The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Unless the author says otherwise, I'm still sure that (since this is an AU) Henrietta will fall for "Luis" The Gallant Male Adventurer.
You're so cruel. There was this whole set up and then you do this.
I lol'd IRL.
Silver W. King
King of Adventures
- Location
- The Nasuverse
I wonder how pissed off shadenight will be at how many people writing his name wrong. 
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Well, if Tabitha had any of her canon adventures, she knows that magic talking weapons are usually extremely powerful.
Of course, she'd also know that sometimes they can possess people, which might make carrying one around a little worrying.
Chapter Thirty-Two
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirty-Two
The head-priest of Tristain's church was more than happy to tell them that the Cardinal would receive them with all due haste by the end of the day, and as both Saito and Luise made their way to the palace's backdoor, the Japanese boy couldn't help but ask.
"Why aren't they letting us in through the front door?"
"Forgive me, your majesty, I did not know you were a king, or the son of a noble," Luise replied dryly, earning a sheepish look from Saito. "Be thankful the Cardinal's taking some of his time to receive us. I hope we don't stink too much. You think he's going to care? Let me do the talking. You're just going to end up getting us both excommunicated if you speak."
Saito chuckled nervously. "It won't be that bad, will it?"
"Maybe he'll have us beheaded after excommunicating us, so our souls will be damned to hell for all eternity," Luise mumbled once more, her face pale -from what little could be seen beyond the mask. "Saito, keep your mouth shut all right?"
"Fine," Saito replied while rolling his eyes. When they did enter the palace, Saito was deprived of all of his weapons, a few guards sighing as they had to 'disarm' an adventurer.
"You'll get your stuff when you come out," one of the guards said. "The miss can keep her wand, but not the swordwand."
Without weapons, Saito felt kind-of naked. He still had his armor, but he was without weapons, so if they ended up being in a pinch he would have to improvise. Although judging by the amount of suits of armor standing to attention by the sides of the hallways they walked on, following behind a servant, finding a weapon in the palace wouldn't really be much of a problem.
The cardinal received them in a small room with a crackling chimney and a couple of plush armchairs. There was a small table in front of him, and a teapot.
"Your Eminence," Luise said, kneeling down. Saito quickly followed, ending up on one knee just as Luise had.
"Do rise and deliver the letter," Cardinal Mazarin said, his eyes fixed on them both, and then squarely on Luise as she drew near to hand over the letter. The Cardinal opened it with a small letter cutter, and as he read the contents, he began to shift his eyes from the letter to the duo. "That is amusingly ironic. I think poor Father Christoff had a heart attack at seeing you with a mask, dear child. Could you remove it?"
Saito frowned, but Luise quickly obeyed, pushing back her cowl to reveal her hair too. "Your Eminence?" Luise asked, not really understanding the order.
The Cardinal's breath was stolen away for a second, and then his eyes softened up considerably. "You are indeed her split image. If I didn't know any better, I would think a youth potion was used," he sighed and gestured at the armchair. "Do sit young child, we have much to talk, and much to explain." His eyes moved to Saito. "You can leave us, adventurer. I am sure you will find a servant with a bag of gold outside the door that will more than satisfy your thirst for knowledge, and will also pay for your silence."
"Uh?" Saito blinked.
"Your Eminence-Saito's my partner," Luise said. "There's nothing I'd keep from him-and I'm not planning on leaving him behind any time soon, so if you would forgive the impertinence-I'd rather he stay." Luise didn't sit however, but simply stood slightly in front of Saito.
"Oh, very well," Cardinal Mazarin said with a small nod. "Although you may soon find out that you truly should not consider yourself similar to a mere commoner, my fair lady."
"Your Eminence?" Luise asked, perplexed.
The Cardinal took a deep breath. "This story starts a very long time ago, I am afraid. It starts with the sad and harrowing disappearance of a young noble child and ends with a complex plot that has said noble child found again," the Cardinal sighed, taking a sip of the tea in his cup. "It was...unfortunate, but for the good of the country, the recovery of one Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Valliére had to be postponed until the time was right."
"Louise?" Luise mumbled. "I don't understand, your Eminence."
"Strawberry blond hair is quite uncommon in Germania," Mazarin said. "Father Christoff suspected you might have been the long lost child when your hair began to turn a shade of strawberry, and sent me a letter. Unfortunately during that time tensions between the crown and your mother, the Duchess Karin, had reached a point where your recovery might have just sparked a war." The Cardinal took another sip. "I am not proud of what I did, but what I did, I did for the country," the cardinal's eyes bore into Luise with a firm gaze.
