Zero's Noble Overlord
Chapter Thirty Two - The Charming Fairies Inn [V]
Time moves on.
Ah, no, I don't mean a time-skip; nothing of the sort. Just stuff happening that I'm only going to recap, of course.
Hm, so let's see, how did it go again?
Right, right.
Longueville won the Charming Tip Race with Scarron's full approval, therefore earning the right to wear the Charming Faeries Bustier for a full day. It was very alluring, I must say. And she received many many tips, so much so that she could almost buy half a holiday home if she wanted to.
There weren't many fairies asking around about Longueville's and Louise's connection to the Minions and also about the Inspector. However most of them quickly lost interest when neither answered their questions. Only Jessica was pursuing this matter strongly and almost got Louise to spill the beans afew times but Longueville always made sure to turn up before that ever happened.
As for the incident with Count Chulenne, well, Longueville and Inspector Dadget were very thorough in making sure that Count Chulenne and his cronies would not speak a word of this to anybody or they would find that Queen Henrietta would hear of their interference and receive a very serious punishment along with a stripping of rank and title.
One of the lackeys actually had the smarts to question their authority and authenticity, but when Longueville started waving around Louise's Court Lady papers in front of the Count's face they immediately lost all their confidence and begged not to be reported.
And I quote, "It was nice doing business with you gentlemen," said Longueville with a wicked smile as she finished her negotiations.
Thus afew days pass by idly since that incident.
...
Now let us briefly move on from Louise and friends and go see how Louise's other 'friends' are doing.
It was midday and Kirche was scantily dressed and lazying around on Tabitha's bed back at Tristain Academy of Magic, fanning her chest as the Summer heat was apparently getting to her. Odd since she's a Fire Mage, but anyways, she later asked Tabitha to the cool room with Ice Magic and just chit-chatted from there.
"Ah, it's hot~ It's really really hot here in Tristain!" Kirche complained, "This is why I invited you over to my family home in Germania, it's so much cooler there."
In reality, Germania was actually one of the hotter regions in Halkeginia, however Germanian buildings were well-ventilated and so in truth they were also much cooler even without the use of Ice Magic.
'Should I take dip in the bath?' pondered Kirche as she thought of a way to wipe away her sticky sweat, stave off the horrendous heat, and refresh herself all at once.
A loud scream pierces throughout the tower walls. It had come from a lower floor.
'I thought we were the only ones here?'
Partially true. There were afew teachers, servants, and guards still at the academy, otherwise it wouldn't have been opened, but their combined numbers were less than ten. Including Kirche, Tabitha and others, that was less than fifteen people still here.
Running down to further shouting, our Triangle-Class duo find themselves kicking opening the door to Montmorency's room, where the girl was being held down onto the bed by her boyfriend.
To keep it short, poor Guiche; yes, poor Guiche, was still suffering a tad from the after-effects of the love potion and so had an increased... desire in general to those of the opposite sex, which normally wouldn't be a problem, however, combined with the hot summer heat, his brain was pretty much fried and so his ability to rationalize things had already flew out of the window.
As soon as the delirious boy spotted Kirche's curves and near nude flesh, he jumped off Montmorency and went straight for the Germanian girl. However, he is stopped short by a severe clonk on his head by Tabitha's staff and then finished off by several stomps onto his back by Kirche's foot. She keeps her foot there to restrain him from getting back up.
"Did you give him another love potion, Montmorency?" Kirche asked flatly.
"No, of course not!" the blond girl snapped back as she got off the bed, "The heat must have fried that idiot's brain!"
Guiche groaned underfoot, "Where am I? Who am I?" The three girls stared at him. "What is love?"
"Hm, you're right, I guess the heat has broken him," Kirche said slightly bemused, "The heat here could drive anybody here crazy, I suppose," she pauses, "Let's go out to the capital then and fun have then."
Now, strictly speaking, Montmorency was not friends with either Kirche or Tabitha, they were simply classmates that sometimes bumped into each other. So normally speaking, Montmorency had no reason to accept Kirche's offer.
But she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth either. There was no way by the Founder's name that she would want to be left alone with Guiche right now, even if he was acting like a harmless bumbling fool at the moment.
"Fine, where to?" she agreed.
'Is the me here but the dream of a butterfly?' muttered the temporarily amnesiac boy on the floor.
