Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Zero no Tsukaima:Volume14 Chapter9

2012-01-15T05:07:20Z

Fox350z:

==Memories of the bond==

The Water Spirit Knights rushed towards the Panzer hitting down 8 Golomontas in series.

" Saito! That's Saito!"

Looking at the flying chevalier's cape hanging on the antenna, Malicorne yelled.

"Incredible! A cannon installed on a giant steel box!"

Just as Saito explored from the hatch, he was tightly surrounded by the Ondine Knights.

"Sorry I'm late~~"

Faced with his companion's warm welcomes, Saito shyly said. Guiche, with bandaged hands himself, hung on Saito's wrists with watery eyes.

"I, I, I.... always believed in that, that, you would, would come back..... You're vice-captain...."

"Alright,alright~"

Then Gimili gently lifted Louise on top on the turret.

"Saito, your master. Other than fainting...., there should be no damage overall...."

Saito stared at Louise, the pure white nun clothes were almost ripped to shreds, on her cheeks quite a few areas were stained with blood and dust.

Saito thought "Obviously, must have gotten into trouble again."

''Although against war so much..... actually going to the frontlines, for my sake, forced to join this war by contracts...''

"Stupid...."

Saito softly blamed.

Did she want to let himself go home that much, Saito gently touched Louise's cheeks with his hands.

.....Slowly, Louise awoke.

Widening her eyes to the unknown teen in front of her

".....who, are you?"

Suddenly realizing him stroking her own cheeks, Louise pushed Saito away with sudden force and jumped onto the ground.

"De-Despicable!"

Guiche and the others went "Ohhh....." and slapped their hands to their foreheads.

"What are you talking about? You're...."

Saito looked at Louise with shock, did she completely forgot about him? Did she hit her head somewhere?

Guiche and the others shook their heads with "Oh no Oh no"s and told Saito

"Seems like Tiffania's magic was used to, remove all memories about you."

"Oh?"

Saito looked at Louise, dumbfounded.

That "erasing memory" magic? Used? Really?

Under great shock, Saito asked Louise

"It's me, did you really forget?"

"Uh-huh......" Louise made a low pitched whine like a wild cat angry. Saito found a feeling of helplessness all over his body.

Really....this idiot...., always making decisions on her own, doing whatever she wants.....

"I said, you..... what were you thinking! Really, the word dumb is designed especially for you...."

"Who, who's dumb?! Where are your manners!"

"Erasing memories about other people on your own..... what were you thinking!"

With mixed emotions of angry and sorrowness, Saito shook his head.

''Such a fickle girl. Louise only sent me back for because of my situation. A truly gentle child.

But then again, you didn't need to forget about me as soon as I'm gone, can't you still have a bright tomorrow without doing that.....

If we were in each other's shoes, I would never choose so. I would Definitely always remember each other, treating it as a treasure of being alive...."

Obviously, looking at this peached haired girl, this kind of thoughts never came to her.

"Is that so, is that so, did you really want to forget about me that much! Yes, I might have done something to make you angry...., but did I try my best to live on either!"

Saito submitted to his anger and yelled. If that were the Louise before she lost her memories, this is not something Saito would have dared said in front of her.

"You did something to make me angry ~~?"

Seeing Saito like this, Guiche couldn't help but shake his head

"Wrong."

"What?"

"You really don't understand a girl's feelings! This proves your importance in Louise's heart, something irreplaceable! Seeing each other is impossible, her feelings to you were unbearable."

Guiche's words hit Saito, the previous anger turned into feelings of love.

''Thinking of me that much....''

Saito looked at Louise with eyes filled of enthusiasm.

Louise somehow also blushed.

Jumping down from the tank, he held Louise's hands.

"Wh-What...."

Louise turned her head to one side.

"It's me, Saito Hiraga. Also called Saito, Saito Chevalier De Hiraga. Your familiar, did you forget, did you completely forget?"

"Saito.....? Familiar?"

Louise couldn't help but repeat the name she'd heard so many times. Then.... this teen is her familiar? Yet, to her, there is no recognition at all.

"That, listen to me, Louise, you let Tiffania use the 'forget' magic and erased your own memory!"

"Oh? And why would I ever do that?"

"That, em, er, love~~. It's what you had towards me, though it sounds a little embarrassing, deeply loved me. Just like...."

"Love? Who towards whom?"

"You, loved me."

Saito nodded softly with a red face and confirmed, then "Thunk", between his legs came a brutal kick. Saito fell to the ground in slow motion.

"Let me ask again, who, towards whom?"

Saito squeezed his hands between legs and yelled

"Everyone, you tell this little dumb girl, this innocent girl, how much she loved and wished for me!"

Malicorne whispered quietly in Louise's ears

"This guy is out of his minds."

The other boys pressed him immediately

"Hey, fatty!"

"No....., uh, that came out accidentally, it's better to be companions, you know."

Guiche shook his head and told Louise

"-Sigh, how should I put it, just like what Saito said, whether you loved him or not, through magic you erased all memories about him, that is completely true."

The Ondine knights all nodded their heads in confirmation, seeing this, Louise said "Understand" and hung her head.

"So you finally believe me!.... Such a heavily suspicious girl."

"However, saying I love this kind of guy is completely out of your mind!"

"Ohh, about that, we're not to sure ourselves...."

"Guiche!"

"Can't help it, love really can't be seen through attitude, you know."

"Beside, let me clearly say it right now, you are way off from the type I like!"

Louise pointed towards Saito and announced. Saito completely lost his face after hearing.

"No way...."

"Wow, so cruel~~"

Gimili spoke.

"Not, not necessarily, I guess"

Malicorne rasped with a rough voice.

"You may possibly be my familiar, also, I should thank you for saving me just now. However, I am 'Saint of Aquileia', a girl completely pure! My love is devoted across the entire Halkenia, across all Brimir believers, not to people like you...."

Louise pointed to the wobbling Saito,

"You commoner faced guy!"

"This might be too... don't think he can ever stand up again."

Reinard said with a face full of sorrow and sympathy.

"Looks like it's more and more possible now."

Malicorne's breathing became heavy.

Guiche almost gave compassionate tears seeing poor Saito like this; Colbert, Kirche and Tabitha also came out from the tank and watch this scene play out interestingly.

Since some time ago, Romalian soldiers started to gather around interestingly to watch what's going on.

".......Urg"

Shakily, Saito stood up.

"Do you understamd? If so then go attack the enemy, kill every one of those Gallian bunch, come on, aren't you my familiar! Get to work!"

Waving her hand, Louise said cheekily.

"Commoner faced....? Perhaps that's true, but Louise, do you know what you did to this commoner face?"

"Oh? What are you talking about, we're in the middle of a Crusade! Go and get to--"

"Crusade so what!? Your holiness and all go eat my shorts!"

"Such insolence..."

Louise raised her hand and prepared to slap Saito, but Saito caught it in midair tightly.

"Pretended to be asleep."

"Huh?"

"You kissed me when I was pretending to be asleep."

"What, What are you talking about!/"

Saito continued under a burst of unknown enthusiasm.

"Saying 'you may sleep on my bed' with a blushing face to me."

"Wa-wait! Know your place....."

"Boat, on the boat, you allowed me to 'touch any part of your master's body'."

The gathered crowd broke into whispers of astonishment.

"Louise, pretty brave, aren't you."

"Did, did not say these kind of things! This guy is lying!"

"Wearing a black cat's dress, you said 'You are my master today~'; In Albion you told me, 'Hurry up and do it to me'."

"Louise is incredible!"

"Let's see how she defend This."

"Even more intense than Saito"

"How strong a love potion will need to be to have that kind of effect...."

Hearing this kind of murmurs, Saito openly said

"There was no love potion."

"Just what I thought, this is really incredible!"

Malicorne said and put his hand on Louise's shoulders,..... with one sweep of her leg, Malicorne's fat body flew to the distant universe.

"Don't, stop telling lies!"

Louise's flying leg was stopped by Saito's tight ones this time.

"All of the are true. Louise, frankly, compared to that,.... you are really it. I may be a dreaming commoner's face, but you are even worse. Honestly, there's no one above you."

"In-insolent! Some-Someone, tie this guy up for me, treat it as a questioning! Insulting the saint of Aquileia with lies....."

"But, that's exactly the you I like...."

Saying so, Saito suddenly hugged Louise, and planted a kiss. Louise blushed to her roots just as suddenly.

His body just reacted that way.

For an unknown reason, like Brimir in his dreams telling him to do it.

"The bond between a void user and his familiar is unbreakable."

That's right.

A unbreakable bond even in different worlds,.... how can it disappear from just magic?

Both lips kissed tightly by Saito, Louise let him go his own way, both hands raised highly limped slowly, through the tightly linked lips, something seemed to be flooding Louise.

A warm current of warmth slowly filled up the crack in her heart, letters without recipents began to named, completed.

Blank memories started having its shape, colors.

Fouquet's Golem, traversing through Albion.... spiking every single part of her memories, simultaneously, every sorts of events surfaced as well, happy ones, embarrassing ones.

All of what Saito just said were also freshly imprinted in them.

"Chirp", their lips parted, Louise cried out intensely

"Saito!"

"Did you finally remember,..... this is great!"

"W-w-w-w-w-why...."

Louise's pair of eyes were overwhelmed with tears.

"What?"

"Why did you go back like a good boy"

Louise thumped Saito's chest gently with fists.

"Do I need to explain, of course it's because I have you."

Hearing this, Louise couldn't hold back any longer, pulling Saito towards her and kissed him deeply.

But soon she realized everyone around looking and pushed Saito away with sudden force.

"W-wait! We're still-still in a battle, what are you doing."

"You started it, besides, don't send other people back when you feel like it!"

Louise's lips trembled, trying to say something but couldn't. Eventually, crystal clear tears dropped from her eyes and cried.

"Because..., because Saito saw a letter from your mother and cried...., you looked so sad, compared to me, didn't you want to go home more.... I thought Saito can only have true happiness only after going home....."

Saito lifted Louise's head gently and said

"My own future, should be chosen by myself. My happiness, I'm sure is already here...."

Uncontrollably, the two hugged each other tightly. This time, Malicorne flew towards them using magic and separated both of them.

"OK~, show's over.... ok? Otherwise, big brother is really going to be angry~"

Baring a fearsome smile, Malicorne threw a Crusade's flag into Saito's face.

"Now, we're in a Crusade....~"

Saito and Louise both stood up, blushing, intentionally coughing with an "ahem" together.

Saito let Louise sit on the seat of the tank commander's.

"Enemies.... how much are left?"

Guiche asked.

"All of them fled? If there were more, they would have attacked us."

Reinard answered.

Saito looked towards the deepest part of the Valley.

This.... has not ended, Saito felt.

"Anyhow, let's advance forward for now. Leaving them behind would be troublesome."

The teens nodded their heads in agreement, surrounding the Panzer and went into formation.

"Everyone distant yourself a little behind, you don't have much armor."

The steel tiger, once again, set forward to the depths of "Tiger's highway", followed closely by the Ondine Knights. After seeing them disappear into the canyon, the Romalian army also followed inside.

Deepest parts of the Canyon....

Inn street, Sheffield gazed at a portrait of Joseph on her hands. On her face is a face of shock that cannot be faked. Golomonta's large force turned into 2 in almost a blink of an eye.

Enemy's long ranged cannon.... the armor Golomonta's proud of is merely paper in front of it, the power....

What should be done to achieve victory?

Herself..... is Joseph's most talented commanders, this must be done....

Seeing Gandalfr coming to his master's aid, Sheffield's head went hot, and used an incorrect method of approaching.

When fighting strong enemies, you should always retreat in and wait in the shadows, patiently waiting to make good use of any mistakes.

--The basics out of basics in warfare tactics.

Myozunitonirun would be out of words if the heard this....

Because of exactly this.....Sheffield rambled.

"Joseph does not actually need me in meaning."

The same as anyone else...., that's why, her existence was permitted.

Yet those two are different.

They have a strong desire for each other. The reason why she lost was not because of Gandalfr, even less, the weapon from a parallel world.

But it's that "bonding".

In a split second, Sheffield felt her whole body almost shaking from anger.

Golomontas can be made, there's always more chance to fight again.

Even if it's a complete loss, that "steel box" must be brought down.

Sheffield started to collect barrels of gunpowder from the ship which fell out of the sky.

Finally, the panzer arrived at Inn street. What came into sight, was a wasteland made only in one day.

There seemed to be no trace of the enemy at all.

"None.... all fled?"

"Look closely for me."

Louise said to Saito, popping out her head from the hatch.

"You should look closely, can't you see the outside better on your side."

The disadvantage of the tank is its small field of view. If one wants to look around, coming out of the tank is a must.

At right this moment, the wooden barrels placed around the structures exploded.

"Waaah! What happened!"

The original street trapped in the middle of the valley instantly turned into a stew of fog and smoke, from before, a tiny scope where things are barely visible, to now, where every angle seems to be coloured in brown.

Tabitha named the crude source of explosives

"Black powder."

Quickly chanting wind magic as she says, the dust around rose up in the air swiftly.

"Saito, in the front!"

Colbert cried out, in the fog like a moist morning when the sun is about to rise, a Golomonta showed itself. Saito who always had his hand held tightly on the trigger, pulled without hesitation.

Bang!

The shell sent the whole Golomonta flying away.

Next moment, Louise from the Captain's seat called out

"Saito, from above!"

Completely cornered.

Utilizing its cape to hang on the cliff, the other Golomonta jumped down in midair, his hand holding a giant barrel of black powder already ignited.

Looks like it's prepared for a suicide mission.

"Crap!"

Attacking from above, a tank is helpless about it, the barrel isn't capable of aiming above, even if it were possible, there was no time to do so.

Saito dragged Louise up in the cabin of the tank.

But.... after a long period of time, the explosion was still yet to come.

"Huh?"

Saito carefully peeked out of the hatch.

What only came into sight was a green scaled wind dragon tightly grasping the Golomonta and flying upwards, the throwing it over one side of the cliff.

Bang,bang,bang,bang,bang,bang!

With a long long echo, the high-pitched bang sounded throughout the valley. The pressurized air current hit the armor of Panzer violently.

"Saved by wind dragon, but.... that really is a powerful one."

"Slipheed?"

Tabitha standing at a corner shook her head.

"No, my dragon cannot carry something that heavy."

As everyone was pondering who might it be, Julio's laughter sounded from above

"Wahahahaahaa! That was really close, no? You sure owe me one~"

Saito shook his fist in anger, regretting putting the Panzer in danger.

"How is this a debt!?"

Behind, the Crusaders and the Romalian army all arrived subsequently. Carlo standing at the very front waved his staff high and cried out

"Look, the arrogant Gallian dogs have been destroyed by us!! May our ancestor's blessing be bestowed upon all of us!"

"Whoooooooooo!!!" The Romalian army let out a ground breaking cry.

