Louise's Change of Heart

"" (ルイズの変心, Ruizu no Henshin) is episode 9 of the anime series, The Familiar of Zero.

Summary
Under the influence of the potion, Louise doesn’t even want Saito to leave her side to do the laundry because she thinks he’s going to see another girl. She finally lets him go, but tells him to hurry up and come back since she’ll be lonely. The night before, Montmorency had explained that Louise had indeed drunken a love potion, but “Monmon” (as Saito calls her) didn’t know how long the effect would last. In any case, Siesta now walks over and sees Louise clinging to Saito. Louise, in turn, becomes quite jealous of Siesta. Saito tries to explain himself to both girls, but succeeds only in losing both of them. He chooses to go after Siesta and tells her about the love potion. However, she thinks he’s lying since potions that change people’s hearts are prohibited by law.

Saito returns to Louise’s room thinking that she would be angry, but instead he finds her waiting for him on her bed wearing only her nightgown. When Saito tries to get her to put some clothes on, she pulls him onto the bed and gets him to feel her beating heart. This causes him to fall off the bed, but he gets back up with a determination to return Louise to normal. Saito pays a visit to Montmorency and Guiche, demanding to know how to fix Louise. Montmorency eventually tells him that they need spirit’s tears, which are hard to get. By blackmailing her with the potion law he learned from Siesta, Saito manages to coerce Montmorency into revealing that there’s a water spirit at Lake Lagdorian and into coming along with him.

The next day, the group arrives at Lagdorian and finds the lake flooded over the town there. The Spirit of Water there at first rejects Montmorency’s request, but when Saito gets on his knees and sincerely asks, the water spirit explains that she’s been under attack. Saito agrees to deal with the attackers in exchange for the water spirit’s tears. That night, the group hides out in the forest and sees two cloaked figures approach the water. Saito is about to go attack them by himself, but Guiche stops him and suggests that Saito attempt a surprise attack while Guiche uses his magic. The two go through with the plan, but their opponents are able to stop them both, even when Saito had his rune activated. With Saito down, Louise steps up and uses her magic with the usual explosive results. The blast blows off the hoods of their opponents, revealing them to be actually Kirche and Tabitha.

Realizing who the other side is, both groups trade stories. It seems that Kirche and Tabitha are after the water spirit because of Tabitha’s orders. Saito decides to have Montmorency call up the water spirit again so that he can ask it why it’s flooding the area. As it turns out, the water spirit is actually angry because its treasure was stolen – the Ring of Andvari. The only thing that the water spirit can tell them about the person who took it is that his name was Cromwell. Saito promises to return the ring, and the water spirit believes him because he is the Gandálfr. As proof, it passes them the tears that they wanted, the ones that will return Louise back to normal. Of course, the group still doesn’t understand the Gandálfr angle.

Unfortunately for Saito, Louise kept all her memories even after the effect of the love potion was removed. She’s about to beat him up again back in their room at Tristain, but the two are interrupted when Henrietta floats in through the window. Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location, Fouquet and another man are with someone whom Fouquet refers to as Cromwell.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Louise de la Vallière
 * Saito Hiraga
 * Montmorency de Montmorency
 * Guiche de Gramont
 * Siesta
 * Spirit of Water
 * Derflinger
 * Kirche von Zerbst
 * Charlotte de Gallia
 * Henrietta de Tristain
 * Oliver Cromwell
 * Fouquet
 * Masked Man