20 [Romantic Afternoon]

//Hello.//

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Louise and Ordell arrived at their destination relatively quickly, most likely because Torrent didn't want to be subjected to hearing Louise mewl during their transit as Ordell very much could not keep his hands to himself.

Somehow, the girl despite not having walked for an hour or so arrived in town out of breath, sending Ordell a flustered glare while the male familiar looked very pleased with himself. Who knows why~

The two had begun their date, leaving Torrent to his own devices in the nearby stable. Ordell didn't even bother remembering the name of the town despite it most likely being one of his future most frequented places to visit outside of academy hours.

Still, the town was as unmemorable as it could be. Basic run of the mill town with all the supplies any academy student could look for, hell, there was even this weird restaurant with what appeared to be maids here. Very cool.

Immediately, Ordell could feel at least a few dozen stares on him, most of which were female, much to Louise's annoyance. She was proud of her familiar, don't get her wrong. But goddamn it did she feel jealous whenever she saw women with much better figures than her own staring at her stud of a familiar with hungry eyes.

Louise didn't know if she should be glad or nervous about the fact that a good portion of those stares was also directed towards the man's horns, which, by all means, did raise a good few eyebrows. However, without the existence of Satan/Devil in this world, most regarded the male as some manner of a magical beast that has taken on the human form. Maybe a dragon? Those tended to have horns. They didn't know but they didn't feel like trying to approach a fucking dragon of all things, even if his master was quite literally next to him. Though, Ordell is no dragon. He's not really anything per se, he's just Ordell, his own race and being born from one pink-haired loli's desire to be amazing.

Unaware were the two lovebirds that another pair of people followed them. One is a very familiar, puns, dark-skinned beauty with red hair and massive titties, while the other is the stark opposite, a short, petite but charming blue-haired bookworm. It was Kirche and Tabitha. They managed to catch up to Louise and Ordell thanks to Tabitha's windchime dragon, which was in the stables have a very nice conversation with Torrent.

Kirche was biting into her finger, clearly annoyed that she didn't get invited, "Damn it you washboard...!"

Tabitha was genuinely being dragged along by Kirche, she didn't even want to be there in the first place. But, her best friend wanted to spy on some guy and some girl, and so, here she was, face still in her book hiding behind the corner with her annoying and busty friend.

The two were following Louise and Ordell all the while the two happily spent the time together, buying a few pastries and eating them together outside on a bench. They even visited a clothing store, the primary reason why Ordell wanted to so much as go here in the first place. The male immediately bought three other coats exactly the same as the one he had when he was summoned. Poor Louise cried silently as she felt her purse get lighter.

Now, Ordell knew a restoration spell and all that, even if by technicality none of the stuff he pulled off was magic. Magic in this world is a strict continuity of cause and effect, something that The Madness is not bound to, and therefore neither is Ordell... completely, at least. Think of the male as some manner of an electronic device, The Madness being the wall socket. When fully plugged in, Ordell can use a very good portion of reality-defying powers due to being directly linked to a paracasual existence. However, in his normal, everyday mode, Ordell is only partially plugged into the wall socket, therefore limiting the amount of electricity (energy/infinity) flowing through him.

Really, it's like opening and closing a tap on the sink, but only doing so partially most of the time. A massive drawback of being so powerful is that weaker versions of his full power abilities don't really exist. One way he could repair his clothes would be to reverse time, but that's a spell that requires IMMENSE amounts of energy, energy that Ordell does not have access to in his base form.

And such is the reason why he needs multiple pairs of one coat, he could repair it using magic... and maybe cause a dimensional fracture while he's at it. The largest limitation the strong face is the world they live in. Superman put it into words quite nicely: "I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard, always taking constant care not to break something, to break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control even for a moment, or someone could die."

The world itself can't handle the strong sometimes, and Ordell is among the beasts at the very top of the food chain...

"Yummy!"

But enough about that, there's one very cute loli the author can't stop adoring eating a croissant right now!

"You sure like sweets huh?" idly mused the horned male, taking a bite out of his own pastry as the two walked down a street.

Louise blushed slightly when she realised she yelled out loud her own thoughts about a goddamn croissant of all things, "S-Shut up, it's delicious!"

"I didn't say it wasn't."

The girl pouted, rather adorably too which only spurred Ordell to tease her some more, going as far as offering his half-eaten croissant to her. She refused it, although very reluctantly. The two walked some more with Ordell carrying the stuff they bought along with donning a fresh white trench coat.

"Hey, Ordell?" Louise suddenly stopped in front of one very particular shop.

