It had been… roughly a week or so since he arrived in the land. He didn't really know; time never seemed to flow in Drangleic. The sun never moved in Majula, but were he take what felt like a ten minute walk to Drangleic Castle, it was night and raining.
But the sun here moved regularly, and it had gone dark roughly seven times since he came here. That was night, if the text of the kingdom prior to the Curse was accurate. Time seemed to distort and become meaningless when the Curse appeared.
Because of the unusual pattern of time, he felt tired at different times. He never had a rhythm or set pattern in the days. He'd do whatever it took to pass the time. Sometimes he meditated long into the night. Other nights the courtyard would be filled with the whoosh of a sword or the heavy thwack of arrows hitting a tree. When he did feel sleep's call, he trudged back to his master's room and fell asleep on the sofa. She pointed him to a stack of hay at first, but after he interpreted it as a command to dispose of it and tossed it in the garbage she sighed and gave up. She was much more subdued than when she first summoned him.
In the mornings however, he was required to rouse his master from her slumber. At first he tried nudging her, and when that failed contemplated slapping her. It was how he woke up the passed out drunkards in No-man's Wharf. In the end however he just shook her until she woke. She was a heavy sleeper.
After he roused her she demanded he dress her, which he did, bemused. Why she couldn't simply put on her uniform herself escaped him, but if that was what she wanted, then he might as well humor her for a while.
After he finished dressing his master, they would usually go to eat breakfast. Occasionally he would join her, grabbing a bowl of soup before wandering off in the courtyard and talking with the familiars. Louise would go to class when the sun was high while he would converse with the familiars. Every now and then there was a rather loud explosion like a firebomb going off, but they slowed as the week progressed before stopping completely. She also looked more and more downtrodden afterwards.
But, her issues was not his own, not until she brought a request for aid. Since she had not done so, he would not offer if she could handle it.
At first, she tried to have him do stuff; chores and idle tasks. When he tried, amused, he had messed up so spectacularly she wouldn't leave her room for a day until she could get her clothes repaired. She had tried exactly once after that, and since the amusement of doing laundry and cleaning had dissipated, he simply stared at her. It took all of a minute for her willpower to crumble and she eventually got one of the servants, a maid, to do it.
He shook his head at that. If you want something done, get someone who knows what to do. He knew skills fit for battle, not housekeeping.
Speaking of skills for battle, he tried to make another, more permanent, bonfire, but to his consternation the link actually kept getting shorter and shorter the more he tried. Eventually he gave up trying to retrieve an item after the bonfire extinguished itself seconds after it was lit. Exasperated, he strode to the courtyard, where the familiars were waiting.
Oddly enough, the blue drake, Sylphid (he managed to wrest her name from her after two days of prodding) was extraordinarily shy around him. Where other familiars sought his attention, she actively avoided it. He had to deliberately corner her in order for her to speak to him. Even then she avoided speaking to him for extended periods of time, usually off flying in the sky or hiding. How a drake of all things could hide was beyond him, but considering she was but a child in dragon's years it wasn't unfeasible.
Perhaps she sensed that he had slain several of her own kin in another land in the Guardian Dragons of Dragon's Aerie. Or the fact two powerful draconic souls rested in him, and in his blade. But that didn't explain Flame's relative friendliness towards him; he slew more than his own share of fire salamanders, and Flame still sought him out.
Salamanders however were not the brightest of monsters, possessing great power in exchange for little intellect. Perhaps he simply didn't realize it.
Regardless of the familiars' questionable intellect, he found himself spending far more time around them than his master and her classmates. After sitting in a few of her lectures he came to the disappointing conclusion that the building was not home to a covenant. The magic as they called it was interesting at first, but the magic taught was more suitable to idle, everyday functions, much like his Cast Light sorcery or the Warmth pyromancy. Since he couldn't use them for battle, he ultimately left the lectures altogether, only joining Louise after she finished eating. He would use the time to either meditate or simply explore the grounds. The land was rich and fertile with life not seen in Drangleic.
