He was tiring, so why did he keep fighting? Why was he fighting on such a large army? Saito didn't know, but something was pushing him, it was telling him he needed to fight, but as he looked at all the enemies left for him to fight, he thought about retreating because just looking at the vast numbers made him want to stop.

"Partner, don't give up! Keep fighting, you know you have to!" Derflinger said as Saito used him to rest before the oncoming enemy came. "You don't need to die here, keep fighting! Push yourself, you know you can!"

Saito clenched his teeth, increased in sweating, and the blood of his injuries gushed even more and some opened back up, but he kept rising to fight, but for what? What was he doing, what purpose was driving him to snuff out the life of hundreds of men? Before he knew it the next wave came and they started with the infantry who charged in with spears aiming to crunch on his heart as if they were teeth.

As Saito readied himself all he knew he was fighting for was his life now and as he fought he noticed the artillery and archers closing him in a circle, he needed to get past the infantry, but they just kept coming and coming and as he chopped down the last soldier he gave out. Then he he chuckled as he realized what they planned. Then the fling of bows, the booming of canons, and the zapping of spells could be heard as they all came rushing for him and as they did he knew he was going to die. The last thing heard was...

###################

"Wake up!" he heard Tiffania shout. She sounded distressed or worried, but why was she like that? When he began regaining his senses Saito noticed that he was being shaken. Quite hard actually that's when he felt pain jab through his stomach.

"Ow! Enough, I'm awake already!" he shouted as he clutched his stomach in pain. "What was that for anyhow?" he asked as he sat up then noticed how his entire body was hot and sweaty.

"Oh, thank goodness..." Tiffania said as she sighed in relief. "You were breathing very hard and sweating. You seemed to be having a very bad dream...and you kept saying Louise." she said while trailing off. "Anyhow good morning!" She said as her frown and worried face turned to a jovial one with a shining smile.

This was all it took to make Saito smile and he responded, "Good morning to you as well, Tiffania."

"Hard to believe you can walk now..." Derflinger said as Saito slowly got out of the bed and began walking towards the kitchen. "All on your own without that stick too. You really recovered fast."

"Yeah..." Saito said as he looked at Tiffania who had probably just came back from scavenging since she wore that cloak whenever she came back from it, but aside from that she was a very nice person. She gave him a little more during meals, helped him get in bed when he needed to lie down, and she didn't ask for anything in return for her time and effort to help him recover, he felt bad about it and wanted to repay her, but he also found it strange that she asked for nothing in return for some reason, it was also funny to think that she lived out here all alone. She was such a great young girl. Why did she live all alone out here?

"Hey, Mr. Saito are you still awake?" she said putting her face inches away from his and waving her hand in his face.

"Y-Yeah...Saito said while coming out of thought. As he did he noticed a fresh meal consisting of bread, berries, and other fruit with a hot cup of tea sitting at the table. It smelled as good as it looked and he was ready to dig in.

"Good, because breakfast is ready. You still need to eat up to regain your strength so you can go home," she said walking to the table and sitting down to eat. She curiously watched Saito as he sat down and looked at the food then at her as if waiting for approval.

She nodded and his face lit up as he immediately started eating them with poor table manners, but she didn't mind and just kept smiling. She even giggled as she watched him struggle with the fresh bread only to have the inside burn his tongue. He had been here for five days and she really enjoyed his company, and now that he seemed to be able to walk on his own just fine she hoped he would be in traveling condition within the next week.

"Say, Tiffania?" Saito asked with a mouthful of bread. Tiffania was taken out of her train of thoughts and looked at Saito nodding a yes. "Do you live here all alone?"

Tiffania didn't want to drag him into it and looked sadly at the ground and nodded slowly. Ever since her mother died, she had been here all alone, and she didn't enjoy remembering her death because she told Tiffania to look to the future and not the past.

Saito noticed how sad the poor girl looked. Feeling sorry that he brought a sensitive subject up he said, "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up, but please if you don't wish to talk, just say so."

Tiffania shook her head and said, "No, it's quite alright. There was no way you could've known, but I don't want to worry you with such things, so please if you wish to ask something, what is it?"

"Well..." Saito began asking a mountain of questions and tried to avoid anything that could possibly offend her. This was the talk of the two throughout breakfast until Tiffania noticed how Saito's face seemed to be getting redder and redder.

"Um...Mr. Saito...are you feeling ok? You're face seems red," Tiffania said standing up once she finished her last berry. Onc she stood up she began walking towards him and looked at his face.

"Is it?" Saito asked curiously and once he did that she put the back of her hand on his forehead and it didn't take long for her to know what was happening.

