The Foundation Must be True

by Tankred

In an attempt to summon the best familiar she could, Louise altered the words of the summoning for maximum power. What she summoned was something that had never before been seen in this world, and now she has an army at her beck and call. Nothing will ever be the same. Tiberium Universe.

5. Worry not, my fair Maid!

I'm gonna say this from the very start so that you all know: I had to invent a lot of Halkeginian geography for this chapter. Since any story is set in a certain location, it becomes very important to be able to have a sense of what the area you're in and the surroundings look like. This provides a foundation for everything else in a story, and we all know how important the foundation is.

Any maps or descriptions I could find were incredibly vague! Most of the maps I looked at had only the five countries marked out and a handful of locations, including many important to the main storyline. Now, I'm fully certain that I don't know everything there is to know about ZnT so if anyone detects any glaring faults, just tell me and I'll fix it.

I also had to make up all kinds of stuff for this chapter yet again, I think I'm just going to stop mentioning it and simply keep going. Nobody seems to mind me doing it anyway, so yay for artistic license? I'll still be doing as much research as possible (of course) so hopefully it'll turn out well in the end.

I got quite the amount of varying responses from the last chapter, many of which had valid points. I won't go into detail too much because this AN is already too long, but please be reassured that I'm not just throwing things together because I thought they sound good. There is in fact a method to my madness, and things that make no sense at the time will be explained later.

Also, I've dropped the use of Japanese. I thought it was a good idea after poking around the ZnT wikis a bit too long, but I was wrong. I hope you can forgive me for this brief stint of madness!

This turned out into a really long one, I hope you will all enjoy!

---

Chapter 5

Worry not, my fair Maid!

---

Old Osmond signed the document handed to him by the Palace Messenger with the ease of long practice. Putting the feathered pen back into the ink bottle, he took a look at the man sitting across from him as he waited for the ink to dry.

It wasn't the first time that Count Mott had visited the Academy and it most likely would not be the last. He was a man in his early thirties with nearly combed back, oiled hair wearing a white, pleated high-collar and a wine-red high-society outfit.

As slimy as they came, he was a known womanizer and shameless pervert. Most likely corrupt as well, but no charges ever levied against him ever found any evidence to support it. Not because there were no evidence, but because his status as Palace Messenger and friends in high placed made it possible for him to avoid the law.

The Headmaster had disliked the man since the first time he saw him, even their shared love for the female body was not enough to overcome that. The man had even taken several maids from the Academy during previous visits, citing Royal Decree as an excuse any time he was questioned.

He had never heard anything from any of those women since, and he often mentioned them in his nightly prayers to the Founder. Hoping that they were doing alright.

After the fifth maid had been "reassigned" to Count Mott's household, Osmond had put several measures in place that seemed to have worked thus far. It had been very simple to convince the staff to only send male servants to do any form of work during the times of Mott's visits. They actually thanked him profusely for doing this, revealing that they had also been very worried about the young women that had vanished.

But this time had him a little worried.

Normally they were told weeks in advance of the Count's visit, but this time he had simply shown up in his gilded carriage.

"Could you please tell me a bit more about this thief, sir Mott?" Old Osmond asked the man sitting on the other side of his desk, slowly sipping a cup of tea.

"Of course." he said, setting the cup down. "He calls himself Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt and has been plaguing the nobility for quite some time."

The Headmaster hummed thoughtfully. He had indeed heard of Fouquet, but preferred to give the pretense of not keeping track of the world outside the Academy. He also knew that most of the reports stated that Fouquet tended to go after greedy nobles, which made him wonder why he was after the academy.

Admittedly, the Academy Vault was one of the most secure in all of Tristain, but there was something not quite right about it.

"I see" he said at length. "does anyone know what he looks like?"

Count Mott shook his head. "He always wears a billowing robe that conceals all his features. He does follow a certain modus operandi however, which is how we've been tracking him."

"Oh?"

"He is an earth mage, and likes to turn walls and doors into dirt before smashing through them with his earth golems."

"Ho? That's pretty advanced earth magic right there." Osmond admitted, being a square-class earth mage himself.

"Indeed, which is why the Nobility is up in arms about him." Mott said with a disdainful little sniff.

"I can see why. However" the Headmaster said, making Count Mott refocus on him. "the Academy Vault is quite safe. It was specially enchanted to prevent any intrusion by several square-class mages working in tandem to weave the finest of all possible wards."

"Why I should know, I was one of them!" he proclaimed with no small amount of pride.

For a few moments, only the tick-tock of the grandfather clock was heard throughout the room.

"You are saying they are impenetrable, then?" The Count asked, holding his hands up under his nose with the palms pressed against each other in a gesture of contemplation.

"Absolutely." Osmond confirmed. "There is no way that Fouquet could break into it on his own."

Count Mott did not look convinced. "Completely certain, Headmaster?"

"Absolutely certain." he said once more.

There was a silence once more before the Count nodded, seemingly satisfied with this. "I will not take up any more of your time, then."

"Excellent. I am sure you must be a busy man, sir Mott." the Headmaster said as he slid the long-since dried document over hi desk to the other man.

The document had been a simple reassurance that every possible measure had been taken to ensure the safety of the Vault. He had to sign one every year or so as per the agreement the Crown had with the Academy to store many of their precious relics there.

This was the first time he'd had to sign a second one within less than six months of the first one, though.

"They must really be worried about Fouquet." he thought as Mott picked up the document and neatly rolled it up into a tube before putting it into a special, cylindrical container made for just that kind of thing.

As he stood up to leave, the Count paused as if just remembering something. "Oh, one last thing Headmaster."

"Yes?"

"Whenever Fouquet has completed a heist, he always leaves a message saying 'Thank you for the delivery'."

Old Osmond raised an eyebrow, he hadn't heard of that before. Satisfied that the full extent of his message had been received, Count Mott opened the door to find miss Longueville standing outside.

"Well hello there, beautiful!" he greeted her in his most suave tone.

Her right eyebrow twitched ever-so slightly, but she managed to keep a pleasant mask. "Good afternoon, Count Mott." she replied with a light bow of her head.

The Count smirked as he looked her up and down. "How about we go out on a date together, you and me?" he said, desire clear in his voice.

"I would love to!" she lied easily. "But I have duties to preform, so it will have to be some other time."

He smirked before walking past her and continuing down the corridor, suddenly anxious to get back to his mansion. He suddenly had an idea for what to do for tonight's entertainment!

Almost salivating at the thought of putting glasses on one of his green-haired beauties and then ruining them, he almost didn't notice the maid coming down the corridor towards him.

Poor Siesta couldn't believe her misfortune as she looked into the lustful eyes of Count Mott, suddenly and acutely aware of her own curves, she swallowed hard.

"I'm sorry, Lady Vallière." she thought miserably as he advanced on her. "It looks like I won't be able to fulfill my promise after all."

---

Once the Count had left, miss Longueville let the mask of pleasantry drop to show how extraordinarily unimpressed she was by his offer.

"What a waste of air." she huffed quietly to herself.

"I agree, miss Longueville."

She turned to look at the Headmaster, not really caring that he'd heard her. This wasn't the first time this particular thing had happened. "So what did the Palace want this time?" she asked.

"They wanted to warn me that a thief might be trying to steal something from the Academy Vault." he explained, slowly slipping his pipe out of his pocket.

"A thief?" she asked him.

"Yes, Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt."

She tapped the side of her chin with her index finger as he quietly began to stuff his pipe with herbs.

"I've never heard of him." she said evenly before shooting him a glare, causing him to put down the pipe in defeat. "Why would anyone even try to steal from the Academy?"

"Well," he sighed. "I can only assume they're after the Staff of Destruction."

With a wave of her wand, miss Longueville started putting some books up on a tall shelf. Doing her best to act disinterested about the whole thing. "The Staff of Destruction?"

Old Osmond leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over his stomach. "Thirty years ago, I was returning from a mission when I was attacked by a Great Dragon." he recalled.

Miss Longueville's head snapped over to look at him, genuine surprise on her face. "You fought a Great Dragon on your own!?"

"Indeed I did!" he exclaimed, sounding quite pleased by the fact.

"Most people don't survive such an encounter." she said, her eyes narrowing a little at him. "Are you really telling the truth?"

"Well, I did almost die." he said a little sheepishly, causing her to roll her eyes at him.

"But just as I was just saying my prayers to the Founder, a soldier appeared out of a green portal."

"Are you making this up?" she demanded, causing him to shake his head vigorously.

"I'm telling the truth! It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life!"

"Hm. And he defeated the Dragon?"

The Headmaster nodded.

"He was wearing clothes that I had never seen before in my life, and he must have come from a great battle as they were stained deep red." he said, recalling the event of so long ago.

"In his hands were a short staff made from metal of some kind, a strip of bright green light along its length. Although I could hear his labored breathing even from where I was laying, he pointed it at the dragon and unleashed the greatest blast of power I have ever seen."

"Like a fireball?" she asked curiously, slowly starting to believe him as his story gained detail.

To her surprise, Old Osmond shook his head.

"It was like if you imagine the loudest crack of thunder you have ever heard, but instead of lightning it fired a streak of purest light! I could see how it formed this trail in the air, like a spiral of blue smoke." he said as he drew circles in the air with his finger, feeling the excitement of the moment even three decades later.

"And the Dragon?"

The elderly mage sobered up in but a moment, and he looked at her with steady eyes. "Tell me, miss Longueville. Have you ever seen the damage caused by a black powder cannon against an ordinary person?" he asked her seriously.

For a moment she was taken aback before she shook her head. The mental image was... terrifying.

"Well... no, Headmaster. I can't say that I have."

"The Dragon looked like that, miss Longueville." she blinked at him, not wanting to believe it.

"But... a Great Dragon is one of the hardest creatures to kill, Headmaster! I've heard of them slaughter entire armies!" she exclaimed.

"And yet it happened." she grew quiet, waiting for him to continue.

"Although I have met a few dragons since that time, none of them were as large and old as that one. Nor have I ever seen anything struck down so cleanly as that day." he said quietly, his earlier enthusiasm gone. "It was gutted completely from front to stern with a hole so big, I could see light shining through it!"

She looked at him for a moment, chewing on her lip as she considered the implications of this.

"And the soldier? What happened to him?"

The Headmaster shook his head. "He collapsed before I could even get to my feet, and by the time I got to him he was already lying in a pool of his own blood. I could do nothing but grip his hand in my own as he died, never as much as a single word spoken between us." he said, still lamenting the loss of such a man.

Miss Longueville was quiet as she watched him reach into some hidden compartment in his desk.

"The only thing he did before he died was that he tried to give me this necklace he had."

Putting his hand on his desk, he spread out what was unmistakably a necklace just as he said, but it was the strangest one she'd ever seen. It was a chain of sorts, although she hesitated to call it that, which appeared to be made by tiny metal spheres linked together by even tinier metal bars. Attached to it was two rectangular pieces of metal lined by some kind of black material, and the whole thing was smeared with what she instantly recognized as old, dried blood.

"By the Founder." she muttered as she lifted the necklace to get a better look at it. "I thought you were just trying to fool me at first" she admitted, to caught up in the moment to notice him pouting. "but this is..." she fumbled for a good way to put it.

"Out of this world?" he supplied, having had similar thoughts for years.

"Yes! And what are these runes?" she asked, noticing the lines of perfectly straight rows of runes she didn't recognize running along the pieces of metal..

"I do not know." He admitted. "I've been trying for over 20 years to translate it, but no book I have read nor expert I have met have been able to make anything out of it."

She put the necklace down again and looked at him. "Then what happened?"

"I buried him right there." Old Osmond said simply. "I was too hurt to carry him, and I did not want wild animals to tear at the corpse of someone who had saved my life in such a fashion. So I used my magic to dig a grave for him and the Dragon and sealed them both together."

"You entombed him in the Dragon?" she gaped at him. Every single part of a Great Dragon's body was practically priceless and could be used for just about anything, including as magical catalysts and ingredients for the strongest potions.

It was the equivalent of finding an untouched, priceless treasure or relic only to crush it to a powder and use it to mark the path you took to the privy!

"About half was still sticking up above ground." he admitted. "I was too weak to completely cover it, but I thought it fitting he have its bones as a headstone."

"A grand headstone, indeed." she muttered. Unbelievable.

She doubted the Royal Catacomb where all the Kings and Queens of Tristain were put to rest were as valuable as that which he'd made for an unknown soldier!

As she was lamenting this, she was interrupted as she felt a most unwelcome hand touching her butt.

"Headmaster." she hissed, balling her hands into fists.

"Yeees?" he asked innocently as he shamelessly groped her hindquarters.

"Why is your hand touching my bottom!?"

"Why, miss Longueville! I see you've lost some weight! Have you been eating properly?"

She felt a vein pulse on her forehead as she reached over to a large, silver ashtray that was sitting on the Headmaster's desk as a paperweight. Hefting it in her hand she brought it down on his head.

Even from the outside, you could clearly hear his scream of pain which caused frightened birds to take off in droves from the rooftops.

---

When Louise and Professor Colbert finally arrived in Tristania, it was already high noon and the streets were quite busy.