"I don't...I don't understand," Luise said, her fingers wringing each other as she looked down at them, her eyes unfocused and glazed over.
"The Duchess, quite simply, moved the mountains to try to find you. And in so doing showed the weakness of the crown who could not stop one of their nobles from doing as she pleased. This, in turn, meant that your recovery would have made it all the more obvious how weak they were. Especially so if you were found in Germania, of all places," the Cardinal took one more sip, and Saito was already starting to dislike him sipping tea like that. "The risk of war with a country that is more than five times the military power of Tristain had to be avoided at all costs. If you had been found, on Germanian soil, well, the Duchess would have felt the need to demand reparations from the country itself."
The Cardinal placed his teacup back on the small table, letting the porcelain clink. "That could not be allowed. So, you were never found. Time passed, and the Duchess lost hope. The nobles were reined in, and as everything seemed to go the right way for once, well, one of your older sisters-I think her name was Cattleya Yvette La Baume Le Blanc de La Fontaine died." The Cardinal took a small breath. "It was an assassination. That was the elf that broke the crusade, as the common rabble's saying goes."
Cardinal Mazarin stood up from his armchair, his white hair standing out together with his cold, steel grey eyes. "And thus the Duchess stopped answering the calls of the Crown, and is spending all of her time in a self-imposed exile of sorts guarding the borders of her land and doing absolutely nothing on the day of her daughter's death, and of her other daughter's disappearance."
The cardinal sighed. "Both of those events happened on the same day after all, which means a malicious force was involved."
Luise swallowed thickly, her eyes teary as she took a step back from the cardinal, and then another.
Then she barreled head first into Saito's chest, clutching at him as if he were a lifeline. The fact her face hit his breastplate didn't really mean much to the girl, who simply hugged the boy with all of her strength, crying and cheering and generally not knowing how to react to the fact she had just been told about her family, about her having a mother, and sisters -of which one was dead which was sad, but she had never known her so she couldn't be that sad- and as with all those things, Luise simply did not know what emotions to feel in that moment.
"I will have a room prepared for you two to spend the night," Mazarin said, walking past the two. "I understand that past the moment of happiness, there might be anger, or spite, but please do not make the mistake of blaming the royal family for this," the man spoke with a firm, yet very old, voice. "All that I have done, I have done for king and country. Blame it all at my feet if that is your wish, I have already made peace with the Gods," and with those last parting words, the man stepped outside, leaving a puzzled Saito to hold on to Luise who was going through an emotional roller-coaster.
Yet he held on to her, because as he had been told a long time ago, 'when someone's crying, the best thing you can do is to hug them tight to show that you're still there and everything will be fine'.
So he did just that.
For the following minutes, that felt like hours, he did just that.
The head-priest of Tristain's church was more than happy to tell them that the Cardinal would receive them with all due haste by the end of the day, and as both Saito and Luise made their way to the palace's backdoor, the Japanese boy couldn't help but ask.
"Why aren't they letting us in through the front door?"
"Forgive me, your majesty, I did not know you were a king, or the son of a noble," Luise replied dryly, earning a sheepish look from Saito. "Be thankful the Cardinal's taking some of his time to receive us. I hope we don't stink too much. You think he's going to care? Let me do the talking. You're just going to end up getting us both excommunicated if you speak."
Saito chuckled nervously. "It won't be that bad, will it?"
"Maybe he'll have us beheaded after excommunicating us, so our souls will be damned to hell for all eternity," Luise mumbled once more, her face pale -from what little could be seen beyond the mask. "Saito, keep your mouth shut all right?"
"Fine," Saito replied while rolling his eyes. When they did enter the palace, Saito was deprived of all of his weapons, a few guards sighing as they had to 'disarm' an adventurer.
"You'll get your stuff when you come out," one of the guards said. "The miss can keep her wand, but not the swordwand."
Without weapons, Saito felt kind-of naked. He still had his armor, but he was without weapons, so if they ended up being in a pinch he would have to improvise. Although judging by the amount of suits of armor standing to attention by the sides of the hallways they walked on, following behind a servant, finding a weapon in the palace wouldn't really be much of a problem.
