Chapter 3
The next day, Elle and Louise borrowed a horse from the academy's stables and rode to the closest town. It was a relatively short ride to town and once there, Louise hitched the horse and they disembarked. Louise made sure she had her wand and coin purse, and Elle made sure her sword was securely strapped to her waist and her knife was in her jacket's holster. Once both were set, they entered the town.
"Wow, a lot of people are out today," Elle noted as she and Louise walked about. "Any reason? Festival or something?"
"I don't think so, I think it's just people taking the weekend to do their shopping," Louise replied. "Anyway, keep focused. We're not here to fool around, we're here on errands."
"Fiiiiine," Elle said with a pout, putting her hands behind her head. "So where first?"
"You're the one with the list, aren't you? What did you write down?"
Elle reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the list she came up with the night before.
"Let's see… Well, most stuff I would put on a list like this, like food and other assorted groceries, we don't need to get since that stuff is provided by the academy. So other than that it's really just finding an outfitters to buy some clothes for me, and then finding a blacksmith."
Louise nodded her head.
"Sounds goo- wait. Blacksmith? Why a blacksmith?"
"Well, if I ever need any equipment I'm going to need to know where the nearest blacksmith is, right?" Elle asked.
"But you already have a sword, and don't you also still have that knife?"
"I had five knives, but I'm probably not getting those other four back," Elle looked off to the side and pouted. "Don't know why the staff bothered confiscating them. I wasn't going to use them on anyone at the academy."
"So you just want to buy more knives?" Louise was confused.
"What? No! … Well, yes, but not today!" Elle admitted. "Mostly I want to know where to go if I ever need to get my sword fixed or if I need a replacement. I can't exactly do much without a sword, right?"
"I see," Louise said with a nod. "That makes sense. I'm sure we can fit in a trip to the blacksmith, but we're not buying anything today. We're just going to evaluate their prices. Need I remind you, I'm not made of money."
"And a good sword is expensive, that's why I try to keep up on the upkeep," Elle said proudly before she deflated completely. "Not that upkeep matters at all when the sword just gets snapped in half anyway."
"Speaking from experience?"
"Too many experiences to count," Elle confirmed with a sad sigh. "I miss Aeon. And Iconoclast. and Last Testament. They deserved so much better."
Louise didn't know what and of those names were, but from the context she figured they was probably weapons Elle was particularly fond of that were no longer around. Louise decided it might be in her best interests to not open that can of worms, so she didn't bother asking for more details.
"In any case, let's see if we can find the blacksmith first," Louise decided. "It wouldn't do for use to buy you new clothes only for you to dirty them with oil and soot and whatever's floating about at a smith."
"Works for me."
So the two began walking through the town to see if there was a smith or weapons shop in town. After stopping thrice to ask for directions, they were eventually pointed in the direction of a recently opened establishment. A few minutes of wandering about later, they finally arrived.
"'Scarlet Smithing grand opening, half off for the first week,' huh?" Elle read the sign on the front of the shop. "Maybe they'll have some cheap replacements after all."
"No harm in checking," Louise said as she approached the door. She opened it up and she and Elle stepped inside. There they found rows and rows of weapons lining the walls. Swords, axes, lances, knives, spiked gauntlets, chain whips, every item Louise could think of as a weapon seemed to be somewhere on this shop's walls. The only thing missing was a shop owner. Or really, any employees at all. The shop was empty of anyone except Louise and her familiar. There was a doorway on the back wall that appeared to lead further into the shop, but above the doorway was a sign that read "employees only."
"Hello?" Louise called out, hoping to attract someone's attention. "We were told this was a weapon's shop?"
"One moment!" a female voice called out from beyond the doorway. "Working on something, can't leave it alone. Feel free to check the inventory, and don't steal anything."
"… Alright then," Elle said with a shrug before starting to inspect the weapons.
Louise began browsing the wares, but she wasn't really sure what she'd be looking for. She didn't know the first thing about weaponry, so all she could really comment on was how shiny some of them were. They were well polished and taken care of, and some of them had rather intricate engravings. They were rather pleasing to look at, in a way.
"It's pretty, but completely useless," Elle said, noticing Louise's interest. "It's not like it makes the weapon worse, the sword doesn't get any less sharp because there's a dragon on the hilt or whatever, but it's really just a luxury."
"Considering you can't even afford new clothes I imagine you never had any personalized weapons."
"… No," Elle pouted some more. "Just whatever we could get our hands on, really. We sometimes got some really good stuff, but it never lasted very long. Hmm…"
"Anything that's catching your eye?" Louise wondered.
"Kind of. I wasn't the weapons guy so I'm not capable of divining a weapon's history and value with a glance, but I can figure a couple things out," Elle explained as she picked a sword off the wall.
Elle swung the sword around before pausing to examine the blade. She ran a finger along the edge of the blade and then nodded.
"Not bad," Elle said with a nod. "Feels pretty well balanced, good edge to it. Not bad, not bad."
"Why thank you."
"Woah!" Elle jumped back, startled by the sudden appearance of the shop owner.
"Sorry, I move quietly apparently, because I spook a lot of people that way," she apologized. "Anyway, I'm Scarlet, owner and lead smithy of Scarlet Smithing. What can I do for you today, looking for a new weapon or maintenance on an existing one?"
"You're the smith here?" Louise was surprised. The image she had of a blacksmith was of an older, burlier man hammering away at an anvil. In front of her was a petite blonde women with her hair tied off on the side. Louise figured she couldn't have been any older than Eleonore or Cattleya, and neither of them were in the age range Louise would have guessed most smiths were at. "You're not what I was expecting at all."
"A little earth magic and anyone can be a smith these days," Scarlet said with a shrug. "If you were expecting a more muscled person those are common among the commoner smiths since they can't just magic a sword together. But I digress. What are you looking for today?"
"Not looking for anything in particular, just browsing," Elle said as she put the sword back on the wall.
"Yes my… bodyguard is a new hire and was wondering where she should go to get new equipment should she need it," Louise decided to hide that Elle was her familiar to avoid any unnecessary complications.