Originally named Dieppe for reasons long since lost to the long centuries, it had been fishing village along the north-western tip of what was now Tristain. Thanks to the abundant supply of food from the ocean, it quickly grew and attracted more people with the promise of unclaimed, fertile lands. These in turn attracted the various craftsmen who produced the tools and building materials and the merchants who sold them.

Back then, there were numerous unnamed barbarian tribes in the area between modern-day Germania, which was the turf of a particularly large tribe, and modern-day Gallia, which was infested by dragons. These tribes liked to constantly fight one-another over the slightest thing, and had a tendency to eat anything they could get their hands on that didn't run too fast while doing so.

At one point, a strapping young lad living in a nameless, dirty farming community woke up one morning to see his favorite goat get her head smashed in and dragged off by a big man in a fur loincloth.

Her name was Claudia Milksworth Groin-Kick the Second, and he had raised her from a kid after her mother got eaten by a wolf. To see her done in so easily broke something in him, and started him on a path of vengeance that lasted for months. Absolutely livid, he ran around kicking in each and every door of the 16 houses of the community, yelling at their inhabitants until they joined him in his march against oppression.

In the history books, they wrote that it had been through the blessings of the Founder Brimir that he had gained the strength, wisdom, courage and leadership to do what he did. That his magnificent speech had roused the hearts and minds of his fellow men, and that together they smote the barbarian hordes with Holy Fury never since seen.

In truth, what he had repeated through the day and sometimes mumbled during his months-long campaign, was something more along the lines of "I am sick and tired of these damn barbarians stealing my goddamn goats!".

His name was Albertus William Tristean junior, son of Albertus Tristean senior, and he was 17 years old.

After stabbing the man who had stolen his precious goat to death with a pitchfork, he also went on to kill roughly half of the members of that particular tribe. The leader was killed by his best friend Charles – later known as Charles le Magne or Charles the Great – pegged him with a felling axe in the back of the head while he was trying to run away.

Emboldened by his victory, and mortified after finding that his goat had been chopped up and made into a stew with turnips of all things (he hated turnips!) he decided that this was not yet enough. Going from village to village, his forces grew and by the time he finally got to the coast he'd killed or driven away almost 30 tribes.

By then, Dieppe had grown into a powerful trading hub as they'd started trading their excess food with other nearby communities and regularly sent ships along the coast to the other coastal settlements. A wooden palisade supported by a low wall of flat rocks stacked on top of each other protected them from barbarians, and they had grown rather lazy.

Which was why the guard on duty ended up squirting wine out of his nose when he saw an army of people not covered in furs coming towards the city. He immediately ran inside and shouted for his fellow guards to close the gate while he ran towards the house belonging to the Mayor.

The Mayor of Dieppe was not very enthusiastic about the army on his doorstep and had immediately gone out to tell them to go get stuffed. Albertus had patiently tried to reason with him, saying that they were in fact not here for their livestock or their women. Or, well, actually they were but he did his best to reassure the loud, slightly overweight man that they'd pay for themselves.

Seeing an opportunity to get even more money, the Mayor demanded extortionist prices for all goods and services and when Albertus told him off for being greedy, he pulled a wand on him. He had of course heard of magic and sometimes a dot or line mage had stopped by in their village either for food and lodging or to offer their services. The Mayor as it turned out was indeed a dot mage as well, and had gotten where he was partially due to this.

That may very well had been the end of him as even the lowest of mages could easily defeat someone without magic, but once again the day was saved by Charles and his Axe. In an event that would centuries later be popularized as a story for children, called Charles and the Tyrant, he'd managed to hit him in the shoulder with a small hand axe. This had caused the surprised Mayor to drop his wand, which was then quickly scooped up by Albertus.

Irritated by this man and his holier-than-thou attitude, he hadn't really given it much thought as he pointed the wand at him and told him to disappear. He had no way of knowing that his mother who died giving birth to him had been a bit of a dabbler in the arts, and had passed it on to him. Not only that, but she had also been one of the descendants of Brimir himself, but that did not become known until many decades later.

When the town guards saw their mayor explode like an overripe tomato struck by a sledgehammer from a single word from the irritated youth, they immediately put their weapons down and surrendered.

Rather confused but pleasantly surprised, he was carried into Dieppe on the shoulders of his men and elected as the next Mayor on the spot. To his credit it didn't take him very long to get used to the sudden influx of influence he had, and within one year had the support of many other villages as well. Turns out that people were quite grateful to him for helping get rid of those pesky barbarians, and people started talking about crowning him.

While that was going around, he had also been asking around for someone to teach him how to use his new-found magic potency, and was quickly told of the ritual for summoning a familiar. No one was more surprised than him when what he got looked like a giant wooden doll wearing a backpack covered in additional, smaller dolls.

Seeing the opportunity to create a much better country than where he'd grown up, he then set out to properly unify the country. It took him eight years of running around the lands before he finally managed to put down all remaining tribes, and was tired but pleased with himself when he returned. He was well-known by this point as Tristean the Lawgiver and was met by cheering crowds who didn't even let him get cleaned off as they carried him to the largest church they had.

There he was finally crowned King Albertus William de la Tristain the First by the elderly head priest, and went on to rule successfully for 52 years, fathering no less than six sons and four daughters.

After his death, Dieppe was renamed Tristania in his honor and a lot of work was put into restructuring the port trading town into the capital of Tristain. It was not until the time of Albert Clément VIII de la Tristain, over two centuries later, that Tristania was finally completed.

It had taken so long because many had decided to pick up and emigrate to the prosperous capital, forcing them to redefine the city limits again and again. What had long, long ago been a dirt road to the Mayor's office was now a wide boulevard, one of three that each began at one of the city gates. They all joined together in the middle and ran through several gated checkpoints until finally reaching the Royal Palace.

The palace itself had started construction already during Albertus' second decade and had evolved greatly from the original design only meant to protect the new King. With its back to the port, it had a fantastic view of the ocean and the many gardens that had been planted around it. Although Tristain wasn't quite as prosperous as it had once been, it was still considered the jewel of the city and no visit to the capital was complete without catching a glimpse of it.

It was thanks to this that the horse-drawn carriage, guided by an Artificial Intelligence from another world, had no trouble plotting a course to their destination. Even at this time of day when tens of thousands of people crowded around thousands of stalls, and equally many crossed it to get to their destination, it was still quite roomy.

Although she had been to the capital many times in her life, mostly with her family, it still filled her with a sense of pride every time she saw it. The architecture of the buildings she passed were all in the typical Tristanian style with straight lines and sharp corners, occasionally interspersed with more daring, curved roofs. Building materials ranged from the dusty orange-red sandstone to various shades of granite, a great deal of them having facades of fine, carved marble.

Many buildings further into the city were made out of cheaper materials such as brick and wood, but great care and effort had been taken to make the main boulevards as beautiful as possible.

Professor Colbert smiled as he saw her spirits lifted by the sights of glorious Tristania, as it would appear the Headmaster had been completely right. A change of scenery was just what the young Vallière had needed.

"Do you enjoy coming to the capital, miss Vallière?" he asked her lightly, more to engage in small talk than any actual curiosity.

"Yes!" she said, leaning her elbow on the armrest as she rested her chin on her palm. "Very much so, I have many good memories of this city. What about you, Professor?"

"I've been here enough that it's lost some of its charm to me, but I still enjoy coming here from time to time." he admitted as he, too, looked out through the window. "Mostly to browse the stores and catch up with old friends at the Palace."

"Oh?" she said, her curiosity piqued. "You spent a lot of time there?"

"Oh yes." he said a little wistfully, recalling times gone by. "I was once in the employ of the Princess' father, King Henry IV of Tristain." he said, making her finally tear her eyes away from the window and look at him.

"Princess Henrietta's father?" she repeated unnecessarily, having never met the former King before he died when she was a child. "Were you a guard or something?"

"The same." he nodded before continuing to respond to her second question. "I was part of the Royal Mage Corps, actually. My job was to help protect important Nobles and root out corruption in the country." he revealed.

"Wow." she blinked, rather surprised by this revelation and it showed in her voice. "I always thought you were just one of those people who did nothing but sit behind a desk!"

"H-hey!" he protested. "Just because I prefer to engage in the peaceful applications of magic doesn't make me a wimp!" a little offended by the implication.

It was normal for fire-elemental mages to have very intense emotions and although Colbert normally kept his in check with a combination of dicipline and force of will, it did sometimes flare.

"I never said you were a wimp, Professor." Louise said succinctly, raising an eyebrow at his outburst. He however continued unabated.

"Why, I even trained under the Heavy Wind herself!"

"You trained under mother?" she blurted out without thinking, making him pause and realizing what he'd just said, finally put a hold on his emotions.

"Yes." he admitted after a silence that lasted several seconds. "For a little while, even though I was never part of any of the knightly orders." he blew out a sigh, cursing his own tongue.

"I shouldn't say any more, she made me swear at sword-point I wouldn't." he said weakly.

"Oh come on, Professor!" she pleaded with him, doing her best puppy impression. "It's not like I'm any random plebeian!"

He visibly fought with himself for a few moments until he finally relented. "You are her daughter." he finally admitted.

"Yay!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air before leaning forward with her face in her hands. "Tell me, tell me, Professor!"

"Settle down, miss Valliére." he said, back into Professor mode. "This happened after me and my squad had come back one night after a hard mission, and after having a few drinks I decided to call it a night." he said, the event clear in his memory despite both time and alcohol consumption.

"I did not even know that the Heavy Wind had been present in the area at the time, and by pure chance and accident I mistook her room for my own and just walked right in."

Louise stared at him as she tried to imagine such an event happening. "You walked in on her, while she was changing?" she asked slowly, accenuating each word. "How are you still alive?"

"No! Well, yes." he tried to explain. "You see, back then she preferred to conceal the fact that she was a woman. Not only with the full set of armor she wore but also through a steel mask that covered the entire lower part of her face." he said, holding his hand up over his mouth and nose to mimic a mask.

"Hmm." Louise had folded her arms and leaned back as she listened to his story. "You saw only her face, then?"

Colbert nodded. "There were many rumors that she was in fact a very beautiful woman, and I was quite surprised to find they were true."

"And then?"

He cringed a little as he remembered that night. "I had never seen a person in armor move so fast. Before I could blink much less apologize, she marched right over to me, kicked the door closed and held her sword to my neck." he said, rubbing his throat as if he could still feel the cold steel.

"You will swear on everything you hold dear to never speak to another living soul what you have seen, or I will take your head from where you stand and mount it on my wall!"

He swallowed reflexively at the memory. "She made me swear in one sentence to not tell anyone, and then she forced me to train with the rest of her knights to keep an eye on me. It took a week before she was satisfied that I was telling the truth."

Now it was her turn to wince. She was well-acquainted with her mother's methods for getting just about anything done, and she could only have imagined how much worse it would have been back before she had a chance to mellow out.

"My condolences." she said "That couldn't have been easy."

"I often thought it would be the end of me." he admitted "But it forced me to sharpen my skills to a very fine point, which I have since used to instruct yourself and your classmates."

"Ah, that explains why some call you a slave-driver, then."

He blinked. "What?"

"Er..." she quickly changed gears, instead asking another question on her mind to distract him. "Was that the reason you left the Royal Mage Corps?"

"Ah, um, yes." he replied. "I-it just got to me, I guess?" he stammered out quickly.

He really did want to tell her the actual reason, and if he had any choice in the matter he'd take it with him to the grave.

"Ah, I see." she mused, although he could tell she didn't seem to really believe him.

"You remind me a bit of her, you know." he said, unknowingly doing the exact same thing as she had moments before.

"My mother?" she gave a rather unladylike snort at that. "She's the greatest Wind Mage that's Tristain has ever seen, already a knight by the time she was my age." her eyes sank until she was looking at her feet.

"I'm just a failure." she muttered. How could she possibly compare?

This might have been the wrong thing to say, Colbert realized.

"Don't... sell yourself short, miss Vallière." he said gently. "While it's certainly true that you've had some, problems, with your magic..."

She just grunted in response, that was the understatement of the century.

"...do not forget that I am your teacher. I have seen how hard you've been working since you came to the Academy." she looked up at him, hearing the honesty in his words. "And although I have sometimes been forced to fail you due to rules and protocol, I do not believe that you are a failure, miss Vallière."

"That's kind of you, Professor." she said, a small smile returning to her lips.

Nodding a little at the positive effects of his words, he continued. "In fact, I'd say your magic has already begun to mature." he said, motioning at the golem at her side. "You managed to successfully summon an amazing familiar on your first try. Which is remarkable in itself without even counting in the fact that it's something previously unheard of!"

This was true! Her spirits successfully lifted, she was just about to ask him more about familiars when Legion's voice cut into her thoughts.

"Master, we have arrived at our destination."

Sure enough, when she looked out of window she saw that they had come to a stop at the Mews attached to the second wall of the city.

It was not uncommon for larger cities, especially the capitols, to have several layers of walls protecting the Palace in case of a siege. Often they were added over the centuries as the city grew beyond its own boundaries, forcing people to construct their homes on the outside of the walls. To protect these people another wall had to be constructed, eventually starting the cycle over again.

