Author's Notes:
Hey guys! I wasn't going to post a chapter today cause I'm still feeling a little sick, but I felt kind of guilty about it so…here it is! It's a little late in the day, but I'm happy I got it done anyway! I hope whoever still reads this enjoys it!
Chapter 19: The New Kings
Saito had been thinking silently for several minutes. It was today that he would be officially declared ruler of a nation or a state of Tristain. He would have to decide how its government would run, as well as what laws it would have. It took him quite a while, but he finally spoke up.
"I would like this territory to be a sovereign state of its own." He said, rather nervously.
"Very well." Henrietta said. "And how will you rule this nation?"
"A Monarchy." He replied.
"Ah, so you would like to be a king?" Henrietta asked.
"Yes, but not because of greed. I don't trust anyone else other than those close to me to govern a nation. I've seen too much corruption. In both my world and this one." He explained. "I would also like to borrow Tristain's laws. It would make travelling between the two nations much easier."
"I understand." Henrietta replied. She turned and looked at Alex and Shion. "And what about you two?"
"We would like to rule as King and Queen, similar to Saito and Louise." Shion said.
Henrietta nodded. "Okay. Since you will be independent nations, we must consider your diplomatic relations with your neighboring countries."
"We would all like to be allies of Tristain, Albion, and Gallia." Saito said. His three companions nodded in agreement.
"And what of Germania and Romalia?" Henrietta said.
"Gallia stands between Tristain and Romalia, so they are not our main concern as of now." Shion replied. "As for Germania…"
"We cannot trust Albrecht." Alex said, continuing Shion's sentence.
"And why is that? It would be beneficial to have access to Germania's massive armies." Henrietta said, slightly confused.
Knowing that it wouldn't help at the moment to explain the exact reason why, Louise interrupted Alex. "We just don't know him very well. It would be best to talk with him."
"He can be quite the strange man, so you're probably right." Henrietta said. She grabbed a stack of documents and laid them out on the table. "These are documents that will cement your status as monarchs and the rulers of sovereign states. You must sign all of them to be internationally recognized."
There were at least 100 documents in Saito and Louise's stack of papers. It would take several hours to go through all of them. Alex and Shion had an equally large pile, if not slightly larger due to their unknown backgrounds. For several hours, the carefully read each document. By the time they were finished, it was already extremely late into the night.
Saito got up and stretched his body. "Finally finished!" He said in relief. Louise was silent from fatigue, barely able to lift her head up after the boredom that was signing those papers. Alex and Shion finished a few moments afterwards.
"I guess that's it!" Alex said to Saito. "How does it feel to officially be a king?"
"Pretty good!" Saito said when it finally dawned on him that he had actually become something he had dreamed of as a small boy. His somewhat immature mind felt a sense of pride when he let it set in that he was, in fact, a king.
Shion, who didn't seem fazed by the several hours of paperwork, sorted the papers into neat piles before turning to look at the two boys, who were reveling in their newfound nobility.
"Listen up!" She said sharply, instantly grabbing their attention. "I just want to make it clear that our nobility shouldn't change who we are. Just because we're leaders now doesn't mean we should become any different!"
"Understood!" They both said, as if speaking to a drill sergeant.
Shion pulled Alex's ear. "You also need to be more mature when speaking to your people! You look like a kid, so you'll have to be more assertive in making sure they understand your position!" She said.
"Yes, ma'am!" Alex replied, trying to get her off of his ear.
Soon afterwards, Henrietta entered the room. She had left to allow them to complete their paperwork in peace. She looked very tired and didn't say anything. She sat down and quickly looked at all of the papers to make sure they had all been signed. After a few minutes, she got up.
"Great! Congratulations King Hiraga, King Alexandre, Queen Valliére, and Queen Shion." She bowed towards them. They all bowed towards her as well. After a few seconds, she stood up and smiled at the group.
"The official ceremony declaring your leadership will be held in two days in the capital of Tristain. In the meantime, you may do as you please." She said.
"Thank you, Queen Henrietta." They all said.
She left the room, leaving them to discuss their situation.
"What are you guys going to do?" Alex asked Saito and Louise.
Saito looked at Louise, leaving the decision to her. "Well, I would like to go back to the Academy to see our friends and personally invite them to the ceremony." She said. "How about you?"
"We decided that we'd go and have our clothes made for the ceremony." Shion said.
"We'll do that after we visit our friends." Louise said.
They all hugged and went to their bedrooms to sleep for a few hours before their busy 2 days began. In his bedroom, Saito stayed awake. He didn't feel even a little tired. Louise had already fallen into a deep sleep next to him. He stood up and walked to the large window that dominated a wall of the bedroom.