"Is that so? And this is the standard grade of your 'equipment' is it?" Scarlet said, looking over Elle's sword.
"What the-" Elle checked her sheathe and found it empty. "How did you-"
"Sorry, sorry," Scarlet said, turning the sword over and examining it from every angle. "Just want to get an idea of who I'm dealing with here. Aside from the sword, what kind of equipment are you looking at?"
"… Bombs and throwing knives," Elle replied cautiously. She took the knife out of her jacket holster and showed it to Scarlet. "Something like this."
"Is that so? Hmmm… Well, we have some options available, but what kind of budget are we looking at? Need to know what range I have to work with."
Louise was about to answer honestly, but caught herself. First rule of shopping was to never show your whole hand to start with. If you told the smith how much she actually had, the smith would likely try to sell her the most expensive option they had, no matter how useful it'd be for them. Louise didn't have much haggling experience, but she figured there was no harm in pressing her luck. She currently had 5 gold coins and a few silver coins, so she'd start low.
"At the moment all I have is two gold coins," Louise answered.
Scarlet looked at her for a moment, as if trying to pull some kind of information out of the air, then she nodded.
"Five gold and some silver, right?"
"What the-" Louise patted her pocket to make sure the smith hadn't swiped her coin purse the same way she swiped Elle's sword. The fact that it was still in her pocket, untouched, confused Louise even more. "How did you-"
"Coins are made by the royal alchemists up in the castle, right?" Scarlet interrupted. "The coins from there have a certain kind of magical signature that marks them as legitimate. Typically a merchant has a specially designed scope that can analyze a coin and determine if the magic energy on it is legitimate, but a good enough merchant can feel that without needing such a tool. As a bonus, it lets you gauge how much the customers you're talking to have so you know what kind of deals to offer."
"That's impossible, you can't 'feel' magical energy," Louise said. "Magic is just a mage's internal willpower mixed with the mana in the air, there's no 'signature' left over."
"Is that so? Well, news to me," Scarlet said with a shrug, not seeming too perturbed by Louse's counterargument. "Anyway, let me think. Mmmm… I can't offer any bombs since I don't know how to make those, but throwing knives are doable. Miss Bodyguard, how many throwing knives were you looking for?"
"Four, if possible," Elle said, hoping for cheap replacements for the knives she lost.
"Alright. Since you two are the first customers I've had since I opened this story yesterday, I've got a couple of deals for you. I can offer a set of throwing knives and a little tune up on the sword for one gold coin, or we can junk your current sword and replace it with a new one for three gold, with the knives thrown in as a bonus. Actually, I'll make it two gold if you let me keep your current sword. A kind of trade in deal, of sorts. Sound good?"
"One moment, please," Elle said as she pulled Louise into a huddle. "What do you think?"
"I don't know anything about weapons so I have no idea if that'd be a good deal or not," Louise admitted. "Is a new sword for two or three gold any good?"
"It's pretty incredible," Elle told her in an excited whisper. "Which is why it's suspicious. A solid sword can rune up to 10 or even 20 gold. And that's just an okay sword, not even an amazing one."
"How about we ask her what sword we'd get for that deal, you know enough to know if we'd be getting scammed, right?"
"Sounds good," Elle said, breaking off the huddle and turning to the blacksmith. "Ms. Smith-"
"Scarlet. I don't like Ms. and Smith isn't my family name."
"Scarlet, what sword are you offering for that second deal? Two gold is a stupidly low cost for even a halfway decent sword, let alone a good one."
"What... sword?" Scarlet seemed confused by the question. "I was just going to let you pick a sword you liked off the shelf, but I can pick something out, I guess."
"… Goddammit!" Elle mentally kicked herself. "She's got no business sense and we just ruined a great opportunity!"
"Let's see… You're somewhat on the smaller side so a longsword would be awkward to use, and your arms are kind of thin so that tells me you don't like to use particularly heavy weaponry so… Do you have any preferences to if the sword is magically enhanced or not? Wait, no, that's no good. I only have one of those and that's a special order. How about this one?"
Scarlet picked a sword off the shelf. It was a plain sword with a rounded pommel and some black leather straps wrapped around the hilt. Scarlet handed the sword to Elle, who examined the blade. She ran a finger along the flat of the blade, then gave it a few practice swings to test how it felt. A few slashes, some quick thrusts and one final flourish gave Elle all the information she needed.
"Louise."
"Yes?"
"I want it."
"Is that so?" Scarlet asked. "So it was to your liking?"
"Very much so," Elle said with an enthusiastic nod.
"I suppose we'll take it then," Louise said with a sigh as she got her coin purse ready. "Two gold for that and the knives then, right?"
"Yep. Thank you very much, now just give me a moment and I'll go get your purchases ready," Scarlet said, accepting the gold coins Louise handed to her before disappearing through the doorway into the back of the store. Seconds later she returned with the throwing knives as well as the sheathe for the new sword. "Here you are, and thank you for this pretty little junker."
"No problem, I'm not gonna miss it," Elle said. "Make sure you melt it down and turn it off something worthwhile, okay?"
"Can do," Scarlet nodded, examining Elle's old sword. "Anyway, I make more than just weapons you know, so feel free to come back again."
"We'll keep that in mind, thank you very much Ms. Scarlet," Elle said with a bow of her head.
"You sure seem happy. Is it really that good of a sword?" Louise asked, slightly off-put by how enthusiastic Elle was about the purchase.
"It's a sword that's good enough and that's good enough for me," Elle said with a smile. "You have no idea how much I hated that sword I had before. Wasn't even my sword, I stole it off one of those thugs that was chasing me around before you summoned me. My previous one got snapped in half and all I had were the knives and the bomb until he graciously donated his weapon to me. It was just terrible, the man took no care of the sword so it was in piss poor shape, and even if he had, it was made for someone like twice as large as I am so it just felt terrible using it. It's so good having a sword that actually feels like it could be mine."
