Ibaraki Douji hadn't been to many libraries in her life. Oh, she'd burnt a few to the ground, but she'd never gotten the chance to give any a proper visit. Which was a shame, her mother had put in a good deal of effort to teach her to read after all, and it wasn't a truly unpleasant experience. She just never had the time, between looking after her subordinates and spending time with her sister.

So when the oni heard from a passing student that the Academy had a library of its own, and with Louise having just confirmed that she wouldn't have any other commitments for the day, everything seemed to have just fallen into place.

Naturally, she'd dragged her grouchy summoner along as well. Ibaraki doubted any of the other humans had a reason to attack Louise, but she wasn't going to leave that to chance. Though, there was also the other issue with her plan which necessitated her summoner's presence.

"And this?" The oni asked her summoner, pointing a clawed finger at an unfamiliar word in the old tome she'd been leafing through.

Louise, who'd practically been sulking in her chair with her arms folded in front of her, rolled her eyes before deigning to cast her gaze in the book's direction. After a brief pause that Ibaraki took to be her considering her answer, Louise looked back up at her. The oni was, after all, sitting on the table whereas her summoner had taken a proper, lower seat as a show of submission.

Well, that's what Ibaraki told herself anyway.

"Arnhöfði? I guess you're still reading that Gallian text then...anyway, Arnhöfði was the second son of the first king of Gallia. He wore a war-helm shaped like an eagle in flight and was a talented wind-mage, so his peers called him 'eagle-head' in the old tongue."

'Hmp, and here I thought they might have had tengu here.' The words remained mere thoughts in her head, but Ibaraki couldn't help but pout a bit after hearing Louise's answer.

When she'd been summoned, the spell had given her knowledge and understanding of the spoken and written language of her summoner's homeland, in their current form. What Ibaraki didn't have though, was a full understanding of how that language came to be and the different forms it'd taken in the past. So while she was able to tell the word had something to do with birds and described a person, she hadn't been able to grasp anything more.

Fortunate then, that she had her obedient summoner to answer all her demands!

"Why are you reading about Gallian history, anyway?"

It was her turn to roll her eyes now.

"You said it yourself, it's my job to keep your head attached to your neck. Hard to do that if I don't know who's after it."

Louise was staring at her now, mouth slightly open and eyes narrowed with a tired, or perhaps disbelieving gleam. Ibaraki's mature, regal response was to not pout and merely meet the other girl's gaze head on!

The oni didn't really get why her completely blank expression made Louise smile.

"While I appreciate the thought, you really don't need to worry about Gallia. None of my family's lands are on its border, and it's been centuries since the last war between our kingdoms. Besides, their king is too busy with building projects, hunting heretics, and his oriental wine to be waging war."

Ibaraki wasn't really sure about that. As rudimentary as her understanding of human politics might be, it had never been a subject her mother had focused on, she understood that when a large and powerful kingdom bordered a smaller, rich one the end result tended to be inevitable. Either the larger kingdom conquered the smaller one for its riches, or the smaller kingdom shattered the larger one and devoured its corpse to grow itself. Just another symptom of the human need to always grow and consume.

Still, as the daughter of a human noble Louise would know more, and while the oni would never say so aloud one of the most important skills of any leader, human or oni, was delegation. So she'd take Louise at her word here.

Before she could respond though, in agreement or otherwise, a familiar scent came to the fore of her awareness.

In a flash she was on her feet, still on top of the table, spinning around on her heels to point at the man walking towards them, shortly after shouting "Coldburn! I see you've returned, old man!"

To her slight consternation, 'Coldburn' didn't appear to pay her address much mind, merely rubbing his bald head absently and giving the two of them a soft smile.

"I suppose I have gotten old, haven't I?"

For some inane reason, Louise was glaring at her while she replied "Nonsense Professor! You have the venerable head of a monk and not even a single gray hair, I don't know what my familiar was thinking."

Ibaraki couldn't really see what Louise was getting at. She'd seen and killed plenty of monks in her time, and she couldn't recall any notable quantity of them looking like 'Coldburn'.

