Author's Notes:

Hey guys! What's going on? I'm writing these notes before actually writing the chapter, so I don't know what you'll see. Either way, I hope you've enjoyed this story so far. I know it's not the best, but I really appreciate you guys staying around to read it. Also, sorry for the extended break. I fell extremely ill and couldn't get out of bed. I'm still pretty sick, but I managed to get myself to write something. Anyway, enjoy chapter 18!

Chapter 18: Back to Work

Saito, Louise, Alex, and Shion had been on vacation in Saito's territory for approximately three weeks. They had greatly enjoyed their time there, but the time had come for their vacation to come to an end. The next day, Alex and Shion would have to move to their territory to begin governing it. On the same day, Saito and Louise would have to have a meeting with Henrietta regarding their territory's relations with the rest of the world.

"We're going to have to get going tomorrow." Alex said, sadly. "Both Shion and I were given pieces of land to rule over, so we decided to combine them into one nation."

"Good for you, guys. I think Louise and I will remain here for a little while. We do have to manage the people who live here, after all." Saito replied.

"Technically, I don't have to." Louise said, teasing Saito. "It's your land, not mine."

"Well, as a future Queen and my fiancé, I think it's best for you to gain some experience." He replied.

"Well, I suppose. Besides, if I left it up to you, your citizens would starve to death." She teased.

They laughed together for a few minutes., before eventually calming down.

"Besides all that, we have to meet with Her Majesty tomorrow. Such a bothersome time, eh?" Saito said. "By the way, have you guys thought of a name for your territory?" He asked Shion and Alex.

"I have no idea, actually. I completely forgot that we'd have to do that." Alex said, laughing.

"Alexandria." Shion suddenly said. "I want it to be named for him. He is a war hero, after all."

"Thanks, Shion." Alex said, giving her a hug. He was genuinely touched by what she said, which she found rather odd. "We'll name the capital after you, then." He continued.

"That's really not necessary." She said.

"Nonsense!" Alex said. He thought for a few seconds. "I'm not a very creative person so…how about Shion?"

Shion stared at him for a few seconds, then gave him a hug. They remained like that for a long time, with Louise and Saito watching on. When they finally pulled apart, they turned to Saito and Louise.

"What about you two?" Shion asked. "What are you going to name this place?"

"Ummm…" Louise began. "How about…Côte de Nice?"

"Côte de Nice? What does that mean?" Saito asked.

"Nice coast." Louise replied. "It's nice and straightforward."

"I like it." Saito said, smiling at Louise. "As for the capital, we should name it…Louiseville!"

Louise blushed at the suggestion. "That's a stupid name!" She said in embarrassment.

"I like it!" Alex and Shion said at the same time.

"I want to thank you for how you've treated me, so I want the capital to be named in your honor." Saito said, holding Louise's hands and looking into her eyes. She was silent for a few moments, then leaned into him and gave him a kiss.

"Well, since this will be the last time we meet for a long time, we should enjoy it." Alex said, wrapping his arms around his friends. They decided to go into the nearest town to go shopping for the day. The town was not far, and it only took them about an hour to get there. When they arrived, the citizens bowed to Saito and Louise, making them both uncomfortable.

"Welcome, young lords!" Said an extremely large man who walked out of the crowd of people. He wore purple and gold robes. He had curly white hair and crimson eyes.

"Ah, pardon my rudeness! It appears introductions are in order. I am Lord Frédéric Beuregard, the governor of this city. Pleased to meet you." He bowed as low as his belly would allow.

"I am Hiraga Saito. Pleased to meet you." Saito said, bowing equally as low.

"I'm Alexandre. I have no last name." Alex said, bowing slightly.

"I am Shion. I too have no surname." Shion said, without bowing.

"I am Louise de la Valliére. Pleased to meet you." She bowed just as low as Saito.

"What, may I ask, is a member of the esteemed Valliére family doing here?" Frédéric asked as he stood up.

"I am going to assist in governing this territory." She said.

"I was informed that this boy was to be governing this territory." He said, slightly confused.

