankly? I didn't call you out on it before, but I'm calling you out now: that's bullshit. There hasn't been a Void user since Founder Brimir himself, and that could be just a silly thing, with everybody else nodding at you to make it seem real-"

"I didn't hear anything," Saito whispered.

"Fine, then it's a spell, maybe an illusion or something," Louise crossed her arms in front of her chest, resolutely staring at Charlotte. "You'll have to do more than make a box sing only for a couple of people to actually convince us-"

Charlotte nodded, and then looked at Jacques. She did not need to say anything else as the man grabbed the slab of iron from his back and opened it up, to reveal within it a sword that began to clank loudly. "Oi! Finally! This was starting to get-"

"Right, the ventriloquism act is old news," Louise said with a huff. "I've seen this gig up, and no cranky talking sword is going to make me change my mind. You're destined to great things, I can tell, just sign here on the dotted line and hand me over the money. Yes, yes, anything else?"

Charlotte's expression fell slightly, and she looked from Louise to Saito. "Saito-"

"No, no, eyes on me," Louise said with a snap of her fingers, before Saito could as much as open his mouth. "You want to talk to him? You go through me. Founder knows how your forbidden magic works, but I'm never leaving you and him in the same room alone ever again." Her eyes narrowed. "You can't just take someone and make him a toy. Have a bit of shame, will you? And if you can't have shame, then repent by confessing your sins and paying the price."

Charlotte smiled, but it was Jeanette that piped up in her defense, "Seriously-what are you, Saito's mother?" the girl with light purple hair flicked her hair behind her ears, "The man can speak for himself. Just shut up and learn some forgiveness, it was no big deal. Think of it as having killed a monster that looked like a human. You know, like a Vampire."

"Only he wasn't a vampire! He was a human! He had a beating heart-" as Louise spoke crisply, a sudden giggle erupted from the head of the table. Charlotte's shoulders shuddered as she began to giggle even louder, tears in the corners of her eyes as if she had just heard the funniest joke possible. She slammed a hand on the table's surface a few times, unable to control her giggles.

When she was done, she smiled softly to Louise. "Say that again," she said gently, "and I'll kill you." She kept her smile on, even as the temperature in the room dropped sharply. "I won't give you poison, I won't ask for someone to kill you for me, but I will simply stand up from my chair and stab you with the fork, or maybe the knife if I'm feeling merciful. I will stab you, and stab you, and stab you until you die. I don't care about what consequences there will be-you can be replaced. Saito would probably defend you, so he'd have to be replaced too, but that can be done. 'Everyone can be replaced' that was his favorite sentence, the sentence of the monster you keep thinking was a human being. And do you know when he said that?" Charlotte held her smile up, "When he decided to test if the loss of his only child would give him despair, like it had with your mother. In the end, maybe it's your fault," Charlotte propped a hand to her cheek, and stared firmly at Louise.

There was not a single person in the room who dared to breathe. The knights appeared uncomfortable, as if they had already been told how the story ended, and didn't look forward to it. "No, perhaps it is your mother's fault. She told him once, when he managed to weasel out a meeting, 'every time I look for my daughter and realize it's not her, it's like a door is slammed against my face, only it's not my face, but my heart'. So he had me grab the side of a door and test those words."

Charlotte looked down at her hands. "I'm not expecting forgiveness for what I did. I'm not hoping for a spot in heaven next to the Founder," she continued, "but if I could have, I would not have put you in harm's way. However, 'the sword of the Gandalfr would work better if used by the Gandalfr itself', was too convincing of an argument not to let it be. I-There are no apologies that can be offered, no matter how hard I can beg or grovel, but-but I do not think I need to do any of that. I used you. You used my name and the knighting to avoid trouble with Count Mott. We are even on that ground, or should I have you ask forgiveness? Aren't you simply angry that you were fooled so easily? Rather than being angry at me, aren't you really angry at yourself?"

"I-" Louise swallowed slowly, "I do not know your past, I-I just-" she took a deep breath, "Maybe you had your reasons, maybe you did not have them. But Saito is not of this world, he's here because I summoned him, so he-he has no faults. I-Perhaps, if you had used me, I would have just made peace with it. But I have to be angry in Saito's stead because he won't be. He's a good person. That's-that's what angers me. He's someone so dumb he doesn't even pray properly before a meal, but he's earnest and honest and all you did was stomp on that when you made him a murderer. If he was so bad, then why didn't you ask someone else to deal with him? You have so many knights-surely one would suffice!"

