14: Knighting
I have to admit, I wasn't expecting THAT from Louise at all. I probably should have, this Louise seems a lot bolder than last time, but I didn't think she would just kiss me and then offer THAT. At least she didn't try to cut off my oxygen supply with her tongue again. Otherwise it would have happened no matter what she said. Thankfully, she seems to have learned her lesson that, in this world, you never have a peaceful, romantic moment for more than 30 seconds. Something, or someone, will interrupt you. It has been better than last time, but I wouldn't hold my breath on getting more than a minute at most.
Something tells me that even that's being optimistic. It's good to know my inner monologue's back. He seems to have learned to shut up, but still, he can be really annoying.
All things considered, I want really as upset as I should have been about her backing out. Considering we've almost gotten to that point about eight times in the past only for nothing to happen, I've gotten used to it.
When I woke up, Louise had her arms around me. A quick glance at window says its maybe morning.
"Louise, its morning. Time to get up." I whisper to her, trying to wake her up without shaking or yelling.
Eventually her eyes slowly open.
"Saitooo, why'd you stop?" She says in a voice that's a mix of embarrassment and... Pleasure? She must have been having a "good" dream, details of which I will never ask for. Before I can form a response, she crawls on top of me and starts kissing my neck. Crap, she still thinks she's dreaming. Before she "escalates" I pinch her arm.
"Ow!" then she realizes that she's not dreaming anymore and blushes. I nearly die from how cute it is, that happens when you go without something for a month.
"I'm not even going to bother asking what you were dreaming." I tell her, "The less I know about what goes on in your head about things like that, the better." As much as I don't want to know, I can't help but be a little curious. What was she dreaming about? There are some things mankind should never know. This is one of them.
She looks down, clearly embarrassed.
"S-sorry." Her voice quivers a little as she says that. I give her a pat on the head.
"Enough of that, let's go see what's for breakfast before we head off to see the princess."
So now she's having those kinds of dreams about you, eh Saito? 'Shut up. Its not like that.' Now you're just in denial. The month I didn't have my inner monologue from not being a familiar was easily the most peaceful month I ever had in this world.
*Scene Break*
"I'd say the meeting went well." I said calmly.
"Of course it went well! You're a chevalier now! You're nobility!" Louise yelled at me.
When we got back to the castle, Henrietta was overjoyed to see us alive. She apologized to Louise over and over allowing the generals to give out suicide orders, and Louise tried to calm her saying things like "Anything to protect the princess!" and things like that. I try not to look angry considering I'm the one who actually did most of the work.
After that, Henrietta apologized for forcing me, even though it was unintentional, to nearly die for her. I just shrug it off and say it's not really a big deal, considering I'm still alive, but she insists on giving me a reward. I'm knighted a chevalier once again, and am made assisting commander of the knights of the water spirit. I probably should mention I'm contracted with the water spirit so this is a little redundant, but I decide against it.
"I may be a chevalier again, but it's mostly honorary. I still don't consider myself a noble. Especially since I'm not a mage."
Louise looks away. I think I even see a blush on her face. Why would that be? My inner monologue wonders. I try to see if I have spontaneously gained the ability to read minds, but no such luck.
"Saito, stop trying to read my mind." Louise tells me, still looking away.
"Seriously? Do mind reading abilities run in the family?" If Louise has been capable of reading my mind all along then I am going to have a lot of explaining to do.
"Not yet, but I can tell that's what you're trying to do. Its what I would be trying to do in a situation like this," she replies.
The thought of Louise reading my mind scares me to silence, and the conversation ends there.
After a few more minutes we reach the academy. Guiche and Montmorency are the first to great us.
"Saito!" they both cry out, running up to me and giving me a friendly pat on the back. I never figured that Montmorency was a show of affection type of girl, then again I never really talked to her that much.
"Where were you?" asks Guiche.
"Saxe-Gotha. That battle did quite a lot of damage, so I had to recover for a few weeks." I leave out the fact that I died. No one here, except Louise who already knows, needs to know that information.
"How did you survive? You fought against 70,000 people!" Montmorency asks.
I put a hand to my chin and ponder how to answer this. Luckily I don't have to.
"That would be me," says Derflinger.
Guiche and Montmorency look surprised, though if its from the sword talking or the fact that it did anything is up for debate.
"Partner here used me to absorb the magic being flung around. He fell unconscious in the middle of the battlefield, so I used that stored up magic to take control of his body and help him escape into the woods. He was found by a lady who runs an orphanage who nursed him back to health." Than he shuts himself back in his scabbard.
Montmorency's about to regain her composure and than she notices my awesome cape that the princess gave me as a sign of my chevalier status.
"S-saito, you're a noble now!" she says, her voice sounds like a mix of disbelief and... Happiness? Why is everyone so happy that I'm a noble now?
Then Guiche's eyes widen when he realizes I'm wearing a mantle. I guess without my awesome cape flapping in the wind (due to a current lack of wind) nobody noticed I was wearing it.
