Zero no Tsukaima:Volume6 Chapter6 - MTL

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Chapter Six: Sortie

The end of the year, first week of Wynn's moon, Man's day of the week became a day that was imprinted in the history of Halkeginia.

The next day of the void, when two moons that hang in the sky overlap, during this day when Albion continent will be at the closest point to Halkeginia, a large fleet of Tristania and Germania united army of 60,000 soldiers for the Albion invasion will sail off from La Rochelle.

Tristania, and more or less Germania, have 500 ships. Only sixty of them are battleships while the rest carries soldiers and supplies.

Queen Henrietta and Cardinal Mazarini were in La Rochelle port, standing on the top of the worldwide tree pier, watching the fleet sail off.

All ships going up into the sky at the same time was surely an amazing spectacle to behold.

“It is as if they all are seeds carried away by the wind” Cardinal shared his thoughts.

“Seeds that will repaint the continent.”

“There’s no such seed that would repaint a white country into blue.”

The flag of Tristain’s royal family - white lily on the blue background.

“It’s possible that we will be defeated.” Mazarini muttered.

“I do not intend to be defeated.”

General De Poitiers is a great commander who has both boldness and carefulness. He is likely to do it.” Henrietta knew that calling him a great commander was stretching a lot, but there were no other generals with more talent than him. Generals who were superior to him existed only on the other side of the history.

“I wonder why we have to fight though.”

Mazarini muttered in a barely audible voice.

“Why are you saying such thing?”

“We could have made an Albion’s blockade to make them starve. With careful planning it could be a very successful idea.”

“We will march.”

Henrietta muttered without changing the expression

“Don’t say so. Courage is not necessary to settle it once and for all. Well maybe I am just getting old.”

Mazarini patted his whitening beard.

“If we were to be losing, would you use ‘void’ in this war, Your Majesty?”

It was a highly secret matter to discuss. Only a few pople knew that Louise was a ‘void’. Henrietta, Cardinal… and a few royal generals.

“I should be burned... with pleasure I would burn as a retribution for my sins.”

Henrietta muttered silently staring into the emptiness.

“Calm down. Your Majesty won't go there alone. Hopefully my old bones are good enough for that.”

Henrietta entrusted generals of the ‘void’ knowledge only as the trump card.

After hearing about Louise’s ‘Void’ General De Poitiers did not even try to believe it in the beginning. But it is not impossible either. Just because ‘Void’ is considered to be legend, he could not believe in its existence.

However, after being reminded about military results in Tarbes, with much effort, the general believed in it.

Obtaining the legendary element of Void, redoubled his courage and he promised Henrietta a sure victory.

Henrietta to ensure the victory in the firs battle, gave him a permission to control the ‘Void’.

Henrietta sighed about her own sinfulness.

This war…against country, people.

It was nothing more than letting one's personal grievance out on them.

The war was only a mean to calm down lover's enmity.

How many humans did I send away to death for this?

It even included her childhood and best friend, too.

In such war, there is no victory or defeat, it cannot make one’s crimes to disappear, Henrietta thought.

Despite knowing this, I still declare the patriotism for the sailing off troops, I will burn in hell for this, she thought.

A trickle of blood ran down the edge of her lips as Henrietta bit them, screaming out

“Viva Tristain!”

The sounds of queen’s cheers sounded in the sky.

Officers line up on the upper deck, saluting to Henrietta, who was seeing them off, and shouted following the queen.

“Viva Tristain! Viva Henrietta!”

These shouts, accompanied with a chorus of the rest of 60,000 men that joined in, roared the sky.

“Viva Tristain! Viva Henrietta!”

The chest piercing repetitive cheers only intensified Henrietta’s awareness of her crime…


* * *


At that time, in the academy of magic… 

To use ‘flame’ by himself peacefully, Colbert finally reached the ‘power’ at last. The power of the heat…that is converted into the movement power somehow.

Though steam based mechanisms made up for it in some measure, it wasn’t enough for Colbert, who wanted to change it into the Zero fighter’s engine ‘power’.

Colbert concentrated on the analysis of this ‘enjin’.

Though he wanted to assemble something close to it by repeating trial and error method… but it was impossible to learn to assemble the internal combustion ‘enjin’ of the equal accuracy.

First of all, the metallurgy technologies were low in Halkeginia.

Iron that composes the ‘enjin’ cannot be manufactured. Even with square class spell ‘Alchemy’ it would be difficult to create such advanced iron manufacture. Peron’s magic technique mixes with impurities anyway.

