A new day shines upon the Academy Of Magic, with the scene moving downward to show seated by a table outside Aristidis, Louise, Siesta, Kirche, Charlotte, and Tiffania, and as the former proceeds to casually take a sip from his cup of tea, the girls appear rather surprised and amazed while looking at something or someone across the table.
Especially our pink-haired girl. "Wow. I mean, being surprised at this point with incredible and surreal stories is not like me, but just... Wow."
"I understand you completely." The one appearing to be present across the table states after laughing in a somewhat hearty manner, as the scene reveals him for viewing, being a relatively tall skeleton, with a tiny red glow within each of his empty eyesockets acting as his eyes, and who wears an elaborate, jet-black academic gown adorned with golden and violet edges, and a dark red orb floating under his ribs. [Momonga, aka Ainz Ooal Gown, from the Anime Overlord, here to have a good time]
Momonga leans back onto his chair while sighing. "You have no idea what a weight off my shoulders it is to have a simple, idle chat with people, without having to worry about keeping the lordly image that is expected of me."
"And who will not interpret your words for something completely different, right?" The pitch-black Storyteller questions while giving him a mischievous look.
The Overlord of Nazarick lowers his own head with a sweat drop. "Y-Yeah..."
"Just like one would expect of lord Momonga! Truly the pinnacle of knowledge, and perfection incarnate!" The Storyteller exclaims in a theatrical manner, mimicking in a sense the way the Overlord's subjects generally view the latter.
Momonga covers the front of his skull with his boney hands, absolutely embarrassed of that bit, as the Storyteller snickers at the former's pain. "Please, do~n't...!"
The girls sweat drop at his reaction, feeling somewhat bad at the mess he was caught into just because of the constant misinterpreting of his words by his leading subjects.
"A-Anyway-" Louise begins in an attempt to change the subject, and wanting a curious thought of hers answered by the Lich Overlord, and drawing his attention that way. "I want to ask you something, Momonga. What was the name of your original world you said?"
Momonga looks at her for a short moment while thinking of the reason she might be asking this. "Earth."
That answers causes her expression to turn serious as she turns her head toward the Storyteller. "Ok, I thought the whole thing was a coincidence, but the list of stories having that world Earth as basis is getting way more odd than it should be. What is up with that?"
The rest of the girls chatter among themselves when hearing that, finding the fact odd as well after giving it some thought themselves.
Aristidis was just looking at Louise, his expression showing no emotion, except for a miniscule sign of concern.
The pink-haired girl tilts her head a bit in response to his silence, wondering why the delay.
It's not like him not answering a question of hers immediately once asked.
After a bit more of silence, he made up his mind. "I believe it is finally time for you girls to learn my greatest secret."
"Eh? Where did that come from all of a sudden?" Is what Louise asks utterly confused, with the rest sharing the feeling, except Momonga who remains as he is, and who possibly knows already.
"I cannot answer your question properly without revealing that one fact to you first, and after so long, you more than deserve to know as much." The mouthless Storyteller tells them, and as the tension raises while having now his eyes closed, he opens them again, ready to speak. "I was a regular human in the past."
Shocked gasps are uttered from all of his girls at that confession, with everyone but Louise then becoming excited for it.
"Just like we were guessing after a while!" Siesta exclaims while looking at the rest, making obvious there were indeed different speculations between themselves for him, before the former tries to now remember something specific. "That must make you- what did we call it- RIGHT, an isekai protagonist!"
"Correct." He simply responds.
The pink-haired girl was still in eye-widen-disbelief over the fact, because she never expected her Familiar to be in actuality anything different than what he was showcasing to be!
