Chapter 01
"Have you heard the rumors about the transfer student?"
"I heard he's a water mage."
"Eh? Looks like the fragrant has competition now."
"My Montmorency, a competition? No one can defeat my Montmorency in terms of water magic."
"I heard his runic name is The Rainstorm."
"Young master, it's time." The young man sat on his bed, he looked at the window that served as the sun's passage to his room. The sun shone brightly, though it didn't really affect him due to the long flowing amethyst purple hair that shielded his aquamarine eyes against the sun's rays. He held a handful of strands between his fingers before responding to his attendant.
"Call a barber. I want to cut my hair short."
"Young Master, I thought you love your long hair!?"
"I loved it, but I hate being pranked by the plebeian kids when I'm being sent on a mission by the queen! You know about it right? How they use the fire without using magic!"
"Alright, alright."
He is Stein de Martynière. The son of a Marquis in Tristain, a line water mage and one of the few young mages that started to work for the castle in such an early age. Now he just had his hair cut to short, in order to prevent the usual accidents of plebeian children playing the usual pranks of placing a lit match stick on the edge of his long hair, a thing that frequently happened back when he was still studying in Germania. He has a short amethyst purple hair, and small round blue aquamarine eyes. He has a pale white skin, and stands tall at 180 centimeters. His hand is a wooden one adorned with a silver handle. His familiar is a Giant Lizard, the one he summoned just before he got into trouble that led him to a forced drop out.
Stein is now on his way to Tristain academy of magic, despite just returning from a mission.
"Nice to meet you all. I'm Stein de Martynière." It was a name that rang a bell in the depths of a blonde girl's mind. Someone she had met before coming to this Academy. Well of course, she remembered him. He was one of the people she can call her childhood friend.
"Mr. de Martynière, you can sit at the back." Stein answered the instructor a nod and made his way to the table that Mrs. Chevreuse just pointed to. Time passed by and the classes ended, he was lucky to have come to a day where the students aren't having an afternoon period. He was on his way to the tables when he bumped into a young man wearing unusual clothes.
"O-Oh, sorry! I-If you wish, I'll get you a cheese cake from the cafeteria!" Stein lowered his head and apologized to the man in front of him. He figured out that the man was probably a plebeian due to his looks and the unusual clothes he was wearing. He had a few experiences living with Plebeians a few months ago when he was sent on a scouting mission by the queen.
"H-hey! You did nothing wrong." He offered his hand to him to stand up. Stein grabbed to his hand and stood up.
"Thank you. I'm Stein, and you are?"
"I'm Hiraga Saito." Saito introduced.
"Hiragasaito? That's a pretty unusual name."
"Uh. Nevermind, just call me Saito."
"Well, Saito then." Stein smiled at him and made his way to the vacant table. He sat alone while petting his familiar.
"Stein, why did you cut your long hair?" to his surprise, a blonde young lady who had her hair in small drills, adorned with a red ribbon at the back of her head sat on the empty chair in front of his. Her eyes were blue, like the color of the Lagdorian Lake when he last visited it.
"How do you know about my long hair?" Stein's eyes widened and answered her back with a question.
"It's me, Montmorency. Have you forgotten?"
"Montmorency? I-I guess it's been a while." He scratched the back of his head and chuckled. So she does remember me. He thought.
"So why did you cut it?" she asked again.
"Well I… Ugh… Plebeian children always plays with their match sticks and… places it on my hair…" Seconds passed then Montmorency started laughing at his embarrassed face. "Damn it, don't laugh. That's why I had it cut this short. It doesn't look good on me, right?" He replied back.
"It actually looked better than your long hair back when we were kids." She answered.
"Really? Then I should keep my hair this short every now and then." Stein smiled at the girl in front of him. The only aristocrat around his age that he successfully made friends with. It was none other than The Water Mage known as the Fragrance, Montmorency Margarita La Fère de Montmorency.
"Montmorency, are you dating someone? You seemed different from when I last saw you. I was thinking maybe the lucky guy made you bloom so much."
"Yeah, but we're kind of in a war right now."
"Eh? Why?" Stein crossed his fingers and looked at Montmorency with his brows raised.
"I caught him flirting with another girl last night, which was his ninety-ninth girl he's flirted with this week!" Montmorency exclaimed.
"Oh, that's rude. Want me to go and tell him off?" Stein looked in her eyes with worry, Montmorency shook her head.
"There's no need. Thank you for your concern."
It was dinnertime, the dining hall is occupied by a huge amount of students, and just as he expected, there are no vacant seats. From afar, he saw a pair of girls on a table with one free vacant seat. He figured out it would be a good chance to ask them if her could sit with them since he's in the same class as those two—Kirche and Tabitha.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" he pulled out the nicest smile he could show.
