Zero no Tsukaima:Volume3 Chapter8

Mr Colbert was forty-two years old. He had been in the service of the academy for twenty years. He was a mage with the nickname of “Flaming Serpent”. His hobby… or more correctly, his life was centered around research and inventing things. He had rushed down to the courtyard once he had seen the thing being carried by the dragons from his research laboratory. His curiosity had been set alight.

“You, what’s that? Can you explain to me?”

Colbert’s face shone as he looked at Saito, who was watching the zero fighter being lowered.

“Ah, I was just about to talk to you about it actually.”

“Me?”

Colbert was taken aback. Who exactly was this young commoner? All he knew was that he was the legendary familiar Gandalfr, summoned by Miss Vallière. Born in Roba Aru Kariei, he was the only person to have called Colbert’s invention “great”.

“This is called an airplane. In my world, they’re seen flying everywhere.”

“This flies!? Wow! Wonderful!”

Colbert started looking at different parts of the zero fighter with a deep interest.

“Could it be that this is the wing! It seems like it can’t flap like normal wings! What about this windmill?”

“That’s called a propeller. When it spins it causes the airplane to go forward.”

Eyes wide in amazement, Colbert drew closer to Saito.

“I see! When it spins, it causes the power of wind! It’s well made, isn’t it! Could you fly it for me? Look, my hands shaking from my curiosity!”

Troubled, Saito scratched his head.

“Um… To turn those propellers, I need gasoline.”

“Gasoline? What’s that?”

“I was about to talk to you about that. You know that we had where you showed us that invention of yours?”

“The joyful snake?”

“Yes! You had to vaporize oil to make it move right?”

“So you need that oil? That’s a problem easily solved!”

“No, I don’t think that will work. It has to be gasoline.”

“Gasoline? Hm… well there are many different types of oil.”

Saito suddenly realized the dragoons grinning broadly at them. Guiche whispered in Saito’s ear.

“Sorry if everything is a bit busy, but if you don’t pay for the transportation fee…”

“You guys are nobles too aren’t you? Stop constantly bickering about money.”

“Hey, soldiers are poor you know.”

Saito smiled at Colbert.

“Mr Colbert, could you possibly pay the transportation fee for the time being?”

Colbert’s laboratory was situated in a small area between the central tower and the fire tower. It was much like an old dugout shed.

“At first I did experiments in my own room, but noise and bad smell comes naturally with research. I was complained to by the people next to me shortly afterwards.”

The wooden racks were cluttered with bottles of medicine, test tubes, jars containing nostrum and the like. Next to that was a wall of bookshelves, crammed with books. There was a celestial globe made from parchment stuck on a sphere, and other various maps. There were lizards, snakes and birds that he had never seen before inside cages. A musky smell which was neither from dust nor mould filled the entire room. Saito pinched his nose.

“You’ll get used to the smell soon. A woman however wouldn’t, which is the reason why I’m single.”

Colbert sat down while started muttering things to questions that he wasn’t even asked. He sniffed the gasoline he had gotten from the bottom of the fuel tank of the zero fighter. Since a permanence spell was placed on the zero fighter, the gasoline had not undergone any change in chemical composition.

“Hm… It’s a smell I’ve never smelt before. Giving off such a smell without even being heated… This must be quite easily vaporized. If this were to be used as an explosive, it would be of alarming strength.”

He reached for a piece of parchment lying close to him and started jotting down notes.

“If I make the same oil as this, that ‘airplane’ will fly?”

“Probably… If it hasn’t broken already.”

“Interesting! Concocting substances is tough work but I’ll try it!”

Muttering to himself, he took out all sorts of substances and lit his alcohol lamp.

“You’re called Saito right?”

Saito nodded.

“You said in your home town, these could be seen flying everywhere? The technology of the lands the elves govern in the east seem to far outclass any other technology in Halkeginia”

Saito felt somewhat bad for lying to Colbert, who had been more than willing to help him in concocting gasoline and had also paid for the transportation fees.

“Mr Colbert, actually, I’m… not from this world. Me, this airplane, and also the “Staff of Destruction” which destroyed Fouquet’s golem, are from another world.”

Colbert’s hand suddenly stopped.

“What did you say?”

“I come from another world”

Colbert gazed steadily at Saito and then proceeded to nod his head, as though he were impressed.

“I see.” he whispered.

“Aren’t you surprised?”

“Well, of course I am. But you definitely seem like it. Your way of speaking, your behavior, they have an alienated feel from Halkeginia. Hm, this is becoming more and more interesting.”

“You’re a strange person aren’t you, Mr Colbert”

“I get called strange by many people. I haven’t even found a bride yet. But I have a belief.”

“A belief?”