"Here is how it all started." Aristidis begins, wanting to fully elucidate them about himself. "It was during the modern ear of Earth. The world I was part of, and a citizen of Greece. I was ten years old at the time. And the thread of my life was cut short by a driver's car that hit me. That is when I met Kremant in a plane of complete blackness, who comforted me, and soon after told me about what I was meant to do, which was becoming Louise's Familiar. Once he was done with telling that part, he gave me the Tome, and took me to the Dimensional Library, where I was placed inside the pitch-black, mouthless existence you see before you right now. Although, I was much smaller in it than I am now. Most likely my mentor's want to make it suit my current age. In any case, he later explained with much of detail how my Tome and main power worked, and left me on my own to do what I am to do on my own. And after ten years of reading and preparing, you met me on that fated, summoning ritual, went through all the events that were thrown at us, and here we are today."
After his explanation was finished, there were mixed feelings about it.
Louise was still coming to terms with this secret story of his unfolding before her, Charlotte was highly intrigued, and Siesta, Kirche, and Tiffania were feeling sad for the way he died and at such a small age.
He continues. "I also had early knowledge of how your world works by Kremant, and thus taught during those ten year to act as much like a Noble as I was capable of, and even making myself a more Noble-like name. Aristidis Aristadis was all I was when human. The rest were there to show uniqueness, and they literally translate to: the Greek Of Greece, in simple text. I could not take risks, knowing how backward your world was about Nobles and commoners, so I had to act the part as much as possible."
The pink-haired girl realizes something when hearing that, and looks at him. "So, all those crazy antics you were showing at times were just an act too!"
The Pitch-black Storyteller that moment is seen having grown a new pair of arms onto his shoulders, which were currently grabbing, stretching and reshaping his now detached head like plasticine. "What crazy antics?"
"N-Nevermind..." She responds with a sweat drop while her finger lowers itself, seeing how wrong her understanding was proven in the end to be.
After finishing doing what he was doing, he puts his head back where it was, the extra pair of arms retreat back into the shoulders, and puts his actual hands together in front of him upon the table, his expression now apologetic. "I truly feel bad for keeping it a secret from you for so long, but I now hope you fully understand why I had to."
Thinking about how they all were back then, it's only logical he did so to begin with.
"Wait a minute..." Louise then trails off as she comes to an understanding, remembering a very particular fact, before getting up and looking at him upset. "That means you being ok having a harem was more of a perverted fantasy than I once considered!"
Aristidis sweat drops while moving both hands up defensively. "Well, I mean, considering that I was ten years old, and grew in the way I did through the gigantic collection of stories in the library, which I visited frequently, effectively also living through them, can I really be considered having the mindset of a human-"
"NO! None of those mischievous explanations of yours! Shame! On! You!" The pink-haired girl exclaims as she wags a finger in front of her accusingly, not wanting to see this in the way he tries to offer as normal in the slightest, which causes him to feel quite shameful for it while looking downward, before shrinking himself to the size of his cup upon the table.
As he stays in the way he is for a long moment, with worry now obvious in him, Louise had already moved right next to him, and picks him up upon her pals, lifting him in front of her.
"Worry not. Nothing will change between us at all." She tells him, her somewhat still serious face blushing softly as she proceeds to turn her head upward to the side in a pompous manner. "You know I wouldn't just leave you after everything we went through together. You're stuck with me, and you better be grateful for it."
At that, the pocket-sized Storyteller jumps from absolute joy, and lands upon her cheek where he grabs himself upon to rub his cheek onto hers. "With all of my body and soul, love of my life!"
She chuckles at his reaction as she proceeds to hold him with a hand where he is, loving it almost as he does.
"The same goes for the rest of us as well, obviously, Aristidis, darling." Kirche interrupts their little session, with them both seeing the redhead and the rest together next to them, smiling at him heartwarmingly. "We are in this together, like we were always meant to be."
That makes him to utter an "Aww" of satisfaction, while they all stay as they are for the precious moment they currently share.
A noise that sounds like a skeleton clapping his boney-hands together draws their curious attention, and see Momonga applauding them.
"What a heartwarming scene! A novel and anime-worthy play for sure! That takes me back..." He trails off at the end as gets nostalgic there, with the rest looking at him with happy expressions for the fact.
