Strawberry And Knight

by Shintouyu

Once upon a time, a noble knight had been trapped in hell forever... but, one day, a strawberry blond girl from a distant land needed to summon a familiar... Thus, their fate became intertwined together.

2. Move Strong And Carry On

Strawberry And Knight

Chapter Two

Move Strong And Carry On

[To Overcome All Obstacles]

---

A scene came into view of a campfire that burned and crackled.

There was but only one occupant within its warm embrace. A gladiator who was quite bigger than most sat hunched forward on his logged seat. His face was obscured by his dented and worn helmet and he simply watched the flames dancing in the dark night.

Foot-steps came from behind him and he slowly turned around.

"Greetings, my fellow comrade-in-arm!" a youthful man with short blond-hair and clear light-blue eyes said with a saluting gesture, "Are you ready? For tomorrow we strike our foe at the heart of his lair!" He was dressed in knightly armor that was as black as the darkness around it with gold trims and emblems here and there to outline the armor's form. "Still awake because of the pre-battle jitter?" He had a kite-shield strapped to his back and an enchanted sword sheathed on his hip. "Well, fear not, for I and your fellow friends shall be with you!"

He was certainly a talkative fellow.

The Gladiator grunted and turned back to the fire.

The newcomer huffed out a breath and smirked, he placed his one hand on his hip and shook his head, "Now, don't be like that. You know I was only joking." Was he? The Gladiator wasn't all too certain. "I mean you - of all people - being scared? Hah! That would be a tall-tale to tell!"

The black armored knight strolled over and took a seat next to his silent companion.

"I want to thank you, my dear friend. If it were not for you, I would not have been able to reclaim my rightful place as King Of Heaven's Peak," he grinned widely, "When we finally defeat that dastardly Overlord, what do you say about joining me as I hold the grandest party in all the lands? We will feast, we will drink, we will surround ourselves with pretty women, but - most importantly of all - we will celebrate our victory!" and held out his hand.

The Gladiator sat still for awhile but he eventually shook the given the hand.

The scene suddenly changed.

The Gladiator was falling down a near endless chasm.

"Friends, leave him be!" he could hear the voice of the black knight crying out sorrowfully from the world above, "Let him sleep, he has earned his rest..."

The scene quickly shifted once more.

Up high on a stairway, looking down upon the Gladiator, was a man at the end of his forties or perhaps near his fifties with medium slicked-back blond-hair, greasy skin, numerous wrinkles, and insomniac eyes. He wore a long red-robe that had some protection to his shoulder and chest and wielded a long staff in both of his hands.

"You?!" the man dramatically gasped, "Didn't we leave you for dead at that godforsaken tower?!" and then he cowardly ran away without warning, "Why?! Why are you back now?!"

The scene morphed into something else again.

The robed-man was now slumped over, dying in an almost crucified manner, on a grand stairway. His face was scrunched up in sheer disbelief as his body pulsed grotesquely all over, "How can this be...?! The Wizard said that I was suppose to be free...! And you... You were suppose to be...! The promised celebration, it was... it... I...! Why?! Why are you aallliiiivvvvveeeee?!" he wailed and convulsed sickly.

The Gladiator quirked a brow, he ignored the tingling and nagging sensation of regret and reluctance that he felt at the back of his mind. The delirious ramblings of this dying stranger made no sense but mattered little for his end was nigh.

The warrior could hear cheering all around him as he lifted his blade and roaring applause as he thrusted the sword into the lustful King Of Heaven's Peak.

And so another one of the Seven Heroes perished by his sword.

[...]

The Overlord opened his eyes and awoke to find himself in a stone hallway - his back to it with him sitting down. He quickly recalled where he was - in the Second Years' Dormitory - where he sat opposite to his little master's room.

When was it the last time that he had dreamt?

Dreams never came to him in his days trapped within the Abyss. And this dream was certainly an oddity - if not a rarity, it was the first dream he ever had of his past... a fragment of the time when he was known as the Gladiator - The Eighth Hero.

He had known that fact long ago. He had discovered the truth when his predecessor had gloated to him - when the previous overlord revealed how he had revived him from the brink of death and then used him to kill his former comrade-in-arms.

The Overlord knew that but he couldn't necessarily comprehend it; he had lost his memories and felt no attachment to his previous life. As far as the Overlord was concerned, the him from the past and the him now were two separate entities.

But the Gladiator of the days gone by and the Overlord of the days now here were still connected.

The demi-god had heard many stories from Gnarl about the man who was born as a mere warrior-slave, forever fighting until the day he would die in a certain coliseum of death and decay... Yet he found his freedom one day and embraced the vast world. But it continued to be a cruel world and constantly shunned him. Still, he strove to make his life worth something, with all his power he became a hero and so fought to bring justice to the weak.

But, in the end, the Gladiator died first during the collapse of the Dark Tower and was quickly forgotten by those he had helped and even by his close allies who would all later be tempted and corrupted by sin.

It was from that corpse - that shadow of the end - of the Eighth Hero which would cast the shape of the current Overlord.

The demi-god grumbled as he stood up.

However, this dream meant nothing now. If given another chance, the Overlord would gut Sir William The Black all over again, as there would be no redemption for that lustful paladin; there were no do overs.

The Overlord clenched his fist.

There were no do overs... he, too, had to accept that.

So much time has since passed that both Rose and his child were now long gone, he was a relic with his legacy as dust in the wind, and he was undoubtedly in a different world altogether. He was bitter, he had regrets, and he would mourn for his lost, but he would not wallow and waste away in despair - he had already done that for too long in the Abyss.

He was here now in this new world and the only path from here on out was to move forward.

From Ruler Of The Middle-Domains to a meager Familiar... The Overlord would just have to make the best of it.

[...]

Morning slowly crept up Louise's window, however her dark-blue curtains blocked out any invading sunlight.

The young Valliere slept peacefully on her large bed, which was easily big enough for three people to rest on their backs without even touching one another.

The bed was made out of wood - a luxurious item since most objects were made with Earth Magic - from Gallia's finest Resitoumire Trees and handcrafted by the very best and respected woodworking family in all of Tristain, the L'nortinale Family. The canopy draped with royal blue curtains, the snow white mattress and pillows, and the dark royal blue blanket were all of the highest quality as well.

Grand and ornate, this sort of extravagant bed was the standard amongst the Upper-class Nobles. For Louise this bed was only a tad more uncomfortable compared to the ones back home.

Besides the girl's bed was an equally finely crafted wooden drawer and atop the furniture were two objects.

One was a Magical Lamp of Germanian-make - a simple but enchanted tool that would turn on and off with a simply double-clap of the hands.

The second though was an odder and cruder looking construct. It was round with a sort of button on its head and stood on three tiny legs. Its face was made of clear glass which portrayed the ticking inside with its three arrows of different sizes - two of an intricate black design and one of a simple line red. There were black numbers decorated on the inner white surface, they were of the Halkeginic-persuasion with the number thirteen chiefly in the center top and the numbers one through six to its left and seven to twelve to its right.

By all appearance it was a clunky looking thirteen-hour alarm clock.

And, indeed, that was what it was.

This clock was a unique invention created by Professor Colbert... unique mostly because it yet to catch on amongst the masses. On the other hand, it truly was unique because it was completely handcrafted with no use of magic whatsoever and was not enchanted either - it worked completely of its own mechanic. This particular model also happened to be the Professor's best work - sturdy in construction and unlikely to malfunction - he had yet to make another quite like it.

Still, it was a gift that he was more than happy to give away to the young Valliere when she had once informed him of her troubles at waking up in the morning.

It wasn't as if Louise couldn't wake up on time. It was quite the opposite really, she would always wake up right on time. The problem was that pinkette was more than likely be in a absentminded daze for a good fifteen-to-twenty minutes and wouldn't even realize that she was actually awake.

It was not much of a problem for her back home as she could have simply had a servant wake her up slightly earlier than usual.

Here, at the Tristain Academy Of Magic, though, was a bit more of a problem. The servants belonged to the school and worked on a very tight schedule. Certainly, the students could have them clear their clothes or bring them food upon nearly any time of the day... but they ultimately had very little power over the servants since the need of the entire school superseded their own.

There were, of course, still some amount of students willing to throw around their statuses as Nobles to get the common staff to do whatever it was that they wanted, but Louise was not like them.

Or, rather, she could not be like them even if she wanted to.

Louise had little aptitude in magic, such a thing was no secret to her family. Her mother, in fact, had no plans to let her attend Tristain Academy Of Magic in the first place due to this knowledge - instead, the original idea was to have Louise Francoise home-schooled into the perfect wife so she could marry into a quality Noble Family.

It was only by an unusual and uncharacteristic display of courage from Louise's part that she was able to compromise - indeed, that was the word: compromise - with her mother and so several conditions were attached for her to even attend the school.

One such condition was that she could not have servants attend to her for any more than what was set by the school. That is, unless she was willing to hire them as her personal handservant - which she could not afford.

Thus, Louise had an alarm clock to wake her up.

"!CRAKITAUKORCRATIKKKIEIEIETTEUCRACRATITKCRAKITA!"

A very annoying alarm clock that sounded as though it would explode at any moment - even though it most assuredly wouldn't, since it had already lasted her an entire year before, it was unlikely to break this year too.

The incessant noise promptly awoke the sleeping girl from her slumber. Her quick response as usual was to not to push the button - which only worked one out of twenty times when pressed - but to grab the object and smack it against the drawer until the infernal ringing racket stopped. With a display of casual violence and a vice-like grip that would a grown man wince for his precious jewels, Louise bashed the clock against her drawer until it finally stopped by the sixth knock.

She grumbled to herself, "Wretched contraption..." It was effective in waking her completely up but it was still unbearably annoying even after she had a year of dealing with it.

Without further ado, she got off her bed, slipped on her slippers, and walked into her personal bathroom.

The inside of the bathroom would not look out of place in any modern-world setting. A sink and faucet under a mirror, a large tub that could run water, a toilet that could flush; many of these conveniences were constructed and enchanted through the creative use of Water and Earth Magic - Tristain Academy Of Magic was truly a prestigious school with such high-class commodities.

With a quick shower and a swift drying, Louise strode back into her room with naught but a towel to keep her decent. She walked straight to her dresser and took out the appropriate pieces for her school uniform.

Delicate white underwear went on first, then her white long-sleeved blouse was buttoned, next her black skirt and thigh-highs were pulled up, her black loafers were shoed in, and finally her black cloak was fastened under her gold pendant with a red lace.

Lastly now, a look in the mirror, a moment to brush her hair, a quick application of perfume, and the acquisition of her wand and keys, Louise was finished with her daily morning routine.

