Chapter Ninety-Two
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Ninety-Two
Saito sighed as he slumped down next to Louise in the room they shared. The girl was always exhausted, having already fallen peacefully asleep. He was pretty sure that somewhere in the room, or the hallway nearby, Daphne was keeping a careful watch over them. Still, since he couldn't sense her, it made it all the more creepy.
She could literally be straddling him and he wouldn't be able to sense her. How did people even fight such scary creatures? How much courage did they need to hunt them down? And were actual elves even stronger? The only 'Elves' he had met had been that murderous one and Tiffania, and that didn't help to give him an idea of their strength.
The books in the library all spoke of monsters, man-eating, baby-crushing, soul-devouring monsters who could bend nature to their whims, and had it not been for the glory of Brimir's magic, they would have destroyed mankind -at least, believing some holy texts that had come later.
He couldn't really believe them fully, not with Tiffania's own revelation of her mother's kindness -and if her mother had been in love with a human, then didn't it mean they were for the most part false?
He felt a sudden chill as his cheek seemed to dribble with sweat. Was it his? Was it not-
Louise, still asleep, turned sharply and drove a fist into the air right above Saito's head. For a split second, Saito held the firm belief that the punch had been intended for him, but as Louise's arm suddenly relaxed and fell down to clutch his chest, he simply decided that couldn't have been the case.
The next morning, Daphne held a pout on her mouth as she strolled under the bed sheets, leaving the honor of guarding Louise back to Saito and muttering something about 'selfish children who won't share their beefcake'.
Still, this sort of peaceful lull couldn't last. It was thus with white wings from a dragon that it was shattered abruptly, carrying upon its back a boy with blond hair and moon-eyes, as they were called the eyes of two different colors. He landed in the courtyard before breakfast, and then strolled leisurely up to Saito and Louise with a smile on his face that promised he had nothing but the best of possible intentions.
On his back, a large knapsack seemed to rest, reinforced and quite precious if the young man had refused to let go of it even during flight.
"Good morning," the boy spoke with a crisp voice. "I am a messenger from his Holiness, the Pope Saint Aegis the Thirty-Second, the Shield of the Founder, and I have come to deliver a message, and await a reply," he smiled, and in his smile were the sparkles of a pretty boy that instantaneously put Saito up on his guard, and yet made Louise blink and blush lightly.
For once, Saito found himself on the other end of the barricade, and he now understood just how annoying it was. Louise seemed quite surprised when a letter was handed over to her, but another still remained in the messenger's hands. "Lady Valliére, would you be so gracious as to show me where I may find Miss Tiffania?" the messenger said once more with a smile.
"Ahem," Saito coughed. "I haven't heard your name yet, but you seem to know us very well."
The Romalian messenger smiled kindly towards Saito, and bowed with a hand to his chest. "Oh, forgive my rudeness. I am Julio, Julio Chesare, a knight of the Pope's holy guard, and a priest. I am also his Holiness' must trusted messenger," he added as he stood back up. "You must be Lord Saito? Baron of La Baume?"
"Yeah, and Louise's fiancé," Saito said with a scoff, putting his chest up in pride, only for Louise to smirk and chuckle sharply by his side, making him deflate. "How do you know that, however?"
"We have more in common than you might think," Julio said plainly, his right hand calmly coming up to reveal the glittering runes of the familiar branding. "From one summoned by God to another, I am sure you will have no need to mistrust me so much?" he asked next, his voice calm like a pond of still water.
Saito furrowed his brows, but nodded. It wasn't like he hadn't expected this to happen. He had hoped it would come only after the recovery of the Zero fighter and the subsequent 'sent off', but Marteau was being positively -or fashionably- late.
He was starting to think something bad had happened to him, but he was honestly still hoping he'd make his way back to the academy all in one piece. It wasn't like they could search for him. They didn't have cellphones, and to find someone in the middle of a whole nation, it would require quite the effort.