From a distance, Malicorne despised the cheering soldiers and murmured

"What ever did they do?"

"Who knows~~" Reinard answered with his hands open.

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| [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Chapter8|Back to Chapter 8]]
| [[Zero_no_Tsukaima|Return to Main Page]]
| [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Epilogue|Forward to Epilogue]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Zero no Tsukaima:Volume14 Chapter8

2012-01-15T04:43:00Z

Fox350z: just fixed some spelling

==The Steel Tiger==

"Those guys... taking their time so slowly... what are they doing!"

Inn street of Tiger's Highway.... in this emptied place, Sheffield ordered the '''Golomontas (''' to be on alert.

She put the light blue monocle on in front of her eye. It's a type of magic tools. Every Yolomonta's vision were all shown here. Through this, Sheffield can manipulate 10 Golomontas as swift as using her arms.

After landing, it has already been an hour. Meanwhile, Romalia put up quite a bit of a fight, and all her ammo are exhausted.

To effectively eliminate the enemies, only using the "swords" Golomontas carry is not enough. Though having "reflection spell" casted on the Golomontas already, this does not imply that enemy attacks can be completely deflected.

If attacks are continuous, "reflection" will fail eventually.

To cease the firing of enemy guns and magic, long ranged weaponrys are definitely needed.

In the case of ammo exhaustion, resupplies are supposed to be parachuted down the ships.

Incidentally... the guns which started firing not long ago firing from Romalia ships still haven't ended yet. Despite the obvious advantage of having 2 fleets, one third of the ships have rioted and refuses to engage.

In the end, the disorganized fleets accept raining cannonballs with open hands from Romalian ships, never happier to supply them with more. None of the resupplies ever came.

If the supplies don't come, that would be quite a bit of a trouble.

Through the elves's assistance, the manufactured magical supplies - power source for Golomontas, is the basic of magic.... in other words, the "wind rocks". To swiftly swing their beefy armored arms, requires large amounts of wind rocks. If the wind rocks are used up, Golomontas can hardly move an inch.

So, if this continues, no matter how powerful these armored golems are, they will not escape the fate of being a big lump of metal. After an intense battle with the separated enemy army, the consumption of wind rocks were sky high. Though Romalia armies suffered great losses themselves as well, this was nothing to be happy about.

Because this mission was not to make them suffer, but to eradicate them all.

If this can't be achieved, then burning Romalia into ashes seems like a big joke. Since Joseph expects so, Sheffield will not hesitate to flood Romalia into a fiery sea.

With the aid of Golomontas, Romalia armies dispersed across the countries are no more than sitting ducks. That's what she thought.

Yet, Romalia converges its entire power to the two countries' border.

Even so, she still needs to accomplish her tasks. If she can't, there will be no value for her to live.

In the field of vision of a distressed Sheffield, a ship broke off from the enemy fleets and were flying towards here. Most likely to survey the Golomontas from above.

Sheffield's crimson red lips twisted into smiles.

The waited for the ship to sail a bit closer.

When the enemy ship is around a few hundred meters above ground, Sheffield ordered two Golomontas to join hands and crouch.

Another Golomonta stepped in their hands, and the two flung him up in the air.

The Golomonta leaping into the air climbed like a spider on the enemy ship. They never would have dreamt of Golomonta capable of 'leaping'.

A ship completely maxed out with guns and cannonballs, withstanding the weight of a Golomonta is absolutely unreasonable, and subsequently falls out of the sky. As soon as it crashes on the ground, ten starving Golomontas ripped the ship into pieces, searching for wind stones.

As if eating peas, the robbed wind stones were all crammed into their mouths.

Afterwards, the took the cannons apart from the ship and stuffed cannonballs and gun powder into their pockets. Sheffield smiles at them lovingly.

"Incredible. That Golem actually flew and brought down the ship"

Reinard sighed.

The Ondine Water Spirit Knights, through Bella's underground cave, watched the whole act on Inn street. Holes were made enough to pop out their heads, capes overhead, and more soil on top.

What a planned disguise.

Through the small cracks from the cape and the ground, the boys peeked for almost 30 minutes.

Although there were supposed to "Lead the enemies to Louise waiting at the entrance", but in reality, they had no idea how to commence it.

Guiche frowned and corrected

"That is not any golem. I remember seeing the same thing back in Albion."

"Was it powerful?"

"Magic is ineffective. Looks like they had dealings with elves. Only thing which works is Louise's magic."

The teen's faces instantly turned to a sickening green.

"Then what do we do...."

Guiche was irritated. If they attacked without a plan, they would probably end up in shreds from either choice: big cannons or giant swords. Magic doesn't work on them either.

"If we keep waiting, eventually these monsters will head to Louise, I guess?"

Gimili pointed out.

"No.... they will probably take another path"

"It's cliffs left and right. How is there another path?"

"With their agility, can't they climb over the cliffs? Besides, those guys obviously knows that the Romalian army has the entrance surrounded. They aren't idiots, but are probably waiting for assistance from the fleet, then attack directly to get through our defense."

Reinard gave his point of view. Guiche nodded in agreement.

"True. On the other hand, if they can't wait for assistance..."

"If it was a normal commander, he would choose go around, or wait until the fleet ends their battle. What will our opponent choose?"

Malicorne used a 'distant-viewing' spell and looked at the sky. Above, the war was going on slowly. They did not look like wanting to win at all. From a distance, looks like the battle might actually continue for another decade fruitless.

"Doesn't look like any side would win"

Reinard was right on target. The armored golem, using their fingers like nails, stabbing the chubby fingers into the strong walls, and started climbing left and right. They look like they plan to travel along the mountain range and attack from the army's side.

"The cliffs are as tall as 200 meters! These things really plan to climb up?"

"Looks like they are serious. And with such hand coordination.... just like acrobats at the circus"

Golomontas climbed slowly, enjoying themselves. The spread out Romalian army, pointed all their guns at the entrance. If flanked from the two sides, they will definitely be in chaos, and Louise's plan will fail horribly.

"Looks like we have no choice. Better draw their attention"

Guiche kissed Bella beside him. Because he looked so serious, the teens all covered their dried mouths. Kissing a mole isn't really a romantic scene at all.

"If I unfortunately die, Bella, take this to Montmorency, do you get it?"

Cutting part of his hair, Guiche handed it to Bella. Like saying "no, no", Bella shook her head with watery eyes.

"Leave me smiling. I am a noble"

With this scene in sight, the teens all gave their familiar part of their hair and conveyed their last messages to family and loved ones....

"Reinard, tell me your plan"

Guiche said without flinching.

"Plan? What are you talking about. All we can do is use magic to attract their attention, then fly away using levitation. If they are willing to listen to us and watch our show, that is more than enough to please me"

"Sweet. Let's go."

Guiche leaped out of the hole, waved his thorn rose, creating golems. The boys all casted their respective magics.

The armored Golems climbing upwards kept having magic-made explosions on them, but were entirely unhurt. The Golomontas turned their heads without hurrying.

"Idiots! We're down here!"

Guiche kept trembling with fear, yet never stopped yelling at them. Two Golomontas slided down swiftly, firing their big guns.

"Wind magic"

The wind mages of the cavalry have already casted a magic barrier on them, beautifully blocking the giant shells and reflecting them away harmlessly.

Guiche and the others casted their magic separately, provoking the enemy. The copper Golems, as if teasing the enemy, stood in front of Guiche and the others, making all sorts of weird signs and moves.

"Hey! You God-abandoned Gallian bastards! We're sent here to have fun with you! Come on at us!"

The two Golomontas, wielding swords of unprecedented size, walked towards them, cranking with every step.

"They're taken the bait! They've taken the bait!"

"Everyone, retreat!"

Guiche and the rest casted levitation, starting to flee. Flying in the air is apparently much faster then Golomonta's walking, therefore escape is entirely available...

"Watch your speed! Don't go too fast such that they give up!"

The armored golems will occasionally stop and fire the guns. The shells is a shogun like type called grape shots, these shells will release multiple smaller artillery when fired.

Though hitting aerial targets are difficult, Guiche and the rest are eventually made out of flesh and blood.

"Ahh!"

Guiche's shoulder was hit, pouring fresh blood out immediately.

"Guiche! Are you alright!"

"....Uh, fine. Everyone! Keep flying! Fly towards our bright future!"

Guiche pointed at the blurry exit at a distance.

"I finally found you"

Sheffield was like a anxious little girl in love, seeping out happy cries. That young teen controlling copper golems.... wasn't he part of the ones at Albion, with that naïve Tristing girl? If that's the case, the direction they are escaping must lead to that Tristing girl as well?

Most likely, that arrogant Gandalfr would be there as well. This is no time to attack from the shadows.

"I will, including you, little girl, kill of tens of thousands of armies. That kid may have stopped the pace of a 70,000 army....but if it were me, the enemy will be crushed. Like crushing ants, you are only one of them"

Golomontas ran as if they were flying. Against any kind of enemy, they would never lose to anything beside its body.

Riding on the shaky shoulders of Golomonta, Sheffield thought

''Why would I having the greatest power of familiar.... always return home in defeat''

In Albion, at Tristan, that Tristan girl and her familiar made her fail so many times.

''Is it the difference between couples''

Between herself and Joseph, there was never much of a couple like emotion, but only her blindly following orders. She knows this perfectly, and is perfectly fine about it.

However.... the relationship is falling apart. Unwilling to admit, jealousy burned in her heart. The two couple... if that can be called as love, then she probably lost to love.

"Unforgivable."

Under the same circumstances being a familiar of a void user, Joseph only considered her as a tool, forget about love.

That is a fact, something Sheffield found in that garden blooming of blue roses.

From that point onwards, Sheffield's fueled on jealousy secretly.

The inscription of "Myozunitonirun" on her forehead emitted an eye piercing blue light.

"This time, I will definitely let you die without your limbs, your ashes scattered across Halkenia"

As events played out, Sheffield no longer cared about whether or not she can torch the whole Romalia. All she wants is to rip those two... Saito and Louise apart on this world.

''Then... Joseph would also.... in me....''

Sheffield's lips trembled, mesmerized in her own imagination. The Mind of God Myozunitonirun kept closing the distance between she and the Ondine knights.

"It has already been an hour.... what have the kids been doing? Did they run escape from fear?"

Carlo said. Louise's "void" has been finished chanted a long time ago. What she had prepared is the same spell she used in Albion to shatter the Golomotas into pieces, "explosion".

From the other side of Canyon Street, cries can be heard.

"...ahhhhhhhh!"

Louise squinted her eyes.

Several dots were headed towards this way in midair. They were the Ondine Water Spirit Knights fleeing for their lives using levitation. Behind them were two Golomontas, determined to get them.

<nowiki>"Louise~~~~~! Now you do the rest~~~~!"</nowiki>

The boys all grazed past her at high speed.

As soon as the Golomontas found Louise waiting patiently a few hundred metres away, they started firing their guns.

But it was too late.

Louise had already aimed at the two Golomontas hunting down the Ondine Knights and unleashed the finished "explosion". A tiny beam of white light shone right in front of the Golomontas' eyes... expanded... consuming both Golomontas.

"Dead?"

Carlo laughed. Yet in the next moment, his smile turned into a twisted face of fear. After the bright light has dispersed.... the Golomontas were still standing there dumbfound, but unhurt.

"Not a scratch?...."

Louise stared back at them, also dumbfounded.

"....But...why?"

In the battle at Albion, "explosion" proved to work effectively against them.

On one Golomonta's upper body, something shaped like a mouth opened up. Sheffield's voice boomed loudly from inside.

"Long time no see! Void user of Tristing. I have been looking forward to this conversation"

"Myozunitonirun!"

"What a pity just now, elven technology is capable of imprinting inside the armour. Although the superficial defense was disintegrated by 'void', the power from the remaining fragments weren't enough to go through the armor."

She sounded cheerfully.

"Arrrrrrggggggg!"

Carlo in charge of keeping Louise safe, screamed and abandoned his position. The rest of the Crusaders followed suit. In a blink of an eye, there was no one else around Louise anymore.

From behind, Guiche called out

"Louise! Run!"

Yet... Louise's legs did not move at all.

"I.... I am a saint! How can I run from the battlefield!"

Having fun with their prey, the Golomontas paced slowly forward with all the time in the world.

"Protect her! Cover Louise!"

All sorts of spells directed to the Golomonta. Even such.... despite their defense magic has already been shattered completely, the elven upgrades on the armor is extremely sturdy.

Not only icebolts, fireballs and that sort, even alchemy attacks were futile against it.

Louise prepared to chant again. If once was not enough, then keep doing it until it is.

No matter how dangerous it was, never give up. By following that rule, she was able to solve all crisis and live til this day, she thought.

Winds began blaring, just as Golomonta swung their swords, BANG! The ground in front of where Louise was just now, has been dented so hard cracks are obvious. The immense pressure caused be the winds pushed Louise backwards.

Letting go of her wand, Louise knelt on the ground.

"You damned girl.... for a long time I couldn't do anything about you. I will not let you die so easily. I will make you pay for showing King Joseph and me contempt!"

Louise wanted to stand up, but her body wasn't following commands. Golomontas of height 25 meters, is really a legendary killing machine.

And so, the two killing machines stared down upon her from above.

The surrounding Romalian armies started attacking in unison. The shells and bullets all landed on the Golomontas accurately, since everyone fired at close range.

Around a couple dozen of rounds blasted at the surface on the Golomontas. Reflection magic gave a faint shimmer, easily warding off these attacks.

Around Louise, all sorts of shell fragments poured like a waterfall. Fortunately, someone of the Ondine Water Spirit Knights generated a shield for Louise.

"Wuaaaaaaaaa! They're monsters! Ahhhhh!"

Soldiers frantically ran for their lives, equally no matter their ranks or ammo left. This is not strange at all, despite it is called a "Crusade", facing an opponent where attacks are ineffective is no difference from finding death himself.

Without any weapons to land a scratch on them, courage naturally deflates as well.

In the crowd of fleeing allies, only Louise was encouraging herself alone.

"Never give up!"

Until now, hasn't she faced this kind of despairing situation many times?

Each time, didn't she stand up and fought back?

Granted power from God....

relying on this system called "void".

Louise leaped to the wand lying some distance from her. Holding it tightly in both hands, and charged to the Golomonta.

"Don't take me as a fool! Until now, how many times have I defeated you? This time will not be an exception either!"

Louise's words rang out unsupported.

"Oh~? Then what are you prepared to do?"

"With my magic!"

"How long are you going to keep dreaming. Haven't I proved your magic ineffective already? You useless void user really surprises me."

''How did I do it, to always obtain victory?''

"Where did you familiar run off to? That kid always sticks to you like a watchdog, shielding you? Did he leave you out of despair?"

Watchdog?

"I never had a familiar! I did it all on my own...."

