Chapter 18

- POV: Private First Class Brenner -

"Lake Lagdorian? Along the border of Gallia?" Guiche called over the sound of clopping hooves. "It'll take half a day for us to get there!"

"Guess what, Guiche? Nobody asked for you to come along for the ride!" Montmorency cried.

"If I didn't come with you on such an important task, then what kind of knight would I be, my dear Montmorency?" Guiche challenged as he began to accelerate on his horse.

I rolled my eyes as I gripped the reins of my own mount. Louise sat behind me, gripping the back of my jacket as we rode across the kingdom towards our destination. On the way, Montmorency had given a basic rundown of what we needed in order to reverse whatever this apparent love potion was. She talked about the Water Spirit of Lake Lagdorian, as well as the apparent contract that the Montmorency family had initiated between her and this spirit.

"Lake Lagdorian..." I mumbled as I stared ahead, where the path crested hills and went through forests. "We can't get there soon enough."

Louise just murmured to herself as we rode. We had gotten up very early, and she hadn't bothered getting something to wake her up before we left the academy. Because of this, she was now a very drowsy girl as she leaned against my back. I wouldn't have been surprised if she started drooling.

The trip itself required rest stops to feed the horses and actually eat. Guiche was right in the sense that the journey itself took a very long time, though I'd never tell him that to his face. One of our rest stops was at a nearby river, where the horses all drank from greedily. Montmorency and Guiche had their own little picnic by a tree while Louise took the time to get a good nap under some shade.

I wasn't as content as the others were. I was a little restless after eating my share of food, mumbling quietly to myself about how stupid this situation was, as well as how freaked out I was feeling over the thought of having my mind actually be affected by a love potion of all things. "Crazy stuff," I grumbled as I kicked a rock into the water a ways away from the others. "Stupid potion. Stupid ass violent mood. I'm not violent."

"You're sounding a little violent now, buddy," Derflinger chimed in.

"Didn't ask you," I snapped, though not too loudly. I was definitely more worried than angered. I wasn't too focused on the here and now, especially given all the weird things that ended up happening thanks to me being in this world. "Why me of all people?" I found myself thinking for what was likely the twentieth time in a row.

The thoughts ended a good few minutes later as Montmorency called out my name. "Come on, we have to get going!" she shouted as she and Guiche packed up their picnic supplies. I scowled and only waved a hand as I made my way back to the horses.

As I began to pull my horse away from the river, I stopped by one of the trees to see Louise curled up underneath the shade not unlike a cat, her cloak draped over her body like a blanket as she snored softly. I found myself smiling at the admittedly adorable sight before I knelt down and rubbed her head gently. "Hey, it's time to get up," I said as I ruffled her hair.

"Mmmm..." Louise mumbled drowsily. "A few more minutes..."

I sighed and reached under her body to hoist her up by her armpits, only to get a few tired groans as my only form of opposition. She was a light girl, and the Army training did me some bulk. Louise hung lazily as I stared at her, her face still very sleepy.

I brought her to the horse, sitting her down at the end of the saddle before I climbed aboard myself, gripping the reins before I leaned forward for Louise to tiredly grip my waist. A slow start later, and the four of us were off, the three horses going from a slow trot to a full on steady gallop as we continued our progress to the lake.

- POV: Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière -

I wasn't sure how long it had been since I fell asleep at the tree, but all I knew was that we were likely very close to our destination. When I came to, I was leaning on Brenner as the horses crested a large hill. "Are we there yet?" I mumbled as I blinked my eyes slowly.

A loud splash jolted me awake, followed by a panicked scream. I looked around before seeing that Montmorency's horse was on our right. I turned to my left to see nobody there, and I blinked once more in confusion. "Where's Guiche?" I asked.

"Drowning. Something I'm tempted to let him do," Brenner remarked in front of me, his voice hazy.

