Zero no Tsukaima

Volume 16 6

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Chapter 6 - Daily Tea Time[]

At the start of summer vacation, Louise and Saito decided to stay in Des Ornières. This was pratically a rehersal of what life would be after graduation.

Gradually, the two began to get used to this calm, peaceful lifestyle, so carefree that all the events happened a year ago was as if nothing more a mere dream.

Without more than a few days time, Louise’s tense nerves had already calmed down.

Saito and Louise, after dismissing the grandmother Helen with a "take care", decided to take a walk in the woods as usual.

Strong rays of sunlight projected through the trees, giving this place a energizing feel. This plot of forest was rid of all sounds other than the chirping of birds; Saito and Louise was walking along this small path.

Behind the two of them, Siesta was carrying a basket and smiling as she followed them. It wasn’t long before they found a place with a good view and atmosphere, the perfect location for lunch.

Once filled, Siesta fell asleep lying in the shade of a tree. Seeing so, just to check if Siesta was really asleep, Louise even jabbed her a few times with a branch.

But Siesta’s sleeping habits have been established so well that once she had fallen asleep, she will not wake up for at least an hour no matter the circumstances.

After making sure of such, Louise curled up like a kitten into Saito’s lap. Then, in a very seductive way, she smirked and started to play with her hair.

Regardless of wherever she had learnt that from, this behaviour was particularly intense to Saito.Aah..., she, as I thought, can be very cute...

As if reading Saito’s mind, Louise began to intensify her attacks.

"What’s the matter? Do I have something on my face?"

"N-no ... It’s not that..."

"Then... why are you staring at me like that?" said Louise with condemning half closed eyelids and in a cool expression. Saito became even more flustered as if a lost sheep without a sense of direction. Saito’s voice began to tremble slightly.

"I realized that you are really, really cute..." said Saito in a seemingly recited tone. After all, Saito still isn’t used to praising a girl in her face. In rare occasions when he’s for some reason filled with a mysterious source of confidence, he may be able to deliver a normal speech all right, but when faced with sudden situations like these, he could not be more unprepared.

Therefore, Louise was enjoying this even more."Well isn’t that obvious? Do you know, there can’t be a girl cuter than me in existence?"

"I, I was thinking so too, too....."

Basically, the proud Louise was was like a fire fueled with firewood. As far as Saito knew, there was not another person in the whole wide world and Halkeginia who could fit the attitude Louise had better....

"You sure are lucky. To have someone like me beside you."

"Just, just like that."

"Like what?"

"Like what you said."

Hearing so Louise became even more energized, her superiority starting to affect Saito. Succumbing to Louise, Saito began to ask himself, why does he feel as insignificant as an insect. However, this self-demeaning feeling was soon overwhelmed by his impulses towards Louise, and naturally leaned in to her lips.

"What. What are you trying to do?"

"Ki- kiss..."

"Kiss, who with whom?"

"Me and, Louise."

"Then, you’ll have to listen to me first."

Louise stood up and crossed her arms, getting carried away by the situation fervently. Saito used to always call her Lemon-chan, even laughing about her unbelievably small size secretly, but this time she finally got the advantage in her hands.

Now then, what to get him to say...

However..., there wasn’t much to have him say given this moment. Only thing Louise could think of was to have him whisper in her ears "I love you..." or something like that, then give her a hug romantically. This was more than enough to Louise, other than this nothing else really mattered. Even Louise began to hate herself for being satisfied too easily, but on the other hand this can’t be helped with. After all, even just what was mentioned was enough to have Louise blush and have her heart thump erratically.

"Remember to kiss more ro-romantically."

"That’s it?"

"....Mhm."

Saito wasn’t too sure about her definition of romantic, therefore put up a serious expression and lifted Louise’s chin.

"You are just like a jewel", Saito tried to say so but was so tense that he said it hoarsely, not even daring to look into her eyes. Just as he thought this wasn’t going well, Louise was already moved to the point that her eyes were gleaming with tears of joy.

Seeing the almost weeping Louise,This girl’s difficulty level is too low, Saito sighed. At the same time, looking at the unbelievably easy but incredibly cute Louise, Saito instinctively hugged her tightly and kissed her. Louise, in response, also hugged Saito’s head and closed her eyes dreamily.

