So, a few years back when I was still a novice writter on this site, while looking through stories about some of my favorite animes/video games (that aren't YGO btw) I came across some interesting crossover stories between these animes/video games and Familiar of Zero. I didn't initially know much about Familiar of Zero, but after reading those crossovers I got interested and choose to check it out. After watching it I wanted to make a crossover too, but back then I didn't have a lot of confidence in my writing skills. But now, two years after reading those crossovers and getting my first exposure to Familiar of Zero, I'm confident enough to write this down!
Before starting however, I should warn you for a few things. First this will feature an OC as the representative of the YGO universe. Reason for that is the fact that YGO doesn't exactly have characters that have the type of personality I like, while asl onot being villains trying to destroy the world.
Second, the YGO elements (the monsters) won't be used the way one would expect them to be used. The reason for that will be explained in later chapters, as I already have a "system" planned.
It was summer, which meant that there was no school, which meant that most kids were on vacations, at the beach, or just fooling around town with friends. There were of course exception to that and one of those exceptions was Evan Greyson. The sixteen years old boy was sitting in the library of his mansion reading through the rich collection of books about magic, mythical creatures and unnatural phenomenons. Why was he doing that instead of spending a day outside? Simple, really. It was because of Duel Monsters. To the common people that was just a card game, a way to have fun, and often a way to end conflicts. It wasn't once that staff and even directors of multi-millionaire companies getting replaced after losing a duel, things have even gone as far as certain cities placing new rules according to which people had to own a Duel Disk in order to gain citizenship.
Of course that was, just what the common people knew about Duel Monsters. Those who had more experience on the darker side and who had researched it deeply would tell you that Duel Monsters was more than just a game. Having started as part of Ancient Egypt's dark magic, this particular card game has been used by people desiring to destroy the world multiple times. Sometimes it would be a cult using dark magic, other times it would be a mad scientist developing a device that allows for the militarization of Duel Monsters, and sometimes it would be creatures from other worlds invading. And in the center of all that was a seemingly normal card game. Go figure.
Things had gone so far that the world just needed someone knowing enough about those incidents to be able to prevent future ones from occurring. And that was where Evan's research came into play. Magic, demonic creatures, he made it his mission to learn all about the magical aspect of Duel Monsters as well as finding ways to battle against it. Not for humanity of course, no humans could burn in the flames of hell for all he cared. The boy had a higher, more selfish purpose – controlling the dark magic. By fighting and learning more about it, he was slowly becoming capable of controlling it, even the spirits of the monsters were now looking at the boy in fear and obedience.
The boy sighed and put the fourth book to the side, making a small tower of old books on the old wooden table that he sat at. He leaned back and stretched out. His body was starting to get stiff from sitting at once place so long. There was no clock in the old library, but if Evan had to guess, he would say that the last six or so hours were spent reading old books, some of which were also encrypted, so he had to decrypt them first. The boy stood up from his wooden chair and grabbed the books to return them to their shelves before calling it a day. After finishing he would go upstairs where hopefully his sister would have made something for dinner. The boy didn't know when he would get to read from these books again, he had a busy life, friends that counted on him, opportunities like this one came rare for him.
"My servant that exist somewhere in this universe!"
Just as the boy has placed the last book on its place a high pitched voice began to speak out of nowhere. Evan stepped back and looked around. The voice wasn't one that he was familiar with and the possibility of someone to have stuck into his mansion and find this library was near zero percent, so…
"My divine, beautiful, and powerful familiar! I wish and assert from the bottom of my heart… Answer my guidance!"
Oh, he knew what that was. It wasn't one of the spells that he read about in his books but it definitely sounded like a summoning spell. But if he heard it without anyone else being there did that mean…
"Ah shit." was the only thing that Evan managed to say before everything around him faded into darkness.
When Evan opened his eyelids once more, he had to quickly cover his face with a hand due to the bright daylight that greeted him So much about having dinner and going to sleep he thought. But there was also something else that the boy noticed. Someone was standing over him, he moved his hand to the side to get a better look at the individual, it was a girl with pink hair and she was dressed like a witch of something. Was she the one whose voice he heard? She appeared disappointed though.
The girl opened her mouth and began to talk, a language that Evan didn't completely understand. It was French, he knew that much, and he could make out a few of her words, even the question 'Who are you?' but sadly he couldn't respond. A paradox that Evan found himself into every time that he tried to learn a language was that he could learn to understand it, but not how to speak it.
"Where are you from, #####?" Evan stared blankly at the girl that kept asking him questions he couldn't answer. He didn't know what the last world in her sentence was, but it was good that she asked him basic questions for the most part so he didn't feel completely dumb.
Not bothering with this anymore, the boy stood up and looked around. For the first time he noticed that there were other people there as well. All of them were wearing magician robes, so either everyone was cosplaying as the same thing, or he was sent somewhere where this type of clothing was normal. Suddenly a red haired girl came forward and began to speak to the pink haired one that was standing next to him. Again, he couldn't make out everything they said, but he understood the words 'summon' and made out most of what the pink haired girl said in response: 'I ######### small mistake!'
Evan narrowed his eyes. Going off by the small amount of details that he had, it appears that his summoning to this place was a mistake, good to know, but he didn't believe that they would allow him to just leave. The other people began to laugh and the pink haired girl seemed outraged, so they must be laughing at her. Ignoring that for a moment, Evan looked around, the place that he got summoned to, was covered in green grass and appeared to be some sort of outpost.