She was now presentable as a Valliere should always be.

Prim and proper for all of the day's matters; 'Prime ete arorie pourep toute les qestins de la jolrine' as the Tristainnians would say.

Louise calmly opened the door and then stopped mid-step as she blinked her eyes, 'By The Founder, why is there a half-giant in the hallway?!' It took her several moments to blink her confusion away and recollect her thoughts, "O-Oh, that's right..." she muttered to herself, "You are... you are Siegeinherd, the familiar I summoned yesterday..."

The Zero had summoned a familiar... even she herself had some trouble believing it.

Repeating her action from last night, Louise reached out a hand and touched the knight's black armor - she once again confirmed that he was physically there; he was not a figment of her imagination or an illusion of a dream. 'He's real...' she thought as she looked upward to him and he downward to her, 'He's really here.'

With that satisfaction in mind, Louise cleared her throat and brushed back her hair, "Ahem, well, Sieghart... A good morning to you; let us-" Before she could finish her words though, within the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of the door to their right opening up.

From out of the other room came her rival: Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst.

Blazing long red hair that billowed like living fire and dull blood-red eyes, Kirche wore her blouse loosely with the top few buttons undone to flaunt the tantalizing flesh of her large breasts. Around her neck was a bronze-shined-to-gold ringlet choker and the cloak was wrapped around her without the use of her pendant - the gold emblem was instead laying just above the valley of her breasts. And her footwear were thigh-reaching brown leather-like boots of a certain high-class Germanian brand.

By all appearance of her curvaceous body and haughty attitude, Kirche was both a seductress and a temptress.

If someone told the Overlord that she was a succubus then he wouldn't have been surprised either - though he knew she was not.

The Germanian girl had walked out from her room with a smile, which then evolved into a smirk when she spotted the young Valliere. The two did not normally meet in the morning as the pinkette would typically leave the dorm a tad earlier than she did.

"Good morning to you, Louise~" Kirche purred in a tone that promised sweet and sensual erotica to the listener.

Though, to Louise, the voice sounded more like a Germanian Hussy that enjoyed taunting her as a reminder that she was everything that Louise was not. An adult body and voice along with a high aptitude in magic... Kirche was everything that the young Valliere wished to be; Louise's child-like body and explosive spells were not things that she took pride in.

The strawberry blond's first and natural response was to scowl before she spoke in a near growl, "Good morning, Zerbst; what do you want?"

"My, Louise, is there a problem with me saying hello?"

"Of course; you're a Zebst, you're always a problem," Louise rebuked smoothly, "Dispense your hello to whichever poor fool that you've no doubt have certainly bed yesterday night. I'd prefer not to be bothered by a harlot like you so early in the morning."

"Worry not, Little Louise, your bark is quite cute; I'm sure you'll find a boy - maybe even a man - who you can one day say 'good morning' to in pleasure... in, say, ten years from now? Hmm~?"

"Rather it be a faithful and honorable man than those bunch of shameful cheating scum who would lay with you."

"Oh, how dreadful. My condolences to your man of dreams for he sleeps with a harpy."

"My, what hypocrisy is this that am I hearing from the would-be husband-stealer?"

Such rapier-sharp banter was the norm for these two girls.

Their hostility against each other reminded the Overlord of the verbal bouts that his wife Rose had with her younger sister Velvet - the words were not quite as harsh but the intensity and familiarity was all the same.

Normally Louise's and Kirche's tirade could continue on for a whole half-hour in a quick and brutally efficient manner with no clear ending in sight. But, this time, Kirche kept it short as she ignored the last retort and didn't bother to get the last word in.

The dark-skinned girl walked forward to the young Valliere's Familiar and her eyes beheld him in an inspecting light, "Hmm~" She hummed with a slightly tilted head, "We had performed the ritual rather late, so I wasn't able to get a good look... but I must admit, Louise," and then smiled, "you've summoned a rather impressive familiar." She added on as her eyes glanced downward to the armored-being's groin, "An impressively big familiar~"

The strawberry blond had her mouth slightly agape, "You would...! With a half-breed?!"

The Germanian girl snorted, "I do not find myself attracted to anything that is merely male, Little Louise. I prefer men and," she licked her lips, "you're familiar is obviously quite the man."

Kirche was definitely not a succubus but for all intent and purposes she might as well have been one. The Overlord had little doubt that the girl would have fitted right in with those winged-temptresses, in fact they would probably welcomed her with open arms and straight into their bosoms.

Louise closed her mouth. She, for one, did not care for what the Germanian girl did with a human or otherwise in her free time. However, she would be damned if she let a Von Zerbst take something from her - especially if it was her familiar.

"Stay away from my familiar, Zerbst; that's the only warning I'm giving you," the young Valliere said with a mild frown.

Kirche cheekily grinned, "My, my, that was quite intimidating of you, but would you even be able to enforce that warning though... Zero?" She did not wait for a reply - which was only a clenched fist - and immediately called out the word for 'Flame' in Germanic, "Flayvme."

From out of her room slithered a dull-red tiger-sized salamander. It's reptilian eyes were of a sharp emerald green and its underbelly was of a soft pink color. The creature's scales were shaped like diamonds and the tip of its tail was on fire which blazed in a magnificent golden hue.

This Fire Salamander named Flayvme was summoned from Germania's Houlienfuer Drakenberg - or the Hellfire Dragon Mountains as it was more commonly known - a location that any fire-attribute mage would be more than honored to summon a familiar from. As it were, this particular species was known as the Hellfire Saladrake and was essentially the pinnacle for fire salamanders.

Louise eyed the four-legged beast with a hidden jealously; in terms of Familiar standing, a Hellfire Saladrake was obviously better than a Half-Giant.

"Toodles," Kirche said as she flicked her hair back, spun her on heel, and strutted away with her salamander following right behind.

Louise's entire body twitched with growing anger. However, she quickly kept a lid on it and calmed herself down. She sighed and mumbled to herself, "That girl always gets on my nerves..." She shook her head and then looked back to her own familiar, she really wished that she had summoned something more impressive, "Come on, let's... let's just go, Sieghart."

[...]

The Overlord silently followed behind his little master - her face was a mask of a prideful solitude that hid her insecurities.

Down the stairs they passed by several other students and their familiars, they did a quick visit to greet the dormkeeper - though a different one was at the desk this time as it was a female mage this morning, and then they exited the dorm and moved passed the fellow second-year students and familiars as they head straight to the gigantic Central Tower.

It was here that the Overlord spotted the beginnings of a split.

Students were directing their familiars to follows servants to the back of the Central Tower - apparently to the Austri Court. So it would seem the familiars dined away from their masters.

The Overlord had expected to walk elsewhere but received a different answer.

"Come along, Sieghart," Louise said with a turned head and then continued on her way to the Central Tower.

It was unknown to the demi-god but his little master had already asked for special permission several days ago to allow her future familiar into the dining hall with her. The reason for this was because Louise Francoise wanted to reassert her position as a mage amongst her peers, having a familiar would show that she was indeed a mage and not someone just playing pretend as one.

It was all very important to the young Valliere to reinforce her image of a Noble to those around her and to herself - especially to herself.

The dual-doors of some ancient wooden-make were both already outwardly wide open. Inside was another round lobby-floor, two guards stood on either side of the entrance, and to the left and right there were stairways that led upward. Further inside were another set of dual-doors that led to their destination.

"This is the Alviss Dining Hall; we gather here every morning, midday, and afternoon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," Louise explained in a neutral voice, "Under normal circumstances a non-Noble like you would never be allowed to step inside its hall and eat. Be honored, Sieghart, that I have made a special exception for you."

'Honored' was the not the word the Overlord would use, as he preferred to eat away from children - or away from Minions at least, who were like slobbish children in their table manners; he didn't mind too much of being here though because he hadn't gotten the chance to see what the inside of the Central Tower was like yesterday night.

Before the Overlord even walked through the second set of doors, he could already see a majority of the dining hall's inside.

The room was quite large - it would need to be to hold as many as four-hundred occupants at once with room to spare - and lavishly decorated.

There were three very long and thick wooden tables that ran parallel to the dining hall, each were capable of seating one-hundred people and were currently occupied by a different set of people. To the left there were younger-looking people in brown cloaks, in the middle were those in black cloaks, and to the right were slightly older-looking people in purple cloaks.

The tables were covered by a pristine white cloth and atop them were several candelabras and vases of flowers that separated a table into five segments. These items were furthered surrounded by an assortment of plates and bowls that contained a wide variety of extravagant and freshly cooked food - even now, there were servants running to and fro from the nearby kitchens to place more choices of food onto the table - but, unless these people ate like pigs, more than half of these dishes were quite likely to go unfinished and to waste.

Fifty high-quality wooden chairs with plush blue seats sat on both sides of a table. In front of each seat there was a small bowl, medium-sized plate, a white napkin, along with a silver spoon, folk, and knife - all neatly arranged.

The walls did not have torches nor did it have windows, instead the ceilings had several ornate-layered chandeliers to compensate for the general lighting. On the other hand, the walls were not bare, many paintings - ranging from Tristain's past rulers to eccentric work of arts - were hung on them.

Further into the room there were three opened doors - one to the left of the first-year table, another above the second-year table, and the last to the right of the third-year table. The sweet aroma of food drifted out and the sound of cooking could be heard from them; they clearly led to three large-sized kitchens.

Next to each of these kitchens were hollowed out areas in the wall to the left and right, inside them were dozens upon dozens of tiny statues of dwarf-like creatures doing silly poses and gestures - these statues depicted the Alviss, the namesake of the dining hall.

There was a bit more to the room, as the Overlord could see stairs - above the first-year and third-year tables - that led to an upper-level, however he obviously could not see it from his position despite how tall he was. Though, from the stronger magical signatures he could detect emanating from there, it was more than likely where the teachers dined at.

Louise, being a second-year, naturally went straight for the middle table and spoke as she walked, "There is an old saying: 'nobles achieve nobility through magic.' Do you understand, Sieghart? Magic is the source of nobility. That idea is the foundation from which we receive our education, hence the facilities we use must befit our status as Nobles." She stopped, turned around, and smirked lightly, "So, how is it, Sieghart? This dining hall must certainly be an impressive sight to you; I bet you've never seen anything like it before."

She was, once again, trying to impart to her familiar the knowledge of just how important and superior nobles were.

The Overlord, of course, was not verily impressed.

