If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
- Sun Tzu

...

...

Napoleon had never been one who needed sleep that badly, and thus as dawn began, he rose without much difficulty. Still, he thought, he could really use coffee – the British blockade had meant that even he had difficulty obtaining the wonderful beverage, and even one with his rank had been forced to use chicory root as a substitute much like the rest of his people. Without the burdens and duties that came with ruling so many, there was not much to do during this early hour, and so he decided to check up on his partner like he had promised to do. Nobles, from his experience, always slept incredibly late as they never had anything better to do. He would make sure that Louise would not be like that as long the two worked together.

Even as he stormed into his partner's room with a loud bang, he realized that the noise of the door opening made little impression on her sleeping form. This really would not do, and so he opened the curtains. Sunlight streamed into the room and directly onto Louise's bed, but she still did nothing but roll around. So Napoleon stood over her bed and clapped his hands loudly three times.

"Up, Valliere."

The girl finally managed to wake up, but barely. She sat up, but at first barely seemed to acknowledge that there was someone else there. That changed after a bit.

"Wait! What's a man doing in here! Who are you – wait, you're the person I summoned!"

The idiotic response wasn't even worth replying to, but Napoleon mentally sighed. He knew the girl had great potential, but hopefully she had managed to learn that she could not boss him around she pleased from last night, right?

"So I did summon a human, though an odd one….. Fine! Familiar, dress me!"

No. It looked like she was stupider than he had assumed.

Once, when he was still a young captain, he had defied the orders of his generals at the Siege of Toulon, and ordered a charge with his men which had secured the victory. If he had done that as a young man with the military elite, then the preening of a young idiotic noblewoman was not worth his time. Now that she was fully awake, there was nothing further for him to do inside, and so he strode outside the room. He would wait outside for her to dress herself, and then they would really need to have a talk about their relationship. He needed her for information, but he had no doubt that if things got too bad, he could simply find someone else who would prove more pliable. The fact that he chose to simply wait for her rather than abandon her for good after her ridiculous request was enough sign of the Emperor's graciousness.

"W-wha-COME BACK, YOU!"

While Louise screamed out after him, it appeared that she had no intention of chasing him outside, and so he could hear her dress himself as he waited outside the door. As he waited, one of the adjacent wooden doors opened. A red-haired girl with a grin on her face, one whom he had seen talking with Louise yesterday, walked out, with a lizard as big as a tiger accompanying her. As she noticed him, Napoleon couldn't help but glance at her massive chest.

"Good morning, there."

Her voice was clearly mocking him, and so Napoleon chose to ignore her. The girl moved forward a little closer to him.

"Not saying anything, Familiar of Zero? Still, she got an older human for the job? I honestly thought she could hire someone younger and more handsome to act the role, but I guess you're the best she could do."

It really was a pity, Napoleon thought to himself. The girl was beautiful, and it would be a shame if he had to execute her someday.

While Napoleon continued to remain silent, his partner chose this moment to stumble out, adjusting a cloak over herself. Her eyes lit up with enmity upon seeing the other girl.

"Good morning, Louise."

"Good morning, Kirche."

While the two looked at each other, and then began squabbling about something or another, Napoleon decided to ignore them and examine the lizard. Its red color was peculiar, but what was most noticeable was the fire from its tail and the sparks from its mouth. Just another confirmation that he was now part of a truly different world. Napoleon wondered what other species might exist here – perhaps all those mythical beasts that one learns about as a child existed here. He'd have particular interest in meeting a unicorn, if he didn't take out his hatred of England on it.

Meanwhile, it appeared the two girls had done squabbling. Napoleon noted that the red-haired girl, Kirche, had left in a huff while her lizard followed behind her. Now all that remained was to talk with his partner.

"Vallie-"

"Famil-"

The two of them began at the same time, only to be cut off. After a bit of silence, Napoleon began again.

"Let's start with this. I am Napoleon Bonaparte. Not 'Familiar.' I have questions about my summoning as well as about this world."

"You shouldn't talk! What kind of servant is this, whom completely disobeys my orders?"

"Servant?"

Napoleon's voice grew cold, and Louise noticeably retreated.

"Valliere, are you telling me that you went through all that effort to summon me just because you needed a butler? I had assumed that this important summoning ritual of yours would get you something more worthy than that which you can get through a job board. I have chosen to work with you, not under you, but this will not continue if you choose to insist on the latter. This is especially more so if I cannot receive information that will be useful for you and myself."