"I guess I know the feeling," Louise nodded in understanding. "It's like the times I borrowed Eleonore or Cattleya's wand before I had my own. It just felt weird using someone else's, nothing like when I got my own."
"Nothing quite like personalized items," Elle said with a smile. "So, that's one thing done, clothes now, right?"
"Right, and much as I'd prefer to outfit you with clothing befitting of our family name, I don't have that kind of money right now," Louise said, counting what was left of her coins.
"Even with that deal we got?" Elle asked, surprised. "You've got like three gold left, is that not enough for some clothes?"
"Well, not so much that, even if we hadn't bought the sword we wouldn't be able to get what I had in mind," Louise admitted. "The Vallières are a distinguished name, and those of its name should dress accordingly. But, again, much as I'd love to dress you in formal wear befitting of our status, the kind of dresses I have in mind can cost upwards of 40 gold."
"F-forty?! What a rip off!" Elle cried.
"… Yes, I know," Louise said, not really wanting to admit to how much of a scam those dresses were. "Nobility has money to spend, so people charge accordingly. Luckily, I have a backup plan."
"Oh? Do tell."
"At the academy, there's plenty of students, which means plenty of gossip," Louise began her lecture. "Most of it is pretty banal minutiae, relationship stories, complaints about teachers, ways to cheat on the next test, and so on. Sometimes, however, you hear something pretty useful, such as places that sell goods for rather cheap."
"Like a cheap clothing store?"
"Well, since I never needed to wear much besides my academy uniform I listened more for places with discounts on books, potion ingredients and things like that," Louise said with a shrug. "But yes, I also heard about a few inexpensive outfitters that should work well. Even with just three gold coins we should be able to buy a week's worth of outfits for you. Or at least enough that we won't have you wearing the same thing multiple days in a row."
"Works for me. Do you even know where we're going?"
"I've a good enough idea. Follow me, familiar."
And so, after asking for direction a total of six times, Louise and Elle finally found the outfitters they were looking for. Once inside they began examining all the various outfits and combinations of clothing available.
"Hmmm… What about this one?" Louise asked, pulling a black sundress and showing it to Elle.
"Hmmm… I like it. I like it a lot. Let's see, oh! What about this one? A little frilly, but it's a good shirt, don't you think?"
"It's quite nice, definitely. I think I saw a hat that went pretty well with it over here."
"I don't know, I think these pants are a little too flashy."
"Definitely, they flare out too much at the bottom. Maybe it they were just a touch more casual it'd be fine but…"
"Wait, maybe we've got it wrong. Get that shirt from earlier, the one with the tassels."
"Oh I love the way you think!"
"I just saying Louise, I don't know how much I'd like that jacket."
"Please tell me it's not just because it doesn't have holsters for your knives."
"Knife holsters are a real pain to sew on!"
"It's a good dress, but I dunno, it seems a bit too… formal."
"It's certainly a dress you could wear to a fancy party, but I think it's casual enough to use as everyday wear if you wanted too."
"It's light enough to not be too hot during summer days, but I don't know if 'light' and 'casual' are the same."
"That does remind me, we're probably going to need to find some heavier clothes for you too. It's spring now, but you'll presumably be around for winter, so you'll need some winter clothing."
"That's right. Hmmm… I see some good stuff over there, let's check that out."
"Maybe these hats'll work. … Nope, too obvious."
"Founder, don't tell me we'll need to keep that ratty jacket of yours if we want to hide you."
"Looking like it. Wait, don't nobility cloaks or whatever they're called come in hooded variants?"
"Are you sure? It wouldn't have any knife holsters on it."
"Hilarious."
After several hours of debates and inventory browsing, Louise and Elle finally decided on which clothes they were to buy for the familiar.
"Finally done," Louise said, examining their haul. "What's the matter? You don't look pleased."
"I just realized something."
"What would that be?"
"I can't wear dresses or skirts," Elle declared.
"… Is that some kind of weird quirk or-"
"No, no, it's just… well you saw me fight, lots of running, jumping and stuff," Elle sheepishly explained. "That doesn't really work with a skirt. Unless you want me to flash my underwear to everyone I fight."
"Of course not!" Louise declared, her face flaring up in embarrassment. "Even disregarding the fact that you flaunting your underwear would be tantamount to me doing the same, it's improper for a servant of nobility to engage in such decorum."
"… You could have just said you'd be embarrassed by it, you don't need to be that formal," Elle said."
"Silence, you," Louise said, still blushing. "Let's just put the dresses and skirts away. We didn't pick up that many, did we?"
"We only picked out dresses and outfits with skirts."
There was a brief silence between the two.
"God damn it," Elle cursed.
Many more hours later, Louise and Elle finally got the clothing situation sorted. Elle looked at the full length mirror and took in her new outfit. Nothing fancy, just a white, button up short sleeved shirt, paired with black pants and brown shoes. A simple affair that could almost pass for the academy uniform if not for the lack of a cloak. Elle didn't wear her jacket with this outfit and though she initially wondered if she should in order to hide her face, Louise assured her that it was unlikely anyone in town would assume they were anything other than twins. Elle didn't particularly want to risk the chance of someone from the academy also being in town and noticing, but it was quite hot out and she was thankful for the chance to wear a somewhat cooler outfit. The jacket, as well as the clothes they bought, were put into bags so the two had an easy time carrying them around.
"Well that was a pain," Elle said, loving the fact that she could actually feel the breeze on her arms.
"It was my fault for getting carried away," Louise replied with a sigh. "I should have known from the start that getting you any type of dress was a poor choice."
"I forgot too, so we can share the blame there," Elle compromised. "Anyway, that's our grocery list done, what next, back to the academy? I'd like to hang around town for a bit longer if possible. If we head back I need to put the jacket back on and it's too hot for that."
"Fair enough. We spent enough time in that store that it's around lunchtime," Louise said as she began looking around for a suitable establishment. "Let's see… Where do we get lunch in town?"