"Hm~" Kirche licks her lips, "Well, I could use a cold drink, so how about a bar?"
Montmorency nodded, "That's fine."
With that decided, Tabitha closes her book and approaches the window of Montmorency's room and opens it. Putting two fingers in her mouth, she whistles and then jumps out; Kirche follows out the window without a hint of delay.
Peeking out the window, Montmorency sees that the Triangle-Class duo were already seated properly on the back of Tabitha's familiar, Sylphid.
The red-haired girl was waving her hand, "Hurry up or we'll leave you behind~!"
The blond girl clicked her tongue. She just didn't understand or mix well with the Germanian gal. Maybe it was because of their Element? Or maybe not, seeing as how 'cold' Tabitha got along 'hot' Kirche.
Well, whatever, she wasn't going to mull over something like that.
Turning around, Montmorency watches as Guiche dusts himself off. He wasn't looking like a dazed zombie anymore but she wasn't about to take any chances. She jumped out the window and was caught by Kirche.
"Hm?" Guiche hummed, "Where did Montmorency go?" there was a gap in his memory and he couldn't quite remember what he was doing before now. Though the window was open and the door was creaking abit, he wasn't sure what either meant.
Hearing shouting coming from outside the window, he peeks his head out and looks down.
"Hurry it up, Guiche, or we'll leave you behind!" Kirche shouted.
"What? What's going on?"
"We're going out to drink!"
Feeling a strange pain on the top of his head along with an aching body, he thought that perhaps he truly did needed a drink. He was also very hot, so something cold and refreshing would be great right about now.
Putting a rose wand in his mouth for dramatic effect, Guiche steps on the window sill, and kicks out with his arms wide open.
He was also caught by Kirche.
"I give that a 3," the busty-teen said with a wide-grin.
Guiche mildly frowns, "Only a 3?"
"I rounded up," she cheekily replies.
...
After a brief stop to Kirche's room to pick up her uniform, the four humans and one dragon flew quickly to the capital.
They were just walking around the streets with Kirche leading the way. However, she had kept writing off every bar in sight as boring, so the group had been wandering around for almost forty minutes now.
Of course, that was forty minutes too long.
"Will you hurry it up, Kirche?!" Montmorency growled, "This heat is unbearable!"
Guiche nodded while wiping off the sweat on his forehead with a flick of his hand, "I-Indeed."
"Well, then do any of you know any good bars around here?" asked Kirche. Frankly, she didn't visit the Tristainnian capital often.
The Gramont smiled, "Ah, well, I have heard good words about one in the Titania District," he added on, "'I've always wanted to visit that place atleast once."
"It's not some kind of weird bar, is it?" his girlfriend asked with a frown. She didn't quite like his tone.
"No, of course not! It's a perfectly normal bar with waitresses in lovely clothing servin- AGH!"
Montmorency started choking him. Furiously.
"I should have known that a womanizing fool like you would choose such an indecent bar! You unfaithful dog!"
"Sure, why not?" Kirche flips her hair back, "It could be an interesting experience."
"What?!" bellowed the drilled-tail girl. She momentarily loosened her grip and Guiche used this instance to escape.
'I'm too young to die...' he lowly muttered to himself.
The Germanian smirks, "Ah, is perhaps Montmorency the Fragrance afraid that she isn't as charming as a mere commoner woman?"
"As if!" she huffed immediately, "A bar like that will only have cheap wine, that's all. I'm sure of it."
Kirche didn't reply back to her, "Lead the way, Guiche."
He nodded and moved quickly.
The destination? Why, the Charming Fairies Inn, of course!
...
After some minor detours, involving the group asking for directions and shoving Guiche to move along and stop watching the scantily dressed performers, they found the bar they were looking for.
The words on the sign that hung above the door was teal and gold in color and along with a picture of a fairy with a tail next to the name.
"So this is it, huh?" Kirche said before opening the large double-set doors and walking inside. Guiche and Montmorency quickly followed in.
Tabitha was the last to go in as she was the only one to have noticed the flower-covered Overlord standing near the entrance.
She looked up to him and quietly said, "My condelences," before leaving.
What a good kid, wouldn't you say, Overlord?
...
