Disclaimer: I do not own and/or claim to own any recognizable and/or licensed material in this work of fiction in any way, shape, and/or form. I am not attempting to and/or making a profit in any way, shape, and/or form from this work of fiction. All recognizable and/or licensed material appearing in this work of fiction belongs to the owners in every way, shape, and/or form to the fullest extent of the law.

AN: See! Double update!

In the infirmary wing of the Tristian Academy of Magic, one Noble simply laid awake in his bed, long before the servants would arrive with the occupants' breakfast, he merely lied awake in deep thought for the most part. The words of Louise's knight and his, in all but a few ways, doppelganger stayed with him well past his encounters with both.

"You have done well Mr. Gramont." The knight took a step back as the two clashed blades-

"I am not impressed." The knight, now in full armor-

"Come to me with all you have and let this battle be immortal!" The knight attacked him then, Guiche using a bronze sword to repel the first strike-

"This was not a battle to me Guiche de Gramont." The knight grasped his sword with one hand, his voice holding disappointment-

"Let this be the end of our battle!" The knight drew back the bow in his hand, Guiche grinning as he flicked his wand out to the side, a rose blooming-

"Make peace for a single shot will kill you."

"What is wrong with me?" Guiche rubbed at his eyes, hoping to clear up his vision as two very different scenes played out in his mind. "Am I hallucinating?"

The battle he faced with Louise's knight was near legendary, not the onesided contest in the knight's favor his mind was attempting to make him accept as truth. He had never once felt fear during the battle he had with the knight, not the ever present feeling of the emotion gnawing at his thoughts and resolve ever since he walked onto the courtyard. He was a Noble and one of the great Gramont family with it! He could not possibly feel such a thing as fear, only a commoner would ever feel such a cowardly emotion in battle!

'I must be hallucinating, it's the only way to explain what I saw once the knight brought me here.' Guiche remembered quite vividly the fever dream he had suffered through, one where the all but doppelganger of the knight he had faced in combat had showed him a nightmarish and hellish world, a world where the noble knight he faced was a demon who delighted in the suffering of his victims, rejoiced at the mere sight of a woman who's exotic beauty he could not begin to describe but he knew she was twisted, dark, and vile merely looking at her. 'I must have been more injured than I imagined when I was brought here.'

The knight he encountered in the visions brought on by his fever dream showed him something different, something that did not fit the memories he had and now his mind was wracked with pain as he attempted to look through it all. Louise's knight, as he remembered their encounter before the duel and at the summoning, was always courteous if threatening at first but his all but clone showed him something different. Showed him the knight as little more than a demon, demonic black steel and a sword wrapped in fires his true self. The image of a knight in gleaming silver plate and an equally as magnificent sword at his side was simply that, an image and one Louise's knight did not attempt to maintain for long. His memory, his mind, felt damaged in so many ways yet he could not even begin to start to heal them, it was as if everything now held inconsistencies.

Even his memories of his time with Louise felt off now, as if they did not truly exist yet he knew they were the truth. The memories he could associate with the knight brought no feeling from him, as if he did not truly experience any of them, while those that he knew to be real, the memories that must be true, those of his time with Louise, brought forth some type of feeling from him.

"My, the Zero thinks she can actually show her face after that disaster yesterday? I'm surprised you haven't run home yet, little girl." Kirche's mocking voice carried across the room, the pink haired Noble almost turning and fleeing if not for the fact that Guiche was behind her, one hand gently resting on her back as he glared at Zerbst.

"Watch your tongue Germanian." The blonde's Nobles words silenced Kirche, at least for now, before he turned to Louise, drawing his wan-

"GAH!" Guiche grabbed at his head, feeling as if he would be sick for a moment as an image settled over his own, one of the knight and a smiling Louise. He struggled to keep himself from falling off of the bed and barely succeeded as he took a moment to collect himself, taking several deep breaths before he came back to himself.

'Why does that keep happening?'

"Guiche, please don't leave me."

"By the Founder this is confusing!" Guiche withheld himself from truly shouting, his hands balling into fists as he tried to understand what was happening to him, stopping himself from attempting to rip his hair out. "Why does this keep happening to me?"

The blonde Noble let out a sigh as he looked around at the slowly brightening infirmary, sunlight streaming through the windows as the curtains began to open themselves, no doubt thanks to the matron setting them to.

"Why can't I keep my thoughts together?" Guiche sighed before he saw the door open and the matron walked in with the Headmaster.

"Mr. Gramont is making a wonderful recovery, he should be released in a few days but I understand if you want to see him now Headmaster."

