Author's Note: So, here we are at Chapter 19.

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"Saito" -Talking

'Louise' -Thinking/ Human-Human Telepathy

"Explosion!" -Spell

:Master: -Master/Familiar Telepathy

Chapter 19: Summer Break and Mon-Mon's Mistake

The Next Day

Saito and Louise's Suite

"You have got to be joking." Saito stared at an angry Henrietta.

"Believe me Mr. Saito, I honestly wish that I was." The Crown Princess of Tristain replied with a sigh, her voice a mix of frustration, annoyance, and exhaustion, "But Wardes and the one formerly identified as Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt have both fled. As they did so, they unleashed the entirety of the Royal Dragon Stables. My army has no time to pursue them because they have to protect the people from the rampaging dragons."

"Wardes knows you well then." Emereldas drawled from her position lying on Louise's bed, "He likely set those dragons on the loose knowing that you'd choose to protect your people rather than chase him."

"I had surmised as much myself." Henrietta grimaced, "For the time being, Agnès has declared the castle too unsafe for it to be my residence, so my mother and I will be taking quarters here. Might I ask you to ward my chambers?"

"It would be my honour to." Saito bowed his head.

"My thanks." Henrietta bowed her head in return, earning a noise of disapproval from Agnès, who stood to the right and behind of her mistress. "Oh, stop being jealous of Professor Saito, Agnès."

"J-Jealous?! Who's jealous?!" the Chevalier de Milan spluttered.

"That would be you, little girl." Emereldas snarked, "You have so much jealousy streaming off of you that I'm surprised that the room isn't choking with it yet."

While the Knight spluttered at the Succubus' teasing, Henrietta giggled. "I haven't seen anyone reduce Agnès to spluttering in a long time."

"I'm a five-century-old Succubus. If I let a slip of a girl still in her teens get the better of me, I would shame the pride of Pandemonium." Emereldas smirked.

"Emereldas, kindly stop teasing the Chevalier de Milan; she looks as if she's going to either spontaneously combust from anger or try to fillet you with her new sword." Saito sighed in exasperation.

The effort itself would have been futile, anything short of a weapon enchanted by a master of the arts or blessed by a powerful priest would fail to so much as scratch a Demon of the Eighth Circle.

Pouting, the soon-to-be Avanta relented.

Still smiling at the antics of her friend and bodyguard, Henrietta returned her gaze to Saito. "I have been meaning to ask, Professor Saito. How do you think your disappearance is being handled by your fellow Onmyōji?"

"In a word, poorly." The Junior Adept grimaced.

"Oh?"

"Imagine this scenario, Your Highness." Saito said with a sigh, "Louise graduates in two more years, at the top of her class due to her mastering both her intrinsic Void Magic and my elemental talismans. She has a bright future ahead of her and one of the first things she decides to do is to take the carriage from the Academy to the Castle to celebrate with you. She disappears on route, the carriage broken in half, with traces of heavy magic usage visible. What's your first thought about what happened?"

"A kidnapping." Agnès said at once, before pausing a moment to ponder. "Perhaps by a neighbouring kingdom, perhaps by the Reconquista, perhaps by the Elves. The list of possible culprits on such a feat would be…vast."

Saito nodded. "Exactly. In my country, we have been at war within our nation for a millennium. The organisation Juxtaposed Black Star have fought the Imperial Ministry of Onmyōji for that long. However, we have managed to work out a sort of tentative agreement with them to not attack certain sites of spiritual and magic significance, as well as to leave anyone of Senior Adept rank or below alone. When Louise's Summon Servant Spell grabbed me, I was outside a place of both spiritual and magical significance and I was only recently assigned the rank of Junior Adept. The summoning spell also likely left a great deal of magical residue behind after I was taken. With the Black Stars around, all of my former teachers will have immediately concluded that they were behind my disappearance, which will lead the war to renew itself into new heights unseen since the beginning."

"Oh my…" Henrietta nodded slowly, "That's one reason why you strongly wish to return home, isn't it? To cool the war down again."

"It is. I have a duty to do so." The Onmyōji stated.

"Couldn't your Familiars deliver a message for you?" Agnès pointed out.

"We cannot." Emereldas disagreed, "A Familiar can only be summoned to the world that their master lives in. I, a denizen of Pandemonium, cannot go to Earth. And Kaede, who lives in an isolated village inside its own small dimensional pocket, cannot either."

"I'm afraid I do not understand what this 'dimensional pocket' is." Henrietta confessed.