"Oh yeah, I might have forgotten to mention that. I was made me a Chevalier for my efforts during the war and allowing the army to safely retreat." I reply calmly. "Oh! That reminds me, Guiche, you're now head commander of the knights of the water spirit and I'm assisting commander, princess's orders. Queen's now, I guess."
Then he faints. Montmorency kneels next to him and tries to wake him up.
"Let's let them be for now," I say to Louise. "You go back to your room, I'll go grab something to eat."
She nods. "Can you get me some soup? I'm a little hungry after all this traveling."
I smile, "Sure." She heads back to her room, and I head towards the kitchen.
Before I can make it, I run into Slyphid.
"Hi Irukukuu! How you doing?" I have to admit, it is rather nice seeing her again.
She rubs her head affectionately against me. "Yay! Big brother's okay!"
"Indeed I am, how's Tabitha doing?" I am curious, I haven't seen her much and she's much more pleasant than her other half, Kirche.
"Big sister is doing great! She looked sad when big brother was gone but she's better now."
That confused me. "Why was she sad?"
Slyphid thought about it for a second. "Maybe she missed big brother?"
Yeah, and I don't have an extremely annoying voice stuck in my head for all eternity. Hey! I can hear you, you know! Tabitha probably just was sad that her familiar's only non-animal friend died. That's all I could think of that made any sense.
"Well, I'm heading for the kitchen, want anything?" I figure I should probably get her something, she thinks of me as her older brother after all.
She perks up. "Can you get Irkukuu some chicken? Irukukuu likes chicken." I can almost see the thoughts of chicken rolling through her head. Maybe I had developed mind reading powers and they only worked on dragons thinking about chicken.
"Okay, I'll see what I can do."
"Yay! Big brother is the best!" she gives me one more affectionate head rub, than urges me towards the kitchen to get her chicken.
"Our sword! You're nobility now!" cries the head chef, pulling me into one of his chokehold hugs. "I'm so proud of you! To think, a commoner like us can ascend to nobility!"
I'd ask him why he's apparently trying to choke me out, but I don't get the chance. Siesta bursts in.
"Please take good care of me Saito!" she says, almost exploding from happiness. The head chef is surprised and lets go of me, allowing me to breathe.
"Um... What?" My brain's trying to put two and two together, then I remember, but I let her continue anyways.
"The princess has order me to become your personal maid! I have the papers here!" She pulls a paper out of her pocket it and shoves it in my face. Sure enough, it is the princess's handwriting, and it says that Siesta is to become my maid.
"Please take good care of me!"
I think about how to approach this. My mind is telling me not to take her up to Louise's room right away, but the reason in my time couldn't happen in this time, I took precautions to avoid that. Nonetheless, I decide to play it safe.
"That's... Great Siesta! You wait here. I'll go tell Louise. It would be rude for you to just pop in their, right?" I try telling her.
"No no no! I must accompany you everywhere!"
I try not to let my annoyance show. "Fine then, you're my personal maid, I request you stay here while I go tell Louise. Got it?"
She hangs her head. "Okay."
"Good girl." I remember something. "Head chef, you got any soup left? Louise wanted some."
He shakes his head. "Sorry, our sword, we're fresh out. We'll have some more ready for dinnertime though."
"Oh well, what about some chicken?" I should probably get Slyphid's order while I'm here.
"Right here!" he pulls a big tub of chicken in front of me. I grab the three biggest chicken legs I can find and take them. I thank him for his kindness and head out. I stop to give Slyphid the chicken and then head for Louise's room.
*Scene Break*
I don't know what I was expecting when I entered Louise's room. What happened last time couldn't happen again, I made sure of it. Then why did I still have this feeling of dread hanging over me? I opened the door, not knowing what to expect, then I saw IT. How did she get that? I don't know, but she was currently alternating between begging on the floor, and standing up pointing at the floor.
"What exactly is going on here?"
Louise, clad in the accursed sailor suit, eeps and turns at the sound of my voice. Then she blushes.
"T-that stupid sword told me you were interested in this when we went shopping back in Albion. So I ended up buying it." She says embarrassed.
"Where was I when this happened?" I don't know when she got the time to buy it.
She looks down. "C-can we stop talking about this?"
No, we can't. Saito here loves it too much. 'Shut up. Do I need to keep repeating that?'
"And that whole staged performance I saw was?" I ask Louise.
She blushed harder. "I-i-i'd rather n-not talk about it." Then she glances over at the mirror and gives a good hard look at herself. She seems to have forgotten I'm here and gives a little twirl, still looking at the mirror. Her hair, scarf, and skirt go spinning. I suffer a mental overload and my brain, and possibly nose judging by the stream I see flowing down my shirt, explodes, causing me to pass out.
I wake up on the bed, Louise looking at me worried. Luckily for me, she has her old uniform on again. God, you have been doing this too much. Does your nose just have a vein made specifically for the purpose of shooting projectile blood out of in situations like this? My inner monologue wonders to itself.
"You overdid it with the spinning. I could barely handle it as is." I tell her while I sit up, a little lightheaded from the gallons of blood I just lost.
Her face is about as red as the floor was when I passed out. "S-sorry. I already burned the thing."
