A/N: All content to their rightful owners. Nothing really to say, without further ado...
…
Jean walked into his dorm and closed the door. He had just come back from being healed in the medical wing. Gaston's fist had struck Jean on his right cheek and he had to admit he felt it. The nurse had given Jean a tonic for his pain but he wouldn't need it, it was only a bruise.
Turning the lock, Jean slumped against his door and let out a great sigh. Sensing no one was watching, he allowed himself to grin. Then chuckle and eventually to burst out laughing.
He had done it! Ha! And much faster than previously predicted. The twins had played right into his plan, and that foolish Gaston! Oh the boy had made it so easy. Although it was a shame, Jean thought that he had to disrespect a man of Saito's esteem. In fact one might say Jean respected Saito- and that's saying something, Jean rarely respected anyone. But this was the man that was summoned as a familiar (a group with less standing than the commoners) and refused to bow to the nobles. This was a man who started life as a servant and charged his way to the top- or so the rumors went. So when Jean's superiors informed him that he was specifically chosen for a covert mission to gain information on the mysterious common-noble, he was more than happy to oblige.
Jean's mission: To uncover all information on Saito Hiraga. Information such as origins (homeland, relatives), formal training, means of achieving noble status and everything else he could find, no matter how insignificant. But Jean's mission had a second and much more confidential objective, substantiate rumors.
Twenty eight years ago the Western-most half of Romalia was attacked by feral dragons. Pope Vittorio Seravere was able to save Romalia but lost his life in the process. This was what the public was told but the rebellion's sources told otherwise. Apparently, the previous king of Gallia summoned an ancient dragon which Saito had defeated.
So Jean was sent to the Tristain Academy of Magic with the mission of gaining access to Saito via his children. Jeans superiors gave him full reign of the mission with very few restrictions so the planning was up to him. Jean was originally going to befriend the twins, gain their trust and infiltrate the Hiraga estate. But this morning, when he saw the buffoons bickering about nonsense an idea struck him. Jean could provoke them into a much more... conversational state. It was an exciting thought, manipulating the intelligence impaired into doing his bidding. And for some reason he'd been feeling much less uptight lately.
It was risky, he knew. Yet somehow he felt like being risky. Almost all Jeans life he had let logic and reason rule his decisions. But lately, as Jean learned more about the heroes of old, he began to see that the most successful sieges, missions and plans were those that hung by a thread. So Jean found himself taking a chance.
Jean immediately identified Gaston as the more hot-headed of the two and focused his taunts toward him, knowing he'd take the bait. So now as he reflected upon his actions, Jean was content that the plan was going so smoothly.