"Thank you, I've been curious to speak with Mr. Gramont ever since I heard of his rapid recovery once Ms. Valliere paid him a visit."

"I'm afraid the same can't be said for Ms. Zerbst through, she still remains mostly the same." The two briefly stopped at the Germanian Noble's bed, both merely observing the wounded Noble.

"That is a shame, I hope she can recover soon."

"I hope the same, we have several months before she is due to return to Germania at least."

"Yes, despite the situation, we are rather fortunate."

"Yes…I shall leave you two." The matron's words received no reply as she turned and left, the Headmaster stopping next to Guiche's bed.

"And how are you today Mr. Gramont?" Osmond slowly sat down in the chair next to the blonde's bed, the Noble staring at the headmaster visiting him for a moment before he gave his best attempt at a bow while bedridden.

"Headmaster Osmond, I'm delighted to see you here but why are you spending your time here instead of someplace else?" Guiche eyed the headmaster, a strange feeling coming from the aged Noble but one he wrote off as simply his discomfort with being in the infirmary so he took a moment to adjust himself on the numerous pillows keeping him upright.

"I merely wish to see how one of my students is doing after his honorable if somewhat foolish duel with Ms. Valliere's Familiar." At his words, Guiche held his head, a lance of pain shooting through it at the mere mention of the duel and his action was noted by the Headmaster. "Is something the matter Mr. Gramont?"

"I believe it's just migraines Headmaster, nothing some rest won't fix." Guiche's words brought a nod from the Headmaster as he rose from his chair.

"Then I won't keep you any longer, I believe my questions can always wait for later." The Headmaster made to turn around but paused as he laid a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "I insist that you get some rest Mr. Guiche and I will hope we can continue our conversation later."

"Yes, I'll do that."

"Yes, we need to speak." Unbidden, Guiche's eyes closed and he drifted off as the Headmaster left the infirmary, deep in his own thoughts at the moment.

"Sir Kaine, I've never slept so well before, even at the Academy." Louise walked through the woods with the knight, a small laugh escaping him as he glanced above them, Tabitha flying lazily above them on Sylphid, a book in her arms and her eyes focused down on it even if she was supposed to be watching for any potential dangers from the skies.

"Nature is quite the difference maker at times. I find it quite relaxing at times as well, my sleep is much deeper and peaceful out here than anywhere else."

"I can see why." Louise briefly stopped, smiling as she took in the peaceful forest around her. "I feel at ease here, mostly thanks to you Sir Kaine."

"I am grateful that such peace of mind has reached you my Queen." Kaine offered Louise a small smile when the pink haired Noble turned to him, the knight stopping for a moment to seemingly admire the world around him as Louise did the same.

'I will have to be busy tonight.' Kaine suppressed the desire to sigh as the thought struck him, a large list of problems he would need to solve very quickly. 'I have never been good at this but with the Chevalier here it makes my preferred method for dealing with it all impossible. If she wasn't so observant perhaps I could get away with more but I shall not risk any possible harm to Her Majesty.'

"Might I suggest we rest for a while, I doubt you are used to the armor I've given you." Kaine himself was dressed in his full armor, a dark green cloak to blend in with the rich foliage as well as hide his gleaming silver armor the only addition worth mentioning.

"I must once again thank you for this wonderful gift Sir Kaine." Louise looked down in marvel at her knight's gift to her and Kaine only offered a small smile as he looked over her changed appearance.

Louise's attire had suffered quite the change by a gift from Kaine when she woke up in the morning.

"My Queen, may I present to you a gift." Kaine bowed as he offered the Noble a smile, a set of freshly made armor resting at her feet along with something the knight held in his hands.

"Kaine…" Louise stared at the armor, wide-eyed as she approached it, almost too stunned for words. "It's beautiful."

It was truly beautiful, every line, every curve, every design in place on the armor spoke of the work of a master craftsman, someone of legendary skill and the Noble remained stunned as she took in its dark colors that were strangely comforting, freshly polished before her. Louise found it impossible to bring herself to touch such a masterpiece, such a work of art, let alone wear such a masterpiece. She would think it was to be displayed in a museum but such a thing would be an even greater insult, it was crafted for war, not for display.

"It hardly fits the beauty of you, my Queen." Kaine rose back to his full height, his smile still in place as he walked over to stand behind the armor. "Yet I have done my best, I am not as skilled as I would like to be but I feel royal steel will protect you much better than the cloak the Academy provided you."