The cardinal received them in a small room with a crackling chimney and a couple of plush armchairs. There was a small table in front of him, and a teapot.
"Your Eminence," Luise said, kneeling down. Saito quickly followed, ending up on one knee just as Luise had.
"Do rise and deliver the letter," Cardinal Mazarin said, his eyes fixed on them both, and then squarely on Luise as she drew near to hand over the letter. The Cardinal opened it with a small letter cutter, and as he read the contents, he began to shift his eyes from the letter to the duo. "That is amusingly ironic. I think poor Father Christoff had a heart attack at seeing you with a mask, dear child. Could you remove it?"
Saito frowned, but Luise quickly obeyed, pushing back her cowl to reveal her hair too. "Your Eminence?" Luise asked, not really understanding the order.
The Cardinal's breath was stolen away for a second, and then his eyes softened up considerably. "You are indeed her split image. If I didn't know any better, I would think a youth potion was used," he sighed and gestured at the armchair. "Do sit young child, we have much to talk, and much to explain." His eyes moved to Saito. "You can leave us, adventurer. I am sure you will find a servant with a bag of gold outside the door that will more than satisfy your thirst for knowledge, and will also pay for your silence."
"Uh?" Saito blinked.
"Your Eminence-Saito's my partner," Luise said. "There's nothing I'd keep from him-and I'm not planning on leaving him behind any time soon, so if you would forgive the impertinence-I'd rather he stay." Luise didn't sit however, but simply stood slightly in front of Saito.
"Oh, very well," Cardinal Mazarin said with a small nod. "Although you may soon find out that you truly should not consider yourself similar to a mere commoner, my fair lady."
"Your Eminence?" Luise asked, perplexed.
The Cardinal took a deep breath. "This story starts a very long time ago, I am afraid. It starts with the sad and harrowing disappearance of a young noble child and ends with a complex plot that has said noble child found again," the Cardinal sighed, taking a sip of the tea in his cup. "It was...unfortunate, but for the good of the country, the recovery of one Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Valliére had to be postponed until the time was right."
"Louise?" Luise mumbled. "I don't understand, your Eminence."
"Strawberry blond hair is quite uncommon in Germania," Mazarin said. "Father Christoff suspected you might have been the long lost child when your hair began to turn a shade of strawberry, and sent me a letter. Unfortunately during that time tensions between the crown and your mother, the Duchess Karin, had reached a point where your recovery might have just sparked a war." The Cardinal took another sip. "I am not proud of what I did, but what I did, I did for the country," the cardinal's eyes bore into Luise with a firm gaze.
"I don't...I don't understand," Luise said, her fingers wringing each other as she looked down at them, her eyes unfocused and glazed over.
"The Duchess, quite simply, moved the mountains to try to find you. And in so doing showed the weakness of the crown who could not stop one of their nobles from doing as she pleased. This, in turn, meant that your recovery would have made it all the more obvious how weak they were. Especially so if you were found in Germania, of all places," the Cardinal took one more sip, and Saito was already starting to dislike him sipping tea like that. "The risk of war with a country that is more than five times the military power of Tristain had to be avoided at all costs. If you had been found, on Germanian soil, well, the Duchess would have felt the need to demand reparations from the country itself."
The Cardinal placed his teacup back on the small table, letting the porcelain clink. "That could not be allowed. So, you were never found. Time passed, and the Duchess lost hope. The nobles were reined in, and as everything seemed to go the right way for once, well, one of your older sisters-I think her name was Cattleya Yvette La Baume Le Blanc de La Fontaine died." The Cardinal took a small breath. "It was an assassination. That was the elf that broke the crusade, as the common rabble's saying goes."
Cardinal Mazarin stood up from his armchair, his white hair standing out together with his cold, steel grey eyes. "And thus the Duchess stopped answering the calls of the Crown, and is spending all of her time in a self-imposed exile of sorts guarding the borders of her land and doing absolutely nothing on the day of her daughter's death, and of her other daughter's disappearance."
The cardinal sighed. "Both of those events happened on the same day after all, which means a malicious force was involved."
Luise swallowed thickly, her eyes teary as she took a step back from the cardinal, and then another.
Then she barreled head first into Saito's chest, clutching at him as if he were a lifeline. The fact her face hit his breastplate didn't really mean much to the girl, who simply hugged the boy with all of her strength, crying and cheering and generally not knowing how to react to the fact she had just been told about her family, about her having a mother, and sisters -of which one was dead which was sad, but she had never known her so she couldn't be that sad- and as with all those things, Luise simply did not know what emotions to feel in that moment.
