Renewal

[Sabatron]

- World Info(Fundamental mechanics which differentiate this world from ours)

Two different worlds:
Earth is, simply put, the world of science. Magic is all but nonexistant, and the preference of the observation of natural phenomenon and creation of labor-saving devices has guided the development of man toward innovation of advanced technologies which everyone with enough knowledge could use. The world is huge and diverse, and the main threat to humankind is itself and its own machinations. Most societies have a large proportion of impoverished citizens, however, due to science and common education, it is often possible for such impoverished citizens to rise to wealthier status.

Halkeginia is the world of magic. 6,300 years prior, everyone was capable of using magic of all four elements provided they had wands and knew the requisite incantations. Since then, the number of humans incapable of using magic has grown large, leaving the magic-users to take charge. There are 5 kingdoms of the known world and a land in which elves dwell. Eace human kingdom has an insurmountable separation between commoners who are incapable of using magic of any type and nobles who are born with the ability to use magic of at least one element. The land inhabited by elves is mysterious. Little is known about it aside from well-maintained and guarded borders, and open hostility to the human kingdoms. They are known to be able to use firstborn magic, which is entirely different from the magic of humans, but little is known about this either. In comparison to Earth, the level of technological advancement in Halkeginia is significantly lesser, approximately equal to living conditions in the late 1000s. Schooling is exclusively for the nobles of society, and magic schooling is exclusively for the more gifted and prominent magic-users of the world. A magic school built in one of the five human nations, known as the Tristain Academy of Magic, is the most well-known of all the popular magic schools, and is known throughout the world for holding many valuable magic artifacts and being staffed by powerful magicians. Being accepted to said Academy is said to be the first step towards achieving a higher status of nobility in your kingdom, thus humans of all five nations attend said school. The most common language spoken in Halkeginia is French, although Latin is sometimes spoken in Romalia and German in Germania. Gallia, Tristain and Albion all speak French as a primary language.

- Nation Info(How society as a whole functions in the nation our characters start out in)

Tristain is the nation in which the Tristain Academy of Magic is located. While it is the most technologically developed, it has one of the weakest, if not the weakest military of all five human nations. Due to it's lack of military strength and threat from a neighboring country named Albion, the leaders of Tristain are forced to regularly arrange political marrages to secure alliances with other nations for strength. The current leader of Tristain is Queen Marianne of Tristain, daughter of King Phillip III. The primary language of said nation is French. The majority of the population of Tristain is involved in agriculture, trade and magic, with commoners primarily working for agriculture and the minuscule military of Tristain.

- City Info(The actual place that our characters start off in)

The Tristain Academy of Magic is just that - an academy. For most nobles, going to the school is important only for the possibility of gaining prestige for their noble families or for becoming a powerful magician. The school itself is made in the shape of a pentagon, with the tower at each point representing one of the five different elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and Void. Classes are held in the main building and practice is often held in the towers of the corresponding element, with the void tower being exclusively for storage(since no one can use void magic, or even has been able to, for the past 6000 years or so). Meals and luxury accommodations are provided for students, as is a library, baths, a large courtyard, a stables, a headmaster's room, a vault room containing multiple magical artifacts, and various other important locations. New students, all of whom wear brown cloaks, cast "find familiar" as their first official spell as a sort of 'opening ceremony' because one only has to be able to use magic to cast it, one does not necessarily have to be able to use one of the five elements for the spell.

- People(NPCs whom our characters are going to meet in the first few posts)

My character, teachers, other students, and servants. That should do. We could copy a few of the characters from that wiki I linked to if needed.


Now, a bit more about magic:

Human magic works as follows:
- The power to cast human magic is reliant on willpower. Those who do not develop a strong willpower early in their lives are unable to learn to use magic.
- Willpower is a form of mental energy which can be channeled through incantations and magic channeling objects such as crystals or wands to cause natural or unnatural phenomenon around the user.
- To cast magic, one needs four things: A wand(or crystal, or other magic device), the incantation for the desired spell, the willpower to cast the spell, and the ability to use the elements required for said spell.
- Some types of magic do not require any of the five elements and can be casted with only a wand, the incantation and willpower.
- Everyone who is capable of magic has at least enough willpower to cast 1 dot spell a day without becoming exhausted. Further training one's magic can increase the amount of total willpower they possess up to a maximum of 16 dot spells, or 8 line spells, or 4 triangle spells, or 2 square spells, or 1 pentagon spells in a day without becoming exhausted.
- A magic user can gain mastery over new elements through intense training. It often takes three or more years to gain mastery over a single element.
- Void magic is a long-lost form of magic. It is rumored that if enough people are born, eventually, one will be born with the natural capacity to cast void magic. No one knows what that'll look like though.
- Runes appear on familiars with an unnaturally strong willpower, but an inability to use magic. They allow said familiars to use their latent willpower to activate an ability unique to their specific set of runes. Runes are an inscription which appears on a familiar's hand immediately after their familiar contract is sealed by their master. It is extremely rare for a human to meet this requirement, because almost all humans are naturally able to use magic if they have a lot of willpower.

Credits to Icicle for being super cool.

Icicle's Character Sheet

Name: Yves Blanchette-Marie De Tonnelier
Age: 18
Sex: Female
Occupation:
- Magic Scholar and Noblesse
- Advanced knowledge of worldwide magic, nobility, and politics. She is highly proficient with both water and wind magic, making her a line magician. Her favorite spells are related to ice. Her most powerful spell is Ice Burst, a spell which allows her to launch baseball-sized balls of ice at extremely fast speeds with pinpoint precision. She is considered to be relatively strong for her age, although a few others in her class are widely considered to be stronger than her.
- She reads books as often as she can, prefers to be outdoors as opposed to indoors, is used to servants attending to her every need, and has very proper etiquette and manners.

Appearance:

- Sunbleached, blonde hair which extends to her waist, grey-blue eyes, a sharp chin, attached earlobes, thin eyebrows, short eyelashes, small nose, thin lips, and pale skin.
- At the academy, she wears simple, white dress shirts, black skirts, black stockings, black shoes, and her brown school cape with the accompanying bronze amulet. She keeps her wand in a holster of the sleeve of her right arm. When sleeping, she wears a blue dress gown. On non-school days, she wears simple, lightweight dresses. She only ever wears a coat or hat on the coldest days of winter, and is very susceptible to warm, humid days of summer.

Personality:
- Yves is a timid intellectual. Her chief concerns are of acquiring knowledge, reading books, and satisfying her family's thirst for an elevated spot in society, in that order. While she is extremely introverted, she has a calm and steady demeanor around others and is highly eloquent. She rarely speaks, but when she does, she speaks very clearly and precisely. She is often found outdoors - if she isn't reading books, she is often either exercising or practicing magic.
- She has a habit of glaring and of cursing under her breath when no one is around. She uses an array of ribbon bookmarks to remind herself of her previous spot in books, but ties them around her wrist when reading. Sometimes she forgets to take them off. She always stands before speaking, and has very refined posture. When writing, she prefers artfulness to legibility, and often signs her name with little more than a squiggly line and a wax stamp. In winter, she often forgets to close the window before sleeping, and thus gets colds fairly often.
- She is quick to anger and is very impatient. When alone she is very informal, and despises being interrupted from reading or relaxing more than anything while in this state. In situations in which she is embarrassed or shamed, she very quickly either becomes irrationally angry or terrified, and takes a long time to recover.

Backstory:
- Yves was raised in a family in which appearance was paramount. She was put through more etiquette lessons than her older brother was due to her promising appearance, and even showed great potential for magic. Many of her etiquette lessons were extremely harsh, but she acquired all of the etiquette demanded of a nobless by a very young age. Her parents told her that she had a lot of potential, and that she could become a very famous person if she worked hard to become a strong magician. That was enough for her to bear through the almost intolerable politics of her parents' Duchesses' court. By the time she was of age to go to the Tristain Academy of Magic, she practically begged her parents to send her there. Before long, she succeeded and, at long last, escaped the grasp of the court. Or she did, at least to some extent.
- She used to be a fencer at a young age while taking etiquette lessons, but after a near assassination attempt from one of the other students, she was forbidden to practice the craft again while on her parents' estate. She still doesn't practice fencing, although she occasionally goes through some of the fencing motions she learned as a child while dancing when no one is around to watch her.

Sabatron's Character Sheet

Name: Hayato Mizuho
Age: 24
Sex: Male
Occupation:
- Data Entry Employee at Kezuho Ltd.
- Firearms enthusiast. Visits the range to 'relax' every now or so often when he gets some free time. A very good shot in the range, he has been collecting firearms, much to the disapproval of his wife. He has applied to the police force after a few moments, but he never gets accepted for reasons unknown.
- Other hobbies include playing videogames, which he indulges in if the range is closed, and he reads books.
Appearance:

- Jet black hair, cropped and styled rather nicely. He has a deep amber color for his eyes, a similarly sharp chin, thin, but natural eyebrows, a slightly Roman nose, thin natural lips and pale skin.
- With his work, he usually goes to work in a typical salaryman's attire -- a black coat, a red undershirt, a black tie and matching slacks. His shoes differ, he sometimes prefers wearing his black clogs or his brown loafers, but he usually picks the latter. He needs eyeglasses, so he usually wears rimless, rounded rectangular eyeglasses. While he's alone, or he's not on official business, he wears a typical green shirt and blue jeans, or wearing anything he has on hand. Being so typically male, he doesn't really care about his 'fashion sense', only wearing clothes that merely fit him. While sleeping, he just usually takes off his coat and falls asleep.


Personality:
- Hayato, however, isn't a timid individual. Sometimes, he refuses to keep himself contained for any reason, and always speaks his mind about things. Whether it be politics, the state of the world, and things he couldn't possibly hope to change by himself -- he still complains about most of the things. He does have some measure of self-control, and only when he feels that sharing his thoughts isn't the best idea, but he remains completely silent. He does make connections easily, and is quite far from introverted.
- While he isn't one to be waving his gun around, he is always seen with his distinct leather holster, given to him by his father, and modified to fit his personal firearm, a Glock 23. He doesn't choose to take it off, and usually hides it underneath his coat.
- He can get angry, but chooses to settle things peacefully. While he does have a gun, he understands the repercussions of trying to create conflict. He tries to talk to someone first, before resorting to violence or another alternative, such as paying the person with money.


