The Princess' Request

"" (姫君の依頼, Himegimi no Irai) is episode 10 of the anime series, The Familiar of Zero.

Summary
Henrietta arrives in Louise’s room and quickly gets down to business – she has a request. She explains that she’s going to be getting married to someone from Germania for the purpose of an alliance. In other words, it’s a political marriage. As the princess of Tristain, Henrietta knows that her own choices are sacrificed for the sake of the country. But before that, she wants Louise to go collect a certain something. It seems that Henrietta sent a letter to the Prince of Wales of the Kingdom of Albion. If people found out about this letter, then the engagement to Germania would be broken off. When Saito wonders out loud what kind of letter would break off an engagement, Louise kicks him in the shin. Anyway, the problem is that Albion is currently in an unstable political situation, so it’s in a rather dangerous state because of a revolt. Henrietta seems ready to break down in tears, so Louise gladly accepts this mission. It’s at this point that Saito notices someone eavesdropping from outside the door. The person turns out to be Guiche, and he had overheard everything. Henrietta recognizes his last name (Gramont), and she asks him to go along with Saito and Louise, much to their surprise.

Saito is later doing laundry, talking to himself about how Guiche will just be a burden, when Siesta comes by to apologize for being rude to him during the love potion incident. Saito doesn’t mind since Louise was returned to normal, but thinking about what the water spirit said reminds him again of the Gandálfr moniker. He asks Siesta if there’s someone at this school who knows a lot about history, and she sends him to go see Colbert. The professor explains that there are four magic elements (fire, water, earth, and wind), though originally there were five. The lost element is nothingness or “void” and the Gandálfr is the familiar of the legendary mage who can use void. Colbert notes that although Saito has a rune on his hand that resembles the Gandálfr’s rune, there’s no proof that he is the Gandálfr because there isn’t a void mage. Even Saito doesn’t think that Louise is the legendary one. Saito then notices a foul smelling flask on Colbert’s table. The professor tells him that it is filled with dragon’s blood and recounts a story of two never-seen-before dragons that appeared in the sky a long time ago, one of which vanished and the other of which fell down somewhere. Saito seems doubtful of the dragon’s blood, and seems to recognize something about the smell.

Before bedtime, Louise expresses her doubts about being able to do this mission, so Saito reminds her that she’s gotten through everything so far. Saito makes Louise blush by telling her that he’d protect her if anything happens, though Louise then tries to pretend that that’s a given since he’s her familiar. The next morning, as the group is getting ready to set out, Louise looks at the Ruby of Water ring that Henrietta gave her. Henrietta had also mentioned that there would be one person coming to help escort her. But before that person appears, Guiche’s familiar Verdante pops out of the ground and goes after Louise’s ring because it loves jewels. Just as Louise is yelling for the guys to help her, a large wind blows out of nowhere and knocks Verdandi off of Louise. A man riding a griffin appears from the sky and introduces himself as the Griffin Knights Commander Wardes. But what really surprises Guiche and Saito is the fact that Wardes calls Louise his fiancée.

As the group starts their trip, Wardes tells Louise that he specially came himself to do this when he heard that she was the one in need of an escort. Riding behind the griffin carrying Louise and Wardes, Saito mocks Louise saying "What's the deal with this Lord Wardes thing?" with disdain. Eventually, the four of them arrive at the port city of La Rochelle and go to the inn where Wardes says that they’ll be staying until they depart tomorrow night. As Saito is putting his bags down, Louise feels the need to come over and explain that the fiancée thing was decided by her parents. Still, Saito can tell that she thinks quite highly of Wardes and Louise even admits that she admired him. It gets to the point where Saito thinks that it wasn’t necessary for him to come along, though Louise vehemently claims that he it was natural for him to come since he’s her familiar and then runs off. After she’s gone, the sword Derflinger wonders if Saito is love with Louise. Saito denies it, but is feeling down because he thinks it would have been better if he hadn’t told Louise that he’d protect her.

Over dinner, Wardes compliments Louise on how she was able to get a human for a familiar. In fact, he knows all about the duel between Saito and Guiche and about the Staff of Destruction and Fouquet. Wardes is very interested in Saito and requests a fighting match with him. Not thinking much of it, Saito agrees, but gets angry when Wardes tells Louise he’ll go easy on Saito. Wardes then takes Louise up to his room claiming that he has something important to tell her. Since Guiche decided to go out to hit on a girl, Saito ends up alone in his own room with Derflinger. He asks the sword about the Gandálfr and is surprised when Derflinger says that Saito is the Gandálfr. According to the talking sword, regardless of whether it’s 6,000 years ago or now, Derflinger’s partner is the Gandálfr. Saito is a bit skeptical about what Derflinger said since they had bought the sword from as a bargain from a weapon shop. However, Derflinger tells Saito that there are no coincidences in this world – Saito is Derflinger’s partner, that’s why Derflinger is here now. As for why Derflinger never mentioned this before, he claims it’s because Saito never asked. Saito now knows that he has the power to use weapons at will. But just using Derflinger doesn’t necessarily mean that Saito will win – that depends on himself.

Meanwhile, Louise and Wardes remember a time when she was little and had been crying after being scolded by her father. Wardes had come to comfort her and offered his hand so that they could go smooth things over with her father. The current Wardes explains that he knows that Louise has a special power that no one else has. He then surprises her by suggesting that they get married after this mission is over. He tells her that he needs her and then leans in to kiss her. Right before he is about to, he says that he will protect her, triggering Louise’s memory of when Saito had said the same thing. Louise utters Saito’s name, causing Wardes to stop his advance and pull back. As he leaves the room, Wardes says that for now he doesn’t want her answer to his proposal, but before this journey is over, he thinks that her heart will lean towards him. Downstairs, Guiche is getting rejected by the girl he was after. Watching from above is a masked man and a masked woman whose figures resemble Wardes and Fouquet, respectively. The next day, Wardes and Saito face off in their duel. Louise tries to order Saito to stop, but he ignores her and instead tells Wardes not to go easy on him. Saito starts the fight with several quick swings, but Wardes dodges or parries them all and notes how agile Saito is. Saito then uses the wall to gain speed and flies toward Wardes with Derflinger thrust out. As he’s parrying the thrust, Wardes comments on how Saito is still an amateur. The Griffin Corps Commander launches into a counterattack with several quick thrusts and follows it up with a spell that blasts Saito into a pile of barrels, knocking away Derflinger. Wardes says that Saito can’t win against a true mage with his skills – in other words, he can’t protect Louise.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Louise de la Vallière
 * Saito Hiraga
 * Henrietta de Tristain
 * Wales Tudor (Mentioned)
 * Guiche de Gramont
 * Siesta
 * Jean Colbert
 * Jean-Jacques Wardes
 * Kirche von Zerbst