Suddenly, Louise felt an intense pain in her head, bending down to the ground in agony.

The pitch dark crack in her heart.... the deeply opened up fracture, was blaming Louise.

"Gentle? You are really foolish, Louise"

Being once described like that by Henrietta....

Did she really, rely on solely her power to get victory?

Then... she was reminded of Guiche's countless attempts to appeal to her.

Who is Saito?

"....who?"

Everytime this name pops out, her heart darkens, tormenting the crack in her heart, as if widening even more.

While searching for a light in pitch black, suddenly she understood everyone's feelings.

Louise was confused. Seeing her face, Sheffield laughed loudly.

"Did you really forget? Or was I right about abandoning you? That makes perfect sense, you are after all a useless waste of space, the most incapable out of retards! Ah, thinking how many times I would actually lose to this weak human! Such a shame! However, today will be the end! I will show my master the face of yours when you die. That way, my master will be definitely pleased, knowing who really treats him the best."

In Louise's mind, something flashed.

Countless episodes of despair.

Crises conquered by Louise.

But, inside... something feels like these are all just dreams, not willing to accept it. The me.... isn't me?

Then...who?

A silhouette of somebody tampered around with Louise's heart. That gentle silhouette. That projection, encouraging her in memories, shielding her from attacks.

"Save me."

Louise pleaded for help without thinking.

"Begging for your life? You actually begged for your life?"

"Saito, save me"

Like chanting an unknown spell, these words flow out of Louise's mouth. Unknown to Louise's knowledge, yet as long as this name comes out, for some reason it feels like she would definitely be saved.

"Oho, even the void gave up and started praying? Compared with my master's power, you puny void is weaker than a newborn infant. Shaming carriers of 'void', suffer your wrath!"

Golomonta raised its foot. In Louise's vision, Golomonta's humongous feet kept magnifying. What was about to destroy herself was a giant's hammer.

Frightened with terror, Louise cried out

"Saito! Save me!"

Must live, must definitely live.

If she died.... she can never recognize the gentle shadow again. Louise knows that it must be something that would make her more sad that dying.

....Expecting that instant, these thoughts zipped through her mind.

CLANG!

A sound of solid objects colliding.

Opening her eyes, the feet of Golomonta about to crush her is.... gone!?

Golomonta's giant body tilts backward losing balance. Its huge body collided on the cliffs, waving its hands and legs like a mess. Because of losing one leg, standing still becomes a terrible task.

"Eh?"

Totally confused about what just happened.

The other Golomonta swiftly hid behind the rocks.

"Louise!"

The Guiche constantly getting her out of trouble dashed towards her. He picked her up and ran in the direction away from the Golomontas.

Like a tightly stretched wire suddenly cut in half, Louise fainted away.

Saito through the scope, saw the other one, losing its balance oh so slowly, finally taken down on the cliffs of the canyon.

The giant's body brew up a stew of sand and stones.

"Looks like it's tuned up too low."

Saito said, through multiple triangular shaped scopes to look afar. He originally thought the Golomonta's width was around 6 meters... but seems like 8 meters is the correct answer.

Miscalculating the enemy's radius, the shell hit somewhat lower than what the scope aims at.

Saito adjusted the angle to the 88 millimeter cannon. Right in the middle of the large triangular periscope displays the Golomonta crawling for its life.

Subsequently, he pulled the trigger with force.

Following a bang from the turret, smoke emitted from the interior, pumped out shortly by the ventilation above and out of the tank.

Like a spear of light, the 88 millimeter shell embedded itself straight into the now no longer struggling Golomonta.

Though says to be a magic protection on the armor, the armor was originally proposed through testing with the maximal magical damage possible. The features of being capable of escaping harmless from the most powerful attacks, comes also with its limits.

The momentum of an 88 millimeter shell, changed into Halkenian units, means that at 2000 meters away, it pierces a 84 millimeter armor plate like cake. Although, an armor this thick has still yet to exist in this world.

Capable of piercing through armor of that size, the shells for Panzer, to everyone's surprise, exists.

Traveling at a speed of 700 meters per second, the 88 millimeter shell instantly killed the Golomonta fallen to ground, cutting through the armor which caused nobles so much trouble, and exploding from within.

The armor of the dead Golomonta expanded rapidly... and blew up into pieces.

From the end of the tank's cannon, out came an empty shell, falling to a cloth made bag with a plonk. Beside, a blue-haired girl carried another one half the height of herself.

"Tabitha, not that one. Load the one colored red on the end."

Giving a little nod, Tabitha took another shell from the rack, pushed it within the 88 millimeter cannon. According to how Saito taught her, and shut the cannon tight.

Saito returned to his periscope.

Seeking the Golomonta hiding under the shadows of cliff rocks, at the second it sticks its head out to survey the environment it was located by Saito already.

"Where are you trying to run, you metal pigheads?"

The trigger was pulled without a second thought.

Boom~

Without any deviation, the 88mm shell was a perfect headshot, squishing the face of that Golomonta. Falling backwards and fell facing the sky.

"Got him! Comrade Saito!"

Buzzed through the headphones, Colbert's cheers on the controller's seat were heard. On the other side, Kirche exclaimed

"Incredible... that must be a distance of 2 miles, yet the shell still hits accurately!"

What should be asked is why a Panzer would appear here...

Bursting out of the door just now, arriving at the mentioned warehouse, Saito found the repaired Tiger I Panzer, Kirche and the others. They seemed to have done all of that while in the progress of the ceremony.

Saito filled the tank with gasoline for Zero, and left promptly. Saito originally handled the controls as well, where Colbert was watching from one side, but soon Colbert was able to replace Saito, learning quickly from his experiences of repairing this tank and his knowledge of machines.

"This is called 'Tigers', right? Controlling the tank is definitely much more easier that that 'airplane'! Just pull this, and this moves forward..."

Colbert steps hard on the accelerator. The Panzer's engine roared to life. Hiding from behind the dense bushes behind the hills, they were able to observe Tiger's Highway completely.

"Turn this disk, and we can spin"

Similar to a driving wheel of a car. Again, the Panzer easily changed its course.

"....Oh, exposing ourselves now, wouldn't that be a bad idea?"

"Nah, the smoke from the cannons would reveal us anyway. Just charge into it. If we don't stop the enemy, they might..."

In another round of roars, the Panzer dashed into the entrance of "Tiger's Highway". Discovering the death of the two Golomontas, mixed emotions of cheers and tears explode from the fleeing Romalian army.

Sheffield, from the monocle, confirmed the wreck of those Golomontas.

"From a distance of 2 miles, penetrating the armor of Golomonta......?"

Unbelievable.

On the other hand, Sheffield quickly realized the existence of somebody who can achieve that.

"So you finally appeared. How interesting. Let us make an end here, Gandalfr."

In the roars of Panzer, pushing soil to move forward, around the sides of the Panzer charging to the Canyon's entrance, gathered Romalian soldiers and generals.

As Saito emerged from the portal, a cavalry marching in parallel greeted Saito

"Thanks for your help! Destroying that devil like armored Golem....! Please inform me of your team name!"

"Ondine Water Spirit Knights of Tristing!"

"Understood! There is a thing I wish to ask of you! Hoisting a flag affects morale! Please hoist this flag on top!"

The cavalry handed Saito one. It was in black and white, with a drawing of a holy cross.

"What is this?"

Saito was a little bit muddled, this time, Tabitha poked her head out the hole beside and told him

"Crusader's flag."

The design was surprisingly similar to the steel cross tattooed on the tank's body. Supposedly, this is a cross.... Saito searched in his memory.

Things turned out a little bit weird, Saito began to realize.

Probably because this is a tank bearing a cross from Earth, carrying a cross of a parallel world fighting...

Saito hung the flag on the seat of the antenna. Waving in the winds, the morale of the beaten Romalian army were ignited in a second.

"Long live Pope his holiness! Long live the United Kingdoms!"

The knight who handed Saito his flag, cried out to his own army

"Everyone! Attention! The great army from Tristing, has joined us in our Crusade! Do not fear! We have the protection of our ancestors!"

Still, the one fighting with the enemy is me.... Saito muttered to himself.

"The hell I'd believe, for whoever's God it is."

Above the Crusader's flag, Saito hung his own cape.

The cape was decorated with delicate patterns of '''Sulaliai (修瓦里埃)''' medals, dancing in the wind, and in the sounds of chains clinking, the Panzer roared to life again.

In the valley entrance, showed up another 6 Golomontas.

Sheffield who has acknowledged Saito's existence, decided to defeat them once in for all.

In every Golomonta's hands, held the cannons plundered from the "sunken" warship. Quickly, Saito returned to the turret, closed the hatched and sat in the Gunner's place, staring in the periscope.

"Professor! Stop the car!"

Skidding across the ground, the Panzer threw dust in the air, and finally stopped.

The distance is 1000 meters.

From the triangular scope, revealed Golomonta's distinct silhouette. With Halkenia's technologies, making this kind of periscopes is far from impossible.

The Golomontas turned their cannons towards the Panzer.

Light started to gather from the cannons.

The 6 Golomontas fired in unison.

Flames from the shots flew everywhere.

The shells of the cannon, flew in this direction screeching while flying. Around where they landed, dust flew everywhere.

One of the shells landed accurately in the front of the tank, blasting the ground to smithereens.

The tank shook incredibly. Like wood hitting on a copper bell, an large echoing clang was made. Surrounded inside intense numbness. Tabitha covered her ears and knelt on the ground.

Yet, that was all the damaged caused. From similar cannons made on Earth several hundreds of years ago, it is deemed impossible to penetrate a Panzer's armour.

"You dumbasses. Don't even think of winning! You have grown too much gigantic idiots around here!"

and pulled down on the trigger.

"Don't look down on Earth! Playground of imagination!"

Completely different from the enemy's speed, the shells killed every Golomonta the instant it hits one. Thunk! A giant hole opened up on its giant body, fell backwards, killed in action.

The remaining 5 Golomontas, initiated a surprise attack towards the tank.

At a distance of 800 meters, one fell down. 600 meters, another one fell.

Once the cannon empties, it was refilled while retreating as a whole. Though Golomontas may have an advantage on speed.... but to catch up on a Panzer driving backwards, there's still quite a bit of distance.

Appearing to be heavy, in reality its speed isn't as dull as imagined. Moving to keep its distance, and stopping again to fire.

Saito repeated this kind of retreating attack.

Golomontas were no different from sitting ducks, called to their death one by one by the Panzer. To the sudden appearance of Gandalfr, a hot-headed Sheffield lost her senses, actually ordering the whole army to charge forward.

Apparently, Sheffield has no idea what "tank" is.

In front of a grand, wide plains with no covers, charging together to the tank.... is suicide.

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Chapter7|Chapter 7]]
| Return to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Chapter9|Chapter 9]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Zero no Tsukaima:Volume14 Chapter4

2012-01-15T04:19:12Z

Fox350z:

===The Capital of Water===

=== Part 1===
As the days for the third annual coronation ceremony starts, Guiche and the Ondine Water Spirit Knights were ordered to maintain order in the alleys around the city. Aquileia's narrow alleys were mapped with complicated waterway patterns. Besides, Romalia Pilgrims from all over Halkenia congregate right here. Being ordered to prevent chaos is deemed as an inevitable part of their jobs.

Packed like sardines in an alley less than 2 meters wide, the flow of traffic becomes dead slow. Louise and the others, who has to dress up as a nun and start praying from 5 a.m. in the morning in front of St. Lucia Aquileia's Cathedral, are like in the middle of a battlefield everyday.

Guiche and the boys are armed with (杌孀虐諮俸嫌朧テ韉那嗟抓旦`コート Unknown clothing here) and bears the responsibility of keeping visitor flow in order. But in fact, it's like going to war. Romalia Pilgrims push and shove each other aggressively to "line up" at the gate of St Lucia Aquileia Cathedral. With the crowd's erratic motion, most of the pilgrims end up outside the Cathedral despite their efforts made in "lining up".

Therefore, Guiche and the Ondine Knights are stuck in this position, where they have to fight with the desperate pilgrims on the verge of a brawl.

"C-Curse you! You shall not pass this line! Stop pushing!"

"Oi, oi, we came here all the way from Romalia! Making an exception here won't kill you!"

"If this calf does not receive the blessings of the Pope, I'm not going back home!"

"Let us catch a glimpse of the Holiness!"

The Ondine Water Spirit Knights took out their wands, using their only body to control the masses gave them quite a bit of hardship.

"Hey! Scutter off! If you don't want to get hurt then stand back!"

"That's a no-no! You better queue up honestly! Don't you understand speech?"

The peasants unable to follow orders started to turn their fury at the patrolling knights instead.

"Kill them!"

"Y-You bastard!"

Because of the surrounding magic detectors, although Guiche is sweating like a waterfall, he still issued a ban on using magic to his teammates.

"Everyone! Put down your wands! We can handle them! Therefore don't use magic!"

Except that using the wands to beat the furious peasants only further enrages them.

Soon Malicorne's wand was stolen in a tug-of-war, and was engulfed by the furious surrounding peasants.

"Waah! Waaaah! Stop that! You plebeians! How dare you!"

"Arrogant aristobrat! Go to hell!"

Guiche and the team were trying to reach Malicorne to help, but were easily swept away by the rioting crowds to taken aside be beaten in one corner.

"These people! They just won't listen!"

Gimili blinded by anger, has activated killing spree mode. It wasn't very long before he started chanting the spells. Guiche, who had his head lifted by someone and was frantically beaten, was in a state of high tension.

"No, stop! I tell you, do not use magic!"

Just at this moment, a group of people wrapped in white cloth flew out from the Cathedral.

"Crusaders!"

No one does not know of legends of how aggressive these Crusaders, claiming the title as Guardians of the Ancestors, could get if you were in their way. Waving the staffs made out of imitated holy objects, the Crusaders gathered together and rammed into the crowd.

"An enemy of ours is the enemy of God!"

Hearing this, in addition to the fear stroke in the hearts when facing these knights of pure white garments, the rioters all fell back and retreated. One of the Crusaders took off his helmet and smiled at the boys.

"Your Majesty Carlo!"

Saving Guiche and the others is none other than the Carolo Mariano De l'Thrombosine? who went into a conflict with the Ondine Water Spirit Knights at a tavern at Romalia previously, leading Crusaders of the Aliesta monastery.

"Whoa, whoa, aren't all of you student knights? Didn't your academy teach you about suppressing rioters?"

All the Crusaders laughed in unison, making Guiche and their ashamed to death.

"Where's your vice-captain? The one with a weird name, what, Hiragana Cratos I recall?"

"It's Hiraga Saito!"

"Ohh, yes, that name. And, where did he go? I don't seem to see him here..."

All of the Ondine Knights darkened their faces. Malicorne replied with a small voice

"R-re-returned to home."

"What did you say? Abandoning his duties to flee cowardly? As expected from a plebeian born!"