The pink haired girl called out a bald man with glasses who looked like a teacher or something. From what Evan could understand she wanted to try summon again, but the teacher said something about a ritual and about getting expelled. The girl didn't seem happy about it, something that Evan shared in common with her. She then turned toward him and spoke something again. This time he was able to get her name, Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere. She then closed her eyes and leaned toward him chanting something before she suddenly reached out to kiss him…
For the first time in a while Evan's lips moved to form a smile. The reason for that? Because the girl trying to kiss him was too short to reach him. A blush spread over her face and she raised on her toes next, finally reaching a level on which their lips could met,
"How about no." …only for Evan to deny her move by moving one of his hands in-between them.
A move that wasn't very liked by the girl who began to yell and hit him with her magic wand. Normally, a guy would wince or yelp in pain, but Evan simply stared at her blankly, not having feel any pain from her strike. Was she that weak? Maybe he shouldn't be surprised given how short her statue was. Of course the girl then began to yell again after her failed attempt to use violence.
"Kneel, kneel!" She yelled at him once again while everyone else kept laughing at the scene.
Evan frowned. Kneeling in front of a brat like her? Sadly, he was a person with pride, he never knelt in front of others; if anything other people should kneel before him. But he wasn't a fool either. He could read a situation, after getting transported to another world and all, he would have to cooperate if he wanted to ever go back home. Since the girl was trying to kiss him – for reasons beyond his knowledge – and he was sure as hell not going to kneel in front of her, he had to improvise. Reaching out with both arms, he grabbed the girl by the waist, making her blush again immediately. Louise opened her mouth to retort, but before she could be given the chance he lifted her up and placed a kiss on her lips instead.
Surprisingly she didn't trash around at the sudden sexual assault. Maybe she was too shocked to fight back? None of that really mattered as after a moment Evan let go of the kiss and put her back down. The girl stared at him with a huge blush on her face and the teacher said something about a contract having ended peacefully. Sighing, Evan turned around to leave this weird place.
"Ngh!" He froze in his steps. Suddenly his body temperature rose to a feverish level, his entire being feeling like it was on fire. He growled in pain, feeling something burn into the flesh on his left hand, but he couldn't tell what it was due to his glove covering it up. Evan mentally cursed himself for his naïve move. There was a reason why the girl tried to kiss him out of nowhere, he had to know that things were going to end the way they did, but he was too arrogant and kissed her despite that. The pain wasn't stopping he felt it flowing through his veins, his legs gave up and he collapsed in the grass.
His vision faded to black once again.
By the time that Evan came to, again, he found himself lying on a pile of hay. At first he thought that the people must have thrown him somewhere after he collapsed, but then he noticed his surroundings. He wasn't just somewhere. He was inside a room, with a bed, a table and everything else that someone would need. Why they would put him on top of a pile of hay instead of the bed was beyond him, but he had more pressing issue to worry about.
"I should really stop blacking out like this." Seriously, blacking out when he got transported, then when he kissed a girl, it was starting to get embarrassing.
"### You've ##### woken up."
Evan blinked a few times and then turned toward the pink haired girl, Louise, who was standing above him once again with an annoyed expression on her face. She walked past him and kept talking, something about her giving up and him being her… familiar? Not that it matter much now. Evan had always believed of the idea that the strong shoulder rule the weak, that equality and human rights were a stupid and needless distraction, heck someone could call him a 'Slavery apologist' and even though it was obvious that in this relationship the girl had no power over him, if she did, she wouldn't have gotten so angry with him earlier that day, he was going to play along. After all, he was a familiar, and he still completely believed in the idea of one group controlling another. Of course he wasn't going to just bow to the girl, but he was willing to humor her until he figured out a way to get back home.
But what the girl did next left him a bit confused. After going to her wardrobe, Louise began to take off her clothes. Was she trying to seduce him? Thinking back, the girl kissed him on the lips earlier, well, technically he kissed her but she was the one who tried to do it first. And now she was stripping in front of him. Despite the lewd display, the boy didn't appear fazed in the sightless. Why would he? Her figure was so undeveloped that only a pedophile would fall for it. Seriously, short stature, non-existing chest, small ass, she had nothing that a man would want out of a woman's body.
After getting her clothes off, Louise threw them at Evan who caught them before they could hit him face first. Narrowing his eyes, he put the aside and glanced at the girl in front of him.
"Wash those." He understood her order, but he wasn't a manservant or a slave. She would have to do her laundry herself.
The girl groaned and grabbed her wand. She pointed it at him and began to cast a spell, one that Evan was sure wouldn't end up good for him, but there was nowhere to hide anyways. Plus, there was no way that the little brat would try to kill him, after all, he was her familiar now.
Or so he thought. But he was quickly proved wrong once the girl finished her spell and an explosion threw him back against the wall, knocking the air out of his lungs. He gasped for air and collapsed on the ground while starting at the girl, who looked back at him in surprise. Was the bitch surprised that he survived her attempt to murder him!?
"Are you listening?" The girl asked him. He understood her again, but this time it was different from before. She was talking English this time!
