Author's Note: Ever heard of the 12 days of Christmas? This is the seven days of Na No Wri Mo. Starting from Friday of next week, the 24th of November all the way through to the thirtieth I will be post a chapter a Day for this story, purely for the Spirit of Na No Wri Mo. Enjoy!
Leon was looking at the Mirror the girls had set up in his room. It was a potent magical device, a piece of silver that had been split in half and fashioned into two separate mirrors, enchanted in such a way that they maintain their connection to each other and allow instantaneous two way communication over a long distance. In this case the person in the mirror's reflection was Rodin, smoking on one of his chunky cigars as he mused the implication of what Leon was talking about.
"Can we?" Leon asked sounding a little bit hopeful.
"It isn't going to be a problem." Rodin took out his cigar as he talked. "I still have some stashed away in temporal suspension storage that we'll be able to grow using your island, once Nick is done tweaking it that is."
"You're getting Nick to develop it?" Leon asked questioningly, a little confused.
"I'm punishing him for sleeping through your Parent's send off." Rodin smoothly gave the follow up. "Do you need anything else?"
"Can you send me some samples to get here within about a week?" Leon asked as he let out a sigh. "They're making me throw a 'tea party.'"
"And you're using the chance to try and promote yourself to some rich girl." Rodin nodded sagely as if he received some enlightenment. "Alright, I'll have some samples prepared for you within a week." And then the mirror's image turned to mist as Leon glared at it twitching.
"Should we prepare some invitations to send to 'some rich girl' Waka?" Left looked at Leon deeply amused by his frustration.
"No one with an exclusive servant, and no one with an existing fiance, I've already been throttled enough for one week." As Leon voiced his complaints he looked at the book on magic he was given like it owed him money. The book was a thinly veiled cringy romance novel with only a bare minimal amount of information on dark magic, anything remotely useful is buried under chapters after chapters of atrocious romance tropes. That scam artist professor owes Leon a lot more than an apology for forcing this atrocity of a novel onto him. "I'm going to bed." Leon stated as he prepared to go to bed for the night.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" A voice called out to Leon from the other side of the room with the force of a thousand disapproving mothers. "You haven't hunted any angels since you left the compound." The Broken Cuckoo Clock voiced its displeasure at the turn of events. "Even if your main contract is rather unusual you still need to work to maintain it." Leon turned over and wrapped his pillow over his head trying to drown out the clock. "Or are you under the impression that Rodin is going to work for free?" Leon rolled onto his back and let out a sigh, as factually the clock was right, for once. Hopping to his feet Leon's black hair rolled down his back and covered his body, black jeans, black leather jacket, black hiking boots, that was about as far as he had gotten before he dismissed the body suit.
"This stupid limiter is draining too much of my magic, the hair suit isn't working." Leon complained as he looked at the suitcase. "Did we pack any armour before we left?"
"'We' did." Left made her opinion on who 'We' was as Right dug through the suitcase in question. "This was based on a technological armour that your mother commissioned from Rodin a long time ago."
The Royal dungeon is the largest inside of the kingdom of Holfort. A massive network of underground tunnels ten stories deep into the continent and spanning the entire continent. Originally cleared by the founding families the dungeon has been thoroughly explored and it's every secret revealed, it's monsters documented and strategies formulated to defeat its bosses, such creatures are even used as example pieces in the Royal Academy's applied combat classes. The Royal dungeon is in a constant state of war between Demonic and Angelic type monsters, teams of adventurers and students are regularly sent down in order to cull the numbers of whatever creatures are on the winning side. Although all the entrances are closely monitored the fact of the matter is that if either side ever managed to take over the dungeon then they would be able to break through the gates and flood the main continent. Excerpt from The Famous Dungeons of Holfort
Marie Fou Lafan was having a good week. Greg and Chris had beat the snot out of each other, and here she was a registered healer with the church, swooping in to make the meat heads feel good with lots of healing magic while she listened to the two of them babble about their personal problems. Julius was hooked from the slap with Jilk following after him like the lap dog that he is, and she's managed to secure Brad in the library. Now if she can just hide her savings from her scumbag parents and their debtors for a few days she should be able to get some funds for food for the month. Marie approached the counter for the Adventurer's guild located outside of the dungeon, the stupid thing came up to her chest but at least she found the bell to ring for service easy enough.
