Author's Note: I just watched episode eight of the new season. I actually saw some things I'd already written about in later chapters. I could only laugh. Anyway, I won't spoil the story or the anime for you. Episode 8 is a must watch in my opinion.
Chapter 5.
Dawn arrived as it usually did over the land of Tristain, light pouring over the countryside filling in the cracks where night reluctantly let loose it's tenuous grip on the morning. At the magical academy of Tristain, the peaceful morning was getting off to its usual start.
"SAITO!" Louise was screaming at the top of her lungs.
Saito sat up like a shot in the bed. He looked to where Louise always lay to see nothing there. Instead the pounding of his head was keeping rhythm with the pounding of the door. Remembering the previous night's debacle, Saito dragged himself to the door and opened it to find Louise on the other side... in a maid outfit.
"I must still be dreaming." Saito said with a yawn as he reached out to cop a feel from the dream apparition in front of him. Upon feeling nothing, or at least the something that was often compared to nothing but was in fact quite soft, Saito's eyes opened wide to look down at Louise's red face as she simmered.
"Please... hurry... m-m-m-master. You need to get ready for later." Louise managed to stammer with murderous intent in her eyes.
Saito dragged her quickly into the room and slammed the door. "What are you doing?"
"I've come to get you ready to meet with the queen m-m-m-master." Louise managed, though it was obvious she wasn't very happy addressing him as 'master'.
"No, I mean why are you wearing that outfit? What stupidity is this?" Saito demanded.
"I've given up being a noble." Louise said sadly. "I asked Siesta to accept me as another of your servants. Henrietta told me that she would accept whatever consequences I demanded. So, I'm going to become your maid along with Siesta."
"But... why?"
"I thought it would be the only way you'd ever believe me that I love you more than anything else." Louise said softly. "I love you Saito, and if this is the only way, then so be it."
"Why won't you just marry me then?" Saito pressed.
"Because I love Henrietta too. She's lonely Saito. I failed to save Wales for her, and now she's hurting with no one else to turn too. Please. You're the only person she'll accept. Please ask her to marry you when she comes later today." Louise openly begged him.
A quiet knock at the window brought Saito's attention away from Louise to a cloaked figure outside room. "It looks like she's already here."
Saito opened the window to allow his queen and potential wife into the room. Louise immediately knelt as she pulled back her hood to look around. "Louise, what are you..."
"Good morning Your Majesty. Would you like me to bring breakfast to you?" Louise asked formally.
"Please Louise, please don't." Henrietta said sadly. "I've come to apologize."
"You can't." The void mage said swiftly. "You must see this through. It's the best for everyone."
"Louise, I lost my nerve." The queen said quickly. "What I said last night, I can't do it. I can't sacrifice our friendship just for an easy way out. Please marry Saito. I'll figure something else out."
"Even though you love him too?" Louise accused her childhood friend.
The stately young woman was quiet for sometime before she finally found her voice. "Yes, I care for Saito too. I've been jealous of you all this time with your freedom and having him all to yourself. I've been jealous of you having him to protect you and make you happy. But I must be strong, I'll just have to find a marriage of convenience."
Louise was looking pointedly at Saito. He wished she wasn't, but finally he swallowed hard and dove ahead. "Henrietta, will you marry me?"
Despite nodding, Louise looked like she was dying inside. Henrietta turned to him in astonishment as if he'd grown two heads. Finally she looked at Louise and shook her head. "Louise put you up to that Saito. I know how much you love her. I wish you loved me that much but I know it isn't true. I can't go around destroying your life together just for the sake of my own happiness."
Saito was grinding his teeth at the melodrama playing out in front if him. "What about your happiness? Isn't there any way we can all be happy together? What about this Just-Primal-Knocked-It stuff?"
"Just marry her you idiot." Louise said in exasperation. "As long as I'm with you I'll be happy."
"Yeah, but your father's going to freak and probably try to kill me afterwards." Saito complained.
"I hate to tell you this love but, there's probably going to be people that want you dead after you marry the queen anyway just so they can try to take your place at her side." Louise replied knowingly. "I can think of at least two."
"Four." Henrietta amended.
"See." Louise said motioning to her childhood friend and now bitter rival.
"That's one of the reasons I want Saito. Anyone else wouldn't be able to stand up to such men." Henrietta explained.
"Alright, I understand now. You're in a hard position, and I'm the only person you can turn to that you care about enough to marry. I get it. Just promise me one thing, both of you." Saito stated as he sat down heavily.
"What?" Louise asked.
"First, you're keeping your title." Saito said firmly. "I'm not going through with this if I know it's going to cost you so dearly. I believe you Louise. I understand that you love me and that you'd give anything up to be with me and that you're thinking of the welfare of your people and your best friend with this solution."