"I will have a room prepared for you two to spend the night," Mazarin said, walking past the two. "I understand that past the moment of happiness, there might be anger, or spite, but please do not make the mistake of blaming the royal family for this," the man spoke with a firm, yet very old, voice. "All that I have done, I have done for king and country. Blame it all at my feet if that is your wish, I have already made peace with the Gods," and with those last parting words, the man stepped outside, leaving a puzzled Saito to hold on to Luise who was going through an emotional roller-coaster.
Yet he held on to her, because as he had been told a long time ago, 'when someone's crying, the best thing you can do is to hug them tight to show that you're still there and everything will be fine'.
So he did just that.
For the following minutes, that felt like hours, he did just that.
Last edited:
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
You wrote something with feels again, dude. You keep doing that!
You wrote something with feels again, dude. You keep doing that!
Orphan lost in an attack on an otherwise defended family. Government in turmoil following the attack, allowing corruption to take root. Assassination attempts against the remaining 'supporters' of the defended family. Orphan sent annonymouly to a school of magic.
And to top it all off...
You're a noble, Louise!
And to top it all off...
You're a noble, Louise!
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Er... Mazarin... What changed that made making it possible for Karin to find out about this a good idea?
- Location
- The Old Dominion
I am sensing some desperation, Karin is after all the most powerful human mage, to the point she has trouble holding her power back, only firstborn magic and the void is more powerful than her magic. Reconquestia has its sights on the country as it does all of Halk and the cardinal knows it.
Hmm Karin is still going to go on a rampage right? Plus now the crown and church are somewhat complicit.
Not quite the sweet drama I was waiting for... I was kinda hoping for Karin to be the one that realized it and told Luise, after terrifying her and hunting her down to pull off her mask of course.
Not quite the sweet drama I was waiting for... I was kinda hoping for Karin to be the one that realized it and told Luise, after terrifying her and hunting her down to pull off her mask of course.
Chapter Thirty-Three
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirty-Three
Luise had been gently guided by Saito towards the room the Cardinal had prepared for them, and like a mechanical doll with springs, she had kept pacing back and forth after that, trying to piece together what she had been told.
"My mother-she's a Duchess," Luise said, walking back and forth across the entire length of the room -which was quite large, all things considered. "Her name is Karin, Karin de la Valliére. She's my-She's my mother, and that's my surname. De La Valliére. Oh, and my name's different too. It's not 'Luise' but 'Louise', 'Louise'." She mumbled her name a few times, as if trying to commit it to memory. "So similar to my own-they would have found me sooner if they hadn't been stopped-I was wanted!" her eyes shone. "My parents wanted me! They loved me so much they kept looking for me even when it put them in trouble-" she wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand. "I wasn't abandoned-I was stolen."
"Luise-" Saito hazarded, only for Luise to shake her head.
"It's Louise," she said. "Louise Le-whatever, just...Louise. And Valliére. Louise Valliére." She giggled at that. "I'm the daughter of a Duchess-does that make me a mini-Duchess? A lady? Saito! Do you think people are going to call me 'Lady Louise' or 'Lady Valliére' now? Perhaps 'Milady' or 'My Lady'. Oh, now when someone will call me 'My fair lady' he will be telling the truth!"
She exhaled in relief, her hands to her chest as she stomped her feet on the floor hard, excited like a kid on a sugar rush. "I can't wait to meet my parents!" she said giddily. "I'm sure they'll be just like I imagined them-I always thought they'd be really rich, and my father would be a big, menacing man with thick muscles and he'd just, you know, swat all the nasty kids away-and my mother would be the sweetest ever, and give me candy and brush my hair at night and, and-"
She took a deep breath. "This...This is real right?" Louise asked, looking at Saito. "It's real. I'm not dreaming. I'm not, like, dying in that haunted mansion because you couldn't wait the next day to meet the cardinal right?"
Saito blinked, and then did one very simple thing. He pinched Louise's cheek and pulled, making the girl wince. "Real-all right! It's real now let go!" Louise whined as Saito stopped pulling, letting go of her cheek.
As Louise grinned at Saito, the boy smiled back. "So, Lu-Luis, or should it be Louis now?"
