-Log Cabin-
"Did all of that really happen? Tiffania asks Louise.
After Saito, Louise, and Siesta returned to the log cabin, Louise proceeded to explain what had occurred to Agnes and Tiffania. Siesta also had to explain what occurred to Siesta since she had passed out for the summoning ritual and aftermath.
"So, you tried to summon Saito with the summoning spell and ended up summoning two unrelated people?!" Siesta says in quite a shocking tone.
She nods.
"How…how is that possible…"
Suddenly, Derfflinger comments from Saito's back, "I already tried to tell her that summoning the same familiar twice in a row was impossible. Yet she wouldn't listen to me. Oh well."
"S-shut up!" Louise sends a quick glare at the sword, which causes it to retreat back into its sheath.
"You…you really tried to summon me again?" Saito looks at her with a mixture of surprise and happiness.
"I…It's would''ve been useful to have your strength! That's all. N-Nothing more than that…" She blushes and quickly turns her head away from him.
"This is certainly something unheard of." Agnes begins. "I will have to report this to her highness as soon as we return."
"W-wait! Do you have to?!" Louise asks in a panic.
"Yes, I cannot overlook this matter. You do recall the rules regarding summoning familiars, do you not?"
Louise almost instantly knows what she is talking about and after a long pause, slowly nods.
"What are the rules exactly?" Saito asks.
Agnes answers, "You already know one, you cannot summon the same familiar twice. Though this is special as this literally cannot happen. There are two other main rules. One is that you must summon a familiar once you become a second year student. As for the other, I believe Louise can answer that."
Everyone looks towards Louise expectantly. Slowly, she answers, "I-It's the fact that you cannot summon a new familiar while your current one is alive…"
Taffania puts her hands to her mouth in shock, "So that means…"
Agnes finishes, "Yes, she just committed a major crime. The queen will have to decide for herself what she will do with you."
Saito begs, "Can you please reconsider? She didn't mean to summon them. It was an accident."
"That summoning was no accident. It was very deliberate."
"Then…please punish me in her stead. She was trying to summon me after all." Saito asks Agnes in a semi-desperate voice.
"But she started it." Siesta counters.
"The maid is right. You cannot get out of this Louise. Before that, there is one other major task we must take care of."
"What is that?" Saito asks.
"Finding the two people she summoned. I'm sure they are very confused as to what happened to them. It would be very irresponsible of us to leave them alone."
"But that girl attacked Louise! What if she does it again?" He asks.
"Louise guided you when you first entered this world. Remember how confused and scared you were at first?" Siesta reminds him. "Shouldn't the same be done for them? We can talk it out with them and see why she attacked her."
Despite wishing he would not see them again, he realizes that she has a point. "That's true. But still, I'm worried about Louise."
"I have you to protect me, don't I? You are my familiar after all." She smiles at him. "Besides, if push comes to shove, I'm fairly certain I can defend myself. I'm not as helpless as I was back then."
"I'll assist however I can, though I don't know how much help I'll be…" Tiffania says.
"Sounds like it's decided. I'll head out and look for them immediately. The rest of you can stay and rest." Agnes says.
"I'm coming too." Saito declares.
"Saito…" Louise slowly says.
"Are you certain?" Agnes asks. "You do not have your rune and it could be quite dangerous out there."
He nods, "Yes, if we are to meet with them again, I'd like to talk with them first at least. See if I can figure out their motives."
Agnes puts on a small smile as she is proud of him for taking the initiative like that, as well as putting himself in harm's way for everyone's sake. "Very well. Let's go."
The two exit the log cabin and begin to search around for them, figuring they couldn't have gone very far.
-Area Around Log Cabin-
While Saito and the others were having a chat inside the log cabin, Anthony and Faye have been travelling through the forest for the past 15 minutes with no sign of any exit. While they have been walking, Anthony has been explaining to his maid about some of magic in this world as well as a brief explanation of the various inhabitants of this world.
"I see, so fire, water, wind, and earth magic are the main types among humans, specifically nobles. Then there is void magic, which only four people in this world can use, including that bratty pinkhair girl. Then there is nature magic, which relies on the power of spirits to use. Interesting."