Carlo laughed with a big mouth. The rest of the Crusaders imitated their leader and laughed as well.

"Don't make things up! Our enemy is a large country!"

"That's must be one brave, brave vice-captain."

As soon as his words ended, Gimili stood forward. In case Gimili did something rash, Guiche and Reinard held him back. Guiche said with a low voice

"Carlo, your highness. Have you ever tried facing an army of 10,000 alone?"

"10,000? Don't joke with me. No matter how much more powerful I am, what I can do is limited."

"Our vice-captain did. Not only against 10,000, but against 70,000. At least stop an army of 10,000 before you question his bravery."

Carlo started laughing again. But as soon as he sees Guiche's serious attitude, his laughter soon turned into a bored snicker.

"Huh, just hurry up leave this place. We're in charge now."

Carlo, seeing the exhausted boys leave without another word, continued

"Oh, and from tomorrow onwards, you are in charge of patrolling the streets. Remember to report in any suspicious people."

The boys felt blood boiling, but were incapable of complaining. Patrolling was their job now. To them, the harsh words sounded like

''"you're supposed to 'patrol', but eventually you'll end up interfering with our jobs. Why don't you go over there and play by yourselves?"''

Afterall, the streets are jammed with people here and there. There was absolutely no space for patrol.

Guiche and the team came to a corner on the center beside the Cathedral, staring blankly at the excited crowds. A few vendors grouped together to sell alcoholics and snacks.

"Turns out, we can't do anything without Saito..."

Listening to the shouts of the hawkers, Malicorne sighed. It chimed in resonance with what the other boys had in mind. If they had to rely on Saito no matter wherever they are, the emptiness created by sudden disappearance just can't be filled by anything else.

"Damn Louise, always so full of herself!"

Gimili made a fist and vented his depression on the ground.

"...But, her feelings I can also understand. Although I am not clear, but that guy probably came from somewhere far away? I remember he came from the east? I'm sure he'd wanted to see his family as much as we did. Besides, Louise, eventually, is a girl. One day she'd be tired of his fighting, I guess."

Reinard stood up and laid out his hands.

"Oi, Oi, how long are we planning to get depressed here? Even if Saito isn't here, shouldn't we device some plan to make ourselves useful? We should make some achievements to prove that we deserve the title 'Heroes of Albion'!"

A few of the boys nodded in agreement.

"But they won't let us maintain order anymore. We have no more chance to stand out."

Silence fell around them yet again.

Out of the Ondine Knights, Guiche was the only still cheerfully whistling, as if a plan has been deviced. On closer look, right next to him is a wineglass bought from some unknown place.

"Why the hell are you drinking, Guiche"

"Eh? Because if this turns for the worse, we'll probably end up in a war. Here, take a cup and drink to your spirit. Here, you try it as well. this is called Helptakis?' cocktail. It's made from mixing ginger and sugar into red wine... and the taste is very concentrated, tastes very good!"

Reinard let his jaw fall to the ground.

"How would there be a war! Even Gallia knows the consequences of having a war in this city filled with Romalia Pilgrims. They could become the world's public enemy!"

Guiche slightly frowned

"Ah, yes, that is what a King with common sense would think.... However, the King of Gallia isn't just anyone. At least that's what I, who have sneaked inside the borders of Gallia, believe. He would never use just any plain, normal tactics.... Arg! I ruined her face!"

"Guiche..., what were you doing all along?"

"Hmm?"

Guiche raised his head, and Malicorne was able to catch a glimpse of what he held in his hands. It was a surprising white seashell with the face of a girl carved on it.

"I'm making a necklace. In Romalia, it is very popular to gift females with this time of seashell carving. Since Montmorency is still angry with me, I have to cheer her up no matter what! Bwa-ha-ha!"

Even Malicorne, frowned this time.

"Seriously, even right now, you still have the time to carve seashells? I thought a war is coming? Or do you plan to rely on this and make our companion Saito come back? No?"

"This isn't as worse as how you described it. Although at first notice, all of us were stunned in shock, even if you keep on emphasizing it right now, it won't help the fact that Saito won't come back. You know, the meaning of being alive, is to enjoy ourselves!"

Guiche responded like he didn't care.

"I really admire you. Such bravery."

Malicorne said sarcastically.

"No... how should I put it?"

"Mhm?"

"To look for answers, yes, exactly."

"Answers?"

"Uh-huh. If I had to face that kind of nightmare like guy, to be honest even thinking of it makes me shudder. That's why I have to do this, to list down all the reasons why I must live on. I must hand this to Montmorency myself. Therefore I mustn't die, ahh-- that emotion exactly!"

Smiling, Guiche gulped down the rest of the wine in his glass in one gulp. Malicorne shook his head as if he couldn't stand it anymore.

Watching those two, a sense of uneasiness arose.

"The enemies inside Gallia...I'm not sure myself, but is there such a horrendous guy?"

Reinard involuntarily gulped. Asked, Guiche nodded his head in a exaggerating way.

"Very fearsome."

"Powerful?"

Guiche crossed his arms as he thinks in pain, then nodded his head in the same way.

Little by little, the boys were all around Guiche now, eyes fixed on his face.

"How powerful?"

Guiche and Malicorne exchanged expressions, then Malicorne put up a stand, hinting Guiche should start replying honestly, and kept nudging Guiche.

"Make it clear! Spit it out!"

At last, Guiche answered objectively.

"They have elves."

Elves... to the nobles of Halkenia, elves are undoubtedly a signature of inducing immense fear.

The faces on the boys changed drastically. Looked at each other, then used feeble laughs to break the awkward silence. Gimili tapped Malicorne's shoulders and ask with doubting eyes.

"That, is it true?"

"You're annoying, that, uh, is really real. We were really defeated by him." Thinking of the battle they had to go through when saving Tabitha, cold sweats burst out from his forehead.

The boys around them stood up in unison, and ran away at great speeds, that only trails of dust clouds could be seen. Guiche was the only one left running behind them yelling

"Waaait! Everyone! Calm down!"

Hearing Guiche's call, some of the boys turned their heads back.

"I'll be here with you all!"

Pointing at his own chest, a cheerful Guiche without a hint of fear puffed out his chest. The rest of the Ondine Knights rolled their eyes in desperation, and started fleeing again.

"Wait up! How do you call yourselves aristocrats!"

Because of this sentence, the runaways finally came back, knelt down and looked up in the sky.

"Forget it..., my last words..."

"So what, it's not like losing is our only choice. Besides..."

"We should stop praying for Saito to come back. For some reason I just know that in the near future he will appear before us again. Right, just when we're desperately fighting. If we gave up right here right now, won't we become a joke? Anyhow I'm not fleeing from this."

Once Guiche puts it this way, the boys started to hesitate. Afterall, they are a bunch of young ignorant teenagers.

=== Part 2 ===

"Which is why, we should be happier right now. You only get one chance at living!"

As the reasoning goes on, the boys eventually gave in one by one and started drinking, completely blissful from their supposed patrol work.

Gimili's eyes landed on the a small window on the Cathedral across the center. There sat a small Louise in nun clothes. Saddened by the sight, he sighed

"That girl Louise... Even when our morale is at its lowest, she still have the feelings to keep praying.... At least be aware of what we would experience when we'll be fighting with that elf."

"Hey~ Hey~, compared to us, Louise must be more troubled.

"Making the decision to send Saito back isn't something she can do without great courage."

Hearing this, the boys quieted down. Just this moment, a band wearing silly clothes passed by, starting to play beautiful music. Devoted Romalia Pilgrims roared immediately, complaining "too loud, too loud".

Suddenly, Guiche stood up.

"Ahh~ Guiche, where do you want to go?"

"Oh, doesn't really matter. See it's about resting time after prayers? I just thought that we should go and comfort Louise."

At noon exactly, Pope Vittorio who has been kneeling on the altar of St Lucia Cathedral stood up, and bowed towards the crowd outside. Roars of cheers exploded everywhere.

"This ceremony is so great! I am so proud of myself. Even now, I still can't believe that I was able to become one of the Pope's nun and pray."

Louise claimed happily to the Tiffania beside here.

"It's only because that we are void users chosen by God, isn't it. Even now, I don't feel that I live up to my name... ahh, I must put some effort in it."

Looking into Louise's pair of bright sharp eyes, Tiffania started to question her actions of brain-washing Louise.

Only under her desperate pleads, Tiffania removed her memories of Saito... but afterwards, Louise was like having a fever, suddenly talking about Halkenia's ideals, droning on and on about her importance.

"Those Gallain conspiracies against us..., we must stop them no matter what!"

"Lo-Looks like it's kind of scary."

Tiffania honestly voiced her thoughts, Louise's eyes immediately shone brightly

"What is there to be afraid of! Although it's not like I don't understand your feelings, you should never bow down to fear! That would be a real insult to God and our Ancestors."

"Mmm, yea..."

''Louise looked like a different person. Even if her normal self is so willful... she doesn't have to go to the extremes. Is that why Saito's existence was so important?''

As Tiffania was still hesitating, the sidedoor went wide open with a bang and a team of well dressed guys poured inwards.

"Oh! Hello, my ladies!"

"...Who is it?"

In that moment, Tiffania could not identify who the people barging in were at all. They were all wearing weird clothing and had white makeup all over their face.

"Guiche?"

"Ohmyohmyohmy, isn't it lunch time already? Are you ladies interested in a peaceful, quite ride on Aquileia's specialty, the Pheonix tailed ship?"

"Pheonix tailed ship? That sounds fantastic..., however..., if we left the Cathedral..."

"How bad could it be? If you didn't take a break, you would be out of breath from all the work, wouldn't you? Besides, there is no chance of a conspiracy. Look, even in the streets they set all kinds of traps. I Am a earth-base mage and do notice these things. "

Looks like Guiche wanted more than leaving work behind.

"I reckon if they wanted to do anything, they would've marched their army in already. Anyhow, we're here to -slaps back- relax, -slaps back- enjoy ourselves for good"

Unforgivingly, Louise shook her head.

"What are you talking about! Being the sacred nuns, it's exactly now that we should help his holiness. Besides, as soon as we get careless, the enemy will strike. You people should re...Mmm!"

Guiche didn't wait for Louise to finish and already picked her up, chuckling to himself as he walks out.

"Waaaiit! You guys! Put! Me! Down!"

The Louise being compelled to get on a pheonix tailed ship floating in the waterway started to quarrel with the leader of Ondine Water Spirit Knights.

The narrow pheonix tailed ship was filled entirely by the teens, when ashore could their laughter be heard.

"Okay already! All of you, you are taking this too lightly!"

Malicorne, raising his wineglass to Guiche and the others, said

"Keep it up... poor thing. You must be really depressed..."

"What are you talking about? Depressed? Who?"

Louise stared blankly at Guiche. Guiche's shocked face matched his ridiculous clothes perfectly.

"Louise... don't you feel misery?"

"Me? Why would I be? Anyhow, stop this madness already!"

Seeing Louise enraged, Gimili exclaimed

"Are you kidding me! It was because that you insisted, you made Saito..."

"Ahh, my bad my bad my bad my bad."

Louise, after hearing all of this, was still as muddled as ever.

"...Saito, who's that?"

The whole pheonix tailed ship froze in in time.

"Louise! Louise! Looks like it messed up her brain!"

"You people are really helpless..., just now you mentioned..., yes, this Saito..."

Guiche and the rest was on the verge of not being able to hold their breath. This sudden reaction from Louise made the whole boat sway sideways. Finally, Louise couldn't stand it any longer and yelled at Guiche, obviously in fury

"My brain messed up? I'd say Your brains are messed up! The weird ones here are you people. Saito this, Saito that..., what the hell is Saito?"

"N-name, duh"

"Name? That sure is one weird name."

"The male with that weird name Is your familiar, you know."

"Fam-liar? Ma-le? Don't even kid with me! I never had a familiar!"

Louise having said that, crossed her arms in amusement and flung her head to one side with a "huh!". Guiche looked sideways at Tiffania, twisting around in uncomfortment.

''Speaking of which..., she once removed Saito's fake memories in Albion..."

''Was it that magic?''

Guiche knows that Tiffania weilds a fascinating magic, which is also the reason why she is not taken lightly by Henrietta and be assigned as a nun of the Pope.

What the magic exactly is, Guiche isn't very clear himself.

Personal experiences tell Guiche that to be involved in these top secrets is never a good idea. They also tell him not to think of even anything correlated. Actually, not to display expressions of thinking them. These things can ruin careers, if worse, you won't be even able to keep your head.

However, in this case, that is completely unnecessary. Staring at Tiffania's face without moving a muscle, is considered a rare way when treating females. All of the boys bulged their eyes.

"Miss Westwood. I have a question."

"Ah, yes"

"...You, don't tell me you used that spell on Louise?"

Tiffania turned her back on him and started to shiver mildly. Guiche snapped his fingers and ordered

"Tie Miss Westwood up."

Excitedly, the boys leaped towards Tiffania and tied her up in a flash. Louise tried to say something, but was tied up as well.

The tied up Tiffania fell down on a side in the pheonix tailed boat, trembling while blushing red.

"Wait! What are you thinking of! Aren't you the personal guards of Queen Henrietta-! What are you trying to do by tying me up? If this continues, I'd get angry! I'll report it to the Queen who'll punish you."

Ignoring Louise's words, Guiche slowly approached Tiffania.

"You did use magic on Louise, didn't you?"

"Did-did not"

Guiche sighed and snapped his fingers again. Malicorne, wearing a gusset clowns use, started to flick a feather over the body of Tiffania's.

"Would you please tell us the truth, m'lady?"

"Ump! Ummg! Stop tickling! Stop tickling me!"

Tiffania is really sensitive to her body, therefore this torture is the deadliest. Guiche edged his face closer to Tiffania's, who have fell down exhausted.

"Personally, I dislike hurting women. Unfortunately, this all depends on the time and place as well. Malicorne, about whether Tiffania's breasts are real, go and investigate."

"Good suggestion, Captain, what a good suggestion"

Malicorne came closer with his hands reached out

"S-Sorry! I'm sorry!"

At this moment, Tiffania suddenly apologized.

"So that's what happened."

"Because, it's for her own good!"

"Hey, you people, what did you do to Tiffania!"

Facing the agitated and steaming Louise, Guiche gently said

"My dear Louise, would you care to listen to me?"

"Really, what do you have to say! Hurry up and untie me!"

"You have a familiar. He was a person as young as we are. He saved you many times. Also, he really likes you. Did you really forget all of this?"

Hearing Guiche being so direct, Louise is still in the clouds.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I Don't have a familiar!"

"It was on that summoning ceremony in spring. During the summoning, you failed so many times, then you eventually called him out."

"Ohh. Back then, nothing came out in the end. I was really depressed at that time.... But this can be explained. It has something to do with my magic class, although I can't tell you.... Just watch, after this, I will summon the most ultimate familiar in the world!"