In a surprisingly monklike display of humility, 'Coldburn' actually waved off the girl's reassurance.

"It's of no concern Miss Vallière, I've had a good two decades to come to grips with the departure of my youth. I'm just happy to see the two of you getting along so well."

The professor's statement was met with two incredulous stares, and all he could do was give a mirthful chuckle.

"Nevertheless, I'm sorry to say I'm not just here to make sure the two of you are getting along." The man's smile evened out and he let out a sigh. "I'm afraid Headmaster Osmond needs to speak to you Miss Vallière, as soon as possible, and I'm to make sure you both get there in a timely manner."

Louise rose from her chair wordlessly, giving her professor a nod once she'd collected the handful of books she'd already checked out.

In the split second it took for the two humans to turn around though, Ibaraki moved. To their eyes she simply appeared in front of them as the table she'd been standing on all but imploded into a pile of splinters. From her perspective, though, she'd merely hopped off the table and leisurely walked in front of them.

"Don't think you can just leave me here, Summoner. If you're going somewhere I'm going too!"

"I'm afraid–" the old man stated with a sigh "–that the Headmaster requested to speak to Miss Vallière alone. If you'd like, we could wait outside his office, or you can stay here and continue your reading at another table, but I'm sorry to say you won't be able to accompany her."

For a brief moment, Ibaraki felt an intense urge to smash the baldy through the closest wall. Fortunately for him though, she understood that it wouldn't actually solve her problem and would in fact just make it worse. Afterall, Coldburn was just this 'Headmaster"s lackey here, so doing anything to him would just be a waste of time.

But that didn't leave her with many options.

Ibaraki wasn't going to leave her summoner alone in a room with an older, presumably more powerful onmyouji. Even if the man liked Louise, there was no telling how summoning as frightening a creature as herself would affect his decisions. True, it wasn't likely, but Ibaraki wasn't going to bet her second life on that if she had any choice in the matter.

On the other hand, if she refused it was entirely possible the human would just put off whatever he wanted to speak to Louise about. Then he could just wait till she wasn't around, then drag her summoner off for whatever he intended, and that simply wasn't something she could allow.

So, Ibaraki needed a way to be present during the meeting, without anyone knowing.

If they were normal humans, she'd be confident she could find a way to either sneak in or find a nearby room to listen in from. But with onmyouji...well, that simply wasn't a risk she was willing to take.

Fortunately, she'd been paying attention in her short time in this world.

From both the maid's drunken ramblings and her own readings, Ibaraki had learned that the humans of this world didn't seem to have a concept of wandering spirits. They seemed to believe that their dead were taken up to the sky by celestial maidens, the daughters of some big-shot celestial kami or another, into their father's hall where they were judged and either given lodging there, or tossed down to some place that sounded a lot like Yomi.

Regardless, the idea that a ghost would just be wandering around didn't even occur to them. Additionally, their concept of a terrestrial kami, or as they called it a 'landvættir' when they wanted to be specific, tended to be aligned with a single one of the local onmyouji's elements and either secluded themselves within or craft puppet bodies from it.

In both cases, the idea that either would be walking around without a physical body wasn't there. At least, as far as she could tell from the...definitely more than two books she'd read!

Anyway, Ibaraki was pretty sure that she wasn't going to run into any defenses against spiritual bodies. Which meant that she actually had a simple, easy solution to her problem. Though, it wouldn't do to let either party think that.

So, Ibaraki put a bit of effort into maintaining at least the appearance of her displeasure; her eyes narrowed, clawed hands balled into fists and a pout on her lips. Without a word given to either Coldburn or her summoner, she stomped away, the air visibly distorting from the heat she was giving off.

Once she was out of the library though, the oni's aggravated countenance evaporated, and with a smirk on her lips she faded away from mortal sight, leaving only a few embers and the coppery scent of blood behind.

Despite being within the same building, the walk from the library to the Headmaster's office was not a short one. That suited Louise just fine, it gave her time to think things through and, if Gagnráðr deigned to whisper in her ear, get a plan together.

