To BanalCrepe: Nice to see you enjoying my story.
Nighttime. Headmaster's office
"Hm… so that's what happened." Old Osmond strokes his beard after hearing the report of the recent events in Albion. "It seems that fallen Nobles are everywhere."
"Everything has its down side. While it's lucky we still have one member of Albion Loyalty left, he basically has to do everything from zero to regain his nation back."
"It won't be zero, Wisdom. He has Henrietta and her Nobles to help a bit. And he's a great Prince, he knows what needs to be done to save his people." Louise is confident that things aren't as bad as her familiar implies.
"Nevertheless, I give you my gratitude for saving one of the last Loyalties of Albion." Old Osmond slightly bows down with a smile. "It's getting late, you two should return to your room."
With the permission, Louise and Wisdom leave the room with a goodbye.
"Can't expect anything less from the 'Mage killer'." Colbert, who was also in the room during the report, speaks up. "I didn't expect him finish the entire mission under a week, though. Teleporting directly from Albion to Tristain within seconds…"
"It did drain a lot from him, if you have noticed. He would recovery fast though."
"True, I did see that… about the upcoming war…"
"I don't think Reconquista could actually declare war now." Old Osmond starts putting his work into the drawers. "First, the treaty between Germania and Tristain is not broken yet due to Wisdom's insight about the problem. Second, they are now aware that miss Valliere is a Void mage, and her familiar can go toe-on-toe with a Military Captain, even stronger if he was purposely avoiding killing Wardes from the get go. If they did so, it means endangering miss Valliere, and the 'Mage killer' would definitely not let that happen."
"What will happen to the school when war begins?"
"We will have to close it, unfortunately. Can't risk anything."
…
"You are okay, darling!" Midway back to Louise's room, Kirche jumps out of her room and gives Wisdom a tight hug from the side while giving him a 'painful' look. "I was so worried about you!"
"Hands off, Kirche." Having a small tick of slight anger at how the girl acts, Louise orders the Zerbst to get out of her familiar. Thankfully Tabitha is also with the red-haired girl, so she quickly pries the Fire mage away from the familiar.
Louise and Wisdom continues walking back to their room, with two new additions following behind as Kirche asks: "How did you get back so early? What happened to sir Wardes? Did you manage to get the letter…"
"Can you just let us rest for the day?" The Void mage grunts as they reach her room.
"Come on! Any stories should be spoken fresh! Leaving it tomorrow would be boring!" Kirche whines as Wisdom opens the door so everyone can go into the room.
"We don't want to talk about it now." Louise shakes her head in annoyance at Kirche's bickering.
However, before anyone could say anything, they hear a loud falling sound after the sound of door closing. Everyone turns back to see the familiar's body lying on the ground, with Derflinger fallen out of his reach. Due to how sudden the event is, the sentient sword asks in surprise: "Woah! Partner, what's wrong? Hey!"
"Wisdom!" Louise shouts in fear as Kirche (who's closest to him) quickly flips his body up and shows his hurting face. "What's wrong with you?"
"He's getting a fever!" Feeling his body's temperature getting higher and higher, Kirche quickly concludes and throws one of his arms on her shoulder. "We need to put him on bed first!"
The other girls quickly do so, with Louise assisting the Fire mage bringing him to her bed and laying him down. Meanwhile Tabitha grabs the sword and sets it on a table in the room before joining the others.
"Hey, Tabitha! Can you do anything to cool him down?" Kirche quickly asks her friend. "If this keeps coming, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually bursts fire out of…"
"No… need…" Wisdom's hiss causes Louise's fear increases. "I… just… burnt out… a bit…"
"Burnt out?" His master slightly raises her voice up in worry. "Was it because you brought us back from Albion to Tristain?"
"Not… just that… Some… Albion Loyalists… survived… need to… protect… before they're safe…" Wisdom tries to speak through hard breathes.
"You… you were doing that… DURING THE WHOLE DAY?" Louise shouts again, remembering how he sometimes spaced out during their talks with Queen Marianne and Princess Henrietta. "You IDIOT! Stop using magic now!"
"Just… did… this… is backlash… My apology… for not telling you…" Taking a few deep breathes, Wisdom plans to sit up, but both Kirche and Louise push him down immediately.
"No no no. Whatever you did, you are NOT going to leave this bed tonight." Kirche says in a stern voice. "Sleep now, or we're going to use force to make you."
"…But… my mistress…"
"The bed is not that small." Louise shakes her head, a little displeased that he's still prioritizing her comfort first. "Just rest for the day. I will handle the rest."
"…" Seeing the girls are not going to let him do anything, the familiar decides to shut himself up and closes his eyes, focusing on sinking himself into the Dream Land.
Making sure that he's not faking it, Kirche then turns to Louise and asks: "…You said 'stop using magic'. Wisdom can use magic?"