"Excuse me!" Marie rung the bell a couple of times before the receptionist put away his news paper and looked ahead at his client, and then looked down when he realised that he was looking over her head.
"Little girl. Aren't you a bit young to be going into the dungeon?"
"I've been going into worst dungeons than this since I was ten years old!" Marie snapped impatiently.
"So you broke into the dungeon yesterday?"
Okay. Now she was officially insulted. Marie angrily slapped her adventurers licence on the counter, displaying her age, Noble Rank, and total number of times that she's been into a dungeon, which numbered in the four digits. The clerk took the license, checked the information with a scanner and put it back to within reach of Marie.
"Very well. With this qualification you are qualified for the tenth floor."
Pfft. All by her lonesome? Marie was desperate not stupid.
Suddenly a sound like mechanical grinding echoed out, the clerk looked behind Marie at the figure that was approaching the desk, and looked up as he found where the face actually was. Marie turned around and gasped as she paled in horror. A neon orange armour covered in lines of circuitry, Marie only got paler as her eyes went up and up to see two huge orange pauldrons and red chest armour with helmet embedded into which was a yellow visor. Samus Aran? The Varia Suit? Why was there a reference to Metroid here!?
"I would like some information about the dungeon." 'Samus Aran' asked in a Masculine voice that certainly didn't belong to her, what was this cosplay?
"What information would you like to have?" The clerk asked and in response a single golden ring big enough to fit onto Marie's head like a tiara was dropped onto his desk.
"I need more of these." 'Samus Aran' stated bluntly.
"Halos? How many would you like to purchase sir?" The clerk asked folding his hands together.
"Sorry I said that wrong. I need to go get them myself."
"License?" The earlier scene of license checking played out again. "With this qualification you can go to the fourth floor." Now the Receptionist was looking at a book, a map of the dungeon. "And for you I recommend this area." The receptionist indicated an area with his finger, Leon nodded his head and left for the dungeon.
"Do you need a healer?" Marie already had her frustratingly low fire power thrown in her face once already, she'd rather not have to go into that place alone, she didn't even have her slave to carry the things she needed out yet. The Metroid fanboy turned around and faced Marie.
"Sure." He stated bluntly.
"I want half of the materials that you get from the monsters!" Marie snapped as fair was fair.
"Fine. Come along then." The two of them walked through the dungeon for a period of time, there were a few weak monsters that they encountered along the way but nothing that the arm cannon on the fanboy's arm couldn't take care of. Eventually they arrived at a large empty cavern. "This will do." The Fanboy stated after a single glance around.
"Do for what?" Marie asked suspiciously.
"I'm in a hurry." Suddenly a large amount of dark power was released into the cave. "I want to get this done quickly so that I can go to sleep already." A chorus of screeching was released from the caves of on the far side of the cavern.
"Tall. Shadow Magic?" Marie looked up at the Fanboy in shock. "Blackmore?" That wasn't the biggest issue here though, from those caverns hordes of white figures emerged and marched into the cave, marble white figures with human like statue faces on different parts of their bodies wielding weapons of gold and large wings coming out of their backs. "Why are they all here?" Marie asked fearfully.
"They're probably attracted by my demonic power." Blackmore replied with a shrug of his shoulders as Marie snapped to him in Rapt attention and fear. The Various Angels charged forward and Blackmore took aim, not at the angels but at the ceiling, and fired his weapon. A few moments later a Stalactite from the ceiling came down on top of the head of one of the largest angels killing it and nailing its corpse to the floor. With each shot of the weapon more and more of the ceiling came down crushing and skewering the angels as it went along. Halos scattered from the corpses of the angels and flew into Blackmore's hand while the chaos of the falling rocks kept the Angels from moving forward. Eventually the ceiling gave out and the whole thing came down on top of the angels sealing the cavern in the process. As if he was satisfied with a job well done Blackmore turned around and left. Marie, once she was done cowering, turned between the wrecking ball and the cavern several times.
