...medieval feudal society

Kirigaya Kazuto was his full name. Born October 7th and currently seventeen by his reckoning, he attended a special school after a certain dreadful event in his life. Tenacity or rather stubbornness was what he attributed to his survival. If his grades were to go by, he was a hard-working and studious young man in computer related subjects. That aside he was your average unassuming teenage boy who loved video games but who may be a bit blunt at times. It was the part about computers and these video games that his supposed master questioned.

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière had never heard of such strange concepts or the fantastical world her familiar described. She found it hard to believe that he could come from such a world so far away. Both her and her familiar were breaking bread, it was past sunset when Kirito came to and they had retreated to Louise's dormitory to have what passed for dinner.

"I'm supposed to believe you?" she sighed in disbelief, the piece of bread in her hand never made it to where she intended it.

Kirito shrugged, as if saying, "Believe what you want."

It was a credit to his past experiences that shaped him that he could accept such a reality so quickly. There were two moons out tonight, two moons that shared not the colour of his native country's night sky. In fact the building they entered, the dormitory, was made of stone. Even Louise's room was made of it. However, the décor was mostly wood. The bed, wardrobe even the tables and chairs were wooden and looked pretty old.

"I don't think I can believe you," his master finally said, "Does such a world exist?"

"The world from where I come does exist," Kirito smiled, "Though it was definitely not the only one without mages."

"There's more than one?" Louise was further perplexed.

For him perhaps they were such worlds, virtually created perhaps but he lived in them once.

"Well I'm not lying."

"Watch your mouth commoner," she snapped at his interruption of her thoughts.

"So I'm a commoner."

"Well you can't use magic can you? You're not a mage are you?" she asked him.

"No," Kirito replied after a moment, a little depressed, "Not in this world at least."

"Well then that makes you a commoner."

"I'm suddenly starting to not like this world," he seemed a little resigned, "There's no way back to where I came from either right?"

"As much as I would love to send you back, there is none," Louise sighed with him, "The 'Summon Servant' was strictly one-way and I can't cast it if I already have a familiar."

"And this shows that I am yours?" Kirito lifted his left hand where the runes lay.

She approached him, taking his hand in hers to study the inscription. He hadn't noticed before but she was about as tall as Sinon and was slender, doll-like and also flat as a board. Huh? Who was Sinon again, Kirito thought to himself. He was shaken from the thought by Louise's reply.

"Yes, but it seems you have yet to learn some manners."

"Hai, hai, your highness" he replied with some small amount of sarcasm, "So, all I need to do is just help you out right?

Louise wanted to chastise her familiar but it had for the most part been a tiring day so she'd let him off for now. Wordless she got up from the table and proceeded to the wardrobe. Without as much as a care in the world she started to strip.

"Hey wait a minute!"

"What is it familiar? Don't think I'm going to be embarrassed just because you're in the room," she spoke as her top came off.

So that's how she thinks of me, Kirito concluded as a pair of undergarments settled on his face. She's even throwing her underwear at me!

"You will wash my clothes tomorrow."

Without fanfare, she fell asleep afterwards, caring not what Kirito thought. She seemed to have assured him a roof, a bed and food so it wasn't like he was ungrateful. It was the attitude he didn't like and if she was any indicator, he wasn't going to enjoy his time here much. It seemed that he had died and went to hell after all.

As he tried to sleep he thought of his old life, fraught with danger but also of the small joys that he found along the way. He slowly remembered his loved ones, his family and his daughter. Their memory seemed to calm him and soon he was asleep like his master.

Waking before she did, he soon found out how unpleasant the nobility treated commoners. She tried to have him dress her and he walked off angrily, shouts of her denying him food ignored. He tried to avoid the other students from that point forward. That of course led to the best thing to have happened so far.

Mages apparently learned in university-style lectures. There weren't any seats for him so he claimed the windowsill. He was not alone in that regard, the other familiars started to gather around him for some reason as Louise was called upon to perform some magic. The windowsill was the furthest away from the demonstration area. Fancy that.

The explosion was rather violent for a failed transmutation. Professor Chevreuse never saw it coming. The Vallière girl had clearly destroyed the majority of the front of the classroom.

"Why don't you quit already Zero?" one of the students spat angrily.

"Yeah, with a success rate of zero, you might as well!" another agreed with them.

Louise was covered in soot from the explosion and as the students excused from the class. She would have to clean up the mess she made though Kirito could tell now who was going to be doing most of the work here. They finished by lunch.

"I see the now that the Zero doesn't refer to your, a-hem, physical qualities," he started, and she stopped turning to face him, "But you know, you have me right? So you've succeeded at least once right? They really shouldn't be calling you a Zero."

