Congratulations, it's a maid!

Summary: Louise was jealous of Tabitha's dragon, but really, dragons are a real handful that most sane people would choose not to deal with, should they have the choice. Louise no longer has the choice, but hey, at least they clean up after themselves.

There were many things that Louise de la Valliere could complain about.

First, her name was really long and annoying to write down, whenever she had to sign her full name into something. While this didn't happen often, as she was not even an adult yet, it had happened enough that she still felt the phantom pain of hand cramps.

Then there was the minor matter of her magic being, well, the subject of mockery both from her peers and family. It didn't really matter that in all theory classes, the only student that came remotely close to her was Tabitha and even then she was a distant second, as Louise could not actually cast the spells no matter how deeply she knew them.

She could deconstruct even line class spells and improve their formulae almost in her sleep; but she couldn't cast them to save her life.

This was her last chance, her last saving grace, a spell that never, in history, had failed for any mage who had the magic within them.

Louise knew she had magic, she could feel it bursting to life whenever her spells, well, burst. The explosions were magical, and they were powerful, it was one of the few things she could claim, her power output was excellent, the spells simply didn't weave together correctly.

She took a deep breath and recited the words, she knew them by heart, she formed the circles, made the correct calculations and waved her glowing wand through the air at precisely the right time and in the right manner.

At the end, she added a plea, an honest one, came directly from the very depths of her being.

"Please, my servant who exists somewhere in the universe, heed my call, I summon thee to my side!"

The magical circle that had formed as she cast her spell glowed a bright pink, the magic vibrating and making that delightful sound that thrummed with sheer, unadulterated power, and for a moment, Louise felt it.

Felt the magic take form.

Felt the power take hold.

Felt the universe roll over and play dead, as her mind expanded, her soul sang, and she witnessed something amazing, for the first time in her life.

The spell worked.

And then it exploded.

A majestic explosion of force, dust and light, illuminating the sky and outshining the sun but for a faint moment.

Despite having stared straight into it, Louise felt no worse for the wear, as the dust settled.

Most of her peers were knocked to the ground, some whining, others complaining, and a few guarded.

Louise was almost disappointed to see Kirche on her feet, standing firm... but she was pleased to see her almost hidden behind Tabitha, whose staff had actually dug into the ground.

She turned back to where her spell had crystallized.

Where her familiar should've been, there was... a card.

It was brown, with golden edges, and had a stylized pattern, almost as if it was a hole, and light was being dragged into its core. She crouched, and her hands touched it, and then there was a bright light.

Louise's eyes cleared, and she realized she was sitting on her butt, staring up.

She was beautiful.

Her beautiful, divine, powerful familiar...

The clothes were familiar, mundane even. A simple black dress and a white apron. Even less ornate than that which the school maids wore. She had glasses that glinted almost ominously with the light of the sun, and her hands, clasped together, were covered in oddly spiky gauntlets.

But it would take a fool to believe her a mere maid, a simple commoner... mostly because she had a massive black tail swinging placidly behind her, almost caressing the short grass of the courtyard, the tip looking like a metallic blade shaped like a flame. Less noticeable, but still very much so, were her horns. Her maid cap was almost comical, sitting just in front of a crown of six horns, black as night and tipped in dark red.

Louise almost missed the wings curled around her waist. They almost seemed like accessories, details sewn into her apron, but they twitched with life.

Louise sat for an infinite moment, as she admired the product of her effort and desperation.

The woman kneeled, offering Louise a hand.

Louise took it, and allowed the maid to help her up.

She took a step back and curtseyed.

"Are you to be my master?" she said, almost idly.

"Y-Yes," Louise almost whispered.

"Is my master to be this timid mouse?" she asked, tilting her head. "Strange, this is not the soul that called me to this plane," she muttered.

"YES!" Louise almost screamed, "I am your master!" she said.

"Better," the maid said.

Louise took a step forward, then realized...

There was a bit of a height disparity. Louise could be compared unfavorably to a girl years her junior, whereas her maid stood at least a head and a half above her.

It seemed the woman understood her intentions, as she crouched slightly.

Louise stepped into her personal space. "Pentagon of the five elements, please bless this humble creature..." she muttered, tapping her wand to her lips, utilizing the most efficient and effective method of bonding - she was running on fumes after spending absolutely every little drop of energy she had in the ritual itself - and planting a kiss on the maid's lips.

Within a moment, the kiss had ended, and Louise had only a vague impression of surprisingly hard, yet giving, flesh. For some reason, Louise was reminded of home for a moment, and she thought of Cattleya.