To the best of Louise's knowledge there were only a few situations that, at least officially, warranted the meeting of a student and the Headmaster. Most of these involved the maiming or death of either Academy staff or fellow students, the destruction of Academy property beyond the ability of the student and overseeing professor's to mend in a day's time, or the possibility of expulsion due to academic failure.

It pained Louise to admit, even inside her head, that she couldn't rule out any of those possibilities.

Louise was fairly sure that none of her fellow students had been killed by Ibaraki's summoning, at least not immediately. Had there been any immediate deaths, she doubted her familiar would've been allowed free reign through the infirmary, or even allowed her to leave the infirmary.

Despite that, Louise couldn't discount the possibility that, having been inflicted with some subtle or major injury, one of her fellow students might've passed on in the night. Ironically, had she failed to bind her familiar, she'd probably be better off in that case.

Afterall, even with it being nominally unclear whether it was her or her familiar who caused the explosion that accompanied the summoning, from a legal perspective it hardly mattered. As Ibaraki was now her familiar, any act she took which brought harm to a noble would be seen as Louise harming said noble. If Ibaraki wasn't her familiar though, the legal responsibility would rest solely on the oni...though, she couldn't say she saw pursuing her ending well for the victims's families. Even a single dream had shown her enough to know her familiar was beyond most mages, at the very least.

'It hardly matters, and this isn't a time for 'what-ifs'

In the end what she needed to do would depend heavily on who'd died. If it was merely some third son of a minor house, there was a not insignificant chance that they'd be ecstatic at receiving a mild weregild, and while she was sure she'd be reprimanded by her mother, Louise doubted it'd amount to much. If it was the child of a more prominent family though, things could easily get...complicated.

Really, until she knew who she was dealing with, there just wasn't much she could do in that direction. Which left her with the other two possibilities.

It was entirely possible that her familiar's destruction of the Fire Tower had, in fact, been witnessed. It was equally likely that, with Ibaraki's presence being the only notable change in the Academy's situation that could have caused this, the Headmaster had just assumed that it was her familiar who'd done the deed. In either case, she'd have to deal with the accusation.

In the first case, it'd be a case of her word against the witness. If they were one of the Academy's commoner staff, it'd just be a matter of her denying it and calling the witness a liar. The word of a noble, much less one of a Vallière, would always trump that of a commoner. If there were multiple witnesses though? Then she'd have to actually deal with the situation...which in all likelihood would just mean paying for the repairs. Something she was quite incapable of doing on her own, but her family could do without issue.

No, the real issue of that scenario was that she'd have to talk to her mother about the situation. Louise had absolutely no illusions about the short list of possible outcomes to that conversation.

Which left the third possibility, she was being called to discuss her academic performance. While she was one of the best students in her year when it came to the theory of magic, her practical showings had been non-existent until yesterday, so her removal on those grounds was plausible. But there were two reasons Louise was fairly sure that wasn't the reason she was being called up today.

One, in her full year at the Academy, neither the Headmaster or any of the staff from his office had tried to discuss or deal with her situation. At least, not in any official manner she knew of.

Two, if the Headmaster was going to kick a Vallière out of the national Academy, he would've done it before her familiar summoning. Now that she had living, breathing proof that she could cast a spell properly, it'd be difficult for any right-minded noble to justify removing her.

Even if her mother would hate it, the name of her family would always weigh on the decisions of those around her. There just wasn't a way for Louise to avoid that, at least not in Tristain.

'Well, that's a lot of effort to come to the conclusion that until I know what's happening I won't know what to do.'

If nothing else, the Vallière scion came to her conclusion just in time, as no less than a second or two later the two mages found their journey at an end, standing in the waiting room outside the Headmaster's office.

"Well, I'm afraid this is as far as I go Miss Vallière, the Headmaster did specify that he wished to speak to you alone. Apparently the business is confidential to your person, or some such..." The main visibly hesitated as he trailed off, a light frown adorning his lips.

