First, I would like to apologize so much to all of you for waiting more than a year for an update. Me and the beta-reader have been caught up with a lot stuffs and works in real life that we couldn't avoid, where as a result it took away the time we needed the most to finish this chapter. There were moments where we almost gave up on this fic and forget about it. Yet we were fortunate that our passion to write this story wasn't extinguished and it will never be.
"Wait. You're telling me you're not from this world ?" Louise asked, looking at Saito with an expression of disbelief.
In her hands, Louise held a cup of tea and took a quick sip. Normally, she'd only use one hand but the ordeal in the courtyard still left her shaken. Both of them were in Louise's dorm room, sitting at the small table after they walked to the Second Year students' dormitory from the courtyard. The sun had set only a few minutes ago. Louise had some tea brought up to her room to help put the incident aside from her mind. A thought many in the dorm shared.
When the tea and accompanying snacks arrived, the two started chatting. Or rather asking and answering each other's question. Saito had just finished explaining, to the best of his abilities, just how far from home he was.
"That's right. I was just walking back home then I saw this green oval thing and then I'm here," Saito replied, before he took a bite of bread he held, which was offered by Louise.
"Well...It's kinda hard for me to believe it," she hesitantly told him.
"I know it sounds crazy but it's the truth," Saito said insistently. "This isn't something I would make up. I mean, take a look at my clothes and their designs: are these something that any people from your place could make? And my bag: have you seen any people from here carry such thing with them?" He pointed at his bag which was resting on the wall.
"Look, I admit your attires isn't like anything I've seen and I've seen the works of some of the best tailors in the country, but I don't know whether I can take your story at face value." The familiar ritual had been used since Brimir's time and never in its use had a human familiar been summoned from beyond the continent, let alone beyond the realm. However, that did not mean Louise assume he was lying.
"I'm serious! Even I can't believe I found myself in another world. Especially one that has magicians and two moons. It's like something from a fantasy manga."
Earlier in the late afternoon, before they started walk into one of the towers that housed the dormitory, Saito made a glance upward and saw those two huge moons floating in the late afternoon sky. It was really clear for him that he was not in Japan, not even on Earth.
"There's such a world like that?" Louise asked him skeptically, as she raised an eyebrow.
"I'm telling you, it's where I came from! We don't have mages there and my world only has one white moon," Saito told her in a pleading tone.
Louise scratched her head with her left hand as she wore a troubled look, because anything he said about him from another world with no mages and only have one moon was getting hard for her to believe them. Not without any hard evidence.
"And all of these talk about 'Summoning' and 'Magic', just...just what is all that supposed to mean anyway?" He asked, with a bit of tiredness behind his voice.
"Alright, I'll explain. The 'Summon Servant Ritual' is a sacred ritual a mage conducts to summon a creature that's elementally aligned with the summoner as a familiar," she explained as if reciting from a text book. "Magic academies, like this one, have the students preform the ritual during the start of their second year."
"So, does everyone here use magic like you?"
"No, only the nobles can use magic as bequeathed by god. Commoners, like you for example, are people that can't use any magic," Louise told him.
"And what about that 'familiar' I kept hearing about earlier? What does that mean?" Saito asked again. He had watched some anime involving magicians where birds or little lizards appeared as their familiars. But that was as far as he knew about them.
"Basically, a familiar is a creature summoned and contracted by a mage through the 'Summon Servant', which then becomes its loyal servant and guardian for as long as the contract is in place," Louise answered before she explained the duties of a familiar. "First, a familiar is able to grant its master an enhancement in vision and hearing. For instance, what the familiar sees, the master can also see. Second, a familiar will obtain items its master desires such as reagents."
"You mean stuffs like chemicals? For making a potion?" Thank goodness for the fantasy RPG games Saito had played. They always had those crafting mini-games within it.
"Exactly. So you know something useful like this, yes?" Louise sounded surprised, she did not expect him to know things like this.
"Eh, I don't know what kind of stuff you'll want, but I may able to find it if you tell me the specifics and show me pictures. And as long as it's attainable, though," Saito concurred. "But don't expect me to hand you a bottle of hydrochloric acid because my hands always shake whenever I hold that or any dangerous stuff like it."
He shuddered, as he remembered the time where he almost dropped a glass bottle of such liquid during Chemistry class back in his school's lab. Saito knew how dangerous that chemical was and what would happen if several drops of the acid hit his skin if he dropped the bottle to the floor.
"Hai-dero-kaloric ? What's that?" Louise asked, she never heard such a substance like that before.
"A type of liquid used in metal making that's so corrosive it'll destroy and damage flesh when the liquid comes into contact with it," Saito grimly told her. "Trust me. I've seen pictures of people got splashed in the face with them. The results were...Let's just say you'll instantly lose your appetite for dinner after you see them."
Saito's head visibly trembled, just as his face contorted in revulsion when pictures of victims treated for acid attacks that were showed on the news flashed in his mind.
"That's...That's dangerous indeed," Louise was shocked that such harmful material existed. She frowned in displeasure before she continued talking. "Alright, moving on. And finally, the most important thing of all, is that a familiar is to protect its master. But that might be difficult for you to do..."
"Since I'm human..."
"Yes. A powerful beast would almost always defeat its enemies." She then gave him the boy a worried look. "But since you're human and a commoner, I don't think you could even beat a wolf, a bear or a griffon."
"The first two if I had a weapon and training but a griffon?! I'll be owned," he slumped down a bit. There were griffons here, and he saw a dragon in the courtyard. How was he suppose to beat those?!
NO. CHANCE. AT. ALL.
"Owned?" Louise cocked her head a little, confused at the use of the word.
"It's an informal term, for someone who has just been soundly defeated with little effort," Saito explained with a long face.
Louise gave a nod in understanding before continuing. "And that's why it's better for you to do things I'm fairly sure you can do: laundry, cleaning, and other miscellaneous tasks. So you don't have to fight."
"If that's the case, send me home then," Saito said as he leaned forward.
Louise blinked in confusion at what he just spoke. "What?"
"Send me back home. What good am I to you if I'm just a normal human who can do nothing but menial tasks. Send me to fight a dragon or some magical beast and I'm a dead man anyway," Saito gave her a depressing look.
Louise became fidgeted as she took a sideways glance, not looking at Saito directly. "That's... impossible. I'm sorry."
Saito's eyes widen in shock as soon as he heard those words from her. "But why...? What do you mean it's impossible ?!"
Louise nervously avoid making eye contact with him as she bowed her head, staring at the floor. "Because you've been bound by a contract as my familiar; it doesn't matter if you come from the countryside or a completely different world like you've said. Once the bond is established, it... can't... be undone."
A completely disheartened expression was quickly sown on Saito's face when he heard this. "You gotta be kidding..."
"And that's not all. The 'Summon Servant' is a strictly one-way spell. No incantation of any kind exists to return a summoned familiar back to where it was brought from. Also, the runes that had been inscribed on your left hand, it's like a stamp that says you're my familiar," she pointed her finger at his left hand, which was resting on the table.
"No...No!" He slowly rested his back upon the chair, his breathing immediately sounded a little ragged as his worst fear became reality. This could not be happening to him!
"Look, I don't like this either! I didn't ask to have you as my familiar! I was expecting some sort of animal, not a human," Louise quickly replied with an anxious look etched upon her face. "We don't have control on what we summon. The only guarantee is that the creature brought forth matches a mage's elemental affinity in some fashion. The rest is completely random."
"Please, just send me back. Just...Just try it. Try cast that spell on me one more time. It might return me to my world, please," Saito pleaded her.
"I'm sorry but again, it's impossible," Louise sadly shook her head. "And I can't even cast it now."
"What? Why not?"
"Using 'Summon Servant' again is..."
"Yeah?" Saito felt like he was not going to like what he was about to hear this.
"...completely ineffective unless the familiar you first summoned has died." Louise's face twisted into one of sadness as soon as she ended her sentence.
