p.126 - Saito goes to the library to try to find books that can help him learn Halkeginia's written language, since he's up against the king of a great country and knows that he can't win just by swinging swords.
p.127 - →Enter Tabitha sitting in a corner reading
→begin Tabitha route
p.123 - "I'll teach you how to read"
"Excuse me?"
"You can't learn just by staring at books"
"Well yeah, I guess...., but is that ok with you? It'll be kinda tough, you know. I'm not that smart"
"I don't mind"
Tabitha took Saito's hand, and began walking towards her desk.
here we go here we go
p.131 - Saito's brain = auto-translator
p.134 - Interesting... Saito can read, but differently from the sentence's original wording, even though the nuance remains similar ("I spilled the milk that was in the dish" becomes "I did something unrecoverable"). The logic is similar to translating from one language to another, and then back to the original language.
p. 139 - "Madam Butterfly wannabe?" - Siesta, upon seeing Louise's "new babydoll look"
p. 142 - I wish I could translate the entire conversation between Siesta and Louise, they always crack me up
p. 144 - Siesta trys on Louise's black one-piece, tight fit
p. 149 - Louise, in her underwear, barges into Tabitha's room after spotting Saito entering with Tabitha. Saito began to look embarassed. Louise begins feeling confident and starts teasing Saito.
"Y, you're making me embarassed to look at you!"
Saito screamed. A loud victory song rang through Louise's heart.
"It's way too tight!"
Eh? Too tight?
"Siesta, isn't that Louise's one-piece? Don't wear something like that! You know your sizes don't match! So, you know, like, your various body parts, I mean, your body lines are all, um, anyway it's embarassing for me to look! And what will you do if somebody sees you!?"
Oh, her.
The victory song collapses loudly within Louise.
Siesta, who was standing beside Louise, whispered "don't~" and squirmed.
"It's embarassing if you keep staring at me like that"
"I'm the one embarassed here! Geez!"
As for Louise, she asked Saito in a small voice.
"W, what about your master?"
"Eh? Oh yeah Louise, you're wearing something weird. What is that? A curtain?"
Curtain?
ROFL
p.151 - Louise can't use "explosion" for some reason...
p.163 - The Pope of Romalia brings a proposal to Henrietta...
p.169 - Louise can't use spells anymore? Oh and Derflinger tsundere
p.171 - Louise finally ran out of the spiritual power required to use void, it seems. Sad scene (´・ω・`)
p.174 - Saito gets kicked in the crotch for the second time
p.175 - A mysterious letter turned Louise deadly serious, she left the school without heeding to anyone's call
p.178 - The letter seems to be from someone in her family
p.179 - Henrietta declares her desire to relocate Tiffania (techically her cousin) to Tristan... Although you can tell it's not out of her own will... Once again, Henrietta seems to be burdened with another worry. Saito group promised to head to Albion right away to pick Tiffania up
p.180 - Louise and Henrietta, the two best friends, met and parted without exchanging a single word, troubled by their own problems...
p.182 - Gallia's seaside town, San Malon. Gallia's flagship, Orléans. An "experimental farm" in the countryside...
p.185 - All the big players are here at the "farm" (which appears to be some sort of factory), Josef, Sheffield, the elf Vidaschall (still can't romanize his name properly). And the completion of "Jormungand"...
p.190 - Jormungand... a knight golem standing over 25m tall, with armor impenetrable by even canon rounds, swift and fast moving, with enough strength to easily destroy even square class golems. Josef intends to create a while army of these monsters. And to give his golem a little field test, Josef turns his eyes to the people who liberated Tabitha from him...
p.192 - Saito and the gang arrives at Albion and heads toward the village of Westwood to meet Tiffania...
p.196 - They open the door of Tiffania's house, and there stood Tiffania.... and the Fouquet!?
p.197 - As Saito becomes enraged and attacks Fouquet, Tiffania intervenes, and refers to Fouquet as "Matilda-neesan"...?
p.201 - Fouquet was the daughter of the governer-general that used to serve Tiffania's father, the country's treasurer. When Tiffania first arrived at the village after escaping from the king's pursuer, it was Fouquet and her family who looked after her. On top of that, the Fouquet has been supplying Tiffania and the orphans with money for their living expenses... Tiffania doesn't seem to know how Fouquet got the money or what she has been doing. Under pressure from Fouquet, plus his own concerns for Tiffania, Saito lied about Fouquet's true identity and told Tiffania that Fouquet is a "treasure hunter"...
p.202 - Even though they're not fighting anymore, the atmosphere between Saito's group and Fouquet is tense. One exception is Louise, who has been silent and "out-of-here" ever since she lost her ability to cast spells.
