“For a whole day. Because, when you are let out, you flirt with other girls. I hate that.”
Seems like she wanted to bind Saito this way. Yet, for a very prideful Louise to say such things… Even if she would be feeling this way, she’d never utter it aloud.
“Say something.”
Louise muttered sweetly. Saito, what is the matter with Louise? He wondered, while worrying, what made Louise start talking so weakly and softly.
In the afternoon, Louise finally fell asleep. The young girl snored faintly in a deep slumber.
Then Saito quietly slipped out of the room and headed to the dining room to get some food. He was going to take Louise’s share too.
Siesta, who was preparing lunch in the kitchen already, sweetly smiled when he finished explaining the situation to her.
“You are popular.”
“No, it’s different. Louise isn’t herself. She’s acting funny. It can’t be helped, and now I have to get some of this food…”
Worried, Saito said, while Siesta trampled on Saito’s feet, without breaking her smile.
“That’s great.”
“S-Siesta?”
Seems like she was really mad. The composed smile only emphasized her cold anger.
“Heeeh. That a highly prideful noble Miss Vallière would suddenly become clingy over Saito-san. What would make her change her mind about Saito-san? I’m worried.”
Still smiling, Siesta put more strength into crushing Saito’s foot. Saito screamed.
“I-it’s true! She really suddenly started acting strange”
“Really?”
“Yeah… It is as if she turned into a different person.”
Hearing that, Siesta started to think with a serious expression.
“This reminds me, I heard that there are some magical potions that can change a person’s mind this way…”
“Magical potions?”
“Indeed. Yet because I am not a mage I might have not understood it well... But, Miss Vallière would not drink such a thing…”
Saito remembered the previous night. Louise's attitude changed dramatically after entering Montmorency’s room… while he was hiding under the bed futon.
At that moment Louise’s attitude changed suddenly… Did Louise do something then?
Ah.
That reminds me, she said “Fuah! I’m thirsty from running around!” and in one breath drank up the red wine on the table!
That? Could it be that? Saito started to feel suspicious about the red wine in Montmorency’s room.
Saito waited for Montmorency to come out of the dining room and gripped her arm. Guiche, who was walking next to her, roared.
“Hey! What are you doing to my Montmorency!”
However, Montmorency’s face suddenly turned pale instead of complaining. What?! Even though he gripped a noble’s arm like that! Guess Montmorency, who was even more arrogant than Louise, did not want to make much noise. In a word, she felt indebted to Saito over something and that was surely related to Louise’s sudden change.
“Hey Monmon.”
Saito glared at Montmorency.
“W-what…?”
She awkwardly turned her eyes away. She was not angry at being called Monmon. It was becoming more and more suspicious.
“What did you make Louise drink?”
“Eh?” Guiche made a suspicious face.
“Montmorency gave Louise something?”
“Hey Guiche. You saw Louise’s change, right? One moment she was angry, the next placing her palms gently. Even someone as dimwitted as you should grow suspicious.”
Guiche thought while crossing his arms. It took some time, because he was slow as usual. Then Guiche, who with great effort recalled the previous night’s events, nodded.
“It is really as you say. It should not be possible for Louise to become so soft suddenly. Right?”
“Right! Monmon! Louise became strange after drinking the wine in your room!”
“That’s the wine I brought! There’s nothing suspicious about it!”
After saying so, Guiche noticed Montmorency’s unusual behavior. She was biting her lips strongly and tiny drops of cold sweat appeared on her forehead.
“Montmorency! That wine, really…”
“That child drank it without permission!”
Montmorency cried out, unable to take it anymore.
“That’s not the point! It’s your fault!” She said while pointing at Guiche, poking his nose with her finger. Now with the anger reversed, Guiche and Saito dumbfoundedly watched Montmorency.
“Because you are always fooling around!”
“You! What have you put in the wine?!”
Saito understood. Montmorency wanted Guiche to drink up something that was put in the wine. Yet Louise, who rushed into the room, drank it up instead.
For a moment, both, Guiche and Saito, stood hesitatingly embarrassed and resigned. Then Montmorency in a calm, bared voice said.
“…Love potion.”
“Love potion!”
Guiche and Saito cried out. Montmorency placed both hands over their mouths in panic.
“Idiots! Not so loud! …It is banned.”
Saito gripped Montmorency’s arm, removed her hand from his mouth and shouted.
“Then don’t start such a mess to begin with! Help Louise somehow!”
Montmorency, Saito and Guiche racked their brains in Montmorency's room. Montmorency explained to them both in an arrogant manner that she made a love potion to prevent Guiche from having an affair. She put it in Guiche's glass to have him drink it, but then Saito and Louise had flounced into the room. It wasn’t hard for Saito to imagine what happened after that. Unaware, Louise drank it all up. Saito screamed.
“What have you done?!”
“…However, otherwise she would not have fallen in love with me, right?”
Guiche, who kept silent till then, clasped a blushing Montmorency's hand.
“Montmorency, you cared so much for me…”
“Hah! You think that I did it for you? I would not waste my time on that. It was just merely unpleasant for you to have affairs behind my back!”
The blush on Montmerency’s cheeks was quickly replaced by an arrogant scowl. As expected, the pride of Tristainian noble women was really high. Very self-conceited and arrogant.
“Do not worry about me having an affair! I am your servant forever!”
Guiche embraced Montmorency closely. Then, holding her cheek, tried to kiss her. Startled Montmorency shut her eyes.
“Knock it off.”
Saito pulled them both apart.
“What are you doing, idiot?!”
“Doesn’t matter! Help Louise first!”
“She’ll recover sooner or later!”
“When is this ‘sooner or later’!”
Montmorency looked doubtful.
“Each person's physiology is different, it may take a month or maybe a year…”
“You planned to let me drink such a thing?”
Guiche turned pale.
“That will take too long. At once! One way or another! Do it!”
With a jerk Saito brought his face close to Montmorency’s.
“I understand! But it will take some time to prepare the antidote!”
“Hurry up then and do it! Now! Make it now!”
“However, to make an antidote a certain expensive drug is necessary, but I used it all up while making the love potion and it is very expensive. I can’t do it for the time being.”
“Yes, money will be hard to come by, I don't exaggerate.”
“No money? You are nobles!”
When Saito shouted, Guiche and Montmorency looked at each other.
“Although we are nobles, we are students as well.”
“It is older members of the family that possess the territory and money.”