Louise looked ready to argue but something in his stare seemed to shut her up for once. "Okay."
"Secondly, Henrietta, I want to be with Louise. I will marry you, I will fight for you, I will give you children, but I cannot give you my heart. It already belongs to her. I do care for you Henrietta, and some might say I even love you, but please don't make me send her away from my side. She is my master so that should suffice for a reason as to why we're always together, and if we must we'll keep our affair a secret. Just please allow us this, that is, if Louise will also take me like this. Agreed?" Saito said seriously.
"And what about me?" Siesta demanded opening the door quickly.
Saito just sort of sagged in defeat. "Siesta too."
"Agreed." Henrietta said quickly. "I never believed you'd actually marry me Saito. I thought that I'd have to use my powers as the queen to make you stay with me until I was pregnant and then hope that Louise would someday forgive me. I never wanted it to be that way. I never once believed that it would turn out like this, though. I wish I could be the one you loved the most, but if this is how you wish it, then so be it."
"Please Henrietta, your reputation must come first." Louise chided her friend.
"And will you take me like this too Louise?" Saito asked seriously. "Can you be happy like this? Your reputation would be harmed too if it got out."
"Please, people don't really care about me. At least not like they do about their queen. I'm Louise the Zero, remember?" Louise stated flatly.
"And as far as you're concerned, if it gets out they'll just see you as a philandering, filthy, no-good cheater, who can't keep it in his pants, and who constantly hurts our beloved queen whom he doesn't deserve." Siesta supplied helpfully.
"Basically, no change there." Louise shot back acidly. "If this keeps up we're going to have to start a schedule assigning everyone their own day to be with Saito."
"I already started one." Tabitha said handing a sheet of paper to Louise. She then started taking breakfast off the cart and putting it on the table. It took a moment for Saito to realize she was also dressed in a maid outfit.
"When?" Saito asked turning to Siesta.
"Came by and asked after Louise left this morning." His maid replied warmly.
"She must have heard us arguing last night." Louise reasoned.
"I think the whole castle probably heard us arguing last night." Saito put in just before an elbow from his diminutive girlfriend took the wind out of him.
The next few days passed by far too slowly for Saito's taste. While he cared for Henrietta a great deal, and thought she was gorgeous, there were things about her personality that made him care for Louise more. They both had a melodramatic streak a mile wide that tended to lean towards altruistic martyrdom far more than he found comfortable. Louise was bad enough, but Henrietta elevated it to an art form. He supposed it was a good quality for people to have in general, but it could get annoying when it was a part of the person you wanted to spend a long enriching life with.
He supposed it was just some sort of unexplainable connection between him and Louise that made him desire and love her more than any other girl. He knew Siesta and Henrietta probably found this annoying in him but apparently both were willing to over look it for the sake of having him in their lives in one form or another.
His official title was going to be raised to that of a prince or perhaps a duke of some type, and had already been raised to that of royal champion. He was told by the bishop explaining the title to him that it meant that in cases if a personal duel or any matter pertaining to combat, the champion acted in the queen's place. He found this a bit disturbing in that apparently he could also lead the army of Tristain in the queen's absence.
The part that made him grind his teeth the most though was the wedding preparations. Agnes and Guiche were into it over who would act as the honor guard for the ceremony. Guiche insisted on the Undine Knights, while Agnes was equally emphatic about it being her musketeer squadron. Saito just let them argue and had avoided the two of them for the past few days.
With Saito now 'officially' out of the picture, Louise's family had set about trying to marry her off again. This was curtailed at least in the short term by Henrietta using that 'Knocked Up' rule again insisting that she wanted to find someone for Louise since she was now second in line for the throne until Henrietta delivered her first born.
Finally, the day arrived amid fanfare and great celebration with Undine Knights and musketeers in attendance with each knight (since they were all male) each escorting one musketeer (since they were all female). Guiche regretted this since as the leader of the Undines he was escorting Agnes to the wedding, which normally would have been punishment enough, but Montmorency had caught wind of it and was currently making Guiche's life miserable out of jealousy.
Saito looked at the royal robes he was expected to wear for the wedding and came to two conclusions. One, the reason nobles were always dressed by their servants was probably due to the effort required to be dressed up in the heavy clothing that as far as he could tell had been designed to be as uncomfortable as humanly possible. Most likely by a common tailor who was off somewhere secretly laughing. Second, the word 'regal' was apparently another word for 'stupid'.
"You look absolutely regal." Guiche said with a smile.
"I couldn't agree more." The young warrior said looking in the mirror at his reflection and frowning. "If I felt any more 'regal', I think I'd have to kill myself out of embarrassment."
