2 weeks passed quickly and Mikoto, Tabitha and Kirche returned to Tristain Academy of Magic.
They returned around noon but Mikoto hadn't seen either Louise or Saito and it was getting late. When asked, Montmorency informed her Louise was back to normal but seeing is believing after all.
Knocking on Louise's door Saito quickly answered and invited her in. When she and Louise made eye contact, Louise turned beet red and tried to explode her. Mikoto easily dodged whilst breathing an internal sigh of relief. She preferred this to pervert Louise.
"Good to see you're back to normal."
"S-SHUT UP STUPID DOG, I can't believe I... to her."
Whilst Louise had a mental breakdown, Mikoto announced her retirement for the night.
"Wait, did you just come here to make sure Louise was back to normal?" asked Saito.
"Yep." replied Mikoto reaching for the door handle.
Spinning back around she open fired at the cloaked figure who'd just opened the window. It passed by inches away from their face destroying part of their hood. For several second's no one moved. Slowly Mikoto lowered her arm and Henrietta took it as permission to enter.
"P-Princess?" stuttered Louise.
Mikoto's eyes narrowed dangerously and before anyone could react she crossed the room and slapped her.
"W-WHAT ARE YOU-"
"Quiet." snapped Mikoto.
Louise flinched.
"I could've killed you just now, at the very least you would've been severely injured."
Henrietta flinched, her face already deathly pale.
"You are very lucky that was just a warning shot."
"I-I just-" Henrietta tried to inject.
"You wanted to see Vallière, but there are other, much safer ways of infiltrating a school. Like maybe wearing the school uniform and tying your hair back."
Henrietta flinched again, she did recall Mikoto saying that last time she visited. A full minute of silence passed before Mikoto announced she was going to bed and walked out, slamming the door behind her.
Walking to Tabitha's room Mikoto tried to keep her anger in check.
She was angry at Henrietta for doing something so foolish, but was angrier at herself for nearly killing her.
Had she not been in a good mood before entering Louise's room Henrietta would be dead.
Stopping outside Tabitha's room she hesitated slightly before entering. She sat on her bed and clasped her hands together. She felt Tabitha's gaze, immensely thankful Tabitha didn't try approaching her. She needed an outlet for her anger that didn't involve blasting something. Cursing loudly she starting a series of push ups, channeling her anger into the exercise. Over an hour passed before she collapsed to the ground.
"What happened?" asked Tabitha handing her a cup of water.
"Henrietta appeared at Vallière's window wearing a hooded cloak and I attacked her. She's fine, shaken up but fine."
Tabitha nodded and helped her up. Deciding she'd take a bath in the morning, Mikoto got changed and slipped into bed feeling a lot better.
Waking up early, Mikoto grabbed some clothes and set off towards the girls baths.
Returning to Tabitha's room she encountered Saito who informed her Henrietta requested he and Louise travel to Albion and retrieve a letter from Prince Wales. After asking for more details she concluded Henrietta wanted to send Louise and Saito to the edge of a warzone to retrieve a letter from the losing side.
She sighed, knowing Louise had agreed without understanding or considering anything about the mission.
He added that he, Louise and Guiche, who'd been eavesdropping, were leaving tomorrow morning from the main gate at 6:30am. Louise might not have wanted her to come but he did.
Mikoto reassured him she'd be there and left.
Louise did not look happy when Mikoto, Tabitha, Kirche and Sylphid turned up at the front gate.
She would just have to deal, Tabitha had combat experience and Kirche could keep a level head.
Despite Louise's complaints Mikoto was of the firm opinion she was the one that shouldn't be coming. Even Grammont would have been preferable and he was one of the biggest cowards she'd ever met.
The only reason she was still coming was because Henrietta assigned this mission to her and Saito. Which brought Henrietta's motives into question. Had it been her she would never have even considered sending her best friend into a war zone; especially without any information, training, or even substantial control over their ability.
All Louise had was her blind loyalty to Henrietta.
Still, since she'd decided to send a naive, unprepared school girl with no control whatsoever, a boy with no formal training or real combat experience and the mage who'd lost to said boy, it implied she didn't trust her own soldiers which bought about a whole new set of complications.
Even so she couldn't help but grimace at the mission line-up. Had she assigned this mission two people at most would be going. Currently 6 people, 1 dragon and 1 giant mole were partaking.
Granted she'd chosen 2 of those people and the dragon but only because Saito and Guiche couldn't defend themselves, and Louise's mouth was almost guarantied to get them in trouble. Also who knew when a dragon would come in handy, especially considering they were traveling to the flying continent of Albion.