Tabitha was a girl with a pale white skin and small build and short light blue hair. She wears a red round thick-framed glasses and has a staff as her wand. The girl beside her, Kirche who had a rather dark complexion, and has a big chest showing off from the top few unbuttoned buttons of her blouse. She has a long red hair. He had seen Kirche a few times before when he was still in Germania, they went to the same school but never talked.
"Go ahead." The quiet girl nodded as she spoke the few words,
"Mind if I ask you something?" Kirche asked.
"Sure, what is it?" Stein nodded.
"Back in Germania, you were a member of the Campus Military, right? What happened that made you drop out?" Kirche asked, stirring the teaspoon on her cup of tea as she looked at Stein right in his eyes.
"I'm surprised you can still remember some of the students back in Germania." Stein chuckled. "I became involved with something dangerous. All the evidences pointed out to me, without knowing what happened. I was given a choice to stand up for myself, in which if I was proven wrong I'll be expelled and won't be accepted to any other schools. Or to take responsibility and sign the drop out papers—that way I can still submit student applications to other schools. You probably know what I chose, right?" He leaned on his seat
"You signed the drop out papers?" a familiar voice said from behind him—Montmorency. Stein leaned his head back to look at the person behind him.
"Of course. I never play a game I know I won't win." He sat back upright and turned to look at the blonde behind him. "How're you and Guiche? Is everything okay now?" Stein asked.
"Well… I ugh… I actually need to have a word with you for a bit." The purple head nodded and bowed at the two before following Montmorency who went outside the dining hall.
The two moons shone brightly as seen in the courtyard. The two decided to sit on the vacant table nearby.
"So what do you want to talk about?"
"It's been years, I thought we could catch up on what we missed."
"Is that so? Well, the past few years I've been taking simple scouting missions from the castle. Sometimes when I had to hide the fact of me being an aristocrat. I try to take shelter with some plebeians. I just got used to it since scouting missions are one of my expertise." Stein said as he looked at the starry sky and the moons.
"Have you encountered dangerous missions?" Montmorency clapped in amazement as she looked at the young man telling his story.
"Once." Stein scratched the back of his neck while evading the girl's eyes.
"Would you mind telling me about it?" She tilted her head as if to ask a permission, the young man smiled and sighed before nodding.
"It was when I took a mission to the forest, I had to live there for a few days to gather information about the said Lamia that has been lurking in the forest and seducing every man they see—eating them afterwards. I never thought I'll get to see the Lamia face to face. I had no choice that time but to fight for my life, I defeated the Lamia." Stein chuckled before biting onto the cookies that was served not too long ago. "I was even scolded by the Marshalls when I got back. Geez, what a welcome it is." The two laughed. Stein talked more about his life the past few years that they've been away from each other.
"What about you? I've been telling mine, but I still haven't heard yours." He took a sip from the cup of tea in front of him. Placed it back on the table and looked at the girl.
"Nothing really special. Just the normal everyday life with Guiche pestering my everyday by flirting with other girls."
Both turned silent. It was half a minute when all they hear was the chirping of birds and the sounds of the cicadas. Soon, the blonde chose to break the silence which surprised the young man with her sudden question of "Have you found your other half?" Stein laughed.
"Not yet, but I used to have someone I really like." Stein watched his reflection on the cup of tea.
"If you don't mind, may I know who she is?"
"Her name's Keiko, I met her when I was on a scouting mission in the quest of finding a village. Being with her for a month made me feel like I've known her for so long. She would always say that she came from another world, she would even give me things I don't know about. Keiko was really a nice girl." Stein sighed. "But everything ended after she disappeared one night. The next day, we found her dead body on the river nearby." He wiped his tears with his dress shirt's sleeves.
"Stein, are you alright?" Montmorency asked, handing him a white handkerchief. Stein nodded and declined her offer.
"I'm alright. It's just that I still haven't forgotten about her, and how silly it was for an aristocrat to fall in love with a plebeian." Stein forced a laugh, before standing up and bidding his good night to his childhood friend, the blonde young man that he threatened just this afternoon stood beside their table.
"Montmorency, is this young man making his move on you? How despicable. Let him know that you're mine." It was Guiche. He was smiling proudly at Stein, who just looked at him with an emotionless eyes.
Stein sighed and stood up. "What made you think that I'm making a move towards Montmorency?" he asked.
"I… Ugh… Wait up—"
"Well, if you're going to continue cheating on her, I might as well make a move. I wouldn't like her beauty to be wasted."
"The nerve… Show me what you can do, I'll bet you'll never out-do my magic. I'm called the bronze after all."
