The day of the void, a generally relaxing day for most people. The students got a day off after summoning their familiars to either get to know them, perhaps study in their poorer subjects, or just compare with friends. The teachers could relax too, or for the particularly dedicated use the free time on their lesson plans, as Colbert would have been doing had he not been brushing up on Brimiric History. Even the familiars had likely gone from a life in the wild where every animal fends for itself to a life of relative comfort and ease, as well as attention and doting as lifelong companions. Most people, was not all, however, as the common staff had no such luck, but luckily they were used to it, and some may have even briefly enjoyed the yearly break to the sheer monotony of normal day to day tasks as they tried to see just what a bugbear ate, or rather How in the first place it did.

Speaking of the common staff, a young woman in a maids outfit with blue eyes and brown hair, known to her coworkers as Siesta, and to the nobles as 'Maid', had been rather hastily walking across the courtyard as Malygos flew off, and soon approached the young woman she was told to send a message to, Louise.

"My lady, Louise." She had said, to briefly gain her attention,

"Yes, maid?" Louise said, wondering what the maid had the nerve to go up to her for,

"The Headmaster would like to see you soon, he said to discuss changes to your tuition,- In light of your familiar..." Siesta said, her voice shrinking as she spoke.

Louise reacted rather quickly, by immediately disregarding the maid and rushing off to the headmaster's office. 'Even if there are odd rumors around the headmaster,' She thought, 'I can't leave him to wait longer than needed,'.

Reaching and entering the office of Headmaster Osmond, she was told to take a seat on the other side of his desk, where he sat and his secretary, a young woman known as Longueville stood beside it. A brief moment later as he was organizing some papers, his familiar, a mouse known as Chuchu, had climbed to his shoulder, and he had simply nodded, stroked his beard and spoke, as though a sage parting wisdom atop the mountains,

"Hmm, Green today."

After a glare from said secretary that could probably kill on its own, Osmond had coughed and spoke to Louise,

"So, Louise, I take it the maid I sent had informed you of why you are here,"

"Yes," Louise said, "My tuition."

"Exactly, now luckily we've dealt with large familiars before, and there are actually a few options I must discuss with you, firstly-"

As the two talked, Longueville had eventually tuned them out, realizing she wouldn't be needed for this conversation, and she could get back to a slightly more pressing matter.

Internally panicking.

You see, she was in fact also a thief, a rather renowned thief known as Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt. Her most recent mark was in fact at this very school, the 'Staff of Destruction'. She had already made a somewhat feasible plan, wait for the familiar exhibition when all eyes would be on the princess and familiars, break in with a large golem to bypass the magical securities of the vault it was hidden away in, grab the staff and whatever she could fit in her pockets, get the money from the people who hired her, get the money to Tiffania, rinse and repeat for other jobs. Then a student summoned a dragon.

Sure, that could cause a problem, given the renowned skill of that student, so she had to adjust her plan, such that it would be timed just after the blue hair went through with her performance, then while the dragon is tired and her willpower is low, follow the plan as before. Then the second Brimir-Damned dragon appeared and that went out of the window faster than a suicidal defenestration expert. Even if the dragon was a stupid brute, which sadly it wasn't given how it talked and was a damn Rhyme Dragon with a Family, and how it very choicely used Translate and not understand in reference to its own runes. Even IF it was a brute without intelligence, it was still large enough to rival her largest golem, and sadly beings made out of flesh, scales, and blood tend to have better mobility and reaction speed than dirt.

So yes, as Louise and Osmond discussed the pros and cons of whether to provide food for the Rhyme Dragon that was supposed to have gone extinct, Longueville was taking the time to internally panic and desperately come up with some way around the fact that there would always be at least one Dragon available at almost all times in the school now, except for when Two Dragons would be available.

Longueville had decided that later that night, she would fake having a nightmare, just to have an excuse to let out the scream that's piling in her due to the very, very, real nightmare happening right now. Even if said nightmare was only that way to a thief, with many of the teaching staff actually being relieved that two of their better students, one being a straight success student and the other while in practice explosive was rather earnest with a good upbringing, had summoned said dragons and not some pompous brat or the like. Yes to the teachers, they were actually quite relieved at the safety that the two dragons brought by being around.

