"Explosion." The finger tip sized pebble exploded. The blast radius was roughly 4x the size of a basketball. A second pebble smacked into Louise's cheek.
Instead of whining, Louise blew up the third pebble. but the smack of the 2nd threw off her control, and she ended up on her ass, coughing. This led to her getting hit by 2 more pebbles.
"Ow!" Louise complained, blowing up the next pebble.
"Stay focused, Louise." Sasuke scolded. The pinkette stood and continued defending herself from pebbles.
Sasuke was lost. He trained himself, he trained Louise. They were surviving, but there was no possibility of thriving in sight. Sasuke was slowly accepting he couldn't live like this. It was safe, but it was slow. He'd have to take a risk. He had no diplomatic power, so he'd have to find stability through dominance. Make himself and Louise too scary to approach. It wouldn't earn their place back into society, no leader worth their salt would allow such a tactic to work, but it could make them the type of criminals that were better left alone.
Selling this to Louise would be difficult, she was still heavily impacted by the accident. If he was being honest, he wasn't exactly indifferent to it himself. He had never told her, but he was confident her contribution to the clash was the determining factor in the other girls' deaths.
A strange property of Louise's explosions, seemed to be some type of protection from her own magic. That clash had hurt her, but it hurt her less than everyone else. The fire and wind shouldn't have caused the type of reaction they experienced.
She would need to accept that, eventually, but now wasn't the time.
For now, Sasuke was going to ambush the man his clone spotted way too close. With that flying animal, they wouldn't be able to train while staying hidden.
Henrietta had never been so offended in her life
Dear Princess Henrietta,
I thank you, for a great service has been done for Gallia. Our Knight, Charlotte Hélène d'Orléans, (who often worked under the name Tabitha), was a powerful prodigy who had a strong backing. She was my niece, who often made contacts out of country to prepare for a coup de ta. She had enough supporters, and enough personal power, to not be easily removed.
She was a clever girl, As we talked about, I tried to give her so many chances.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for handling this.
As agreed, we shall knight all of your involved agents, and offer them refuge in Gallia. I remain as sympathetic as ever to Miss Valliere's plights. Her education will be far more tailored in Gallia, I've found the perfect teacher for her.
Naturally, I no longer require subtlety in this matter, and have sent Emperor Albert my apologies, along with documents of young Zerbst being roped into this treason against me. The Zerbst's will likely have to stop their front of offense. Brimir only knows what they were planning to do against their own rightful ruler.
I am positive the Heavy Wind will be proud to hear her daughter has done wonderful work for not one, but three kingdoms.
Who else had seen this letter? Could Henrietta be positive this reached her with no errors in privacy? And Joseph had sent a damning letter to Albert?
Disgusting. This was the most horrible thing the princess had ever read.
This was the first personal letter she had ever received from Joseph de Gallia. She had never sent one to him.
Surely Albert wouldn't believe this? But if the king of Gallia had enough fake evidence, it would actually be beneficial for Albert to just go along with it. It would be best for her to join in as well.
Henrietta felt sick.
It would not fully convince everyone, and it wouldn't change that Sasuke was a dangerous familiar. But that's why Louise would be knighted and welcomed into Gallia. She didn't know what Joseph planned to do with a wild card like Sasuke, but it wouldn't be her problem anymore. Oh, she had heard that Joseph was an idiot, but this was actually viable.
Not even waiting for her response, before he roped Albert into this? Joseph truly was a monster.
All she would need now, was for Karin to successfully destroy the love letter, and Tristain would be in a good position again. Gallia might even offer an alliance.
Henrietta wasn't even crowned queen yet, and the sitting queen was all but useless. Proven by the fact that none of this drama had been sent to her mother, no one ever mentioned her, everyone understood Henrietta and her advisors were ruling the country of Tristain.
As a ruler, this made sense to do.
As a person though? She couldn't do this and look herself in the mirror. But it would give Louise an out, an out that didn't hurt the rest of Tristain.
But it wasn't that simple. Turing in Louise was the right thing to do, but hard. Letting Louise run was the wrong thing to do but kept her heart happy.
This new complication, added more layers.
She was already doing wrong by covering for her friend, so if she could do wrong and get everything she wanted, why shouldn't see?
It would destroy the name of Tabitha, and the name of the Zerbsts. But her country would have at least one ally against the Albion Rebellion, and her closest friend would be safe.
Henrietta's traitorous gaze landed upon another document. Preparations for the familiar ritual. Letting Wardes slip away with Louise into the outskirts wasn't the best option anymore. She intentionally made sure she had no way to contact him now. So she'd have to find them on her own.
She'd given her royal ring to Karin, for proof. This would leave her weaker on her own. But with a familiar, maybe that would make up the difference?
If Henrietta could help it, Louise would have the final say on what path was taken.
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