Author's Notes:

Hello everyone! As promised, here is today's chapter. It was much longer than it is now, so I split it up. Also, I know it's kind of late, but I tried my best. Anyway, here's chapter 35. Enjoy!

Chapter 35: Reclaiming Tristain

Saito and Kirche walked through a densely packed forest. They had just crossed the border of Tristain and were now making their way towards the academy. As they quietly made their way there, they saw several groups of Germanian soldiers going in the opposite direction.

"Where are they going?" Saito asked.

"Germania has recently suffered defeats in Gallia." Kirche said. "They're moving soldiers from Tristain to Gallia as reinforcements."

"I see. That should make things a little easier. How heavily guarded is the academy?" Saito asked.

"There are about 1,000 soldiers stationed there at the moment." Kirche replied.

"I see. We'll take out the guards on the watchtowers first." Saito said.

"Even if we take the watchtowers, there will still be hundreds of them left." Kirche said. "How do you expect to take them all alone?"

"I don't." Saito said. "I assume you had some kind of official rank at the academy during its occupation, right?"

"Yes." Kirche replied. "They put me in charge of the mining operations in and around the school."

"Then all we have to do is walk through the front gate." Saito said. "Just tell them that I'm a student who attempted to escape, but you caught me. Knowing Germanians, they won't disobey an order from a superior. Once we're inside, we just have to release a few students. Those students will release others until eventually, everyone has their shackles off. Once that happens, I'll attack the guards. Use that distraction to lead the students away. The earth mages should be able to dig a tunnel underneath the wall, so it will be fine."

"You really thought this through." Kirche said.

"Not really, I just thought of it now." Saito replied, chuckling.

"So how did Louise allow you to go to war alone?" Kirche asked.

"I didn't tell her…" Saito said. "I couldn't risk her coming with me, so I lied to her."

"So where is she, exactly?" Kirche asked.

"I can't really tell anyone. I've only told Tabitha, Josette, and two other friends." Saito said. "It's better that way."

Confused, Kirche decided not to pursue that conversation. Several hours later, once darkness had fallen, they saw a large clearing in front of them. In its center they saw a large castle, which Saito instantly recognized as the academy.

However, it didn't look quite the same as it did before. Barbed wire lined the top of the walls and there were several watchtowers dotted around the campus, each with four snipers perched in their crow's nests.

At this moment, Saito started to roll around on the ground. Kirche simply watched in confusion, wondering why he was doing something so childish at a time such as then. However, when he got up, she realized his reasoning. His entire body was now filthy from head to toe. His hair was unkempt and scruffy, making him look like he had actually been running through the forest. He wrapped his tail around his waist and under his clothing, hiding it from view, then turned towards Kirche.

"Alright, put your knife to my neck." He said.

He turned away from her, waiting to feel the cold metal of her blade pressed against his neck. Of course, this knife was not capable of cutting deep into his skin, but he allowed it to cut him slightly so that he bled a little, making everything look legitimate.

With all of their preparations made, Saito raised his hands in the air so that he looked like a proper prisoner, then they made their way towards the academy gate. As they got close to the gate, a Germanian guard walked forward to them.

"State your business." He said.

"My name is Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst. I am the current commander of this outpost. I have come here with this escaped student." She said, sounding very official.

"Understood." The guard said. "Please proceed."

The guard stepped aside, allowing Kirche to walk into the Academy with Saito. Saito became depressed to see how dismal the academy had become. Students were marched in lines towards large holes in the ground where they were forced to mine mineral deposits.

Kirche led him into the academy's main structure, then led him downstairs, where there was a strong smell of iron and sulfur. She led him through a series of corridors until they reached a massive underground cave. Hundreds of students were using their magic to extract different ores from the cave walls. Kirche placed Saito in between a group of students.

"You can take it from here." She whispered. "Good luck."

"Thanks Kirche." He said, giving her a warm smile.

Even with her dark complexion, her cheeks visibly blushed a bright shade of red. She quickly left him, wishing him luck on his operation. When she was out of sight, someone next to him decided to speak to him.

"Welcome to the pit." He said. "Where are you from?"

"Isn't everyone here an academy student?" Saito asked.

"Nah, some of us are plebs. We're the ones who sort out all these rocks." The boy said. "My name's Arthur, what's yours?"

"I'm Saito. Nice to meet you." Saito replied.

"Saito?!" Someone further down the line said. "You're Louise's familiar right?! That Saito?!"

"Keep it down." Saito said. "Yeah, that's me."

