Next chapter now here! Going to the market this time around. Enjoy guys!

Chapter 5: A Marketable Day

A couple of days passed since the duel between Guiche and Tlopfest. Louise, true to her word, tried to treat Tlopfest a little nicer, though there was still a long way to go on that standpoint. She continued to bog him down with random chores that she came up with, Tlopfest would complain about it, and the cycle would continue. In the meantime though, seeing as he was not really welcomed in the main dining hall of the students, Tlopfest was suggested by Siesta to take a look in the kitchen.

"Ah, greetings there our sword!" The moment Tlopfest poked his head into the kitchen, the head chef turned around and welcomed Tlopfest with open arms.

"Well, this is more welcoming than usual. So-wait, what did you call me?"

"Our sword! For cutting down that noble brat a couple of pegs the other day."

"I see...though you do realize that I used this," Tlopfest pulled out his pan, "mainly to take those Valkyries out, and not a sword, right?"

"Well, 'Our Sword' has a better ring to it than 'Our Pan,' right?"

"Fair enough. Anyhow, I wanted to drop by and see if you guys had some food that I could have. I don't feel that I've eaten very well for the past few days.."

"Ah, of course Our Sword!" The head chef motioned to some of the other chefs, who quickly got some food out and set it on the nearby table. "I do apologize that these are only the scraps, but feel free to help yourself to them!"

Looking at the table, the food certainly seemed to be more than 'mere scraps.' "This will do just fine, thanks guys. Also, do you mind not calling me 'Our Sword'? Just call me Tlopfest, or Tlop if you don't want to say my whole name."

"Very well Our-er, Tlopfest. We will see to doing so."

After chatting with the staff for a little longer, Tlopfest bid them goodbye and started to head back to the main part of the campus. "Gotta say, these kids really have it good here. I mean, those so-called scraps filled me up easy!" As Tlopfest was thinking about the food, he noticed one of the teachers heading over to one of the smaller rooms of the castle. "Huh. Isn't that the guy that was leading Louise's class when I came here? Colbert, right?" Curious, Tlopfest followed him to what appeared to be a small lab of sorts. Small beakers, some filled and some not, littered the tablespaces in this area. Some books were stacked on the corners of tables as well, bookmarks and other papers stuck between the pages. Colbert himself was looking at a flask filled with some dark liquid, swirling it around and taking notes.

"I must be getting close to figuring this out, I'm sure of it.."

"Close to figuring what out?" Startled by Tlopfest's question, Colbert fumbled with the flask for a moment before regaining his composure.

"M-Mr. Tlopfest! Founder above, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Heh, sorry, I have a tendency to do that to people sometimes."

"Well, as for your question," Colbert turned fully towards Tlopfest and showed the flask to him. "This is what I call "dragon's blood." I had come across it during my travels, and have been actively trying to replicate it through various means. Although, I have not had very much luck so far…"

"You mind if I take a look at it?"

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt. Just, don't drop it, please?"

"Of course!" Tlopfest took the flask out of Colbert's hand, getting a closer look at it and using his goggles to try to analyze it. "Hmm…this…does not really look like any kind of blood that I've seen. You sure this is actual blood?"

"I honestly cannot say for certain. All I do know is that it supposedly has high amounts of energy contained within, so replicating it could help many people out in the long run."

"I see." Tlopfest gave the flask back to Colbert. "Say, would you mind if I took a look around here as well? Seeing as you are a fellow inventor, I'd like to try to get some spare parts to help fix my goggles up some."

"Please do. So long as you don't break anything at least. It is always good to have another man of science here."

Going through the lab, Tlopfest was able to find some spare copper and a small hammer on one of the tables. Taking those, Tlopfest went on to fix his goggles up some, seeing as they had gotten slightly damaged from the initial explosion that brought him here. "Well, it's still not up to 100% yet, but it's better at least. Faster analysis of foes can always help. Still probably need to get some essentia crystals and gold though to get the Thaum mode reset again."

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing, just…thinking about home some."

"That reminds me, where did you come from? I have never seen any kind of creature such as yourself before."

"Well…." Tlopfest proceeded to give a slightly shorter version of his backstory that he shared with Louise with Colbert, filling him in on some of the nuances that were seen with Tlopfest himself.

"A cubic world huh? That certainly seems like a jarring experience to go from something like that to here."

"It was, that's for sure." Tlopfest looked out to space. "Still amazes me that I was finally able to get to somewhere new after all this time… Speaking of time, I feel that I need to head back to Louise before she starts thinking about throwing another explosion at me. I haven't had one in my face again for the past couple of days, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Ah, of course. Feel free to come by again later as well Mr. Tlopfest!"

