"This is Professor Granze's class room. He teaches the Archaeology course." Noelle attempted to walk through the door but noted that it wasn't opening for her, something on the other side had been blocking her. Leon shot Greg an annoyed look.
"Here lemme help." While Greg worked to force the door open.
"Leon can we talk about Noelle for a minute?" Marie asked looking concerned at the situation that was unfolding.
"If this is about another 'Prophecy.'" Leon dragged Marie away from her reversed harem as he growled in annoyance.
"It isn't." While Marie wanted to say that it was she was far better at manipulating people than merely to press Leon's buttons, at least the ones that would aim his wrath at her. "I do have real life knowledge work off of, and a spell that let's me detect injuries, so when a girl is wearing a long sleeved sweater on the hottest day of the year over a pair of bruised up arms I tend to take notice."
As someone who was beaten to death in her previous life Marie likes to think of herself with some worldly knowledge. And while the rest of them were wearing the school's summer uniform, sans the blazers, Noelle was still wearing the winter uniform, most likely because it had long sleeves. Leon looked at Noelle briefly.
"We'll talk about this later." And it wasn't just Marie that Leon was talking to either. He's known the drone has been following him around since before he got off the ship. If it was smart, it would be following Noelle right now. With a loud creak Noelle and Greg managed to get the door.
"What's this all about?" Dust was flying through the class room. Various relics were stacked around the class room with no rhyme or reason, occupying the various seats that belonged to the students and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.
"What-!? The transfer students right?" The Professor looked rather dishevelled even as he adjusted his reading glasses and tidied his messy hair.
Of all the Capture targets, Professor Narcisse Calc Granze is most problematic from a moral perspective.
The Professor of Archaeology at Noelle's school, Professor Granz is old enough to be Noelle's father on top of being in a position of power over her. Mind you this route is only possible if Noelle enrols in his class in the first year, and to give the man credit he only enters a proper relationship with her after she has already graduated.
In Simple Terms, Narcisse is an archaeologist in a country that despises the very concept of putting itself in the danger of ancient ruins, and his family feels quite the same.
He was booted out from his previous college for his radical theories and now can only find work at a highschool in a department that is on the verge of being shut down because he can't attract any students.
I also cannot emphasise enough that Narcisse is the only one who can efficiently guide Noelle's party to the Sacred Tree Sapling which is necessary for the game's best end.
Excerpt from Diary 2
The Professor was quite happy to meet the seven foreign students, partly because they meant that his department would get to survive for another year, but mostly because he was happy to meet people that he believed shared his interests. Then he made a face when he saw Leon.
"...you're Nick's brother aren't you?" Narcisse asked as he stared at Leon mouth agape.
"I apologise for whatever my brother has done." Leon bowed slightly as he sincerely apologised, but Narcisse just laughed him off.
"Your brother used to tell me the exact same thing!" Narcisse entered a state of euphoric back slapping bravado as he did just that to Leon.
"Um professor, we have to go to the other classes now." Noelle stated as she grabbed Leon and pulled him away again. "Did you used to live here?" Noelle asked as she led Leon away.
"Briefly, my mum had a falling out with her sister." Leon replied as he was led to their next class room.
Over all the school seemed to cover the basics, language, mathematics, athletics, magic, there weren't any combat related classes that he'd have to take here unlike in Holfort and so Leon comfortably slipped into his first class with no complications whatsoever.
"Leon!?" That's what Leon would like to say, but there was a familiar Green haired Bro Con joining him for his class. "What are!? What are you doing with this hussy!" You could see the vein popping in Noelle's forehead.
"Excuse me!?" Noelle snapped glaring balefully at the young woman who had made her presence known to them at this time.
"So you two know each other then?" Leon asked as he felt a massive headache coming on.
"Get away from him you whore!" And so Leon's first day of school was met by his cousin and tour guide getting into a cat fight with each other. Letting out a sigh, a massive stone fist appeared around Leon's arm and was used to separate the two girls by force.
"Sit down!" Leon's voice broke no room for argument as both girls sat down in the seiza position. "Would one of you like to explain this unreasonable hostility?" Leon asked as he tapped stone fingers.
"That's what I would like to know!" Noelle made her exasperation at this question quite clear.
"Louise." The person in question felt a chill go up her spine. "If you're going to lie to me then don't bother striking a conversation with me again!"
Louise clenched her fists, her body trembling with anger.
"You've only just met her and you're already going this far for her!?" Louise's anger was obvious.
"I just got out of a war zone Louise!" Leon snapped in reply. "I don't need to walk into another one!" Louise looked down, trembling with frustration as the crest on her right hand glowed in a threatening manner.