"Welcome~!" wiggled the owner, "Oh my, I don't believe I've seen your faces around here before. Wonderful, beautiful, tres bien! I, Scarron, humbly welcome you to my bar, the Charming Fairies Inn, my noble gentleman and ladies~! Please enjoy yourself~!"
The girls didn't mind how weird Scarron looked, but Guiche on the other hand was trying very hard to keep bile from erupting out his throat.
"A table for four then, Sir Scarron," Kirche spoke pleasantly.
"The cleanest table," Montmorency added in.
"Right this way," the man lightly bowed, "And every table in this store is polished to shine."
The four student mages were lead to a table near the wall and settled into their seats.
"A Fairy will be with you right away, my noble gentleman and ladies," Scarron placed down the menu and gave another light bow before leaving.
As the girls looked at the food and drinks the bar had to offer, Guiche was soaking in the sight. Truly indeed, there were cute girls wearing cute uniforms and serving very cutely.
The boy was crying tears, or perhaps that was because Montmorency was pulling him by the ear. Hard to tell, really.
Anyways, the menu consisted of mostly of alcoholic beverages, ranging from the dirt cheap to extravagantly expensive and from common brands to imported goods. The food on the other hand was rather boring of the breakfast variety and had only a few specials.
It was a nice to surprise to Kirche since she didn't think the bar had anything going for it except the waitresses. But Montmorency wasn't as quite as convinced though about the trustworthiness of the menu.
"Oh? Why, if it isn't Miss Zerbst, Miss Montmorency, Miss Tabitha, and Sir Gramont."
Looking up from their menus, the four mages saw Miss Longueville.
"M-Miss Longueville, what are you doing here?" Guiche asked politely while he stared at the older woman. The secretary always looked ordinary at school but right now she was very alluring. His girlfriend then punched him on the side and he winced.
"This is just a part-time job until the school opens up again."
"But as a waitress?" Montmorency asked with indignity. She honestly couldn't understand why the secretary of the most prestigious Magic Academy in all of Tristain would degrade herself to working as a mere waitress in some sleazy-looking bar.
"Hmm..." Kirche hums, "I take it that Louise is also here?"
Following Longueville's pointed finger, they spy at the Valliere girl who was keeping company a group of drunken men as they babble their mouths off loudly. She looked positively bored and also annoyed from what they could tell.
Tabitha instantly understood that Louise and Longueville were actually on some kind of mission, though she thought Louise was doing a somewhat poor job of it. Montmorency and Guiche couldn't make heads or tails why Louise was here at all. And Kirche was trying to think of way to bring Louise over to tease her, this was simply too good of a opportunity to miss.
"Well then, have the four of you decided on your orders?"
Guiche ordered a meal for two alongside a few of the more uncommon wines for himself and his girlfriend. Meanwhile Kirche ordered four of the specials and some Germanian beverages; three of those specials were for Tabitha though.
"Oh, and can you call over Louise as well, Miss Longueville?" Kirche asked with a smile.
'I suppose she could use a small break with friends,' the ex-thief hums in her head, "Of course; I'll let Miss Louise know. Also, your meals will ready shortly," she said and then left.
A few moments later, Louise came by with a small scowl on her face. She really didn't want anybody from school knowing that she was here.
"Zerbst," she uttered.
"Louise~" her rival responded back.
"What do you want?"
"Oh, I just wondering how I should go about telling everybody at school about how Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere was working as a little waitress in some bar~"
"You wouldn't dare," our heroine growled.
"Oh, wouldn't I, Louise?"
Louise's brow twitched. Of course she would!
"So have yourself a seat, Louise~" Kirche purrs.
Dejectedly with a sigh, the pink-haired girl takes the seat in between Kirche and Guiche.
"So, what are you doing here, Louise?"
"That's none of your business, Zerbst."
"My, you seem even grouchier than I last saw you, Louise."
That's because she is grouchier.
The two red-shade girls continued to banter with each other until a man appeared at their table.
He was a Tristain Officer; a foot-soldier by the looks of his uniform, and his features described him to be in his early twenties too.
"Excuse me, my lady," the soldier started with a light bow. He was strictly only speaking to Kirche, "My name is Lawrence de Ashcroft, I am Officer of the Navarre Regiment," he spoke firmly, "My fellow comrades-in-arms seem to have become enthralled by your autumn allure and they wish to know the name of the beauty that has grasped their heart. Would you be as so kind to tell us your name, milady?"