Elle absentmindedly looked around, not really caring where Louise picked out. After all, her other self knew this town better than she did, so whatever place she picked out would likely be perfectly fine. While looking around Elle saw a fountain sitting in the middle of the plaza. It looked somewhat familiar to her and she began wondering where she saw it before. It took only a minute for her to place it, and the realization made her gasp.
"Elle? What's wrong?" Louise was confused by her familiar's outburst.
"I know where we can go!" Elle said excitedly.
"Really? You've been here before?" Louise felt rather dumb after that sentence. Considering they were the same person, of course her familiar had been to this town before, right? Louise had been here many a time, so it stood to reason Elle had as well. The idea just hadn't seemed to occur to Louise until now.
"Once, a long time ago," Elle said, her excitement growing to the point she was nearly bouncing in place. "There was a cafe we went to that I was hoping I could go to again but never got the chance. Don't know if it's still there but it should be, right?"
Elle didn't wait for an answer before she took off running to try and find it.
"W-wait!" Louise cried out as she began running after her familiar. "Do you even know where we're going?!"
"I've a good enough idea!" Elle yelled back. "Follow me, master!"
Elle slowed down a few times to try and remember which way to sprint, but she never lost track of where she was going. She ran around a corner and into another intersection and her face lit up when she found what she was looking for.
"Louise, look! It's still there!" Elle cried out excitedly, pointing at the café.
"What… whew… what's still there?" Louise was annoyed that the sprint that completely drained her seemed to barely affect her familiar. She figured life as a sellsword must have done wonders for Elle's stamina.
"The café I told you about! I'll go get us some seats!"
"W-wait! Don't go running again!" Louise called out as she tried to catch up to Elle.
Elle was able to secure a table for the two of them out on the café's patio. Louise figured it was a nice enough day out that an outdoor meal wasn't a terrible idea.
"Any particular reason you wanted this café in particular?" Louise asked before taking a sip of the water their waitress had brought them.
"Well, it's one I've been to before," Elle began her explanation as she looked over the menu. "So just that is good enough for me mostly, but I have a pretty good memory from this place."
"Really?" Louise asked. She couldn't remember anything specific about this place, so she was curious as to why her familiar seemed to hold it in such high regard. "What would that be?"
"It's a café I visited with Cattleya and Eleonore oh… six years ago? Yeah six years ago. Eleonore needed some supplies in town for her research and me and Cattleya managed to convince her to let us tag along. I can't remember how, I think it had something to do with not wanting to be at home on our own because Mom and Dad were off on some political matter of something. I just remember it took some work to convince Eleonore to let Cattleya out of the house considering how weak her body is, but thankfully it was a good day for her so we didn't run into too much trouble there. The fresh air was good for her, I like to think."
"She does always seem a bit brighter whenever she gets to go somewhere outside our house," Louise agreed with a nod.
"We walked around for a while trying to find what Eleonore was looking for, can't remember what it was. Doesn't matter since she never found it. She was super mad for a bit, that close to throwing a complete tantrum, but she barely managed to hold herself together. She tried to play it off as her just being a bit out of it from being hungry so we decided to stop somewhere and get some food before heading home. This is where we stopped by, so I figured 'Hey, first time I've been here in six years, it'd be nice to see it again."
"Well, it's nice that you're able to experience it again, I suppose," Louise said with a sip of her water.
"Yeah, it really is," Elle said with a satisfied sigh.
At that, Louise resumed thinking. While Elle was telling her story she slowly started to remember bits and pieces of it herself. She could vaguely recall Eleonore often going off on her own in search of something for her academic papers and how she often pestered her older sister to let her come along so she could learn something too. Cattleya had come along a few times, but not often. While they weren't unpleasant memories for Louise in any way, Louise wasn't sure they left enough of an impact to warrant such loving remembrance in the way Elle had seemed to hold them.
"How odd," Louise thought, finally taking a look at the menu herself. "What were you thinking of having?"
Before Elle could answer, the waitress came over to ask the exact same question.
"I think I'll try… this, the tomato soup, please," Elle said after a moment's thought.
"Okay then, and your sister here?" the waitress asked, turning to Louise.
"Hmm… I don't know. Elle, you know what I like, what do you think sounds best?" Louise asked, unsure of what to order.
"She'll haaaaaaave… Ooh! How about the chicken soup?"
"That sounds fine," Louise said with a nod. They waitress took their orders and went to pass them along to the chef. Once she was gone Elle started chuckling. "What's so funny?"
"She actually thought we were sisters," Elle said with a smile.
"Most people aren't naturally going to assume that two identical strangers are actually two alternates of the same person," Louise responded, giving her familiar a flat look.
"I know, I know. It's just funny to me," Elle said before her smile dropped and her expression became more unsure. "So… um… speaking of, how… how is everyone, by the by?"
"Everyone? You mean my- sorry, our family?"
"Yeah," Elle said with a quiet voice and a small nod.
"Why do you seem so nervous?"
"No reason," Elle lied.
"Right," Louise saw right through the lie, but chose not to press the issue. "You said you went out with Cattleya and Eleonore to this cafe six years ago, so I'm assuming you mean how everyone has been doing in that period between then and now. Unfortunately you'll likely be disappointed to hear that your family from that time seems quite the same as my family from that time, and little has changed since then. Father is still as busy as always dealing with other nobles and various politics I have no patience for. He doesn't have the patience for it either, but he's far too well known to just ignore those matters, and someone has to deal with it so it might as well be him. Mother is always dealing with some kind of knightly business even though she's been retired for years, though it's normally just coaching and asking her opinion on various military matters. She always comes back complaining about how this new generation seems to have no idea what they're doing and they should be more strict with those under their command. Eleonore is as bossy as she ever was, never misses a chance to make fun of me and call me 'Little Louise,' and her temper is a short as ever. She's still as passionate about her research as ever and is smart enough that people at her university complain about her constantly stealing their spotlight, which unfortunately had the side effect of swelling her ego to the size of an airship. Cattleya is still almost unnaturally kind, with the patience of a saint, and a collection of pets larger than any zoo could ever hope to have."