"This is just great...I knew there was something up with that dream," she said and walked back to the fire and spit. "It was the first of the symptoms for an infection."

"That doesn't sound good at all," Saito said as he watched her out some leaves in the spit which had water on it at the moment. Then she grabbed a nearby bucket of water and a piece of cloth.

"Sit down, Saito," she said as she walked over to him with these items. "And take off that heavy shirt."

"Alright," he said sitting down and unzipping his sweatshirt. As soon as he did this he noticed a halt in Tiffania's movements as she curiously watched him simply unzip his sweater.

"So that's what that does..." she said to herself before dipping the cloth in the water and placing it on his forehead. Then she began removing his second shirt without warning.

"W-What are you doing?" Saito asked as she grabbed the bottom of his shirt. Now he was even warmer from blushing with embarrassment along with a fully red face, so he was glad she wouldn't notice.

"I need to check your bandages," she said pulling it off the rest of the way, and after she did this, Tiffania began unwrapping the bandages around his torso where the largest wound were and noticed how the leaves on his torso began to wilt and decay. "I guess that explains it. How Ironic though..."

"What?"

"Well you see, I put these leaves here to help fight off infection, but now it seems that they died completely. I am so foolish...I should've replaced these three days ago. I'm very sorry Mr. Saito," Tiffania explained as she removed each leaf one by one then wrapped a new bandage around him.

"No, not at all Tiffania," Saito said as his shirt was pulled back on. "In fact, thank you for being so considerate of my health this whole time to a complete stranger like me."

"Your words to me great honor Mr. Saito, but you aren't a stranger to me anymore. I'm happy to help," Tiffania said smiling as she replaced the cloth on his head. She put her head down a little bit because she believed she was blushing.

"Not at all," Saito said as he continued to sit down and wait for Tiffania finish whatever she was making. As she was Saito started to feel warmer. Before long he was sweating a little. What was Tiffania making over there anyhow? It looked like tea, but for what?

Saito noticed how his wash cloth was already getting warm, so he wrung the water back into the bucket and dipped it in to get some of the cooler water. Once he did that he placed it on his forehead and started feeling a little more comfortable, so he relaxed until Tiffania brought him a cup of tea.

"What's this?" Saito asked as he looked at the steaming cup. Inside it was green, a lot greener than he'd seen tea before anyhow.

"This should help you with your illness, so please drink it all," Tiffania said giving her smile again before walking off to go outside for morning chores.

Saito took one sip and frowned. It tasted very bitter, but if it would help him with his illness he would. As Saito continued drinking he suddenly remembered something. This wasn't his world! He was somewhere else.

#################

"Lord Vallière, I don't recommend pushing it," Colbert said as Louise's father and her most stubborn sister argued with them about summoning a new familiar. "We still need to give her time to mourn, that's how it works."

"And why is that? You never really gave an explanation," Eléonore said with her arms crossed and glasses giving off a bright glare as always. "I demand an explanation!"

"Eléonore please," Lord Vallière said stopping his daughter and any conflict with the teacher who was in charge of the summons. "Osmond or Colbert, can either one of you give us a hint as to why you cannot summon a familiar before the mourning period is over? It's been a week, and we're impatient, or Eléonore is..."

Eléonore huffed at this and turned her head towards the others in front of her and waited for one of them to talk, but they just looked at each other for a while before Osmond nodded and opened his mouth to speak.

"If a master tries to summon the same familiar twice, something can go horribly wrong at times, especially if they're still in mourning. Our best guess is the magic spell tries to summon both at the same time, and that can either merge the two into an abomination, or on some cases, the master can get sucked into the gate and into a rift where the path splits in two. It will take longer for Louise to mourn Saito since she loved him as well, not as a familiar, and definitely more than a friend, so please understand our plight. That is all we have to say, now Lord Vallière, Lady Eléonore, I must discuss some things with Mr. Colbert, so if you will..." Osmond explained then he raised his staff and the door at the end of the room opened and before the two left they looked at each other with the same thoughts on their head.

"Nobles...they're all the same," Osmond said as he wondered how much longer they would stay. "So many of them are proud, arrogant, and power hungry or abusing. If they can, any form of pleasure will be all they seek."

"Sir, I think they understand their daughter's position to some degree, in fact I think you're right about pride here. I believe they might want to make their daughter feel better faster, but some of them are too proud to admit it," Colbert said before walking out. As he reached for the door knob he was halted by Osmond who wished to speak to him.

"If they ask you to summon her familiar before it has been two weeks, please, say no. I think she needs three weeks to a month to mourn. Louise loved Saito, and I think some people know from experience how long it takes for one person to mourn over their lover," Osmond said before dismissing Colbert.

