So for all of you who feel tortured by all the embarassament Louise has been going through, you'll be glad to know this is the last big hurrah for that arc of the story. Things will be getting a touch more serious now, and the jokes won't be chapter long goliaths for a long while. The littler jokes will be hopefully growing in variety but still remain though. The mystery of what happened because of Shenron will be addressed soon hopefully, I thought I'd do it sooner just like you, and I don't know what went wrong.

In other news, I may have to leave you hanging on the 19th of November (I'll be back at it by the 26th if that is the case though) as College and work are draining my time and my backlog of rough drafts that I polish each week is losing chapters faster than it is gaining. Making the rough drafts into something fit to call a chapter is the hardest part but is not inhibited by writer's block so I always write the rough drafts first so I remain steady with my writing of this story.

Chapter 10: Raiders of the Dragon's Loli

Guiche was happy. Over the course of the last week he had greatly improved his relationship with Montmorency. After finding only himself to blame for driving a stake through Montmorency's heart, he decided amends needed to be made.

So, he promptly ditched the first-year student who he had been leading on and went to assemble an apology gift.

After stumbling upon one of Monmon's business deals, yes, he knew what she dealt in, they had a long conversation about their relationship.

A while back, when they were first engaged by their parents, the two of them had promised to give each other a chance to try being with someone else, just enough to know what that was like. In the present day, it seemed Monmon was done with that, citing that Guiche had plenty of experience outside of people like her. So, Guiche agreed, and he immediately found himself working hard to not break his promise of not seeing other girls. It was tough, but Guiche quickly discovered that the easiest way to deal with this was to be with Montmorency more. As a bonus, this greatly improved Monmon's mood.

As it was Monmon had stopped flirting with guys a long while back. Now she was ready to accept their betrothal for what it was and wanted no contest for Guiche's heart. Guiche was now figuratively searching for the long-lost lock and key to his heart to give to Montmorency.

The step up in intimacy was another great boon too. Additionally, not spending so much time chasing tail saved him a lot of stress and energy. Hell, he even fit in spell practice he had been slacking on. Honestly, Guiche wondered why he didn't think this up and suggest it to Montmorency himself.

A bit of him also was realizing how his change of nature would affect his brothers in arms. By not being such an open man, he would be giving his friends a better shot with some of the girls. Though he never went for Louise, he'd never be caught with a zero like her, Reynald was already making progress with her. Even if both protested it now, vehemently and excessively. Saying things like, 'We just bumped into each other for two Elfin' seconds Guiche!' and, 'I'll have you drawn and quartered if you keep speaking down on me like that!' Ah, young love.

Then again, there had been rumors about the Zero making moves on the other girls and the other girls making moves on her. That made him wonder who Louise was after. There had to be a magical artifact somewhere out there for that. 'Note to Guiche, ask Reynald and or Tabitha about love showing artifact. Bonus, I can use it to prove my love for Monmon if she ever grows doubtful.'

Guiche's thoughts travelled to what he had been doing with Monmon in her bedroom this week, and what he could push for in the next few months if he played his cards right. 'It's good to be settling in with someone.'

Then he passed a group of first year girls who were definitely eyeing him, and his heart panged to go to them. Instead, he smiled and waved, and was on his way like a broken pane of glass pretending to be fine when the wind could send it shattering. He let out a deflating breath. The temptation would be killer for the next few months at least. Old habits die hard he guessed. 'Time to give Monmon another visit, she did say something about brewing a special potion together.'

Louise walked into her room only to be swept up in a hug, and quickly set back down. Siesta bowed to her, "Thank you for your help Miss Valierre. Is there anything special I can do for you to show my appreciation for what you have done for me?"

Louise thought for a second. At first, she wanted to say it was all fine, but with Siesta offering she felt she had to do something. "I think you can have the night off to celebrate if you want. Get some rest though, I plan on heading to town tomorrow to get some things."