"Will do. And please, just call me Tlopfest, or Tlop. I'm not married or anything sir." Chuckling to himself some, Tlopfest left to head back to Louise's room. Once there, Tlopfest noticed a lack of the pinkette in the room. "Must still be in class or something. Guess I'll wait here for a bit."

A little while later, Louise came back to her room to see that Tlopfest was lounging about at the desk."Hey Louise, how'd it go?"

Louise gave a small humph at that, and sat down on her bed. "It went as well as it usually goes I suppose…"

"Which is…? If you recall, I haven't been in this world for more than a few days."

"...blew up another spell" she muttered.

"Uh, sorry, what was that?"

"I said I caused another explosion, happy?! Every single time I cast a spell, it just blows up in my face, and I'm sick of it! Nobody takes me seriously, that lousy nickname of mine has plagued me for who knows how long, and just…ugh!" Louise flops down in her bed, burying her head within her pillow.

"Wait, hold on, you said that every spell you cast causes an explosion?" Tlopfest moved over to Louise's bed and sat down, looking at Louise in his attempt to try to comfort her. That, and try to get some more information out of her.

Louise sat up in frustration. "Yes! No matter what spell I use, what incantations or wand is used for the whole thing, it always ends in an explosion!"

"Well…you still managed to get me here, right?"

"I suppose so. Still, it ended in an explosion before anyone saw you."

"...You know how long I was working on my inter-universal machine before you brought me here?" Louise shook her head, confused as to where Tlopfest was going with this. "5 years. 5, long, hard years of me working my butt off to crack the code to inter-universal travel. And you know what? You, Louise, were able to get me here on your first try at that summoning thing. Explosion or no, what you did was absolutely incredible. No one else I'm sure could do something like what you did with me."

Louise perked up a bit at this bit of information. "You, you really mean that Tlop?"

"Well of course! I may be a great inventor, but that doesn't mean I always hold all the pieces for the knowledge of the universe! Heck, I use a frying pan of all things as my main weapon of choice, so you know I'm at least somewhat crazy!"

Louise couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the mention of Tlopfest's pan. "I..I suppose so. Thank you Tlopfest. That helped me out."

"Of course. So long as I'm here, I'm gonna help where needed."

"Speaking of, tomorrow is Void day, so you and I will be going to the market."

"Oh? What for? You missing a textbook or something?"

"No. As much as you love that pan of yours, I would rather you have something more practical when it comes to choice of weaponry. Especially when you are shown to others."

"Ah…I see. Not gonna like it fully, but I'll go with it I suppose."

Unbeknownst to the duo, a certain redhead had decided it would be fun to eavesdrop on their conversation. "The market huh? Ufufufu…I wonder if I can get that familiar to my side…"

The next day, Tlopfest and Louise rode out to the market on one of the stable horses from the academy, much to Tlopfest's displeasure. Once there, the two of them wandered about to search for a weaponsmith. They eventually came across a sign with the picture of a sword on it.

"Is that it?"

"Yup, this is it."

The duo went in and were quickly greeted by the somewhat shady-looking merchant. "Hello there you two. To what do I owe the pleasure of having you here miss?"

"I need a sword for my familiar here. What is the best weapon that you have?"

Scratching his chin in thought for a moment, the shopkeeper dug through his cabinet and brought out a standard sword. "This one here should do the trick."

Tlopfest took it in his hand, putting his goggles on and analyzing it in the process. "I dunno, this thing is basically just a standard iron sword.."

"Is that really the best weapon you have in here?"

"Uh, well…" The shopkeeper quickly took back the sword Tlopfest was holding and went into the back. After some rummaging, he came back out with a bejeweled golden sword. "This one is one of the finer creations in all of the world! It was made by a famous blacksmith in Germania."

Tlopfest took it in his hand, though he didn't even need to analyze it to see that it was not that great. "This thing is made of gold. If it's anything like home, it's not gonna hold up that well in battle."

At this point, the shopkeeper was getting frustrated with them. After getting the sword back, he quickly grabbed one of the swords from a nearby barrel and gave it to them. "Well, here, this is a magic sword. That should be good, right?"

Louise, honestly, was not very impressed by the looks of it. "Oh come on, that thing is clearly-"

"We'll take it" Tlopfest quickly blurted out.

"Wh-what? Oh come on Tlopfest, that thing is obviously too old for use!"

"Even so Louise, you never know what things like this can be used for." Tlopfest winked in her direction.

Somewhat frustrated, Lousie paid for the sword, and the two of them left, the sword strapped to Tlopfest's back for storage, apparently unable to go to his inventory. "So, why that one? I know I said that you were not going to like it, but seriou-"

"Louise, I didn't want to say anything back there since it seemed that the shopkeeper was already somewhat shady, but this thing does actually have some magical properties in it. I think he was originally making it up just to try to sell us something, but there is something not ordinary about this sword."

