History Fanfic / TheSteepPathAhead

* RageBreakingPoint: The moment that Charlotte says that them dying in their quest would have been a ''mercy'' in Chapter 73, Louise stops caring she's a queen and lays on a [[ArmorPiercingSlap slap so hard]] it sends her ''flying''.

Is a Dead Fic as Shade has not touched it over two years time.

----> He pointed his sword at the still chanting Louise and at the bleeding Saito. "And they've trampled on them! They're not the only ones who do this shit, and they always end up the same way. The news' already spread throughout the whole of Halkeginia by now. 'If you have the chance, against a masked and a dark haired boy working together, stab them, because they broke the terms'."

--> '''Lady Charlotte:''' Now you are a knight of North Parterre, by my will as Charlotte Helene D'Orleans of Gallia. If any dare to question your worth, then let them know that the heir of the Crown of Gallia stands behind you.

--> '''Saito:''' "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
--> '''Julio:''' "Perhaps so. But some live in hell to begin with. Should they not have proper roads, then?"

--> '''Marteau:''' The moment the Duchess' daughter disappeared, countless 'fakes' started to spread. Sad thing was, some of them didn't even know they were fakes. The Duchess [[SpotTheImposter has a way to find out her real daughter]], something secret, I guess. But those poor girls-look, if you aren't sure, just drop the thought.

--> It had taken him at most five seconds to understand he had two new kids in front of him who wished to play at being adventurers. The fact the boy's blade wasn't even dirty with blood proved it, and if not for the other boy's wand, he wouldn't have wasted time pushing them out of his inn.

--> Louise grumbled as her arms clutched on firmly to Saito's head, tension leaving her frame as she groaned. "My parents deal with vampires. My husband-to-be is kind to everyone who gives him a sad look. Am I the only one in this family who's normal?" she blinked once, and then sighed, "Oh, right, silly me. I'm a Void user. A holy descendant of Brimir tasked by the Gods to reclaim the holy lands. Yes, of course, silly me thinking there was anyone normal around me when I'm the least normal of them all."

--> '''Cardinal:'''" . "The only one to blame is you, Duchess! You couldn't wait! You had to find your daughter on the double! On the triple! Didn't matter the number of diplomatic accidents it would cause! Didn't matter if the Germanian ambassador was throttled out of a window, or if half the knights of the corps suddenly resigned to follow you in your inane crusade! For three years, I sought out your daughter through my own means, just so I could slap in your face your weakness when compared to the Crown!"\\
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---> '''Julio:''' "Truly fascinating, your naive innocence is so refreshingly disgusting I never thought I'd see something similar if not in young children, pampered by rich parents. As the Gandalfr, you are an utter failure. You, lead an army? You'd barely take a step and then run away at the first sign of blood. When ideals clash, it's only those willing to go the extra mile that eventually win. Keep your childish feelings to yourself-you had so much potential...and you squandered it playing the adventurer."

* StreetSmart: Luise is far more savvy to surviving due to being brought up in an orphanage.
--> '''Luise:''' Lots of people promise things and then they don't keep their words. I'd rather know now what type of scum you are rather than find out later. Even if you ran away...well, I know the way to the next village, and you don't. I give you three hours before the [[SavageWolves wolves]] eat you for dinner, maybe four if you're a fast runner.

* RaisedCatholic: Or the equivalent for Luise, who grew up in an orphanage. She takes her faith seriously and finds comfort in it.
-->'''Luise:''' "People die all the time. I had a friend growing up in the church. She was a bit sick one autumn, and when winter rolled around she died. Dying eaten by a giant spider or because of a particularly cold month doesn't really matter. That is why you need to have faith. The gods will certainly look after you if you pray them, and if you suffer, then it is a test you must take. The true faithful prays even when it seems all is lost-for it's too trifle to thank the gods for having a blessed life, but thanking them for a life of pain? Only the really faithful do that, and in turn, paradise will be all the brightest for them."

* RealityEnsues: Pulling ISurrenderSuckers multiple times means people no longer believe you if you try to surrender.

* ZettaiRyouiki: Saito mentions he has a fine appreciation of this when it comes to skirts and stockings.

Is a Dead Fic as Shade has not touched it it over two years time.

* PapaWolf: Father Christoff gives off this vibe to Luise.

--> '''Luise:''' "Fine, I did put you in this mess myself, didn't I? If you recover, I promise I'll bring you back home before taking my vows. There, that should be fine, shouldn't it? I can't just leave you alone or you might die, or I might get worried and have sleepless nights. So please-wake up."
* PoisonIsCorrosive: The Hydra's toxic is corrosive enough to turn trees into wilted match-sticks.... Then it turns out to be a Chimaera.

