Tsukaima no Chrono
Chapter 14: Chrono, we're rich!
Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, one would deduce that the current time would be around midday or slightly after. In this clear bright scenery within the walls of what looks like a castle with a tall spire in the middle, we see Louise dragging Chrono by the hand as they walk along one of five covered pathways that lead from the centre spire towards the five outer towers situated at each of the corners of the pentagonal boundary wall.
"Hurry up Chrono!" Louise states as she walks at a quick pace.
"We can't be late for this class." Louise then shudders , her cheeks reddening, as if remembering something of particular embarrassment.
"Wonder why she's so concerned about this class?" Chrono thinks as he struggles to match Louise's pace, it's not that he can't outrun her, but being dragged along, matching her pace despite the difference in their leg lengths was causing him trouble.
Out loud Chrono asks as they enter the darkness of the earth elemental tower at the end of the pathway and begin to head up the stone steps within. "What will we be learning here?"
Louise replies briefly with her free arm clenching into a fist. "Alchemy, The teacher's name is Mrs. Chevreuse. Anyway, we've arrived." Louise then pushes open the wooden door that led to the classroom that was their destination and they both went into the light that shone from it.
After their eyes readjusted to the light, Chrono and Louise were greeted to the sight of a classroom arranged in a similar fashion to most modern day university lecture theatres on Earth. Being made completely out of stone, the podium was at the lowest point in the classroom on which stood a wooden lectern with the seats being arranged in a semi circle facing it as they climbed upwards like stairs. In front of each row of seats were wooden tables, each wide enough for a pair of people to sit in front of. The windows above them situated in the surrounding wall letting in generous amounts of light. The door which they entered being at the highest level.
Soon the students that occupied said classroom noticed the pair and silence quickly descended from the noise that was present only moments prior as everyone turned their heads towards the new arrivals. As everyone studied them, Chrono took the chance to study everyone else in return while he and Louise walked towards the seats, taking note of how Kirche, whom he recognised having met her earlier, was surrounded by a group of boys that had their upper torsos leaning towards her. "Oh... with that figure of hers, it's not surprising that she has that many boys wrapped around her finger, she's probably like a queen among that group and that must be Flame, her salamander curled up underneath her chair."
Taking in a larger view of the entire room, he observed all the familiars that the students had brought with them, the many owls that sat upon their owners shoulders, the bug bear that had given him a fright before, ravens, cats and even the rare six legged lizard that was a Basilisk. Looking out one of the windows, Chrono saw a giant snake peeking in that was quickly called away by a whistle as the owner realised Chrono was studying it. Then surprisingly Chrono caught a glimpse of something he didn't actually recognise. Tugging on the hand that was still holding his, Chrono caught Louises attention, unaware of how that made him look and asks. "What is that octopus like thing?"
Taking a look towards the direction Chrono was facing, she identifies the creature he was referring to. "That's a Skua." She answers in a bored tone as she sits down in front of Montmorency, the blonde that Chrono remembered Guiché flirting with. Indicating the seat beside her she commands. "Sit, class is about to start."
Heading over, Chrono thinks. "Whoever designed this place must have been a pervert. Anyone can see directly up the skirts of the girls sitting behind them."
As Chrono sits down beside Louise, the classroom became a flurry of action with the majority of the female population excepting Kirche and the blue haired girl sitting near her began to surround the pair. Comments and questions bombarded Chrono and Louise consisting of:
"Wah, he's so cute." Came from a girl who immediately pulled him off his seat and into a hug.
"He's so handsome." Came from a small girl who instantly started pinching his cheeks.
"So he's the one who defeated Guiché." A plain looking girl sitting directly behind Chrono said.
"He looked so brave and heroic!" Gushed a blonde with a green bow in her hair.
"I heard he got adopted as a Vallière." A brunette sitting in front asked Louise.
This was quickly followed by, "Where is he from?"
"He's your little brother now?"
"Did you figure out which nation he is from?"
All of this caused the pair to become dumbfound and speechless, unable to comprehend or prepare any answers and although some girls had the decency to ask. "Can I touch him?" Nobody actually waited for a reply with Chrono finding his cheeks pulled, his hair ruffled, hugged, kissed and rubbed all over as unbeknownst to him the males in the class gave dirty looks in his general direction.
Being assaulted with questions and having to watch Chrono be molested, an angry vein popped on Louises forehead quickly followed by an angry outburst.
"Stop it!" Louise shouted as she was promptly ignored.
Waving her arms wildly didn't seem to draw any attention either as she screamed. "Leave my little brother alone! He's my familiar!"
Having continued for around five minutes Louise loses all her patience and looking outside a bright light, dwarfing the midday sun briefly shone like beams out through the windows of the tower. A loud bang was heard. Once again looking inside the classroom, silence has once again descended, leaving a soot covered Chrono, Louise and the girls surrounding him with various parts of their clothing missing, bodies scratched and burnt with their hairstyles changed into afros.
