Ummm, I don't think I'll do a lot of exposition about either series. It'd make the writing awkward, besides hamefura being so straightforwards in the premise it's almost boring.
The elder Ascart sibling rested comfortably under the sheets provided in Katarina-sama's bedroom. His breathing was calmer than it had been when he arrived, but it wasn't quite a peaceful sleep breathing yet. He sometimes returned to his rough expression though not with the same intensity as if he was awake. It made it so Maria Campbell had a good view at his unfairly delicate factions which would have made for a stunningly beautiful man was Nicol Ascart even a little less hostile.
This was neither an overstatement nor something that came from Maria's opinion (if Gerald-sama's insistence of taking Katarina-sama out of the room was any indication), but merely a factual truth even the commoner girl had no choice but to admit.
Even Anne-san seemed to deliberately slow down while cleaning his forehead with a wet tower, and Sophia-san became smugger as she stole glances to the girls that were in contact with her brother.
The room was too warm all of a sudden, making Maria feel like she would choke in her own sweat.
"Is… Is it alright that Ascart-sama is not being tended to by his own servant?" Maria scrambled her brain to break the awkward silence in any way possible.
She succeeded, since Sophia-san broke out of her ear to ear smile to answer.
"Ah, Nii-sama doesn't have a servant." The silence stretched again after that strange revelation, so the younger Ascart elaborated "Well, technically he does. He brought a maid along but gave her out to me."
Lower ranking nobles didn't always have their children bringing along subordinates to take care of them. The academy had people employed to maintain the school grounds and do a lot of the chores that were needed for their job. Maria herself was helped out by such people, who gave her new sheets and curtains to wash them every so often and even clean up her room if the need arose.
Having someone asking if she would hand her laundry to be taken care of was an eye-opening experience. Something that had never crossed Maria's mind would be in the realm of possibilities. She had been very nervous since no one had told her how she was expected to take care of that particular problem, but the academy had people for that from the beginning. So even if she was uncomfortable with the notion at first, she very much appreciated the freeing of her schedule to focus on her studies more than she would be able to.
Still, this was the Ascart they were talking about. A name Maria would normally only hear about in the streets with awe or resentment. It was a name that carried so much weight that normally Maria wouldn't even be allowed to look someone with it in the eyes, let alone approach or converse with. She was under the impression people like that would bring dozens, if not hundreds of servants along (at first, though Maria would not admit it out loud) like the princes; who had a small group of servants tending to them in the shadows and even some people discreetly guarding them from afar.
What a strange world her magic had opened up for her. If it was the Maria from before the academy she would have laughed at someone telling her this… Well, not openly laughed since it would be rude. But she would still not have believed it at all.
"That's very nice of him." Maria replied for the sake of it, before she could forget the conversation while in her own thoughts.
Sophia-san's reply was to cutely puff her cheeks.
"I can take care of myself just fine. Honestly, Nii-sama treats me too much like a kid." She complained while crossing her arms "It feels like he doesn't know I know he's spoiling me too much."
"Is that so? If I had an elder brother, I would like him to be like that." Honestly, Maria rarely saw him. So she couldn't tell if Sophia-san was saying it for the sake of it, or if she was actually telling the truth.
Maria placed her hands back on Nicol's chest and allowed the flow of magic to take care of him, as she had done before Katarina-sama was banned from her own room. That was why she came, after all. She had been healing the ladies that got caught in a mysterious explosion a few minutes ago when Gerald-sama requested her presence.
She had been reluctant, but the young noble was in obvious pain, so she relented. Maria didn't want to see anyone suffering in their sleep, after all. It wasn't even her impression of the noble, his restlessness had not subdued in the slightest and even Gerald-sama had begun thinking of restraining him but decided against it in the end.
So Maria braved it and healed him. It helped a lot, actually. And by the time Gerald-sama returned Maria was done with the raven haired noble.
"Sophia-san, if you would excuse us?" Gerald-sama's smile was pristine as always, but the way he worded it left little to no room for refusals.
The red eyed noble reluctantly parted from her brother's side, being taken by hand by Anne-san as the girl eyed the prince with more real resentment than when talking about her brother.
The prince didn't pay it any mind, and waited a few minutes when neither talked after the ladies had left the room.
"Report." The prince stated, dropping his smile and sitting on one of the expensive-looking armchairs without looking back to see if it was there "Please."
"As Gerald-sama suspected, I felt traces…" Maria turned to the more peacefully-sleeping noble "He calmed down a lot when I dispelled the effect… I―No wonder it felt so scary, he basically oozed the dark influence."
Maria didn't fully comprehend what they were dealing with, nor how to describe the sensation of dark magic making contact with her own. She just instinctively knew. It had been the same with the rest of the people she had healed: Something stirred deep within them, maybe like vapor being stirred but thicker? Or like disrupting a body of water with a hand… It almost had a physical sensation to it but not quite. She wouldn't have known what that was if Gerald-sama hadn't taught her about dark magic and the thought scared the light mage a little.