Siesta curtsied and left Louise for the night. Louise started filing through all the problems in her head: her familiar was missing without a trace, she had a familiar rune on her hand, she needed to practice her magic, by now the whole school would be convinced she was either dating someone or involved in deviant practices, all because embarrassing situations had been following her like so many lost puppies. She needed to proactively take measures against being embarrassed in the future. That would start tomorrow. Then she could make sure that none of the laundry list of things that happened this week would get out. 'Fat chance with Kirche and Montmorency being privy to nearly half of them though.'

Sighing Louise pulled out her wand and looked at the mirror. "Lucerna" she whispered to herself. A flame leapt up obediently and her forehead glowed orange with a rune. 'Don't forget about that. How in Halkeginia am I going to explain that?' Maybe Louise would invest in makeup. Normally she would only wear it for special occasions, makeup being a luxury even for nobles. Still, seeing magic at her fingertips would always be cathartic.

Yawning, Louise locked her door, and after a moment decided to bar her window too. Feeling more secure, Louise drifted to sleep, gloves on just in case. 'Let's see something happen to me now.'

Tabitha checked the moons, 'Yes, now is the ideal time.' She donned a mask that concealed her face. Kirche followed suit.

"Tabitha, why do you have these? We aren't stopping by a masquerade on the way to our mission, are we?"

Tabitha grunted, "Joseph's idea, less identifiable." Shaking her head, Tabitha pulled out a tactical wand and cast a spell to muffle their footsteps and other minor collisions. 'Mission Start.'

The duo creeped upstairs and detoured around a blissful Guiche making his way back to the boys' dormitories. Hiding in the middle of the adjoining hall was plenty to go unnoticed by him it seemed. Finding their destination, Tabitha tried the imposing oak door. 'Locked, switching to entry plan beta.'

Tabitha gestured to a nearby protrusion in the tower intended to facilitate gunners and archers defending the castle. Upon arriving there, Tabitha pointed her wand at a cross shaped hole which quickly expanded and folded brick work in upon itself. Jumping out, Tabitha quickly stood back up and looked to Kirche. Underneath her Sylphid quietly clung to the outer wall of the tower, thousands of individual scales shimmering like rain in the moonlight.

Kirche got on Sylphid without protest whom was now crawling to a nearby window. Once there, Tabitha tried to make an entry again, but the window had been locked. Clicking her tongue, Tabitha rubbed the head of Sylphid who took off in flight to above the tower in silent graceful spirals. In a moment they hovered over a dormant chimney. 'Interesting design flaw in these rooms.' Tabitha angled herself relative to the chimney and tensed her legs. With a short exhale she back flipped off Sylphid, casting another spell on herself as she entered the chimney, ash suddenly then lazily pouring upwards into the sky.

'What about me? How do I get in?' Kirche's thoughts were answered as Sylphid made her way back to the window. Hearing a click, she saw Tabitha stick her head out. They were in.

Joining up with Tabitha, Kirche stood in Louise's room, silent as a mouse. Louise was quietly slumbering in her bed. 'Like an adorable puppy! I need a painting of this.' Tabitha looked to Kirche, first she pointed to her mouth, then she brought two fists together before pulling them apart as though snapping a belt.

'Shit! I left that in my room!' Kirche panicked feeling her pockets and shaking her head no. She looked around the room and found two laundry baskets. Tabitha saw her move to them and quietly watched with understanding. 'So Kirche's the Sadist then?'

A larger basket held Louise's uniform and similar apparel, but to Kirche's delight, the smaller basket held only intimate apparel. She began to shift through the smaller basket, rolling fine pink and white fabrics over her foreign fingers. 'Wait, Louise actually bothers wearing bras? This one is even made to hold stuffing, hilarious.' She pulled out two pairs of panties, one of which laced up at the sides.