At this moment....

Crack, it sounded as if something broke.

Crack, crack, crack crack.

The two fearfully turned their heads in the direction of the noise, only to see Siesta in a very dark mood gripping branches in her hand.

"Wh-what! You are awake already!"

"Oh yes. Thanks to a certain someone and someone of some action, I woke up just now."Siesta smiled while saying so, bearing a frown on her head and mercilessly broke the dead branches in her hand into two clean parts.

"Wha-what are you trying to do!"

"Oh nothing, just making a bonfire as well as some tea..."

Siesta coughed slightly and stood up. To complete the fabricated story, she also patted the dead leaves off her skirt. Just as Saito and Louise were both standing there awkwardly, Siesta took something out from her basket.

"Did the two of you know, that if you add a little bit of lemon with tea, it would taste great?"In the hands of Siesta, was none other than that yellow fruit.

"Ho, ho..."

Although uncertain where she heard about it, it is obvious that she is insinuating to the "lemon-chan" event a while ago.

What’s with this maid. How dare you look down on me! Louise trembled with rage.

"Oh wait, I can’t do this."Siesta suddenly covered her mouth acting astonished.

"C-can’t do what?"

"Wouldn’t this be eating your own kind.... or in this case, drinking your own kind?"

"Just eat already!"Louise snorted angrily and walked up to Siesta with a quick pace, snatched the lemon out of her hands and stuffed it in Siesta’s mouth.

Siesta calmly took the lemon out of her mouth and sliced the lemon into thin slices, then threw all the slices into Louise’s face.

What used to be a peaceful atmosphere where the both of them were smiling, in no time turned into the stalemate silent war that always wages between the two of them. Saito sat helplessly and watched the two.

With their skirts fluttering in the wind, Saito was indulging in how beautifully this scene is set up. Upon realizing Saito’s stares, the two immediately stood up yelling something like "Where are you looking at," "Whose fault do you think it is," and "Which one of us are you going to choose," all while hitting and kicking Saito.

Then Louise started glaring at Siesta with a proud face as if she had won, saying, "The conclusion is obvious isn’t it." Neither did Siesta back down and retaliated with a "Huh, it’s still too early for an outcome"

Of course, while they were glaring at each other, neither of them stopped their almost repetitive hitting and kicking of Saito. Saito in some degree gave up as well, thinking, well, I’m fine as long as they don’t go any further than this, and quietly received all the blows. Whether if it’s Siesta or Louise, they’re both gorgeous beautiful girls. I guess this is a suitable payment in return for living with both of them together.

And so..., as the night drew upon them, due to Louise spending too much energy in the daytime, she went to bed at a rather early hour. As usual, there was only one bed. The given reason was that there weren’t enough savings, but in reality Louise just wanted to sleep with Saito.

When buying that bed, Louise would often also comment how buying two beds would have been expensive..., how buying two beds is unlucky..., all sorts of reasons.

Yet contrary to all the excuses she gave, she bought Siesta a proper bed all for her. Of course, this made Siesta very unhappy. If she objected, Louise would then say, "I would feel very bad if we didn’t prepare a bed for you after tiring yourself out all day long," and similar things.

Therefore, Siesta would also sneak into their bedroom in the middle of the night and sleep next to Saito.

And of course, Louise would blow up when she wakes up in the morning, and yell something like, "Didn’t I properly give you a bed all for yourself?!" And Siesta would reply something like, "Oh, the bed’s too uncomfortable," or, "this house looks haunted it’s so scary at night!" and so on.

"What do you mean this house looks haunted," Louise questioned one day with big stern interrogating eyes.

Siesta looked away, "Sigh-, how should I put it, it’s kinda white, and light, floating in midair, you know. It’s really terrifying...."

"Stop lying!"

"Then, how about you sleep at my place once for a change and confirm it for yourself? But wait, Miss Valliere is probably not going to come since you’re afraid of ghosts."

"Fine, I’ll do it."Louise replied with gritted teeth glaring at Siesta.

And on that night, Louise actually decided to go to Siesta’s room, planning to finish off Siesta once in for all if the specter didn’t appear. She thought of bringing Saito with her, but she definitely didn’t expect"If there’re more than one person in the room, the ghost won’t come out"said Siesta.