"Thank god! It can never hurt anyone again. Oh! I almost forgot, the princess says Siesta has to become my personal maid. That means staying here, with us." I tell Louise a little grimly.
She gasps in surprise. "W-what? Are you serious?"
I nod. "Yep. I told her to stay at the kitchen until I told her otherwise. I guess I made the right choice."
Before Louise can respond, Siesta bursts into the room.
"Oh no! I disobeyed your orders! You'll have to punish me!" before I can even begin to think what she means by that statement, she notices the situation.
"Wh-what happened? Is Saito okay?"
"It's nothing to worry about. I tripped on a loose floorboard and fell down." Sometimes my ability to make up things on the spot astounds me with how awesome it is. Other times, like this, it lets me down with how uncreative it is.
"Never you mind! We have bigger problems to worry about!" I tell the two of them before either can respond to my earlier claim.
"And that would be?" Asks Louise.
"Sleeping arrangements." They notice the problem immediately. One bed, three people. The bed could hold three people, but I feared for my life every night last time when we settled on that. "I'd share a bed with one of you, but not both at the same time. So how about this, I sleep in my little pile of hay, you two get the bed. Good? Awesome. Good night."
I'm desperate to avoid talking about this subject any further so I jump into my haystack and turn over.
"And if I find either of you in this haystack when I wake up, I will not be pleased. That goes for pulling me into that bed as well." Its targeted more at Siesta, but Louise is guilty of it too. I use my peripheral vision and see the two of them lie down in the bed and fall asleep. I say a few prayers that the two of them wont band together in an attempt to get into my pants. I might just have to start slaughtering the innocent if that happens, and we don't want that, do we?
*Louise POV*
I was a little embarrassed when Saito brought up the sleeping arrangements, and when he seemed to include me in the part about not crawling into his haystack. It may have happened once, but I'm pretty sure I was drunk that night and not in a proper state of mind.
I slept on the left side of the bed, nearest Saito, with Siesta sleeping on the other side, her back to me. I see her shuffle a bit towards the edge of the bed, probably to do who knows what with Saito while he's asleep.
"You better not do whatever you're planning to do," I tell her as calmly as possible. "Saito said he would be angry if he found anyone in his haystack, maybe even angry enough to fire you?"
She scoots away from the edge.
"You're probably right, that would be bad, but that's not why you want me away from him, is it Louise?"
"W-what are you t-talking about? Wh-what other reason could there be?" I curse myself for stuttering when I get flustered.
She turns and faces me. "You're worried about me stealing him away, aren't you?"
"W-why would I b-be worried about s-something like that?"
I see her smile. I swear she's enjoying this more than she should.
"Aww, are you in denial? That's okay Louise, we all know you love your little familiar, don't you?"
"Eep!" is my clever reply, followed by a blush.
"Well have you confessed? Have you told him how much you love him?"
I blush even more. "Yes. Among other things." I say in a voice so quiet it would make Tabitha jealous, that is, if she ever showed any emotion.
"W-what?" Hmm... It appears she hasn't expected this. I decide to continue.
"Y-yes, I did confess to him," I decide to push all of this into her face, make her sorry for bringing up this topic. "He's already confessed to me as well."
"No!"
"Oh yes! When we went to my family's estate, I was hiding from my family in a small boat on the lake. Saito found me and tried to get me to leave but I refused. When he realized I wouldn't leave, he told me he loved me to convince me to leave!" Okay, that was back in his time, but it still happened, so it's not a complete lie.
"B-But he would never skip a detail like that!" I'm enjoying watching Siesta suffer like this.
"That's not all either. That's where I told him I loved him as well! Then I even let him kiss me." Siesta's face almost makes me laugh.
"B-b-but-"
"One last thing," I say before she can finish her though.
"A-a-and that is?"
"We're married. He's my husband, and I'm his wife."
Siesta's face is too much to bear, and I start laughing to myself.
"Oh yeah, didn't I mention? Back in Albion, before I was supposed to go sacrifice myself to stop the army, we made out final requests. He wanted a last drink, so he could drug me and get me out of there, and I requested we marry. He agreed to it!" I say confidently.
Siesta's face is a mixture of shock, disbelief, and anger. "Y-you're lying! There's no way-"
"Than how about a deal?" I say.
"D-deal?"
"The Slepnier Ball. Everyone will be disguised as someone else. If he doesn't find me, then you can have one day to do whatever you want with him." I pause to let that sink in. I can already tell I've hooked her in. No matter what the other condition is she'll agree to the deal.
"A-and if he finds you?"
"You give up and stop making advances on him."
Before Siesta can react, "Keep it down, I'm trying to sleep..." mumbles Saito from his hay bed.
"S-saito! How much have you heard?" I'm nervous, if he knows about the plan and doesn't go along with it...
"Nothing really, I'm trying to tune you two out so I can go to sleep. Continue your girly chat if you must, but please keep it down." Saito turns over and goes to sleep.
I look at Siesta and whisper, "Do we have a deal?"
She looks at me and hesitates a bit before answering. "Deal."
I smile. Now that that's out of the way, I can go to sleep.