"Professor Colbert, may we enter?" Kirche asks, knocking at the teacher's door with Hak standing tall next to her.
"It's open." He says from inside and Kirche opens the door, entering the office with Hak.
"Oh, Mrs. Zerbst what can I do for you?" The professor asks her with a kind smile on his face but Hak still stays on guard, having felt that the man is battle-tested when they first met.
"We came to check if you've already made some headway with Hak's runes." Kirche asks him.
"Oh, yes. I actually was with the principal earlier regarding the other boys' runes and they were interesting. Yours however I have not seen in any of these books yet." The professor tells Hak pointing at a pile of books next to his table.
"I see." Hak replies, not bothered by it because so far, the runes haven't caused him any trouble.
"But from what I've read in some cases the runes will respond to the summoners magic. This is something you could try, but other than that I'm sorry I don't have anything concrete yet." Professor Colbert explains.
"Thank you either way." Kirche thanks him, leaving with Hak in tow.
"So, I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens with your runes." Kirche tells Hak.
"Looks like it." He agrees, observing the guys eyeing his summoner as the two of them walk through the hallways.
"You better either get used to this or scare them off for good. Those are the two only choices." Kirche tells Hak, stopping and turning to look at him directly.
"This is pretty normal for me by now but I can feel your stares, so I'm guessing you're bothered by these guys." Kirche says.
"Yes. They are bothersome and do not respect you, princess." Hak tells her, kneeling on one knee before her.
"Get up and I told you to stop calling me princess." Kirche tells him, taking his hand and pulling him along with her, headed to her room.
"I'm sorry if I caused you trouble just now." Hak apologizes confused.
"Oh, no you didn't. I just thought it's easier to talk away from prying eyes." Kirche replies.
"Look I'm not saying that I think how they look at me is nice, but that's just how things'll be wherever I go." Kirche explains sitting down on her bed.
"I got used to it, maybe you should start to get used to it too." Kirche informs him.
"Is that what you really wish?" Hak asks.
"No, but it's the easiest way." She explains.
"Hmpf, where I come from there is an even easier way, beat down the biggest one and the others will fear you, so who is of the guys leering at you is the strongest?" Hak asks her.
"I'd say probably Guiche, that golem mage who fought against what was his name Saito?" Kirche tells him thoughtfully.
"OK, then I will destroy him publicly and tell him to stop harassing you with his stares." Hak tells her decisively.
"If you feel like you have to, I won't stop you." Kirche tells him with a small smile spreading on her face, but she turns and walks to her dresser to hide it from him.
"I'm going to change for bed. You should too." Kirche tells him as she starts to undress.
Hak turns around, giving her some privacy and takes off his guard uniform, leaving him in his pants.
"I'm done, you can look now." Kirche says, standing almost right behind Hak, dressed in her as usual rather revealing nightgown.
Hak turns around and comes face to face with her. Kirche puts one hand on his chest and slides it up to his collarbone, where she traces the runes with one finger while Hak looks down at her calmly, despite some hormonal thoughts spreading in his mind.
"Professor Colbert said to try getting your runes to react to my magic right? So let's try it." Kirche tells Hak, resting one hand over one half of the runes written across his collarbone and pours some magic into it for a couple of seconds.
"Nothing seems to be happening, I'm sorry." Kirche says, taking away her hand only for a powerful gust of wind to shoot out of Hak's body, making the unsuspecting Kirche go flying out the window with a scream.
"Kirche!" Hak shouts, diving after her and manages to catch her in time, landing on one knee with Kirche safely in his arms.
"What just happened?" Kirche questions shocked.
"The runes must've reacted Afterall." Hak suggests, standing up and jumping to Kirche's open window, helping the shook-up girl inside before climbing in after her.
"Thank you Hak, you saved me." Kirche thanks him, taking one of his hands and gives him a quick kiss, shocking the unsuspecting teen.
"I'm just doing my duty." Hak replies, looking to the side with a blush decorating his cheeks, causing Kirche to smirk.
"Well, I think we better try this again on the training field tomorrow." Kirche decides.
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Uhm, you might want to fix that before going to sleep." Hak agrees and points at a strap of her nightgown which got lose, leaving part of her enormous breasts on display.