All of a sudden, Guiche felt very helpless. Angrily, he glared at Tiffania. He then lowered his body and hissed in her ear

"...Since Louise says this kind of things, perhaps she would be better off this way. ... That must have been what you thought, since she did look very painful

"But because I am a man, I don't think so at all. To a man, memories are the most important things in the world. Since Louise chose it this way, who am I to comment at all."

Following, Guiche took a deep breath

"Still, I cannot accept this."

Hurried by his teammates, the ropes on Louise and Tiffania were finally let loose. As soon as the pheonix tailed boat stopped at the dock, Guiche and the rest jumped off.

Louise, who was left behind, angrily glared at their backs.

"Really, what were they thinking!"

Watching Louise like this, Tiffania fell into deep thoughts as well.

''Were my actions right?''

''Is there no other way than this?''

She didn't have the answers to these questions, but she also felt the saddness. Tears dripped from her eyes. Noticed that, Louise started to comfort Tiffania.

"How are you? Are you alright? Really, those guys are too rough! We should let the Queen punish them, don't you think? Tiffania?"

Middle of the night... the glow from the twin moons illuminated the dark night sky.

A few days ago, the warship for the sole use of the Pope, "St. Maricore", was parked at the harbors of Aquileia. A gigantic vessel slowly sailed near. This mysterious vessel retracted its humongous wings. When landing, it did not kept its balance and swayed massively, the giant wings slapping the surface of the sea.

This vessel's remaining momentum was a telltale sign that it is going to smash into the harbor. At this moment, a few folds of wind magic were casted. Large amounts of air blew straight into the ship from the walls, acting as a barrier, such that the harbor wouldn't turn into smithereens.

This enormous vessel porting is none other than the "Orient". The nobles standing guard on the deck casted another volley of wind magics, finally stabilizing this monstrous ship. In the end, few figures of pitch blackness sprung out from the warehouse of the docks, grabbing the harness and tied it around the mast.

Creaking at a sharp tone, the front hull of the ship slowly opened like a crow's beak. This door is made to carry the large loads, designed by Professor Cortes.

The walls of the harbor, procuring out like a tongue which scratched the bird's beak, had an array cylindrical logs laid down side by side. The twenty something nobles stood across those trees, including the ones who were casting wind spells on the deck.

Written on the nobles faces, were all weariness and anxiousness. They really can't be blamed, having to transport and guard such a heavy item all the journey.

A weird, half-cranking, half-creaking sound came out from the bird's beak. A certain object was being transported through magic. The height of this thing was even higher than two buildings..., is the same Panzer Saito saw at the grave underground of Romalia kings.

Right underneath the Panzer, were those logs... the same species of wood of which logs are made from as the ones they would use to transport giant stone blocks a castle is under construction. Only those logs will stand the pressure of the Panzer and roll simultaneously.

"Everyone please take care! Any plain log, even with the 'harden spell' casted on them will not sustain the weight of this steel lump. It weights as much as 12,000 Libros!"

So that was the reason, how it's able to withstand the great weight. "Harden" logs over the limit of sustainable weight will snap and be crushed into pieces.

The Panzer slowly slided towards the right. If this continues, the Panzer would fall into grasps of the sea.

"Right side! It's the right side! Hurry up and use 'Levitation'!"

Mages standing left and right started chanting "levitation" to lift the Panzer's right side up. Even with this number of mages, they are unable to buckle it at all. At least the good thing is that it is now stuck in the bird's beak. Professor Cortes held his breath, and carefully instructed mages left and right, eventually successfully landing the tank on the stony ground of the center.

An energy depleted Colbert rested on top of the tank. There was no more to worry, whether the Orient will plummet or will the tank sink into the depths of the ocean. As soon as he is relieved from this burden, tiredness started to reveal in every part of his body.

"It's alright now, Miss Slipheed, Miss Tabitha."

The hatch on the tank sudden sprang open. Illococoo's head popped out, wearing a black officer's hat found within. Following, Tabitha's small head partially stuck out of the gunner's window. The two were inside stabilizing the whole tank.

A teen wearing white clothes sharply stood out from the rest of the crowd, wearing pitch black clothing. He gave Colbert a salute. Other than is unmatching attire, this salute was one of a fully professional soldier's.

It's Julio.

"It must have been tough for you, Mister Colbert. If you weren't here for us, it would have been impossible to transport this 'work of art' here."

Colbert jumped off the tank in one leap, and saluted back to Julio.

"Although the Orient was anticipated to carry loads... the loading of this item was a bit more than expected. Having as much as 20 people casting 'Levitation' in turns, it eventually left the bottom of the ship. Otherwise? I don't this ship would have even floated. To me, I hope this is the last time."

Hearing Colbert put it this way, Julio smiled.

"Of course. We don't make unnecessary requests."

Promising that, Julio's eyes darted towards the large oil tank strapped behind the Panzer. It's the same oil tanks that were used to store gasoline for the fighter plane Zero.

"So? Will this thing move?"

"In somewhat way, yeah. It wasn't easy, using 'gasoline' to pilot this 'work of art' and the 'feathers of the dragon'. Mm, although fundamentally, there are a few big differences. Anyhow, mastering its structure requires time. It's not something that can be done overnight."

"That's more than enough."

Julio bowed.

"And? Using this to participate in the ceremony's guarding work..., isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"

Colbert looked at this lump of metal... and thought to himself

''First time seeing this "work of art", it was really shocking. Although the first time seeing machine fly was just as shocking, but the degree of how stunning this was only goes up, not down.''

''Using such a large amount of metal... steel, made part by part without disturbing the overall organization. Behind, inside the tank was an "engine" even more advanced than the one of "the feathers of the dragon".''

''Even the extruding cannon, it's just a perfect work of art. How lethal would a shell fired from here be? How devastating could this get?''

The tiny pieces of curiosity gradually swells up, as if hoping to experience this as soon as possible.

However..., with only the power of Colbert, perhaps he might make it move, but for it to go into combat, is definitely out of reach. This needs exactly Saito's power. If Saito isn't here, this is nothing but a giant steel box.

"Speaking of which, where would Saito be? I remember parting with him in Romalia. Has he arrived in this Aqueleia yet? I haven't seen him yet"

Julio shook his head.

"Right now, he's on a 'voyage'. He won't be coming back for a short period of time."

"Voyage?"

"Unh." Julio grunted, then smiled.

''Traveling at this time of the year? Saito Is a part of the Queen's personal guards. Perhaps he is on a secret mission again.''

Colbert made up a story for himself, and did not pursue.

The black clothed males somehow started to transport the tank into the warehouse, hooking the front with a rope to pull with.

The moves started pulling, while the aristocrats applied "levitation" to help out. On the "hardened" logs, this Panzer started to roll again.

Inside the cabin of the Panzer, a cute Illococoo wincing her eyes at Julio and Cortes in the midst of some sort of a conversation.

"This really stinks.... Although it doesn't need to be as clean as the streets, it's really dirty and sticky inside..."

Illococoo chuckled to herself. Tabitha nodded her head in agreement from the gunner's window.

"Your white knight, where would he be sent this time?"

Illococoo pulled of her cap and put it on Tabitha instead.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Zero no Tsukaima:Volume14 Chapter4

2012-01-15T04:13:39Z

Fox350z:

===The Capital of Water===

=== Part 1===
As the days for the third annual coronation ceremony starts, Guiche and the Ondine Water Spirit Knights were ordered to maintain order in the alleys around the city. Aquileia's narrow alleys were mapped with complicated waterway patterns. Besides, Romalia Pilgrims from all over Halkenia congregate right here. Being ordered to prevent chaos is deemed as an inevitable part of their jobs.

Packed like sardines in an alley less than 2 meters wide, the flow of traffic becomes dead slow. Louise and the others, who has to dress up as a nun and start praying from 5 a.m. in the morning in front of St. Lucia Aquileia's Cathedral, are like in the middle of a battlefield everyday.

Guiche and the boys are armed with (杌孀虐諮俸嫌朧テ韉那嗟抓旦`コート Unknown clothing here) and bears the responsibility of keeping visitor flow in order. But in fact, it's like going to war. Romalia Pilgrims push and shove each other aggressively to "line up" at the gate of St Lucia Aquileia Cathedral. With the crowd's erratic motion, most of the pilgrims end up outside the Cathedral despite their efforts made in "lining up".

Therefore, Guiche and the Ondine Knights are stuck in this position, where they have to fight with the desperate pilgrims on the verge of a brawl.

"C-Curse you! You shall not pass this line! Stop pushing!"

"Oi, oi, we came here all the way from Romalia! Making an exception here won't kill you!"

"If this calf does not receive the blessings of the Pope, I'm not going back home!"

"Let us catch a glimpse of the Holiness!"

The Ondine Water Spirit Knights took out their wands, using their only body to control the masses gave them quite a bit of hardship.

"Hey! Scutter off! If you don't want to get hurt then stand back!"

"That's a no-no! You better queue up honestly! Don't you understand speech?"

The peasants unable to follow orders started to turn their fury at the patrolling knights instead.

"Kill them!"

"Y-You bastard!"

Because of the surrounding magic detectors, although Guiche is sweating like a waterfall, he still issued a ban on using magic to his teammates.

"Everyone! Put down your wands! We can handle them! Therefore don't use magic!"

Except that using the wands to beat the furious peasants only further enrages them.

Soon Malicorne's wand was stolen in a tug-of-war, and was engulfed by the furious surrounding peasants.

"Waah! Waaaah! Stop that! You plebeians! How dare you!"

"Arrogant aristobrat! Go to hell!"

Guiche and the team were trying to reach Malicorne to help, but were easily swept away by the rioting crowds to taken aside be beaten in one corner.

"These people! They just won't listen!"

Gimili blinded by anger, has activated killing spree mode. It wasn't very long before he started chanting the spells. Guiche, who had his head lifted by someone and was frantically beaten, was in a state of high tension.

"No, stop! I tell you, do not use magic!"

Just at this moment, a group of people wrapped in white cloth flew out from the Cathedral.

"Crusaders!"

No one does not know of legends of how aggressive these Crusaders, claiming the title as Guardians of the Ancestors, could get if you were in their way. Waving the staffs made out of imitated holy objects, the Crusaders gathered together and rammed into the crowd.

"An enemy of ours is the enemy of God!"

Hearing this, in addition to the fear stroke in the hearts when facing these knights of pure white garments, the rioters all fell back and retreated. One of the Crusaders took off his helmet and smiled at the boys.

"Your Majesty Carlo!"

Saving Guiche and the others is none other than the Carolo Mariano De l'Thrombosine? who went into a conflict with the Ondine Water Spirit Knights at a tavern at Romalia previously, leading Crusaders of the Aliesta monastery.

"Whoa, whoa, aren't all of you student knights? Didn't your academy teach you about suppressing rioters?"

All the Crusaders laughed in unison, making Guiche and their ashamed to death.

"Where's your vice-captain? The one with a weird name, what, Hiragana Cratos I recall?"

"It's Hiraga Saito!"

"Ohh, yes, that name. And, where did he go? I don't seem to see him here..."

All of the Ondine Knights darkened their faces. Malicorne replied with a small voice

"R-re-returned to home."

"What did you say? Abandoning his duties to flee cowardly? As expected from a plebeian born!"

Carlo laughed with a big mouth. The rest of the Crusaders imitated their leader and laughed as well.

"Don't make things up! Our enemy is a large country!"

"That's must be one brave, brave vice-captain."

As soon as his words ended, Gimili stood forward. In case Gimili did something rash, Guiche and Reinard held him back. Guiche said with a low voice

"Carlo, your highness. Have you ever tried facing an army of 10,000 alone?"

"10,000? Don't joke with me. No matter how much more powerful I am, what I can do is limited."

"Our vice-captain did. Not only against 10,000, but against 70,000. At least stop an army of 10,000 before you question his bravery."

Carlo started laughing again. But as soon as he sees Guiche's serious attitude, his laughter soon turned into a bored snicker.

"Huh, just hurry up leave this place. We're in charge now."

Carlo, seeing the exhausted boys leave without another word, continued

"Oh, and from tomorrow onwards, you are in charge of patrolling the streets. Remember to report in any suspicious people."

The boys felt blood boiling, but were incapable of complaining. Patrolling was their job now. To them, the harsh words sounded like

''"you're supposed to 'patrol', but eventually you'll end up interfering with our jobs. Why don't you go over there and play by yourselves?"''

Afterall, the streets are jammed with people here and there. There was absolutely no space for patrol.

Guiche and the team came to a corner on the center beside the Cathedral, staring blankly at the excited crowds. A few vendors grouped together to sell alcoholics and snacks.

"Turns out, we can't do anything without Saito..."

Listening to the shouts of the hawkers, Malicorne sighed. It chimed in resonance with what the other boys had in mind. If they had to rely on Saito no matter wherever they are, the emptiness created by sudden disappearance just can't be filled by anything else.

"Damn Louise, always so full of herself!"

Gimili made a fist and vented his depression on the ground.

"...But, her feelings I can also understand. Although I am not clear, but that guy probably came from somewhere far away? I remember he came from the east? I'm sure he'd wanted to see his family as much as we did. Besides, Louise, eventually, is a girl. One day she'd be tired of his fighting, I guess."

Reinard stood up and laid out his hands.

"Oi, Oi, how long are we planning to get depressed here? Even if Saito isn't here, shouldn't we device some plan to make ourselves useful? We should make some achievements to prove that we deserve the title 'Heroes of Albion'!"

A few of the boys nodded in agreement.

"But they won't let us maintain order anymore. We have no more chance to stand out."

Silence fell around them yet again.

Out of the Ondine Knights, Guiche was the only still cheerfully whistling, as if a plan has been deviced. On closer look, right next to him is a wineglass bought from some unknown place.

"Why the hell are you drinking, Guiche"

"Eh? Because if this turns for the worse, we'll probably end up in a war. Here, take a cup and drink to your spirit. Here, you try it as well. this is called Helptakis?' cocktail. It's made from mixing ginger and sugar into red wine... and the taste is very concentrated, tastes very good!"

Reinard let his jaw fall to the ground.

"How would there be a war! Even Gallia knows the consequences of having a war in this city filled with Romalia Pilgrims. They could become the world's public enemy!"

Guiche slightly frowned

"Ah, yes, that is what a King with common sense would think.... However, the King of Gallia isn't just anyone. At least that's what I, who have sneaked inside the borders of Gallia, believe. He would never use just any plain, normal tactics.... Arg! I ruined her face!"

"Guiche..., what were you doing all along?"

"Hmm?"

Guiche raised his head, and Malicorne was able to catch a glimpse of what he held in his hands. It was a surprising white seashell with the face of a girl carved on it.

"I'm making a necklace. In Romalia, it is very popular to gift females with this time of seashell carving. Since Montmorency is still angry with me, I have to cheer her up no matter what! Bwa-ha-ha!"