Long were the times spent in mediation or conversing with the familiars. It was difficult to have such an immense amount of free time. He was always wandering from location to location, and even after he heard Shanalotte's call and made his way to Drangleic, still he relentlessly moved, gathering the Four Great Souls and making his way to the Shrine of Winter, and after that, Drangleic Castle. He simply wasn't suited for staying in a single location.
But the monarch was always fairly adaptable, and eventually stopped restlessly pacing the grounds. Eagerly would he have set into the new world, but every time he made for the gate something in him prevented him from doing so. He suspected it was the master-familiar relationship.
He tried to interact with the other students. He genuinely did; he would approach one and try speaking to them. But they always fidgeted, looked in every direction except his own, and deflected his conversation attempts feebly, like they'd rather be in any location except around him. He could respect that, so eventually he left them alone, surrounding himself with familiars.
He had the Ring of Whispers on almost constantly these days, and he would tell tales of Drangleic, his journey, his allies' stories. He would call forth the souls of those he had slain or the souls that he found, and gave his best stories as the familiars and he look, captivated by the warm glow of the flame-like souls. They would stare in fear at the darker souls of Nashandra, Alsanna, and Elana. Gaze in wonder at the souls of the ineffable.
They, in turn, would provide him with information on their masters, stories of serving under them, what they were and why they must serve.
Blind devotion to such a degree would've sickened him, the way the mindlessly obeyed their master's orders, but after hearing that it was a compulsion he found himself more sympathetic. It reminded him of Hollows, serving a purpose without really knowing why.
It was perhaps the greatest of ironies that the company he found most enjoyable was not in his own kind but in the kind of those who would seek to kill him at all costs in Drangleic.
Eventually Louise forced him to join her in her lectures, saying "A master must not be seen without their familiar!"
He didn't mind, not really. He would simply continue his conversations in the classroom.
He pulled a seat away from an empty desk and sat in it as the familiars crowded around his feet, already clamoring for his attention. He could see the students looking at him uneasily, but he never concerned himself with what others thought.
The room was filled with the sound of the teachers lecturing, and the subtle hum and indistinct voice of the Zero's familiar.
Unbeknownst to him, a girl with flame red hair was eyeing him.
. . . . .
While the Monarch was conversing with familiars, a green haired woman paused in her writing. She looked over to Osmond, sleeping happily.
The smirk she wore should not have belonged to someone of her position.
She rose and uttered the Spell of Tranquility, silencing her footsteps. Carefully as to not wake Osmond, she slipped out of the office.
Her destination was the treasury, located on the floor directly below the Headmaster's Office.
Stepping off the stairs, she confronted enormous iron doors. They were kept shut with a thick bolt mechanism, which in turn was secured with an equally large padlock.
This place was where artifacts dating from even before the Academy's establishment were contained. After cautiously surveying her surroundings, Miss Longueville withdrew her wand from a pocket. It was about the length of a pencil, but with a flick of the wrist, it extended to the length of an conductor's baton, which she whirled expertly.
Miss Longueville cast another spell.
Once the invocation was complete, she pointed the baton at the padlock.
However... nothing happened.
"Well, it's not like I really expected a Spell of Unbinding to work anyway."
Smiling deviously, she began reciting the words to one of her specialty spells.
It was a Transmutation spell. Chanting loud and clear, she waved her baton at the heavy lock. The magic cascaded over it... but even after a considerable wait, there was no visible change.
"Looks like it's been magically reinforced by a Square-class mage," she muttered.
A Spell of Reinforcement was one that prevented the oxidation and decomposition of matter. Any substance that had this spell cast on it was protected from any chemical reactions, and allowed it to be preserved forever in that state. Even transmutation magic would have no effect against something protected like this. Only if one's magical skill surpassed that of the mage who cast the spell could it be overcome.
As it was, the mage who had enchanted this door was apparently an extremely powerful mage, considering that not even Miss Longueville, an expert in Earth magic and transmutation in particular, was able to affect the door.
