The light which brought me victory.
The intense light that resembled the sun.
Even by thinking about the light her body grew warm.
“Was it you, Louise?” Whispered Henrietta quietly.
Meanwhile, in contrast to the excitement on Bourdonné street, the same old repetitive days continued on for the Academy of Magic. The headmaster of the academy, Osman, had praised the victory of the Kingdom’s forces at Tarbes, but other than that, nothing else had happened.
But then again, they were in a school, an environment that had no place for things like politics. Even in the midst of war, the students were off somewhere doing their own things. For the nobles of Halkeginia, war was something that occurred every year. There was always some quarrel somewhere in the world. And when things got more serious, there would be an uproar, but when the battles had settled, things would be like always.
Within this process, another little war had been set in motion in the quiet Vestri courtyard.
On a bench under the warm sun, Saito opened the package in his hands.
His face shone brightly.
“Wow! That’s great! A muffler!”
A blushing Siesta sat next to him.
“Well, um, what was it called… an aeroplane? It’s cold when you’re riding that right?”
It was three hours past noon. Since Siesta had something to give him, she had told him to go to the Vestri courtyard. And the present was a muffler. A muffler as white as snow. It was warm like Siesta’s soft skin.
“Yeah! It does get quite cold when I open the windshield.”
Saito wrapped it around his neck to try it on. It was the start of summer, but the skies were cold and all the more cold when the windshield was open. During takeoff and landing he needed to stretch his head outside of the windshield to check below him. It was different from the modern aeroplanes where they could do everything with the windshield closed.
On the white muffler, words were written with black knitting wool. At first they looked with letters from the alphabet but on closer inspection they were Halkeginian characters, quite different from the alphabet.
“What does this say?”
“Hm? Ah, you can’t read our words because you’re from another world. Um, your name is written there.”
“I see.”
Saito was moved. “Ah, so that’s how my name is written in this world’s characters” he thought while looking at it with fascination. Four characters were grouped together, which was probably pronounced “Saito”. Close to that group of characters was another group of six.
“How about this?”
“Eheh… that’s my name. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. You don’t like it?”
“N-No, that's not it!”
Saito frantically shook his head.
“I’m really happy that you knit a muffler for me.”
It was the first time in his life that he had received a present from a girl. He remembered the tragedies that had happened every year. His birthday was on a national holiday so school was off. He hadn’t had a single girlfriend to congratulate him. Only once, did his mother give a watch to him, which broke the following day. On Valentine’s Day, there was actually one time where his seat was mixed up with the person’s next to him and a chocolate was placed in his desk.
“Who is it?! Who is it that likes me?! I’ll most likely like you as well!!” he shouted, dancing around in joy. An ordinary looking girl came up to him and said “Sorry, got the seats mixed up.” Embarrassed at his own excitement he ended up sulking in the toilets.
And so, receiving a present from a girl was enough to make him teary. The fact that it was hand made raised Siesta’s charm by 120%. The usual cute Siesta had been elevated to the status of an angel.
“But is it really alright to give this to me? It must have been a lot of work to knit this.” Saito said quietly.
“It’s ok. You know, when the Albion forces attacked I was so scared. But when I heard the battle had ended and came out of the forest, you had already landed with that aeroplane right?”
Saito nodded.
“I was really, really happy. Which is why I…”
The two found themselves blushing. Siesta had hugged Saito and kissed him on the cheek during that time.
The village people came out of the forest soon after. Many of them had been intently watching Saito defeat the enemy dragoons with his Zero fighter. They had praised Saito and Louise as heroes for crushing the enemies. Celebrations were held for three days and three nights, and both of them received treatment as fine as royalty. They had also restored Siesta’s grandfather’s honour, as they proved the Zero fighter could really fly.
During the feast, Siesta had diligently attended to Saito and had drawn closer to him. At this moment, her body was also leaning lightly against him.
Confused, Saito fiddled with the muffler around his neck.
“Uh?”
He noticed something.
“Siesta, the muffler is quite long…”
“Hehe… that’s because it’s made for doing this.”
Siesta took the end of the muffler and wrapped it around her own neck. When she did that, the muffler’s length was just right.
“I-It’s made for two people?”
“Yep. You don’t like it?”
There was an incredible charm as Siesta looked into his eyes after saying that. It was as if she had the eyes of a loving puppy.
A muffler made for two… what are you, the perfect maid? A maid like you would be sentenced to death in Japan, y-y-you…
Saito’s thoughts had started to not make sense. Siesta’s maid-like manner had landed a critical hit in his mind.
Siesta launched another attack. Closing her eyes she pouted her lips and leaned towards him.
Saito gulped. His reaction would make him press his lips against hers. But… the memory of her father’s words during the banquet resurfaced in his mind. He had approached Saito when Siesta had left her seat for a while. He praised Saito as the hero of the village, as he had defeated the dragoons from Albion. His smiling face however quickly wore a much more sinister expression as he directed a bloodcurdling glare at Saito.
“You’re the saviour of this village, and the hero that protected Tristain from Albion. I love you for that. But…”
“Um, but what?”
“If you make my daughter cry, I will kill you.”
Saito would never forget her father’s face as he said that. It was more daunting than orcs, dragoons, even Louise’s magic that destroyed the enemy fleet.
He couldn’t just carelessly make a move on Siesta. He was someone who had to return home after all… If he kissed her, then he would make Siesta sad. And if that happened, Siesta’s father would probably follow him to Earth and hunt him down. The terror that his face had emitted was menacing enough to stop him from laughing off the idea.
But, as Siesta’s lips approached even closer, his hesitation had started to feeble. Since Saito wasn’t moving any closer, it seemed Siesta was planning to close the distance between them herself. Grabbing Saito’s head, she daringly drew him in. Siesta was a girl who was unbelievably daring when she wanted to be. Saito couldn’t resist.
Ah, no…but if it’s only a kiss then… He thought as his body stiffened.
And with loud thud, Saito fainted from a large rock thrown at his head.
About 15 metres behind the bench where Siesta and Saito were seated, there was a gaping hole in the ground. In it was a girl catching her breath. It was none other than Louise.