* UsefulNotes/RolePlayingGameTerms: Saito starts using these, relating his situation to being stuck in a game, such as asking Luise to provide DPS.

* SweetPollyOliver: Luise does this from Chapter 17 onward, claiming that two male adventurers together made things less conspicuous and they weren't as likely to be [[MistakenForCouple seen as lovers.]]

* TitleDrop: In Chapter 20.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The Cardinal. He gives a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Karin over acting irrationally after losing two of her daughters, and cites losing his father over it as a reason to stay mad at her. Meanwhile, he mocks her over losing both of them, he indirectly caused yearly instability and refugee situations in Tristain over the incursions from Germania, and failed to reconcile more than a [[WhatAnIdiot few gaping holes in his roundabout plan.]] And he does it out of pure petty revenge over his father. He acts out of personal hurt, and lets several things get worse than they should be, making his criticism of Karin feel a tad off.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The Cardinal. He gives a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Karin over acting irrationally after losing two of her daughters, and cites losing his father over it as a reason to stay mad at her. Meanwhile, he mocks her over losing both of them, he indirectly caused yearly instability and refugee situations in Tristain over the incursions from Germania, and failed to reconcile more than a [[WhatAnIdiot few gaping holes in his roundabout plan.]] ''Especially'' the accusations of treason considering he kidnapped a member of a family that has, though distant, royal blood. All of the troubles in the story are his fault, yet he is too blinded by his fathers death, much like Karin was for her daughters, to see it and comes off as rather irrational himself.

* NeverMyFault: The Cardinal rants at Karin over the trouble she caused, especially for his family, and country... which only happened because he stole her daughter, and killed the other one, an unprovoked action on his part.

* RevengeMyopia: The Cardinal seems rather self righteous in his speech against Karin, stating he would do what he did because she's a 'selfish bitch', citing her actions after losing her daughters as why. What he fails to remember is that he ''caused'' them in the first place. He kidnapped one and murdered the other, and gloats about the latter, which caused Karin to act irrationally, which in turn led to him losing his father. His spiel against her regarding treason is laughable considering he committed 'it'' with his scheme going behind everyone else's backs, and kidnapping and murder unprovoked against an ally, which in itself doesn't seem rational at all.

* [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Hypocrite Hypocrite:]] The Cardinal. He gives a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Karin over acting irrationally after losing two of her daughters, and cites losing his father over it as a reason to stay mad at her. Meanwhile, he mocks her over losing both of them, he indirectly caused yearly instability and refugee situations in Tristain over the incursions from Germania, and failed to reconcile more than a [[WhatAnIdiot few gaping holes in his roundabout plan.]] ''Especially'' the accusations of treason considering he kidnapped a member of a family that has, though distant, royal blood. All of the troubles in the story are his fault, yet he is too blinded by his fathers death, much like Karin was for her daughters, to see it and comes off as rather irrational himself.

* Hypocrite: The Cardinal. He gives a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Karin over acting irrationally after losing two of her daughters, and cites losing his father over it as a reason to stay mad at her. Meanwhile, he mocks her over losing both of them, he indirectly caused yearly instability and refugee situations in Tristain over the incursions from Germania, and failed to reconcile more than a [[WhatAnIdiot few gaping holes in his plan.]]

* RolePlayingGameTerms: Saito starts using these, relating his situation to being stuck in a game, such as asking Luise to provide DPS.

* ActionMom: Karin, natch.

** Louise in Chapter 69.
--->'''Louise:''' "He could have died. Do you know what it means? When you're dead, you're in Founder Brimir's arms forever. There's no coming back. You can't just turn back time. A dead person is dead forever, so I am angry. I am angry and I am hurt that he could not wait for me to wake up, and I don't care if he succeeded now, because if tomorrow he does the same and he fails, then I'll be the one left to pick up the pieces of his scattered corpse to sew them back together, and then I'll have to present it to his family saying that he died bravely, but they would rather have their son back."
** It runs in her family considering Eleonore got pissed at Wardes for fighting an Elf that trying to kill them in Chapter 75, [[SlapSlapKiss slapping him and then hugging him.]]

* AsleepForDays:
** Saito, after fighting the wolves.
*** He was out for a full week after the fight with Karin.
*** A few days after [[spoiler:becoming Lífþrasir and being kidnapped by Julio.]]

* MistakenForRomance: The Blacksmith in Chapter 12 presumed that Saito and Luise were a couple to the extent of placing his last name on her Adventurer Tag.
** Luise later on plays it up to keep Saito away from other women, [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/5067388/ due to him eventually leaving so there would be less heartbreak]].