“Yes. The nobles of Halkeginia treat magic as a mere tool… Like a broom, they only see it as a handy tool to use. I don’t think magic is something like that. Depending on the way magic is used, it can be used for many things. Instead of fussing over the traditional uses of the different branches of magic, we should be experimenting with the different ways we can use it.”

Nodding, Colbert continued.

“After seeing you, my belief has grown stronger. Who would have thought there existed another world! This shows that the rules of Halkeginia are not absolute! Interesting! Such an interesting topic! I want see this world. There are probably lots of new things to be discovered! It’ll probably add a new page to my research! If you have any questions at all, just come and talk with me. Colbert the flaming serpent will always help you.”

Sitting in the cockpit of the zero fighter which had been placed in the Austri courtyard, Saito was inspecting the different parts of it. Grasping the control stick, every time he touched a switch, the runes on his left hand shone. Information would then flow to his brain, and tell him the condition of the part. When he moved the control stick, the ailerons of the wings and the elevator on the tail moved with a clank. The rudder of the tail moved when he stepped on the rudder bar and a cross shaped pointer appeared on the glass pane when he pushed the sight device switch on the instrument board. The generators on either side of the body of the plane were still alive. The shining Gandalfr runes told its user quite a bit. A smile appeared on Saito’s face.

“Partner, can this fly?”

“Yes.”

“Something like this flying… Your world is a strange one.”

Numerous students were watching Saito and the zero fighter. But, they lost interest quickly and left. There are few nobles who would be interested in this like Colbert, Saito thought. Suddenly a girl appeared, proudly brushing her pinkish blond hair with her hand.

Louise stared at Saito and the thing he was in. As if she were angry, she pointed her finger at it and said, “What’s that?”

Saito raised his head from the cockpit and simply replied, “An airplane”. As they still weren’t on good terms, he said it while facing away.

“Come down from that airplane thing then.” Ordered Louise, pouting her lips, while her hands were placed on her hips. He ignored her and continued inspecting the parts of the zero fighter. Louise grasped the end of a wing and started to make the zero fighter wobble.

“I said come down didn’t I!”

Fine, whispered Saito as he got off and headed to Louise.

“Where did you go?”

“Treasure hunting”

“What were you thinking, going without telling your master.”

Louise crossed her arms and stared at Saito. For some reason her eyes were puffy.

“Didn’t you fire me?”

Louise cast her eyes downwards and spoke with a voice as if she were about to cry.

“I suppose you deserve a chance to explain yourself. If you have anything you want to say, then say it now”

“What is there to explain? I didn’t do anything. This is about Siesta right? Siesta was just about to fall down so I tried to catch her. Then I fell down as well, making it as though I pushed her down on the bed.

It was actually because Siesta had started to take off her clothes all of a sudden, but for Siesta’s sake he didn’t say that.

“Then, nothing really happened?”

“Nothing. Why were you so angry? That was the first time she came to the room. As if something like that would happen. Why were you angry anyway? What me and Siesta do is none of your business right?” Said Saito.

Louise only thinks of me as a familiar. The only reason she became nicer to me is similar to that command of compassion for animals.

“It’s none of my business but in some ways it is.”

“Which one is it?”

Louise glared at Saito and groaned.

Louise tugged at his sleeve. She was whispering things like “Hey, apologize” and “Why are you being so uptight, you made me so worried”, but Saito wasn’t looking at Louise anymore but instead looking at the zero fighter in a daze.

Louise had jumped to her own conclusions. She was ashamed that she had shut herself in her room and sulked. She drew out the deadly technique she had been saving. It was a girl’s secret technique, which could sweep away any suspicious, anger, contradictions, or the fact that she drove him out. Basically, she burst into tears.

Buckets of tears came streaming down from her eyes.

“Where did you go all this time! Idiot! I hate you!”

Sniffling, she wiped the streaming tears with the back of her hand.

“H-Hey, don’t cry.”

Panicking, Saito placed his hands on Louise’s shoulder. Louise cried even harder.

“I hate you! I hate you!”

Kirche appeared near them, holding a mop and a dust cloth in her hands. Because they had skipped lessons, their punishment was to wipe the academy’s windows clean. As Saito was neither a noble nor a student at the academy, he didn’t have to do anything.

Guiche looked at Saito, who comforting Louise, and grinned.

“You can’t just make your master cry like that”

Kirche said dully, “Made up already? That’s no fun…”

Tabitha simply pointed at the two and said, “After the rain comes fair weather.”

That night… Louise lay in her bed, tightly grasping her pillow. After Saito removed his parker, Louise slipped into it, as though it was a given. She was frantically reading a book. Saito looked around the room which he had been away from for a week or so. Tableware was scattered everywhere.

“So you’ve been absent from lessons?”

Montmorency had said it when they passed by her in the corridor. Montmorency told her that she had been absent for too long, but Louise just ignored her and walked off.

