"Gentlemen, I want to make this crystal clear: you will all be on your best behavior."
Frankly, Louise was surprised it took this long for her Mother to express interest in her summons. After all, not only was it a success, but also such an unusual one. This gaggle of ordinary men had managed to stop and apprehend the audacious Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth, as well as get her to tell that she was acting on Reconquista's orders (with Professor Colbert's humble assistance), and were rewarded with titles of Chevalier each. Louise was quick to remind Scout this did not really make them equal to the noble class – it was more of a golden metal than an actual reward.
She too received her own Chevalier title, despite not having put any real effort into the action. Henrietta insisted that a Master should be rewarded together with her Familiars with a conspirator's wink, and so she too received her golden medal.
Now, with two carriages approaching the Vallière mansion, she had to lay out some ground rules for her mercenaries (in the other carriage, Mikhail was doing the same with the rowdier four; Louise figured they were more likely to listen to him than her) so that her Mother wouldn't smear them all over the walls. "You're all about to meet my family, and all of them are likely to judge you on your first impression. Cattleya aside." Hopefully her softhearted sister was doing okay. "I will not have you make clowns of yourselves, mostly because I would rather not have you lose limbs or worse."
"Good thing I'm as sober as a newborn then." Demoman laughed uproariously. "You needn't worry, lassie."
"Words like these will make me worried." That got the usually quiet Sniper to snort in amusement. Louise glowered, decidedly unamused. "Something funny?"
"Don't mind the bushman." Spy shook his head with a sigh, idly twirling the unlit cigarette between his fingers. Lighting it here, in this small carriage was bound to be met with extreme displeasure of the other passengers. "Naturally, we'll do our best to keep things civil. We're professionals, after all." Louise shot him an unimpressed look. "Most of us, anyway."
"Is your Ma really that scary?" Engie inquired curiously. The pinkette slumped a little in her seat.
"I don't know if "scary" does her justice. My mother is the finest Tristain has to offer in terms of mages and nobility both. Her standards are high – and I can only pray to Founder that you will squeeze into the bare minimum of adequacy." Louise tented her fingers together. Brimir's balls, she had no actual reason to be worried like that, right? Even if Scout or Soldier tried doing something, the others would bring them back to the level. They couldn't all be so eager to part with this earth, could they? They apprehended Fouquet, for crying out loud! That was an achievement, right? "As will I..."
"No offense, Lou, but you're probably the last person who needs to worry here." The pinkette looked at Engie incredulously. "Ain't none of your fault that you got us and not something else."
"Although I do wager that a mere beast might have had worse luck with stopping Miss Loungeville." Spy countered with an amused hum.
"And wouldn't nearly kill the reigning princess of the country, mate." Sniper chortled. Spy shot him a dirty look. Demoman laughed, slapping his knee.
"You don't need to worry, lassie. What's the worst that could happen?"
In hindsight, Tavish de Groot should have known to put a boot in his mouth.
"I've seen better wizards in Tom Jones's apartment, you Pinko menace!" Soldier growled from up up in the sky, spinning in circles in the air by the virtue of potent Wind magic. The culprit – Louise's mother, face carefully cut in an expression of extremely strained patience – did little circling motions with her wand, looking poised to drop him from this extreme height at a moment's notice.
A short distance away, Louise's oldest sister was letting her displeasure be known with the summoner herself. "This is absolutely unacceptable, Little Louise!" The bespectacled blonde said, tugging on the pinkette's ear. "It's bad enough you summon nine commoners, but these are one step away from filthy ruffians!"
"Owowowow…! Éléonore, you'll pull my ear off…!"
"I take great offense to being called a "ruffian"." Spy grumbled. Sniper opened his mouth to comment on that, but a single dirty look from the Frenchman had him reconsider. Perhaps this really wasn't the time.
"We did start off on a wrong foot, admittedly." Engie sighed, watching Pyro watching Soldier spin in the air with a look of childlike wonderment. Whatever the arsonist saw through its mask, it must have been great. "But Soldier is… well, he's an odd one, to put it lightly."
"An "odd one" is not a phrase I would use." The bespectacled blonde growled in response, mercifully letting go of Louise's ear before it came off. "I don't need a translator to tell he insulted Mother to her face, in the crudest of manners."
"To be fair, he would have done that to anyone regardless of their station." It seemed Engie's explanation left Louise's older sister thoroughly unimpressed.