"Say what...?" Saito froze, and he instantly became completely dismayed.
He could not believe it. His chance of return to his home was snatched away from him. Did that mean he would never see his family and his friends again? Saito bowed his head, gazing blankly at the table and he felt his eyes started to welling up in tears. How was he going to return home now?
Louise felt miserable looking at her familiar who was in despair. How everything seemed to falling apart around him. She needed to think of something, searching a way to get all of those depressed thought numbed from his mind, shifted his focus to something else.
"You still believe you're really from another world?" Louise asked, with a soft tone behind it. She was torn between believing and distrusting Saito as she was still perplexed of his origin.
"Yeah," Saito slowly nodded, his voice cracked and his head still bowed down.
"Can you show me some proof?"
He raised his head, staring the girl in puzzlement. "What?"
"You said you're from another world. Do you have other proof than your clothing and bag?"
Saito could only blink in surprise at her request to show her the evidence. "Yes, I do. Hold on just a moment." He stood up from his seat and went to his bag which rested upon the wall.
He unzipped the bag, pulled out his recently repaired laptop and placed it on the small table where Louise was sitting at. She was curious how this flat, rectangular blue thing would explain that her familiar truly came from a different world.
What's this?" Louise asked.
"A notebook computer. Also known as laptop," Saito replied.
He unfolded the device and the surface the laptop's black LED screen gleamed with the reflected light generated by the lamp in Louise's room. It had many square and few rectangular buttons with letters, numbers and symbols on them that she did not recognize.
"I've certainly never seen anything like this. What kind of magical artifact is it?" She inquired.
"It's not magic. It's a piece of technological device, a product of science," he said. Before Louise could ask Saito what were the words meant, he pushed the device's silvery power button and the laptop computer whirred to life.
"Uwah! What is that?!" Louise gave a surprised yelp as the black reflective panel lit up, several unknown letters and numbers quickly appeared on the screen.
"It's the laptop's screen." Saito nonchalantly said.
"It's pretty..." Louise continued to look at the device with amazement as the screen changed again into blackness. A couple of seconds later, a colorful background appeared with several unknown letters and numbers written at the lower left part of the screen. "What element of magic does it use? Wind? Water?"
"No magic. Just technology, powered by electricity." Saito pushed the spacebar on the keyboard and the image transformed into one that had blank, purple backdrop with two white rectangular spaces which had letters of 'Username' and Password' in each of them. A large square image of an RX-78-2 Gundam's head as his chosen PC user profile picture was placed next to the rectangular spaces.
He typed in his username and password, clicked the 'Enter' key and the screen changed once more into one that had many small squares and rectangles, with colorful pictures within all of them. Louise became fascinated at the device functioning before her widen eyes, staring at the screen intently.
Still, she clearly did not get what Saito had told her earlier. "So, what kind of element is this 'technology'? Is it different from the four elemental powers? What's that 'electricity' you mentioned?"
"Electricity is kind of like controlled lightning. As for technology, it's...uhhh... How am I gonna explain this?" Saito scratched his head, trying to come up a way to explain to her about technology but in a simpler version with something Louise could relate to in here. As he pondered how to best go about it, he noticed something sitting on a shelf that would help.
"That!" He indicated and brought the shelf clock over to the table. "Does this clock run on magic?"
Louise blinked once, then twice at his question before answering, "No."
"Then how does it work?" he followed up immediately.
Louise thought the question for a moment, trying to recall anything she knew about clockwork, "Well...there are gears and springs, I think, inside. All placed in some order and you just have to wind it up with the key on the back and it start ticking."
"But no magic involved, right?" he asked.
Louise looked at the clock and Saito and back to the clock again, "Well, some magic could've been used in the forging of the metal but, from what I know, it doesn't use magic to keep time."
"This is an example of technology. This laptop here is like the clock, but much more advanced than you have now. Hundreds of years more advanced with many more functions," Saito emphasized, it was not like he wanted to brag about it. Still, he could not help but felt prideful of showing off the wonders of his world's modern science and tech to her.
"It can store information like a book but very different. The laptop can keep pictures, music, documents and allows you to play games. As well as writing notes and rearrange information. You can also use this to play videos too!" Saito was obviously getting excited explaining the device's function to the girl.
"What's a vee-dee-ohs ?" Louise asked, such foreign terms confused her.
"Oh, it's a bunch of moving pictures with sounds generated simultaneously. A recording of sight and sound," Saito casually described.
"Moving pictures...and sounds created from it...all at once?" Louise was surprised that such a thing could possibly be made in his world. And that 'laptop' of his, it really baffled her that the device in front of her could function without magic.
The boy then rummaged his pants' left pocket and produced a small, hand-sized, rectangular shaped white object. The object in his left hand was his smartphone. Louise eyed the small device in his hand with interest and it made her wonder whether this was also another item created by this 'technology' and powered by 'electricity'.
"This is a smartphone. It's basically a smaller, handheld version of the laptop but it's main function is to allow you to communicate at long distances with someone who's also owns a similar device. Me and that person would talk with each other as if we're standing in the same room," Saito demonstrated on how to use it. He pushed the main button on the phone and he showed it to her.
"All...All right, then." Louise muttered as she gazed in wonder at the phone's brightly lit screen, which showed another unknown letters, numbers and symbols.
Along with a small background picture of what seemed to be a smooth road with a row of trees with beautiful pink-colored leaves or petals beside it, as well as a tall castle of completely foreign design at a distance. Louise seemed had taken interest on the beautiful trees because their leaves or petals matched the color of her own hair.
"What's more, this phone can take photos, sort of like instantaneous, highly detailed drawing or picture. It can record vid- moving pictures and sounds as well," Saito continued talking.
He then fiddled his finger on the smartphone and directed its backside at Louise, while the boy smiled a bit playfully at the device, which confused the girl a little.
KRING! KA-CLICK!
Within a few seconds, a sudden bright flash of white light with a loud clicking sound were produced from it, causing the pink-haired girl to startled from her seat. Luckily for her, the cup in her right hand was empty of its tea so she would not have to worry about spilling it over her skirt.
"Kyaah! What was that?!" Louise yelped as soon as the flash from the device came on.
Saito, who almost could not contain his laugh, chuckled at her surprised behavior. She looked as though she was about to jumped off from her chair. "Sorry, sorry. I just took a picture of you, Louise. Don't worry, there's nothing happened to you when I did that. Here, take a look."
He showed Louise his smartphone and inside was a picture of her sitting at the table, facing herself the viewer with a curious look while she was holding her empty cup. The girl had her eyes widen in great surprise that she was looking at a picture of herself in that little white box. She was starting to believe her familiar's claim of coming from another world are actually true.
A world with one moon, no mages and with technology to replace the absence of magic. Would not that also meant there were no Nobles there?
Such a thought was something her mind couldn't fathom.
"Do you believe me now?" Saito asked.
"Well, I think I do..." Louise agreed, though with some hesitation behind her voice.
"That's good enough for me," Saito shrugged. He then put his smartphone back into his pocket and went to his laptop on the small table.
He pushed a few keys on the keyboard and a separate page appeared at the right side of the screen. Saito directed the small arrow symbol, a cursor, on the screen with his finger via the touchpad, clicked a symbol by tapping the pad and a list of three words appeared. He directed the cursor to one of the words in the middle and tapped the pad again. The laptop's screen quickly changed into a plain dark blue background with two words appeared in the middle. A few seconds later, the screen changed into a black reflective panel and the whirring sound from the device disappeared.
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"So what now?" Saito, stood in the middle of the room, asked his 'master' right after he put the laptop back to his bag.
"I need to write a letter to my family about the success of my 'Summon Servant' and...," Louise paused for a moment, remembering that incident occurred earlier in the courtyard. "...probably about what occurred in the afternoon after I had summoned you here. But before that, I'm going to change my clothes first."
She then brought her hand up to the top button of her blouse. One by one, the buttons came undone and soon she was down to her underwear. Saito instantly blushed when he saw the girl was taking off her clothes so casually right before him.