"Correct." He says.
"So by these rules, my magic is quite unusual. Since it seems only elves can cast pure healing magic." Suddenly, her eyes widen. "Master, may I test to see if my magic still works?"
He nods, "Yeah, here's a small cut I made on a twig a little bit ago." He shows a small cut on his right arm.
Faye frowns, "Please tell me when these sorts of things occur sooner. I hate seeing you in pain." Applying her healing magic by hovering her hands above his cut, a small white light emanates between her hands and his scar. A few moments later, the cut removes itself and new skin is generated at a rapid pace.
She smiles once the white light disappears. "Good, it is still effective."
Anthony takes a look at where his former cut was and smiles as well, "Yep, thank you very much." He rubs her head a little.
She smiles even more brightly than before, "Of course. It's the least I can do."
They resume walking and discussing about the predicament they are in.
"How do you plan to save Saito?"
Anthony pauses in his path for a moment before resuming walking. "I…I don't know exactly. Obviously, we need to befriend him, but he seemed pretty upset after you punched Louise."
"She insulted you. I cannot allow that. However, I do deeply apologize if that made making friends with him that much more difficult. I'm willing to do whatever I can to fix this."
"Don't worry about it. With how much she got away with, I really enjoyed seeing her get a taste of her medicine. Even if it was only for a brief moment. I think we could befriend him despite that. However, the main problem is avoiding having Louise finishing the ritual and thus officially making us her familiars."
Thinking about something for several moments, Faye responds with, "Logically speaking, wouldn't it be in our favor to become her familiar? We might get that Gandalfr power, easily slip into their group without upsetting anyone, and, most importantly, we don't have to obey any of her orders. You mentioned that void familiars have the unique ability to reject the orders of their masters."
He nods, "That's true, and your logic is sound. Unfortunately, there is one extremely important detail I haven't mentioned yet that makes becoming her familiar dangerous. This detail is also at least part of the reason Saito is so willing to put up with her."
"What's that?"
He explains, "When you complete the ritual, alongside the rune, magic gets casted onto you. Specifically, mind magic. This mind magic is quite subtle, at first, but it gets more dangerous with time. Basically, the magic will slowly mold the familiar into the most ideal person for their summoner. The results vary to some degree between each person I think, but this is what happened to Saito. He grew more confident and powerful, however he also slowly began to lose his will to return home and began to desire to protect Louise no matter what. His willingness to carry out her orders also grew, but he did still bicker with her on that a lot.
Faye does not like the sound of this, "I see. So there's a possibility I may be manipulated by this magic to desire to serve her."
"Yep. The level of devotion varies too. Saito tends to try to not obey her sometimes if he finds it ridiculous. However, she'll just simply threaten or literally beat him into compliance. There's another familiar of a void mage who is completely devoted his master."
She shudders, "That's terrifying."
He smirks, "Says the one who's fully devoted to someone."
She states resolutely, "That's because I fully chose by my own free will to serve you master! No mind magic was involved, unlike here. If I actually served someone due to being mind manipulated, that would be awful."
"Agreed. That's why we should avoid having her complete the ritual at all costs." He states. Suddenly, he sees some lights up ahead and they both quickly run towards the source of said lights.
"Maybe we found a home or something!" Anthony says enthusiastically.
Upon reaching the outer fields of the forest, which is about 100 feet from the log cabin, they stop and take a closer look at the building.
"I can see a little light coming from under the front door. I think that means there are people in there." Anthony notes.
"Yes, likely so." She agrees.
A moment later, Faye hears a twig snap not far behind them. She quickly turns around and gets into a defensive pose, making sure Anthony is right behind her. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
A female with short tan hair in a white and black knight outfit approaches them.
"A male and female…check. They fit the physical descriptions they provided. Yep, they are the ones." She mumbles as she gets closer to them.
Anthony widens his eyes upon seeing her. Agnes! She's part of that musketeer squad! If she's here, the others must be nearby as well. Probably in that cabin! Crap!
"Hello." Agnes greats politely, "Are you two the familiars Louise summoned by any chance?"