What do I do? I promised Lucia that I won't use my magic for showing off on the first day I arrive here! Stein thought to himself. I left Lucia in the mansion, she won't know if I use my magic! When he was about to take a breather, he accidentally glanced at the bushes near the tall walls of the academy. For a few seconds, he noticed something unusual with the bushes. There was someone behind the bushes that he does not wish to see, the jet black haired young woman he thought he left at the Martynière Mansion—Lucia, his maid. She was smiling at him as if sending him a message that goes try casting a spell and I'll buy a potion to make your hair long again. After that I'll send you to a town to live with the plebeians who wants to play with your hair.
He tried to walk away from Guiche and Montmorency but to his surprise, a wall of earth just his height appeared in front of him.
"Are you running away? I just wanted to see how good your magic is." Guiche then giggled,Stein sighed and pulled his wand from his pocket. He turned his back and casted a spell that made a dragon made of water come out of his wand and splashed through the farthest wall from him.
"Would that suffice?" He turned to look at Guiche who was surprised on what he saw, looking tough in front of Guiche and Montmorency's eyes, when he turned his back to go back to his room he felt like crying as he knew that his maid Lucia is probably waiting in his room with the potion that can make one's hair grow longer since he broke his promise to not use his magic to show off.
To his surprise when he got into his room, no one was there except for his familiar, Dorothy—his Giant Lizard.
Back to the courtyard, Guiche was still frozen on what he just witnessed. Stein isn't a normal low-level mage, he's one of those aristocrats of a line level or a triangle level mage. He looked at Montmorency.
"Are you an idiot? That guy's probably an experienced knight, and is a line to triangle-level." Montmorency shot him a glare.
"What makes you think that he's a Knight?" Guiche retorted.
"Stein told me that before he came here he accepted scouting missions from the castle." Hearing these words from Montmorency made Guiche's eyes widen. Montmorency left him frozen, and soon after a few seconds Guiche came following her again.
Stein had closed his eyes, and he was slowly being drawn to a deep slumber— until he felt something heavy on his stomach. To his terror when he opened his eyes, his maid was there holding a small bottle of a yellow substance. He figured out that this was the potion that she's going to use to send him to the depths of his hell—an orphanage of prankster plebeian children.
"Young master~ Kuhihihihiya~" Hearing these words from the long jet black-haired maid, with eyes as black as her hair, he rolled to the side of his bed and successfully got away from his small bodied maid Lucia.
Lucia has a long jet black hair with her bangs covering both of her black eyes, she brushes her bangs back frequently whenever she engages into training with Stein. She has a small body that helps her raise her agility. She moves fast almost like an assassin, she uses small throwing knives as her weapons. Lucia has been serving Stein since childhood, and has been his sparring partner since then. She is the only survivor of her family of assassins.
"L-Lucia! C-Calm down! You know how nobilities can't turn back from any challenge right?" Stein was pinned to his door by Lucia's throwing knives. "C-C'mon! Lucia, don't do this!" He tried making an 'x' mark with his hands, desperately trying to stop his murder machine in disguise as a maid.
"The Marquis told me to keep an eye on you so you won't show off like what you did before in Germania." She sat on his bed while juggling a few of her throwing knives. "The one a while ago wasn't a challenge, the brat just wanted to see how much you are capable of. He must've really hate your closeness to the mam'selle." She walked towards her master that was pinned on the door, she pulled the knives that pinned his sleeves on the wooden door.
"I almost forgot, the queen requests your presence in the castle." Lucia handed him a letter with the seal of the Tristain Monarch. "There's a carriage waiting outside the Academy." He followed the maid to the Academy's entrance.
Stein was sent to a mission to gather information about the mysterious disappearances in a small village. After a 12-hour trip, he was surprised to be welcomed by an empty village—everything was left unfinished, as if they were attracted by something that made them leave their chores. He checked every house to see if there's someone inside—no one. The village being as quiet as a cemetery was enough proof that the villagers probably disappeared or went to another place.
"There's something definitely wrong here." He took a few steps back and ran towards his horse.
After reporting to the castle, he was told to return to the Academy and wait for further instructions from the queen.
It was already late when he arrived from the long trip, Stein sighed then flipped his hair.
His eyes widened after realizing what he just did. "Goddamnit Lucia!" He quickly looked at the mirror to see how long it grew, after realizing that it only reached his shoulders, he was relieved. That goddamn maid probably did it days ago. He quickly went to bed to call it a day.
Stein made his way to the classroom where his hair caught everyone's attention. He walked towards Montmorency who was talking with another student.
"Uhm… do you have something to tie my hair with?" he asked.
"Let me see…" He pulled out a red ribbon from her pocket. "I'm sorry, this is all I have." She looked at him with apologetic eyes.