The most famous of these cities were the holy city of Roma in Romalia, which had been constructed as five layers of pentagons, built so each wall was at an angle with the last. This created a sort of flower-shape when viewed from above, with the most sacred of all Cathedrals in the exact middle.

Cathedral de Romalia was the centerpiece not only of the entire city but also the Brimiric faith, as well. It was where the first Pope, diciple of Brimir himself, was buried and it was said that the city sprung up around it.

Tristania had three walls of which the first one ran along the coast, wharves built out on the water beyond it. It circled around the Palace and the many grand, pompous neighborhoods and mansions where the high-ranking nobles and aristocrats lived. It was also home to the headquarters of the various military branches of Tristain, including the knight's orders and everything related to them.

The second wall was in the shape of a wide U-shape where each ended at the coast, and held a mix of lower-ranked nobles and well-off commoners. They were usually the ones that catered to the needs of the nobles, fine craftsmen, merchants, shop owners and so forth. It was also where the city market was located, untold amounts of wares and Ecu switching hands each day.

The third and final wall followed the same shape as the second, most of it was composed of farmland and pastures and produced most of the city's raw goods. The lower class lived and worked here in the labyrinth of narrow side-streets and alleys. Although not nearly as fancy as the inner sections, it was even busier than the second wall as this is where most of the city's visitors spent their time. It was packed with various small shops, restaurants, inns, taverns, blacksmiths and much more.

Very few gave the carriage any more attention than they needed to avoid getting run over by it, even fewer giving the black-armored men with their crimson-faced helmets more than a cursory glance. The stable boys that took the reins of the horses thought nothing of it as it wasn't the first time some Noble with fancy guards had come through, nor would it be the last.

"Ah!" Colbert exclaimed when he noticed that they were slowing down. "It appears we have arrived!"

Louise nodded and took the hand of the golem as it opened the door for her and they both stepped onto the cobblestones, worn smooth over the course of many years. They were joined a few seconds later by three additional sets of armored boots, and she called them to her while Colbert paid the fee.

As he returned, he frowned a little at the sight of the four black golems gathering around his student. He of course understood that they were there for her protection, but two nobles and four guards wasn't the most subtle thing in the world.

"Miss Vallière, do you think you could leave your golems with the carriage?" he asked her. "I don't think we're going to get jumped by assassins and few would be dumb enough to try and mug us."

"I guess that makes sense" she said with a small, awkward smile. In all honesty she'd almost forgotten that they were more than simple servants.

Turning to the four mechanoids, she motioned for the carriage that had not yet been taken to a stall. "Go sit in the carriage until I return."

"By your command." the four droned in perfect concert, causing the poor stable boy holding the horses to look at them a little nervously.

"Um, my lady..." he began, hesitantly.

"What is it, commoner?" she asked a little irritably as turned to him.

"A-are they going to need anything, my lady?" he stammered as respectfully as he could.

"No they will be perfectly fine as they are. Do not concern yourself with them, they won't move an inch unless anything happens to the wagon." he shrank back a little as she narrowed her eyes a little at him. "Now go do your job, commoner."

"Y-yes, my lady! Right away, my lady!"

As the stable boy hurried to lead away the carriage and its dangerous cargo, Louise turned back to the Professor with a satisfied smirk.

"Master, I must protest against this action. The mechanoid Militants cannot protect you if they are not present at your location."

"It's alright, Legion" she mumbled quietly. "I have Professor Colbert and my magic as protection."

"If you believe that is sufficient, I will not argue the point further."

She didn't respond to that as she came up to the older man, instead choosing to speak up about something else.

"It's so nice when people do as they're told." she commented.

"Was that really necessary, miss Vallière?" he asked as they began the trek down the street.

"Sometimes you just need to put the commoners in their place." she said with a shrug. "He asked about my golems, so I answered him."

He let out a short sigh through his nose before speaking. "Alright. Would you like to get some lunch before we start?"

Louise nodded, having gotten quite hungry since breakfast and they both stopped at a stand to pick something up. Once they had sated their hunger with grilled chicken (or at least, she was pretty sure it was chicken) sliced over fresh-baked bread with tomatoes, Colbert let them down a side street.

"Have you ever thought about getting yourself a dagger, miss Vallière?" he asked out of the blue.

"A dagger?" she asked in confusion, not entirely sure where this had come from. "What for? We are Nobles, are we not?"

"We are." he agreed. "But many find quite quickly that a simple blade is much easier to use for every-day tasks. Using magic to slice a baguette or cut a piece of meat tends to be slightly overkill, don't you think?"

As she mulled over this, Colbert spent a moment mentally patting himself on the back for coming up with a good excuse.

It wasn't even a lie as Nobles and commoners alike often carried a small knife or dagger somewhere on their person, usually hanging from the belt, for just that sort of simple tasks. Of course one carried by a noble was usually of much finer quality than a commoner's, varying in shape, size and style depending on what the owner felt was the most useful to them. Still, the general idea was the same and it could also be used for self defense in a pinch.

Not that he'd suggest that to her, of course. And it sounded a lot better than telling her that the Headmaster had told him to get her a knife so she wouldn't decide to have someone shot for teasing her.

A win-win situation, you might say!

"That does make sense." she said eventually, bringing him out of his thoughts. "I have often seen people carry daggers, although I always thought they were just for show." she admitted.

"Do you have one as well, Professor?"

The question was both innocent and logical in equal amounts, and one he had prepared for in turn.

"Indeed I do, miss Vallière." he responded as he pulled the front of his robe back a bit to reveal a dagger at his side. It was one he had gotten many years ago during his time in the King's employ, and was one of the few things he still kept from those days.

It was a fairly simple thing with a silver crossguard and pommel, the grip wrapped in a layer of leather that had grown dark with age and use. It was held in a sheath of wood wrapped in tanned leather that had been dyed a rich red color, sown together on the back. It was decorated with a band of silver set where the crossguard fit into the sheath, and another piece that capped the end of it.

He hadn't actually worn the thing since he began teaching at the Academy, and had to hunt down a replacement belt after the first one had snapped from age and disuse when he tried to put it on. But he still kept it around the shop and usually used it around his shop or whenever he took a meal in there while working on something.

Louise nodded in confirmation when she looked at it, obvious even to her very limited knowledge that it was both well-used and well-cared for. "It's a little simple-looking, but it fits you."

"Thank you." he allowed his robe to fall back into place, covering it once more. "The reason I asked was that I know a pretty decent place around here where you could get one for yourself. Would you like to go take a look?"

She nodded, feeling a little inspired by his talk about them. "I think I would like that, Professor."

As they approached the store in question, Louise couldn't help but wrinkle her nose at the smell around her. They had gone down an alley to find the shop Colbert was looking for, and alleys always had a certain... quality to them.

No matter where you went, they were basically the same.

"Urgh... this place reeks." she said, poking her tongue out as she covered her nose with her hand.

It wasn't actually that dirty as even in the outer city there were people assigned to carry away the trash, in order to avoid annoying things like rats and diseases. Still, it was fairly obvious that no one had actually bothered cleaning the place in some time.

"That's pretty normal for a place where people dump their trash, miss Vallière." Colbert said, actually not too bothered about the smell.

"How do the commoners stand it?"

"Oh they're used to it, more or less." he replied with a shrug. "Ah, here we go."

Louise looked up at the sign above the door depicting the silhouette of a sword and... that was it.

"Why couldn't they have written something on there? They can't be illiterate, can they?" she thought to herself as Professor Colbert pushed the door open with a loud creak.

"Yesh!" a voice called out from within. "Welcome!"

The inside of the store was dimly lit by a combination of candles held in chandeliers of wrought iron and several windows. The windows were actually relatively clean, the lack of light mostly stemming from the fact that the store was in the shade of the buildings around it. Extra light was supplied by lanterns mounted on the supporting pillars on the walls, and she found she could see quite well once her eyes had adjusted.

Before her was a long wooden counter built with a line of decorative squares running along the side, the shopkeeper standing behind it. He was a short, slightly overweight man with a graying mustache with a silly cap of some sort that went down over his ears. He was dressed in a short-sleeved tunic in some off-gray color with a much darker, long-sleeved shirt underneath.

Louise thought he looked ridiculous.

The moment they stepped inside he was already rubbing his hands together, but paused as he saw the two mages.

"H-huh?" he said in a slight stammer. "Are ya noble folk!?"

"We're an honest business here. We ain't observed by the authorities or anything!" He said hurriedly, only to stop as Colbert held up a hand.

"We're here as customers." he assured the shopkeeper, making him visibly calm down. "Oh. In that case, welcome!"

As Colbert spoke with the shopkeeper, Louise took a moment to look around. The wooden floors creaked under her feet and she could smell dust in the air, knocked loose by the draft of the door opening. The walls were positively packed with every kind of weapon she could imagine, from greatswords to spears and quite a few she couldn't even name.

There were two rows of racks that went from the front of the store and towards the counter, similarly filled with even more weapons. They were however usually smaller than the ones on the walls, mostly two- to one-handed swords, axes and short spears.

"Ahh, looking for a blade for the young miss, are ya?" she heard the shopkeeper chuckle. "Most certainly! What kind are ya looking for?"

"Something not too large for her." Colbert answered. "Yet of good quality."

The shopkeeper grinned briefly at the vague request as the Professor took a few moments to look around. "Seems like I got a pair who don't know much about weapons. Nobles on their high horses are always ready to pay a lot for something pretty!" he thought smugly.

"I know just th' thing!" he said and stepped away from the counter and through a curtain to the back. Louise walked over just as he came back holding a very beautiful-looking golden dagger set with glittering gemstones.

"Ooh, I like that one!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"I thought you might!" the shopkeeper said. "You have quite the eye for quality, my Lady! This kind of weapon has been really popular with th' Noble folk."

"What do you mean by that?" Colbert asked, even as Louise mouthed the words 'noble folk' to herself.

"Lately the Nobles in th' fine quarters have been armin' their servants." he said, motioning towards the gilded dagger. "An' they're often choosin' the prettier weapons for them, like this one here."

"What for?" Louise asked him.

The shopkeeper shrugged his shoulders. "They say that there's been this thief runnin' around stealin' things all over the country."

"Hmm" Colbert said, rubbing his chin. "I do think I've heard something about that. I've heard rumors among the staff that a lot of famous and precious treasures have been stolen from the Nobility."

The shopkeeper nodded enthusiastically, it was always easier for people to believe things they heard from several sources at once. He'd been making a killing for months now!

"Exactly, my Lord! It's been makin' a lot of people nervous around here."

He leaned forward over the counter towards the two nobles, as if telling a great secret.

"So this here thief, they say he's been usin' transformation magic to turn walls an' doors into dirt when hittin' the place!"

Both of them were following the story closely, nodding their heads in unison every so often.

"Does he have a name?" Louise asked.

"No one knows, young miss! But he's been dubbed Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt." he said, lowering his voice theatrically. "This Fouquet also likes to leave messages carved into the walls of the places he's robbed, saying 'Objects Duly Received'!"

"Not only does he steal from them, he also adds insult to injury?" she asked, almost as if she'd been personally insulted. "How rude!"

"Yes, quite!"

"So anyway." Colbert interjected, making both sets of eyes turn back on him. "How much do you want for the dagger?"

The shopkeeper smiled. "Gotcha!" "400 Ecu, or 600 New Gold."

"EEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH!?" she cried out, causing birds to leave the rooftops in fright. "That's highway robbery!"

The shopkeeper poked his pinky into his ear, fearing he'd gone deaf. "Yesh, that's right."

"That's pretty steep." Colbert frowned at him suspiciously. "You could buy a master-crafted sword in the inner section of the city for that sum."

"Damn! Did I overprice it?" the shopkeeper thought. "I assure you, sir and madam, this is of the finest quality!"

"Hmm. Do you have anything not quite so expensive?" the Professor asked him, not convinced.

"Er... yes, certainly!" the little man motioned for a display rack at the far end of the counter. "I have quite the amount of very reasonable priced goods right over there."

As he took the ornate, golden dagger back behind the curtain for safekeeping, Colbert and Louise went over to the display pointed out to them. Sure enough, there were knives and daggers of all sizes and shapes lined up on display on a cloth-covered table that were tilted forward a few degrees.

However...

"These are... very shabby looking." Louise muttered as she picked up a dagger that had large patches of black oxide covering the blade.

"I'm forced to agree, miss Vallière." Colbert responded, looking over the collection of blades that he suspected had been partly looted. None of them were actually rusty, but a great deal looked like they hadn't been neither polished nor sharpened for years or even decades.

Letting his gaze travel upwards, he found a row of daggers that were definitely of newer make. They did not have the signs of age the others did, but several of them still had the hammer marks from when they were forged. He knew that a skilled bladesmith could get a surface that was basically smooth, but many simply took a shortcut and just filed or ground them away.

These weren't even that good, and he grimaced at the price tags for some of the ones that actually looked good. 75 Ecu for what was basically a hunting knife was very expensive, as he remembered that he'd bought his dagger for 80. And that was even with the silver decorations!

