The Immortal of Zero
Chapter XI: The Confrontation of old 'Allies', and the Letter
A/N: I have made Germania a neutral military force that had conflicts with Albion, and learning that Tristania had allied with the White Country in this fic. Don't blame me if you hate it.
Kai and Louise roamed around town after Wardes(Charisse in disguise) told them to check the town while 'he' try to contact the Prince of Albion through proper security channels.
Kai was relaxed enough that he was tempted to just sleep it off for the day, feeling that today was a time to go easy (though still a bit uneasy because of the murderous aura 'Wardes' and the two Knights emitted.), so he would just relax and not worry about any hostile intent for the time being.
Louise, on the other hand, was terribly nervous. This was the only time she and her familiar get to go on a walk through town alone (the time in the Vestri Court didn't count, seeing as that was the time where Professor Colbert gave his students time to bond with their familiars, which to Louise's irritation due to Kirche's flirting with her semi-stoic familiar.). She would stutter everytime Kai would ask her a question. From her dreams, she already knew he had a wife back in his world, but for all she knows, Kai can't go back to his own world. It's like a one-way ticket when summoning a familiar.
Also, her dreams about his past life kept bugging her. If those dreams really did happened, then she just summoned a being of enormous power... not to mention the enormous burden he seemed to weigh upon his shoulders... on par with a divine being.
"Is there something wrong, Mistress? Your face is red. Maybe it's best if we should return to your room and rest." said Kai, curious to Louise's impending blush on her face when he looked at her.
"N-n-no there's noth..*gulps*...nothing wrong.. Nothing wrong at all." Louise laughed weakly, embarrassed that Kai's eyes were looking at her face with worry.
"Are you sure there is nothing wrong? If you might have a fever, you should take a rest back. We cannot continue if your current condition is present and hindering you from doing your duty." said Kai, as they stopped at a stone bench by the town center fountain.
"I-I-I g-guess it won't hurt j-just to rest for a b-b-bit." stuttered Louise, but before she realized it, Kai already seated first, and her head just laid on his legs. Kai smiled at his Mistress' face, whose face went redder than a tomato. "W-w-w-what are you d-d-d-doing?"
"What does it look like? I am giving my Mistress a pillow." replied the familiar casually, making Louise blush even more if that's even possible. The citizens who were passing through saw the Master and Familiar, whispering "They look such a lovely couple.", a group of girls a little farther away, was looking at the familiar with hearts on their eyes, and the guys who saw this mutters "Lucky bastard.".
"Isn't this a wonderful view? Though it was ruined that it's my fiancé you're comforting." said a voice from behind them. Kai looked around to see Wardes looking at them in an amused expression.
"Hello Wardes. I have been meaning to talk with you for a while now." said Kai pleasantly, hiding his contempt when he felt the aura around the Knight is not the same as when he first met him. "May I suggest having my Mistress be returned to her room before we could talk? I do not think it would be a good idea that she'd be left here alone."
"Yes, of course." smiled 'Wardes', gesturing the familiar to the street, as Kai gently lifted his Mistress.
Once Louise have been placed in her room, both Kai and 'Wardes' went to a nearby field at the edge of town, followed by two of the 'Knights'. After arriving, Kai turned to the 'Captain'.
"All right, just who are you? I know for a fact that Wardes always liked to accompany my Mistress any chance he gets, and now, you want to talk to me that's not about her?" asked Kai suspiciously, his eyes narrowing at 'Wardes'.
"Nothing's gonna get past you, isn't that right, Kai?" chuckled 'Wardes', 'his' eyes glinting maliciously. "I'm not going to tell you who I really am at the moment, or who my companions are. But for now, we will only talk to you about the upcoming war between the country you're defending; Tristain, and the neighboring country; Germania... and the ones who would fuel the fire."
"Then speak. My Master would want this alliance to happen, as to survive the war against her enemies."
"Tell me Kai, have you ever heard of a group called 'Reconquista'?"
"Through gossips and rumors among the castle guards of Tristan, as lack of evidence would back up such a claim." grunted Kai, curious about a new party joining the war.
