Strawberry And Knight

Chapter One

A Strawberry And Her Knight

[Master And Familiar Pair]

Once upon a time, in a legend long ago, there was a mighty Overlord who ruled atop his Dark Tower.

This Overlord's humble beginnings saw him awakening from a long slumber before going about his evil ways. Clad in nothing but steel armor and wielding a durable steel blade, he also commanded goblin-like creatures called Minions to his bidding. And, like any well-mannered overlord, his first grand order of business was to make his presence widely known to all who lived in the lands of the Middle-Domains.

So, what better of a reputation was there than to kill the famous Seven Heroes who had defeated his predecessor?

First, he freed a pathetic but quaint human village called Spree by defeating their oppressors and returning their food from the terror of Melvin Underbelly, The Gluttonous Bard Hero, when he served the oversized halfling his just desserts. The Overlord would next acquire himself a mistress - a feisty woman named Rose - when he went to investigate the fire at Castle Spree.

Second, he re-dead the zombies and stopped a terrible plague by killing a Succubus Queen and then liberated the city of Heaven's Peak from the tyrant rule of Sir William The Black, The Lustful Paladin Hero, when he gave the deprived man a well-deserved stab in the gut. Afterward he had spared some time to attend to Rose's needs before he made passionate love to her.

Third, he slayed bloodied unicorns in the nightmarish domain of Evernight Forest, appeased the whining of ghostly Elves by completing their tasks of protecting their sacred tree, and then purified the corrupted forest from the taint of Oberon Greenhaze, The Slothful Ranger Hero, when he brought the elf to an eternal sleep.

Fourth, he traveled to the Golden Hills and wrecked havoc on the dwarves by blowing up their facilities and stealing their beer. He freed the enslaved elves and saved their race from extinction from Goldo Golderson, The Greedy Tinkerer Hero, and his pet Rollie - The Death Steam Roller - when he gave the dwarf an offer he couldn't refuse.

Fifth, he roamed the Ruborian Deserts, returned the Mother Goddess Statue to the elves, and destroyed a den of raiders when he caught Jewel The Thief, The Envious Bandit Hero, in a brilliant trap.

Sixth, he stopped the destruction of Spree and Heaven's Peak from the rampage of Khan The Warrior, The Raging Berserker Hero, when he cut the giant fighter down to size.

Seventh, and finally, he defeated his most evil predecessor who had possessed the body of The Wizard, The Wise Sage Hero, when he struck the old corrupted user of magic down in the lowest and hidden bowels of the Dark Tower.

And so one overlord defeated another overlord and peace returned to the lands.

The new Overlord commanded the fear, love, and respect of his citizens. He ruled with competence alongside his organized wife, Rose, and his old minion advisor, Gnarl, and he continued to reign as the supreme lord of the lands... for a time anyways.

One day, a portal to the ironic hell known as the Abyss opened up. In his exploration of this otherworldly plane of existence the Overlord would eventually encounter and fight a cursed ancient being, The Forgotten God, and then burnt the powerful entity to nothing but ashes. Alas, the Overlord was ultimately trapped in the Abyss as he was betrayed by an unfaithful minion who had closed off the portal back to his own realm.

He sought a way to escape but found none even after countless ages of searching.

Thus, the Overlord grew weary and sat down on a formation of rock in the wastelands as he awaited the end of his life. When that was, he did know either; the energies of this hell had transformed him from that of a mortal to something more akin to a physical demi-god and now his natural life-span was something even he could not measure.

For a long while, as he tiredly slept, time passed uneventfully...

Then, one day, a certain burst of magical energy tingled his dormant senses and awoke him from his slumber.

Before him - just slightly out of reach - was a green portal gaping in the ground. It was powerful, something that dwarfed even his own mighty spells, and proved itself by appearance alone to be a way out of the Abyss. But the Overlord did not care for escape, he had long given that up, both his worn-down body and spirit ached and did not wish to move any longer.

Yet, a singularly soft bell-like tone of young girl flowed into his mind.

'...Please, my servant that is somewhere in this world...'

His old body creaked and layers of undisturbed earth that had settled upon him over the years finally cracked as his body stirred. The tone was pure and as quiet as a whisper but it was also noticeably laced with fear; it was like a sorrowful song that resounded with his soul.

'...The sacred, beautiful, and, above all-else, powerful familiar...'