Well, they would do for cutting he supposed. Even if it didn't look good, they could still be sharpened provided the steel was good enough to hold an edge.

While Colbert pondered the finer aspects of knife-sharpening, Louise had let her gaze wander across the table and over the side. There stood a pair of barrels stuffed with a multitude of old swords and spears when something caught her gaze.

She wasn't even sure why as the sword in question wasn't even particularly good-looking, nor was it in good shape. The hilt had a crossguard that looked vaguely like a rounded cross poking out about an inch on the top and bottom, and the handle was wrapped tightly in some sort of cloth.

She had to tug on it quite hard to dig it out from all the other swords, thanks to there being so many just jammed in there. Taking hold of the hilt with both hands, she almost felt like some kind of mythical Hero, pulling the Sword of Untold Destiny from its resting place. Pulling with all her strength, she was somewhat surprised when the sword finally did come out with a metallic grinding noise.

She stumbled backwards a few steps from the weight of the blade, not being able to flail her arms out to catch herself with both hands on the hilt. For some reason, she didn't think to release the sword nor had she seen the barrel full of javelins standing not far behind her.

Why they were all stored points-up was anyone's guess.

Luckily for her, Colbert had noticed it happening and just barely managed to catch her in the nick of time by clamping his hand down on one of her wrists.

"Miss Vallière!" he cried, both in surprise and worry. "Be more careful!"

"Eh?" she blinked a few times before righting herself to regain her balance, swallowing hard once she saw what she'd almost fallen into. "What?"

Colbert watched as the emotions on the teenaged girl's face switched rapidly from confusion, to surprise, then fear, and finally anger when she realized how close she'd gotten to a messy death. Or just plain getting stabbed in the back by multiple sharp points, that looked pretty grimy!

Could have gotten a nasty infection! And died!

"W-WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?" she shouted at the shopkeeper who had taken cover behind the counter in order to get away from the crazy noble.

"I'm sorry my Lady!" he cried out. "I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to be careless in a weapon shop!"

Then he suddenly realized what he'd said, and quickly tried to take his words back, but it was much too late.

The earth seemed to shake under the fury of the Noble he'd just inadvertently insulted, and he swore he could hear the whistling sound of a kettle boiling.

"ARE YOU CALLING ME STUPID YOU WHINY LITTLE-"

"Miss Vallière!" Colbert shouted, now a little irritated at her. "Calm down!"

When that didn't seem to work too well, he went for the money-shot. "This is most unbecoming of a Noble!" he said loudly in the same tone he used whenever someone had really done something bad. "Stop this nonsense at once!"

That seems to have done it, and just in time too as the sword lay forgotten on the floor where she'd dropped it in her fury, wand pointed at where the shopkeeper had been hiding.

"But Professor!" she protested loudly. "I almost died there thanks to his incompetence!"

But he didn't budge an inch, folding his arms as he gave her the look which all parents and teachers seemed to eventually develop. "No buts, young lady!" he scolded her.

"But-" she tried again, only to be silenced by a single look from her teacher.

"This is as much your fault for not paying attention to your surroundings." he told her in a stern voice that accepted no argument.

He could see in her body language how angry and indignant she was, which he knew was a natural response in most people. The way she worked her jaw and clenched her fists so hard, he could see her knuckles whitening even from where he was standing made it pretty obvious.

Silently he agreed with her and actually applauded the amount of self control she was showing, most noble children would be throwing a tantrum at this point. Still, he couldn't simply let her take out her anger on the shopkeeper, even if he was the type that cared more for profit than things like quality and safety.

Suddenly and without a word, Louise turned on her heel and marched out of the shop, slamming the door behind her. A move so satisfyingly effective at showing anger that it was probably as old as the very invention of the door, itself!

"Well, at least she didn't blow anything up." Colbert thought with a sigh. He'd always wondered why all teenagers seemed to act out their anger in the same way, one of the grand mysteries of life he supposed.

Meanwhile, the middle-aged shopkeeper had cautiously reappeared when the source of his fear had left the shop and was wiping his forehead with a rag. "Founder's teeth, I thought I was going to die." he muttered.

Reaching down, Colbert picked up the sword that his student had almost gotten herself killed over and took a quick look at it. He'd seen many swords in his day and this one wasn't anything special in his eyes, although he didn't have to be an expert to tell it was old.

It was a simple one-edged design just like what you'd expect from a knife, with a part of the bronze crossguard extending out over the back of the blade. There was also an extra piece of brass that connected with the side of the blade and covered the first inch before the edge, probably a rain guard of some kind. It was about the same size as a bastard sword with a similar hilt that was wide and long enough to get a good grip, ending with a vaguely beak-shaped cap also made from bronze that pointed in the direction of the edge.

Most modern-day swords were of the double-edged type for a great number of reasons, although he only knew a few himself. The most obvious was that there was no wrong way of swinging one or putting it back in a scabbard, and if one side got blunt you could simply turn it around and use the other one. He knew some light cavalry used a type of curved, single-edged sword called a saber, but this wasn't one of them.

It was a type of design that had resurfaced every so often in history, but was often associated with a certain time period in Germania. That happened quite often as people didn't always feel the need to keep track of what had happened centuries before they were born.

Those who did not pay attention to history were doomed to repeat it, as they say.

The King at the time, Friedrich Hartmann the Fourth, had not been a very good king to his people and had been afraid of a peasant rebellion. In an attempt to keep military weapons out of their hands, he made it a law that only those working for the crown was allowed to carry swords. This meant that unless you were in the military or working as a guard, you weren't allowed to have effective fighting weapons, he thought.

Of course, not only was he wrong about the whole effective weapon bit, but it also didn't stop a servant from stabbing him to death with a knife while he was taking a bath.

But between there two events there was a significant upswing in bladesmith activity, as they all scrambled to figure out a way to satisfy a market that wanted a product they weren't allowed to sell.

People still needed to protect themselves and their homes from bandits and such, who didn't obey the law and therefore suddenly found themselves at an advantage.

What they finally did was to essentially take the design of the venerable hunting knife and scale it up into the size of a sword. Although the line had blurred quite a bit since then, the King had also set out a definition for what was considered what, as even he didn't expect people to follow laws they couldn't understand properly.

A sword was sharpened on both sides, often had a fuller of some kind, had a full crossguard and had what was known as a "push tang" that was completely covered, often with a combination of wood and leather. This made it so that your hands wouldn't hurt as much from the vibrations when the blade struck something or the other way around.

A knife on the other hand had only a single edge, lacked a fuller, tended to have only a finger-guard to keep the hand from sliding out on the edge. It also had a full tang design that known as a "slab tang" meaning it followed the contours of the handle, sandwiched between two pieces of wood.

The Großes Messer, or Great Knife in Germanian, was a rather wide, hefty blade was about 62 centimeters long on average that ended in a slightly raised tip. Just like a knife it often lacked a fuller (although some added them anyway), a substantial finger guard and the same slab tang design with wood held on each side with rivets. So when anyone tried to have them arrested for the owning of a sword, they could simply point out the various features that in fact made it a knife.

Later models often had the handles wrapped in cloth or leather – although the latter was substantially more effective – and the guard often included a Nagel. This nail-like (Nagel literally meant 'nail') protrusion jutted out from the right side and was meant to protect the user's hands.

It was unclear why King Friedrich never amended the law to include this, most people simply assumed he was too drunk, busy or just plain lazy to bother with it. Nevertheless the design proved fairly effective and was quite popular, bladesmiths continuing their production even long after the law was removed. It was further refined over the centuries and eventually became the modern saber, which was slowly gaining ground for mounted troops.

Although the knights still refused to use it, especially the various Mage Knights in employ with the crown who often used sword-wands.

They said they liked them the way they were and didn't want no silly curved swords, no sir!

"Ah, so... have you decided on something, my Lord?"

Colbert was jolted out of his thoughts by the shopkeeper who had finally managed to get his act together enough to ask the question, turning back to him with the sword still in his hand.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I asked if you wanted to buy the sword." he said, motioning at the blade. "I'll, uh... give you a good price."

Please get out of my shop, was the untold meaning and Colbert couldn't blame the man. He looked again at the sword in his hand, it was hardly the knife that he had in mind for Louise, but she seemed interested in it.

"Well, just having it might give her the confidence boost she needs." he thought grudgingly to himself. It wasn't bigger than that he could easily heft it in one hand without training, but to her it might as well have been a greatsword.

Actually that would probably be better now that he thought about it, she might have been tempted to stab someone with a knife but chop someone with a big, two-handed weapon? Unlikely.

"I'll take it." he said as he thumped the sword down on the counter, which also let him spot a few more flaws that he hadn't before. "Provided you also throw in a scabbard and a maintenance kit." he added.

"Ah, yes of course!" the shopkeeper smiled as he took out a small package wrapped in waxed paper held together by a length of string and placed it on the counter. "That will be a hundred and-"

He cut himself off as Colbert gave him the sour look of someone who knew he was trying to cheat him.

"Um... I mean..." he stammered as he mentally back-pedaled. "S-seventy! Seventy Ecu for you, my Lord!"

"Very well!" the Professor was suddenly all smiles again as he counted out the money and slid it over. "Here you go, my good man."

The shopkeeper slumped a little as he took the money. "I'll... go get a scabbard for you right away." he muttered, feeling defeated.

Why couldn't he get his regular clients of gullible Nobles that usually came to his shop instead of this person?

---

After she had stormed out of the shop, Louise had gone straight for the nearest bench she could find that wasn't in a stinking alley and plopped down. The bench had been occupied by a teenaged couple and an old lady, but they had quickly vacated after taking one look at her expression and the five-pointed star clasp that held her cloak.

After a sitting there for a while in the fresh air and sunshine, she slowly started to calm down. She probably shouldn't have stormed out like that, but the shock and the fear of having been so close to getting impaled had just been too much!

She briefly thought about having the man reported to the guards or something, surely it was illegal to just set things out where people could hurt themselves on them, right?

"Master, I am detecting an elevated heart rate and breathing consistent of stress. Are you in danger?"

As Legion's voice cut into her voice, she shook her head no before realizing he couldn't see it.

"No, I'm fine." she said in a low voice that she knew he could hear, despite all the noise around her. "I was just nearly in an accident, that's all."

"This could have been prevented had you taken your Militants with you."

"Yeah, yeah. You don't need to remind me."

"Their purpose is to protect you, master. They cannot preform this function if you leave them behind."

"I said I got it!" she hissed, startling a pigeon that had landed on the backrest of the bench next to her. And Legion waited a good ten seconds before he spoke again.

"Have I displeased you, my Prophet?"

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that." she said as she leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes.

"My apologies, my Master. I will refrain from calling you that in the future if it is your wish."

"See to it that you do."

They then sat in a comfortable silence until she started hearing... music? She tilted her head this way and that before opening her eyes and looking around. Nobody else seemed to be reacting and the sound of it didn't change when she moved her head, so...

"Legion." she said slowly. "Are you playing music in my head?"

"The Maker would often ask to listen to music whenever he was upset, a sentiment shared by many throughout the ages."

Louise for some reason had a mental image of the bald man from her dream, furiously marching into a room, slamming the door shut behind him and then shouting: "LEGION! GIVE ME MY DAMN MUSIC BEFORE I KILL SOMEONE!" at the ceiling.

She doubted that the great Founder of Nod would have done something so childish, but the thought made her giggle a bit.

"Often he simply told me to play music, but sometimes when he was in a better mood he would be specific. The piece you are hearing this moment is called 'Le Quattro Stagioni' or The Four Seasons."

Now that she thought about it, the rather upbeat melody followed by a more mellow tune did invoke a sense of spring with its mix of brilliant sunshine and rainy days.

"It's very nice." she agreed musingly.

"It was composed in 1720 by a man named Antonio Vivaldi, considered one of the greatest Baroque composers of all time."

"Hush, Legion." she whispered distractedly as she once more leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. The sounds of the bustling street became distant to her as she focused only on the pleasant melody of violins and many instruments she couldn't even name.

Music had always been an important thing to the people of Halkeginia for as long as anyone could remember. The Church kept countless pieces that had been preserved since the days of the Founder, and composers fought like mad dogs every year to present something new to the Royal Family during the annual Concert de Tristain.

But she had never heard music like this, both alien and familiar at the same time. She was halfway through the summer part of the 42-minute concert when she thought she heard someone calling her name.

"...iss...lerié..."

It didn't matter to her much at first, she couldn't care less but it got harder and harder to ignore.

"Miss Vall...é...re..you...ight?"

She was jolted out of her happy place when a hand was suddenly placed on her shoulder and her eyes snapped open to see a worried-looking Professor Colbert looking down at her.

"Miss Vallière!"

"Yes!" she responded, a little frustratedly even as the music faded from her head. "What?"

The Professor frowned a little. "I've been calling your name for almost five minutes now, miss Vallière." he said, a tony of worry in his voice. "Are you feeling alright? It looks like you have been crying."

Louise blinked and put her fingers to her cheek and found that sure enough, they were wet and she suddenly felt the need to sniffle. Founder's might, had the music been so moving that she'd been crying like a babe without noticing it?