Backstory:
- Hayato, with the most generic childhood -- under the care of a loving mother and father, who sent him to a semi decent school, and got a semi-decent college degree -- is a typical salaryman, with a dead end job and following the same 'shitty' routine every single day -- taking the train to work, coming home to eat by himself, and then going to bed to repeat the same thing over again. Every now and then, his wife demands money, and he just blindly obides, because he doesn't want to be seen as a person who doesn't care about his wife. He truly does believe she does love him back, just that he doesn't want to force her to 'change'. He does get tired of it, and he took up a hobby -- shooting, and reading. He enjoys the escapism of reading fantasy novels, things that can't possibly exist, he loves getting engrossed in the stories of it all. Even though him and his wife sleep in the same bed, he usually is propped up on the back rest, reading a good fantasy novel or two.
- His most 'interesting' hobby is shooting. Shooting guns. He loves the kick of a high caliber rifle, as the bullet tears a hole into the paper target, and how he can handle a rifle at long range. With him spending most of his time down range instead of at home, he's highly proficient in shooting guns, and how they work. He never really imagined it would be any good, since he never even got past the 'theories' section of the police academy entrance test, but for now, he's somewhat content with doing the same monotonous thing over and over again, while enjoying the things he likes to do. But sometimes, he just wishes that he would be involved in the worlds in the novels he reads, and the videogames he plays. He usually lays down in bed, and wishes that his life would be a bit more interesting...

 

[Sabatron]

Light retreats, as the sun slowly sinks down from the horizon -- indicating the start of the evening. A cold, chilly December's night begins. Even when he's assigned to mere intern level data entry, he's being tasked more weighty jobs for more or less a small bump on his hourly salary. Still, it wasn't so bad. Hayato never really realized how this job would have someone else assigned to it, it was just merely rescheduling things, and whatnot -- doing menial tasks for the CEO. Basically acting as his secretary, more or less. He did everything by the book, and without question, like he always does -- and barely gets recognition for it, like he always does. 'Maybe I should try to get myself noticed by taking up the larger tasks?' The question on his mind weighs a bit heavily, since he never really was one to 'stand out', but eventually, he decided against it. He was fine with being a cog in the machine, as long as being a cog gets him a decent wage.

Time passes on, and so does his work. Eventually, his boss did actually reward him, giving him a pat on the back and telling him to 'go spend some time with your family'. Well, little did he know, his wife barely gave a damn, as long as he kept giving her money. Still, like many things, he couldn't care enough, or find it irritating enough for him to actually go and do something. But maybe he just doesn't want her to have any reason to hate him, since they do have their small moments together. But usually, it's her complaining about how she never gets that new phone, or how her dress barely fits her and how she's wearing things that should belong in a flea market, all the meaningless, materialistic things that she wants, he always bought eventually. Maybe that's his weakness? He'll never know.

As always, he tries to find a way to make his travels a bit different. Going home early means he has time to enjoy a good audio-book or two while heading home. Despite being in English, he has a large grasp on the English language, to the point that he sounds natural when speaking English. But that serves only to help him enjoy the audio-book more. Grabbing his phone, setting the book -- titled 'The Shadow Isles', a classic tale involving a rogue British Navy privateer as he explores the lost, haunted seas surrounding the fictional islands of 'Calis'. He prefers audio-books rather than books when heading home, because at least he can be engrossed in the story, yet still not act like a pretentious asshole for bumping into people, or heading full on into rush-hour foot traffic while not focusing on the sidewalk.

The endless milling about of multiple people, crowds gathering inside trains are the typical scenes of Japanese mass transport -- trains going in and out like clockwork to avoid people getting late, and people following a very specific routine. Sometimes, Hayato sees this as a sort of deterrent to 'fun'. Why would he keep on living in a machine, which is his life? He barely has time to go out and explore the places outside Japan, see new things, and do things he would never normally do. But books are his only passion. Guns, yes -- he does have a handgun concealed in case he might have to protect himself, but books, books bring him to the places he can never see. A videogame can never bring the imagination and excitement he experiences in books. With a book, he usually can never complain about how a certain thing works, his mind connects all the dots, his sub-conscious is the most powerful tool he could ever imagine to make his life end it's ceaseless cycle, an 'escape from reality'.

He barely got to chapter three in the story, the hairs at the back of his spine tingling at how excited he was to hear about the fourth chapter. But, he decided he should continue that tomorrow, as to make the suspense more thrilling. However, something was rather off from the normal route he would take from the place he passed by.

There was a giant, glowing, elongated green orb standing in front of him. It was surreal. Was this really happening? Did he manage to inhale some sort of drug on the way here? He never recalled any of that. Though, he did choose to 'ignore it', thinking it was his eyes just playing tricks on him -- but as he walked towards it, it seemed to be physically there, as it went closer as he approached the orb.

He thought he was just hallucinating, and tried to ignore all of that, and walk past it, by walking towards it. But then, disaster strikes. Walking into the orb was quite a bad idea, as his upper body and torso was now being clamped upon. It didn't hurt, but it made him panic because he was slowly being sucked in. He yelped, and squirmed, and then started screaming.

"Help! O-Oh fuck, help! S-Shit!" Even though this was a very public sidewalk next to the train station, none of the people noticed him. Many chose to just walk past the orb as he did, but he didn't notice this. Struggling to escape, he was eventually 'swallowed' in by the portal.

Thus -- a renewal was in effect. His life was going to change. But will it be for the better?

He would have a lot of time to think about that, while falling into another world.

 

[Icicle]

Birds chirp giddily and a gentle wind brushes past a wide field of grasses and flowers as a warm, sunny Summer afternoon passes by. The earthen, fresh air swirls around and blows a group of petals off of their place of rest on the ground, carrying them up, up into the sky, where they are then left to gently return to the ground. The field is serene and peaceful, surrounded by vast hills and even a few mountains, and the sharp rays of sunlight produce a stunning, shimmering ray centered on one particularly interesting feature of the wondrous fields.

Smack dab in the center of the grass, hills and flowers is a gigantic stone structure consisting of six magnificent towers, five around one, the central tower being the highest, and a vast stone wall connecting each of the outer five towers. The pentagonal structure stood out like a sore thumb - just as it was meant to. These series of buildings were constructed as a bastion of education and magic, with the defensive and geographical features necessary to survive an all-out battle. But no matter the strength of its walls or the heights of its towers, the architectural complexity of the towers was more than enough to announce to all who looked upon it that it was not any mere education facility - this was the one, the only, Tristain Academy of Magic.

Within one of the outer lying towers, [the one with the blue-painted dome-roof to be exact] along the clean, smooth and stone-cobbled floor of the hallways and through the dark, artistically engraved doorways with rectangular, brass handles were the rooms of the various students who attended the facility. Within one room in particular, a petite, pale girl with sunbleached hair and a bright blue nightgown groaned and lazily reached her hand up to her face. "Ugh....am I awake?....how...unfortunate..." she started to mumble, wiping the salt out of the corner of her eyes as she lazily sat up and draped her upper body over her legs in a sloppy attempt to stretch. Her muscles and joints groaned along with her as she started rolling around and stretching one arm, then the next, then a leg, then two arms, and continuing for a few minutes until she was satisfied that she was no longer asleep.

Dejectedly, she sighed and threw her legs out from under the covers of her luxurious, curtain-lined bed. "Better get ready..." she mumbled, quickly and lightly hopping off of the bed and onto the floor, landing with a soft thump. She then turned to her dresser and grinned wickedly upon seeing her form. Her hair was sprawled about her body with the likeness of a patch of seaweed, leaving only her head and arms unrestricted. She even noticed that she had a light drool-mark upon her shoulder, and as she stood there, realized that she was unthinkingly continuing to drool, then adopting an expression akin to astonishment and excitement as she hastily started to make her way over to the dresser, using the back of her hand to wipe away as much of the sloppiness as she could muster.

.....

After taking a few minutes to brush her hair, change into her school outfit [a white, button-down shirt, a black skirt, black stockings, black shoes, and lastly, a brown robe, and a metal crest with a pentagon engraved upon it, held up as a sort of bolo tie around her neck] and to place her magic wand [a simple, wooden device the size of a moderately small stick and constructed entirely of wood, metal and a sort of blueish crystal] into its holster within her shirt's upper right sleeve, she smiled proudly at herself in the mirror resting upon the surface of her dresser and, turning, confidently walked out of her room.

.....

A short while after eating, and meeting with classmates [Read: trying to avoid talking to anyone as she sat at a desk in the back corner of a class room, reading a book by her lonesome] the bleached-haired girl watched a tall, moderately portly lady with a tall, purple, pointed hat and a long, purple robe, confidently stand behind the pedestal of the teacher's area at the front and center of the sloped and gradually elevating seating area in which the students sat and took notes. As the last few students took their seats, the teacher began to speak to the class, loudly and sternly announcing,

"I would like to congratulate each and every one of you for becoming first-year students here at the Tristain Academy of Magic. I realize that I said this on the day when you all first arrived, but I say it again to stress the importance of it. You are hours away from your first magic test, and most of you have very little experience. The Ceremony of Familiar Summoning is not to be taken lightly. Past students have been banished from the academy for failing it."

As she mentioned "failing," a gasp and murmur rose among many members of the class. Even the girl with sunbleached hair felt a chill roll down her spine.

"But worry not. The ceremony is very simple, and Mr. Colbert will inform you about everything you need to succeed in the ceremony. Even the slightest amount of preparation will provide you with the best familiar possible based on your willpower, personality, and incantation." With this said, the students quickly calmed down and started listening more intently to the teacher. "In any case, to prepare you for your first official magic test, I will help you to prepare by practicing transmutation magic."

.....

A few hours of classwork, lunch, and fervently whispered incantations, the sunbleach-haired girl found herself standing in the middle of a crowd of her fellow first-year students, staring at a half-bald teacher in the middle of one of the various courtyard regions of the school's inner-wall area. The teacher, named Mr. Colbert, held a large staff made out of a conical piece of wood with two red bands around the upper section. He wore a blue robe, eyeglasses, and a shoulder-strap bag containing supplies and materials which he often used in lessons and research. As he spoke to the crowd of around fifty students before him, he smiled excitedly, eager to begin the test. Many of the students shared the same eagerness, with the exception of the sunbleached-haired girl.

"Welcome, students! This is the first test of your first year, as well as the day of your first encounter with your familial spirit, whom you will have at your side for the rest of your life as a member of an aristocratic family."

His words continued streaming out as he described the intricacies and directions of the magic test, but the sunbleached-haired girl only noticed the voice of a buxsome, red-haired Germanian aristocrat behind her as a hand landed upon her shoulder and a mouth taunted her, commenting, "I can hardly wait to see what kind of familiar you are going to summon." followed by a short, wicked giggle. The sunbleach-haired girl frowned and turned her head away from the Germanian aristocrat shortly after processing the girl's sudden and insolent behavior, then quietly retorted, "leave me alone." as her face contorted into a nervous frown.