"Anyone other than the Gandalfr would have been hard-pressed to deal with a Void user," the talking sword rattled. "Especially without me in his grasp! I am, after all, the great Derflinger! The sword of Gandalfr, meant to protect the master and kill his foes! And...well, deny magic, even that of the Void. Had anyone else tried to stab him, I am sure he would have gotten away! But no, it was quick and straight to the heart! Just like my mother taught me, but we didn't keep stabbing him for a while, so perhaps not as well."

"The King of Gallia-he was a Void user?" Louise asked softly, her eyes wide.

"Ah! Now the miss decides to believe in this old sword? Well, yes! I'd recognize the feeling of a fellow user's magic anywhere! And the stories I could tell you-if only I remembered half of them, but after all these years, I'm just a rusty piece of scrap. Polished nicely, maybe, but still rusty and scrap metal."

"Aw, you aren't rusty, Mister Derf!" Josette said with a giggle, trying to lift the mood that had turned all the food on the table cold and unappetizing, at least to Louise's stomach. Bleu and Jeanette had instead finished eating, as if the words exchanged were simply old news, and didn't mean anything to them. Damien was halfway through, but simply because he was eating quite slowly, savoring the food.

"Promise me you won't do it again," Saito said suddenly, his face a grimace, his eyes staring straight at Charlotte. "Things like making me kill, threatening to kill Louise. Stuff like that-it doesn't suit you. The kind Charlotte who helped us was much better in my opinion, and I know you can be that if you try, so-so if you promise not to do it again, I'll forgive you, and I'll trust you once more-"

"Saito!" Louise snapped.

"Louise," Saito said sharply. "This-this isn't about you, but about me, right? We're partners, it's fifty-fifty, so if I'm not angry, you get angry at one hundred. Well-I don't want. She had her reasons, and she did horrible things because of that. You can't change that and being angry at her won't change the past. I mean, even I wasn't angry at you forever, and it's been days-"

"Two days! And you spent one asleep!" Louise snapped, "I mean, even a goldfish would hold a grudge for longer-"

"But I'm not the type of person who holds grudges!" Saito snapped. "I'm Saito! Am I the type to hold grudges? Have I ever been the type to hold a grudge? Come on! I'm kind of lazy, and hating people takes effort!"

Louise took a deep breath, and then did something so violently out of character it made Saito blink in surprise.

"Just...Just why couldn't you have been born in this world?" she whispered, her voice cracking as she said that.

And then she rushed away from the table, and out of the inn.

Saito furrowed his brows, not really understanding what was going on.

Still, he knew what he had to do.

He'd pursue.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Louise was fast. She had been the fastest among the orphans, and quite quick with her feet even at the Academy, especially to escape the older years or even her own classmates when the time called for it. Saito could barely keep up with her without pulling out a weapon, but doing so would be kind of counter-productive, so he simply rushed after her dark hair, which turned around a few corners, before coming to a halt in a dirty alleyway she had run into, a dead-end on the other side.

Her fists slammed against the wall angrily, but before she could reach for her swordwand, Saito's hand gripped her wrist to stop her. "Louise!" he yelled, "What's gotten into you?!"

"J-Just let me go!" Louise snapped back, trying to break free of the grip and failing miserably at that. "Just-Just when did you become this strong?" she grumbled, starting to kick him in the shins. "Come on! Let go of me!"

"Not until you tell me what's wrong!" Saito said hotly, keeping the hold firm. "Louise! Please, you have to understand-"

Louise stopped fighting all of a sudden, her face betraying a tired expression looked up at Saito with a grim smile, a sad and defeated look that was only accentuated when she simply slumped her shoulders and proceeded to drop down with her back against the wall. The pavement was positively filthy, but she didn't seem to care about it, and as Saito hesitantly let go of her wrist, she remained with her back against the wall, her head propped up against it.

"Heh," she said with a small shrug, "In the end, it's always back to being a failure."

"Louise," Saito said softly, kneeling down to be at her same eye-level, "It's just the two of us right now, so-so whatever the problem is, tell me. I'll understand."

"You always understand," Louise retorted flatly. "You don't 'understand' a thing, but we are an understanding person, aren't you, Saito? If the roles had been reversed-the moment I realized my power, I would have knocked you out and kept you tied up like a ham, and then I'd have made a name for myself, perhaps berating you for-for having brought me away from my family, my home, my people, even my planet!" she giggled nervously, "I was so desperate back then. So, so desperate, I acted all tough and, like, knowledgeable, but-but I was so scared that when I summoned you, well, if I had summoned a gerbil, I would have been glad all the same."

