Zero no Tsukaima:Volume14 Chapter7

Aquileia's Saint

The door was pushed wide open, and a Louise in nun clothes appeared. The crowd which gathered outseid St Luthia's Cathedral bursted into wild cheers.

"Saint! Saint! Saint Louise!" Pope Vittorio standing aside repeated another volley of similar prologues.

"Let me repeat myself. In these days of the coronation ceremony, I am very sorry to announce a saddening news to everyone. Swindled by the devils, our neighbouring country Gallia, on this day before noon, brazenly marched their army into our sacred country. Romalia has joined hands with the United Alliance and returned our attacks."

Radical yells and curses towards Gallia surfaced here and there in the crowd. To Romalia Pilgrims coming from Gallia all hid in the shadows of the narrow Aquileia alleys, shivering in fear. Today, the most unlucky are undoubtly them, To them, this news is a bolt out of the blue.

"However, to the true believers of Brimir, there is nothing to worry about. Our God and Ancesestors have already sent down a 'Saint' to save us all. She is... the one acting as a nun all the time, Miss Louise Vallière!"

"Saint! Saint Louise!"

Cheers whent wild yet again. Louise, obviously proud of herself bowed to the crowd. Standing next to her, is a very pale Henrietta and a still shocked Tiffania.

"Hereby, I give her a title, I announce that she will be one of our country's valliant protectors. As she desended on to this sacred ground, we shall name her-"

Vittorio paused here for a more dramatic effect, then continued

"The Saint of Aquileia!"

Louise knelt in front of the Pope, her head bowed. Pope Vittorio gave Louise her blessing. At this point, the wild frenzy of the crowd has reached its maximum.

"As long as she is with us, Romalia the sacred country of God, the city of water Aquileia will never perish! Here I wish Louise who will be heading to the frontlines our best wishes! Dear God! May you take great care over the Saint of Aquileia!"

"Take great care over the Saint of Aquileia!"

Louise stood up, pleased with herself and waved towards the crowd.

With the crowd's cheers, she slowly build up her courage. The power God gave to her... "Void".

It's excatly this power which made her the Louise she is today.

Because she had never left the side of a prayer book, God has awakened her powers from within.

This magic, shielded herself and the country every single time.

Again and again...

At this moment,... her heart missed a single beat. Despite its insignificance, Louise realised something was not right.

Protecting herself and the country, came only from her magic?

What am I thinking of?

Wasn't that the truth? To calm herself down, Louise recalled everything she had done.

Cheated death from the foot of a Golem.

Being betrayed by Wardes at Albion.

Above the skies of Tristain, about to be crushed by the Albion army.

And also, while retreating from Albion, taking orders to stay behind and stand guard...

No matter which memory it was, there was no one else.

All by using my power, I solved every crisis. That's right. Close my eyes and every time I am close to death, a burst of magical light appears... isn't that solid proof of the Godlike power of the "void"?

However, whenever she thinks of this, her heart would start searing in pain. For some reason, she would lose her focus, as if telling her to find a reason to move forward will then her heart return normal.

Louise brushed her chest slightly. Worried, Tiffania looked at her face

"... Are you going to be alright?"

"Oh, I'm fine, just that my chest hurts a little. I guess I'm a bit nervous."

Just that moment, the Pope announced to the public, its time to start the "Holy War". Cheers echoed like thunder... but they did not reach Louise's heart.

The people expects

Wasn't keeping this in mind made her so successful? But why would she be feeling so uneasy? Or putting it another way, why does something feel empty?

Louise discovered in the centre of her heart there was a dark hole of infinite size, threatening to suck her up entirely. She pressed her chest tightly.

"Louise, really..."

"I'm fine. Really, I am. Just that, I want to lay down for a while. That's right, ten minutes would do..."

Deep inside the basement in the resting room, Louise laid down. Henrietta sat next to her, holding her hand tightly.

"I'm really sorry, I'm supposed to head out right now..."

"You must be really scard, Louise. It's alright. It's something everyone experiences. I will lead your knights to head first. You take good rest in here, OK?"

"No, my situation isn't that bad. It's just... feels like my heart is torn apart into pieces."

"Torn apart?"

"Mm. It beats so fast? Until now, I have never had this feeling before..."