"Oh, I didn't realize. Thank you, but you just could've fixed it yourself you know." Kirche tells him, retying the strap.
"Or you could've tried to cop a feel, I wouldn't mind if it's you." She adds sensually, letting a hand glide over Hak's exposed upper body while she slowly walks past him to her side of the bed.
"Come now. Join me." Kirche tells him, patting the side next to her and striking a sexy pose, so she's facing him.
"Uhm, alright." Hak agrees awkwardly.
"Good night my hero." Kirche says, gently grabbing his face and pulling it towards her, giving him a deep kiss when she felt no intentions to pull back from the taller teen.
|Next morning|
Hak wakes up again earlier than the mages at the school are used to. He looks to his side and sees the still peaceful sleeping Kirche lying next to him. Hak quietly gets out of the bed and thrown on his usual cloak before going back over to Kirche's bed and pulling the girl's cover back over her since she apparently wriggled it off during the night. After making sure Kirche is safe Hak leaves her room to look around, still getting used to the new surroundings. Unknown to him Kirche smiles to herself and pulls her blanket closer after hearing the door shut before trying to get some more sleep.
When Hak walks around the academy, only coming upon very few servants who were preparing for the students' meal and cleaning up he meets the headmaster.
"Oh, you must be one of the familiars right? Which one's is it? Mrs. Valliere or Mrs. Zerbst?" The headmaster asks.
"I'm Mrs. Zerbst's familiar. Mr.?" Hak answers.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I am headmaster Osmond." The older man introduces himself.
"I'm Hak. Nice to meet you." Hak replies formally before continuing on his way.
"Say, do you have a minute young lad?" Osmond asks him.
"I guess." Hak replies and follows the older man as he leads him to a study.
"Please, take a seat." Osmond tells him, fetching a book from a desk before sitting down across form him and opening a page.
"Here, look at this. These is one half of the runes on your chest, and this is the other half." The headmaster says, showing him some pictures in the book.
"I found these last night and looked into their meaning. This one translates to Air or Wind. And this one would transfer to Lightning or Electricity." Osmond explains.
"Interesting." Hak says, taking the book and looking at the runes for Wind more closely.
"Does that mean anything to you?" Osmond asks.
"Well, last night Kirche used some magic on the runes and got blasted away by a wall of wind, this would explain why." Hak replies.
"I see, but still it's curious why those two runes would appear on you." Osmond says thoughtfully.
"Maybe it has something to do with one's personality?" Hak suggests.
"What makes you say that?" Osmond questions.
"Well in my world I was trained to be the next head of the Wind Clan and on the battlefield, I was known as the thunderbeast." Hak informs him.
"Hahaha, I have to admit that is indeed fitting then." Osmond agrees laughing amused.
"Were you able to find out anything else about what these runes do?" Hak asks him.
"No, I'm afraid not. I will continue to look into it but I don't think we'll be able to find anything on them, you two are the first human familiars in a long time." Osmon explains.
"Well thank you for your time. I think I should be heading back to see if the princess has woken up yet." Hak excuses himself with a bow.
Hak makes his way back to the girl's rooms when he hears someone curse outside a window. He looks out the window and sees the boy which also got summoned washing some clothes in a bucket.
"Hello." Hak says.
"Oh, Hi I didn't see you there. Are you here to wash your summoner's clothes as well?" Saito asks Hak.
"No, she didn't ask me to do this task yet." Hak replies.
"Lucky you, anyways I'm Saito, nice to meet you. I guess we're both stuck here huh?" Saito says, introducing himself.
"I'm Hak. I'm going to head back to Kirche's room to see if there is anything she needs." Hak replies, waving to the boy as he continues on his way.
"Kirche, are you awake?" Hak asks knocking on her door.
"Yes, come in." She says and Hak steps inside, freezing in place when he can see Kirche in all her glory, while she is changing due to a mirror angled behind a separator.
He quickly averts his eyes and turns around while asking "Is there anything you need Kirche?"
"No, not really but if you need something you better get ready quickly, We're about to head to a lesson on magic.
"Am I supposed to join?" Hak questions.
"Well after what happened last night I thought it couldn't hurt." Kirche suggests.
"True, understanding the nature of magic might be beneficial." Hak agrees and gets his sheathed weapon from its' place next to the bed.
