It was a sunny day at the town of Habar, her streets bustling with the sounds of vendors loudly advertising their wares, customers haggling over prices, and a certain pink haired girl chastising her familiar over his plebeian manners.
"Don't you have streets like this where you came from?" Louise yanked Saito away from a carpet vendor who was showing off a purple carpet.
"Yeah, but this is magical! It reminds me of the time I went to Turkey with my family. Hey, look at that! A moving glass chicken!"
Saito's curiosity possessed him and he started to move towards the stall selling various glass items.
"Hey, that's just a salt dispenser. Jeez, you're embarrassing. What's this 'tooki' anyway?" Louise sighed and pulled Saito away by his ear.
It was Void Day, a national holiday celebrating the deeds of the Void Mages who crushed the Ancient Dragon before it could return Halkegenia back to the Stone Age. Louise decided to buy Saito a weapon, so here they were, after several hours on horseback.
Saito woke up from his coma after three days, the strange dream forgotten past the shores of his consciousness. He half expected Louise to hug him when he woke up, a byproduct of watching too much dramas, but what he got instead was a basket full of unwashed clothes and getting yelled at for sleeping on Louise's bed.
Saito did notice that Louise looked like a panda with her heavy eye bags under her hazel eyes though. He scratched the back of his head and turn to look at Louise.
"Hey, I heard from Siesta that you were the one taking care of me when I was asleep. Anyway, um, thank you."
Louise blushed and lowered her head. "That's just because nobody wanted to take care of you, idiot." Though her words seemed harsh, her voice was surprisingly soft.
They continued to walk among the crowd in silence for a while. Saito stole a few looks at his master and soon found himself drowning in her hazel eyes.
"Who's this Siesta anyway?" Louise decided to break the silence.
"Oh she's just this maid whom I met when I was washing your underwear one day."
"So she's one of the maids from the academy."
"Yeah. Hey Louise, can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Louise tilted her head cutely as she turned and raised her head to look at Saito.
"Siesta told me that girls normally wear bras here too, but why don't you have any?"
With lightning speed, Louise's hand reached for her wand and soon an explosion rocked the center of the town, along with the pitiful moans of a dense familiar.
There was only one weapons dealer in Habar, sitting in a dark shop in the back alleys. He kept guard on a stool behind the counter, his mousy eyes drooping. It seemed like another day of bad business.
Just then, the door bell rang and in came a cloaked noble girl dragging a lump of cloth behind her. She released the cloth and it fell on the ground with a heavy thump.
"I'm here to buy a weapon for this dog here." Louise gave Saito a kick.
"Well miss, you've come to the right place." The shopkeeper gave her the best smile he could give. It wasn't every day when he could get a noble customer.
Saito managed to get up after a few tries. He rubbed his bruised body. Louise could really be violent when she was angry. However, his eyes shone brightly in excitement when he realized where he was.
The store was filled with every medieval weapon of war Saito could imagine. The walls was filled with shields of various coat of arms, each painted with a shiny finish. Halberds, swords and rapiers were arranged nicely along the walls.
"I don't really know anything about weapons so just give me your best weapon in the shop." Louise said haughtily.
The shopkeeper was all smiles. He wondered what good luck he had today. This was going to be easy business. A clueless little noble girl with tons of money was the perfect customer to phish.
He showed them a rapier encrusted with jewels from his stores. It seemed more ornamental than battle ready. Louise wondered if it could even pierce paper. She thought back to how Saito defeated Guiche with his bare hands.
"Do you have something broader and larger?"
"Trust me on this mademoiselle, your servant can't take something that heavy."
"Just bring me what I want, plebeian." Louise pursed her lips together and shooed the shopkeeper with her tiny hands.
The shopkeeper snorted in rage when he turned his back to Louise. How dare the little brat question his experience?
The next weapon he showed her was a huge golden broadsword. It shone even under the dim lights in the store. Saito's eyes beamed as his hands went over the sword. Looking at Saito's reaction, Louise nodded and asked for the price.
"That would be 3000 ecu." The shopkeeper rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
Louise's eyes widened. "I could have bought a castle and the surrounding land with that sort of money!"
"A good sword is as valuable as a castle, you know?"
Louise ground her teeth as she peeked into her purse.
"Could it be sold at less? I've only a hundred ecu with me."
Saito and the shopkeeper both slumped their shoulders. The shopkeeper's tone turned scornful.
"Young lady, all weapons here are sold at a price of two hundred ecu or more. Are you sure you really want to buy a weapon with that measly amount of money?"
"Don't you have a lot of pocket money as the daughter of a noble?" Saito folded his arms.
"Speaking of that, I would have, if someone just hadn't went on to get himself badly injured and had me buy an expensive reagent for him" Louise glared at Saito. He looked around guiltily for something else that he could salvage.
Just then Saito noticed a familiar shape in the corner. He picked it up, his hands shaking in joy. It looked like two short sticks that were joined together side by side. The sticks also had a hilt sticking perpendicularly out of the body at about the third of its length. Louise noticed that its body was rusty and the hilt was covered in rough cloth. It looked much suitable as scrap metal but somehow Saito has taken a liking to this trash.
"Is that even usable?"
"It's a tonfa, Louise, something from my world!" Saito never thought of finding a weapon from his world before. "I had some training in using this since I was a kid."
Saito split the tonfa and wielded them in his hands and practiced a few moves with it. Louise had to admit that it seemed quite graceful in his hands, though she has never seen something like it.
"Where did you get this from?" Saito wondered if it came from his world.
"Oh that? I have no idea, but you can get it for a hundred ecu anyway. It's just trash."
While Saito was a little offended by the way the shopkeeper referred to his choice, he was too engrossed in thinking about the modifications that he could build into the tonfa that he did not mind it at all.
Louise rolled his eyes and paid for the tonfa. I guess this is what Mother meant when she said boys will be boys, Louise thought. Her father was also somewhat of a wand fanatic who would spend hours looking at new wands.
Looking at the tonfa as he headed home with Louise, Saito was suddenly consumed by the strong feeling to return home. The memories of his family, his bed, his computer, flooded his mind and he began to weep on his own silently behind Louise.