Elle laughed at the description of her family.
"Nothing's really changed, huh?" she said with a smile.
"No, they're the same as always," Louise returned the smile.
"That's good, that's… really comforting," Elle said, her voice trailing off to barely higher than a whisper.
"Were you worried they would have changed much?"
"Well no it's… I haven't seen them in six years so I was worried that if I met your version of the family they'd be so different that I wouldn't recognized them and the thought of that happening really scared me," Elle confessed.
"Six… Where were you that you couldn't see our family for six years?" Louise asked, very worried for her familiar.
"I…" Elle paused and sighed. "Look, it's not like I don't want to tell you. I'd love to tell you, but I'm working on the 'how' to explain it. The short version is I was forcibly removed from my home six years ago and hadn't been able to get back."
Louise opened her mouth to ask a question, but Elle covered it with her hand.
"No, not kidnapped, so don't suggest it," Elle said, removing her hand to let Louise speak again.
"Well how else would you be 'forcibly removed' from somewhere?" Louise asked her familiar.
"I'll get to that, don't worry about it," Elle said, waving her hand to try and dismiss Louise's question. "Like I said, it's a weird, long story that isn't fit for out here in the open."
"That's… fair, I suppose," Louise said, disappointment obvious in her tone. "Though that does remind me about something I'd been meaning to ask. I've been wondering what you did before I summoned you."
"Haven't I mentioned I was a sellsword?" Elle asked, confused by the comment.
"Well yes, obviously, I meant more, what does a sellsword do?" Louise clarified. "I know the general idea, pay people to do your dirty work for you but surely you weren't the type to… you know… kill for money, or anything like that, right?"
"It's poor form to ask questions you don't want to know the answer to," Elle said, casting a harsh glare at Louise.
"I-I see…"
Elle held the glare for another second before bursting out laughing.
"H-Hey! What are you laughing at?" Louise asked, matching her familiar's earlier glare.
"Sorry, sorry, couldn't help myself," Elle said, her laughter starting to die down. "It was too easy. Nah, don't worry, we were usually cleaner than that. Not by a whole lot, but comparatively we were a pretty clean group."
"'We?' Who's we?"
"My group. Company. Band? Whatever," Elle said, with a wave of her hand. "I was part of a mercenary group. We were a smaller collection than most, but still did the same work. Some merc companies can be upwards of a hundred men, you know, the types of groups that are used to pad out an army's numbers. We were more 'specialized,' so we barely ever hit double digits. Sometimes we'd be asked to kill a specific target, but we also did a bunch of other assorted things. Be a noble's bodyguard at a fancy event he's going to, go treasure hunting for 'lost' magical relics, knock some street thugs down a couple of pegs, things like that. Sure, in my tenure there we wound up killing a lot of people, but way more often that that we were just doing menial tasks."
"Oh, that's much more quaint than I was expecting," Louise said, pleasantly surprised by what Elle had told her.
"Hey, you take the jobs that are available," Elle said with a shrug. "Not everyone out there needs someone dead, some just need help with other things. We just did what people payed us to do, and most people payed us to do small tasks."
"That's certainly a relief, in many ways," Louise said with a sigh of relief.
"Happy that you're not just some indiscriminate murderer?" Elle asked.
"I'm less than pleased that there's still some variant of me out there that has… has killed people before," Louise stumbled over her words a bit, remembering what Elle had almost done to her. "But it's certainly good to know that you still retain some semblance of a moral compass."
"It's rickety but it's still there," Elle confirmed with a smile and a nod.
Louise gave an unsure smile, but didn't say anything else. The conversation dead, and their soup still not having arrived, Elle began looking around, taking in the sights. Her attention drifted and she started listening in on the conversations of those around her.
"So did you hear the latest rumor from Gallia?"
"Man, that's the fifth robbery this week, isn't it?"
"I'm telling you, Brimir did not have a dragon as a familiar, that'd be dumb!"
"No I haven't, what-"
"It's the same group-"
"Now hold on, let him ramble for a-"
"I'mHaveyouheardjustsaying, ?Those'manathieves' , ,likevoidKnightorsomethinglikethatdragon!"
"Elle!"
"Huh?! What," Elle took a second to refocus herself. "What's up, Louise?"
"Our order's here," Louise said, gesturing to the soup bowl that had been placed in front of her. "Was there something wrong? You seemed distracted."
"Lost focus for a minute there, tried listening to too many conversations at once," Elle said, shaking her head to try and clear it out.
"Hear anything interesting?" Louise asked as she blew on her soup to cool it down.
"Just gossip, nothing that really meant anything to me," Elle said before taking a sip of her soup. "Ow! Hot."
"Impatient, are we? The soup's not going anywhere, you can let it cool for a minute," Louise teased her familiar.
"Shut it," Elle grumbled. She let the soup cool off and once it was cool enough for consumption, she heartily dug in.
Since the soup wasn't that large of a meal, it didn't take long for the two to finish. They washed it all down with a nice cold glass of water, and then both sighed in contentment.
"That was a wonderful meal," Louise said, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with a napkin.
"Not much of one, but what was there was good," Elle said with a smile. "Got a new sword, went clothes shopping, and finished off with a decent meal. Gotta say, you know how to treat a girl well, this has been a pretty good date."
"And I suppose you have enough experience to make a fair judgement there?" Louise asked.
"It's been a while, sure, but I'd put this up there," Elle replied.
"Oh that's go- wait. You've been on dates before?" Louise was confused.
"You haven't?" Elle was confused.
"Of course I haven't!" Louise declared.
"But why not? At the risk of sounding vain, you're pretty enough that I don't think you'd have that much a trouble dating, or at least, someone's probably asked you, right?"
"Even if we were to ignore my reputation as the Academy's 'Zero-'"
"Oh yeah, that'd probably drive some people off."
"Isn't there another more important thing that you're forgetting about?" Louise asked, giving Elle a stern look.
"If I am, I wouldn't know. I forgot it," Elle admitted.