Without a choice, Louise could only sleep alone that night. It’s only a stupid lie after all. Huh. About time I should give Saito a lesson too, I’ll go over and yell at him," just as she thought so and prepared to leave....

A white object floated into the room, causing Louise to immediately jump since she didn’t expect it would actually appear at all, and cried out of fear,"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Just as she was about to faint, Louise’s huge scream caused the white object to retreat a few steps in fear too before falling on the floor itself, revealing its real body. Turns out it was nothing more than Siesta with a bed sheet over her head.

"You, you..."

"Sheesh, you sc-scared me too"

Entering into a storm of fury, Louise ran after Siesta and used her magic without thinking, which ended up hitting Siesta’s bed directly.

And so, Siesta’s bed disintegrated and from that night onward, Siesta could then proudly come into their room every night carrying her pillow.Although Louise later begged Saito, "Please, please buy a new one."

"You’ll only break it again so no."Saito refused without even looking at her.

In the end, Saito, Louise and Seista, just like how they were back at the Magical Academy, slept together in the same bed.

Although it’s the usual noisy and arguing days, to Saito this didn’t seem so bad to him. Regardless, they are still living in peace. Sure, there may be a war waging between the two women in this house, but it’s not like anyone would actually get hurt. Besides, Louise and Siesta both seemed to have their bottom line. Unless the other have really pushed their limits and crossed the line, they’d just let it be, as shown apparently from how they didn’t complain in the end about sleeping together in the same bed.

And so, Siesta, Louise and Saito the three of them...., no, there’s also Grandma Helen, all four of them was just somehow managed to fit together. Unfortunately all peaceful days have an end...

Only one week after entering summer holiday, they were immediately visited by a guest already.

After going out for a walk like usual, they saw a rather nervous Helen standing in front of the gates.

"Helen, what’s the matter?" asked Saito.

"Master, this is bad, there’s going to be trouble."Grandma Helen’s kind round face was full of anxiety and worries, and said so while running towards the group."There’s a visitor, but, but, but it’s a frightening young lady.... She looks like she’s the wife of someone famous, but she’s really frightening! She glared at me in front of my face with this, this frown on her head! Glared without blinking!"

"A frightening young lady?" Louise asked.

"Mhm. She looks somewhat similar to Miss Louise."

"...What color is her hair?"

"It’s a beautiful blonde."

Saito and Louise looked at eached other. It was Eléonore!

"Helen, that lady is still single. Even if you’re joking, don’t even say ’she looks like the wife of someone famous,’ or that kind. You’ll have your ear cut off otherwise."

Hearing so, Grandma Helen immediately drew a cross on herself with shaking hands.

In the guest room on the ground floor, Eléonore was waiting for all of them to come back.

After Louise entered, Eléonore stood up slowly and twisted Louise’s cheek with surprising power.

"You little! You Louise!" "You little! You Louise!"

"Oww~~"

"Doing everything yourself again! I already know everything! Ma-m-m-m-mar, cough cough..."Eléonore seemed to be unable to say the word in one go.

"Water, hurry..."

Siesta hurriedly poured a glass of water for Eléonore. After emptying the whole glass, she continued,"Marriage, you living with a man before marriage! What in the world are you thinking! Haven’t you had enough fun going to the war already, and now you’re thinking of living with a man? You will NOT get my permission at all!"

After being pointed out by Eléonore like so, Louise immediately refuted"Wh-wh-wha... we’re not living together! Look, it’s only a familiar and master.... it’s more like we don’t have a choice but to live together..."

"This won’t do. The other people in the world won’t see it this way. La Valliere’s third daughter is living with some unidentified man, if such news were to be spread out, we’d be laughed at by the entire country!"

"But, but..."

Eléonore’s face turned to a serious tone.

"...Louise. You, didn’t you get the legendary power?"

Louise nodded lightly. She had told her family about this some time ago.

"That’s right, which is why Father said to me ’walk on the path you believe is right’. You were there, weren’t you?"

"But that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want too. You, have obtained greater power than your talents."

"I understand."

"You don’t understand. Your power is not achieved by you alone. This power is great enough to decide the fate of our mother country. Be more self-respectful, Louise."

"But.... it doesn’t matter. This won’t cause anything disastrous."

"What makes you say so?"

