Tsukaima no Chrono
Chapter 8: Breakfast of course! Calm down Chrono!
"84…85…86…" A soft voice probably belonging to a young adolescent boy considering the way it changes pitch every so often is heard by a maid carrying a basket full of clean and neatly folded clothes as she walks along the corridor.
The corridor in question is on the third floor of the main building of the Tristein Kingdom Magic Academy and if you haven't figured out by now, the maid is Siesta. Could Miss Vallière be awake already? Wonder what she's making Chrono count? Is her thought as she approaches the door leading to the room of the inhabitants in question.
Opening the door as she reaches it, she is greeted by the sight of bright morning sunlight streaming through the room's only window with Louise still sleeping soundly on her bed, answering her first question. Looking for clues to placate her other curiosity, she looks down at Chrono's haystack, where the previously chained up Chrono should be. Yes, in Siesta's mind, this haystack now belongs to Chrono and finds him doing push ups, in the manly manner, with knees held off the ground. Her ever present smile widening(1), Siesta puts down the basket of clothes gently and shuffles quietly over to Chrono who seems to have not noticed her entry into the room as he continues his push ups.
Chrono had in fact noticed her approaching presence before she had even reached the doorway, but was determined to get at least the 100 push ups in his daily training regimen done before responding to her. Turning his head to face her after his 100th push up, Siesta's hand that was aiming to rub the top of his head, ended up rubbing his cheek causing him to lose balance and to collapse onto the pile of hay, cheek first. Spitting out a few strands of hay that had made it into his mouth due to the impromptu descent, Chrono glares angrily at Siesta. "What did you do that for?"
Chrono shakes his fist as he stands up to face her. Unperturbed by his outburst, maybe she's used to dealing with males younger than her, Siesta replies fondly. "I couldn't help it! You looked so cute with that determined look on your face. I wish my little brothers were as disciplined when they were your age."
Glomping(2) him again like she did earlier this morning, it dissipates Chrono's rage as he is once again suffocated in between her mammaries and stunned.
Letting him go, Siesta heads for the basket of clothing she had placed down earlier and retrieves two sets of lingerie, a white collared shirt and a short, pleated black skirt. "Here are Miss Vallière's clothes. If you need to get anything else washed for her, please come find me on campus, I'll be happy to show you where and how to wash them."
Receiving no response from Chrono, due to him being dazed, she drapes the folded clothing on top of his head, picks up the basket and walks out of the room, closing the door silently behind her.
Regaining his senses, Chrono takes the clothing off his head and walks towards the poster bed where Louise is still sound asleep. I've been having mind blanks a lot this past day haven't I? Don't know if it's the environment or the people. The number of times I've been blasted or suffocated recently can't be good for my health.
Ripping off the blanket off Louise's sleeping form in one quick motion. Chrono roughly shakes her causing her to slowly open her eyes. Stretching, Louise glances unfocused at Chrono's face and asks in lethargic surprise.
"Oh? Who are you?"
Dumping the neatly folded pile of clothes Siesta gave him onto Louise's chest, he says in a disgruntled tone. "Here, your clothes."
Staring uncomprehendingly at the pile of clothing on her chest, she lets out a dumbfounded enquiry. "Huh?"
Chrono explains firmly, placing his hands on his hips in a stern manner as he does so. "You told me to prepare them in the morning didn't you?"
Sleepily Louise rubs her eyes and sits up on her bed, comprehension dawning she turns her head to face Chrono.
"Oh yeah, my familiar. I summoned you yesterday." Louise states in a slow and soft tone as if clarifying this information to herself.
Holding up the chain that still connected his neck to the poster bed as Louise gets out of bed begins to put on her underwear, Chrono asks. "Hey, can you take this off already?"
Louise answers with a direct. "No!"
In response to this blatant rejection to freeing him, Chrono then emphasises with an angry tirade. "I won't run away! I told you that I wasn't running away many times already. Where am I meant to run? I'm not even from this place!"
Raising her voice in annoyance, Louise replies while pegging her folded school uniform at him. "Fine! I got it!"
Catching the pile of clothing, Chrono asks in confusion, his voice still tinged with anger. "What the?"
With her facial expression neutral, Louise commands. "Dress me!"
Chrono angrily replies. "Do it yourself!"
Scrunching up her face in anger, Louise replies in an argumentative tone. "When there is a servant, a noble never puts on their own clothes!"
Noble? She's probably another one of those rich arrogant people like that playboy Guiché that think they own everything. This attitude is probably why she's the class loser!
Out loud, Chrono matches Louise's tone and rhetorically asks. "What do you mean, noble? Stop being so spoiled!"
Cutting off anything else Chrono might've said, Louise spitefully turns her head to the side and says. "Fine, then no breakfast for you! I won't take off the chain either."
Realising his own position and the futility of arguing with Louise, Chrono gives up and dresses Louise.
After finishing the last touches of her uniform, draping Louise's uniform cape around her shoulders, Chrono holds up the chain binding him and states grumpily. "You promised!"
Looking at Chrono as if displeased with his attitude, Louise produces a key from within her uniform cape.