"That being said...if you or the Headmaster need anything, just give a shout." He smiled, or at least made a valiant attempt in Louise's view.

She couldn't say why he seemed to be uneasy about her meeting the Headmaster alone, but it didn't really concern her overly much. From what she'd picked up from the man's absent ramblings and rumors, Professor Colbert respected the Headmaster. So, concerns about her safety never entered her mind.

The fact that the Professor followed his reassurement by taking a seat behind Secretary Longueville's desk and rifling through her papers though was much more concerning.

It took a few moments for the Professor to notice that she hadn't moved from her spot and was, in fact, still staring at him with a raised brow. The initial response she received was an awkward, stilted series of chuckles.

"Ah, my apologies for the confusion Miss Vallière. Miss Longueville had to take a leave of absence, apparently some family business came up and she only received the letter this morning. Naturally, I offered to hold down the fort for her till she could come back. After all, it's not like I'll have a classroom to teach in for at least the next week."

A part of Louise wanted to believe what her Professor was clearly trying to hint at. That he was just being a gentleman considerate of his peers and coworkers, and that any other would do the same in his situation. A quick glance at the absence of a ring on either hand and the light blush on his cheeks dispelled that innocent conception of events.

Apparently her thoughts showed on her face, as her professor only got more flustered at her expression. Still, he showed an admirable amount of self-control, maintaining an even tone as he stated "Regardless, I'm sure you don't want to keep the Headmaster waiting, no?"

The young woman simply nodded, not trusting her voice to not sound teasing.

'Isn't that sad? You feel more friendly and comfortable with a middle aged man than your own classmates...even if they are more like rabid thurs than nobles at times.'

Putting that thought out of mind, she gave Colbert a perfunctory bow of her head before straightening up and walking into the old lion's den.

Upon entering the office, Louise was struck by a few things, each worthy of note.

The first, was that the rumors were true and the Headmaster's familiar was a mouse. Given the man's venerable countenance, Louise would've preferred to discount the other part of those rumors. Unfortunately, given the design of the academy uniform, she couldn't really manage that.

'Though, Mother does love short skirts, so perhaps it's just something that was popular in their day?'

Regardless, whether the Headmaster was a venerable elder or a disgraceful pervert wasn't really important here. She just had to keep telling herself that until it became true.

The man's appearance, at least on the surface, was equally inconsequential. He was an old man with a long mustache which seamlessly merged into his beard and long white hair, completely obscuring his mouth. He held himself with an almost uncouth casualness, and his eyes gleamed as he played with the familiar resting in his hand. Were it not for her dream-wrought experiences, she'd have taken him lightly.

But appearances could be deceiving, as the fables of Ganglari well attested.

There was none of the weariness or weakness of old age in the man's frame, nor the telltale blemishes and marks of a decaying body upon his face. Louise didn't think he was undiminished from his prime, but he certainly hadn't fallen as far as one might expect. Even his playful attitude and his pointed lack of acknowledgement of her presence, giving her the time needed to observe all this, seemed a calculated deception.

Either the man was a master actor with an agenda...or he was just messing with her.

'Or both.'

The man looked up, transparently feigning surprise.

"Ah, my apologies Ms. Vallière. Please, take a seat."

Perhaps if she'd been more upset Louise would've spitefully refused, or petulantly demanded the Headmaster take things seriously. But she was simultaneously still in a good mood from her summoning, and all too aware of how much power this man held over her future.

If he wanted to play the doddering old man, who was she to question him?

"Now Miss Vallière, I'm sure you know why I've called you here?" The man asked, voice light and cheery while he wore what she presumed to be a light smile from the creasing of his mustache.

'You have to wonder how he even eats with all that hair in the way…'

"My apologies Headmaster, but I can't say I do." Louise replied evenly, careful to keep her voice calm and even-toned. If she were more confident in her acting, she'd have gone for a faux cheer, but she didn't think it was worth the effort.

The Headmaster for his part gave her the same sort of look her father might give when one of her sisters claimed that they hadn't, in fact, blown out a wall practicing their magic despite still holding their smoking wands in hand. Unlike Louise's father would have thought, the Headmaster didn't call her out on it.