"Why were you talking in French until now if you knew English?" Evan hissed at the girl.
"English? French?" Louise tilted her head to the side. "What are you talking about? I tried to cast a spell that would make you obey orders, but it seems that I failed. Again."
She failed to cast a spell? And with what she said earlier about a small mistake… She wasn't very good at casting spells. Evan sighed and stood up, at least he knew that she wouldn't be able to successfully cast a spell on him, but that meant that he could accidentally cast something lethal, so he shouldn't get his guard down while around that brat. But looking at the positives, at least now they could understand each other, which meant that he could finally ask someone about what was happening, where he was, why she summoned him out of all… Wait he already knew the last one, it was by mistake.
"At least now I know that you can talk." Louise sighed and sat down on her bed. "When we first took a look at you I thought that you are one of those block suckers. Actually, I read that they can talk as well…"
"I'm not a vampire." Evan quickly corrected her. Of course he could understand where the mistake came from, even in his world he had a strange psychical appearance. His skin was always pale, his mouth filled with sharp teeth and his eyes glowing in a crimson color.
"So you are just an ugly looking peasant?" Evan narrowed his eyes, the word 'ugly' seemed to extreme. Yes, he had the appearance that people would usually connect to vampires, but that didn't mean he was ugly. Last he checked, girls loved vampires.
"Where am I anyway?" Evan asked, wanting to change the topic to something more important. "I get that I'm your familiar, but I would need some more context."
Surprisingly, Louise nodded in understanding and began to explain everything to him. Apparently he was in the kingdom of Tristein in the continent of Halkeginia, both of which were places that he had never heard off before. But even that wasn't enough to shock him. He had read in several books about the existence of different dimensions and that some of them could be completely different from the one he lived in.
"So, I'll be stuck with you for a while, won't I?" Evan asked.
"I won't allow a familiar to call me 'you'." Louise quickly corrected her 'familiar'. "My name is Louise. Louise Francoise-"
"…Le Blanc de La Valliere." Evan interrupted her nonchalantly. "I already got your name, but I'm going to use it only when I feel like it."
This time Louise didn't even yell at her servant's disobedience. She just sighed in disappointment and hung her head. He had already made her angry so many times in one day that she was starting to give up, Evan was just going to be another failure that would haunt her for the rest of her life, nothing she wasn't used to.
"Why is my familiar a disobedient peasant boy?" groaned Louise while closing her eyes. "I wanted something cool like a dragon of a griffin."
Evan raised an eyebrow at that. Dragons and griffins existed in that world? Well, since she wanted one so badly maybe he could use his Duel Disk to show her one and-! A realization suddenly hit the Greyson in the face like a train. His Duel Disk wasn't with him because it wasn't on him when he got transported. Of course he still had his deck which was attached to his Wrist Dealer that was on his left arm and talking about it… The boy removed his glove and saw that there were runes written on his hand. He couldn't read them, but if there were runes, then they must have had some sort of magical effect.
"I'll go take a look around." Evan told his 'master' and turned to leave the room.
"Hey, a familiar isn't supposed to leave its master's side!" Louise shouted after him.
In response Evan flipped the bird at her and left, leaving the girl confused about what that gesture was supposed to mean. He was sure that the girl would try to chase him, but given her lack of magical capabilities he knew that there was nothing he had to worry about at that moment and headed down to the stairs to the lower levels of the castle.
"I'm good at baking soufflés." Evan paused and looked at his right where girl was talking with a blond guy.
"I would love to try one." And of course the guy was trying to hit on her.
"Really?!"
"Of course Ketty. I wouldn't lie to your eyes."
"Lord Guiche!" What the? Evan could basically see hears popping out of her head!
The otherworldly boy shook his head and looked around. There was just a window on his left side, so he would have to get past them if we wanted to get anywhere, but Evan wanted to check out something before continuing. He moved in front of the window and looked at the reflection.
Albeit not much was visible, he could tell that his appearance hasn't changed due to the transportation. He still had white hair with red edges and five bangs on the right side of my face, three of which swept upward and to the right side of his head while the other two at the left. His outfit was still the one he wore back at his world, consisting of a black leather jacket that reached down to his knees with two red lines running down the side of his sleeves and two sinister red eyes were drawn on its pockets. There was also white platting on the shoulders, upper chest and the back of the jacket. Underneath it he wore a red shirt with black tiger stripes, black pants with white platting on the knees and outer thighs, and black and purple sneakers.
"Hmm, isn't that the peasant that Louise summoned?" Ah, it appeared that they spotted him.
"In today's ritual?" the girl that was with the blond guy asked. "It caused quite a stir among the first year students as well."
'No shit, it did!' Evan thought to himself but didn't bother saying anything. Not yet.
"He fainted suddenly and stopped moving, so it was quite troublesome for us." The blond guy, Guiche, added.
"Well, from what I heard it was a failure that summoned me here, so there wasn't much I could do." Evan retorted. He didn't want people, even if they were complete strangers, to think that he caused the trouble when in reality it was his incompetent 'master' that caused it.
"I'm not a failure!"
"You showed up faster than I expected." Evan turned back to face his 'master' who, from the look of it, was as pissed off as she was out of breath from running.
"O-Of course…" Louise tried to talk while catching her breath. "Y-you think I-I would… let my servant ru-run away?"