Montmorency who was also caught in the blast since she was sitting directly behind Louise, trembled in barely suppressed rage as she cast a spell. "You should all cool down!" she stated as her burnt eyebrows twitched. A flood of water descending from above the group like a waterfall, drenched the group and they all found their minor injuries healed and hair straightened if waterlogged.
At this moment the door to the classroom opened again and the teacher, a middle-aged woman dressed in a voluminous purple robe and wearing a hat with a plump, round face with a friendly expression entered. Looking to and fro between the two groups surrounding Kirche and Louise, then looking at the other students who seemed to be cowering under their tables for cover, she clears her throat and in a polite but authoritative tone says. "Everyone return to your seats please.
The students having returned to their seats and the woman having stepped down to the lectern, she gazes around the classroom with a satisfied smile and spoke. "Well, everyone, it seems that the Springtime Familiar Summoning was a great success. I, Chevreuse, always enjoy seeing the new familiars that are summoned each spring."
Chrono felt a stare and the teacher Chevreuse continued. "My, my. You've summoned quite a... peculiar familiar, Miss Vallière,"
The comment was fairly innocent, but the classroom exploded with laughter and a male voice shouted out. "Louise the Zero! Don't go around grabbing tourists randomly off the street just because you can't summon anything! Think about Tristain's reputation!"
At this insult, Louise immediately stood up from her seat, her long pink hair billowing behind her as she raised her cute voice in anger. "No! I did everything properly! Chrono was who appeared!"
"Don't lie! I bet you couldn't even cast 'Summon Servant' properly, right?" The male voice called out once again.
The other students chuckled.
"Mrs. Chevreuse! I've been insulted! Malicorne the 'Common Cold' just insulted me!" Louise protested as she banged her fist against the tabletop.
"Common cold? I'm Malicorne the Windward! I haven't caught any cold!" the male now identified as Malicorne retorted.
"Well, your hoarse voice sounds exactly like you've caught one!" Louise shot back.
The boy called Malicorne stood up and glared at Louise. Chevreuse pointed at them with the wand in her hand. The two suddenly jerked about like puppets on a string and rigidly sat back down. "Miss Vallière, Mister Malicorne. Please stop this unnecessary argument."
Louise looked visibly dejected. All the vivacity that she'd shown just earlier seemed to have evaporated.
"Calling friends 'Zero' or 'Common Cold' is not acceptable. Do you understand?" The teacher scolded.
"Mrs. Chevreuse, I'm only called that as a joke, but for Louise, it's the truth." popped out from Malicorne.
A few giggles broke out from somewhere.
Chevreuse looked around the classroom with a severe expression. She pointed her wand again, and, as if from nowhere, the mouths of the students who'd giggled were suddenly filled with lumps of red clay. "You people shall continue the lesson in that state." she said, which put a firm stopper on any further outbursts.
Looking pointedly now at Chrono, Mrs. Chevreuse smiled gently at him. "Mister Vallière is quite welcome as a student here."
Chevreuse coughed heavily and waved her wand. A few pebbles materialized on the lectern.
"My Runic name is 'Red Clay.' Chevreuse the Red Clay. This year, I will be teaching you all the magic of the Earth element. Do you know the four great elements of magic, Mister Malicorne?" asked Chevreuse.
"Y-Yes, Mrs. Chevreuse. They are Fire, Water, Earth and Wind." stuttered Malicorne.
Chevreuse nodded. "And combined with the now-lost element of 'Void,' there are five elements in total - as everyone should already know. Of the five elements, I believe Earth holds an extremely important position. This isn't just because my affinity is Earth, nor is it simply a personal preference."
Once again, Chevreuse coughed heavily.
"The magic of Earth is very important magic that governs the creation of all matter. If it wasn't for Earth magic, we wouldn't be able to produce or process necessary metals. Raising buildings from large boulders and harvesting crops would also involve much more work. In this manner, the magic of the Earth element is intimately related to everyone's life."
"As I suspected, people use magic to do any task, even the most common of building and production tasks on this world. No wonder all the mages here have an inflated sense of self importance. The entire population is almost unable to survive without them." Chrono notes in disapproval to himself as he hears this but turns back to listen to Mrs. Chevreuse's lecture.
"Now, everyone, please recall that the basic magic of the Earth element is 'transmutation'. While there will be people here who have already learned this in their first year and since our last lesson was unexpectedly cut short, basics build foundations, so let's review it once more."
Chevreuse turns her attention to the pebbles and twirled her wand over them and whispers a spell causing them to glow brightly. When the light dimmed away, the pebbles had been changed into sparkling lumps of metal.
"As I have said to Miss Zerbst last lesson. This isn't gold. It's plain brass. Only Square-class mages are able to transmute to gold. I'm just..." Chevreuse gave a self-important cough. "A Triangle mage..."
"As we are once again covering the basics we shall go through this as well. Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. By combining several of these elements you can create more powerful spells with different effects and our levels as mages depend on the number we can combine. Just what are these levels?" Chevreuse asks.
"Go ahead." Chevreuse gestures at Montmorency who has raised her hand.
Standing up proudly as she brushes a strand of hair over her shoulder, Montmorency answers. "If you can combine two, you are a line. Three, a triangle. Four and you will be called a square."
