I do NOT own Zero No Tsukaiama, that's the intellectual property of Noboru Yamaguchi

The next day started basically just as awkwardly as the other one had, except this time, they didn't really talk to each other waking up. In a way it was maybe an upgrade, because if they did, they most likely would have fought on some shape or form. So perhaps silence was the best possible option in this scenario. Today was the day where masters were freed of class to bond with their familiar. Both of them feared that day, because they knew if that day didn't end with one of them murdering the other, that would be truly a miracle.

Though, Kirche had a plan. Based on what Tabitha said yesterday, as her master, the best course of action would probably to check what she is capable of, see what she can do to help to make sure she isn't a total embarrasement. If she could find the slightest set of skills in her, then this thing might be worth it, if not, then she knew she was in this for a long and rough ride, and not the kind she would usually enjoy.

As for Louise, she was just annoyed, the thought of spending more time with Zerbst was not necessarily the top things she wished to be doing right now. The number one being actually being a mage and having her own familiar to order around and manage. But no, apparently the world wanted to punish her even more for reasons unknown to her. Some god really liked to make her miserable. Because he's succeeding.

She was sitting on the ground pouting as she was waiting for Kirche to show up to the field, considering that is where she asked her to meet up, you would think that she would arrive here a little quicker than that, but noooo. It seemed that the Germanian sure seemed to like take her sweet time.

What did take so many times was Kirche going to the libraries to take the scrolls she would need for today. She wanted today to be some practice and to see if Louise was as terrible as she showed to be, she had a good idea of the answer, but to establish to level where her familiar was, she would have to do this.

She did eventually make her way to Louise, who obviously was getting pretty tired of waiting on her own. Trying to ignore other's mockeries was also very annoying, so at least having something to do to distract from that would be great, she frowns as she sees Kirche arrived.

'' What in the actual world took you so long Zerbst? All the others already left with their familiars like, 30 minutes ago! Did you fuck three guys on the way or something? ''

Kirche sighed, there was a lot of unbox in a few sentence, she took a deep breathe, she was trying to think back about what Tabitha said the day before and not just strangle the girl, after she calmed down enough she looked back and spoke.

'' No I didn't, and even if I did, I doubt heavily this is something you would want me to talk about. Or maybe you are lewder than I thought and you want to, but that's not the point. As for why I was actually late... well.. I am your mistress am I not? ''

She put on the ground the scrolls that she was carrying with her.

'' Then it is my job to make sure my familiar is up to standards. I wouldn't want you to embarrass yourself when trying to do stuff therefore embarrassing ME in the process. So I gathered scrolls so we can try your skills again, and see if you're at least not horrible at at least one of them. If you can be at least a Dot, we'll call this a win. ''

The way she said that didn't made Louise happy, it seemed like she was a lot more interested in her own self-interests than she was in actually helping her.

'' I almost want to fail all of them on purpose if it can make you look bad Zerbst, but I won't because I'm not actually a terrible person. ''

Kirche rubbed her hair a bit, she could actually tell that making her do anything would be a very difficult experience, teamwork was clearly not there yet, but there would have to at some point right? Right?

'' Yeah, you wouldn't be that much of a winner in that situation, and why do you come back to call me Zerbst Louise? Especially after last night? '' She says in teasing manner

'' For that, for exactly that reason you just did. I was exhausted and out of my mind, there is no way, in the Founder's name, that I would grant you the acknowledgement and call you by your name in public! '' Louise explained, visibly angered at the lack of judgement that she showed that night. She couldn't grant the woman the simplest of victories.

'' Alright, I'll call you Louise anyway, it's a lot easier, anyway, I'm sure you'll change your mind in due time. '' Kirche says chuckling to the annoyance of the Vallière. Like there was any way that could happen, well, it did happen last night, but she wouldn't slip up twice, she was sure of it.

'' In your dreams. '' She responds to that, Kirche did want to continue the teasing game, but she knew for how long that rabbit hole could go, so she decided to move on to the actual business. She scrolled up for the first spell that was a spell of ice like Tabitha did.

'' Alright, let's move on to business. Let's try a fairly basic ice spell. I'll let you study it for a few minutes before trying, if after a few tries you don't succeed, I think we could probably retire Water/Ice from your potential elements. ''

Louise nodded, it did make sense, although she felt no connection to that in any shape or form, it was at least worth a try. That was the most reasonable idea she ever heard from Kirche's mouth at least.