"An area that is separated from the world by magic and cannot be infringed upon by those outside the barriers that generates it." Saito explained, "The Oni long since withdrew from the world of men, concealing themselves inside hidden villages to hide from mundane man. Only other supernatural beings and magic users can find these hidden villages, and even then, unless a passage is opened up from within the barrier, it's almost impossible to enter. The elders of Kaede's home village, Onidōrō, will not allow her to leave that way, nor will they aid her in travelling to somewhere that might."

"Oni are very big on self-sufficiency." The Succubus added lazily, "As Kaede is one of Master Saito's Prime Familiars; she is expected to find a way to accomplish his orders herself, without involving others."

"I see." The Princess sighed, "It must be tough on her."

"She manages fine." Emereldas scoffed, "She has the Black Oni Tribe's latent skill at magic, the White Oni Tribe's warrior talent and the unique trait of the Silver Oni Tribe going for her."

Without needing to be asked, Saito elaborated on his Familiar's words. "All Oni Tribes have different strengths and weaknesses. The White Oni Tribe is infamous for their ability to learn weaponry at a greatly accelerated pace, with that counterbalanced by being somewhat more delicate than other Oni, while the Black Oni Tribe is, of course, the most skilled with Onmyō and other magic, with their stamina not being nearly as good as other Oni. The Red Oni are the most physically strong, but also the least intelligent, to give another example. As a Silver Oni, a mix between the Black and White Oni, Kaede has inherited both of those traits at a slightly lower level than a full-blood. Say about three-quarters of it compared to either of her parents. She also has the unique ability that all Silver Oni possess, a special ability to divert attention from herself until no one can even see her. On the flipside of Kaede's ability, she's not very sociable, unlike most other Oni."

"You mean when she turned invisible when I first met her?" Henrietta asked.

"She didn't turn invisible." Saito denied, "She exerted her ability until you could no longer see her, there is a difference. Kaede can make herself completely unnoticeable and undetectable by sight, smell, sound and magic. She is, in essence, the perfect candidate for being an assassin, one role which I will not allow her to take up. She has instead trained as a silent and perfect bodyguard, as she demonstrated with my second confrontation with Wardes."

Agnès felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise up and firmly repressed an urge to start looking around the room. With an ability like that, the Oni could be anywhere at any time!

"Is that why the Silver Oni are discriminated against? The other mixed-blood Oni as well?" the Princess asked sadly.

"Oh, I'm sure that it's at least part of the reason, although most Oni would rather jump into a pit of molten lava than admit it." Emereldas chortled, "The main reason given is purity of the race. Most pureblood Oni are, bluntly, blood purity snobs. The occasional fling with an Oni from another tribe is tolerated and accepted, but having a half-blood child is seen as a big cultural taboo. The strongest Oni who ever lived, Shuten-dōji, actually laid down laws about it in the Black Oni Tribe."

"That makes Kaede's father, Kurotama, even more of an unusual example of a parent of a half-blood Oni." Saito noted, "Black Oni are usually the most virulent racists among the Oni Tribes. For him to rise above the teachings of his tribe and culture to save his mate and unborn daughter is very much praiseworthy."

"Agreed." Henrietta nodded. She loved her mother and missed her deceased father dearly. She knew that they would have done for her what Kurotama and his wife had done for Kaede. "What is her mother's name, by the way?"

"Byakuren. Formerly known as the White Lotus Princess of the White Oni Tribe." Emereldas answered, "A prodigy with weapons of all shapes and sizes, even amongst the White Oni Tribe. It took her a short five years to master all the weapons of my master's home country. Then she learned all the weapons in my master's entire world over the next decade. She was granted the title of Supreme Martial Goddess of Weapons shortly before she met Kurotama."

Saito looked at his Familiar in bemusement. "How on earth do you know that? Even I didn't know that last part."

"Knowledge is power, dear master." Emereldas smiled fondly at him, "And demons of Pandemonium collect knowledge and secrets like humans collect knickknacks. Speaking of which, I had better give you that knowledge that I promised you."

"The new formulae?" Saito raised an eyebrow before a realisation came over him, "Oh no, not here in front of the Princess!"

"Oh yes." Emereldas smirked as she stood up languidly and sexily stalked forwards, pinning her master in place with her eyes. Henriette and Agnès looked between Onmyōji and Familiar, wondering what was going on. They both blushed bright red when the succubus leapt atop of Saito, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss.

"MMPH!" Saito tried to protest, but damn was she good with her tongue!