* NeverLearnedToRead: Saito ''can'' read, [[NoExceptYes just not the alphabet they use]]. Luise decides to teach him so that when he'd have an easier time getting back home.

* AlternativeCalendar: Luise's world uses a drastically different calendar, not to mention being set so far in the future by over 4000 years that Saito thinks if its his world then AfterTheEnd has taken place.

*** He was out for a full week afer the fight with Karin.

* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler:The Pope faked the deaths of the Chef Marteau and the orphans, sending the former to the front-lines and the latter to different orphanages.]]

* TheDoorSlamsYou: PlayedForDrama, but Charlotte's fear of doors comes from her uncle bashing his daughter's her head against one constantly until she was dead to mimic how Karin felt with her daughter gone.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Nepthys certainly believes this, due to the fact that the humans carry the sins of their past actions with eraticating several previous speices from existence, making it so that their own would eventually be erased because of the Void no matter what they do. Saito suggests [[TakeAThirdOption just moving]] the Void-bearers into his world instead.

* {{Familiar}}: Saito is this for Louise. [[spoiler:And later Tiffania.]] While she's initially upset since once you summon a familiar you can't replace them until the current one dies, his [[LightningBruiser familiar]] [[InstantExpert powers]] makes him worthwhile.

** The Vampires Amethyst and Daphne test the blood of whoever comes to claim to be Karin's daughter. They're giddy when they taste Louise blood, confirming its her.

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Julio feels that as void familiars they are extensions of their masters and nothing more, himself included.
* NeverLearnedToRead: Saito ''can'' read, [[NoExceptYes just not alphabet they use]]. Luise decides to teach him so that when he'd have an easier time getting back home.

* NothingPersonal: Wardes states this when its revealed he helped Charlotte manipulate Saito (he also stopped his heart when he played the role of an assassin by stabbing him and then electrocuting him).

--> '''Cardinal:'''" . "The only one to blame is you, Duchess! You couldn't wait! You had to find your daughter on the double! On the triple! Didn't matter the number of diplomatic accidents it would cause! Didn't matter if the Germanian ambassador was throttled out of a window, or if half the knights of the corps suddenly resigned to follow you in your inane crusade! For three years I sought out your daughter through my own means, just so I could slap in your face your weakness when compared to the Crown!"\\

"But then you had to go and move a mountain. You had to build an outpost, you just had to order the knights of the Manticore to follow you! And those fools did! The King told them not to, and they followed you! Do you have any idea what that meant?! That was the closest you could have gone to treason! The Crown has power as long as the people that swear fealty to it respect it! But to find your daughter you decided to shit on Everything!"\\

"The nobles whispered! It's always been about magic, our nobility! The Duchess can move a mountain-what can our King do? The Duke's the bastard in the royal line, he's a descendant of Brimir too! So, frankly? When someone killed your second daughter? I was glad they did just to see you realize how weak you were."\\

* RolePlayingGameTerms: Saito starts using these, relating his situation to being stuck in a game, suching as asking Luise to provide DPS.

* StabTheScorpion: Saito takes the dagger and rushes for Luise in Chapter 4, who she had been harsh on to this point, and she expects the worse... only for him to get her out of the way so he could stab the last wolf she missed before it bit her.

* SweetPollyOliver: Luise does this from Chapter 17 onwards, claiming that two male adventurers together made things less conspicous and they weren't as likely to be [[MistakenForCouple seen as lovers.]]

* ZettaiRyouiki: Saito mentions he has a fine apprication of this when it comes to skirts and stockings.

From the same [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3864170/Shadenight123 author]] as Fanfic/SoulsArtOnline and [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9658968/1/Enslaved Enslaved]], [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/the-steep-path-ahead-familiar-of-zero-au.22767/ The Steep Path Ahead]] is set in an AU of LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero where Louise is kidnapped by an elf as a child only for the ones who hired him to die before paying him, so he dropped her off in an orphanage. Several years later, ''Luise'' fails her exam to get into the Academy and summons Saito in order to prove that she isn't a failure.

* ZombieApocalypse: Albion went through one of these courtesy of Sheffield being more than a little upset over her lover's death.

* AnimateDead: An advanced spell of the Water Element, TheUndead created in this manner can fight just as well as they did when alive and have to be killed by either the [[ReviveKillsZombie Cure Spell]] or be [[NoBodyLeftBehind vaporized.]]

* ZombieApocalypse: Albion went through one of these courtesy of Sheffield being more than a little upset over her lover's death.

* MasterOfIllusion: Amethyst and Daphne, the Vampires. Their Illusion spell is so strong that they'd remain invisible and unheard no matter what, even if stepped upon

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The Cardinal gives a epic one to Karin, ''to her face''.