Author's Note: Yo. Chapter 9 here for your entertainment.

Nothing much to say here, except sorry for the delay. Ate a bad shrimp (or was it a prawn?) and got food poisoning. Urgh!

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Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero.

"Saito" -Talking

'Louise' -Thinking/ Human-Human Telepathy

"Explosion!" -Spell

:Master: -Master/Familiar Telepathy

Chapter 9: Princess Henrietta

In Front of the Royal Palace of Tristain

"Not bad as far as medieval European castles go." Saito remarked as he and Louise stood near the main gates.

"Yoo-roh-peean?" Louise echoed, "What's that?"

"The name of what this continent is called in my world." Saito replied, simplifying the explanation he had given Siesta that morning, "Anyway, how do we go about getting in?"

"Like this." Louise told him and marched towards the gate. Saito shrugged and followed her as she approached two burly men armed with spears, shields and swords.

"Halt! Who approaches the gates of the castle?" one asked formally, as Louise halted five paces from them.

"I, Louise Françoise 'le Blanc' de La Vallière, youngest daughter of the Duke de La Vallière and Duchess Karin 'le Vent Fort' de La Vallière, approach." Louise said calmly and formally, "As is my right under ancient law, I request entry into the domain of the Royal Family."

"Your right under ancient law is recognised." the same guard replied, "Name your companion."

"My companion is Hiiraga Saito, my duly bound Familiar and bodyguard." Louise replied, "Saito, show them the proof of out pact."

Rolling his eyes at the antique formula, the Onmyōji showed the guards the runes carved into the back of his hand. One made a show of examining them.

"These are indeed the runes of a Familiar." he declared after a lengthy perusal, "He is to be permitted entry also, under the ancient laws."

"So be it." the first guard nodded, "You may proceed, Lady de Vallière."

Louise merely nodded and walked through the open gates. Saito trotted after her.

"What was that song and dance about?" he asked her quietly.

"Ritual." she replied, "Those two knew who I was, but still went through it as they are required to do so to every Noble who enters the castle. Tiresome, but tradition is full of that sort of thing."

"So…despite the fact that any Mage could blast them to bits, they still go through that ritual every time a Noble enters this place?" Saito asked for confirmation.

"Yep."

"Why?" he asked, absolutely boggled by this tradition.

"Most Nobles like it because it makes them feel important." Louise replied, peering around the castle courtyard as she looked for someone, "I think the tradition came about after one Noble forced another to recite his titles to prove he was worthy of entering the King's presence."

"…idiots." Saito said with a shake of his head.

"There are several more traditions that are more idiotic than that." Louise replied absently, "The Captain of the Guards has to ritually take the Castle Keys from the Key Master at midnight…whilst bellowing the words of the rite at the top of his voice."

Saito could really say nothing about this. Looks like that old saying was true; tradition really DID have a life of its own!

"Ah-ha! There she is!" Louise said, "Agnès! Over here!"

The tall blond-haired woman stopped and turned around upon hearing her name. Her face was stern and imposing, just as her eyes resembled chips of ice. She was Agnès, Captain of the Musketeer Squad.

"Miss Vallière." she nodded, "I take it you are here to speak to the Princess?"

"I am." Louise nodded back, "Oh, this is my Familiar, Saito. Saito, this is Agnès, Captain of Princess Henrietta's Personal Guard, as well as the Chevalier de Milan."

"A human as a familiar?" Agnès asked in obvious disbelief.

"A non-Mage as a Noble?" Saito shot back almost immediately.

"How could you tell?" Louise asked him curiously, ignoring Agnès' glare at Saito.

"All Nobles I've met thus far have worn a mantle as a symbol of their rank." Saito replied, "Agnès here wears one, but lacks the pentagram symbol on the broach that fastens the cloak at the neck. Plus, she doesn't have any pockets large enough for a wand on that uniform."

"You're…observant." Agnès stated coolly, "Indeed, I am what the mages refer to as an Upstart Commoner, a Noble who possesses not a jot of magic in my bloodline. What about you?"

Saito inclined his head slightly. "I am a magic user, but I was summoned from another world, one where those who wield magic are forbidden from interfering in mundane affairs. No mages have been Nobles in hundreds of years where I come from."

