Leisure
"Louise, could you help out here?" Alban called.
Another solid minute had passed and the girl with plenty of hands didn't get a response. Thinking it weird, Alban decided to look for the pink-haired girl. Walking up the stairs to the second floor, she then made her way to the entrance of Louise's room. One of her arms reached out and knocked. A few seconds later Alban decided to knock again only to hear a loud crashing noise in her room. Alarmed by this, Alban immediately opened the console for the door and inputted the override code. With a loud hiss, the door slid open to the sight of Louise on the floor with paraphernalia of materials.
Louise rubbed the back of her neck with a slight wince. Meanwhile, Alban stood in front of the door with a confused look. "What are you doing, Louise?"
Standing up while picking up the things that fell on her desk, Louise said, "I was just tinkering,"
"With what?" the multi-armed girl asked.
Looking at the pink-haired girl's desk, she saw some random optics, some storage devices the size of a thumb and other materials needed to make a simple camera. On the side of the table were some glasses, though what she was making eluded Alban.
"During one of the errands that Bench sent me to, I met a person who can identify who I am just by looking at me,"
Alban quirked an eyebrow at that statement, "Just by looking at you?"
Louise nodded with slight enthusiasm, "His body was almost machine too,"
With the descriptions made, it didn't take Alban to put two and two together, "So… you've met an Enforcer,"
Hearing the new title, Louise gave the multi-handed girl a questioning look. Without hearing the question, Alban explained how the Enforcers are a group of people who look around Bans looking for anything that was out of the ordinary, or illegal dealings. Upon hearing that Louise gave a worried look at Alban.
"We're not an illegal business… right?" Thankfully, Alban replied with a simple 'no' gesture. "So… what do Enforcers consider out of the ordinary?"
Alban decided that telling her the following knowledge will take time, she entered Louise's room and sat on her bed. "Before I continue you talking about Enforcers, I'll give you some context but first, let me ask you this… what do you think of Bans?"
At that question Louise's eyes brightened up, "It's a wonderful place, it reminds me of the floating country, Albion. The people here are also nice, and the fact that there is no such thing as roads makes this place look like something that came out of a fantasy novel,"
Looking at how happy Louise is, Alban was slightly discouraged by what she was going to tell her. "I agree, Bans is a wonderful city… mostly wonderful,"
"What do you mean?"
"Bans isn't what it seems, Louise… around twenty ago, it was a massive city, enough to cover the entirety of the Amazon Wasteland. It was supposed to be a city that protected its citizens from the menace of the Ravagers. And it worked, Ravagers both old and new were repelled by the city's once-great defences…,"
Silence reigned over the room, Louise waited for Alban to continue the story, "…That is until… Ravager Blight came,"
"Ravager Blight?"
Upon mentioning that damned name, Alban proceeded to tell Louise one of Bans' most gruesome war with a single Ravager that just refused to die.
Kirche stared into her teacup with a bored expression. Her mind wandered to that small talk that she had with Louise a couple of days ago. She replayed two words that the pink-haired cyborg told her.
'I've changed'
There were plenty of meanings that could go behind those two simple words both mentally and physically. For one, Louise has changed physically, that strange suit that she wore every time she went out was for one. Two, just the way how she looks, moves and even reacts is different; it's like she's always alert, she's always on guard. There was also the way she spoke to her; it was like all their past rivalries had just simply upped and left which made her even more curious.
Never had she seen Louise talk to her in a neutral tone, usually, it would start with her sauntering up to her with a teasing grin. That alone was enough to make Louise bubble in irritation in which she thought was adorable, it was like looking at a child who had their favourite toy dangled above them just out of reach. Of course, if that child had a venomous tongue then it would pretty much look like Louise.
"My love, is everything alright?"
Her thoughts came to a halt when a voice reached her ears. Looking up from her teacup, she looked into the eyes of a teenage boy who had silver-white hair that reached to his neck. His features were along the lines of 'average handsome'. He had a look of confusion on his face, curious as to why she stopped paying attention to him.
"Everything is alright, Stix," She said in an attempt to calm him.
That didn't work seem to work however as he now looked at her with a small crease on his forehead, "I'm not Stix… I'm Vestro."
