If someone had asked her what Gil was after she summoned him with the Springtime Familiar Ritual, she would have just called him a Noble's son and left it at that.

However seeing the contemptuous ease in which Gilgamesh dispatched this 'Herakles', or 'Berserker'... she could honestly say that he scared her a little.

But that was nothing compared to what he did to Wardes.

Gil merely disliked the man and had found an excuse to expose him.

Gilgamesh seemed angry at him for some reason, and it wasn't until she went over how he phrased his anger at Wardes that she realized his anger was over Wardes taking something of 'his'.

The 'thing' Wardes took was her. Being labeled as a mere possession rather pissed her off, but even she wasn't stupid enough to say anything.

To be perfectly honest, she quickly realized why Gil apologized profusely on multiple occasions if "he" had to come out.

Gilgamesh was a complete ass.

"Who or what is that?" said Kirche, having caught up with them.

"Gilgamesh. The adult version of Gil," explained Tabitha.

"You're kidding. That sweet kid became that hunk?" said Kirche.

"Gil is sweet. Gilgamesh is an ass," said Louise.

Prince Wales had been silent up to that point. Louise had more or less explained things to him, but not who "Gilgamesh" was.

"What in the name of the Founder is going on?" asked Guiche.

"Wardes is a traitor and apparently his friends have legendary figures called 'heroic spirits' on his side. Gil broke into the chapel, attacked the mage holding me under a spell and I blew myself up to cause a big enough distraction. Unfortunately it seems Wardes' friends sent Berserker after us, so Gil had no choice but to turn into... him."

"Who is 'he'?" asked Guiche.

"Gilgamesh. King of Heroes. Oldest legend in existence in his world. Not very nice," summed up Tabitha.

"I'm almost tempted to go after him... if his usual self didn't keep calling me 'old'," sniffed Kirche.

Gil kept calling her 'Granny' to piss her off when he was first summoned. Mostly to stay on Louise's good side.

"What do we do now?" said Kirche.

"Well we can't leave Prince Wales here."

"Uh...actually it would be King Wales," said Guiche, his face a little green.

"...Do I want to know?" asked Louise.

"Statues. A lot of them. It took us a bit but we quickly realized that the weird statues in the castle were people. It looked permanent, and Ms. Longueville said there's no way to reverse it," said Guiche.

Whatever it was, it was powerful and deadly.

Wales looked horrified.

"My father is dead?" he said.

"He was wearing the crown and Ms. Longueville confirmed he was the king," said Guiche apologetically.

Seeing him break down, Louise put her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure Henrietta would be glad to take you and any survivors in. There's no point staying here. You'll just be killed."

Wales realized she had a point. There was no point in ruling over a castle filled with corpses. Sighing, he then turned to where a bored looking Gilgamesh was sitting on one of the few remaining chairs.

He recognized royalty when he saw it.

"Would you like to accompany us back to Tristian, your majesty?"

Gilgamesh snorted derisively.

"I have no intention of staying in such squalid conditions. At least that school is acceptable," said Gilgamesh arrogantly.

There was no describing how relieved everyone was when Gilgamesh's armor flared, and a sheepish Gil took his place.

"I did try to warn you," he said.

"You did, but you neglected to mention that Gilgamesh was a despot," said Louise tightly.

"I said there was a reason I didn't like him. Frankly I'm still baffled how I grew up to become like that in the first place."

"Believe me, we all are," said Kirche dryly.

"So what was that monster that attacked? And what was with all those ripples?" said Louise.

"That Monster was the Mad Servant Berserker. It has no reason and is more like a mad dog only intent on killing everything in it's path. However in exchange it has immense power. Add on top of that the fact someone managed to summon Herakles... well, if I had been any other hero you'd have been doomed at the very least."

"Who is Herakles?" asked Tabitha.

"Herakles, or 'Hercules' is the half-mortal son of Zeus. He was the strongest of the Greek servants, physically at least. When he completed the twelve labors, he was granted the gift of immortality and ascended to the realm of the Greek gods known as Olympus. Fortunately for us, I happen to be the child self of Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes. And Gilgamesh once used the chains of heaven to bind a god in order to kill it. The more divinity something has, the stronger the hold," said Gil.

"Kill a god?" said Kirche, jaw dropping incredulous.

"Well, a forest god anyway," admitted Gil.

"And the ripples?" said Louise.

"Gate of Babylon. I can't use it the same way my...other...self can because I don't have the power for it, but I can still access it. Aside from that we have almost all the same powers."

If they weren't already sitting, they would have sat down hard from information overload. This was a lot to take in.

"So what do we do with her now?" asked Kirche, nodding to Matilda, as her name apparently was.

"I'm going to offer myself as a voice for the commoners if the princess is willing. I've been on both sides of that fence, and as a mage without a noble title I'm uniquely suited to ferreting out rumors for her in exchange for a pardon and a decent paycheck. Besides, if I have to deal with one more day of that damn idiot using his mouse to look at my panties again or calling me a spinster I'm going to strangle him!" said Matilda angrily.

The girls all stared at the fuming secretary.

"The dean is a pervert?" said Louise cautiously.

Gil let out a laugh...before damn near collapsing off the dragon. He was exhausted. Louise yelped, being closest to him, before grabbing him before he fell off.

"Thanks. I'm going to take a long uninterrupted nap until we reach Henrietta. Wake me up only if Rider is stupid enough to piss me off," said Gil. It took little time before he conked out, his head firmly in Louise's lap.

"...So how do you have a king for a familiar? And why was Wardes so set on controlling you?" asked Wales, changing the subject.

Louise winced.

"Well it's like this..."

Henrietta was looking at a tired Gil, an exhausted and angry Louise, and a sad Wales. It had taken little time for her to enjoy being reunited with her beloved Prince...now King if their reports were correct.