"Hm?" Ordell hummed in response, stopping as well and looking up at the wooden sign that Louise seemed to be staring at, "A blacksmith?"

"Mhm! I was thinking... of buying you something, you know, like a sword. But... uh..." Louise dejectedly looked at the brown satchel in her eyes, it being noticeably lighter than it was when they first arrived at the city, "Those coats of yours do cost a lot..."

Ordell looked at his dejected master for a few seconds before suddenly grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her into the blacksmith's shop, much to her surprise, "W-Wait what are you doing?!"

"What? I don't need expensive gifts. If they're from you they're worth more than gold~"

Louise's face exploded with the colour red, she smacked Ordell on the back in an attempt to get his obnoxiously attractive and teasing smile out of her sight, but it only got a chuckle out of the male as he dragged her inside the blacksmith shop.

"Welcome!"

An old man greeted them. One thing they immediately noticed was the man's appearance, he had small, circular glasses on, nothing out of the ordinary, but goddamn his front teeth were massive! Ordell nearly called back with the word "beaver".

Various swords were proudly placed on display around the shop. Some were thin and long, rapiers. While some were thick and huge, greatswords. There was a massive, rectangular sword placed against the wall that was as tall as Ordell himself with two circular protrusions towards the guard of the blade. Seeing the price tag nearly made Louise faint, luckily Ordell won't be needing that kind of Buster Sword! Some of the less prominent swords were just stacked into a barrel haphazardly, most were of the lowest quality so Louise didn't even bat an eyelash in their direction.

"A golden sword?" a particular sword captured Ordell's attention, but not for the right reasons.

"Do you like it?" Louise certainly hoped not, considering it was way out of her price range.

"Nah, too expensive. Plus gold isn't exactly a great material for swords anyways," and Ordell was right, mostly, so he ignored the proudly presented sword and instead opted to look around more.

"PSST! HEY! Bro, over here!"

A strange voice captured Ordell's attention, but it wasn't coming from anyone in the room. No, when he looked towards the source, he saw a barrel of old, mostly rusty weapons just thrown in it. Amongst them however was a peculiar rusty sword that had a moving guard, almost like a mouth on a person.

"Yo! Take me!"

Ordell blinked as he looked at the talking weapon, it was... certainly peculiar.

Louise walked next to Ordell, however, she didn't seem as surprised as Ordell was when she saw the talking sword, "A spirit weapon?"

"Quite so, my lady!" chipped in the old shopkeeper, "The blade is of fine quality if you clean it a bit that is. But beware, it has a sharper tongue than an edge."

"You shut up! How dare you try selling me to such unworthy wielders!"

The shopkeeper and the sword got into an argument that neither Ordell nor Louise particularly cared about, but there was something truly strange about the way the sword's aura felt that Ordell couldn't help but be interested in it, "How much for the talkative sword?"

"Hm? I'll give it to you for fifty gold pieces. It's so annoying it keeps driving my customers away!" well, there's a bargain if Louise ever saw one.

Usually, high-quality claymore costs... around 200 at least, not to mention that the golden sword cost around 10 000 golden pieces if she remembered right. And that Buster Sword... The price was so high that Louise's head grew nauseous from the number of digits. So, getting a cheap ass sword that Ordell seemed to take interest in beat getting a useless hunk of metal. She can spend a few gold pieces for a familiar... or should she be referring to Ordell as something more?

It certainly felt like it...

"We'll take it!" Louise practically threw the gold coins into the shopkeeper's palm.

"Thank you for your purchase!" the shopkeeper was all but happy to get rid of the nuisance sword, hell, he even threw in a free sheath for the rusty blade.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't silence the sword. But at least it seemed to make it slightly less grumpy as Ordell and Louise left the store, the male now sporting a sword on his back held in place by a simple yet elegant brown leather strap.

"So what's your name, partner?"

"Ordell. And you are?"

"Derflinger!"

"Cool name."

"Hahaha! I know!"

It would seem that the two were going to get along just fine, Louise only prayed that Ordell would stash the sword away somewhere once the sun set over the horizon so that the two of them could have some... privacy. She blushed at the thought, but Ordell didn't notice as he was far too busy conversing with his new sword. Meanwhile, behind them, a jealous-looking Kirche peeked from behind a street corner, biting into her nail before dragging Tabitha into the blacksmith shop.

...

...

...

"I got a talking sword... cool."

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//Derflinger will be a bit OOC in this, hope you don't mind. I can't help but see him as a complete meme outside his serious moments.//