Secondary, the processing technology.

To assemble a high quality ‘enjin’, you would need to make a lot of identical parts. Considering the technology of Halkeginia it was nearly impossible.

In Halkeginia, the conception of an entirely identical thing doesn't exist.

For instance, even the gun, which is mostly made from advanced craft goods, there still aren’t two completely identical ones. Bullets and the form of a gun looks identical, but the details are different. Even parts are not really compatible.

Even if Colbert tried to make zero fighter’s machine gun’s ‘bullets’, he knew that it was impossible. Though one can create a brass frame, but it still had too many identical details for ‘Alchemy’ to deal with. Even though it was hard to create brass frames, the production of the liquid ‘gasoline’ was entirely different matter.

Thus Colbert finished ‘New liquid container’ putting the technologies to use.

In front of the laboratory in Academy of Magic, Colbert, who with much effort finished obtaining all the equipment for the zero fighter, with a deep sigh, watched his single-handed work.

During half of a year, though the new weapon was finished, he wanted to accomplish more wonderful technologies, but his research results were settled there.


* * *


Seeing Saito, who showed up in front of the laboratory, Colbert spread his hands. 

“Ooh, Saito-kun, you are leaving?”

Saito just finished preparing for the journey ahead. He carried goggles, which were Siesta's grandfather's keepsake, on his neck. Derflinger was tied on his back, and a leather porch attached to his waist. Various livelihood tackle were placed in there.

“Yes” Saito nodded.

“Very well. Will you head directly to the ship? Can you land this thing on the ship safely?

This morning, the fleet sailed towards the Albion.

The ship that should have taken zero fighter with, already sailed with other ships, and waited for them ahead. It was a special warship built to carry wind dragons, now will carry zero fighter as well.

The new and powerful ship, which belonged to the newly found ‘Dragon Carrier‘ class, was named ‘Vusentaar’.

Not only that, but Colbert, using the Earth element magic, placed gasoline enough for five flights within the ship as well.

So Saito only needed take Louise into the zero fighter and land on that ship.

“Well, with a lot…One cannot be completely safe, right?

Saito said while turning around. Louise has not appeared yet.

“Because of this haste, I didn’t had the time to explain you how the new weapon works.”

“Is that so…”

Saito found an iron pipe hanging under the zero fighter’s wing. What on earth is that tube for? But, there was no time for the detailed explanations now.

ZnT06-159.jpg

“But before you go, here is the manual I wrote for you.”

Colbert handed Saito a small notebook. Though Saito cannot read it, Louise can. Will read it later, he thought.

“Thank you.”

Then Colbert, looking hesitant weather to say or not, opened his mouth.

“To tell the truth…”

“Eh?”

“To tell the truth, I do not want my student to ride a vehicle used for war.”

He said bitterly.

“Student?”

“Aah, how to say, well, though you are not a noble I still think of you as one of my students. You don’t mind, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t mind that…”

Saito felt shy.

“I do not want to use ‘flame’ power for the murder. I…”

Colbert declared clearly.

“Why? Everyone is saying that flame element is the most suited for the war. Oh well, I do not know the magic so well.”

“That’s right… flame is the element of destruction. Flame user’s are of a great value… However, I do not think so. I think that the using flame ‘Destruction’ is lonely. “

Reminiscing the words, Saito hung his head, embarrassed.

“Oh yes, this flying machine is called ‘Phoenix’ by royal army, right?

“Yes, when I was attacking Tarbes battleships with it, someone said ‘This is the legendary Phoenix!’…”

“I see! That Phoenix!”

Colbert shouted delighted.

“Teacher?”

“Phoenix is a legendary being. Phoenix… firebird god, a symbol of destruction…and a symbol of ‘Rebirth’.”

“Rebirth?”

“It's a reincarnation.”

Saito wondered why Colbert looked so pleased. Then, Colbert entered into the world of his own.

“That’s right… Rebirth… indeed…it’s a symbol right?.. Really?”

Then, Colbert noticed Saito who was watching him in amazement.

“Ah, aah! Sorry!” he bowed his head.

“No, it’s all right. I’m used.”

Colbert put on a serious look.

“Hey, Saito-kun… By the way, that…”

“What?”

At that moment, Louise showed up.

“At last.” Saito muttered.

“It can’t be helped! Girl has lots of preparations to do!”

