Thou art body clad in steel and heart of glass.
whose dreams aren't his own in the making.
Yet follow them for they're not wrong.
Beauty in its Un achievability.
Hell in its unattainability.
Striving tirelessly for greatness beyond his nature.
To fulfill the promises of bittersweet partings.
An Oath between Sword and Sheath
He who searches.
And she who ever waits just beyond paradise.
Staying true to himself and his ideals.
"With this, everything has ended, yes?"
"Yeah…This is the end."
"As your sword, I have defeated all your enemies and have protected you. I'm glad I have been able to fulfill this oath."
"Yeah… You did well."
"There's something I need to tell you before I go."
"Shirou…I…Love You." The voice was soft and loving, paired with both a smile and beautiful, teal-colored eyes.
She was gorgeous, the beautiful blue dress with golden accents that she wore and her fine blonde hair that sparkled with gold in the rising light of dawn as it cascaded past her shoulders and flowed in the wind.
Her visage vanished with the breaking of dawn, as if she was never there, leaving only him all alone.
A dream? No, it felt more vivid than any dream could. Yet the images that she'd seen were still strange to say the least, it was so melancholic.
"Louise, it's morning, it's time to get up." A voice beckoned her.
As she opened her eyes, she was greeted by her familiar that she summoned the other day.
"Who are-oh, that's right you're my familiar I summoned, so it wasn't just a figment of my imagination." she yawned before continuing. " Well, at least you got me up on time without any prompting. Now dress me familiar."
"I don't think that's wise, seeing as I'm a guy and all." Shirou voiced.
"Are you disobeying your master's orders? Then no breakfast for you!"
taking a heavy sigh Shirou spoke to Louise. "Louise, I am not dressing you. You and do that by yourself, now if you're done trying to threaten me. I'll be outside your door until you are dressed and ready." without another word Shirou stepped out of the room.
Louise was flabbergasted, his reaction as if he was dealing with a spoiled little girl who was throwing a tantrum. The flurry of emotions prevented her from uttering a single world let alone a sentence.
Little did Louise know that he'd had dealt with the likes of Illya, Tiega, Rin, and Luvia, who could act very spoiled and selfish.
Did he not understand his position? Did he think he would get away with what he just did? Fine, no food for him for the whole day until he apologizes.
As she put on her school uniform she quickly checked on where she'd hid that dagger. Only to find it missing, how did he find it already?
That was all thanks to Shirou's nose smelling its magic signature when he returned to the room after sensing the detection bounded field in his bag had gone off.
After Louise got dressed and told Shirou that he wasn't permitted to eat until he apologized. Only to receive a sigh from him before receiving a sarcastic apology.
Her attitude was frosty as she occasionally stared daggers at him as they made their way to the dining hall.
The dining hall was gigantic, it had arches in their entrances and the walls were more bricked than cobblestone and the floor checkered in black and white tiles. The ceiling had several golden chandeliers, and the tables were 200 feet long with white sheets draped over them as on to were candelabras. Several students of the academy were already eating breakfast as maids served them their meals.
As some meals are made before and the rest continuously until the number of students are served once or the appropriate time in which breakfast should end.
As Louise sat down and received her meal and thanked their founder and the queen for the meal and told Shirou not to eat. In response he left to help in the kitchen and telling her if she'd need him, she will call upon him.
She thought it was ridiculous but as soon as Shirou entered the kitchen he responded 'Like this' with the mental link. Which shocked her briefly?
She'd begun to think back about what Colbert had told her when she asked about her new familiar's abilities after he passed out.
"Well Professor Colbert."
"I can't get a read on him." Colbert said as he shook his head.
"So, he has none then?" Louise replied.
"No, that's not what I meant, what I mean is that I have No idea if he has magic. There are multiple different magical signatures around him. You're going to have to ask him if he does or not. Ms. Vallière."
Louise's musings were interrupted, and mood plummeted by the approach of two figures, Kirche and Tabitha.
"Hello there Louise.~." Kirche said, greeting Louise.
/-/
"Oh, Shirou, nice to see you again, thank you for cleaning the laundry room. It has never been cleaner. I'd tried looking for you but I didn't know where you went." Siesta said to Shirou as soon as she saw him enter the Kitchen.
"It was no problem, so you don't have to thank me for it and sorry for leaving. I had somewhere to be, so do you need any help?" Shirou responded in kind.
"Who is this, Siesta?" Said an older muscular gentleman with brown beard and blue eyes, he wore typical french cooking garbs and toque. He also wore a red neckerchief.
"Oh, Mr. Marteau. This was the person I was talking about."