"Where are you going!?" Marie shouted indignantly.
"I am going to bed!" This time Blackmore didn't even bother to turn around to face her. "As agreed, your half of the materials is waiting for you to collect them!" Marie turned to the sealed Cavern before her face twisted in rage.
"JERK!"
Angelica Rapha Redgrave was not having a good week, she hasn't been able to see her fiance in months despite her best efforts, not unless you want to count his speech at the opening ceremony. Angelica didn't. Enough was enough. She was halfway into the one week deadline in which she expected to receive an invitation from Julius to his tea party and now was the time to confront him. Angelica's friends were all around the school, luckily the prince was so easy to find with the gaggle of fan girls who were following him all around everywhere that he went.
"Your Highness." The Squealing harpies shut their mouths as Angelica approached, at least someone remembered that she was the next Queen. "We need to discuss the details of the upcoming tea ceremony. Would this be an opportune moment for you?" Angelica asked evenly a touch of sarcasm in her voice, if she didn't know better she would say that Julius was avoiding her.
"Ah. Angelica." The Prince's reaction was closer to learning that someone spat in his sandwich than being greeted by his fiancee. "Don't force your way into the conversation. This is the Academy you know."
The Final of the Capture Targets is the Crown Prince Julius Rapha Holfort, and oh boy is this one a doosy. Julius has spent his entire life being trained to look for sycophants and Charlatans everywhere he goes. What he was not taught was how to tell if the other party wants to genuinely help him or be his friend through all the court room bull. Julius is the group's all rounder, he's not quite as good at close combat as either Greg or Chris, not as good at magic as Brad, nor is he quite as good a shot as Jilk, instead he brings a balanced mix of all these skills to the table and is adequate for handling most situations. The Julius route is dependant on thus proving that you have no ulterior motives for interacting with him, the Infamous scene in which Olivia slaps him for being rude being a chief example of this. Excerpt from Diary 1
Julius was acting far too relaxed since he entered the academy. Angelica initially wanted to respect his wishes for a respite from court life for the three years leading up to their marriage, but the man had procrastinated for far too long. He had not made any arrangements for the tea party, which needed to be appropriately elegant and grand to maintain his image. If he did not start preparing immediately, then accommodations could not be made. He hadn't even invited Angelica yet, perhaps expecting that she would invite herself, regardless it was rude, but the situation could still be salvaged with a public invite.
"It is rather loud here. Could we discuss your plans in private?" Instantly Julius's mood turned 180 Degrees.
"Marie thank goodness! I was looking for you!" Angelica turned around to the direction that Julius had been looking, and was bumped on her arm as Julius rushed pass her to greet the little girl that had just arrived. A range of emotions went through Angelica at that moment, all of them very much in the negative, Outrage, Humiliation, Paranoia. Angelica looked around, the rude behaviour of the Prince had not gone unnoticed as whispers and malicious smiles started to spread. "I'm also planning on holding a Tea party soon. I dislike flashy events, so I'm only inviting acquaintances." Left unsaid was that Angelica was not on that list of acquaintances. Angelica breathed deeply, it was fine, Julius had only known the Girl for days after all, he will come back to his fiance soon enough, right now though she needed to do damage control. Angelica looked at the little girl, Lafan, the daughter of a poor viscount, she stared at her fearfully eyes wide with emotion, not just terror but also excitement, probably expecting me to object to her presence at the tea party, which I did, though I couldn't say there here.
"Very well. This resolves what I wanted to talk to you about quite nicely." Angelica let out a sigh before dismissing her fool of a fiance and walking away.
"Eh?" Both the prince and his pauper princess stared stupidly at Angelica in response to her subverting their expectations. "I was going to let you know that I was thinking of attending a promising up and comer's tea party instead of yours, naturally I found it relevant to discuss the matter before hand to get your opinion, and you gave it already. If you'll excuse me." Angelica started to walk away in no hurry to perpetuate the prince's foolishness.
