The Princess of Tristain

"" (トリステインの姫君, Torisutein no Himegimi) is episode 5 of the anime series, The Familiar of Zero.

Summary
In the dead of night, Fouquet uses her magic to enter a home and steal some jewels. At Tristain Academy of Magic, Louise is training Saito for an upcoming competitive show of familiars. Saito suggests a performance where he washes Louise’s panties, but that doesn’t go over so well with her. Instead, she decides that he should do something with Derflinger, but Saito remember how he wasn’t able to use a sword against Count Mott last time. He goes out and tries to swing Derflinger, but he just looks like an idiot. He’s lying on the ground when Siesta comes by, wondering if he’s practicing for the competition. All the second years are training for it, especially since this year Princess Henrietta is coming. After they talk, Siesta is about to go, but she turns back to tell Saito to do his best.

With much fanfare, Henrietta arrives the next day. Saito notices that Louise is slightly blushing as she watches on from the crowd. By that evening, Saito still hasn’t come up with a performance for the competition. He suggests panty washing again which gets Louise pissed off again. Fortunately for Saito, a knocking on the door saves him from a beating. The cloaked girl who comes in is none other than Henrietta, and she immediately hugs Louise. It seems that the two girls were childhood friends. Back then, Louise had said that if Henrietta ever wanted to cry because she was sad, she should just tell Louise and Louise would give her a hug. Henrietta had promised back that she’d definitely help when Louise is troubled. The current Henrietta has been wanting to meet both Louise and Saito. Because of their childhood promise, she was the one who used her powers to get rid of the blame on them for the Count Mott incident. When Henrietta has to go, she gives Louise a hug and tells Saito to do his best tomorrow. Louise gets pissed off when Saito tries to act cool and tells Henrietta to look forward to it. Louise tries to hit him for saying that, but Saito continually dodges her attacks. Henrietta puts on her cloak and leaves, commenting on how it’s as she thought: freedom is the best treasure.

The next day, all of the second years get to show off their familiars in the competition. When it is Louise’s turn, everyone laughs because she has to introduce her familiar as a commoner. Saito quiets them all down by trying to act cool with Derflinger, but he makes a fool of himself instead. Louise has to drag him offstage by the ear. Meanwhile, Fouquet has come onto the academy grounds and is trying to get into the treasure room. She summons a golem outside, but then gets spotted by Louise and Saito. When the golem tries to grab both of them, Saito pushes Louise out of the way. Saito tries to tell Louise to run away, but she doesn’t. Instead, she casts a fireball in order to free Saito. Being Louise the Zero though, she misfires and almost scorches Saito. But in addition, her spell also managed to crack the outer wall of the treasure vault. Seeing the opportunity, Fouquet has her golem punch the crack to break open a hole.

Back at the competition, Tabitha had been chosen as the winner. Henrietta asked to see Tabitha’s dragon Sylph fly again, so she took to the air. Right as she’s doing so, the ground shakes from the golem punching the wall. Sylph and Tabitha fly over just in time to see the Fouquet running out of the vault after having stolen the Staff of Destruction. And so when the golem drops Saito, Sylph is there to catch him. Fouquet ends up getting away, and in the aftermath, Louise tries to apologize to Henrietta. The princess doesn’t blame Louise and although she has to go for now, she wants to see them again soon. Once Henrietta leaves, Louise expresses her concern about Henrietta being held responsible for what happened. She’s heard some bad rumors lately about the royal court. The thing that’s been bothering Saito is why Louise didn’t run when he got caught earlier. Louise answers that a mage who abandons their familiar is not a mage.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Fouquet
 * Saito Hiraga
 * Louise de la Vallière
 * Derflinger
 * Siesta
 * Osmond
 * Longuevuille
 * Kirche von Zerbst
 * Malicorne de Grandple
 * Montmorency de Montmorency
 * Guiche de Gramont
 * Charlotte de Gallia
 * Jean Colbert
 * Henrietta de Tristain