####################

Saito yawned as he listened to Derflinger monologue about his past, but he caught a few thing only since he was bored with the monologue about the monologues he used to do about his world. SO the few things he caught about this world was an academy of magic for nobles, and getting whipped all night by someone quite often by his master.

Another week had gone by and Saito was over his illness, but now he was waiting for Tiffania to come back and it was raining. This morning when Saito woke up he wasn't sick anymore, but the cloth was still left on his head, and it was raining and poor Tiffania was in it.

Saito also remembered he wasn't in travel condition just yet, so he had to stay a little longer. There were some wounds that could still open up, still prone to infection, and overworking some joints would be bad for his condition, but right now as Saito watched the fire and listened to the pitter patter of the rain the more he worried about the girl that saved his life.

"When do you think Tiffania will come back?" Saito asked Derflinger once he reached on of his limits of boredom.

"Who knows, maybe you should look for her? She's taking an awfully long time," Derflinger said popping out of his sheathe.

"What do you mean?" Saito asked as he got up and grabbed Derflinger with him.

"You were asleep all day, right? Now when you were in stable condition, which was fairly early this morning, she went out then not too much time later it started pouring. She hasn't been back since and it's the middle of the afternoon," Derflinger said once more, and that's all it took for Saito to charge out the door in the rain and start calling her name.

"Tiffania!" Saito shouted in all the directions from the door. Derflinger was right too. It was pouring horribly and it made Saito worry that Tiffania was out in it all alone. Saito ran in a random direction and called her name again.

"Partner! Mark your path! She may be lost, not in trouble," Derflinger yelled before Saito wandered too far away from the cottage. Saito agreed and as he passed a tree he left a mark on each tree to signify he had passed it since the heavy rain might destroy a path marked on the ground.

Saito called Tiffania's name every few minutes before he finally heard a response from someone and, without hesitation, Saito ran towards the voice and called again.

"S-Saito..?" he heard Tiffania ask. Saito looked over to the voice and noticed her wearing her hat and her one pieced green dress. She was not dressed for the rain even the slightest bit. Poor Tiffania was shivering horribly and she was soaking wet.

"Tiffania! What are you doing out here dressed like that? You're sure to catch a cold!" Saito said hugging her and giving her his sweatshirt to help keep warm. She couldn't get it to the zipper though because of her incredibly large…

"I'm sorry Mr. Saito...I didn't know such bad weather would start so soon. I lost my way and...thank you. Thank you so much for coming to find a stranger like me," Tiffania sobbed. "I didn't know where to go...thank you so much."

"Don't mention it," Saito said as he helped her walk back to the cottage thanks to the marked trees. "I'm just glad I found you in time."

Tiffania felt her heart flutter for just a moment then continued to walk back to the cottage with her head resting on Saito's shoulder trusting him. It had been so long since she had company or someone to call a friend, and now she had it.

"Hey, Partner," Derflinger said popping out of his sheathe once more. "I noticed how you spaced out when I was trying to explain your past so far, we have time, so would you listen now?"

Saito nodded and began actually listening to the sword talk, and thank goodness he wasn't going into too much detail this time, and with each story Saito began to recover his memory until he remembered everything. He remembered Louise, Siesta, Kirche, Tabitha, and everyone else. By the end they had made it back to the cottage.

Once they were inside, Saito set her down by the fire and wrapped a blanket around her. After that was done he heated some water on the spit and grabbed some berries from where she stored them and gave some to her. Then he noticed how her hat was still dripping wet and grabbed it. It was cold, but that's all he got before she protectively put her hands on the hat and pulled it down more.

"Tiffania, what's wrong?" Saito asked as she closed her eyes tightly and shook her hands from holding the hat so tight. "Is something wrong with your head?"

Tiffania only nodded in response.

"Can you show me?"

Tiffania shook her head.

"Are you embarrassed about it?"

She just shook her head.

"Oh good grief girl!" Derflinger said popping out of his sheathe. "He doesn't know anything about your kind! No one ever told him either."

Tiffania looked at Saito and asked, "If I remove my hat, will you promise not to tell anyone, or judge me? It's something I need to keep secret."

"Give me one good reason why I should judge you. You saved my life after all," Saito said smiling. "Besides that hat is as cold as the rain still, so I want you to take it off so you don't worsen."

Tiffania smiled then readied herself to take her hat off in front of someone for the very first time. She gulped inwardly then took it off to reveal her large ears. Te ears given to her by her mother. What her mother told her to keep a secret from everyone she met.

"Whoa! Those are some ears. Are you a fairy or something?" Saito asked as he stared at them.