Chrono laughs at that statement internally, stifling a giggle that sounded like a sniffle causing Louise to look at him worriedly."Oh. Being able to combine any element for any situation in infinite combinations is the basis for the magic circles that most advanced magic capable societies use. If we use the number of vertices in shapes to describe how many elements we can combine, I guess I'm a circle then, only the infinite vertices of a circle can properly describe a Midchildan mage. Who would want to be called a square anyway?"
"I believe most of you can only use one but..." Chevreuse says before she is interrupted by Kirche who speaks out aristocratically. "Mrs. Chevreuse, mind my words, but there is still a student that is unable to use a single element without a success rate of zero."
Every pair of eyes in the classroom excluding Chevreuse's and Chrono's then stared accusingly at Louise. "Ah so that's where Louise's Zero nickname came from, I thought it was due to her always causing explosions due to her elemental affinity to anti-matter."
Finally noticing the reference, Chevreuse says while laughing apologetically as if having a painful memory. "Well, anyhow, please try your best to get to higher classes. Let us continue on from our last lesson."
"Can anyone other than Miss Vallière come and demonstrate the transmutation spell for us?" Chevreuse says as she waves her wand causing another three pebbles to appear.
Louise hurriedly interrupts. "Mrs. Chevreuse, please let me demonstrate, I will not make any mistakes this time!"
The entire class including Chrono then shouts "No!" causing some of the other students to look at Chrono in surprise. While he knew better and did not agree that Louise couldn't use any element properly, despite not being around for the last lesson, he could pretty much guess it ended in an explosion and should Louise attempt the spell, this one wouldn't end any differently.
Taking advantage of everyone else's shock. Chrono raises his hand and asks. "May I try?"
Hearing this the rest of the class gained nervous expressions, while some have seen Chrono successfully use magic in his duel against Guiché, he was still the familiar of Louise the Zero.
Mrs. Chevreuse's expression could literally be seen changing throughout the spectrum as she weighed up the possibility of another semester long stay in the medical ward and her duties as a teacher. Eventually, her pride as a noble won out and she nodded at Chrono. "Mister Vallière please demonstrate the transmutation spell for us. The key words for this spell are leru-vin-ya(1). Please think strongly about the metal you wish to form through alchemy."
Closing his eyes as a large proportion of the class dive down below their tables Chrono waves the wand that was given to him by Louise as they left her room. He pauses as he thinks of a metal to change the pebbles to. "Guess it should be bronze since that's what the teacher did, hmm what was that like?"
Having trouble visualizing the metal Chrono opens his eyes and takes a look at the pebbles on the lectern, the previous bronze ones having disappeared. Having no reference Chrono closes his eyes again and decides. "Guess I'll do this atom by atom then. Hmm, I think it had 79 protons and neutrons with an electron structure of [Xe] 4f142 5d10 6s1 and a relative atomic mass of 197. Ok, got it!"
With this image in mind, he recites "leru-vin-ya." and points his wand towards the pebbles on the lectern. A flash of light envelops the area causing all in the room to cover their eyes, many of those who haven't already done so diving under their tables as they expected an explosion.
The light clears and Chrono looks at the pebbles and feels ashamed of himself. "How could a mage like me fail a spell from a backward society like this?"
Out loud he starts to apologize, missing the gasps that come from the many students in the room. "Sorry Mrs. Chevereuse, I..." He was then interrupted by a very excited Kirche. "Wow, he just turned the entire room into bronze!"
Touching the walls of the classroom in disbelief, Mrs. Chevreuse looked like she was about to have a heart attack and yelled out loudly with awe in her voice "NO MISS ZERBST, THIS ISN'T BRONZE, THIS IS PURE GOLD..."
Mrs. Chevreuse slides down onto the floor as she no longer had the power to stand, The many classmates of Louise and Chrono running around and rubbing the walls in excitement. Money signs appearing in Louise's eyes, she runs down to Chrono and spins him around while hugging him to her chest. "Chrono, we're rich!"
-Authors Notes-
Hello all, hope you enjoyed chapter 14 of TnC. This didn't turn out as funny as I imagined it would be, personally I think I made the chapter too long, anyways I can always edit it later, along with all the fixes I still have to make to the previous chapters.
Only one point this chapter:
(1) no idea if I got the incantation to the spell right.
Thanks for the reviews as usual all.
Le loup de Kaiser I have more than just lost logia from MGLN appearing in this story, that will still be awhile away however since I will be straying much further away from the cannon arcs of ZNT than my original plan.
GeshronTyler I have seen all the series and read all the night novels, the manga basically follows the anime with only a few extra clarifications, at this point I am merging major portions of both the light novels and the anime, so there will be surprises to even those that think they know ZNT well.
Cooly people like you and Le loup de Kaiser are almost reading my mind, If I could request it without breaking the guideline agreement. I'd want someone to take this idea off me and develop it, but a challenge is against the rules.
Aleh Thank you for the clear expression of paragraph breaks. I will be going back to my previous chapters to add them while I correct the other mistakes I've noticed.
Hope to see you all next chapter.