Agnès scoffed. "Do I look as if I was born yesterday?"

"Nineteen years, give or take a few months." Saito replied without skipping a beat, "But who's counting?"

"You are impudent." the woman stated darkly, "When you meet the Princess, watch your tongue or I will cut it off."

With that, she turned around and stalked off, beckoning Louise to follow her. The petite pinkette sighed at this.

"You really know how to piss her off." she told him, "How did you guess how old she was?"

"Wait, I was right?" Saito asked in confusion.

Louise just sighed again and started following Agnès, trailed by a confused Saito. After a very bizarre tour of the hidden passages of the castle (who puts secret passages leading from the entrance hall to the third floor armoury anyway?), they ended up in front of a large wooden door with an odd flower-like device on it.

"It's a Fleur-de-Lis." Louise told him quietly when he asked, "A Flower of Lily, a symbol of purity and chastity."

"A symbol eminently suited for Princess Henrietta." Agnès said, "Now, churl, keep your hands off of her highness and mind your manners. I would confiscate your weapons, but Miss Vallière's Noble rank entitles her to a single armed retainer at all times, even in the Royal presence."

"Lucky for me." Saito said dryly.

With one final glare at Saito, Agnès walked up to the door and knocked on it three times. "Your Highness, Miss Vallière is here to see you."

"Louise is?" a happy voice said from inside, "Show her in, at once!"

"Yes, Your Highness." Agnès replied. She opened the door and walked inside, Louise and Saito walking after her.

Saito would have to guess that the room, by the standards of a medieval society, was fairly luxurious. Hand-carved wooden furniture made up the sitting room, masterfully painted paintings hung on the walls along side a few beautiful tapestries.

Sitting in one chair was one of the most beautiful women Saito had ever seen. As she stood up, he absently noted that several of the supermodels in his world would give their souls to look even one-tenth as beautiful as Princess Henrietta was. Snowy-white skin, sapphire-blue eyes and a rich burgundy-coloured head of hair, combined with a pure-white dress and a purple mantle made the princess look not only chaste and pure, but thoroughly desirable as well.

Throttling his primal male instincts -including his small wand- Saito watched with a small smile as Louise and the princess ran towards each other and linked hands, squealing like any other girls their age would.

"Louise, it is so good to see you!" Henrietta said fondly, "Have you been well?"

"I'm good." Louise replied with a smile, "What about you Princess?"

"Court politics are getting more than slightly tiresome." the plum-haired woman sighed, before she caught sight of Saito, "Oh? Louise, who is this gentleman?"

"Pardon my rudeness." Louise said before gesturing at Saito, "This is Hiiraga Saito, my contracted Familiar. Saito, this is Princess Henrietta, my childhood friend and Crown Princess of Tristain."

"Mister Saito. A pleasure." Henrietta said with a smile as she extended her hand.

Saito looked at it in confusion for a moment before remembering. Taking her hand, he very gently kissed it before releasing it and saying, "Your Highness, the pleasure is all mine, I assure you."

"My, you are a flatterer." Henrietta giggled.

"I merely speak the truth, Your Highness." Saito replied.

Louise, squelching the sudden jealous urge to separate the two violently, cleared her throat. "Princess, we have an important matter to discus."

Henrietta looked at Louise and frowned. "You wouldn't come here just a few days before my annual visit to the Academy for nothing, so I presumed it was important. Let's sit down and we can discuss the matter properly."

Despite the way it was coached as a suggestion, the tone of her voice made it a command. Saito made a note to not underestimate the Princess, as, to use a rather clichéd turn of phrase, it would seem that the velvet glove hid a steel gauntlet beneath it.

Henrietta returned to her seat and gestured for Louise and Saito to sit opposite her, which they did. Agnès took a parade rest position behind her mistress, ready to guard her from harm at a moment's notice.

"Now then, what is the matter you find so urgent that it cannot wait a week?" the Princess asked.

"First Your Highness, you need some background." Saito said, "I am a Mage from another world. Louise summoned me a few days ago and I have been running some tests on her to try and find out why her magic is, for lack of a better term, so explosive."

"Another world?" Henrietta's eyes widened in amazement, "Oh my…wait, you've found out why Louise cannot use her magic properly?!"