.....

At long last, after every other student finished their ceremony, the sunbleached-haired girl was left standing in the middle of the area, alone, patiently waiting as she started to feel more and more embarrassed for being the last to take part in the ceremony. Many of the other students had very unique and interesting creatures. The Germanian aristocrat had a salamander the size of a crocodile which could breath fire, the fanciful and charismatic Guiche de Gramont, summoned a rather large mole, the likes of which appeared to receive its master's considerable adoration. The sunbleached-haired girl, on the other hand, was taking a few moments to calm herself one last time as Mr. Colbert started to approach her.

"Ms. Yves, it is your turn to take part in the ceremony." he declared, motioning for her to begin.

The sunbleached-haired girl, now identified as Yves, nodded respectfully and swallowed her nerves once again. She was more off-set by the gravity of the situation than with the possibility of failure, however the teasing which she then heard from the Germanian aristocrat did not help: "Well, Yves? You said that you'd summon the greatest familiar of anyone in the class. Even greater than my Salamander." The venom in her voice was well-masked behind an innocent expression, but it nonetheless earned the girl a stern look from Mr. Colbert. However, the mild distraction only delayed Yves' fate for a few moments.

With the eyes of the entire class now set upon her, she sighed, took a deep breath and drew her crystal-tipped wood and metal wand out from its holster in her sleeve. She then held it up to the sky above her head and started to chant while waving it in a crescent from the ground to the sky. "My slave, who lives somewhere in the endless universe..." she started, her words causing murmurs and confusion among the other students and, most notably, a look of surprise upon the face of Mr. Colbert. "Oh beautiful, strong and majestic familiar spirit, I hereby plead forth with my heart's desire for you to give answer to my guidance!" With the last word of her incantation, she twirled her wand around in the air for two spins, then brought it down before her, pointing it immediately in front of her.

At first, it appeared that nothing had happened. Yves continued, however, to stand in place resolutely, confidently and sternly watching the space in front of her as she waited for something to happen. Time continued to pass, but nothing appeared. At last, once some of the students behind her decided that they had waited long enough, laughter started to break out, starting with the Germanian and branching out to the other students in turn, as the crowd started to mumble about how funny it was for Yves, of all students, to have failed the ceremony. Even Mr. Colbert had a sort of surprise written upon his face as he continued to stare at the girl, but he too decided that he had waited long enough after the students were all roused, and declared, "Ms. Yves, it would appear that you-"

However, before he was even able to finish his sentence, he noticed a sound in the air above, and looked up to see, descending from the sky, a tall, black, grey and beige object furiously fumbling about in the air, along with an intense, bright blue flash of light. He then stopped himself and stared at it, dumbfounded, attempting to identify what it was. As he did, the crowd rapidly stopped making noise and following his gaze to view the figure falling from the sky. However, Yves never got the chance to look up to see what everyone was looking at. For, by the time she started looking up, she heard, "Watch out!" from a person nearby and, moments later, was impacted by the object with immense force.

The wind was knocked out of her lungs as she was violently thrown to the ground by it, but she quickly recovered and started crying out in surprise. "A-Are we under attack? What's going on? Am I hurt? I-I can't see! Help! Get it off of me!" she exclaimed, wincing as she tried to push the object off of her head and chest region and onto the ground. The students around her remained silent as she finally managed to free herself from beneath the object, but as she stood up and looked down at what had landed upon her, her surprise was replaced with a mortified shock. Once again, the group of students started murmuring to one another as she stood there, staring at it.

"Ms. Yves, I believe that you have found your familiar." Mr. Colbert declared, finally able to replace his surprised with a stern, intrigued expression. After hearing Mr. Colbert speak, the voices of the students around Yves started getting louder. "Is that a...human?" "It's definitely a plebeian." "Hah! I'm glad I'm not her!" Meanwhile, the unconscious human plebeian lay unconscious upon the floor, appearing no more harmed than Yves herself was. Yves' expression gradually shifted into a sort of disgust as she watched the human lie on the ground, completely unaware of the effect it now had on her life.

....

It wasn't long before the human started to stir. Yves was already leaning over the human, observing his face at a distance of three feet away, and asked, "Who are you?" the second she noticed his eyes starting to open. The murmurs of the various other students around her were just as loud as they were once the human initially fell from the sky, and the large assortment of magical familiars standing about beside their masters added significantly to the amount of noise in the courtyard at that time. She continued asking the plebeian a few more questions as it started to come to its senses, but when it spoke, she frowned, realizing that it could not understand her language, and stood up as she tried to collect her thoughts and form a plan.

Meanwhile, the buxsome Germanian aristocrat walked up to Yves, declaring, "This makes all of your boasting worth it! I never would have guessed that you'd summon a plebeian!" The crowd of students apparently found this funny, beginning to laugh and point between Yves and the human on the ground as Yves started to blush. Immediately as the human started to speak, she shouted, "Shut Up!" at it and turned to face Mr. Colbert, flustered and desperate. "Mr. Colbert, please allow me to summon again."

He shook his head and responded quickly by declaring, "I cannot allow you to do that."

"Why?" she asked, gradually calming herself down as she tried to come to terms with reality.

"This is a sacred ceremony. Redoing it would be an affront to the headmaster and a desecration of the tradition he set forth. Regardless of whether you like it or not, you succeeded at casting your familiar spell, and the result lies before you."

She then tried to play innocent and pleaded, "but Mr. Colbert, I never heard of taking a plebeian as a familiar spirit!"

Colbert coldly responded, "Whether it's a plebeian or not, there are no exceptions. Now continue with the ceremony."

Yves dejectedly looked down at the human and squeaked out, "w-with th-this?"

The teacher then gave her an even colder stare and demanded, "Get on with it. If you don't complete the ceremony you will be expelled."

The girl sighed, steeling her nerves, then looked down at the human with an expression of annoyance and frustration. "You'd better be grateful, plebeian. Otherwise you'd normally never get this from an aristocrat." The german aristocrat from the crowd behind her then cheered, "Go get 'im! Woo Woo!" followed by a series of laughs from the people of the crowd.

She then lifted her wand close to her face, lowering it to touch his forehead with it a few seconds later, as she closed her eyes and declared, "My name is Yves Blanchette-Marie De Tonnelier." She then dropped to her knees next to the human's side and, holding the wand firmly in her right hand, continued, "Pentagon that governs the five powers, give this...thing...your blessing and make it my familiar spirit." She then closed her eyes, pursed her lips, and leaned in towards the creature's face. Upon hearing it speak for a few seconds, she quickly opened her eyes and desperately demanded, "just stay still!" as her face started to blush once again. Without giving it time to respond, she then closed her eyes again and, after leaning in further, planted her lips onto his own for a few moments.

She then backed away from him with an softened expression, but quickly shook it off and stood up, backing away from the human. "It looks like the Familiar Contract was completed without any problems." he declared, walking up behind Yves as she backed away from the human. They then watched as his body started violently heating up, turning reddish and causing steam to rise from his skin. He continued heating up more and more for the next few seconds, especially in the region of his hand, as invisible runes started to be drawn about his body by the magic contract. Oddly, with a flash of especially intense light and heat, a rune became engraved into his hand as well. Shortly after the light reached it's peak brightness, the human fell unconscious once again and plopped to the ground.

"Once he cools down, I will have the servants help you carry him to your room." Mr. Colbert declared, then he turned to the rest of the students and declared, "you have all successfully passed your first magic test of the year! Congratulations! Now, take the rest of this day to become familiar with your new familiars!" He only slightly emphasized the word "familiar" as he spoke, clearly meaning it as a sort of pun, but immediately after he spoke, he took one last look over at Yves and started calmly walking away.

Yves, on the other hand was staring angrily down at the plebeian as she waited for servants to come to aid her in moving it up to her room. "Y-you could at least do me the f-favor of...of moving your own weight..." she softly mumbled, wiping her eyes with the sides of her hands as she stared down at him. Before she was able to finish her sentence, she had to look away, fearing that her despair would only increase if she continued to look upon him.

....

 

[Sabatron]

Time passed almost -- differently, in this realm. It was like experiencing his senses being bombarded all at once, but at the same time, by nothing. It was an otherworldly experience. Is this it? Is he dead? His thoughts wander almost infinitely, as infinite as this is taking him. He was not floating around in space, rather he was falling rather perpetually. The initial shock that he was moving downward was particularly frightening, but soon enough -- and as a large amount of time passes, he soon began to 'not be afraid' of falling. It seemed like he was falling infinitely, into a void of nothingness. While it isn't as serene as floating around, it was better than nothing. Taking this time, he tries to collect his thoughts, trying to piece together the puzzle that beset him.

Where the hell was he? There was nothing that could indicate anything belonging in this realm, though a few flashes of light and the constant swirling of dark, dull colors cross his eyes -- but he was falling, his eyes couldn't follow the movements. His glasses were somehow still attached to him, as if they were a 'part of him', and nothing fell from his pockets. He even rotated and tried to actually physically remove his glasses, but the result was him taking off his glasses with his hands, but acting as if he was standing. He put them back on, and still waited.

Even now, he thought death was less boring than this. Or maybe he is dead, and he doesn't realize it. Hayato used this time to think back on his life. It was generic, bland, boring. Thinking back on it, he didn't really wish for anything, and he played everything safe. Instead of being a stalwart CEO of a major multi-yen company, or a famous man who will be remembered when death actually does come -- nobody will care. He's almost certain this is his fate, his destiny. Perhaps he's actually just unconscious, or this is the delusion of an 'afterlife'. Maybe this is actually the afterlife.

Something odd happened, however. As he continued to think about how he would get back, or what he was supposed to do, a bright light engulfed his vision. It felt like a wave of warm light encompassed him, and the feeling of being 'liberated' came to mind. However, this wasn't what he expected. Not at all.

He was falling at a much faster rate. Back then, it felt a bit like he was fluttering down, like being set down by a guiding force, but this time, he went down like a meteor. His screams didn't last for long, and eventually he passed out completely, only catching a brief view of the surroundings -- blobs of grey, pink, purple, red -- his eyes all saw the figures and shapes as a faint blur, as his eyes were shut tight, and he barely felt anything -- numbness and paralysis encompassing his entire body.

With the events happening all around him, it took almost a few moments to realize he was still alive. His eyes fluttered open, the light almost blinding him somewhat, but his eyes quickly managed to adjust. Within moments, he was in complete shock. All around him, he saw things that shouldn't exist. Mythical creatures, standing beside normal human beings with coats and uniforms fit for the medieval age. While he was a bit confused, and maybe even questioning if he was under the influence of drugs, he looked to the person, rapidly speaking in a language he barely understood. Replying with his own furious Japanese, he pesters her with questions.