"That's strange, how did you not realize earlier then?" Gerald-sama asked, probably thinking about when the elder Ascart had been affected. Which had to be before he left.
"I… I just assumed he was always like that?" A rather poor judgment call, really. But the light mage's impression of the noble had never really changed until that point.
"Nicol Ascart is like a cactus." The prince stated "It grows against all odds, and will harm anyone that is foolish enough to get close. Whether it is willingly or not."
That probably would have been a beautifully poetic way to describe the noble, if Maria knew what a cactus was.
"Is Ascart-sama… Ummm, did he have a rough childhood?"
"Oh, no. I meant he does things outside of common sense." Gerald-sama rejected Maria's assumptions with a wave of his hand "That's mostly the reason why Katarina is so attached to him: Because they both think and operate in radically different ways than us, common folks."
The third prince calling himself common strung a chord in Maria's nerves, but she didn't comment on it. After all, she wasn't precisely normal either. No matter her lowborn origins.
Everyone had always made sure to let her now.
"For instance, Alan was really troubled by Katarina's relationship with his fiacée, back when we were children. Her immediate reaction was to challenge him to a tree climbing contest for the right to play Mary Hunt-sama. Who does that?" The prince chuckled "Or that one time she ate close to a third of the food we had in a private part. Because it wasn't distributed in equal parts and she thought it was a good idea."
Maria stayed quiet as the prince kept on talking about Katarina-sama. It was nice, kind of. A breath of fresh air in the troubling times they were going through.
The light mage stole glances at the sleeping noble from time to time, making sure he was still behaving and asleep.
"I wouldn't worry about him." Gerald-sama commented, scratching his chin while looking at the elder Ascart for a moment "I think he'll sleep the whole day. Maybe until the afternoon, or late midday."
He shrugged, as if calculating the time would sleep was as natural as breathing. Or perhaps he knew something Maria was missing?
"In that case I should get going." The light mage commented "There are still ladies that need to be healed, and I'm unsure if leaving them pissed off and hurt is a good idea. Given our mysterious dark mage…"
"I would rather have you staying here." The prince interjected "There are about four people we don't need this dark mage getting to: Katarina, Alan, me, president Sirius and this guy."
Maria blinked, trying to process what the prince was saying.
"Keith Claes is already tentatively snared, so he doesn't count." The prince added with a tad of bitterness "You are tentatively immune, so that only leaves the people with the most authority around… And our strongest wind user."
"I was told about his trip." Maria replied slowly "How bad would it be?"
"It would be a tragedy." Gerald-sama stated without a hint of doubt "The wind element is not precisely the most destructive of the five, but unless Keith Claes returns to us, we don't have a way to block Nicol-sama's magic."
The prince ran his fingers through his blond hair, his smile distorted by a bit of stress in what was probably the closest he had ever been to showing despair.
"He could have killed me. There would have been no way I could have taken that attack." The prince let out a rough breath, as if to calm himself down "He's the best mage in his year. So what? Besides Keith Claes I am the best mage in our year. He was chosen to go to the Summer Correction event? So what? I can also move connections and ask for favors…"
Maria lowered her eyes. She didn't want to think about it, but Gerald-sama's words made her realize something.
Every time they talked about her, it was as if the rules of magic didn't apply to her. As if, because of her element, Maria was exempt from being ranked and having to try to perform as well as she could in her magic.
That was untrue. Her magic became powerful because she trained it. Because it was something that could lead her somewhere. And along the lines, people started noticing since her efforts paid off with powerful spells that could perform miracles… Or so she was told.
Even now, she was being protected solely because of her magic… And yet if someone like Gerald-sama was sure there would have been nothing to do… Then Maria couldn't imagine herself doing anything about Nicol Ascart either.
"So we keep him away from intruders." Maria concluded as the prince snapped out of his thoughts.
"So we keep him away from intruders." Gerald-sama agreed "I will report to president Sirius that Nicol-sama has returned. The knights will be outside, so I'll leave things to you."
"I understand…" Maria saw him standing up and preparing to leave.
The prince gave his fellow aristocrat one last look before leaving.
"Maria-san." He spoke without really looking at her "What did you do to get so good with your light magic?"
Eh?
"I… Practiced a lot." She replied automatically "A lot of times until near exhaustion, I admit."
The prince stared at her, then at the sleeping Ascart.
"So that's how it is." He looked outside, where a knight had opened the door from and was waiting for him with a frown on his face "Maria-san. If Nicol-sama wakes up, and is still violent for some reason… Escape."
He nodded at the knight, and the knight gave the prince a small bow in return.
"The knights will protect you at all cost. They are expendable, you are not."
Hilarious. The royal guard protecting a commoner just because of her attribute.
Maria wanted it to be a horrible joke.