Louise glared at Saito, slightly taken aback.

“So what?”

“Are you feeling ok?” asked Saito, who seemed to be worried.

She was about to say “Who do think caused me to skip lessons?” but her pride got the better of her. Putting the blanket over her head, she snuggled under it. Saito scratched his head and looked at the haystack. So she didn’t throw it out, he thought, warmly glancing at Louise.

Three days had passed from then.

Colbert awoke to the sound of hens. It seems like he had fallen asleep without realizing. He had been absent from lessons and had shut himself in the laboratory in the three days. In front of his eyes was a flask placed on top on his alcohol lamp. A glass tube stretched out of this, which let the heated catalyst cool down and coagulate in the beaker to the left of it. It was the final step. Colbert sniffed at the gasoline he received from Saito and started cautiously reciting the alchemy incantation at the substance in the beaker while concentrating on the smell of the gasoline.

In a poof, smoke was given off and the substance inside the beaker changed into a yellowish brown color. He smelt it. A strong smell of gasoline drifted to his nose. Colbert opened the door with a thud and rushed outside.

“Saito! Saito! I’ve made it! I’ve made it! I’ve finished concocting it!”

Out of breath, Colbert approached Saito who was inspecting the zero fighter. Within the wine bottle he held out, there was a yellowish brown liquid. Saito opened the cover of the fuel tank, which was in front of the windbreak. There was a lock on it, so he had Colbert cast the unlock spell on it. He entered two bottles worth of the gasoline in to it.

“I analyzed the composition of the oil you gave me” Said Colbert proudly.

“It seemed to be made from micro organisms in fossils, so I searched for something like that. Fossils of trees… coal in other words. I soaked that in a special catalyst and extracted a similar composition. After spending days doing that, I cast the alchemy spell on it. And that turned it into…”

“Gasoline right?”

Colbert nodded and urged Saito

“Quickly, turn those windmills for me. I was so excited that I didn’t even sleep.”

After entering the gasoline, Saito sat in the cockpit again. Information on how to start the engine and how to fly the zero fighter came rushing to his brain. To start the engine, the propeller must first be made to turn. Saito popped his head from windbreak.

“Mr. Colbert, could you make the propeller rotate with magic?”

“I thought it turned with the power from heating the oil?”

“To start the engine, the crank inside must be rotated manually first. There’s no tool to turn the propeller, so if you could use magic please.”

Colbert nodded. Saito operated the necessary parts.

Firstly, he set the fuel source to the tank he had just entered the fuel in. Then he set the mixture ratio lever and the propeller pitch lever to their optimum states. Saito’s hands moved by themselves. His Gandalfr power carried out all the operations. He opened the cowl flap and closed the lid of the oil-cooling radiator. The propellers rumbled as Colbert used his magic. With his eyes wide open, he pressed the ignition with his right hand at the proper timing. With his left hand gripping the throttle lever, he tilted it forward slightly.

A sputtering sound could be heard and the engine started to run from the spark plug’s ignition. As they ratted, the propellers started to turn. The body of the airplane vibrated. As the break wasn’t on, it started to propel itself forward.

Colbert watched with a moved expression on his face. After checking that the gauges related to the engine were moving, Saito turned the ignition switch off.

Jumping off from the cockpit, he hugged Colbert.

“Mr Colbert, the engine started!”

“Yes, we did it! But why didn’t it fly?”

“There’s not enough gasoline. If it were to fly, we need at least five barrels full.”

“So I need to make that much! But since I’ve gotten involved already, I’ll finish it off!”

After Colbert had returned to his laboratory, Saito continued his adjustments. He didn’t have any tools however, so he cleaned its parts. Louise called out to Saito who was seemingly absorbed doing this.

“Hey it’s time for dinner. What have you been doing? It’s all dark already.”

“I started the engine!” yelled Saito happily.

But Louise replied back dully.

“Really now. Good for you. What happens after you get the engine running?”

“It flies! It will fly!”

“What will you do when it flies?” Asked Louise in a lonely voice.

Saito told Louise the things he had been thinking of in the past two to three days.

“I’m going to try fly east”

“East? I can’t believe you. Are you saying you’re heading to Roba Aru Kariie? I seriously can’t believe you!”

“Why? The owner of this airplane flew over from there. I could maybe find some clues on how to return to my own world.” Said Saito feverishly.

Louise didn’t seem to bear any interest however. She replied back with a lonely voice.

“You’re my familiar. You can’t just do what you want. Also, the princess’s wedding is in five days. I have to read a edict then. But I haven’t think of anything good to say.”

Absorbed by the zero fighter, Saito nodded as if he were listening. Once he knew that it could fly, he had become mesmerized with it.