"Oh my!" Henrietta whispered as the two kissed in front of her. It looked both extremely intimate and very lewd all at once. She half covered her face with her hands and peeked out at the couple. Agnès was pointedly looking away and studying the wall for any signs of possible threat towards her Princess.

No wall was going to get past her!

"Mwa~!" Emereldas parted from her master's lips with a wet and lewd sound. Licking her own lips, she smirked. "Hmmm. Thank you for the meal, master. I took some of your magic while I was at it."

"Eh~." Saito said dizzily. A few more neurons rebooted, so he tried again, "Eh? Whoa…"

"That's why it's almost impossible for a mortal, male or female, to turn down a succubus." The demoness of Lust continued to smirk as she spoke, "We can sense our partners' tastes and respond appropriately."

"Wh-wh-what lascivious things are you doing in front of the Princess!?" the Chevalier hollered, face beet-red still.

"T…To be fair, it's how she transfers knowledge." Saito said, almost recovered from the sudden lip-lock, "She is a succubus, so her magic naturally geared towards using her body as a conduit for it. Using other methods is generally speaking far less efficient for her, even using magic circles. I would have preferred to have done that in private, but I wasn't exactly given much of a choice in the matter."

"Plus, I haven't kissed my beloved master since we signed the contract." Emereldas pouted cutely, "Isn't that just awful?"

Saito noted idly that it should be impossible for a demoness of seduction to look so lovably cute like that. It should be against the law.

Judging by the blushes on the other two humans in the room, his opinion was shared by them. Even the usually stoic Agnès was being affected by Emereldas' pout. What was really scary was that the succubus wasn't using any sort of mind tricks or magic in order to accomplish this; it was purely posture, body language and facial expression being used to their utmost, projecting the exact sort of subconscious signals that she wanted the people in the room to pick up on.

He also noted to himself to not get between Emereldas and something that she wanted; he had no desire to have this look turned on him again if he could possibly avoid it.

The Next Day

Headmaster Osmond's office, Tristain Academy

"Having the Royal Family around seems to be disturbing the students." The grey-bearded old man observed as he stroked his Familiar, Chu-Chu the mouse. Sitting at his desk, he was (for once) projecting the proper gravitas of a headmaster, one who had more problems piling up by the minute, as opposed to a lecherous old man.

"I wouldn't say that, headmaster." Colbert protested. He wore his left arm in a sling, as it had been discovered that he had a slight fracture as a result of his battle with Johan. This was on top of the three cracked ribs and mild concussion that he had initially diagnosed himself with.

"Oh?"

"I would say it's more to do with the fact that the school has been assailed twice in a matter of weeks." The bespectacled man continued, "Both times with enormous golems fighting it out nearby. We still have the wood golem locked up in crystal outside the curtain wall. Has Professor Saito had any luck in discovering a way to deal with it, incidentally?"

Osmond shook his head. "Young Saito is still recovering from his expenditure of magic. He was apparently almost tapped out, if you will recall. He said to me earlier today that he should be up to performing an analysis of the crystalline prison cast by the Legacy Thief tomorrow."

"I still have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that a world exists that has Mages with such low magical power reserves." Colbert shook his head in mild disbelief, "Shortly after Fouquet's attack, Saito showed me a 'Seimei Index Rating' comparison of our magical reserves. Osmond, I had ten times the amount of magic that he did at the time."

One bushy eyebrow rose in mild surprise. "The difference between you is that pronounced?"

"It was at the time." Colbert confirmed, "He also showed me his S.I.R. from when he had just arrived at the Academy though and his reserves had tripled since then. His power is growing rather quickly and I am honestly concerned about the speed at which it must be doing so."

"The Princess did mention that he has to cast spells frequently in order to avoid magic poisoning." Osmond mused, "I suspect that as long as Saito continues to bleed off his magic via his spells and his donations to his Familiars, his body will be fine. Once his magical reserves catch up with the amount of magic that a boy of his age in Halkaginia should have in Halkaginia, the process will slow down dramatically…at least that is his own theory on the matter."

"Ah, so he has been thinking about it himself." Colbert relaxed somewhat, "I was worried that recent events had driven it out of his mind. I should have known better."

"I notice you have taken to using the terminology from Saito's world rather than willpower." The old man noted.

"Yes, it has, rather surprisingly, allowed me to conduct my experiments far more efficiently." Colbert confessed, "I am going to ask him to instruct me in how to construct a spell that functions similarly using our spell structures. It will revolutionise how Mages learn, teach and cast their spells. I cannot figure out why simple quantification of magic has never occurred to us."