He smiled inwardly. Striking back at her impertinence, and getting the topic towards what he needed. This was important.

Louise stammered at his response for a few seconds, and then roared back in anger.

"You can't talk back to me like that! A familiar is a familiar! Go stand with the other familiars while I have breakfast!"

As she hurried off to the dining hall, Napoleon stood there and watched her. It's not like he particularly had an interest in maintaining this contract, but he had figured it would last for more than one day. Still, he decided to listen to her for now. He hadn't seen the other familiar whom had been summoned and he wanted to examine them and their properties. Missing breakfast was trivial anyways. Any military commander should be prepared to miss multiple meals if necessary, and nobles always had extravagant multiple course meals whenever they ate, which was something he had never liked nor understood.

…

As Napoleon walked down, he noted that the courtyard was filled with a myriad of creatures. Some were familiar to Napoleon – frogs, dogs, a very large mole. Others were more noticeable and unusual from his perspective, most particularly the large blue dragon which was peacefully sleeping. The presence of the former creatures confused him – was summoning a human so much worse than summoning a frog? Also, did these things need to eat? No doubt the dragon needed quite a bit of food, but it had made no move on the surrounding familiars.

Someone stepped behind him, and he initially assumed that one of the students was here to examine their respective familiar. However, as he turned around, he saw from the person's clothes that it was a maid. She appeared to be quite young, and was carrying a basket of respective foodstuffs, most likely for these creatures. She was likely a commoner. Given how utterly useless the nobles had proven at his goal of obtaining information about this world, maybe she could help him?

"Good day, miss."

The maid was completely taken aback by his greeting, and nearly dropped her basket.

"Oh, um, sorry sir! I mean….. Oh, are you Miss Valliere's familiar?"

Napoleon arched his eyebrows at that response.

"You know who I am?"

"It's become quite the talk at the school already, that a human was summoned during the Springtime Summoning Ritual! Pleased to meet you, Mr.…."

"Bonaparte"

"Yes, good day, Mr. Bonaparte. My name is Siesta. I serve as a maid at Tristain Academy of Magic."

She punctuated her statement with a bow.

"A pleasure to meet you, Siesta. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"

…

The maid had proven incredibly useful to Napoleon. Despite her initial confusion and hesitation upon first meeting him, she proved to be a talkative person, and knew a lot more about this new land, Helegikina, than one would expect from an ordinary maid. Napoleon accompanied her as she performed her tasks for the day, and helped her to a limited degree in exchange for a general understanding of their history and more importantly, the interaction between commoners like herself and nobles. She even knew to some degree how magic worked in this land, and also confirmed that magic was almost the exclusive property of nobles – even though she knew about how magic worked as a result of the location of job, she definitely could not perform any herself. The fact that she all but dragged him to the kitchens after hearing his stomach growling also made her a better person from his perspective, and the chef was a nice rowdy individual who reminded him of the constant grumblings of his Old Guard. He had been amused when the chef had watched with stunned silence as Napoleon downed the stew that he had been served in minutes. He had never been one to waste time on food.

It was mid-afternoon and Napoleon accompanied Siesta as she set out a tray of cakes for the various people who apparently also needed tea and sweets along with their meals. He observed a foppish blonde-haired man flirting with another blonde-haired woman, and observed that he had seen the man with another girl with brown hair last night on his way to the courtyard. Amusing, but what did their habits matter to him? It was none of his business as he continued to talk to Siesta.

"So, you're a maid, but you do know how to read?"

"Yes, my father taught me."

"That is impressive. This land's written language is different from mine, so will it be possible for you to tea-"

"BONAPARTE!"

Napoleon whipped his head only to receive an explosion in his face. Strangely, it was not lethal, but almost seemed to be more like an extremely violent cloud of smoke as opposed to a proper explosion. Even a master of artillery like himself had never seen something like that. Still, even if he couldn't rule out the fact that she had just tried to blow him up, she had said his name instead of the term "familiar" or "servant." That was a pretty good sign.

As he managed to make his way out from the dark cloud, he bumped into one extremely angry pink-haired little girl who ground out her next statement.

"Where. Have. You. Been?"

"I have been taking a tour of the school and gathering information about this realm. Are your classes finished?"