Louise paused for a minute, waiting for Elle to remember. When it was clear it wasn't going to happen, Louise sighed. She propped her elbows on the table and clasped her hands together.
"I'm already engaged, remember? It'd be improper for me to go dating anyone," Louise tried to hide her blush behind her clasped hands.
"You're what?! When, to who?!" Elle shot to her feet in shock. She noticed the other patrons of the café looking at her and realized she was causing a bit of a scene. She quietly sat back down and tried to make herself invisible. She failed. "Engagement, huh? Give me a moment, I think it's coming back to me."
Elle rubbed her temples and began thinking hard. She tried remembering anything that could have had to do with any kind of engagement or romance, but the only thing that immediately came to mind wasn't what she was looking for. However, that thought did inadvertently bring to mind another memory. A long forgotten memory from her youth.
"Oh. Right. Viscount Wardes," Elle said, unsure what to make of the situation.
"Considering how you have supposedly been… away, shall we say, for six years, I suppose it's not unreasonable to assume you forgot," Louise said, taking a sip of her water.
"Right," Elle replied. "That's… damn, I completely forgot about that. Engagement wasn't some that was ever really on the…"
Elle trailed off, noticing something in the distance. She narrowed her eyes, trying to make out the details and make sure she wasn't mistaking the sight for something else.
"Yes?" Louise asked, noticing her familiar's gaze and wondering what she was looking at.
"Stay here, I'll be right back," Elle said as she got out of her seat. She grabbed her jacket out of the bags they had and slipped it on before running away from the café.
"H-hey! Elle, get back here!" Louise got up and started to run after her familiar, only to pause. She left the payment for the meal on the table and ran off after her familiar.
She looked around to try and track her familiar down, and eventually saw a familiar black jacket disappear into an alleyway, so she followed after it. She saw Elle at the end of the alleyway, pressing herself against the wall, so Louise jogged up to her. She opened her mouth to ask what Elle was doing here, but was stopped when she covered Louise's mouth with her hand.
"Shh," Elle said, putting a finger to her lips. She continued in a low whisper. "I'll let go of your mouth, but be quiet and take a peak."
Louise nodded, so Elle uncovered her mouth and went back to peaking around the corner. Louise quietly creeped forward just enough to see past the wall at what Elle was looking at. Standing in a small open area was three men, each wearing a cloak with the hood pulled over their head to hide their faces. Two of the men had swords strapped to their belts, and Louise recognized them as the type of swords the royal mage knights had that allowed them to cast spells as if it were a wand. The third man didn't have a sword wand, but was instead wearing a buckler on his left arm. The buckler itself seemed to be made of iron, with a cross adorning the front of the shield. The arms of the cross extended past the edges of the buckler and had runes written on them, though at this distance Louise couldn't make out what the runes said. Louise turned to Elle to ask what exactly they were looking at, but when she saw how intently Elle was looking at the men she figured it'd might be a better idea to keep silent for now.
"So this is the thing, huh? Doesn't look all that impressive," the first man said.
"Well, we won't know until we try it out, right?" the second man admonished the fist. "First let's try a small test to make sure it works."
The second man pulled out his sword wand and pointed it at the buckler. A quick chant caused a few spark to come out of the wand which flew towards the shield. Louise expected the sparks to harmlessly bounce off the iron shield, as weak sparks normally would. Instead, when the sparks floated near the shield, they began to glow, and then seemed to be absorbed into the shield. Louise's expression grew confused at the sight, while Elle grit her teeth.
"Okay, step one's good," the man holding the buckler said. "Time for the important bit."
The third man held his buckler so that it was facing towards an empty patch of ground. The air around the buckler seemed to shimmer, and suddenly a small beam of light shot out from the middle of the buckler and towards the ground. The three men grinned.
"Perfect," the first man said.
"Works like a charm," the second man agreed. "So now where are we hitting, the treasury? Some of the nearby merchant stands?"
"Does it matter where we hit?" the man with the buckler asked. "No matter where we go, or how many guards they throw at us we can kill 'em all without a problem. Stupid royal guards never learned how to deal with a problem their magic couldn't solve, so we can steal all we want and they can't do anything to stop us."
As the three men began discussing where to strike first, Louise looked at her familiar.
"Bandits?" Louise whispered to her.
"Yeah," Elle said with a nod of her head. "I tailed them because I had some questions about that shield and then I heard them talk about the job they're going to pull off."
"So what are you going to do about it?" Louise asked, wary of what her familiar's response would be.
"Don't know yet. How far away are the nearest guards?" Elle asked.
Louise thought about it for a few seconds before shaking her head.
"By the time we track any down these bandits will have started their robbery. If we're to do anything, we would need to do it now."
"We can probably knock out the three of them in relatively short order if we play this right, but are you sure you're fine with that idea?" Elle asked. "I doubt you've much combat experience."
In truth, no, Louise was not "fine with that idea." Bandits and all others of the criminal persuasion were so far removed from her realm of expertise that she never even considered that she'd one day have to deal with them. While she entertained the idea of becoming an adventurer when she was younger, not unlike her mother, it was an idea Louise gave up on rather quickly. She resigned herself to the idea that the most criminal activity she'd deal with would be corrupt nobility accepting bribes and other political underhandedness. Her time at the academy had, of course, done little to prepare her for direct combat, it was more about magical theory and such. However, what the academy and her upbringing had taught her was that she was a noble, and the nobility had a duty to uphold.
"As a noble I cannot knowingly stand by and let them do as they please," Louise declared. "I can't fight like you, but I refuse to let them possibly harm innocents because of their greed."
"Music to my ears," Elle said with a grin. "Okay, full briefing, that shield is called the Aegis, it's a magical relic that absorbs mana from spells and fires them in a concentrated burst. What you saw it do isn't too scary, but when charged enough it's pretty frightening. That said, our explosions don't leave enough behind for it to take anything."
Louise nodded in understanding and looked at the three bandits, trying to measure the distance between the men.