Guiche gapes with his mouth open. This man was smooth, very smooth, and obviously very experienced in the way he handled himself.
Kirche lightly hums with a pleasant smile, "My name is Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst. It is a pleasure to meet you, oh noble soldier."
The man returns a smile, "Then Lady Zerbst, perhaps it is frivolous of me to ask, but will you please do us the grand honor of gracing our table with your presence?"
"My apologies, Sir Ashcroft, but as you can plainly see, I am in the company of friends and I do wish to enjoy my time with them," she quickly rejects the offer.
The nearby table that the officer came from started to boo. Whether it was for Lawrence or Kirche, well, that was mixed.
"Please ignore the noise; they mean no harm," the Ashcroft apologizes, "But will you please rethink our invitation? Can you not spare but a moment of your time to bestow happiness for us soldiers who have but nothing other than the coming unforgiving battles of war?"
"I am sorry to disappoint you, Sir Ashcroft, but I have no intention to be in the company of drunken ramble," she waves his off.
"Then excuse me. I have you used up enough of your precious time, Lady Zerbst," the man bows and leaves.
The table full of soldiers increased in their shouting. They were slinging words of disappointment towards the man and words of insults toward Kirche.
"Now where were we?" Kirche asked whilst easily ignoring all the talk behind her.
Guiche and Montmorency looked at each other uneasily, and then the blond boy voiced their thoughts, "Um, hey, Kirche, why don't we leave?"
The Germanian girl sighs, "No way, we were here first."
"Zerbst!" Louise raised her voice, she couldn't stay quiet about it, "Are you not hearing what those oafs are calling you over there?! Are you going to let them talk as they please?!" Insults were a tad touchy subject for Louise; after all, it was something she grew up with since her Runic Name was 'the Zero.'
The red-haired girl smirked, "You're getting awfully riled up over something so drab, Louise."
Our heroine would have retorted something witty back but didn't get the chance to speak.
"Hmph, well, I suppose I should get this over with," the Fire-mage mumbles as she briskly stood up and then walked up to the table full of soldiers.
"Oh, so have you changed your mind and decided to join us, milady?" asked one of the nondescript men with a slur. It seems they weren't allowing Lawrence to do anymore talking.
Kirche scoffs at them and pulls out her wand, the foci is pointed straight at them, "Does that answer your question, gentlemen?"
Several men fell off their chairs laughing.
"Young lady, we are soldiers. Do you think we're lower ourselves to fight a child?"
She sneers, "Oh, I see, you Tristain Officers are afraid to duel against a Germanian, is it? How pathetic."
Another man chuckles off her insult, "Ridiculous, we fear no opponent!"
Kirche waves her wand and quick-spells several Fireballs to burn the feather off the wide-brim hats they wore. The soldiers quickly glared at her.
"So have the drunks awaken from their stupor?"
An officer takes off his hat and dusts off the singed feather, "Young lady, this joke has gone too far."
"Who said I was joking? I for one am being quite serious here," the red-haired girl said proudly.
Lawrence de Ashcroft breaks in between them, "My friends, calm yourself! You are making a ruckus and causing trouble for the other guests!" He sends a hidden scowl to his allies before turning with an apologetic look to Kirche, "Many apologies, Lady Zerbst. My fellow comrades-in-arms are greatly stressed from their hard duties; tonight is the first break they've had in weeks."
The Germanian girl merely hums, so he continues, "So I must ask of you to forgive them for their rudeness. However, I would like to ask of you as well to retract such a statement, Lady Zerbst. Perhaps you do not know, but under the Aucune Politique de Duel, no Noble here in Tristain may duel amongst each other without an esteemed witness from the Royal Court."
Kirche sighs boredly, "You Tristainnian Nobles really do give such long speeches. If this was Germania, the duel would have already ended."
A silence.
You could almost hear the 'Oh snap! Did she just what I think she said?' notion running through the surrounding customers heads.
The suave man mildly frowns, "I'm afraid that I cannot let such a comment go, Lady Zerbst," and he kindly steps back.
Another officer from the group moves forward, "We may be Nobles but we are also soldiers; when insulted and challenged, we will not hold back even if our opponent is young or a woman," he nudges his chin to the door, "Come, let us duel."