Louise took a peek at Saito. Well, isn’t this good- Saito gave her a nod indicating so. Now that they have crushed Romalia’s ambitions, there’s no need to hide anymore. Besides, Eléonore is none other than Louise’s sister.

So, Louise told Eléonore everything that happened between Romalia and Gallia a while ago."...And because of that, the revival of the void is now impossible... Romalia is incapable of conducting a crusade anymore. Although it won’t change the fact that my power is great...., in other words, I don’t think it’s necessary to be as self-respectful as you say."Then Louise continued, "Even if it were as you said, if I needed to protect my powers, Saito is indispensable. There can’t be another person better than Saito to protect me."

Saito nodded his head emotionally. Not being persuaded at all, Eléonore finally broke out and yelled at Louise.

"Don’t give me nonsense!"

"No! You’re the one spouting nonsense! What, it doesn’t really matter whatever happens to the legendary power at all, does it? It’s all because what I’m doing now and my status now that’s annoying you isn’t it? I won’t be the same tiny Louise forever!"

Hearing Louise say so, Eléonore’s eyelashes started to pulse. Perhaps it is like what Louise said that all the things about the legendary power are nothing more than excuses. She was just hurt that the once small Louise that has been growing up under her watchful eye had not discussed about her future with her at all.

Still unwilling to give up, Eléonore started to even pull on Louise’s neck.

"Then, you explain the same thing to Father and Mother and see what they think. Okay, we should go now Miss La Valliere."

Saito instinctively stood in her way."H-hey! Sister!"

"What. I have no reason to be called sister by you, do I?"

Stared at Eléonore with the cold piercing eyes of hers, Saito couldn’t help but shudder. In this overwhelming atmosphere, he could even feel his heart thump against his ribs.

"Just because you helped out in the war, don’t think so highly of yourself, much less trying to steal my sister from me. I will not let you have your way!"

"W-which is why! I was thinking recently that we might come along and visit...."

"Visit!? You? Visit? What business would you have? Do-don’t tell me, you’re planning to p-p-p-propose marriage!"

"N-no..., that’s..."

"You think some flea like you will be able to get the hands of our dearest La Valliere!? I will definitely NOT agree!"

"W-wait!"Louise interrupted.

"Sister! Saito isn’t some flea! He’s now her highness’s close guard’s co-captain, and he even has his own territory! Now he is even a fully accredited aristocrat.... Hurry Saito! Name your rank!"

Saito put on a solemn pose, puffed out his chest and declared"My name, is Saito Chevalier De Hiraga De Ornielle, Sis."

"Not even a duke, you’re nothing but a aristocrat of a peasant’s background, stop trying to play cool. I’ll keep it short! I don’t care whether or not you’re some legendary hero, La Valliere’s dearest daughter will NOT marry some random noble that jumped out of nowhere."

"Then..., what kind of background will a noble need to have for you to be satisfied?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I, Saito, will definitely become a suitable noble as you see fit!"

"A suitable noble?"

Louise nodded. Eléonore also turned towards Saito. From whichever angle, he looked nothing more than a teenager from a foreign country. As a noble, there were rules and etiquette that were completely different to that of a commoner. This natural talent was the most important proof of a noble status.

As a child of a family of a high status like Eléonore, one glance was enough to determine whether her target was a real or a fake.

But..., once Louise is determined to do something, there was no way to restrain her from doing so. This child is really like me.... Eléonore quietly whispered to herself.

"I understand. By the time I arrive next time, you better have taught him everything a noble needs to have. If I am not satisfied in even as much as a single flaw, Louise, you’re coming home with me at once!"

"Understood!"

Eléonore snorted and rushed out of the door without greeting any one of them goodbye.

"Left a bad impression...." Saito muttered to himself sheepishly before turning around to Louise."Say Louise, just now, about teaching me to become a proper noble...."Saito began only to find Louise holding a whip while growling with a low voice, flicking the whip god-knows-when-she-had-taken-out on the bed.

"Wha-what are you planning to do!"

"’Miss Valliere. Would you be so kind to instruct me the methods of a noble?’ you mean?"

"Eh? Eh? A-are we beginning already?"

"Shut up! By the time Eléonore returns, I will have turned you from the inside out to an impeccable noble!"