"Wh-wh-what are you doing?!" Saito stuttered in shock, quickly turned around and pulled out out his hood over his head.
"It's night so I will be going to sleep right after I write my letter, so I'm getting changed," Louise answered as if it was the most obvious thing.
"Couldn't you have warned be before you started taking off your clothes?!" He exclaimed.
"Why?" She asked, as though she was oblivious of the hint from him.
"Because it makes the situation awkward! Seriously!" Saito nervously told her, his face was still reddened.
"It's not awkward at all," Louise calmly replied as if it was a state of fact.
"You're okay with doing that in plain sight of a guy?!"
"A guy? Who? I don't need to think anything of being watched by my familiar."
"A human familiar. And a male one too, don't forget about that," Saito reminded her before he continued explaining. "Seriously, that's exactly how you'd treat a dog or cat. But a male human ? Try think of yourself in my position for once! If you're my familiar and I'm your master and I took my clothes off in front of you, what do you think will happen?"
That stopped Louise's action immediately when she was about to take off her camisole, and her eyes widen in realization at the logic he told her. That and her cheeks started to flush in red as well. She had forgotten that she summoned a human as her familiar, not some animal or magical beast. The rules of an animal familiar did not apply to a human, even if he was a commoner no less!
"I... You-you're right about that. Sorry, I forgot that you're human," Louise shyly apologized.
"It's okay. Just...please! Don't do that next time, will you?" Saito asked her, he was still nervous over this situation. "Anyway, are you done?"
"N-no! Not yet!" Intense blush spread across Louise's face as she was changing her clothes at a quick pace.
As Saito stood there patiently with his hood was still covering his head and his back was still facing Louise, he saw a small envelope was slipped under the door into Louise's room. He grabbed the envelope as he knelt near the door. He turned it around and saw a wax seal of a pentagram symbol stamped on the envelope's top flap.
"There's a letter for you, Louise. And...are you done yet?" He asked again as soon as he stood up. His back was still facing the girl.
"I'm done," she told him.
Saito turned around and saw Louise was wearing a large pink nightgown. And in the dim light thrown off by the lamp, he could see the outline of her slender figure. That and coupled with her cute face, Saito felt his heart throbbed a bit faster than before and his cheeks went slightly red at a subtly elegant sight.
"There's a letter for me? That's weird." Louise took the envelope from him, completely unaware of the faint bloom on his face. She opened it with a knife-like letter opener, pulled the letter out and proceeded to read its contents.
"Who is it from?" Saito asked as he took a peek at the letter. He could not read the contents as they were inscribed with runic letters of a language he couldn't understand.
"It's from Old Osmond, the Headmaster of the Academy. It says here all Second Year classes will be suspended for three days to give the Second Year students time to adjust themselves in light of the recent incident back at the courtyard."
"So if you have no classes for three days. Guess that makes sense after that," Saito said. "What should we do for all of that free time?"
"Well, after the 'Summon Servant' was completed, they give all of the Second Years a day off to bond with our familiars." Louise put her right index finger on her chin, thinking what sort of activity she wanted to do tomorrow. "Perhaps tomorrow you could show me more of your 'laptop' and 'smartphone's' functions. Would that be fine?"
Saito's face quickly beamed up in joy; he was obviously excited that he would have the opportunity to show off his 'wondrous' modern toys. Along with some of the pictures from home he took with his camera, which he stored some of them in his laptop. The boy just could not wait to display them to Louise and possibly other students as well.
"That's perfect."
"Very well. In the mean time, could you please wash my clothes while I write a letter to my family?"
Saito raised an eyebrow when he heard the request but decided to put it aside. "Do you think it's a good idea to also tell them what happened earlier today? Wouldn't that make them, I don't know...scared? Even if there's only one of that monster here, your family would probably think there's more of them and won't hesitate to pull you out of the academy just to keep you out of harm's way in short notice." He saw Louise's face quickly winced shortly after he finished the sentence, but he didn't understand why.
"Not to mention all parents, including yours, are gonna be furious if they know the academy didn't do the best of their abilities to keep their children safe. And then this academy will probably going to get a lot of flak for it, possibly causing this place to be closed for investigation of something. Which also means you're going to miss a lot of magic lessons for a long time."
Louise bowed her head. She didn't realize just how much damage she would cause to this academy if she told her parents about the incident. Her mother would come in and torn this place apart in anger for letting a monster roaming in the compound and almost killed Louise and the students.
Besides, that also meant she would be married off to her fiancé much faster than before and Louise was still not ready for it! "I-I didn't realize that. I'll probably just let that part omitted instead."
"That's for the best. Though I'm sure your other classmates are doing the same thing you were gonna do." Saito picked up the wooden basket containing the girl's clothes and went to the door. But before he was about to grab the doorknob, he stopped and turned around to face Louise. "Uh, do you know the place where I can wash these?"
"There are fountains near the main tower in the courtyard. There are several of them so you wouldn't miss one. Or you can ask any maid around here for direction if you got lost."
"Oh, all right, Louise." Saito responded before he opened the door and exited the room.
I should've told him to called me 'master' instead of my first name... Louise frowned a bit. But when she recalled that moment, that one special moment where her familiar had helped her dealing with the trauma and emotional distress she had experienced with great care and kindness, her frowned look quickly soften into a contemplative one.
The girl could not help but be grateful for what her familiar did to her. And that's not all, that time when Saito... That was his name, right?
When Louise reminisced of the time where Saito wiped the tears off Louise's cheeks and eyes, while rubbing her back gently to ease her anxiety, she did not see of him as an 'it'. Nor did she not see him as 'some sort of animal'.
No, she saw a 'he' and a 'person'...
Not calling me 'master'... Louise snorted, and a faint smile was created simultaneously. Oh well, it's not that big of a deal anyway. Normal familiar can't talk, let alone say 'Master'. When she turned around to her table, intending to write her family a letter, she took a sideways glance at her bed and noticed the pile of straw next to it. Then a sudden realization hit her.
Earlier in the day, she placed a pile of fresh straw there because she was expecting an animal familiar, not a human. Even if Saito was a commoner, it seemed wrong and somewhat degrading or a bit inhumane by giving him a place to sleep that should be only fitting for a pet beast. It felt wrong for Louise if she slept on a soft, cozy and warm bed while her human familiar would slept uncomfortably and shivering in cold on a hard floor with thin pile of straws for a bed.
And no blanket...
Maybe I should order a mattress, a pillow and blanket from the servants first while he do the laundry below. Louise grabbed her long night robe and a pair of slippers from her wardrobe and wore them before she went out of her room, looking for any servant still working in the dormitory.
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As Saito walked down the corridor of the dorm to the stairs, his mind suddenly found itself in a state of perplexity when he had a moment of realization of what he was currently doing.
Wait, why did I agree doing this? Was it because of my good manners? Or to return the favor for the bread earlier? The boy was trying to figure out why he agreed to wash Louise's clothes, when he had the choice to say or decide on the opposite?
But, as he reached the ground floor, Saito noticed a blonde boy in a cape similar to Louise, while wearing a frilly shirt with its collar left unbuttoned to reveal a bit of his chest. The blonde boy was sitting on a bench with a sullen expression etched upon his face. His hands clenched tight on top his legs, shaking. A rose laid next to him by his left.
Guiche was deep in thought about Montmorency, who was completely traumatized by the events earlier in the courtyard. From what he heard from his classmates, that undead monster—which was now 'dead'—was gonna kill Montmorency before Mister Colbert pulled her away from the walking abomination and attacked it with his fire magic. But the monster didn't die and it then retaliated with some sort of wandless magic that incapacitated the teacher. It was fortunate that it was only temporary and he recovered with no ill effects.
But the same could not be said for Tabitha. To became frozen so suddenly, frost coating her body like a veil of snow, even if it was just for a little while. Once again it was fortunate the magic was temporary. Thank the Gods and Founder for that.
