Chapter 2: Fouquet Strikes
"Fouquet is such a brilliant, yet dastardly foe. Not only did the thief challenge the magic of Tristrain's Academy, but to do so using such powerful magic, it is no wonder why nobles have such a hard time against this thief." – Headmaster Osmond.
Lord Mott had a bad reputation. It wasn't because of his heavy taxes in of the estate that he controlled. It was because he actively was out searching for maids to tend his manor. That spreads all manners of creepy rumors. Also justifiable considering that trained servants are a commodity. You see about fifty years ago, no noble would actively seek servants. Why would you? You just picked a random commoner in a small village and bam! Instant maid or butler. Then the servant occupation revolution happened. You see, any old commoner could do the task that a servant can do, but not as well and they didn't have this aura of professionalism.
The servant occupation revolution also known as the Butler Revolution started when a noble had his life saved by a man dressed in attire akin to a noble. The man remains nameless to this day, but his reward for saving the noble was to be a paid contracted employee that would serve the noble. It was after a couple of months people noticed that a contracted servant was exponentially better than an indentured servant or a servant picked off the streets. Even after the training to be a proper servant, they did not reach such a level.
At the end of the contract, the man disappeared. Rumors say that he had a master in a faraway land. Other rumors say that he traveled the lands, training people to be a butler. In the end, he seemingly vanished, never to be seen again.
Mott's predicament was that he couldn't find any contract maids in his location. While many of the finest wine come from Tarbes, it was still pretty much located in the middle of nowhere. No servant would want to come here to work, nothing much to do around here. In addition, there weren't many women around. The only thing remotely close that would ward off his frustrations, for lack of a better word, was his stash of 'secret' books. In fact, he'd be willing to part with some of them for a decent, young maid and there was a maid in the Tristrain Academy of Magic that caught his eye the last time he visited. That old coot that ran it was lucky to have such young maids and it turned out he was willing to share for some of his stash.
"Lord Mott!"
"Guardsman? What is it, it my carriage ready for departure?" Today's the day where he was definitely going to pick that maid up.
"No sir, it just that it may not be a good idea to travel today. The roads are swarming with goblins!"
Mott raised an eyebrow. "Surely, you're joking. We have orcs and large cats here. Goblins are located in the heart of Germania."
It wasn't that Goblins were a threat to Mott or anyone for that matter. It was just that Goblins wouldn't often head away from their underground homes in Germania. It was mostly due to the fact that they would be too busy fending off wandering adventures that Germania was known for. So it was understandable that they wouldn't see many Goblins enter Tristania or any other nation for that matter.
"It's just that there is enough of them to blockade the roads going toward the Tristrain Academy. It is unsafe to travel today."
"Very well Guardsman, see to it that this issue is resolved promptly."
"Yes sir."
As the guardsman left, Mott mutter harshly at the ridiculousness of the situation, "Goblins aren't dangerous. They're cannon fodder for more dangerous enemies. What do I pay these incompetent fools for? "
The Next Day…
The lord of Tarbes was busily casting his magic and blasting the next wave of goblins teleporting in. Really, this was insane. Who ever thought goblins could cast magic and teleport? While Mott might be a noble that usually bought his prestige through bribes or favors, he was no slouch when it came to battle magic. One had to be when one was allied to the Vallière family. That Duchess can be a real shrew when it came to combat.
At the edge of his vision, Mott saw a flash of light. Ah, another goblin mage teleporting in around him. Quickly Mott threw a fireball in that direction to blast the goblin to smithereens. Given how these small creatures were still banging at the doors, it looked like they weren't going to give up for a long while. Their attack started late last night and they still kept coming. Thank god Mott had invested a large sum in these walls.
"We're being overrun! They've tunneled from underneath!"
Apparently, the walls were not enough. He knew he should've also invested in the stone foundation for his mansion. Goes to show you can't prepare for everything.
"They're in the manor, stealin' our food!"
A headache was starting to form as he blasted yet another goblin teleporting past him. This was ridiculous; He and his men must've killed at least a hundred of these vile creatures. You would think these goblin would've been scared off by the initial display of fire magic, but they kept coming. In fact, it seemed they had gotten more aggressive.
"Lord Mott, we must flee! There's too many of them."