"But you must have worked all night on this!" Louise continued to marvel at the armor, almost afraid to touch it until Kaine reached over and gently took hold of her wrists to help her do so.

"I have done it all out of love for you my Queen." Kaine's hands guided Louise's to rest on the breastplate, black marked with a dark gold and a language the Noble could not decipher traveled in elegant scroll across the armor, in many ways looking alive despite its stillness. "I wish only the best for you on this journey and I wish only the best for your health because of it."

"Sir Kaine, I can't begin to tell you how great of a gift this is." Louise couldn't keep the smile off her face as she reached past the armor, wrapping her arms around Kaine as he only offered her a small laugh.

"I am glad you enjoy simply gazing at it, perhaps I can help you try it on as well?"

"Of course!"

Louise's eyes brightened at the memory, one hand reaching under the cloak, fingertips running across the gift from Sir Kaine, her knight truly wonderful for the gift even if Tabitha seemed a bit upset with her own set of armor but wore it regardless once she asked her. The blue haired Noble was welcome company, mainly because she wasn't someone that had mocked her before Kaine had arrived, she was one of the few to not torment her almost daily with her failures. At the same time through, she did nothing to stop it either, she was only an observer at best but her choice of company made her almost as bad as the others. Zerbst was always the ringleader, the boys of the school mindlessly followed the Germanian because of her personality and while Tabitha may have never been one of Zerbst's lackeys, she was still her friend.

'If only she didn't enjoy spending time with that filthy Zerbst we could be friends.' Louise's eyes briefly darkened as she remembered her tormentor before she allowed herself to remember other things, namely Zerbst near death after her "oh so great and wonderful" Familiar went wild and nearly killed her. 'It serves Zerbst right for tormenting me like that, I'd wish she was dead but this is much better.'

"My Queen, how much longer do you wish to follow this path?" Kaine settled down next to Louise, the pink haired Noble leaning back against a nearby tree to rest for the moment.

"I don't know in all honesty Kaine. We have no idea where Zerbst's attacker disappeared at, only the general area being these woods but they look to stretch forever in any given direction." Louise looked slightly disappointed as she spoke, either from not having a clear lead or merely mentioning Zerbst was unknown even to the knight with her.

"My Queen, if I may ask, can't your friend's dragon track Zerbst's assailant by scent?" Kaine looked up towards the dragon, offering a smirk to the blue haired Noble when she caught him doing so and Sylphid quickly flew elsewhere at the urging of her master.

"I doubt Tabitha has trained her dragon to do anything like that and we don't have the time to waste if her Familiar makes a mistake, we'll never catch them then and I would have failed Headmaster Osmond and lost the great deal of trust he has placed in me." Louise's eyes darkened at the mere thought of failure, something Kaine took note of before he looked towards the sky again, spotting the annoying Chevalier long gone for the moment, no doubt her fear overrode her devotion to her mission at the moment. "I would have asked Headmas-"

Ignoring the girl for very briefly, Kaine's eyes flickered over to the trees around the two of them and his eyes briefly narrowed before he turned his eyes back to the pink haired Noble. He dimly took in the fact that she was still talking about what she wished she had to complete the mission when the knight held back the urge to look behind him.

'Amateurs.'

"-wish we could have prepared more. I guess we'll have to track down who was behind the attack in another way." Louise sighed as she turned to the knight next to her, just as she could have sworn she saw the woods around them move but immediately wrote it off.

"I see, then I will see what I can do." Kaine rose to his feet as he spoke before offering the Noble a kind smile as a silver gauntlet trailed across the edges of her vision. "I bid you to sleep for now, My Queen."

"I think I will Sir Kaine." Louise yawned as she drifted off, the peace of the woods around her helping her to do so with ease, the golden dust that seemed to settle around her from Kaine's hand only helped as she felt a strange if oddly comforting warmth from it. "I feel so tired…"

"Do not worry, your knight is here my Queen. Sleep…" Kaine's words had the desired effect as Louise's eyes closed, the knight merely observing her for a moment before adjusting the cloak on her shoulders and pulling up the hood, the Noble seemingly fading into the rich foilage around her as he did so. "…and do not awake until I have returned to your side."

Quickly, Kaine rose to his full height yet again and with only a brief look to his queen, a blue mist seemed to engulf him before he simply vanished, the displaced dirt hanging in the air as a brief dust the only sign of his movements.

Tristain Academy of Magic, Outside Jean Colbert's Personal Quarters….

