Slowly but surely the flame lights which noble mages created lit the main streets, signaling the residents to turn in for the night. With this, the markets were calming down and emptying of people making traveling by horse much easier. Those still out were just the merchants who were preparing to leave.

"So you did not see a man who was, uh can you describe the man again dear?"

It must have been the tenth time I have explained this, but the man's image was something that would forever be ingrained in my mind as, "A brown haired green eyed idiot. He was wearing a green cloak while carrying a rusty sword on his back."

The guards looked at one another, soon breaking out in a small chatter I could not hear. There however did not seem to be any deceit or maliciousness in their voices, "No Count Wardes, we did not see this man at all. Though I'm sure the entire garrison knows by now. I'll be honest that we've heard about your task since an hour ago."

I could hear a small sigh from Wardes, "If you do see the man, please let us know. We are staying in 'Jakob's Diamond'."

The man quickly gave Wardes a salute, "I understand Count Wardes! For the Queen!"

"Yes, for the Country of Tristain as well." Wardes said with a shape smile.

With that over the horse soon turned to make its way into the city, "Is that enough to satisfy you, my Love?"

I could only click my tongue, "I swear Wardes, the sugaring idiot is so close I can taste it!"

"But we have searched the entire city." I heard the man reason, "You have had this feeling since five this afternoon, and it is already eight this spring night."

"I swear! The sugaring rogue just does not wish to come out!"

"If I may dare ask," He said with what must have been curiosity in his voice, "How do you know he is near?"

I clicked my tongue at this, "He is my Familiar, of course we are bound together. It is just all those abilities and magics he knows allows him to elude us!"

"Hmm, very well my love."

With those words, I felt the conversation stop. It was instinct like when I annoyed my sister Éléonore with questions of her time in the academy. She would always get irritated by one point and would soon start to pull out my cheeks!

I watched over the crowds of people, as they sometimes brought me better entertainment. I watched merchants started moving their carts while the callers on corners got down from their perches. My eyes turned towards a small laughter, the sight of two modest looking peasants leading a child by the hand, a happy family being crafted under the will of Brimir. I… felt a small bit of my chest burn at the sight of such joy.

That however placed an odd question in my mind, "Wardes, why are the people so calm?"

"Huh," He turned towards me with a look of surprise, "What did you say my love?"

"Oh," I felt my cheeks glow a slight red, "Uh, I was wondering why everyone seems so calm. Since there is a War just across the waters, would they not be more wary?"

I received a shrug from the Count, "The peasants must simply have gotten used to it."

"Oh, alright."

We once more assumed the silence between us. While it was not very noticeable at first, it was surely wearing down on my nerves. I mean, he was my Fiance, are we not supposed to talk about silly things!

I soon looked about where we were going, recognizing the way we were traveling. There were more fires lit the way, but the amount of merchants were somehow less, "Are we heading back to the inn?"

"Yes, we have been searching for the better part of an evening." The older gentleman said as we made our way towards the front, "None of the guards, either gate or of the streets, has seen the man. You have simply overestimated the man, my love."

With those words he dismounted, bringing his hand towards me, "Now come on down, we need to rest for the night."

I looked at the hand for a moment, a slight feeling entering my gut. However in the end I accepted it, "Alright."

With a small hop I was off the horse and onto the ground, a small bit of wind softening my landing. I could not help myself but smile as Wardes tried his best to accommodate me. Count Wardes gestured to a man who was next to the door, quickly ordering him to take the horse to the stables for safe keeping as we went inside. The sounds of soft murmuring and the welcoming of the receptionist came into my ears.

"Are you by chance hungry, Madam Valliere? I heard this place had some delicious Cod that one must try." Wardes said with a smile.

"I am, Wardes. A day's worth of searching can make anyone squeamish."

"Very well, I shall guide you~"

Led by the hand, I was brought towards a small room with tables all about it. They were all mostly filled with Nobles of various degrees. Some were handsome fellows with their wives, while others were traveling in pairs of twos or threes for what I can assume were business related. I soon took a seat on a smaller table, one with enough room for an intimate couple.

I looked towards Wardes, his gray hair shining in the candle light. I felt a tightening in my stomach that was making stronger knots when he looked into my eyes. Grey steel to my strawberry blond. But why did something feel-

"Uh, excuse me." I felt my attention was quickly drawn towards a waitress, "Is there anything you two wish to order?"

"Ah yes!" The moment she saw Wardes the waitress grew a small flush on her face, "I heard you had some exquisite Cod. I would like to order some."

"Ah, W-we can do so! Our chef came straight from Albion!" the waitress cheered, "And yourself, young madam?"

"The same, please."

"Alright, it should be out within a few minutes." she gave us a courteous bow before leaving towards the kitchen.

