Author Notes: Wow... It's been a while, hasn't it?

I've been neglecting writing recently, given a few things happening lately. But I still have a few ideas in the backburner mingling about.

Anyway. I won't be long with this, I just want to wish you all a nice reading. However, I would like to point out that in one day I got a handful of reviews of just one random word from a few people. Is it normal or are they bots? I don't know, but it seems fishy. If they are real people, I apologize but I'm just curious.

BTW. I cut the word "Chapter" for a reason.

On to the reviews!

Poopy: Sorry, it was a slip of the ton- err... finger.

Arashi Tenebris: I used "" because I wanted to make it feel like an exclamative thought. Since I am, and will, be using thoughts through most of the story as both telepathy and internal thoughts, I want to differentiate them.

searge and AxDevilman: Thank you, I give it a few more chapters before things start crossing out.

Doom King of Latveria and buterflypuss: Thanks for the kind words, people from the internet.

Ch.24. A Maid Introduced to Lovesick Foolery

"I'm glad this is over." Said Louise. She stretched her arms and looked through the window, the gentle rocking of the carriage lulling her into the sweet embrace of sleep. The Princess had offered them a ride back to the academy as a part of their reward for a job well done. She didn't seem upset at the fact that Louise had allowed a maid to help her in their endeavor, she was actually amused at that, much to the pink haired girl's surprise.

"Well, it was nice to see some of my family again." Commented the maid. "Also, I'm glad I made some progress."

"Do not let your recent accomplishment fill your head with pride. You still have much to learn." Chided Zeratul, who currently sat on top of the carriage. His additional weight not being registered by the driver or the horses drawing it. "But as far as I'm concerned, you both performed well enough."

Both girls grinned at that. Siesta, knowing where he was, asked with her mind. "Now what should we do next?"

"You should keep practicing using telepathy to communicate with Young Louise for the time being. She will be practicing her first void spell starting tomorrow."

"Finally!" She almost cried out. "What is it going to be; levitation, conjurations, transmutation?"

"Your first spell will be Void Prison." He clarified, "You have seen me use it before, so it should be easier for you to familiarize yourself with its effect."

The small teenager fidgeted in her seat in excitement. She loved learning things, the desire to learn fueled by her search for a spell she could cast without resulting in an explosion, it hadn't dwindled one bit since she was taught to read by her sisters and tutors.

"I will prepare myself for tomorrow then." She stated.

"And I will have some food ready for your training, Louise." Offered Siesta.

With that exchange, the two of them sat in a pleasant silence while the carriage reached its destination. The wall surrounding the school became larger with each passing minute until they arrived to the main gate. They thanked the driver and got off the vehicle, Siesta first to help Louise get down as was expected a servant to do.

The two of them found themselves missing the strange sense of normalcy the academy offered that didn't seem to have any right of existing give their current circumstances. Louise enjoyed being acquainted with how everything worked in here, not like that inn where she wanted to immediately kick someone's teeth in after a few hours.

"I'm sure Zapper missed me. I can't wait to see my familiar alive and well." A small nudge on her side from her friend and said, "And Derflinger… I want to see if that mouthy sword did what I told him."

"I'm sure he understood your orders quite well." Reassured the maid. She opened the door for her diminutive friend and followed after her. Once inside, she bumped into Louise who immediately stopped a few steps in. Looking above her pink head, she found the reason of her lack of movement.

The probe that was Louise's familiar went from here to there without a care as both students and servants reached down to greet it. The voice of Derflinger coming out of the carcass of the mechanical being responding with the same intonations of delusions of grandeur Louise grew so irritated with. Not bothering to hide his own name for the sake of boasting about his incredible nature, that he himself described so.

His rambling was cut short by the short-tempered girl shouting, "You!" It froze in place and slowly, almost comically, turned around to see her stomping over to him. "I give you one order. One! And what do you do?! Tell me."

"Ah, um… Pinky. Uh… Have you seen what nice weather we have today?" Stammered the sword. A few beeps came from Zapper and he responded, indignant. "Don't you dare weasel your way out of this mess. You roped me into this!"

"Come!" She yelled. Huffing and making her way to her room. The probe did its best to look dejected in contrast to Derflinger's whining. Siesta wisely decided not to intervene with the upcoming mess and went to see if Marteau needed something done.

