Preparation & Acceptance
The sound of an alarm clock could be heard in the room. There was a muffled moan underneath the blanket, still too tired of yesterday's escapades. Nevertheless, time waits for no man, woman or cyborg, a hand emerged out of the blanket and began its search for the blasted waking device. The hand found what it was searching for and spent no time in slamming the button that stopped the alarm.
A few more seconds passed before the mound of cloth started its first movement for the day. Sitting up, her vision was blocked by the messy hair that had formed during the night. She willed one the hands on her back to pulled her hair back giving her more vision. She stood up only to hiss in pain when a nasty headache popped out of nowhere. Sitting back down she tried to remember yesterday's events as best as she could.
Knock, knock, knock
"Alban, are you awake?" a voice called out.
While the headache was unbearable, she still had the sense to recognize who the person behind the door was. The door opened letting the morning light enter in Alban's dark room. Her irises contracted forcing her to use her real hand to cover the light. Louise walked in the room holding a tray which had a glass of water and a painkiller pill. Setting the tray on her desk, Louise took the glass and the pill and made her way to Alban who was more focused on rubbing her forehead.
"You drank a lot last night," Louise quipped.
"I noticed," Alban replied sarcastically.
Louise handed the glass and pill; Alban took them and downed the medicine. The effects of the painkiller immediately went into effect as the headache slowly ebbed away. After a minute of silence Alban looked up to thank Louise only for her eyes to widen when the pink haired girl leaned in and planted her lips a short kiss. Louise then smiled afterwards and spoke.
"C'mon, Bench is waiting for you downstairs, also afternoon rush is going to happen soon,"
She took a moment to process what Louise did to her before she grinned. Motivated, she left the room ready to tackle the months had passed since both of them started dating. While she was teased by both Bench and their customers, they were pretty supportive of her decision of pursuing Louise, she'd been living in Bans for a year now and while she was already used to the usual antics, a relationship was something that she wasn't sure of.
She had to admit, getting Louise to like her was like traversing a steep mountain with tons of weights pulling her down. She was about to give up and assume that she was straight, that all changed though when she suddenly gave her a chance. A well spent date later, Alban asked if she could do it again another time. Rinse and repeat and eventually it led to this. Going downstairs, she froze when she noticed the line of patients that were waiting for their turn. She took a deep breath and prepared for today.
"I'm going to ask Louise for more kisses after this,"
If there was one thing that's to be remembered about Tristain it would be its wide-open plains. Miles upon miles would just be plains, it's like a desert but instead of the loose and grainy sand, you'd get dirt and grass. Aside from that, navigation is also easier, while Tristain also has its own treacherous biomes, most of the roads that'd been built were on plains. It is on this wide expanse of flat land; one could see a tent being set up.
While this tent could easily be mistaken as an adventurer's tent if you were to look closer, it had the insignia of Tristain's royalty. Out of the fifty guards that were assigned to protect one of their leaders, ten were posted on the perimeter, scanning the environment for anything that could harm their princess, Henrietta de Tristain.
A sergeant of the guard was looking over the horizon with his monoscope when he noticed a flying creature in the sky. The zoom of the telescope wasn't enough to see what kind of creature it was so he waited. A few seconds passed he could discern what the flying creature was. A dove, wrapped on it's left leg was a sequence of ribbons; red, yellow and blue and clenched on its claws was a small letter.
Recalling the ribbon code, he knew that the dove belonged to an important person. Closing his monoscope he called out to one of his privates and told him to get a stand for the incoming dove. By the time the private came back the dove was already circling the encampment. Seeing a place to rest, it dived down and landed on the arm of the stand with its other free leg.
Taking the letter, the sergeant petted the dove and asked if someone had something to feed the avian while he went to the princess. The tent's setup was already finished, just before the drapes which led inside, two female musketeers stood guard with their swords.
"Message for the princess," he said before showing the small letter on his hand.
"What's the ribbon code?" the musketeer on his left asked.
"Red, yellow, blue,"
It didn't take long for both guards to realize whom the message belonged. The sergeant moved the drapes to see Princess Henrietta talking with the captain of the musketeer squad, Agnès de Milan. Both of them took notice, he kneeled down before offering the letter to the captain. Agnès then gave it to Henrietta who opened it and read the contents.
Intruder, potentially Fouquet, caution, Familiar Festival continues
O. Osmond
A troubled look was now seen on the princess, Agnès got curious and read the message over her shoulder only for her eyebrows to furrow. "Should we go back to the castle, princess?"