She wiped at her eyes with the back of her left hand. "Oh Founder Brimir-pentagon of the five elements, please send me a familiar that can help me get home. Please, I beg of you, even though I'm a failure, I just want to go home. Even if I cannot cast properly, send me a proper familiar who will understand me, who will be there for me, who will help me-that's what I said, you know?" she made a small awkward smile, "And when you popped out, I thought 'damn, I got myself a ball and chain, a weight, something really fit for the orphan failure of a no-name Germanian church'."

Louise clenched her hands, looking down at them, at where her nails were digging in her palms. "But you weren't a failure. You didn't scream at me. You didn't yell at me. You didn't leave me. Maybe it was because you were scared, but-but in the end, you stuck with me. Even when you could have left," she giggled softly, "I woke up a few times in the middle of the first nights afraid you'd just walk away while I was asleep, or start to choke the life out of me with your hands. Those are my most recurring nightmares, you know? Of you killing me, insulting me, giving me what I deserve for being such a horrible person-"

"Louise, I'd never-"

"But maybe you should!" Louise snapped abruptly. "I had nothing. There was nothing to my name, and you stuck around me. You-you couldn't read, but you learned really quickly. You could have found work in the city, left me, but you didn't. You kept staying by my side. Yes, I promised you I'd bring you back home, but what if it was an empty promise? What if it is an empty promise? What if there's no way back home for you and I'm the one responsible for it!?" she pushed both hands against her face. "Why did you trust me? I wouldn't have trusted a two-copper ecus orphan like myself with such a big promise. We'll be adventurers! Who the hell would believe that!? We made it, somehow we made it, and I was happy. Really, I was happy. Even if I wanted to become a nun, I was still really happy to have someone like you by my side."

She smiled even as she brought her knees close to her, wrapping her with her arms, "It-It made me feel happy to have someone believe in me so much. I thought I'd never be worth something, but you kept pushing me, and I became someone. I was the adventurer Louis, that-that was beautiful, you know? To have a sense of purpose, even something as simple as 'killing monsters for money' and to have someone to share it with. I wasn't a failure any longer, I wasn't an orphan kid any longer. I was an adventurer, and yet-yet I always thought that whenever you got hurt, it was still because of me. You said it was your duty, as the one with the shield-and the armor-but I was the one who brought you here."

Louise shook her head softly. "You had no duty, you have no duty, there is no reason for you to protect me like you do. There was no reason, and there is no reason. When-When you died, when you stopped being my familiar, I thought you'd just realize it and say goodbye, but you didn't. You stuck by my side, worse than glue, really," she chuckled bitterly. "You really never hesitated, did you? You never thought about it either, but that's just like you. To never think things through, no matter what. To act like a headstrong imbecile only when there's no one around to stop you, and-and when I saw you be flung against the wall of the barracks, when I saw you hurt like that-I-I nearly blew my mother's familiar head off. I was just so angry," Louise shuddered. "But...but I understood it back then, the limits you were bringing yourself to just to stick around me. I had a whole week to watch you sleep, and I couldn't do anything but think, well, think and get cuddles, and recriminate about me being cuddled," Louise's grip on her shoulders tightened.

"Oh Founder, I took him away from something like this? I took him away from a loving, understanding family? I took him away from his mother, his father, his friends? I took him away from his whole world?" Louise murmured in disbelief, her head shaking slightly. "I would not have forgiven this. I would not have forgiven this to anyone, even the Founder. I would not have allowed anything to stand between me and going back home, and I'd have hit the guy, I'd have choked the guy, I'd have killed the guy."

"Louise, look-how about we go back in the inn and-"

"Let me finish!" Louise snapped sharply. "It's-It's important that I finish this. Then-Then we can go back, and face whatever happens next, but-but I must finish first," she said shakily. "Don't you understand? You're dense, aren't you? You're a block of dense marshmallow, a girl gives you the kind gaze and you move over to help like some sort of knight in shining armor, and it's not bad, but you've got to pay attention-you've got to be careful, because sometimes people aren't nice, no matter how nice they appear. I thought-well, I thought you'd realize it, but you didn't. And then I understood that somewhere, somewhere deep down, I was glad you didn't. Because if you forgave me for taking you away from your whole world, then of course you'd forgive someone like Charlotte. If you didn't, then it wouldn't be you," she whispered the last words with conviction, and suddenly chuckled, looking straight into Saito's eyes as she gave him one more tired smile.