Kirche had to mentally click her tongue. She had forgotten the name of the boy in front of her which might've made him dislike her a little. With a little sweet talk, the boy's affection returned and they continued to enjoy their break. This went on for a few more minutes with him telling her stories about his amazing accomplishments as a distinguished noble. If she had to be frank, she knew and everyone close enough to listen to his stories, that they were nothing more than made stories on the spot.
"Seriously, saving a shop from getting robbed by seven raiders with two of them being a rogue noble all by himself… who would buy that?"
Their relationship with each other had only started a week ago and after the last two days, she knew then and there that he wasn't her type. One of the main reasons would probably be because of his nonstop talking about stories that were not even close to the truth. The only reason for him and her being together is so that she could finally relieve herself of him. Initially, she thought that he was a fun person but that all changed when he was finally given free reigns on his mouth.
"Say, Vestro… can we just stop it here?"
Upon hearing those words, the entire school had come to witness another one of Kirche's infamous dumping
"Are you sure you can carry those?" Cattleya asked Louise with a worried expression.
The pink-haired cyborg in question walked out of her sisters' room carrying plenty of luggage. With the help of the nanomachines her body, carrying them was easy. Giving her elder sister a smile for assurance, Cattleya left it at that while giving her a small thank you. Meanwhile, Eleonore was standing outside talking with Bench. While the sight was something to behold, it still took both Louise and Cattleya a solid day before they concluded that they finally made up.
Louise and Cattleya left the building and made their way to the carriage that was sent by her mother to pick them up and send them home. While they weren't necessarily going home immediately, Eleonore decided that it was best to pack their things early so that they won't rush everything in the last minute.
"…and that is what Newton's Third Law states," Bench finished.
Eleonore nodded with understanding, "I can see how it would be similar to Braxton's Fifth Rule of magic,"
When both Cattleya and Louise first saw the two talking civil, they had initially thought that something weird was going on. They had been talking like this after she had sincerely apologised to the pod-bot. When Louise asked about this 'weird' behaviour that her eldest sister is doing she simply said:
'I have found the error in my ways and I sincerely apologised to Sir Bench. Once we had set our grudges aside, he opened up to me by asking me the Rules of Magic,'
While it wasn't as effective as it was before, the sight of Eleonore having the face of interest when talking about something that she hasn't heard of was truly weird. As for Bench, while it did throw Louise for a loop when he was talking for five minutes straight without even spouting out some arrogant or witty remark whenever Eleonore asks a question. Fortunately, she got used to it on Day Two. Now, seeing the two talking to each other, Louise and Cattleya could smile at the sight.
"What are you guys talking about?" Louise asked.
Eleonore turned around and addressed her little sister, "We were simply comparing the similarities and differences of the laws of physics and the rules of magic.
Bench gave off a few happy beeps, "I'm interested in how this 'magic' work, so while she's teaching me the rules of magic, I decided that I should share the laws of physics… probably some chemistry and biology as well,"
Cattleya lifted an eyebrow, "How would both of you continue teaching each other when Sister Eleonore and I are leaving in the next few days,"
Eleonore nodded, "While it will take some time, we can just send each other letters,"
"Unless…" Bench drew out.
Eleonore raised an eyebrow. Now curious at the pod bot's idea, she gestured for him to continue his train of thought. Bench was about to speak out his idea when he realized that he was standing in public. He looked left and right and to his dismay, students roamed around, they were either talking, bonding with their familiars or gossiping about him and Louise.
"Follow me," he beeped before floating back to the shack.
The three sisters looked at each other in confusion before deciding to follow Bench. Louise on the other hand, stayed behind so that she could place all of the luggage that they had brought with them back in the carriage. Once she was done, she made sure that the trunk of the carriage was securely locked so that no students will have any bright ideas. Satisfied, she left the carriage and made her way back to the shack when she suddenly heard shouting from a distance.
"YOU WILL REGRET THAT DECISION, KIRCHE!"
Louise looked towards the source of the shouting and spotted a boy with white hair stomping away from the courtyard where the nobles were having their afternoon tea time. From what she could assume, Kirche had dumped another boy. Of course, that meant that there was another person that had caught her interest. Realising that her thought process was thinking too much of her she shook her head.
"Why should I care about what she does?" She asked herself more out of reassurance.