Expecting her to say yes, Henrietta shook her head. When she pointed out that the intruder could potentially be Fouquet, she still persisted.
"We have fifty soldiers who have good combat capabilities, three squads of the musketeer brigade and ten mages. If Fouquet decided to attack, we'll be more than prepared to retaliate. Besides, this visit isn't just because of the Familiar Festival… it's personal,"
Agnès held her tongue after that. She knew who Henrietta was talking about; the daughter of the famous Karin the Heavy Wind, Louise de la Valliere. The musketeer captain didn't know how important Louise was to her but judging by how Henrietta's most expressive when Louise's name is mentioned, she'll assume that she's that important. A sigh escaped her lips and relented, she will just have to increase the security around her this time around.
Louise and Colbert walked down a long and dark hallway. The light from the professor's torch illuminated the way allowing him to see what was in front of him. Both of them were currently in a restricted area of the campus, only staff members were allowed in this particular area. Why? Well it's because it houses some powerful magical artefacts. It was said that during the construction of the academy, the first headmaster had built a large storage for items that are considered powerful or dangerous.
Three layers of concrete blocks were used to protect it from outsiders and the only way to enter it was through a wooden double door which was made of the strongest oak wood. To further enforce this room, it was enchanted with a star-class protection spell to protect it from any physical or elemental damage. In short, its protection is more valuable than the castle which housed the royal Tristain family.
Louise stopped and stood in the middle of the hallway, she extended both of her arms and willed her nanomachines to lodge themselves in the concrete blocks' gaps. She repeated this process over and over again until the professor finally gave into his curiosity.
"May I ask, what are you doing, Louise?"
"I'm making an alarm,"
"Spreading your arms like your stretching isn't really 'making an alarm'," he quipped.
Louise sighed, "I'm setting up some motion detectors,"
She then opened her palm and shaped a ball before throwing it on the ceiling. Afterwards, she brought up her arm and formed a monitor. It didn't take long before the monitor showed live video feed of both her and Colbert.
"A-amazing!" Louise jumped back when she noticed Colbert was just behind her shoulder, "How did you do that?"
"The ball that I threw up there," she pointed. "Is a camer-… um… a device that's connected to me. It has an 'eye' which I can use to view who's in this particular hallway using this monitor,"
"It's hard to believe that this isn't magic," Colbert muttered.
She scoffed, "Of course it isn't magic, it's nano-tech. It's much more superior than magic… no offense,". Feeling tested, Colbert frowned. Louise took notice of this before looking at him, "Well… do you know of any magic that can do this?"
"None… but I am sure that there are familiars that can do the same,"
Louise raised her brow, "I am asking of magic. I acknowledge that there are familiars who are capable of doing this,"
"The Founder, he's capable of seeing from vast distances using his magic!"
"And that magic is?" she drew out.
Colbert felt hesitant but he answered her, "V-Void… void magic,"
"You mean the so-called 'lost' or 'holy' magic?" Colbert nodded then Louise shrugged, "So basically, there's no magic that can do it,"
There was lull in the conversation as Louise continued to place multiple motion detectors and three more cameras. With the preparations done, both teacher and student left the place and made it back to the headmaster's office. Walking down on the hallway that led to the office, Colbert suddenly remembered something.
"Louise, we need to talk about your education,"
There it was, honestly Louise was hoping to avoid having a conversation regarding her school life. She had already given up on trying to cast magic even after combining it with the technology of Earth. It just wasn't worth it, why try looking for something that wasn't even there in the first place? So, she dropped it. The weight that her small shoulders carried was gone, she looked for a new passion to invest on; technology.
While not the best one out there, she had to admit that some of the things that she had created helped her unit when battling with the enemies of Bans. Aside from that, not a lot of people are actually close with one of the members of The Council. Now it was coming back in full circle, the magic that she had long abandoned came rearing its ugly head, asking her to find it again. She looked at Colbert with a resolved look on her face.
"There's nothing to talk about, professor. I've given up on magic a long time ago,"
Colbert was shocked, the once persistent Louise, given up on pursuing magic? "I-In replace of… that?" he pointed at her body.
Louise nodded, "technology had brought in more yield than all the time I've tried casting a simple silencing spell,"
Not another word was uttered after that as the door to the office was opened. Old Osmond could be seen writing down something on a piece of parchment. Meanwhile, Longueville sat adjacent on her own table managing the academy's fees. The headmaster stopped what he was doing and looked up to both teacher and student.
"Ah, you're back, I trust that you've completed what I've asked both of you to do?" He asked.