If it wasn't for that man in the strange black armor, everyone would've been killed. Montmorecy would've been killed.
Montmorency was crying uncontrollably as she was escorted to her room by Miss Chevereuse. Guiche followed closely behind. When they arrived in front of the door of her room, Miss Chevereuse told Guiche not to disturb Montmorency to give her time to calm herself down.
When the teacher left, Guiche stayed behind, sanding in front of the door to Montmorency's room. He could hear the faint sound of her sobs and sniffs from outside. He wanted to go in and comfort her, but the boy remained there for a couple of minutes doing nothing but sadly listened her crying before he left.
He wasn't there to protect her as the professor sent him to call the healer so he couldn't protect her. Could he have protected her? Or would he have coward in fear from the sight of that thing? Never in his life he felt so worthless. Unable to do anything for his girlfriend, not even to try to do even the simple act of kindness and sympathy for her as a boyfriend. Perhaps it's the right thing to leave Montmorency to calm herself from that ordeal, wasn't it?
Just thinking about how vulnerable she was in her room distressed Guiche so much.
The sound of footsteps grabbed his attention, he snapped his head up and saw the cause. Guiche instantly recognized him as Louise's commoner familiar. His completely foreign facial features and structures, unusual black hair and eyes, as well as those odd looking clothes of his made him stood out. He's carrying a basket of clothes. Laundry needing washing, most likely.
Both boys made a brief eye contact before Saito returned his gaze forward as he walked towards the dorm exit. Guiche returned to the plague of his sorrow and anxiety, wondering how long till his beautiful flower would recover from this. And how he could just sit here and do nothing. Did he really have the right to call himself her "boyfriend"?
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It was official—Saito was lost. He was still walking around the courtyard under the light of the moonlight at night trying to find a fountain to wash Louise's clothes. But the place was so big that even the night was illuminated by moonlight, it was still hard for Saito to see anything when everything at a distance in front of him looked dim. Despite as his eyes were adjusting to the low light conditions.
Saito then spotted a black haired girl wearing maid outfit walking from the main tower in the walkway well lit with torches hanging from the wall. He quickly seized the opportunity to ask her for direction.
"Excuse me! Hey there!" Saito called the maid from courtyard as he walked at a fast pace towards the walkway. He entered the walkway and appeared a few feet in front of the girl.
The maid flinched in surprise as she heard a voice came from the courtyard, which in her mind probably directed at her. Then, a teenage boy came into the walkway from the left and appeared at a distance before her. She regarded the person for a moment before she calmed herself down.
From her point of view, the teenager looked obviously a foreigner and not native of Tristain due to his odd looking clothes. Especially with both of his exotic facial features and structures that looked so similar to the ones where some of her family members including herself were sharing. Besides that, the boy seemed to be at the same age as herself.
"Yes? Can I help you, sir?" The maid asked as she smiled politely at him.
Saito noticed the maid in front of him had a very cute look, short black hair and a pair of dark brown eyes. Even her voice sounded very cute too! But what surprised him was her facial features and structures seemed to be of East Asian descent like himself. As if she was either from Japan, China or Korea.
"Sorry to disturb your work, but could you please tell me where I can find a fountain here so that I can wash these clothes?" Saito asked as he showed her a wooden bucket full of Louise's clothes in his hands.
The maid smiled kindly in response.
"Of course. Please follow me, sir." She then gestured at him to follow her lead as she walked into the courtyard from the walkway. Both of the teenagers walked in silence for several seconds as the maid guided Saito to one of the fountains, before she turned towards the boy. "I was wondering...Are you the familiar Miss Valliere summoned?"
Saito quickly turned to the maid walking next to his right side. "Uh, yes I am. My name is Hiraga Saito. What's yours?" Saito replied as he grinned, returning the courtesy the maid showed to him earlier.
"My name is Siesta and I work as a maid in service of Tristain Academy of Magic. It's nice to meet you Hee-ragasaito," Siesta said as she bowed her head slightly.
"Please, just Saito is fine," he answered, smiled sheepishly at her unusually polite demeanor. "So, how did you know I'm Louise's familiar? I don't remember I told you that."
"Words travel fast about each familiar the students had summoned during the ritual," she explained as they continued walking. "Every servant in the academy heard about Miss Valliere succeeded at summoning a familiar. A human familiar, which is very unusual and unique."
"I see. So...I guess you also heard about what happened at the courtyard? You know, that...monster that attacked everyone?" Saito immediately shuddered as memories of that very repulsive creature started to flashed back in his mind.
Siesta sounded and looked fearful as she began to talk. "Yeah, it must had been a truly horrifying experience, right? Everyone was baffled how a large undead monster with metal armor was able to get past the guards and entered the academy."
"Wait, were you there at the courtyard too?" He asked, his eyes slightly widen upon hearing this.
"No, I was at the kitchen at that time," she answered.
"Then how did you know about what that monster looked like? All the things you described about it were accurate."
"I heard it from the male servants that saw Mister de Siorac bringing the dead monster outside the academy to bury it. I think one of them spewed his lunch the moment they saw the corpse. Oh, we're here!"
"Here?" As Saito turned his sight in front of him, he saw a fountain which was just located at the base of the dormitory tower he just walked out. Saito was surprised because he did not noticed it was there when exited from the dorm, aside from that they were actually walking back towards the small tower Saito came from.
"Well, we're here. So I guess you can go back to work now," Saito said nonchalantly as they reached the destination, and he did a good job of not making himself looked stupid in front of the maid.
"Oh, don't worry! I can take care of that for you, Mister Saito." Siesta offered, as she took Louise's laundry from his hands.
The boy, on the other hand, just blinked and left open-mouthed at what just happened. "Eh? No, no! That won't be necessary, Siesta! Let me do it. I'm sure I've taken up your time with your work or something at this night," Saito earnestly told her as he waved his hands. The boy felt bad at letting her do the laundry by herself at night.
Siesta could not helped but giggled at his nervous demeanor before she placed the wooden basket to the ground.
"It's alright, Mr. Saito. It is after all my duty as the academy's servant, and don't worry about the laundry. I'll deliver them to Miss Valliere's room in the morning."
He sighed in defeat—it was useless to continue arguing with her when the maid seemed very okay with it. "Ah, thank you, Siesta. I really appreciate it," Saito smiled amiably, before he bowed his head slightly. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you tonight Siesta."
"It's nice to meet you too, Mister Saito," Siesta replied as she gave him a warm smile.
Saito waved a good-bye to Siesta as the boy made his way back to the dorm, while the maid began her task of washing Louise's laundry. He felt very pleased to find himself another friend in a fantasy world in one night. It looked like he would not be alone in this magical place.
-##-##-##-##-##-##-##-
Louise sat next to the desk writing a letter to her family of her success at summoning a familiar, as she waited for Saito to return from doing laundry below. However, she was not sure whether if it's right to tell them...that her familiar was a human, a commoner from a faraway land. A land of wondrous artifacts called 'technology' that looked so magical at first glance, yet were not at all magical in any way. But it also made Louise wonder whether there were nobles where he came from or not.
As she finished the last sentence in the letter, several knocks on the door of her room were produced and Saito's voice was heard from outside. "Louise, are you in there? Can I come in?"
"Oh yes! Come on in," Louise replied quickly as she put back her quill to its receptacle.
He opened the door and entered her room. As Saito looked at Louise sitting next to the table, he noticed there was a mattress with a pillow and a blanket on the floor next to Louise's bed. As far as Saito remembered, there was not a mattress there before he went out to wash her clothes.
"What's with the mattress? I don't remember there's one here when I first entered your room," Saito inquired.
Louise refused to make eye contact with Saito, seemingly uneasy or embarrassed as she twirled her fingers. "Well...Remember when I said that usually a creature summoned through the Summon Servant ritual was an animal of some sort?"
He nodded. "Yeah?"