Saito nodded. "A mere two days ago, I discovered the reason. It is a combination of three factors. The first is that my master here is a Void Mage."

"Impossible!" Agnès blurted out, "The Founder Brimir was the only Void Mage in Halkaginian history!"

"No, he was the last to not have his power sealed." Saito corrected her, "Louise, I think the next part is something you should say, rather than me."

"R-Right." the pinkette took a deep breath, held it and released it before continuing, looking her friend and Princess in the eyes as she spoke, "Princess…Saito discovered that somebody deliberately and wilfully bound my magic…twice."

The stunned looks crossing Agnès and Henrietta's faces were only a temporary thing. The sheer fury that then emerged from Henrietta's expression made Saito flinch back instinctively.

"Who?" the Princess' voice was colder than a glacier in her anger, "Who would dare to attack a member of the Royal Family? Who would dare attack my friend?!"

"There were two bindings, Princess." Saito replied softly, "One was cast immediately upon Louise's birth, the other just prior to her entering the Academy."

"The first was cast by an artefact of Founder Brimir." Louise added, "We need your help in order to break it."

"Whatever you need, you shall have." Henrietta replied immediately.

"The spell can be broken with the aid of three items of power." Saito said, "First, the Ring of Water. Next, the Founder's Prayer Book. And finally, something referred to only as the 'living blade.'"

"The first two are easy to grant you." Henrietta commented as she thought, "The Founder's Prayer Book is Louise's by right as a Void Mage of Royal Blood and the Ring of Water can be lent out to family members for obligation and the like, but I have never heard of any 'living blade' in my life. Agnès, what about you?"

"No, I cannot recall ever hearing about something such as that." the blond Musketeer replied with a frown.

"Fortunately for Louise, we discovered it this morning." Saito jerked a thumb at his sword, "Say hello to Derflinger, the sword of the Gandálfr."

"Yo!" the sword greeted them as he unsheathed himself, "Nice ta meetcha!"

"By the Founder!" Agnès swore, a musket-pistol appearing in her hand faster than Saito could blink.

"Good heavens…an actual living sword." Henrietta said in wonderment, "Greetings, Derflinger."

"Nice to see that Brimir's descendents are polite." the blade chuckled, "Now, what's this I've been hearing about a binding spell?"

Saito swiftly filled the living weapon in about Louise's condition.

"Oh…that spell." Derflinger said, "Damn irritating thing. I remember my first wielder arguing about it with someone…could have been Brimir…she wasn't happy about it."

"The first Gandálfr was a woman?!" Louise exclaimed.

"Yeah...I think so…my memory's a bit fuzzy because I'm so rusted up." Derflinger apologised, "Haven't been clean in two millennia!"

"I'll give you a good polishing and sharpening when we get back to the Academy." Saito promised.

"Much appreciated, partner." Derflinger replied, "I'll let you get back to your talk now."

With a metallic clank, the sword re-sheathed himself, leaving the flesh and blood occupants to shake their heads at the antics of the magical artefact.

"If the Church finds out about him, they'll try and confiscate Derflinger." Louise predicted.

"They can't." Henrietta replied, "Artefacts of the Founder, like the Founder's Prayer Book and Derflinger, are supposed to go to the Void mage of the Country they are born in, in this case you Louise. Not even his Holiness the Pope could demand that you hand them over."

"If your Church is anything like the one from my world, telling them 'no' is a Bad Idea." Saito put in, "In my world, the Church was rumoured to have a secret group of agents to take care of any underhanded business that they needed taken care of. They were completely unknown to all but the highest ranking members of the Church and as such, they could be disavowed if they failed."

"Oh my." Henrietta said in shock.

"There have been a few times that Nobles who have stood in the way of the Church have, for one reason or another, either stood aside abruptly or died in odd circumstances." Agnès mused, "Earl Albert Du Lac of Falaise d'Eau, for example."

"Didn't he die in a hunting accident?" Louise asked with a frown.