"Of course, Headmaster Osmond,"
"Uh-huh,"
Colbert and Louise replied respectively. "Good, with that problem settled, we can now proceed with the preparations for the Familiar Festival which will happen in three days' time,"
Louise nodded and was about to leave and let them prepare only to notice the almost sad look that Colbert's giving her. She stopped just at the door, turned around and met the Headmaster's eyes. There was a short silence as Louise contemplated on what she was going to do. Old Osmond tilted his head sideways, showing Louise that he was waiting for her to say something. He was about to ask the question out loud when Louise jumped in on the silence first.
"Headmaster Osmond, can I ask you to expel me from your academy?"
"Louise why wou-!"
Colbert's sudden question was cut short when the headmaster lifted his hand, telling the ex-soldier to stop. Osmond looked at her with his experienced eyes. Gone was the mischievous gaze that he would always give his secretary. Even said secretary herself was kind of shocked at the sudden change of atmosphere. Osmond crossed his hands before answering Louise.
"I cannot do that… to be expelled from this academy you would need to do something that is worthy of expulsion,"
Louise sighed before she looked at Colbert, "Professor, can I ask you to come closer?"
Colbert raised an eyebrow but complied nonetheless. Louise suddenly brought up her arm and hit his shoulder. Of course, she minimised the impact as much as possible but judging from his body structure – which she took note of while they were together – it would bruise but he can handle that much.
"Ah!" Colbert rubbed his shoulder then glared at Louise, "What was that for!?"
"There, now can you expel me?" Louise looked back at Old Osmond.
There was another long silence as both Louise and Osmond stared at each other down. This silence was then broken when latter started to chuckle. Both professor and secretary looked at him as if he'd gone senile. His laughing finally ceased and he looked at Louise with an amused face.
"Miss Longueville, please hand me the expulsion papers,"
The secretary had an astonished look but complied. Handing him the paper he started writing down Louise's expulsion. Once done, he took a stamp and marked it followed by his signature. He handed the papers to Louise, who looked down and read paper's contents.
This document is an official expulsion of the student, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Reason for expulsion, being violent with the academy's staff members.
O. Osmond
"I hope you understand the consequences of your actions, Miss Vallière," The headmaster pointed out.
Louise gave curt nod before leaving the room. Silence overtook the entire office as both the flame mage and secretary looked baffled at what just happened right in front of them. A solid five seconds passed before Colbert finally processed what happened.
"Why did you do that, headmaster?!" Colbert said, clearly agitated by his actions.
"There was nothing that I could've said that would change her mind, Professor Colbert. I could see it in her eyes, she already has a purpose. Whether that purpose will affect her or not, is not up to me now," Old Osmond then looked at Colbert and grinned underneath his beard. "Besides, she's already an adult, she can make her own decisions,"
Osmond gave a bearded smile before focusing back on doing some more paperwork. Silence reigned over the room once again as both Longueville and Colbert slowly came to terms with the fact that Louise was expelled from the academy for 'assaulting' a teacher.
A/N: I need to be frank about something. Most of the fanfictions that I've read out that have a situation like this completely forget the fact that they are still students and they still need to learn. Heck, I think even the anime adaptation also does this by completely ditching Louise's school life and opting out for more fan service when it can be used to develop her character more.
I understand it though, in a world full of magic. Why waste an entire episode of a character learning magic when they could just be explained in the midst of a battle or have a knowledgeable side character explain it to the audience? Also... Alban x Louise :D.
On another note, I'll be making some changes on how I write. First and foremost, I am taking off my training wheels and get rid of Grammarly. As my English improves, Grammarly is becoming more of a nuisance than a help, I'm still not good but I believe I've improved since I started to develop writing stories as my hobby. With that said, I urge all of my readers to not only enjoy my material but also to scrutinize my work. Every nook and cranny of the story please criticize them. Don't hold back but at the same time don't be too overbearing, thank you!
Secondly, I'll be posting a new chapter every week but at the cost of word count. Sorry to say this but, 4,000-word chapters might only come once in a blue moon. My schedule involves writing 500 words a day, post it, take a break for a day, rinse and repeat. If my situation changes I'll make sure to inform you.
With that being said, time to read the reviews!
Lucian Naruto: The year gap between Halkeginia and my version of Earth is bigger, a 3,000-year gap. While I don't know much about Brimir's backstory, I will say that religions will always begin because of overzealousness. Also, yes, the Church of Brimir will become a problem for Louise since what she could potentially do could disturb their foundation and the beliefs of their followers and patrons but that will happen much later into the future.
With all that said and done I bid you all adieu!
Peace~