"How did they catch you?" The person asked. Saito couldn't see them, as several other people were in the way and he didn't want to use his powers yet.

"They didn't catch me." Saito said. "I came here to rescue everyone. How many guards are down here?"

"About fifty." Arthur said.

"When do the guards put everyone to sleep?" Saito asked.

"Everyone down here gets to sleep for two hours, starting in about thirty minutes." Arthur said.

"An hour will be more than enough." Saito said. "How many people down here are not mages?"

"From what I've seen, perhaps forty down here are plebs." Arthur replied.

"I see." Saito said. "Continue doing your work. I'll handle everything."

For the next thirty minutes, Saito helped sort the ores that the mages mined. As soon as thirty minutes passed, one of the guards shot his gun into the air to get the attention of the students.

"Time for sleep!" He said. "You have two hours!"

The guards, who were all stationed on 10 makeshift balconies high on the walls of the underground cave, turned off the lamps that were next to them so that they could not be seen. With all the students now resting, Saito turned his eyes on and looked around for each of the guards.

Without anyone noticing, he disappeared from the spot where he laid. One by one, he appeared behind the guards on each balcony, quickly and silently dispatching them. Although he didn't like it, he decided that killing them was probably the easiest way to go about his mission. In less than three minutes, all of the guards were dispatched.

Saito picked up all of their weapons, then landed back in the center of the cave, surrounded by resting students and plebs. He made sure there were no guards nearby, then decided to address them.

"Everyone, please wake up!" He said.

Afraid and annoyed, the students looked got up and looked around, wondering what the source of the noise was. They saw Saito standing on a stack of boxes.

"You idiot!" One of the students said. "The guards will kill us if we make noise!"

Saito threw one of the guard's guns on the ground. "We don't have to worry about them anymore."

The students who could see the gun all gasped, wondering how he possibly managed to get it. They all started to murmur to each other, wondering what would happen to them if the rest of the guards found out.

"Who are you?" One of the students said.

"My name is Hiraga Saito. To be more formal, my name is King Hiraga." He said, letting his tail fall from his waist and move freely. "I'm here to retake the academy and Tristain."

"Saito!" A few familiar voices said.

Saito looked behind him, where the source was coming from. There, he saw Guiche, Malicorne, and Montmorency making their way through the crowd. They ran towards him and gave him a hug.

"It's good to see you guys again." Saito said.

"We thought you died…" Montmorency said. "Wait, where's Louise?!"

"Don't worry, she's fine." Saito said. "Right now, we need to get out of here. Distribute these guns to everyone who cannot use magic. Whatever is left over, distribute among everyone else. Where are Osmond and Colbert?"

"They were in Albion when the war began." Guiche said.

"I see. Then we'll be on our own with this one." Saito said. "I'm going to go and get Kirche. Have all of the earth mages begin digging tunnels outside of the school."

"Why Kirche?" Guiche said. "She can't be trusted!"

"Now's not the time for that. Just do it for everyone. Please." Saito said.

They wanted to argue, but they decided to trust him this time. They all nodded, letting Saito know that they'd listen. With that settled, Saito seemed to disappear from his place, and soon arrived behind Kirche, who was waiting for him in her room.

He said nothing, instead picking her up and appearing back in the cave.

"Keep her safe." Saito said. "She'll tell you which way to tunnel. I'll deal with the rest of the guards."

With that, he left them to begin digging their escape route.

In the north-west countryside of Tristain

Prince Wales sat in a tent about 100 kilometers from the coast, strategizing how he and his army would get past a massive blockade of Germanian soldiers, who had formed a line of artillery, stopping Wales from pushing past them.

"The only way we could do it is to take them all out at once." One of his generals said. "But we have no weaponry that is capable of that right now."

"Even with the weapons we recovered from the enemy, sending any soldiers to try and fight would be suicide." Wales said to himself.

"For now." The general said. "It is probably best to remain here. The enemy will not push forward."

"Very well." Wales said. "We will remain here. Any word from Queen Charlotte?"

"The foreign boy has made his way into Tristain. No more information is known." The general said.

"I see. Perhaps when news of him reaches the Germanians, they'll fall back." Wales said. "Since everything is settled, please allow me to rest for a little while."

"Yes, sir. I will alert you if anything should go amiss." The general said, bowing towards Wales.

Wales nodded a 'thank you' as the general left the tent. When he was gone, Wales fell onto the small, thin, quite uncomfortable bed that was put in the tent for him. He began to think to himself about the situation in Tristain.