"Um...well..." Tiffania said laughing slightly. "I'm not a fairy, but I'm an elf."

"To be honest, I don't really care. I don't know anything about elves honestly," Saito said laughing as he wrapped a blanket around himself as well since he felt cold too. "I don't care what you are, you saved my life, and you're a friend."

"Hey! Mr. Saito, your left hand!" Tiffania said pointing to the mark of Gundolf. Saito looked at the runes and noticed that they were fading. He didn't know what was going on, but he wasn't too worried for some reason. In fact, from what Derflinger told him he was kind of happy to have it gone because now that he looked at it, he wasn't Louise's familiar anymore. He wondered why he even fell for her in the first place…

"It's fine...I didn't like my old master anyways," Saito said once the marks were completely gone and as he remembered how Louise whipped him for the littlest things, and she even had a spiked whip now which scared him. "But anyhow, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine thanks to you," Tiffania said blushing a little. "And thank you for everything. I have been very lonely until you came, I'm really glad I met you."

"Me too," Saito said looking at Tiffania and smiling. She smiled as well and for a moment they began leaning closer and closer until their lips locked, but after a few seconds and they were done, Saito began feeling his body getting hot. "This again?" he asked.

"Saito? What's wrong Saito!" Tiffania said as his body began steaming and the mark of Gundolf reappeared on his hand. Once this happened he passed out, but Tiffania was more worried about what just happened? Did she give him the mark back? What was going on!

"Just as I thought!" Derflinger said popping out of his sheathe to speak with Tiffania. "You're a Void Mage! I could feel it on you."

"What…?" Tiffania asked as her ears drooped and she stared at Saito's now snoring and no longer cold body, but she was still cold and now she was tired. Perhaps…

####################

Saito woke up in a bed again and tried to recall what had happened. Last night he was looking for Tiffania, he found her in the rain shivering, his runes faded, they kissed...and then his body burned up, so did that mean he was a Gandalfr again?

Saito looked at his left hand and sighed. It was the mark Louise gave him, but is it that when he kissed Tiffania he got it back? Saito turned over and then noticed that someone else was in the bed. Right there on one side was a sleeping Tiffania.

"What?! Tiffania?!" Saito said sitting up immediately. He didn't remember this happening. When he made these sudden moves though she began to stir. Saito made a nervous noise and then her eyes tightened and she opened them. She looked at Saito then sat up, stretched, and then yawned.

"Good morning Mr. Saito..." she said rubbing her eyes. "Glad to see you're awake..."

"But, why are we in bed...together," Saito nervously said, but Tiffania didn't seem to care much.

"Oh, I was cold, that's all," she said as she began readying breakfast. "If you want to go back, it will be at most six days before you can travel again."

"I think I'll stay six days even if I'm ready to travel tomorrow," Saito said grinning. "I want to repay you for saving my life and taking care of me, so is there anything I can do to help you? I know I could chop firewood!"

Without another word Saito was out the door and Tiffania heard him chopping wood the next second. She just smiled and let him. He had been all about repaying her ever since and she decided there was no changing is mind and let him. She admired him for it too. Honestly, how did she manage to find such a nice guy?

##################

"Are you sure you're ready?" Mr. Colbert asked Louise as she prepared to begin her spell. It had been just three weeks and she believed she was ready. She was even given the information of what could go wrong, but now she had to push Saito out of her mind.

"Yes," Louise said and raised her wand. Once the spell started she began chanting, "My Name is Louise Franҫoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon that rules the five powers open the summoning gate before myself and my unseen familiar."

A pentagon appeared on the floor and then a green orb appeared and with that Louise waited. It was starting to get boring and two minutes had passed when it flashed very brightly and receded to leave behind a man in a dark cloak. He stirred and got up. When he looked around he seemed curious and was speaking a strange language.

Louise and everyone else in the courtyard looked at him curiously. He seemed very confused and kept talking the same language. Soon it began to sound hostile and he drew a long sword attached to his belt and raised it in a defensive position.

"Why do I keep summoning these peasants?" Louise thought to herself as she looked at the man with one eye twitching. This was just brilliant…

I will say this, Louise got an interesting one. I'll explain him a little more in the author's note next chapter, but for now I hope you enjoyed this one. I tried to do my best with it. And unlike some other people DO NOT just say, "More please" or "Good Chapter" in the reviews. Please say something you enjoy about the story rather than just giving me blind praise or give a little criticism. I'd like to know what I do good and what I do bad to make the experience better for YOU as the READER. This chapter is much longer than the last it's about 4,000 words which took me most of the day to write and a good portion of yesterday.