"What the fuck? Who the hell are you? Where the hell am I? What the fuck happened to me?!" His voice raised in tone as he started to swear incessantly, but he knew the woman couldn't understand him. He simply started to shut up, his hand creeping to the holster, his hand holding the grip, as he prepared to raise his gun. Even though he does recognize the creatures, the men and women seemed young, maybe students, with one balding teacher leading them. Could this be a magic school? Maybe he is high, and he's in some sort of fantasy delusion.

While she left him and began talking to his teacher, and another red-head with an arrogant tone, a body that says 'I'm very proud of how big my chest is', and an attitude that says the same thing -- judging by her tone of voice. Well -- at least the way he detects social cues regarding body language is a key factor in surviving her unscathed. A normal person with a gun would pull it out, but he's slightly familiar with this. They're just students. He's probably just some experiment -- or something.

If this is a fantasy, might as well enjoy it while it lasts. His mind tries to make sense of the language they're using. The way they speak, it sounds like some sort of French, but he could never really tell. Their accents were very much of nobility, pampered princesses and arrogant sounding aristocrats, but he noticed something odd. The girl who asked a lot of questions seemed a bit more timid than the red-haired, and dare he say -- pretty looking woman. They were leagues apart, but something struck him about the girl. Almost as if she failed something, by how she was speaking.

He only made out the similarly heavy French-sounding name. 'Yves... Blanch... e-ette? Marie De...' He eventually gave up, and settled with Yves while referring to her, assuming he could even find a way to communicate to her verbally.

This was a weird time. They were doing some sort of ritual. His mind was at a loss, and he tried to move a bit more, actually trying to pull his gun out. But for some reason, as the ritual went on for longer, he lost the desire to become violent. He was forcefully become docile, and he didn't realize it.

Then, she suddenly kissed him. Surprising, he still felt it. It was a quick kiss, but anyone other than his wife kissing him was rather weird. He did blush, but something happened as she went farther away. It was beginning to make less and less sense. What the hell was going on? He was heating up rather badly, but it wasn't unpleasant. He just felt the immense heat, like when he was still in that void, but he saw his skin becoming red, and as he observed, light was coming from out and onto his body. It was still something weird, but he wasn't writhing in pain. It just felt -- very, very surreal, as if it wasn't really happening.

Then, it all stopped, and so did he -- apparently. He fell unconscious for the second time. There was a split second where he saw his normal self a bit, noticing a weird 'rune' etching on his left hand, before he lost all consciousness, and quickly crumpled to the ground.

 

[Icicle]

....

Within the room of the girl with sunbleached hair, a few well-decorated and engraved wooden pieces of furniture lay about. For the most part, her room consisted of a fancy, curtain-draped bed located near the window, a wardrobe across from the bed with a dresser next to it, and another wardrobe next to that one, a table with two chairs, and a glowing, crystal-like bulb resting on a stand which rested on the table. The room was extremely cleanly, save for the plebeian and the bed of straw which he lay upon, the likes of which was set between the table and the wall opposite of the wardrobe, about 10 feet away from the bed.

Yves, the girl with sunbleached hair, was blushing furiously as she tried to imagine how hard she would have to work to make her situation play out reasonably. She had already decided that it wasn't as bad as her colleagues made it out to be - sure, her familiar wasn't a very interesting or unique creature, but it was a plebeian. She assumed that, with enough training, it'd be able to function as a better servant for her than a rat, or a mole, because it at least looked moderately strong. Then again, she was also nervous that, because it was a filthy plebeian, it might abandon her if she ever truly needed it, while other, less sentient creatures wouldn't.

She contemplated her predicament long and hard as she stared at the pages of her favorite magic textbook, A Study of Wind: Volume 2, the likes of which she didn't comprehend a word of. She was too distracted to study, and she realized it, but she continued trying to gather the meaning of the words while her mind focused on the new creature who suddenly wormed its way into her life. She peeked over her shoulder to see it, but sighed upon observing it, now for the hundredth time. She then looked back at her book for a few seconds, frowned, and, with yet another, even more dejected sigh, she closed the book with a sharp Snap, and placed it at the side of where she sat upon her bed.

Having closed her book already, she decided that she was too far invested to go back to reading now. She rose from her bed, sliding off the edge of the mattress, and walked over to the far end of the table, purposefully stomping her feet a little as she moved. She still wore her outfit from earlier, the white, button-down shirt, the skirt, the stockings, the cape, and the bolo, and even her shoes. However, as she looked down at the plebeian on the floor, she took one last long, hard think. "Is it really worth taking him in as my familiar?" she groaned, a feeling of intense discomfort shooting up her spine...

......

After awhile, the plebeian made its first few movements and, upon noticing his movement, Yves stepped to the side so as to watch him wake up quietly. She still had a feeling of discomfort at the thought of allowing a plebeian to tarnish her reputation by living beside her, but she was simultaneously filled with resolve as she watched him open his eyes and lean up, beginning to look around. Before he got the chance to say any more than his first few words, she interrupted him, standing with her arms crossed and looking down upon him. "I see you finally decided to wake up."

She paused for a second, then continued, "I thought about it long enough to get an ulcer, but I've given up." At this, she started walking over to her dresser. "I'm going to have you as my familiar. You should be honored." She then opened the wardrobe and unbuttoned her robe and took off her bolo, hanging up both in the wardrobe. She then slipped off her skirt, unbuttoned her shirt, took her shoes and stockings off, and bunched up the shirt, skirt and stockings, throwing the whole wad over at the plebeian as she said, "Wash those and then iron them. You're a familiar, so even if you don't understand our language, you ought to be able to understand that."

By the time she spoke, she was wearing only her pure, white dress gown and two thin, leather straps connected to one another with another leather strap, both of which had leather rings attached on the outside, within which her wand was securely held. The thought process seemed logical enough, so she left it at that as she pointed towards the door, although she had a sinking suspicion that it was not going to be as simple as she had hoped as she watched the plebeian with a stern expression.

 

[Sabatron]

While he was knocked out, he had a lot of time to think about what where he was. Was he in the worlds that only existed in his imagination? While he only saw a brief glimpse of something 'magical', he truly was excited. Whether he was currently under the embrace of death, it was a nice -- pre-death fantasy. Maybe he had a heart attack, and what he's experiencing now is just a long, drawn out coma. His thoughts traveled back to home, where his wife would probably miss him. Probably. He wasn't certain about it any bit, but she would at least be worried about where her husband might be.

His thoughts eventually stirred him to wake up, his eyes slowly adjusting to the brightness of the room by squinting. Immediately, he leaned up, and saw that he was still wearing the same clothes -- his coat, his slacks, his pants, he still even had his pistol. Well, at least the holster was concealed rather well, but he noticed her speak that gibberish to him. Well, in her eyes, he would assume that she would think he was a lowly plebeian. That's what most fantasy novels would tell him. The rituals back then were something of another matter. He noted that most of them spoke, and looked like royalty, even though they were students, it was clear to him now -- he was in an academy of some sort.

An academy. Dedicated to -- magic, presumably. Was it magic, or did she try to poison him? What if she isn't real, and is just a figment of his imagination. Whatever the case, his imagination must really hate him for tossing him in a realm with a slightly French-like language. He didn't recognize the words, only a few -- but they used them differently. His elementary grasp of French was giving him a bit of trouble, but even then, he would assume their language isn't exactly the French he knew.

While she spoke, his eyes followed her intently. He would be pretty sure he was in a fantasy, as she suddenly went over to her wardrobe which was still in the same room -- as she immediately started stripping. His pupils dilated as he immediately blushed a deep red, averting his gaze as quickly as he can. It seemed like this was a normal thing, since she didn't seem to mind him staring at all. He took another peek, but when he turned, he found a crumpled wad of clothing tossed at him. Catching it with his hands swiftly, he sighed, already knowing where she was going with this. He decided not to get a bit too hasty, but he did started to speak, trying to communicate. She'd probably understand what he'd mean, if he spoke in the correct tone of voice.

"What the fuck? I didn't sign up to be your maid. I don't even know where I should go to clean your clothes." He made the 'washing' motion, rubbing two random articles of clothing and trying to emulate the motion one does when ironing clothes, while shrugging -- which would be the international gesture of confusion. With this weird girl, this weird world, and the weird things he's gotten himself into, he should at least try to 'communicate'. He even got a bit agitated and spoke a bit of English. He didn't struggle, but his conversational English wasn't perfect.

"Uh... Where do I go to... wash your clothes?" With a few more gestures, he hopes that she would at least understand English. Why wasn't he in the English part of this world anyway? He cursed himself quietly, mumbling random swear words in Japanese. He did try to be polite, but without any proper medium of communication and instruction, he might as well be as useless as a plebeian can be.

 

[Icicle]

As the human started to speak, Yves just stared at him and allowed her arm to drop to her side. "Well? Get to it!" She commented, maintaining her resolve despite the plebeian's odd tone of voice. She continued watching as the creature started to rub her clothes together and all sorts of other barbaric looking actions. She was more disheartened by the second while watching him, and it showed on her expression. With a completely hollow, almost confused expression, she started to complain, whining, "You can't even understand a master's orders?" She sighed, continuing, "I can't believe that is my familiar." She then hung her head as he started to speak in an even more elongated and uninteligible tone. "He's worse than a dog."

As the plebeian continued to mumble to himself and talk, Yves' switched from depressed to aggravated. How could she have been so wrong about this creature's potential? What was she going to do with it? Despite asking these questions to herself and trying her best to focus on answering them, the plebeian's noise was too much for her to concentrate. Finally snapping, she growled, "GahhhHHH! Be quiet! I can't hear myself think with all that noise you're making!" She tried to think up a solution to her problem that wouldn't involve freezing the thing to death when she had a realization: "Wait...I should use the silencing magic I learned last week!"

At this thought, she reached over to her holster, pulled the wand out with her left hand, and started trying to remember what the incancation was. "Alright, think. It's not that hard to remember..." She let her hand which held the wand dangle to the ground as she attempted to remember the words, mumbling a few to herself for a few moments. "...Ansu,...Ver...Ankh..." She then quickly brought her wand into the air above her head, pointing it in the plebeian's vague direction, and loudly declared, "Notice the tracks of my words and answer my request right away!" She then pointed her wand straight at the plebeian's mouth and shouted, "Silence!"

Precisely one second after she shouted, a violent explosion rippled out in concentrated shockwave centered on the plebeian's mouth. Once the smoke of the explosion cleared, she looked down at the plebeian's shocked body and mumbled, "Hrm. That was strange." She then continued to watch him for a few more seconds as he regained his senses. It wasn't long before he started talking again, at which point her eyes widened in surprise. "When you spoke...I understood!" she commented, amazed.