Before Kirche could make her first step, Tabitha and Guiche stand up from their seat; wand and staff respectively ready by their side.
The dark-skinned girl was surprised, "Tabitha, you can just take a seat. It'll be right back," she said completely ignoring Guiche.
The Gramont falters at being ignored but keeps quiet and returns to his seat.
Another time, Guiche, another time; you'll get your moment.
The tiny blue-haired girl shakes her head, "Debt."
"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Kirche says.
"Debt," Tabitha repeats.
The Germanian Triangle-Mage lets out a sigh and smiles, "You're very stubborn despite your looks, you know that, Tabitha?"
An officer grunts, "Well then, young lady, have you finished talking?"
Kirche cheekily grins, "I beg your pardon, Officers, but my friend here will be dueling in my place."
The men look at the much shorter Gallian girl with a quizzical look who was already walking out the door.
The Ardent continues, "She also has the title of 'Chevalier,' so I'm sure you men will have a most challenging fight," she sneers, "After all, if you happen to lose, atleast you soldiers can say that you lost to a Chevalier."
The Tristain Officers are immediately riled up, some scoffing or laughing before walking to the door and out.
Kirche takes a seat and mildly mumbles, "I hope our food is here soon, Tabitha is going to be famished."
"I can't believe you let Tabitha fight your duel for you, Zerbst," Lousie scolds her rival.
"Is she going to be alright alone out there?" adds in a concerned Guiche.
The girl grins happily, "Of course, Tabitha isn't one to break her promises."
...
It was over in an instant.
Tabitha walked out with the officers following behind; they stood only fifteen steps from the other. Meanwhile the people on the streets hushed and moved out the way.
The men conversed with themselves, speaking of the honor they would lose from bullying a young girl. They came to the idea that they could save face by giving her the first move and their opponent thus.
Silently, Tabitha waved her staff with the minimal of movements and the whispered words of power titled as 'Air Hammer' melded with the wind and then the deed was done.
The five Tristain Officers were immediately hit and sent flying onto the other side of the street.
That was it, it was already over in a moment.
...
It was an interesting thing to see, as the Overlord had never actually seen Tabitha fight. He had certainly seen her performance at the Familiar Exhibition and he knew that Tabitha had defeated some orcs with Kirche during the cleaning of the Black Spire, but he had truly never seen her fight seriously.
And now he knew why, the young Gallian girl was, simply put, a skilled fighter.
She was not grandiose as her fellow mages and made no unnecessary movements or said anymore than what needed to be said, and only did what needed to be done. She had perfect control over her Willpower, using only what was absolutely necessary to cast a spell with the most accurate of results.
To be so disciplined at her age, it was incredibly impressive to the Overlord.
Was this what you called 'Talent'?
The book-lover spares the demi-god a glance and a tiny nod before walking back into the Charming Fairies Inn.
Ah, she's polite too. Definitely a good kid.
...
It was not even a full minute when Tabitha walked back to her seat and the whole of the Charming Fairies Inn were applauding the girl for her splendid victory.
'TRES BIEN~! TRES BIEN~!' you could probably hear over the background by a certain someone, 'CUTE, SMALL, AND POWERFUL LIKE A TRUE FAIRY~!'
'Ah, so the glasses girl got alot of spunk, huh?' perked up a certain inspector hidden away in a corner with his partners, 'I like that. Good to have another Noble with some real back-bone to them.'
'I likez to chewz on tha bones,' commented one of the assistants.
'I'm sure ya do,' the inspector replied back before walking off to do other things.
A whole slew of fairies came to our heroines', and Guiche's, table with the ordered meals.
"Complement of the chef," Longueville added when the group noted some extra food and drinks, "It's on the house," and also said that thier original orders were being discounted by fifteen percent as well.
Kirche grabs a bottle of wine and scoots over to her friend as she pours wine into the girl's cup.
"A toast, to your outstanding victory," the Ardent purrs.
Kirche, Tabitha, Louise, Guiche, and Montmorency enjoyed their delicious meal.
What? Louise didn't order a meal? Why, Tabitha gave up some of her own dish to our pink-haired Valliere, of course. She's really a good kid; oh, that's my third time saying that in this chapter. I sound like a broken record.