"Come on. Don't say that," Montmorency sighed, ignoring my familiar's remark as she got off her horse and began to jog down the hill. I slowly yawned and stretched my arms as I leaned over to climb off the horse, just so I could see what was going on.

It didn't take long for me to lose balance, and I would have fallen face first into the ground had a hand not gripped my collar. "Careful," Brenner's voice said as he pulled me back up. "Get your bearings first. Wait here."

And with that, he released my shirt. I gripped the sides of the saddle for balance as Brenner climbed off, his weapon in hand as Montmorency did the same. As I wiped my eyes, I looked ahead - only to gasp in horror at what I was seeing.

The entire land on the other side of the hill was flooded with water - with the rooftops of houses, barns, and shops sticking out of the water, only barely visible from such a distance. The water had reached the edge of the forest that surrounded the town, and that was a very far distance from the buildings themselves. "Oh...oh my goodness," I gasped. "What happened here?"

"It looks like the spirit is...upset," Montmorency whispered, worry laced through her tone. "I don't understand. There isn't meant to be any water this close to any buildings, much less enough to reach this hill."

"Well, the whole town is submerged. So if this is your spirit's doing, then something needs to be done about it," Brenner said as he approached the edge of the hill. "What's the plan, curly?"

"Curly?" Montmorency asked. Brenner made a looping motion with his finger by his own head, and the blonde girl flushed in anger. "I will only be referred to as Montmorency, got it?!"

"Momo," Brenner muttered, and Montmorency let out a loud huff. "In any case, what're we even supposed to do?"

"We...we should wait until sunset. The spirit won't emerge until then," Montmorency answered, putting aside any ire related to nicknames.

"Fine," Brenner said before eyeing the oversized lake. "It's been flooded for a while. I think the whole town evacuated."

"The spirit isn't a malicious being. She wouldn't drown innocents, no matter how gravely she's been wronged," Montmorency said. "But the fact that she's doing this at all is concerning."

"We'll just have to ask her then," I said, chiming in on the conversation. "Where should we wait? I don't think there's another town close by."

"Excuse me!" a voice shrieked. The three of us looked down to see Guiche floundering in the water by the base of the hill. His horse stood lazily, drinking from the water as the noble playboy flailed his arms desperately. "A little help here?!"

Brenner and I looked over at Montmorency, and she sighed. "...fine," she snapped as she began to make her way down the hill. "Make one little mistake and I do all the work," she grumbled. As she descended towards the water, I leaned over and tapped Brenner's shoulder.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly, hoping to all that was holy that he was feeling fine.

"I feel okay," Brenner said, just as Derflinger popped up and said "No he doesn't." I blinked as Brenner reached a hand up and slammed the talking sword right back into his scabbard. "Ignore him."

I sighed, knowing just what bothered him so much. "We'll get this fixed, I promise," I whispered.

Brenner looked down, and I worried that he'd simply turn away - at least until he chuckled. "You've changed," he said gently. "A lot nicer."

I flinched before crossing my arms. "Hey, I could always be nice! I can be as nice as I want when I want to!" I shot back. To my annoyance, Brenner only started to laugh.

My anger died down when he reached up and took my hand, a smile on his face. "Thanks," he whispered.

I only smiled back.

- POV: Private First Class Brenner -

Some time passed, and the sun soon sank behind the treeline. The bright blue sky of the day slowly turned into a deep orange hue, and we found ourselves slowly lacking in light as the sun continued to set. Guiche had spent some time drying himself and his clothes off in privacy, while Montmorency and Louise took some time to plan and discuss.

Once again, I was left to my own thoughts as the nighttime cold air began to settle in. The flooded lake before us was as still as a pond, and it was hard not to notice just how unnatural it was. "So this lake really flooded on its own..." I mumbled.

"The spirit in the lake, to be precise," Derflinger said.

"I know that. So it...what? Multiplied itself or something? Made more water out of thin air?" I asked as I stared at the sunken rooftops and treetops sticking out of the level water.