"Maybe I lied. Maybe I'm not really angry about Charlotte. Maybe the one person I'm angry the most is myself, because with everything that happened-a void user, really? Don't you know that Void Users are destined to participate in a great crusade in the Elf's lands? And Saito can't be the Gandalfr-he was traumatized, traumatized I say, but-but if he is, then it's my fault again. And he'll just get hurt again, and again, and again-and even if he isn't hurt, he'll still be here because I summoned him. So-So it's all my fault. And so if it's all my fault," Louise grabbed a fistful of her hair, "Then what right do I have to feel like I feel? What right do I have to-to feel this-this."

And then she jumped straight against Saito's face, locking her lips with his in something that was akin to desperation, a mixture of need and yet also the saltiness of tears that kept being shed by already red and puffy eyes.

"That's it," Louise said in the end, pushing him away with both of her hands on his shoulders. "Now you can just-you know, do something silly like saying 'a brothel would have been better as an apology', and I'll laugh at it, and you'll laugh, and we can move on to it-"

"Louise," Saito muttered. "Was that-"

Louise shook her head. "Nothing really. It was nothing. Think of it as a joke. Yes, this all thing was just a joke. Better this way, just a joke-we will get you back home now. Siesta-She's not here, she went with Marteau back and she'll be in Tristain, and she knows someone who can help fix the Dragon Raiment, a kind teacher, or something like that. I don't know. And then, we'll head back from Versailles to Tristain, and you'll hop on and then leave. We'll make it with plenty of time to spare too. Guess what? You're even lucky-the moons usually come together once every hundreds of years, and that time is coming in little more than a month. Plenty of time to say your goodbyes, plenty of time to prepare and leave-plenty...of time..." she swallowed noisily, "To forget about this silly joke I played on you."

"When were you going to tell me this?" Saito asked, his voice half-shocked and half-puzzled, mostly because he had a silly smirk on his face and was gingerly touching his lips with his left hand.

"I was going to," Louise said, looking abruptly to the side. "Just-Just not now, not like this. I was-Well, after Versailles, on our way back. If they couldn't repair the plane, I didn't want to give you a false hope, but-but I know they will repair it, because Saito, please-please listen to me," she grabbed the hem his sleeve with both hands, "You can't fight a war. I won't allow it. I won't allow you to fight a war because of this world's sake, not when it doesn't concern you. It doesn't matter how they phrase it, I know Charlotte wants that. I know she's planning something, and I know it won't be anything good. I know it, and because I know it, please, Saito...please, promise me you'll refuse whatever deal they'll offer you and go back home."

She wrung her hands together, dropping her grip on Saito's sleeve. "Just-just don't say anything, all right? I-I think it's best if we forget about this, just remember the last part, and we can go back and be-be ourselves. Yes, that-that would be for the best."

Louise weakly smiled, "What-What do you say about that, partner?"

"No," Saito replied. It was a pretty normal word, but it froze Louise's weak smile on her face.

"No?"

"No," Saito nodded, "I need to give you a proper answer."

And he did.

Yes indeed, he did.

AN: ...Just so we are clear, understand that unless there is a 'The End' in the lower right corner this means absolutely nothing in the form of 'official' or not pairings -especially because I never work with that concept in my head to begin with. I wouldn't be surprised if in future chapters from now there would be a heart-breaking scene where they leave each others. Just so you are warned.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Nine

It was an awkward pair -no, couple- of persons that returned to the inn. Josette opened her mouth, and then closed it, not really understanding what was going on as Jeanette simply pushed her out of the way with a 'Later, dear'. Bleu simply spun his foppish hat with his index finger, and Jacques said nothing, as usual.

Damien simply remained outside in the street until they had to leave for the ship, not really bothered by anything.

"Just keep an eye out on potential assassins," Bleu said, his foppish hat on his head as they walked through the back alleys of the city towards the ship meant for them. "You'll recognize them because they'll be coming for us," as he said that, he began to walk ahead with Josette slightly behind him.

Tiffania's hat was still firmly planted on the girl's head, and as she looked nervously around, she gave a hesitant expression towards Saito and Louise. "Is-Is everything all right now?" she asked gently, a slight worry in her voice. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes," Louise said with a victorious smirk, "I'm feeling better. It was just a silly thing, nothing to worry about."

