Chapter 5

Breaking Dawn

The room was dark, only lit by a sliver of sunlight passing through the small gap between the curtains. The room's only occupant laid soundly on the bed, snoring away softly.

The door clicked quietly before soundlessly swinging open, the loud marching of the intruder immediately dying into soft footfalls when she noticed her master sleeping away on her bed. Flamma would walk over to the curtains, before grabbing them by the slit between and pushing them to the side at breakneck speed.

The intrusion of warm and gentle heat would cause the pinkette to groan in her sleep, her eyes weakly opening only to shut tight again from the sudden assault of sunlight hitting her eyes. Louise would groan as her eyes reopened in a squint, taking a moment to adjust to the light before her sight zeroed on the figure standing in front of the window.

"Rise and shine, Louise! Classes are upon you in the next hour!" Her familiar's voice would sound out from the person as the rednette turned and leaned down at her, her eyes adjusting for a few more moments to see that she was wearing the school's maid uniform. The mage would groan as she realized that she hadn't told Flamma that classes for the sophomores are off, and that the day after was Void day.

"Familiar, I haven't seen you after classes when I wanted to tell you that there's no classes. It's because today is meant for second-year students to learn more about their familiars." "I have a name and I already told you that." The rednette would immediately retort, stand straight back up as she glared down at her master's sitting form on the bed.

Groooowl. . .

Louise's face would flush red as she looked down at herself in shame, while the maid would snigger much to the mage's chagrin. "I've spent my time after classes getting the layout of the school and taking a position amongst the staff as a maid. I will be serving your breakfast at the cafeteria, so excuse me." She would turn her back at her master, striding out the room with a sway to her plump hips.

The pinkette could only watch as her familiar left the room, before furrowing her brows as the image of the rednette's rear echoed in her mind. "How is she even more stacked than that Zerbst cow!?"

Flamboyant demands. Lecherous stares. Envious gazes. Spiteful glares. Flamma was quite surprised she hadn't blown up with rage from all these things she was receiving from almost all the students dining in the mess hall. So far, she's relieved that she's kept a decent impression on her coworkers. Currently, she's taking a break, just watching from beside the kitchen doors the bustling scenery of the cafeteria.

The rednette would notice another maid trying her hardest to get the attention of a blonde noble kid, who was probably talking sweet nothings to a brunette girl given with her lovestruck expression. She would recognize the maid as one of the nicest girls amongst her coworkers, Siesta. The blonde guy was pointedly ignoring her, but some of his peers around him would recognize the perfume Siesta was trying to give him.

"Hey Guiche, isn't that Montmorency's perfume?" "Now that I look at it, yeah, isn't that what she uses everytime she walks into class?" This would earn the blonde student Guiche a suspicious look from the brunette girl. Flamma would notice a blonde girl with her hair curled to the sides storm up to the blonde boy's table. "Guiche, who is this?" She would demand, even from a distance the shapeshifter can deduce that the blonde girl was suppressing her anger from a blowing.

"Ah, my dear Montmorency! This girl? She's nothing more but a friend!" The blonde fop would frantically explain to the girl, while the brunette beside him would glare painedly at him. "Friend? You said to me last night I was your dearest love!" "Guiche, you said the same exact thing when I confessed to you!" About half of the student population in the cafeteria would be looking at the scene, while the rednette maid would close her eyes in sympathy at Guiche's failure which was emphasized by two loud, echoing slaps.

"Damn, he wasn't smooth enough with his words. Too bad he said the same thing to both of his girlfriends." "You! It is your fault that two young maidens have cried early in this morning!" Flamma would snap out her thoughts and open her eyes, seeing Guiche in the distance seething red in anger as he pointed accusingly at Siesta. "Oh, what the!? Okay, that's it, the fucker crossed the damn line!"

She would growl under her breath as she stormed towards Guiche, many students noticing her approach before she stood defiantly in front of her coworker. "It's not her fault you'd been slapped twice, you should've anticipated you'd be found out the moment you started two-timing, you dumbass dipshit." The rednette maid would sternly retort at the blonde two-timer, which would make him seethe even more. Meanwhile, Siesta would cower behind her, sobbing in fear as she watched Flamme argue with the noble.

"You commoner! How dare you speak foul slander against me!?" "I'm just stating facts, and the truth will always hurt no matter how much you deny it." Guiche would growl in anger from his pride wounded by her instant retort, before scoffing as he formulated insults against Flamma's master, who was getting into the scene at the moment.

"Flamma, what is the meaning of this!?" Louise would demand in both anger and concern, the rednette just glancing blankly at her. Meanwhile, the blonde mage would smirk as he turned to the pinkette. "Hey Zero, your familiar is acting up! Your ruse of summoning a familiar is falling apart!" Guiche would mock, most of the other students around them joining him with sniggers and unsuppressed chuckles, before he turned back to glare at Flamma.

"If you want to prove your own and your master's worth, then I'll challenge you with a duel!" The blonde would smirk as Louise and Siesta's eyes widened in fear and worry for the maid, while prompting gasps from the rest of the students. "Go ahead, fucktard! In fact, you should be the one proving to me you're powerful!" The rednette stood relentlessly, smirking back at Guiche as he stepped back in surprise, everyone erupting into loud murmurs and gossiping.

"B-But, he has magic! Us commoners do not have their powers!" The blacknette maid would try to reason from behind her, to which she would ignore entirely.

The blonde would grit his teeth, air flowing between them as he fumed. "Our duel will be this afternoon at Vestry Court." "But duels are prohibited in the academy grounds!" Louise would protest immediately as she stood beside Flamma, which would prompt another grin from Guiche. "Dear shitlord, his pathetic smirks sicken me." The rednette maid would snort as the two-timer replied back at her master. "Duels in the school grounds are prohibited only between nobles." The implications would make the Zero's and the other maid's eyes widen once more, before turning to stare horrified at Flamma.

"Oh for fuck's sake, so they can beat commoners senseless without legal consequences!?" The familiar would groan not just with that implication, but also due to how irritatingly composed Guiche is even though he got double-slapped like minutes ago.

"Your efforts to prepare for your demise are futile, commoner. Make the most of your time in this academy before I make you leave." The blonde would chuckle in pride, before turning away and confidently striding off.

Okay, the last chapter was a bit off and shorter than I wanted it to be since I stayed up later than I would've wanted to in a rush to publish it. To fix the length problem, I added more to the end of the last chapter.

And imma be clear with y'alls, I won't be completely following the main canon of the story. Yes, the major events like the Familiar Festival and the Reconquista War will still be there. The thing with an OC replacing Saito is that there's a lot more room for imagination of what said OC can be doing in-between these major events.

Concerning the Central Unknowns, it's what Flamma calls Halkeginia in her maps. Unfortunately, her stuff didn't come with her when she was summoned by Louise so she's left to remake her chartings from scratch.

With that out of the way, read and review, see ya next chapter.