The scene skips a moment after, where everyone were upon their seats like before.
"So, a Greek." The blue-haired girl speaks of his original nationality, remembering of a certain fact regarding his overall case. "Isn't usually one of those Japanese that get transported in different worlds?"
"You may see me as one of the special exceptions to the rule." Aristidis answers proudly, before remembering that he needs to move on to the subject he was trying to explain from the start after revealing his secret. "Now back to the constant-Earth-story situation. I do not truly know why most of the stories have that world as their center, but I have a very likely theory. The Earth I have come from is filled with the stories I have and did not show you so far, which for me till my end there, were considered fictional creations of the different people around the globe. So, would it be crazy to think of that Earth and universe as the original, and that the very ideas of the people in it, bring the once fictional stories into existence, with a new universe being created to host each?"
The very idea appears to surprise the rest of the group, with none of them saying anything for the moment.
"That... Would have made so much sense!" The pink-haired girl exclaims amazed, with the rest sharing the feeling while chattering among themselves about it.
Then a thought comes to the black-haired girl's mind, as she proceeds to raise a hand to voice it, stopping the rest as she draws their attention. "Um- question. If all stories come from that original world, does that mean our own world is also an idea made real?"
"Yes, actually." The mouthless Storyteller answers simply, with it along with the quickness of it make the others' eyes widen from the absolute surprise of it.
"Now before you ask, I only knew of your world being one such story through Kremant." He immediately explains, before sweat dropping awkwardly for some reason. "Apparently yours was one of the good oldies, which even now I do not have knowledge of the title."
Aristidis folds his arms while thinking about it, and then looks upward. "Kremant, would it be a bother asking you to come and satisfy that curiosity of ours?"
"All you had to do was ask." The black-cloaked man answers as the scene moves enough to reveal him standing next to him, startling everyone as a result.
"Lucky I did so during your apparent free time." The pitch-black Storyteller states with a genial face, as his mentor manifests a chair for himself to sit along with them.
"Yes you are, my technical son." Kremant playfully expresses as he grabs a black album from behind himself, ready to share important with them. "To start this, the story/anime that has to do with this world of yours ladies, is known as Familiar Of Zero."
"Really now?!" Louise questions displeased, before she places her head upon the table while groaning out of frustration due to her past with the whole Zero fact, AND the fact it was apparently placed in the hypothetical book of her universe's history as her official title for all to read and witness, making both Charlotte and Kirche to rub her head with their hands to comfort her while smiling awkwardly at her pain.
"Exactly, Louise. A story about you, a student of a prestigious academy who struggles with the thought whether you have magic or not, and the bullying that comes with it!" The black-cloaked man describes with a tremendous air of dramatism as he moves one hand across the space forward and above, and then proceeds to open the album for the group to see within specific pictures regarding her pretty-much-first-life, and turning the pages when reaching the next parts of the said story. "Everything literally went for you like they did in this world too, EXCEPT for the summon. Throughout the multiverse, you summoned a variety of different Familiars, with results depending on said Familiar. But this one was the original model to start it all. Hiraga Saito."
The picture the group is shown when the name was told, was of a Japanese boy who was roughly older than Louise, with additional words written next to the said picture that were reading: Average Joe, and Not The Brightest, while also Could Have Been Worse.
And she could not believe in her wide open eyes as she was about to grab the album. "What?! A simple commoner- I mean, an unremarkable-looking guy?" She corrects at the end, not wanting to show that side of her past self.
Charlotte looks with half an eye at her pink-haired friend. "Not really unexpected considering where anime-type-stories hail from."