Saito didn't have a victorious smirk as much as a silly grin, even as Charlotte, her long dark hair reaching shoulder-length, stood quietly to the side of the formation. To any stranger, it was clear that Josette was the one being escorted, and since she was currently disguised as the Queen of Gallia, any would-be Elves attempting at her life would come for her.

The ship they were supposed to embark on was currently floating gently near the docks, as if ready to depart at the first available moment, and as the strange group reached for the ship's deck, the captain welcomed them eagerly, bowing profusely to Josette as if she were the Queen herself.

Josette played her part pretty well, and with the offer of the Captain's cabin to satisfy her royal tastes, the rest of her escort was given the rooms immediately next to hers. Charlotte entered through the captain's window with a levitate spell -citing the necessity to check for trouble from outside.

"Well, color me impressed," Damien said with a snicker, "We haven't talked much, but I pegged you for the type to let issues lie until they became inevitable," the young kid -only in appearance, probably- said as he sat on the side of his bed, testing how springy it was with a satisfied expression.

Saito furrowed his brows. "Why?" he asked.

"Just a hunch," Damien said with a shrug. "I do feel sorry for you. Having to sleep surrounded by males is not the best, and certainly doesn't beat sleeping with a girl," the boy said with a teasing smile, making Saito actually blush, "but at least we have separate beds, and nobody snores."

"I-I see," Saito said, fidgeting slightly.

Damien gave one look at Saito, and then gave one at Bleu, who in turn gave one at Jacques. Jacques nodded, and sat down on the floor, thus making sure his head reached that of Saito, who was instead sitting on the side of the bed.

"Talk," Jacques said. "I am a good listener."

Saito blinked, and stared at Jacques. "I-There's nothing to say, is there? I mean-we should catch some sleep since we're setting sail in the middle of the night, but-"

"You have much on your chest, but it's not the hair of a man," Jacques said with a knowing nod, patting his own chest. Apparently, he really did enjoy going around bare-chested, which made more than one girl, woman and even old lady turn around with an appreciative look. "I'm the oldest Brother. It's my responsibility to listen."

"He's very good at that," Bleu said with a smile, even as he settled his hat on his face and dropped like a dead man on his bed. "Night."

Saito chuckled nervously at that proclamation, even as Damien simply pushed a pillow over his face and began to snore peacefully, the trumpet-looking thing by his side.

"It's-It's really nothing to talk about. I-I guess me and Louise have become something more than just friends," Saito said awkwardly.

Jacques simply nodded, and looked straight at Saito, nothing else. Saito fidgeted, and then blushed. "We became...involved, romantically that is-" Saito looked away, scratching the side of his cheek. "I think-Well, that's a great thing! I'd normally boast of it, but-but the way it happened, and where-when, and so it's not like I'm not happy, but there's a lot behind it and maybe-just maybe, I should start to think about-"

Saito stopped talking and turned red like a cherry, fidgeting with his fingers. Steam came out of his ears, and Jacques simply stared.

"Well-Not now, but-but one day we'll-I will-I'm not good when it comes to thinking about the future!" Saito said sharply.

"Or thinking in general," Bleu said cheekily from beneath his hat. "I mean, heading off alone in the middle of an Undead infested city? We let you go because we knew you were the Gandalfr, but even then, Josette was right behind you ready to intervene if the situation warranted it. She's a cherished member of our team, so we might have been a bit peeved if something happened to her."

"You sleep," Jacques said, "Or I will make you sleep."

An extremely fake and exaggerated snore came from beneath Bleu's hat immediately after.

Jacques nodded very slowly, and with quite the approving smile on his face. He turned to look at Saito next, and scrunched his eyebrows in thought. "The future scares you, so you do not think about it," he said wisely. "But you cannot run away from your fears," he added. "You must not run away."

"I...I mustn't run away?" Saito hazarded, "That feels like a cheeky thing to say, but-"

"You mustn't run away," Jacques said again, nodding. "And drink milk. You must train, too," he flexed an arm, showing his muscles trembling within a bicep of his. "And if something blocks your path, then," he raised his hand and clenched it tightly, "destroy it!"

"Destroy it?" Saito furrowed his brows, "How does that even work? This isn't helping me understand."

"Is it not?" Jacques said. "What help do you need?"