Hak attends the class with Kirche and learns the basic structure of magic from the teacher along with the fact that Louise is the only mage without an affinity at the school, getting her the moniker 'Louise the Zero.' Hak informs Kirche about what the headmaster told him and suggests they wait another day or two before trying to see what the runes do, hoping to grasp a little bit of magic beforehand to do some experimenting on his own.
That Evening Saito insults Louise because of her moniker, and she throws him out of her room without food for the evening but lucky for him the servants feed him some leftovers, because he stood up for Siesta, defending her against Guiche the other day.
The next day Louise decides to take Saito to town to shop for a weapon. Thinking about the fact that Hak might also like a new weapon she tells him that they are going shopping, leaving out the part that it's for his benefit. She convinces her only real friend Tabitha to take the two of them to town on her dragon.
"Come on Hak, don't be shy now." Kirche tells him, while she's sitting on the dragon's back, right behind Tabitha.
"Are you sure about this? I mean what if you lose control over him while flying?" Hak asks concerned.
"Do not worry. Everything is under control. And it's a she." Tabitha tells him coolly.
"Alright I guess." Hak says with a shrug and joins them on the back of the dragon before it takes flight.
"So, what are we shopping for Kirche?" Hak asks her.
"We're looking for a new weapon for you." Kirche explains.
"Why? I am very proficient with the halberd." Hak says shocked.
"No, no. I meant a new halberd. Yours is lets call it battle tested." Kirche tells him.
"Still, I do not need a new weapon." Hak disagrees with her.
"Hak, please just accept this. Afterall how would you defend me without a proper weapon?" Kirche asks him, knowing it would strike a nerve.
"As you wish." Hak agrees defeated and simply enjoys the nice scenery.
A quarter hour later Tabitha lands the dragon just outside the villages' gates.
"Thank you again for coming along Tabitha." Kirche thanks her blue-haired friend but Tabitha is already walking away heading for the nearest book shop.
"This is the only weapons shop in town but I believe they offer at least a decent quality of equipment." Kirche explains leading him into the weapons shop. In the shop the two meet Saito and Louise who have just bought an old looking sword, because Louise's family isn't as wealthy anymore.
"Interesting sword." Hak tells his fellow familiar.
"You think?" Saito asks, looking the sword over with doubt.
"You think you can do better than me? Then hand me over to pretty boy there. He seems to know my value." The sword, which Saito calls Derflinger says.
"You found a spirit sword, oh my." Kirche says genuinely surprised.
"Yes well of course I would." Louise replies snobbishly and leaves, dragging Saito along with her.
"What can I do for you?" The shop owner asks Hak and Kirche as the two approach his counter.
"Well, my friend is looking for a halberd. Do you have anything sturdy and robust?" Kirche asks the man.
"Of course, if you'd look over here." The man tells them, brining them over to a rack of halberds.
"All of them are only 3000 each." The shop owner says.
"It's hot here, maybe I should open my shirt a bit." Kirche says seductively, popping open her upper two buttons.
"Did I say 3000 I meant 2000 of course." The shop owner says eyeing her generous bust and licks his lips.
Kirche wants to further woo the man in to lower the price but Hak stops her, putting his robe around her, leaving him in his pants and a simple white shirt.
"I'm sorry but we have somewhere to get to, maybe we'll check in again another time." Hak tells the shop owner, picking up Kirche in a bridal carry while closing the robe and carries her outside.
"What was that?" She asks him only a bit annoyed at him destroying her deal and more excited by him acting so protectively over her.
"I didn't like the way he was looking at you." Hak replies sternly.
"Oh Hak, you might really be more of a handful than I realized." Kirche says.
"I'm sorry if I have caused you trouble." Hak apologizes guiltily and kneels down in front of her on one knee.
"Silly Hak, don't worry about it. To be honest I'm touched you value me so much." Kirche tells him, a red hue on her cheeks.
"Of course I would, you are my summoner." Hak says.
"Is that all I am to you?" Kirche asks, hoping for a negative answer.
"No, I guess you could say that I enjoy our talks and am very fond of you despite us barely knowing each other." Hak answers, making the redhead smile brightly before shifting their attention to Tabitha who is coming over to them.