"...Wasn't it obvious?" Finally relaxing her mind after seeing her familiar being in deep slumber, Louise replies.
"Hey, other than you, Old Osmond and that Fire mage professor, partner didn't show visible magic to anyone, you know." Derflinger is also eased up. "Even IF someone suspects him, he would just use his 'non-truth, non-lie' words like usual."
"Suspected." The two girls turn to Tabitha as she pulls out one of the papers that Wisdom wrote before. "Magic theories, magic capabilities, performances and backlashes. All written in different languages."
"It's for the secrecy." Louise nods. "Only when I read it, he would use Translation spell so that only I could understand them. Doesn't mean that I could read and understand everything he wrote, though."
"No wonder your spells stopped blowing up now and then." Kirche exclaims.
"He just turned down my power's output into the spells I performed. Void is extremely unstable if not used correctly."
"...Void? Your affinity is the Lost Element?" The Fire mage couldn't believe her ears.
"It's not really lost." The sword explains. "Only a few could wield it. Fewer could be the master of the element. It depends on the person's capacity and many other conditions… Well, that's what partner told me."
"…Brimir's descendant?" Tabitha theorizes.
"That's… not too farfetched." Kirche agrees. "However, if it's really the case, then he would be extremely well-known in history."
"I don't think it's the case, though." Louise shakes her head. "He said that his place didn't pray for Great Founder. Of course it might be another non-truth, non-lie from him since it's possible that his place doesn't even know who Brimir is, but then…" She then remembers back her conversations with him. "He said something about Great Founder's sins…"
"Then he might be from the future!" Kirche gives out her thoughts. "I mean, maybe he used your summoning spell as the first step of changing his future!"
"Sounds right, but there's one problem." Louise crosses her arms before her chest. "He could do so with no problems. Stopping time and teleportation are nothing to him." She then turns to the sleeping form of her familiar and sighs. "Maybe he was over-suspicious of Wardes that he performed too many magic spells at the same time, so now his power has reached the limit."
"Speaking of that handsome man…"
"A traitor of Tristain."
TIME: ZERO FIVE HUNDRED. WORLD: HALKEGINIA
STAMINA: 90%. FURTHER RELAXATION NOT REQUIRED.
MANA: 50%. EMERGENCY OVERNIGHT RECHARGEMENT DEACTIVATED.
BODY TEMPERATURE STABLIZED, STILL AT HIGH LEVEL. REQUIRED PHYSICAL COOLING METHODS.
ALL SKILLS RE-UNLOCKED. HOWEVER, HIGH-LEVEL TECHNIQUES REQUIRE RE-TRAINING TO PERFORM.
DIGESTION SYSTEM STABLIZED. BREATHING SYSTEM STABLIZED.
RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC… ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTION AT SAFE CAPACITY.
CURRENT OBJECTIVE: SERVE AND PROTECT BRIMIR'S SUCCESSOR.
Opening his eyes, Wisdom sees a familiar ceiling before his eyes. Sitting up, he turns to his left and sees the girl trio sleeping together, hugging each other closely…
"YO! Partner!" He turns his attention to Derflinger who's laying nicely on Louise's study table. "You scared the hell out of everyone last night! Don't make us worry too much like that again!"
"…My apology." Getting out of the bed without disturbing others, the familiar walks to the table and grabs Derflinger, but he doesn't put him on the back yet. "What happened after I was knocked out?"
"Your little miss told the girls everything she knows, and they discussed and guessed about your origin."
"…They won't be able to guess right." That's all he says before pulling out his pen and writing a small note for…
"W… Wisdom?" Stopping his work, he turns back to see his mistress waking up and noticing that he's no longer in the bed. A second later she manages to find where he is. "Wisdom, are you okay? Are you better now?"
"…I am. And I'm sorry, my mistress." Putting the pen down, he walks back to the bed and bows his head down. "My actions yesterday are not fitted as a servant…"
"Don't. Just, don't." She interrupts him immediately. "If it's something you need to do, then just give me some sorts of hints so I could know. Don't just do things behind my back all the times."
"…I will remember it. My gratefulness for your forgiveness."
"So partner, about what you are writing…"
"Not necessary anymore." Wisdom replies the question that breaks the mood. "My mistress, I'm heading out to clean myself off. I will return later."
"…Be careful." Louise is relieved that her familiar has recovered.
"I will."
…
A few hours later
"…Are you VERY sure about it, my mistress?" The familiar asks seriously about her decision.
"Yes. I'm sure the rumors would spread here sooner or later." Louise replies as the two walk towards the school ground after a lesson taught by Professor Colbert. "Besides, it's very annoying walking back-to-forth just to learn how to use magic… And maybe it's best to practice the new spells while being nearby a Water mage."
"…I believe you found out more what you can do after last night."