"I just want to know what to do now," Saito said in a whisper, "I mean, my dreams in life pretty much amounted to me going back home after boasting about having stepped inside a proper brothel, and now I have a-a girlfriend, and this world isn't so bad-but my family needs to know I'm not dead, don't they?"

"Can you not send them a message?" Jacques asked. "You could write them a letter-"

"A letter?" Saito whispered, and then he blinked. "A letter!" he exclaimed loudly, seconds before a shower of cold water hit him right in the face, courtesy of Damien's trumpet which apparently doubled as a 'noise extinguisher' when used by the half-asleep boy.

Saito blinked at the sudden wave of cold water, but then chuckled and smiled at Jacques. "You're really the best at solving problems!"

Jacques' large hand came down on Saito's head, and as he patted his head a bit, the large man nodded once more. "You are one of my young brothers. It is my duty."

In the other room, the situation was not as heartwarming as it could be.

For starters, Jeanette looked like a cross between an ancient monster from beyond time and space, and half a field of produce. She also was flaunting what looked like a complex system to keep her bust up and her waist thin, which had somehow emerged from her belongings and made Louise wonder just how someone could keep that much stuff in such a small backpack.

"If you want to look cute, you have to work for it," Jeanette said hotly, waving one of her curls around a curler in front of her face. "Maybe I can go with the Gallian style? What's fashionable around court these days?"

Josette giggled and shook her head, even as she passed a comb through the long dark hair of Charlotte, who had a pleasant smile on her face. "Uhh can I be fancy too?" Josette asked, "But my hair's short now," she twirled a lock of short blue hair. "When can we swap hair again, big sister? I want my hair back long," the girl pouted, looking positively adorable.

Louise huffed, and looked at a lock of her own hair, twiddling it between her thumbs. "Someone wants to have her hair combed?" Josette asked with a teasing -and surprisingly innocent all the same- expression. "I'm really good," she said with a bright smile, "I've got magic hands," she wiggled her fingers, "But don't tell anyone, or they'll steal my fingers away!"

Jeanette and Charlotte both giggled softly at Josette's childishness, but Louise wasn't convinced. "With my luck, there are tiny poisoned daggers in your comb," she said as flatly as she could.

"No, but my umbrella can fire a hail of bullets in a pinch," Jeanette said with a smile. "Well, it's your loss. Josette really has magic hands. You should try one of her massages," Jeanette smiled as she dropped her back on the cot, putting yet more produce on her closed eyes and folding her hands together. "Keep being sour like that, and you'll get wrinkles."

"I won't!" Louise shot back hotly.

"Sure, sure," Jeanette yawned. "Let's see if you're so smug when I'll steal your beau away with my beautiful locks while yours remain filthy-"

"Jeanette," Charlotte said with a slight warning, "Behave."

Jeanette huffed. "Yes, big sister," she exhaled softly, "Good night."

Louise didn't really think the light purple haired woman could fall asleep so quickly, and so kept her eyes half-narrowed. She didn't trust Charlotte -or even Josette for what it mattered- not to use a Water spell on her. She was ready with her swordwand just in case, 'polishing' it until the point where it had begun to shine of a light of its own, but she was starting to ponder if perhaps she needed to polish the wand too.

Did noble ladies polish wands? Somehow, she hadn't managed to ask anyone around her out of some form of instinctive desire to avoid embarrassment -even if she couldn't place the source of such embarrassment.

"I'm stepping out for a drink," Louise said, standing up and walking out of the room awkwardly. She had to 'protect' the Queen, but this didn't mean she had to stay in the same room as her. She could stand guard outside the door, and if she had stepped inside it was simply to check on the layout of the room, and how comfortable the bed was.

The bed was actually pretty comfortable, with it being the Captain's room and all -and the other beds having been moved over from other cabins.

Tiffania hadn't stepped inside the room yet, blaming air-sickness. Louise could see her by the bow of the ship, staring into the horizon with her arms crossed around her chest, shivering slightly from the cold. Certainly, she could have entered the room at a certain point?

"Hey," Louise said as she drew near, receiving an 'eep' from the girl, who clutched her hat hard atop her face. "You don't have to be scared," she added with a chuckle. "I'm not like the rest. Saito and I, we were kind of 'coerced' into coming along. We never had a chance to have a proper chat, did we?" Louise added with a small smile. Sure, if she ignored the girl's monstrous physical impossibilities in front of her chest, then all she could see was a terrified girl who had been thrust into a role perhaps too big for her. Like her breasts. No, the more Louise stared at those things, the less he could believe they were real.