Taking off her glasses, she stared at the door once more. At this point, she heard footsteps coming up the staircase.
She shrunk down her baton and slipped it back into her pocket.
The person who appeared was Colbert.
"Greetings, Miss Longueville. What are you doing here?"
"Mister Colbert, I was going to catalog the contents of the treasury, but..."
"Oh, that's quite some work. It'd probably take you all day to go over each and every item. There's a lot of junk mixed together with them, and it's a rather cramped space they've been arranged in too."
"Indeed."
"Why don't you just borrow the key from Old Osmond?"
The woman smiled.
"Well... I didn't want to disturb his sleep. In any case, I'm in no immediate hurry to complete the catalog..."
"I see. Sleep, you say. That old man, I mean, Old Osmond, is quite a deep sleeper. It seems I shall have to visit him another time."
Mister Colbert began to walk off, but paused in his tracks, and turned around.
"Err... Miss Longueville?"
"Is something the matter?"
Colbert looked slightly embarrassed as he opened his mouth to speak.
"If it would be all right, how would you like to, say... join me for lunch?"
She took a moment to consider, then smiled brightly as she accepted the offer.
"Sure, it would be my pleasure."
The two of them headed down the stairs.
"Hey, Mister Colbert."
In slightly informal tones, Miss Longueville struck up conversation again.
"Y-yes? What is it?"
Emboldened by how easily his invitation had been taken up, Colbert responded quite eagerly to her.
"Is anything important actually inside the treasury?"
"There is."
"Then, do you know of the 'Staff of Ruin'"?
"That, that is a true oddity."
"So the Staff of Ruin really is there?"
Colbert's lips pulled into a tight frown. "Yes, albeit so securely protected it's nigh impossible for all but the mightiest of mages to release the seal on."
"What can you tell me about it?"
Colbert's lips loosened to be more contemplative. "The Staff of Ruin is, as its name implies, a staff. But it shouldn't be."
"What do you mean?"
"The Staff of Ruin is seemingly dated before Brimir's time."
Fouquet's mind froze. "Before the Founder? That's impossible."
"And yet the Staff of Ruin is evidence otherwise," he sighed. "It's an anomaly unlike any we've ever seen; there isn't any logical explanation for its existence. Some historians speculate that it channels some form of pagan magic; life itself withers when faced with the magic, which we haven't been able to identify. The staff seems… almost alive, just waiting for someone to use the magic dormant within it. Its magic brings only ruin and death to the world; hence, Staff of Ruin."
"Can this staff be seen in any way?"
"Even if someone broke into the vault, it'd be nigh impossible to retrieve the staff itself. The cell that contains it is all but impervious to all magic and physical harm. There's no weakness to it, at least not to my knowledge." He smiled briefly. "You can't miss it when you catalogue the items; the cell is beyond a metal door, unlocked by a key owned by the royal family. We can't really risk someone getting to it, so we've ensured maximum protection."
"Protecting the staff from thieves?"
"No. Trying to protect thieves from the staff. When it was discovered, the team who discovered it all shortly died of unknown circumstances. Their corpses were seemingly wasted away, in advanced stages of decay despite being only a few days old. Since then, some who have experimented with the staff showed immense power, using magic we can describe fairly comfortably as dark, but they all summarily lost their minds and were locked away for their own safety. Many a famed mage has been locked away because they touched the staff."
A stifling silence fell over the two. Magic that toyed with life itself, a pagan magic that went against the Founder's teachings…
Perhaps she should reconsider this heist. No amount of money was worth it.
Colbert shook his head. "never mind that, what would you like to eat? Today's menu is flounder baked in herbs... but I'm quite well-acquainted with Marteau the head chef, and I can have him make any of the world's finest delica-"
"Ahem."
Miss Longueville interrupted Colbert's babbling.
"Y-yes?"
"I must say, the treasury is quite amazingly built. No matter what kind of magic is tried, it would be impossible to open, I assume?"