So all that Saito could do was hope. He would have gone to check Siesta's village sooner, rather than later, but Louise could not miss classes, there were still weeks left before the moons joined together, and Professor Colbert -the one in charge of the whole 'produce more gasoline' project apparently was at most just starting on the gasoline drops he had recovered from the bottom of the Zero's tank.
The man had personally gone to check on it, which meant that yes, Siesta had spoken with the professor and yes, Marteau had made himself known to the academy staff during his brief passage through. It was perhaps only paranoia that fueled Saito's nervousness.
That, and the bishonen-looking priest who seemed to be smiling at anything Louise said.
"I am positive the greatness of the Gandalfr will be of great aid during the crusade," Julio spoke in a quiet voice. "With all four Void Users reunited, a crusade will most definitely terminate with our victory over the Elves."
Louise looked sideways. "Charlotte said she wouldn't pull Tiffania into this-"
"His Holiness was not told by Her Grace D'Orleans," Julio replied smoothly. "I understand there is some enmity between you, but in front of our common foe, the Elves, there is no other enemy that we must desire to see crushed in our hearts."
"Enmity? No, it's not something as trifle as enmity," Louise drawled back with a sour look, "But it doesn't matter. I don't know how you plan on convincing Tiffania to participate in a crusade. If you know of her, then-do you also know of her parentage?"
"Yes," Julio answered primly. "That is meaningless, for the Pope is most gracious and understanding. He will write her a personal writ that will grant her safety from persecutions. As long as she is willing to conjure forth her familiar, the last remaining familiar of the Void yet to be called forth-"
"The last one?" Louise murmured, "But-"
"Her Grace, Charlotte D'Orleans, already saw fit to bind a familiar to the role of the Mind of God. Only the Heart of God remains to be summoned, or bound, and once such a feat happens-the Four of Four will be reunited as is just and a crusade will be called to reclaim the Holy Lands," Julio spoke plainly. "This is merely reciting the Holy Founder's book passages that every priest knows by heart, and only a tiny part of the truth," his eyes closed only slightly. "The truth is far scarier."
Charlotte's lithe frame appeared in a hurry across the hallway on the opposite side of them, perplexing Louise, and Saito too. Of course, the girl should have returned to school to 'finish' her education, but she hadn't shown herself at all. She was like a ghost, and not even Sylphid had been visible among the familiars in the courtyard. For all intents and purpose, there was no way to know if she had actually returned or not -she didn't show herself in classrooms, and wasn't present during the lunches or the dinner.
Yet there she was, breathing hard as her body was shaking lividly.
"Not her," she said.
"His Holiness is willing to let her stay safe. Her familiar is, on the other hand, needed," Julio replied.
Charlotte's gaze averted itself from him, and her hands clenched her staff tightly, to the point where her already pale knuckles turned even whiter. "I promised-"
"I have brought everything that is needed," Julio said, pulling the knapsack from his back and letting it jingle slowly. "With this, there will be no more ignoring the truth for everyone else involved. It is very important that they find out, and understand that it is the only way. Please, your grace, do not stop me. I have a letter to deliver, and one should never shoot the messenger for the message."
"The Cardinal-"
"As a faithful follower of his Holiness, of course the Cardinal delivered promptly everything that was asked of him to deliver," Julio nodded once, swiftly and without doubt even as he took a step forward, soon followed by another. "I presume I know the road from here to reach Miss Tiffania's room."
"But you've never been here before," Saito muttered, his eyes darting from the boy to Charlotte and viceversa.
"No, I have not," Julio said with a kind nod. "But the creatures that belong to Brimir's realm have, and through them, all is to me revealed," from a nearby window, a lonely seagull came in flapping its wings, and cawed nicely as it landed on the hallway's stone floor. "Be they as small as a bird or as powerful as a Hydra," the man kept walking, soon coming right by Charlotte's side. "And even as strong as a Rhyme Dragon," with a hum, he moved right past the blue-haired girl, who said nothing more, but slumped her shoulders down as she allowed him to pass.