Louise wanted to hit him, oh yes, chastise that insolent dog, but he spoke and smiled at her. It wasn't the kind of smile that held any malice. Was he trying to cheer me up, she thought. Perhaps he was but she couldn't tell because of that stupid smile he had on his face. Still it would set a bad example to not punish him at all for this morning's transgressions.

"You shall have no lunch today but you will have dinner," she replied with a huff, "Just because you were helpful now does not mean I will not punish you for this morning."

He only smiled and replied with his new favourite reply, "Hai, hai."

That said, Kirito had no intention of starving and as soon as he separated with Louise at the Alviss Dining Hall, he followed his nose. The scent of fresh came around the corner and he was about to turn and follow it but he heard a noise approach as well. Stopping well before the corner a maid with hair coloured like his rounded it and would have hit him if he had been there. Instead she saw him and stopped calmly enough.

"Ah, aren't you Miss Vallière's familiar? May I help you?" she greeted with a clear voice.

Kirito raised both his hands in front of him again, "Guilty as charged."

Giggling only a tiny bit she gave him a look over, Kirito stared at the freckles that adorned her face. He'd never seen such things before on account of living in Japan. Luckily the awkward silence was broken by his grumbling stomach. With a smile on her face, she told him to wait until she returned and they could go together to find something to eat.

Siesta, as that was the maid's name, brought him to the kitchen and handed him some "leftovers" from the nobles. Being the first warm food he'd had in two days, he exclaimed in the most natural way possible,

"Delicious."

Siesta seemed pleased with herself for some reason. In mere moments he had finished.

"Would you like seconds?"

He nodded and she returned with another bowl.

"Weren't you fed?"

Kirito stopped for a moment.

"Oh no, my beloved mistress says that I cannot have lunch for not being able to dress her," Kirito said evenly before changing his tone, "I mean seriously? Can't these nobles dress themselves?"

"Oh Mister familiar you can't disrespect the nobility like that."

"Kirito is fine Siesta," he seemingly ignored her warning and went back to eating.

"You must have some courage to not be scared of them Mister Kirito."

Kirito only laughed nervously and finished his food. His stomach content for now he turned to the maid in gratitude. He had to repay her kindness somehow. She was the first person to be nice to him since he arrived. After much insistence, she roped him in to helping her serve dessert.

The noble kids as he saw were more than ready to dig in and the last he served was with no small amount of coincidence, his diminutive master. She sat at the end of the table. Between her and the one he remembered as Montmorency the Flood, was an empty seat. The latter had some ridiculously curled hair, he thought as he passed the blonde her dessert. Across from her sat three boisterous boys. Well they weren't that loud, mostly whispering to themselves, but Kirito could catch snippets of their conversation. It had something about a "rose for all the ladies," or some such nonsense.

He dismissed it as he served the last dessert on his tray to his master.

"Hoh, I'm surprised you are able to serve so well," the Flood remarked.

Still irritatingly haughty as usual aren't you, he didn't reply. As he did he spied something dropping on the floor. It was a small bottle, thick glass and containing a small amount of fragrant liquid.

"Somebody drop this?" he asked quickly, holding it up to the nearby diners.

His master shook her head and his gaze fell on the boys who amongst them, one blonde looked away quickly and the others shook their heads. The blonde then also shook his head.

"Alright, I guess I'll keep it then," Kirito said to no one in particular and turned to leave until a slap on the table and the sound of someone rising caught his attention once again.

"Stop," it was the blonde, "Though you may think yourself clever commoner, I see too that the bottle does not belong to you. Leave it or I'll have you whipped for theft."

Fair enough Kirito thought and set the bottle down on the table, only to catch once again as another slap on the table knocked it off. It was Montmorency.

"How dare you Guiche, I gave you that bottle as a token of our love, are you going to deny it so cheaply!?"

Another slap on another table and another girl, this time in a brown cloak, stood up.

"Guiche, I thought you said you loved me!"

Not wanting to get caught in the middle of it he took a step back and watched as the blonde Guiche got his just desserts for two-timing. It was hard not to smile widely when two red palm prints were visible on his face. Guiche glared at him.

"What are you smiling at commoner?"

"Nothing," Kirito replied, trying to suppress his smile but in vain.

"You dare mock me, Guiche de Gramont? I'll teach you some manners in a duel!"

Duel was a word that denoted one on one combat between two combatants for whatever reason. It seemed this one was for honour. Kirito of course was never really one to back down.

"First strike or first blood?" he asked in reply.

"Until one of us yields," Guiche replied, "I'll be waiting in the Vestri courtyard. If you want to run now's your chance."

With that Guiche left with as much pomp as he could muster.