"The Church has expressed its satisfaction with the current status quo, Colbert." Osmond sighed, "They are not against throwing rocks at one who goes against the current, if you catch my drift. Most of these 'revolutionary radicals' have been proposing increased spell research and improvements. You have something that they do not, however; the backing and gratitude of the Royal Family of a kingdom. Even the Church would hesitate to use its power to cow you, at least not without a direct order from His Holiness the Pope."

Colbert frowned. Among those few mages who performed research (as opposed to overseeing their lands), the conservative and somewhat reactionary nature of the Church of Brimir was an immense sore point. They constantly felt as if they were slamming their heads into brick walls every time they proposed a new spell or a modification to an older one to be released to the general Mage population. The ridiculous amount of paperwork, obstructive personnel and obscure rules that seemed to come out of nowhere to impede them…the list went on. He had known what was going on, but hadn't dared voice that suspicion. Even he had heard the rumours of the Church Secret Unit Milstein, who supposedly worked for the Pope directly and made the Black Ops units of the kingdoms look like amateurs by comparison.

"You have made the arrangements, I presume?" he asked after a moment.

"Naturally, dear boy." The wily old headmaster chuckled, "Those prissy Churchmen have been giving her Majesty and her Highness a hard time about lending the Prayer Book of Brimir and the Ring to Miss Vallière, especially His Grace the Bishop. I think the princess intends to make a point to the Church."

"Is that wise, what with her…impending marriage to the Emperor of Germania?" Colbert spoke of the event in a hushed tone of voice. He didn't like the fact that the Princess was essentially being sold to the man in exchange for the continued existence of Tristainia. One part of the long and extensive marriage contract explicitly stated that her firstborn, son or daughter, would be named the Heir Apparent of the Tristainian Throne, with the next child being the heir of the Germanian Throne.

"The Crown of Tristainia and that of Germania are separate entities, Colbert." Osmond stated firmly, "As much as it would simplify things for the Church, they have repeatedly refused any and all suggestions by any and all kings and queens of all nations to merge the kingdoms. The attempt is made every time a Royal Marriage is proposed, but it is pretty much a pro-forma request without any expectation of success behind it."

Colbert thought back to the theory Saito had told him that he had made upon discovering the different Summon Servant Spells for all the different nations. It would explain why the Church had, thus far, refused to recant in regards to protecting Tristainia's independence from Gallia and other, larger kingdoms. If there was a Void Mage born every generation or two in each country, then having their own Familiar unique to them would be necessary.

'And if the Familiars of Void Mages are humans, rather than animals and magical beasts…' he considered. Well, Royalty, who were the most likely candidates to be Void Mages, rarely ever summoned a Familiar. The Ducal House of de Vallière was very closely related to the current Tristainian Royal Family, but a human familiar had never been summoned by them before to the best of his knowledge, and the other Royal Families didn't have a cadet branch like the Royal Family of Tristain did. Albion's Royal Family had been allies of Tristainia's for generations and had married with them often.

Still, there had been rumours every so often of odd and mysterious people in this court or another over the centuries, people who were close to a prince or princess and were close confidants to them. If even a handful of them were Familiars and the Royal families had hushed it up…

"I see. Thank you, sir." Colbert said aloud.

Just then, an enraged scream of feminine outrage echoed through the halls, followed swiftly by the sound of running feet and male pleas for mercy. It was a familiar set of sounds and both men sighed as they instantly recognised the sources.

"Mr de Gramont again?" Osmond sighed, "You'd think he'd have learned by now to either keep his trysts on the quiet or to not two-time Miss Montmorency at all."

"It occurs to me that he is very slow to learn from his mistakes, Headmaster." Colbert shook his head wearily, "At least it is the Summer Vacation starting tomorrow, so they won't be yelling around here, at least. It always takes the two of them at least three arguments to get back together before Mr de Gramont's wandering eye starts up again."

"The youth of today. No skill in subterfuge." The old man sniffed, "Why, in my day, I had a girl in every city, with none of them any the wiser!"

Colbert sweatdropped as the Headmaster started to wax lyrical about his youthful exploits. If any of them had even the finest grain of truth to them though, he'd be greatly surprised.

With Montmorency

The female blond Mage stormed into her room and slammed the door shut before swearing eloquently at the top of her voice, tears dripping down her cheeks.

'Why?!' she thought in real distress, 'Why does he keep on cheating on me? Am I boring? Unattractive? Am I just not good enough for him?'