Louise looked at her mask, still in her hands, and then back at Saito as understanding dawned on her that if she was a noble's daughter, an important noble's daughter, then-then she couldn't just be an adventurer anymore, could she?
She-She couldn't-
She could.
"Of course," Louise said hotly, putting her mask back on. "It will have to be Louis. We'll meet my parents, stay around for a bit, and then we'll be off!" she nodded eagerly. "I mean, I'm practically an adult now. I'll get my fair dose of cuddles-do nobles hug each other, Saito? Not that you'd know, but well-maybe there will be a few parties, which I'll have to attend, but...but I'm not going back on my promise. And anyway there are so many fallen nobles going around, why would a simple travelling noble such as myself be much more of a problem?" she puffed her chest out in pride, and looked upwards to the ceiling. "And this way, after you've gone back home, I'll have something to look up to when I make my way back-"
Saito hugged her firmly, his arms having kind-of started shaking at the prospect that he might really have to make his way back home alone. As he did that, Louise's eyes softened. "Hey now, partner," Louise said with a giggle. "Don't you dare cry on my shoulder-it's a noble lady's shoulder! It's not made to cry on-I think. And really, you think so little of me I'd abandon you just because I've found out I'm a rich noble who's the daughter of a duchess? You wound me, partner! You really wound me! Trust in Louis the masked adventurer a bit more!"
"Sorry, it was something in the eyes," Saito replied as he broke the hug, wiping his eyes away. "So-what now?"
Louise looked at the beg and smiled, chuckling darkly. "The bed looks so comfortable people would kill to sleep on it. I take the right side."
"Then I'll have the left one," Saito answered in kind as they both jumped on it at the same time, laughing madly as they did so.
As the two youngsters stared at the ceiling of the guest room in the palace, they took turns chuckling. "Maybe we can get you into one of those full-plate armors-"
"I wouldn't even know how to move in one," Saito answered in kind.
"Uh-What if we get a dragon? Some can be trained as mounts like horses-"
"Can we call it Lizzy?"
"Saito, you suck at names."
"Sorry, my noble lady Valliére, I will have to improve my fantasy."
"You do that," Louise said with an overly mocked sniff of her nose, before she snorted. "I think-I think I'm glad I summoned you. I mean, I wouldn't have come this far with a lizard of all things, or maybe even a dragon."
"Well," Saito said softly, "This...This world's not so bad, all things said."
"But it's not like home, isn't it?" Louise asked.
"No, it's not home," Saito acquiesced.
A comfortable silence settled between the two. The servant that would have brought dinner to the two guests found them both politely snoring into one another's arms, and left them at that. It was quite bold of them, all things said.
Two male adventurers sharing the same bed wasn't unheard of, but being in each other's arms like that-oh my, the scandal that had been consumed under these royal halls! She'd have to tell her friend about it -she was the one assigned the laundry, and she'd have a giggling fit when she began working on those sheets, oh if she would!
The next morning, the Cardinal received them in his office with a sealed letter in his right hand. "I hope you had a pleasant night, and-"
"Your Eminence, Founder Brimir teaches to forgive those who earnestly wish to be forgiven," Louise said calmly. "Since I was training to become a nun, I know that what you did must truly hurt your conscience, so...so I forgive you," she said with a nod of her head and a small bow. "And, well, there is the matter of Count Mott if you had the time to listen to it-"
The Cardinal raised an eyebrow, but he did listen keenly on as Louise told the tale of the Count's abuse of power with his men and of the way he went 'skirt-chasing' in a forceful manner.
"It wouldn't do to have you sent back through Count Mott's lands like this then-" the Cardinal frowned. "You will be guests of the palace for the following days, until I clear the air with the royal messenger." He smiled. "It is not uncommon for the crown to finance particularly strong adventurers-I will write you a writ of passage so that you may come and go from the back doors at will."
As he deposited the written letter on the desk, he picked up another parchment and began to write on it. "Here you go," he said, handing it over. "Please be advised that the guards will not let anyone in after a certain hour, no matter the papers showed."
With another bowing of the head from Louise and Saito, the duo left the cardinal to his own devices and walked out with a skip to their step.
Having his weapons handed back at the door made Saito all the giddier.
"Ah, I missed you so much!" he said to his steel sword, sheathing it by his side. "And you two, poleaxe-chan!"