"If I aim one right in the middle of their group I should be able to disorient all three, which will give you a chance to ambush them."
"Perfect. After that, focus on support, don't try to actually take any of them out," Elle warned Louise. "Our explosions are hard to really manage and we don't want to do more damage than necessary. Just try to keep them off balance."
"Understood. I'd recommend aiming for the fire mage second," Louise said, pointing him out. "The two on the left are both mages, but we only know the fire mage's magic, so you should knock out the unknown mage first. Less to worry about."
"Got it," Elle said with a nod. "I'll strike him first then the fire mage. While I'm doing that, keep the Aegis wielder off me so I don't have to worry about getting hit while I'm busy with the other guys. He doesn't seem to have a weapon other than the shield so it shouldn't be too difficult to take him out."
"And even if it is, my explosion will likely draw at least some attention, so if it seems difficult, don't worry about actually knocking them out, just keep them busy until the guards arrive," Louise said.
"A backup plan, I like it. Hopefully we can wrap it up before anyone arrives, but insurance like that is always a necessity. Good thinking. Okay then, on the count of three, cast a spell and we can get this taken care of. Got it?"
"Got it," Louise said with a determined tone and a nod of her head.
"Perfect. Okay, one. Two. Three."
Louise pointed her wand at the ground in the middle of the group and tried to cast a fireball. As expected, rather than a fireball, there was an explosion where Louise pointed. The explosion knocked the three unprepared bandits on their backs, and Elle took the chance to leap into action, first aiming for the mage of unknown element. She delivered a dropkick to the man's face which sent him rolling along the ground. When Elle landed she rolled back and saw the fire mage getting to his feet. She readied a throwing knife and sent it flying into the fire mage's leg. The man screamed in pain, and Elle took advantage of the opening, driving the hilt of her sword into his stomach.
The bandit wielding the Aegis had finally began to recover at this point and moved to stood up, ready to step forward and strike Elle with his shield while she was distracted. Louise saw the man ready to approach her familiar and cast another explosion at the ground in front of him, knocking him off balance.
Elle grabbed the fire mage and then wrapped her legs around his midsection, twisting herself to bring him to the ground. Once the fire mage had been taken down, Elle turned her attention to the Aegis wielder. She ran towards him and brought her sword down in an overhead swing, which was blocked by the bandit's shield. Elle kicked at the man's leg, knocking him into a kneeling position, though he still held his shield ready to block whatever Elle's next attack might have been. Before Elle could attack again, an ominous chill came over her. Elle leapt to the side just in time, as a bolt of lightning flew past where she had been standing. Elle looked to where the bolt came from and saw the mage of previously unknown element standing, having recovered faster than she thought he would.
"Lightning. Wind mage, right?" Elle thought to herself.
"Elle, get down!" Louise called out, interrupting Elle's thoughts.
Elle hit the ground as fast as she could, narrowly dodging a beam of energy that carved through the air, as well as a nearby building. Elle looked and saw the man with the Aegis standing, looking rather proud of himself. Behind him was the fire mage who was preparing another spell to feed into the relic. Elle cursed herself as she stood up. She should have tried to end it as soon as possible instead of playing around because she had questions for them. The Aegis wielder readied another shot and fired it at the Elle, who rolled backwards to dodge the shot. The Aegis wielder charged up his next shot, and Elle readied herself for another round of keep away, but before the relic could fire its shot, the ground in front of the bandits, kicking up dust and throwing the bandit's aim off which sent the Aegis' laser off into the sky. Elle turned and saw that Louise had stepped out of the alley she had been hiding in. While Elle understood why she had done that, she was trying to help her familiar, she couldn't help but be pissed anyway.
The wind mage, now standing behind the Aegis wielder as well, prepared a spell and pointed his wand at Louise. Elle sprinted towards her master and tackled her into the alleyway just as the lightning bolt was cast. The bolt harmlessly hit the wall, while Elle tried to figure out what to do next. She could hear the hum of the Aegis being charged and new that in the alleyway they had nowhere to dodge. If she was going to do anything, it was going to have to be before they followed them into this alley.
"Louise, stay down, give me your wand, and don't watch," Elle instructed her master.
Louise hesitated for a second, not sure what to make of those instructions, but nodded and handed her wand to Elle. Elle stood up and point her wand out of the alleyway. A series of three explosions, each further away from the alley's entrance, went off, creating a smokescreen for Elle that she rushed into.
The Bandits kept their eyes on the smoke, ready for Elle to pop out at any moment. Instead of popping out a series of three knives flew out of the smoke, each aimed at one of the bandits. While the knives were easily sidestepped by the bandits, they provided the opening Elle needed. She burst out of the smoke and targeted the Aegis wielder first. She swung her sword at him, which he blocked, but as soon as the sword made contact with the shield, Elle pointed her wand at the ground and cast a small explosion. The bandit was forced back a step, and Elle stepped forward. She slipped behind the bandit and exchanged the wand in her hand for a knife. She pressed the knife against the bandit's throat, and kept his shield arm pinned by pressing the blade of her sword against bicep. It wasn't a particularly effective hold, but it did its job of keeping him still. The two mages had their sword wands pointed at Elle, waiting for her next move so they could fry her. Elle made her move and with a flourish too fast for the mages to immediately react to, she severed the Aegis wielder's arm and delivered a quick to his back that sent him face first into the ground. The bandits fired the spells they had prepared, but Elle grabbed the arm the Aegis was attached to before it could hit the ground and held the shield up, absorbing the two spells aimed at her. A quick blast from the Aegis blew the fire mage's leg off, and Elle no longer had to worry about him. Elle removed the bandit's arm from the straps on the back of the Aegis and slipper her arm in, feeling a small bit of joy from the familiar weight of the buckler. The wind mage, his options running out had no choice but to prepare another lightning bolt. He knew it was a fruitless endeavor, but didn't know what else to do here. Elle didn't even give him a chance to cast the spell as she closed the distance between them in a flash. She grabbed his sword hand and rammed the Aegis into his elbow, breaking his arm and making him drop his sword wand. Elle knelt down and slashed at his ankle with her sword, and the wound made the wind mage fall, no longer able to stand. Elle got up and saw the bandit who originally had the Aegis pull himself into a standing position. He pulled out a pistol with his remaining arm, pointed it at Elle's head and pulled the trigger. Elle tilted her head to the side, causing the bullet to miss, though just barely as it still grazed her cheek. Frustrated that he had failed to kill her, the bandit pulled out a knife and changed at Elle. He swung at her, and Elle easily parried the swipe with the Aegis. She swept his legs out from under him and before he could hit the ground Elle slammed the face of the Aegis into his head as hard as she could, knocking him out before he even hit the concrete. Seeing that the fire mage was attempting to crawl away, Elle took aim and tossed the Aegis at him, sending it spinning through the air like a frisbee. It collided with his head, knocking him out, and bounced into the air. The buckler landed on its side and proceeded to roll back to Elle, who calmly dusted it off as she picked it up. The battle over, Elle surveyed the damage.