"Um...Before the ritual began, I put a pile of straws there," Louise shyly pointed to the mattress where the floor was, "because I was expecting to have an animal familiar today. Instead, I got you and you're a human so...it wasn't appropriate for a noble to let a commoner sleeping on straws in cold night."
Saito could only blinked in surprise at Louise's statement. He didn't expect that he was about to sleep on the floor tonight. The boy could not believe how stupid he was for never thinking about it. Because if he did, Saito could had asked Louise earlier for a mattress or any good place to sleep for him.
Took his cue from Siesta earlier, Saito smiled politely at the girl for her unexpected act of kindness. "Th-thank you very much, Louise. That was very kind of you."
Startled by his reaction and words, she blushed a little as a result. "Y-yeah, whatever! Just go to sleep, it's already late," Louise said as she went into her bed.
After she pulled the blanket over her body, Louise spoke to Saito again. "Since you're my familiar, you sleep in my room from now on. As for supporting and giving you food, however, we'll discuss that tomorrow. Good night...Saito." She then rested her head on the pillow and went to sleep, before she quickly turned her body around with her back was facing at him.
Well, looks like I might have a lot of things to do tomorrow, he thought. Saito looked at the table clock and it was 8:45 PM; it was hardly considered as late back in his world.
As he produced his smartphone from his pocket and set the alarm to 5:50 in the morning, Louise snapped her fingers and the glow of the lamp died out. The lamp is magical too? I guess that means there really is no need for electricity, Saito reasoned.
A shroud of darkness descended upon the room. The only source of light left in the room were Saito's brightly lit smartphone screen and the two moons shone down mysteriously outside of the window.
Now that his alarm was set and the phone was set to battery saving mode, he felt noticeably sleepy. He took off his shoes and went into the mattress.
"Good night, Louise," he said quietly yet audible enough for her to hear it, before he laid down his head on the soft pillow. Yet it's going to take a while for him to sleep as there were things still running through his head. Saito felt his heart beat a bit fast in his chest; he was worried. He was afraid.
Was he going to be stuck in this world forever? What were his chances of living to old age with stuffs like magic, dragons and griffons actually being real? Since he had no magic, what were the odds of surviving in a place like this?
I want to go home. I miss my room. I miss my family. The feeling of homesickness was overwhelming.
...When will I be able to go back? Is there even a way to go back? I wonder if my family is worried about me right now, Saito reflected with sadness on his current situation. I need to find some way of returning. But what should I do? Should I try running away from here? But then what? Maybe I'll try asking someone. But from what Louise told me earlier, nobody even knows that other worlds even exist, so there's no way they'll believe me.
Then he remembered about the wounded soldier earlier in the courtyard. Judging from the armor and weapons he possessed, that person must had been came from his world too. But from what he had seen, however, the equipment looked very high tech for someone from Saito's world.
Was that guy from a secret organization like in some science fiction shows? With access to advanced tech than the ones currently exist in the public and military? If so, which one? American? European? International? And what did the N7 symbol meant? Some kind of multinational black ops unit?
Saito thought deeply about it and it frustrated him because to put it simply—that guy raised more questions than answers.
But what about that monster?
There's no way that monster originated from this fantasy world. It's appearance, those armor plates, the tubes that looked like hydraulics. It's like some sort of robot made out of a human. Like a zombie cyborg. This world didn't even have electricity, there's no way something like that could exist here.
What if that thing came from my world? That guy looked like he knew that monster very well. He shuddered with horror at the thought, because if such creature did exist back in his world, its existence was never revealed to the public.
What if he came from an organization tasked to combat those things? If it's true, if such monsters did 'live' in Saito's world...by Kami, he never felt more worried about his family's safety than ever before. His breathing, while silent, became ragged and his eyes began to moist a little at such notion. Saito never felt this much concern and fear in his life.
Mom, your son has arrived in a world where there are wizards. He'll not be able to attend school for quite some time, nor will he be able to study. Please forgive me...and please pray for my safety. Kami...please let my family be safe too. Please watch over them. Let me see them again, he prayed in his heart before he finally went to sleep.
And so began Saito's life as a familiar.
-##-##-##-##-##-##-##-
Meanwhile, in the Healing Ward of the academy...
Tabitha, who was sitting in bed, was drinking her glass of water as the academy's chief healer Miss Peronne was mending the remaining burnt skin on her left shoulder by casting a healing spell, which was enhanced through the use of medical potions. While the transparent liquid was poured down to her throat as she tilted the glass up, the water's taste was slightly sour as it was mixed with a couple of medical ingredients to accelerate the healing.
"There we go, Miss Tabitha. The damage where you got hit was greater than I first thought. My apologies, but there's permanent scaring around the area. However, you are well and healed right, though I recommend you rest here for tonight as a precaution. Alright?"
"Yes," Tabitha nodded as she tersely answered before taking the sleeping pill from the night stand, swallowing it and tucking herself in.
As Miss Peronne took the blue-haired girl's empty glass and walked towards a table full of potion bottles and parchments, she was greeted by Colbert who just entered the room.
"Hello, Miss Peronne! How's Miss Tabitha doing?" He asked. The healer was busy doing her business at the table and she did not have the time to turn around to see his face.
"Oh, she's doing just fine, Colbert. By the morrow after a second treatment, the outer most scarring will be a memory, but she can't return to her dorm at this moment. Miss Tabitha needs to rest here until morning and she has taken a sleep pill to ensure that. And don't call me 'Miss', alright? We're colleagues, not strangers here," Peronne said the last part grumbly as she sat down, began writing her report on the parchment.
Colbert could only scratched the back of his head sheepishly with that statement. "Yeah, sorry about that."
"Saying 'sorry' doesn't get you anywhere in future relations unless you change that one habit of yours," she coldly replied as the healer continued writing the report, without even bothering to look at him.
Colbert could only laughed awkwardly at that, as he didn't know how to reply back at Peronne's statement. But seriously—what was wrong showing some courtesy with your fellow colleagues, especially with a woman like her, the bald mage would never know.
For now, Colbert focused his thought to his student's well being instead. From he heard from Peronne, Tabitha had mild to severe frost burnt skin on her back, upper arms and shoulders. Though the healer wasn't told the exact details, it's not hard to deduce the cause was ice magic given the amount of frost on Tabitha's skin and how cold to the touch the child must had felt. Colbert was there in the courtyard, he saw everything as Tabitha was struck by a glowing white sphere cast by the undead abomination's magic.
The bald teacher just could not believe it. He had seen frostbite before, a common happening especially in the northern most parts of Germania during the winter season. But that was the first time he saw an ice spell that could inflict that form of injury. Could it actually freeze a person stiff?
How could such an ice spell like that even be conjured in the first place puzzled him. But he had no doubt it must had been a very intricate and powerful spell on its own, possibly even beyond what even a Square-class mage could cast. But if that's true, Colbert mentally shuddered over what would happen if there were more of its kind out there.
But there was one other thing he should also worry about...
"So how's our guest doing, Peronne?" He asked.
Colbert changed his gaze from Tabitha to another bed at the far corner. One that had a man in black armor lying unconsciously in it. Without his sword, without his helmet; the entire feature of this person's face was unlike Colbert had ever seen before. Very foreign, very exotic, very un-Halkeginian. Similar to Miss Vallière's human familiar, although both of them looked totally different to one another. Perhaps they came from different regions, separate countries? Looking closely, he had some similarities to the few traders he'd met that hail from the Rub' Al Khali but not by much.
And unlike Miss Vallière's familiar, who was just a commoner boy, this man was a warrior. An out of the ordinary and interesting warrior; his presence alone raised more questions than answers for Colbert and he was quite anxious to ask this man.
"Our patient here," she gestured the man in the bed, "is in good health. I've managed to stop the bleeding and sealed the entry wound. Do you know we've been trying to get his armor off of him? In the end we don't know how; we haven't see anything that resembles a hinge or a fastener at all. His armor isn't like anything I or anyone has seen before."