Continuing own, after a napkin dabbing of his lips, Guiche finally had to the courage to speak, "Perhaps it's abit rude of me..." he started, his tone indicated he was talking to Kirche, "But I have been wondering this for awhile now."
"Hm? What is it, Guiche?"
"How is it that you're so close to Tabitha?" the boy asked, "If my memories are correct, you two didn't get along in the first year at school. I believe you two even had duel with each other."
Montmorency also piped up, "Yes, do tell."
Louise was curious too but wouldn't admit it.
Kirche looks at the silent book-lover and the nods, "Well, I just got permission from Tabitha to speak," and takes a drink of her wine, "but it's not a very interesting story, you know?"
Hm, well, to keep a long flash back short, I'll be summarizing Kirche's description.
The first encounter between the red and blue pair was during the entrance ceremony last year when Kirche had rudely taken Tabitha's book, the two exchanged names, and then the teacher reprimanded them for making a scene.
Afterward the two stayed out of each other's way. Kirche was off snatching up boys and Tabitha was out being a loner, but making enemies with certain jealous individuals all the while.
Then a week passed and the first-year event, the Welcoming Dance, was held. Kirche of course came seductively dressed and was wooing the male students when a sudden wind tore her clothing to shreds. A student came by and offered his coat along with pinning the blame on Tabitha.
The next morning Kirche confronted Tabitha about this. The Gallian denied being involved with the incident, so the busty girl declared revenge of sorts. Later that day when the Chevalier returned to her room, she her found entire bookcase burned and a single strand of red-hair pointed towards the culprit.
Night came and Tabitha challenged Kirche to a duel. The two chose to fight immediately at the Vestri Court and had a short exchange of fire and ice before stopping their duel. The girls cleared up their misunderstanding and caught the real instigators who were watching nearby.
They was a boy, a one Marcus de Lorraine who had challenged Tabitha to a spar for one-upping him in class about Wind Magic, and a girl, Thonet de Charente, the leader of bunch of jealous girls who didn't take kindly to Kirche 'stealing' their 'boyfriends.'
The Ardent quickly punished the two, declaring that she would be Tabitha's friend and taking revenge on the burned books. That was the little blue-haired girl became indebted to red-haired gal.
Montmorency was in shock, "So that incident with Marcus de Lorraine and Thonet de Charente having their hair and clothes burnt along with being hung upside down on the tower was done by you!"
"That's right," Kirche nodded proudly.
"Ah, so that's what Tabitha meant by owing you a debt," Guiche adds his thoughts in.
The girl nods again, "Yup."
Louise replies dully, "Hah... It's seem more like that you prevented Tabitha from getting her own revenge."
"Well, you could say that too," she agrees.
"You are... you are... well, you are quite something, Kirche," Guiche said dryly.
"Tabitha," the drilled-haired girl called, "You don't owe Kirche anything."
The Chevalier merely shook her head. The real reason she was indebted to Kirche wasn't because of the revenge, no, it was because Kirche said she would be her friend. Those words that day, it warmed it heart greatly. And what do friends do, if not help the other?
Kirche yawned, "Hm~ I'm feeling abit sleepy now after all that drinking."
"Is that so? Go home then," Louise swiftly suggested.
"Ah, but it's so troublesome to go back to the academy this late at night~ Maybe I'll just stay here~"
Louise sighs, "Whatever, you finished your meal, so pay up."
"Thank you for the treat~" the Germanian answers smugly.
"What?! Do you know how much all of this cost?! What makes you think I'm going for all this?!"
"Perhaps, I should tell everybody that I met Louise Francoise le Blance de la Valliere working here~"
Our heroine shuts her mouth and then Kirche drags Tabitha out of her seat and walks away to rent a room.
When the red and blue pair were our of ear-shot, Louise grumbles to herself, "That Zerbst...! One day, I'll definitely make her pay!"
Meanwhile Guiche was trying to convince Montmorency to also stay here for the night.
As the three teenage mages dwell on their particular things, there were several searching Tristain Officers, the ones who were defeated earlier, back inside the Charming Fairies Inn. They made a quick sweep of the premises but quickly walked over to our heroes' table.
"You three!" a soldier called, "Where did those two young ladies go?"
"They... They went upstairs to rest," Montmorency answered with a tremble.
The men looked at each other.
"So they've gotten away..." "That seems to be the case."