"Wait a minute!" Louise snapped as she rushed ahead, "What's going on here?"
"Let him go," Charlotte whispered hoarsely, a wall of ice sprouting from the tip of her staff to block the path forward for them both. "Just...just let him go."
Louise's eyes moved from the wall of ice to the blue haired young girl, and as she brought her wand out, she pointed it at the ice wall. "You think this can stop me? Saito-"
"You know what's going to happen?" Saito asked, carefully taking a few steps forward with both of his hands raised. "Charlotte-look, I think you don't want to do this-"
"No choice," Charlotte answered firmly, "I might be the Queen of Gallia, but even I can be forced to do things just like any others," she clutched her staff in front of her. "He won't kill her. He'll just force her to summon a familiar, or to bind one. It won't hurt her. The crusades will begin, the people will have their Holy Lands-"
"If that's the case..." Saito whispered, "Then why are you crying?"
"Because even if I'm known as the Snowstorm, this doesn't make my heart a piece of ice," Charlotte murmured, "So, I am warning you. If you step forward, then I'll stop you. I'm used to fighting alone, to fighting for the wrong reason and the wrong people, but again, if you take one more step forward then I'll have to stop you with everything you've got, and-"
"It's my lucky day then," Louise said with a cheerful smile, quite out of place on her. "Because you see, I don't need to take one step forward."
Quietly shining behind Louise's back, hidden from view by her own body, a single orb of white light suddenly exploded and covered the whole hallway in brilliant light.
Charlotte's body slumped on the floor with her back against the wall of ice, which quickly began to melt away.
"Let's hurry up," Louise grumbled. "Envoy of the Pope or not, I don't care. To make a callous bitch like her cry, then whatever he's planned must truly be horrible."
Saito didn't remark on how much Louise's voice seemed to betray her being 'pissed off'.
He simply nodded, and grabbed his longsword.
This wasn't going to end well.
He just had the feeling something bad was about to happen.
Saito sighed as he slumped down next to Louise in the room they shared. The girl was always exhausted, having already fallen peacefully asleep. He was pretty sure that somewhere in the room, or the hallway nearby, Daphne was keeping a careful watch over them. Still, since he couldn't sense her, it made it all the more creepy.
She could literally be straddling him and he wouldn't be able to sense her. How did people even fight such scary creatures? How much courage did they need to hunt them down? And were actual elves even stronger? The only 'Elves' he had met had been that murderous one and Tiffania, and that didn't help to give him an idea of their strength.
The books in the library all spoke of monsters, man-eating, baby-crushing, soul-devouring monsters who could bend nature to their whims, and had it not been for the glory of Brimir's magic, they would have destroyed mankind -at least, believing some holy texts that had come later.
He couldn't really believe them fully, not with Tiffania's own revelation of her mother's kindness -and if her mother had been in love with a human, then didn't it mean they were for the most part false?
He felt a sudden chill as his cheek seemed to dribble with sweat. Was it his? Was it not-
Louise, still asleep, turned sharply and drove a fist into the air right above Saito's head. For a split second, Saito held the firm belief that the punch had been intended for him, but as Louise's arm suddenly relaxed and fell down to clutch his chest, he simply decided that couldn't have been the case.
The next morning, Daphne held a pout on her mouth as she strolled under the bed sheets, leaving the honor of guarding Louise back to Saito and muttering something about 'selfish children who won't share their beefcake'.
Still, this sort of peaceful lull couldn't last. It was thus with white wings from a dragon that it was shattered abruptly, carrying upon its back a boy with blond hair and moon-eyes, as they were called the eyes of two different colors. He landed in the courtyard before breakfast, and then strolled leisurely up to Saito and Louise with a smile on his face that promised he had nothing but the best of possible intentions.
On his back, a large knapsack seemed to rest, reinforced and quite precious if the young man had refused to let go of it even during flight.