"You'd be pretty surprised at what magic is capable of. And spirits have a lot of it," Derflinger said. "I imagine you've come across your fair share of it while you were here."

I had. It had sunk in a while ago that magic existed and was capable of incredible things...but flooding entire lands? The fact that no one person had done this was a bit intimidating as well. "I have. Still, nothing on this scale. I mean, just think of the damage this could do in war," I admitted.

"War's really all that's on your mind, isn't it?" Derflinger chuckled.

"Yeah, and it's a little weird," I sighed, and I got up, walking over to Montmorency - who was kneeling by the water. "What're you doing?"

"I just released my familiar into the lake," Montmorency explained, holding her finger up to me. A thin dot of blood emerged from a little prick on her fingertip. "Our contract was drawn and sealed in blood. If the spirit remembers me, then the blood that Robin holds will let her know that I am here."

I nodded, understanding the concept well enough. "This'd better work," I said.

"It will. Contracts between people and spirits are some of the most revered," Montmorency said as she looked out at the lake. "My father brought me here as a very small child to make this contract. The value of a blood seal is absolute."

"And if she doesn't come?" I asked.

"She will," Montmorency insisted. And so we waited.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for something to happen. However, that something was related to magic - and it had to be flashy. A plume of water shot out of the lake and began to rain down around it, with the sheer abruptness of it being enough to startle all of us. A little orange frog shot out of the plume, landing on Montmorency's shoulder as he returned to his master. A loud humming noise filled the air, and I stepped back, unsure of what to expect.

Montmorency stepped forward in front of Louise as she held her hands out to her sides, facing the plume of water directly. "I am Montmorency Margarita La Fère de Montmorency. I am a water user, and of a family that is part of a lasting contract with you. Please, answer me in a way that we can recognize!" she called.

For a moment, the water continued to spray - before it died down. The plume thinned out, and the water seemed to slow down its ascent out of the lake. It began to shift before long, changing its form from a tall spout of water to an equally tall form of a female figure emerging from the lake.

I watched in amazement as the figure stood tall and proud, facing us silently. She resembled Montmorency - which I could only recoginize thanks to the hair it formed. "I remember you, young one," the figure - the spirit said, her voice ethereal in nature. "I recognize the fluid of life that runs throughout your body."

Montmorency sighed. "I'm relieved," she sighed before she composed herself, bowing her head to the ladylike shape of water in the lake. "Water Spirit, I wish to ask a favor of you. I require a tear, a miniscule part of you to help our friend. I beseech you."

There was a moment of pause, a small wait before the spirit spoke up. "We must decline, lonely one," she said gently.

Montmorency drooped, and Louise pulled herself forward. "What do you mean, you decline?! You have plenty of water to spare, and we only need a drop!" she cried.

"Don't!" Montmorency shouted, clamping a hand over Louise's mouth. However, I spoke up instead, stepping towards the edge of the lake.

"Why can't you help us?" I asked.

"We are unable to help you," the spirit explained. "We are being attacked by some of your kind. We wish to be rid of them."

I shrugged. "Sounds easy enough," I remarked. "We do this for you, and we'll get a tear?"

"You shall receive a piece of us," the spirit confirmed. "They are expected to return tonight after nightfall."

I looked over to the others. "Okay, we'll camp out and deal with them when they show up," I said. "Come on."

"You're...you're really going to do this?" Louise croaked.

"I'm not going to get involved in a fight like this!" Montmorency cried.

"But you're in a contract with the spirit. You have to help out," I said. "Unless you're gonna leave this little problem that you caused unsolved. I could get more and more violent, and I could end up causing a lot of trouble sooner or later."

Montmorency fumed, her face turning bright red before she huffed. "Oh, fine! Do as you wish!" she snapped.

"Didn't need your permission. Just stay out of the way," I remarked as I headed towards a nearby tree to wait, leaving Louise and Montmorency staring after me. As I moved past the treeline, I could hear Guiche approaching them, asking what was going on.

