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.
He does tragedies!
