“It can not be like that.”
Wales smiled cheerfully.
“What do you plan to do?”
“I have to return to Albion.”
“What a stupid thing! That is like pointlessly going to throw away the life you barely managed to keep!”
“Even so, I have to return. I have to liberate Albion from Reconquista's hands.”
“What a joke!”
“It isn't a joke. For that reason, I came to meet you.”
“Me?”
“Your powers are necessary in order to liberate Albion. There are cooperators in the country as well, but... Even more, I need a person I can trust. You will come with me, right?”
“No way... I am happy for those words, but that is impossible. I could have gone on such adventures when I was a princess, but I am now a queen. Whether I like it or not, the country and the people are placed on my shoulders. Please do not say such impossible things.”
However, Wales would not give up. With even more zealous words, he tried to convince Henrietta. “I know it is impossible. But, you are necessary for victory. In the middle of that lost battle, I realized it. About just how much I needed you. I need the ‘Saint’ who will bring victory upon me and Albion.”
Henrietta felt something hot welling inside her body. She was needed by her beloved person. Drunkenness and loneliness accelerated the urge welling inside her.
Even so, Henrietta desperately answered.
“Do not trouble me any more. Please wait, I will have people come and prepare a bed for you. Tomorrow, again, we can discuss this topic, slowly...”
Wales shook his head.
“We won't make it in time tomorrow.”
Then, Wales easily said the words Henrietta had always wanted to hear.
“I love you, Henrietta. That's why, come with me.”
Henrietta's heart started beating in the same rhythm as the times where she and Wales rendezvoused at Ragdorian Lake.
Slowly, Wales drew his lips near Henrietta. To Henrietta's lips that tried to say something, Wales' sealed it up.
In Henrietta's mind, she recalled all kinds of sweet memories.
Because of that, Henrietta did not notice the sleeping magic cast on her.
Still feeling happy, Henrietta fell into the world of sleep.
Meanwhile, at the same time...
In one of the rooms in the girls' dormitory at Tristain's Academy of Magic, Montmorency was trying her very best at mixing something while Saito and the others watched her.
“Doneー! Fuu! Still, that really was difficultー!”
While wiping the sweat from her forehead, Montmorency flopped onto her chair.
Inside the pot on top of the table was the cancellation drug that she just mixed.
“It's fine to just drink it like this?”
“Yes.”
Taking the pot, Saito brought it to the tip of Louise's nose. Louise grimaced from the smell.
“Well then, Louise. Drink this.”
“No. It stinks really badly.”
Louise shook her head. Crap, I should have mixed it with something and have her secretly drink it. In order to have children eat carrots, you chop it and mix it into a hamburger.
“Please. Drink this.”
“If I drink this, will you kiss me?”
Saito nodded, realizing he had no other choice.
“Got it. If you drink this, I'll kiss you.”
Louise answered, “I understand”, and took the pot.
She looked at the contents with a disgusted expression for a while, but she closed her eyes resolutely and drank it all. Montmorency, observing this, poked Saito.
“For now, shouldn't it be best if you run away?”
“Why?”
“Because the memories of the time when she was madly in love with you after drinking the love potion don't disappear. She remembers everything. That Louise remembers everything she did and was done to her.”
Saito flinched in shock and looked at Louise.
“Buhwa!” went Louise who drank the whole thing, and then she hiccupped once.
“Funya.”
After that, as if an evil spirit had left her, her facial expression completely returned back to normal. Seeing Saito in front of her, her face suddenly turned red. Chewing on her lips, she started trembling.
Saito muttered, “Oh god,” and tried to sneak out of the place.
“Wait.”
“Sorry, but food for my pigeon...”
“You don't even keep a pigeonnnnnnnnn!!!!”
Louise's voice resounded. This is bad. I'm going to be killed.
Saito opened the door and ran down the stairs as if he was tumbling down.
However, the present Louise moved at lightning speed.
Jumping from the landing of the staircase, she aimed a kick downstairs at Saito's back. Saito somersaulted, rolled down to the first floor, and struck the floor severely.
Suitably, it was the entranceway of the girls' dormitory. He tried to escape by crawling, but, as usual, the scruff of his neck was firmly stepped on by her foot.
“I, I didn’t do anything wrong! It couldn’t be helped! It was that drug’s fault! We were both unhappy!”
Without answering back, Louise pulled up his parka. Then she lifted his t-shirt. Finding a lot more kiss marks, her face got even redder. She made these herself. This is, this is-this is... For me to do such a thing... She traced the back of her neck with her finger. The same mark made by Saito was there.
With shyness and anger at herself mixed, Louise’s reasoning snapped. In the end, the thing that received her unreasonable anger was Saito’s body. Saito’s screams sounded into the air.
On a bench in Austri Plaza, Saito was laying on it limply. He was hurt to the point of dying, and was half dead. He occasionally twitched, so he wasn’t dead. Beside him was the finally calmed-down Louise, sitting on the edge of the bench, who was blushing and thinking about something while pursing her lips out as if she was angry.
The two moons had risen and were shining on the two gently. However, the atmosphere running around the two was far from gentle and was awkward, hot, and numbing. In other words, the atmosphere between the two had returned to normal.
“Do you feel satisfied now?”
Saito muttered.
“I-if I was normal, I definitely wouldn’t have done something like that! Really! Hmph!”
“I know that.”
Saito muttered in an exhausted voice. By that time, finally, Louise realized that it was not Saito's fault at all. Even so, he let Louise do what she did and received her outrage. His cheeks are swollen. Is he okay? Despite inflicting the wounds herself, she was impelled to take care of him. But… It really was embarrassing. The memories of the moments after she drank the love potion kept her from approaching Saito.
But why did this familiar just let himself get hit, I wonder?
“You are you too. You didn’t have to be obedient and get hit by me until you ended up in such a state, right? Sheesh! Resist a little! I went too far, you know!”
“…It’s fine.”
Saito muttered in an exhausted voice.
“Why is that?”
“…Because if I did so, you wouldn’t feel satisfied, right? I understand how you feel. After all, you followed a guy you don’t even like around so closely, and you even didthose things and these things. For someone so prideful like you, there’s no way you could forgive it, right? And still, looking back, I have a little responsibility for angering you… Anyways, don’t worry about it.”
Well, aren’t those kind words. Even though I hurt him so much. It came to her firmly.