Meanwhile, as Fouquet thought in annoyance about the wall, Louise’s room was in chaos. Louise and Kirche glared at each other in anger, while Saito, on his straw bed, excitedly studied the sword Kirche had just presented to him. Tabitha nonchalantly read on Louise’s bed.
Louise had her arms on her waist. “What is the meaning of this, Zerbst?” She glared at her rival.
Kirche watched Saito’s admiration, “I told you, I got what Saito wanted, so I came here to give it to him.”
“Ah, that’s a shame. I already got my familiar a weapon. Right, Saito?”
On the contrary, Saito couldn’t let go of Kirche’s gift. He unsheathed the sword and stared at it. When he held a sword, the inscriptions in his left hand glowed, while his body became light as a feather. He wanted to swing it around, but he was indoors. He still couldn’t figure out what the deal about his left hand was. All he knew is that it glowed if he held a sword.
But all he cared about at this moment was this beautifully decorated blade.
“This is so awesome… I still like this one more… and it shines!”
Louise kicked him into the air.
“What are you doing?!” Saito yelled.
“Give that back. Don’t you already have that talking sword?”
“Uh… that’s true… it’s interesting that a sword can speak, but still…” It’s so rusty and old and so broken. If a swordsman uses anything, it’s got to be shiny and cool, right? Besides, Kirche just gave me this for free…
“Jealous words are quite unmannerly, Vallière!” Kirche trumpeted triumphantly.
“Jealous? Who’s jealous?”
“Aren't you? I, Kirche, easily got Saito’s most desired sword as a gift. You can’t say you’re not jealous, can you?”
“Jealous, my arse! That aside, I will not accept even a tiny little bit of generosity from a Zerbst! That’s all there is!”
Kirche looked at Saito, who stared reluctantly at the decorated sword in Louise’s hands.
“You see that? Saito loves this sword, got it? This sword is created by Germania’s very own alchemist Lord Shupei!” Kirche threw a seductive glare to Saito. “You listen here… all that is good under the sun, let it be swords or women, can only come from Germania! Tristainian women, like Louise, are all extremely jealous, impatient, miserly, and snobbish, and nothing can change them!”
Louise glared at Kirche.
“What? I’m just telling the truth.”
“Oh… how… amusing. Women like you are all romantic-minded idiots! Did you hook up with too many guys back in Germania, making nobody trust you, and ending up dropping out and running all the way over here to Tristain?” retorted Louise with a cold, uncompromising laugh, interspersed with angry shivers.
“You have guts, Vallière…” Kirche’s face darkened.
“What? I’m just telling the truth.” Added Louise victoriously,
They simultaneously brandished their wands.
Tabitha flicked her staff even faster than the two, blowing their wands away in a gust.
“Indoors,” she simply announced.
Probably meaning it’s dangerous to fight in here.
Louise angrily muttered, “And who is this? She has been sitting on my bed since—”
“She’s my friend,” countered Kirche.
“And why is your friend in my room?”
Kirche stared. “Is that a problem?”
“Hmmph.”
Saito tried to talk with Tabitha, but she never replied, only quietly reading her book, as if conversations were really inconvenient.
Meanwhile, Louise and Kirche still glared at each other.
Kirche looked away, “Well… let's have Saito decide.”
“Me? Decide?” Saito immediately felt distressed for being singled out.
“Right. This is about your choice of swords.” Louise also looked at him.
Suddenly Saito felt worse. He liked Kirche’s shiny blade the most, hands down. But Louise will never let me pick that, or she might not let me have dinner for a week, although I guess I can get that from Siesta, but still…
He looked at Louise, who glared at him. Louise may be a selfish, self-centered, ungrateful girl, but she did take care of me when I was out for days… and she is the type of girl I find attractive…
Then again… Kirche bought me this really expensive sword. To top that, a beautiful one like her actually confessed to me. Before this, there was simply no way for me to land someone this striking …
Okay, that just made this impossibly hard. Now it just feels like I’m picking between the two of them and not the sword.
“Well? Which is it?” Kirche and Louise both stared at him.
“Uh, well… can’t I have both?” Saito tilted his head and tried to look cute.
It didn’t work. He was launched into the air by a combined kick, hurling him onto his straw bed.
“Hey.” Kirche turned to Louise.
“What?”
“Guess it’s time to get this over with.”
“Hmm… you’re right.”
“I really hate you, you know?”
“Same to you.”
“We think quite alike.” Kirche smiled and raised a brow.
Louise, too, defiantly stuck her chin up.
“Let’s duel!” They shouted in unison.
“Geez… you don’t have to…” Saito was shocked. The two glared at each other as if they did not hear him.
“But of course, we have to do this with magic!” Kirche triumphantly declared.
Louise bit her lower lip, and nodded. “Fine. Location?”
“Really? Are you sure, Louise the Zero? Are you really sure you want to fight me in a magical duel?” Kirche goaded.
Louise lowered her head. Am I sure? Of course… not. But it was a challenge from a Zerbst, so she had to take it. “Of course! I will not lose to you!”
Meanwhile, standing on the walls of the central academy tower, Fouquet felt footsteps. He jumped off towards the ground, and just as Fouquet reached it, he whispered “Spell of Levitation”, landing like a feather, absorbing his momentum. Fouquet then disappeared into the courtyard bushes.
Entering the courtyard were Louise, Kirche, Tabitha, and Saito.
“All right, let's begin.” Kirche announced.
“Are you guys really going to duel?” Saito anxiously asked.
“Yes, we are.” Louise confidently answered.
“Isn’t it a bit… dangerous? Let's just stop here and let it go, shall we?”
“That’s true, so whoever gets injured is the idiot,” said Kirche.
“Uh-huh.” Louise nodded.
Tabitha approached Kirche, and whispered something in her ear. Then she pointed at Saito.
“Hmm… now that’s a good idea!” Kirche grinned.
Then, Kirche whispered something to Louise.
“Ah… not bad.” Louise nodded.
And they both looked at Saito. He suddenly had a bad feeling about it.
“Hey… are you guys serious?” begged Saito, but nobody cared.
He was hung in midair by a rope from the main tower. Yep… I should have just picked a girl and been done with it. On the ground which looked so far, far away, he could see the silhouettes of Kirche and Louise. Despite it being the middle of the night, the two moons made for clear vision. He could even see Tabitha on her wind dragon. It held two swords in its mouth.
The two moons shone warmly on Saito.
Kirche and Louise looked upon him, dangling and flopping around in midair.
Kirche rolled up her fists. “Here’s how we do it… the first to cut off the rope and let Saito down wins. Then the winner’s sword goes to Saito. Sounds good?”