"What's wrong, Partner?" Said Derf, who had noticed Saito's strange mood.
"Nothing. I'm just thinking about some stuff, that's all." Saito replied, staring out of the window.
"Worried about your promotion?" Derf said.
"No. I'm more worried about Louise now than myself. Albrecht wanted me dead, and now that Louise is going to be my Queen, the whole world will know that she's the one I'm in love with. That puts her in danger. Not just from Germania, but from whoever is out there who wants to get to me." Saito explained.
"That's why you're her king." Derf replied. "You're the one who can protect her."
Saito was silent. He looked at his reflection in the window. He wondered what had happened in his life for him to end up in this situation. It was then that he noticed that his remaining blue eye had begun to form a very slight orange ring on the edge of his iris. He also noticed that his canine teeth were slightly longer and sharper than before.
"Must be because I unsealed Gandalfr." He thought to himself.
He thought about how he was no longer human. He was well aware when he was unsealing Gandalfr that this sort of thing could happen. He had watched enough anime to know that, but it still unsettled him. He still looked normal from the outside apart from his eye, but he was also conscious that he had been keeping a film of magic over his body to stop himself from burning someone.
"How far is this going to go?" He said to himself.
"How far is what going to go?" Derf asked.
Saito had completely forgotten that Derf was there. "Nothing!" He replied. "I'm going to go take a bath. Want to come with me?"
"Sure! I've got nothing better to do anyway." Derf said, doing his best to hide how excited he was to spend some time with Saito.
Saito put Derf on his back and walked into the massive bathroom attached to his bedroom. It was made to look like a spa. If it was not for the door leading to it, one would have thought they were in a hot spring in the wilderness. He stopped cloaking himself in his magic so that he could enjoy the bath entirely.
Saito undressed and poured hot water into the large stone bathtub. As he stepped into the water, he immediately jumped back as if the water had burnt him. Derf started to laugh at him.
"Too hot for you, Partner? That's what you get. I told you to add more cold water to it." He mocked.
"No, it's way too cold." Saito said, much to Derf's surprise.
He left the room for a few minutes. He came back with a large pot of boiling water. He kept going in and out of the room several times, each time bringing back a pot of boiling water. Finally, he poured all of it into the bathtub and began to step into it.
"Are you crazy?! You'll cook yourself to death!" Derf exclaimed.
Paying no attention to him, Saito sat down in the water. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh of relief.
"That's better." He said with a smile on his face.
Derf was in disbelief. "What happened to you? You're different." He said.
At this time, Saito realized that he had never explained his meeting with Gandalfr to Derf. He didn't feel like doing so at the moment, either. "I just met someone. They helped me get stronger, so this is the side effect."
"And what did this person look like?" Derf asked, suspicious of Saito's explanation.
"They were big and scary. That's all I remember." Saito replied, dismissively.
"You're shady, but I'll trust you on this one." Derf replied.
Saito chuckled lightly. He turned his attention to his left arm. It still looked slightly scarred from his second arrival in Halkeginia. His runes glowed a dull red.
"You know, Derf, I've never bothered to look at myself with my eye." Saito said.
"How come? It might give you a clue or something." Derf said.
"I wouldn't be able to make anything out of whatever I find. Even Colbert didn't know what these runes are." Saito replied. "Still, I'm curious, so I guess I'll give it a shot."
He slowly closed his eyes in preparation. After a few seconds, they shot open, his left eye glowing bright orange. His vision had become extremely sharp and everything now had an orange hue. He looked slowly down at his arm. His runes were shining brightly in this vision. They looked as if some kind of bright liquid was flowing through them rapidly.
Unable to deduce anything of value, he turned his eye back to normal and laid back in the tub. "Nothing." Saito said, somewhat disappointed.
"Hey, Partner. Don't worry. We'll figure all this out. We'll find out why we were sent back. There has to be a reason." Derf said.
Saito smiled. "Thanks for the support, Derf."
"By the way, aren't you tired? You've been up for a long time. It'll be morning soon." Derf replied.
"I'm not tired at all. I could force myself to sleep, I suppose." Saito said.
He got up from the water. A towel hanged on the door, but by the time he had walked over to it, his body was completely dry. Feeling that this was rather handy, he cloaked his body in his magic and went to lay next to Louise. She had somehow subconsciously noticed that he was in bed and wrapped her arms around him, making him smile.