She then affirmed the fact by frowning, looking moderately upset, and commanding the plebeian to "try saying something else."

 

[Sabatron]

It was clear she was getting agitated that he wasn't going to get anywhere with this. Eventually, she would get tired with the lack of communication, and he was waiting for the moment when she would try something. It was like talking to a brick wall at this point. With her body language clearly displaying disgust, discontent and an overall 'I'm very tired of your shit' attitude, it seemed like she was getting more and more impatient the more he spoke to her. Her snobbish, arrogant tone of voice was something that clearly meant that she was sick and tired of dealing with a tiny peasant man in place of some sort of cool, mean looking familiar creature.

But then, something else would elude him. She gleefully remarked to herself, and immediately pulled something out of her wand holster, as he placed his hand on the holster of his own firearm. But, he didn't pull out his gun yet, he was still observing her with glaring, weary eyes. With her small mumbles and equally incoherent yelling, but then -- something else happened. He closed his eyes almost instinctively, and backed off rather swiftly, but he felt something stir at the general position of his mouth.

Suddenly, a large, violent explosion of some sort pushed him back heavily, as he was tossed back onto the wall, dropping down to the ground. With that, he was a bit dazed, but he decided enough was enough. He yelled loudly, grabbing the Glock 23 from his holster, pulling out the pistol and pointing the barrel straight at her. "Okay, enough is fucking enough! If you think I'm going to sit here and get experimented on, you've got another thing coming!"

Sure he wasn't really intimidating, but it seemed like she was more concerned about how she suddenly understood what he was saying. He slowly lowered his gun, and tried saying something. It was something that was on his mind for a while now, and he wanted to express it to her. He creases his lips, deciding how to go about it, and after a good thirty seconds, he put his gun back in it's proper holster, crossing his arms. With all the things she has done, he hasn't really felt that he was appreciated at all. Unwanted is the term that should be used in describing what he has observed with her attitude and general body language.

"I think you should be more grateful for what you have."

He decided that was the best thing to say, probably. She did ask him to say 'something', and that was that something.

 

[Icicle]

Upon hearing the boy speak again, her frown quickly shifted to bemusement. At very least, she now knew that her spell hadn't worked. Whether or not she recognized what he said, she responded by saying, "I can't believe it. That was supposed to be a spell of silence." After another moment, she bowed her head in disappointment, placing the wand back in it's place within the leather straps on her arm, and mumbled, "failed again..." but quickly regained her composure, regaining her bemused expression as she asked, "you. What's your name?"

Upon hearing the plebeian respond, she paused for a moment, almost frozen, then her face warped into disbelief. "Hay ah toe, Me zoo hoe?" she attempted to repeat the plebeian's words, but she was noticeably more confused by the name than she was satisfied by it. Once again, she regained her composure after a few moments, and adopted both a stubborn expression and pose by resting her fists on her hips and jutting her hip out slightly. She then declared, "In any case, I will not allow a familiar to adopt such an informal tone with me. My name is Yves Blanchette-Marie De Tonnelier." She tilted her head up proudly as she declared her name, then looked back at the plebeian with the same stubborn look.

But as she paused to think, she remembered the first words which she heard out of him. Thinking a bit more, she decided to speak, declaring, "You want to know why you're here? I summoned you when I performed my summoning ritual. You're my familiar. See?" At this point, she pointed down at his right hand, upon which was a series of dark letters, the likes of which were burnt onto his skin by the magic ceremony. "I do not know where you came from before, but right now you are on the continent of Halkegenia, in the nation of Tristain. I am a first year student at the Tristain Academy of Magic, the grounds of which you are blessed enough to presently stand upon."

After saying this, she started muttering to herself for a few moments, almost incomprehensibly, as she waived awareness of her surroundings in favor of wallowing in self-pity as she turned away from the plebeian, as if trying to have a moment to herself: "Why does my familiar have to be a peasant boy? I wanted something really cool, like a dragon, or a griffon. They're always friendly. But an ungrateful plebeian? URRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH" As she spoke, she gestured to herself, trying to remain calm despite her eccentricity.

 

[Sabatron]

Well, at least the problem of communication was solved rather easily. It was weird how she did it, though, since the shockwave knocked him off his feet. Did she literally just throw a grenade at him or something? Chanting some random words and then doing some sort of magical gibberish? It probably might not be what he was thinking, or maybe he was just dreaming. Maybe she just pushed him. He was still rather confused, idly standing by with the face of bewilderment. He did answer her question, still a bit skeptical about the whole thing. "Hayato Mizuho."

It really didn't take long for him to realize that he was in something deeper than what he expected. The misunderstanding actually led him to believe that he was actually 'important'. Now, this confirmed his suspicions. Her tone was still annoyed, haughty, and downright rude, but she made it very clear -- she wasn't happy with him. He decided to remain a bit docile, standing straight and his face a bit neutral, as he wasn't sure whether to berate her more, now that she understands what he was saying. Her pride precedes her, she must be a royal.

He decided the best course of action was to play along. He listened to her, his hands on his pockets as he adopted a more relaxed, leaned back attitude as he followed her finger, seeing the writings etched onto his skin. He was a bit surprised, but he simply switched his gaze back to her, confusion playing on his face. "Familiar? So what... am I just a... what?" He wasn't sure how to put his thoughts into words. Then, as she continued, he intently listened, as she revealed more information about where he was, exactly. "I'm... a data entry manager from... Japan." He was unsure if 'dream logic' applied here, but he just spoke the truth.

Similarly, she operates the same way as his wife -- albeit with less 'begging for money' and a bit more of the 'order him around' sort. 'God, I thought this was a great dream, but I'm trapped here with my wife, literally. Thanks.' His thoughts were just things he wouldn't say. If he had the stones to say that to her face, he would have left his wife years ago. Standing up to people isn't really his thing, and as much as possible he avoids conflict. That's why he's still stuck in Data Entry, because his boss is a headstrong, confident man and the only thing Hayato has is his skill. But, with her, he decided his fate was sealed. While physical harm is much, much more satisfying in the short term, in the long term he might be kicked out, to fend for himself, in some place in Europe. Or maybe he'll wake up? He doesn't want to prove his theory wrong, however.

Still, he remained docile, and looked at her with a harried expression, giving a slight sigh. He wished that she didn't understand him, so he could backbite her without any repercussions. But, he's just going to play along to the whims of the girl, woman, whatever. Maybe he was on the set of a movie, and he'll get a Golden Globe, in some sort of experimental 'take an actual person from the streets and see how he reacts in a fantasy setting' movie. His thoughts danced around, and he didn't really know what else to do.

'I wish she didn't treat me like dirt. But I'm a good person, and I can't bring myself to confront women.' That's his usual problem. He's usually stuck with people like her. Maybe if he's loyal, she might be a bit more comforting. Yes, that's it. Loyalty.

"Hey, sorry for... reacting violently. Could you repeat what you were trying to order me to do?" He spoke in the same way he would if he was talking to his boss, his wife, or a police officer. He might be pathetic, but what else can he do? He's literally stuck here, and if this was even real, he might wake up. This should be a lesson to lay off the English audiobooks and light reading for a while -- assuming he was even in Japan anymore. Who knows, he might have been kidnapped because he was wearing a suit, and so on and so forth. He didn't even know what to do other than do what she said.

 

[Icicle]

As Yves finally calmed down, using one last gesture to "shake off" her frustration, she turned around to see the plebeian sighing with a sort of relenting expression which she had witnessed many times before. As it spoke, she crossed her arms and listened to it with an expression of indifference. Once it finished speaking, this time in a more respectful tone, she nodded and pointed at the skirt, stockings and shirt which flew to the ground after the explosion from her spell. "Very well, I'll say it once more. Wash those and then iron them."

She then regally stepped away from it and over to the wardrobe. She stopped in front of it, looking back at it to see if it was starting to do the task, but only took a quick glance before continuing to look through the wardrobe. She opened the door of the wardrobe, pulled out a section of one of the dresses, and finished taking off her garments, throwing everything she wore over to the plebeian. As she gracefully slipped on a long, sky-blue, silk dress, she commented, "do the same for those as well." She then walked back over to the table in the middle of the room, took the leather holster with the wand in it off of her arm, placed it onto the table, still holding it with her hand, and looked over at it, deep in thought.

Sure, it apologized, but it seemed very energetic earlier. Surely it's not savage enough to attack me in my sleep. It is my familiar, after all.

She then shrugged, deciding that sleep was more important than worrying about the intelligence of a lowly plebeian. She released the wand and it's holster and, still watching the plebeian, said, "on second thought...just have my clothes ready for me in the morning....yeah, that'll do."

At long last, she allowed her expression to betray the tiredness in her eyes as she strode over to her bed. Upon reaching it, she snapped her fingers, resulting in the light crystal on the table instantly fizzing out. With the light crystal out, the room was lit by little more than the minuscule amount of moonlight which pierced through the cloudy sky. Yves then lifted up the covers, deposited herself beneath them, and got comfortable by facing away from the plebeian on her side with her head against the pillow and the thick, woolen bed sheets covering her up to her shoulders. Closing her eyes, she simultaneously felt the creeping gaze of the plebeian and that pit in her stomach which formed as a result of the dispiriting events which transpired immediately beforehand. She then silently and motionlessly attempted to fall asleep.

 

[Sabatron]

While he was very, very unhappy that she was still being a bit rude. But then, she decided to be a bit more respectful, probably a side effect of him displaying 'respect' as well. He ran his hand through his hair, before deciding it was best to do as he was ordered. While this wasn't data entry, this was more or less the same instructions her wife would give him. He really had nothing to go on, not even instructions. He held onto the clothes, stacked on his arms. Grumbling, he started cursing himself, regretting ever getting curious about that green blob.

The night was already here, and a few lanterns lit the way as he leaves the room -- the castle's gleaming, somewhat marble and immaculate floor accentuating the well designed stone walls making him appreciate the place he was in. It was pretty, he knew that. It was a bit dark now, not really noticing the passage of time as he fell from the sky, as his mind drifted off, walking forth, to the left of her room, down the hall. Did he really have a chance to stay here? Is he going to be able to escape? He gauges the situation by checking around.

He wasn't aware if there even was a place where he could wash his clothes and iron them back at her room, so he tried poking around to see if there was a place to clean her clothes. But his thoughts always drifted back to where he really belonged. Modern times. He fished his phone out from his pocket, checking the screen. While it was at eighty percent, and it could probably still play a few audiobooks before dying, he tried to check if it even picked up a signal. With a few swipes and jabs of his finger to the screen, nothing he could do could change the fact that 'no existing network found'.