"That isn't the point! I told you to wait in the courtyard with the other familiars, and now I see you abandoned me! To wander with the maid! What kind of servant are you?"

Napoleon simply stared at her for several long seconds before gesturing back to Siesta.

"There are tables over there. Can you set some coffee for both of us? The two of us really need to have a talk."

…

As he sat at one of the tables, Napoleon raised the cup to his lips, and took a long sigh of contentment. He had coffee at last, the most important drink of the day. His partner sat across from his, a cup in front of her, though the Emperor silently grumbled as she dumped an unholy amount of sugar and cream into her drink.

"Now, let us start from the beginning. I am Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation. Before you summoned me, I was the conqueror of the entire civilized world. And you are?"

He noted that Louise gave no reaction to that proud claim.

"I am Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, the youngest daughter of the proud Valliere family. And what do you mean you conquered the world? Did I summon some famous unknown hero from the future?"

She didn't believe him, but Napoleon was actually pleased about that. He would have been disappointed if she had accepted him at his word right there.

"I am not from this world, this…. Helegikina. I am from another world, which we call Earth. It is remarkably similar to yours. And I conquered the entire world that was worth conquering anyways. There were a few insignificant countries that I chose to spare, Russia, Britain, but they paid me tribute in return for peace."

Yes, he had just completely lied to a little girl. It's not like she had any ways of verifying what had really happened to his Empire. Still, the confused expression on her face did not change.

"Why should I believe anything you say? Y-you're just a familiar, there's no way you can be a noble, much less an Emperor."

She harrumphed and drank from her cup. Fiddling with a spoon that was in his coffee cup, Napoleon responded.

"I'm not a mere commoner, Louise. In fact, I think you know that as well."

"W-what are you talking about, Napoleon? I told you, you can make up a story about how you were an Emperor, but I'm not going to believe it. As far as I know, you're completely lying! Do you have any proof?"

"Yes I do."

Louise's face scrunched up some more.

"You have proof of your status from another world? Well, what is it?"

He did not initially respond. Instead, he slowly raised his finger, and pointed it at her.

"You're the proof."

"What?"

Her face flushed in confusion and anger.

"Is this a joke, familiar? What are you talking about?"

"I've done a little research on the summoning ritual, you know." Bonaparte said. "I know that the greater the mage, the greater the familiar you summon. Tell me, Louise. What could you possibly summon that would be greater than someone who ruled the entire world?"

"What are you talking about?"

It was fun watching her grow steadily more and more confused. This was good. It made her more inclined to believe.

"Yesterday in this courtyard your fellow classmates were laughing at you, and they still laugh at you for summoning someone worthless. And Louise, if you really did summon a commoner, an ordinary human with no abilities at all, then you are indeed worthless. "

Louise was struck by those words. She lowered her head slightly, and trembled. But then Napoleon leapt up, and seized her hands.

"But you are not worthless, Louise. I have no knowledge about magic, but I do know humans, and I do know value. And you have value, which must mean you have the power to be a truly great mage. I, someone who ruled the world, acknowledge you as someone who has great magic and skill. It remains to you to unlock it."

He sat back down, but his face never stopped looking at her.

"I can tell you that I have no direct proof for now that I was a ruler, Louise. But I, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, am asking you to trust me. I acknowledge your power and you are someone worthy to be my partner. In exchange, I will help you on your road to fulfill your own potential. Please, Louise. Trust me."

He trailed off, and watched her reaction. She was clearly hesitating, unsure of what to believe. But he knew what to say. This girl was proud. So by using that pride against her, he would make her more inclined to believe that which was mostly true, but for which he had no proof for.

"F-Fine. I'll be kind enough to accept your help! But don't think you can completely disobey me or something!"

She tilted her face up and avoided looking at him as she said that. A success. Now, it was time for him to get down to business.

"I have quite a few requests, actually. I'll need further clothes aside from this uniform, and not peasant stuff, but something worthy of both my status and as someone who will be helping you, Louise. There's also the matter of reading - I know how to read in my world, but your books are different. I'd like to get an idea of the world I'm in.

But first, partner, why don't you start by telling me about yourself?"

Louise had managed to calm down quickly, and then looked directly at him. And she began to talk about herself, her country, the school, her problems with magic, and magic itself. And Napoleon took care to listen and memorize every detail, every word that came out of her mouth.

Guess their ruler was a queen after all. Well, Louise had a high opinion of her, but he would eventually see for himself.