"Really? What is it?" Louise was honestly surprised at Tlopfest for even seeing that.

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure yet. I gotta study this some more to try to figure it out."

After that, the two of them wandered the market a bit more before heading back to the academy, not noticing that they were being tailed by a red and blue haired duo as well.

Back at the academy, Tlopfest was fiddling with his new sword while Louise sat at her desk looking at her notes. Finally, she let out a frustrated sigh and turned to Tlopfest. "Tlop, you've been looking at that sword for hours. Surely you could have figured out what is so special about that sword already?"

"Well…yes and no. I can definitely see that it doesn't have any typical enchantment that my home world had, but what is causing it to have an enchanted part to it is still unknown to me…"

"Humph! Best inventor in the world my ass. How can you claim to be so knowledgeable in everything, yet still just stare at a sword for an hour and not be able to see its enchantment!?"

"Oi, I'm familiar with my own world's shenanigans. It's my first time seeing anything like this here, and I'm not exactly familiar with this world's magic or anything! Besides, there's always that saying - 'slow and steady wins the race.'"

Right after he said that, the door to Louise's room opened up, revealing the tailing duo from earlier. "Hello hello you two! And how are we doing this fine evening" the redhead, Kirche, haughtily asked. Tabitha, the blue-haired, quietly slipped in and sat on the bed next to Tlopfest, head buried in her book.

"Ugh, what do you want, Zerbst?" Louise, already frustrated with her studies and Tlopfest, was none too pleased with having her sworn rival come in unannounced.

"Why, to give this of course!" She pulled out the golden sword from the market, holding out to Tlopfest.

"Wh-that's from the market! You two were following us weren't you" Louise yelled out. "I mean, I can expect that from you Zerbst, but you Tabitha?"

"Dragged along" The blue haired girl stoically responded.

"Of course."

Tlopfest looked at the sword, his slightly-rotted nose scrunching up at it. "Well, if you guys were following Louise and I, you'll know that I didn't choose that sword for a reason. While pretty, it's not that great in battle I bet."

"Take that Zerbst!" Louise was pretty happy that Tlopfest quickly dejected her gift.

"However, if you really are giving it to me, I may as well take it."

"Wh-what the hell Tlopfest?! Didn't you just say that it wouldn't work well in battle?!"

"I did, but I may as well hang on to it. Sure, it may not do well, but it can be a last-resort backup weapon, or at the very least I can showcase it back home." Louise gave a questioning look at Tlopfest at the mention of this. "What? I've got a bit of a collector in me."

"You'd seriously use that piece of crap sword in battle? Hah! My user must be such an idiot to want to use that!" The people in the room looked around in confusion, trying to figure out where the voice had come from.
"Ok, we can all at least say that I didn't say that, right?" Tlopfest asked nervously.

"Of course you didn't say that, I did!" Looking down, the group could see the handle on Tlopfest's sword moving, almost like a mouth.

"...So that's what the enchantment was! No wonder I couldn't recognize it!"

The rest of the group was just stunned at seeing the sword talk. Louise herself facepalmed at the sight of it. "Ugh…great, just what we needed, a talking sword."

"Say, what year is it, and where am I anyways?" The sword ignored all of that, apparently just waking up from sleep or…something.

"I couldn't tell ya, but you're at Tristan School of Magic. My name's Tlopfest. Do you actually have a name?"

"Of course! The name's Derflinger! Pleased to meet ya, partner!"

"So…" Kirche started, still holding the sword she bought. "uh…"

"Now that I think about it, why did you go out to get me a sword anyways…sorry, what was your name again?"

"Kirche. Kirche Von Zerbst. And I was hoping to gain your favor and, well, maybe get you away from Zero's side."

"Well..I'm not leaving Louise's side, that's for sure. And if you wanted to be friends, you could have just asked. Or at the very least, introduced yourself like any other person would."

After a moment, Kirche just laughed at Tlopfest's statement. "Oh boy, and here I thought you would be so simple to crack. Very well then Tlopfest, I'll leave it at that for now. But don't think that this will be the last time I'll try this."

With that, Kirche and Tabitha, who respectively bowed on her way out, departed Louise's room.

"...well that was something" Tlopfest said under his breath, after which a book was thrown at him from Louise, hitting him on the head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"For even thinking about being friends with that Germanian cow! There is no way that I'll let you be taken in by that…that witch!"

"Who said that I'd be leaving you Louise? I told ya earlier, so long as I'm here, I'm gonna help out when needed. Especially for you, since you're the one who actually got me here in the first place."

Louise just pouted at that, looking away from Tlopfest. "...Thank you…"

See some issues in the story? Character not acting right or something doesn't make sense? Leave a Review or PM me! Can't fix it if I don't know about it, right?