"Good morning," the boy spoke with a crisp voice. "I am a messenger from his Holiness, the Pope Saint Aegis the Thirty-Second, the Shield of the Founder, and I have come to deliver a message, and await a reply," he smiled, and in his smile were the sparkles of a pretty boy that instantaneously put Saito up on his guard, and yet made Louise blink and blush lightly.
For once, Saito found himself on the other end of the barricade, and he now understood just how annoying it was. Louise seemed quite surprised when a letter was handed over to her, but another still remained in the messenger's hands. "Lady Valliére, would you be so gracious as to show me where I may find Miss Tiffania?" the messenger said once more with a smile.
"Ahem," Saito coughed. "I haven't heard your name yet, but you seem to know us very well."
The Romalian messenger smiled kindly towards Saito, and bowed with a hand to his chest. "Oh, forgive my rudeness. I am Julio, Julio Chesare, a knight of the Pope's holy guard, and a priest. I am also his Holiness' must trusted messenger," he added as he stood back up. "You must be Lord Saito? Baron of La Baume?"
"Yeah, and Louise's fiancé," Saito said with a scoff, putting his chest up in pride, only for Louise to smirk and chuckle sharply by his side, making him deflate. "How do you know that, however?"
"We have more in common than you might think," Julio said plainly, his right hand calmly coming up to reveal the glittering runes of the familiar branding. "From one summoned by God to another, I am sure you will have no need to mistrust me so much?" he asked next, his voice calm like a pond of still water.
Saito furrowed his brows, but nodded. It wasn't like he hadn't expected this to happen. He had hoped it would come only after the recovery of the Zero fighter and the subsequent 'sent off', but Marteau was being positively -or fashionably- late.
He was starting to think something bad had happened to him, but he was honestly still hoping he'd make his way back to the academy all in one piece. It wasn't like they could search for him. They didn't have cellphones, and to find someone in the middle of a whole nation, it would require quite the effort.
So all that Saito could do was hope. He would have gone to check Siesta's village sooner, rather than later, but Louise could not miss classes, there were still weeks left before the moons joined together, and Professor Colbert -the one in charge of the whole 'produce more gasoline' project apparently was at most just starting on the gasoline drops he had recovered from the bottom of the Zero's tank.
The man had personally gone to check on it, which meant that yes, Siesta had spoken with the professor and yes, Marteau had made himself known to the academy staff during his brief passage through. It was perhaps only paranoia that fueled Saito's nervousness.
That, and the bishonen-looking priest who seemed to be smiling at anything Louise said.
"I am positive the greatness of the Gandalfr will be of great aid during the crusade," Julio spoke in a quiet voice. "With all four Void Users reunited, a crusade will most definitely terminate with our victory over the Elves."
Louise looked sideways. "Charlotte said she wouldn't pull Tiffania into this-"
"His Holiness was not told by Her Grace D'Orleans," Julio replied smoothly. "I understand there is some enmity between you, but in front of our common foe, the Elves, there is no other enemy that we must desire to see crushed in our hearts."
"Enmity? No, it's not something as trifle as enmity," Louise drawled back with a sour look, "But it doesn't matter. I don't know how you plan on convincing Tiffania to participate in a crusade. If you know of her, then-do you also know of her parentage?"
"Yes," Julio answered primly. "That is meaningless, for the Pope is most gracious and understanding. He will write her a personal writ that will grant her safety from persecutions. As long as she is willing to conjure forth her familiar, the last remaining familiar of the Void yet to be called forth-"
"The last one?" Louise murmured, "But-"
"Her Grace, Charlotte D'Orleans, already saw fit to bind a familiar to the role of the Mind of God. Only the Heart of God remains to be summoned, or bound, and once such a feat happens-the Four of Four will be reunited as is just and a crusade will be called to reclaim the Holy Lands," Julio spoke plainly. "This is merely reciting the Holy Founder's book passages that every priest knows by heart, and only a tiny part of the truth," his eyes closed only slightly. "The truth is far scarier."
