The command to be compassionate towards animals has been set upon Tristain.
The law setter: Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière.
The object: familiars, as well as dogs- myself in other words.
Saito stopped his imagination and looked at Louise warmly.
You’ve become nicer haven’t you Louise, more like a girl. You’re dazzling like this. Being so nice to someone like me… You’re growing up like a girl.
I’ll watch over you carefully - I won’t make a move on you ever again. Until I return to Earth, I will protect you. Even if you don’t like me, I’m happy that you’re being so nice to me.
Her radiance mixing in with his sadness and despair, Saito smiled warmly. Louise noticed Saito watching her intently and blushed, “W-Why are you looking at me like that?”
Noticing the vile way he was looking at her, Saito averted his eyes and tightened his hands into fists on his knees. Listen carefully, Saito. Nobles aren’t for dogs like you. Compared to Louise, who’s so beautiful and pure, you are just a homely mole. There’s no way a mole can look at such a cute girl in a decent way.
The thoughts repeated in his mind. Saito’s poignancy quickly consumed him, like a bottomless swamp. Saito obediently whispered, “Sorry for being so repulsive.”
Louise quickly turned the other way.
Ugh, she must think I’m weird. The master thinks this mole is weird.
Saito stared at the food on the plate with a dull face. It was a luxurious meal, but the colors of it seemed to fade before his eyes.
The usual prayer proceeded and breakfast began. Saito quietly ate his food. It was delicious, but he was so miserable he could not taste it.
When Louise entered the classroom, she was quickly surrounded by her classmates. There were rumours that she had been on a dangerous journey and had accomplished great feats during her absence.
The truth was that a number of students were watching the spectacle where the leader of the Magic Defence Squad had departed. It wasn’t a quiet scene. They were all eager to know what happened and they would have asked her during breakfast too if it weren’t for the teachers.
Kirche and Tabitha were already seated. They, too, were surrounded by a group of students.
“Hey, when you and Louise were absent from class, where did you all go?” asked Montmorency, grasping her arm.
Glancing at her, Kirche elegantly started redoing her make-up and Tabitha quietly sat while reading her book. Tabitha didn’t talk much. As for Kirche, although she usually was in the mood to talk, today she didn't feel like telling her classmates about their secret journey.
No matter how hard their classmates pushed and pulled, they couldn’t extract anything out of the two, so they switched their target to Guiche and Louise, who had just appeared.
Guiche, who liked being surrounded and fussed over, got carried away as expected. “You want to ask me, right? You want to know the secrets I know? Ahaha, what a troubled little rabbit!”
Louise broke through the crowd of people and smacked Guiche over the head. “What do you think you’re doing?! You’ll be hated by the Princess if you say anything, Guiche.”
With a single reference to Henrietta, Guiche became silent at once. Their classmates grew even more suspicious upon seeing this. They surrounded Louise and started pestering her.
“Louise! Louise! What actually happened?”
“Nothing at all. Osman just sent me to the palace on an errand, that’s all. Right Guiche, Kirche, Tabitha?”
Kirche smiled mysteriously while blowing on her polished nails. Guiche nodded. Tabitha read her book. Since no one was willing to speak, their classmates returned to their seats. Like a group of sore losers, they started to talk about Louise angrily.
“Heh, it’s probably nothing important anyway.”
“Yeah, it’s Louise the Zero we’re talking about here. I can’t imagine what great feat she could possibly accomplish when she can’t even use magic.”
“Catching Fouquet was only a fluke. Her familiar just accidentally drew out the power of the Staff of Destruction,” Montmorency said irritatingly, waving her curly hair.
Louise bit her lip, wearing an annoyed expression on her face whilst keeping silent. Saito was shocked. How dare this curly-haired woman insult my Louise? Well, not ‘my’ Louise I guess. A mole like me could never have Louise. Oh well. Even if it’s a girl, Saito would do what he had to do.
Just as Montmorency walked off with a satisfied look on her face, Saito casually stuck his foot out. Montmorency didn’t notice and tripped over Saito’s foot.
“Aaah!”
Montmorency, sporting a red nose from falling face-first to the ground, angrily shouted at Saito.
“What are you doing? I’m a noble! How dare a commoner like you trip me!”
Louise said from the side, “It was you who wasn’t paying attention.”
“What? Siding with the commoner now, Louise the Zero?!”
“Saito may be a commoner, but he’s also my familiar, Montmorency the Flood. Insult him and you insult me; it’s the same thing. Have anything to say to that?”
Montmorency left, muttering angrily to herself. To Saito, Louise, who had just stuck up for him, was suddenly dazzling and he found himself staring at her warmly. Louise felt his gaze and turned her face aside, blushing, “W-What are you looking at?”
Saito, yet again realizing his repulsive stare, apologized to Louise. This homely mole has done it again.
“S-Sorry.”
Louise noticed that Saito had been acting strange since morning. He was more reserved than usual. What more do you want, I’m being so nice to you.
Louise was about to say something to Saito about it, but then, Mr. Colbert entered the classroom, so she sat back down. Class started.
“Well, everyone,” Mr. Colbert patted his bald head slightly. Until yesterday, he had been frightened that Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt had broken out of prison. Immediately, the initial conclusion was that there was a traitor in the castle. He thought that it was a serious affair for Tristain.
This morning however, Osman summoned him, telling him that it was “alright already” and he returned to his normal self. Besides, things like politics did not interest him much.
What he did have interest in was knowledge, history and … research. That’s why he liked lessons. He could freely state the results of his research. And so, on a joyful note, he showed the class something strange that he placed on the desk.
“Mr. Colbert, what’s that?” one student asked.
It really was a strange looking machine. It was composed of a long metallic tube with a metallic pipe stretching out of it. A pair of bellows were connected to the pipe and a crank was attached to the head of the cylinder. The crank was connected to a wheel on the side of the cylinder. Finally, gears were attached to the wheel and the box.
Staring at the equipment, the students were all wondering what sort of lesson would follow. Clearing his throat, he began his lecture, “Firstly, who can tell me the main characteristics of the fire branch of magic?”
The class turned to Kirche. If you were talking about the fire branch of magic in Halkeginia, then you would be referencing Germanian nobles. Among them, the Zerbsts were a famous family. As her nickname, Ardent, indicated, she was adept at fire magic.
Even though class had started, Kirche still continued to polish her nails. Without taking her eyes off the nail file, she replied languidly, “Passion and destruction.”
“That’s right!” said Mr. Colbert, himself a triangular fire mage whose nickname was 'Flame Serpent'.
“However, besides passion, only being able to destroy is a bit lonely, I think. It depends on the usage, everyone. Depending on how you use it, you can actually do some really fun things. Fire is not only for destruction, Miss Zerbst. A battlefield is not the only place where you will see it.”