"Yes, I can see that." Mott frowned as the next thought occurred to him. Once they'd gotten out, he would need to try and take back his home. Given the size of the goblin force and their ferocity, he wouldn't be able to raise enough people to fight them, even if he forced all the commoners in Tarbes to fight. That was, those that weren't already defending against this invasion. This was going to cost him, but Mott would be damned if he was turned into the laughing stock of the land because some small yellow midgets stole his mansion.
"Guardsman, when we safely get away. I need to send some men to warn our neighbors of a goblin infestation and well as recruit adventurers to fight this." Those creatures would pay alright, they'd pay. Time to fight their way out through the back entrance; thankfully these goblins hadn't been smart enough to surround the mansion.
It was a few days after the last summon attempt. After finishing her breakfast, Louise was out in the Vestri Court practicing her magic. After yet another failed summoning attempt, she had spent most of her nights learning about the magic she had. Now, she'd been trying the effects that her magic had. After a couple of beams, exploding boulders, and landmines; the court looked like a battlefield full of craters and scorch marks.
"Still can't use higher level magicks…" Louise huffed out. It irritated her to no end. Here she was able to conjure up the primal forces of nature, in all their displays of power and grandeur, and she couldn't even make a small rainstorm! Seriously, she couldn't make one small little rainstorm, much less a large thunderstorm. If she couldn't cast anything right now that'd make people look at her with shock and awe, then she'd do it the other way. First she'd need some supplies, and then a big steak.
Siesta was busy cleaning up the mess that Louise made a couple days ago. While that boulder came out of nowhere and generally frightened her, it was nothing compared to the training given by her grandfather. Speaking of training, it was hard work hauling the boulder out without an earth mage, and even harder to sculpt the boulder into smaller pieces with a stick. After a few hours of work, she had finally made enough bricks to rebuild the wall of the classroom. This probably would've taken an earth mage not even an hour to do, if they weren't all taking a vacation. Poor professor Chevreuse.
The unfortunate professor had to take a break after her minor brush with Death. Of course, she wasn't in the direct path like Siesta herself, but it still mortified Chevreuse to suddenly see a wall blown through by a boulder. The instructor of alchemy had wanted to go somewhere peaceful and quiet after that episode. Siesta, being the nice person she was, had suggested that the weary professor head to Tarbes. It's a nice peaceful village with quality wine and it could use more tourists.
Unfortunately there was one thing Siesta forgot to mention before Chevreuse left. She needed to fix the wall. With no other earth mage to rebuild the wall, the maid took it upon herself to rebuild it and with the current tools and materials available.
"-aid" Siesta stopped packing more bricks into a bag. It sounded like someone was calling for her.
"Maid!" a second, louder call followed. It seemed Miss. Vallière was calling for her. Hopefully, it wasn't going to be a troublesome task. A half an hour later, they were on horseback riding toward the capitol. If all went well, they should be back in the evening.
"So Colbert, I've heard so much about Tristrain Academy, but not much about the magic that protects the walls?" Longueville asked as she sipped her wine. At some point during the day, Colbert asked her to lunch. Much to his surprise, she accepted, as she needed more info about the treasury.
"As you know, Tristain's Academy is known for training its students rather well. It is also known for its safety. Back in the days of the founder, this Academy was built to spell against many attacks from small infiltration to large siege." Colbert academically explained.
"Oh, that's impressive, but what about the magic that protect the treasury?" the green haired secretary pushed further.
"I'm afraid I can't say anything about that even if you had permission to catalog the treasury last night."
Longueville pouted and then leaned a bit forward while unbuttoning a couple buttons of her tunic. "I'm sure a cute secretary like myself couldn't possible do anything to the castle walls."
"Well, I guess I can tell a pretty lady like yourself about the magic." Now if she unbutton another button, then he'd see a bit more than a little past the neckline.
Inwardly the thief undercover smirked. If casual conversation didn't work, then sex appeal would. "So about the magic?"
"Oh yes. It protect by an array of spells. It contains the most basic protection against the elements and has a magic surveillance system that Osmond is linked to."
"Surveillance system, wait does that mean Osmond could be watching us and listening?" This was serious, that would mean Osmond might have seen her try to break in the treasury already.
Colbert noticed that Longueville seemed rather alarmed by this tidbit of information. She could be worried about him talking about this forbidden subject, but that didn't seem like it. What could worry this lady so much that she could be insecure about the academy security? Osmond is a rather respectful man, that's better than most people Colbert himself worked under. It's just that Osmond has his quirks with… Oh.