"Oh, and miss," Wardes called out to the girl, "A bottle of wine if you can."

"Uh, Wardes." I leaned in towards the man, "Are you sure we should be drinking?"

"Are you not old enough my Love?" He asked with a small smile to his face, "You must be reaching fifteen now right?"

"I am sixteen, Wardes." I was growing to a small simmer, but then I quickly shook my head, "B-but that is not what I mean! Alcohol does not go well with what we are doing."

"Relax, my love~" He gave me another smile, one even more charming than the last, "Is it not okay to rest today? Tomorrow we will be heading to lands that rebelled."

I felt my anger at him slowly deflate at his sheer confidence, "I mean, alright. Though let's not drink too much shall we?"

"That will do I guess." Wardes did a small wave with his hands, "But still, it is okay to enjoy one's self and other company at times like this."

As I heard those words I felt myself instinctually looking towards the kitchen. Something felt off over there…

"Oh, by chance has another dish caught your eye?" Wardes as with a slight whimsical in his voice.

"What- no." I shook my head a little bit, "I swear to Brimir!"

"What, do you think it is your Familiar?" He said with a wry smile.

I looked at him, clicking my tongue at his jest, "You can say so, but it was also something else."

"Interesting." He said with a smile before smiling a greater one, "Maybe forget about the man for a little and eat our meal."

Just as he said the waitress who we have been giving order to had two separate dishes in her hand. I guess it was fish, but on a closer look I noticed that it was breaded. By all means it was an Albionese tradition. Of course she also carried the bottle of wine in her hand.

As quickly as the madam gave us our food Wardes had picked up the wine, pouring himself a glass, "Well come on my love, let us start eating."

I watched as the man took a slice of fish and quickly took a bite. Within just a moment as Wardes jerked from his chair and fell to the floor with a great slam. I felt my heart beat for a second before I quickly made my way to his side, and quickly saw the man clenching his throat while making a fish expression with his lips. I would have laughed if he was not somehow choking.

"Oh sugar!" Without much thought I quickly reached for the bottle of wine the waitress left on our table, stuffing the bottle to the Count's face. The liquid quickly drained from it, and soon enough he waved the bottle away from his face.

"What in the name of fucking Brimir was the Chef trying to kill me!" He cried out while getting onto his feet, "I should have the man hung!"

I took a few steps away from Wardes while I looked towards the fish. Curiosity getting the better of me, I chipped off a piece of the breading.

I gave it a small taste before my eyes widened, "It... has dirt in it?"

"Argh!" He cried out while reaching over and taking the bottle from my hands, "Who in the Brimir forsaken world put dirt in my Fish!"

He turned to face me for a moment so I waved my arms, "Like I would know, maybe some Germanian!"

As he turned away from me, I felt something over my shoulder. By now the waitress was already coming over and apologising previously Wardes, but my attention was instead towards the window. The sight of a green cloak fluttering away from the window was all I needed to know what had happened.

It was almost like I could hear his snickering with him not even being in the room. I turned to see Wardes turning an angry red. By now he had already brought out the chef and was yelling at the man. I quickly noticed his hand on a sword and I decided to speak up, "Wardes, are you going to duel the man for that? You should realize it was not his fault."

"I don't need to listen to you…" He turned towards me, and I quickly noticed the sharpness in his eyes had dulled immensely. I quickly glanced to see the entire bottle of wine that was taken from my hands was emptied.

"Uh Wardes, could you please sit down for a moment. It seems you had too much to drink."

"Oh, is that what you claim?" He leaned in towards me with a sneering smile, "And what's a cutting board like yourself going to do about it?"

"CUTTING BOARD!" I was now standing directly at the man, "I saved your life, I am your Fiance, and you sugaring call me a flat chested zero!"

"Yup, what else would I describe you?" He bent back in a haughty laughter, "But you are with I, Count Wardes of the Tristanian Griffin Legion! Such issues simply melt away when I am about."

"..." I stared up at the man for only a moment, "Wardes, what did you just say?"

"That for all of your faults you are with me, Count Wardes." He said with a drunken smile.

The next moment happened in a blur as my hand worked automatically, as within the next moment he was on the ground grabbing onto his cheek. I did not hold back, quickly stomping on his head with righteous fury!

"I am above you, you damn bastard! I am the daughter of Duke Centurion and Karin of the Heavy Wind! You mock ME and MY BODY I will DESTROY you and everything you sugaring stand for!"

Without a second thought, I smashed the bottle of wine and stormed out, quickly throwing a pair of Tristanian Golden coins at the waitress. Before I left the room however I turned one more time towards the man, "You can go to the damn big titted Germanian whores for all I care now you damn drunkard!"

As I entered the main lobby I noticed the snickering of the receptionist, "Do you have anything you wish to say?"