Henrietta immediately understood what Louise was feeling. Having lost a love herself, towards this feeling of Louise's she completely knows it through and through.

"That must be... love! Your love-... loss of love, it's what made you so painful"

"Love? You really know how to joke! I've never loved anyone before"

"Yes, that is for the current you. But, the you a long time ago, your heart had a target. Even though you try your best to deny it..., not wanting to accept it"

Henrietta's faced showed painful sorrow in it. Tiffania did too good a job at erasing "Saito's memories" out of Louise's brain.

Except... her "feelings" for him were still left behind.

Like a mail without a recipent, the emotion right now is torturing Louise's poor soul.

"I... if there was that kind of 'love', then it should be the love towards the people of Halkenia's. Your highness, please be proud of me. I am already listed as one of the great protectors. The one taken lightly, jeered as Zero Louise... is now the 'Saint of Aquileia'."

Though she says, she still show signs of pain.

"Other than standing in the list of great protectors, there's another beautiful thing in this world." was what Henrietta wanted to say to Louise. But... what good would it do? Louise's love has already lost its target.

Other than being a saint right now, is there another choice to choose?

"Saint Louise your holiness! Everything is prepared! Please ready yourself to travel!"

A knight said to Louise.

Louise, still holding her chest, stood up.

"father, mother, my dear sisters will praise me when they hear of this news. I, feel very proud."

Smiling, Louise headed out of the Cathedral.

The Henrietta being left behind, found a sobbing Tiffania in the corners. Henrietta walked up next to Tiffania and held her hamd.

"...I, I did a terrible thing. It was painful enough already, now it hurts even more..."

"You still haven't loved any yet, have you? My dear cousin."

"Th-that's right."

Tiffania nodded her head.

"If that's so, then nobody blames what you did."

Henrietta peeked into the Cathedral from the crack in the door of the resting room. Is it because of the Holy War? With Priests as their leader, believers following from the behind, praying dilligently to the figure of the Founder.

Being Henrietta, she also prayed to it from dawn til dusk once. But now is no time for this.

It's time to pull the curtains for the "Holy War".

To put a fullstop on the unpreventable war, Henrietta starts to consider the things she can do.

"'Eliminate the enemies at Tiger's Highway' is it... That's easy for him to say."

Malicorne whined painfully. Beside him, the Guiche on a horse fell into deep thoughts. Behind them followed a bunch of worrying knights, alearted to every minor details...

A distinct expressoin compared with the bright glowing sun.

Today... after recieving the guarding duties at the Cathedral, the report finally came.

An attack towards the "Gallian Rebellions".

Though it reads the "Gallian Rebellions", it actually meant King Joeseph's gigantic army.

Above the city skies, the two Gallan fleets and Romalia kept exchanging attacks.

As the Romalia ships are at an obvious disadvantage numerically, they were the ones continuously attacking. Yet for some reason, the two Gallian fleets did not return any attacks back.

After hearing of this situation, all the units standing guard around Aquileia were issued an order to attack.

Guiche and the Ondine Knights, on ther other hand, recieved a special order.

"To guard Miss Louise Vallière- 'the Saint of Aquiellia' as she chants her spell."

Louise's magic seems to has a special effect, everyone still has a fresh memory to the magnitude power. Last time when retreating, wasn't Louise the one ordered to stay behind and stand guard?

Somehow sometime, the Zero Louise transformed into the Queen's Louise, now she's assigned by the Pope himself as the Saint of Aquileia. This is really like the frog in Princess and the frog.

Different from those being assigned to pave the road, the cold sweat covered Ondine Water Spirit Knights had a different objective. Louise carries a fearless face all the time, although part of it looks like a forced face.

Tagging right behind are two teams of Crusaders. The teams are Carlo lead Crusaders of the Aleida missionary. After That, is volunteers from the pleasants.

All of these add up as Louise's personal guards.

Looks like our 'Saint of Aquileia' is the main strike force of today's battle.

Louise was literally shining, droning on and on about the importance about being the sticke force of the entire battle.

"It's such a glorious thing. You guys think so as well, don't you?"

Malicorne agreed with whatever she said

"The glory oh the glory, how glorious it is. To be in a 'Holy War'"