'' Alright, give me a few and I'll already be a master at it. '' Louise said confidently, Kirche was very doubtful of that, but decided to let her do as she wanted for now and decided to go on a walk for a few minutes while Louise studied that spell the most she could possibly. They had seen that spell in class, during their first year, she remembered that, she couldn't do it back then, so she didn't have much hope. But she would rather die than give up. So she took all her energy to study how it was made and how it was supposed to be executed. Step by step.

After ten minutes or so, the fire mage finally came back from her walk, looking at her familiar.

'' Alright then, are you ready for it? '' Kirche asked

'' Of course I am! Prepare to be amazed! '' Louise declared sounding confident, she was confident to have memorized the spell perfectly at least, she knew what she was supposed to do theorically speaking, When it came to pratical uses well...

The sound of a deafening explosion could be heard straight after Louise tried the spell. Smoke covering the entire field, both of them coughed as their brains were processing what in the world had just happened. They both knew what happened, Louise sighed as she sat on the ground, recovering from the energy and effort it took to cast the spell, which just let to the usual effort. Kirche was doing her very best not to laugh, she wanted to show some good faith so badly, but it was really difficult.

'' Ok... '' She did chuckle a little bit. '' I think we can say easily this didn't work, let's try this with the others I bringed. ''

As the narrator of this story, I will spare you the details, the same events repeat one after the other, it gradually becomes even harder on Louise since she uses a lot of energy one each spells and she grows gradually tired of doing it and causing explosions. It was a very entertaining but also very frustrating spectacle for Kirche. On the one side, it was kinda amusing to see the failures, but it was also becoming a bit sad. At first glance, she couldn't see anything especially wrong in Louise's technique, which made all of it pretty confusing. The reason was, a Dot mage, with proper technique, can master at least one of the elements. So if she seemed to have the technique down, she should have managed to pull off at least one of the spells, so it would make sense to assume she didn't have magic right?

No it didn't make sense either, because without magic, nothing happens. Louise would have cast the spell and only silence would have followed. Obviously, this is not what happened, so that only made the situation even more confusing, it was obvious she had some level of magic understanding and skill, but it seemed it was incompatible with all the elements Kirche knew. Perhaps she wasn't the best teacher possible for her familiar, considering herself was a lot more skilled in the pratical uses of her fire magic than general theorical stuff about magic, which was a field Tabitha would be a lot more skilled in. For some it might be weird that only now the Germanian noticed these things about Louise's magic, but only know was she close enough or paid enough attention to the fact there wasn't anything actually wrong about how she did it. In class, she always thought the Vallière mage was a screw up for failing that many time, but this close, it was obvious it wasn't the case.

Louise for herself, just decided to lay down on the ground. She was grass. She decided that from this day on, she was just grass. Zerbst had just seen her embarrass herself for now, um, maybe an hour or so? That was actually a bit hard to tell. It just felt like everyday she was just sinking deeper and deeper in the pits of failure and shame. Every single spell had failed like they always do, she was expecting her to throw her insults and mockery any minute now like she always does. Nothing, outside of small chuckle that she did hear and she did get irritated by that, it was still not nearly as bad as she expected to be. After a few solid minutes of being grass, she decides to go back to being a human being to see Kirche staring at her, sighing.

'' Okay...uh... not gonna lie, I was hoping one of them would work, but don't worry, I knew how terrible at this magic thing you are, so I have an idea for another plan to how I can make you a little bit less useless as a familiar. ''

That also felt like a bitch slap to Louise's face, but she was also quite curious about what that supposed plan is, the concept of Kirche having any kind of plan that didn't involved a bed was a concept Louise couldn't believe. Although it was too soon to guess this one wouldn't.

'' Really? What is it? '' Louise asked with a faint glim of hope in her eyes. Kirche did like that, if there's one quality she would give the girl is that she didn't seem to stay down very long from failures, that will be very, very helpful for what she has planned for her. If magic isn't an option, she'll have to use something else. That she doesn't have at this direct time.

'' Not gonna spoil the surprise this soon. '' Kirche said chuckling. '' I will teach it to you tomorrow when I will have my material ready. Hopefully I'll be able to make you at least a worthwhile familiar. '' She says raising an eyebrow. Louise sighs, of course, why would she expect to have answers straight awway from her? It seemed that Kirche loved to keep her on her toes.

'' I swear to... fine, sure, tomorrow it is then, what in the world are we supposed to do now? ''

That was an actual good question, Kirche had no idea what to do with Louise, she was probably too tired from this to do actual huge work, so maybe she could make her do something that doesn't required much physical effort, she then smirked evily. That was a look that Louise certainly didn't like one bit.