She shook her head with a small smile, "Oh sorry, I do not, except I was wondering if you wanted another room?"

I stared at the girl down for a moment, "No, I will be leaving. The simple fact is your security in this entire place is abysmal at best as you could not keep out a simple idiot from ruining everything!"

Soon enough I made my way outside the doors and into the open streets, "I know you are there Kazuma! You biscuit eating bastard of a man!"

"Yes yes, it seems I was caught." Emerging from the brush across from me was the figure of my Familiar, sword on his back.

I stared at the man down for only a moment, a bit of flush coming to my face. I had to grit my teeth a little bit as I turned towards the man once more, "Th-th-th-thank y-y-y-y-."

"Oi, you trying to say something~?" He brought his ear closer to me with a happy smirk on his face.

"... Thank you you sugaring Brimir damned familiar."

"You are very welcome." He said with his head held high, "But what the hell did I do?"

"Your little prank you did." I brushed by the man with a purpose now in my step, "My fiancee is the epitome of men, and he is simply too ambitious for his own good! Why, I bet you he has betrayed us to the Reconquista!"

"Oh, so you think that too?" I heard my Familiar said while matching pace with me.

I almost fell over as those words came into my ear, "W-what do you mean!?"

"Oh, you were just talking out of your ass." I looked to see my Familiar staring at me with an annoyed stare, "But yeah he's was fuckin' suspicious as hell."

"He might be a bit ambitious, but Count Wardes never did anything that hinted to him being a traitor!"

"Hmmhm," My familiar was nodding his head before growing a small smile, "Coming from the girl who just dumped him. Oh, and beat the man into submission."

"I am no ger…" I quickly grabbed onto my head with a small bit of sweat falling off my brow, "My Mother is so going to kill me."

"Not if we get killed in the battlefields!" My Familiar half cheered and lamented.

"Well, what did you mean by that? With Wardes being a traitor." I asked my familiar with a good bit of seriousness in my voice, "If I judge your judgment as correct, we will need to leave tonight."

"Well now I don't wanna say that, I kind of wanna sleep in a bed." I quickly gave the boy a stare to which he shook his head, "He was way too fuckin' nice to you, he was trying to get something from ya. Add in how he fucking fucked me over twice in a row for no apparent reason and he was obviously trying to kidnap yea and you. Not to mention how the Princess's letter never mentioned we had support."

"I… never thought about it like that." I gave out a massive sigh, "Why am I always stuck with stupid men."

"Oi, I can hear ya!" My Familiar cried before shaking his head, "Anyways, while I'll be acceptin' your thanks from earlier there is something else I want."

"And what would that be, a plot of land?"

He blinked a couple of times before shaking his head, "No, I want an apology for not sticking it to the bastard earlier. You know how hard was it to sneak in our damn horse!"

"Oh that." I gave a slight nod, "Fine, I am sorry I did not realize my fiance was a traitor to the crown. Are you happy?"

He blinked a couple times at me, "Are you really Louise?"

"Yes," I felt my cheeks grew red from the embarrassment of my next words, "But you took care of someone who would have harmed us, without orders even. So as I said before, thank you and sorry I was too seduced by my Fiance that I was unable to see his possible treachery."

"Oh…" He looked at me with a small bit of shame, "I uh, sorry I spiked your fish as well."

"You what! You were going to have me eat dirt!"

"Well look at the time let's get going!" My familiar quickly spouted out nonsense before running down the streets.

"Familiar, do you even know what we need to do!?"

As I yelled that he turned around with a slightly perplexed expression, "Uh, we find an inn for tonight?"

I shook my head at the fool, "Well thanks to you hiding for the entire day we ordered the entire guard to look for you. Their orders were specifically to find you."

"Oh thanks for making me feel special." He said with a sly smile, "Can't you just, you know, tell them to stop? I mean you are higher rank than the guy."

"You think I can personally tell the entire garrison to forget about you w-when I was the one who asked them too!"

"Heh." His smile stuck on that damn face of his, "You know, I know a Crusader who would love to be in your position right now."

"If she would love it I will beg her to take my position later!" I said before taking steps towards the idiot, "For now though, we need to get onto the next boat to Albion. I do not care who it is or where on the island we end up, we are going!"

I sped past Kazuma as he held his hand on his chin before giving a shrug, "Best plan I've heard in awhile. I'll call it a bonus if we can lose Sir Lovedobby Dumbass and I don't die."

I grew a small smile, "And I will call it a win if I you will die so I can have some Brimir forsaken calmness in my life again."

"You are cold," He claimed before falling into step with me, "But you're probably the most correct. Say, You're family have any good vacation homes?"

I had to give a small laugh, "You think Duke Centurion and Karin of the Heavy Wind would have a Summer home!"