“We are going to war. What kind of girl preparations are there.”

“Hmph!” Louise turned her face way, and ignoring Saito, climbed up the wing and entered the cockpit. One month passed after they had returned running away from Louise's family.

Since then, things were like this.

Lifting up a rear bulletproof plane glass Louise sat down in the seat.

“Well, errr, teacher, what were you saying just now?

“N-no…it’s nothing. Yes.”

Saito boarded the zero fighter.

Then Colbert’s magic cranked the propeller, starting up the engine.

As it was a second time, it was possible to operate calmly.

Colbert helping again, created a strong wind.

Saito put on the goggles and rolled the muffler around his neck.

Colbert shouted through the roaring noise of engine.

“Saito-kun! Miss Valliere!

Saito waved.

“Do not die! Do not die! Even if it is hopeless! Even if you’ll be called a coward, do not die! Never die! Return safe and sound!”

Through the roaring of the engine the voice was not heard. However, Colbert's words reached somehow. Even though he could not hear them, they reached his heart.

“Ok!” Saito shouted opening the throttle.

The zero fighter starts sliding and bit by bit it started lifting.

Gradually it grew smaller, until it faded in the sky.

Even though the zero fighter disappeared in the sky, Colbert quietly kept on watching.


* * *


After flying for two hours following the course, a small break in clouds could be seen. It grew bigger while approaching, until tt became a fleet buried deep in the sky. Saito was reminded of the race of the balloons seen on the television at one time.

From 50 mails in the total length, to 100 mails in size, many hundreds of ships were queued up, making it a grand and a beautiful spectacle to behold.

“Incredible…”

Saito gave out the voice of admiration.

“Hey, Louise, look. Huge fleet!”

“…”

However, Louise turned away, puffing her cheeks.

Louise mood did not improve. Lately, after returning home, she always was like this.

Saito tried to figure out the reason behind Louise’s bad mood.

After confessing my love (which made Louise somewhat angry), Louise looked like accepting it for a moment.

Normally, a couple would be expected get closer after that.

But I interpreted Louise’s reward “Touch one place that you like“, as permission to touch everywhere, which made Louise angry (Saito thought).

And after Siesta’s ‘Unbuttoning’ remark, Master, who has a very strong monopoly desire, got even more angry (Saito thought).

From Louise’s perspective, flirting with other girl, is similar to serving two masters at once – Saito misunderstood it greatly.

Actually, Louise was just jealous.

Flirting with other girl’s after confessing his love to her and kissing her was something she could not forgive.

And, even though for a moment, she was ready to surrender her chastity for this familiar, such her own thoughts were inexcusable. Until marriage it was definitely not good. Even three months after marriage it was definitely not good. Being swayed by his actions – that’s what she was so angry about.

Because Louise kept being silent like that, Saito gave up.

Now, they needed to find that warship, to land on, and dragon knight’s came up flying. Surrounding Saito’s zero fighter they started waving. Saito waved back. Seems like they were going to guide him to the ship.

Following the backs of dragon knights, at the limit speed of the plane, Vusentaar came into view.

The ship deck was flat and big in order to carry the large amount of dragon knights. The sail math was about 6 meters tall, everything must look like a small bugs from up there. It wasn’t equipped with cannon, as this ship’s sole purpose was to carry dragon knights.

It was a perfect place to carry zero fighter, or perhaps one should say that it was impossible for other ships to do that.

But even though ‘Vusentaar’ deck was long and wide, the distance on the deck was still short for zero fighter to land on.

How can he land there?

Derflinger asked from his back.

“Partner, bring this airplane closer to the ship. Seems like they are going to catch us.”

Many mages could be seen on the deck.

And, the ropes began to be put on the deck. The soldiers grabbed each edge of the ropes and placed them right and left across deck.

Seems like with the ‘wind’ element spells and ropes across the deck, the zero fighter will be able to land. Pretty rough, he thought, but there were no other way.

Saito's right hand moves throw up a hook to the ship. The hook wired up zero fighter with the carrier, where it was fastened to.

Colbert who noticed the hook, was likely to have told to the crew of Vusentaar to stretch out the ropes across the deck to help zero fighter land.

They approached Vusentaar.

Then other hooks from the warship followed, fastening wings and tail. The flap was lowered.

Saito carefully approached from the rear side towards the ship.

Meanwhile, Louise didn't give an eye to that sort of spectacle, and thought quietly.

Of course, at that time on the boat.