They had to be water balloons, or sandbags. "I-Well, I'm sure you're scared about this whole 'Void' business. I mean, I'm scared too, but at least I've been an adventurer for a few months, so I'm kind of used to getting scared, and Saito's-" Louise giggled softly, "Well, the idiot's an idiot, but he's my idiot. I think that you're...feeling alone, aren't you?" Louise asked, "I can relate!" she piped in.

"Uhm...I-I'm sorry," Tiffania said meekly, "Usually it was just the children, a few kind men and women from the nearby villages-but I'm not used to being around so many people."

"Well, I had a sheltered upbringing too," Louise said. "Grew up as an orphan inside a church in fact-first time I went into Vindobona-I swear I never believed there could be so many people," she added in a hushed whisper.

"Really?" Tiffania asked. "I-I didn't get to visit much of the city," she added. "Mister Marteau had to leave in a hurry, and Miss Charlotte said that she knew my sister from her time at the magic academy-I would have liked to go to school there," she said wistfully. "How is a magical academy like?" she asked next.

"It's nothing to lose sleep over," Louise answered as calmly as she could. "There's always a pecking order, and orphans come last. Orphans who can't properly use magic go further down. And the headmaster wore a silly hat I hope he's eating with gusto. I really do want to send him a letter one of these days just to think about his reactions to it-" she took a small breath, and smiled, "But I learned much more by simply being on the road than by going to school! A couple of months, and I knew how to make bigger explosions, put people to sleep, dispel magic and now I can even Teleport! They just pop into my head whenever they're really needed, and then they stick around afterwards."

"Oh," Tiffania said, "That's-That's what happened to me. I was so afraid, but then the spell Sleep came into my mind."

"Yeah," Louise nodded, the smile not leaving her face. "Well, don't worry a thing about this 'Void' stuff. I guess-I guess if they're going to call a crusade, and we'll have to be a part of it, then we can just do our best in the name of the Founder," she smiled brightly, "Hey-thinking about it, have you summoned your familiar yet? Saito's-" she furrowed her brows, "No, wait. Perhaps it's best if you don't do that."

Tiffania blinked, "Why not?"

"Because..." Louise hesitated only slightly, and then scratched the back of her head, "I summoned Saito from a place far, far away. I took him away from home, and from his family. He said he's not really bothered much by that, but if you summon something it's one thing. If you summon someone though-can you live with the thought you might be taking away from a loving family their only son or daughter?"

Tiffania's eyes widened as she gasped, her hands to her mouth. "P-Poor Mister Saito!"

"Uh-uh," Louise nodded grimly, "I'm just plain lucky it was him, and him being him, he simply was himself when he-well, it's complicated," the girl nodded once more, scratching her head as she looked momentarily down at the wooden floor of the ship.

A sudden gust of wind blew sharply, making Tiffania gasp and bringing Louise's eyes back up to meet hers. Louise frowned as Tiffania paled considerably.

"What's wrong? Do you have a fever or something?" Louise asked, before blinking. "Wait-your hat! It must have flown-"

"I have it here~" Josette said with a cheeky grin, walking slowly out from below the deck, hat in her right hand. She held her innocent smile on her face even as she handed it over to Tiffania, "But you shouldn't hide your ears like this, Tiffa~" she added in a sing-song voice.

Louise raised an eyebrow. "Her ears?"

Tiffania swallowed nervously as Louise scrutinized them, "They're pretty normal," she said in the end. "Why would you hide them like that?"

"She's really shy," Josette said with a bright smile. "One would think she's got this big secret beneath her hat, but it's just a pair of perfectly normal human ears. She's just really shy with them, really-" Josette playfully bit on one of them, making Tiffania awkwardly fidget away, or at least try to. "Tasty~" giggling lightly, Josette stepped away. "Well, don't lose your hat again, Tiffa!" and as she placed it back on the girl's head, she winked and left them, whistling happily.

Louise shrugged. "Does she have a loose screw or something?"

Tiffania hastily shook her head, while holding on to her hat quite firmly with both hands now. "N-No! I just think she's being very nice. And considerate, really," she nodded vehemently. "Any friend of my sister has to be a good person-my sister would never associate with bad people, after all!"

Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt sneezed loudly, quite a few miles away.

Loud enough to alert the guards of the manor she was trying to break into, at least.