"He was sixty years old and hated hunting." Agnès replied dryly, "He much preferred bedding his mistresses and organising his vast mercantile empire rather than 'run about on those abominable beasts called horses' as he put it once. He once had in his possession a relic of the Founder that the Church expressed an interest in and asked that he tithe it to our Holy Mother. Coincidentally, not a month after he refused the Bishop sent to negotiate with him, he wound up dead on the first hunting trip he had made in fifty years and he left the relic to the Church in his will."

"This…is more than slightly troubling." Henrietta stated worriedly.

'Understatement much?' Saito thought dryly. Evidently, the Church of Founder Brimir did have a parallel to Department 13 of the Vatican, Iscariot, and they were active, in Tristain at least.

Aloud, he said, "Let's burn that bridge when we come to it. For now, we have to focus on breaking the binding on Louise."

"Oh. Right." Henrietta nodded, "If I recall, you were bound twice, Louise?"

"Yes." Louise nodded, a sour look on her face, "The second one was what caused all those damned explosions because of…what was it again Saito?"

"Dissonance." the Onmyōji supplied, "The bindings fought each other and your powerful magic broke through them in the form of an explosion because of your alignment to the magic of the Void. I think Osmond called the second binding 'Wisel's Wondrous Cage' before he broke it."

"A powerful mid-rank binding spell." Henrietta mused, "It's usually used as a punishment for Nobles who abuse their magic. Did your mother or sister do this to you, Louise?"

The deceptively calm ton of her voice told Saito that if this proved to be the case, Henrietta would be having words with both of them and those words would not be 'how do you do'.

"T-To the best of my knowledge, no." Louise replied nervously, "They were some of the only Mages around during the time frame though."

"Who else was?" Agnès asked, her eyes narrowing in thought.

"Father, Éléonore, Cattelya, Mother, Jean-Jacques Francis, Viscount of Wardes…" Louise recited, "A few Nobles visited mother and father at odd times that week, but I don't recall meeting any of them."

"Does that binding spell require the target to be awake in order for it to take hold?" Saito asked.

"No, it can be cast on someone even if the target has been rendered unconscious." Henrietta replied, "Unfortunately, this means that any Mage who was at the de Vallière estate during that week could have cast it if they could gain entry into Louise's room."

"Which would be fairly easy for my family and only a mild obstacle for any of the others." Louise added, "So this really doesn't help us determine who cast the spell."

"Osmond said it was difficult for him to dispel." Saito reminded her, "That only a handful of people in Tristain could cast it with sufficient power to do that. Who was there that has that kind of power during the timeframe we're talking about."

At this, Louise slumped. "Two people." she whispered, "First, Viscount Wardes, my fiancé, and second, Duchess de Vallière…my mother."

"Oh hell." Saito said. He could feel a headache coming on already.

The Musketeer Captain snorted. "An understatement if I have ever heard one. Viscount Wardes is the Captain of the Gryphon Knights, as well as one of our most trusted agents. Karin of the Heavy Wind is a sitting Duchess and it would be a political nightmare to attempt to punish her, as she could just claim she was punishing her daughter for some misdemeanour and Miss Vallière here is lying."

"But it doesn't make any sense for her to do it." Henrietta pointed out, "Duchess Karin and the entire de Vallière family is mocked because of Louise's inability to cast spells. Sorry, Louise."

"It's a fact, Princess." Louise sighed and waved her childhood playmate's comment off with the long ease of practice.

"If I recall, your eldest sister has been aggravating for you to be withdrawn from the academy and marry your fiancé. Might…ow…" Saito said with a frown and a small wince as his headache redoubled itself. He also felt…bloated?

"Saito, are you alright?" Louise asked, "Your face is very flushed."

"I…I haven't felt like this…since my magic first awoke." Saito gasped, "I need to use magic, now, before I collapse!"

"Why? What's the matter?" Henrietta asked worriedly.

"Halkaginian Mages have far larger magical reserves than Mages from my world do." Saito explained, "We also have less ambient magic. What's happening is that I'm absorbing more magic from my surroundings than my reserves can handle. Ordinarily, in my own world, this would happen over a long period of time, allowing my reserves time to grow to adjust before anything serious happened, but my body has absorbed so much magic today, without me using any spells as of yet to drain it off, that it's poisoning me."

As he spoke, Saito removed a handful of talismans and threw them into the air, where they hung, suspended by his magic. Agnès half-raised the gun at him, but desisted at Henrietta's hand signal.