Even Malicorne, frowned this time.

"Seriously, even right now, you still have the time to carve seashells? I thought a war is coming? Or do you plan to rely on this and make our companion Saito come back? No?"

"This isn't as worse as how you described it. Although at first notice, all of us were stunned in shock, even if you keep on emphasizing it right now, it won't help the fact that Saito won't come back. You know, the meaning of being alive, is to enjoy ourselves!"

Guiche responded like he didn't care.

"I really admire you. Such bravery."

Malicorne said sarcastically.

"No... how should I put it?"

"Mhm?"

"To look for answers, yes, exactly."

"Answers?"

"Uh-huh. If I had to face that kind of nightmare like guy, to be honest even thinking of it makes me shudder. That's why I have to do this, to list down all the reasons why I must live on. I must hand this to Montmorency myself. Therefore I mustn't die, ahh-- that emotion exactly!"

Smiling, Guiche gulped down the rest of the wine in his glass in one gulp. Malicorne shook his head as if he couldn't stand it anymore.

Watching those two, a sense of uneasiness arose.

"The enemies inside Gallia...I'm not sure myself, but is there such a horrendous guy?"

Reinard involuntarily gulped. Asked, Guiche nodded his head in a exaggerating way.

"Very fearsome."

"Powerful?"

Guiche crossed his arms as he thinks in pain, then nodded his head in the same way.

Little by little, the boys were all around Guiche now, eyes fixed on his face.

"How powerful?"

Guiche and Malicorne exchanged expressions, then Malicorne put up a stand, hinting Guiche should start replying honestly, and kept nudging Guiche.

"Make it clear! Spit it out!"

At last, Guiche answered objectively.

"They have elves."

Elves... to the nobles of Halkenia, elves are undoubtedly a signature of inducing immense fear.

The faces on the boys changed drastically. Looked at each other, then used feeble laughs to break the awkward silence. Gimili tapped Malicorne's shoulders and ask with doubting eyes.

"That, is it true?"

"You're annoying, that, uh, is really real. We were really defeated by him." Thinking of the battle they had to go through when saving Tabitha, cold sweats burst out from his forehead.

The boys around them stood up in unison, and ran away at great speeds, that only trails of dust clouds could be seen. Guiche was the only one left running behind them yelling

"Waaait! Everyone! Calm down!"

Hearing Guiche's call, some of the boys turned their heads back.

"I'll be here with you all!"

Pointing at his own chest, a cheerful Guiche without a hint of fear puffed out his chest. The rest of the Ondine Knights rolled their eyes in desperation, and started fleeing again.

"Wait up! How do you call yourselves aristocrats!"

Because of this sentence, the runaways finally came back, knelt down and looked up in the sky.

"Forget it..., my last words..."

"So what, it's not like losing is our only choice. Besides..."

"We should stop praying for Saito to come back. For some reason I just know that in the near future he will appear before us again. Right, just when we're desperately fighting. If we gave up right here right now, won't we become a joke? Anyhow I'm not fleeing from this."

Once Guiche puts it this way, the boys started to hesitate. Afterall, they are a bunch of young ignorant teenagers.

=== Part 2 ===

"Which is why, we should be happier right now. You only get one chance at living!"

As the reasoning goes on, the boys eventually gave in one by one and started drinking, completely blissful from their supposed patrol work.

Gimili's eyes landed on the a small window on the Cathedral across the center. There sat a small Louise in nun clothes. Saddened by the sight, he sighed

"That girl Louise... Even when our morale is at its lowest, she still have the feelings to keep praying.... At least be aware of what we would experience when we'll be fighting with that elf."

"Hey~ Hey~, compared to us, Louise must be more troubled.

"Making the decision to send Saito back isn't something she can do without great courage."

Hearing this, the boys quieted down. Just this moment, a band wearing silly clothes passed by, starting to play beautiful music. Devoted Romalia Pilgrims roared immediately, complaining "too loud, too loud".

Suddenly, Guiche stood up.

"Ahh~ Guiche, where do you want to go?"

"Oh, doesn't really matter. See it's about resting time after prayers? I just thought that we should go and comfort Louise."

At noon exactly, Pope Vittorio who has been kneeling on the altar of St Lucia Cathedral stood up, and bowed towards the crowd outside. Roars of cheers exploded everywhere.

"This ceremony is so great! I am so proud of myself. Even now, I still can't believe that I was able to become one of the Pope's nun and pray."

Louise claimed happily to the Tiffania beside here.

"It's only because that we are void users chosen by God, isn't it. Even now, I don't feel that I live up to my name... ahh, I must put some effort in it."

Looking into Louise's pair of bright sharp eyes, Tiffania started to question her actions of brain-washing Louise.

Only under her desperate pleads, Tiffania removed her memories of Saito... but afterwards, Louise was like having a fever, suddenly talking about Halkenia's ideals, droning on and on about her importance.

"Those Gallain conspiracies against us..., we must stop them no matter what!"

"Lo-Looks like it's kind of scary."

Tiffania honestly voiced her thoughts, Louise's eyes immediately shone brightly

"What is there to be afraid of! Although it's not like I don't understand your feelings, you should never bow down to fear! That would be a real insult to God and our Ancestors."

"Mmm, yea..."

''Louise looked like a different person. Even if her normal self is so willful... she doesn't have to go to the extremes. Is that why Saito's existence was so important?''

As Tiffania was still hesitating, the sidedoor went wide open with a bang and a team of well dressed guys poured inwards.

"Oh! Hello, my ladies!"

"...Who is it?"

In that moment, Tiffania could not identify who the people barging in were at all. They were all wearing weird clothing and had white makeup all over their face.

"Guiche?"

"Ohmyohmyohmy, isn't it lunch time already? Are you ladies interested in a peaceful, quite ride on Aquileia's specialty, the Pheonix tailed ship?"

"Pheonix tailed ship? That sounds fantastic..., however..., if we left the Cathedral..."

"How bad could it be? If you didn't take a break, you would be out of breath from all the work, wouldn't you? Besides, there is no chance of a conspiracy. Look, even in the streets they set all kinds of traps. I Am a earth-base mage and do notice these things. "

Looks like Guiche wanted more than leaving work behind.

"I reckon if they wanted to do anything, they would've marched their army in already. Anyhow, we're here to -slaps back- relax, -slaps back- enjoy ourselves for good"

Unforgivingly, Louise shook her head.

"What are you talking about! Being the sacred nuns, it's exactly now that we should help his holiness. Besides, as soon as we get careless, the enemy will strike. You people should re...Mmm!"

Guiche didn't wait for Louise to finish and already picked her up, chuckling to himself as he walks out.

"Waaaiit! You guys! Put! Me! Down!"

The Louise being compelled to get on a pheonix tailed ship floating in the waterway started to quarrel with the leader of Ondine Water Spirit Knights.

The narrow pheonix tailed ship was filled entirely by the teens, when ashore could their laughter be heard.

"Okay already! All of you, you are taking this too lightly!"

Malicorne, raising his wineglass to Guiche and the others, said

"Keep it up... poor thing. You must be really depressed..."

"What are you talking about? Depressed? Who?"

Louise stared blankly at Guiche. Guiche's shocked face matched his ridiculous clothes perfectly.

"Louise... don't you feel misery?"

"Me? Why would I be? Anyhow, stop this madness already!"

Seeing Louise enraged, Gimili exclaimed

"Are you kidding me! It was because that you insisted, you made Saito..."

"Ahh, my bad my bad my bad my bad."

Louise, after hearing all of this, was still as muddled as ever.

"...Saito, who's that?"

The whole pheonix tailed ship froze in in time.

"Louise! Louise! Looks like it messed up her brain!"

"You people are really helpless..., just now you mentioned..., yes, this Saito..."

Guiche and the rest was on the verge of not being able to hold their breath. This sudden reaction from Louise made the whole boat sway sideways. Finally, Louise couldn't stand it any longer and yelled at Guiche, obviously in fury

"My brain messed up? I'd say Your brains are messed up! The weird ones here are you people. Saito this, Saito that..., what the hell is Saito?"

"N-name, duh"

"Name? That sure is one weird name."

"The male with that weird name Is your familiar, you know."

"Fam-liar? Ma-le? Don't even kid with me! I never had a familiar!"

Louise having said that, crossed her arms in amusement and flung her head to one side with a "huh!". Guiche looked sideways at Tiffania, twisting around in uncomfortment.

''Speaking of which..., she once removed Saito's fake memories in Albion..."

''Was it that magic?''

Guiche knows that Tiffania weilds a fascinating magic, which is also the reason why she is not taken lightly by Henrietta and be assigned as a nun of the Pope.

What the magic exactly is, Guiche isn't very clear himself.

Personal experiences tell Guiche that to be involved in these top secrets is never a good idea. They also tell him not to think of even anything correlated. Actually, not to display expressions of thinking them. These things can ruin careers, if worse, you won't be even able to keep your head.

However, in this case, that is completely unnecessary. Staring at Tiffania's face without moving a muscle, is considered a rare way when treating females. All of the boys bulged their eyes.

"Miss Westwood. I have a question."

"Ah, yes"

"...You, don't tell me you used that spell on Louise?"

Tiffania turned her back on him and started to shiver mildly. Guiche snapped his fingers and ordered

"Tie Miss Westwood up."

Excitedly, the boys leaped towards Tiffania and tied her up in a flash. Louise tried to say something, but was tied up as well.

The tied up Tiffania fell down on a side in the pheonix tailed boat, trembling while blushing red.

"Wait! What are you thinking of! Aren't you the personal guards of Queen Henrietta-! What are you trying to do by tying me up? If this continues, I'd get angry! I'll report it to the Queen who'll punish you."

Ignoring Louise's words, Guiche slowly approached Tiffania.

"You did use magic on Louise, didn't you?"

"Did-did not"

Guiche sighed and snapped his fingers again. Malicorne, wearing a gusset clowns use, started to flick a feather over the body of Tiffania's.

"Would you please tell us the truth, m'lady?"

"Ump! Ummg! Stop tickling! Stop tickling me!"

Tiffania is really sensitive to her body, therefore this torture is the deadliest. Guiche edged his face closer to Tiffania's, who have fell down exhausted.

"Personally, I dislike hurting women. Unfortunately, this all depends on the time and place as well. Malicorne, about whether Tiffania's breasts are real, go and investigate."

"Good suggestion, Captain, what a good suggestion"

Malicorne came closer with his hands reached out

"S-Sorry! I'm sorry!"

At this moment, Tiffania suddenly apologized.

"So that's what happened."

"Because, it's for her own good!"

"Hey, you people, what did you do to Tiffania!"

Facing the agitated and steaming Louise, Guiche gently said

"My dear Louise, would you care to listen to me?"

"Really, what do you have to say! Hurry up and untie me!"

"You have a familiar. He was a person as young as we are. He saved you many times. Also, he really likes you. Did you really forget all of this?"

Hearing Guiche being so direct, Louise is still in the clouds.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I Don't have a familiar!"

"It was on that summoning ceremony in spring. During the summoning, you failed so many times, then you eventually called him out."

"Ohh. Back then, nothing came out in the end. I was really depressed at that time.... But this can be explained. It has something to do with my magic class, although I can't tell you.... Just watch, after this, I will summon the most ultimate familiar in the world!"

All of a sudden, Guiche felt very helpless. Angrily, he glared at Tiffania. He then lowered his body and hissed in her ear

"...Since Louise says this kind of things, perhaps she would be better off this way. ... That must have been what you thought, since she did look very painful

"But because I am a man, I don't think so at all. To a man, memories are the most important things in the world. Since Louise chose it this way, who am I to comment at all."

Following, Guiche took a deep breath

"Still, I cannot accept this."

Hurried by his teammates, the ropes on Louise and Tiffania were finally let loose. As soon as the pheonix tailed boat stopped at the dock, Guiche and the rest jumped off.

Louise, who was left behind, angrily glared at their backs.

"Really, what were they thinking!"

Watching Louise like this, Tiffania fell into deep thoughts as well.

''Were my actions right?''

''Is there no other way than this?''

She didn't have the answers to these questions, but she also felt the saddness. Tears dripped from her eyes. Noticed that, Louise started to comfort Tiffania.

"How are you? Are you alright? Really, those guys are too rough! We should let the Queen punish them, don't you think? Tiffania?"

Middle of the night... the glow from the twin moons illuminated the dark night sky.

A few days ago, the warship for the sole use of the Pope, "St. Maricore", was parked at the harbours of Aquileia. A gigantic vessel slowly sailed near. This mysterious vessel retracted its humongous wings. When landing, it did not kept its balance and swayed massively, the giant wings slapping the surface of the sea.

This vessel's remaining momentum was a telltale sign that it is going to smash into the harbor. At this moment, a few folds of wind magic were casted. Large amounts of air blew straight into the ship from the walls, acting as a barrier, such that the harbor wouldn't turn into smithereens.

This enormous vessel porting is none other than the "Orient". The nobles standing guard on the deck casted another volley of wind magics, finally stabilizing this monstrous ship. In the end, few figures of pitch blackness sprung out from the warehouse of the docks, grabbing the harness and tied it around the mast.

Creaking at a sharp tone, the front hull of the ship slowly opened like a crow's beak. This door is made to carry the large loads, designed by Professor Cortes.

The walls of the harbor, procuring out like a tongue which scratched the bird's beak, had an array cylindrical logs laid down side by side. The twenty something nobles stood across those trees, including the ones who were casting wind spells on the deck.

Written on the nobles faces, were all weariness and anxiousness. They really can't be blamed, having to transport and guard such a heavy item all the journey.

A weird, half-cranking, half-creaking sound came out from the bird's beak. A certain object was being transported through magic. The height of this thing was even higher than two buildings..., is the same Panzer Saito saw at the grave underground of Romalia kings.

Right underneath the Panzer, were those logs... the same species of wood of which logs are made from as the ones they would use to transport giant stone blocks a castle is under construction. Only those logs will stand the pressure of the Panzer and roll simultaneously.

"Everyone please take care! Any plain log, even with the 'harden spell' casted on them will not sustain the weight of this steel lump. It weights as much as 12,000 Libros!"

So that was the reason, how it's able to withstand the great weight. "Harden" logs over the limit of sustainable weight will snap and be crushed into pieces.

The Panzer slowly slided towards the right. If this continues, the Panzer would fall into grasps of the sea.

"Right side! It's the right side! Hurry up and use 'Levitation'!"

Mages standing left and right started chanting "levitation" to lift the Panzer's right side up. Even with this number of mages, they are unable to buckle it at all. At least the good thing is that it is now stuck in the bird's beak. Professor Cortes held his breath, and carefully instructed mages left and right, eventually successfully landing the tank on the stony ground of the center.