The other people who witnessed her outburst shrugged and marked it off as another of the happenings of Louise the Zero.

Once they were alone in her room, Louise whirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at the body of her possessed familiar. "I want to know why you have the nerve of mingling with other people and go against your master's orders."

"Can I at least say that this was not my idea?" He asked meekly. The withering glare from her was all he was going to get in response. "Ok, ok. Look, I might have accidentally possibly unintentionally uttered something that may or may not sound like a word in front of someone when I thought that I was alone and went…." He trailed off.

"And went what?" She asked with little patience.

"Everyone went with it, ok? Sheesh, your familiar got uppity and tried to go after you the moment you left with me in tow." Seeing as Louise demanded more of an explanation, he continued hurriedly. "So there I was, relaxing on my spot off in the corner when suddenly that piece of junk snatched me from my sword and tried to go outside the school to do who knows what."

"I don't believe for a second. Zapper is a good familiar and I have more than enough reasons to think that you're trying to save face." Retorted the angry girl.

"I'm telling the truth! That thing went crazy and kidnapped me!" Yelled, Derflinger. "I wanted nothing to do with your familiar and someone saw us on the way out while I was telling it to leave me out of this and almost freaked out and all I could do was to lie and say that I was your familiar and was able to talk. Then the next thing I know that guy told everyone else about it and every person in the academy wanted to get to know the rare familiar that could speak and they all started treating me nice and all, but they don't seem to remember that it was your familiar they were fawning over." He ranted.

Louise pinched the bridge of her nose, withholding anger threatening to burst forth and throw the sword out of the window with only the reminder of having someone injured as the reason she didn't act upon that impulse. "So, you're saying that you made friends with every single person here while I was away and nobody thinks any different of me."

"Well… I wouldn't say that as much as they seemed to completely forget about you." A bottle of ink crashing at the wall made him reconsider his words. "Ok, calm down Pinky!"

"Calm down? Calm down?!" She started, "I have half a mind to bury you in the deepest, most stinky and dankest of pits I could find and leave you to rust. Granted, I wanted my familiar to be spectacular but not an anomaly!" She pulled the door of her room open and turned around, "I want you to think of the words that could make me even consider forgiving you and if you don't have them by the time I come back, I will personally make sure you could never be able to even cut hot butter for the next six thousand years!"

With that said, she slammed the door shut. Leaving behind a silent familiar with an equally silent artificial soul.

"Is this her time of the month?" He asked to nobody in particular.

A flash of numbers next to strange names like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone saying something about normal parameters was the only response from Zapper.

In somewhere else in the academy, Siesta was tasked with bringing a bottle of wine to a particular noble who was preparing a picnic. The brand and the year of it didn't strike her as something particularly expensive or luxurious, only the higher than normal grade of alcohol being the thing that caught her attention. She wasn't their mother to tell them what they could or couldn't drink, they were free to do so, but that didn't mean she didn't get worried from time to time that they would drink more than they could handle. They were young, after all, and thought themselves as free of consequence and invincible in their highborn arrogance.

The one who ordered the drink was none other that Montmorency Margarita la Fére de Montmorency. A daughter of a lesser noble family which was quite notable in regards of water magic, who was a well accomplished alchemist in the eyes of the academy.

Siesta found her where the blonde mage said she would be, in the western gardens in front of a checkered sheet with some assorted sweets and cups. It was something that would bring a smile to the maid if it weren't for the spiteful glare the girl was giving at the boy, Guiche, sitting in front of her. A glare that he was, or not, wise enough to ignore completely in the wake of being somewhat alone with his fiancée.

"Took you long enough, maid." She said. Not wanting to worsen the foul mood of the blonde brat, Siesta curtsied with a small bow and silence. She placed the bottle in the middle of the checkered sheet and offered her services to fetch them anything else, without and affirmative response, she left without saying anything else. Neither participant of the date saying something until she left.

Once she was far enough, she let out something between an exasperated sigh and a groan of relief. "And here I was thinking I wanted to go back to work." Looking to her current surroundings, she searched for prying eyes or ears paying attention to her.

