Raphtalia and I spent most of the rest of the day taking care of my two classmates and their familiars, which I found quite disappointing. To think, a petite girl like me could ride a horse to exhaustion! There were many men much larger than myself who couldn't do such a thing, but here I did it on my first ever attempt! Just think how much stronger I could get simply by going hunting with Raphtalia. Unfortunately, instead of accomplishing what we actually set out to do that day, I spent all morning and well into the afternoon taking care of Kirche.
Ugh.
"Why did you insist on inviting them?" I demanded of Raphtalia, not for the first time.
At this point she'd given up trying to answer me and just rolled her eyes. I thought it was quite ironic for her to be so rude to me given how often she lectured me about being more polite.
Finally Kirche began to stir. I was the one taking care of the Germanian at Raphtalia's insistence, while she kept an eye on Tabitha. We were both sitting with their heads in our laps to stop them hurting themselves by moving their head and neck, an embarrassing position if ever there was one. When her eyes fluttered open, Kirche stared up at me in confusion, before smirking and fluttering her lashes.
"Louise? I was having a lovely dream with you in it, but then I woke up and realised it wasn't a dream at all."
"You're a foul creature, Zerbst. Get off me"
Laughing, she went to stand up only to wobble, and I instinctively caught her when it seemed we should fall. "Louise, you were rough so with me that I can hardly stand."
"Then don't stand." I snapped back and stepped away from her.
Raphtalia's chiding voice rang out. "Louise, you should be more gentle with your friends."
Kirche's smirk only became more unbearable. "Yes, Louise, please be more gentle with me."
"Shut it, Zerbst!" Then I rounded on Raphtalia, who was giving me a disapproving look. "And I thought we were supposed to be hunting today! Because of your insistence we add them to the party we've wasted our entire morning."
"Funny how eager you are now you've seen the results." Raphtalia pointed out, wryly.
"Honestly, Zero, I'm not sure how much hunting you would really be able to do without us." Kirche pointed out. "You're hardly the most proficient mage."
I grimaced at that, while Raphtalia made a curious expression. "No one asked you, Zerbst!"
"What was that spell?" Kirche stretched her arms behind her head, putting emphasis on her chest which I definitely didn't stare at, just… It was hard not to notice with how bloated they were. "You were struck down by something similar at the summoning ritual."
"It seems to be a side effect of mana from my world interacting with mana from your world." Raphtalia answered. "Or maybe it's just because of mana from inside me interacting with mana from inside you?" Her eyebrows came together with thought. "I don't know, I've never seen anything like it, but it seems to have removed your level cap, Kirche."
"My what?" Kirche sounded as confused as I felt.
"Basically, from what I can see you should be like me and Louise now, able to get stronger by defeating monsters." Raphtalia looked down to her lap where she was cradling Tabitha's head. "And Tabitha should be the same when she wakes up.'
"What about Flame?"
"The same, uncapped."
"Hmmm…" Kirche got a considering look on her face. "Tabitha and I should go on a few independant hunts of our own now that we have the chance."
Did this mean Kirche was a hero, too? I wanted to ask Raphtalia, but I didn't want to do it in front of the Germanian. It was bad enough that a member of a house that was in rivalry to my own had the same potential to grow like I did.
"I should be clear, you and your are familiars still capped, just at level one hundred rather than level one." Raphtalia continued to explain. Then she looked back down at Tabitha. "Kirche, you're quite muddy, and so are you Louise."
"Only because I had to look after her." I glared at Kirche, who just winked at me. Disgusting.
"Why don't you two head back to the castle first, and I can ride back with Tabitha and Sylphid when she wakes up."
"But we were going to go hunting!" I pointed out, reasonably.
Kirche snickered at me for some reason.
"I don't think we can go today, with how much time has passed." Raphtalia looked up at the sun. "Besides, remember how sore you were after a few hours with muscle spasms? Kirche, do you really feel up to a long horse ride right now?"
"Not really." Kirche answered with a grimace, massaging her bicep.
"You two should start to head back, and I'll stay here to look after Tabitha and Sylphid." She looked back up to me. "Don't pout, Louise, we can go another day."
"I'm not pouting!" I folded my arms angrily. "And I don't see why we have to leave."
"You don't have to, but just imagine what your classmates would say if they saw you with mud on your backside."
"Oh, no, is there?" I tried to look behind me, but I couldn't really see any.
"Only a little, but enough to be embarrassing."
"I'm a little worried about Tabitha, though." Kirche replied, looking at her small friend with worry.
"Don't worry, I'll look after her." Raphtalia smiled at her. "And I'd really feel better if you and Flame were there to keep Louise safe on the way back."
"I don't need her to keep me safe!" I pointed out quite reasonably, as that insufferable Germanian smirked.
"I see, well in that case, I would be overjoyed to see the princess safely home." That fat cow changed tune the second she had a chance to mock me.
I'd had more than enough of this. With a huff, I climbed into the saddle of the horse I'd broken.
"Come, my lady." Kirche bowed towards me, one hand at her waist in a twisted attempt to act like a knight.
"Sod off, Zerbst!" I gave the horse a kick and moved further away from her, and with a laugh she hurried to follow, chasing me back to the castle. I felt a little guilty about leaving my familiar alone like that, but she'd proven more than capable in the past.
We were just approaching the castle gates when a notification popped up.
31 XP!
Well at least I got something out of today.
AN: Sorry about that folks, some kind of issue with the doc manager. Should be good now.
Man this story is getting slow. I think I gotta speed things up soon before it gets too boring.