While he could not say that he had ever seen a breakfast as large as this gathering but, as the previous Ruler Of The Middle-Domains, he had attended some grand parties - held in either Heaven's Peak Castle or Castle Spree - by way of his wife's persuasion; the atmosphere in the Alviss Dining Hall and the past parties were more or less the same.

Though, the demi-god would admit the fact that they apparently ate as richly as this every morning, midday, and afternoon was a monumental extravagance of gluttony, and was semi-impressive in its own right.

How did they manage to even procure so much ingredients everyday? Especially the meat... did the animals here breed as fast did Mid-Domainian Sheeps did?

That said, the Overlord was more intrigued by his little master's previous words: 'nobles achieve nobility through magic.'

So this world - or at least the part where he was currently in - was a magicracy?

The Overlord hadn't dealt with much mages back in the Middle-Domains. Besides the Silent Order, some zombies, that asshole of an Evil Wizard, and the hexers who tried to curse him to death, mages were fairly reclusive and quite small in number. They often created cults or gathered in small numbers but generally weren't well involved in politics.

Here though, it seems that mages made up a decent portion of the population and were part of - if not entirely - its ruling body.

Aristocracy or Magicracy, it was just more of the same old - the strong ruled the weak - the only difference was that one of them ruled through use of magic rather than whatever else status.

The Overlord decided to play along with his little master - she thought that he was some kind of backwater barbarian and there was no need to correct that assumption. In response to the young Valliere's question, he simply nodded his head.

Louise's lip curled upwardly slightly; that was nice, her familiar was being grateful for being allowed here in. Without further words, she continued walking to the center of the table.

Once there, she pondered whether she should simply take a seat or have her familiar pull it out for her. She decided that, as a credit to her status as a rightful noble, she might as well show her fellow classmates that her familiar could obediently follow her orders.

"Sieghart," the pinkette called out, "Pull out my chair for me."

One would expect the Overlord to quirk a brow and refuse but this was actually something he knew how to do.

Rose had taught him the etiquettes of being a gentleman. There were many manners such as making sure that any bouquet of flowers given to his lady would be carefully hand-picked and packaged in an orderly fashion, preventing the fresh blood of his enemy from splattering over his lady's clean clothes, clearing out corpses in a systematic style, being able to carry his lady softly yet firmly in his arms while they escaped from a dungeon full of deadly monsters, and so on.

Yes, he knew quite a bit about gentlemanly etiquette.

With a grace and fluidity that did not suit his stature or appearance, the Overlord pulled out Louise's chair for her. When she took her seat, he promptly tucked her back in.

As the young Valliere quietly sat in her seat, the conversation all around her drifted to her perked ears.

It was only a week into the new school year, thus the first-years did not have a clue about who she was; most of their gossip was wondering what family she came from and suggestions that her familiar was some sort of bodyguard. The third-years were not as curious as their juniors and merely talked about how the half-giant rumors were apparently confirmed true just now.

The second-years' response was quite different altogether.

"That Louise... who does she think she is? Bringing in that familiar of hers into the dining hall..." whispered a male student to one of his friends.

"My word," a female student frowned, "I won't be able to eat peacefully with a brute like that standing around."

"I think she's trying to show off her familiar to us," observed a random student.

"What for? She's still a zero!" another snickered.

They were completely full of complaints.

Louise kept calm and did not allow the words to affect her. She had endure a year of taunting already and as far as she was concerned she could endure another. Still, her hands clenched the hems of her skirt ever so slightly.

She tried to keep her mind off their words, "Siegeinherd," she abruptly called out with a turned head, "Half-Giants... what kind of meat do you prefer to eat?"

The Overlord wasn't a very picky eater and could stomach quite a variety of food - even poisonous ones - as his appetite was a remnant of the Gladiator's poor living back during the days he fought in that negligible coliseum.

But, having become a demi-god, he didn't need food anymore. He could easily sustain himself on mana, which this world had plenty of. On the other hand, just because he didn't need to eat, didn't mean he wouldn't - his taste buds were likely dull from years of disuse but he could still appreciate a well-cooked meal.

The Overlord shook his head; he would eat later. Besides he wasn't about to take off his helmet in front of just anybody.

"What? Why are you shaking your head?" Louise narrowed her eyes, her expression was quite close to being dejected.

But he did not respond any further. With a quick huff, Louise returned to waiting patiently and quietly at the table.

Servants ran in and out of the kitchen, students casually arrived and sat themselves down, several minutes passed by like this but soon silence filled the hall as the last maids and butlers scurried back into the kitchen or just outside of the room.

Slowly, someone from the upper-level came into view.

The man was quite old and had a grandfatherly appearance to him. Bushy eyebrows, combed-straight long hair, and a great big beard, his graying hair had a fierce quality to them like that of a wolf. The man wore a black robe that had several silver buckles on them, giving it a trench-coat like appearance. Though he looked fairly elderly with his eyes closed shut while holding a gnarled wooden staff in his hand, the man was anything but unfit. He stood tall and proud, a posture of confidence that one could have only attained through a life-time of experience.

This man was undisputedly the strongest Halkeginian mage in the entire school.

With a simple tap of his staff and a quiet whisper the man commanded the very air within the room to carry his voice to every occupant.

"Good morning, my students," his aged voice was crystal clear to hear, "Let us give our thanks for this bountiful breakfast." He merely nodded his head and then walked away from sight.

The students did not need any further instructions.

They clasped their hands together, closed their eyes, and lowered their heads in prayer, "O Great Founder Brimir and our most Royal Crown, we thank you for this humble meal which you have graciously provided for us this morning... Blessed be the Magical Decree," the voices of the student's and teacher's rang out harmoniously and in chorus.

There was a brief moment of silence as the people unfurled their hands but soon the dining hall was abuzz with noise as the clamor of earnest dining began. They ate with a well-mannered dignity but at the same time their extravagance was quite noticeable - many dishes were left unfinished and even some were just completely untouched.

After forty-minutes of eating demurely, Louise softly dabbed her lips with a napkin.

The Overlord noted that Louise - unlike most of the other students - had a wider range of acceptance when it came to food and wasn't quite as picky. The palette that went onto her plate or bowl were of great variety and every meal within her reach was given a try, though she did avoid some of the more spicier dishes.

The young Valliere scooted out of seat and tried to speak with semi-authorative voice, "Are you not hungry, Sieghart?" To which her familiar simply nodded his head. But Louise wasn't completely convinced; he was a big creature and so naturally would need more to eat to function properly - she didn't want her familiar to keel over suddenly just because he didn't have food in his stomach. 'I'll need to see to it that food is deliver to my room later.'

Thinking about it, in slight retrospect, it was a good thing that her familiar did not eat breakfast today. She didn't want to know how messily a half-giant could eat - that would just absolutely embarrass her as a Valliere. 'Yes... a big meal, at night, when no one will be watching him eat...'

With that thought over, Louise left the dining hall. "Come, Sieghart." She had no classes to attend today - the day after the Springtime Familiar Summoning was free so that the second-year students could bond with their newly summoned partner. She didn't have any specific plans in mind but she was sure to think of something to pass the time with.

However, before she could leave the building, an irritating voice called out to her in the lobby.

"Oh, Louise~" Kirche purred, "Going somewhere, are we?"

The young Valliere stopped walking and responded back in her usual 'I know that you know that I hate you quite well yet I have to speak with you anyways' tone of voice, "Is there something you need from me, Zerbst?"

Kirche plainly ignored the hostile tone, "It's nothing much, really. I just wanted to introduce Tabby to your familiar."

Standing right next to Germanian girl was a very young looking girl who was even more petit than Louise.

The girl had short and soft light-blue hair which would blend right in with the vast clear sky and her eyes were of darker shade than her hair. She had red-rimmed glasses and wore the female uniform neatly along with her pristine white thigh-high stockings and brown loafers. Unlike most students who used a wand, this girl held a crooked wooden staff - that had blue fabric wrapped near the beginning of the crook - in her right hand.

This person was Tabitha de Loiret, a Gallian and a second-year student, who was otherwise known as the 'Disipolus Dei Hounlore' - Halkeginic for 'Student Of Honor' - making her the top student overall in the Tristain Academy Of Magic by virtue of her high scholarly and practical grade.

She was a quiet girl with a certain doll-like quality that always seemed to wear a neutral but dull and bored sort of expression on her face. She had a certain obvious fondness for books, or perhaps reading, as she always seemed to be carrying one on her - even now there was a book in her left hand.

It was an honest mystery to all how the reserved and somewhat reclusive Tabitha was apparently best friends with the passionate and outgoing sex-bomb that was Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst.

Louise gave an acknowledging nod to her fellow classmate. Other than being a tad envious that the Gallian girl was an impressive mage by all accounts despite her childish stature that was similar to her own, the young Valliere held a fairly neutral but high opinion about Tabitha.

The Overlord's inspection however was in a different light.

Magic took many form and their were an uncountable number of ways to perform it. The two most basic styles were that one either controlled magic from within them or they controlled magic from outside of them.

Halkeginian Mages fell in the latter category; through the use of what they dubbed as 'Willpower' within them, they could control the mana in the world around them. Unlike Mid-Domainian Mages who could learn magic for so long as they strived to do so, in Halkeginia it seemed that the disposition was biological in nature - one was either born with it or not.

But, even if the Overlord were to dissect a Halkeginian Mage, he wouldn't know what to look for though; he was not a physician.

He had an interest in magic but not in terms of scholarly pursuit in as so much for arming himself with knowledge. Since he did not understand how their magecraft worked, his ability to sense a person's magical strength only gave him a basic and general impression of just how strongly a mage could cast magic - the ability did not account for skills or other variables.

What the Overlord sensed from this girl called Tabitha was an association with the elements of Wind, Ice, and some Water, meanwhile her magical strength and capacity was also higher than even most of the teachers as well - she was almost in an entirely different league from her peers but not quite there yet.

On that note, the demi-god would rank the old man from before as the strongest, followed far behind by that Professor Colbert, next would be this girl Tabitha, then Kirche not too far behind, and finally Louise.

While his little master had little reserves to cast spells often, the Overlord whole-heartedly believed that she could become even more powerful than that old man. She had a unique potential; her element was quite different from everybody else's and she had managed summoned him after all - Louise would no doubt become the strongest mage here, if he would say so himself.

Anyways, there was something a tad familiar about this blue-haired girl but the Overlord couldn't quite put his finger on it.

There was silence as Tabitha examined the young Valliere's familiar with her eyes - there was certain focused glint to them, though it was pretty much impossible to tell apart from her typical bored look.

It was rare to see the girl interested in anything beside the books that she read all the time. Thus, feeling a bit prideful and confident of the positive attention her knight was getting, Louise tried to start a conversation, "If I may ask, what is it about my familiar that you're interested in, Tabitha?"