Colbert turned to take a good look at the black suit of armor's unique, unusual design. The thought of that man's sword on the research table in his room began to surface in his head. "Yes, yes it is."
"However, I've found something interesting on this man's wound when I took a closer look at it."
This grabbed Colbert's attention. "Really? What did you find?"
Peronne grabbed a clear vial on her desk and presented it in front of Colbert. Inside the vial was some kind of white pasty substance. "I found some kind of half-solid white paste around and inside the wound. Whatever this...salve is, I believe it helped seal the wound. And by seal, I mean a really tight one. It is surprisingly strong; I was having a hard time scraping some of it from his wound but I was lucky the salve was breaking at the moment."
That last part made the professor very curious. "Wait, what do you mean by 'breaking'?"
"I mean, this salve is so strong and to break the sealant, I believe you would require an incredible..." Peronne paused a moment to find the good word for it, "...amount of blunt force impact. I can't say for certain how much but it would certainly be enough to break a number of ribs. Miraculously, this man has no such injuries."
The bald teacher was fascinated at such a wondrous medical substance. He speculated what kind of magical and exotic ingredients could be required to produce such remarkable and ground-breaking substances. The application of this salve would be significantly beneficial to all. Colbert truly could not wait for the man to awaken. The questions he wanted ask him about just formed in his mind one after the other.
Although when he thought about it again, Peronne should be the one to ask this man because this was within her area of medical specialty, not a technology partisan like himself.
"I've also discovered something else, Colbert," Peronne said. "Or rather I should say I couldn't discover something."
The professor was perplexed by the healer's cryptic words. "What could you not find?"
"There was no ball."
Colbert could only blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I've found no bullet inside that man's wound. You said he was shot, correct? I've checked repeatedly and I've found nothing at all," Peronne stated.
This was baffling for the veteran combat mage. Technically, he didn't see him get shot but the wound appeared to had been done by a gun. Could it had been magic? Was it caused by that undead abomination's magic? A spell that enabled you to kill a man with injuries similar to being shot with firearms? Colbert mentally shuddered at the frightening idea.
The bald teacher could not help but turn his gaze to the unconscious man in bed with a worried look and silent anxiety. Just what kind of enemies did you challenge, my friend?
"I apologies but I have no answer to that," Colbert replied as he returned his gaze to Peronne.
"Well, we'll just leave him here and wait until he awakes and recover from his injuries," she said with a sigh of exasperation before she turned her sight towards her colleague. "And that means it's time for you to leave this room NOW."
Colbert innocently blinked in surprise as he looked at Peronne as she now wore her usual stern look. "What? Really?"
"Yes, Colbert. It's getting late in the evening and I don't appreciate guests looming over my patients when they are recuperating. Especially nosy busybodies that can't comprehend the concept of being overbearing with their curiosity," she said as the healer shoved the bald professor out of the medical ward, not giving the man an opening to contest.
She snapped her fingers and the glow of the magical lamps in the room died out, leaving only the light of the two moons outside shimmered the dark room through the windows, and closed the doors for the night.
-##-##-##-##-##-##-##-
The grassy field of the magic academy the courtyard was on fire. Flames of various size and intensity practically encircled the field like a cage. The heat was unbearable. Smoke filled the air, making it difficult to breathe while blocking much of the sun's light from overhead. And then there were bodies everywhere, littered around the entire courtyard.
The color drained from their faces as their blood flowed out into the grass and dirt. Some look like they were torn apart, others had their internal organs oozing out from their body in full display. Eyes looked like dull glass. The bodies consisted of people of different genders and ages—men and women; boys and girls; teachers and students; adults and teenagers.
And then there was that large, monstrous zombie cyborg standing in the center of the carnage with its metal armored back facing him. What's more was the two female bodies that laid beside its feet. He instantly recognized the two by looking at one of the girls' hair and the other's attire.
The girl's hair was pink, while the other girl's attire was that of a maid.
Though heavily obscured, he could see someone kneeling in front of the undead cyborg. The monster raised its left arm high in the air, its hand clenched into a fist. In a blur, it swung its arm down that followed with a loud smack and bone-crunching sound that broke through the noise of the surrounding inferno.
The poor victim practically flew off the ground a good five feet to the right from the force of impact. He could now see the face of the man.
It was that soldier in sci-fi armor.
His face was bloodied, bruised and had several fresh cuts all over it. He looked like he had been pummeled severely by that zombie. But what was disturbing was that the guy's eyes were still wide open and absent of any life in them. And those lifeless eyes were staring right at him. Piercing deep into his very soul.
The cyborg monster slowly turned around, coming face to face with him. He had seen how off-putting, revolting and nerve-racking the monster's appearance was the first time. Now, he's looking at it up close and the sight of the decaying abomination before him was far more horrifying than before.
Its eerie blue eyes, glowing bright from the dark depth of its eye sockets, were fixed at the pathetically vulnerable and young male human before it. The monster then let out a long, lifeless and inhuman moan before it knelt down and grabbed the wrists of both the pink hair girl and maid. It began to walk slowly towards him, dragging along both bodies with it.
As it approach the terrified boy, the undead abomination of science began to growl menacingly at him. It then let out a loud, formidable roar. So loud that the world shook violently.
"RAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!"
-##-##-##-##-##-##-##-
"GAH!"
Saito shouted, bolting upright in his mattress wide eyed awake, with his heart pounding as he breathed heavily. Sweats trailing down his brow as he removed the sheets, it was too hot under them. Looking around the dimly moonlight lit room, everything was perfectly normal; he was back in Louise's room.
There were no burning courtyard, no dead bodies and no monsters here. And Louise was still sleeping.
All of that were just a nightmare, a byproduct from last day's terrifying incident and he didn't want to go through that kind of experience again. One, just one near-death experience was enough to leave a significant impact in him and he truly hoped that it's the last in his lifetime. Saito wasn't sure if he could take another dose; just another one may leave a deep scar to his psyche and he might not able to live like a normal person.
Saito quickly shoved the thought of that nightmare off and started thinking about the things he knew, things that always made him happy. And began feeling a little depress instead. All of this was tiring him physically and mentally and he needed to get some rest. As Saito was about laid down to his mattress...
"KYAAAAAHHHHH!"
He jumped as soon as he heard the scream, his heart felt like it was about burst out from his chest. Saito looked to the source and saw Louise who sat on her bed. Sweating a little, panting, wearing a terrified look on her face and...crying. Tears slipping down her cheeks as she looked on in pure fright.
Could it be possible she just had the same nightmare? Saito quickly got up from his mattress and sat down on Louise's bed beside her, both of his hands gripped her arms softly as he looked at the girl worryingly. She then started to sob quietly and such a pitiful sight before him mellowed his heart completely, bringing a 'painful' sensation to his chest.
"Calm down, Louise. Its alright? What happened?" He tenderly asked, with his hands rubbed both of her arms in a comforting manner.
"I'm sorry. I just...had a nightmare, that's all," she replied, still choking on sobs.
Louise wasn't used being embraced by someone other than her big sister Cattleya for comfort...and yet she felt relieved. The gnawing fear, the emotional turmoil inside her were dissipating, replacing them with warmth and safety. It wasn't as comforting and motherly as her Cattleya's, but her familiar's gesture was enough for Louise.
"There there. Are you feeling better?" Saito asked as his hand rubbed tenderly on Louise's arm. For some reason that he couldn't understand, he seemed to like the fragrance of her hair and it gave Saito a sense of peace that alleviated the small amount of anxiety he still had because of the nightmare earlier.
It was not too long before Louise calmed down and she still kept her head rested on his shoulder. "...Yes, yes I am," she murmured softly, sniffling a little.
"Are you sure, Louise?" Saito asked, he still had not released his embrace from her.
"I'm sure...And Saito?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you," she replied, Louise could not help but to smile a little as she said that.
"Anytime." Knowing that she had finally regained her composure made Saito smiled warmly as he looked out of the window and stared up to the moons. The boy was in a brief, yet deep thought, contemplating whether both of them have the strength and courage to move on and forget about what happened.