"Ahem," Guiche cleared his throat, "May I know what the matter is, Sirs...?"
"Oh, it's nothing at all, young man," one of the soldiers cheerily replies, "We officers thought that we should say thank you to the service those young ladies provided for us earlier, so we brought over our entire squadron to say our thanks!"
That's rather petty, if I do say so myself.
"W-Well good luck with that!" Guiche stuttered.
"Y-Yeah!" Montmorency nodded her head.
"There's no need!" the soldier grabs the Earth-Mage by his shoulder, "If you escaped as well, then that would be troublesome!"
The two girls were also quickly caught.
"As friends of those two young ladies, it is fine for you three to kindly accept our thanks in their place."
'I kindly refused!' the students screamed in their heads.
"Because, whether it being serving revenge or taking revenge... Those are all grand privileges of a friend, no?"
'Like Founder they are!'
"Don't be shy!" the men grinned, "Come, accept our thanks!"
...
The Overlord watched as his little master was dragged out with the drill-haired girl and the romanticist boy to do combat with a group of mages.
This. This was his moment to shine!
And yet he didn't move.
He was bored and there was no point in revealing himself just yet. So why not the enjoy the show? It's not like Louise or the other two would really be harmed.
Besides! Louise and Guiche could take this as improvised training. This could be a good experience for them.
...
An hour later, Kirche comes back to down to order some more drinks and spots Louise, Guiche, and Montmorency looking extremely shriveled and wrinkled; they were all dead tired in their seats and had their upper-bodies sprawled all over the table. Miss Longueville was there and was mildly nursing them.
"What happened to you three?" The Germania asked.
Well, they just fought and lost, of course!
Louise was able to cast some Fireballs and Slow but was quickly overwhelmed; Snarl was crackling at her misfortune. Montmorency had declared neutrality but the soldiers ignored that and soundly beat her down. Guiche had put up a fight with his Bronze Valkyries, but could not quick-spell and dividing his attention to control his golems quickly opened up holes in his defenses.
In other words their teamwork was atrocious! A for effort! But a F in practicality!
The group managed to scrounge up the energy to shout.
"You owe us one!"
Narrator Notes
Mage Class Trials - In Halkeginia's societies there five levels of Magic for Pentagon Powers. The mythical Pentagon-Class, the powerful Square-Class, the mighty Triangle-Class, the strong Line-Class, and the ordinary Dot-Class.
There are two ways to officially rank up. One is by having a Headmaster of a Magic Academy to assess the student mage in an exam. Or Two, the mage must request an audience with an examiner from the Royal Court and tak that exam. If the mage passes, then the Examiner will contact the proper Ministry with the new details.
The exam is officially called 'The Pentagram Exam' and is divided into three sections, which takes five days to assess; three days of testing and two days of resting.
The first section is that the mage must be able to cast any spell at the Ranked-Class without suffering from Willpower Depletion. For example: if a Triangle-Class mage wishes to become a Square-Class Mage, then they must either cast several different Square-Class Spells or cast a single Square-Class Spell several times.
Basically, this is to test whether a mage has enough Willpower to cast higher level spells and whether they can stack several elements of the same kind. To be able to do this, a mage must have an inherently strong affinity for their element.
For example: A Dot-Class Earth Mage will be able to cast the Dot-Class Spell 'Bronze Valkyrie' about fifteen times. A Line-Class Earth Mage can cast it about thirty times. A Triangle-Class Earth Mage can cast it about sixty times. And a Square-Class Earth Mage can cast it about one-hundred and twenty times.
On a related note, A Dot-Class Fire Mage will be able to cast 'Bronze Valkyrie' about ten times. A Dot-Class Water Mage can cast it about seven times. And a Dot-Class Wind Mage can cast it about four times. This will be explained further later.
This is not because the Earth Mage has an increased in their Willpower Reserves. In fact, the common Halkeginia belief is that Willpower Reserves cannot be increased and already predetermined at birth. The reason a Higher-Ranked Earth Mages can cast Bronze Valkyrie more often than a Lower-Ranked Earth Mage is because they have stronger affinity for Earth and therefore they receive a 'reduction' in casting Earth-based spells.
The second section is that the mage must be able to cast spells of a different elements at a rank lowered than their desired Ranked-Class without suffering from Willpower Depletion.