Every time Longueville had to fake being relieved as well, she felt like cursing Brimir himself. She kept thinking to herself, 'Of course I couldn't stick to being a more average thief, I just had to take the biggest job as soon as possible to help Tiffania as much as was possible, I couldn't have just stuck to dealing with individual nobles as it was, or even maybe just gotten an actual honest living...'

She looked at Osmond and tuned back into their conversation for a moment, wondering if they were almost done,

Osmond was saying, "Now that you've decided it would be best if the academy provided for your familiar, Malygos I believe, next is the question of how long."

Louise said, "How Long?"

Osmond said, "Yes, some students prefer to stay at the academy over the breaks with their familiars being tended to as normal during the year, and their tuition normally covers that fine, however with a familiar of the size of yours I'm afraid the decision is best made ahead of time so as to give all parties involved proper notice and compensation."

Louise blushed in embarrassment briefly and said, "Yes, of course, I should have gathered that. No, I plan on going back home over the break to see my family."

Osmond said, "Ah, grand. Well, official matters are done, but those aside, how has your family been recently Louise?"

Louise paused, surprised, but said, "Last I heard they were doing well, apparently Cattleya, one of my sisters whose been sick, has been taking some new medicine that seems to be easing the physical symptoms more."

She paused before adding, "But, if I may ask, why do you want to know, Headmaster Osmond?"

"Oh, I've been curious as to how they've been, I'm actually one of Karin's and Duke's old friends, If you'll pardon my admitting my age here," he said sporting a light smile at his own self jest.

"Really? I never knew that, headmaster. But why did you refer to my Father by his title, even if it seems everyone does that, he even insisted myself and my sisters do as well." Louise said, trailing off near the end.

Osmond laughed lightly and said, "Yes, I remember meeting them both when I was younger, in fact, It was me and Chuchu who had introduced them to each other. The two had both been serving under the crown and both were the second children, so they were able to later get married unhindered. I'm personally quite happy that they were able to find joy as their own family even as the less favored siblings. I even remember being notified of their wedding, not invited, they wrote that they Knew better, apparently."

Osmond stopped and realized, "Pardon me Louise, I've been reminiscing too long. You are dismissed to enjoy the rest of the Day of the Void, I'll have Longueville get started on the paperwork immediately."

Longueville bowed slightly and said, "Of course Sir." She walked off to go gather the necessary papers, seeming rather jovial. Then again, knowing that your plan just needs to be delayed until the break, a rather easy fix to her problem, is probably what led to that skip in her step.

As Louise was leaving Osmond's office, he said, "Oh, and Louise?"

"Yes, headmaster?" Louise said as she paused,

"Your father told me long ago that his father actually had an odd naming sense. I mention this because your father's name actually is Duke. It was actually a joke among the two of us before he actually became a Duke. Then it became a punchline." Osmond said, with a smile that felt almost thirty years younger than him.

Longueville too, felt much younger, now that she didn't have to deal with the problem that was a Rhyme Dragon, large enough to eat another dragon, seemed older than even Osmond, and to top it off was,

"Intelligent, Multilingual, But not Rhyme Dragon," Tabitha said to Kirche after she had asked the Bluenette why she was looking through dragon lore and then what she thought of Louise's familiar.

"Tabby, we've heard it talk, how is there any way it isn't a Rhyme Dragon?" Kirche said,

"Have Reasons," Tabitha said,

"Like what?" Kirche said,

"Secret," Tabitha said,

"Come on Tabby, you can trust me," Kirche said.

Tabitha continued to read her third book that day on dragons and dragon-related topics.

Surprise! Been a While, hadn't it. Thankfully, I managed to find the time and the will to wirte this up. Sorry for the lack of malygos for those looking forward to that, but hopefully you still enjoyed my protrayal of things on the ZnT/FoZ side.