"Talisman of Water, come to my aid!" Saito incanted, "Suiryū Matsuri! (Water Flow Festival!)"

Streams of water erupted from the talismans, bending and stretching across the entire room in elegant spirals, hoops and twists that made Louise and Henrietta gasp in appreciation. Halkaginian magic couldn't do anything like this.

"Next trick." Saito grinned, "Henge: Suiryū! (Transform: Water Dragon!)"

In an instant, the streams of water blurred and transformed, turning into long, sinuous wingless dragons that changed to flying in seemingly random patterns throughout the room.

"These are miniature versions of the dragon you used to destroy Guiche's Earth Valkyrie." Louise commented as one water dragon glided soundlessly past her head.

"They are indeed." Saito nodded, "Although this spell is actually a bit harder than that one. I have to feed magic into maintaining the shape of the dragons, moving them and keeping them cohesive. Suiryū Kōbaku is maintained for only half a minute, tops. Maintaining this-" he gestured at the room full of dragons, "-is far more taxing on a person's magical reserves."

"So you can drain your reserves to the point that you aren't being poisoned by a build-up of magic." Henrietta concluded, "I have never seen this type of magic before. What is it?"

"Mysticism." Saito replied as he manipulated two dragons to orbit the Princess, who could see the detail that each dragon had, right down to the scaled hide of a dragon, "I only use a small portion of my own magic in any given spell. The talismans I use as a medium draw the rest of the power from the ambient magic in the area around me. This world has so much ambient magic that it surprises me that there aren't more Mages who aren't Nobles running around."

"What does ambient magic have to do with someone having magic?" Louise asked in confusion, "Magic is passed down through bloodlines, each generation inheriting the power from their parents."

Saito looked at her for a moment before sighing. "Figures. Primitive magic system, primitive magical theory."

"Excuse me?" Henrietta asked with one eyebrow raised.

"I'm sorry, but from my perspective, Halkaginian magic is primitive." Saito replied as he gathered all the dragons into a single vertical ring between himself and the Princess, "It is crude in its execution, wasteful in its use of magical energy, unnecessarily flashy and you haven't even created a method of quantifying the amount of magical energy a person has."

Despite her stoic façade, Agnès found herself enjoying the stupefied expressions on Henrietta and Louise's faces. Even though the Princess was a very nice person, and Louise was infamous for being unable to use magic, they both fell victim to the institutionalised arrogance of Nobility and Royalty regarding their magic; that it was the best in the world.

This of course was far from true, what with the elves being able to dance rings around any single or even group of Halkaginian human mages without even having to break a sweat. Still, Mages were nothing if not stubborn about their worldview.

Seeing Saito poke holes in that inbuilt sense of superiority that the mages held for their magic was very satisfying for the Musketeer Captain and almost made her forgive Saito for his rudeness to her earlier.

Almost.

"And how much magic do you possess then?" Louise challenged her Familiar.

"My Seimei Index Rating was 2067 the day before I arrived in Halkaginia." Saito replied, "I haven't had a chance to measure myself in the days since, but I would estimate that I am several degrees stronger than I was…perhaps I have an additional four-hundred points or so?"

"Wait…you said that Halkaginian mages were several orders stronger than mages from your world." Henrietta said with a frown, "What level would an average mage of Louise's age be?"

"Easily something like 4000." Saito replied instantly, "That would be on the weak end of the scale. On the strong end, like that Tabitha girl, the numbers would approach 7500."

"Wait, Tabitha?!" Louise asked incredulously, "The quiet bookworm? That Tabitha?"

"Yes." Saito replied, "While you were in classes, I sent one of my Shikigami familiars to scan your class so I could get a good comparison of how powerful you are compared to your year-mates."

"So how strong am I?" Louise asked.

"Stronger than any two of your classmates put together." Saito replied with a crooked smile, "Although you should have realised that by recalling the amount and brightness of light in your scanned image from a few days ago. Tabitha comes in second place, but that's with a considerable gap between the two of you."

Saito paused as he allowed his Master and her Princess to absorb this little fact. His eyes strayed to the window, which had a gorgeous view of the castle gardens and the city of Tristania over the curtain wall, with the vast countryside visible past that, for all that it was a slightly enlarged arrow slit window.