Kremant continues. "Just like our little pink lady somewhat expressed, that instantly became a reason of further ridicule in the academy, and one which made her for most of the series to treat her Familiar more or less like a dog, which she also called as such, as a way to vent her frustration over what she considered a shameful failure of hers. Yet despite the at first unremarkable display, he proven himself many times thanks to the Gandalfr rune he received from the magical contract, along with the important help of the living sword Derflinger, yes, my watch-buddy was his weapon in the original story like you most likely expected, Aristidis, and his simple and free-spirited nature. Which eventually made you fall in love with him at that life. Though, even with those loving feelings, he was still receiving a good beating and almost everyday explosions to the face by her."
"HA! Classic tsundere." Aristidis states amused.
"Aristidis!" Louise yells at him upset and with a blush on her cheeks in response, as the rest chuckling awkwardly for a moment in response, due to imagining her being that way indeed if things were different.
Still, she finds a bit difficult to believe herself falling for what is the equivalent of a commoner, while also wondering while she would still treat him as badly as Kremant describes despite that Saito proving himself like he said.
"Not that he was not deserving many of them." The black-cloaked man tells them, pulling attention back to himself. "Most of the problems, the love-based ones I mean, were brought onto himself because of his perverted personality, nothing too crazy I assure you, to the point he was barely able to resist or word the different charms of girls he was looking at, causing as a result Louise's jealous tendencies, especially if the other girl had a big set at the chest department. The slapstick humor was never absent in that series."
"Sounds annoying witnessing him failing on a regular basis to use common sense, but still not as annoying as an overly dense character when it comes to actually understanding a girl's feelings of love." The mouthless Storyteller comments.
The pink-haired girl on the other hand appears rather offended with that Saito character betraying even in a sense her trust.
No wonder her self from the original was calling him a dog.
"So, how this whole story of theirs end exactly?" The redhead asks, curious like the rest are now about the original story's ending.
Kremant rubs his chin with a hand as he thinks about it, and his characteristic shark-toothed grin forms for a moment, a playful idea coming to mind. "Well, skipping some important spoilers, you all ladies had a thing for this guy. Except you, choco-red. You went after your dear Professor Colbert for the last two seasons and after."
The redhead was utterly surprised with that fact as soon as she realizes it. "Wait, I did wha-"
"But, Saito decided, FINALLY, to make up his mind, make things clear to everyone, and officially marry Louise." The black-cloaked man cuts her off while explaining the end result of the story. "He even introduced her to his parents, via using the portal-type Void Spell said Louise learned at one point. Now wasn't that precious?"
As the rest chatter among themselves in agreement about the fact, Kirche quickly stands up, unwilling to just let that other fact go as if nothing worth of explaining. "Just a moment now! How I ended up falling in love with an older man? I mean, sure, he is not half-bad for an older man, but still how did he even earn the love of someone like I?"
Kremant seemingly serious that moment sharply points a finger at the Storyteller. "Aristidis! Use Dot Connection!"
With the rest giving in response an awkward, and maybe a bit cringy, look at Kremant due to understanding the reference he used, Aristidis utters a small chuckle of amusement at that. "Pokemon reference. Ok, let us see now..." He trails off while contemplating on the past, searching quickly for possible key moments, how they could probably play out without his presence, along with his complete knowledge of his Kirche.
And that's when he makes a possible conclusion, snapping his fingers as soon as he does so. "At the night those mercenaries attacked the academy. A highly impressive feat of the Professor got her immediate attention. And not simply one of power, but one that has proven him to be a man among men. A self-sacrifice for his students most likely, which he was able to pull off and actually survive in the end, but barely, while also somehow escaping Agnes's wrath, in the possibility that blind mercenary captain revealed to all his true identity the moment he sensed or smelled him. Forgetting about the last bit, there is no way that Kirche would not try to make Colbert hers after proving himself in the way he did, which I bet must have been quite the issue for him, since I can clearly see him not being a fan of the whole student/teacher trope." He finishes with a hand in front of his mouthless area and a playful giggle.
Everyone's eyes were wide open at how detailed his thought about that was, except Momonga who is incapable due to the lack of said eyes, but still sharing the feeling, and Kremant who remains passive, only for the latter to immediately after begin enthusiastically clapping his own hands.