When she was pushed down by Saito…

How it would have ended, if neither her family, nor employees would have spotted them, Louise thought.

“…”

This made her cheeks to flush in deep red. She suddenly felt angry on Saito who, rocked in security, was handling the land, and started to beat him.

“W-what are you doing?!”

“Why did you chose that place?! That place!”

Louise shouted.

“There’s no other place to land!”

And so, they both completely misunderstood each other.


* * *


As soon as Saito and Louise landed on Vusentaar and got off the zero fighter, they were greeted by the officer, who was accompanied by the guardians.

“Deck officer, Kuryuuzurei.”

“Where are we heading now?“

Though he was asked, the officer guided them both without answering. Where could he be taking them? In the Henrietta’s instructions only the name of the warship that they should face was written, nothing else. And the instructions of higher-up were always like this. Telling to one subordinate, they think that they already told all. A noble’s subordinate must lead a long and tough life, Saito thought. Henrietta seems not to be an exception.

They are so confident, because that’s the way things are.

Through the narrow main deck’s passage they were lead to a private two-man cabin. Though very small, it was still a private room. Within this cabin, there was an extremely small bed and table. Once Saito and Louise placed their luggage, they were urged by the officer to follow him again.

After going in a zigzags though a narrow passage of warship, they finally stopped in front of a certain door.

When the officer knocked, there was an answer from the inside. The officer opened the door and let Saito and Louise in.

They both were greeted by generals sitting in a line. Golden mail laces shined across their shoulders. They must be important higher-ups.

Dumbfounded Louise and Saito, took seats offered by the soldiers. Louise sat on the chair, and Saito after her.

The general in the most top seat, opened his mouth.

“Welcome to Albion invasion command headquarters, Miss Void.”

Louise felt nervous. This general with a beard looked around 40 years old…

“Supreme commander De Poitiers.”

Quickly, the general described his colleagues.

“This is a chief of the general staff Wimpffen.”

A small man with a deep wrinkles sitting on the left of the general nodded.

“This is commander of Germania army, marquis Harudenburg.”

The general with handlebar mustache that wore steel helmet, nodded solemnly to Louise.

Apparently, this dragon mothership was also general headquarters.

After that, the general introduced Louise to the staff and generals, gathered in the conference room.

“Now then, gentlemen. This is the trump card that our Majesty kept, I introduce you the ‘Void’ user.”

However, every one in the conference room didn't even rise an eyebrow after those words. They just stared suspiciously at Louise and her familiar.

“In the battle of Tarbes, she was the one who gave the blow to Albion’s fleet.”

Only after these De Poiters words, generals looked with an interest at them.

Saito poked Louise.

“What?”

“…is it all right to be exposed like that?”

“If not, it would not be possible to cooperate with the army.”

It may be right, however… though Henrietta ordered Louise to keep silent so much, she herself revealed it with an ease, he thought.

Though Henrietta kept on saying that Louise was important, somehow her actions contradicted that. Thoughts about the queen, made Saito sad.

Then he remembered Henrietta’s tremble at that time, impossible, he thought.

Anyway, he was completely sure about her.

Generals smiled to Louise. Fake smiles.

“You may think it is hasty chosen headquarters. Sorry no. This ship ensures absolute security. You see, this warship which is specialized in carrying dragon knights is not packed with cannons. It can be troublesome if enemies aim at us. ”

“Ha, haah…then why you made such a warship into general headquarters?”

Whole room burst in laughter as Louise questioned in a very cute, confused voice.

“In normal ships there is no space for such conference rooms. They are stuffed with cannons.”

Indeed. For a flagship, that controls a huge army, information processing ability is more necessary than offensive power.

“Enough with the chat. Let’s continue with the war council.” said general of Germania. Smiles disappeared from generals faces.


* * *


It was a tough war council.  

Making 60,000 soldiers land on the Albion was a secondary problem.

The main one was powerful enemy air force fleet. Even though during the battle of Tarbes, the 10 lines of Albion Air forces warships with the Lexington, were destroyed, 40 lines of warships remained. Though Tristain and Germania had 60 lines of ships, because it was united fleet of two countries, directorial confusion was to be expected. When you take into account that Albion fleet is said to be superior to the 1.5 times over them, the war potential difference was canceled.

Secondarily, the selection of the landing point.

In Albion’s continent there were only two places where the large army of all 60,000 soldiers could be landed. .

