"Good evening, Songflir"
"Songflir?" I ask "just who are you?"
"Oh, where's my manners, I am Jean Colbert, a professor at this academy" Colbert? Wait that's the guy Longueville…! I reach for my Driver "Calm Down, I am not an enemy, you are curious about your runes, are you not?"
"I'm guessing Fouquet told you about me?" he nods
"Yes, and that's what your runes mean, Songflir, 'Spirit of God' I look at my left hand
"Spirit of God?" I question, the Professor pulls out a little black book
"Yes, a rare rune, it's the only known branch Rune to Gundolf and the Gandálfr"
"Branch rune?"
"Well, Gandálfr, also known as the 'Left Hand of God', is a legendary type of familiar, with only one known familiar of this type, that being of the legendary Founder Brimir's"
"Huh, If you don't mind me asking, who's Brimir?" I ask
"Brimir, is the only known Void mage. His descendants are the royal families of Tristain, Albion, Gallia. Romalia thus is why he is called the Founder" I tilt my head
"So my runes are pretty powerful?" he nods
"Quite, as the name implies, you fatigue slower and even gain stamina in pinches, we don't know much else other than it's in and outs, since there has only ever been 6 Songflir's, well I guess that's 7 now, even then you're the only modern Songflir"
"You could of fooled me, the moment the battle ends I feel exhausted" Colbert scratches his chin
"That's one of the outs, see Songflir is a bit of a double-edged sword, the more Songflir gives, the more it takes away, and if you're in poor condition Songflir can suppress it, but only so much" I think back to earlier today against the Golem "Most Songflir's end up an athlete or in the military" I scratch my head
"I'm guessing by that you mean that Humans mainly get the Songflir runes… that's how it works right?" he nods, I sigh "So I'm some legendary hero or something?" Colbert shakes his head
"While exceedingly powerful, the Masters of Songflir's haven't done anything to exceptional… and your master is Valliere and… well, I think you are aware of her Magic Quotient"
"Are you calling my master defective?" I ask, more menacingly than intended
"No, not at all" the professor smiles "Well, have a good evening" he says as he leaves
"Songflir, huh?" I sigh as I lay down on my hay, I stretch and yawn eventually falling asleep
I find myself next to Louise before the princess in a private audience, why? I'm not entirely sure, since I woke up at some point on the ride here…
The princess Henny… Hennytita… the princess stands with a scepter in hand and walks towards us
"Congratulations and well done, Louise Françoise" Louise bows her head
"Thank you, your highness, but I'm really not worthy of the honor of such a wonderful title as Chevalier"
"But what you've achieved has made you worthy, you led the capture of the thief that's had the palace up arms for a while now" the princess turns to me "And you too have earned my thanks, trustworthy familiar" I rub my eyes
"Oh, thanks" I yawn, Louise glares daggers at me
"I trust you can take care of my good friend Louise in the foreseeable future" she lifts her hand to me, presenting it, Louise moves in between us
"Your highness, you can't, not to a familiar like him!"
"But to protect you is equal in my eyes to protecting me personally; I must give something in return for such a deed of loyalty" with that Louise steps aside, I stare blankly at her hand
"You're-" I stop Louise before she can finish
"I know what I'm supposed to do… it's just, kinda weird to me…" Louise stares at me "Fine, fine, I'll do it" I kneel down, clasping the Princess's hand in mine and kiss it, I stand and back away, the speed at which I did it leaves an awkward air for a while until the princess clears her throat
"Well, that aside, I do have a favor to ask of you"
"Anything at all your highness!" Louise almost begs
"I'd like the two of you to live out in the village for a while" Louise looks to her in shock
"T-The village?"
I stand outside of a clothing shop; Louise eventually comes out in pink sandal-things, a plain black dress and a matching beret
"It's so dull…" Louise groans
"We have to fit in, Louise"
"I know! But i don't understand why they can't be more fashionable!"
"Because fashion is a fancy way of saying 'overpriced rags' it'd blow our cover instantly"
Louise growls for a moment before sighing
"Right… after all, we have to uphold the permit the princess gave us" Louise looks up
"You want us to spy for you in the main village?" Louise asks, holding the scroll in her hands
"Yes, lately I've heard tale of nobles who were oppressing peasants, and-" I accidentally cut off the Princess with my snickering "I don't understand what's funny about this"
"Sorry, It's just that's not the first time I've heard those words in the same sentence" the princess gives me sad eyes "That look is over 1000 years too late for me, but if we can root it here and now, I'm game" The girls give me a surprised look
"Has this already happened where you're from? could you be from the future?" the princess asks
"No, not at all, but a similar event happened, often actually, unfortunately the ones in charge back then turned a blind eye and… well do you know what a guillotine is?" the princess makes a grim face "Yeah, it's worth a shot though"
"I appreciate your assistance then" her eyes become downcast "One of many reason I get when I ask about it, is that it is in effort to draw out the one whom attacked Count Mott" I cringe
"Understood your highness!" Louise says as she forces me to bow
"Yup, we are spying at the moment, we can't stand out Louise"
"Well, the next thing we need is a hor-"
"No, we walk; do you honestly see anyone else on a horse?" Louise groans "Besides we only have 400… uh, what is the currency here again?"
"It's Ecu, Livre, Sou, and Denier; 1 ecu is 6 livres, 1 livre is 20 sous, and 1 sou is 12 deniers"
"So we could have worse" Louise sighs at my comment
"Yes, but… It's a pittance! Oh well, let's find a place to stay atleast" we make our way to a tall goldenrod building with an ornate white entry "You stay out here" she goes inside, I look up at the structure
"Is it me, or does this place look expensive as hell? what do you think Derf?"