A cloaked figure standing atop the curtain wall caught Saito's attention, as there seemed to be no guards in sight. His eyes widened as the figure hefted a long object in their hands that Saito vaguely recognised from his history classes regarding the Portuguese envoys to Japan back during the Sengoku Jidai (Warring States Era); a muzzle-loading arquebus, the forerunner of the rifle.

It couldn't be a mere arquebus of course; like all smoothbore guns, it had an effective, accurate, range of no more than maybe fifty paces, sixty if it was indeed an arquebus, which was far more than the distance between the curtain wall and this room. That meant it had to at least be rifled in order to increase its range and ballistic velocity, meaning…

"Talisman of Water, come to my aid!" Saito snapped out, "Suiryūheki! (Water Flow Wall!)"

The three girls leapt in fright as the ring of water dragons abruptly flowed into a single large dragon and flew to the window at Saito's command, completely covering the opening and folding more and more over it until the entire thing was covered in a large dome of water.

"Saito?" Louise asked.

"Agnès, move the princess away from the window." Saito urged, "Quickly!"

Sensing Saito was being serious, the Musketeer Captain unceremoniously threw Henrietta over her shoulder and moved her away from the room's only window, ignoring her burden's protestations.

No sooner had she been moved than the sound of a loud 'bang' echoed from the garden and a slightly distorted rifle bullet splashed into the dome, moving through it slowly, as if time had been slowed down for the bullet as soon as it entered the water.

Saito mentally drew a line from the bullet's current position to where it would have ended up…in the wall, after passing through the head of Princess Henrietta.

"By the Founder!" Agnès swore, "Who fired that round?!"

Henrietta looked on from where her Guard Captain had planted her, behind a large desk, with worried eyes.

"A masked figure on the curtain wall, armed with what looked like an arquebus." Saito replied grimly, "Allow me to attempt to capture them for you. Tsuikyū to Hokaku, Suiryū Shibari! (Pursue and Capture, Water Dragon Binding!)"

The mass of water spat the bullet out and formed into its dragon form once again, before zooming out the window with a roar. The sound of booted feet pounding on stone was heard receding into the distance as the magical construct gave pursuit.

Saito maintained the spell for a moment before waving his hand, cancelling the spell and causing the talisman to burn up. "No use; the culprit, whoever he or she was, made it into an area of high population density, so my dragon couldn't track them down."

"I must go and interrogate the guards." Agnès growled, "I cannot believe that they were lax enough to allow an assassin onto the castle grounds! Miss Vallière, kindly remain here until I send a pair of Musketeers to guard her Highness."

The straw-haired woman nodded at Saito and his master before sweeping from the room, her cloak flapping as she walked. The Onmyōji had the feeling that being one of the Castle Guards right at this very moment was not going to be a pleasant experience.

"It seems that I owe you my thanks, Mr Saito." Henrietta said as she returned to her seat.

"Just Saito is fine, Your Highness." the Mystic replied, "And I would have done the same for anyone. The fact that I disapprove of extralegal ways of manipulating the leadership of countries added to my willingness to intercede."

"Nevertheless, you have my thanks." Henrietta said as Saito picked up the bullet, "I am required to reward you for such service. Name your reward and it shall be given to you…within reason of course."

"I have no idea what the scale of rewards for this would be." Saito replied honestly, "Louise? A little help here?"

"You saved the life of the Crown Princess of a sovereign nation." Louise replied, "Barring a Grant of Nobility, you have plenty you could ask for…money, materials, Royal Favour to a business interest…as I say, the only thing off the table is a Grant of Nobility, because you didn't risk your life in the process. Other than that, ask away."

"Not helpful." Saito drawled, "Can I have some time to think about it your Highness?"

"Of course." Henrietta nodded, "Now, to return to our previous topic, what is it that you have planned regarding Louise's family?"

"Osmond believes it would be…prudent…to remove her from their influence, at least temporarily." Saito replied, fiddling absently with the bullet in his hand as he spoke, "She and I have agreed to sign a Master/Apprentice Contract, with me as the master and her as the Apprentice, so I can get her up to speed once we figure out how to use Derflinger, the Water Ring and the Founder's Prayer Book to break Brimir's Binding."