She glanced to her right as her radar picked up someone in the sky just before a blast of wind knocked the mole off Louise.
From what Saito had said it should've been just him, Louise and Guiche. So who was this new person? Mikoto watched as a griffin landed a few feet away and an older man dismounted.
"I am Captain of the Griffin Knights; Viscount Wardes, Lady Henrietta has asked me to accompany you on this trip."
"Where's your proof?" demanded Mikoto, stepping between him and Louise preventing his approach.
"Please stand aside, I wish to see my fiancé." he requested but Mikoto could see slight frustration in his eyes.
"F-Fiancé!" cried Kirche, Saito and Guiche.
"Show me proof that Henrietta sent you."
Mikoto didn't know this man and it set her on edge, especially with Henrietta's apparent lack of trust in her soldiers. If he was allowed to come he could betray them at any given moment and that wasn't a risk any trained soldier was willing to take.
"Stop it Mikoto!" Louise pushed past her to get to Wardes.
Mikoto's eyes narrowed.
"How dare you talk to Viscount Wardes like that, apologise immediately!"
Mikoto ignored her. "Your proof."
She knew she was creating unease among the group. They were being far too casual about this mission, and far too trusting of someone whose only proof of assignment was his position.
"As I already informed you, I am the Captain of Griffon Knights..."
"I don't care. If you can't show me definitive proof Henrietta sent you, then I will consider you an enemy and cut you down accordingly."
"Isn't that going a bit far?" asked Kriche as everyone else stared at Mikoto in shock.
"Not when Henrietta doesn't trust her own soldiers," Mikoto growled.
"What do you mean?" Guiche's question was so quiet Mikoto almost didn't hear it, her eyes snapped to his, before passing over everyone else present.
"After thinking over Henrietta's actions in regards to this mission, that is the conclusion I came to."
Her eyes never once left Wardes's as she spoke and so caught the momentary panic in them.
"HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THE PRINCESS LIKE THAT! YOU'RE JUST A LOWLY FAMILIAR! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS MISSION!"
Mikoto held up a hand stopping Louise's rant.
"This is a retrieval mission. We're to go to Albion, retrieve a letter from Prince Wales and come back with no one the wiser. Ideally, this mission would be assigned to someone who specialised in reconnaissance as well as having training and experience in combat and stealth. Yet Henrietta has assigned this mission to you, Vallière. You are a heavy hitter, specialising in wide area destruction. Whilst I do not doubt your magic could be invaluable against an army, due to the shortsightedness of not only your teachers but magical society as a whole, you have never received proper instruction and are therefore limited to explosions. What I'm saying is your current skill set is not suited to this mission, so why was it assigned to you?"
She had not needed her own experience as a military commander to understand that assigning this mission to Louise was, on the surface, a very bad decision.
"Henrietta is the Crown Princess of Tristain and has an entire army at her beck and call; she's also well respected in both the magical and non magical communities. Instead of sending one of her trained soldiers though, she chose you, Vallière. Considering how unsuited you are to this particular mission, you have to ask, why did Henrietta chose you? What do you have that Henrietta's entire army doesn't?"
Mikoto let her words sink in, she needed them to start thinking instead of taking things at face value.
"So are you saying Princess Henrietta trusts Louise more than her own army?" asked Kirche.
Mikoto glanced at her and nodded.
"It implies spies and possibly traitors. Also," she turned back to the disgruntled knight. "Wardes; you've failed to provide proof of assignment, becoming defensive and attempting to dodge the question. At the very least I cannot allow you on this mission."
"W-What are you saying?" Louise stuttered.
"It is possible Henrietta assigned him to this mission. However, if that were the case, you should have received prior notification and he should have proof of assignment. It is also possible he's a spy and a traitor, who upon hearing of the mission came here to ensure its failure. Wardes is an unknown and therefore a risk to the missions success."
Mikoto seeing the indecision on Louise's face continued.
"Wardes is not essential to this mission and failure results in fighting unaided in the upcoming war."
"B-But..." Louise trailed off.
Mikoto clenched her fists, this girl was really testing her patience.
"Personal feelings have no place on missions. Grow up or stay behind."
Louise flinched and bowed her head.
Slowly turning, she faced Wardes.
"I-I'm sorry Viscount b-but you can't accompany us."
Sorry for the wait I was busy with Uni among other things.
Merry Christmas :)