"I'm fine! Perfectly fine!" she said quickly, drawing in a long inhale through her nose that manifested as a drawn-out sniffle to clear it while wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

"I just got some dust in my eyes, that's all!" she said with a watery smile.

Colbert raised an eyebrow, not really believing her for a single moment, but willing to humor her. "Very well miss Vallière. Would you like a napkin?" he said, taking out a clean, plain napkin from a pocket and holding it out to her.

"Yes, please." she said gratefully, thankful for the opportunity.

After she had made herself presentable again, they both sat on the bench for a little while before he spoke up again.

"I'm sorry you were upset at the close call, miss Vallière." he said apologetically. "I admit I didn't expect the place to be so run down, it was quite a lot better when I last visited it. They must have switched owners."

"No I was just angry, Professor." she sighed, couldn't he just let it go?

"But when I got here..."

"It wasn't because of that. I was just listening to some very beautiful, moving music." she finally admitted.

"Music?" Colbert asked, slightly confused as he looked around similar to what she did earlier. "I didn't hear any music."

"Urgh, it's..." Louise always felt silly whenever she admitted to hearing things in her head, even though she knew the Professor had seen proof that it existed. "My familiar was playing it for me."

She made a kind of spinning motion with her index finger next to her temple. "In here, like how he speaks to me."

"In your head?" he asked, before suddenly remembering. "Oh that's right! I do seem to recall you mentioning that you shared a telepathic connection with it."

"Tele... pathic?" she asked, having never heard the term before.

"It's not a word you hear very often." he explained. "The literal translation is 'distant sensation' and is often used to describe a form of extrasensory perception, like when you feel the elements in action while casting a spell."

"I see." she said thoughtfully, not wanting to admit that she'd never actually experienced anything like that. "Thank you for explaining, Professor."

"That's my job." he said jovially before suddenly clicking his fingers. "Ah! I'd almost forgotten what I was gonna say!"

Reaching down beside him he pulled out the sword, now with a scabbard with brass fittings that actually matched it reasonably well in looks, and the little package containing the maintenance kit.

"O-oh!" she said, recognizing the sword. "You bought it for me? I... you shouldn't have." she said in surprise. "After I ran out like that, I didn't..."

"Nonsense miss Vallière!" he said patiently as he handed them over to her, making her grunt a little at the weight of it. "It's not what I had in mind for you, but I figured since you put so much effort into pulling it out I'd buy it for you."

"You shouldn't have." she mumbled as she set it in her lap, running her fingers over the worn leather of the sheath. "I don't know why I picked it in particular, I just felt curious. I don't even know how to use it."

He smiled in a comforting manner. "Don't worry about it, consider it a gift. Cleaning it will give you something to do when you're bored, and it'll look nice hanging on the wall."

"I guess you're right, Professor." she said, her lips curving upwards into a tiny smile. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, miss Vallière."

"What's this for, though?" she asked as she turned the little off-white package over in her hands, hearing what sounded like a thick liquid moving around inside.

"A maintenance kit." he explained to her. "Soldiers are made to carry them whenever they're in the field. They usually contain a whetstone, a bottle containing an oil mixture for sharpening and polishing and some rags."

Seeing her somewhat uncertain expression he chuckled a bit. "I know it's not something that you'd normally consider doing as a Noble, but I can assure you that all the mage knights do their own weapon maintenance."

"Even mother?" she asked curiously, having trouble imagining her mother sitting hunched over one of those stone wheels she'd seen blacksmiths use.

"Especially your mother." he emphasized with a nod. "Do you think she'd let anyone else mess around with - and possibly damage - her sword?"

"Absolutely not!" she confirmed, eyes lighting up as she now understood what he was telling her. "I once saw her literally throw one of the serving staff out of the room after he'd accidentally knocked over the stand she keeps it in."

Colbert nodded, pleased with her understanding of the lesson he'd been trying to teach her. "This is also true for more than just knights and soldiers, though. Can you guess what the unwritten rule of craftsmen is, miss Vallière?"

She rubbed her chin as she pondered this question. If her mother acted like that, and people in other professions had similar sentiments, then... "Never... touch another person's tools?"

"Exactly!" he smiled. "Or at the very least not without their permission."

She hummed faintly at this, happy that her favorite teacher was satisfied with her performance she went back to examining the repair kit. "So this will be all I need?"

"For now, anyway. That probably is just good enough that it works with most weapons, but there's always better quality oil and whetstones."

"Just like everything else, huh?"

"Yes." squinting up at the sky, he tried to judge the time according to the sun's position. It was a skill that he'd heard was common with farmers and such, but never managed to fully learn himself. "I do believe we should start getting back to the carriage though, or we might miss dinner at the Academy."

She nodded and when she went to stand up, Colbert couldn't help but chuckle at how she fumbled a little with the weight of the sword and the little package at the same time. "Here, let me show you how to carry that."

---

After Colbert helped Louise to strap the sword to her torso with what was essentially a giant belt (A Baldric, he called it) they made their way back to where they left the carriage. It was still there, of course, although they found a few local children peeking in through the window at the four, motionless men that sat within.

She wasn't sure what exactly about them had been so interesting but children were children, she supposed. She had one of the stable boys chase them away and once the carriage was moved out of its housing, ordered her golems to take them back to the Academy.

Traffic was a little less than it had been when they arrived so they made good time and were soon out on the open road once more.

The trip home seemed to go much faster than the one to the capital, mostly because Louise had once more asked Legion to play that wonderful music to her again. Without interruptions, she listened to the entire thing from start to finish, completely lost in the flowing notes from another world.

But as all things comes to an end, so did the music and she was forced to open her eyes and allow the real world to come back to her once more. Once again, she felt wetness on her cheeks and a rather curious-looking Colbert who was already holding out another napkin to her.

"That must be a very beautiful song, miss Vallière." he said gently as she wiped her face and blew her nose.

She nodded a few times, having to take a few moments to compose herself before she could answer. "It's like having an entire concerto in my head, Professor."

She blinked hard a few times, trying to stop more tears from coming at the mere memory. "Perhaps a dozen violins or more, all playing perfectly in tune with each other. And many other instruments, I think I heard a harpsichord but I'm not certain."

He raised both his eyebrows in surprise at this information. "A voice in your head I can understand, but an entire orchestra?" he asked in wonder. "Was it not loud? I know I have sat too far in the front many times during a concerto, my ears often ringing a little afterwards."

She shook her head, a little puzzled herself as she agreed that should have been the case. "No, I know what you mean professor, but this was more like I was standing at the perfect distance somehow."

He leaned his chin in his hand as he took a moment to let this information sink in. He no longer had any concepts that applied to miss Vallière's familiar, as with this it had easily eclipsed any Dollmaker he had ever heard of.

"What a marvelous thing you summoned, miss Vallière." he said with a quiet sort of reverence as he leaned his hands on his knees. "The more it shows of its capabilities, the more envious I get of you." he admitted.

"Of me?" she asked in surprise before bursting out into giggles.

"What's so funny?." Colbert asked as he furrowed his brows a little, not sure if he should feel offended or not. "Are you laughing at me?"

"Haha, no it's not that!" she choked out between giggles, and it took a few seconds before she could talk again. "Oh Founder, I needed that." she said as they finally subsided.

"I wasn't laughing at you Professor, I swear!" Louse said with a smile. "It's just the first time I've ever heard anyone say they envied me."

"I'm sure you've heard it before," he said as he felt the edges of his mouth twitch upwards a little on their own. He'd never heard her laugh like that before and found it had raise his spirits, as well. "from the commoners, if nothing else."

Louise hummed as she briefly rubbed her chin. "You're right, but they're commoners." she shrugged. "Of course they're envious of us nobles. I just never expected to hear it from another noble, especially a teacher."

"I mean it, miss Vallière." he said honestly. "Your familiar is opening doors for you that might as well be featureless walls for the rest of us."

"I never thought of it like that, but it's true." she mused as she looked at the silent protector sitting at her side. Always ready, always so efficient and reliable. Always loyal. "I wasn't very impressed with him at first, but the more he shows me the more am I getting the feeling he's everything I ever wanted." she smiled.

"It is very capable." he agreed. "Although I wish he wasn't so... war-like." Colbert mused out loud. "I couldn't help but notice from the start that everything about it" he motioned at the same black soldier. "is geared for battle."

"Well, yes." Louise said, raising her eyebrow. "Isn't it natural to try and protect the one you serve? I mean... they're practically my own version of the Tristain Musketeers under the Princess' employ are they not?"

"Hmm." he wasn't completely convinced, but... "You do make valid points, miss Vallière." he conceded at last. "I daresay they are far more effective than the brave women guarding our Princess, though."

She shrugged a little. "I've never actually seen any of her Musketeers in person, but I've heard they're all very brave and loyal women. Even if they are just commoners."

"I have from time to time." Colbert replied. "Don't underestimate them just because they are commoners, miss Vallière. They train as hard as anyone I've ever seen to be able to match anyone that attempts to assassinate her, be they mages or commoners."

"And all they have are ordinary muskets and steel plate armor, your musketeers on the other hand..."

"Militants." she corrected him, causing him to blink. "Legion calls them Militants, although he hasn't told me exactly why." she said, muttering the last bit in a lower voice.

"Ah" Colbert nodded, accepting her correction."well your Militants on the other hand are armed with these incredibly effective muskets that I can't even begin to understand how they work." he said honestly, part of him wishing that he could be allowed to take one apart for study.

"And they're armored with..." he trailed off as he studied the black plate of the soldier across from him. "with... hm. I don't actually know what it is." he admitted. "It looks hard and rigid enough to be metal, but it doesn't have the right texture."

"I thought it was something similar to insect carapace at first, but I simply don't know." he said with a shrug.

Louise hadn't really thought much about it either, and she turned to the black soldier next to her and in the afternoon sunlight, looked closely at the armor it wore.

It was just as the Professor had said, it looked nothing like any type of metal she'd ever seen before. It was black, of course, but it wasn't the shiny black that she often saw on insects but a non-reflective matte color she couldn't quite place.

"It's almost leathery in a way." she reflected as she ran first her fingertips and then her entire hand over the vambrace that protected its arm. "Smooth with just a tiny bit of friction to it, yet hard and unyielding much like metal."

Colbert had pulled out his notebook again and was scribbling furiously in order to note down her descriptions on the page next to the picture he made that morning. "Continue, miss Vallière."

"I don't know what else to say." she said helplessly with a small shrug. On a whim she reached up to knock her fingers at the chest plate, making a dull 'thock, thock, 'thock' kind of sound.

"Hmm" the Professor said as he tapped his lower lip with his pen. "doesn't sound like any metal I've ever heard, so it seems I was right."

Louise nodded and scooted back to look out of the window. She was surprised to see how far they'd gotten during their discussion about her familiar, as she was starting to recognize the countryside. She was just about to ask Legion if he knew any more music of this Vivaldi person when she saw another carriage rolling past her in the opposite direction.

It was pure chance and curiosity that led her to peek into the other carriage and she raised an eyebrow as she saw the very maid who had brought her food the night before sitting in it.

"Huh." she muttered to herself. "What's Siesta doing out at this time of day?"

"Siesta?" Colbert asked in confusion for a moment. "Are you talking about the maid who helped us find your familiar the other day?"

"Yes." she blinked as she turned back to him. "She was in the carriage that just passed us."

"That is odd." the Professor agreed before he shrugged. "Perhaps she is running an errand of some kind?"

"Perhaps." she responded. "I hope she won't be long. She brought me food the night of the duel with excellent service, and I thought I'd ask her if she could do it again tonight."

Colbert nodded in understanding, having a few members of the serving staff himself that he knew by name and often asked for due to their skill and assistance.

"Maybe you could ask if she'd be interested in being your personal servant?" he suggested helpfully. "It's not unusual that the juniors pick personal servants while in school to then move with them back home when they graduate."

"Really?" she blinked. "Wouldn't that be a huge hassle for the Academy to constantly have to hire new people?"

"Not at all!" he smiled, preparing for another lesson. "In fact, there's a long queue of people waiting to get employment as serving staff at the Academy since they know people get swapped out every year."

"The Headmaster implemented that system when he first got the post, and it turned out to be very successful for both Nobles and commoners. Some posts like the Section Heads don't swap out like that unless they choose it themselves, and sometimes two Nobles will get into arguments over the same servant, but..."

"Interesting." Louise said with a small tilt of her head. "I guess it's easier to get experienced help if you've been around them constantly for three years."

"Precisely, miss Vallière." he said before rubbing his chin thoughtfully.. "Although it doesn't usually happen in the sophomore year, it's not unheard of and shouldn't be much of an issue."

"I could talk with the headmaster once we get back, if you'd like?"

"Thank you, Professor." she said, still smiling and getting a nod in return. "I've been saying that a lot lately, seems like." she said a little awkwardly, a little unused to having someone be so... helpful.

"It's alright, miss Vallière." he reassured her. "I often feel like I can't do enough for you most of the time anyway, although don't get too used to the thought of me buying you things." he warned her gently.

"I won't, Professor!"

---

The rest leg of the trip was uneventful and they got back just as most people were starting to leave the dining hall. Not wanting a repeat of the morning she sent her Militants up with the sword to wait for her in her room while she headed in to get dinner.