'' Weeelll, I've had some clothes ordered from home a while back, they arrived recently, but I haven't got a chance to try them yet. Perhaps I would like a judge ~ ''

'' By all that is holy, no. ''

'' Oh sorry, did I made it sound like it was a choice? ''

Before Louise could scream in defiance, she is dragged away by Kirche, now instead being more afraid than anything.

In another side of the academy, Colbert arrived at the headmaster's office. Still troubled about the events of a few days back, he figured a talk with Osmond was probably the smartest move in this situation. The man had a lot more experience and was probably a lot more wise, he would know what to do in this kind of situation.

The man itself had mostly spent the day wondering what color were the panties his assistant were wearing today. The man was perhaps not as venerable as Colbert would think, but that was a secret only the man himself knew. He jumps a little bit when he hears knocking on the door, he coughs a little bit and gains some composure.

'' You may enter. ''

Colbert entered the headmaster's office, he walked to the desk.

'' I am here about- ''

'' You are here to talk about the case of Louise de la Vallière are you not? '' Osmond interrupted him surprising the teacher.

'' Yes I am, how did you know? ''

'' Even I am aware of the latest news Colbert and I know you wouldn't come to my office unless it was for something serious. ''

Colbert looked a bit embarrassed for doubting his knowledge, but quickly recovered, at least this did spare him having to explain what happened and all those details so he could quickly get to the meat of it.

'' I will be totally honest, I am entirely lost about what to do in this situation. On one hand, she still meets most criterias that are required to study at the academy and she always has been a disciplined student, even if a bit moody, but it was always for understandable reasons, she hasn't done anything that would cause us to expel a student for exemple. '' Colbert then took a few seconds to think.

'' But on the other hand, it is difficult for us to put a familiar at the same level as the students. If we do accept her with the other students, it could lead to some backlash from students and possibly other parents. Not that we didn't have such problems to begin with, but it would certainly make matters worse. ''

Osmond looks at the teacher for a little bit, thinking about what he was told.

'' So what you're wondering is what would be the best choice to make in this situation is it not? I can not blame you for being lost, even I must say this situation is a first and I have seen several weird problems in my days. ''

'' I will say this though. Since there is no precedent to this, there is no wrong or right move to do Colbert. There isn't any rule that says specifically what must be done in the case of a student having another student as familiar. Although, that will certainly something we must add in the future, but as of right now, the only thing I can say to you is, go with what feels like the right thing to you Jean. You're one of the most talented teachers we have in this institution and I have the upmost confidence in your decision making. I know that the choice you feel is the right thing to do, will be the right choice. Therefore, I can't advise you on the right one either way.''

He said all of that, half because he actually believed that and the other half because he had no idea himself what the right choice was in the matter, but he knew that his confidence wouldn't be misplaced in this situation. Colbert nodded, this was the kind of answers he expecting from him but it was still helpful, just knowing that his decision wouldn't be affected by any sort of guidelines or rule was very helpful to know. He did have one last question.

'' What about the parents ? Both for Zerbst and Vallière, what do we do? ''

The headmaster thought about this one for a few minutes before answering.

'' Perhaps it's for the best that the two in questions inform them themselves, it is a pretty major and personal situation, these two most likely know better how to handle this than we would. I would advice them to write to them as soon as possible though. ''

Jean Colbert nodded once more, that though sounded reasonable enough, but he had already made his mind about the situation, he couldn't, with peace of mind, exclude Louise from being a student. She perhaps wasn't the most succesful one, but she was one of the most determined ones, her thrive to learn and get better even in failure. was something the teacher respected a lot. He couldn't turn his back on that, he certainly was worried about the consequences of this situation, but he would find a solution, he just had to, because he owed it to these two.

There we go! Chapter 3 finally completed! Thank goodness, that took a little bit more than I expected to take. In this chapter, we set up a few storylines that are gonna be explored in the future, just so you guys know that there actually is thoughts and plans behind this whole thing.

It's time for the usual, thank you a lot for the feedback. In this chapter, I tried to correct a few of the grammatical mistakes I've made in the first two, but it might still be a bit wacky, I apologize for that, English is not my first language and it probably shows.

Kirche and Louise will get along in time, but I don't want it to go neither too fast or too slow, so you will see sometimes where fast progress is made, before some regression starts to show too. I felt this would make things interesting and hopefully it is to you all too.

Thank you for reading this story !

Xenofan1