Without any other thoughts, she made her way to the shack where Bench and her elder sisters were. Pushing the large door, she spotted her sisters. Eleonore and Cattleya were both looking at the two items that were presented by them. One was a large black box that was fifteen centimetres thick and was tall enough to reach Cattleya's knees. On the front of the box were a multitude of buttons, finally, one of the corners of the box had an antenna. On top of this box was a small, flat, circular disk that had the same colour.
"The large box is both a signal detector and a transmitter. It can transmit anything at a pretty long-range, the disk is a holo-projector that can connect with the signal detector,"
Bench floated towards the front of the box. A small compartment opened up revealing a small appendage which flicked the switch of the box. Red and yellow lights brought the machine to life. Afterwards, Bench started to dial in some signals. This lasted for a few seconds and the two sisters were mesmerised by how quickly he worked with the box. Once satisfied, he moved back and started to beep slowly similarly to how a phone would ring when waiting for an answer.
Beep… Beep… Beep…
Suddenly, the sides of the flat disk started to glow a bright blue. This was followed with some light buzzing which made the sisters jump slightly. Both of them looked at the now glowing disk with more curiosity than ever.
"Go on… take it," Louise spoke out making them jump while at the same time trying her hardest at not laughing at the faces that they're making.
Once they calmed themselves, Eleonore picked up the disk. The centre of the disk looked glowed dim and bright at the same pace, every time it glowed bright, the light would create a right that would ripple across the disk. With curiosity, Eleonore touched the disk. The machine gave off a small beep before it was replaced by a hologram of Bench.
"What took you so long to answer!?" the pod-bot shouted through the disk.
"Ah!"
Surprised by the sudden appearance of a small blue Bench, she accidentally dropped the disk. Fortunately, Cattleya had managed to calm her surprise and caught the disk.
"Can you be careful!? This is our only method of communication – outdated as it is. I am still making some spares so could you not break this one, please!?" Bench scolded.
After a quick apology, Eleonore and Cattleya examined the holo-disk with intrigue – even touching the holographic pod-bot only for their hand to go through. "What kind of magic is this?" the eldest sister asked.
Bench gave out a short irritated beep, "it's not magic, it's technology,"
Eleonore scrunched up her face, "I've never heard of a country that's capable of creating this level of technology. The only country that I know that has better technology than Tristain would be Germania, mainly due to most of their populace not being nobles, their weapons are ingenious, some even capable of taking down a whole fleet of ships,"
Louise 'tsk'-ed her tongue three times, this gained the attention of both sisters. With an arrogant smile on her mouth, Louise spoke, "That's because none of the countries of this world is capable of making this level of tech yet, it was made in Bans,"
Eleonore paused, "What are you trying to say… it's almost as if you're telling us that you and Bench acquired this level technology from a… different… world…,"
Louise grinned wider as he realisation finally hit her eldest sister. Meanwhile, Cattleya's eyes widened slightly while putting a hand in front of her mouth.
"About damn time both of you realised," Louise said her grin showing.
A/N: Well there you go, the newest chapter! Sorry for the long delay, I've been busy with other fanfictions like 'Jumpers: Paid to Shield the Shield Hero', 'Jumper: Keep the Invincible Girl, Invincible' and 'I'm Just a Narrator!'. Of course, I had someone to help me out. Under the username of BookWorm1540.
Anyways, what do all of you think of the latest chapter? Did I pace it right when Louise finally revealed that she lived in Earth for eight years? Any thoughts about this chapter please share it, I read all of the reviews and reply to all of them. Constructive criticisms are also appreciated. With all of that being said and done, time to read your reviews!
Tohoufanatic: Yeah, most of the time he deserves what he gets, it always brings a smile to my face to see people's OCs kill that noble.
Lucian Naruto: Yes, I agree, at this point, Louise's relationship with Kirche is all dependent on what our resident red-haired girl will do. She's been given a clean slate, best that she shouldn't put it to waste.
tymaxion: Thank you for your input for Count Mott's demise. To be honest with you, I wanted him to die in a much more brutal way but I feel that if I put too much, I might make Louise too edgy. Thanks for giving my story a read, expect more because the world that Louise lived in is made from my imagination with some references, it has its own history which will be slowly revealed as this story progressed.
With all of that said and done I bid all of you adieu!
Peace~