"So, you're the one who Siesta praised for cleaning the laundry room, nice work pal."
"Seriously it was nothing, well anyways do you need some extra hands?" Shirou said to Marteau.
Shirou's modest behavior of not bragging was something that Marteau thought highly of.
"Well If you're offering." Marteau said enthusiastically.
As Shirou finished helping the staff and making something for himself to eat, he was bombarded with Louise's Orders to "hurry up" and 'that she is going to be late because of him.'
When Shirou asked why she didn't just go alone. Her response was 'to keep an eye on him' and 'for him to carry her stuff.'
This was due to the fact that she had no means to 'actually' control Shirou and if he wanted, he could leave and she would be familiar less, and for her to prevent such a thing from happening was to keep an eye on him and tell someone to stop him.
Shirou was on the fence about telling Louise to summon another familiar and then breaking the contract using Rulebreaker. After finding out his purpose and context of him being summoned there.
But stayed only out of respect for the master-servant contract he had with Saber and the fact that he isn't the type of person to abandon someone, as well as to see if this world needed him. and if it did then the Academy would give him insight of this world's magic system structure. In the case of fighting other mages of this world.
Even though Shirou wasn't opposed to what Lousie have him do, he'd already experienced something like that at The Clock Town with Rin and Luvia. And if Louise really didn't need him, then he believed his time was better spent helping and saving others. As well as the fact that he hasn't fully accepted her as his master yet.
To save others, to save himself and to reunite with Artoria.
But things changed as he saw a dream about Louise and how she was constantly compared to her sisters and perceived as a failure to only be used to further the reputation of the "Vallière" family name and crying because of it. The burden and weight of responsibility, and the mask she constantly wears. Her prideful and arrogant demeanor was all just a Façade to hide a fragile sad little girl who was going through so much pain. She really did remind him of Illya.
Tho Shirou could understand the weight of both the burden and responsibility of a name from Illya, Rin, and Saber. As Rin and Illya belonged to prestigious mage families the Tohsaka and the Einzbern, who treat their own children as their property to use or marry off to form connections with other magi to further their craft or magic circuits quality and or quantity. And Artoria pulled out the sword in the stone and took up the burdens and responsibilities of being her country's king, in order to unite, save, and protect her people in their time of need, to reach and uphold her ideals.
As they made their way to class, they were stopped by Professor Colbert who asked to see Shirou's runes. Before heading off, to make sure she would make it to class he carried her. It surprised her of how fast he was going.
She should have asked about his abilities instead of just assuming he was just a simple commoner. It didn't help that Colbert couldn't identify if he had magic or not, this could be asked of him later after class as the second years only have a few classes so they can bond with their new familiars.
Entering the classroom, well, more like a small auditorium if anything, it was a semicircle with several wooden desks and chairs in pairs of two on each level, as the room was mostly made of refined stone to echo through the room. There were also pain glass windows and in the back center was a teacher.
She wore both purple robes and a witch's hat and underneath the robes were a black dress, she was plump and had brown hair and green eyes. Her name was Mrs. Chevreuse, and she was a new teacher and taught earth magic at Tristain Academy of Magic
"My name is Mrs. Chevreuse, and I'm your new teacher here at Tristan Magic Academy, my element is earth, and my nickname is Red Earth Chevreuse-"
"You're late Ms. Vallière!" She exclaimed.
"Sorry, I promise it won't happen again." Louise replied in a fluster.
"Make sure it doesn't Ms. Vallière." Though her tone was harsh, it was in a tough love sort of way.
The rest of the students began to chuckle before they were silenced by Chevreuse grabbing their attention.
In front of her was a wooden podium and behind her was a large chalkboard and a door on either side of it.
The first thing Shirou noted was when they entered the class just gotten started and all eyes were on them. Shirou thought it was because they were late and opening and closing the door made a loud noise.
The second was how they reacted to her as she sat alone and everyone near her scooted away from her.
He would have joined and sat with her but was afraid he was too tall and would inconvenience the students behind him, so he stayed near the back so as to not be a bother.
Louise allowed this as she sat at the top near him and gave him no excuses to not leave her side.
As Chevreuse began class again Shirou began to listen intently.
"Now class, as you know magic contains four major aspects; Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and the lost element Void making up five elements in total."
So far this coincides with what he was taught in The Clock Tower with Rin.
"The Five Great Elements" the basic substances that shape the World.
A normal magus can at least manipulate one of these elements due to their affinity with them. And him being one of the exceptions due to the fact that his elemental affinity is "Sword."
And depending on the teachings of Magecraft, one could classify everything in reality into different sets of Elements. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Ether/Void and some other Elements to make classification more practical. And the Oriental Philosophies: Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, and Fire. And twelve constellations.