Neither of them answer. Instead, Anthony grabs hold of Faye's hand and begins to run away to his right. They have to jump and swerve around a number of bushes.
Unfortunately, their run is cut short when Anthony bumps headfirst into someone.
"OW!" He yelps as he tumbles onto his back and immediately begins to rub his head.
"Master! Are you alright?!" Faye asks in a slight panic.
"Yeah…I think so."
"Oohhh…" Another voice groans a few feet in front of him.
Once he sits up and rubs his head as well, he attempts to see who exactly he ran into. Once he gets a good look at them both, he yelps, "You two! You two are the ones that were summoned!"
"Saito?!" Anthony says quickly in response, shocked to see him already so soon. Why is he out here? Aren't they all supposed to be in that cabin or something? Don't tell me…they were looking for us?!
"I'd appreciate if you two didn't resist." Agnes says as she approaches the three.
Faye quickly helps her master to his feet and they begin to bolt off once again.
Saito quickly sees their attempt to escape and shouts, "Wait! We won't harm you! Can we please talk?"
They stop in their tracks and slowly turn around.
"You won't turn us in to Louise and have her finish the ritual right?" Anthony asks suspiciously.
"No, if you're that against it. I understand what you two are feeling very well."
"If you're lying…" Faye gives him a little bit of a sinister glare.
"He is not. We won't turn you in. We simply want to find and talk with you about the circumstances you both are in." Agnes says.
"…fine. But we are doing it here, got it?" Anthony sits down on the ground cross-legged. Faye follows suit.
"Very well." Agnes states and she and Saito get a bit closer to them and also sit down. They all introduce themselves to one another. Saito states he is Louise's familiar while Agnes says she is the captain of the Royal Musketeers who protect and serve queen Henrietta. Anthony admits he had a part-time job back in his previous world. Faye states she is Anthony's personal maid.
Agnes begins to explain some of the basics of the world that Anthony already knew about. Things regarding magic and how society functions. It would come off as weird and suspicious if he said he knew these things already, so he kept his mouth shut. She also explains their mission.
"We were trying to find out why exactly Saito had lost his rune and thus we came out here to find the, in Saito's words, 'fairy' who healed him after suffering some devastating wounds in a battle some time ago. We were fortunate to find out the cause of him losing his rune, although we don't know how to return it, if we even can. We were planning to return to Tristain tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, as you know, Louise got herself caught up in a battle. She foolishly tried to resummon Saito even though summoning the same familiar twice has never happened before."
"I see." Anthony simply says. I knew all that already. Although in canon she successfully resummoned Saito. So it's interesting she failed in this timeline. I wonder why. Either way, now that she failed in summoning him again, I imagine the timeline is going to quickly change somehow.
"Now, we have a favor we'd like to ask of you." Agnes says.
"If it's to become her familiar, then no, I refuse." Anthony quickly says.
"Same here." Faye agrees.
"That's not the favor we'd like to ask. The favor is that you two would come back to Tristain with us and introduce yourselves to our queen."
"Why?" He asks.
"We need to report what Louise has done to her highness. It would be suitable to have proof of what she has done. Especially since the summoning she performed was a major crime."
Anthony's eyes light up. "Wait, does that mean she'll get punished?"
"Quite possibly. It's up to her highness personally on what she'll do to her."
"Louise…" Saito mumbles. He wishes he could take the potential punishment for her, but he knows he cannot do so.
"Well…" Anthony begins to think about what to do.
Before he gets too far, Saito asks him and Faye. "Before you decide, did you two have any sort of plan on what to do? Like how to get home?"
"Yes. We'd like to go home of course, but we aren't exactly sure how we can do so."
"We know of a way you can return. If you come to Tristain with us, I will tell you how." Agnes says.
I know exactly what you're thinking of and sorry to say, I already know of it. Anthony thinks. Lucky for you, I actually want to go and meet her. Plus, this is a chance to grow our relationship with Saito and perhaps we could somehow get permission to use his plane. As long as Louise doesn't try to finish the ritual, there shouldn't be any real drawbacks.
"Alright, we'll go with you to Tristain and meet the queen."