"What if we were to tell you that they exist?"
"Then if they exist, we would be wary as we have no idea of their objectives."
"Correct. That would be your best course of action." said 'Wardes', before turning 'his' back on him.
"Wait!" 'Wardes' stopped walking away. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I do not want the Slayer of the Immortal Emperor go down to these...pigs." was 'his' answer, before disappearing into the town.
'I wonder what that means...and why does 'he' sound familiar?' The familiar pondered this question, before going back to the hotel.
The next day, 'Wardes' had taken the duty of delivering the letter to the Albion Castle, freeing the pink-haired mage from the task of delivering it herself, even though she was reluctant to let her fiancé do it instead of her.
Flashback
"Louise, I shall deliver your letter to the Prince of Albion for you." 'Wardes' said to the pink-haired mage.
"I cannot do that. The Princess herself had given me this task of delivering this important letter to her." replied Louise, clinging to the letter as if her life depended on it. Kai and the other 'Knights' were watching from the sidelines, looking at both of them like watching a tennis match.
"You know, seeing those two argue is pretty funny. I never knew the student mage is stubborn." whispered the red-maned 'Knight' towards Kai. They have proposed a truce, seeing that it would be pointless if they do battle this earlier.
"This pales to the arguments my Mistress would form back at the Academy. Her and the red-head buxom named Kirche would fight endlessly... recent events now stated they're fighting over me." shrugs Kai.
The Red 'Knight' muttered something that sounded like 'Lucky Bastard', before getting bopped in the head by the Green 'Knight'.
"You do know if there is something that would happen to the Prince of Albion, I would have to step in."
"Don't worry your head on. Even though We like killing too much, we don't involve innocents into the battleground." replied the Green 'Knight', nonchalantly shrugging at the scene, where 'Wardes' is losing to Louise in the verbal debate of the letter delivery.
"Is there something you want on that letter?"
"No. We just do it to annoy the both of you."
Kai sweatdropped at that statement. He didn't thought that his enemies have a sense of humor.
Flashback End
Both Louise and Kai had arrived at the Castle doors, which were derived of guards, a notion that struck Kai as suspicious. Usually when a country is on a brink of a continental war with the other nations, guards would be the first thing they saw as they approached the castle. But the lack of soldiers, along with an opened pair of doors, have been conspicuous at this.
"Master, I believe something has happened here." said Kai, taking out a lance from his Gate, getting into a defensive stance.
"How so?" asked Louise, confused by her familiar's statement.
"Albion is a country in between Germania and Tristain. As war between the two would be imminent, Albion would be in the crossfire. Also, Prince Wales is Princess Henrietta's fiancé, so the alliance between Albion and Tristain would be possible. Therefore, there should be guards around the town and the castle, just in case some of Germanian spies would infiltrate and kill the Prince. So the lack of guards is suspicious." explained Kai, as he used the spear to open one of the doors at the Great Hall, revealing a storeroom for some of the soldier's equipment.
"If that is true, then where is the Prince hiding?" said Louise, pushing open a door opposite of the hall, revealing another storeroom, this time full of food supplies for soldiers.
"The answer would be either a place hidden from the eyes of Germanian Empire, but inside the Albion territory, or somewhere the Empire cannot reach." concluded Kai, as he examined the slash marks on the walls, each were 1-inch deep. "Tell me Master, is Prince Wales a swordsman?"
"I do not know. I am not high enough to accompany the Princess during her visit to Albion." shrugged Louise, looking at the frosted glass at the throne room, which is the only thing that wasn't affected by the castle invasion.
"I think that whoever stormed his castle, forced him to fight back." he said, as he closed his eyes, as if imagining what had happened during the siege.
"Do you think it's Germania?" asked Louise.
"No. And it doesn't look like it's from bandits either." frowned Kai. "You explained that Wardes' Knights can use a sword back at the hotel, correct?"
"Yes, but what has that got to do-... NO! There's no way that Wardes would do such a thing!" roared Louise, thinking that Wardes had ordered his Knights to invade Albion without the knowledge of the Queen.