"That's quite right. It's impossible for just any one mage. After all, it was devised by a group of Square-class mages to resist all spells."
"I'm very impressed that you're so knowledgeable about this, Mister Colbert."
She regarded him with a comfortable expression.
"Eh? Well... Haha, I just happened to come across a lot of documents pertaining to this floor, that's all... I like to consider it a part of my research, haha. Thanks to that, I'm still single at this age... yes."
"I'm sure the woman that you find will be very happy to be with you. After all, you can teach her so much about things that nobody else knows..."
Miss Longueville fixed him with a fascinated look.
"Oh, no! Please don't tease me like that!"
Colbert flustered nervously as he wiped sweat from his balding forehead. Then, regaining composure, he faced her seriously.
"Miss Longueville. Have you heard of the Ball of Frigg that is being held on the day of Yule?"
"No, I haven't."
"Haha, I guess it's because you've only been in Tristain for two months. Well, it's nothing spectacular, just a party of sorts. However, it's said that a couple who dances at this ball will be destined to be together or something like that. It's just a petty legend of course! Yes!"
"So?"
Smiling, she pressed him to continue.
"So... if it would be all right, I was wondering if you would dance with me, yes."
"I would love to. While ball parties are fabulous, I'd like to know more about the treasury right now. I'm quite fascinated by magical items, you see."
Wanting to further impress Miss Longueville, Colbert racked his brains. Treasury, treasury, she says...
Remembering something she might find interesting, he put on an important air and started to talk.
"Ah yes, there's one thing I can tell you. Although it's not particularly important..."
"By all means, do tell."
"Certainly, the treasury is invincible against magical attacks, but I believe it has one fatal weakness."
"Oh, that's intriguing."
"That weakness is... physical force."
"Physical force?"
"Yes! For example, well, not that this is ever likely, but a giant golem could-"
"A giant golem?"
Colbert stated his opinion quite proudly to Miss Longueville. And once he was done talking, she couldn't help but smile in satisfaction.
"That was most intriguing indeed, Mister Colbert."
A/N: I am really fucking sorry about copy pasting pretty much that entire last part from Baka-Tsuki and for the shorter chapter, but there's honestly not much to tell.
Chapter 4 of the LN is focused primarily on Saito's interactions and pranks with Louise, the kitchen staff and their growing reverence of him, and background info on the magical vault and hinting the secretary isn't what she seems.
The Monarch is distant with Louis, to say the least. There's no reason to play pranks on each other and be sarcastic because the Monarch, while understanding the concept (he's well educated and didn't Hollow completely; think Lucatiel in your fourth meeting) has no real reason to be so.
Due to the lightning the staff thinks he's a noble and as such have no real reason to interact with him. The staff also saw heard how the Monarch casually disregarded Louise's life and that made them actually want to AVOID the Monarch, so Siesta isn't likely to have a large role in this story if any at all.
The students still think the Monarch's an Elf (expect this to happen a lot until he lowers the hood) and haven't the spine to tell him he can't eat with them, not that he does anyway.
I did contemplate putting in the Kirche seduction plot in this chapter to make up for some of the lost length, but I'm still contemplating if she even would attempt it; if she did, how would the Monarch react? He's naturally kiss-phobic because of the Desert Sorceresses, and, while knowing of love, can't identify it.
What he felt towards Licia was gratitude, Lucatiel admiration, and Shanalotte... his feelings were confusing to describe. Those three were the most active women in his time in Drangleic, and as such had the largest influence on him.
Also because of him thinking a kiss is a greeting in this land (strange customs mentioned in Chapter 1), he might just shrug off the seduction attempt as a long delayed greeting.
I'm changing the Staff of Destruction because a rocket launcher can't really fly with the Monarch; it's not a magical artifact, being a weapon instead, so I'm making it a certain catalyst from the Dark Souls II verse. Perceptive and savvy players can probably call what it is immediately, but try not to spoil in reviews.