"Please do not kill Soldier." Heavy sighed, words directed right to the Duchess. Louise's eyes widened in shock. Was he as mad as the rest of them, after all? Addressing her mother so directly, so brazenly… it's like he was courting death on purpose. The duchess gave him a measured look – yet there was ice in her eyes that could freeze a dragon twice over.
"What makes you think you're in position to negotiate with me, familiar?"
"Common courtesy. Tact. Noblesse oblige."
"Uh, bless you?" Scout interjected not-too-wisely. Louise could feel Spy's growing indignation at the manboy all the way from there.
"Common courtesy goes both ways." The duchess was unimpressed with the big mercenary's vocabulary. Am I to take insults to my face at my own home as some kind of virtuous quality?"
"Of course not." Heavy shook his head. "But let us punish Soldier. Master knows what must be done." Louise blinked, realizing she was suddenly brought into the conversation she had no want to join. She did know what to do – they've been through it with the situation at the Void Tower – but she wasn't sure if she wanted to right in front of her mother and elder sister.
Curses! Why couldn't her father join them to soften the first impression…?
"Louise." The pinkette barely resisted an urge to run once her mother opted to address her. She wasn't looking at her, still in a staring contest with Heavy. "I shall leave the format of punishment to you. Once you are done, make sure to let this man know he is welcome to wait outside the mansion." Then the duchess's eyes wandered to Pyro, still busy staring at the Soldier in the sky. "Together with the pyromaniac."
"...y-yes, Mother. Of course."
"Good. Éléonore, you will bear witness to Louise's conduct regarding her unruly Familiar." The blonde opened her mouth to protest, but a single icy look from the duchess had her reconsider. "The two of you" The duchess cast Spy and Engie a single look each. "will accompany me as I question you regarding your outfit's conduct."
"With our Master's permission, I surmise?" Spy allowed himself the slightest of mirthless smiles. Louise's mother simply cast her daughter a single look.
"Y-yes, of course! I mean, er… yes." Louise, for her part, just wanted this visit to be over. The duchess nodded and lowered Soldier down to an acceptable height before dropping him to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The American patriot's rise for a counterattack was swiftly arrested with Medic's – and Medic's bonesaw's – assistance.
Once her mother and her chosen mercenaries left the premises, Louise sagged with a weary sigh. "...Soldier… do you have any idea who this woman was just now?"
"Mother, I have… concerns."
Karin did not turn to look at Éléonore, eyes fixed on the carriages leaving back for the Academy. In there rode her youngest daughter, thought by all to be a laughingstock incapable of casting even the simplest spells. Whatever predicament befell Louise, her mother did not know. She did however see with her own eyes that her daughter's hard work has born fruit: nine men in a unit, with the big one being designated a Familiar by the ritual, might have looked unimpressive – comical, even – but there was something behind those farcical personages.
Karin had seen her fair share of battles and warriors both. She had seen valiant knights and bloodthirsty scoundrels, those bound by duty and those who only followed the chime of Écu. While the men Louise summoned were no doubt mercenaries, they followed her word and they stood by her even in spite of all the little mockeries, taunts, and oddities plaguing them.
"What is the matter, Éléonore?"
"I… realize this is a bold claim to make, but I'm beginning to think the result of the summoning might have affected Louise's mind further than I would have suspected." The punishment her youngest daughter gave to the man in a tin pot – after gracing him with a scathing tirade so ridiculous it had to make sense, somehow – was to run around the estate until his feet tired from the exertion. A few others from the outfit oversaw the event, with the man in the white coat continuing to ensure he wouldn't tire out too easily.
By the time they were leaving, the Soldier was still running laps. "That, or one of those ruffians did something to her." The blonde shuddered, arms wrapping around herself. "But I dare not guess."
"Your worry is understandable, but misplaced. I think Louise only grew as a person and as a noble." Turning to her daughter, and seeing her quizzed expression, Karin decided to elaborate. "She wrangles her men with exceptional poise, even if she has to use strange means for it. You remember your sister to be quite prideful, yes? Yet, she did not let her station affect her interactions with these nine."
"S-still..."
"She may look like her nerves are frayed, but I can see these experiences only hardened her." It was said the Springtime Summoning Ritual was designed to deliver the most compatible familiar to the mage in question. Karin could see how these nine ordinary, ever so slightly mad mercenaries ended up being Louise's entourage. She might not have shared their whimsy, but they were a manifestation of her power: weak on the outside, but with a hidden strength within; obscured by their demeanor and their unassuming appearances. "I trust she and her men will accomplish great things in the future."
The future. Perhaps her daughter really could achieve her dreams. Karin smiled fondly. "I couldn't be more proud of her."