"I. Can't. Say!" The Daughter of House Rault growled through clenched teeth, and the crest on the back of Louise's hand stopped glowing.
"We'll talk later." Leon didn't understand why but something extremely important was going on here, especially since Louise for some reason swore an oath to the Sacred Tree on it. "No more fights during class time Please?"
Louise nodded her head to the statement as Leon helped her to her feet.
"I can't believe you made her back down?" Noelle was terrified of the nobility of Alzer, for good reason. Louise especially took delight in tormenting her all day long and now she looks like a kicked puppy. "I'm not sure how this day could get weirder." Around that point in time various people started to come in for their classes, and then a familiar purple haired pimply brat walked in, notable walking very funny, and looked Leon straight in the eye.
"Great." It was too for Louise. If Pierre starts making trouble then Louise can get back into Leon's good books by putting the little snot in his place.
"Hi!?" Pierre gave what sounded like a confused greeting as he entered.
"Hi?" Noelle in the mean time was wondering when this asshole got so friendly with people that he'd greet them first thing in the morning.
"HHHIIIYYYAAAHHH!" Instead Pierre let out a shriek of mortal terror, falling to his feet and slipping as he desperately ran out of the classroom. Slowly the entire classroom turned to face Leon, Louise and Noelle plus the group of six included, wondering exactly what his history with Pierre was.
"Right excuse me." Leon walked to the front of the Class to give his introductions. "Ahem. I am Leon Blackmore of Holfort, I've had some success as an Adventurer, a Merchant and in the army and I currently own the Blackmore Coffee company which produces a variety of Coffee flavours. Any questions?" The room was a forest of arms raised up in the air. "Any questions that don't involve Pierre." This was shaping up to be a long day. Course if Leon knew what the ass hat was going do he would've chased him down and snapped his neck right then and there.
There was a dividend of responsibilities that the group of foreign students had to get up to while they were in Alzer. As it stood Leon still hadn't even gotten to the place that he was borrowing from the Raults yet.
Marie and the rest of her Harem at least in comparison doesn't have far to go to get to their own 'low income housing' considering it was parked right next to the school itself. It was a cheap trailer, designed to comfortably let five people sleep inside, plus a hammock strung up inside. That said it wasn't their property, it wasn't a gift, they would have to pay to rent it out, and that meant one thing: jobs.
"We're in a bad spot." Marie stated as she used a ruler to indicate a chart. "We need money if we want to live here in Alzer. Which means that we need to get jobs."
80% of everything that they make goes to Sarah to pay off their debts meaning that even splitting costs between them they have to make five times the regular income just to make ends meet. The average minimum wage job pays well enough to afford an apartment to rent plus expenses for one person. In simple terms.
"Each of us needs to make money if we want to clear our debts and live in this country." Marie made her opinion quite well known for the second time, just for emphasis. Marie had initially been horrified to learn that Holfort as a 10 to 1 exchange rate with Alzer, this makes sense as Alzer's Sacred Tree made it the economic power house of the world, however she realised that this was a opportunity. If the money they make in Alzer is worth 10 times as much as it is in Holfort then that means that they'll be able to pay their debts 10 times as fast.
"Brad. This is a talent Agency's address." Marie stated as she handed Brad a sticky note with a address on it. In the game, Brad's magic show was the biggest earner of the five, it was imperative that they get it up and running. "Greg, this is the address of a personal fitness company that caters to the rich noble ladies and female merchants of Alzer." Marie had no doubt in her mind that the people in question would be paying more for the fruits of Greg's workout regimen than they would for advice on instruction on how to reap them for themselves. "Julius, this is the address of a restaurant that should be looking for a new hire, if I'm not mistaken it offers on the job training too." Something that Marie desperately needed Julius to get if she doesn't want to be eating skewers for the rest of her life. With that there were their obvious interests covered, now for the less obvious two. "Jilk, Chris, Professor Granze told me about an opening at the museum cataloguing their various antiques." Marie knew that Jilk of the game picked up a interest in the Antique business while in Alzer but as it was something he hadn't yet shown an interest in so just pulling it out of her arse would be too much of a stretch. The same goes for Chris who has only shown an interest in swordsmanship up until now. "Professor Granze also mentioned that there's a spa that his family owns in the area that needs a new hire too." Marie anticipated that the five of them would sooner take Marie's recommendations over Job Seeker, and more important for that: as Marie has learned the hard way for these idiots to work effectively they have to be happy and actually like the work that they're doing. "Whoever brings back the most money, not including spending it on anything, gets to sleep with me for the month, something that will change with every month to whoever makes the most that month. Naturally if this is me I'll be sleeping in the hammock." In other words 'if any of you want to even touch me, bring me money!'