"I don't think that Wardes did it." replied Kai, earning a sigh of relief from Louise. "But this just confirm my theory... That someone within the Tristain High Council is a spy of Germania." at this, the petite mage is shocked. "Maybe someone ordered it, and Wardes unknowingly followed the order."
"But that means..." gasped Louise, making a revelation. "We have to warn the Princess!"
She was about to warn Wardes about this, when her Familiar stopped her. "No! If it's from the council of Tristan, then you can bet that if you warn the Princess, she could be in danger. Not to mention that the traitor would hire assassins in order to silence us. We must have evidence first in order to convince the Princess and protect her at the same time." hissed Kai, holding a firm grip on her shoulder. The petite mage deflated at his statement. If she had warned the Princess, and in turn summoned the council, they would become a priority target to be eliminated.
"I... you're right. We should think rationally. If Germania had gotten hold of this, then they would invade us." said Louise. "But what do we do? We can't warn the Princess, and we can't let the Germania invade us!"
"We'll think about this later. Right now, we'll return to Tristan and act like this didn't happened."
"What if-"
"We will talk to the Princess when the time is right." said Kai, as he examined one of the slash marks on the stone wall, before he frowned and looked closer. Louise noticed his expression, curious on his sudden facial change.
"What are you doing, Kai?"
"Each weapon leaves a residual mark everytime it's used." frowns at each slash mark, Kai moved to the next batch on the other wall. "Even if it's only an ordinary weapon, it can still leave residual marks at the walls or the floor." He then pressed a hand at the slash mark, and began to "feel" it through his fingers. "This one felt like a broadsword... slightly curved on the edge." he added.
"What are you talking about? Weapons like those cannot possibly leave residues, unless..." began Louise, doubting that swords could leave more than marks at the walls.
"...unless they're not normal weapons. In fact, Magical Artifact Weapons can leave residues. I only identify what type of weapons used due to the sheer size of the mark and the length of the blade." finished Kai, standing up. "If they're using Artifacts, then the residues could be a bit more visible to Mages."
In other words, the rebels had used Magical Artifacts to dominate the castle guards.
"There's a good chance that Prince Wales had escaped the castle, then gone into hiding." finished Kai, as he was done examining the slash marks of the desolate hall. 'not that it would be of help anyway. Prince Wales is in a major disadvantage with the Rebels at this point without reinforcements. We couldn't inform the court either, as that would alert the spy.'
"What do we do?" asked Louise, turning her attention to the Demon Knight.
"For now, we do nothing but let it play out until we have a private audience with the Princess. We can then think of something at that point on what to do next." replied Kai, turning his attention to the broken castle doors, frowning at the devastation the rebels had caused. "Let's get back. We need to talk to Wardes about this."
Soon, they left the ruined castle.
Unknown to them, a ghostly eye had been watching them from the shadows, observing them.
Back at the Hotel, 'Wardes' and the two 'Knights' had been waiting. The former had been waiting for his 'fiancé' from the letter delivery.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Charisse, under her green-maned helmet that covered her face.
"The next phase is that we would tell the Mage and the Deathstone that Wardes left." replied Clarissa, under her blue-maned helmet. "The reconquista is beneficial to our plans for now, as we manipulate them from the shadows."
"I still don't understand why would we control a bunch of idiots for a 'War'? I mean, we could take this world as our own with our powers." grunted Timotheo. "Anyway, your acting as the Void familiar for that moron Cardinal is top-notch. Very convincing." he added, smirking at the last part, earning him another bop in the head.
"A puppet never cares for self-preservation." scoffed Clarissa, her fist smoking after smacking Timotheo in the head.
"Anyway, we will let Kai and his Master do their work on finding the Prince without incident."
The two nodded at their leader/friend's suggestion.
"What about...?" asked Timotheo, frowning.
"Germania? They are but a stepping stone to the resurrection of the Emperor." scoffed Charisse, unsheathing her sword, which looked like a combination of a blue-crystal sword, and a Shotgun with a magnum barrel. "The real fun starts when the war begins, AFTER we take care of Tristania."
"And the End of All Life shall begin."