"She is going to help me." Saito said, feeling slightly irritated that he had to deal with this now.

Frédéric examined Louise and Saito, quickly noticing the ring on Louise's finger. He pretended not to notice it and instead turned his attention to Alex and Shion.

"And what of you two? It's quite strange that you have no surnames." He said.

"It's not important. We'll come up with one for ourselves when the time comes." Alex said, casually.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, regardless." Frédéric said, smiling.

"We will discuss this territory after I have my meeting with the Queen. Now, if you may politely excuse us, we would like to enjoy the last day of our vacation together." Saito said.

Frédéric bowed. "As you wish, my lord." He walked back into the crowd, disappearing shortly afterwards.

"Well, that was annoying." Alex said.

"Let's just go and have fun while we can." Shion said.

They nodded and ran into the city. They would spend the day sampling different foods. They bought each other a variety of presents. Saito bought Alex a new dagger. It was slightly longer than the one he already had, about 2 and a half feet in length. It had a glossy black hilt and a shining silver blade. It came in a white scabbard encrusted with a multitude of ovular emeralds.

Alex, in return, bought Saito a small circular shield. It had designs of some kind of serpent etched into the light, but strong metal. He also had Saito choose which writing he wanted to be carved onto it. Saito, much to the blacksmith's irritation, chose to have every character of the Japanese alphabet carved into it.

Shion bought Louise a small, but beautiful diamond encrusted tiara. The diamonds were surrounded by lustrous, bronze metal. She also bought her a silver dress to compliment it, as well as a variety of different makeup.

"Knock him dead." She whispered to Louise, looking at Saito. Louise blushed and made sure to hide the gifts that were bought for her.

After what felt like only an hour or two, but was actually more than 12 hours, the sun began to go down. They decided to go back to the beach to have one last barbecue together before they officially became rulers of their respective lands.

"It's going to be a long time before we can be together like this again." Alex said, solemnly.

"Yeah." Saito responded. "I'm going to miss you guys."

"It was fun while we were together." Shion said. "We'll visit at least once a year, though. So at least we can look forward to that."

"We'll come for your wedding too!" Alex said, smiling.

"Thanks guys. We'll come for your wedding as well." Saito said, teasing Alex.

"Thanks. I look forward to having you by my side on the big day." Alex said, surprisingly taking what Saito said seriously.

"Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you?" Louise said, laughing. "You haven't even proposed to Shion yet."

"I have a feeling it'll work out." Alex said, smiling at Shion. She had been blushing during the whole conversation.

"We'll see…" She said, quietly.

The sun had now set entirely. They could see the stars shining brightly in the sky. The only sounds were the crackling of their campfire and the crashing of the waves on the beach. They sat in silence for several minutes.

"We should probably go to bed." Louise said. "We have an early start tomorrow."

The other three rather sadly agreed. They helped Louise put out the fire and then slowly made their way to their rooms in the Villa. They went to bed without saying anything other than "Good night". Saito laid in bed as Louise freshened up in the bathroom.

"I actually become something important tomorrow. Officially." He said to himself.

"How're you doing, Partner? Nervous?" Derf asked from corner of the room.

"Not exactly." Saito replied. "It feels more like excitement than nervousness."

"You become a very important person tomorrow, after all. It makes sense that you'd feel that way." Derf continued.

Saito didn't reply. In truth, he was extremely nervous. He had never ruled over anything in his life, so suddenly being in charge of thousands of lives was a big deal for him. As he thought to himself, Louise came out of the bathroom in her nightgown and laid in bed next to Saito. She laid her head on his chest and slowly brushed his hair with her hand.

"Are you worried about tomorrow?" She asked him.

"A little bit, yeah." He replied. "It's a lot of responsibility to suddenly have."

"You're a strong person. I'm sure you can handle it." She said, trying to comfort him.

He smiled and kissed the top of her head, feeling much better now. "You'll be there to help me too, so it'll be a piece of cake."

She softly kissed his lips and laid her body on top of his. "Good. Now, we should probably sleep now."

"Yeah." Saito replied. "We probably should, but…"

She put her finger on his lip. "Another time, Saito. Get some rest." She said, smiling.