Charlotte's lithe frame appeared in a hurry across the hallway on the opposite side of them, perplexing Louise, and Saito too. Of course, the girl should have returned to school to 'finish' her education, but she hadn't shown herself at all. She was like a ghost, and not even Sylphid had been visible among the familiars in the courtyard. For all intents and purpose, there was no way to know if she had actually returned or not -she didn't show herself in classrooms, and wasn't present during the lunches or the dinner.
Yet there she was, breathing hard as her body was shaking lividly.
"Not her," she said.
"His Holiness is willing to let her stay safe. Her familiar is, on the other hand, needed," Julio replied.
Charlotte's gaze averted itself from him, and her hands clenched her staff tightly, to the point where her already pale knuckles turned even whiter. "I promised-"
"I have brought everything that is needed," Julio said, pulling the knapsack from his back and letting it jingle slowly. "With this, there will be no more ignoring the truth for everyone else involved. It is very important that they find out, and understand that it is the only way. Please, your grace, do not stop me. I have a letter to deliver, and one should never shoot the messenger for the message."
"The Cardinal-"
"As a faithful follower of his Holiness, of course the Cardinal delivered promptly everything that was asked of him to deliver," Julio nodded once, swiftly and without doubt even as he took a step forward, soon followed by another. "I presume I know the road from here to reach Miss Tiffania's room."
"But you've never been here before," Saito muttered, his eyes darting from the boy to Charlotte and viceversa.
"No, I have not," Julio said with a kind nod. "But the creatures that belong to Brimir's realm have, and through them, all is to me revealed," from a nearby window, a lonely seagull came in flapping its wings, and cawed nicely as it landed on the hallway's stone floor. "Be they as small as a bird or as powerful as a Hydra," the man kept walking, soon coming right by Charlotte's side. "And even as strong as a Rhyme Dragon," with a hum, he moved right past the blue-haired girl, who said nothing more, but slumped her shoulders down as she allowed him to pass.
"Wait a minute!" Louise snapped as she rushed ahead, "What's going on here?"
"Let him go," Charlotte whispered hoarsely, a wall of ice sprouting from the tip of her staff to block the path forward for them both. "Just...just let him go."
Louise's eyes moved from the wall of ice to the blue haired young girl, and as she brought her wand out, she pointed it at the ice wall. "You think this can stop me? Saito-"
"You know what's going to happen?" Saito asked, carefully taking a few steps forward with both of his hands raised. "Charlotte-look, I think you don't want to do this-"
"No choice," Charlotte answered firmly, "I might be the Queen of Gallia, but even I can be forced to do things just like any others," she clutched her staff in front of her. "He won't kill her. He'll just force her to summon a familiar, or to bind one. It won't hurt her. The crusades will begin, the people will have their Holy Lands-"
"If that's the case..." Saito whispered, "Then why are you crying?"
"Because even if I'm known as the Snowstorm, this doesn't make my heart a piece of ice," Charlotte murmured, "So, I am warning you. If you step forward, then I'll stop you. I'm used to fighting alone, to fighting for the wrong reason and the wrong people, but again, if you take one more step forward then I'll have to stop you with everything you've got, and-"
"It's my lucky day then," Louise said with a cheerful smile, quite out of place on her. "Because you see, I don't need to take one step forward."
Quietly shining behind Louise's back, hidden from view by her own body, a single orb of white light suddenly exploded and covered the whole hallway in brilliant light.
Charlotte's body slumped on the floor with her back against the wall of ice, which quickly began to melt away.
"Let's hurry up," Louise grumbled. "Envoy of the Pope or not, I don't care. To make a callous bitch like her cry, then whatever he's planned must truly be horrible."
Saito didn't remark on how much Louise's voice seemed to betray her being 'pissed off'.
He simply nodded, and grabbed his longsword.
This wasn't going to end well.
He just had the feeling something bad was about to happen.