Capital Londinium’s southern air base Rosais, or the northern port - Dartanes. .

Because of the port size, Rosais was still preferable, however… aiming straight there, their large fleet would be discovered at once and that would give enemy the time to prepare defense.

“Wasting a soldiers in the assault would put the capture of Londonium castle under the risk.“

The chief of staff calmly analyzed the forces and informed everyone. It should be kept silent. What kind of assault would that be with enemy resistance.

Allied forces needed a ‘Surprise attack’.

60,000 soldiers want to land in Rosais without receiving the enemy's resistance.

Thus the needed to deceive the large enemy army and drew their attention from Rosais’s landing point.

In a word, the Tristain and Germania united army of 60,000… needed a cheating strategy to deceive enemy into thinking that they would ‘Land in Dartanes’.

It was the second trouble.

“Can we hope for miss ‘Void’s’ cooperation in either of the two?”

The noble who applied the staff badge said while watching Louise.

“Could you blow Albion fleet off , the way we blew off 'Lexington' in Tarbes?”

Saito watched Louise. Louise turned around and shook her head.

“It is impossible…I do not have enough of willpower stored to cast such strong 'Explosion'. I don’t know how many month’s or years would it take.”

Staff officer shook his head.

“Then such unreliable ‘weapon’ can’t be called our trump card.”

Such words made Saito respond.

“Hey, Louise is not a weapon.”

“What? It’s not for familiar to talk.”

Before it turned into fuss… general De Poitiers interrupted.

“We’ll take over the fleet. Let’s have Miss ‘Void’ undertake the feint. Can you do it?”

“Feint?”

“We discussed it before. We only have to convince the enemy that we would land not in Rosais but in Dartanes. It should be simple for legendary ‘Void’, right?”

Louise thought.

…Was there such spell?

Saito muttered quietly from the back.

“…Didn’t Derf say that it can be read when the right times comes?”

Louise nodded.

“Tomorrow, I’ll look for the spell that can be used.”

General De Poitiers gave a hopeful smile.

Hence, urging Louise and Saito to leave the room.  

* * *


“Great” Saito nodded.

“Those people, I think that they see me only as a given horse.”

Saito tapped Louise's shoulder.

“These are the great generals? This way we won’t win the war this year.”

But, it might be a correct idea during the war.

The fighter is more than just boarding by the warship, it is also indispensable.

However, while thinking absent-mindedly, his shoulder was tapped from behind.

When he turned around, five-six nobles where sharply staring at Saito. They all seemed to be teenagers rather than men. They looked similar age to Saito. They were wearing leather hats and clad in blue tunics. Like soldiers, they were wearing rapier looking wands at their waists… yet it looked considerably shorter.

“Hey, you.”

Being addressed to, Saito turned.

“What?”

“Stop it” Louise muttered quietly, pulling his sleeve.

The boy in the middle with a long jaw-line seemed to be their leader.

“Come.”

What what, with suddenly agitated imagination, Saito, holding Derflinger, walked towards them.

They come to the upper deck where the zero fighter was placed. All zero fighter’s parts where tied with ropes that were fastened to the deck. Not able to understand, and still trying the figure out the meaning behind this, irritated Saito pulled out Derflinger.

“Is this thing alive?”

One noble boy asked embarrassed, pointing at zero fighter.

“If it is not so, then what is that. Explain.”

Another one requested for the explanation with a serious look.

Saito felt dumb-struck.

“No, that is not a living thing, however…” He muttered.

“Hurray! Haven’t I told you! I win! Everyone give one ecu!”

The fattest boy began to roar. Everyone sulkily took out gold coins from their pockets pocket and hands them to the boy.

Seeing Louise and Saito with their mouths agape, boys gave awkward smiles.

“Were you surprised? Sorry.”

“Yes.?”

“No, we were having a bet. Over that thing.”

A noble boy pointed at zero fighter.

“We thought that it was alive. We thought that it was a dragon.

“There is no place where such dragons could exist!”

“There might be! The world is wide after all!”

They started to quarrel again.

Seeing that, Saito recalled the classroom in his hometown. During the break, they also had such foolish discussions to fill the time…

“It is a flight machine.”

He said, and the noble boys were interested immediately and listened attentively to Saito's explanation. However, they seemed not to be able to understand, that flies over the sky using the power other than magic.


* * *


“We are Dragon Knights.” 