"Saito, no, act more dignified," Louise said curtly. "My swordwand! Aw, come back to me my belov-" as Louise proceeded to gaze at her reflection in the swordwand, it was Saito's turn to cough. "What? My swordwand's shiny, and it cost me five times your poleaxe."
"I got the poleaxe for free," Saito snapped back as they made their way bickering good-naturedly out of the gardens and through the backdoor -more like the back gates, really- all the way into the city proper.
"That just makes my swordwand all the more precious," Louise said.
As their steps brought them in synchronicity towards their intended destination, everyone looking at the two of them could but think the same thing.
Those two adventurers couldn't possibly be that cute!
Luise had been gently guided by Saito towards the room the Cardinal had prepared for them, and like a mechanical doll with springs, she had kept pacing back and forth after that, trying to piece together what she had been told.
"My mother-she's a Duchess," Luise said, walking back and forth across the entire length of the room -which was quite large, all things considered. "Her name is Karin, Karin de la Valliére. She's my-She's my mother, and that's my surname. De La Valliére. Oh, and my name's different too. It's not 'Luise' but 'Louise', 'Louise'." She mumbled her name a few times, as if trying to commit it to memory. "So similar to my own-they would have found me sooner if they hadn't been stopped-I was wanted!" her eyes shone. "My parents wanted me! They loved me so much they kept looking for me even when it put them in trouble-" she wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand. "I wasn't abandoned-I was stolen."
"Luise-" Saito hazarded, only for Luise to shake her head.
"It's Louise," she said. "Louise Le-whatever, just...Louise. And Valliére. Louise Valliére." She giggled at that. "I'm the daughter of a Duchess-does that make me a mini-Duchess? A lady? Saito! Do you think people are going to call me 'Lady Louise' or 'Lady Valliére' now? Perhaps 'Milady' or 'My Lady'. Oh, now when someone will call me 'My fair lady' he will be telling the truth!"
She exhaled in relief, her hands to her chest as she stomped her feet on the floor hard, excited like a kid on a sugar rush. "I can't wait to meet my parents!" she said giddily. "I'm sure they'll be just like I imagined them-I always thought they'd be really rich, and my father would be a big, menacing man with thick muscles and he'd just, you know, swat all the nasty kids away-and my mother would be the sweetest ever, and give me candy and brush my hair at night and, and-"
She took a deep breath. "This...This is real right?" Louise asked, looking at Saito. "It's real. I'm not dreaming. I'm not, like, dying in that haunted mansion because you couldn't wait the next day to meet the cardinal right?"
Saito blinked, and then did one very simple thing. He pinched Louise's cheek and pulled, making the girl wince. "Real-all right! It's real now let go!" Louise whined as Saito stopped pulling, letting go of her cheek.
As Louise grinned at Saito, the boy smiled back. "So, Lu-Luis, or should it be Louis now?"
Louise looked at her mask, still in her hands, and then back at Saito as understanding dawned on her that if she was a noble's daughter, an important noble's daughter, then-then she couldn't just be an adventurer anymore, could she?
She-She couldn't-
She could.
"Of course," Louise said hotly, putting her mask back on. "It will have to be Louis. We'll meet my parents, stay around for a bit, and then we'll be off!" she nodded eagerly. "I mean, I'm practically an adult now. I'll get my fair dose of cuddles-do nobles hug each other, Saito? Not that you'd know, but well-maybe there will be a few parties, which I'll have to attend, but...but I'm not going back on my promise. And anyway there are so many fallen nobles going around, why would a simple travelling noble such as myself be much more of a problem?" she puffed her chest out in pride, and looked upwards to the ceiling. "And this way, after you've gone back home, I'll have something to look up to when I make my way back-"
Saito hugged her firmly, his arms having kind-of started shaking at the prospect that he might really have to make his way back home alone. As he did that, Louise's eyes softened. "Hey now, partner," Louise said with a giggle. "Don't you dare cry on my shoulder-it's a noble lady's shoulder! It's not made to cry on-I think. And really, you think so little of me I'd abandon you just because I've found out I'm a rich noble who's the daughter of a duchess? You wound me, partner! You really wound me! Trust in Louis the masked adventurer a bit more!"
"Sorry, it was something in the eyes," Saito replied as he broke the hug, wiping his eyes away. "So-what now?"
Louise looked at the beg and smiled, chuckling darkly. "The bed looks so comfortable people would kill to sleep on it. I take the right side."
