Montmorency smiled sweetly.
“Just a lie. Well, let us toast.”
“Come on now, don't startle me like that...” The moment Guiche said that, the door opened with a bam and a whirlwind flew in.
Guiche was sent flying and tumbled onto the floor. It was Saito.
“Haa, haa, haa... Hi-hi-hi”
“Why are you here?!”
“Hide me!”
While saying that, Saito jumped in Montmorency's bed.
“Hey! Is there anyone who would jump into Montmorency's bed! Leave! You!”
“Wait, what are you doing?! Entering someone's room as you please...”
When Montmorency crossed her arms and shouted at Saito, another whirlwind flew into the room. Montmorency was sent flying and struck her nose severely on the floor.
“Louise!”
Guiche yelled. Why, it was Louise who had lost herself in anger.
“Wh-wh-wh, what are you two doing?!”
“Shut up! Where's Saito!”
Being pressured by Louise's threatening attitude, Guiche and Montmorency exchanged glances and pointed at the bed. There was a thick bulge in the futon, shivering slightly.
In a low voice, Louise ordered towards the bed.
“Saito, come out.”
A stiffened voice came out of the futon.
“Saito isn't here.”
Louise picked up the wine glass from the table. Montmorency went “Ah!” in a quiet voice, but it was too late. Louise drank it all in one gulp.
“Buhah! I got thirsty from the running. Everything is all your fault. Fine, I'll be the one to go to you.”
Louise pulled away the bed's futon.
Saito was there trembling.
“Prepare yourself... Nna?”
The moment she looked at him and said that, Louise's emotions changed.
Louise had chased Saito around because she couldn't forgive him for giving other girls presents despite having kissed her. If you kiss a girl like Louise, it is going to get troublesome.
In other words, it was a problem of pride.
But, the moment she saw Saito just now, her feelings toward Saito jumped straight up. Until then, well, she vaguely liked him. She wouldn't accept it herself, but she liked him. That was probably why she was so jealous...
In this moment, she loved with no hamper at all. That emotion was so big, even Louise herself was bewildered. Without thinking, Louise covered her cheeks with her hands.
Oh my... I liked him this much?
I loved him this... this much?
Tears overflowed from Louise's eyes.
Her feelings of sadness were bigger than her feelings of anger. She liked him so much, so why didn't Saito look at her. It was so sad, Louise started to sob.
“Louise?”
Saito suspiciously looked at Louise, whose attitude had completely reversed, and stood up. Guiche was also watching Louise, who had suddenly started crying, with a surprised look.
Montmorency was holding her head and going “Oh no～～”. The drug she had intended Guiche to drink had been drunk by Louise.
“Hey, Louise...”
Louise looked up at Saito and clung to his chest.
“Idiot!”
“Eh?”
“Idiot, idiot! Why? Why?”
Louise started hitting Saito.
“Louise, you... Just what...”
Even though she was angry like fire up to now, her attitude was completely different. Saito panicked.
“Why won't you look at me! That's so mean! Uwee～～～～n!”
Louise buried her face in Saito's chest and wept.
Chapter Four: Tabitha's Secret
A few days before, in the late morning of the day Louise had been chasing Saito around.
Kirche and Tabitha sat in the horse drawn carriage. They had travelled from the southeast, from the magic academy. Kirche stretched her head out the window and gasped.
“Tabitha! Check it out! Cows! Cows! Look! There are a lot!”
The ranch was on both sides of the road and cows were grazing.
“They are grazing! Moo, Moomoo!”
However Tabitha didn't respond. She continued to read her book as usual. Feeling bored, Kirche stretched both her arms out.
“Hey, Tabitha. It is a long awaited return home from school, shouldn't you be more happy?”
Since Louise and Saito weren't here because they had been called to the royal palace, when she came to Tabitha's room to play, she was shocked to find her packing her luggage.
“Are you going on a trip?” Kirche asked her.
Tabitha answered that she had to go back home to see her mother. Though Tabitha was reticent as always, Kirche felt something different in her voice. So Kirche and Tabitha took the trip together.
Because Tabitha's family sent a coach, they had no need to use her wind dragon. Instead, it circled above them in the sky during the trip carrying Kirche's Salamander on its back.
“Since the school had given us a formal approval for our leave, it won't be counted as an absence and we don't have to worry about having to clean the tower as punishment.”
Tabitha continued to look at her book without answering. I've been her friend for more than three years, and I still don't know what she is thinking.
Kirche decided to try and spark a different conversation.
“This is the first time I learned that your motherland isn't Tristain, but Gallia. You are an exchange student?”
They were soon passing the border, Kirche had already asked Principal Osman to sign and issue papers allowing for her safe passage.
Kirche had a vague sense that Tabitha's name was a pseudonym... But she had never asked her about the origin of her name.
Tabitha. It was actually a quite common name. Even the commoners would use better names. It was the kind of name that could be given to cats.
She had always thought that Tabitha was perhaps hiding that she belonged to a distinguished aristocrat family of Tristain, but it appeared she was wrong, she actually belonged to the nobility of the ancient Kingdom of Gallia that bordered with Germania.
The land of Halkeginia was prominent to the ocean and had a gentle arc, creating a giant peninsula. Only the original people of the land knew of the words to describe it.
Gallia was located in the southeast and Germania, Kirche's home country, was in the northeast. Tristain was between the two and its size was equivalent to the Netherlands plus Belgium mentioned in Saito's world.
The territories of these two countries was around ten times the size of Tristain. The people of Tristain called their own motherland the 'small country' in self-ridicule.
On the small peninsula in the south facing the sea, countries like Germania had to fight for local hegemony. The religious country of Romalia was involved in the fight over hegemony; the office of the pope advocated the beliefs of the Founder Brimir and the gods. Incidentally Cardinal Mazarini had come from Romalia.
Towards the east of Halkeginia, there was uncivilized ground where barbarians and demons lived. Further to the east was a vast desert where Elves who could reclaim the barren ground, were protecting the Holy Lands. If we continue east, there was the unknown continent of Rub' al Khali.
Constantly floating above the ocean and the mainland of Halkeginia was the floating continent of Albion. Stricktly speaking, Albion wasn't a part of the mainland of Halkeginia.
Kirche turned to ask Tabitha,
“Why did you study abroad?”
However, Tabitha didn't reply to Kirche's words. She continued to sit and read her book as she had before. Then Kirche suddenly noticed something. The page in her book never changed, it was the same from before. Tabitha had been staring at the same identical page the entire time.
Kirche decided not to ask her again. Whatever her reasons were for studying abroad or returning home, she would wait till Tabitha told her about it by herself. She understood that at that time, when Tabitha was packing her luggage surrounded by the different atmosphere.