Was he really dreaming? Did people have super detailed dreams? He deduced he might just be in the hospital, dying in a coma or something as he dreamed of a world that only existed in the pages of his books and the minds of many. In any case, she was as abusive as his real wife, so maybe he was actually dreaming. He tried pinching himself, but the only thing that resulted is him yelping, accidentally loosening his grip on her clothes and causing the stack to nearly topple over, but he managed to catch it with his other free hand.

He eventually passed a few more watchguards, their armor resembling ones of knights of old, in the middle -- a crest he could barely recognize, wielding swords that glowed in different shades of blue, green, red, and all of the alike. Some students even saw him, and they snickered and jeered -- male and female alike, they laughed at him. A few guards chased them away, but they barely acknowledged him, as if he didn't exist. He didn't understand at first, but then he realized that the society he was in had a heavy intonation with class 'positions' and roles. He was probably just over-analyzing, so he looked at the small, square, wooden signs that adorned the wall at the top of each door, and recognized the symbol for 'washing'. It was really just an image of clothing, then a simple symbol for 'cleaning' that he could only assume looked like a water droplet. He pulled the door's handle, but it didn't budge. He grunts a bit, before pushing it inward, as it easily does so. Excusing his own stupidity, he stepped in, with the walking style of a man who clearly doesn't seem interested at all in what he was doing, as almost nobody was in the room.

It was clear that this was the place to wash clothes, with several basins nearby a reservoir of water in the side, looking more like a small pond than just a mere reservoir, and a slightly large balcony with several medium-sized poles to which there were sturdy ropes in which to hang clothing. It didn't really make sense why they didn't place this room separately in each dorm room, but he didn't really care that much after a while, losing interest in the topic. Locating a bar of hand soap and a wooden washboard, he grabs both items and places them on the floor near a basin, as he rolls up his sleeves and pants -- carefully taking the basin and going down a bit on the reservoir to place water in the wooden basin. He soaks her clothes in the basin, placing them in -- as he plops the washboard in the glorified bucket, and started washing and cleaning her clothes.

He wanted to get away from this life. The sentries were numerous, but he had something they didn't -- a gun. Sure, they had -- something. Magic? Glowing swords that may or may not incinerate, burn, freeze or make him explode and whatsoever, but he spent his entire time crouching down, finishing up his job as thoughts of escape made circles around his head. What the hell was he even doing, doing this for a woman just because she treated him with respect for a second, and now he's freely allowing this girl, who may or may not have dropped acid or force-fed him LSD, to clean her clothes for him.

He grabbed the basin over to the open balcony, two torch sconces burning brightly at the entrance of the large door to the 'hanging' area. He hoped her clothes didn't fly off in the heavy wind, because he was certain a certain girl might give him the punch for not being 'man enough'.

While he hung her clothes, his train of thought continued. Would he want to get out as quickly and swiftly as possible, and would the guards stop him easily? They seemed to be amply armed, and rightfully so, though they weren't numerous, he was but one man -- the only person who could have a chance to 'trust' him was Yves, and right now they were getting off the wrong foot. Stressed, he paced around the balcony, before finally settling at the railing of the balcony, looking out. Outside, it was nearly pitch black, the forest trees barely escaping the large scythe of judgement. Nobility, a 'magic academy', and a clone of her wife.

This day is brilliant.

So, he began to plan his escape. He spent some of his free time looking around, with a piece of parchment and a classic ink-quill pen he procured by returning to her room, and 'forcefully' borrowing it. Then, he continued to investigate, snooping around for potential exits or any traps. He just needed some time to prepare himself.

 

[Icicle]

After a few footsteps and the sound of the door swinging open, then closed, Yves was finally able to get some peace and quiet. The cool air in the room wafted across her face and cooled her nerves, allowing her to sweep aside her troubles and relax for the time being. The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was the sound of wind brushing past her window and the incantation for her favorite spell...Nova, Peo, Magnus, Ais.

.....

The next morning, Yves woke to the sound of movement in her room. She yawned and took a few brief seconds to stretch before wiping the salt out of her eyes and looking around, still lying on her bed in a jumble of limbs and hair. To her surprise, another creature was in her room. Suddenly, a spike of adrenaline shot through her body and she drew in a breath, as if to speak. But, before saying anything, she managed to recognize the creature: oh, it's the peasant I summoned yesterday, and whatever surprise she showed a moment ago was gone. I suppose I'll have to get used to that from now on.

Now fully awake, she looked over to the window and realized that the sun was only just now rising from beneath the horizon. She then yawned, stretched a bit more, and pulled the covers away. After freeing herself from the covers, she turned, looked around, and asked, "hey, peasant. Where are my clothes?" as she stood up. Upon discovering the pile of clothes, she looked over it and asked, "where are my panties?" and upon receiving a response, she merely held out her hand expectantly. Once she received her undergarments, she took off her dress, threw on the undergarments, and, pointing over to the clothes he prepared for her, demanded, "now dress me. And be quick about it, or you won't get breakfast."

.....

It took slightly longer than usual, about 10 minutes, as she had to direct him over to the dresser for brushes and combs, and the wardrobe for her cloak and bolo. But, once all was said and done, she felt more proud than usual. My first personal servant...now I truly can uphold an appearance of nobility. She personally grabbed her wand holster and fastened it onto her arm as she started to walk over to the door. "Come on, let's go" she commanded, walking over to the door as she threw some of her long hair from her chest over to her back, "we're going down to breakfast." Without another word, she pulled open the door and walked out of the room, offering the plebeian little more than a glance over her shoulder as she walked through the doorway to acknowledge his presence.

.....

Upon reaching the giant room which was the dining hall, Yves walked over to one of the three extremely long tables and stopped in front of a chair. The stone statues of armored figures lining the walls added to the sun-shiny atmosphere of the room as light streamed down from the many tall windows on either end of the room adjacent to the ends of the tables. A large staircase which up to a higher floor was located between the tables and the windows on one end of the room, the likes of which led up to an area similar in appearance to a study lounge overlooking the dining area. The three extremely long tables were all likely capable of seating 100 or more students on each side of the table, and every seat was lined with a wide array of fine-looking dishes, drinks, silverware, and other dining materials.

After standing in front of the chair for a few moments, Yves frowned over at him and commented, "would you hurry up and pull the chair back?...You really are inconsiderate." Once he complied, she sat in the chair and looked over at him, pointing down to the ground beside her. Located behind the chair was a singular plate, the likes of which she was pointing towards. "Only nobility are allowed to sit at this table. You, peasant, have to sit down there." As she spoke, she heard the laughs of a few people who happened to observe their charade. She took a deep breath as she recognized that she was being mocked again, but calmed her nerves and began to wait at the table, occasionally speaking to the other nobles around her as they waited for the dining hall to fill.

.....

A half hour later, a few minutes after the sun had fully risen above the horizon and all of the seats at the tables were filled, the nobles all closed their eyes, placed their elbows on the table, clasped their hands together, and started reciting in unison the words, "Queen Marianne of Tristain, your royal highness, I am once again grateful for this humble meal which you have brought for us this morning." With these words spoken, the nobles all unclasped their hands and immediately began eating. Yves, however, took a fist-sized round of bread and dropped it behind her and onto her familiar's plate immediately after reciting the grace. She herself then started to eloquently consume the food before her.

.....

Once the meal was over, Yves rose from her seat, motioned for the plebeian to follow her, and commented, "usually, the familiars wait outside until their masters are finished. I made a special exception for you and let you stay." However, as she was speaking, they approached a section of the courtyard outside where a great many tables were set up. Many servants were walking around, serving nobles with snacks as they played with, spoke to, and taught tricks to their various familiars. Once she was certain that her familiar noticed the tables, she commented, "all first year students have the day off today. We're supposed to communicate with all the freshly summoned familiars."

However, as she turned around a corner of a building, she immediately ran into the red-haired, buxsome aristocrat from the previous day. She was petting her giant, alligator-like lizard with a flaming tail and gleaming, slitted yellow eyes, the likes of whom was staring straight at the plebeian with a reptilian grin and a growl. As the lady noticed the two of them, she grinned slyly and teased, "oh, it's Yves...A pleasure" to which Yves scowled and, in a low tone, replied, "likewise," as the reptilian creature advanced briefly towards the plebeian and sniffed his leg. The two then took a few moments to continue staring at each other before averting their eyes.

The red-haired aristocrat, however, quickly turned to face the plebeian with the same sly smile and asked, "is this the first time you have seen a salamander before, plebeian?" She grinnned wider upon witnessing his response, and continued, "it's perfectly safe - contract familiars faithfully obey every order from their master, and they never try to run away. Isn't that right, Flame?" upon finishing her comment, she pet just behind the head of her gigantic lizard, resulting in the creature making more of a grin and wagging it's flaming tail from side to side in either annoyance, or pleasure. She then looked up at Yves with an even more smug expression and innocently hummed, "hrm?" as if with a subtle, hidden accusation.

Yves was now frowning, and said, "why don't you just be quiet..." but the smug-faced, red-haired aristocrat then stood up and continued, "You know, I think you just grabbed some peasant that was nearby and pretended to summon him. I have to say, you covered up that lie pretty well with the clouds and your explosion."

Yves shook her head, once again taking a deep breath to calm herself, and with a steely set of icy eyes, she retorted, "that's not true. My summoning worked properly. It just happens that this thing showed up."

The red-haired lady then giggled and haughtily responded, "well, either way, it's the perfect familiar for you, Mess." She then continued laughing even more haughtily and loudly as she proudly walked away, the salamander following at her heels. Yves then gripped her fist tight and, turning to her familiar with a scowl, growled, "don't just stand there, bring me tea." She then marched over to a nearby, empty table and rested her head against her fist, staring over at the peasant with a frown as her icy eyes started to melt into thought.

Meanwhile, several of the maids continued walking around, sometimes in a rush, sometimes calmly and matter-of-factly. More of the maids were female than male, and a majority were about the age of the nobles they were serving.

 

[Sabatron]

Well, he didn't do a damn thing to try and escape. Even though guards were almost nearly nonexistent in the halls, nor are there any other students or 'commoners' around, he still didn't have the nerve to escape. He seems to have this sort of reasoning, same as to why he never really left his wife yet, even though logic dictates that he should have given her papers by now. He's certain this is more of a nightmare than a 'dream' at this point.