For example: if a Triangle-Class Earth Mage wishes to become a Square-Class Earth Mage, then they must know how to cast both Triangle-Class Fire and Water Spells and Line-Class Wind Spells several times. If a Line-Class Earth Mage wishes to become a Triangle-Class Earth Mage, then they must know how to cast Line-Class Fire and Water Spells several times. If a Dot-Class Earth Mage wishes to become a Line-Class Earth Mage, then they must know to how cast either Dot-Class Fire or Water Spells several times.
Basically, this is to test whether a mage has a certain level of control outside of their own aligned-element. This level of difficulty is also one of the main reasons why most Mages are not officially Square-Class Mages on documentations; even though they can stack four of the same aligned-elements, they can't stack three or two of different non-aligned elements.
It should be noted, that because mages have an aligned-element, that also means certain elements are harder to control to due opposite natures. The patterns can be said: For an Earth Mage that would be Earth, Fire, Water, Wind. For a Fire Mage that would be Fire, Earth, Wind, Water. For a Wind Mage that would be Wind, Water, Fire, Earth. And for a Water Mage that would be Water, Wind, Earth, Fire.
The third section is that the mage must be able to cast Secondary Elements one ranked less than their wanted Ranked-Class.
For example, if a Triangle-Class Earth Mage wishes to become a Square-Class Earth Mage, then they must be able to combine every Primary Element with their Aligned-Element to create the Secondary Elements. That is to say, the Earth Mage must be able to combined Earth with Fire to create Magma, Earth and Water to create Mud, and Earth and Wind to create Sand.
Due to unexplained reasons, a Mage cannot create a Secondary Element if one of the elements used is not the Mage's Aligned-Element. So even a Square-Class Earth Mage cannot combine Fire and Wind, Fire and Water, or Water and Wind together; they must combine Earth with another element. Refer to Chapter Nine Narrator Notes for a brief refresher.
Basically, this is to test whether a mage has achieved a certain level of mastery over their Aligned-Element, of which combining elements is considered the current pinnacle of Elemental Mastery. And this level of difficult is the other main reason why most Mages are not ranked at Triangle-Class or Square-Class. This is further compounded because most Mages do not look to expand outside their Aligned-Element and only excel in that particular alignment.
Because of these factors, the general requirement has been relaxed over the past centuries. What Halkeginian's consider today as Square or Triangle-Class would qualified as a very low Triangle or low Line in ancient times.
In short: There are Three Exams for a Mage to take to rise in the Pentagon-Class and the level of diffiuclty has been greatly reduced since their time of conceptions.
Author Notes
I actually finished up my business earlier than expected; about two weeks earlier. I kept telling myself that I had time to write several chapters for ZNO, but...
So am I running out of steam? Probably, yes. I have the story in my head but I don't feel like typing it out, strangely enough... All I can do to counter this is by typing out bits and pieces of the story here and there. So my update speed is really suffering for ZNO right now... I really have no idea when Chapter Thirty Three will be out; sorry.
Anyways, I'm wrapping up the Charming Fairies Arc between this chapter and the next.
Montmorency is surprisingly very similar to Louise...
Several ways the bar fight could have gone: One, Inspector Dadget makes a move, the Overlord interrupts. Three, Kirche fights and wins.
It's been awhile since I've had a Narrator Note, so here's a big one for anybody who loves world-building, it really does take up a significant chunk of the word count. Sometimes I feel like I love filling in the blanks more than writing out the story...
I could have made the end-fight alittle bit more serious, but I decided not to.
Canon Notes
The foot-soldier is nameless in canon and his is regiment is 'Navaaru.' There's only three in the initial encounter but I increased their numbers to five.
I, uh, used an online-translator for the 'No Duel Policy.'
According to Volume 5, each students, in every year, are divided into three different classes named after three Saints; Suen, Iyer, and Seger. All three are from different cultures that I can't tell what ties them together nor do they seem to be based on actual Saints. So if there ever comes a time when they matter, for developing Halkeginia's history, I'll name them after heroes instead; like Saint George the Dragon Slayer, Jeanne d'Arc, and King Arthur. Um, yeah.
Also mentioned in Volume 5 is that Flight is apparently a basic Wind Magic, along with Levitation... that's odd.
De Lorraine doesn't have a first name.