One of the hardest blows was the loss of Wardes, but after hearing his actions and having them confirmed by Wales, she was just glad that he had failed in his traitorous mission.

Then she turned to a worried Fouquet...or Matilda of Sachsengotha as her real name turned out to be.

Considering the actions of two nobles under her personal purview and the fact Louise ended up being forced to expose their actions, she was inclined to take the woman up on her offer.

"I am sorry I put you through that Louise. I never wanted you to be subject to such a terrible spell, much less what Wardes almost did," said Henrietta.

"Actually I knew he was a traitor before the mission. However I used Louise's nightmares as a means to keep him far, far away from her when she was vulnerable. I didn't think you'd believe me, and it would only serve to have warned Wardes he had a leak," said Gil. Louise couldn't be bothered to glare at him when she heard that.

To be honest, he had done the right thing waiting for Wardes to expose himself, rather than arouse suspicion.

At this point the only thing the team wanted to do was sleep for a week. Fortunately summer vacation was coming up.

Gil had promised to look into Tabitha's mother, to see if he had anything to fix the problem. And Louise was rather curious to see where Tabitha came from, having found a fellow bibliophile in the girl.

Which meant Gil was about to be stuck with a bunch of teenage girls for a few days, since none of them wanted to over-exert Sylphied by flying.

Rather than deal with listening to them gossip about the upcoming war (which was likely to be very noisy indeed), Gil had managed to get onto the roof and laid down after putting most of the luggage inside his treasury.

No one suspected a thing, as he had claimed he was going to sit up front. Even if it was rather bumpy.

Inside the carriage...

"So Louise, how does it feel to be the envy of every girl in school?"

"What?" said Louise baffled.

"You're wearing the royal rings of both our soon-to-be Queen and the rightful king of Albion. And if that wasn't enough, you've even got a super rare element that hasn't been seen since Brimir's town. And you have an absolutely handsome, loyal and rich familiar who's actually a king!"

Tabitha lowered her book enough to watch Louise's reaction.

She was apparently still in shock that people envied her. For the longest time everyone mocked her, laughed at her, hell they used her as the butt of several jokes because she couldn't use magic.

Suddenly she was the envy of every girl in the school when they heard the news. It was a rather startling change for her. She wasn't sure how to deal with it.

Kirche's expression softened when she realized the look on Louise's face.

"Wow... I had no idea you'd take it this hard. You've really never been praised for your efforts before?"

Louise shook her head.

"I'm not as talented as my sisters, and having me marry Wardes was a last ditch effort by my parents to at least save face," said Louise. She looked close to tears.

To be honest, leaving the school had been a great relief for her.

Kirche rubbed her back.

"I wonder how Gil is handling sitting up front with the driver?"

"He's on the roof, not with the driver," said Tabitha.

Louise and Kirche suddenly blinked.

"How do you know that?"

"Last one to get in. Heard someone moving the bags above us while you were talking to Louise. Only explanation."

Kirche blinked, before she leaned outside and looked at the front. Sure enough, Gil wasn't there.

"Louise, you can see better than I can. Is Gil on the roof?" she asked.

Louise leaned out, while Kirche held her skirt. She came back in with an incredulous look on her face.

"He's sleeping on the roof of the carriage!"

She just barely got a glimpse of his white shirt before she came back in. And from the look of it, Sylphied and Flame were up there with him.

"The familiars are sleeping on the roof while their Masters are chatting down here," chuckled Kirche.

"She better be wearing a cloak up there," said Tabitha crossly.

"She's not, and it's not like anyone can see us up here," said Gil from above.

Louise yelped when Gil's upside-down face appeared in the window next to her.

"Don't do that!" she said.

"We're all taking a nap in the sunlight, including Flame. Sylphied is laying down naked as the day she was born next to me...and she's wondering why I'm hanging off the carriage."

"Gil, if you're going to hang like that then you might as well come inside."

Gil shook his head.

"Too crowded. I was just wondering why you were hanging out the windows," said Gil grinning. He slid back onto the roof and went back to enjoying the clouds while the carriage rolled along.

"I will never understand how he can sleep so easily up there," said Kirche shaking her head. "So about your family..."

Louise winced.

Tabitha, whose name was apparently Princess Charlotte of Gallia, watched with hopeful anticipation as Gil examined her mother.

Finally he sighed.

"The youth potion might react badly to whatever she took."

She slumped.

"But I'm pretty sure taking out a prototype of Avalon, the Ever Distant Utopia might work," he said, causing her to perk up.

"I'll pay you anything you want. Just please...heal my mother," said Tabitha, pleading.

"Fortunately I have a plethora of interesting things to try. Avalon is going to be my first attempt though. We'll have to give a few hours to see if it's going to work, because I can't exactly predict what it'll heal first."

It took four hours, and far too much hopeful tension from the normally stoic 'Tabitha' before a change was noticed.

And when it happened, it happened quickly. Apparently drinking a potion of insanity wasn't the only ploy Tabitha's insane uncle had tried to rid himself of his niece and sister-in-law.

One moment the woman was screaming incomprehensibly...the next she slowly started to become more coherent. From there, it was like an avalanche of healing.

It might have been a copy of the original, but for what Tabitha needed it for, a copy was good enough.

By nightfall, Tabitha was practically sobbing in the bewildered lap of her mother.

Outside the room...

"Well?" asked Kirche.

"I'll leave the copy in her mother until morning. It doesn't need to be kept inside her for the effects to be permanent, and it bothers me that it took so long for the copy to fix the damage. Who knows what else was done to her while she was in that state," said Gil.

"I'm happy for Tabitha. Charlotte... whatever her name is that she wants to go by."