Somewhat disappointed, Saito laid his head back down and slowly fell asleep. Almost instantly, he woke up in front of Gandalfr. They made eye contact, but said nothing for a while.

"Hey, I have a question." Saito asked. "We're…friends, right?"

"What a strange way of starting a conversation. I suppose we are on friendly terms, so yes." He replied.

"Great! Then you won't be needing that gate anymore! What happens if I open it?" Saito said, smiling from ear to ear.

"No one has ever even suggested opening this gate. You're a strange one." Gandalfr said. "If you were to open the gate, we would be capable of interacting more freely. I suppose the powers you possess as Gandalfr would be greatly amplified as well. Our senses, since my body tends to have an effect on it's host, may also intertwine after a while."

"Cool." Saito responded. "If I open them, are you going to try and kill me?"

"As tempting as it would be, no I will not. You've brought some interest into my life, so for now, I'll leave you be." Gandalfr said.

"Alright, might as well get this over with." Saito said, putting one hand on the gate.

He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. Slowly, the gap between the two doors that made up the gate began to glow a very dull red. After several minutes, it became brighter and brighter, before it soon became as bright as a light bulb. Saito could feel burning in his chest, as if someone inside of him had just lit a match, but he continued anyway. After a while, he heard the sounds of metal shearing. Bright red cracks started to appear in the metal, illuminating the room with a dull, red light.

As the burning in his chest became truly unbearable, the gate emitted the sound of a loud bang and then shattered to pieces, which seemed to sink into the water like ground. Saito fell on the ground from exhaustion. He could still feel the same burn in his chest. It was of the same intensity as before, but somehow didn't hurt.

"Man, why does everything burn whenever I do stupid stuff like this?" He said to no one in particular.

When he looked up, he nearly screamed from terror. In front of him was an extremely massive creature, easily more than 20 times the size of the house that he was currently sleeping in. It appeared to be a mixture of parts from several creatures. Its body appeared to be made of dark grey pieces of jagged, almost stone looking metal. It stood on four legs, shaped like those of a lion, but with 3 digits on each foot. Each digit was tipped with extremely sharp, black claws. Its head was like that of a European dragon, albeit slightly larger compared to the rest of its body and having a beak like shape. The sclera of its eyes were a very light blue, while the iris was the bright, glowing orange that Saito recognized already. The eyes themselves were surrounded with some kind of red coloration. It had 4 tails, each of which were longer than half of the creature's body.

Something that stood out to Saito immediately was that there were several cracks in its skin, which all seemed to having some sort of molten substance underneath them. The monster itself was extremely hot, emanating an immense amount of heat. Saito was at a loss for words. He had watched a lot of anime and read a lot of manga, so he thought he'd be prepared for this kind of thing. However, he was so frightened that he couldn't move.

The creature moved around a bit, stretching its massive body. It yawned, giving Saito a clear view of its forked, dark blue tongue and massive, serrated, sharp teeth. After a few minutes of stretching and yawning, it sat down somewhat like a dog and stared down at him.

"Frightened?" It said.

Saito couldn't speak clearly for several minutes. "What are you?" He asked, shakily.

"I'm Gandalfr, of course." It replied. "What, did you think I'd be something smaller than this?"

"Yes I did! How the hell did you even fit behind that gate?!" Saito finally managed to say.

"I was stuffed in that small box for thousands of years. I didn't go inside voluntarily." Gandalfr replied.

"Small box?" Saito thought to himself.

"You seem to be in shock. Perhaps you should leave and come back when you collect yourself." Gandalfr said. "Besides, that girl will soon notice the effects of my release. Wake up, boy."

"Effects?" Saito thought.

He forced himself awake only to see Louise jump out of bed, obviously startled by something.

"What's wrong?" He asked her.

"Saito, do you feel okay?!" She asked him.

"Y-Yeah." Saito replied. "Why?"

"Your body! Its burning hot!" She exclaimed.

"I don't feel hot at all. If anything, I feel kind of cold." Saito said.