The Gallian paused briefly to answer quietly, "...Interesting," was all she said. With a small polite nod she excused herself and flipped open her book - Tower Mythos: Crimson King Sauthoth, Volume 6, it read on the cover.

"Well then, later, Louise~" Kirche waved a flirting goodbye to her rival, and especially to the Overlord, as she went to catch up with her surprisingly fleet of foot friend.

The pinkette let out a small sigh. She was somewhat disappointed that Tabitha only had a passing interest in her familiar. But, with nothing left to interrupt her, Louise straightened herself out and continued walking.

[...]

Now that it was morning Louise had time to give a quick tour around the school campus.

The five massive buildings that connected the outer-walls in the shape of pentagon were known as the Class Towers and each had a differently colored roof to represent an element. Starting from the one at the very back and going clockwise, it went: purple-roof Void, red-roof Fire, brown-roof Earth, green-roof Wind, and blue-roof Water.

Meanwhile, the inner grassy grounds of the academy was primarily separated into five areas.

There was the Austri Court in between the Void and Fire Class Towers; the court was reserved primarily as the familiars' dining-field and also as the sleeping domain of the more larger beasts. There was the Suori Court in between the Fire and Earth Class Towers; the court was were the students seemed to lounge around in their free-time. There was the Vestri Court in between the Wind and Water Class Towers; at this court there were many circular stone stages that surrounded a much larger platform. There was the Norori Court in between the Water and Void Class Towers; this court did not serve any particular or apparent function though. Lastly, the area between the Earth and Wind Class Towers was simply the entrance-way into the school along with the paved stone road that led straight to the Central Tower.

Louise and the Overlord were currently at the Austri Court, along with the other dozens upon dozens of students who were bonding with their familiars either here or at the Suori Court - notably, a few other students were pitting their familiars against each other at the Vestri Court.

Unbeknownst to them Tabitha was keeping a watchful eye from atop the Third-Year Dorm. She had a gut feeling that something interesting was about to happen...

Louise took a look at her left, then to her right, and back to her left again. 'Good, Zerbst isn't around to bother me.'

The young Valliere cleared her throat as she adopted a lecturing pose with her wand out, "Now then, Siegeinherd, I shall explain to you what it means to be a familiar of a Noble."

She flicked her wand, "First: a Master can see and hear through the eyes and eyes of their Familiar through a spell called 'Servant View.' So hold yourself still." She hummed to herself gently while mentally preparing the spell, she then opened her mouth and chanted, "For our fate is intertwined and our balance is blessed, through eyes and ears let there be a union of sight and sound!"

As the final words left her lips, the runes on the Overlord's hand suddenly flared up and momentarily caught him off guard. He clenched his left hand tightly in response and quickly suppressed the runes once more.

After several moments, his little master furrowed her brows and frowned, "This is odd... its seems that I can't see or hear what you're experiencing..." She gazed upward to him, "Sieghart, do you feel different? Anything at all?"

The Overlord shook his head and lied. The demi-god enjoyed his privacy, even if that spell hadn't cause the runes to act up he would have resisted the magic anyways. He hoped that she wouldn't try again though; her attempt had apparently restored some of the rune's defenses and that was a tad troubling to him.

This time Louise nodded dejectedly, "Oh, I see..." She instantly assumed - despite the lack of an explosion - that her magic had failed. But she swiftly wiped off her downed expression and resumed with her usual Valliere calmness. "Well, it doesn't matter; it's the least important thing about having a familiar anyways," she logically reasoned to herself.

As far as she knew, it was a spell with little use amongst mages, since experiencing the world through the senses of a beast could be rather nauseating.

For example the Bugbear - a giant floating eyeball that was a distant relative to the Beholder - was summoned every so often by Earth Mages as familiars and these creatures viewed the world in ways that human minds were not meant to comprehend.

"Well, moving on... secondly: a Familiar must be able to collect wild reagents or retrieve items for their Master." Louise quirked a brow at her familiar. "You don't look like you would have any trouble retrieving anything I would ask of you... but would you even be able to find any reagents on your own?"

The Overlord shook his head. Not unless he would be given free reigns to explore the whole land for about a full month, until then he currently had no clue about this world's geography and therefore wouldn't be able to find anything without explicit directions.

His little master frowned again. She had expected as much, she knew of the Half-Giants to be more of meat-hunters than anything else.

"Well, that's not a problem either," she mostly told to herself, "Selling some reagents would have been nice but I have no real need for them either." She quickly brushed the issue aside with a passive look and moved on, "Thus, thirdly and lastly, but most importantly of all: a Familiar must protect their master at all times!" She paused in inspection, "I suppose you're good enough for that at least."

Half-Giants weren't quite as prestigious as, say, a Hellfire Saladrake but this humanoid species were known to be aggressive fighters and could hold their own against a majority of wild beasts and monsters.

"That's only if I'm in any danger whatsoever, anyways," the young Valliere snarked. She could hardly imagine needing a bodyguard, of any sort, as she couldn't see herself spelunking out in the wilderness any time soon. She pretty much thought of herself safe at school and at home.

What were the chances that something murderously dangerous would crop up in her life?

In this day and age, Tristain and the rest of the Halkeginian countries were mostly at a time of peace. There were a few skirmishes here and there but those could have hardly been called 'wars.'

Louise wanted to throw up her hands in frustration. She couldn't cast Servant View, her familiar couldn't find reagents on his own, and he couldn't protect her if there was nothing to protect her from. As it stood, Siegeinherd was just a trophy - and not a very gloat-worthy one either - that stood as a very small testament to the fact that she was in fact a mage.

The girl took in a deep breath, 'Calm down, Louise Francoise, calm down... Just as always, you must work with what you have; you need to make do with what life has given you... Oh who am I kidding? I hate my life!' In a fit of anger, she threw up arms and growled - life was just not fair to her. 'Such misfortune! Is the whole world out to get me?!'

It would take several minutes for her to settle down.

She gave one last huff before she straightened herself up, 'I'm glad mother wasn't around to see this,' and then shivered in horror. She didn't even want to think about what sort of punishment her mother would have given if that woman had seen her throw this fit just now.

Louise had done physically little today but she still felt mentally defeated and also somewhat sluggish now. She wanted to lay down on a nice deck-chair, shaded under a large umbrella, and perhaps drink a fine fragrant tea of some classy Romalian-brand as the cool gentle breeze brushed by... 'Yes, that sounds nice right about now.'

The young Valliere quickly spun on her heel, "Come, Sieghart, we're changing locations."

The Overlord followed silently behind her. But he did wonder: was it normal for a teenage girl to go through so much different emotions in the span of ten minutes? Or was his little master just this uniquely unstable?

[...]

As the strawberry and knight pair made their way to the Suori Court, they were greeted with a large gathering of students circling around something.

Louise could see that the crowd was made up mostly of second-years. The first-years stayed back as they didn't wish to push against their seniors, while the few third-years were completely fine with watching from afar and laughing amongst themselves. There were also quite a few servants here that were clearly in a panic.

From the ongoing chatter, she could make out a few words such as: Guiche, Two-timing, and Montmorency.

Because of her height, Louise couldn't see what was happening. She briefly considered sitting on her Familiar's shoulder but that would make her look far too childish - no way, she wasn't going to humiliate herself like that.

It was, of course, at this opportune moment when a certain Germanian girl had conveniently spotted the young Valliere - no doubt the pinkette's tall familiar stood out - and walked over with her own familiar in tow.

"Hello there, Louise, here to enjoy the show too?" The amused smirk on Kirche's face was plainly because she knew what was going on.

"And what show would that be?" Louise inquired.

Kirche suppressed a giggle, "Oh, it's just Guiche being Guiche."

[...]

Guiche de Gramont was in a rather tight situation right now.

He was a well-known second-year student for his personal motto that 'A beautiful rose blooms for the pleasure of all;' him being the rose, of course. The boy was often considered to be a softer version of the very sexual Kirche - he flirted with nearly every female in sight but never went around to seduce any of them - and had a reputation that was fairly positive and more approving.

Girls liked him and boys wanted to be like him.

Unfortunately though, that popularity of his went straight to his head.

During the break before the new school year, Guiche had cockily begun to date two girls.

There was the first-year Katherine de Stanhope, who had long straight brown hair with light violet eyes. She was a pleasant girl who enjoyed baking sweets and became fairly attached to him when he had accompanied her on a night-time stroll around the Ragdorian Lake.

Guiche wasn't all too sure why he had chosen her in the first place - perhaps it was that meekness of her that endeared him or maybe it was because she resembled his loving mother just a bit?

The other girl was the second-year Montmorency Margarita la Fere de Montmorency, who had her golden-blond hair styled into many ringlet curls. She was a childhood friend of sorts that he saw every so often at social gatherings.

As the boy recalled, his family was quite prolific in Tristain with a strong history for producing excellent soldiers and bodyguards. The Gramont Family had many important clients, one such being the Montmorency Family who had the divine blessings of the Ragdorian Lake's Water Spirit, and kept close contact and favors with those many clients. Thus, the small group he typically associated with were those he had met when he was younger.

As it were, Guiche wasn't actually dating Montmorency just because she was from a client family - it wasn't quite that political. When they both had become first-years at the academy, the boy had noticed that the golden-blond haired girl had an actual interest in him - though she typically feigned disinterest in the face of others.

It had taken awhile but he had eventually been able to get Montmorency to date him - albeit in secret.

Thus began Guiche's descent. After semi-thawing the cold Montmorency into accepting him, he thought he could woo any girl and soon came to meet Katherine during the break.

He was utterly regretting that decision right now.

"Guiche, would you care to explain to me just what exactly is going on here?" Montmorency asked of him with a neutral face that hid her immense displeasure and absolute anger.

Meanwhile, Katherine did not say a word but she was clearly glaring at him with wet upset eyes.

Being caught in between two angry women, that was simply a situation Guiche had never been through before. Sure, there were the occasional bouts where some girls would fight each other for him but this was the first time he had two girls being directly angry at him.

He tried to keep his cool as he spoke, "Now, please wait just a moment, for the sake of our reputation, allow me to clear up this misunderstanding an-"

"What is there to misunderstand?!" Katherine interrupted. She said no more as she suddenly and abruptly broke down into tears.

Guiche cringed, seeing the the girl who resembled his mother cry simply broke his heart. He moved closer to try and placate her, "K-Katie, please calm down and-" but she simply slapped his hand away.

With no more words, Katherine de Stanhope quickly ran away, her sobs left lingering in the air.