"Well, no. From what I recall, it was an old system that Osmond is currently linked to. He really doesn't know it entirely, just enough to alert him on an empathetic level. In short, for distress or urgency, Osmond can feel it and know where it is at. So no, he can't directly look into the private rooms or the lavatories nor can he directly find someone. Only enough to know where trouble is brewing." That seemed to calm down the women.
Longueville sighed in relief. Thank god that old coot wasn't omniscient. That would have blown her operation straight out of the water from her activities yesterday. It was also a plus that the old man couldn't spy her in her room. "So what about the treasury? I heard some of the greatest of riches are in the guard by this academy."
"Riches? That's ridiculous. While it doesn't hold gold or jewels, the academy does hold items of immense power. One such artifact is the Staff of Destruction and that was such an odd artifact."
"Odd artifact? So you've personally seen it before?"
"Seen it? Hell, I did more than that. I've inspected it and checked it's magical mechnisms?"
"From the name, it must've had a lot of magic?"
"Quite the opposite, I'm not even convinced it has any magic at all after my inspection. I haven't taken it apart, but what I've gleaned from it, it more resembles a musket that Germania's army uses. It's just we haven't figured out where the trigger to active the device is?"
"Oh a non-magical weapon of destruction? Commoner's would love to know about it."
"That's why it's locked in the academy. It's also said that this device can fell a full grown wyrm."
"Enough about the weapon, what about the treasury's protection magic?"
The more and more this conversation is going. The more and more this feels like an interrogation to Colbert. It had been setting off alarms in his head from his shadow service training. Eyeing the women again, the man decided that this secretary must just be curious about it.
"The magic that protects the main tower is even better than the ones that protect the outer walls. It's been said that this academy used to be a magical fortress. Most of its magic is concentrated at the main tower. It enchanted against not only the elements, but against magic itself. It will absorb all the elements of magic, protects even against transmutation, and even, to a lesser extent, against physical force."
"Wow, you make it sound like it has no weakness." Longueville downed her wine. Damn it, it seems that this job is starting to become impossible.
"Weakness? Well there is a couple weaknesses. One is to be a void mage, but as you know there hasn't been one since the founder."
Right, void mage, like she could use the legendary element.
"Or if you had a sufficiently strong golem. Like I said, protection against physical force is the weakest part of the enchantment." Shit, he wasn't supposed to say that. The wine must've been getting to him.
Golem eh? She can definitely work with that. It Looked like another night of scouting was required. This time on the wall's outside, to make sure that the explanation of the defenses was correct.
After depositing their horses at the stable, Louise and her maid left straight for the city. Siesta was admiring her surrounding, while she had worked under lots of nobles, she was normally tending their manor in the middle of nowhere. So rarely did she have a chance to go into Tristain.
"Wait, before I forget." Louise suddenly stopped as she dug into her blue robes for something. Pulling out a brown bag, she held it out for her maid. "Now nobles never carry their money on person. So, here."
"Uh, yes my lady." Siesta said uncertainly. She had never really heard that before. Then again, she never went out shopping with her previous employers. Idly, she wondered where she was supposed to store the bag. It was about half the size of mistress's head and Louise pulled it out of her robes. Who knows how much the small mage kept it concealed in there, and how she had it secured throughout the ride here! Maybe it would be best if mistress held on this-
"Since you're carrying my money, keep it secure and don't let anyone steal it." Louise said, and stalked down the road to her destination.
As soon as her current charge turned around, Siesta had to resist the urge to palm her face. Really, who would say that out loud, in a middle of a busy street? Even she had enough common sense not to say that. Now everyone is going to target the young and defenseless looking maid. Unless… Oh, mistress is tricky. That is some high level thinking and psychology. This bag is probably a decoy and doesn't actually have any money in it. It must be some kind of test to see how effective of a maid she is. Well, no one is getting their hands on this slightly weighty bag. It is just too bad she can't look into it because Louise probably had it enchanted.
A few more turns and a couple streets down, they were going into the ghetto part of town. There was trash piled on the street and stinking up the place. Siesta had warded off around four attempts to steal the bag, in which all of the perpetrators were discreetly disposed of. Honestly, she was expecting more because she deliberately held the bag out like a giant neon sign saying 'steal me'. Speaking of which, here's another thug…
"Okay, we're here. Siesta do you still have the money?" Louise said. It almost sounded like she was expecting it to get stolen, but really, it was an honest question.