When the explanation of the zero fighter ended, the boys guided Saito and Louise to dragons inside the deck. The Dragon Knight corps suffered a lot of damage and were almost completely annihilated during the battle of Tarbes, that’s why the dragon knight apprentices were incorporated into the army as true knights.

“Under normal circumstances, one more year of training would be needed though.”

Said the shyly smiling plump boy, who had won the bet before. He said that he was a commander of the Dragon Knight secondary division. He was the one that had guided Saitos zero fighter to the warship.

The dragons inside were all grown up dragons. They looked twice as big as Tabitha’s Sylphid. Their big wings seemed to be created for speed.

“It must be very tough to become a dragon knight.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Having a dragon as a familiar is not that simple. Not everyone can do it. Dragon familiars are hard to please, difficult animals, because they will only allow only those riders to ride them whom they accept.”

“Does being a dragon rider need not only skills but also magic powers? Intelligence too? To see through that sort of thing and never let his or her guard down?”

Seems like dragon knight boys were elite, and had a considerable owner’s pride too.

“Can I straddle it?”

Saito asked, they nodded.

Saito tried to straddle it, but was thrown off quickly. Boys burst into laughter, holding their sides. Since Saito’s competitive spirit is strong, he took the challenge again. The result was the same. Even a small girl like Tabitha was able to get on it with a cool face…this was mortifying for Saito, so he took the challenge many times.

Louise watched that sort of spectacle from far away. Saito and Dragon Knight boys were getting along well, he made noise and screamed like one of them. 

The boys looked happy, and she envied them for a moment. Why are they getting along so well and so quickly?, Louise thought while she sulked.

I mean, what do dragons have that your master doesn’t? You did that in the boat, the other day. Yet now he plays screaming with dragon knights?

Don’t we have a battle in the sky tomorrow? Isn't there a chance we will die tomorrow? Is this how you decide to spend the time?

Louise thought, while glaring at Saito.

I am insecure and scared, I’d like you to hold me tight, she thought

But I’ll never say it aloud, she thought.  

And…, she sighed.

The feint operation.

It was necessary to convince the enemy that a united army of 60,000 were landing not in Rosais but in Dartanes… What spell would suit? She had not a slightest idea.

“Hey, you. You.” 

Dragon knight boys noticed the looks Louise was giving to their direction, as she idly swung her legs leaning against the wall, and asked Saito.

“Is she your master? Is it ok for you to leave her alone?

“Uuh! Damn!” Saito turned pale. Louise was left alone. She’ll hit, hit and complain later for sure. However, he did not want to look so pathetic in front of his new friends. Boys are inexperienced beings, and a new mate should not show weaknesses. Saito was strong.

“I-it’s all right if it is her. Leave it.”

“Oooh”

Applauses erupted.

“That’s the spirit. To oppose your master in such manner! You are not an ordinary person.”

Louise, who got angry at Saito's such attitude, approached.

“What did you say?”

“No, nothing…” the moment when he shut his mouth, Louise kicked him between the legs. And once she turned to go back to their room, dragging him with her, the commanding officer called for them both.

“What are your plans for tonight?”

For some reason Louise’s cheeks turned red.

“Nothing…” Saito replied, Louise kicked him in the stomach.

“In that case, how about having some drinks tonight for our acquaintanceship?”

He carefully suggested.

“By no means, if we were to slip out of our rooms in the middle of the night, we would be instantly found out by patrolling ship officers.”

Everyone started to worry. They wanted to escape ship officers anger from being drunk. It would be discovered by tomorrow anyways.

Pin, Saito who had an idea, put out his finger and said.

“How about making jackstraws? Make straw bundles and placing them in beds.”

“Lets do so!” Dragon Knights laughed.

However, Louise alone did not laugh. She bit her nails, as if thinking about something.

“What’s wrong?”

Conversely they asked.

“…You. What did you say just now?’

“Eh? Well…Making jackstraws?”

“That’s right. Jackstraws. We just have to make 60,000 jackstraws.”

“Huh? 60,000? The number of members here is smaller.

“First of all, making such number of straw bundles would really be problematic, right?“

One dragon knight asked with a serious expression on his face.

“Bundle of straws? Use magic!“

Saying so Louise ran out.

“What, she?”

Dumbfounded Saito watched Louise leaving. Once again they were not understanding each other.

Louise jumped into the private room given to them, and opened founder's prayer book.

For a moment she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. With the mind totally focused on founder's prayer book, she carefully paged it.

One page began to shine… Louise smiled.


* * *




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