He was glad there was a fur pelt covering the ground, as he laid down on the floor. Indeed, his life was a downward spiral, even in a fantasy -- he was still not any better than when he was back in Japan. Looking around him, he clearly knew this was a fruit of his own intense love of fantasy worlds, albeit in this nightmare, his wife was in here as well. It was pure, utter madness. He here was, in a castle -- yet he can't be arsed to escape the imaginary shackles binding him to this place. He simply sprawled his legs and placed his hands over his face, closing his eyes. Soon, he was drifting off to sleep, which was odd -- wasn't he in a dream? Maybe he could wake up...

...He did wake up. In the same place. It was weird, because while he did manage to fall asleep, it was very surreal -- realistic in a sense. He did his usual morning ritual, and immediately jolted up, trying to wake up as fast as possible. His eyes blinked slightly as he immediately recognized the surroundings. It was still the same room in which he fell asleep in. He was almost certain he was back at home, being ignored by his wife. But this is probably more or less the same, except with more medieval stuff and even weirder circumstances. He simply stood by, and fished out his cellphone. He decided to turn it off, figuring he might need the battery if he ever finds a way to use his phone. While he was still skeptical about the 'magic' which was more-akin to someone just mumbling some gobbledygook and doing the whole 'smoke and mirrors' act on him, or if he was ever sure if this was even reality, he decided to just turn off his phone to conserve battery. Weird, that in this fantasy-heavy dream, that he wasn't dressed as a commoner, but he was still in his usual outfit. Though, he might need a change of clothes sooner or later, he might just smell the same as a commoner too.

Yves, of course, woke up soon after, and started ordering him around. Well, at least he was good at menial tasks. Things that didn't require him to think that much -- like data entry jobs or writing up reports. Then, after fishing her clothes that were neatly folded in a nearby wooden table, he stammered a bit at her next order -- to clothe her. "W-Woah, uh... o-okay, raise your... arms... t-then...?" While he did blush heavily as he did so, he simply complied, doing the whole thing for her, as if she was a child. This was ridiculous, but somehow she didn't really care that much. With her guidance, he managed to actually do as told, and almost properly.
________

With her walking out, he stuck to her tail, nearly tripping over himself to scramble to her side. He wanted to get on her good side -- and that meant being her personal slave. Going down the stairs along with her, not at her side -- but behind her. Shadowing her, he tried to accentuate her over himself, not standing out at all. The ability to finally understand what she and the others were saying was comforting, but it was weird. He was probably being pranked or something, and then afterwards he'll be given a compensation of money for being subjected to literal social torture for the rest of the week or something. But his thoughts were proven wrong. If there was something like this, recording without consent is something that shouldn't be allowed in the court of law.

With his mind somewhat being dragged around, he immediately pulled the chair back at her order, ignoring her commentary to be alone with his thoughts. He idly went behind her chair, seeing the plate on the floor and her immediately saying her graces to whatever deity or figure they were praying to, then giving him a large piece of bread. This was the kind of stuff Mahatma Gandhi fought for, and this is the kind of treatment African men faced during the history books. That 'prank' idea seemed a bit more plausible, but he crouched down, picking up the loaf of bread and stood, taking a few bites every now and then, eating normally with his hands, gripping the lump of bread.

Hayato wasn't sure what to make of this. Slowly and slowly, he started to peak his own denial stage. He wanted to go home, he wanted to get out of this hellhole. At least he was earning something and spending what little he had left after his wife ransacked his bank account on something he can enjoy. Now, he can't even go and do the things he likes, like going to the range and taking his frustrations out. He didn't even notice how embarrassed she was regarding -- whatever she was being ridiculed about. He never really caught on to what they were talking about up until she ordered him to follow her. Indeed, he did appreciate how well arranged the tables were, how large they were -- and all the other fantasy creatures coming to life right before his very eyes. This dream -- whatever he may be in, this is indeed a very intricate and complex 'place' he has created in his head.

While he was nearly awestruck -- and rightfully so, to see all these creatures up close and personal was simply amazing. It was as if he was actually there. The dream was too realistic, but he managed to contain himself while sticking behind her. Then, Yves suddenly bumped into that voluptuous red-headed noblewoman who was busy petting her large creature with the fiery tail and other reptilian aspects. They had a stare down, before they broke eye contact -- and for some reason, the woman's familiar was now pressing it's snout against his leg, as he simply ignored the creature.

He crouched down, looking at the creature with an interested glint in his eye. 'It's... real,' he can feel the heat slightly radiating from his tail. But, he managed to catch a glimpse and a bit of info as to why Yves would be laughed upon and ridiculed. While he 'faked' interacting with her little pet summon, he can feel the hate coming from Yves, but only the smoldering hatred, not her pure unadulterated rage. She was being made fun of by this girl, but Yves was just going to take it. Seeing her in a moment of weakness was slightly off-putting, coming from someone as bossy as her, but he always suspected there was 'always a bigger fish'.

He stood up, and continued to look at Yves with her bottled up emotions, ready to explode as she started taking it up on Hayato. "Yeah, sure -- coming right up." While this was something he wouldn't see everyday, he still felt a pang of guilt as he tried to bring up a tone on her yesterday. His neutral expression shifted to one of slight sadness, as he approached one of the maids.

"Hey, uh, excuse me. Can I have some... tea, for Miss Yves." He ordered one from one of the maids whom he decided to talk to, and while this wasn't him technically 'making the tea', she only asked to be served tea. While waiting, he decided to go back towards Yves, trying to talk to her about her situation, pitying her. "Yves- I mean... Mistress... is something bothering you?" While he botched calling her 'mistress' by her own force of habit, he wanted to talk to her regarding her problems with that other girl. "Are you having a hard time with that... red haired woman?" He asked her, still standing beside her and not sitting unless told to do so.

 

[Icicle]

As Hayato walked up to one of the maids and spoke, she hastily interrupted him, fearfully exclaiming, "I-I'm sorry, b-but I'm in a rush! Sorry! G-Go ask someone else!" After this lady left, one of the familiars, an eye-ball-like creature with purple skin and little metal twirly rods sticking out of randomly-placed spots on its body, popped out from behind a table and quickly moved towards Hayato. It stopped a few inches from his face, then moved around him and continued on its way. However, one of the maids who happened to by hurrying along was distracted by said familiar and bumped into him accidentally, exclaiming, "Wuaaaah!" as she lost her balance and dropped a slice of cheesecake onto the ground from the platter which she held.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry, are you okay?" she asked, hastily bending down to pick up the desert item which she dropped. Once she was standing, with the slice of dessert arranged on the plate once again, she looked up at the man who bumped into her and, after examining him for a second, she calmly asked, "Umm...are you the one who was summoned by miss Tonnelier and happened to become her familiar?" After his response she smiled brightly and declared, "You're all everyone's talking about! A peasant getting summoned as a familiar! It's incredible!" She then dropped the smile and, with a more didactic tone as she commented, "The only difference between nobility and peasants is that the nobility can cast magic. So having a peasant as a familiar is quite silly."

She then watched him for a second before realizing something and, in a friendly tone, explaining, "oh, my name is Siesta. I have the privilege and honor of serving the nobility here. I'm a peasant, just like you!" She then continued to speak to the familiar for a few moments, making a brief comment about how "that's a very strange name you have" before, from a nearby table, a familiar blonde-haired nobleman with a mole familiar spoke up. He declared, "Hey!...Are you going to bring me my cake?" in a very impatient tone.

"Oh! Coming right up!" she respectfully responded. The blonde-haired nobleman was the same nobleman which Hayato had seen the previous evening, however, the girl he was with now was very different from the girl whom he had been swooning the previous evening. While before, he was standing with a brown-haired and short girl, the girl before him now was blonde-haired and had a large, red ribbon in her hair. "You know, I spent the entire night conversing with Verande here," he casually said to the girl he was seated with, petting the hide of the giant mole which was seated in his lap. She appeared to be creeped out by the thing, and mumbled, "...really?...All night?.....wow..." in a blatantly sarcastic tone. The guy responded, "Oh yes...those intelligent eyes: the sensual texture of his scales: I know deep down that he was just destined to become my familiar!" She looked to the side, annoyed, and whined, "Well, do me a favor and keep it buried when you're with me."

After this, the maid arrived and, placing the cake down before the nobleman, she said, "here you go!" He then said, "good, now go and bring us more tea, peasant girl..." He gave a quick glance over towards Hayato, chuckling slightly to himself as if amused by an inside joke, then turned back to the girl at his table. Siesta quickly bowed and started walking away as he looked back over at the girl across from him, saying, "Montmorancy, your familiar is so very cute...just like you are." She was petting a frog at the time he said this, the likes of whom was shooting out it's tongue rapidly on random occasions, forming a heart shape with it as it did so. After a few seconds,s he looked up and blandly responded, "thanks, Guiche, you're just as flattering as always." He then cooed, "but of course. I would never lie to your beautiful eyes."

However, at this point, she added, "so you say," then she leaned in and, in a softer tone, she declared, "but I heard rumors that you've been going out with another girl. Is that true?" He jumped slightly in surprise after hearing this from her, but quickly recovered and exclaimed, "but, that's nonsense! There's absolutely nothing hidden behind my feelings for you..." At this, she harrumphed and held her head up to the side, as if she wasn't satisfied by his answer as he nervously laughed to himself, scratching the side of his head.

Meanwhile, Siesta had shambled back towards Hayato, smiling at him slightly as she started to pass by. Yves, on the other hand, had taken out a pocketbook of some sort by now and was starting to scan the words within it, totally enthralled by its words. The rest of the students around them were all talking to each other and their familiars, making the creatures do tricks, eating snacks and drinking tea. Even the red-haired aristocrat was amusing herself by having her salamander give other familiars piggy-back rides.

 

[Sabatron]

While Hayato was trying to get some tea by asking the maid, she was clearly trying to hurry up and take her slice of cake to a nobleman. Without much of a word, he just stood there as one of the more unusual creatures started causing the dumbfounded young woman to accidentally bump into him, almost falling down to the ground with the sudden force of impact -- as he corrected himself at the last moment before he fell. The maid was more unlucky, however, and he simply stood there.

She stood, and started to talk to him. Here, he finally had total confirmation that he was a 'summon'. Well, at least in his 'dream realm'. This was probably one of those long term lucid dreams he keeps on hearing about. But still, he wanted to ask her something that was stuck in his mind for a while now. "Is it common for people to summon 'commoners' like me?" He asked, and as she immediately answered his question with excitement and glee, he was a bit proud of that. He had to get immersed in the fantasy if he couldn't get out of his dream through normal means. 'Wow, I'm actually important. A world where I'm important. That's neat.' His thoughts were simple, but he was a bit happy about that. But then, she dropped the happy attitude and told him that 'a noble having a peasant as a familiar is silly'. He simply breathed deeply, before looking at her a bit awkwardly for a few seconds.