"Yes mistress."
Louise looked behind Siesta and saw some disgusting looking commoner passed out in a pile of garbage. "Hmm, last time I was here there wasn't that many drunks pasted out on the side of the street. There has to be about five of them since we left."
"Perhaps something unfortunate happened?" Siesta suggested. Yeah, she could go with drunks instead of thieving thugs.
Louise nodded to herself and agreed. Giving one last look of disgust toward the passed out lowlife, the young mage walked into the store of her destination. The store that'll house her staff, Tristain's Arms.
The store owner of Tristain's Arms was actually quite busy. It seemed there had been an influx in demand for weapons in the past couple of days. Something about a goblin invasion and a noble needing adventurers to exterminate them. He was in the middle of polishing another sword when a blue robed girl walked in. Odd, don't priests wear robes in usually white or brown?
"Whadda ya buyin'?" A customer is a customer and he can't deny profit.
"I'm looking for a staff."
That was a good guess, the shopkeeper congratulated himself with. Priests use staves, swordsmen use swords, and mages used wands. The same could also be said about what they're wearing. "Whacha lookin' fer young lady?"
"Well, I was looking for a magic staff that I could focus my magic with. Do you got anything with level five intelligence enhancement on it"
Focus her magic? Level five intelligence enhancement? What is this girl droning on about? "Now ya see 'ere. This ain't a shop fer toys."
That really set Louise off. Toys? Toys! Did this commoner really think she was a helpless girl that played with dolls all day? Oh she was going to give him a piece of her mind.
As Louise 'negotiations' started with the shopkeeper, Siesta decided to look around the shop. It sparked her interest as she had some formal training in weapons combat from her grandfather. The room was decorated with weapons. Pulling one of the swords from a rack, she gave it a couple of practice swings.
"Hmm, pretty crappy copper broad sword." Siesta murmured to herself. Setting the sword back, she looked at another rack. There was a rusty blade on it. It seemed it hadn't been kept up in a long time. Pulling it out of the rack, she did the same routine with the last sword.
"Good balance, light weight. If I had the money, I'd buy you and clean you up."
"Well, it's been a while since some had a grip this good." The sword said suddenly.
Siesta eeped and dropped the blade. The sword talked. The sword fucking talked. Quickly looking behind her and around her, she could see no one pulling this prank.
"Oy, girl, pick me back up and continue what you were doing. I want to feel the work with your hands on my hilt." Okay, now when the sword thought about it, that was probably a phrase the old man would say.
Slowly, Siesta picked the sword back up. "So Mr. Sword, how are you rusty like this?"
"I've been here because the shop keeper keeps warding people away from me. He hasn't even cleaned me since I arrived here."
"That's too bad, if I had the money I would buy you." It really was a fine blade. She had a couple collections of weapons in her room, but none like this sword. It had some personality to it, no pun intended.
"I have to say, your spitfire buddy of yours that you came in with is starting to make the geezer sweat now."
"You mean mistress Louise, Mr. Sword?"
"That girl is a noble? Well, I wouldn't have guessed it with how she dressed."
"Well she recently started wearing that, perhaps if she wore her cloak outside? How are you able to see anyways, Mr. Sword?" Siesta held the sword up close to see if there are any distinct features that qualify as eyes.
"It's magic, I don't have to explain shit! And call me Derflinger, lady."
Siesta giggled a bit from the last statement. Perhaps she was over-analyzing the sword. She didn't need to KNOW all features of it. "Okay Mr. Derflinger, my name is Siesta."
"Drop the mister, just Derflinger. I think that little lady is just about to finish"
Back at the argument of negotiation of terms, which mostly consisted of calling each other names, the shop keeper decided to pull out the 'You are a loiterer ' card. "Look here brat! I dun deal wit peeps with no money. If you ain't got money, git out!"
"Why you… I'm a noble, is this how you treat nobles?"
"Only noble I see is the princess o' brats!"
"Grrr…" Louise was just about to pull out her wand and show this commoner the nobility of her. Instead, she calmed down. Her father did drill some lesson on showing diplomacy to commoners. Perhaps it's time to use it. Digging into her robes, she pulled out the badge that held her old cloak together. "See, I'm a noble that attends the Tristain Academy of Magic."