"The familiar with whom you sealed a contract tried to escape?" Guiche said surprised. "Nothing else from your familiar, Louise. Common sense doesn't apply to it."
"Except that it does." Evan interrupted. "I told you that I'll go take a look around and you still came chasing after me. Trust issues I presume?"
"A servant is supposed to stay by their master's side, not wander around on their own accord in the middle of the night!" Louise shouted back.
She had a point, Evan was going to give her that. If someone lets their familiar run around and said familiar does something, all of the guilt would fall on the master who was unable to control their familiar. Although Louise didn't seem smart enough to realize that, Evan was going to show a basic level of respect to the master-familiar system and listen to Louise for once.
"Fine, you made your case clear, I'll listen to you, be thankful for that." He was going to follow Louise's instructions for the time being.
"Thankful?! Listening to your master should come by default!" And as Louise went onto another rant about how disobedient her servant was, Evan simply closed his eyes and walked back toward their room. Hopefully his so called master would realize how much of a scene she was causing with her screaming and shut up.
Once they went back Louise began to strip again, ordering Evan to wash her clothes again. An irritation that the boy quickly dealt with by giving the little brat a karate chop to the head. After that failure she threatened to put a chain on him and keep him like a dog until he learns how to obey orders. Another karate chop caused her to stop pursuing the subject. In the end, even if she was the one who summoned him there, Louise had to realize that she wasn't the one with the authority in this relationship.
When morning came, Louise was the first one to get up. The girl sat up in her bed and looked around her room, Evan sitting on one of the chairs in the room, sleeping. Although he had enough respect for the little failure of a mage to not usurp her bed, there was no way that he would accept sleeping on a pile of hay like some sort of animal. Louise sighed and got up to look for a spare set of clothes, only no notice her outfit from yesterday lying at the end of the bed, washed and folded. The girl looked at Evan, then back at her clothes, then back at him.
"Ngh." Just then Evan's body began to move and his eyelids opened, crimson eyes staring at the girl in front of him.
The two of them stood there in silence, their eyes locked into a fierce battle of who had the more threatening glare. Of course it was already obvious to both parties which one of them held the power, but Evan had to admire the girl for still trying to act like she had something over him. Even without magic powers, he was still more than a match for someone who didn't even know how to use their abilities property. And even if she was a powerful magician, he was still going to find a way to overpower her using his brain.
"You're having classes today, don't you?" Evan finally asked, surprising his master.
"Not today, no." Louise replied before crossing her arms. "But do you expect me to walk outside wearing my nightglow? Dress me."
Evan's eyes narrowed in annoyance. Why were midgets so annoying? It was his fault for washing her clothes like she had required, he made her think that he was going to obey her just because of the good of his heart. Bullshit!
"You know what? I'll like to see you walking around the building wearing only your current clothes." Evan rubbed his chin and grinned at the idea. "I'm sure it will make you look more attractive for the boys. Sadly, chances are that only those who are into molesting little kids would get interested."
"You-" Louise gritted her teeth. She looked for her wand, even though her spell would most likely fail, an explosion to the face would show Evan who was the master. Only problem with her plan was, "Where's my wand?"
"You mean this?" Evan pulled the magical item out of his jacket and showed it to her. "How does it work? Do you have to wave it and shout 'Abracadabra!' or?"
"Give it back!" Louise ordered him. "That's mine!"
"It is?" Evan asked, and looked at the wand. "Hmm, I don't see your name anywhere on it."
"Stop joking!" but Louise wasn't amused by her servant's acting. "I need it, so give it back!"
"Don't worry, I'll return it to you." Those words caused Louise to sigh in relief. "Before your classes of course. Until then I'll be safekeeping it."
"Y-you can't do that!" Louise protested.
Evan stood up with his smirk on and turned around to leave. "Then why was I able to just do it?"
Another ruckus followed after that, but without her magic wand Louise was even less of a threat for him that originally. She could yell to him as much as she wanted, but that wasn't going to make him feel bad for her. Such emotions weren't a part of his system.
Eventually they reached the breakfast hallway, which was huge and filled with other students, most of which were talking among themselves. Evan didn't look much at the food that was being served, since no other familiars seemed to be present he figured out that he wasn't going to be eating there. Despite how cold and rebellious he was, the boy did surprise Louise by pulling back her chair so she could sit down. After doing that, he put the girl's wand on her lap, so that others wouldn't notice or ask why her wand was in her familiar's possession.
"I'll look for the library, if you need me, come and call." Evan whispered into the girl's ear and grabbed a piece of bread before walking off. This time his master didn't even try to retort; she was starting to learn to be obedient.
It did take some time for him to find said location, but with help from the staff working at the place, he managed to orientate in the castle and soon ended in the library. Looking through the books, he was trying to learn something more about this world that he was transported to. All of the books that he found were written in French, which meant to him that the useless girl that summoned him wasn't even able to cast a translating sleep that worked on the books. Despite that he was able to learn a few things about this world. For example most of the books were about water, earth, wind and fire magic, which meant that the four elements of nature were the main 'attributes' of magic. There was no mentioning about light or darkness sadly which meant that those most likely didn't exist, or were simply not discovered yet. It was so bothersome.