"No!" Henrietta gasped, "Louise, you didn't!?"

"It's OK, Princess." Louise assured, "Saito and Osmond wrote up a code of conduct up that negates most of the negative aspects of the stories we heard from our mothers, and we've worked out how to avoid the Deflowering Punishment from occurring. Saito was rather adamant about that."

"Thank the Founder." Henrietta muttered, before fixing her gaze on Saito, "Louise is my friend, Saito. Kindly treat her well or I shall let my displeasure known to you."

Saito bowed slightly. "Your Highness, I have little to no desire to even be in this world. I plan to break this runic shackle as soon as is practicable and returning to my own world. Until then, I intend to maintain the high moral and ethical standards expected of a member of the Imperial Ministry of Onmyōji, rest assured on that front."

"It's highly unlikely you will be able to." Henrietta said doubtfully, "Generally, the contract between Mage and Familiar lasts until the Master dies."

"My own world uses Familiars." Saito replied, "And one spell in particular is what I am counting on, a spell used to punish someone by severing the bond between Master and Familiar."

"That's horrible!" Louise exclaimed, "Why would someone be punished like that?"

"Usually, it's used for those who abuse or misuse their Familiars." Saito replied, "Mentally unstable people, in other words."

The two Mages nodded in agreement with him. Only the most mentally unstable person could ever even consider maliciously harming their Familiar, the being that represented the heart of their soul and magic.

"I know the theory of the spell, but I've never actually cast it, so I'll need some time -a good month at least- to check it over for any possible repercussions for Louise if cast on her, as she is totally sane." Saito continued, "As such there could be unforeseen complications if cast on her, so the check is more than slightly necessary."

"Agreed." Louise said with feeling.

Saito chuckled at this before continuing, "Anyway, the final matter we came to speak to you about is that, during your visit to the Academy next week, Louise's family is going to be there so the Headmaster can explain everything to them. It would be…appreciated…if you could sit in on that discussion to stop Louise's mother from mounting her manticore and terrorising those whom she might believe responsible for the attack on her daughter…at least until we can figure out exactly who is responsible."

"It would be my pleasure." Henrietta replied with a cold smile, "After all, the Duchess would be absolutely mortified if she punished the wrong person."

"My thanks, Princess." Louise said with faux-formality, "My mother would be so disappointed to have beaten the wrong person to a bloody pulp."

This made Saito shiver slightly as Henrietta and Louise giggled.

Elsewhere…

"How in the name of the Founder did you miss, you imbecile?!" one man hissed. He and the cloaked man he was berating were standing in a cellar in a poor section of Tristania.

"I didn't miss!" the cowl-covered man retorted, "My aim is impeccable! Something else interfered in the shot…whoever sent that thrice-be-damned water drake construct after me, I'll wager."

"Damn…this was our one chance to eliminate the accursed Princess without having to worry about elevated security." the first man grumbled as he started to pace restlessly, "Now the chit is going to have her guard doubled by that brass-clad Musketeer bitch. We won't even be able to ambush her on the way to the Academy now!"

"Don't have to go near her." the caped man opined, patting his arquebus as he spoke, "Just let me and my beauty here do our job and you'll be down one Princess."

"You cretin!" the first man shouted, "Do you really think that Agnès 'le chien de garde' (The Watchdog) will let anyone come within rifle range of the strumpet? Especially now she is forewarned that someone is aiming for Henrietta's life! No, we will have to wait until Agnès drops her guard again before making a move."

"HE isn't going to be too happy about this." the second man pointed out worriedly.

"Why do you think I'm going to send one of my least favourite people along as the courier to inform HIM about all this?" the first man asked rhetorically, "HE always shoots the bringer of bad news. No way am I going near HIM with any!"

The emphatic nod that his companion gave was by no means feigned. Both of the men, as unscrupulous and hard-bitten as they were, lived in perpetual terror of disappointing their employer. The last time someone had disappointed him, that man had been electrocuted into charcoal.

"So…tomorrow then?" the second man asked eventually.

"Tomorrow." the first man agreed, "Now, let's get back to the hideout; I need a drink!"

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Next Chapter: The Parent Trap

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