"Thanks to you. Though, one of them is seemingly good, the other… kind of gave me my old nickname."
The two then head to the middle of the ground, which makes the Nobles and servants around look at the duo in curiosity. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Louise then asks Wisdom: "Can you call out that armor so I can hit it?"
"Certainly." Raising his left hand up, Wisdom points his finger towards an area about ten meters away from them and free of people. Then, to everyone's disbelief, the earth around that place raises up while creating rumble sounds, and morphs itself into a set of black armor. This one, while looking identical to the one Louise saw before, is also wielding a body shield as it sets itself into a defensive position. He then pulls out a small tablet from his pocket and gives it to Louise, who receives it and takes a look at the words and numbers. "This will monitor… show you how much power you have, how much power can the armor withstand, and a few more."
"Wow…" She has seen him using the thing before, but only for a few seconds every time. Seeing the words changing by themselves in such a small object, and how it calculates everything… "What kind of magic is this?"
"A combination of magic and technology."
"See! Told you he would be from the future!" Turning their backs, the duo sees the Fire mage and Wind mage already walking to them with the former having a big smile on her face. "Hey darling! How's Halkeginia? Are you coming back here to fix it?"
Earning a small glance of curiosity from her familiar, Louise blushes up in a bit of embarrassment. "It's just her stupid theory."
"…She is right, at one point." That makes Louise gasp in surprise, Kirche's smile widen, and Tabitha's book temporarily put down. "Compared to this world, my world is more advanced in both technology and magic. However, Halkeginia is not the name of my world, and the name is not actually in any parts of my history."
"Then, about your place knowing Great Founder's sins or something…"
"My apology, that's just a make-up thing."
"Aw." Kirche pouts. "And I thought you know something about him…"
"However, when I read your history, I can safety say that there is a sin he DID commit." Wisdom is going to say more, before he notices nearly everyone is focusing on them. "…I don't think I should bad-mouth him at the moment."
"Yeah… we Nobles wouldn't like hearing things like that." Giving the tablet back to Wisdom, Louise points her wand towards the armor. That alone makes everyone back away, except Tabitha and Wisdom who just stand there and watch her performing one of her new spells.
About ten seconds later, magic gathers in the tip of the Void mage's wand, generating an ominous-looking orb. Then, the orb is fired off at an alarm speed towards the waiting armor, makes an impact to the shield…
Everyone immediately raises their arms up to cover their eyes as a bright light emits from the collision, though they can't really avoid getting their ears blasted by the explosion sounds. When it's over, they retract their arms and see the result of the spell:
Nothing.
The armor is nowhere in sight, but the area surrounding the place where it should be is now covered in soot. It looks just like every time Louise 'failed' her spells.
"…" Raising his left eyebrow in suspicion, Wisdom starts checking the spell in his tablet.
"Um… Wisdom? I thought that armor is very… strong?" Having doubts in the target's durability, Louise asks suspiciously. "Don't tell me you weakened its defense?"
"I have no reasons doing so, my mistress. In fact, I would have to put its defense up to the point not even your best mages could break it." Reading more details… "…That explains it." He then points towards his tablet, and the ones nearby look at it to see a flashing 'Pierce Protection'. "If a spell has this attribute, NO defense systems could stop the spell. The only chance to survive is to dodge it."
"…In most of her spells." Tabitha theorizes about the possibility of Louise's 'failed' spells before.
"Chances are low." The familiar shakes his head, disagreeing with the theory. "This sort of attribute doesn't just randomly active on its own. And I'm sure that my mistress didn't intend on destroy anything." He turns back to his master and asks: "What spell did you perform, my mistress?"
"It's… some sorts of explosions." Louise scratches her right cheek in embarrassment. "I'm still a bit angry that Wardes betrayed Tristain. And… another link unlocked last night."
"Link?" Kirche asks in confusion.
Wisdom now understands why the attribute is there. However, he warns: "My mistress, I won't stop you using this spell, but keep in mind on this problem. This attribute appeared because of the negative emotions, especially when you have… desire to... You can tell."
Louise nods understandably. Then, she remembers: "Wait a second… the vault…"
Looking up to the direction of the room for a second then turning back, Wisdom nods. He then summons more of those armors and then backs away from the field and sits down on the ground. "I believe that's enough for you to use, my mistress. Excuse me, but I'm going to meditate a bit. You can ask if you need something, but please refrain from doing so too many."
"…Your energy hasn't recovered yet?" Louise asks, worried that the spells were draining him.
"Those spells cost only a bit of my energy, though I did spend a lot of energy yesterday so a night rest is not enough. Meditation helps replenishing faster." That's the familiar's answer.
Surprisingly, Tabitha sits down next to him and casts a Silence spell around them, blocking outer noises out of their ears, then continues reading the book. A little curious but deciding to not ask, Wisdom gives her a nod of thanks before starting his meditation.