"'Katie,' huh?" Montmorency's voice immediately reminded the boy that his ordeal had yet to be over, "Just as I thought, you've been making moves on that first-year... Well, do you have anything to say for yourself, Guiche de Gramont?"

"My dear, Montmorency The Fragrance," He turned around but couldn't complete his sentence as his left cheek was promptly slapped in an audible smack.

Montmorency's face was distorted in anger, "Don't you dare and try to flatter me, you damn lying cheat!" and then slapped him again on the other cheek before stomping away.

The court was silent for a few moments.

But then Guiche's friend burst out in laughter.

"Serves you right!" one of them pointed.

"'A beautiful rose blooms for the pleasure of all,' was it?" another snickered with an arm slung over Guiche's shoulders.

Guiche moved away his too-close friend and rubbed his sore cheeks. He kept a calm face as he spoke with his usual flair, "Those two simply don't appreciate the existence of a rose, is all."

Someone from the crowd - a girl - quipped back without showing herself, "A lady has no admiration for a conceited rose." The surrounding group of students cheered in approval, yet Guiche still kept outwardly calm.

The young Gramont knew that he deserved all of the insults directed at him. But he was so extremely flustered that his thoughts became erratic because of that.

He had plans - plans that seemed perfect when he had conceived them - and now they were absolutely ruined! "You there, Maid," he addressed a certain servant who was holding onto a perfume bottle, "Do you know what you have done here?" He couldn't honestly believed that all the fault laid out with him; if his plan had come to fruition then nobody would have been any wiser of his activities and thus nobody would have been harmed.

Guiche wanted to salvage his social standing amongst his peers. Or at least what remained of it anyways, as sad as his attempts might come off as.

That maid with short black-hair was the source of his troubles, if she just had a little more tact than he wouldn't have gone through this situation in the first place.

The purple perfume in the servant's hand belonged to Montmorency - a special item that belonged only to her; making it very obvious that if the perfume was in the hands of another then they either stole it or was given it as a gift. Being her boyfriend, Guiche was of course given a bottle as a gift but never wore it himself due to their secret relationship.

However, if anyone saw that perfume in his possession that they would instantly know that he was dating Montmorency; he didn't need that possibility of incriminating evidence when he was going to charm a few more other girls. Luckily, because of their not-so-open status, Guiche would have been able to get rid of it without Montmorency ever being aware of the deed.

But because of the Springtime Familiar Summoning, he had been too busy to dispose of the perfume; today was suppose to be the day that he would get around to doing so.

Unfortunately, he had the perfume hidden in his sleeves and due to his usual dramatics - which involved waving his arms in exaggerated motions - it unceremoniously fell out onto the ground. Seeing as nobody around him had noticed it, Guiche had then smoothly tried to ignored it. It turned out though that the maid, who was serving his group tea and sweets, had indeed seen it dropped and tried to helpfully return it.

The rest of what happened was, well, history.

"I hope you're aware that there is a severe punishment for tarnishing a Noble's reputation," Guiched stated as he pulled out his wand.

[...]

Kirche let loose a laugh when Guiche was slapped on the face by Montmorency.

The Germanian girl believed herself a passionate follower of love - the boys she bed would never dare to blame her because she laid every bare, quite literally, and getting involved with her meant knowing and understanding that she saved herself for no one man. Even though people often compared Guiche to her, she had never once considered him to even be remotely near her level of passion.

"Well, perhaps, he's learned his lesson now?" Kirche giggled in a sultry tone, "Relationships aren't something that should be handle at a distance but rather up close and personal~"

Louise refrained from commenting outwardly. 'If a single mistake was all it took to change a man then everybody would think twice about sleeping with you.'

At that moment another loud slapped could be heard.

Kirche placed a hand beneath her chin and withheld a giggle, "My, that Montmorency certainly has a hand on her; Guiche's cheeks are just positively red!"

"You seem awfully delighted at seeing Guiche get punished."

The Zerbst shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, wouldn't you agree that seeing a flirt like Guiche getting his just reward to be very entertaining?"

Louise did not answer verbally. 'Maybe if I could see over the crowd then I might agree with you...' She was somewhat disappointed that she didn't get to see the moment that Guiche was slapped. The girl had a dislike for the young Gramont since he seemed nice to everybody, well everybody except her apparently...

The audience quickly opened up as a very obviously angry Montmorency stomped back to the Second-Year Dorm. Neither girls bothered to call out to her since they weren't good friends, just classmates - despite almost always arguing with Kirche like a newly-wed couple, Louise would never say in public that the Germanian girl was her friend though.

As the two students conversed, the Overlord was instead still watching the scene before him - his towering height giving him a near clear view of the ongoing event.

He could see that the female maid from yesterday night - Siesta, he recalled - was the center of attention. Fear was etched onto her face as she clumsily fiddled with a perfume bottle that she held close to her chest and the primary source of her worries was because of an overly dramatic second-year student.

The boy was a blondie with short hair that was naturally curly, his eyes were a blue sort of color, and look-wise he was actually fairly dashing - he was likely to grow to appear quite handsome in the future. He was dressed flamboyantly as his uniform was quite different from the other male students'; his collar was flared out, there was a good amount of frills that decorated his long sleeves and shirt, the top few buttons were left unfinished to display his chest - the boy at least had some muscle to display, his pants were not the typical black but a light violet shade instead, his shoes were a squeaky clean white, and his black cloak was not buckled by a golden pendant - the pendant was instead clipped onto the left side of his pants.

The Overlord really hated this boy already.

This Guiche child looked like a much younger version of William, though he acted more like the man's older-self.

When the boy pulled out his wand which looked like a rose, the demi-god narrowed his eyes, the image of the Lustful Paladin Hero briefly overlapped with the boy's. The Overlord wasn't about to allow Siesta be unfairly punished by this pathetic boy who was trying to cover up his mistakes.

The Overlord strode forward and pushed aside anybody in his way.

Louise took notice at that moment, "Sieghart, where are you going?" but received no answer, not even a pause from her familiar. Her displeasure showed on her face, "Don't you ignore me, Familiar!" and she chased after him, "Get back here! I command you to stop!"

An amused smirk appeared on Kirche's face, "Well, I wonder what's going on now~?" She flicked back her hair and walked through the passage that was recently carved opened - Flayvme followed right behind. The reptilian beast gave a gurgle when he spotted a familiar person in the crowd. "Oh, Tabby, you're here too?" She asked as she moved towards her best friend.

The blue haired girl simply nodded her head. It seemed that her intuition was correct; something interesting was about to happen and she was going to get a front-row seat to it.

[...]

The Overlord simply stepped into the scene, his usually silent steps now made a heavy noise to declare his entrance. He immediately moved forward and stood in between Guiche and Siesta, he folded his arms across his chest as he stared down at the boy.

The Gramont gulped and frowned but still kept his cool, he would not cow before a mere familiar, "...You are the half-giant summoned by Louise yesterday... What do you want? Are you planning to interfere?" His eyes scanned the crowd until he spotted the approaching pinkette who was looking somewhat miffed, "Louise, call off your familiar."

The young Valliere gave him a brief look as she answered indignantly, "I don't need you to tell me what to do with my familiar, Guiche." She quickly went back to attending to her disobedient knight, "Siegeinhe-" only to have him grab her by her cloak and collar and lifted up into the air like a child. "Wha?! L-Let me down right now! Siegeinherd! Stop! I order you to let me down!"

The blondie shook his head, "As expected of the Zero, it seems you can't even control your own familiar."

Louise let loose a shout, she was obviously not in the best of moods, "You two-timing playboy! Take that back! Take that back, right now! Or so The Founder help me, I'll...!"

The boy simply dismissed the hanging Valliere and went back to addressing the armored-entity before him.

He stuck his wand outwardly, "I will give you one chance, Familiar; move or I shall force you to."

The Overlord could almost laugh; tougher things have tried and those tougher things were also long dead because of it. In response, he unfolded one arm, reached out to offending wand, and crushed it with little effort.

There was complete silence before a loud and infectious gasp erupted from the audience.

"Did that half-giant just...?"

"Yes, it did..."

"That's the problem with these half-breeds, they just don't know their place!"

For a Noble, a wand was a symbol of their authority and power. To have one destroyed like it was a mere twig, by a dirty half-breed no less, was just an utter insult to them.

Guiche's face turned flush as he narrowed his brows. The day had gone from bad to worst; first the Maid, then Montmorency and Katherine, and now this Half-Giant had crumpled up his wand? Unreasonable! It was just all too much for him to bear.

"You mock-blood of a barbarian! Such disrespect!" He growled in exasperation. He almost threw a tantrum but quickly bottled in his outburst. The boy turned around as he dramatically flicked his cape, "I challenge you to a duel: twenty minutes from now, meet me at the Vestri Court. There I shall teach you your proper place, barbarian!"

"H-Hey, wait a moment, Guiche!" Louise cried out. The Master was responsible for the Familiar and she wasn't going to allow hers to be beaten up by Guiche. "Have you forgotten? Duels are forbidden!"

The boy paused and looked back, "Only amongst nobles," he answered, "Last I recalled, your familiar isn't a noble," he sneered, "And you yourself are not much of a noble either, Louise The Zero."

With those words he departed back to his room to grab a spare wand.

Louise gaped with her mouth open, she didn't even notice when the demi-god had put her back down. She was in shock; that insult had come out of nowhere. Guiche just openly discredited her nobility.

The young Valliere's entire body turned a hot red.

She snapped.

"GUUIIICCCCHHHHHEEEEEE DDEEE GGGRRRRAAAAAMMMMMMOOOOOOONNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTT!"

For almost ten minutes straight she purely called him many hateful names; her voice could be heard all around even from the guards patrolling outside the academy.

It seemed that these two children were becoming too riled up for their own good.

Kirche examined her fingernails as she waited for her rival to calm down. When the shouting died down, she blew on them nonchalantly, "Well, Louise, that was quite the outburst. Not even I have been able to get that kind of reaction from you - and I'm suppose to be your rival!"

"Shut. Up. Zerbst." Louise intoned with a no-nonsense voice as her seething dropped. "And you...!" she hissed to the Overlord, "You... Stupid! Disobedient! Mute! Mock-blood! Of a familiar! What in the Name Of The Founder do you think you're doing?!" She jabbed her wand at him with criticism, "I ordered you to stop and you didn't! I ordered you to put me down and you didn't! Now look what you've done; you've gotten yourself into a duel with Guiche! He may only be a Dot-Class Mage but he's still a Noble!"