"Someone invited you?" Julius ate the bait like a starving man.
"Of course not." Angelica rolled her eyes as what she was about to say was obvious. "Me being your fiance anyone with the slightest lick of sense about them would know that such a endeavour would lead to failure under normal circumstances, as much as it's against convention I must be the one to approach him." Angelica sharply turned her head with a flick of her hair as she resumed walking.
"Why would you attend someone else's tea ceremony?" Julius asked looking confused. "You do know the implications of such an event?" At least he's not turned into a total idiot. "I would imagine that it's quite similar to not inviting your own fiance to your tea party." As Angelica said that she observed Julius be taken about by her lack of subtlety.
"I have no objections. But you should take the other party's circumstances into consideration." Julius stated as he attempted to salvage the blow against him. "Of course I intend to take his circumstances into consideration." Angelica lied flawlessly through her teeth. "As I also took yours now then."
This time Angelica didn't ask to be excused turned around again to walk away full of purpose. It would be best if she can find a suitable candidate as soon as possible, below Viscount would be a Baron, but for her claims not to be a total bluff then she needs one suitably outstanding in their achievements. Or in their stature, the prime candidate was already walking forward from one of his classes to the next, and faced with the best possible candidate Angelica briskly walked forward to meet him.
"Greetings Baron Leon Fou Blackmore." The giant of a man turned around to face Angelica. "I am Angelica Rapha Redgrave." Angelica stuck out her hand for the other to shake.
"Pleasure." The Baron took Angelica's hand and shook it.
"I know it is rude of me to impose but I would like to attend your tea party at the end of the week." The Giant Baron looked over Angelica's head.
"Your followers will have to find someone else's party to attend." Leon stated lethargically. "Much as I am sure they are good company I don't have the luxury to spare for all of them."
"Naturally, I already know that I'm imposing." Angelica followed up flawlessly. "A small gathering between Acquaintances would be wonderful." And another hit against the prince.
"Oh sure." The baron searched through his ruck sack and pulled out an invitation for Angelica, no name written on it, merely the location and time that she should arrive at the scene. "See you there then." The Baron gave a light bow before he was off again. From a distance a head of long green hair was looking down on the scene with rapt attention.
Leon slapped some cold water into his face, anything to wake himself up. Ever since Rodin slapped this damned bracelet on him he's been nothing but lethargic and un-energetic! Sometimes he swears that he could just take this sink and rip it clean off the wall purely out of frustration!
Olivia looked around a corner and let out a sigh. Ever since she stepped foot in this damned school it has been hell. Girls have been bullying her, she lost her magic text book to the incinerator already, the other day she got cornered by a group of them and their exclusive servants. The beating was so bad that Olivia wasn't certain that she would've been able to walk away if not for her healing magic protecting her.
"If it isn't the little common dog who thinks she can run with wolves." A girl with her hair tied into pony tails and hanging off her head in loops. Olivia knows not her name and she cares not either, she merely tucked her head down and charged away from them, barrelling past two women in black with all her might.
"Somebody Save ME!"
The sound of several meaty thwacks echoed out followed by a body being thrown through the air and into Olivia's path, of one of the demi-humans that had been chasing her.
"Eh?" Suddenly Olivia was grabbed by both of her arms via someone on either side of her before being dragged off, going by the unconscious forms of the girl who had chased after her and her various servants. "Eh!?" Olivia was dragged all the way out of the girls dormitory, into the main building and directly to the cafeteria, it was already getting late, nobody should be here at this time of night, but someone was using the kitchen.
"Left. Right. Why have you brought some random girl here?" The shockingly tall young man was at the kitchen counter using a knife to smoothly chop up a length of meat into sugar cube sized pieces before dropping them into a bag of suspect brown liquid.
"She has no Fiance and no Demi-human servants of her own." Left gave a reply that reminded Leon of his instructions earlier in the day.