In the world that Evan came from, light and dark were the two main sides of a conflict. The Gentle Darkness and the Light of Destruction, the Barian World and the Astral World, all the recorded conflicts surrounding Duel Monsters pointed that Light and Darkness were the main forces driving his universe. He himself had affinity for Time and Darkness, which meant that if he was able to use magic, the magic that he would use shall be Dark Magic. Of course he didn't know the rules behind magic casting in this world, so he didn't know how to use it.
But then there was the rune on his left arm. Why was it there? It didn't appear to have any effect on him, and it certainly didn't make him obey his master's orders. What was its secret? Since this world appeared to have bigger affinity for magic, did it mean that he would be able to use his darkness to call forth the monsters existing inside his cards?
Evan looked at his deck. The cards in Duel Monsters could function as gateways connecting the world of the spirits with the world of humanity, but for that to happen there had to be either magic involved or science capable of giving the monsters complete physical appearance, with mass and everything.
"Servant!"
"Now this again." Evan groaned and dropped the book he was reading to look at the pink haired midget standing before him. "What is it that you need this time, master?"
"Follow me." Louise ordered her familiar and turned around to lead, except that her familiar didn't follow. "Why are you still sitting there? I told you to follow me!"
"I won't." Evan retorted and leaned back into his chair. "And unless you have no problem blowing up this library, I don't think that you will be able to force me."
"Why must you be so disobedient!?" Louise exclaimed. "We are supposed to go outside and get to know our familiars today. Everyone else is already outside, so I can't go out alone. Everyone will make fun of me."
Now that caught Evan's interest. Everyone else was already outside? Then that meant he would see what kind of familiars the other mages at that place were able to summon. Maybe he would also get to test out if there were any magical capabilities transferred over to his cards due to the way this world functionate.
"You got my interest," Evan stood up and walked over to Louise. "Lead the way."
"At least you listen to reason." Louise sighed and turned on her heels, walking off with her familiar following shortly.
"Are you serious?"
Evan's mouth was hung open. Birds, cats, dogs, a few magical creatures that looked more like cute shuffled animals that beasts, it was like he was in a zoo. Evan looked at Louise, even if she was a failure of a magician, she was able to summon a sentient creature, which was also able to talk! She got angry and called him a failure of a familiar because he didn't act like a slave, but anyone with half a brain could tell that out of everyone, she was the one who got the best possible familiar.
"Oh?" A girl called behind them. Evan and Louise turned around to see the red haired girl from yesterday, and a red lizard with flames on the end of its tail. Now that, was what Evan would call a familiar, it didn't look threatening at first, but it was better than a puppy or a mouse.
"And just when I thought that I wouldn't see a good familiar." Evan commented, only to earn himself a glare from Louise.
"It seems that your familiar was a good eye, Louise." The red haired girl said while petting the red lizard. "This is a salamander, have you seen one before?"
"A few times." It was actually hard for Evan to answer with either yes or no. Duel Monsters definitely had a problem with its card designs, as sometimes they made robotic looking creatures that were actually dragons, other times they would make dragons but call them wyrms.
"I see," the girl wasn't sure how to respond. "This one is Flame, he's a very loyal servant that does what I tell him to."
"Don't give me that!" Louise shouted at the girl.
"You know, didn't you just sneak in a peasant that was walking around the area?" the red haired girl continued. "You covered it well with that explosion."
"That's not true! I made the summon properly. This guy just happened to show up!" Louise retorted and pointed at her familiar.
Evan felt like he should be offended by her calling him this guy, but he was never the type to try remember others' names, so maybe this was his karma. Either way, just standing there and letting the red head angering his Summoner would almost definitely result in a hilarious outcome that, while Evan was eager to see, he also didn't want share Louise's embarrassment with so many people around to see them.
"If she smuggled in a peasant to play the role of her familiar she would have to pay him." Evan finally spoke up. "And I don't think that this failure of a mage could offer someone enough money to act as her familiar."
"Why you!" Louise glared daggers at her familiar.
"Ha! At least he knows how much of a failure you are!" the red head laughed. "He's very befitting for you, Louise the Zero."
"What's up with that wrench?!" growled Louise after said 'wrench' walked off. "And you!" She turned toward Evan. "Don't join in when someone's mocking your master! I'll return it to you later, but now, bring me some tea!"
"With that attitude not even a mouse would be willing to follow your orders." Evan waved his hand dismissively.
"What did you say?" Louise growled.
"That you are unable to difference a familiar from a servant." Evan replied, gesturing toward the others. "Do you see anyone else trying to order their familiars around like you do?"
"That's because you aren't listening to me!" Louise defended.
"No, that's because you are a weakling that needs to try and insert power in her relationships to feel as less of a failure." Evan sneered and walked past her. "Face it, zero. You got neither the magical, physical or mental strength to keep me here, the only reason why I haven't left is that I don't feel like doing it. If I wanted to escape from this place I would have done it before you could sneer."
"You…" Louise lowered her head, the shadows of her bangs covering her eyes. "You don't know anything! You are just a familiar!"
"But I'm not a servant." Evan retorted and turned his back to her. "You have two choices. Either keep yelling at me, making another scene showing your incompetence as a master, or follow after me."
Louise bit her lower lip. As much as she disliked it, she had to go with the second option just to save whatever little bit of self-respect she had. She followed Evan away from the rest of the mages and the tables. Once they got to a good distance from the others, Evan lied down on the grass.