The Overlord's little master was going absolutely ballistic at him. And, frankly, it was getting somewhat tiring - the only reason he hadn't left yet was because he knew that she would nag at him even more if he did; it reminded him terribly of Rose and her usual but long-winded tirades.

Well, he was apparently an ageless demi-god now, so he had all the time in the world to spare. He could wait.

[...]

The Overlord was a little peeved.

He was late for the duel because of Louise's incessant whining for another ten minute. He was lucky that the duel wasn't called off - Kirche, with some nudging from Tabitha, had convinced Guiche and the crowd to wait for them - and that his little master had dropped the subject as she was apparently still far too mad at Guiche to apologize or cancel the duel now.

It was a shame that he was late, and not even fashionably so, as being the overlord meant that he held himself to higher standards.

Just like his sword, he preferred to do things sharply and to the point.

As the demi-god arrived at the Vestri Court, he could already see the crowd gathered around the largest arena that the court had to offer.

The audience was made up entirely of students and familiars; common guards and servants did not dare mingle with the nobles more than they have to, and the teachers or magic-guards were nowhere to be found.

He could see that Kirche had a front-row seat as she laid seductively on her reptilian familiar, breasts spilling forth, like a huntress on the prowl. Tabitha stood besides her, eyes locked onto him and attentive, the Gallian girl's dragon provided the two of them with a wide space as its wings intentionally kept other people away.

Montmorency was also there in a different section of the crowd, she stood alone with her arms folded and a stern expression on her face. Apparently the girl known as Katherine was also here, though she wasn't paying much attention to the duel as she was being cooed and cuddled by her friends.

Meanwhile Guiche was already waiting in the arena, poised and elegant.

Without further ado, the Overlord stepped onto the stage.

"Hmph," Guiche huffed out in response, "My word, you certainly took your time to get here, mongrel. Well, whatever," he brought his rose-wand up to his nose and sniffed it, "I believe its time for me to deliver you your due punishment." He smirked, "Now let me teach you, barbarian, that against a mage - a noble - such as I, even that oversized sword is nothing more than a pointy stick!"

The crowd of students cheered as they lapped up Guiche's performance.

The Overlord merely cracked his neck in response; it was time for him to get this duel over with and teach this kid a lesson in manners. He doubted that he would need to use his sword for this - he wasn't trying to kill the boy, after all his little master's exact words were: "I want that accursed skirt-chaser to be down on his knees, crying and begging for his life!".

A boy, one of Guiche's friends, stepped up from the audience and approached the center of the arena. He took out a wand and raised it up to the sky, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a duel!" he quickly announced, "The Bronze versus the Mock-Blood!"

The students roared with excitement.

Louise silently seethed. Damn that referee; he just insulted her familiar! 'That Guiche, he planned this!' Even amongst the nobles, the young Gramont was rather theatrical - he was selling this fight as a simple show. In fact, she could already see a small betting corner being set up by the boy's other friends.

"I am the third son of the Gramont Family, Guiche de Gramont!" the boy declared as he raised his rose-wand, "And my Runic Name is The Bronze!"

The Overlord said nothing in return.

Thus it was up to Louise to do the introduction. However, she did not want to simply give out a name, she wanted to declare a title - something that would counter the previous insult and make her familiar all that more impressive. If that sod Guiche was going to ham up this duel then she would do it too.

Louise stepped up confidently into the center of the arena, "This is my familiar: Siegeinherd... The Dragonarok Knightmare!"

The demi-god almost quirked a brow at that; his title was a portmanteau of the words for Dragon, Ragnarok, Knight, and Nightmare. But then the title made some sense when he remembered that his new name 'Siegeinherd' was also based off of a dragon-slayer and the warriors of the apocalypse. Dragonarok Knightmare... The Knight Of Nights That Heralds The Demise Of Dragons. The Overlord mentally chuckled. Now that was an impressive title, more so than his older ones - he wondered just how many more would he gain for himself in this world?

Meanwhile Kirche licked her lips in delight, 'Oh, so his name is Siegeinherd, is it? Mmmhh~ That's certainly quite manly. Now, if only I had a face to that name~'

The crowd of students practically laughed their jaws off with guts spilling out. Dragonarok Knightmare? It was a such a childish sounding title, it sounded like it came from some low-grade fairy-tale or novel. But, more importantly, they believed it simply sounded far too good of a title for a half-giant that was merely the familiar of Louise The Zero.

"Dragonarok Knightmare, she says?!" a boy pointed and laughed.

"O-oh my, I-I don't thiiinnk I can st-stop mmyselfff-ff," a girl stuttered as she tried to rein in her fit of giggles.

Louise left the stage only slightly upset; she had expected this sort of reaction. 'It'll change soon enough.' While she didn't know how strong a half-giant usually was, she at least knew that Guiche's favorite spell was Valkyrie Golem and he had a tendency to underestimate others.

She may have been glorifying her familiar a bit too much but she assumed that any decent half-giant should be able to take on a minimal of six of those all at once. So Siegeinherd at least had a - unlikely as she thought it was - chance to beat down Guiche before he could cast any more dangerous spells.

The announcer-boy shouted as he swung his wand down, "Let the duel begin!" and immediately moved away from the combat arena.

The Overlord stood still, he was going to let the boy make the first move.

The blondie silently flicked his rose-wand which caused a single red petal to detach and sway gently in the breeze. Without warning, the petal promptly exploded in a flash of light. Where the petal once was, now stood a tall woman with a longsword and armor that had wing-decals.

This newcomer was entirely made of bronze from the inside out.

"This is my Bronze Valkyrie!" Guiche proudly voiced. Beautifully sculpted with delicate curves, the image of the valkyrie was both alluring and softly feminine but also sturdy and warrior-like. The young Gramont fancied himself somewhat of an artist - who crafted solely out of bronze - and the Bronze Valkyrie was his best work yet. He waved his wand once more and seven petals flew away, in turn seven more valkyrie-golems came into existence with each wielding a different weapon. "And they shall be your opponent, Barbarian!"

The Overlord was pleasantly surprised. He hadn't expected much out of the narcissistic boy but the youth possessed a nice sense of aesthetics since those valkyries were quite easy on the eyes. It was a shame though that the child was still of no challenge - while the Overlord was not a battle-freak, he did always enjoy a good fight.

The demi-god did not even bother to draw his sword as he walked towards the nearest golem.

In response, the squad of valkyries mobilized swiftly in unison. Despite being statues made from durable bronze, they moved fluidly enough that they seemed human. They quickly surrounded their lone opponent - it was a basic but also sound strategy against a tougher enemy.

Unfortunately for them, the Overlord was more than just a mere tougher enemy, he was already beyond their league.

The valkyries formed a circle and lined up their weapons. Guiche wasn't going to end this duel so soon, it was in his nature to toy around; he planned to have each golem attack in quick succession, one after another, as a way of harassment.

The first golem struck out with the force of nearly two grown men, however, such strength was beneath the notice of the Overlord. He continued unimpeded as the spear cracked and broke against his armor. He reached out with his large hand and grasped the helmed-head of the valkyrie before him, with a simple clench of his fist he crushed it into dust.

The remaining seven golems attacked in quick succession but provided no more than a pin-prick sensation against the armor of their larger opponent. Before young Gramont could register the lost of his valkyrie and readjust his plan, the Overlord swung his now clenched first and caved in the chest of the next closest bronze construct.

In less than five seconds, the Overlord destroyed two bronze valkyries, thus only six of them still remained.

Guiche's gut instinct told him that something was wrong but he didn't listen to it. He felt somewhat queasy as he scattered his bronze valkyries from their formation and had them aim for the joints of the familiar's armor - there had to be chinks somewhere that he could take advantage of - but he didn't think that he was losing, just that the duel wasn't as one-sided as he had originally expected it to be.

The valkyries were fleet of foot and quite graceful in their movement but they were not moving or attacking fast enough that the Overlord could not defend himself against them. One did not survive gladiator-hood if they were not own strength to kill, speed to retaliate, and skill to fight multiple opponents at once.

Despite his size, the Overlord was not slow.

A golem thrusted out its spear aimed at the slits of his helmet that allowed for sight. The aged-warrior simply caught the weapon and pulled. The construct suddenly found itself off of its feet, then its face came into contact with the Overlord's fist and the head was completely shattered.

Another golem tried to attack from behind but the demi-god turned around swiftly before it could get an attack in. With a shove of his arm, the back-end of the spear hit the valkyrie's chest with such force that it practically exploded, which absolutely destroyed both the construct and the weapon.

The Overlord was surprised but also annoyed at his quick reaction.

The moment he had grasped the spear, the runes tried to forcibly activate once more. Knowledge seeped into his mind and body like a phantom, providing information and even the skills on how to best use the bronze spear. It also gave him an incredible boost to his strength, speed, and stamina, but with it came the same sensation of hundreds of tendrils creeping into places they shouldn't be. He supressed it immediately but his body had reacted faster and ended up destroying the previous golem.

It would seem that he would need to deal with these runes after this duel. Their constant restoration was becoming a nuisance.

For now, he had a fight to finish; four golems remained.

Guiche grimaced at the quick destruction of half of his fighting force. At this rate it was pretty clear that he would lose the duel if he just left things as they were. It was a shame that he had no more rose-wands on his person so that he could immediately summon up some more bronze valkyries for a small expense but on the other hand he was still fresh and had willpower to spend.

He needed to take this duel more seriously. Leaving his golems with a new directive to keep their distance from the Zero's Familiar and therefore bide time, the young Gramont waved his wand as he began chanting.

"Heed my call, the glorious maidens of war, and take form from the earth! Grant me victory: Bronze Valkyries!"

The ground beneath the Overlord stirred as two pairs of arms burst from the floor and grabbed his legs. Further around him, six more golems rose up from the earth. The quality of their forms were slightly degraded but it seemed that in exchange for that they now had the strength of around four adult men - or at least the two trying to hold down his legs did, though these two were also only half-formed with their upper-body.

The Overlord clasped his hands together and swung them down like a mighty hammer, twice. Both of the valkyries that held his legs down were flattened back into the ground. The remnants of their arms still hung attached onto him and a quick brush of his arm soon got rid of those as well.

In that time, Guiche had already completed his next spell.

"Pillars of the earth, erupt and bare your mighty fangs! Ground Pound!"

The ground around the Overlord rumbled as thick pillars of earth randomly erupted from the floor and pounded him from all sides.

If he was any less tough than the spell would have surely locked him into place.

The Overlord crossed his arms as he charged out from the center of the attack. He bulldozed through two unfortunate golems who happened to be his way. Meanwhile a third was destroyed when he backhanded it for being close to his stopping point.