"Should ya really be talking to me? A talking sword isn't exactly 'peasant', partner"
"Oh, right, thanks Derf" Derf falls back into his sheath, I check my inner pocket, feeling my Matsubokkuri Energy and Matsubokkuri Lockseeds, i couldn't very well bring Himawari, since I bet Mott described it to the authorities, it makes me glad I put on a large blue cloak over my clothes and an orange scarf around my nose and mouth, luckily I don't think he saw Derf aside from Derfsou, of course I have my driver with me, but it's more so DiEnd doesn't steal it, and Kirche is holding onto my Lockseeds, and i…
Well I might of promised her a kiss if when I came back it was still in one piece
…
…
"Man it sure is taking her a long-"
"200 ECU A NIGHT?!" I hear my master scream from inside, a few minutes later she storms out, stopping right in front of me
"Maybe we should just find a cheaper Inn?" she blows up in my face
"NO! I cannot sleep in a cheap-" I step forward
"Stop" I force her face up to look into my eyes "I'm going to stop you now before you do something stupid, the Princess entrusted me to protect you, and I had resolved myself to do that before I even knew this world had royalty" she pulls her head away "So, we are going to stay in a cheap inn, eat cheap food, and if you can pull through… uh… I'll… uhhh, something?" she remains silent for minutes, it almost feels like hours, I can almost visibly see her anger boiling
"…If I do something so demeaning than you do too, I'll have to think about it" her last words are heavy and venomous "Let's go…" we find a quaint, wooden, two-story 'mom pop' inn that's 20 Ecu a night, more than enough time to hound out this abusive noble, we make our way to the room, Louise locks the door "This place… isn't… that bad" she says begrudgingly under her breath
"That's the spirit!" I say, lying down on one of the beds "God this disguise is hot"
"Then take it off"
"Are you kidding? They had my wanted poster in the lobby!" Louise groans
"I swear you're stupid, you ATTACKED a noble! No, you MAIMED a noble! Over a commoner girl!"
"Please, refrain from talking about my friends like that" I sigh "Well, we won't have any problem pulling off the Brother-Sister cover" I sit up
"What kind of places should we scout out first?"
"If most nobles are like Mott, a place with loads of women, cute and or sexy women"
"Of course..." Louise moans disgustedly "We can look for places tomorrow"
"Actually… maybe I should solo those, no offense, but sleazy bars aren't places you bring women…"
"You dog! You just want to drool over and ogle women!" Louise shouts
"No-No! its just you're an actual noble, you should look around noble places that I wouldn't know about and I'll check the sleazy bars, that makes sense right?" Louise remains silent, I have sort of been leading the charge… "I'm sorry I'm making you compromise so much master, I hope you understand it's for the sake of the mission, I understand the situation is rather demeaning for you"
"I know" is all Louise says
"I'll leave you alone for a bit" I exit the room and the inn and wonder around the Village, I find myself at a water fountain, I stare at my reflection in the water "Just how do water fountains like this work, it re-uses the pooled water, but surely some technology does that… or maybe its magic…"
"Ohhhh" a voice that's both masculine and feminine blasts from behind me catching me off guard, I turn around reaching for Derf to see a big, muscular man in black short-shorts and a purple half-tanktop, wearing a white choker and cuffs, he has big lips a goatee and a small mustache, his hair is brown and his eyes hazel "Oh my, you must be a traveling warrior, correct?" I pause, a bit confused at the situation, I glance at my hand that's grabbing for Derf
"Oh yes, I am, I-I just came to town wi-" I'm cut off
"Well, as you can obviously see, I am no one suspicious at all!" the weird man says dancing somewhat, waving his body along to a nonexistent tune
"You're joking right? " I mutter under my breath
"My name is Scarron and I run a lovely tavern just up the road, called the Charming Fairy" Scarron says as he squirms some more
"O-Oh really, you don't say…" he gets up into my face
"Oh, but i DOOOOOO say, you should stop by sometime, byeeeeee~" he twirls away, leaving me stunned and confused
"The 'Charming Fairy' huh, well, it's a place to start" I survey the town until sunset, buy a meal that's 5 ecu, and head back to our Inn room
It's dark out, I note as I stand at the window, secretly observing Louise who's sitting on a bed in its reflection
'We're down to 380… 365… 360 ecu" Louise remarks subtracting our first night, her meal, and my meal, no surprise hers was 3 times the cost of mine "If we keep spending 40 ecu a night, we'll be broke in nine days" in the reflection of the window I see her turn to me "Do you have to eat?" I cringe for a moment, thinking back to how I barely finished the small meal I got
"Not really, just buy a big meal and I'll eat the scraps" I clutch my driver, fearful of what's happening, Louise sighs unaware
"I guess It doesn't matter, we'd only be saving 5 ecu a night, I mean, we'd get one more day, but if we can't find the corrupt noble in 9 days how will 10 be any different?"
"Let's go to sleep master, there's no need to overthink it" I yawn moving to the vacant bed
"Well, good night" Louise says as I take off Derf and lean him against the nightstand, covering myself in a blanket, the feeling of a warm bed is not lost on my body, I pass out almost immediately before barely uttering a 'good night' of my own…
*ZIP*
A Zipper drags across the screen, a Fourze Kaban appears, it rattles a bit before falling over
Incep: "This chapter is a set-up chapter, and i apologize, but it more than any other I hope has showed my most important point, Elliot is NOT Saito with Kamen Rider Powers and he's not a self-insert (That's what Demon Invasion is for, and even then that Incepihyike is exaggerated so he's not an emotionless husk like I am).
That being said Merry Lovemas everyone, like I said before, the next chapter will be the 4th of July (at the latest), Seeya then!
EDIT 6:54 PM 7/1/2015 : all instances of 'Enchanted Fairy' changed to 'Charming Fairy', as the wiki says that is the correct name