They were still alive and well, that was what truly important for them. Hopefully, tomorrow would erase the bad memories they had from the incident.
-##-##-##-##-##-##-##-
Everything was just black and white whenever he saw it through his own perspective. In this case, he saw fire slowly burning the thick, broken pieces of a wooden table into charcoal on the grassy surface. An entire two stories high pre-fab house made of lightweight alloys and clear fiber glass was blown into smithereens. All that left was just a few of its frames still stood intact.
A lifeless human hand lied on the black and charred floor, with flames dancing to the wind surrounding the appendage. Its palm was facing upward, its fingers bent as though it was grabbing the air all around. A simple ring on its finger surprisingly still shine like new, unaffected by the destruction that had fallen upon its owner. A few small spots of blood could be seen around the wrist.
Well...this looks familiar. I haven't seen this for a long time.
A barn house and the grain field around it in the distance were also burning with near ferocity. Thick black smoke blanketed the once peaceful and beautiful afternoon sky into a more grim and depressing firmament.
The sight was then replaced with the controls of a skybike—the throttles, horns, clutches and the brightly lit speedometer screen. There were two hands gripping both throttles tightly and in the front, an entire small city far away in the horizon was in jeopardy and he was closing in.
Fires engulfed the top and mid floors of several high rises and skyscrapers. Some were speared by weapons of great force, leaving a massive hole all the way through. As he drove his skybike across an overpass, he looked at one of the lower buildings at his left, where several inhabitants were on the rooftop taking a peek at what was going on below.
A few seconds later, two shuttles of non-human design were hovering over that same rooftop. Each of the spacecrafts' side door was opened, revealing the occupants inside, fully armed and armored. Several people fell as they were hit by glowing bolts fired from inside the shuttles, electricity arched around their convulsing body.
One of the armed men in the shuttle directed his activated omni-tool at a female runner, launching a glowing net at her. The net caught onto the woman, it completely entangled her till she fell to the surface, screaming in absolute distress.
Yeah, it's official. I really haven't seen this for a while.
Running through a battered street, a long line of outlets and restaurants layed in ruins. Fearful, traumatic, agonizing screams could be heard echoing throughout the torn street. Many vehicles of all sizes littered the area; broken windows, hoods and doors were riddled with bullet holes. Some of the cars were burning, overturned and obliterated by an unknown blast.
...But why now? Why after all these years I'm seeing this right now?
More than a dozen dead bodies littered the street, pints of blood puddled around each of them. The ones that were in bright clothes were completely drenched in their own cruor. People of all ages. No exceptions; everyone was a fair game.
What is it You want to tell me from...this?
He took cover behind a skycar as bullets whizzed above his head, hitting the outer wall of a hair saloon next to him. He dashed forward, crouching as he generated a localized biotic barrier around his left arm, covering his head and upper body. A few ripples were formed around his barrier as bullets connected with the dark energy manifestation he produced. There was an alley nearby to his right and as he entered it, an explosion occurred a few meters behind him, destroying the corner of the wall. The blast knocked the biotic to the ground, but he recovered and kept running.
Should I resist and wake up? Or should I play along?
He ran for a few meters in the alleyway and turned right, where he found his vision overwhelmed by a blinding light and high pitch screech. And the next thing he knew, he saw something...probably a bullet shot through someone's chest. A young boy to be exact. Blood squirted out from the wound, the bright fabric around the hole was quickly saturated with his own sanguine fluid. He fell promptly to the tarmac.
Resist...or play along?
The boy's eyes, with tears flowing, were staring directly at him, muttering something silently to the biotic. His left hand reaching out before dropping to the hard tar surface. No movement, not even the slightest twitch of his fingers. And then...there was no sign of life in his brown eyes.
So... Which one? It shouldn't be too hard to choose, isn't it?
He looked up to the clear blue sky, untouched by the smoke of death and destruction. There was a loud voice and some kind of ramble but they were heavily muffled and he couldn't tell what was being said. Thirty seconds...that was how long he had been looking at the sky. He slowly lowered his gaze and there in front of him, several meters away, he found himself staring at a man wearing a medium-type armor suit. Its design seemed a bit rugged with clear customization done and a paint job well outside of military regulation.
It's obviously not a standard Systems Alliance Marine armor he was looking at. But the most distinctive feature of that person's armor was his four circular viewing ports on the helmet. There was only one race in the galaxy that wore helmets with four viewing ports...and they were infamous for their culture regarding the caste system and slavery.
Yeah... Maybe I should resist after all.
That armored batarian was armed with a shotgun, a sliding buttstock and a large, oversized barrel. So large that you could put your entire fist into the muzzle and shove your arm inside the barrel all the way to your elbow. A gun that just screamed krogan. The gunman slowly raised the heavy weapon, aiming directly at the human biotic's head. Was he intent to capture or kill the biotic? Only Allah knew what was going on in that guy's head.
And maybe I should start getting used to this...again.
A bright flash instantly came out from the barrel.
-##-##-##-##-##-##-##-
Imran's eyes darted open as he sprang up from the bed. Cold sweat running down his face, his breathing was slightly heavy as he gazed up at the stone ceiling. He could feel his heart beating a few paces faster than normal. Right now, the were two things racing within his mind.
The first was the nightmare he just had would come back to haunt him once again. Every night starting from this would be a tiring battle and he would have to endure them again like he used to. There'd be no screams, no eyes would be opened wide and he would laid still in bed. Only his slightly faster heartbeat, his cold sweat and his tired mind.
The second thing was the more urgent matter: where the hell was he exactly? He didn't remember buildings on Earth with wooden ceilings, unless it was a house in the poorer slums or one of those old fashion wooden cabin meant for leisure. As his senses came back to normal he took in his surrounding better; the walls were made of stones that looks the same as the one in an old medieval castle and forts he and his team had taken shelter at the Austrian front.
Turning to the other side, he saw the little girl from earlier sleeping soundly on the adjacent bed. Imran recalled how she was struck by the Pariah's Cryo Blast, her form turning rigid as the subatomic particle snap-froze her. Luckily, the cryogenic effect was temporary and she should feel better after a full nights rest. At least physically, how such an experience would end up affecting her in a psychological sense could only be discern by a professional.
He didn't feel angry. After months of witnessing so many losses against a seemingly unstoppable foe, you reached the point where you just had no more rage left inside. All he felt was disappointment. That he couldn't do anything, couldn't act fast enough to prevent the young child from having to go through such an experience.
His left hand moved to his right arm, where his omni-tool would be hooked into the armguard. An instinctive reflex more than anything, his desire to check the physical health of the girl overriding his conscious thoughts. To his surprise, the tool remained lock on his armor.
They didn't take it off?! Imran searched his belt and, to his surprise, found that all his equipment were still in the pockets he left them in. They didn't take those off me as well?! Did they think it's best to have them kept near me? If that were true, why not just put it all on the table?
Mulling these thoughts over helped regain his bearing as he took a second look around the room. It's clear its being used as an infirmary but where's the medical equipment: life support machines, MRI scanners, the medi-gel dispensers?! There weren't even any light fixtures or stands for proper illumination. Basic supplies and resources have been scarce since the Reapers came, but the situation wasn't critical enough to resort to-
...Is that an oil lamp?! Imran shockingly thought when he looked at the table on the side of his bed.
Rustling sheets shifted his focus back to his neighbor. The girl moving to her left side, still sound asleep.
Putting aside the logistical issues, Imran shifted around to position himself, sitting at the bed's edge and activated his 'tool to perform a medical scan on the girl. The diagnosis came up in detail on the screen. Cryo damage reaches right where the epidermis layer meets the dermis layer. Damage was kept mostly on the surface. Makes sense; Pariahs capture people for conversion alive.
The screen narrowed and highlighted the scar on her back. Scarring was large but minor. It would heal overtime and with proper treatment, it'd be a thing of the past. That was assuming she'd survive to the end of the war to receive the treatment.