The shop keeper took a good look at the badge. It look authentic, the girl did have an arrogant stance to her, and was that a maid behind her? It WAS a maid behind her. Oh shit, this was a noble and she's pulling out a wand. "Noble! Forgive me, I've been good on taxes and my weapons have been of good quality. Please, I have a wife and children to feed!"
Really he didn't, but she didn't know that. It was a line he practiced often; hence none of his improper language appeared. If she was looking for a magic staff then he had something in mind.
"I'll forgive you this once, but only if you find me a staff and five rods of metal."
"I have just the staff for ya. It was brought in from a couple o' adventurers. They said it was from a goblin that wielded magic. Ya believe that, a goblin mage? Not only that, but it was teleportin' with it."
Louise rolled her eyes. Right, Goblin mages. The store keeper went to the back and returned with a black staff with a skull on top of it and five metal bars. "How about something a little less… menancing."
Pulling something from beneath the counter. "Gnarled staff made from the magic oak outside of Tristain?"
"Too generic."
Tough customer to crack. Well, how about this. He pulled out a broom stick from behind him, "The mythical staff broom o' the wicked witch of the west. She used this 'ere broom ta fly around and cast magic against 'er foes. She was unstoppable except 'er weakness against water magic." That gnarled staff had more magic in it than this broomstick did. In fact, this was the broomstick his father had bought one day from a retiring butler. It had no more magic in it than he did in his pinky finger. No one was going to beli—
"Oh, I'll take it."
Scratch that, profit earned is profit deserved. Now how much to charge. Wait, he can probably hustle some more money out of this girl. "Say miss. I see that ya maid isn't armed?"
"So, what's your point?"
"Well, many nobles come in 'ere these days ta arm their servants."
"Why is that?"
"They say t'at there's a famous thief around these parts. Goes by the name of Fouquet. The thief even leaves a calling phrase, 'The item has been duly received.'"
Louise thought about this for a moment. She was kind of a big deal and she had many leather bound books in her room. Hell, with all the cleaning her maid had been doing, her room was starting to smell like a fresh wood. People even knew about her, so the thief actually might steal something from Louise.
"Maid, pick out a sword or weapon. I'll be damned if someone steals from me."
"I have one right here mistress."
Hook, line, and sinker. That maid looked like she was looking at the crappy bin too. This sell looked like it was going too well. Derflinger hasn't even attempted to screw with his business.
Siesta was quite happy when she left the shop. It looks like Louise bought the sword and told her to keep it with her. Now she can clean it up and give it a proper shine. She now didn't care that the pouch of money she was carrying actually had money or that her mistress now carried a broom stick.
"You know, I think your mistress got ripped off!" Derflinger suddenly said.
"What? Who said that?" Louise turned around and saw the talking sword in Siesta's hand.
"I did."
"A talking sword? I haven't heard of a talking sword before…"
"I'm one of a kind baby! As I said earlier, I think you got ripped off."
"What are you talking about? This staff works perfectly fine." Louise conjured up some fire and incinerated a nearby trash pile. "See?"
For a moment, Derflinger stayed silent. "Ha ha ha, I like you girl. It's like the old days with the old man."
"Hrm, well I got a question for you? Do you have plus nine against ogres?"
"Er? If you're asking if I was used against an ogre…. Then yes."
Louise glared at the sword before nodding to herself and turning to Siesta. "Good job, maid. It's an acceptable sword."
"Mistress, I think we should quickly leave now… we're attracting stares."
It was late in the evening and Kirche was in Tabitha's room. Every once in a while Kirche would bother Tabitha because Kirche believed that the bue haired girl needed more of a social life. It didn't hurt that she was also someone that would actively listen to her. Not like those really easily seduced males.
"Have you seen the state of the Vestri Court?"
Tabitha nodded her head and she turned a page in her book.
"Do you what happened?"
The blue haired girl tilted her head slightly as if in thought. "Louise?"
"Well, it certainly matches the destruction. I remember yesterday's practical exam."
Tabitha remembered that too. It was one of the safer practical exams she had taken in a while. All it required was to light a candle.
"I had mine lit up, I just pity the poor fool next to the Zero. " Kirche had to admit though, it had been a pretty impressive flame. It had power the likes of which she had rarely seen. It didn't have the beauty and subtlety like the flames crafted by the Germanian girl though. All in all, Louise did more than just light the candle. "That poor sod, he never saw it coming."