An energy depleted Cortes rested on top of the tank. There was no more to worry, whether the Orient will plummet or will the tank sink into the depths of the ocean. As soon as he is relieved from this burden, tiredness started to reveal in every part of his body.

"It's alright now, Miss Slipheed, Miss Tabitha."

The hatch on the tank sudden sprang open. Illococoo's head popped out, wearing a black officer's hat found within. Following, Tabitha's small head partially stuck out of the gunner's window. The two were inside stabilizing the whole tank.

A teen wearing white clothes sharply stood out from the rest of the crowd, wearing pitch black clothing. He gave Colbert a salute. Other than is unmatching attire, this salute was one of a fully professional soldier's.

It's Julio.

"It must have been tough for you, Mister Colbert. If you weren't here for us, it would have been impossible to transport this 'work of art' here."

Colbert jumped off the tank in one leap, and saluted back to Julio.

"Although the Orient was anticipated to carry loads... the loading of this item was a bit more than expected. Having as much as 20 people casting 'Levitation' in turns, it eventually left the bottom of the ship. Otherwise? I don't this ship would have even floated. To me, I hope this is the last time."

Hearing Cortes put it this way, Julio smiled.

"Of course. We don't make unnecessary requests."

Promising that, Julio's eyes darted towards the large oil tank strapped behind the Panzer. It's the same oil tanks that were used to store gasoline for the fighter plane Zero.

"So? Will this thing move?"

"In somewhat way, yeah. It wasn't easy, using 'gasoline' to pilot this 'work of art' and the 'feathers of the dragon'. Mm, although fundamentally, there are a few big differences. Anyhow, mastering its structure requires time. It's not something that can be done overnight."

"That's more than enough."

Julio bowed.

"And? Using this to participate in the ceremony's guarding work..., isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"

Cortes looked at this lump of metal... and thought to himself

''First time seeing this "work of art", it was really shocking. Although the first time seeing machine fly was just as shocking, but the degree of how stunning this was only goes up, not down.''

''Using such a large amount of metal... steel, made part by part without disturbing the overall organization. Behind, inside the tank was an "engine" even more advanced than the one of "the feathers of the dragon".''

''Even the extruding cannon, it's just a perfect work of art. How lethal would a shell fired from here be? How devastating could this get?''

The tiny pieces of curiosity gradually swells up, as if hoping to experience this as soon as possible.

However..., with only the power of Cortes, perhaps he might make it move, but for it to go into combat, is definitely out of reach. This needs exactly Saito's power. If Saito isn't here, this is nothing but a giant steel box.

"Speaking of which, where would Saito be? I remember parting with him in Romalia. Has he arrived in this Aqueleia yet? I haven't seen him yet"

Julio shook his head.

"Right now, he's on a 'voyage'. He won't be coming back for a short period of time."

"Voyage?"

"Unh." Julio grunted, then smiled.

''Traveling at this time of the year? Saito Is a part of the Queen's personal guards. Perhaps he is on a secret mission again.''

Cortes made up a story for himself, and did not pursue.

The black clothed males somehow started to transport the tank into the warehouse, hooking the front with a rope to pull with.

The moves started pulling, while the aristocrats applied "levitation" to help out. On the "hardened" logs, this Panzer started to roll again.

Inside the cabin of the Panzer, a cute Illococoo wincing her eyes at Julio and Cortes in the midst of some sort of a conversation.

"This really stinks.... Although it doesn't need to be as clean as the streets, it's really dirty and sticky inside..."

Illococoo chuckled to herself. Tabitha nodded her head in agreement from the gunner's window.

"Your white knight, where would he be sent this time?"

Illococoo pulled of her cap and put it on Tabitha instead.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Zero_no_Tsukaima:Volume14_Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Zero no Tsukaima:Volume14 Chapter4

2012-01-15T04:07:08Z

Fox350z: just fixed some spelling

===The Capital of Water===

=== Part 1===
As the days for the third annual coronation ceremony starts, Guiche and the Ondine Water Spirit Knights were ordered to maintain order in the alleys around the city. Aquileia's narrow alleys were mapped with complicated waterway patterns. Besides, Romalia Pilgrims from all over Halkenia congregate right here. Being ordered to prevent chaos is deemed as an inevitable part of their jobs.

Packed like sardines in an alley less than 2 meters wide, the flow of traffic becomes dead slow. Louise and the others, who has to dress up as a nun and start praying from 5 a.m. in the morning in front of St. Lucia Aquileia's Cathedral, are like in the middle of a battlefield everyday.

Guiche and the boys are armed with (杌孀虐諮俸嫌朧テ韉那嗟抓旦`コート Unknown clothing here) and bears the responsibility of keeping visitor flow in order. But in fact, it's like going to war. Romalia Pilgrims push and shove each other aggressively to "line up" at the gate of St Lucia Aquileia Cathedral. With the crowd's erratic motion, most of the pilgrims end up outside the Cathedral despite their efforts made in "lining up".

Therefore, Guiche and the Ondine Knights are stuck in this position, where they have to fight with the desperate pilgrims on the verge of a brawl.

"C-Curse you! You shall not pass this line! Stop pushing!"

"Oi, oi, we came here all the way from Romalia! Making an exception here won't kill you!"

"If this calf does not receive the blessings of the Pope, I'm not going back home!"

"Let us catch a glimpse of the Holiness!"

The Ondine Water Spirit Knights took out their wands, using their only body to control the masses gave them quite a bit of hardship.

"Hey! Scutter off! If you don't want to get hurt then stand back!"

"That's a no-no! You better queue up honestly! Don't you understand speech?"

The peasants unable to follow orders started to turn their fury at the patrolling knights instead.

"Kill them!"

"Y-You bastard!"

Because of the surrounding magic detectors, although Guiche is sweating like a waterfall, he still issued a ban on using magic to his teammates.

"Everyone! Put down your wands! We can handle them! Therefore don't use magic!"

Except that using the wands to beat the furious peasants only further enrages them.

Soon Malicorne's wand was stolen in a tug-of-war, and was engulfed by the furious surrounding peasants.

"Waah! Waaaah! Stop that! You plebeians! How dare you!"

"Arrogant aristobrat! Go to hell!"

Guiche and the team were trying to reach Malicorne to help, but were easily swept away by the rioting crowds to taken aside be beaten in one corner.

"These people! They just won't listen!"

Gimili blinded by anger, has activated killing spree mode. It wasn't very long before he started chanting the spells. Guiche, who had his head lifted by someone and was frantically beaten, was in a state of high tension.

"No, stop! I tell you, do not use magic!"

Just at this moment, a group of people wrapped in white cloth flew out from the Cathedral.

"Crusaders!"

No one does not know of legends of how aggressive these Crusaders, claiming the title as Guardians of the Ancestors, could get if you were in their way. Waving the staffs made out of imitated holy objects, the Crusaders gathered together and rammed into the crowd.

"An enemy of ours is the enemy of God!"

Hearing this, in addition to the fear stroke in the hearts when facing these knights of pure white garments, the rioters all fell back and retreated. One of the Crusaders took off his helmet and smiled at the boys.

"Your Majesty Carlo!"

Saving Guiche and the others is none other than the Carolo Mariano De l'Thrombosine? who went into a conflict with the Ondine Water Spirit Knights at a tavern at Romalia previously, leading Crusaders of the Aliesta monastery.

"Whoa, whoa, aren't all of you student knights? Didn't your academy teach you about suppressing rioters?"

All the Crusaders laughed in unison, making Guiche and their ashamed to death.

"Where's your vice-captain? The one with a weird name, what, Hiragana Cratos I recall?"

"It's Hiraga Saito!"

"Ohh, yes, that name. And, where did he go? I don't seem to see him here..."

All of the Ondine Knights darkened their faces. Malicorne replied with a small voice

"R-re-returned to home."

"What did you say? Abandoning his duties to flee cowardly? As expected from a plebian born!"

Carlo laughed with a big mouth. The rest of the Crusaders imitated their leader and laughed as well.

"Don't make things up! Our enemy is a large country!"

"That's must be one brave, brave vice-captain."

As soon as his words ended, Gimili stood forward. In case Gimili did something rash, Guiche and Reinard held him back. Guiche said with a low voice

"Carlo, your highness. Have you ever tried facing an army of 10,000 alone?"

"10,000? Don't joke with me. No matter how much more powerful I am, what I can do is limited."

"Our vice-captain did. Not only against 10,000, but against 70,000. At least stop an army of 10,000 before you question his bravery."

Carlo started laughing again. But as soon as he sees Guiche's serious attitude, his laughter soon turned into a bored snicker.

"Huh, just hurry up leave this place. We're in charge now."

Carlo, seeing the exhausted boys leave without another word, continued

"Oh, and from tomorrow onwards, you are in charge of patrolling the streets. Remember to report in any suspicious people."

The boys felt blood boiling, but were incapable of complaining. Patrolling was their job now. To them, the harsh words sounded like

''"you're supposed to 'patrol', but eventually you'll end up interfering with our jobs. Why don't you go over there and play by yourselves?"''

Afterall, the streets are jammed with people here and there. There was absolutely no space for patrol.

Guiche and the team came to a corner on the centre beside the Cathedral, staring blankly at the excited crowds. A few ventors grouped together to sell alcoholics and snacks.

"Turns out, we can't do anything without Saito..."

Listening to the shouts of the hawkers, Malicorne sighed. It chimed in resonnance with what the other boys had in mind. If they had to rely on Saito no matter wherever they are, the emptyness created by sudden disappearance just can't be filled by anything else.

"Damn Louise, always so full of herself!"

Gimili made a fist and vented his depression on the ground.

"...But, her feelings I can also understand. Although I am not clear, but that guy probably came from somewhere far away? I remember he came from the east? I'm sure he'd wanted to see his family as much as we did. Besides, Louise, eventually, is a girl. One day she'd be tired of his fighting, I guess."

Reinard stood up and laid out his hands.

"Oi, Oi, how long are we planning to get depressed here? Even if Saito isn't here, shouldn't we device some plan to make ourselves useful? We should make some achievements to prove that we derserve the title 'Heros of Albion'!"

A few of the boys nodded in agreement.

"But they won't let us maintain order anymore. We have no more chance to stand out."

Silence fell around them yet again.

Out of the Ondine Knights, Guiche was the only still cheerfully whistling, as if a plan has been deviced. On closer look, right next to him is a wineglass bought from some unknown place.

"Why the hell are you drinking, Guiche"

"Eh? Because if this turns for the worse, we'll probably end up in a war. Here, take a cup and drink to your spirit. Here, you try it as well. this is called Helptakis?' cocktail. It's made from mixing ginger and sugar into red wine... and the taste is very concentrated, tastes very good!"

Reinard let his jaw fall to the ground.

"How would there be a war! Even Gallia knows the consequences of having a war in this city filled with Romalia Pilgrims. They could become the world's public enemy!"

Guiche slightly frowned

"Ah, yes, that is what a King with common sense would think.... However, the King of Gallia isn't just anyone. At least that's what I, who have sneaked inside the borders of Gallia, believe. He would never use just any plain, normal tactics.... Arg! I ruined her face!"

"Guiche..., what were you doing all along?"

"Hmm?"

Guiche raised his head, and Malicorne was able to catch a glimpse of what he held in his hands. It was a surprising white seashell with the face of a girl carved on it.

"I'm making a necklace. In Romalia, it is very popular to gift females with this time of seashell carving. Since Montmorency is still angry with me, I have to cheer her up no matter what! Bwa-ha-ha!"

Even Malicorne, frowned this time.

"Seriously, even right now, you still have the time to carve seashells? I thought a war is coming? Or do you plan to rely on this and make our companion Saito come back? No?"

"This isn't as worse as how you described it. Although at first notice, all of us were stunned in shock, even if you keep on emphasizing it right now, it won't help the fact that Saito won't come back. You know, the meaning of being alive, is to enjoy ourselves!"

Guiche responded like he didn't care.

"I really admire you. Such bravery."

Malicorne sad sarcastically.

"No... how should I put it?"

"Mhm?"

"To look for answers, yes, exactly."

"Answers?"

"Uh-huh. If I had to face that kind of nightmare like guy, to be honest even thinking of it makes me shudder. That's why I have to do this, to list down all the reasons why I must live on. I must hand this to Montmorency myself. Therefore I mustn't die, ahh-- that emotion exactly!"

Smiling, Guiche gulped down the rest of the wine in his glass in one gulp. Malicorne shook his head as if he couldn't stand it anymore.

Watching those two, a sense of uneasiness arose.

"The enemies inside Gallia...I'm not sure myself, but is there such a horrendous guy?"

Reinard involuntarily gulped. Asked, Guiche nodded his head in a exaggerating way.

"Very fearsome."

"Powerful?"

Guiche crossed his arms as he thinks in pain, then nodded his head in the same way.

Little by little, the boys were all around Guiche now, eyes fixed on his face.

"How powerful?"

Guiche and Malicorne exchanged expressions, then Malicorne put up a stand, hinting Guiche should start replying honestly, and kept nudging Guiche.

"Make it clear! Spit it out!"

At last, Guiche answered objectively.

"They have elves."

Elves... to the nobles of Halkenia, elves are undoubtedly a signature of inducing immense fear.

The faces on the boys changed drastically. Looked at each other, then used feeble laughs to break the awkward silence. Gimili tapped Malicorne's shoulders and ask with doubting eyes.

"That, is it true?"

"You're annoying, that, uh, is really real. We were really defeated by him." Thinking of the battle they had to go through when saving Tabitha, cold sweats burst out from his forehead.

The boys around them stood up in unison, and ran away at great speeds, that only trails of dust clouds could be seen. Guiche was the only one left running behind them yelling

"Waaait! Everyone! Calm down!"

Hearing Guiche's call, some of the boys turned their heads back.

"I'll be here with you all!"

Pointing at his own chest, a cheerful Guiche without a hint of fear puffed out his chest. The rest of the Ondine Knights rolled their eyes in desperation, and started fleeing again.

"Wait up! How do you call yourselves aristocrats!"

Because of this sentence, the runaways finally came back, knelt down and looked up in the sky.

"Forget it..., my last words..."

"So what, it's not like losing is our only choice. Besides..."

"We should stop praying for Saito to come back. For some reason I just know that in the near future he will appear before us again. Right, just when we're desperately fighting. If we gave up right here right now, won't we become a joke? Anyhow I'm not fleeing from this."

Once Guiche puts it this way, the boys started to hesitate. Afterall, they are a bunch of young ignorant teenagers.

=== Part 2 ===

"Which is why, we should be happier right now. You only get one chance at living!"

As the reasoning goes on, the boys eventually gave in one by one and started drinking, completely blissful from their supposed patrol work.

Gimili's eyes landed on the a small window on the Cathedral across the center. There sat a small Louise in nun clothes. Saddened by the sight, he sighed

"That girl Louise... Even when our morale is at its lowest, she still have the feelings to keep praying.... At least be aware of what we would experience when we'll be fighting with that elf."