Although he was now quite comfortable, he was still unable to sleep. He chose that having a conversation with Gandalfr was probably the best way of passing the time. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind. Almost instantly, he awoke in front of the giant beast. It was sitting on the ground like a dog would, looking down at him.
"Greetings, Your Majesty." Gandalfr said, mocking Saito.
Saito rolled his eyes and sat on the ground. "How far is this going to go?" He asked.
"You'll have to be a little more specific than that, boy." Gandalfr replied.
"My body is changing. I just want to know how far it'll go. Will I even be recognizable as a human by the time it stops." Saito explained.
"Ah. You'll be fine. You'll be recognizable as a human with…different features." The beast said as it laid down.
"I know that what happens to me is entirely dependent on how I absorbed the "other you". Considering I know what you look like now, what features will I inherit from you? How obvious will they be?" Saito continued.
Gandalfr thought for a moment. "No one has ever absorbed my entire being before. Sasha was the only one who came close, and even then, what she absorbed was the equivalent of removing a grain of sand from a beach, therefore it had no effect on her physical appearance. You have absorbed the "me" in my entirety, so the cosmetic changes may be more apparent. Do not worry though, you will still be human."
Saito took a deep breath. "I see. I already noticed that my right eye has started to change. My teeth too. Even my senses feel more acute than before."
"That's too be expected." Gandalfr said.
Saito felt relieved that he would at least still be human. However, the thought of his humanity gave him another question.
"Hey Gandalfr, what exactly are you?" Saito asked.
Gandalfr was silent for a few moments. "Humans no longer have a name for my kind of being. As for my origins, even I do not know. One day I just...woke up, as if I had been asleep for a long time. I was much smaller than I am now and had no memory of anything prior. I suppose you could say I was born. After some time, a group of young humans found me and started to care for me. However, when their elders learned of this, they ordered for me to be banished from the village. The young ones who cared for me chose to disobey these orders, and for this, they were murdered. I became extremely angry. I don't remember what happened, but I awoke surrounded by nothing but flames and charred bodies. At the time, I didn't know what had happened, but I now know it was I who killed those people. Soon, other humans learned of the power I possessed and attempted to capture me. For years they tried and tried, until one day, a group of them found me in a forest. I had grown to about half the size I am now by this point. This scared them and they ran away. From then on, I had decided that fear was the best way to get what I wanted."
Saito was eagerly awaiting to hear the rest of the story, but Gandalfr stopped there. "It is time for you to wake up, boy. I have entertained you enough with my stories. Besides, you have pressing matters to attend to."
Saito pouted, but knew Gandalfr was right. "Fine, but you better finish the story next time!" He said.
Almost instantly, he woke up. Louise was stroking his hair lightly, waiting for him to wake up. He turned to look into her eyes.
"Good morning, Your Majesty." She said, smiling.
"Good morning, Your Majesty." He replied.
He gave her a long kiss before standing to dress for the day. He chose to wear his normal clothes, a blue and white hoodie with jeans and sneakers. Since she was going back to the academy, Louise chose to wear her school uniform. They quickly said goodbye to Alex and Shion, who were still half asleep in their room, and got into a carriage going to the Academy. Whilst in the carriage, Louise had been staring at Saito for several minutes, causing Saito to become uncomfortable.
"What is it?" He asked, rather embarrassed.
"Your eyes." Louise said. "They're both orange."
"What?!" Saito said.
He looked into his reflection. Indeed, both his right eye had turned even more orange than before, although it was peppered with spots of blue. In fact it seemed the color in his eyes had switched from how it was before, as the majority of the iris was orange with a blue ring surrounding it.
"Well, I don't feel any different. I'm going to miss my blue eyes." He said.
"One of them is still kind of blue though." Louise said, trying to comfort him.
"I hope it ends soon." He said to himself.
"What?" Louise asked.
"Nothing!" Saito replied quickly.
It took them several hours to finally arrive, the majority of which were occupied with Saito fending off Louise's questions. When they got to the academy, it was already mid-day. Students walked around the courtyards as they played games and ate lunch together. As Saito and Louise walked through the front gate, they heard familiar voices calling them. Kirche, Montmorency, Tabitha, and Guiche ran towards them and gave them a group hug.
"It's been too long!" Kirche said to Saito, holding his arm on her chest. She was sure this would make Louise upset, but both Louise and Saito seemed not to notice. They simply took it as Kirche being friendly.
"It's nice to see you too, everyone!" Saito said. "Why don't we all go have some food and talk for a while?"
They all agreed, however, Kirche was still quite stumped as to why neither of the two made a reaction to her obviously lecherous action. She observed Louise as they ate lunch together. She seemed entirely normal. Nothing had change about her.