Rin did mention to him that the fifth element Ether was also called Void, and she would know it best as she is an Average One.
A magus who has an affinity for all Five Great Elements.
"And the earth element involves important magic that governs the creation of all matter, one such basic earth magic is Transmutation."
It was at this point he noticed the difference in the way she was describing It.
Alchemy, alchemy manipulates the flow and the transformation of matter, it's about gaining control over bodies, life, and souls. As explained to him by Illya about it and the Third magic, The Heaven's Feel.
And the creation of matter belongs to the realm of the First magic: Materialized Nothing. And the Fourth, it would seem they have no concepts of True Magic.
"Here's a little demonstration."
And with those words she'd taken out a rock and transmuted it with her wand which was very odd for Shirou for wands and staffs are used to help a magus to execute their magecraft or to use its properties, but when he traced the wand no such properties were found in the latter. Still he has seen transmutation performed before without the need for such mystic codes.
"WOW, IS THAT REAL GOLD!" a student exclaimed, it was Kirche who shot up from her seat in excitement about the prospects.
"Fake." were the words Tabitha spoke in above a whisper but something Kirche could barely hear but could be heard by Shirou with his reinforced hearing and focus.
"No, while it appears so, it's actually brass, an alloy of iron and zinc." Mrs. Chevreuse replied.
"What a letdown." Kirche said as she deflated back into her seat.
"The four elements earth, water, wind, and fire can be combined to create stronger and diverse effects. And our levels as mages are determined by how many you c-can c-combined."
It was then that Mrs. Chevreuse started to feel the scrutinizing pressure of Shirou gaze.
It was as if he was trying to find anything wrong in her words. She'd even started to doute and over think of what she had said and will say in their authenticity.
She wasn't the only one who noticed Shirou's odd behavior, Louise noted at the stone-face Shirou and in how serious it was. It was slightly unnerving as he sometimes furrowed or raised his brows, crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. Only to either nod, shake, or tilt his head.
It was as if he was comparing what Chevreuse was saying with what he knew. Even more so when Chevreuse used transmutation with her wand. Louise noticed that he was focusing more on the wand than the rock that had now because brass.
'Did he really know magic?'
'Was he actually a bastard child of an aristocrat?'
'If he was then why look at the wand so strangely and not act of transmutation?'
These were now the thought that ran in Louise's mind.
"Is there something wrong?" Louise accidentally communicated to Shirou.
Shirou then turned his gaze away from Chevreuse and towards Louise and responded "No…There's Nothing wrong, I'm just curious that's all."
Shirou's statement was not false but neither fully true either. And Louise could tell she could press but most likely she'd get a vague answer like the one he just gave.
Chevreuse sensing the change, continued with a cough into her hand.
"Now what are those levels?"
"Yes, Professor." Said Montmorency, a girl who had a very similar hairstyle to that of Luvia but had a pinkish bow on the back of it. She swept her hair to the side, this caused Shirou to see a superimposed image of Luvia over Montmorency which momentarily gave him a shudder.
"A Mage who has one is dot, a mage who can combine two, is Line, Triangle for combining three and square for combining all four."
"Very good, and not to sound boastful but I'm a triangle class mage myself, hence why I can transmute brass." Chevreuse said proudly and took a rock from the podium before continuing.
"Now would someone like to try and transmute this rock?"
"..."
"How About you, Ms. Vallière?"
As soon as She finished that sentence the air of the room shifted to one of fear and panic. All student's eyes widen, and blood ran cold. Kirche was the one who tried to voice reason to Chevreuse as the others unanimously agreed with her.
"No, Please I'll do it, just don't make her do it, her success rate with magic is-"
"Now Ms. Zerbst, I'd already asked for volunteers, and yes, I heard the rumors about 'The Zero' but she should be more than capable of doing this. Now please come up and don't be afraid of making any mistakes."
Louise started to make her way only for Kirche to plead with her not to do the transmutation to no avail.
Shirou was curious about Louise's extent with her magical abilities.
He knew she wasn't good with magic, but to what extent he didn't know.
As she went to the podium, Chevreuse stepped to the side to give her room and face the class.
Tabitha got up and walked out of the room all without looking up from her book and only sparing a momentary glance at Shirou. The rest sought shelter from the desk only poking their heads out in morbid curiosity, some trying to warn him to seek shelter as well and looked at him as if he was crazy and had a death wish.
As she recited the same words as Chevreuse upon the rock with her wand, it started to shake and glow.
"Wait, but that's! -" was the only thing Shirou got out before the-
BOOOOM!