"I'll take that as a no."

"And you are one step closer to matching a peasant in intelligence Kazuma." I gave a slight shrug, "Any place that would have been called a retreat for us was turned into a fortress by my mother."

"Huh, your mother must be one hell of a workaholic." His smile soon turned into a frown, "Doesn't that mean you're going to be inheriting those places?"

I gave a slight sigh and shook my head, "No, my sister Eleanor will be taking them since most of our titles are seniority. You can say my engagement to Wardes was my family's way to keep me above the line of landed aristocrats since they thought that I could not wield magic."

There was a slight tinge of defeat in his voice, "Oi, so you're telling me we are gonna need to work extra hard to stay afloat now?"

I gave a slight shrug, "Depends on what Eleanor does with us, I will be the first to admit we will be at her mercy."

Soon enough my mind's eye opened up to when Eleanor was stretching my cheeks wider than they could ever be. Her evil grin was wide as she laughed, as Kazuma in the background mopped the floors in one of the many forts.

With that I felt a chill go up my spine, "Maybe I should try and join someone else's court."

"Why not Henrietta's?"

"What are you saying Familiar?"

He grew a small cynical grin, "Well you are her best friend in the whole wide world who forgave us for KIDNAPPING her. She can probably give us some cushy seats in her castle until she needs us to do sneaky stuff like this."

I crossed my arms, "I will not be asking my friend to do such a thing for me!"

"But what if she asks?"

I blinked for a moment, "I… maybe."

"And with that my future is secure!"

I gave a small sigh at my Familiar did a stupid cheer. Looking forward, I did not realize how many blocks we had covered as the port was before us. There were a great many platforms of both wood and stone jetting into the air and past the ground. The light of a ginormous flame spell lit the sky as a beacon to all the ships in the clear night sky.

"Well, we are here Kazuma." I said with my small heart skipping a beat, "I guess we should get a ship."

"Yeah…" He shook his head before trudging forward, "Let's get this over with!"

"Y-yes."

We quickly made our way onto the docks, the guards quickly looking over us before I gave them a glare. Their eyes quickly widened but I was upon them first, "Do not bother us, or by the right of Valliere Family and the Crown itself I will ruin your lives."

Within an instant they straightened upright, no longer bothering us as we went by. I took in a quick breath, my mind running wild for about five seconds as I processed what just happened.

"Vicious." I heard from an idiot to my side.

"I-it has to be!" I quickly recovered, "We have any authority we could ask for, and proof of it is in my blood. As you agree with me before, we should us it!"

"I guess you do, Princess Bubblegum~"

"I do not even know what you are talking about, but I will assume that was an insult."

"Eh, think of it how you will."

Soon out of the corner of my eye I noticed a good bit of movement, men moving about between a ship and warehouse. Without much to go onto we made our way over, though I noticed a bunch of them suddenly looked our way as if they were spooked.

I was about to speak up but my Familiar got infront of me, quickly trowing my hood over my head. To say I was pissed off by this action was putting it minorly, but before I could say anything he spoke, "Hey there! What are you all up to?"

"Uh, nothing in particular." I quickly uncovered my eyes to see Kazuma had already covered the distance and was now chatting with the men.

"You say nothing, but why the hell would you be leaving in the middle of the night." He said with a sly tongue.

I felt the eyes of everyone sharpen on us, but for some stupid reason my Familiar continued, "Hey hey, I'm not here to rat any of you out. I actually wanna higher a ride up to Albion. I mean, that is where the hell you are going right?"

The men looked between each other for a moment before a man stepped forward. Even in the pale moonlight I could see the age of the man, his loss of a leg very evident.

The man for some reason had a wide smile on his face, "So you wanna hire us for transport?"

"Yup." My familiar produced a small handful of Golden Tristains towards the man, "Don't question why the hell we are going there, and all this coin is yours."

My eyes widened a little, and I quickly grabbed the money bag. The damn thing was already half as heavy as when the Princess gave it to us!

The man hopped onto the dock coming right to Kazuma's face. He reached over, and Kazuma gave him a single coin. Just like one of those weirder merchants, the man bite into the coin as if he was trying to taste it.

"Damn boy, you're really trying your luck with us." He said with a slight laugh, "I mean, you don't even know what we are loading."

"Yeah well, you can say I got pretty good luck." He quickly shook the man's hand before giving him the rest of the money.

"Alright, you two don't look too suspicious, so just hang out in the bowl of my precious ship. As long as you don't open any of the crates I'll be happy to have ya aboard."

"Aye aye captain!" My Familiar jested before waving me to come along. Though I was hoping to burn his guts, I opted with just following him into the ship proper. With this, I guess we will be off onto the greater seas.