Montmorency had been attracted to Guiche almost from the moment that she had met him last year. He was suave, attentive and charming, not to mention a good kisser who also respected her boundaries. He never touched her where she didn't want him to touch and always asked beforehand where was and was not appropriate. The perfect gentleman.

Aside from when he cheated on her with those no-good hussies!

Hands clenched in fury, the potioneer remembered all the times she had discovered him with other girls over the year and a half of their off-again-on-again relationship. One time she had even walked in on him In Flagrante Delicto with another girl in his bed! The nerve!

Granted, she was very shy about her very modestly endowed body. She had more curves that Louise the Zero, but then again, so did a plank of wood. All of the girls that Guiche had seduced were busty, bubble-butted bimbos with more of an eye for snagging a husband with deep pockets than on how to use their wands or the bits of fluff that was all they had for a brain.

Montmorency was also slightly prudish; she had to admit that to herself. Her maid had raised her that way, due to her mother being busy with land management and her father being a member of the small, elite Tristainian Standing Army. She knew that as a daughter of a Marquis house, her chastity was a valuable commodity and that the House of Gramont would look down on her if she wedded Guiche without it, and she dearly wanted to marry him. It was for the sake of their future, not just her own shyness and prudishness!

Still, she was getting so tired of fighting with Guiche over this. If it were just commoners, she wouldn't mind so much; her own father slept with his personal maid team, she knew, and she even had a younger sister from when he had made one of them pregnant. Commoners were not a threat to the dynastic power games that the nobility played; other girls of Nobility were. The marriage contract between her House and Guiche's was practically set in stone, only requiring a few last minute modifications and haggling before the final signatures would be placed on the vellum.

If Guiche made a mistake and impregnated another Noble girl, the House of Montmorency would be deeply disgraced, as would she personally. She would be shuffled off into a monastery or something so that her family would not have to bear the shame of having the woman who couldn't control her fiancé around. Guiche would be forced into the army, she knew. He wouldn't last long there as one of his less appealing points was his personal cowardice.

No, something had to be done soon. Something drastic.

Montmorency's eyes strayed to the desk next to her personal potion making lab. Inside the journal she had in one of the drawers, she had the recipe to a powerful potion called Afrotiziac. It was a love potion that utterly enthralled the drinker to the next person of the opposite sex that they saw. The main reason she had never made it before was because in the kingdoms, emotion-altering potions were illegal to brew. The law was passed in every kingdom over two-thousand years ago after a man slipped a despair-inducing potion called Formaldahide into a noble family's meal, causing them to commit mass suicide.

'If I'm caught, I will be disenobled, stripped of my nobility and disinherited by my parents.' She thought as she hesitantly walked toward the desk, 'I will be a Fallen Noble, only suitable as a mistress to a proper noble. And yet…that fate is preferable to a lifetime in a monastery. Either Guiche will stop cheating on me…or I'll make him. If I fail, I will be beneath his notice as a woman, but…that will show me if he truly wants me or if I'm just such a convenient Noble bauble to have on display.'

Taking a deep breath, she opened her drawer and took out her journal. It wasn't really her journal per se; it was the potions notebook passed down through the female side of her family for upwards of ten generations. It had been enchanted to be fireproof, waterproof and blade resistant and could be expanded to add more pages. It was as thick as her pinkie finger from all of the pages that had been added over the years and the different writing of her ancestresses was always a comfort to read.

Turning to the pages that detailed how to make the love potion, Montmorency took one more deep breath and exhaled before she started reading. She had to get this right the first time.

The Next Day, Lunchtime

Cafeteria

"Rings?" Louise asked sceptically. She, Saito and the princess, with Agnès standing guard as usual, were sitting and eating their midday meal. Henrietta had been talking with Saito about his world and the different magic systems there and he had brought up the number of different casting instruments that the various systems used.

The Onmyōji nodded. "Some casting systems use inconspicuous items that don't look out of place on an ordinary person to cast. Usually it's a finger ring, bracelet or a necklace. Less common are brooches, and earrings are never used."

"Is there any particular advantage to that system?" Henrietta asked curiously.

"It specialises in battle spells, so quick cast speeds and next to no incantations." Saito answered, "Of course, the spells suffer from a lack of power compared to here in Halkaginia and the items only last a certain period of time before they become magically useless for channelling magic. Usually they last for about six months or so with regular use."

"I don't get how you can use rings and necklaces to cast spells." Louise remarked.