"Then give her an invitation, don't drag her around the school close to the middle of the night." The master of the two servants instructed while he continued to look suspicious.
"If we had done that then you would be inviting a corpse." Right followed up bluntly, which managed to give Leon pause. "One of the other first year students were chasing after her, along with her demi-human servants, her fear was palpable!"
"Huu." Leon smacked himself in the face as he groaned and looked over at the person his two maids had rescued. "You're the girl from Magic class, with the healing magic." Olivia nodded her head, still shaken up by her near brush with death and followed up by being taken prisoner for lack of better term. "The Teacher called you Olivia when he called the rest of us by our last name. Why?"
"I'm a Commoner." Olivia's face soured as she spoke. "I'm not important enough to have a last name!" There was a story here, Leon was only getting part of it but he didn't have time to finish listening to it.
"Olivia was it? You are staying in our room tonight." Fear struck Olivia's features. She remembered what happened to the last girl that got dragged off into the Lafan's not so lovely abode. "Unless of course you'd rather go back to the dormitory with the people that want to hurt you?" Olivia fell flat. Damned if she does. Damned if she doesn't. "Good. Right, go to her room and pick up a change of clothing and whatever of importance is left of her belongings and bring them to our room." Right nodded and turned into black shadow as she disappeared through the door. "Left form a defensive perimeter around the cafeteria until we're finished working, no one is to enter until I say so." Left nodded her head and turned into a shadow and zipped off as well.
"What kind of magic was that?" Olivia's fear vanished as she looked at the bizarre magic in front of her.
"Shadow. Do you know how to cook? I have to get this done within the next few days." The two continued to work on getting the food ready until Midnight, then they went to bed where Olivia changed into her pajama's in the privacy of a makeshift privacy screen and slept in a hammock, she wanted to ask about the weird magic that was in the room but Leon pretty much hit the bed snoring.
The Duo had a early start to the morning, partly to keep any bad rumours from circulating due to a girl leaving Leon's room, but mostly because there was a person that Olivia needed to see that her very life may depend upon. Olivia recounted her story of the past few days to the man before her, the harrassment and bullying from the other students, the attacks from their servants. Leon noted that Olivia was having a much easier time explaining all this to the teacher, but then again apparently they already know each other.
"I see." Lucas put his tea cup away as he mused the implications of the situation, and how the majority of it was entirely his fault. "You've had a hard time, you have my deepest apologies Ms. Olivia."
"I have been learning magic like I wanted to!" Olivia forced a smile on her face, and Lucas almost believed it.
"Magic is a wonderful thing, it has a life and will of its own, and treated correctly it will be your best friend for the rest of your life." Lucas just let out a sigh. "I only wish you could've met each other under better circumstances. Mylene assured me that her son would do his utmost to ensure young Olivia's safety."
"Then he is lousy at his job." Leon casually spat words that were far more ominous than he could ever imagine.
"Indeed." Lucas poured Olivia another cup of tea. "I personally know the highest ranking girl in your class." Lucas pulled out a card from his coat pocket and proceeded to write out elegant calligraphy across it. "Give this to miss Angelica Rapha Redgrave, and your issues will be solved. I will personally speak to her myself and see to it that she takes you in as one of her followers." Olivia let out a sigh of relief, and then Leon opened his big mouth.
"Angelica? She invited herself to my party on Saturday. Surely we can do introductions then." Leon suggested vaguely recalling the girl in question introducing herself the other night. Lucas made a sour face.
"Angelica, Daughter of the Redgrave Duchy, will be attending your tea party Mr. Blackmore?" For the contents of the question the look on Lucas's face was mighty grave.
"Yeah?" Leon looked equal parts concerned and confused. "What is it? What's the problem?"
"I believe the duchess is already engaged to the crown prince." Off to the side Left suddenly spoke up. "Logic would demand that it is his party that she would attend."
"But the rumour going around the mill is that the prince has instead invited the daughter of a destitute Earl's family instead, one Marie Fou Lafan." Right naturally followed up on Left's vague knowledge of the political situation.