"Maybe they broke up!" Kirche thought to herself.
She felt immense glee when what she thought was the obvious reason dawned on her. She, along with everyone else, had failed to notice the two rings on their fingers shining brightly in the sun.
"Hey, Saito." She said. "My bed broke in my bedroom. You're a handy guy, so do you think you can help me fix it?"
"Sure!" Saito said, smiling. "Hey, Louise. Do you mind if I leave for a few minutes to help?"
Louise shook her head. "Not at all. Make sure you do a good job, okay?"
Everyone had to do their best to hide their shock from this reaction.
"Okay!" Saito said as he walked away with Kirche.
"Louise…" Montmorency began. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, why?" Louise asked, completely oblivious as to the reason why she'd ask.
Montmorency didn't elaborate, instead changing the topic as quickly as possible.
In Kirche's room, Saito had begun to fix her bed. It had clearly been broken on purpose, but Saito was too absorbed in the task at hand to notice. He was surprisingly good at working with wood. In about an hour, he had fixed the problem with the bed, which happened to be that the legs had been broken off.
"It should be okay now." Saito said when he was finished.
"What do you say we test it out?" Kirche said, scandalously.
"Great idea." Saito said.
Expecting Saito to jump onto her, Kirche closed her eyes and puckered her lips. However, a kiss never came. Instead, she heard creaking from the bed. She opened her eyes to see Saito jumping up and down on the bed. She watched in disbelief for several minutes as he jumped with varying degrees of harshness. Eventually, he jumped down onto the floor.
"Yep, it's nice and strong now." He said. "No need to say thanks or anything. You're a friend, so I'm happy to have helped."
With that, he happily walked out of the room, leaving Kirche in shock. It took her a few moments, but she eventually got up and ran downstairs. She saw Saito conversing happily with Louise and the rest of their friends.
"Hey Kirche, we decided to go shopping today. Wanna come?" Louise asked, smiling at her.
"S-Sure." Kirche replied.
They went out to a nearby town to shop for various items. Kirche would spend the rest of the day trying everything in her power to get Saito to fawn over her. From 'accidentally' falling onto him, to 'accidentally' going into the guy's bathroom when he was the only one there. However, nothing worked. Seemingly everyone was aware of her attempts. Everyone except Louise and Saito.
At the end of the day, they ate dinner in one of the ballrooms at the Academy. Everyone was in shock after witnessing Louise's mundane behavior. Malicorne, who had joined them when they came back from their shopping trip, had already been told the stories by Guiche and was eating in silence, quietly observing Louise and Saito
"Oh! Before we forget!" Saito said. He pulled five envelopes from under his hoodie, each with the Tristanian Imperial Crest stamped into them with red wax. "These are for you."
Guiche opened his first. His eyes widened as he read it. "Invitations to the crowning of a new King?! Four new Kings?! How did you get these?!" He asked Saito, excitedly.
"Henrietta gave them to us as rewards." Louise explained.
"Which countries are getting new Kings?" Montmorency asked.
"Some random small countries that have some ties with Tristain. I don't remember their names." Saito said.
He was, of course, lying. Saito and Louise had already planned the whole surprise. None of their friends knew that they were now royals. As far as they knew, they were simply high-ranking knights who were close to the Queen.
"Thank you so much!" Kirche said, mostly to Saito.
"One more thing as well." Louise said. She pulled 5 more envelopes from under her robe. These ones were stamped with a crest that no one there recognized.
"What are these?" Malicorne asked.
"Invitations to a wedding in a few months." Louise said, smiling.
"Oh, how adorable!" Montmorency said as she started opening the letter. "Whose wedding is it?"
She opened the letter and began to read it.
"It's ours." Saito and Louise said at the same time, just as Montmorency's eyes landed on the text on the letter confirming that it was indeed an invitation for a wedding between Saito and Louise.
Her eyes began to twitch nervously as she looked at Saito and Louise, who were holding each other. It was at this moment that everyone noticed the glistening rings that adorned each of their fingers. Everything remained silent for several seconds.
Saito and Louise's friends were completely frozen for several seconds before finally, in perfect unison, they all made a single noise.
"EHHHHHHHHHHH?!"
Author's Notes:
First and foremost, sorry for the long hiatus. I was very sick and needed time to recover. I'mbetter now though! I only feel a little sick, so I'll be back to writing several chapters weekly. Even though I haven't written in more than a week, support has been tremendous, so thank you so much. Leave a review and follow the story, please! It really makes me feel better. Anyway, thanks for reading! Take care!