- a few more hours later -

I peered from behind a tree, glaring at anything and everything around me. Twigs and leaves were tangled up all over my helmet, and I had dirt smeared on my face. The others were somewhere else out of sight, and I was far too occupied with keeping guard in order to think about them.

"You really oughta cool off, mate," Derflinger commented quietly. "This is not like you at all."

"Well, we're trained to do this when we need to," I hissed as I peered through the iron sights of my rifle. My Garand was also clearly camouflaged with sticks and leaves bundled around it. "Have you ever snuck behind enemy lines before?"

"We're not behind enemy lines," Derflinger said. "I don't know how to feel, but you're clearly worrying way too much about this."

"Well, it's best to be prepared," I said. "Who knows what kind of magic we could end up dealing with? I mean, I almost got flattened once before by a giant rock guy."

"Golem," Derflinger corrected before he fell silent. "Someone's coming!" he hissed, and he clanked into his scabbard. My eyes went back to surveying the surrounding area, only to find out that someone was indeed coming through.

Two figures - one tall and one short - walked past the treeline, heading towards the lake with large brown cloaks obscuring their identities. My eyes narrowed, and I slowly raised my rifle's iron sights back up to my eye level, ready to take aim and fire...

...before I realized the shorter one carrying a staff. Furthermore, it was a staff that looked familiar. My eyes widened, taking notice of the question mark shaped end, my brain putting two and two together. "Tabitha?" I whispered.

"What now?" Derflinger clanked quietly.

"Hold on," I mumbled. My mind was racing with new questions now - like why Tabitha was here of all places, and who the figure next to her could possibly be.

The memory of Kirche leaving with Tabitha entered my mind, and I realized that the other cloaked person had to be her. "What're they doing? No, it doesn't matter - I have to deal with this," I thought as I brought my aim back on Tabitha.

It took me a split second to realize what I was doing, and I forced my rifle down, my heart starting to pound loudly. "Dammit, I like Tabitha! And...Kirche too, I guess. Still, I'm not going to just shoot them!" I thought, and I stood up - rustling the leaves and snapping branches around me.

The two whirled around, wand and staff raised before they saw me. To my relief, they lowered their own weapons and pulled their hoods off, revealing themselves to indeed be Tabitha and Kirche. "Brenner? What are you doing here?" Kirche asked, clearly surprised.

"I could ask you two the same question," I said, slinging my rifle over my shoulder as I came forward. I could hear the sound of more rustling - and I could spot Montmorency, Guiche, and Louise rushing over to the three of us. "Why're you attacking the lake?"

"Kirche? Tabitha?!" Louise cried as she came over, panting from her sprint.

"Answer the question," I said before the two could turn to address the others.

Kirche looked away, clearly uncomfortable as I glared at her. These two were obstacles, and I was not in the mood to have to fight them. "We need to defeat the spirit...for Tabitha. Her family...ahem, well...they sort of asked her to in order to save their territory," she whispered.

I narrowed my eyes. "And I assume this territory is...being flooded?" I asked.

Tabitha nodded, quiet as usual - and I sighed. Turning to the lake, I let out a loud ear piercing whistle. "Oi, spirit!" I yelled.

"Brenner!" Montmorency cried in horror. "You can't just yell the name and expect her to appear! You need to summon her the way I did-"

I whirled around, and she paled. "Summon. Her. Back."

Several minutes later, the spirit once again emerged from the lake after another summoning from Montmorency's blood, and I crossed my arms. "I thought you said you were raising the water because you were attacked," I said.

"Actually, she only said she was being attacked," Derflinger chimed in, making me wince. Sighing, I rubbed my eyes and cleared my throat.

"Okay, ignore what I just said," I said. "Why are you flooding the lands?"

"We were indeed attacked," the spirit said. "One of your kind has stolen a treasure belonging to us - a treasure we were meant to guard."