"Well Miss Vallière, we're here today to discuss the destruction of the Fire Tower–" the old man held up a hand, pre-empting her interjection "–and there'll be no confessions here. This matter is more than complicated enough already without any of that."

Louise narrowed her eyes as she met the old man's own. The young woman couldn't tell whether she should feel indignant over the man's presumption or grateful that he wasn't expecting her to jump into a snakepit of her own voalition. Well, one certainly outweighed the other in her mind…

The Headmaster for his part just shook his head, chuckling softly at her stormy expression.

"And here I thought you might've inherited some of your father's sense of humor. A pity, really." The old man let out a long, tired sigh as he looked at her with the eyes of a man who'd just had one of countless hopes crushed.

A thoroughly unimpressed glare on her part shattered his facade and left the man chuckling lightly.

"I suppose I should've expected you to be your mother's daughter. Oh well, the Leið of Ginnar and Hveðrungr is a young man's game anyway."

Louise's glare melted away, eyes widening in shock as she took in the old man's borderline blasphemous statement.

Even putting aside the issue of a noble pursuing a Path, or Leið in the old tongue, the simple act of putting a name of God next to one belonging to the Adversary was one that'd seen crown princes disowned and lords stripped of their nobility. For the Headmaster to formulate a Path in which he modeled himself after both God and the Adversary, even if one of the Great Father's least noble aspects, seemed like a surefire way to see one cast to the depths of Halja.

'But was he not also Vinr Lopts in the World Now Lost? Surely it cannot be heresy if the scripture affirms their friendship and brotherhood...'

"Ah my apologies Miss Vallière, it was merely a jest. Though, I feel I should congratulate you, most nobles of your age don't have a good enough grasp of the scripture to even recognize those names, much less grasp the connection between them."

Louise wasn't sure how the man had read her so well. Then again, given what he'd said there weren't that many ways she could've taken it. Given that, she felt she could be forgiven for a slight jab.

"If that's your idea of a joke, I'm surprised you've managed to keep the same secretary for more than a year."

The old man rolled his eyes at that. "I think I can see why the old Flame Snake likes you so much. Really, such a cruel assortment of young'uns I find myself surrounded by, teasing a senile old man so."

Louise could almost feel the soft laughs of the man waiting outside the office reverberating through the air at that. Perhaps the man really was a follower of the Adversary, for there were few gods as well known for their disarming manner as He of the Cool Air.

"As much fun as this has been–" The girl was gritting her teeth at that, but Headmaster paid it no mind. "–you wished to speak of the Fire Tower."

"Well, if you want to move onto serious matters." Headmaster Osmond shrugged his shoulders. "As of now, there are no plausible suspects regarding the destruction of the Fire Tower."

Louise gave no physical reaction, at least none that she was aware of, to the man's statement and patiently awaited whatever else he was going to say. But it quickly became apparent to her that the man was waiting for her response, and after a minute of staring each other in the eye she broke.

"And how, Sir, is that relevant to me?"

"Why, I'd have hoped that would be obvious Ms. Vallière. It's relevant to you because I know your familiar was the one who smashed the tower to pieces."

The girl didn't notice her eyes widening or her breath hitching, frozen in place both physically and mentally by the sudden shift in the conversation contrasted with the sheer casualness of the old man's tone.

"My my, there's no need to be so surprised Ms. Vallière, it was a simple deduction on my part." The old man ignored her expression as he elaborated.

"As you well know, all the buildings in the Academy are built for durability and enchanted to maximize that quality. Further, the Fire Tower was enchanted specifically to resist heat and explosive force, as any structure wherein mages specializing in the aforementioned element are taught should be. Only a Square Mage specialized in the Fire Element, or perhaps a particularly potent and destructive familiar, could've caused such damage. As our most gifted Fire specializing mage, Professor Colbert, is only a Triangle Rank, that left two candidates among the familiars. The first, being Ms. Zerbst's Fire Salamander, would've needed to be thrice as large as it is to do the same amount of damage in the best of circumstances, leaving only your familiar. Given the damage it did to the walls with a mere leap, I think it's fair to say that destroying a tower purposefully would be well within its capabilities."