He went to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. His body seemed just as it had yesterday. There were no differences at all. He turned on the tap to wash his face. It was then that he noticed what Louise had meant. As the water touched his skin, he could hear it sizzling as it started to evaporate away. Within a few seconds, his hands were completely dry.

"What the hell!" He said to himself. "So this is what he meant by 'effects'!" He said to himself.

He began to pace around the room, thinking about what to do. He couldn't possibly meet Henrietta like this. After about an hour, he came up with an idea. Louise watched him as he sat on the floor and began to meditate. After several minutes, he suddenly opened his eyes. He turned towards Louise and suddenly hugged her. She squealed, expecting to feel like she was roasting over an open fire, but instead felt nothing at all.

"What did you do?" She asked him.

"I put a lair of magic over my body to stop myself from burning everyone I touch. As long as I eat enough food and stuff, I should be able to maintain it indefinitely." He explained to her, exuding pride in himself for his brilliant idea.

"How?! How are you even able to control your magic so easily?! It takes most people years to learn how to do that, and even then, they can only use magic to form elemental spells! How can you control your magic that way?" She asked, clearly jealous of his grand achievement.

"Well, as Gandalfr, my job is solely to protect my Void Mage. That pretty much makes me a weapon on my own. Once I had the magic within me untapped, it was as simple as a bit of practice before I learned to control it. I'm not perfect yet, but I'm okay." He said, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Who untapped your magic?" Louise asked.

"Ahhhhh, technically I did it myself." He said, trying to avoid having to explain the demonic looking entity residing within him.

"You're lying, Saito." She said, bluntly. "Don't lie to your future wife."

"Damn it, pulling the wife card is unfair." He thought to himself.

"Are you going to tell me?" She asked.

He took a deep breath and sat her down on the bed. "Tell you what, you can meet him yourself." He said.

"Meet him? Is it someone in this country?" She asked, confused.

"Just look into my left eye and let me do the rest." He said.

Rather skeptically, she looked into his left eye. Its solid, bright orange colored iris, the thick and black ring that surrounded it, and the perfectly circular and abnormally small pupil that was in its centre, mesmerized her. After a few seconds, it began to glow. She became startled, but Saito smiled at her, reassuring her that it would be okay.

After about a minute, she blacked out. Almost instantly, she woke up in a dimly lit, large room. She looked down, wondering how she was standing on what appeared to be water. Saito appeared a few seconds later.

"Hey there, m'lady!" He said, smiling at her.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"You're inside of…well me, I guess. I don't know whether to call it my soul or my mind. Either way, the one who allowed me to use magic is in here." He said.

"Okay." Louise asked, still skeptical and thinking this was all a prank. "So where is he?"

Saito pointed behind her. She turned around slowly. As her eyes made contact with the monster that was sleeping behind her, she let out a deafening scream. She jumped behind Saito in terror.

"What is that thing?!" She screamed.

The commotion woke Gandalfr up. He didn't move, but simply opened his eyes to look at the source of the noise.

"I never thought that you would be one to make such a feminine noise, Saito." He said.

He couldn't see Louise due to her small stature hiding behind Saito.

"Oh, that wasn't me." He said.

He pulled Louise from behind him and held her in front of him. It took Gandalfr a moment to process what was happening. When he did, his eyes widened and he backed away from the two.

"What is the meaning of this?!" He roared.

"Calm down." Saito said calmly. He was afraid, but had to act macho in front of Louise. "She's not going to hurt you. I just thought you two should meet."

Gandalfr looked closely at them, making sure there was nothing that could harm him. He slowly walked closer and sat down on the ground.

"Why do you want her to meet me?" He asked.

"Well, she is my Void Mage, after all. She should probably know what's protecting her, right?" Saito said.

The beast stared at Louise for several moments, making her shiver. "Very well." He finally said. "I am Gandalfr, the one that resides within this boy."

"Gandalfr..?" Louise said in confusion.

Trying to retain her dignity, she tried her best to introduce herself. "I-I am Louise d-de la Valliére. P-P-Pleased to meet you."