"A treasure?" Louise asked. "What kind of treasure?"

"A precious kind. We raised our waters in order to find it. We only exist in water, therefore we will find it if the entire world is made of water," the spirit explained, her voice seemingly cold and detached.

I scowled. "Well, we're obviously not gonna let that happen. What's your treasure?" I asked. "If you stop flooding everyone's homes, then we'll find it for you."

"Brenner?!" Montmorency screeched.

"...do you truly mean this?" the spirit asked.

"Yeah. I mean, I'll need clues first, but once we get a lead, we'll get the thing back," I said, quickly losing patience with this magical spirit of water.

There was silence, and the spirit spoke up. "It is called Andvari's Ring. And we know little of the thieves who stole it. All we know is that one of them is called Cromwell," the spirit explained.

"Cromwell," I mumbled. A name - not a good lead, but it was much better than nothing. "Okay," I said. "I promise I'll find this bastard."

More silence followed, and I felt the eyes of the spirit on me, as well as everyone else. Then the spirit spoke up once more. "We believe your words, Gandalfr," she said.

I blinked, and everyone else looked at each other in confusion. Before we could ponder our luck, a little object shot from the water - straight into Louise's hands. "I-it's a spirit tear!" she whispered as she held up the object: a vial.

"We shall lower our water, and you shall keep your promise," the spirit said before she disappeared back into the lake. We watched as the water level began to drop, ever so slowly, and we all sighed in relief.

Montmorency wiped her brow as we all made to return home. "Well...we should get back home and get this potion antidote created," she mumbled. "If it will even work."

"A love potion making me violent, a water spirit, and some magic ring," I remarked. "I've seen everything now."

Montmorency winced. "Actually...I may have forgotten to tell you. The love potion isn't exactly just a love potion," she said. "It's...meant to expose one's true feelings."

I blinked. "What's the difference?" I asked.

"...well...I would never make a potion that would force someone to fall in love. What I made was meant to reveal whether Guiche was...well...actually in love with me," Montmorency said. "I should have said something earlier, but I was just so stressed and with the spirit said, I couldn't-"

"Wait wait wait," I said. "Okay, so I'm not in love. The potion made me expose my true feelings. What are my true feelings then?"

"...you enjoy war."

I froze. Montmorency froze. Louise, who was right next to me, froze. "What did you say?" Louise asked.

Derflinger was sticking out of his scabbard, having spoken up for the first time in a while. "Brenner's violence, his snappy attitude, his talking about the war he fought in. He doesn't just miss home. He misses the war."

I felt my stomach grow cold in horror at the thought. "I mean...you're not serious, are you?" I asked, unsure of what to feel. Denial entered my mind first, before it quickly began to fall apart. "You're serious."

"I'm not saying that you love war or violence. But it's just become a part of you," Derflinger remarked. "It's in your blood now."

His words sank in, and mixed feelings flooded into me. On one hand, I was relieved for all of this to be making sense, as well as the realization that I wasn't in fact overly violent just because I wanted to. But the thought of me wanting war was much scarier than I could have ever imagined.

"Oh...god. I think I just turned into a war monger," I mumbled.

"And now your true feelings on your true feelings come to light," Derflinger remarked.

"Shut up!" Louise hissed before she grabbed my hand. "Come on, we'd better get going."

The rest of the night slowly became a blur, and I barely paid attention to the journey all the way back to the institute. It was well past midnight when we got back to the academy together, with Kirche and Tabitha having gone back to Tabitha's home to pack up their things.

Montmorency made the potion, and I drank it - feeling very little within myself change. I didn't even hear any other conversation that happened afterwards, simply saying thanks and going straight to bed.

When the others went to sleep, I lay awake in the dark - my thoughts on my apparent true feelings plaguing me from getting a proper night of sleep. "I don't miss the war...do I?" I thought to myself. "It's war, it's all horror and craziness. How could I...miss it?"

The silence gave no answer.