"What are you doing?" Louise asked, confused by her familiar's action.
"This is where we will be sitting." Evan replied.
"You want to make a noble sit on the grass?!" Louise cried out in outrage.
"If you don't like it, you can go sit with the others and explain to them why your familiar isn't with you." Evan shrugged.
To say that Louise hated her familiar would be an understatement. Yes, she hated him from the moment he showed up, taking away her once in a life chance to show her classmates that she wasn't a complete zero. But now, he was not only disobeying all of her orders, helping others mocking her, but also made her do things that were degrading for a noble. What next? Was he going to tell her to wash his clothes too? No, just no!
"So, tell me something about yourself."
"Huh?" Louise looked at her familiar, completely lost for words.
"You heard my question." Evan sighed and turned to his side, so he could look at her. "We're supposed to get familiar with each other, right? As the master, you can start first."
So now he was accepting that she was the master? Louise shook her head. It was better not to get into that topic, again.
"Well, I'm Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere, the third daughter of the Duke and Duchess of La Vallière,"
"That's now what I was asking about." Evan sighed, shaking his head. "I want to know about you, why everyone is asking you Louise the Zero and all."
"I-I've been called Louise the Zero for as long as I can remember." Louise lowered her head, feeling ashamed to say that to her familiar. "My classmates gave me that nickname due to my constant failures at casting magic. No matter what I try, it always ends up in an explosion."
"Are you able to feel the magic that you are using?" Evan asked her.
"Um, what do you mean by feeling it?" Evan sighed when his question was answered with a more stupid question.
"Nothing… forget it." Asking his master on explanation about how magic worked in this world was a waste of time. "So, I believe it's my turn to speak up. Unless you don't care, which I'm cool with."
"What!?" Louise shouted. "After I told you about myself, you aren't going to say anything? I don't even know your name yet."
"Ah, right." He never told her his name, did he? "My name is Evan Greyson and before getting transported here, I used to hunt down monsters and cults."
"Hunting?" Louise raised an eyebrow. "Are you, killing monsters?"
"Something like that, yes." Although a more correct explanation would be to say that he trapped them inside cards and corrupted them with dark magic to act as his servants… "I did that as a side-activity. Oh, I also have the ability to talk to spirits, although this power doesn't appear to be very useful here."
"Spirits?" Now Louise was interested. Could her familiar have some sort of useful magic powers?
"Yes, specifically spirits from another realm." Evan nodded and pulled out his deck, handling it to Louise. "These cards serve as a gateway through which I'm able to communicate with them."
"Those are some weird looking cards…" Louise muttered. "I can't read what it says. What language is this?"
Well, at least now Evan had a confirmation that the girl didn't know any spells that could translate text. "It's an ancient magic language from my place of birth. I would teach you, but I don't have the books necessary to do so." In really, the cards were written in English… "Now if you please, handling them incorrectly could release the spirits and if that happens, chaos would ensue."
"T-take them!" Louise threw the cards back at Evan immediately after hearing about the danger. It was just so hard for Evan not to burst into laughter just to irritate her. She was so naïve and easy to lie to.
Evan collected his cards from the glass calmly while looking at the other mages. Once in specific caught his eye. It was the blond guy from last night, what was his name? Guiche? This time he was sitting with a different girl from the one with whom he saw the blond yesterday. This time his partner was a blonde girl. Was he dating multiple girls at once? What a dog.
"Hey, master?" Evan turned toward Louise with a crooked smirk on his face. "Do you want the other mages to respect you?"
"What are you planning, familiar?" Louise in turn could already tell that the boy had something in mind.
"A deal with the devil." Evan replied. "I'll help you climb from the bottom, become something more than the failure everyone is laughing at, but in response, you must swear your loyalty."
"A noble swearing loyalty to a peasant!?" Louise was going to jump on the boy and beat him then and there if it wasn't for the realization that he would be able to most likely overpower her. "You're mad!"
"Of course I'm mad." Evan grinned and stood up. "Where's the fun in not being mad? But if you're unsure, I can use this as a demonstration for my skills."
"Hey, what are you going to do!?" Louise shouted after her familiar but it was too late, the boy wasn't listening to her.
Evan walked through the crowd, looking around for the girl with the soufflés. He membered that Guiche told her last night how much he would like to try them and was almost sure that she would show up today in order to give him some. And what would you know? He was absolutely right. Spotting the girl walking through the crowd wasn't hard and going to her was even easier. She was looking around, no mistake looking for a certain someone and Evan was going to help her out.
"Hey, aren't you the girl that Guiche was with last night?" Evan walked in front of her, a seemingly innocent and friendly smile on his face. "Are you looking for him?"
"Yes." The girl nodded. "I'm sure that Lord Guiche is here somewhere, but I can't find him…"
"Ah don't worry, he's right there." Evan replied gesturing toward the man himself, sitting on a table with a blonde girl.
"Lord Guiche!"
From there on, there was little that Evan had to do in order to finish the train wreck of a relationship that he caused. Watching the male trying to explain what was going on to the two girls was almost like watching a romance comedy, or drama, it depended from which side you were looking at it and how twisted your mind was. In Evan's case it was twisted enough to sit down and eat some popcorns while laughing. Sadly there were no popcorns, so he was going to throw one last bone to unleash the beasts that Guiche was trying to calm down.