"Ah, Siesta? Isn't that..." He was going to make a comment as to how it's probably a Spanish word back in reality, but he held his tongue. He had no confirmation about that either, but he just decided to introduce himself. "Well, nice to meet you Siesta. I'm Hayato. Weird name, because it's Japanese." He wanted to see if they knew what Japan was, in this fantasy world he made in his own mind, but she immediately went away to deliver her slice of cheesecake.

He decided to follow Siesta to where she was going to give the cake. Without much of a word, he saw a familiar face from yesterday -- but another girl in his arm. Well, he might be one of those people who think cheating and swinging is a way of life. Though, he didn't remind him of any fantasy character he's ever read about, nor is he similar to one of her friends. But, he simply seemed a bit more eccentric by the way he spoke, and the way he bragged about his 'familiar' to his woman. But, she seemed a bit disgusted by it -- and he didn't notice even the most subtle social cues regarding people and how he was full of it. It was just his observation though, and soon he lost interest in the two.

Siesta passed by him, and as she gave him a smile, he returned the gesture instinctively. Before long, it seemed like Yves didn't want him back, so he started to explore the place a bit more. What intrigued him is how he never really saw or read anything involving this level of complexity. If this was a dream, wouldn't it be something more Warhammer, or more or less be like historic medieval European times? It seemed like everyone here was human -- more or less, not seeing any elves in the crowd. He assumed that he might have seen a movie or two that had this sort of theme, but...

His mind was still jogging around, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. With this, he wasn't really focused on where he was going, and was only merely wandering around. He would be susceptible to bumping into someone if someone was in the way. He had a tendency to do this -- but this was a major case, since he was absolutely confused as to whether he should escape, or stay. If he escapes, where will he go? Is he even in Japan anymore? Is he just in a dream? Is Yves really telling the truth? These are the questions that are dancing around his head.

 

[Icicle]

Guiche and Montmorancy continued to chat for a few minutes. Guiche was still trying to persuade Montmorancy that he was telling the truth to her while she was stubbornly refusing to listen. In that timespan, Siesta walked over to a section of the central tower which all the other maids and servants walked in and out of with their trays of food, and disappeared for a minute before reappearing with two cups of steaming hot tea. Meanwhile, other familiars hopped around and danced for their masters around the tables in the dining area. A few dog-like creatures were communing together as their masters shared stories about how they learned certain prestidigitation-like spells, while a snake-like familiar danced at it's master's whim. A girl with a blue dragon familiar who was trying to read a book was being bothered by the red-haired aristocrat's salamander, so she took her wand and shot a burst of cool air at it, causing it to dart back over to its buxsome master.

There was plenty of hubbub about Yves's familiar, the peasant. Every few seconds another person pointed over at him, or over at Yves and either snickered or made a comment which caused a few others to give a quick laugh. Despite the chilly weather, the area was rather pleasantly warm due to the steam of all the tea and the various fire-creatures, such as a snake with a flaming tail and the salamander. The seven maids which were pacing between the kitchen and the tables maintained their composure very well as the nobles gave them their orders incourteously, demanding that they hurry. A few of the nobles even mistook Hayato for a waiter despite the difference between his appearance and that of the servants(his clothes were fairly different from the suits and maid uniforms which the servants wore).

By the time Siesta re-emerged from the kitchen, her eyes were dead-set on Guiche's table. She barely noticed Hayato as she passed him by, holding two cups of tea and three plates of cakes as she hurried by. Once she reached her destination, she calmly declared, "your tea, sirs," and placed the two servings of tea on the table, each steaming cup of golden tea set upon a fancy ceramic plate as it graced the stone table. Guiche immediately tasted the tea as Siesta bowed, but spat it out to the side and frustratingly declared, "did you drop this tea as well? It's disgusting and cold. Away with you, and this time, do your job right, peasant." As he said this, he swapped his plate of cake with one of the cakes on her tray and, recomposing himself, looked over at Montmorancy, who was still refusing to listen to him.

Siesta bowed and declared, "r-right away, sire..." as she collected both of their teas and hastily made her way over to another table, placing the two other cakes on that table with a quick bow before rushing off back to the kitchen. Meanwhile, the brown-haired lady whom Hayato saw the previous night started to make her way into the courtyard with a purse in hand, looking around as if searching for something. Yves, on the other hand, had taken out another book by this time, one which was somewhat larger than the pocketbook she had earlier, and was focusing on the words within it even more intently.

 

[Sabatron]

Hayato gradually grew irritated and annoyed at everyone. Why would they even bother to ridicule him? It all seemed like some silly, highschool level nonsense to be nobility, yet anyone showing a level of uniqueness by having a 'human' for a familiar immediately treated as if they summoned a person of low class, and treat the summon, and the summoner as such. It was ridiculously absurd. While he tried to remain civil, pacing around a bit more, he silently smoldered in anger as more than a few people mistook him for a servant, despite the fact that their uniforms differ in appearance, they continue to play the fool, and he politely tries to prove otherwise, but it only results in the nobles snubbing him, or even spitting hateful remarks.

Hayato now had a general view of nobility. Almost all of them were against commoners, and they never blame themselves. He decides to try and find Siesta amongst the large tables with familiars playing around and generally entertaining their masters. He set his sights to Siesta, and was within earshot of Guiche, the nobleman who was cheating scum. Of course, he still had that other girl in his arms, always whispering sweet nothings in her ear, not even feeling any guilt for apparently cheating on her.

Even worse, he found the same girl who he spotted last night with Guiche, who looked lost, trying to look for someone, or something. He wondered how broken her heart would be if she saw Guiche with another. Maybe he had a reputation for that sort of thing. But it was still unacceptable behavior in his eyes. Hayato now saw him ad the definition of 'infidelity'. His ego seemed so large, he couldn't even notice Montmorancy's disinterest with whatever he was talking about.

Seeing Siesta bring those steaming hot cups of tea, and him yelling at her because she brought 'cold' tea? That was absurd. He immediately stepped up to Guiche and his latest 'girl of the week', and stared him in the eye, as he tried to bring him down a notch. "Hey, is your tongue numb? That tea was steaming hot and you said it was cold. Are you stupid or something?" He immediately blurted out, standing in front of him. "Besides, weren't you hanging out with another girl last night? And now you're with another today? What gives?" He tried to toss as much dirt as he could before he ran out of steam, before anxiously preparing for his reaction.

 

[Icicle]

As Guiche took a bite of a delicate spongecake with a fancy, silvered fork, he looked around frantically, as if looking for some way to distract Montmorancy from talk of other girls. However, as he did, chewing away on the sweet desert bread, the only thing he could focus on was the sight of a plebeian walking over to the table without any tea. As the thing started to speak, Guiche's jaw nearly dropped - especially after the plebeian's first sentence. Montmorancy was equally surprised at what the plebeian was doing, enough so that her familiar frog fell from her hand. Guiche regained his composure by the time the plebeian had genuinely insulted him, swallowing the cake to clear his mouth of the food, and murmured, "What...the hell...?" almost inaudibly. Many of the people from around Guiche's table fell silent as the plebeian started talking, nudging one another and watching silently as the action unfolded.

After the plebeian started pointing accusations of cheating at Guiche, Montmorancy looked over at him with a mixed expression, as if both shocked and smug, and asked, "What is he talking about?" Guiche recoiled after hearing her voice, whining slightly as he grimacing once he realized that his situation was starting to look grim. A moment later, he recomposed himself, quickly stood up, and commanded, "Go back to your duties, waiter." However, upon looking closer at the plebeian, something clicked in his mind and he declared, "wait, you're the one Yves summoned yesterday...!"

Guiche then paused for a few seconds and Montmorancy spoke up, starting to sound more accusatory as she asked, "Now Guiche, what was that all about?" Guiche instantly shifted his gaze from the plebeian to Montmorancy with a hesitant, desperate expression and mumbled, "Uhhhh....I told you, I spent all night with Verande here, that's all..." As he spoke, he started looking around for something else to change the subject. However, as he spoke the last word of this sentence, he spotted the brown-haired girl which he was with the previous night. Then, panicking, he walked over to Montmorancy from around the table, grabbed her wrist and declared, "Montmorancy, listen. This place is too roudy, let's talk over under that tree. Hurry! Come on!" As he gently, but quickly urged her out of her chair and started pulling her along. Feeling unsettled by the situation, Montmorancy looked very surprised and asked, "Huh? Wait! What is wrong with you?!"

Meanwhile, as Guiche was pulling Montmorancy away from the group of tables, the brown girl wandered over to the group of tables, still looking around. After a few seconds, she softly called out, "Lord Guiche?" hoping that she would hear him respond.

 

[Sabatron]

With the shock of a commoner suddenly stepping up to a nobleman, the silence after he raised his voice at Guiche gave him that boost of confidence he needed. "Hey, do you cheat on girls often? What a 'noble' thing to do, don't you think?" He continues pouring down insults, not really thinking much on them, but he wanted to keep the pressure on him before he eventually ran out of ammo to throw at him. He didn't really have much evidence either, but he seems to be crumbling, losing his composure. As Montmorancy wanted to clarify, and Guiche trying to shoo him away, it gave him the opportunity to take down Guiche with his nonsense. "I'm no waiter. I'm Yves' familiar." He clarified to him, as he gave a small smile, fake as it was.

Of course, he pressed on, immediately trying to pressure Guiche who was clearly clamoring for an alibi to give to Montmorancy. His desperation grew as he looked around, most likely due to the fact that he was running out of things to talk about. Then, Hayato looked around, spotting the same brown haired girl who Guiche was with the previous night, and he smiled. Without noticing that Guiche was trying to get out of the situation quickly by trying to distance himself from Hayato, it seems like Guiche's luck was running out, the woman neared their tables, and Hayato swiftly took the chance. "Hey, is that your girlfriend over there? It looks like she's looking for something!" He yells, trying to grab the brown haired woman's attention, and Guiche's as well.

"Trying to pull her out of the situation you got yourself into, huh? Honorable." He taunts him -- as he tries to ridicule Guiche some more. "Maybe you should take an important life lesson in this -- don't date two girls at once?" Well, it seemed like it was working, since Guiche was rather unsettled, and tried to get away. "Cowering in the face of a commoner, huh?" He wasn't thinking as well, he was just spouting out insults at this point, as he continued on, his ego currently being fed by the other male frantically and desperately trying to get Montmorancy out before the brown haired girl could see her 'beloved' with another girl.

Hayato turned, and saw the other female currently standing in front of him, looking at Guiche and Montmorancy as Hayato smiled in victory. "Well well, Lord Guiche... Seems like the shit hit the fan."