Chapter Twenty-Five
When Luise woke up, the glare on Saito's face made her squirm slightly. "We escaped?" she asked.
"Yes," Saito said. "I've got a bruise the size of an ax on my chest, but we escaped," he added offhandedly. They were on the road, the horse having tired itself during the run and having dropped down to a meager trot, which had soon moved into a simple walk. "You didn't have to do that," Saito added.
"Those fiends worked for a perverted monster," Luise said hotly. "They kidnapped girls and brought them to him, they deserved much worse! If I hadn't felt faint, I would have stomped on their family jewels until they took part in a chorus! That we left them there is a sign of mercy, let me tell you!"
"If they catch us again, we'll be in hot waters," Saito said.
"Then it's a good thing we just have to reach the Cardinal," Luise said. "Once we manage that, the Count will be powerless. He might be the royal messenger, but he can do nothing against the head of the Brimir Church in Tristain."
Saito took a deep breath, and bit his tongue. "I understand," he said in the end, "But couldn't you have waited until they went to sleep!?"
"Silly Saito," Luise grumbled. "They had no intention of leaving us with our weapons. They'd have knocked them out of our hands the moment they got near. That's why I made sure they were dismounting from their horses when I began chanting."
Luise snuggled a bit closer, gripping on to Saito's chest since they were still on the horse -the boy having no clue how to dismount, and having managed to mount it by the simple principle of 'jumping on it' with Luise in his arms and the familiar runes giving him the much needed boost.
"You couldn't be sure about that," Saito said hotly. "They looked like-well, nice guys."
"And yet they worked for a man who has no qualms kidnapping young women when it suits his fancy. Saito, they were bad people, clearly heathens who went against Brimir's word and the Gods' wisdom. You can't trust that kind of people. Just because they've got a nice face and say nice things doesn't mean they're nice people."
And that was that. Saito didn't have anything more to say, and neither did Luise. They just stood in awkward silence until the horse neighed to signal he would not move any longer, and they'd have to drag him if they actually wished to go further.
They didn't, and so they dismounted to find a quiet place away from the road to sleep. Since they couldn't light a fire for fear of being seen from afar, they ended up scuttling closer to one another with a couple of thick cloaks to cover them both as the horse rested nearby.
"Did you dry the horse?" Luise asked in a mumbled voice, her head peeking from within the cloaks.
"You have to dry it?"
"Yes, you have to," Luise said hotly. "Fine," she grumbled, pushing herself out of the warm covers. "We'll dry it and then we'll go back to sleep. Can't believe you don't know a horse needs to be dried. Do you think they do that on their own?" as Luise grumbled, she started to wipe away the sweat from the gallop from the animal's flanks, the horse merely lowering its head to look around for some grass to eat.
"We can't keep him," Luise added as she gave a flat look at Saito's hopeful gaze. "I know a horse would be nice, but we can't keep a stolen horse. We'll use him to reach the city and then we'll let the church deal with handing it back to the Count."
The horse neighed softly, whining as it looked into Luise's eyes with its own. "Just be thankful we're not evil guys who'd sell you to a farmer for some quick money!" she hissed, before blinking at Saito's teary-eyed gaze. "And don't you cry!"
"B-But Uma here-" as Saito stammered that out, doing his best imitation of a needy child, Luise's shoulders began to tremble.
"You even named it," Luise said flatly.
Saito nodded wordlessly, much to Luise's utter amazement. The girl tapped her right foot against the ground as she kept drying the horse, and once she was done she returned to the sheet fort and settled inside within the warmth together with Saito. "No matter how much you cry, I'm not letting you keep the horse."
"But aren't we partners?" Saito said. "Shouldn't my opinion matter?"
"It does when it's not stupid," Luise said. "The horse has a mark on its flank that signifies it belongs to a noble. We are not nobles. Give it a few days, and the mercenaries will tell their lord of a stolen horse, and since none of us have a symbol of Count Mott on our clothes, the guards will think we're horse thieves, and they'll punish us accordingly. If you wish to spend years in the beautiful prisons of Tristain then be my guest, go right ahead and keep the horse, but when I'm telling you to do something, maybe you should consider I'm not doing this to be mean!"
As she hissed that out, Luise nestled her head against Saito's chest, grumbling under her breath as she did so. "Sheltered merchant kids are a pain."
"You're a sheltered nun," Saito retorted. "Aren't we just two sheltered kids in the end?"
"Speak for yourself," Luise snapped. "Sheltered or not, I still know what's common sense and what's not. You think there's only one moon up in the sky!"
"My world has only one moon," Saito said firmly.
Luise huffed, and sighed. "Look," she said in the end. "Maybe-maybe it does, all right? Maybe I've misunderstood you, and you've been kept under lock by some very evil guys who played a cruel prank on you since you were a tiny kid, and if that's the case then may Brimir smite them, because such a level of cruelty is unwarranted, but this world has always had two moon. You can see them even now up in the sky," Luise said. "So, if you say you come from another world, one with only one moon-just how far should we go?" Luise asked, "And how should we reach it?"
Saito hesitated. "I-I don't know."
"Well, luckily for you," Luise said, "I thought about it. If you are absolutely sure your world only has one moon, then we'll talk to someone who has to know enough about summoning magic to know how to reverse it. When we're done with the Cardinal, let's go to the Magic Academy in Tristain and see if we can't get a professor to tell us more," she chuckled. "See? You thought you didn't have a way back home, but in fact, you just need to trust in your partner-who is me. I'll be the brains and you can be the brawn."
Saito snorted. "Wasn't it like this before too?"
"Uh, you're right," Luise said with a tiny giggle. "Now try to get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."
Luise was absolutely right.
The next day would be a long one. It would be a very, very long one.
For on the road towards Tristain they met with another fellow traveler upon a horse surprisingly similar to theirs, who gave a panicked look and a squeak at being discovered.
"Saito," Luise said darkly. "Bring us closer! I want to hit her with my sword!"
"But you don't have a sword!" Saito yelled back, even as he kicked the flanks of the horse to send it into a gallop.
"Then that's the first thing I'll buy once we've got the money!" Luise snarled as she held her wand forward. "Halt in the name of-in the name of myself and Saito!"
The waitress aptly stopped. The horse Saito and Luise were on didn't, since Saito hadn't yet learned how to stop the horse barring the 'wait for it to tire'.
So they passed Siesta by, and the waitress simply looked at them move past her with a shocked expression that soon morphed into puzzlement, and then bewilderment.
"Stop the horse!" Luise yelled.
"HOW!?"
Saito's scream was heard throughout the countryside for minutes to come.
Just like Luise's prayers, which the horse, unfortunately being a heathen too, did not follow.