"Then I'll have the left one," Saito answered in kind as they both jumped on it at the same time, laughing madly as they did so.
As the two youngsters stared at the ceiling of the guest room in the palace, they took turns chuckling. "Maybe we can get you into one of those full-plate armors-"
"I wouldn't even know how to move in one," Saito answered in kind.
"Uh-What if we get a dragon? Some can be trained as mounts like horses-"
"Can we call it Lizzy?"
"Saito, you suck at names."
"Sorry, my noble lady Valliére, I will have to improve my fantasy."
"You do that," Louise said with an overly mocked sniff of her nose, before she snorted. "I think-I think I'm glad I summoned you. I mean, I wouldn't have come this far with a lizard of all things, or maybe even a dragon."
"Well," Saito said softly, "This...This world's not so bad, all things said."
"But it's not like home, isn't it?" Louise asked.
"No, it's not home," Saito acquiesced.
A comfortable silence settled between the two. The servant that would have brought dinner to the two guests found them both politely snoring into one another's arms, and left them at that. It was quite bold of them, all things said.
Two male adventurers sharing the same bed wasn't unheard of, but being in each other's arms like that-oh my, the scandal that had been consumed under these royal halls! She'd have to tell her friend about it -she was the one assigned the laundry, and she'd have a giggling fit when she began working on those sheets, oh if she would!
The next morning, the Cardinal received them in his office with a sealed letter in his right hand. "I hope you had a pleasant night, and-"
"Your Eminence, Founder Brimir teaches to forgive those who earnestly wish to be forgiven," Louise said calmly. "Since I was training to become a nun, I know that what you did must truly hurt your conscience, so...so I forgive you," she said with a nod of her head and a small bow. "And, well, there is the matter of Count Mott if you had the time to listen to it-"
The Cardinal raised an eyebrow, but he did listen keenly on as Louise told the tale of the Count's abuse of power with his men and of the way he went 'skirt-chasing' in a forceful manner.
"It wouldn't do to have you sent back through Count Mott's lands like this then-" the Cardinal frowned. "You will be guests of the palace for the following days, until I clear the air with the royal messenger." He smiled. "It is not uncommon for the crown to finance particularly strong adventurers-I will write you a writ of passage so that you may come and go from the back doors at will."
As he deposited the written letter on the desk, he picked up another parchment and began to write on it. "Here you go," he said, handing it over. "Please be advised that the guards will not let anyone in after a certain hour, no matter the papers showed."
With another bowing of the head from Louise and Saito, the duo left the cardinal to his own devices and walked out with a skip to their step.
Having his weapons handed back at the door made Saito all the giddier.
"Ah, I missed you so much!" he said to his steel sword, sheathing it by his side. "And you two, poleaxe-chan!"
"Saito, no, act more dignified," Louise said curtly. "My swordwand! Aw, come back to me my belov-" as Louise proceeded to gaze at her reflection in the swordwand, it was Saito's turn to cough. "What? My swordwand's shiny, and it cost me five times your poleaxe."
"I got the poleaxe for free," Saito snapped back as they made their way bickering good-naturedly out of the gardens and through the backdoor -more like the back gates, really- all the way into the city proper.
"That just makes my swordwand all the more precious," Louise said.
As their steps brought them in synchronicity towards their intended destination, everyone looking at the two of them could but think the same thing.
Those two adventurers couldn't possibly be that cute!
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
This is too happy. Something is very wrong.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
Because it's Shade writing it. Is this your first shadenight story?
- Location
- The Old Dominion
What is he one of the writers that for comically over-dramatic and frankly unrealistic angst in the name of drama or something? Even Lovecraft managed to write a story or two that wasn't comic horror and the people who made madlax and Noir also made a light hearted slice of life series about a girl that became a god.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
He has a reputation (somewhat deservedly) for stories filled with angst and character suffering. So when he starts writing happy fluff, I get nervous.
Dromeosaur
Feathery Raptor of snowy planes and frozen sea
- Location
- The land of Trees and Squirrels
A really good story. Glad that I finally got to read it.
- Pronouns
- she/her
...is the plot twist that Karin keels over from diabetes induced d'aww?
I don't think is that happy, I mean, Cattleya is dead, that can't be good.
- Location
- Poland
My first Shade story was about the Jedi SI. I didn't really feel the angst.
The second was Dread rising. It was pretty nice actually. Until the latest chapters. He kind of ruined the no-angst streak then.