"You are such a lucky guy!" Evan called out. "I remember you saying to the girl that you would love to taste some of those soufflés while you were alone last night."
"Y-you!"
Guiche looked at Evan both shocked and angry. But there was nothing he could do to calm down the two girls now that they were starting to fully understand what was happening behind each of their backs. Only a few moments later, Guiche was down, a red mark from the blonde girl's slap on his face. Everyone else that was there to see it was crying out of laughter and Evan was sure that the blond casanova was so angry with him, that he would try to put this 'disobedient familiar' to his place.
"It seems that you don't know how to pay respect to nobility." Guiche said in a threatening voice.
"You're the one who's unable to tell apart a true noble from a swine, but of course that's because you are a swine as well." Evan retorted, running a hand through his hair.
"You dare insult a noble." Guiche gritted his teeth. "There's no choice, I challenge you to a duel!"
"How unfortunate for you then." Evan snored. As a duelist, he had fought countless other duelist and was pretty good at it. Of course, he realized that the type of duel Guiche was talking about was different from the one he was used to, but that didn't really matter. A duel was a duel.
"You are nothing but a peasant, insulting a noble!" Guiche shouted and pointed a rose at Evan. "And on top of that, you made two ladies cry!"
"That's weird, I didn't see any tears, they were just mad at you." Evan shrugged. The crowd seemed to laugh at his response, even though he wasn't trying to be funny…
"Prepare yourself! I'll be waiting at Vestori Square!" Guiche declared and stormed off.
"What are you doing?!" Sadly, all of Evan's little entertainment disappeared when a familiar voice called for him and Louise appeared.
"Getting into a fight that you believe I got no chance to win because blond playboy over there is a magic wielding noble while for all you know I'm a weak peasant that he could kill in one strike." The girl stared in disbelief at the boy's answer.
"Why are you promising to fight without permission?" Louise grabbed her familiar's arm and dragged him along. "We're going to apologize to Guiche right now. Hopefully it won't be too late for him to forgive you."
"You don't seem to understand the situation, midget." Evan pulled his hand away from Louise's grip. "I know what I'm getting myself into. I promised to levitate your status here, right?"
"By what? Dying!?" Louise shouted back at her familiar. "You don't understand anything! Peasants can never win against nobles. You'll be lucky to get away with just minor wounds. If you plan on dying so I can summon a new familiar, it won't work!"
"Don't think I'll give up my life for you." Evan grimaced. "If the rule is that peasants can't defeat nobles, then that means the horny blond I'm about to fight against stands no chance of actually beating me. Better come and watch, you might learn a few things."
With that said, Evan turned toward the crowd and asked them for the location that Guiche told him. They all gave him the direction and so he stomped off toward it. It was somewhere in the courtyard, a completely empty space perfect for the fight that was going to happen. Many other mages came to watch the fight, no doubt expecting to see Evan getting his ass handed to him.
"I praise you for actually showing up and not running off." Guiche said.
"Please, I was trying to get this duel to happen." Evan responded causing his opponent's eyes to widen at the realization.
"You bastard…"
"Wait!" Louise called and ran to interfere. "That's enough, Guiche! Duels are forbidden."
"Only duels between two nobles are forbidden." Guiche explained. "He is a peasant so there's no problem."
"That's because nothing like this has ever happened…" Louise was trying to plead with the blond guy while Evan just rolled his eyes at the girl's interference.
"Will you step aside, master of zero?" Evan asked, causing Louise to visible tremble at the insult while the crowd began to laugh again. "This duel has already started, you can't stop it."
"Your familiar said it!" Guiche looked away from Louise and raised his rose. A single petal fell off it and landed on the ground, causing a warrior-like creature made of brass to come out of the ground carrying a spear. "I'm named Guiche the Brass. Therefore a brass golem, a Valkyrie, will be your opponent."
Evan narrowed his eyes. So the guy could summon something beside a familiar and without the need of using a spell or anything? Evan already knew that it was possible to use his monsters' true strength in this world and hoped to get a better understanding of it in a combat which would push him to his limits, but to be shown that summoning was so easily to achieve so early in the duel, Guiche was practically handling him the victory on a silver plate.
The Valkyrie golem charged at Evan, jabbing a fist on his face. Evan quickly moved his left wrist, with the Wrist Dealer made of metal, in front of himself, blocking the first attack. Immediately after this happen however a second fist came flying toward him and hit him in the guts. Evan gasped in pain, his guard dropping for a moment, long enough for the golem to place a second him on his face.
Evan stumbled back in pain, blood pouring from his mouth, but he tried to ignore the pain and instead rolled to the side, avoiding another one of the golem's attacks. It looked like the creature attacked faster when Evan success to dodge or block and slower when it actually hit its target. The duelist realized that Guiche was playing with him.
"Just surrender, peasants can't defeat mages!" Louise cried out, but Evan ignored her. Guiche got a chance to show his strength, now it was Evan's turn.
"I must give you credit for fighting like a noble." Evan complimented Guiche while wiping away the blood dripping from his mouth. "Using magic instead of getting your hands dirty."
"Hmm, words of praise mean nothing when they come from a commoner." Guiche waved it off.