p.204 - As Saito proposed his intent to Tiffania, he was ready for Fouquet's objection... But to everyone's surprise, Fouquet agreed with Saito's proposal
p.207 - Before leaving in the middle of the night, Fouquet has a little chat with Saito, before leaving him with
"You should go back to your homeland once in a while too. Go show your face in front of your parents. Do it before you lose a place to go back to, like me"
p.208 - While Saito sat on the sofa thinking, Louise came, as Saito extended his hands in the darkness, he felt Louise's face. It's wet from tears...
p.209 - Louise questioned Saito's true feelings about going home. Saito learned that the letter Louise received was from Kattleya, and detailed what Saito said to her the other night.
p.210 - Louise askes Saito why he never crys in front of her... When Tabitha appeared from behind and answered "Because he's a familiar"...
p.212 - Could it be that the Gandalfr's rune is affecting Saito's mind and causing him to not think about his homeland and making him to think in a way that benefits his master?
p.214 - Before you know it, everyone is awake and offered their own opinions. Everyone agrees that ever since Saito and Louise got back together, Saito has been acting strangly, almost as if he awakened to some kind of weird sense of duty...
"There are two melodies playing inside your heart right now. I hate to admit it but it's true. And I can't allow this duet to continue playing forever"
p.215 - Louise askes Tiffania to use her void powers to "erase" the "fake motives" inside Saito, before running off
"I really want to help you, but, it's impossible for me right now. Not as Louise the Zero......"
p.220 - After collapsing from Tiffania's spell. Saito wakes up in Tiffania's house, with Tabitha by his side, while everyone else has already left. Saito awoke to a refreshed feeling... then gets hit with "homesickness" in full force, as his "false motives" have been dispelled.
p.223 - As Saito breaks down, he wonders if his feelings for Louise is from the rune's "false motive" as well...
"Hey Derf"
"What?"
"My.... you know, feelings towards Louise, are they fake emotions from the "familiar's rune" as well?"
Derflingers thinks for a while.......
"Who knows. I don't know about that one either. It's partner's heart we're talking about here"
"If it's true...... then what am I supposed to do?"
"Now, I wonder about that too"
p.225 - Kirche is sharp, she knows Louise ran away because she's afraid of finding out whether Saito's love is real or "fake".
p.231 - Jormungand and Sheffield appears to attack the group while Saito is away, figures.
p.236 - As Saito continues to feel troubled over his feelings, his Gandalfr ability informs him of his master's crisis...
"Hmm?"
The troubled Saito's left eye suddenly hazed, reflecting a giant knight figure. Inside his left eye's view, he sees himself in the air, swaying violently. Guiche and the others can be seen far away as well.
It's Louise's viewpoint, just like that time long ago.
That thing where the master's sight is channeled to his eye when she is in danger......
"Geez...... Why does her timing has to be so bad?"
While watching the scary-looking knight figure going into a rage, Saito said in a bored voice. Derflinger, leaning against the wall beside Saito, called out to him.
"The little chick's in trouble, yeah?"
"Yeah. I can see it. In my left eye, it's showing clearly"
"What are you gonna do? I'll be straight, if you don't give a damn about her anymore, then just leave her. A Gandalfr without the tremble in his heart is nothing but a burden. It'll be useless to go. And I don't wanna get dragged into it either"
Saito, together with a deep sigh, mumbled,
"I wish they could've just erased my familiar ability together too"
"Why?"
"If they did, then I wouldn't have to go, now would I?"
Derflinger laughed cracklingly
"That's true"
Saito stood up and grabbed Derflinger.
"Tabitha, take me to them"
"So partner, do you like the little chick?"
In a dissappointed voice, Saito saidm
"It's no good. I don't like her after all. That woman, she's so selfish and stupid and always so proud of herself..... Plus recently she's been getting all carried away and is even ordering me to praise her too. Now that I think about this calmly, I don't like her one bit after all. Hell, if you ask me I'm actually pissed. Why the hell is she losing anyway? What an annoyance"
"Then why are you going to help her?"
"....Even though that's the kind of girl she is, as much as I hate to admit it, my heart races when I see her. If this is what they call love at first sight, I would like to curse at its existence. I'd like to think that it's an accident that could've been avoided if I knew her personality better. Ahh shoot, and just when I was almost able to shake her loose too...... wait, eh?"
In the next moment, Saito walked up against Tabitha in a shock.
"Hey, did you laugh just now?"
"Just your imagination"
"Come on, you laughed right!? Hey!"
