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.