Tabitha nodded in agreement. Those flames did look rather painful, especially with that display of fiery panic he had going. He never stopped, dropped, and rolled until he tripped over something while running in circles. Then he was rolling down to the front of class.
"She even had the gall to say, 'The desk was still functional.'"
Suddenly, Tabitha got up then started to walk out of the room. Something was bothering her familiar. She was going to check it out.
"Wait up, Tabitha. Where are you going?"
"Sylphid."
Back down on ground level, near the wall where the treasury side of the main tower is, there slept a peaceful blue dragon. It had dreams of food and food and food. In fact in her dreams the food was poking and prodding her. It was very ticklish, so it kept giggling. Then suddenly all the food disappeared and it could smell freshly cooked steak nearby.
"Mistress, I don't think this is a good idea." Siesta commented as the giant blue dragon was peacefully sleeping through the poking.
"It'll be fine if it's anything like my mother's manticore then it'll be just like a big dog." Louise continued to poke the dragon with her 'magic broom staff'. The dragon started to stir and grunting in a way that sounded strangely like laughter. "Now wake up!"
With one final poke, the mighty dragon opened its eyes and stretched out its neck to yawn. She looked around and noticed it was fairly dark in the sky, but the light in the Academy grounds made it visible enough for Sylphid to see the mage that was poking her. Sylphid saw that the mage was dressed in blue, the dragon's favorite color, and that the mage had someone standing behind it with a piece of steak. At this point, the mage started to bicker with her friend.
"Mistress Louise, I don't feel comfortable holding this dish."
"Maid quite whining, it not like the dragon is going to eat you."
Siesta was quite certain that the predatory looks in the dragon's eye wasn't for the steak. Before Siesta could express and more concern, Louise started to talk to the dragon.
"Ok dragon, you can have the steak if you fly me up to the tower then back down when I'm done." Louise said as she pointed at the steak on the dish then at the tower.
"Girl, I don't think it can understand complex speech like that." Derflinger said from his resting place on Siesta's back.
Sylphid, completely understanding human speech, nodded and let out a squeal of delight. Only except to them it sounded more like a roar. It was going to get a midnight snack.
"See, I'm never wrong when it comes to this." Louise triumphantly said. When it comes to utilizing other people's familiars, she had all the laws down to get what she wanted from them. From all the practice from Catellya's zoo to mother's manticore, there was only one rule: the rule of food.
"Unless you're here to bribe someone else's familiar to be yours."
"Yes, bribing someone else's- Zerbst!" Louise yelled.
"So here we are Zero, trying to bribe someone's familiar." Kirche mocked as she walked closer to the duo, or trio if you counted the sword. Tabitha was already next to her familiar as she sat down against it and continued to read her book. "That's a new low Zero, I might have to get into the negatives soon."
"I wasn't trying to bribe it to be my familiar!"
"Then what were you trying to do?" The red head raised an eyebrow.
"I needed a ride to the top of the tower…" Louise started.
"Then why can't you use your 'magic' for it." Oh, Kirche is loving this. It has been a while since she could bully the scion of Vallière. Now for her to hear the next part.
"Because my mrmmhmhmh" Louise mumbled.
"What was that? I didn't quite catch that."
"My magic can't do that yet! Alright, I was going to go to the top of the tower and install a weather control array. It was to show I still had useful magic." Louise said while seething.
"Weather control array?" Weather control arrays were never built anymore, they usually did bad things to the environment. If one was lucky. Not to mention, no one has successfully managed to build a controllable version. At least to Kirche's knowledge.
"Yes, it can be done and my book hasn't been wrong so far, I just need to get to the top of the tower." Louise said confidently.
Better let this out of her system now. There can't be anything possible worse than Louise trying to find other methods up the tower. Like that failed alchemy try… Yeah Kirche was doing the academy a favor by supervising the antics of Zero. Now to convince Tabitha.
"Tabitha, could we borrow Sylphid to get to the top." As soon as Kirche finished, see could see Tabitha close her book and nodded. It seemed she had the same idea as the Germanian. Seemed was the key word, in reality, Tabitha was interested in this weather array.