Sylphid appeared beside the window. Tabitha jumped up. Saito, holding onto Derflinger, hopped on too.
"Hold on tight. We fly"
Tabitha said in her usual tone.
p.241 - Saito makes his last second rescue, just like he did in vol.8... But still... for some reason it felt like such an emotional moment here. Maybe because Saito returned out of his own feelings, unbound by any obligations or controls...
Just when Louise was about to be crushed by Jormungand, Saito dashed in and rescued her... (I gotta translate this one
)
"What do you think you're doing?"
Louise turned around to the fed-up voice, and there sat Saito on the ground.
Louise opened her eyes wide, and yelled,
"A, and what do you think you're doing!? I didn't call for you!"
She turned her eyes to Tabitha next,
"Tabitha! You too! Didn't I ask you to help Saito find a way home!?"
"You know, that's not the kind of attitude you should have towards people who just saved you"
Hmph, Louise crossed her arms and said,
"......Really, it looks like Tiffania's magic didn't work! Look, this dummy still showed up like this"
"No, it worked. It totally worked. To be honest, it felt almost as if I have been sleep-talking up until now. "Things I can do in this world"? Even though there's no internet? No way! Even though there's no teriyaki burger? Impossible! Hell, I must've been drunk. How embarassing. And all of this is your fault too, Ms. Louise the Zero"
"Eh?"
"But then you went and did something completely pointless..... Compared to now, I'm probably better off the way I was before. What void? What erasure of false memory? Thanks to you I remembered everything. A whole year's worth of memories. Look, I cried like a friggin baby. And I still haven't found a way back either!"
Saito pointed to his red swollen eyes.
Louise turned her head to the side and looked away
"I, isn't that nice? Now you can go find a way home without any worries! Don't say anything stupid like "things I can accomplish in this world" anymore, okay!?"
"Yeah. Thanks to you I feel like the fogginess in front of my eyes are gone now. Really, who give a damn about this world. I don't know anything about void or holy land or whatever, but do whatever the hell you people want. I'm going home, that's right, I'm going home"
"Baka! Baka baka! Then go already! Why don't you just leave me then!?"
"Yeah, I don't care about you, but look, don't you see Kirche, Guiche, and Tiffania are all in trouble over there? Siesta and the princess, and Tabitha's mom too, I can't leave them all yet either, now can I? Don't think the whole world revolves around you. I'm only here to save my friends!"
"What did you say?"
"That's the most I can do for "the things I can do in this world"! I realized that! Remember this! Before you call me a Gandalfr, I am a single person! I'm Hiraga Saito!"
Louise felt her blood rising to the top of her head. There are no longer logical reasonings, but emotional outbursts.
"And me? What about me!? Are you saying I'm not included in there at all!? Geez! So all those I love yous were because you're a familiar after all! How pathetic!"
Saito screamed in a voice beyond anger.
"Hey! Nobody would like a girl who doesn't say anything even though he has confessed to her so many times! If you find one, bring him to me, I'll give him a medal!"
"Eh?"
"What's wrong with you? Here we have a girl who can never get anyone to take her seriously, always so proud of herself, has horrible bedside manners, don't wear panties, and has disabled chest, so I tell her I like her out of pity, and she actually believes it. On top of that she gets carried away and orders me to praise her more. Taunting me with all those teasers, and just when I figured I'll play along out of pity, she say it's a reward for the familiar and tell me I'm misunderstanding and disgusting for drooling. Stop being so proud of yourself even when both your head and chest are zeroes, you moron. Peach hair airhead"
"Well, t, that's because...... Wait, actually, I didn't even go that far...... aren't you taking advantage of the confusion and slipping in some mean comments in there? I'm at fault here too, so this time, well, I'll forgive you, but aren't those usually the kind of words that'll make me kill you three times over?"
"Shuddap. Like I said, the love I have for you is simply the pity I have towards a poor girl, as well as, and this is me taking a hundred steps back, love as a familiar. It's nothing more and nothing less than that. From now on, that's what it'll be"
"Wait a minute! That's mean! So mean! It's too mean!"
Saito you rule.
p.247 - Even with Saito's help, the Jormungand's thick armor is far too tough for Derflinger. Just when everything looked hopeless...
p.249 - Tabitha french kisses Saito → Louise explodes with anger → her "spiritual power" refills → "Explosion" blows Jormungand up
p.254 - Sheffield picks up Jormungand's pieces after Saito and the rest left for Tristan, and schemes to improve the golem to defend against even "explosion"
Epilogue - A sweet moment between Saito and Louise, Louise claims she's the one being controlled, and kisses Saito.
Now this is a love story