"Thank you Siesta, I can take it from here." The maid only nodded, very quickly leaving the faculty wing of the school and heading back to her duties.

Privately, being anywhere near any of the professors, especially someone like Colbert, terrified most of the staff. The children they could all handle, they hardly acknowledged them but some of the professors were different, terrifyingly so to most and Colbert was one of them. The staff knew about his past, his less than clean records from the Royal Army. He may have resigned in good standing but word spread quickly away from the Nobles and by now every servant knew what he had done, why he hid away from the world in the Academy now.

"Jean, how are you feeling?" Longueville gently closed the door behind her despite her arms being filled at the moment with several large books, the bald professor offering her a small smile as he put the book he was reading on the side.

"I'm doing fine, I just wish Osmond would allow me to continue my work out of bed." Strewn across the bed were various papers and books, testament to Colbert's continued research even after the headmaster had confined him to bedrest indefinitely. "I can't help but wish to see how Louise is doing with my own eyes."

"I can tell you if you're really that worried about her." Longueville sat the books down next to her as she sat down on the edge of the bed, sighing as she thought on Louise's situation.

"I'm relatively fine not knowing Ms. Longueville, a few more days of not knowing won't kill me." Colbert attempted to joke but it was clearly forced, he was beyond worried about Louise and whatever the demon she had summoned had done to her after he had been confined to his chambers by Osmond and a mere look from Longueville made him sigh as he looked down at his blanket covered legs. "I can't help but worry for her, she's a lot like family to me, and I can't bear to see her in anymore pain than she already is."

"I won't lie to you Osmond…things, things don't look good at the moment." Longueville couldn't look at Colbert, the professor gently reaching out to the green haired woman, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up Ms. Longueville, I shouldn't have asked about her."

"No." Longueville pulled his hand from her shoulder, offering him a small smile as she held his hand. "I'm glad you care for Ms. Valliere so much, especially with everything she's been through since she's been enrolled in the academy."

"I should have done so much more for her…so much more…" Jean found Longueville's grip reassuring as he looked down at the numerous papers across his bed. "I should have been there for her these past few days but I couldn't be, just another failure to add to my already large list it seems."

"Don't blame yourself Jean, blame the demon poisoning Louise's mind." Longueville's words did little to reassure the professor but it did turn the normally calm man angry, his eyes focusing on the stone wall in front of him, the heat of the room rising.

"I intend to face the creature when Ms. Valliere returns."

"JEAN!"

"It's the only way to save her, the demon's bonds to her must be broken and the only way to do so is to face him in combat, the only thing he would agree to."

"But it's suicidal! Even if it was kind, it did not show Mr. Gramont any mercy when they fought each other! It destroyed the boy and nearly killed him if Ms. Valliere didn't save him!"

"I know, that's why I intend to fight it. I know how it fights now, how it relies on his swordsmanship to face any opponent. I can kill it if only given the time I need which I am sure I can achieve."

"But Jean, that creature only grows stronger the longer its stays bond to Louise! I can't let you go out there just to die!"

"I am not weak Ms. Longueville! I did not earn my moniker because I was lucky!" The heat around the room exploded, the source of it clear to be coming from the enraged professor as Longueville hastily grabbed him, snapping him out of his trance just as the paper around him began to smolder.

"Jean…"

"I-I'm sorry Ms. Longueville." Colbert looked down, his eyes focused on the slightly blackened papers on the bed. "I-I lost control of myself…"

"Jean…I understand, everyone understands with how close the two of you were."

"I just can't fail her Ms. Longueville…I can't fail her again."

"You never failed her Jean, you did everything you could."

"And look at what's happened, a demon controls her every waking moment!"

"And you have already thought of a plan to destroy it."

"I-I just need to do more, I've already failed her so much ever since she's come to the Academy that I can't bear the thought of doing so again."

"Jean…"

The green haired woman did the only thing she could do as she wrapped her arms around the professor, offering him someone to hold onto when he felt like nothing but a failure.

"Jean…"

AN: Well, now it's time for a few honest questions about Zero's Knight:

1) On a scale of like 1 to 10, how much do you like this story?

2) How do you like Kaine and Louise's relationship?

3) Would you care if I just murdered Guiche?

4) Do you think Osmond's going to beat Kaine?

Well, enough questions, time for answers to reviews:

Guest: Hey, I don't really set out to please everybody and the beginning is pretty bad in my opinion

Paxloria: Sorry about all that, sorry about the lack of page breaks as well.

ShattereddAngel: I won't deny the part of him being psycho crazy. The pairing? No idea if that would work...