"Hey~ Hey~, compared to us, Louise must be more troubled.

"Making the decision to send Saito back isn't something she can do without great courage."

Hearing this, the boys quieted down. Just this moment, a band wearing silly clothes passed by, starting to play beautiful music. Devoted Romalia Pilgrims roared immediately, complaining "too loud, too loud".

Suddenly, Guiche stood up.

"Ahh~ Guiche, where do you want to go?"

"Oh, doesn't really matter. See it's about resting time after prayers? I just thought that we should go and comfort Louise."

At noon exactly, Pope Vittorio who has been kneeling on the altar of St Lucia Cathedral stood up, and bowed towards the crowd outside. Roars of cheers exploded everywhere.

"This ceremony is so great! I am so proud of myself. Even now, I still can't believe that I was able to become one of the Pope's nun and pray."

Louise claimed happily to the Tiffania beside here.

"It's only because that we are void users chosen by God, isn't it. Even now, I don't feel that I live up to my name... ahh, I must put some effort in it."

Looking into Louise's pair of bright sharp eyes, Tiffania started to question her actions of brain-washing Louise.

Only under her desperate pleads, Tiffania removed her memories of Saito... but afterwards, Louise was like having a fever, suddenly talking about Halkenia's ideals, droning on and on about her importance.

"Those Gallain conspiracies against us..., we must stop them no matter what!"

"Lo-Looks like it's kind of scary."

Tiffania honestly voiced her thoughts, Louise's eyes immediately shone brightly

"What is there to be afraid of! Although it's not like I don't understand your feelings, you should never bow down to fear! That would be a real insult to God and our Ancestors."

"Mmm, yea..."

''Louise looked like a different person. Even if her normal self is so willful... she doesn't have to go to the extremes. Is that why Saito's existence was so important?''

As Tiffania was still hesitating, the sidedoor went wide open with a bang and a team of well dressed guys poured inwards.

"Oh! Hello, my ladies!"

"...Who is it?"

In that moment, Tiffania could not identify who the people barging in were at all. They were all wearing weird clothing and had white makeup all over their face.

"Guiche?"

"Ohmyohmyohmy, isn't it lunch time already? Are you ladies interested in a peaceful, quite ride on Aquileia's specialty, the Pheonix tailed ship?"

"Pheonix tailed ship? That sounds fantastic..., however..., if we left the Cathedral..."

"How bad could it be? If you didn't take a break, you would be out of breath from all the work, wouldn't you? Besides, there is no chance of a conspiracy. Look, even in the streets they set all kinds of traps. I Am a earth-base mage and do notice these things. "

Looks like Guiche wanted more than leaving work behind.

"I reckon if they wanted to do anything, they would've marched their army in already. Anyhow, we're here to -slaps back- relax, -slaps back- enjoy ourselves for good"

Unforgivingly, Louise shook her head.

"What are you talking about! Being the sacred nuns, it's exactly now that we should help his holiness. Besides, as soon as we get careless, the enemy will strike. You people should re...Mmm!"

Guiche didn't wait for Louise to finish and already picked her up, chuckling to himself as he walks out.

"Waaaiit! You guys! Put! Me! Down!"

The Louise being compelled to get on a pheonix tailed ship floating in the waterway started to quarrel with the leader of Ondine Water Spirit Knights.

The narrow pheonix tailed ship was filled entirely by the teens, when ashore could their laughter be heard.

"Okay already! All of you, you are taking this too lightly!"

Malicorne, raising his wineglass to Guiche and the others, said

"Keep it up... poor thing. You must be really depressed..."

"What are you talking about? Depressed? Who?"

Louise stared blankly at Guiche. Guiche's shocked face matched his ridiculous clothes perfectly.

"Louise... don't you feel misery?"

"Me? Why would I be? Anyhow, stop this madness already!"

Seeing Louise enraged, Gimili exclaimed

"Are you kidding me! It was because that you insisted, you made Saito..."

"Ahh, my bad my bad my bad my bad."

Louise, after hearing all of this, was still as muddled as ever.

"...Saito, who's that?"

The whole pheonix tailed ship froze in in time.

"Louise! Louise! Looks like it messed up her brain!"

"You people are really helpless..., just now you mentioned..., yes, this Saito..."

Guiche and the rest was on the verge of not being able to hold their breath. This sudden reaction from Louise made the whole boat sway sideways. Finally, Louise couldn't stand it any longer and yelled at Guiche, obviously in fury

"My brain messed up? I'd say Your brains are messed up! The weird ones here are you people. Saito this, Saito that..., what the hell is Saito?"

"N-name, duh"

"Name? That sure is one weird name."

"The male with that weird name Is your familiar, you know."

"Fam-liar? Ma-le? Don't even kid with me! I never had a familiar!"

Louise having said that, crossed her arms in amusement and flung her head to one side with a "huh!". Guiche looked sideways at Tiffania, twisting around in uncomfortment.

''Speaking of which..., she once removed Saito's fake memories in Albion..."

''Was it that magic?''

Guiche knows that Tiffania weilds a fascinating magic, which is also the reason why she is not taken lightly by Henrietta and be assigned as a nun of the Pope.

What the magic exactly is, Guiche isn't very clear himself.

Personal experiences tell Guiche that to be involved in these top secrets is never a good idea. They also tell him not to think of even anything correlated. Actually, not to display expressions of thinking them. These things can ruin careers, if worse, you won't be even able to keep your head.

However, in this case, that is completely unnecessary. Staring at Tiffania's face without moving a muscle, is considered a rare way when treating females. All of the boys bulged their eyes.

"Miss Westwood. I have a question."

"Ah, yes"

"...You, don't tell me you used that spell on Louise?"

Tiffania turned her back on him and started to shiver mildly. Guiche snapped his fingers and ordered

"Tie Miss Westwood up."

Excitedly, the boys leaped towards Tiffania and tied her up in a flash. Louise tried to say something, but was tied up as well.

The tied up Tiffania fell down on a side in the pheonix tailed boat, trembling while blushing red.

"Wait! What are you thinking of! Aren't you the personal guards of Queen Henrietta-! What are you trying to do by tying me up? If this continues, I'd get angry! I'll report it to the Queen who'll punish you."

Ignoring Louise's words, Guiche slowly approached Tiffania.

"You did use magic on Louise, didn't you?"

"Did-did not"

Guiche sighed and snapped his fingers again. Malicorne, wearing a gusset clowns use, started to flick a feather over the body of Tiffania's.

"Would you please tell us the truth, m'lady?"

"Ump! Ummg! Stop tickling! Stop tickling me!"

Tiffania is really sensitive to her body, therefore this torture is the deadliest. Guiche edged his face closer to Tiffania's, who have fell down exhausted.

"Personally, I dislike hurting women. Unfortunately, this all depends on the time and place as well. Malicorne, about whether Tiffania's breasts are real, go and investigate."

"Good suggestion, Captain, what a good suggestion"

Malicorne came closer with his hands reached out

"S-Sorry! I'm sorry!"

At this moment, Tiffania suddenly apologized.

"So that's what happened."

"Because, it's for her own good!"

"Hey, you people, what did you do to Tiffania!"

Facing the agitated and steaming Louise, Guiche gently said

"My dear Louise, would you care to listen to me?"

"Really, what do you have to say! Hurry up and untie me!"

"You have a familiar. He was a person as young as we are. He saved you many times. Also, he really likes you. Did you really forget all of this?"

Hearing Guiche being so direct, Louise is still in the clouds.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I Don't have a familiar!"

"It was on that summoning ceremony in spring. During the summoning, you failed so many times, then you eventually called him out."

"Ohh. Back then, nothing came out in the end. I was really depressed at that time.... But this can be explained. It has something to do with my magic class, although I can't tell you.... Just watch, after this, I will summon the most ultimate familiar in the world!"

All of a sudden, Guiche felt very helpless. Angrily, he glared at Tiffania. He then lowered his body and hissed in her ear

"...Since Louise says this kind of things, perhaps she would be better off this way. ... That must have been what you thought, since she did look very painful

"But because I am a man, I don't think so at all. To a man, memories are the most important things in the world. Since Louise chose it this way, who am I to comment at all."

Following, Guiche took a deep breath

"Still, I cannot accept this."

Hurried by his teammates, the ropes on Louise and Tiffania were finally let loose. As soon as the pheonix tailed boat stopped at the dock, Guiche and the rest jumped off.

Louise, who was left behind, angrily glared at their backs.

"Really, what were they thinking!"

Watching Louise like this, Tiffania fell into deep thoughts as well.

''Were my actions right?''

''Is there no other way than this?''

She didn't have the answers to these questions, but she also felt the saddness. Tears dripped from her eyes. Noticed that, Louise started to comfort Tiffania.

"How are you? Are you alright? Really, those guys are too rough! We should let the Queen punish them, don't you think? Tiffania?"

Middle of the night... the glow from the twin moons illuminated the dark night sky.

A few days ago, the warship for the sole use of the Pope, "St. Maricore", was parked at the harbours of Aquileia. A gigantic vessel slowly sailed near. This mysterious vessel retracted its humongous wings. When landing, it did not kept its balance and swayed massively, the giant wings slapping the surface of the sea.

This vessel's remaining momentum was a telltale sign that it is going to smash into the harbor. At this moment, a few folds of wind magic were casted. Large amounts of air blew straight into the ship from the walls, acting as a barrier, such that the harbor wouldn't turn into smithereens.

This enormous vessel porting is none other than the "Orient". The nobles standing guard on the deck casted another volley of wind magics, finally stabilizing this monstrous ship. In the end, few figures of pitch blackness sprung out from the warehouse of the docks, grabbing the harness and tied it around the mast.

Creaking at a sharp tone, the front hull of the ship slowly opened like a crow's beak. This door is made to carry the large loads, designed by Professor Cortes.

The walls of the harbor, procuring out like a tongue which scratched the bird's beak, had an array cylindrical logs laid down side by side. The twenty something nobles stood across those trees, including the ones who were casting wind spells on the deck.

Written on the nobles faces, were all weariness and anxiousness. They really can't be blamed, having to transport and guard such a heavy item all the journey.

A weird, half-cranking, half-creaking sound came out from the bird's beak. A certain object was being transported through magic. The height of this thing was even higher than two buildings..., is the same Panzer Saito saw at the grave underground of Romalia kings.

Right underneath the Panzer, were those logs... the same species of wood of which logs are made from as the ones they would use to transport giant stone blocks a castle is under construction. Only those logs will stand the pressure of the Panzer and roll simultaneously.

"Everyone please take care! Any plain log, even with the 'harden spell' casted on them will not sustain the weight of this steel lump. It weights as much as 12,000 Libros!"

So that was the reason, how it's able to withstand the great weight. "Harden" logs over the limit of sustainable weight will snap and be crushed into pieces.

The Panzer slowly slided towards the right. If this continues, the Panzer would fall into grasps of the sea.

"Right side! It's the right side! Hurry up and use 'Levitation'!"

Mages standing left and right started chanting "levitation" to lift the Panzer's right side up. Even with this number of mages, they are unable to buckle it at all. At least the good thing is that it is now stuck in the bird's beak. Professor Cortes held his breath, and carefully instructed mages left and right, eventually successfully landing the tank on the stony ground of the center.

An energy depleted Cortes rested on top of the tank. There was no more to worry, whether the Orient will plummet or will the tank sink into the depths of the ocean. As soon as he is relieved from this burden, tiredness started to reveal in every part of his body.

"It's alright now, Miss Slipheed, Miss Tabitha."

The hatch on the tank sudden sprang open. Illococoo's head popped out, wearing a black officer's hat found within. Following, Tabitha's small head partially stuck out of the gunner's window. The two were inside stabilizing the whole tank.

A teen wearing white clothes sharply stood out from the rest of the crowd, wearing pitch black clothing. He gave Colbert a salute. Other than is unmatching attire, this salute was one of a fully professional soldier's.

It's Julio.

"It must have been tough for you, Mister Colbert. If you weren't here for us, it would have been impossible to transport this 'work of art' here."

Colbert jumped off the tank in one leap, and saluted back to Julio.

"Although the Orient was anticipated to carry loads... the loading of this item was a bit more than expected. Having as much as 20 people casting 'Levitation' in turns, it eventually left the bottom of the ship. Otherwise? I don't this ship would have even floated. To me, I hope this is the last time."

Hearing Cortes put it this way, Julio smiled.

"Of course. We don't make unnecessary requests."

Promising that, Julio's eyes darted towards the large oil tank strapped behind the Panzer. It's the same oil tanks that were used to store gasoline for the fighter plane Zero.

"So? Will this thing move?"

"In somewhat way, yeah. It wasn't easy, using 'gasoline' to pilot this 'work of art' and the 'feathers of the dragon'. Mm, although fundamentally, there are a few big differences. Anyhow, mastering its structure requires time. It's not something that can be done overnight."

"That's more than enough."

Julio bowed.

"And? Using this to participate in the ceremony's guarding work..., isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"

Cortes looked at this lump of metal... and thought to himself

''First time seeing this "work of art", it was really shocking. Although the first time seeing machine fly was just as shocking, but the degree of how stunning this was only goes up, not down.''

''Using such a large amount of metal... steel, made part by part without disturbing the overall organization. Behind, inside the tank was an "engine" even more advanced than the one of "the feathers of the dragon".''

''Even the extruding cannon, it's just a perfect work of art. How lethal would a shell fired from here be? How devastating could this get?''

The tiny pieces of curiosity gradually swells up, as if hoping to experience this as soon as possible.

However..., with only the power of Cortes, perhaps he might make it move, but for it to go into combat, is definitely out of reach. This needs exactly Saito's power. If Saito isn't here, this is nothing but a giant steel box.

"Speaking of which, where would Saito be? I remember parting with him in Romalia. Has he arrived in this Aqueleia yet? I haven't seen him yet"

Julio shook his head.

"Right now, he's on a 'voyage'. He won't be coming back for a short period of time."

"Voyage?"

"Unh." Julio grunted, then smiled.

''Traveling at this time of the year? Saito Is a part of the Queen's personal guards. Perhaps he is on a secret mission again.''

Cortes made up a story for himself, and did not pursue.

The black clothed males somehow started to transport the tank into the warehouse, hooking the front with a rope to pull with.

The moves started pulling, while the aristocrats applied "levitation" to help out. On the "hardened" logs, this Panzer started to roll again.

Inside the cabin of the Panzer, a cute Illococoo wincing her eyes at Julio and Cortes in the midst of some sort of a conversation.

"This really stinks.... Although it doesn't need to be as clean as the streets, it's really dirty and sticky inside..."

Illococoo chuckled to herself. Tabitha nodded her head in agreement from the gunner's window.

"Your white knight, where would he be sent this time?"

Illococoo pulled of her cap and put it on Tabitha instead.

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