"My, how forward," the maid said, idly.

"T-This is just for the ritual!" Louise protested, with a blush, looking at the maid's amused face. She was looking down, so, Louise followed.

One of Louise's hands was groping her maid's chest.

"While I do not often perform bedroom duties, I am not opposed, my dearest master," she said. "... although I believe your society would frown upon such public displays?"

"Pervert!" Louise protested.

The maid stood back up, and bowed once more. "Very well, then with all that may hear as witness I pledge my service unto you, until Death us do part."

For some reason, Louise got the impression her maid had no intention to die, period, so that was a bit of a grim statement and, Louise believed, a warning.

Her familiar was powerful. Strong. Independant.

If she didn't measure up...

Well, it was the trouble she'd gotten herself into. But that was fine.

After all, her familiar was living, humanoid proof that she could cast magic.

"For now until it is not, my name shall be House Dragonmaid, pleased to make your acquaintance, my lady."

"Ah, my name is-"

"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Valliere," the maid said. "I'd be a poor maid should I not know everything there is to know about my charge."

Louise blinked. "The bond..." she muttered.

"Let us retreat, my lady, and leave the gawkers to their devices," she said. "We have much to discuss, and I wish to ascertain the state of your room."

It almost felt familiar... and she already knew she'd fail this inspection.

House's wings unfurled, revealing a wingspan far beyond what the almost diminutive wings would suggest.

The gust of wind dispersed the soot clinging to Louise's clothes.

"I wish to leave the presence of my lesser brethren," she said. "The less time I have to spend next to an offshoot of the cursed Blue Eyes clan, the better."

She seemed to throw a meaningful glance in Tabitha's direction, and Louise almost goggled at seeing the large blue dragon Tabitha had summoned trying to disappear behind its master.

Hope you enjoyed that.

I'm...

Not sure if I'm gonna continue this, but I guess I just had to get it out of my system.

I thought I'd write a lot during quarantine, but, goddamn, it's actually pretty hard to get out of the funk of depression.

Well, no reason to bore y'all with the details.

If my muse comes back for more of this, it'd be nice.

Just in case anybody wants to pick it up and wants some more of my ideas for this one, as I always welcome anybody taking any of my ideas and doing more with it than I could, I do have a few.

The attributes are easily sorted into the 'five' elements, if you have Void be Chaos and therefore combined Light/Dark attribute. It all fits. Earth, Wind, Water and Fire, alongside Chaos/The Void. The world of Zero no Tsukaima would have quite a bit more influence from Duel Monsters than one might expect at first glance, including the odd equip spell making an appearance here and there as a magical or even legendary weapon.

Plus adapting some of the lore behind some cards into legends of the Zero no Tsukaima world; stuff like the Elemental Charmers, maybe even building up into the story surrounding Gagagigo, maybe throw in Freed the Brave Wanderer as an in-universe hero.

I also considered having House Dragonmaid/Dragonmaid Sheou effectively commandeering the maid staff of the castle, she does give the impression of a head maid that, uh, disappears maids that don't measure up.

This one probably would result in the stations of the canon blown to smithereens, though, so it'd be a mite difficult to write. Kind of hard for anything in the Zero no Tsukaima world to really be threatening to House Dragonmaid. Going based on level and body, we're talking a level 9 monster with a 3000/2000 body, so likely to be just as destructive as a Blue Eyes White Dragon, described as an engine of destruction that's virtually indestructible, only slightly less durable, with the ace in the hole of a transformation into her level 10 3500/2000 dragon form with a spell speed 2 omninegate.

I was thinking knocking things off the rails even deeper by changing it so instead of pulling things from a modern human world, we'd have stuff like the Staff of Destruction be something crazy, like the Buster Blader's sword (going with the whole 'of Destruction' thing the Buster Blader retrain has got going on), and Derflinger actually being a Brimiric attempt at recreating one of the members of the Artifact Archetype. Silly stuff like that, to tie the worlds together without overly taking over the world of Zero no Tsukaima.

I also thought momentarily of making this a bit of a fusion of worlds. Zero no Tsukaima, but everybody gotta get their game on. Too complicated and honestly I'm just not able to write anything long right now. Believe you me, I've tried.

Anyway, if you read through my ramblings, then I thank you, and now I'll go to sleep. Take care, and never forget to tell the people you love that you love them. You never know when "see you tomorrow" is the last words you'll ever say to someone.