"It's alright. Can you do my hair?" The blonde nodded at her childhood friend's request. She tied it like the ribbon that adorned her beautiful blonde hair.
Just after she finished, they heard a deafening shriek from outside the campus. They all looked at what was happening through the windows of their classroom, soon the glasses of the windows cracked through the continuous shrieks that was being made by the lone woman in the middle of the courtyard. Peering through the windows, Stein didn't want to believe what he was seeing—the shrieking lady looked like Keiko, exactly how she looked like when he and the villagers found her decaying thin and malnourished body in the river.
"Banshee?" Tabitha spoke in a few words. Kirche looked at her and asked. "A Banshee? I know what a banshee is, but what is it doing here?"
Everyone was surprised to see a student running towards the suspected Banshee.
Montmorency identified the figure as Stein, judging from his shoulder-length purple hair that he tied with her ribbon into a low ponytail earlier.
"Louise—" Saito was about to ask Louise but was interrupted by the deafening shrieks of the creature. The two covered their ears with their hands and saw Stein from afar, trying to get closer to the mysterious creature. Soon, a few students had gone down from the classroom to the courtyard.
They watched Stein as he got near the feared creature, when he got hold the creature's shoulder, he hugged her tight.
"Stein get back here! She's not Keiko!" Montmorency shouted, but her screams were not able to reach him as the shrieks continue to get louder and louder. "You leave me no choice!" She pulled out her wand, but before she could even cast the spell, Tabitha used a levitation spell to levitate Stein. She dropped him over the side where Montmorency and Guiche is. His left shoulder was bleeding, Tabitha and Kirche turned to look at the creature and saw that there was a red colored liquid dripping from its lips.
"Listen up, Stein. That's not Keiko. Someone used her last appearance to make her a monster! She's not the person you used to know!" Montmorency grabbed Stein by his collar. "Get a hold of yourself, you're someone who finished countless missions from the castle, and you're letting yourself get fooled of something like that?" she said in an angry tone.
Tabitha and Kirche was about to cast a spell towards the creature, Stein walked towards them and shook his head. The two understood what he wanted to do and stood back.
Stein casted a water spell that knocked out the creature through a water beam. The creature died after the massive water beam blasted to its body and knocked her off on the wall. The water mage used the levitation spell to have a closer look at the body. The creature had died with its eyes open, he kneeled beside the creature and closed its wide open eyes with his left hand. The creature's appearance turned into a normal looking human corpse—completely different from what they saw earlier, the thin rotted creature shrieking in the courtyard. She didn't look like a monster—but a sleeping beautiful woman.
"Sleep peacefully, Keiko Yanagi." When he stood up and walked towards the direction of the infirmary, the ribbon that adorned his amethyst purple hair had come loose.
Saito came running at the dead body, "Keiko?" His eyes widened.
"Saito, you know who she is?" Louise, surprised, asked her familiar.
"Yeah. She's from the world where I came from. I used to work with her in a convenience store, but one day she suddenly disappeared."
Hearing what Saito just said, Stein turned his head to look at him. Then later ran towards him.
"Saito, is that true? You are acquainted with Keiko?"
Saito nodded as to answer Stein's question.
"You said you used to work with her? Then what happened to your workplace?"
"It disappeared all of a sudden, one day." Saito crossed his arms. "Wait, did an unusual building appear all of sudden in the place where you met Keiko?" he added.
"Yes. The appearance of that unusual place was the reason I was sent there by the queen, and I met the woman named Keiko in that very place." Stein explained.
"Could you take me there?"
"I could. But will your master allow you to come with me?"
Saito turned to look at Louise. "Louise, can I come with him?" he asks.
The pink haired midget sighed, and smiled at Saito. "Yes. But I'll come too, because…" her smile turned into a malicious grin. "If by chance, there's a big breasted girl in that village, then this dog wouldn't be able to keep his heat and might grab the poor maiden's breasts." She continued to grin.
"Can we come too?" Kirche asked with her arms crossed. Behind her was Tabitha, Malicorne, Guiche and Montmorency. "We're interested on what that unusual building looks like. Since you said it probably came from Saito's world." Guiche smirked.
"If you wouldn't mind, that is." Stein smiled at them, but his face crumpled in pain as he accidentally moved his wounded shoulder. Montmorency ran towards him and helped him to the infirmary.
"Aren't you going to follow Montmorency?" Kirche asked the blonde young man that was left behind.
"Why would I even follow her if she's with another guy." Guiche snorted.
"Ah, now you probably know how she felt whenever you go around flirting with other girls." Kirche giggled and walked away with Tabitha. Guiche stood frozen and watched Montmorency and Stein's figures slowly grew further in distance.
"Is this what jealousy feels like? Does she feel this whenever I talk to other girls in such manner?" the blonde thought to himself.