However, the string people, though with a sense of trepidation, had their tents set up in here to sleep and stay over. Some were even selling red bricks as symbols of the end of the war.
Siesta took out a cloth from her bag and skillfully started to set up a tent. The poles were set, the cloth was set. A sleeping place for two people was made with surprising swiftness.
Then she collected a few bricks and, drawing few surprised looks, made an improvised kitchen. Then, after some rustling, she took a pan out of the bag and started preparing a stew.
After finishing, she placed it into the wooden bowl and hand it over to Louise.
“Please,”
“T-thank you.”
Louise looked suspiciously at the presented stew. She could not see the color of it. A peculiar aroma of mountain herbs and meat drifted.
Anxiously, Louise peeked inside…
“It's good, don’t worry. It’s my village’s special dish - Yosenabe.”
“Yosenabe?”
“Yes. A dish made by my great-grandfather.”
“Heee”
Louise timidly took one sip.
“Delicious!”
“Eheh. It suits everyone’s taste.”
Then Siesta muttered,
“My great-grandfather came from the same country as Saito-san.”
Louise popeyed.
“Really?”
“Yes. Umm… He came to this world with the ‘Dragon's Raiment’, 60 years ago…”
“Hm.”
Louise was surprised to see such a link between Siesta and Saito.
“You did not know?”
-nodnod- Louise nodded.
Siesta gave a smugly smile.
“Why are you smiling?”
“One thing that I win. Ehehehe.”
“Win what?! Hey!”
Thrusting herself towards Louise, Siesta began to sing a strange tune.
“Great-grandfather and your lover are from the same country♪, Same country, ♪Same country♪”
“Lover who?! Hey!”
When Louise boiled over and shouted, Siesta said in a triumphant voice.
“Kissed.”
“Wh-what?”
“A lot.”
Louise tightly clasped a fist. Losing her temper here would be what the enemy wanted her to do.
After taking a few deep breaths, she shook her head. Then slapped her own cheeks.
Then, desperately fighting for composure, she fixed her hair and placed her arms together.
“I-I did it a lot of times too. Or I should say, it was done to me.”
“Heeh. How many times?”
Asked Siesta with cold eyes.
“W-well… the first one was when we made familiar contract, sealed with a kiss.”
“A contract? It doesn’t count.”
Ignoring Siesta, Louise looked up.
“Then, the second time! On the dragon! It was when he kissed me while I was sleeping!”
“That’s impossible! Saito-san would never gloss over such thing!”
“Possible! Because, I was pretending to sleep!”
Louise declared triumphantly.
“What about it, he forcibly did it while I was sleeping! Then, why he was giving me, his master, those kind of looks – starestarestarestarestaaare. In bed, at the table, even in the classroom, everywhere! With perverted dog’s eyes too! Why would a servant force his master? When I was unaware too! Aren't those stuuupid ideas? Phui! Such feelings!
Phui! Louise was showing off.
Siesta, watching Louise's an exaggerated reaction, coldly and calmly delivered a blow.
“But if you were unaware, how can you know everything in such detail?”
Louise was at a loss of words.
“It wasn’t forced. You could resist, but you didn’t, right?”
Bulls-eye. However, she would not be Louise if she admitted it. Averting her eyes, she muttered to herself.
“I, I became numb.”
“Why did you become numb?”
“I was s-stung by a bee… Yes, a bee.”
“Think of a better lie next time!”
Not able to trick her, Louise decided to go on instead.
“Third time!”
However, the third time was certainly done by Louise herself. For some reason, she couldn’t resist while watching Saito’s sleeping face and kissed him. Therefore, Louise decided to skip the explanation.
“Fourth time!”
“Wait a moment! What happened with the third time?
“Nothing!”
“Not nothing! Explain it properly! Don’t lie!”
The fourth time happened on the shallop.
The reason they kissed that time… was because Louise said that he could touch her anywhere he wanted to, and then they kissed. Louise was worried. She decided to not explain it in full details to the maid again. Therefore, Louise skipped.
“Fifth time!”
Though as far as memory reached… there was no fifth time. To deceive, Louise pointed her finger at Siesta.
“So this is it! I was kissed five times overall! No, I didn’t like it! I was embarrassed!”
Louise glared at Siesta with killer eyes.
However, Siesta didn’t give in to Louise’s stare and returned it.
“I did it seven times!”
“Yes?”
“During a single night, however.”
“Then it was a single time! A single one! After the sun rose, you were not kissed even once!
Siesta looked at Louise with fake sympathy, and, with triumph in her eyes, she dully stated.
“Please listen to me carefully. Don’t use a spell on me, ok?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Promise.”
“All right.”
“I used my tongue.”
Even Louise's ears crimsoned. Her body shook with anger.
The two kept looking daggers with their eyes at each other for a while, and then sighed together.
Then, Siesta muttered.
“He is absolutely alive.”
Though Louise was looking down, she looked up at once.
“We have to believe it.”
“That’s right.”
Then it became silent…
The shouts of joy came from behind.
“Huh?”
When turning around, they saw a crowd gathered.
“What?”
When they approached it, they saw a lot of small dolls dancing on their feet. Knights, mercenaries, demi-humans, griffons and dragons… It appeared to be some kind of play.
“Alviss?”
Louise whispered silently
“What is Alviss?”
Siesta asked blankly.
“A gargoyle species.”
“Gargoyle?”
“Yes. Unlike Golems, these are magic dolls with their own will and movement. Alviss are said to be small ones. Hey, remember all those small statues standing in the school's dining room? Those are Alviss'. When night comes, they magically start to move and dance…”
On the other side of the dancing Alviss', a highroad artist could be seen. It was a beautiful woman with a big hood put on her head. Long black hair poked out from under her hood. She, without stirring, gazed at The Adventure of the Dancing Men.
The dance seemed to imitate the fight.
When a single fencer attacked dragons and mages, shouts of joy boiled from the viewers. Commoners received it well, when a fencer was the plot hero.
When the last dragon was knocked down, Fencer Alviss bowed to the viewers. All other mages and dragons stood up and bowed to the spectators as well. The people who gathered threw coins one after another and left. Siesta also took out of her pocket, one copper coin and threw it.
Then… Two Alviss' ran up to Siesta's feet and sat down demurely on her shoes.
“Ara, araarara. I can’t walk this way.”
Siesta quietly reached for them.
“Itta!”