"Well… they probably won't die," she thought as she looked at their wounds. "More importantly, what are you doing here in Halkeginia, little shield?"
Before the shield could give her a proper answer, Elle heard approaching footsteps and readied she sword, in case any more bandits were waiting in the wings. Instead of bandits, a trio of armored guards showed up. Elle allowed herself to relax, which proved to be a terrible idea as the guards unsheathed their sword and pointed them at her.
"Woah, hey, careful there!" Elle said, raising her hands above her head. "What seems to be the problem sir?"
"The problem is that there were reports of a commotion in the alleys, and what do we find when we arrive but you and three dead bodies?" The center guard asks.
"They're not dead yet!" Elle defended herself, but realized that she should probably choose her words more carefully. "And I wasn't going to kill them either! They tried to kill me! They're bandits, they stole this thing and were going to go rob some people!"
The guard examined Elle closely, and when he saw the buckler strapped to her arm his eyes widened.
"The stolen Aegis! So you're the thief, is that right?"
"No it's not right! I just said they did it!"
"Then why would it happen to be attached to your arm?" the guard asked.
"Because I took it from them when I was fighting them?" Elle offered, knowing already that it wasn't a very good answer.
"I'm sure. If you would be so kind as to come with us without a fight we can discuss your story at our headquarters."
"Hold on!" Louise yelled as she ran out of the alley she had been told to hide in. "I forbid you from taking my bodyguard!"
"And you are?" the guard asked.
"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, third daughter of Duke Centurion la Vallière and Duchess Karin Desiree la Vallière," Louise introduced herself.
"Karin Vallière? As in, Karin the Heavy Wind?" The center guard asked.
"That is correct," Louise affirmed with a nod of her head.
"Hmm… I suppose there is a small resemblance," the guard on the right said after examining Louise. "And you say this girl is your bodyguard?"
"Indeed. She was escorting me around the town when we happened to stumble across these bandits. We overhead them planning to attack the nearby merchant stands and when we attempted to leave and alert the nearest guards they heard us and attempted to silence us. If not for my bodyguard I would likely been killed."
"I see," the center guard said, rubbing his chin in thought. "Very well. We'll overlook the incident this time."
As the center guard order his two companions to gather up the bandits and bring them in for healing and questioning, Elle swallowed the urge to roll her eyes over the difference in treatment she and Louise got. As much as she hated it, it did make sense that the noble got the benefit of the doubt.
"Thank you for your understanding," Louise said with a small curtsy.
Elle simply nodded her head at the center guard before taking off the Aegis and handing it to him.
"I don't know enough about this to say if it was stolen, but I'm pretty sure that whatever it is it shouldn't be held by lowly bandits, so make sure it gets back wherever it's supposed to go, okay?"
"We will return it to the royal treasure vault at once," the center guard assured Elle. "Thank you for your cooperation."
"Yeah, yeah," Elle said with a dismissive wave before turning around and walking off. "Come on, young master."
Louise nodded and followed after Elle. Once they were out of the alley Elle sighed.
"Well that didn't go the way I was hoping it would," Elle lamented.
"… Yeah," Louise said quietly, not looking at Elle.
"What happened to you?" Elle looked at Louise. "You were sounding fine a minute ago with the guard."
"It's just… At the café when we were talking I almost forgot who you were," Louise said, looking off to the side. "Seeing what you did to those bandits reminded me, I guess."
Elle winced and looked away, somewhat ashamed.
"I said not to watch," was the best response she could come up with.
"You expected me to just close my eyes when my familiar is running into that kind of danger?"
"… No," Elle admitted sheepishly before delivering a quick slap to her own cheeks to try and brighten herself up. "Doesn't matter. They're not dead, and we stopped them from doing some rotten stuff! Good work, Louise!"
"Right. Thanks," Louise said, not sounding particularly enthusiastic.
Elle didn't know what to say to comfort Louise or what to do about the awkward atmosphere that was forming between them.
"Oh! Café! I'll go run over and grab our bags! You left them there, right? I'll be right back!"
Elle decided running away was her best course of action and took off for the café. As Elle ran off, Louise mentally slapped herself. It's not like she didn't know what her familiar was capable of, or what was likely going to happen the second they decided to fight those bandits. However, thinking about something that's likely to happen, and actually seeing something happen are two different things.
"I really need to figure out what I'm going to do about her," Louise thought to herself. "At this rate I won't be able to say a single word to her without thinking about her nearly killing people." Louise shook her head to try and clear her thoughts and decided to just follower after Elle for now.
At this time, the familiar in question was having thoughts of her own.
"Gotta figure out what to say about this kind of stuff or I'll never be able to have a decent conversation with her," Elle thought to herself as she ran. "No, more importantly I gotta figure out what that shield was doing here. It should be sealed up in a cave in Alsgard, not floating around Halkeginia with some bandits. Well, I guess if I got brought here there's nothing saying some relics can't have also crossed over. … Oh that's a scary thought. I'll need to keep an ear to the ground, just in case."