Trying not to delve into such thoughts, Imran preformed another, more general scan on the girl and the analysis came with a surprise.
"This doesn't make any sense!" He said out loud as he gawked at everything on screen, standing straight up from the bed. He realized that he may had voiced that too loud but it didn't seem to wake the girl at all. Must be under sleep medication.
Still, it had to be some mistake. The omni-tool could have been damaged at some point without him noticing. Running a quick diagnosis showed that everything was working properly, so he tried again but the results where the same.
=Non-human=
Imran looked at the sleeping girl in confusion and back to the readout. His 'tool wasn't as precise as those dedicated models used by medics and scientists but it wouldn't make such a mistake like this. He scrutinized the reading and they just got odder. Her brain's neurochemistry was, on the whole, very wrong. This was by no means his field but the scans showed that there's very little comparison between the wiring of her brain and a human brain like his.
She's also emitting some undocumented form of energy radiation throughout her body. Invisible to the naked eye and, thankfully, completely harmless. On a physical note, her hair, which he assumed was dyed as some expression of the stereotypical rebellious teen, was actually her natural color.
As he was digesting the new information revealed to him, a slight sensation of pain came from his abdomen, instantly reminding the N7 Slayer of that gunshot wound he received from that Cannibal earlier. He performed a scan of his wound for a few seconds and the result came out. The wound had been sealed and was healing nicely, but the slug fragments were still lodged inside.
"They didn't extract the shrapnel?" He looked around the room again and concluded they didn't have the means to remove such small pieces of metal. Fortunately, the amount was too small for metal poison to affect him so he didn't have to worry about that.
I'm fine as can be. Everything else here is strange. He took note of the old, wooden door and made up his mind as he went to leave. There had to be guards on look-out after what happened today and he hoped they would be able to answer his questions.
Not two step towards the exit, Imran came down on one knee grabbing the nearest bedpost with one hand while the other gripped his head. "Not...now," he groaned through his clenched teeth as he tried fighting the intense pain of his implant.
Having an L2 biotic implant meant he rated higher than most human biotics, almost to the scale of an asari, but it came at a price. Suffering the occasional splitting headache was better than what other L2 biotics went though, but this was the worse one yet.
Imran had learned to manage and deal with it over the years, and this one would be no different regardless of how painful. So he stood up and resume marching out the makeshift med-room. He needed answers now. He needed to get in contact with the Alliance forces as soon as possible.
Now I feel like throwing up.
He powered on, fighting through the pain to the wooden doors as they grew closer with each, stumbling step.
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The clock hanging on a wall showed past midnight. The students were all in their dorms as curfew demands. A curfew that was most lax till the events of today as the guards and professors patrolled the academy with a high degree of alert. A logical course of action, one that aggravated her.
Matilda de Sachsen-Gotha, better known as Longueville, walked the halls with stacks of papers, mostly reports, in hand after what had to be the longest day since she started here.
With the incident that happened during the Second Year's familiar summoning, steps and precautions had to be taken immediately to prevent a panic and stop word from spreading to the rest of the gather in the academy, which would in turn prevent any mention of this from going out and attracting unwanted attention. Of which Matilda wanted to avoid as much of.
It was very shocking in late afternoon when Colbert, along with a few teachers, barged into Osmond's office and told him about an attack that took place during the ritual. Colbert described the creature in as much detail as he could given his current state and none of it gave justice when she finally went to see it.
A head taller than all men in the academy, very muscular, purplish pale skin, skull-like face with rotten flesh, bright blue orbs in seemingly eyeless sockets, pieces of metals embedded all over the limbs and a deformed metal chestplate that was nailed onto its body. In all, it was a gruesome sight to behold.
But what was more unbelievable was how the undead monstrosity was capable of casting powerful magic.
Matilda knew about necromancy. Everyone knew about it. Nobles and commoners alike. One of the most infamous and immoral forms of magic disdained in all circles with anything related to such work scoured for and destroyed. So much so that such craft had practically fallen into myth and legend. Though she had heard rumors and whispers of mages delving into the art, but all in passing as such ventures were not something she'd want to be involved with. Yet that creature was no amateur work.
Whoever created it was a master of the wicked craft in a way she couldn't even begin to comprehend. And it somehow appeared in the courtyard.
No one was killed and only two injured but that didn't concern her. What was concerning was how the creature could somehow withstand spells like it was a minor nuisance if what she heard was correct. Colbert set that thing on fire, the scorch marks and soot stain clear on the corpse, yet it walked out with nothing else.
Could my golem be able to kill that thing? That train of thought didn't matter anymore.
The monstrosity was killed by an unknown warrior in black armor that came out of nowhere just like the monster. Colbert gave a detailed report on how the warrior defeated the monster with a sword that appeared magical and fighting skills the likes of which he hadn't seen or heard of. And the warrior did it all with a deep wound in his abdomen.
His description of the man made one thing clear. Unusual skin and hair, along with unique his facial structure. Clear traits not found in any native Halkeginian. Could he be from Rub' al Khali? From the few immigrants she had bartered with, the physical distinction was clear as day. She wouldn't know till she saw the man herself.
Right now she had to tackle another dilemma. As the academy was on high alert, the patrol route had changed. Months of careful planning, memorizing the guard's pattern and subtle influence on who went where had all been thrown out. Forcing her to start from the beginning. Fortunately, being in her position as secretary, she didn't have to worry about others being suspicious of her late nigh jaunts through the hall. Everyone just assumed she's archiving reports for the headmaster.
It's far too tense now. I'll just have to wait until everyone reverts back to their lax routine, she thought as she grind her teeth while biting her thumbnail in agitation.
Matilda was so absorbed to her thought that she forgot to focus what right in front of her as the door on her left opened out and hit her in the head.
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THUD!
"Kyaa!" Matilda let out a little shriek as she fell on her bottom, the contents in her grasp spread throughout the floor as she let go so her hands could help cushion her tumble.
Once she recovered, she noticed the person who opened the door—the warrior who slew the creature was now on the floor on all fours with a look of agony upon his face.
"Are you well?" She inquired instantly as she got up and move to the man. She could make out his features in the torch light. He had some resemblance to those of the Rub' al Khali but not exactly. She couldn't be sure since the number of people she had actually met from that land could be counted on one hand.
Next thing of note was his armor. The blue luminescence clearly indicated at some form of magic but she also noted that the material wasn't metal, not entirely. There were clear metal parts but they were few with the majority seemingly composed of ceramic but not like any she had ever seen or felt.
"It's just a migraine. I've dealt worse," he said with a sickly croak as she helped him up on his feet. It must be a most intense headache as his face still remained in agony as beads of sweat coated his brow. Though how much of that was from the head pain or his injuries? He proceeded to push her aside gently and tried to make his way down the hall. "I have to go," he uttered, only to lost his footing and leaned against the wall.
"Sir!" Matilda exclaimed as she grabbed his arms to keep him standing. "Sir, it's the middle of the night and you are in no state to stand, let alone walk. You need to rest, to let your injuries heal."
"I'll be fine... I've to go—" He stopped mid-sentence as he clenched his stomach as if trying to keep his internals from breaking free.
"Sir, please." Matilda practically pleaded as she managed to edge the man back into the room. A feat no doubt thanks to his delirious state as he made attempts to break free from her hold. Even so, it was quite evident the man possessed great strength and endurance to fight like he's trying to, despite the trauma his body had been through.
Just as she reached the bed he was left in, the only one that shows usage besides the other one with the young girl in, the man broke away from Matilda's hold...and proceeded to fall to his knees and expel his contents inside a nearby bucket. From what she could hear, it didn't seem like there was much to empty out.
Once he finished, he rested himself into a more comfortable position, sitting on the floor with his back against the bed frame while taking deep, rapid breaths with his head pulled back to stare at the ceiling.
"Whoever tended me..." he started before taking three more large breaths of air, "...did a very poor job at it."
