“W-What is it?!”
“Are you an idiot?!”
“Who’s an idiot?!”
“Don’t just decide who I like, just because you’re in a bad mood, you selfish daughter! You think that just because you’re my master and I’m your familiar, you have the right to tell me who I like?!”
Saito was staring at Louise with burning eyes, shouting at her. Everything I said came from the bottom of my heart. Why can't this girl understand that? he thought to himself cursing his own impulses.
“H-H-How dare you say that?!”
“Yeah, I’ll say it as many times as needed. Honestly, I don’t want to have any connection with your guys’ duties and wars, I’d rather go search for a way to return home! I want to go back to Eastern Japan! I do!”
“Then just go ahead!”
Louise shouted. What is this, she thought. Isn’t it fine not to yell so much? Be gentler. I’m feeling down right now.
Saito was always like that. When Louise wanted to do something, he wouldn’t listen to her at all even though he was her familiar he didn’t understand a thing. He would always turn against her.
That Saito, at whom Louise had yelled, was breathing heavily with his shoulders going up and down. Probably he was choosing which words to answer her back with.Idiot. Idiot, idiot. After you say something, move away your face, Louise thought. I wonder what lines he’s going to spew back at me? Exactly how is he going to answer back to me, who told him “Then just go ahead”? “Yeah, I understand! I’ll go back,” probably?
However, Saito’s reply completely blew off Louise’s expectations.
For some reason Saito’s... face reddened,
“I love you!”
The air solidified. For a moment, Louise didn’t realize what she had just been told.
Just now, what did he say? love? Like as in, that Love? What’s this about?
“... Eh?”
“I said I love you! Whenever I look at you my heart starts beating fast! Isn’t that what people call love?! That’s why I love you! And that’s why if you want to protect the Princess’ honor I’ll come do it with you and you should just go ahead and go instead of complaining here!”
“Eh? Eeh?”
“Anyway, right now you aren’t cute at all! What’s with this?! What do you think I’m risking my life and fighting for?! It’s because I love you! If I didn’t I’d just stay in my room and sleep!”
Saito said what he had to say and tried to stand up, but then he noticed.
Louise was restraining him and waiting while blushing.
Suddenly, Saito felt a bit of regret. Aah, what did I end up saying just now?! Wait a minute, I just confessed! Why?! If I consider the circumstances... now isn’t the time to be confessing... I don’t get this.
Saito fell prostrate into the boat.
After some time passed... Louise returned to herself.
She was confused, because she didn’t understand what had happened. Anyway, it seemed like she had been confessed to. She had clearly been told by Saito “I love you”.
“What should I do?” she thought.
At the same moment she thought that, she realized that she’d probably have to tell everyone. And wariness took over her mind. Anger and delight, two opposite feelings, gushed forth. Not completely understanding the situation, Louise’s face started reddening and she lifted Saito’s face up.
“If it’s a lie, I’ll kill you.”
She said only that with a shaky voice. Just how red was her face right now? To what extent were her cheeks dyed in red? Anyway, it was hot.
“It’s not a lie!”
“I don’t really like you.”
“I know that.”
“Because, you keep jumping from girl to girl all over the place.”
“I won’t. I won’t from now on.”
“It’s not a question of whether you will or won’t. Anyway, just after one year of knowing me, you said those words with such confidence. Maybe it’s just false confidence.”
“T-Thank you.”
Because she had said all that with a voice, coming from the depths of her heart, Saito ended up thinking that Louise is awfully cute. His thoughts went so far, that he ended up wanting to hug her and stroke her cheeks.
But he couldn’t say such stuff. Louise was incredibly prideful after all. And that pride enveloped Louise’s heart, creating a very thick armor out of which her true feelings could hardly ever reach out.
Louise caught Saito’s shoulders and lifted her hip. And then she peered into his face with serious eyes.
At that moment, Kirche’s words resounded in her ears.
“You probably didn’t let him do anything, right? If that’s the case, it would be obvious that he’d be taken by other girls.”
She thought Uu~, won’t it be fine to let him for a bit? and similar things. But, as she thought that it got hard to get into the mood. Even allowing him for a bit was difficult.
However, the only things she couldn’t stand was watching him think about or touch other girls. Louise helplessly decided to gather a bit of real courage.
“H-Hey, you know. Mmm...”
“Yes?”
“Because when you told your Master that you like her you practically swore loyalty, a r-r-reward is necessary, isn’t it?”
“A reward?”
“That’s right. The princess has always told me that loyalty should always be rewarded.”
“I-I see...”
Saito could no longer tell exactly what Louise was trying to do. But when he heard Louise’s next words his blood rose up to his head.
“O-Only one place, okay?”
“What?”
“O-On your Master’s body, only one place, one that you like, i-it’s fine to touch.”
As she said that, not removing her hands from Saito’s shoulders, Louise closed her eyes.
I’ll die, Saito thought.
If I’m told things like this, I’ll die. But if, before I die, I, t-this Louise, then... If this way too cute Master, I, then... As his mind was becoming more and more chaotic, he hugged Louise and suddenly snatched away her lips.
And Louise,
“Ah...” released a moan.
A kiss, hm. So that’s what you decided, hmm. Certainly, unmistakably, it’s only one place.
But, a kiss? Is that the most important? Somehow, Louise ended up feeling more and more in love with Saito, who chose to kiss at a time like this.
However, it seemed that, because they were kissing, Saito’s excitement increased to the max. Having forgotten the “Only one place” rule, his hand reached under Louise’s skirt.
Louise became confused. This is bad, he doesn't seem to be taking me seriously enough.
“I-Idiot..., only one place..., moreover, you, that suddenly..., hey, wait, hey, what are you thinking, hey, idiot, wa-, you, an, that sort of, yan, idiot...”
“Like.”
Saito muttered incoherently, biting on Louise’s earlobe. Louise’s strength left her body and she was pushed down in the boat. Muu, such serious love. “Which is more important,” she wondered, as Saito was pushing her down with endless energy.
“T, that, wait, hey..., no good, breasts, not the breasts. No way, not there, nowhere.”
Because of the hands that were in her skirt and in the gap of her shirt, Louise was slowly overtaken by desperation.
“Like. Like very much. Really like.”
Just like using a treasured sword passed down in a family, Saito kept repeating “Like” rapidly. As was to be expected from the magical word, it stole Louise’s willpower as if electricity was running through her.