"Looks like Tabitha's taking a liking to him." Kirche giggles, then notices Louise giving a glance of surprise. "I mean, they don't really speak much, and they are very good at magic. And both wears glasses too."
That makes the Void mage turn her head to the duo to see if they're like how Kirche implies. However, the two are not exactly directly next to each other, as Tabitha uses her staff as the object to keep her and the familiar at reasonable distance so her spell works on both.
"You look cute when you are jealous." Kirche smirks as Louise sends her an angry but embarrassed glare.
"I am not jealous!"
"Oh sure you are." Drawing her wand, she then changes the subject: "How about a little competition? Whoever deals the more damage to the armors wins."
"…What do you want?" Louise, after calming herself down, asks back. Sure, she's not going to be humiliated by a Zerbst. However, she feels like the Fire mage is up to something.
"The winner gets to sleep with him tonight, alone."
"WHAT!?"
Why did I think it's a good idea at all to accept that!?
Because of that stupid condition given by her, I decided to go all out to the armors (without the Pierce Protection thing Wisdom mentioned) and blasted anything I got, just to make sure that Zerbst didn't get what she wanted.
In the end, it seems that I won… because Wisdom described my result as 'a mini nuclear weapon test', which I would safely say that I did something similar to a barrage of cannons if not worse (more damages) given by his expression.
Of course, I threw a victory speech directly at Kirche's face, though that quickly died down because she reminded me of the winning reward…
Well it's not like I can't…
*Words being written and deleted multiple times*
Nighttime again
"…" Louise is still awake. Not because she is not tired, but because she can't.
"…If you can't sleep, let me…"
"Don't."
Since she couldn't just throw the 'winning reward' back to Kirche or anyone else, and the fact that EVERYONE knew of that competition, she has asked (ordered) Wisdom to SLEEP WITH HER on the SAME BED! It took everything of her to suppress her embarrassment and try to be tough to order that. Obviously her familiar looked straight through that, but he didn't object. At least that eased up her embarrassment… until this point. He also tried, multiple times, to get out of her bed so she could sleep in peace, but then the next day everyone would take it as 'the master can't reward the familiar once a while'. Of course Wisdom doesn't mind, but she does!
"…The longer you stay awake, the more tired you will be the next morning."
"I know that." Louise replies from the opposite side of the bed. Wisdom has already stayed in the other side so she still has a lot of space to sleep, but she can't push herself anywhere closer to him.
"…*Sigh* Why me?" She then hears rustling sounds behind, so she turns back to see what Wisdom is doing. To her surprise, he immediately pulls her towards him and gives her a gentle yet tight hug, causing her face to redden up. "Please forgive my intrusion of privacy and sleep."
"*Insert Tsundere sounds here* GET OFF FAMILIAR! I DIDN'T ALLOW YOU TO DO IT!"
Despite everything she does to push him out, Wisdom's grip never weakens. During the time, the familiar also thinks of the idea on how she could sleep faster, but decides not to say anything as he listens to her ordering him to release her.
About a minute, her resistance weakens. Wisdom waits for a few more seconds, then looks down to see if she manages to sleep. And he sees her red, teary face looking up at him. "…My apology for the sudden intrusion. But you need to…"
"You are a bully, Wisdom." The girl pouts and, to his surprise, nudges her face into his chest area. "If you smile a bit more, I would have thought you and Big Sis Cattleya might be related or so."
"…Do you want me…"
"No need." Nudging closer, Louise then asks: "Have… have you ever… slept with someone before?"
"...No." Slightly confused at why she asked that, Wisdom replies.
"IF Zerbst asked you to, then would you?"
"…Unless she has an acceptable reason. I prefer sleeping alone, it gives everyone space and privacy."
"Good." Slightly moving her body up, Louise then wraps her arms around his torso and asks/orders: "Keep it that way. And be my pillow." Her face slightly blushes up a bit because of her own statement, but she's too tired after trying to fight against sleeping and Wisdom's hug so she doesn't care any further and closes her eyes, letting Sandman guide her away from reality for a night.
"…Good night, my mistress."
I'm a cog of a war machine. One built to protect innocent people in general, not just anyone specific.
Emotions are prohibited so the orders can be performed flawlessly.
Personal relationship should not be made so no innocent person is ignored.
No mercy should be shown against Darkness. Injustice actions must be avoided at all costs.
Those orders are encased in me, and I SHOULD follow them with no questions asked.
And yet, I broke nearly all of them, right when I accepted my mistress' calling for help.
Why did I do so? Because I felt that I have failed to be the cog?
Or because I wanted to escape from that infinity loop of absolute justice?
Or… just because I wanted to prove ONE person's ideal wrong?
…No matters. I made a mistake, and I will fix it.
And that's to guide my mistress to the right future.
That's at least something I could do for what I have wrongly committed.