"In a similar way to how Johan could use jewels and I can use talismans." The Japanese boy answered and pulled out a talisman and laid it in front of the two girls. "This is one of my talismans, one for fire to be precise. As you can see, it has the taijitu, the symbol of the onmyōji on it, the kanji for fire and several other lines beneath them. Basically put, my blood in the ink creates a sympathetic connection between my magic and the talisman, with the shapes giving form and direction to the magic, the words then placing limitations and added effects to the talisman's capabilities. Similarly, all of Johan's jewels have a rune carved on them that defines a characteristic, with his casting gloves adding limits and affects as well. Simply put, the magic of my entire world is pattern magic."

"Pattern…magic?" Henrietta repeated, tilting her head curiously.

"When you cast Summon Servant, you have to picture a magic circle appearing in your mind, right?" Saito tried, and the two Nobles nodded. "Well, that's just a very basic use of pattern magic. By placing magic into a pattern, you enhance and amplify its effects, within reason. That's how Louise, even with most of her power locked away and out of her control, was able to reach across worlds and summon me. The pattern magic must have been greatly enhanced by the explosion of magic that accompanied her spells back then, which means it was likely somewhat overpowered and likely left quite the amount of residue."

His eyes locked with Henrietta's own and the Princess nodded slightly. Her mind cast back to the previous day and his worries about the war back in his own world picking up steam again due to his disappearance.

Louise's eyes narrowed as her Familiar and her friend seemed to communicate with just their eyes. The green beast of jealousy, dormant for the last few days, roared to life in her chest again and made her heart constrict. Angrily, she stood up and stomped over to the servers so she could get something to drink. Conveniently, Montmorency was holding a cup of something out to Guiche, who wasn't taking it. Perfect.

She grabbed it out of the ringlet-haired girl's hands and downed it in a single gulp, much to Montmorency's wide-eyed horror. Scowling at the bitter taste, the de Vallière scion grabbed a couple of glasses of fruit juice to wash the taste away before heading back to the table, where Saito was still talking with Henrietta, this time about what sounded like the various other magic associations in other countries on his world.

She felt her heart ache again as she set eyes on him again and then…her head became fuzzy…

Saito first realised something was wrong when he was glomped from behind by a wailing and crying Louise. He exchanged a shocked and taken aback look with both Henrietta and Agnès before managing to manhandle the distraught pinkette into the seat next to him.

"Louise, what's wrong?" he asked gently. He frowned as he caught the whiff of something bitter on her breath. He dismissed it, merely being glad that the Summer Holidays had started at the Academy, meaning most of the students had gone back to their family estates for a good rest. It meant that they had the cafeteria almost entirely to themselves.

"I love you!" she blurted out, "Stop ignoring me!"

Gaping like a fish, Saito only knew one thing at this moment; something was rotten in the state of Denmark.

"Agnès." He said calmly, "Louise is acting very, very odd here. She wasn't like this before she went to get something to drink, was she? Or was I blind, deaf and dumb at the time?"

"She was not." The normally sour Chevalier agreed slowly, gazing at Louise in the manner you'd look at a car crash in progress; horrified fascination.

"Then kindly grab Guiche and Montmorency before they leave, because they were over there by the drinks when Louise was there." Saito said evenly, as he struggled with Louise, who was being very clingy and wanting a hug.

"Agnès, please do as Mr Saito asks." Henrietta said softly, but firmly, even as the Knight opened her mouth to refuse. Snapping her jaw shut with an audible click, her eyes narrowed at Saito for a moment, clearly broadcasting her dislike of following any order of his, even backed up by her Princess, before spinning around and stomping off towards the two blond Mages, the female one looking afraid.

"She really has to get over her dislike of men." The Princess sighed before giving Louise a concerned look. "This is most unusual for Louise."

"Could it be a drug of some sort?" he asked before dodging an errant limb, "Louise, please stop thrashing! You almost backhanded my nose there!"

"Don't wanna!"

Just then, Agnès came back, practically frogmarching Guiche and Montmorency with an icy look in her eyes. Saito took one look at the stupefied expression on Guiche's face as he looked at Louise's antics before he decided the blond boy had no idea about what was going on. On the other hand…

"So, Miss Montmorency…" he drawled, finally pinning Louise's arms behind her back with one hand, "…judging from Mr Gramont's nonplussed expression, he has no clue what is going on here. You, on the other hand, look as if you're about to have a heart attack. Do start explaining what you just did to my Master. Now."

The whimper of fear from the ringlet-haired blond was very pitiable.

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Next Chapter: Spiritual Problems

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