Louise pulled his ear. She was bored. He hasn’t paid any attention to me since he’s returned and instead just dazes at this ‘airplane’.

“Listen to me!”

“I’m listening!”

“You’re not. You’re off far away. There’s no familiar that listens to its master while looking to the side!”

Louise dragged Saito back to her room.

Louise opened the Founder’s Prayer book in front of Saito.

“I’ll read out what I’ve thought already for the edict.”

With a cute cough, Louise began to read her edict.

“On this beautiful day, I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière, praying for the holy presence of the founders, shall read the blessed edict…”

And then, Louise went silent.

“Continue?”

“From here on I have to give thanks to the four branches of magic. It has to be poetic and also in rhyme….”

“The just make it rhyme”

Louise pouted her lips as if she were sulking.

“I can’t think of anything. Writing it poetically is a pain in the neck. I’m not a poet or anything.”

“It’s ok, just read what you have written there”

With a troubled look, she read her ‘poetic’ lines.

“Um, as fire is hot, one needs to be careful”

“’Needs’ isn’t poetic. You should probably remember that.”

“Shut up. When the wind blows, those who sell barrels prosper.[1]"

“What's the use of saying a proverb like that?”

Louise, who didn’t seem to have any poetic talent, threw herself on the bed in a sulking fashion and whispered, “I’m going to sleep.”

As usual, she changed while hiding her body. After turning off the lamp she called out to Saito who had dived in his haystack already.

“I said to sleep in my bed didn’t I?”

Saito’s heart started racing.

“Really? It's ok?”

There was no response. He slipped into the bed thinking that she would probably get angry if he didn’t do what he was told.

Louise was still awake. She opened her mouth, as if she had been wanting to talk to him.

“So, you’re really going to the lands in the east?”

“Yeah.” Saito replied.

“It’s dangerous you know. Those elves hate humans…”

“But there are lands which humans live on beyond the lands of the elves right? Like that place called Roba”

“The nature of those humans is completely different. It’ll be dangerous.”

It seemed like Louise was worried about letting Saito go.

“You’re still going to go?”

Saito thought about it briefly and nodded.

“Well, I might be able to find a clue to go back home”

Louise was moving around in the sheets. When he was just wondering what she was doing, she had rested her head on his chest.

“Wha-“

“I'm just using it instead of my pillow!” Said Louise with a sulky and angry voice.

Louise placed her hands on his chest and lightly traced her fingers on it. Electricity seemed to flow through Saito’s spine.

“Don’t misunderstand me. This doesn’t mean I like you or anything!” Louise said with an embarrassed voice.

And then she went back to her usual angry voice.

“Are you still going to go even I say no?”

Saito remained silent.

“I thought so…” Louise whispered.

“This isn’t your world is it … Of course you’d want to go back”

Louise’s hair had a beautiful fragrance. The sound of her breathing was close as well. The two were silent for the time being. Saito was thinking of many things. Saito wasn’t talking, and Louise didn’t know what else to say, so she simply hugged Saito’s chest tightly.

“I don’t want you to leave. When you’re beside me I can sleep without a worry. You make me angry…” Louise said in a tiny voice while embracing Saito.

Seems like those puffy eyes were because she didn’t sleep, thought Saito. Soon, Louise’s steady breathing, like that of a child’s, could be heard on Saito’s chest. She was fast asleep.

Louise was so pampered it made his heart race. Seems like she’s uneasy without me around. Well, I’m a familiar after all.

Listening to her breathing, Saito was deep in thought. He thought of the people he had met in this world.

He had met many people within his few months in Halkeginia. There were evil people, but also kind people.

There was Marteau from the kitchen who gave him food.

Osman who had told him he would lend him his hand if he needed help

Colbert, who had gladly concocted the gasoline for him.

A snob and often offensive, but a friendly person who had his own qualities, Guiche.

Not a human but a sword, a partner he had depended on, Derflinger.

Henrietta, the beautiful princess.

Courageous… and dead because of it, prince Wales.

Tabitha, a silent person but someone who had saved him in numerous occasions.

The seductive Kirche, who said she liked Saito, though it might have been a joke.

Siesta the cute and kind maid… who probably has feelings for me.

And lastly, his master next to him, who made his heart race. Arrogant and stuck up, but occasionally showed kindness that would melt his heart, Louise. A girl who had pinkish blond hair and big reddish brown eyes.

But when the time comes for me to go home, will I be able to leave these people with a smile on my face?

Will I be able to leave Louise with a smile?

I don’t know.

But… Saito thought

The people who have been kind to me, I want to do the most I can for them.

At least while I’m in this world, I want to do something for them.

He hadn’t felt these feelings before up until now.

For the meanwhile, Saito embraced Louise’s head gently.

Louise groaned while fast asleep.

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