"Yes!" Greg shouted as he stood up. The five of them were all fired up at that statement.
"We won't let you down Marie!" Julius shouted to a chorus of agreements.
Satisfied at having managed the idiots Marie dug into her lunch.
Of Course had she known what was going to happen as a result of these events she would've never let the boys act separately from one another.
With School done for the day Louise breathed a sigh as she worked to salvage the Leon Situation. There are things that she's taken a sacred oath to never speak about in public but there is a small restaurant owned by her family in the area that she can take him to and-
"What in the Tree's name!?" Louise looked at the ruins of the Restaurant that she was thinking about, that she had been leading Leon to. The entire place had been burned down leaving nothing but a hole filled with burnt rubble behind, the man that Louise knew to be the manager of the restaurant had long since collapsed to his knees as he had just stared ahead at where his livelihood use to be. Off to the side Louise could see a van-like vehicle that was loading bodies and was preparing to take them away to a place that was not the hospital.
"Louise." Louise knew the look in Leon's eyes, he was already using a time manipulation spell that let him see into the past. "What happens when a 'Great Noble' commits a crime in this country?" Oh Louise didn't like where this conversation was going. "How are they punished?"
"...in the event a Great Noble damages public property then they have to pay a fine to get it fixed." Leon's glare filled with rage intensified. "It's expensive to fix the road and side walk after the Sacred Tree tears through it after all." Now Louise really didn't like where this was going.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"So what you're saying is, that the 'Great Nobles' of your nation has the right to Pillage, Rape, Murder and Burn anyone beneath them and the most that your father, the Prime Minister, is willing or able to do is make them pay a fine!?" Leon was beyond outraged by this news. If he was told that a whole new demon had taken up residence inside of his soul from this incident he would totally believe them 100%, eve worse than that he had the Culprit, Pierre, in his hands and he didn't snap him like a twig!
Louise could make excuses, could explain that the only thing supporting her father's power was the support of the Great Noble Families. She could tell him about everything her father has been trying to do to limit their influence and power. She could make all the excuses that she liked and she knew they wouldn't accomplish a single damned thing to abate Leon's rage who the actions that she knew he was going to take.
"...yes." And thus Louise started a war. It might not be a war that Alzer would lose, but it was definitely with someone that she knew they didn't want to fight. Leon's face twitched as he cut the spell that he was using.
"Bernhard. There's someone I need you to find." Leon wasn't talking to anyone present, he was speaking directly through the link he shared with the possessed castle that he had turned into his ship. "Excuse me?" Leon heard the story of what was happening inside of Bernhard's ship, and his instructions she overheard chilled Louise to the core of her being.
Brad had a short interview with the Talent agency and after that he was on his way back to their Trailer to brag to Marie and the others, and then a somewhat familiar figure appeared.
"You're..." It took Brad a few moments to place the little figure. There were similarities between the two of them, mostly the purple hair, but that was it. Brad takes far better care of his skin than this guy, and he has never made a creepy face like that before. "That guy that ran away scared as soon as he saw Leon this morning!" The other Purple haired young man's face twisted in rage as he held out his hand and a green crest appeared. The Sidewalk erupted and split apart into rubble as massive tree roots appeared and tied themselves around the neck of Brad.
"Where's your friends at!?" Pierre growled in an uncompromising tone of voice.
Things were not going quite so well for their first day in school, at least not as well as Marie was hoping. There were for instance Noelle showing obvious signs of being on one of the bad routes with her own romantic partners, Leon's complete lack of interest with the things that have to do with the games, but perhaps most immediately concerning was the fact that Brad had not shown up after his own interview.
"I'll go out and look for him." Greg stated as he opened the door leading out of the Trailer. "Knowing the pretty boy he probably tripped and busted his ankle."
"I'll help." Chris gave a follow up as he joined Greg at the door. "Alzer is a big place...?" They had a lot of ground to cover in Alzer after all, is what Chris was about to say, but unexpectedly they found Brad in the second worst state that they could possibly think of finding him.
"I was wondering how long you were going to take to notice me!" Pierre snapped as he tightened the grip of the tree roots around his makeshift bench, that is to say Brad who had been tied up by the sacred tree roots.
"Found him!" Greg shouted back into the trailer proper. Soon the Five people who were inside the trailer were outside, looking at Pierre who was on the cusp of snapping Brad in two or sucking him dry it was hard to say.
"What are you here for?" Julius snapped as he glared ahead at Pierre.