"That bad?" Leon asked though the way Lucas winced gave the answer.
"The Crown and the Redgraves represent the two largest political factions in the Kingdom." Lucas explained bluntly. "Angelica's and Julius's marriage might've been able to void an entire civil war."
"Left." The first of the two demonesses stood ram rod straight at attention. "Find Lafan. I want to know everything that you can about her." Left nodded as she melted into the floor and zipped off. As Leon was pondering the next move Olivia was looking around uncomfortably. "Something you'd like to add Olivia?"
"...I'm from Lafan territory, me and my parents both." Olivia stated as she let the implications sink in.
"Meaning you know Marie?" Leon asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Not personally no..." Olivia looked up in the air as she thought the question through some more. "I remember that she was always going into the dungeons and dragging out corpses of monsters from the dungeon and bringing them to the butcher."
"Monster meat is very expensive and very in demand." Lucas stated bluntly providing his two cents on the matter.
"I don't think she has very much money." Olivia however directly contradicted those two cents. "She was always eating really cheap meals, and she's really small too." Olivia held her hand out at about the height of a nine year old, about as tall as her shoulder. "I tried talking to her a few times but whenever I try to approach her she always chases me away." Leon narrowed his eyes.
"Is she a little blonde girl?" Leon was pretty certain he knew the answer already, but Olivia's nod confirmed his suspicions. "Then she's the same little girl I saw slapping around the prince on the first day." Lucas spat out his tea at that statement. "And she's the one who I saw delving the dungeon in the middle of the night." Lucas mopped himself up upon hearing the line of questioning.
"The Lafan Territory is destitute, by the sounds of things Miss Lafan is making enough money to live like a queen but she's eating cheap and by the sounds of things is paying for it in her body." Lucas summarised bluntly as he dapped tea off of himself with his handkerchief.
"I think I saw her in magic class too." Leon stated bluntly.
"Right! She's the one that gave an error message to the assessment orb." Olivia stated as she snapped her fingers and let out a sigh. "I feel like I see her everywhere I go lately, she chased me away from the opening ceremony on the first day, ran me out of the library on the second, and off from the training hall when we were both called in to heal some of the guys that got injured." As relevant as the news that Lafan was bullying Olivia was Lucas had more information on the matter of the error messages.
"Using the magic that you have a poor affinity with to the point of excess is also bad for one's health. The amount of mana that the process requires is higher than casting normal spells, not to mention that forcing yourself to cast beyond your limit burns through your life force as it forcibly expands your corresponding magic circuits." Lucas was getting more and more concerned by the moment and Leon couldn't blame him. "What has Lafan been doing that she's been casting so much healing magic?"
"Right." The Second Maid Demon stood at attention. "Until such a time that we can introduce Olivia to Angelica you are not to leave her side."
"Yes Waka." Right sunk into the floor and reappeared next to Olivia.
"Rest assured Miss Olivia I will personally teach you the full range of etiquette that you will have to know to fit into the academy proper." Lucas stated in response. "And for your first homework assignment, you must find a suitable gift to give miss Angelica to make a good impression on her." Olivia nearly mirrored Lucas's earlier spit-take.
"I don't quite think her scholarship funds quite covers the kind of expensive gifts suitable for a duke's daughter." Leon stated as Olivia already started mumbling '100 Dia, 200 Dia.'
"Funds? Oh heavens no nothing quite so cheap will leave the impression we are looking for." Lucas stated bluntly. "Dungeon drops are after all earned only through the use of blood sweat and tears." Olivia's fears only began to multiply at that.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Oh absolutely, it's also one of the most socially toxic environments you can find, and that's without it being a backwater feudal fantasy world. Give me a break man I literally just started this three weeks ago!
hnh058513: Lil sooner than in Canon, or at the very least enough hints will be dropped that he could figure it out on his own.
demolia85: Bayonetta had it's own Mech armour in 2 and 3 need I remind you.
Strange Man: Hope I don't disappoint.