บท 116: Dour Anticipation

Princess Henrietta smiles as she watches Louise cast the latest spell revealed to her by Brimir's Prayer Book. Truly, she was improving far faster than she'd anticipated and was far more powerful than even her Void heritage suggested.

Louise thrusts her wand forwards while chanting, "Implosion!!". This isn't the typical weak explosive Louise usually casts however. Now that she'd learnt how to properly control her magic to some degree, it allowed her many other avenues of attack...

A thin cloud of smoke manifests in front of her, and Louise flicks her wand, causing it to draw a line in the floor. Once it's a meter away from her, she flicks her wand again, causing it to turn and circle around... She has it move in a variety of ways before finally flicking her wand at the dummy at the end of the room, the smoke trail quickly heading for it and hitting its base.

*BOOOOM!*

A large, yet self-contained explosion sounds out. Completely blowing the dummy to smithereens. It doesn't create any shrapnel however as all the force is directed inwards, almost disintegrating the target with ease.

Louise smiles as she feels Henrietta's gaze on her neck, both of them knew that this attack had been as low powered as she could make it. They were in the basement of the palace where a training room had been set up, so she was forced to limit her spells to stop herself from bringing the entire palace down on their heads.

Despite this restriction however, Louise' Implosion spell just now was enough to instantly kill an Orc, or maybe even an Ogre if its skull was crushed. It was honestly less of an explosion spell and more of a Gravity spell, not that either of the girls could tell.

"D-did you see that Princess! Wait! I've learned one more!" Louise quickly says, levitating another target on top of the pile of splinters that composed the last one. "Null Zone!" she excitedly shouts as she jabs her wand at the target.

...

Yet nothing happens, causing Louise to blush in embarrassment. "Ah, perhaps I need more practice?" she mutters, and Henrietta's about to console her when another voice makes itself known.

"Hmph! Is this what you've been idling your time on, Princess? A pathetic failure with almost as much magic as a commoner?" a tall, muscular man states as walks towards them. He has short blonde hair, blue eyes, and handsome features that remind Louise of an older-looking Guiche.

"Sir Teitar... A pleasure." Henrietta drolls at her 'Fiance'. "I would remind you that Louise is a close friend of mine, and insulting her is an insult unto me." she states, crossing her arms.

Teitar laughs, "Is that so!? Then I'll hold my tongue, for now, I'll make sure to show you my grievances once we are wed, 'my love'." he sarcastically says, causing Henrietta's face to twitch in disgust. "I am not here just to mock your pet though, Princess. I come unfortunate news... Prince Wales has been captured, and is scheduled to be executed soon. My truest condolences." he says, obviously not meaning sympathetic in the slightest.

...

Henrietta struggles to keep her sadness from her face, and decides to direct her roiling emotions elsewhere. "And how, may I ask, did you hear of such a thing Teitar? I would think that such news would be difficult to acquire given the state of Albion." she states, her silent accusation obvious to all in the room.

He shrugs, "Perhaps the Gramont family has far more skilled spies than even your Majesty. Not that I am proclaiming ourselves superior to the Royal family, just that there are aspects in which even you lack." he says, speaking 'not-treason' incredibly fluently.

Henrietta shakes her head and waves him off, "Begone, Teitar. I've had enough of your company for one day." she states, waving him off and ignoring him as she turns to Louise. "Let us continue your practice."

Of course, Teitar leaves before Louise can cast any more spells, neither of the girls wanting anyone to see just how far Louise had progressed. She was Henrietta's trump card, so she couldn't be revealed too soon. "Come Louise, Albion will soon turn their attention to us, you must be stronger." she says, more commanding than anything else.

"Y-yes princess!"

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Meanwhile, at the Tristain Magic Acadamy, Tabitha, Kirche, and Montmorency were walking towards their next class when a raven swoops down and lands on the former's shoulder, a letter attached to its leg.

"A raven messenger? How dull." Kirche remarks as Tabitha pulls the letter off and begins reading it, her face twitching as she reads the first line.

"Dear Charlotte de Gallia." she silently reads, realizing that this wasn't your everyday letter... There were few who knew her true identity, and judging by the wax seal, it'd been sent by her Uncle, the current king of Gallia.

"Ah, private letter." she emotionlessly says before turning and walking towards her room atop the tower. The others can only watch with dumbfounded expressions as they'd never seen Tabitha react like that before, Kirche tries to accompany her, but is swiftly rejected by the expressionless bluenette.

Now in her room, Tabitha's usually emotionless face breaks into a frustrated frown as she reads the rest of the letter... Her uncle, the king, wanted her to leave the academy and hunt down the 'False-Familiar', the Familiar that Louise had summoned and which killed Guiche.

She knew she was far more powerful than the strange magic wielder, so she was more concerned with why, and where. The Familiar was apparently in Albion right now, a wartorn place where she'd likely be regarded as a spy and executed.

This didn't really surprise her though, as most of the missions her uncle sent her on were suicidal at best, his hopes to remove her from the line of succession always fell flat with each success though... This wouldn't be any different. Even if the thought of leaving behind her friends in the academy did upset her.