Seven bronze valkyries remained.

Guiche frantically panicked at the sight of the unscathed knight. 'Why isn't that damn mock-blood going down?!' He had not honestly expected the familiar to get out of that spell since Ground Pound could turn a regular human into broken up pieces of mush.

He seethed inwardly, fighting the Zero's Familiar was suppose to have been an outlet for his stress but instead it was building up even more stress for him!

"Very well then...!" Guiche grumbled to himself. He flicked his wand and chanted quickly, "Oh, earth below the skies, rise upward and pierce the land of the heavens above! Earth Tower!"

A single and large segment of the arena floor streamed outward at an angle. The Overlord felt the initial impact when it hit his chest and took a step backward, but soon the continuous growing stream of earth simply splashed harmlessly against his armor as he stood rooted in place and blocked the water-like stream of earth with his forearms.

'Got you,' the young Gramont smirked. Four of his bronze valkyries immediately pounced onto the Zero's Familiar and clung onto him like hungry leeches. "Of the earth's trapping, my enemy shall be buried under the land! Shattered Earth!"

For a brief moment the golems' hummed as their magical core suddenly oversurged with power. With a flash the four bronze valkyries exploded in a furious roar - choking the air with clouds of dust and deafening sound like that of a parade of firecrackers.

Guiche lowered his guard as he gave his wand another dramatic swish. "Well, with this, I believe, my victory is secure now." Even a noble with enchanted protection - such as the uniforms of this academy - or a dragon would be hard-pressed to survive completely uninjured from this type of indiscriminate shrapnel attack.

Unfortunately for him, he was proven wrong when the connections with his remaining three golems suddenly went dark - now zero of them remained active. The boy flinched and yelped when the broken and battered body of one of his bronze valkyrie was thrown at the base of his person. "I-It can't be...!" dread filled his voice.

Slow but steady footsteps clearly resounded from the cloud of dusts. Soon, the Overlord strode confidently out from the brown smoky veil and into the sunlight. His black armor was no more battered than the day he was summoned and their dark tint gleamed menacingly under the light.

The crowd was in silent disbelief at his survival.

The demi-god had to admit, he didn't give the boy much credit, he was almost certain that the Gramont kid did not have any combat skills at all. He had expected to finish this duel within ten seconds after the first free hit, but instead the fight had gone on for much longer than he had anticipated.

In a mocking display of acknowledgement, the Overlord slowly clapped his gauntlet hands three times. This Guiche de Gramont had surpassed his previous expectations, but that still wasn't enough to win this duel, and his gesture now marked the end of this fight. The boy knew this too; Guiche gulped and sweated as he stared into the demi-god's glowing eyes - it was only now that he noticed just how intimidating those eyes were.

It was time to enact out his little master's wish.

The Overlord pulled out his sword and momentarily allowed it to boost his power. In a blur he stabbed his sword into the ground between Guiche's leg, by the time boy registered the blade the Overlord was already slowly inching the weapon upward with it nearly pressing onto the Gramont's groin.

Guiche's mouth was agape for several long seconds until he barely croaked out his next words, "I-I yield!"

The Overlord further increased the discomfort as he suddenly pulled out the blade in a swift but powerful motion. Guiche cringed and collapsed onto the arena floor - his hands instinctively reached out to grasp his manhood, completely unsure whether he was cut and simply didn't feel it because of his pulsing adrenaline or if he was actually left unharmed - his eyes lingered on the black blade that almost scarred him for life.

The demi-god's massive sword then pointed to Louise before being planted into the ground. The Overlord simply waited for his little master to pass her judgment upon the boy.

The pinkette snapped herself out of the daze she had received from seeing her familiar actually winning the duel. She immediately took this as her cue to speak and walked onto the stage. It was somewhat amazing to see such a quick and drastic switch of expressions, "Do you think you're forgiven, Guiche? Just so simply like that?"

The boy shuddered in response, "H-Have some mercy!"

Louise dramatically swung out her arm in a commanding gesture, her cape gave a brief but villainous swoosh, "Down on your knees then, Guiche de Gramont; swallow your pride and apologize for everything you have said!"

"Of course! As you wish!" The blondie easily accepted her demands without a second thought. He went down on both knees and bowed until his forehead touched the ground. "I, Guiche de Gramont, third son of General Gramont, hereby swear upon my name and honor that I shall thoroughly contemplate and repent for my actions today. I shall seek forgiveness from Montmorency Margarita la Fere de Montmorency and Katherine de Stanhope. I shall desist on my accusation upon the maid of her wrongdoings..." He lifted up his head with watery eyes, "Please forgive me."

Louise frowned in displeasure, "Did the son of General Gramont forget his manner at home? I hear apologies for everybody else except for I. Insulting me and trying to cover it up with such useless matters... you truly are a fool." She snapped her fingers and the Overlord merely twitched the hilt of his sword.

"I'M SORRY!" Guiche gurgled and choked as he practically slammed his forehead onto the ground with a loud smack. "A thousand humble and sincere apologies, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere! You are not a 'zero' and I will never call you by that atrocious name ever again, you have my word! Please, please, please, forgive me!"

The young Valliere allowed her answer to stew and the tension to rack the boy's body. At last she triumphantly smirked and spoke, "Very well then, I accept your apology and forgive you, Guiche de Gramont."

Guiche let out a sigh of relief but remained bowing.

Louise spun on her heels and turned around. She flicked back her hair, "Let this be a lesson to you," her eyes then panned across the crowd, "All of you." She promptly walked away from the stage with grace and renewed confidence.

She could get used to this feeling of dominance.

Meanwhile, the Overlord learned something rather important from this duel: his little master had a temper and mean-streak that could rival even his wife's!

---

Author Notes

Another big chapter to set up, well, the setting and establish some of the characters. What can I say? I love world-building (I will try to tone it down in future chapters). Also, these chapters have been unexpectedly long - I honestly expect the average chapter for SAK to be around 6-8k words (right now, I'm hitting about 13k+ and I'm fairly certain that's not including the huge World Notes segment).

Oh, and Guiche gets beat up this chapter, there's that too. More ramblings on this on a World Notes segment.

Just a reminder but the fantasy-languages you see in this story are badly broken intentionally. For example, Höllenfeuer Drachenberg is German for Hellfire Dragon Mountain or Flamme for Flame. It's Houlienfuer Drakenberg and Flayvme here because Germanic is only 'sorta German' and not really German.

Anyways, I hope this chapter wasn't too boring for the time it took to write... It really should have been published sooner, around the end of June, but unexpected things kept popping out (most of those being my friends wanting to hang-out for hours on end).

Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and whatever else!

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Review Notes

GreyMan19, Yes, the height being short was rather intentional, though you're right that the average gives the impression everyone is too short. Therefore an extra segment on Heights has been added to this chapter's World Notes to expand a certain part I forgot. Anyways, SAK will most likely go through the same plot-points that ZNO did; though there may be some changes here and there.

Guest, Yo estoy usando un traductor en línea, me disculpo por cualquier rarezas en mi discurso. Para responder a su pregunta: lo más probable es recoger algunas atención femenina, pero si él gana un harén todavía no se había visto.
(I am using an online translator, I apologize for any oddities in my speech. To answer your question: he will most likely pick up a few female attention but whether he gains a harem has yet to be seen.)

Logan Greenberg, Well, that event actually did happen in the original Zero's Noble Overlord and I had no intentions of making it not happening for SAK. So there you go!

RoughStar333, I will most likely throw out an official announcement on ZNO after I at least finish the Fouquet Arc here in SAK. Until then, I'm seeing how well SAK thrives on its own rather than riding on the previous reputation of its forbearer.

Creeves59, Hey, nice to see you again! I'm still waiting for myself to finish this chapter; if you're reading this comment, then I'm finally done (hurrah!). Anyways, yep, still planning on having Mathilda join the crew. Whether the Overlord gets a mistress has yet to be seen, though I did say Mathilda's flag was set in ZNO, and it'll probably come up in SAK too; Haha.

Twigon Halolover, I will most likely post a warning chapter on ZNO after I finish up the Fouquet Arc; I sorta want SAK to have more content before I do that. Though, despite how early that arc is, that might be a long way off considering how slow I am...

Finally, a small thanks to AndrosvanDraco and DeadSpace123 for sending me PMs wondering when the next chapter would come out - it helped to slightly motivate me on getting back to business. On that note, please try not to get too impatient when the next chapters will arrive since I story-hop often and therefore I often won't be able to give an estimate for the next chapter (because I might not have even started it yet...).

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World Notes

This segment shall be dedicated to explaining the differences between Zero's Noble Overlord and Strawberry And Knight that I feel like pointing out (or has been requested by reviewers). It shall also be used to explain additional background stuff whenever I feel like it.

Loads of bonus information but not necessary to read to enjoy the main-story. Please feel free to skip.

[...]

Overlord: In Zero's Noble Overlord I had intentionally left the Overlord very bare-bone in terms of characterization.

You know he was noble and you saw some glimpses of his thoughts but otherwise his character was left mostly up for interpretation. Why? Because the Overlord was a Player-Character, so I had tried to do the same in ZNO by making him a 'Reader-Character.' I wanted readers to connect to him somewhat by filling in the blanks and creating their own reasons for why he did the things he's done.

However, in Strawberry And Knight I am developing the Overlord as his own character as we'll see more of his thoughts, musings, and some of his past.

[...]

Heights: Refresher, average height for a Male Halkeginian Commoner is 5'3ft and Females at 5'2ft; Male Germanian Commoner are at 5'5ft and Females are at 5'4ft. Average height for a Male Halkeginian Mage is 5'5ft and Females at 5'4ft; Male Germanian Mage are at 5'8ft and Females are at 5'7ft.

When saying 'average for mages' that really describes the population of Dot-Class Mages (since they are the most numerous). As a Mage goes up the Shape-Rank the averages increases by another one-to-two inches.

Thus, the typical Male Mage is 5'5ft at Dot, 5'7ft at Line, 5'9ft at Triangle, and 6'1ft at Square, with Females one-inch smaller in general (again, Germanian Mages are around one-to-three inches taller).

This is a rule of thumb to determine what rank a mage is at from sight but it obviously can not be applied to every situation.

In fact, this observation method can be considered outdated, as it was conceived during the Age Of Chaos (roughly 6000 years ago) when Mages were fairly stronger than their current contemporary counterparts. For example, most of the current-day Square-Class Mages would probably have only ranked as an mid-to-upper Triangle-Class Mage in the past.

[...]