"Still," Evan's smile dropped and his crimson eyes glared at his opponent. "You made one big mistake."
"It seems that you haven't learned that you lost." said Guiche. "Valkyrie, attack!"
"I'll make you learn now to leave a weak monster out!" Evan shouted as the golem charged at him. "My turn, draw!"
The duelist placed his fingers on the top card of his deck and focused. Cards were the gateway to another world, through magic their abilities could be unlocked. Evan took a deep breath, the card that he was holding starting to glow brightly, causing a chain reaction that resulted in the runes on his left arm to glow as well. With one swift move, Evan pulled the card and held it in front of himself.
"I call forth, Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair!" Darkness shot out of Evan's card and enveloped its user as the Valkyrie's fist made contact and the sound of metal crashing echoed through the area.
Guiche's confident smile disappeared from his face. All the mages that have come to watch the duel were in shock as well. Evan was confused on what just happened.
Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair was a large black dragon covered in chains and red runes. Only this time it wasn't. Instead of summoning a monster to fight for him, the card itself transformed into a set of pitch black dragon armor that enveloped Evan's body.
"That's… not how I expected things to go." Evan looked at his arms.
Why didn't Duel Monsters work in this world like they did in his? Was it the magic of this world that restricted them? Was it the weird runes on his arm that caused this change? Or was it something completely different. Either way, he now had a weapon to fight with and a horny blond noble to beat, so researching his abilities would be left for later.
After checking his armor, Evan looked down at his chest where the Valkyrie's fist had hit his armor. He placed his left arm on the golem's and squeezed, breaking the creature's arm into pieces. The golem stumbled back, only for Evan's right first to pierce through the beast's head and come out of the back.
Guiche stepped back, to have his golem be taken out like that, it wouldn't stand! With another wave of his rose, the mage summoned six more Valkyries to take the place of the fallen one. In response to that, Evan spread out his armor's wings and flew into the air to avoid their attacks before diving into the small army. The boy slammed its fist into the ground, unleashing a wave of purple flames that knocked down all the mages watching the fight and caused the golems to lose balance.
An opening!
Thinking fast, Evan grabbed one of the golem by the arm and swung it. It was all in the armor, instead of getting a dragon that would fight on his side, he was given an armor which made Evan physically equal to a dragon. He could feel the magic power flowing through his body, the strength, the knowledge, it was all there!
"You can have this back!" Evan yelled, throwing the Valkyrie onto Guiche, knocking the mage.
Now that the summoner was temporally dealt with, the boy turned toward the remaining golems that charged at him. Blocking one's spear with his arm, Evan buried his right fist into the Valkyrie's chest and fired a fireball from inside it, blowing up the creature, as well as sending pieces of brass flying everywhere. The mages watching the duel winched at the boy's brutality and some even had to look away as Evan teared out a golem's arms and used them to beat it over the head.
Guiche groaned as he pushed the fallen golem's body off himself. The blond mage grabbed his rose again and pointed it at the battlefield, only for the rose to stop a few inches away from the pitch black armor. It was over. All of Guiche's golems were in pieces, the only ones remaining were Guiche himself and Evan, who was currently staring down at the aforementioned blond mage.
"Ready to talk your beating like a man?" Evan's question was met with a cringe from his opponent, who dropped the rose on the ground.
"I yield!" Guiche dropped his head. A cry of shock echoing through the crowd.
'Just as I expected.' Thought Evan, dropping the Valkyrie head that he was planning to beat the blond boy with in case he had enough balls to face him. Of course the chance for that to happen was small. Everyone here was a magician, they specialized in magic attacks and if his experience with Louise was anything to go by, they often let their familiar and summonable creatures do the hard work for them. So facing a man clad in armor at close combat would like a suicide for them.
"To think that a noble could lose against a peasant." Guiche muttered under his breath.
"Enough calling me that." Evan retorted, glaring at the boy. "I ignored it until now since I wasn't interested in showing off, but I won't let forgive anyone who dares to call me that filthy word anymore! I'm no peasant! My name is Evan Greyson and I'm the familiar of Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere!"
Silence. No one dared to talk back after witnessing the brutal beating that Guiche's golems took. Everyone looked at Louise, and for the first time she could see respect in their eyes, not just that, they were intimidated, even scared after witnessing her familiar's destructive capabilities. But she ignored her classmates' eyes and ran over to Evan.
"Are you ok?" She asked him.
"Of course, I took the two hits for a more dramatic effect." Evan retorted. The runes on his arm stopped to glow and the black armor covering his body flew into his hand, transforming back into the card that he was familiar with.
"Oh…" Louise understood.
"Shall we go, master?"
"Eh?"
Louise exclaimed in surprise as Evan took her hand into his own. He promised to her that he would help her climb to fame and he intended to follow through with that promise. The girl in turn smiled, holding tightly on her servant's hand.
"Right," nodded Louise and stepped forward, leading her familiar. "Follow me, familiar!"
Evan did so without any protest. Was he going to be a rebellious familiar? Most likely. Was he going to obey her orders? Absolutely no! Was he going to try and find a way home? Definitely!
There was a family and friends that he had left behind in his world, a life good enough for someone like him. He would never forget what was behind, he would never give up on trying to regain it.
But for now, he had a new mission in front of him. Making a girl feel proud of herself and her familiar!