As she stepped into the room, a brief hush went over the room as everyone turned to look at her and for a moment, she feared she'd cause another stampede. However, when they noticed that she was alone they all breathed out a sigh of relief and soon, conversation started up again.

"I didn't think I'd feel so sad to go from being teased and insulted to making people feel this unnerved in my presence." she thought to herself as she watched some of the freshmen students stand up and walk out with a bit of a hurry in their steps.

Well, it was certainly an improvement over running and screaming. Right now she wasn't feeling very picky as long as it was an improvement, and with that in mind she went and sat down at her usual seat.

People rarely sat next to her in the first place, so there was no one there she could scare away and she hadn't even had time to order dinner before the whispers started. They were more hushed than usual, but she could still hear some of them.

"Hey, it's the Ze-"

"Shh, be quiet you moron!"

"Yeah. Don't give her an excuse to go after you!"

"But she doesn't even have the Thunder Warriors with her."

"That just means they could be anywhere!"

She snorted a little at their paranoia. Now that she wasn't feeling so glum anymore, she was actually starting to find it pretty funny. Ever since it started becoming common knowledge in the school that all her spells exploded, she'd been called Louise the Zero and a failure everywhere she looked. This wasn't what she had in mind when she'd wished they would stop, but it'd do for now.

"Legion." she murmured.

"Yes, master?"

"Do you have any suitable music for dining?" she asked as she made a come-hither motion for one of the maids.

"Yes master. For this I can recommend the Piano Concerto No. 21 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart."

"Sounds like a Germanian name." she reflected as her head was filled with violins and a mellow-sounding instrument she couldn't quite place. It did remind her vaguely of a harpsichord in the way it was played, but it was much softer and she found she preferred the more mellow notes as opposed to the sharp ones of the harpsichord.

She nodded her thanks to the servant to brought her her food, and ate it to the soft notes of yet another of the Great Masters while ignoring the whispers of her schoolmates.

Once she was done eating and the song had finished, she felt in good spirits once more and thought that she'd ask the Head Chef about Siesta.

"Commoner, is the Head Chef available?" she asked the maid that came to collect the empty plates.

The maid blinked at the sudden question but soon answered with: "Yes my lady, he's in the kitchen right now. Would you like me to fetch him for you?"

She shook her head and pushed her chair out to stand up. "No, I just wanted to make sure. You can continue with your duties." she dismissed her.

"As the lady wishes." the maid said with a slight bow of her head as Louise got back up to head into the kitchens. It was still quite busy as several trolleys were being prepared to take food to the students that had wanted to eat in their rooms, and there were dishes that needed to be cleaned.

She found Marteau standing with soap suds up to his elbows as he quickly cleaned dishes with ease born from long experience, and she had to raise her voice a little over the din.

"Head Chief Marteau?"

"Hm?" the large man turned his head around to look at who had called for him, and beamed as he saw Louise. "Ah, Our Shield! Welcome!"

"Eh?" she blinked in surprise even as he hurried to wipe his hands off on a kitchen towel. "What do you mean, Our Shield?"

"That's what he started calling you after you defeated Mr. Gramont, miss Vallière." the younger man that had been washing the plates clean of soap after the Head Chef was done with them called out next to him.

"Yes, indeed!" The big man said as he held his arms out as if to embrace her, making Louise take a step backwards just in case. "You'll be setting an example for years to come, I'm sure of it!"

"Ah, well!" she smiled at the recognition she got for her actions. "I needed to knock Guiche down a peg anyway for all the insults he's thrown at me over the past year!" she gloated as she struck a pose with her fists resting on her hips.

Marteau nodded enthusiastically. "Indeed! And you did so in spades! Now, what can I do for you?"

Oh yeah! "Could we step outside for a bit?" she said over the noise in the background. "I needed to ask you something."

"Of course!" the Head Chef said before leading her to the door where they got their deliveries and once it was closed after them, turned to her once more. "What is it?"

"I was wondering if it would be alright if I took Siesta as my personal maid?" she asked him without preamble, her brows furrowing a bit as she noticed that he'd gotten a rather severe expression on his face. "Is... there something wrong?"

"Siesta..." the big man began slowly, unsure how to break it to the Noble girl in front of him. "Is no longer with us."

---

"Ah, welcome back Professor!" Old Osmond greeted Colbert as miss Longueville opened the door upon hearing the knocks. "How did the trip go?"

"It went well, Headmaster." he responded as the secretary closed the door behind him and he went to sit down in the chair in front of the desk. "Although it didn't go... quite as planned."

"Oh?"

"It turned out that the weapon shop had gotten a new owner that ran things a little differently." Colbert told him as he started to recount the happenings of the day.

"I see, a sword eh?" The Headmaster mused afterwards. Miss Longueville had gone down to fetch dinner for the two as Colbert told the story of what had happened during the day, leaving the two men alone. "Not as useful as a good knife, but I guess the chance of her drawing it on a classmate is less likely."

"Exactly my thought, Headmaster." Colbert nodded. "And it seems to have given her the confidence boost you intended, so your plan appears to have been a success."

"Excellent!" the old man grinned. "Now, tell me more about the music you said miss Vallière's familiar was playing. I'm curious what it sounded like!"

"I didn't hear it myself, Headmaster." he admitted, much to Osmond's chagrin. "She appears to have a telepathic connection to it, and it was somehow playing through this connection."

"Odd" Osmond mused. "but interesting all the same. It's like every time we think we have it pegged down, it does something different."

"Yes, I've noticed this as well." Colbert said before he remembered what else he was going to ask. "Also, miss Vallière wanted to make one of the maids her personal servant."

"Unusual for a second year, but I don't see why not." the Headmaster said with a nod. "Did she say which one?"

"Yes, a girl named Siesta I believe it was."

"Oh." Colbert blinked as the old mage's face fell. "Oh dear. I'm afraid that's out of my hands, Professor."

"What do you mean?" Colber asked with some puzzlement. "Did she quit her post at the Academy?"

"No, you see-" but before Old Osmond had a chance to tell him, the door to his office burst open to reveal miss Longueville who was panting as if she'd been running.

"Headmaster!"

Both men turned to look at her in alarm at this sudden intrusion, she continued before either had a chance to ask. "Miss Vallière just jumped on a horse and left the Academy!"

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?" they both shouted in unison.

---

"Damn it! Damn it all to damnation!" Louise Françoise de la Vallière thought angrily to herself as she rode in a gallop down the same road as they'd taken earlier, heading towards the mansion of Count Mott.

When she'd been told by Marteau that her contract been transferred to another noble she had at first been annoyed that someone had gotten to her before she did. When he told her to whom she was angry!

She'd heard of Count Mott several times before she even came to the Academy, as her mother had sometimes remarked what a despicable man he was. How she didn't understand how he still had the otherwise respectable post of Palace Messenger while he acted the way he did.

"Unbefitting of a Noble" was the nicest thing she'd ever said about him. Often she said much worse things when she didn't think Louise or her sisters were nearby to overhear it.

Lustful shame of Nobles everywhere, philanderer, slimeball.

She'd heard even her father comment that he was abusing the power of his name and title both, that he needed start behaving properly before someone forced him.

At the time she hadn't understood more than that he was a bad man, but it wasn't until later that she understood how bad.

Enemy of women, scum, corrupt. He was suspected of siphoning money from the Crown, but no evidence was ever found.

Had it been any other Noble she might have just shrugged, lamented the loss of a good servant and moved on.

Had it been any other maid she probably wouldn't have cared so much, but Siesta had gone out of her way to make her happy. It was something as simple as bringing her food that she hadn't asked for, but the people who actually did nice things to Louise were people she remembered.

And she was not going to leave someone like that, commoner or no, with a person like Count Mott.

This was absolutely unacceptable!

And so she rode at a full gallop to save her even though she was not a knight, nor did she have any armor and even though the horse was brown and not white. She vividly remembered the dream she had, what the Hammer of War and Peace had whispered to her while she forged the Blood of the Gods.

Protect the innocent.

She must not fail.

She thanked her mother and her older sister Cattleya for making her take riding lessons as a girl, as this wouldn't have worked nearly as well had she not been this good at horseback riding.

"Legion!" she shouted over the wind. "Summon as many musketeers as you can and send them to my location!"

"Acknowledged."

Suddenly a brief, blaring kind of hum went off in her head.

"Warning – This action will almost completely deplete our stores of Tiberium."

"I advise caution or we will not have enough to build a Refinery when the time comes."

Louise screwed her eyes shut in frustration. Shit! She'd completely forgotten that they had spending restraints!

"Then build as many as you can without exceeding that limit!"

"Understood."

She didn't know how many that made, and she really was not in the state of mind to calculate it either. "How many does that make?" she asked under her breath, unsure if he'd hear her.

"Seven squads, master."

She buried her face in the mane of the horse as it galloped down the road, feeling each pull of its powerful muscles. "Send the one that normally guards me, as well."

"Yes, Commander."

"Also... I have a special request."

She would not fail, not this time.

---

When she finally arrived, the horse was just starting to get winded from how hard she'd been riding it. The two guards who stood at the gate looked at her suspiciously, one of them calling out to her.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

Letting her slightly winded horse trot up to them, she ran a hand through her wind-swept hair and gave them the hardest look she could muster.

"I am Louise Françoise de la Vallière!" she called out loudly in return. "And I have an important message for Count Mott!"

Luckily, the Vallière name was well-known throughout Tristain and she was quickly let through. A guard escorted her to a waiting room and told her the Count would see her shortly.

The walk down the halls was nothing out of the ordinary, but when she did arrive in the waiting room she couldn't help the sneer that pulled at her lips. The room was extraordinarily gaudy, filled with marble musts and paintings. Only the busts were literal busts and all the paintings all had naked women of some manner in them, which underlined just how depraved he was.

She spent several minutes pacing the expensive carpet that covered most of the floor, trying to avoid looking at the artwork and instead spending a few minutes looking over the bookshelf that filled one wall.

"Legion" she whispered under her breath. "what's our progress?"

"All eight squads are headed your way, master. Estimated time of arrival is T-minus 10 minutes."

She blinked at this, how was that even possible.

"That is amazing. How is that even possible?"

"Approximately 26 minutes, Master. Your Militants does not fatigue however, and they are physically superior to humans. It should come as no surprise that they are considerably faster, as well."

"Yes, but..."

"You have also been stationary for over 15 minutes, Master."

Louise's brows pulled together slightly, had she been here for that long? "Count Mott is surely taking his time." she grumbled silently to herself.

"They will be in position shortly, ready to strike at your command."

She was just about to ask if they had brought what she requested when she heard the door open and she turned from the bookshelf, leading with her head as she had been taught. Walking in was the Count himself, all puffed up in his red satin outfit with that silly, pleated white high-collar around his neck.

Louise forced herself not to wrinkle her nose at the pungent smell of perfume that seemed to surround the man like haze. What was wrong with taking a bath like normal people?

"Count Mott, I presume?" she asked, doing her best to channel the way her mother spoke. "You had me waiting for quite some time."

"My apologies, miss Vallière." he replied smoothly. "I am quite the busy man and you caught me while I was in the middle of something. I did not expect someone to arrive so suddenly and without sending word first." he said, a tone of annoyance in his voice as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

A certain decorum was to be maintained between Nobles, but it was quite obvious to her that he was doing only as much as he felt was necessary in his own home.

"The guard said you had a message for me. Tell it to me and leave so that I may return to my studies." he said in the tone of someone who was used to being obeyed.

"I, er.." she cleared her throat once as she tried to formulate herself, but decided to go straight to the point. "I am here for the maid you acquired from the Academy today, Siesta."

Count Mott raised an eyebrow at her, as if questioning the very reason of her existence. "The maid came here under my request and is now lawfully bound to me and this manor. I will not simply give up a treasured member of my household just because someone asks me to!" he recited disdainfully.

Louise flexed her jaw slightly, itching to just pull out her wand and blast this pompous fool all the way to Gallia. But instead, she said: "Would you be willing to allow me to buy her contract, then?"

He looked at her quietly for a few seconds, and the urge to either blow him up or simply punch him in the face grew stronger as he seemed to look at her like she was a piece of poor-quality meat.

Then he let out a bark of laughter and grinned at her in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable. "Oh really? Do you intend to buy her like you would a piece of land? An item which caught your fancy?" he sneered at her.

"Or is it for some other reason that you do not wish to say, hmm?"

She swallowed hard, not trusting her voice she nodded once, which seemed to delight him.

"Ahh, I see! Well then, this changes things!" he purred as he started walking towards her. Her first instinct was to straight-out dodge him but managed to simply scoot to the side.

Oddly enough, Mott's path did not change to follow her but instead went over to the bookcase. Trailing his hand over the leather-bound backs he selected one that he pulled out halfway, pushed in another and pulled out yet a third.

Louise jumped slightly as she heard a dull clank from the bookcase and then with the clanking of gears the whole thing first slid back, and then recessed into the side of the wall. A secret passage! Which she'd been standing right in front of without even noticing!

