Louise had been under the impression everything had been going well. After having Saw'veleesh mind control her father, she had gotten all sorts of information out of him, the state of the country, the state of the other countries and even Mr. Colbert's little joint project with the Montmorency family. This had been the most important information she had gained, especially considering that from the sound of it Lady Montmorency knew the location of the corpse of a creature she called the Nightscreamer. Louise was sure that what she thought was an ancient creatures corpse was the wreckage of the dreadnaught she was to take command of, and even if it wasn't the expedition she led would be a great cover to get her closer to its location.

Using her mind controlled father, she and Saw'veleesh had him compose a letter that had allowed her both back into the school, for the sake of officialness, and onto the student crew of Mr. Colbert's expedition ship, the Ostrand. But she had forgotten something important, and now it was biting her in the ass. Not only did she forget that crews like this would be sectioned according to duty, but she forgot that crewmates often shared cabins.

"Are you listening, Vallière!"

Louise looked up to see the dark skin and bright red hair of Kirche von Zerbst standing over her, her face filled with anger from being ignored. "Yes I hear you Zerbst, could you be any louder?"

Kirche leaned back away, and walked back over to her bed on the other side of the small cabin, sitting down with a heavy thud. "Then why haven't you answered my question, Vallière?"

"And which question would that be, the one asking where I've been or the one asking why my father took interest in this expedition?"

"The one about the thing at the end of your bed!" Kirche screamed as she pointed to Saw'veleesh who was kneeling down at the foot of Louise's bed., Kirche's familiar salamander, Flame was growling at him from a few feet away.

"It's my familiar, Zerbst. Now call off your familiar before my familiar makes yours a cripple!"

Kirche stifled a snicker then let out a full blown laugh. "As if it could! Flame!"

The salamander backed away from Saw'veleesh and lay down beside Kirche's bed, obeying its master's command flawlessly.

Louise looked at Flame with a look of disgust. "Not bad, do the boys still obey you like that?"

"They do what I want because I ask. It's a charisma thing, not something you understand I'd bet!"

"So I've heard," Louise replied, deciding not to escalate their verbal catfight any higher, at least for now. "So what is it exactly that we're going on this expedition?"

Kirche smiled. "Oh? What, you were not told what your little punishment was going to be?"

"Not really."

"We're on the kitchen crew, four of us students and two maids from the school are responsible for making all the meals for the rest of the crew. We get a decent amount of free time, but I hope you like getting up early and staying up late!"

Louise silently cursed herself for her lack of foresight that put her in this situation. "So what are the rules for our familiars while on this expedition?"

Kirche raised an eyebrow to Louise and let out a heavy, exasperated sigh. "I know you were almost late for boarding, but really! Did you just ignore everything Mr. Colbert said during the orientation?"

"I missed the orientation actually."

"That explains you not knowing a thing! As I said before, being kitchen crew we get a good amount of free time. Our familiars are allowed to be with us on the ship, but are not allowed in the kitchen, only our cabins and the top deck."

"I see." Louise said with a nod. "Saw, how are you holding up without ichor radiation?"

"Your body has begun sending pulses of ichor radiation to this one at regular intervals, as long as this one is on the ship I shall be fine, though unable to help in any major focus." Saw'veleesh replied telepathically.

Louise nodded. "What about your neural control of my father?"

"It will likely subside and break within the day."

"Alright, just stay here and-,"

"Louise!" Kirche yelled suddenly.

Louise looked up at Kirche to see her face full of anger and rage. "What?"

"I'm talking to you, quite trying to fall asleep!"

"I wasn't falling asleep I-,"

"You had your eyes closed and were not responding to my voice. Sounds like sleep to me!"

"Whatever, what do you want now?"

Kirche glared at Louise, her anger obvious. "I was saying that we need to head for the kitchen to start preparing for dinner"

"We just left the school not an hour ago, it's barely mid-afternoon." Louise said casually.

"Yet another reason why your useless, Vallière! We were told to be there an hour after takeoff to find out who would be doing what, now let's go!" Kirche yelled as she turned and left the room.

Louise let out a sigh and looked to Saw'veleesh, who still sat as he had been, looking almost like a statue from how still he was. "It looks like this will be very boring for much of this. I need to head off, can't let this farce become found out already."

Saw'veleesh bobbed in acknowledgment as Louise walked out of the room, leaving him in the room alone with a growling red lizard.

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Siesta had thought she had an idea of what to expect when the academy teacher Mr. Colbert came to her with the request to join in on his expedition, not because she had been on sky ships before, but because the crew had many nobles on it. She expected the maids and servants would be run ragged as the students would be lazing around on the main deck or in their cabins. Simply put, she had figured wrong.

"Nervous?" Lady Montmorency asked as she walked beside Siesta down the wood and metal hallways of the Ostrand.

"Er, um, I. Yes, Milady." Siesta admitted after a small problem with her tongue not working.

Lady Montmorency let out a small laugh. "Don't worry about it, we're not expecting the food for the expedition to be perfect, just hardy. I know you'll do well. after all, Mr. Colbert vouched for you."

"Err, I know, but making me the head of the kitchens is too much. Wouldn't it have been better to have Marteau join the expedition as the head cook?"

"We can't leave the academy completely devoid of staff, after all there are still a great number of students at the academy. There's only about five dozen students the expedition, so we needed someone skilled in the kitchen, you."