Calendar: In Zero's Noble Overlord I had used a Five-Days-to-a-Week system with a Six-Weeks-to-a-Month system. But I'll be using a different system for Strawberry And Knight (though it might never come up in the actual story).

Sixty Seconds to a Minute. Sixty Minutes to an Hour. Twenty-Six Hours to a Day. Seven Days to a Week. Five Weeks to a Month. Twelve Months to a Year. In other words: roughly 420 days/10920 hours on average for their planet to orbit around the sun, much longer than Earth's 365 days/8760 hours.

Monday is Day Of The Crown (Royalty), Tuesday is Day Of Fire (Absolute Ashirandon), Wednesday is Day Of Earth (Measureless Mundoremog), Thursday is Day Of Water (Immmortal Irisveiya), Friday is Day Of Wind (Eternal Erefoseva), Saturday is Day Of Void (Zenith Zelgis), and Sunday is Day Of The Founder (Brimir). Monday through Friday are the weekdays, meanwhile Saturday and Sunday are the weekend.

The months are Ianuarius (Month Of The Founder), Februarius (Month Of Purification), Martius (Month Of Farming), Aprilis (Month Of The Dawn), Maius (Month Of Growth), Junius (Month Of Marriage), Julius (Month Of Aristocracy), Augustus (Month Of Sacrifice), Septembris (Month Of Harvest), Octobris (Month Of Prayer), Novembris (Month of Souls), and Decembris (Month Of Truth).

[...]

Alviss: He is a real dwarf in Norse Mythology. His story is that he wanted to marry Thor's daughter Thrud, thus Thor set up a series of challenges to test his wisdom, however the Norse God Of Thunder actually had no plans for him to succeed. The intellectual bout of wits lasted well into the morning but, because he was a dwarf, Alviss turned to stone when the sunlight hit him.

The Familiar Of Zero canon treats Alviss as some kind of species of 'little people' though, who are statues by day and start dancing by night. Whatever the case, I am going with the TFOZ interpretation since I can easily cook up a reason/story why they would name a dining hall after Alviss.

[...]

Magical Decree: It is commonly known that Founder Brimir is the Patron Saint Of The Pentagon Powers who was blessed by the Gods and then taught Humanity the arcane-arts.

In the scholarly world, 'Blessed be the Magical Decree' is often believed to be an archaic way of saying 'Will of The Founder' which is the idea that Humanity must retake the Holy Lands (The Founder's birthplace) from the Elves. Note that 'By The Founder's Will' is not the same thing as this particular phrase means 'Should he allow me to, I will do his bidding.'

The modern use of 'Blessed be the Magical Decree' is an reaffirmation of the idea that Mages are righteous in all forms. The phrase is also likewise used at the end of most prayers as a small oath of confirmation.

However, due to the tumultuous times that were the Age Of Chaos, many historic facts and traditions have been skewed. Thus, 'Blessed be the Magical Decree' is not actually another way of saying 'Will of The Founder.'

'Magical Decree' is actually a form of 'Noblesse Oblige;' it is an ideal that has existed long before Brimir and had originally meant those with magic would protect the commoners and that the art of magic would be fairly spread to all humans.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line of history, the idea became the exact opposite of its nature. 'Magical Decree' is now the idea that Mages are inherently superior as magic belonged to them and thus commoners must work under them.

[...]

Central Tower: Just some basic lay-out about the Central Tower.

At they very bottom contains the Alviss Dining Hall and the subsequent kitchens attached to it. Meanwhile at the very top (or as high as you can get inside the structure) is the Headmaster's Office.

Other locations/floors inside the tower are: the public bathing quarters, the library, the treasure vault, the teacher quarters, a ball room, and a storage floor. There will probably be other floors as the plot demands... it's a very big building after all.

[...]

Education: For Commoners, they are entirely home-schooled in everything they know. From the earliest of ages they are taught how to endure and survive in this world through manual labor. Schools do exist but they are more like a daycare and are primarily used as an additional place for children to learn how to read, write, and speak along with some basic mathematics. As such, Commoners grow up through practical hands-on experience.

Nobles are raised at an early age to be an aristocrat; from the day they are born to fifteen years of age, they are home-schooled by private tutors or their families. From their families history and life-style, to their country and royal crown, to magic and nobility, to language and religion, and so forth, Nobles are nurtured with great expectations.

When a Noble reaches sixteen year of age, they are then considered young adults, and must learn how to - in a sense - live on their own so that they may grow up as independent adults who can carry on with honor.

Thus, at this age, a Noble is typically sent to live at a school for the next three years. With the watchful eyes of their guardians gone, these young adults are expected to increase their individual social standings through their own merits.

The curriculum for a first-year student is typically a rehash of already known knowledge: history, magic, etiquettes, speech, politics, and so on. Magic is used very little (mostly a demonstration from the teachers) and almost nothing new is actually learned - the first year is primarily a mean of making sure the students have a standardize knowledge of the world around them.

By the second year a student is allowed to summon a familiar and the curriculum changes. The classes are more focused about the elements, their uses, and the various type of spells there are, thus magic is used more extensively. However, for the most part, other than summoning a familiar, the knowledge is (again) generally a rehash - the second year is primarily a method of assessing the student's magical abilities.

Finally the third year the curriculum is very similar to the previous years (again, mostly rehashed) but on the more practical side as there is a greater emphasis on project-exams. Whether it be to write an essay, hunt for reagents, working in the field, and so forth, these young adults are given many assignments to test their capabilities. The third year is primarily a way for nobles to make a name for themselves as they prepare themselves to enter society.

[...]

Katherine: She's a very minor character in canon TFOZ, who pretty much only appeared twice, and is only identified as 'Katie' which sounds more like a nickname.

Here in SAK she is Katherine de Stanhope - her Family Name is borrowed from a real Katherine Stanhope, who was a Countess Of Chesterfield.

I am fairly certain in ZNO that I had designed her with several roles (or with at least more screentime) than just being 'the girl Guiche cheated on.' However, that didn't happened since she was never mentioned again. But I still don't know if I'm going to give her a bigger role/more screentime at all.

I'm not sure if there was a canon-reason for Guiche dating her, so I give him a bit of a mother-complex here in SAK. Haha.

Semi-related note, in this story, there was suppose to be a third girl (a third-year student) that Guiche was also dating. I removed her though because that was pointlessly complicated, especially since the third girl would have been mentioned once and never again (the Third Year Girl only dated Guiche because she thought it was cute to date a younger guy and to stroke his ego a bit, in the end she did not get involve during the confrontation).

[...]

Mock-blood: This is a derogatory term that refers to Half-Breed species that contain both Human-Ancestry and Mockelem-Ancestry. They are also sometimes referred to as 'Sub-Humans.' They are almost always male, while the females are an absolute rarity.

By Halkeginia's definition: a Mockelem is a type of monster created by demons; they are malicious slander given physical form meant to defame Humanity and The Founder. Orcs, Ogres, and Giants are considered Mockelems.

When a Half-Breed population within a Mockelem Tribe grows, there is a high a tendency for them revolt and break away to form their own group or integrate with another existing group (Mockelems often treat their Mock-Blood children as extremely expendable).

Just like their parents however, Half-Breed Species hate one another (Half-Orcs would not get along with Half-Giants), and retain the same preference for human partners. While humanity as a whole dislikes Mock-Bloods, Nobles have taken notice that these half-breeds are far more reliable soldiers than the plain human Commoners - thus it is not unusual to see a country have them under their service (Germania has many Half-Breed Divisions, while Romalia has none). They are often used to fight other Mockelem Tribes or as meatshield for large excursions (like that of dragon-hunting).

In return for their service, Half-Breeds are most typically given Commoners to breed with. Thus, their tribes have been sustained like this for several hundred years now.

[...]

Guiche's Duel: I know there are plenty of readers who think that having the Guiche Duel in a TFOZ story means the author is a chump. I'm perfectly fine with that.

As far as I can foresee, it's pretty much impossible to avoid the Guiche Duel. Guiche is defined with as being a Prideful Womanizer which ultimately leads to this event since its in his character to do so. He will cheat and he will blame someone (it doesn't necessarily have to be with Katie and Montmorency nor Siesta).

The only I could prevent the duel was if I either: A) Rewrote Guiche's basic traits or B) Remove Guiche from the story.

I have no intentions of doing the latter.

As for the former, it was a possibility since seeing a different Guiche - possibly a more intelligent one - would have been rather refreshing. But that is not to be. I have (cliche) plans for Guiche which requires him to basically be what he was in canon (for those who have read ZNO, you - sorta - know what those plans are).

Anyways, I had originally planned for the Guiche Duel to happen a bit differently in SAK.

Louise was initially suppose to explain her expectations (amongst plenty of other things) to the Overlord since he was her familiar, which would last well until lunch-time. When the Overlord returned to the Dining Hall, he would have heard the gossip about Guiche cheating along with how the boy was blaming a servant. Seeing as how Guiche reminded the Overlord of a one whiny Sir William, (and being the noble fella he was) the demi-god would have gone and taught the boy a lesson about two-timing and not manning up to his mistakes.

In the end, I went for this simpler turn of events with the Overlord finding out sooner rather than later.

I also had the choice of allowing the Overlord to hand Guiche his ass right then and there when the duel was announced, but I decided not to. Just like ZNO, I wanted to show that Guiche is a fairly competent mage (even if he's only Dot) since he's still a child from a soldier-family.

[...]

Guiche's Valkyrie: In a World Notes (actually Narrator Notes) from Zero's Noble Overlord, I pretty much stated that Halkeginian Mages either did 'Word Of Powers' (title is still tentative for SAK) or 'Quick-Spelling' to cast magic. Clearly Guiche didn't use either, so what did he do?

What he did was 'Trigger-Cast' (also known as a 'Delayed-Spell'), though his is a special one since it's the Gramont Family's version (which is a trade-secret).

To explain, a Trigger-Cast is essentially the chanting of the spell beforehand but not the actual casting of it. The prepped spell is (at the same time) saved into a rune or object and will activate later when the Original Caster's Willpower goes through it. The advantage of a Trigger-Cast is, of course, the surprise element and that it uses less Willpower to activate.

The process is rather similar to creating Enchanted Item, however the method of Trigger-Cast is only guaranteed to work once as it tends to utterly break whatever object it was sealed into. It's fairly rare to see since only Dot and Line Class Spells are capable of being sealed (higher-level magic typically explodes or just don't work) and the method can't be mass-produced since Trigger-Cast ultimately only works for the caster who sealed the spell in the first place.

So while Guiche is a narcissistic idiot, I will at least acknowledge that he also a dedicated one since he knows how to Trigger-Cast.