Tabitha nodded, and the tricky part of the operation began in earnest. The blue-haired infiltrator floated Kirche over Louise before gently setting her on the bed. Straddling Louise's unconscious form, Kirche slid the laced panties under her head, deftly balled up the other pair and slowly inserted them into Louise's mouth. Seeing she had successfully tricked Louise's body to start breathing from the nose with only a mild twitch, she tied up the makeshift gag and signaled to Tabitha.

Tabitha pulled out a small razor and reached for Louise's left hand, which as expected was covered with a glove. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she carefully picked at the glove's threads before slicing it off with precision.

Now Tabitha could see what she was after. Imprinted on Louise's skin was a rune, she quickly sketched it, but couldn't make out the scribble in the low light. Kirche noticed this and pulled out her wand. 'No, we talked about this, please belay that.' Tabitha shook her head no. 'But you need more light to see, and Louise didn't even notice us gag her, the doll.' Kirche in return gestured to Louise's mouth. 'Don't you dare, you know my mother is counting on this.' Tabitha shook her head again, eyes widening and piercing like needles into butter. 'I'm-a-do-it.' Kirche shook her head yes and took a slow breath in chilling as a soft breeze before a shear mountains gale. Suddenly, Tabitha was on the bed and grabbing Kirche's wand with one hand and covering Kirche's mouth with the other. Sweat beads threatening to drop from her skin like jingling icicles in spring.

Then someone shifted under them. Both intruders looked down to see Kirche was sitting on Louise's pelvis, and Tabitha was kneeling across both of her upper arms. Tabitha realized wearing a skirt for this may have been a gross miscalculation in defensive wear.

Louise woke up with a dry mouth and in complete darkness. She also felt very heavy and couldn't seem to move her arms or legs. She tried to sit up, but her forehead met something soft. Tabitha blushed and remained as still as possible, hopefully Louise would fall back asleep. "Whu, tuh huh?" Louise mumbled through her gag.

'Definitely awake! Abort operation immediately!' Tabitha grabbed Kirche by the collar to get them off the bed. Kirche was able to quickly bolt for the window, but Tabitha met complications in evacuating second. Louise began to struggle and yell through her gag, giving Tabitha a powerful head-butt from below. 'Oof!' Tabitha managed to hang on and thought fast.

She couldn't let Louise see them escaping. She hadn't yet only because of her skirt covering Louise's head and effectively blinding her. Fortunately, they wore the same size and the skirts were standardized. 'Nothing to identify me by.' Tabitha dropped her skirt, jumped off, and wrapped it quickly around Louise's head. Louise flailed about as Tabitha jumped through the window diving parallel to the floor and onto Sylphid. Thus, they disappeared to another part of the academy before Louise could properly react.

Jumping into a riding position was another mistake on her part. She winced with tears boiling up but not over, 'That'll be sore for a while.' Kirche was doing her best not to stare at her friend.

However, she couldn't avoid making a remark. Smiling she quipped, "White and frilly, but also simple. You know those are more appropriate for someone half your age, right?"

Sylphid entered a powerful corkscrew, and Kirche was less verbose than Tabitha for the rest of the night.

Meanwhile Louise was now looking out the window while furiously picking at the double knot in her panties. Someone had broken into her room, rifled through her laundry and would have done unspeakable things to her had she not given them a head-butt to the groin. Fury roiled like rapids and ran hotter than lava inside her.

The worst part was that she didn't see so much as a finger of them, as they had wrapped one of her skirts around her face. She swore whoever did this would be crushed, shredded, then immolated for this. All she had to go on though was that they would be walking funny tomorrow. 'Serves them right!'

Finally undoing the double knot, Louise spat out the gag and took greedy breaths of air. 'I need someone to keep watch over me. I'm not safe now. Siesta won't do, it was probably a mage if they jumped out the window, and Siesta can't deal with that. I can tell some of the teachers what happened, but I want someone who can stay by my side. That leaves only one person I can trust to not tell anyone about this. I just have to put aside that awkward moment from before when I ask. I'll have to see if Tabitha will be willing to help guard my room… I can trust her.'