"The enemy has formed a blockade." He thought to himself. "The only way we can break through is to destroy the enemy forces at once. Perhaps if Saito was here, things would be easier. The only other person who's capable of doing it would be his wife, Louise. But there's no way she can do it alone. Her spells take too long to be put into use."

Just as this thought crossed his mind, he heard a commotion outside. He sat up in bed, wondering what was going on. Soon, the same general from earlier ran into the tent.

"Sir! An intruder behind our lines!" He said.

"How did Germanians get behind us?! How many are there?!" He said as he grabbed his sword, prepared for a fight.

"It is only one, and they do not appear to be Germanian. It's just a small girl." The general said.

"A small girl?" Wales said as he resheathed his sword. "What kind of a small girl?"

"A pink haired girl. She's wearing abnormal clothes and seems to have appeared from nowhere." The general said.

"Does she wear a crown?" Wales asked, immediately understanding what was going on.

"Yes she does." The general said. "How shall we deal with this?"

"Bring her to me." Wales said. "For your own good, I'd be gentle with her if I were you."

The general, rather bewildered, left the tent. After a very large commotion, he came back with the girl in his arms in a rotten mood. His hair seemed to have been burnt and his face had ash on it. It took all of Wales's willpower to resist laughing at him.

"You are dismissed." He said, as quickly as possible.

The general left, with an irritated expression on his face. When he was gone, Wales gave Louise a big hug.

"It's so good to see you're okay, Louise!" He said.

"It's nice to see you too, Lord Wales." She replied. "How is everything?"

"Well, things have been going okay until now." Wales said as he pulled away from her.

He sat her down and began to explain everything that had happened during the war. He explained that the Germanian army used weapons from sixty years ago in Saito's world. He went on to explain how in the past three months, the combined forces of Gallia, Romalia, and Albion have attained victories in both Tristain and Gallia. She was especially interested in learning about Saito's various exploits during the war.

"Where is Saito?" She asked.

"He has crossed the Gallian border into Tristain with the purpose of first liberating the magic academy, and then the capital." Wales said. "Our messengers from Gallia have not come back yet with more information."

"I see." Louise said. "How is my family?"

"Your parents have been helping to organize our militaries. We refused to have them fight on the front lines. Both of your sisters are safe." Wales said.

"Thank goodness." Louise sighed. "So why are you camped here?"

"The Germanians have formed an artillery blockade. We cannot get past them. We have to simultaneously destroy all of them, otherwise if we charge, we'd all be mowed down." Wales explained.

"I can deal with them." Louise said.

"They're too far away for you." Wales said. "Even if they weren't, we don't have anything to defend you with while you cast your spell."

"How far away did you say they were?" She asked, getting up from her chair and walking towards the tent's exit.

"Approximately 30 kilometers." Wales replied.

"Thank you." She said.

She stood outside Wales's tent and looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to rise over the land, making the sky look dark blue. She took a deep breath and pointed her wand upwards in the direction where the Germanian army was.

In succession and without her saying a word, several balls of light shot from her wand. Each was about the size of a person's head. They quickly flew in the direction of the enemy and were soon out of sight. After about sixty seconds of silence and confusion from Wales's army, several massive, blindingly bright domes of light appeared in the distance.

There was complete silence as the light illuminated the landscape. Soon, the silence was interrupted by the sound of massive explosions as the shockwaves from the blast arrived at their location. The winds from the blast knocked several of the men over, while the sound startled the army's dragon. After the shockwave subsided, Wales got up from where the shockwave threw him and looked at Louise with both fear and shock.

She didn't look like she did anything out of the ordinary. The winds didn't knock her over and the sound didn't startle her. She simply stared in the direction of the explosions for a few seconds, then looked back at Wales.

"I don't know if I managed to hit them, so you should send someone by dragon to check." She said.

"R-Right…" Wales said, as he fearfully watched her go back into his tent.

Like she asked, a sent a dragon riding scout to see if her attack was successful. The scout was gone for about an hour. When he came back, the look on his face was one of shock.

"Report." Wales said.

"T-They're all g-gone." The scout said. "There's not a single one l-left."

"I wish to see it for myself." Wales said in disbelief.

The scout nodded and helped Wales onto the dragon. They took off and headed in the direction of the explosions. For several minutes, they flew in silence, as the scout was in too much shock to speak to Wales. Soon, the scout signaled to Wales that they had arrived.

When Wales looked down, he understood the reason for the scout's state of shock. Several massive craters dotted the landscape for several kilometers. They extended in a line further than Wales's eyes could see. All plants in the area seemed to be vaporized, as the ground was completely bare and was, in some places, smoldering. His eyes were able to identify the silhouettes of several large and small weapons laying in and around the craters.