As the three nobles and the maid flew up, they never saw a cloaked figure floating near the treasury wall. The figure felt the wall and the magic coursing through it. "The wall are strong, he was right, I won't be able to use my classic disintegrate the wall and take the staff. There goes plan A."
Fouquet floated upwards to see what those kids were doing. It seemed interesting if she had heard what was yelled below correctly. Weather arrays, like a group of students could possible build one. Dangerous too, it's been said that Albion itself was a weather control experiment with wind stones. Poor fools didn't think about what would happen when large quantities of wind stones were placed in the soil.
At the top of the tower, Louise was busy constructing the weather array. It was already late at night and Osmond had already retired for the evening. It was a good thing too, because the group of students had already pounded five metal rods on the roof and drew the magic circle array. Louise was making the final touches to the circle array.
"You're absolutely positive this is going to work." Kirche asked as she was a bit dubious about the plan. Some of these characters written on the surface didn't even make any sense. 935-apple-115?
"I'm about as sure as yesterday's practical exam."
Tabitha tilted her head then said, "Not reassuring."
"I lit that candle didn't I?"
"You did just more than light the candle alright, you lighted the fear of your magic into that kid next to you." Kirche said as she continued to eye the array.
"If you got any more things to scold me about, it can wait. I'm activating the array." Louise said as she started the activation.
"Wait, shouldn't we get on the ground first before…" Kirche started out but it was too late. The Array shined up as clouds in the sky started to gather.
"No, this is the safest place to be, in the circle." Louise concentrated more.
"That's debatable with you here."
The clouds covered the tower as it started sprinkling. The array was shining brightly as Louise successfully controlled the weather. "See, it works!"
"Yes and we're getting wet. Now turn off the array, you've proven you point." Kirche gritted out. This was a major accomplishment; it was a safe weather control array. The usefulness for such a device ranged from agriculture to military purposes. If Louise was able to replicate this again, then Kirche would no longer be able to call the girl a Zero.
Louise stood there concentrating for a moment before panic started to show on her face. "I… can't turn it off. It's draining magic from the Academy!"
Everyone froze. That couldn't be good.
Fouquet listened to the entire exchange. It was high time that she descended the tower and get to somewhere safe. Before she was able to reach the bottom, the sky started to flash with lightning. Then in a display of grandeur, lightning struck all the outside magic lamps. Every single one of them, cloaking the academy in darkness. The thief placed a hand on the wall and felt the magic rapidly being drained.
"I'm not going to pass a chance like this! Time for some old fashioned golem work." Transmutation wouldn't work in this situation, especially when that crazy weather array was draining magic from the building.
Up on the top of the tower, it was getting crazy. Lightning was sprouting down on every metal rod on the roof. Sylphid was cowering down with her head under her hands hoping for the scary event to disappear. Everyone was trying to think of a way to get down from the tower without getting struck down by the artificial storm. Suddenly the tower shook, and the lightning stopped hitting the roof.
"What was that?" The red head had to ask as that shaking had not been a part of the storm. Yet. All of the girls rushed to the side of the tower and looked down. They could barely make out something from all the flashes of lighting the storm was giving off. It looked like someone made a golem and rammed into the side of the tower, right where the treasury was at. Another flash of lightning and they saw someone hop on the golem from a hole in the wall.
"Thanks kids, the staff of destruction is duly received!" With that, the golem took off sprinting.
Only one person had that kind of phrase. It was Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt. It was the famous thief that even stole from high class nobility with ease. "Quick Tabitha, we need to follow the thief!"
Tabitha only shook her head then pointed at the still flashing sky. "Dangerous."
It also didn't help that the dragon was still scared out of it wits and Louise was in a middle of a panic attack. "My weather array caused the thief to break in the academy vault! I'm going to get expelled!"
Wait, the pink haired mage had a point. They're all going to get expelled since they were now accomplices to the action. It looked like the storm wasn't going to die down for a while. They had time to think of a plan to NOT get expelled.
"Okay, here's the plan. We did not go on the roof. We did not draw this weather array. We certainly did nothing wrong. We were happily chatting away and feeding Sylphid." Kirche commanded with absolute finality. In their minds, they did nothing wrong.
End Chapter 2
AN: Nothing really new about this chapter. This chapter was to set a basis for the Fouquet fight. The next chapter is where things will start to pick up a bit more. I also would like to thank Madork Gunna for beta-ing this.