"B-but their nobles, they'd never do what I say and . . . I'm sorry I'm overstepping my bounds."

"Nonsense, girl. My beliefs align with old Osmond's and Mr. Colbert's. Not only do I believe that you have the skills, I also believe that some nobles need a good boot to the rear!" Lady Montmorency admitted with a great chuckle.

Siesta looked at her for a moment before gazing at the floor as they walked. "I- I see."

"Don't worry; I'm sure you'll do fine. I'll make sure the other kids in the kitchen listen to your council."

Siesta nodded as the two of them stopped in front of a large set of wooden double doors with the words kitchen written on them both.

"Ready?" Lady Montmorency asked warmly.

Siesta swallowed hard. "No, but I have to be."

"Good answer." Lady Montmorency said as she threw open the doors and walked in, Siesta right behind her.

Standing in the middle of the large hall of wooden tables and chairs were four students of the academy, and one maid who looked far from impressed by their presence.

As Lady Montmorency stopped in front of them and waited for the maid to notice her presence it gave Siesta chance to look everyone over. The other maid was older than her, and wore a cross face. Siesta had seen her a few times before, dealing with laundry and cleaning of the girls dormitories at the academy. The students however, were what really caught Siesta's attention. While the two boys were both rather, well average, the two girls were anything but your average noble. The first one that Siesta's eyes were pulled to was the visiting daughter of a noble from Germania, her well-endowed shape and bright red hair commanding attention and telling all who she was, Kirche von Zerbst. The second girl was smaller than Siesta (on all accounts) and had bright pink hair done into a rather good sized ponytail, and Siesta only knew of one family in all of Halkeginia that had pink hair, the Vallière's.

The older maid, finally noticing Lady Montmorency's and Siestas presence, spun around and bowed lightly giving Lady Montmorency the chance she was looking forward to. "I thank you all again for joining this little expedition of mine!" Lady Montmorency exclaimed with a smile. "The five of you are the kitchen crew for the expedition. As the kitchen crew your jobs are simple, to cook the meals for the crew, to clean up after the meals, and to maintain the kitchen and dining area. I know you likely do not know much about cooking, but I believe it will do you good to learn, so this maid here will be the head of the kitchen." Lady Montmorency said as she placed her hand on Siesta's shoulder lightly.

Almost instantly, the two noble boys began grumbling as Kirche took half a step forward. "I see no problem with doing cooking, but working under a plebeian is asking a bit much, don't you think?"

Lady Montmorency patted Siesta's shoulder, reassuring her as she replied. "No, I don't think it is. I trust you all to obey what Siesta here tells you to do. The meals will not be anything fancy so it will not be too hard on you," Lady Montmorency said as she looked down to Siesta then back up to the four nobles and the older maid with a grin. "If she believes any of you are not doing your job, she merely needs to tell me, and you will be dealt with. Swiftly."

The two boys almost shivered, and both Kirche and the older maid both stiffened as Lady Montmorency said this, but Louise did nothing, catching her attention.

"Is something the matter, young Vallière?"

Louise glanced up at Lady Montmorency. "Nothing in particular."

"Strange," Lady Montmorency exclaimed. "I expected a child of the Vallière's to be most likely to complain about how things are being done on this expedition."

"Is that a problem?"

Lady Montmorency shook her head as she walked away. "I leave it to you, Siesta." And with that she was gone.

The room was dead silent for many moments before the older maid walked over to Siesta and placed a hand on her shoulder. "If what I've heard from Marteau is true, you likely are better than me at cooking. The names Maria, I'll be in your care."

Siesta took a second to register what was said and then nodded her head happily. "Yes, thank you. I look forward to working with you. May I ask for everyone's names, please?" Siesta asked the nobles, spurred on by Maria's action.

The two boys both grumbled to themselves, the only understandable words coming from them being Joseph and Leonard. But while they grumbled Kirche merely crossed her arms. "My name is Kirche von Zerbst, remember it!

"I'll be sure to!" Siesta replied as she looked to Louise. "You're a Vallière, right?"

Louise nodded. "Louise Vallière, it's a pleasure."

"For me as well," Siesta said happily, now moving along with the flow. "Alright, as this is the first meal of the voyage we should take a look at what we have to work with. Maria, can you take Joseph and Leonard and take a count of how much dried meat and bread we have? The spices too, if possible."

Maria smiled and walked in between the two boys, placing her hands on their shoulders and dragging them behind her. "No problem, we'll get right to it!"

"Good." Siesta replied as she looked to Louise and Kirche. "And while their doing that, we'll take a count of the fruits, veggies and potatoes, okay?"

"Whatever," Kirche remarked as they followed Siesta to the kitchen.

Almost two hours later, Siesta had come to three conclusions. Apparently most nobles had no idea how to count food. Most nobles had no idea that meat could be dried to such an extent as it could be, and that nobles were not just haughty and ignorant, but also blissfully unaware of how much work was needed to prepare even a simple meal for many people. Letting out a sigh, Siesta looked down the kitchen to make sure everyone was doing what was to be done. The boys were cutting up meat and potatoes, as they were supposed to, and Maria and Kirche were cutting up various vegetables as they were supposed to, only Louise caught Siesta's attention. As Louise was stirring the one of three massive pots of stew Siesta could not help but notice that she could see something glinting in her ponytail. Did she have something in it? No that couldn't be, her ponytail was too puffy to have something in it. So just what was it?