"Come, come, miss Vallière!" he said in a sing-song voice as he walked down the steps of a stone staircase that spiraled down below, lit sparingly by torches.

She swallowed once more and followed him down.

The stairs went down for quite some time and the air down here was dank and cold, causing her to shiver slightly as it touched her skin. She'd already lost the warmth she gained from the hard ride and the sweat she'd accumulated made her clothes feel cold and sticky.

If the Count noticed, he made no comment and instead kept talking. "I am quite surprised to find a young woman with views so similar to my own!" he said, sounding pleased.

"I-I don't know what you mean." she stammered slightly from cold and nerves, feigning indifference. "I simply desire the maid's services."

"Oh you don't need to hide it from me, miss Vallière!" he said in the smug tone she'd started to really hate. "I fully understand that Nobles such as us sometimes have certain... needs and desires that need to be met."

So that's what he meant! Louise cursed herself as she realized what she'd just said and how he seemed to interpret the words. She felt really dirty when she realized that he must have assumed she had the same sort of desires as he did. She wasn't Kirche for Brimir's sake!

But... she could work with this. All she needed to do was to act like that blasted Germanian and she'd be able to do without Legion's help! A quick glance down at her barely-existing curves made her force to rethink that notion a little, because there was no way she'd be able to use her body in the same way.

Simply talking like she did would have to do, although she might have to gargle Iodine or something afterward to make sure she didn't catch Kirche's stupid!

"Ah, you caught me!" she said airily. "It's so hard to keep the flame of my passion hidden!" doing her best to imitate the way she spoke.

Ugh. Louise almost felt like she was losing a vital part of herself!

But it appeared to be working as she heard the Count's laugh in front of her. "Exactly! But down here I can be myself, and I have amassed quite the collection to sate my needs!"

She thought she was prepared for what she might find in Count Mott's manor. She had spent the entire trip here imagining young women dressed in super-short variations of the regular maid's dresses. Revealing their cleavage and their panties while they were made to push their chests and butts out for every action on the perverted Count's orders!

But reality, as she'd come to realize so often lately, was often much worse than she could have imagined.

At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy wooden door, reinforced with bands of iron and sealed from the outside by a bar held in place with a padlock. The Count kept talking about how he'd been forced to build this in secrecy as he unlocked the padlock with a key he kept around his neck.

When the door opened it was like she was greeted by hell itself. Light was provided not only with sputtering torches but also with large braziers of wrought iron filled with burning coals, providing also providing heating this far below the surface.

She followed the Count in a light daze as they passed small holding cells with nothing but straw thrown in on the floor, only a single bucket providing a place for the residents to relieve themselves in. Some of them were empty but many held women of different ages in varying states of dress, often curled into protective balls.

She didn't see anyone that did not have the curves that came with a certain age so they all appeared to be at least young adults, but that was only the smallest of comforts. Founder above, this was far worse than any horror story she'd ever heard!

Louise's rage built as Mott gloated about how he enjoyed breaking them until they were his willing slaves. How he took great care to not use methods that would leave permanent and visible injury, as to not mar their beauty.

When they finally arrived at the cell which held Siesta, she froze up for a moment as she looked at the young woman sitting in the hay. She still wore her Academy uniform, although it looked slightly soiled in the front and not as pristine as she otherwise kept it. When she looked up at the sound of footsteps, Louise could see bruises marring the side of her face. She also saw that there was an iron collar locked around her neck, securely attached to an iron loop in the floor with a chain.

"You Founder-damned monster! How could you do this to innocent girls!?"

She didn't even realize that she'd said something out loud until the Count suddenly turned to look at her with a surprised expression that quickly turned hostile. "Excuse me? I didn't quite catch that!"

"I said you're a monster!" she spat at him, no longer able nor willing to keep up her previous pretense any longer. "How could you do this to human beings!?"

Count Mott drew himself up with a sneer as he looked distastefully at the girl who dared insult him, in his own home no less! "These are commoners!" he said with undisguised contempt as he dropped all pretense of civility.

"Look at how they play in the dirt with their primitive hand tools, squabbling over rocks and twigs!" he shouted at her, spittle flying through the air. "They are nothing without us Nobles, Vallière! Nay, less than nothing!"

She was taken aback by his vehement response, and he gave her no time to respond as he continued his rant.

"What price is a few women from insignificant families compared to the order I grant them?" he said, throwing his arms out and she noticed he was holding his wand now. "It's only fair that they pay us in the only thing they have in return for the gifts we bring them. Do you really think they could farm the food they need or build their homes without our help?"

He spat on the floor between them. "Of course not! They are dependent on us Nobles for this and you dare to tell me that I am a monster? Spare me the hypocrisy!"

She stared into his eyes, maddened by power and desire as she slowly inched her hand towards her own wand. "You're insane." she hissed. "When I tell the Princess what you've been up to, you'll hang!"

To her surprise he responded to that with a smirk, raising his wand at her. "And we can't have that, can we?"

She tried to dodge to the side, but she was not the target of whatever spell he was casting. They had passed several barrels of drinking water that stood in the middle of the corridor between the holding cells, and their contents burst out of their wooden containers with a single word from the Count. Louise barely had time to touch her wand, much less shout even the most rudimentary of spells as the water struck her like a viper, wrapping around her.

She yelped in surprise as the cold liquid enveloped her from the neck down and no amount of thrashing helped against its unyielding grip. Count Mott laughed gleefully at her struggles, and once again as they stopped as she found there was nothing she could do.

"The daughter of Duchess Karin de la Vallière herself." he gloated, enjoying her discomfort as he slowly started walking in a circle around her. "Trapped like a rat in my grasp! Didn't you know my Runic name is Mott of the Wave?" he mocked her.

"That's right" she thought miserably. "I had totally forgotten he was a triangle water mage!"

"Now what shall we do with you?" he wondered out loud, but Louise still had some aces up her sleeves. "Do you really think my family will stand for this?" she shouted, making him pause in his circling.

"Hmm, you're correct." he said at length. "The Vallières is a quite powerful family, said to be quite close to the Royal Family."

"We are!" she confirmed. "So release me!"

He smirked at her back. "I think not, miss Vallière!" he said, using the honorific as a taunt. "With you as my hostage, I have untold riches at my fingertips!"

"It will never work!"

"Au contraire, my dear girl!" he said with a smile, in front of her once more. "It will definitely work, although..." Louise gulped, not liking his tone. "...although it would work even better if I broke you to my will first." he finished.

"With you as my willing trophy wife, Tristain itself will be at my fingertips!" he said, laughing at his own genius. "The throne will be mine!"

Louise gaped at the sheer audacity of this plan, how far was he going to take his megalomania? But she quickly steeled herself, she had prepared for this.

"I was going to offer you one last chance at mercy" she spoke loudly, causing him to pause in his crazed laughter as she glared at him. "But I am now officially out of mercy to give!"

"Hmph!" Count Mott said with a smirk. "An empty threat from a powerless girl! What could you possibly do that could harm me now?"

"Legion!" Louise shouted, causing Mott to twirl around in alarm to meet a possible second person. Did she have another person with her? "Commence the operation!"

"Acknowledged Commander, executing assault vectors."

"Who are you talking to?" he asked in confusion as she seemingly spoke to thin air. "There's no one here, girl! Did you really think that someone would be able to hear you this far-"

He was cut off as a distant explosion went off far above, echoing like thunder down the staircase to reach them. "What in the devil?" Mott spat as it was followed by additional explosions and series of staccato cracks that he didn't recognize.

Louise smirked as he turned to her. "Did you call the army here!?" he shouted at her.

"Who knows?" she asked rhetorically as dust continued to rain down on them, the women in the cells stirring at the unfamiliar noises.

Gritting his teeth, Count Mott started walking towards the exit just as the sound of rapid footsteps echoed down from the staircase. Moments later the Captain of his guards showed up, white as a sheet. "Count Mott!" he shouted.

"What in the blazes is going on up there!?" Mott shouted at him. "I-invaders sir!" the captain responded hurriedly. "T-they came out of nowhere, my men can't stop them!"

"Tch! Useless commoners!" Count Mott bit his lip for a moment as he pondered his alternatives. He had never bothered to plan an escape route from his dungeon, confident in its secrecy as it was known only to him and the captain of the guard.

"What do you want us to do, my Lord?"

With no other option, Mott pointed at the exit. "Go, show me where the attackers are coming from! I will personally aid in repelling these idiots!" turning back to Louise, he made a motion with his wand causing her to yelp as the blob of water moved to follow him as he ran up the stairs.

---

The sound of staccato cracks was joined with shouts and screaming as Count Mott at the guard Captain followed by Louise finally made their way to the surface. The entire manor had basically become a battlefield since he last saw it, with broken glass from the windows covering the expensive carpet.

Ignoring how it crunched underfoot, the Captain quickly led them towards where most of the action was going on, passing several guards propped up against the walls or lying on the floor. Mott frowned as he looked at the men, seeing no blood anywhere and many of the men were moaning in pain.

"What's happening here?" Mott shouted, the Captain hurried to answer him. "Black soldiers suddenly rushed the mansion out of nowhere, my lord! We didn't even see them until they started firing their muskets at us!"

"Then how come there's no bullet holes?"

"We don't know, my Lord! But our steel cuirasses appear to be stopping them to some degree, there hasn't been any fatalities as of yet."

Now that he mentioned it, Mott could see that the steel chest plates that the men wore were all heavily dented as if a shower of blows had struck them. He almost laughed at this, they must be low-quality mercenaries that couldn't afford enough powder for their weapons to kill them!

"Their weapons must be underpowered!" he gloated as they neared where he could hear fighting going on. "What are their numbers, Captain?"

"We don't know sir, we've only seen maybe twenty or thirty men."

"Hmph." the Count turned to Louise who had been silent this entire time, still held in her water prison. "You hear that, girl? Your mercenaries are useless!"

To his irritation, the girl only smiled at him. "Then you should have no problem then, should you?" she said in an infuriatingly calm tone, not seeming at all worried.

He didn't bother responding as they had made it into the dining room where his men were making their stand. Bits of food and broken dishes lay everywhere as the guards had used the tables to make impromptu barricades which they were taking cover behind.

As the Captain rushed to join them, Count Mott stayed behind in the doorway where he could look at the attackers and as all other so far, felt a chill go through him at the sight of them.

He had thought that perhaps the constant chatter of what he now recognized as gunfire was due to the sheer amount of men that the Vallière girl had brought, having been surprised to hear they were so few. Now he understood why they were having such troubles as he saw a handful of black-armored men blazing a constant torrent of fire at the barricades.

He had absolutely no idea what kind of magic it was to give them such a rate of fire, but he knew one thing for sure.

Those were not low-quality mercenaries.

---

Although she was cold and uncomfortable with the ability to move taken from her, Louise felt no fear as she was carried through the air in her watery prison. She had been getting constant updates from Legion about their advances through the mansion, and everything was going as Legion had predicted.

She had expressed her desire to him to not harm the guards of Count Mott's mansion, as they were simply men doing their duty just like any other soldiers. There was no need for the blood of innocents to stain the ground when all she wanted was the Count's and luckily, Legion had a solution.

She'd never heard of this 'vulcanized rubber' substance that he'd said that the regular bullets of the weapons carried by the Militants could be replaced with. He said they lacked the penetration needed to kill a man, and from the scores of groaning but alive men she saw it appeared that he had been right.

Just to be certain she had also instructed that they would not aim for their heads, which in retrospect had been a very good decision as she was pretty sure they might have died otherwise. Or lost all their teeth or their eyes or something else nasty!

"Commander," Legion's voice rumbled in her mind, bringing her out of her thoughts. "most of the building is now under our banner. By my estimates we have incapacitated 87.4% of all defenders. Only concussive grenades have been employed, as per your orders."

"Excellent." she whispered, unheard by all but herself and Legion in the din of the fighting. "Any casualties?"

"None on our side. Damage to opponents appear to be limited to heavy bruising and a few broken bones."

"We can get healers here later as long as none of them die from their injuries." she murmured, a little worried after hearing about how much of a beating they were taking.

"Acknowledged, Commander."

She turned her eyes to the back of Count Mott, feeling her anger reignite as she thought about the horrors she'd seen below. She would not show him the same courtesy as she did his guards, and they needed to take care of the women.

"Do we have any unoccupied men that can go down and free the women?"

"Yes Commander, I will divert a small force to that area immediately."

"Good, and, uh..." she winced as she recalled the state many were in. "Be gentle with them, would you? Some may require clothes and first aid, possibly more."

"It will be done Commander, none will be left behind."

She smiled. "That's wonderful to hear, I'm sure there are carriages somewhere that we can use to transport them back to the Academy." she'd make sure that they were all taken care of, her honor as a Noble demanded she do nothing less.

---

Siesta's hands throbbed as she pulled at the iron chain that bound her to the floor, trying to get it loose. When she had first been brought to the manor, everything had seemed to be mostly fine and she'd been made to sit down for tea with the Count. However, it wasn't long until she started feeling funny and the cup fell from nerveless fingers splashing tea all over her.

Everything soon went dark and when she came to, she was locked down here in the dungeon. She had heard rumors about the good Count Mott among the staff, but she could never have imagined it would be this bad!