"Let's go back." Wales said. "I will inform our men that the enemy has been neutralized."

The scout nodded and they headed back to base. Wales's general was waiting for him to arrive. When Wales landed, he didn't say anything for a few minutes. He seemed to need a few minutes to process the destruction.

"We're marching forward." Wales said when he finally gained his composure. "The enemy has been destroyed."

"How is that possible?!" The general asked.

"The girl." Wales said. "Ready our men. We are leaving immediately."

He went into the tent, where Louise was sitting, waiting for information on what they were going to do.

"Where are you going next?" She asked.

"We're going towards the capital." Wales said. "You're welcome to tag along. We may meet Saito there, after all."

"Thanks!" Louise said, with a smile that did not fit someone capable of that much destruction.

After about one hour, with the sun now in the sky, they began to make their way towards Tristain. Once the fear and the shock of learning how powerful Louise was subsided, the army felt a sense of newfound strength knowing that such a powerful ally was on their side.

At the Tristain Magic Academy

The morning sun rising over the academy revealed an ominous sight. Among the various equipment used for mining, the holes in the ground from the mining operation, and the smell of various fumes in the air, were the bodies of several guards laying on the ground in silence.

During the night, Saito had caused a distraction at the front gate of the school, allowing the rest of the prisoners to escape with Kirche. All of the prisoners spent the entire night running towards the border with Gallia. By the time the sun rose, they were already more than halfway there. They had no idea whether or not Saito had lived or died, but they were glad to finally be headed to safety.

Throughout the day, they ran non stop until finally, they saw a line of soldiers wearing the Gallian crest on their armor. With the border in sight, most of them fell to the ground from exhaustion. When the border's soldiers saw them, they immediately sent medics to help them and bring them into Gallia.

During the commotion, Kirche managed to find Guiche, Malicorne, and Montmorency. They were drinking much needed water, as they were completely dehydrated from the past several months in slavery. When they noticed her, she immediately got on her knees with tears streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry!" Was all she could bring herself to say.

"It's…It's okay." Montmorency said. "I'm sure you had a reason for your actions."

"Yeah." Guiche said. "We got carried away with how we treated you. I'm sure you wouldn't betray us for no reason."

"We forgive you, Kirche." Malicorne said.

Although she was still crying, she was also smiling from the immense joy of getting her friends back. They all came together in a hug, glad that they survived the war with their friendship intact.

Meanwhile, on the roof of the academy, with his mission partly over, Saito sat looking up at the blue sky. He thought about how the thought of killing those hundreds of guards no longer felt very foreign to him. It was almost like he no longer thought of them as human.

Regardless of these thoughts, he soon stood up, knowing that the Gallian army would soon be there if Kirche had followed his directions. Soon enough, just as he predicted, several dragons and horse riding soldiers appeared over the horizon.

Saito stood at the gate of the academy, waiting to greet them. When they arrived, the commanding officer of the company rode on his horse towards Saito, who was now sitting on the ground, leaning on the academy's wall.

"The Queen extends her highest gratitude for you work, General." He said.

"I'm not a general." Saito replied. "I'm just a friend doing the Queen a few favors."

"Even so, the Queen has given you the official rank of General. Congratulations for your hard work." He said. "My men will take it from here. The Pope of Romalia will also be arriving within the next two days."

"Thank you." Saito said.

The officer handed Saito a white cape that was to be fastened from one shoulder. It had the emblem of the Gallian royal family on it's back, as well as five silver stars fastened on the left shoulder. He was also given back his crown, which he left behind so that he would be able to blend into the school.

He sighed from slight embarrassment, but put them on anyway as the Gallian army cheered for him. As the army cleared the bodies of the Germanian guards and set up watchtowers, Saito decided to go and take a nap before he began his mission to capture Tristania.

The room he went to, of course, was Louise's room. As he walked in, fond memories he held of old times rushed back to him. Even if it was Louise hitting him with her riding crop, he held all of those memories dear to his heart.

As he laid down on her old bed, he remembered her face, her smile, and most of all, her voice. With those thoughts in mind, he fell asleep, eager for the whole war to finally end so that he could see her again.

Author's Notes:

Wow, I am really pushing it with my release times for these. But at least I got it out today, right? I hope you enjoyed it! Again, this was supposed to be part of a much longer chapter, but I split it apart into several chapter so that it wouldn't be a bore to read. I hope I was right. See you next time!