"Guess there's no choice." Louise says and moves up to Chrono, bending down as to give her a better view and to access the lock on the strap around his neck.
There was a key! Why did I never think to look for the key? Chrono mentally berates himself.
Thinking that Chrono was staring at her while he thought this, Louise asks. "What?"
Realising that he had been staring at Louise, Chrono answers. "Ah, nothing at all!"
Throwing the strap and chain off to the side as she manages to undo the lock, then walking off towards the door, Louise commands. "Let's go!"
Surprised, Chrono asks. "Huh? Where to?"
Turning around to face him, Louise answers as if talking to someone who was criminally stupid. "Breakfast of course!"
Louise then walks out, Chrono quickly following her.
The meal room is a grand hall with chequered marble floors, exquisite golden chandeliers filling the room with light hanging from the ceiling and three very long wooden tables easily 50 meters in length and around 2 meters wide side by side running through the centre. Even with these monstrous dining tables occupying it as well as large stone statues lining the walls, there was still so much floor space and with the ceiling high, it gave off a sense as if you were in something truly amazing. Seated at the tables were many young people dressed in the same style of uniform as Louise creating a rumble of mixed voices similar to those found in school cafeterias almost anywhere. It is to this scene that the great doors at one end of the hall open, letting in Louise followed closely by Chrono. Eyes from most everyone who were seated there followed the pair in amusement and curiosity, causing the ambient noise to increase as rumours and hearsay was spread around. Typical of what was being said about the pair, the buxom redhead, Kirche Zerbst explains the commotion to the blond haired blue eyed Montmonrency. "Here they are. The rumoured run away familiar and his master…"
Walking along the long row of seats that line the tables within the meal room, Louise suddenly stops next to an empty chair and closes her eyes as if waiting for something, letting Chrono look upon the table.
What a waste of food, they can't possibly finish all of this. These rich kids really have no idea how many families they can feed with this. Chrono thinks, shaking his head at the amount of expensive looking food on the table.
Ah well, who am I to complain if I get to eat this. His stomach growling since he did not eat lunch or dinner yesterday, Chrono's thoughts are interrupted as one of Louise's eyebrows start twitching in annoyance, tired of waiting.
Impatiently Louise says. "Hurry up and pull out the chair! It's discourteous of you."
Looking at Louise and answering, "Ok, ok…" Chrono realises what she is referring to and pulls out the chair for her to sit in.
Guess some customs are consistent through multiple cultures. I remember asking why Admiral Graham did this for mother whenever he went with us to a formal dinner, he said it was politeness or something.
Seeing an empty chair next to Louise and oblivious to the curious stares from others around them, Chrono pulls it out and sits in it, trying to remember the customs for the usage of the many utensils similar to those Admiral Graham had taught him to use. A tap on his shoulder interrupts, causing him to look at Louise who had a mixture of disgust and exasperation on her face. She was also pointing downward at the floor. Not knowing what she wanted, his gaze follows the direction she indicated where he finds a slightly cracked plate. Studying the plate, Chrono says. "I didn't break it, I haven't even touched anything yet!"
Louise then explains firmly. "Only nobles can sit here. A commoner like you sits on the floor…"
Hearing this, Chrono stands up and exclaims in surprise "No way!" causing giggles to erupt around them.
Looking around and sighing, he does as he was told and waits, sitting there.
The hall having filled up by now, the seat Chrono vacated now occupied by someone else.
The students of the academy had begun to recite what seemed to be a before meal prayer. "To our great founder Brimir and the queen, her highness, I am gratefully thankful for your modesty."
Modest! This piece of bread they gave me is what's modest! Chrono thinks.
As the so called nobles start their meal, Chrono picks up the tiny piece of bread in question and bites into it. The bread is so tough, it causes tears to form due to the amount of strength he needed to tear it apart with his jaws.
Calm down Chrono! He thinks to himself, but what he really wanted to do was to blast everyone there into dust for this outrage!
-Author's Notes-
Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed TnC Chapter 8. A slightly longer chapter, but I got too excited. There were two points that if I couldn't find a way to insert that wouldn't have disrupted the flow of the story.
(1) I wanted to make a reference to the manga 'Hayate no Gotoku' here. According to this, the way to portray the spirit of a true maid is to always have a smile at all times, fake or not.
(2) The second point is the word glomp, it isn't actually an English word, but readers of anime fanfiction will be very familiar with it. It means a big strangling full body hug, usually one that is inescapable.
On another note, I've gone back and edited where applicable, Tristein, to Tristain since the Kingdom of Tristain is in the country of Tristainia. I've noticed that I've used both spellings, so I did this for consistency.
Thank you to Skurosagi for giving me my first review, although it was short and not particularly useful to improving the story, it was positive so it was much appreciated.
As a final word, I have finally managed to get two affirmative responses from people on ffnet to beta-read for me. While they haven't done so yet, please welcome Ms. Chidori Sagara and Seigetsu Ren. They have other commitments such as real life and their own stories, but look forward to an improvement when they become active in editing my story. Sorry for the long authors note and thank you for reading. See you next chapter!