Louise liked to imagine that the calm she was feeling as the Headmaster explained his thoughts was due to her self-discipline and inner strength. In reality though, she was fairly sure it was mostly shock at the situation dampening out any emotional response, which she'd probably feel in full the moment she walked out the door. Nevertheless, her current state was useful, as it left her enough awareness to piece apart the most crucial bit of information from everything the Headmaster had said.

"And yet...she's not a suspect?"

The old man shook his head, eyes crinkling in just the right way to imply he bore a wry grin upon his lips.

"As I'm sure your father has told you many times, just because you know someone is guilty of a crime does not mean you can prove it. Despite the best efforts of our staff, not a piece of evidence nor a single witness has been found so far, and I doubt that will change anytime soon. Without either, I doubt there's a court in all of Tristain who'd dream of hearing my case, even less so if they knew whose daughter you are."

It would've shamed her, if she'd let out a sigh as the Headmaster's words left his mouth. As much relief as they filled her with, Louise wouldn't show weakness here. At least, no more than she'd already shown. Afterall, there was still one outstanding issue that had to be raised.

"If you're not going to be blaming her, me really, then what're you going to tell the Crown?"

Old Osmond did not respond immediately. For a good few moments he just looked Louise over, and then a few more doing the same for his room. Just when Louise had had enough, the man shrugged his shoulders and turned back to her.

"The final decision has yet to be made, but I'm personally of a mind to blame it on an errant fire spell mixing with an unstable windstone. Such things have been known to happen occasionally, and while the damage is a bit extreme, it's far from the worst in our storied institutions history."

Louise was starting to realize that the Headmaster had a dangerous talent in raising more questions than could be answered every time he opened his mouth.

"Now, before you go, there's one last thing that needs to be said."

Louise, not entirely sure what else there was to discuss, merely nodded in the affirmative.

"While the costs of reconstructing the Fire Tower won't be ruinous, I must warn you that such can't become a regular occurrence. Proof or no proof, if such things continue...well, I'm sure we'd both rather keep your parents out of this."

Despite herself, Louise's eyes widened at that. She's known since the moment she'd woken up that it was a possibility, but it was different to hear someone else say it compared to just having the thought rattling around her head.

"I...I understand, Headmaster." A simple, short reply. Good, important not to give herself too much room to make a mistake.

"Good, good–" The old man nodded, before waving her off "–now don't let this old man take up any more of your day. Not often you youngsters get a free-day after all."

Louise hardly needed the invitation. In an instant she was on her feet, giving a barely passable bow, and strode out of the man's office, past the waiting room and, the moment she was out of view of Colbert, right into an oni who wasn't standing there even a tenth of a second earlier.

Naturally, when a human girl collided with her oni familiar, it was the human who fell back on her bum.

From the pout on her familiar's lips, Louise was expecting some lecture or tantrum on leaving her behind to have the meeting. She was very surprised when instead, Ibaraki casually hoisted her to her feet, brushed some dust off her uniform, and somewhat awkwardly put a clawed hand on her shoulder.

Looking Louise in the eyes, a vaguely familiar warmth in the oni's gaze, Ibaraki stated in what Louise guessed was supposed to be a reassuring tone, a single sentence that would've sent her into a panicked fit yesterday.

"If you'd like, I could kill the geezer for you tonight.'

For a moment Louise was actually tempted to accept Ibaraki's offer, while another part of her wanted to blast her familiar through the nearest wall for saying something so stupid. Naturally, Louise settled for a reasonable middle ground.

"Maybe later. Let's...let's just get lunch."

If nothing else, seeing her familiar's eyes light up like that helped lighten her step and lift her spirits, if only a little bit.

As the two of them began walking down the hall though, one question emerged from the chaos within Louise's mind.

'How did she find the Headmaster's office so quickly anyway?'