Tsukaima no Chrono
Chapter 15: A man, woman and rumours of a thief.
As the scene of mayhem set upon a background reminiscent of El-Dorado, the city of gold, continues... Mrs. Chevreuse, the fat lady teacher dressed in purple witches robes and pointy hat regains her composure. Standing up slowly upon shaky legs she shouts out to the rampaging students. "Settle down! Everyone return to your seats!"
Having been ignored by the over excited crowd Chevreuse picks up the wooden mallet resting upon the now pure gold podium and slams the mallet down upon it resulting in a deep dent in the sparkling soft metal surface causing the pebbles resting nearby to jump. From this contact a reverberating "Dong!" sound similar to that which could be found should one be silly enough to stand within the bell at a cathedral knocks everyone over including Chevreuse herself as they try to sooth their pounding ears.
Pulling her wobbly self up upon the podium, Chevreuse shakes the ringing out of her head and decides that the lesson will no longer be salvageable then points her wand towards the pair slumped down on the floor, Louise kneeling with her arms wrapped around Chrono. "Mister and Miss Vallière, come with me to the headmaster's office."
Chevreuse then sweeps her wand over the rest of the class and orders. "The rest of you are to stay here and await our return, please behave yourselves or you will be punished."
Taking the glare that Mrs. Chevreuse gives them as she majestically sweeps around, her cloak billowing from the action, as an indication for them, Chrono and Louise quickly follow her out of the classroom.
The trio soon arrive outside the headmaster's office at the top of the centre spire where they witness a middle aged man with a pompous hairdo and long curly moustache dressed in puffy pants and stockings speaking with a young green haired glasses wearing woman in a short blue dress. Staring condescendingly towards the woman's chest the man asks. "Would you care to have a meal with me sometime, Ms. Longueville?"
The woman now identified as Ms. Longueville has a startled look of realisation that is quickly replaced by a smile and blush even as her own hands are instantly placed in a protective position above her breasts answers. "It would be an honour, Count Mott."
The man now identified as Count Mott replies with a smile. "I will be eagerly anticipating it." Longueville then bows as Mott leaves, Chevreuse and Louise bowing as well as he passes by with Chrono following their lead.
As soon as the Count is out of view, Longueville lets out a hmph with a disgusted look on her face, noticing Chevreuse and two students, she changes her tune and asks with a smile. "Are you here to see the headmaster?" Chevreuse nods which prompts Longueville to continue. "Please wait a moment while I check if he's available." Longueville then enters the headmaster's room.
Chrono tugs on Louise's sleave and asks. "Who was that Count Mott person, why did we have to bow to him?"
Louise answers. "He's an important man from the palace, a representative of the royal family. You will learn more about the necessary etiquette and relationships when we travel to our home in a month's time."
The pair quickly stop chattering as Chevreuse sends them a quieting look, indicating a bench where they then go sit and wait patiently. From the direction of the door muted noises resembling conversation can be heard as Chrono secretly eavesdrops from his position next to Louise with his enhanced hearing.
"So, what impossible task has the Palace assigned to us now?" the voice Chrono identifies as Longueville's questions.
A squeaky old man's voice that Chrono assumes is the headmaster's then answers. "Oh, he just came to advise us to be careful of a thief."
"Thief?" Longueville enquires.
The male voice answers in an amused tone. "Recently there has been a thief named Fouquet who has been stealing treasures from nobles using magic and causing a commotion amongst the public."
"Are you talking about Fouquet the crumbling dirt?" Longueville responds.
The male voice then explains. "Well, our institution is taking care of the palace's sacred artefact, the Staff of Destruction."
'Staff of Destruction?' Is that a 'Lost Logia'? Chrono thinks in the pause after the explanation as he hears this but concentrates as the conversation begins again.
"Staff of Destruction? What a vicious name..." Longueville comments.
The male voice continues at the prompt. "I don't care how powerful Fouquet is but our treasure room has been fortified by multiple square class mages, there is no need to worry." Referring to his knowledge from today's failed lesson, Chrono thinks. I guess they would be pretty assured of this Staff of Destruction's safety since a square is their highest known level of magic.
Chrono then hears a squeal from Fouquet followed by the male voice begging "Wait... Wait... Wait!" followed by a pained scream and sounds of glass breaking which startled not just him but causing Louise and Chevreuse to look at the door. Something solid then dropped hard onto the floor.
Hearing a disgusted hmph from Longueville similar to the one she let out when Count Mott left, he hears her say. "By the way, Chevreuse is waiting outside to see you with two students."
Sounds which are similar to a person climbing back into their seat can be heard and the male voice groans and answers. "Very well, send them in." confirming Chrono's suspicions that this was the headmaster.
The door then swings open slightly, revealing Longueville. "Sir Osmond will see you now." she tells the waiting trio.
As the door opens to its full extension, deep within the room was an old man with long white hair, eyebrows and beard, similar to the style depicted of Merlin fingers interlaced sitting with his elbows propped on his elegantly built sequoia desk, looking unbearably bored.
This would have been everything expected of the headmaster of an ancient magic institute, excepting the fact that there was a big circular red bruise sprouting comically on his forehead upon the background of a broken window.
Author's notes.
Hello all, hoped you liked TnC Chapter 15. It's been awhile since I last wrote and I apologise to those who I disappointed. Life however can drain you, so that's my excuse. This was a short chapter, and chapters will stay short while I get back into the hang of writing again. As this was a setup chapter, it wasn't filled with any comical references but I'd like to answer some reviews that have popped up during my hiatus.
drinker While I agree that Chrono is quite a strong character in the original and that he definitely won't normally stand back and be subservient as is shown when he throws Graham's plans out the window in A's. It's because Chrono is so level headed that he isn't fighting the familiar contract and that the prime directive has to stay. If technically advanced magic societies either didn't have the morals of those without magic or weren't scared of the impact. There would be no need for magical area barriers to hide the effects of a magical battle. If the end of A's shows anything, It shows that Chrono stands by TSAB's ideals.
YuriFan5 It's definitely not okay from our economic standpoint for gold to be reproduced given that it is used as the reserve in our universe. Should it be abundantly produced with any sort of regularity it will then lead to the devaluation of everything up to a point where it is abandoned as a reserve.
However in the end, gold is just another resource and pricing in a capitalist society is just the demand/supply market equilibrium. It will not be a problem in the ZnT/MGLN universes simply due to the amount of demand/supply, it is impossible due to the amount of magic required to supply enough to devalue the mineral by any real amount. For example, any of our currencies here will be completely worthless other than as paper to the people in this story.
Maimakterion You would be correct that it would be out of character for TSAB enforcers to hold back magic in cases where it doesn't directly compromise their mission, in fact even in Star Trek where I pulled the reference from, in such situations it can be ignored. However in the view of TSAB, the magic in Halkeginia definitely cannot be considered high magic and is pathetically primitive comparatively.
Hope to see you all next chapter and please welcome James Ray Edwards as my new editor.