There was not one soul in the gardens other than the couple she left behind and the invisible form of Zeratul hiding in a tree not too far from her, her intention of reaching out to say something being obvious to him, actively making his mind easier to find. "I think there was something wrong there."

"It would seem so, yes. That girl was hiding something." He told her. "Something that altered the mind, either an amulet or a poison."

Siesta was taken aback by that. "Are you sure? Those things are illegal and punishable by death in the worst of the cases."

"I am sure. I need you to intervene, be discreet."

The maid nodded with determination and made to go back to the couple regardless of personal consequence. However, that was cut short by the approaching form of her friend Loise with a glare that could scare the most terrifying of spirits, the smaller girl grabbed her by the arm and told her, "Come with me."

"But Louise, I-"

"I don't care. I need someone to talk to and a drink." The figure of Guiche and Montmorency about to drink their first glass of wine became the focus of the pink haired mage's eyes and snatched the one from the boy. "I need this more that you, flirty dog."

Without hesitation or acknowledgement of her theft she drank the whole glass. The blonde girl nearly choked in her own drink when she say her doing that. "You dunce! Do you know what you did?!" She yelled.

"I interrupted your date, sorry." Louise responded, not sorry at all. "I'll get out of your hair now. Thanks for the drink, come on, Siesta."

The two of them left the duo of blondes behind, one of them outraged and the other in disbelief. "And here I thought that her familiar was a cool one."

"Shut up, Guiche. We have to go after them." Announced Montmorency, getting up quickly and almost falling after a bad running start.

"But what about our date?"

"Forget about it, we have to stop them."

Farther ahead of them, with a rapid pace, Louise was mumbling gibberish at Siesta. "And them I told him to stink himself off a dank!" Apparently, she stopped making any sense in less than half a minute. "And then, them, then he shut up and I came here to see my bestest friend in all of Halkeginia, besides Henrietta." She added.

"That is flattering, Louise but-" She was silenced by a finger to her lips.

"It's true, you made me feel like there was someone in this entire building that I could call friend." She leaned up closer to the maid's face, heat creeping in her cheeks at the closeness. "Maybe something more…"

Stammering and embarrassed, Siesta responded pushing the smaller girl away from her face, "Louise, I don't think you're thinking straight right now."

"Y'know? In a way, I think you're right." Siesta was grateful that they didn't find anyone on their way up to Louise's room to see them in this position. They didn't make it and stopped somewhere near a broom closet. The drunk closed the distance once again, intent clear to a blushing maid. A hand found her breast, earning a yelp, "You don't know how jealous I am of you somt'ms." She murmured.

"L-Louise, this is not appropriate behavior from a noble!" Siesta squeaked, pushing her away. The girl fell on her rump and let out a sniffle.

"But I love you…" She said pitifully. "Let me love you!" She repeated as she sprung forward and pushed her into the closet. She didn't get far as a clawed hand materialized behind her and grabbed her from the shoulder and part of her arm.

"Young Louise, calm down. You're under the influence of a drug." Said Zeratul.

"Is that what it is?" Asked a fearful Siesta. "I thought- I thought for a second…"

"Gifted Siesta, I need you to hold her off. Someone is coming."

"They won't be the only ones!" Yelled Louise as she felt the hold on her relinquished and fell on top of the maid with mad intent in her eyes.

"Louise, restrain yourself!" Cried out Siesta.

"Wouldn't you like to see me 'restrained', eh?" What kind of things were in the usually prude girl's mind?

"Zero, stop this madness right now!" Came the voice of Montmorency, with Guiche running right behind her.

"No! I won't let you stop me from holding the love of my life." Louise stood with arms and legs spread as if to protect the prone maid.

"Louise, please stop. Do it for me?" Pleaded Siesta, appealing to whatever crazed feeling her friend had.

It did work, to a degree. "And what can you do to reassure me you won't steal her from me?"

"Sleep." She fell like a sack of rocks.

"Huh," Said Guiche, "Looks like she couldn't handle her wine."

"Yeah… wine." Montmorency followed. "Maid, carry the Zero to my room. We have things to discuss."

As much as she wanted to strangle the little witch for what just happened, she gritted out the words. "As you say, my lady." She lifted up the limp form of her afflicted friend off the ground and followed the couple to the blonde's quarters. Where she would find the answer to whatever it was happening to Louise right now.