"Stand still Saito." Siesta ordered as she finished putting the 'regal' looking collar around his neck that was composed of two parts lace and eight parts pins.
"Remind me why I'm doing this again?" Saito whined.
"Because if you don't, I won't be able to tell who kills you first, Louise or Henrietta." Siesta said with her brow furrowed in concentration as she finished putting the last pin in place. "Of course you know, I don't mind a life on the run if you want to skip all this, throw me over your shoulder, jump out the window, and run away into the sunset."
A long silence passed until Guiche cleared his throat. "I'm thinking..." The groomed young groom said pensively.
"Oh, how horrible for you having to go through with a marriage to one of the hottest, wealthiest, sweetest, and most powerful women in the realm." Guiche bemoaned sarcastically. "If you're looking for sympathy, go look in the dictionary. You'll find it somewhere before syphilis, and somewhere after sh..."
"GUICHE!" Agnes roared looking into the room.
"Here!" The cowed noble shouted saluting his female counterpart.
"Come on, we're nearly ready." The aggressive musketeer ordered pulling him out of the room.
"I better get going too." Siesta said quickly. "Remember, stand at the main doors and wait for the music to start, then join the queen at the altar."
"I thought the bride comes in to the groom at these things." Saito griped.
"She's the queen, you come to her." The maid scolded. "It might be a bit different from normal weddings, but then they are nobles..."
Saito nodded regally as his maid left him to stare at himself in the mirror. He couldn't shake the feeling he was making a terrible mistake even if Henrietta and Louise were alright with this.
Saito made his way to the large doors leading into the castle's chapel and stood there until he heard the music begin to play. As the doors opened he stood straight and walked toward the altar just as Louise had beaten into him over the past few days. Before him Henrietta waited in her royal wedding gown. Saito tried to imagine it was Louise waiting for him and hoped it helped him make it through this.
Saito marched past the assembled guests and the honor guard of musketeers and Undine Knights who lined the aisle to guard his approach to his queen and soon to be wife. He stopped a few steps before Henrietta and bowed as he'd been taught.
"Who comes forward to claim the hand of the Queen of Tristain as his own?" Bishop Madolene intoned formally for all to hear.
"I Chevalier Hiraga Saito, knight of the queen, come forward to claim my queen's hand in marriage, if she will have me." Saito recited.
"Does my queen find this man to be suitable?" The bishop continued.
"I find him the most worthy." Henrietta agreed tearfully.
"Then step forward Chevalier Hiraga Saito and take your rightful place at our queen's side, and place your hand over hers on the royal scepter. I will then bind your souls together for all eternity in holy wedlock." The bishop pronounced.
As Saito stepped forward and placed his hand over Henrietta's holding the scepter the bishop began to recite the ceremony to the gathered guests. Saito stood there and wished he could look to Louise for support. As the bishop slowly continued, Saito began to feel something was wrong. He began to smell something burning and when Henrietta's hand flexed beneath his, he looked down to realize that it was him. The hand that covered hers happened to be the one that had the rune on it and as he watched it was beginning to ignite with an intense burning light.
Saito looked at Henrietta worriedly, and she was staring in fascination at the back of his hand. Finally, with the pain being too great to bear, Saito yanked his hand away.
"Saito, what's wrong?" Henrietta cried worriedly as the pain continued to grow.
"I... I don't know..." Saito got out between clenched teeth as the light from his rune continued to grow brighter as the pain intensified.
The young Japanese boy then cried out in agony as he dropped to his knees and then collapsed the pain arcing through his body making it feel like he were on fire all over.
"Saito!" Henrietta was yelling now. "Someone please help him!"
All Saito was aware of through the pain as the light continued to burn painfully brighter was that people were holding him, he could hear Louise yelling in fear and even guests at the back of the chapel could see something was happening. The guards were barely able to hold back the tide of people wanting to see as people started yelling and screaming. Agnes was trying to regain order as the ceremony began to devolve into chaos.
"Hold on Saito." Tabitha was saying trying to support him. Saito could no longer see, all around him he heard people running and felt hands holding him up.
Then he screamed in the loudest voice he could have imagined. The pain flashed along with the light and finally darkness raced in to meet him.
Old Osmond sat there blinking for a moment. As the light died down he could finally see the place where the young man Saito had been standing with the queen, Louise, the foreign princess Tabitha, and his maid Siesta. The girls had raced forward to help him when he'd fallen, now where they stood only a thin wisp of acrid smoke curled up from the singed carpet. Stunned, Osmond turned to Ms. Longueville next to him. "Was that supposed to happen?"
A/N: Heh heh... Just Primal Knocked It... I loved that gag.