"Well you see that's a good question." Pierre glared murderously at the group of individuals. "You see, here I was minding my own business when your friend jumped me!"
"Is that what you were screaming about this morning?" Jilk asked looking at Pierre suspiciously, and watched him flinch and his face cramp with rage.
"Leon wouldn't...!" Chris was about to jump to Leon's defence but Greg grabbed him by his shoulder and shook his head in the negative. "...that's totally something he would do."
It seems that Leon had no faith from his followers, which was fair because he also didn't have any faith in them. Pierre was getting annoyed at being ignored.
"I'm here for some appropriate compensation!" Pierre tightened his grip on Brad's neck, ready to snap it. "Your choice, his neck or the ship that you all came here on!"
Marie jumped at this.
"Swear on the Sacred Tree that you will not bother us again after you have the ship!" The boys were shocked at Marie's statement.
"You are not in a position to negotiate." Pierre replied as Brad started making Strangling noises.
"This is the only point we have to Negotiate on." Marie countered unhesitatingly. "Without that oath you have no reason why not to kill us as soon as you have what you want!"
"Fine fine." Pierre waved his hand through the air. "I swear that as soon as I have my ship I'll leave the Holfort vermin be and never bother them again." Pierre's crest glowed a brief rainbow shimmer, indicating that the oath had been signed.
The group led Pierre all the way to the dockyard, and while Pierre did hear the rumours seeing it in person was a whole other matter. Looking up at the Bernhard up close and personal Pierre got the impression that he had been looking at a fortress in ship form. Do they just build them bigger in Holfort? No wonder the worthless vermin imports so many mana stones from them, not that Pierre had to worry about that part. Suddenly the ship groaned to life, a crane extended from the ship, carrying a cross each point of which was tied to a string, each string tied to the limb of a wooden puppet the size of a human. The figure resembled a tall looking human, a curly moustache painted onto it's face.
"Would somebody like to explain what is going on here?" The Puppet asked looking at the group suspicion obvious from it's tone.
"The frack are you!?" Pierre asked looking at the puppet with confusion. "Some kind of Lost Item?" It was impossible to tell the puppet's feelings and opinions from it's glare, it was after all made from wood.
"I am the Avatar of the Ship Bernhard. You may call me Bernhard." The puppet clacked as it spoke and bowed.
"Whatever you're mine now! Pierre Io Fieval, you can just call me Master though!" Pierre snapped haughtily.
"Am I now?" Bernhard asked sounding suspicious.
"These guys were your owners, they gave you to me, and now you're mine!" Pierre's logic had been relatively sound. Leon used no middle name when he introduced himself, in other words he had no noble ranking, to put it another way he was equal ranked to the other six who also used no middle name in their introductions. Even if there was some other owner of the ship few were willing to argue with the Licence to Rape, Murder and Pillage.
Bernhard blinked in surprise, and at that time Leon contacted Bernhard through the link that bound them together.
"Bernhard. There's someone I need you to find."
"Young Master I was just about to contact you. There is some miscreant named Pierre here with the stowaways here claiming that they handed custody of me over to him."
Luckily Bernhard had some time manipulating knowledge, so he could relay and receive information at an accelerated rate.
"Excuse me?" Leon's voice replied, heavy with rage though Bernhard could tell it had nothing to do with him.
"Pierre Io Fieval to be precise." Though Bernhard had no idea what his master had to do with this miscreant he honestly couldn't care less.
"Bernhard listen to me very closely. Pierre is not allowed to die until after he is left begging for death, even when he does beg for death he is not allowed to die Quickly."
Bernhard was legitimately surprised by Leon's orders, however in his mind his features soon turned into a twisted and sadistic smile.
"Understood Young Master, I shall spare no effort to live up to your expectations, you shall be able to bear witness to the fruits of my labours in four days time."
"Forgive my rudeness master." Bernhard gave another bow, this one aimed at Pierre. "Please come inside I shall give you a tour of your new facilities." Pierre snorted as he released Brad. "I shall leave the task of informing my former master of this new development to you all, now than Master, Please come this way."
The puppet indicated for Pierre to follow him onto the ship. Six gulps sounded out in fear.
"Leon's ship is a demon right?" Julius asked as he watched Pierre being led away.
"Not only a demon, but it's a demon that has been linked to him." Brad was rubbing his neck where Pierre had been strangling him.
"So Leon already knows that we screwed up right?" Chris gave the follow up bluntly.
"Our lives aren't worth a ship!" Marie snapped making her opinion clear.
"Marie, it might be worth it." Jilk knew for a fact that at this point if his family had the choice between the six of them and Bernhard then they would choose to keep the Bernhard over everything else.