"Hmmm, a polite girl. I pray that my host treats you well, Ms. Valliére. Or rather, Mrs. Hiraga." Gandalfr said, suddenly seeming like a warm and polite entity.

This made Louise relax a lot more for some reason. "He treats me well so far. You'll haunt his dreams for me if he doesn't right?" She said, smiling a little.

"Of course, m'lady." He said, bowing his head.

She smiled and built up the courage to walk close to him. His claws alone were several times larger than her body. She gulped as she observed him. He looked quite nervous, which Saito found both strange and extremely irritating.

"You look really cool!" Louise said, still kind of frightened of him.

"Ah, don't praise someone of lesser status than yourself, Lady Valliére." He said, embarrassed

Saito watched on with disbelief on his face. Gandalfr had always seemed so imposing and powerful before, but yet here he was now being Louise's lapdog. He could barely stand to watch them as Louise examined his claws, or as Gandalfr let her climb onto his head.

After a few minutes of messing around with him, he let Louise down onto the ground. She was now completely comfortable around him. She bowed towards him, feeling quite happy.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, sir." She said.

"The pleasure was mine, little Queen." He said, slowly bowing his head.

"Let's wake up, Saito. It's probably morning already." She said.

"Right." He said, slightly irritated.

He held the top of her head for a moment, and then they woke up in an instant. The sun was already rising, so they knew they had to hurry up and get ready. They scrambled to put their clothes on. Saito finished first, wearing the same clothes he wore when they arrived at the estate. Alex and Shion were already downstairs, having a romantic moment on one of the sofas.

"Guys, you can kiss later. We have to get going." Saito said.

They pulled apart, feeling embarrassed. After a few moments, Louise came downstairs wearing her school uniform. When they had made sure that they had everything, they went outside, where two carriages were waiting for them. Saito and Louise got in one, while Alex and Shion got into the other.

While in the carriage, Louise looked rather nervous.

"What's wrong, Louise?" Saito asked.

"I umm…I got you a present in town yesterday, but I don't know if you'll like it." She said, sheepishly.

"That's sweet. What is it?" He asked.

She took a deep breath and reached under her robe. She pulled out a simple, silver ring with a thin, radiant sapphire glistening in its center. Saito's name was etched into the ring in Japanese.

"Here." She said. "I never got you an engagement ring, so I went into town to have one made for you."

In a fair bit of shock, Saito slowly put on the ring. It fit perfectly onto his ring finger and seemed to glisten more when it made contact with him.

"Thank you so much. It's beautiful." Saito said.

He hugged her and kissed her cheek. Happy that he actually liked it, she returned his hug. They remained holding each other for the entire trip to Henrietta's Palace. It was a long journey, but at around midday, they finally arrived. As they stepped out of their carriages, Agnes came outside to greet them.

"Good afternoon, my lords. I hope you found your vacation relaxing." She said.

"Yeah! It was great! Thanks for asking!" Alex said, smiling.

She smiled and led them into the Palace. She took them to the room they had originally met in when they had been told to assassinate Joseph. Sitting on a chair, surrounded by imperial documents, was Henrietta. She immediately noticed them when they walked into the room.

"Saito, Louise, Alex, Shion! It's so nice to see you again!" She said as she hugged each of them, particularly Louise.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Sister." Louise said, hugging her back.

They each took a seat around a circular table. Henrietta sat down holding a handful of documents. She laid them on the table and sighed. She then looked at each of them.

"Right! Before I can officially hand over ownership of your respective lands to you, we must first go over your terms for your ownership." She said.

"Terms?" They all said at the same time.

"Yes. What will be agreed upon in this room will affect Tristain for years to come, so please think carefully." Henrietta replied.

"Damn it!" Saito thought to himself. "I never thought I'd become a ruler. What the hell am I supposed to say?"

They all sat quietly, contemplating their options. After all, what they would decide upon would not only affect Tristain, but also each of their legacies as well.

Author's Notes:

First and foremost, I know it's probably not that good. I mean…none of the chapters are, but sorry if this one I particularly bad. I'm not feeling well at all, so bear with me on this. Thanks for reading, either way! See you next time!