Finally giving up, Siesta slumped back into the hay which had once brought her comfort as a child, but now only filled her with fear. She'd had a small glimmer of hope when Lady Vallière had appeared, and for a moment she thought that she would be freed. Surely she would set things right!

But the nightmare continued as they had a brief shouting match before the Count trapped Lady Vallière in water, only to change yet again as explosions started rattling above. When they had all rushed out she thought she had her chance but the damn chain that bound her proved both well-forged and solid and would not budge.

She pulled her knees to her chest as she listened to the roar she recognized as the muskets belonging to Lady Vallière's familiars, and she still hoped.

"What's that noise?" one of the women in the cell next to her mumbled in a defeated voice. "That's not the usual call."

Siesta vaguely recognized her as someone who had once worked at the Academy, but could not place her face. "That's the sound of repeating muskets." Siesta responded.

"There is such a thing?" the woman asked before letting out a tortured wail that tugged at Siesta's heartstrings. "How long have I been down here!?" she cried.

"I don't know." Siesta said, before taking a deep breath of musty air to reinvigorate herself. "But we must not lose hope!"

"Hope?" someone else croaked from the other side of cells. "There's no hope to be found here. Hasn't been for a long time."

But Siesta would not be so easily swayed. "The girl who was just here was Lady Vallière!" she shouted. "She saved me once from another Noble at the Academy of Magic, and the noises you're hearing right now-" she paused to allow them all to hear the chattering of automatic gunfire above. "-are the weapons of her familiars!"

"You are from the Academy?" the girl next to her asked, a little bit more clearly as she'd now sat up and actually looked at Siesta for the first time. "That's definitely the maid uniform..." she noted.

"Yes!" Siesta nodded. "I'm telling you, we will all be free soon!"

A murmur of voices rose at this, as none of them could deny that there had indeed been another Noble down with the Count, or Master as they were made to call him. The repeated staccato of guns was also impossible to ignore, as were the occasional explosion.

They were all going to be free soon!

However, all noise stopped as they heard a multitude of quick steps coming down the stairs, was the Count's guards coming to dispose of them?

But instead of guards in red uniforms and polished steel cuirasses with swords in their hands, a troop of identical men in night-black armor with red visors obscuring their faces came down. Nobody had any idea what to make of them until Siesta threw herself up and against the bars, waving her hand through them to get their attention.

"Thunder Warriors!" she cried. "Over here! We're over here!"

The large men quickly came over, and Siesta had never been so happy to see their grim shapes before! One of them came up to the bars, examined them for a moment and then slung its musket over his back by the carry strap.

"Stand clear!" it ordered her in that deep, metallic voice and she responded immediately by throwing herself backwards against the wall.

Siesta expected them to maybe shoot the lock or blow it up somehow, but instead she saw it reach out to grasp the bars in armored hands. Metal shrieked and tore under the hands of the Thunder Warriors as they pulled the heavy iron doors off by their hinges as easily as she'd tear a piece of paper!

She watched in awe as it moved it like it weighed nothing and just threw it aside before stepping inside the cell. It took a single pull of its hand to tear the iron ring from its mooring in the floor, and then she was free!

As she stumbled out of the accursed cell, she saw similar things happening all around her. Some of the women cried in both fear at the impossibly strength of these warriors and in joy as they were freed.

Several were in such bad states they needed to be carried out, but there were enough Thunder Warriors to carry them all and within moments they were moving towards the exit.

---

Count Mott was sweating bullets as he once more threw himself down below a table to avoid the actual bullets that had almost hit him. Splinters flew as they struck wood and he could hear the cries of the wounded all around him.

How could this possibly have happened!?

At first he had just shot pressured sprays and blobs of water at them, which normally was enough to knock a man over but were useless against these warriors. They had simply taken it without as much as a wince or a stumble, he might as well have had threw glasses of water at them for all it did!

Ice worked marginally better, as several of the black soldiers now had several ice arrows sticking out of them, but even that didn't slow them down. Mott had even taken a few hits for his troubles as the surprise had caused him to freeze for a few moments, which had been more than enough time for them to shoot him.

He gingerly touched the spots on his chest where they had struck with his fingertips, and hissed in agony as he touched what was undeniably a horrific bruise. As he used the tiny bit of healing magic he knew to lessen the pain, he cursed himself for not learning more when he had the chance.

How was he to know that he would actually need it one day!?

Breathing a sigh of relief as he managed to preform the most rudimentary of first aid, Count Mott's gaze went up to the despicable girl who caused all of this. The look on her face was one of the kind of serenity one might see on someone taking a walk on a beautiful summer day, as opposed to a battlefield with bullets flying everywhere!

He felt his blood boil at the gall of this girl! Not only did she come into his home, abuse his hospitality AND trick him into thinking she was a kindred spirit, she also turned his beautiful manor into a battlefield!

It did however present him with an opportunity he didn't previously think of, and he enjoyed the surprised look on her face as he called the blob of water that held her to him. He stood up once he had positioned it in front of him, noting with a certain amount of glee that the constant barrage had stopped.

"Much better!" Count Mott said triumphantly as he looked down the room towards the black-armored men who were pointing their muskets in his direction, but not firing! He counted eight of them, and he had to admit they were quite terrifying, but had obviously not counted on him being this clever!

"Now put your weapons down, or the girl gets it!" he shouted at them.

The few of his men that had not yet taken enough damage to go down cautiously peeked up over their barricades, but immediately hunkered back down when the response came.

"Surrender the girl." one of them intoned in a bizarrely deep, reverberating voice that was unlike any Mott had ever heard before.

"You should do as they say, Count." the girl he held hostage said with a confidence that irritated him. How dare she? "Silence!" he shouted at her.

"Release the girl." it said again, and suddenly Mott heard footsteps as additional black-armored soldiers appeared from the same door he came through! "You are surrounded. You have 15 seconds to comply."

Now the Count was sweating, he quickly looked around to see the remaining guards had dropped their weapons and were cowering like children. "You cowards!" he spat at them. "Have you no pride!?"

"M-my Lord!" he heard and looked down at the Captain who was still at his side, now nursing a broken arm. "Perhaps it is best if we obey?" he said hopefully.

Everything was lost. The realization hit Count Mott like thunder from a clear sky as the black-armored soldiers closed in. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen!

"Nobody move!" he shouted as he pressed the tip of his wand against the girl's neck. "I'll take her head off! I'll-"

He was cut off as he suddenly felt something welling up in his throat and he coughed hard, seeing blood flow from his mouth. Looking down, he saw the tip of a sword sticking out of his chest.

"Y-you..." he gasped at the guard Captain who had run him through, his face terrified but resolute. "You bastard..." he coughed before his legs folded beneath him, sending him to the floor.

His concentration broken by the mortal wound he had sustained from this act of treachery, the water holding Louise lost the power that was holding it up and she crashed to the floor with a sudden cry of surprise. She was soon helped to her feet by her golems and shivered as the air touched her soaked clothes.

"Are you unharmed, Master?" Legion asked and she nodded numbly as one of her Militia came over with a blanket and wrapped it around her. "J-just really cold."

She looked down when she heard a wet cough and saw the Count lying in a pool of his own blood, the Captain sitting right where he had fallen, weeping at the horrible deed he had done.

"Y-you'll all... burn.. for this..." the Count mumbled as his life left him, but Louise shook her head.

"No Mott, you brought this on yourself."

"Sic semper tyrannis." the Militia chorused, making her blink at the unfamiliar words until Legion translated it to her.

"It is Latin, Master. An ancient tongue of Earth, it means 'Thus ends all tyrants'."

Louise nodded faintly, seeing why he had said that. "Thus ends all tyrants." she repeated out loud as she watched the light fade in Mott's eyes.

---

About an hour later, Louise found herself feeling reasonably better as she sat in one of the undamaged rooms of the mansion. A cup of hot tea sat in her hands, prepared by one of her golems, as she waited for the healers and officials to finish.

She had Legion call them as soon as it was over from the nearest town, and they had been combing through the mansion since they got there. They had suspected her of murder at first until the guard Captain came forward and admitted that the Count's death was on his hands, after which they simply told her to go and wait for them to finish.

All 32 of her Militia had then gathered to guard her, most of them in the room with her with the remaining eight standing just outside. And although things had gone as planned aside from the Count's sudden death by his own man, the victory still felt hollow somehow.

"You did well, Legion." she mused out loud as she stared down into her tea.

She wasn't sure where they'd found tea, but she was starting to get used to the idea that Legion knew how to do anything. The whole 'total sum of human knowledge' thing seemed to be true, after all.

"Thank you, Master."

"I just wished that Count Mott didn't have to die." she said, surprised how sad she felt over the fact that he died. "I only wanted to beat him and then send him to prison."

"Casualties is an inevitability of war, Master."

"This isn't a war, Legion." she reminded him tiredly.

"It is not, yet people die every day all the same. You could not have foreseen this event."

"No, I guess not." she snorted, feeling a little silly about it at the same time. "At least he won't hurt anyone, ever again."

"The dead rarely do, Master."

Louise took another sip of her tea as the door opened, she didn't bother checking who as she knew that Legion wouldn't let anybody suspicious inside. Still, she almost choked on it when the person in question shouted her name.

"Lady Vallière!"

Looking up, she beheld the beaming visage of Siesta standing over her. Although she was still wearing the soiled maid's uniform, the collar and chain had been removed and she looked a lot better after she'd had a chance to freshen up a bit.

"Siesta." Louise greeted her with a tired smile, only to have the maid step forward and take the teacup from her hands and carefully set it to the side. "Eh?" she blinked in confusion.

She got her answer as she saw Siesta's eyes suddenly teared up and fell to her knees in front of her, throwing her arms around the younger girl in a tight hug, crying like a baby into her shoulder. "I'm so happy you came!" she sobbed, Louise sitting frozen for a few moments in pure surprise at the sudden embrace.

"H-hey, calm down!" Louise cried as she tried unsuccessfully to calm the borderline hysterical maid down. "You're safe now!"

"I know!" Siesta cried into her shoulder and Louise was a bit surprised to feel how badly she was shaking. "I was so afraid I'd never get out of here! That I'd never see my family again! That I'd die here!"

The Noble sighed softly as she started rubbing little circles over the maid's back as she cried, not being able to blame her. She found she really couldn't blame her as she'd have done the same thing in her shoes, probably.

After a few minutes, Siesta's sobs died down enough for her to slowly untangled herself from Louise. "Oh no, I made a mess." she said between sniffles. Louise looked down at her shoulder and found that there was a large, wet spot from her tears. Weirdly enough, she wasn't the least irritated over this.

"Ah, it's alright." Louise smiled faintly in good humor. "You'll get it clean for me later, right?"

"Yes!" Siesta said with a bright smile, before suddenly looking very contemplative about something. "You know, usually the hero gets a big kiss after saving a maiden."

Louise's eyes widened as the maid's eyes met her with a smile that suddenly frightened her. "H-hey, wait! That's not necessary!" she almost started panicking when Siesta's face got closer, and closer.

"I don't need a kiss! Don't!" and since the maid's hands were still on her shoulders, Louise found she couldn't escape either!

---

Some of the healers looked up as they heard a loud cry of "Noooooooo!" only for it to be suddenly silenced.

They briefly looked at each other, shrugged as it didn't sound like someone was in danger before going back to healing the bruises of the groaning guards on the floor.

"Nobles." one of them remarked, followed by agreeing mutters from everyone else in the room..

---

And there you have it, folks! Chapter 5.

Bet none of you expected Mott to go down like that, did you?

Some of you might be saying that Louise wouldn't go to such lengths for a lowly commoner, but to me it makes sense. Yes they had a rivalry and such going in canon, but without a person for them to be rivals over things are different. Louise hasn't lived a very easy life despite - or perhaps due to - being a noble, so if I was in her shoes I wouldn't be extremely picky over my friends. I will however point out that she didn't immediately accept Siesta as her friend, and I've been making an effort not to make it go too fast.

Will it lead to an actual relationship? Maybe. One kiss does not a relationship make and it's far too early for Louise to be in a relationship with anyone, but I do intend for there to be one eventually. This isn't a shipping fic mind you, but it will have romance all the same.

Also, Derflinger acquired! A lot of the reviewers of the last chapter pointed out that he's quite too large for Louise and I agree completely with this, as I wrote in this one, but I've taken that into account. The reason he hasn't talked yet like he normally does also has a reason to it that will be revealed later, like so much else. The story about the Grosse Messer is a real one and it happened pretty much as I described, although I probably missed a few things since I'm no historian, but the weapon does exist.

All you medieval weapon nuts out there (you know who you are!) will probably find some issues with how I wrote the weapon shop, but hopefully I did a good job. I know a decent amount myself about European weapons and I did my research about everything I tried describing. If anyone feels the need to give me further tips and/or information, please do!

Can anyone guess what kind of weapon it is that Osmond has locked up that he calls the Staff of Destruction? I'll give virtual cookies to whomever gets it right! I'll tell you right away though that it's not a M72 LAW, but something from the Tiberian Earth universe!

As always, please leave a review if you liked it!