"A PLUS! You truly know your stuff like always!" The black-cloaked man expresses proudly.
"Huh... That does sound like something I would go for in such a case." The redhead admits once giving it a better thought with said details in mind.
With that, she and the rest of the group begin to applaud Aristidis loudly, incredibly amazed at his analytical skills like never before, to which he himself in the meantime was bowing, accepting their said applause with much of pride.
Once everyone was finished, Kremant gives a thumb up to Aristidis. "Time for me to leave, take care, my amazing cast." Says before puffing like a cloud of smoke into nothingness.
The mouthless Storyteller looks at everyone at the table. "He is so wholesomely helpful, is he not?"
The group chatter among themselves in agreement with the fact.
Aristidis's expression then turns serious. "By the way, girls, no need to mention how this secret of mine stays between us, right?"
The girls immediately answer positively about it.
"We will keep it like you kept mine all this time, it's a promise." Tiffania adds at the end.
The pitch-black Storyteller's face turns especially happy with the answer, not that he expected to hear anything different, but he just LOVES hearing his ladies' words of absolute support toward him.
Suddenly, the Swan Lake ringtone is sound, with him reaching for his phone behind him, as all understand that it's Queen Henrietta calling.
Aristidis accepts the call, and puts it on his ear. "How is our esteemed Majesty this beautiful day?"
(=As great as you must be, I can guess, Aristidis.=) Henrietta answers through the phone, with the following showing some enthusiasm. (=Can you activate that speaker option for me? I have something very important to tell you all.=)
"Do you now?" The mouthless Storyteller questions with great curiosity and interest, before doing just that while placing the phone at the middle of the table, the whole thing piquing everyone's curiosity as well. "Everyone can hear you now, you may tell us what it is to be told."
=)Thank you.(= The Queen replies before continuing. =)Firstly, good morning to all of you. Secondly, listen carefully. I received an important message from the Holy Romalian Empire. The Pope of Romalia has invited Aristidis, Louise, Tiffania and the rest to the Capitol of Romalia.(=
Everyone else were filled with surprise as they look at one another, while the Storyteller's reaction was simply that of bold satisfaction, having expected as much.
Tiffania in particular was curious and more than a bit worried about why the Pope called for her specifically as well.
The scene cuts immediately to Henrietta who was currently inside her room in the Royal Palace of Tristania, and about to say more to the others through the phone. "But for safety reasons, we are to somehow make that visit of yours as secretive as possible. At first I was thinking of using the idea about the academy having planned a field trip for its students or something of similar nature, but then I thought how unconvincing that would have been. Any ideas you might have to offer will be more than helpf-"
That very moment, energy manifests next to her, catching her off guard as she flinches back and away from it out of fright, the energy itself being as big as a large person, and in the colors of violet and black which seemingly infinitely were moving to a single point in its middle.
Then, the Storyteller and the rest are seen passing through, with the Lich Overlord right behind them as what proves to be a magical gate closes as soon as the latter passes through.
"Who needs an elaborate plan when you can have one of your people move you around the world just like that?" Aristidis rhetorically questions, as the rest wave a hand at her with a genial expression. "Not to mention there is no real reason to bother ourselves with that level of secrecy, really. In any case, call your guards, and I will call mine to prepare for our very important visit. A number of fifty from your side will be more than enough, and one thing for sure, I look forward to everyone's reaction at the Capitol the moment we show up WAY sooner than they could ever expect."
As he says all that, Queen Henrietta was at a loss for words after witnessing the means of transportation her secret lover presented her with this time, before eventually smiling heartwarmingly. "You being full of surprises will never cease being incredible."
The mouthless Storyteller giggles in response, liking inspiring awe to those who think it impossible.
{To Be Continued}
[Apologies for making this one so short, but I wanted to place said details here, so the next episode will not feel bigger than necessary because of the combination. Thank you for your understanding]