"Master, are you sure about this?"
He sends her a wink. She nods in response. "I'll go as well."
Agnes gives a small sigh of relief as she stands up. The others follow suit. "Anthony, Faye, thank you both for your cooperation. I can't promise anything, but I imagine the queen will be merciful and will allow you to stay at Tristain for the time being until you can return to your world."
"Thank you for being so kind to us." Anthony says.
"I'm only doing my job as captain of the Royal Musketeers. Let's go back to the cabin now."
"You go on ahead Agnes, I want to talk about one more thing with them before we return." Saito says to her as she begins to walk to the cabin. She nods in reply and continues on her way.
He turns his head towards Faye and suddenly puts on a very serious face, "Faye was it? Why did you attack Louise?"
She puts on a similar face to his own, "Did you not hear me there? She insulted master. That sort of behavior will not be tolerated by me."
"I can understand that, but you went way too far. You could've really harmed her you know! She was still feeling pain from that punch when we got back to the cabin."
"Yet that punch from her to you was completely fine?" She counters.
He flinches a little. "Wh-what? How do you know about that?"
"We saw you get hit by her when we began to run away." Anthony responds. "I flinched seeing her punch you like that."
"I just said something really stupid, that's all. Nothing to worry about."
"Nothing to worry about?" Anthony repeats in a tone that sounds like he is offended. "Saito. That punch is not 'nothing to worry about'. That's abuse. No one should punch someone that hard just for saying something stupid."
"Listen, I'm happy that you're worried about me, but our relationship is better than you think it is. We actually love each other quite a bit, she just has a hard time expressing it sometimes. Anyway, our relationship is our business and I'd appreciate if you don't get too involved in it."
He sighs, "Alright, but please think deeply take what I'm about to say. Your relationship with Louise is toxic. Please think about whether it's a good idea to stick with her in the long term or not."
"Ok." Is all he replies as he turns around and makes his way to the cabin. Our relationship isn't toxic. It's none of your concern about what our relationship is like. We are doing just fine. And why are you saying all of this anyway? It's kinda creepy.
-Log Cabin-
As soon as the three head back to the cabin and open the door, they find that everyone except for Agnes are asleep. She says in a quiet voice, "I've reserved a spot in this corner for the newcomers. It's not much, but it should be enough for one night."
In the corner is nothing more than some straw laid out on the floor. It could hardly be called a bed of any sort. But at the very least it is somewhat soft.
"It's fine, thank you." Anthony replies and he and Faye make their way to the corner.
"Me and Saito will keep watch throughout the night. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, thanks again." He replies.
"Thanks." Faye says.
Anthony and Faye briefly say goodnight to one another. Before they fall to sleep, they have some final thoughts on the whole ordeal they are going through.
Anthony thinks, Alright. We are making progress it looks like. I can't believe this is happening again! I hope Saito takes what I say seriously. He really deserves just about anyone other than her. Hopefully Henrietta can help us in some way. Though considering she's a childhood friend of Louise, that might be difficult. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Faye thinks, I must protect master from that bratty pinkhead girl. I will always remain cautious around her. We appear to be making a little bit of progress towards both saving Saito and getting out of here. I really hope that our goals can be achieved without much issue.
-Author's Corner-
A/N: Not much to say this time around. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
The Disquieting One: Thanks for pointing that out. I was publishing it late in the day and it slipped my mind. It's fixed now. I understand that Slice of Life is not your think and honestly, I find it to be harder to write for haha. Yeah, I figured the goal of trying to escape was more realistic and sensible than trying to take over a kingdom or something crazy. Glad your cool with me using the same OC's. Before beginning to write this I was contemplating on whether to have them return and if so, whether they should have any connection at all with their original appearance or not. Feel free to suggest whenever you like. Glad you enjoyed the punch Faye delivered to her. Indeed, we'll see what happens to Louise. And finally, can you explain what you dislike about the oath between them? I thought of it as Anthony making sure Faye doesn't make really bad decisions because of someone evil controlling him, since, as you said, there are mind-controlling rings in the story.
Guest: Thanks for your honest opinion.