“There’s someone alive!”
Saito and Louise ran towards Kirche’s voice.
Despite a deep wound in his arm, someone survived.
“Are you all right?”
Louise now regretted not taking Montmorency with them. In cases of wounds, her water magic would be irreplaceable.
“I’m alright… And you are?”
“We, just like you, ran after the gang that kidnapped Her Majesty. What on earth happened to you?”
The knight answered in a shaky voice.
“They, their wounds were really fatal…”
“What?”
However, the knight could not tell anything else. Feeling secure now that help had come, he fainted.
At that moment, a magical attack was unleashed from all directions. Tabitha reacted in an instant. Expecting an attack beforehand, she created a wall of air above and let it fly down with her magic.
Out of the grass, shadows stood up, swaying in slow motion.
They were once dead Albion nobles now revived by Andvari’s ring.
Kirche and Tabitha took a stance. However, for some reason, the enemy didn’t launch an attack any more. Tension started.
Then, Saito was astonished to find a well known shadow there.
“Crown Prince Wales!”
Still, he…
Wales, who was dead and was given a fake life from Cromwell using the Ring of Andvari, stolen from the water spirit, had abducted Henrietta.
Thinking so, Saito was getting angry at such unfair doing.
He gripped Derflinger on his shoulder. The rune on his left hand started to shine.
“Return the princess.”
However, Wales didn't drop the smile.
“You are saying strong things. I cannot return her as she follows me on her own free-will.”
“What?”
Behind Wales back, Henrietta, dressed in the gown, appeared.
“Princess!”
Louise shouted.
“Please do not go there! That prince Wales is not the real Wales! It is a revenant of the prince, revived by Cromwell’s hands with the Ring of Andvari!”
However, Henrietta didn't step forward. She just bit and tightened her shivering lips.
“…Princess?”
“See? Now then, how about a deal?”
“Deal?”
“That’s right. Though we would like to quarrel here with you, we lost our horses. And traveling without horses through the night can be dangerous, so I would like to save as much magic as possible.”
Tabitha chanted the spell.
‘Windy Icicle’ – attack spell by skillful Tabitha.
Right in the middle of his words the arrow of ice went through Wales’ body.
However… surprisingly, Wales did not fall down and the wound healed itself in another moment.
“It is useless. I cannot be damaged by your attacks.”
Yet, even after seeing this, Henrietta's expression did not change.
“Look! It is not the prince! It is something else! Princess!”
However, Henrietta did not want to believe, and shook her head from right to left. Then said to Louise in a constrained voice.
“Please, Louise, put away the wand. Please do it for me. Please let us go.”
“Princess? What are you saying?! Princess! That thing is not Crown Prince Wales! Princess, you have been tricked!”
Henrietta gave a smile. A ghastly smile.
“I know that. In my room, when our lips met, I knew that 100 times over. However, still, I do not care. Louise, you haven’t loved a person so strongly yet. When you really are in love you are willing to throw away everything. You want to follow him anywhere. Even if it is a lie. You cannot do anything else but believe. I swore, Louise. I made an oath before the water spirit saying ‘I swear eternal love to Wales’. Even if the whole world says it is a lie, my feelings alone are not a lie. Therefore, let us go, Louise.”
“Princess!”
“It’s an order, Louise Françoise. My last one, from me to you. Please, step out of our way.”
Louise’s hand that was aiming the wand dropped down to her side. Understanding Henrietta’s firm decision, she helplessly gave in. Why should she stop such said strong love…
The line of deceased people tried to pass through the dumbfounded Louise.
But, before them…
Saito, holding Derflinger, blocked the way.
He was terribly sad. He understood Henrietta's feelings. But Saito’s mind could not permit it. His mind screamed that he should not let it happen. Saito said in a voice that contained sadness and anger.
“Princess, if I am allowed to say, talking in one's sleep is not good.”
His shoulders and body trembled.
“Passion, love, being together with a woman, not caring about anything else. Is such love true? It is just a mere blindness. Blood goes up to the head and one cannot think straight.”
“Leave! It’s an order!”
Henrietta shrieked with all her remaining dignity.
“Unfortunately, I am not your subordinate. Your orders mean nothing to me. Even if you keep on ordering me… I won’t listen. I will cut through that spell of yours.”
It was Wales who moved first. Though he tried to utter a spell, Saito jumped at him.
However, a wall of water blew Saito off.
Petrified Henrietta, gripping the wand, trembled.
“I won’t allow you to lay even a single finger on Wales.”
The crushing wall of water moved to Saito again. However, the space in front of Henrietta exploded in the next moment. Henrietta was blown away.
Louise had cast an explosion spell.
“Even though you are a princess, I won’t allow you to lay a single finger on my familiar, either.”
With her hair ruffled, Louise muttered in a shaking voice.
Due to this explosion, Tabitha and Kirche, who had been watching the scene in blank surprise, started chanting spells as well.
The fight started.
Saito kept on blocking the magic spells with his sword, in front of Louise. Though the magic flitted around, no one was wounded seriously. Though Tabitha’s and Kirche’s unleashed magic was knocking down the enemies, the enemies themselves preserved their willpower, hoping to weaken them up little by little with dot spells.
However, the enemy's teamwork was skillful. Little by little, Saito and the others were cornered.
Before they realized it, Louise, Saito and the others were enclosed in a tight circle.
They were cornered in a defending position. The number of enemies was too great, thus there was no chance to attack.
Kirche released another fire ball, burning down a single mage.
“The flame is effective! It only has to burn!”
Kirche launched another flame attack. Tabitha switched the attack to cover Kirche at once. Saito also turned to support. The spells that flew at Kirche were inhaled by Derflinger.
The enemies recovered and tried to cut him with wind swords.
Yet, Kirche’s flame burned down another three of them…
The enemy dashed away from the range of her magic and then regrouped.
“The way it is, if you burn them by the flame little by little… we may have a chance to win.”
Kirche muttered.
However, heaven turned away from them.
Gradually, Tabitha noticed something wet hitting her cheek.
With a worried expression she looked up into the sky.
A huge cloud of rain segregated above them.
Rain that started as a light sprinkle, changed into a heavy pour soon.
Henrietta shouted.
“Throw your wands away! I do not want to kill you!”
“Just wake up, princess! Please!”
Louise shouted, but her voice was drowned by the sounds of the increasingly heavier raindrops
“Look! Rain! Rain! ‘Water’ spells will always win in the rain! Thanks to this rain, our victory was decided!”
“Is that so?”