"That demon didn't know about Pierre until he explained himself." Marie asserted like her logic was flawless. "Our saving our skins didn't affect that ship's owner one tiny bit!" Convinced of the Flawlessness of her logic Marie led the group away again.
"Then why did that guy lead Pierre onto the ship?" Greg asked looking fearful. "Greg do you know how to kill a great noble?" Marie asked as if she was speaking about something that was obvious. "You have to take him outside of the perimeter of the Sacred Tree, after that anything will do."
It would appear that Pierre is the proud owner of the biggest death trap in Alzer, and it has his name on it.
Bellange Leta Barielle: An army? That's an interesting choice of gift for your wife Rault.
Albergue Sara Rault: If you have a problem with it I won't let her recruit from your territory Barrielle.
Bellange: I don't have a problem with you owing me a favour Rault, I'm concerned that you're giving an outsider such military power.
Albergue: I don't consider Celine to be an outsider. If you're not a fool you won't either. Don't forget who was the one who disposed of the Lespinasse's abomination, an army of that, even if only a fraction of her strength, is something to be truly terrified of.
Excerpt on a Conversation concerning the Alzeran Branch of the Umbran Witches
Leon arrived at the Mansion belonging to his aunt Celine, led there by Louise.
"I'm in a bad mood right now." Leon stated in no uncertain terms. "Even if you do have a reasonable explanation for me I'd likely just get mad again. I'm going to use the Juke box and return home to my fiances for a couple of days, I'll be back before classes start again on Monday."
Louise could only nod solemnly in response. Of course Leon doesn't want to be here after seeing how Pierre is allowed to run wild of course he would want to go back to Holfort to be with his-
"Wait fiances!?" And Leon had already disappeared through the magic portal. "Fuu!" Louise made something that sounded like a cry of despair as she fell to her knees. Louise stayed like that for a while until she eventually heard the sounds of gunfire echoing out in the courtyard. "Huu." Louise eventually got up as she approached the woman shooting off a rifle in the courtyard.
Everyone had taken the news about Leos's disappearance in different ways, Louise latched on to Leon, someone who resembles Leos, emotionally. Celine took her anger out on pieces of Clay pottery, sniping them out of the sky with every shot of the rifle she had been firing off. Celine was dressed in a colourful button up suit, like a performer on stage, and looking her in the eye the somewhat silly outfit did nothing to dint the foul mood she was in.
"Leon has returned home for the time being." Louise stated as she hung her head low. "He needs to de-stress it seems." Louise waited a few moments before she continued. "He met Pierre."
"Yes I heard." Celine fired off her rifle again. "Shoved the poor bastard's crony up his ass from what I heard." Louise flinched at that, well it can't happen to a nicer guy.
"That would probably explain why Pierre needed to 'de-stress' too." Louise explained and Celine groaned in response.
"Right then, I'll have someone keep an idea on what the brat is doing right now I have slightly greater priorities to worry about." Celine pressed the butt of the rifle into the ground as she held her chin in thought.
"Is their something wrong mom? Is it something to do with Leos?" Louise was quite hopeful, if they were to help Leo then they needed to find him, and fast.
"There's a list of suspects just not ones that make sense." Celine had a couple of Shadows pull up seats for herself and Louise as she went over the information. "There's a list of people that I can think of that would want Leos dead, but they are incapable of summoning and controlling the demons that were used in the attack." By design of Course, Celine wasn't in the business of handing out weapons to her enemies. "Conversely there's my numerous pupils in the Umbran Arts who have been taught how to use demons, but I've already spoke with Madama Khepri." The entire Umbran Clan has a contract with the Demoness after all, not to summon her but to gain access to her powers of time manipulation, but if anyone does summon a demon that does have a contract with her then she'll know the when and where. And yet- "None of the clansmen were responsible either." Celine explained bluntly as she folded her hands together. One part of her suspect pool consisted of the exact kinds of psychopaths that would kill off her son or try and take him hostage just for shits and giggles. The other part consists of individuals who theoretically were capable, and some were motivated, but none were capable of using methods in which they wouldn't be found out. "There's more as well. Aside from the missing Leos there were no casualties at the hospital either despite the damage done to the building."
"That's just because Leon and I were there to deal with them on the spot!" Louise snapped losing her patience.
"Perhaps, but it does leave open one possible answer as well." Celine stated as she pulled out and opened her wallet, in a group photo was Albergue, a young Louise and Celine herself laughing happily and a small sickly child.
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RonaldM40196867: I've rarely read a fantasy novel that didn't have some kind of fantastical creature.