Who could possibly be wanting a relic such an himself? The Overlord's bones and muscles groaned under the stress of their forced awakening and protested the hard labor that was being thrusted upon them; more earth crumbled away from his body. He was tired and weak but his force of will kept him going; there was no stopping now.

'...I ask of you: hear and answer my call!'

What seemed like eternity ended when he finally stood up on his own two feet.

[...]

In a world far away upon a continent called Halkeginia, in the country of Tristain, on the grounds outside a large scholarly castle known as the Tristain Academy Of Magic, there was a rite of passage occurring amongst the youths who called themselves Nobles.

The Springtime Familiar Summoning; it was an event where young mages could truly determine their element and potential by summoning a familiar - an animal creature - to represent their inner-magic and serve them until death do them part.

Today, it would be an event of immense excitement for these growing students.

All except for one of course.

Seventeen years of age with strawberry blond hair and amber eyes - both bordered as looking like a light pink - there was a young noble girl by the name of Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere. She was petit in body, as she could be easily mistaken for a child leaning on the cusp of becoming a pre-teen, and was the third and youngest daughter of the esteemed La Valliere family who had the confidence of the Royal Family Of Tristain bestowed upon them for their many years of loyal services.

She was a proud girl who upheld her mother's Rule of Steel, she lived her life by the wand as Nobles of her society deemed fit, and she even had the highest scholarly grade within the entire student body of Tristain Academy Of Magic. She was fairly a well-mannered girl that was always eagered to learn; a delightful student. But there was just one problem with Louise Francoise...

She couldn't use magic.

Halkeginia's standard of magic was composed of the classical elements of Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, and the legendary Void - formally named the Pentagram Powers - and every mage and magic and magical creature or thing was aligned to one of these elements. Those that were not aligned to any of these elements did not possess magic; in human society these people would be called Commoners, while those with magic would be called Mages, meanwhile those with both prestige and magic were known as Nobles.

For proud little Louise Francoise, whose family had groomed many powerful and famous mages, there was nothing more bitter than her current situation. Every single spell she had ever cast in her life, without any single exception, had always ended up in an explosion. It was sign that she had magical potential but, with the explosively consistency of all her spell, it was deemed that she possessed very low magical potential.

So low was her magical potential that she was considered only barely a step-above the Commoners that they ruled over.

Louise The Zero. That was the moniker she was given by her peers for her incapability of casting magic. Though she tried to keep her head tall and her tongue rapier sharp, the years of verbal insults and constant failures had whittled down her already fragile self-esteem.

Thus today was not a very good day for Louise Francoise.

The young girl did not share in the enthusiasm her fellow second-year classmates radiated today as they conversed about what kind of magnificent or amazing familiars they would summon. She was more worried about the prospect of her coming failure; her head was abuzzed with thoughts of the consequences of failing this sacred ritual and the image of her very angry mother filled her with absolute dread. Because she was deep in thought, she was trailing behind the group at a much slower pace.

'I'm doomed,' she cried in her mind, 'Founder help me!'

A teasing but sultry voice from a female classmate purred beside the girl's right ear, "Oh how cute, I see that you're just trembling with excitement, Louise! You know, I'm also very eagered to see just what kind of familiar you'll summon today."

The strawberry blond girl immediately scowled in reaction and turned to face the speaker dramatically, "Don't you dare mock me, Zerbst! Not now, I won't tolerate it! Just you wait; I'm going to summon something so amazing that whatever simple beast you'll call forth will utterly pale in comparison!" she instantly retorted to her rival of sorts.

"Oh?" the girl called Zerbst grinned, "Is that so, Louise The Zero? You're going to summon something that amazing?" she giggled, "Well then, I'll be sure to look forward to when it's your turn to summon a familiar then. Toodles," she waved a hand and strutted onward.

Louise Francoise watched as her rival, Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst, deliberately wiggled her bottom with every step to taunt her. 'How I loathe that girl,' she growled in her thought.

The two of them had never gotten along since the first day they had met. Such a thing stemmed from their own confrontational personalities and also because the Tristainian family of La Valliere and the Germanian family of Von Zerbst had a very long history between them - both families owned territory right by the border of their countries and were generally the first two that always fought the other whenever war had or would occur.

There was also the fact that Louise Francoise was greatly jealous of Kirche's figure. The tall dark-skinned Germanian girl had large breasts and an alluringly curvaceous body; in other words a very adult-like body that easily caught the eyes of intrigued men and envious women. Kirche was not one to be afraid of flaunting her assets nor was she one to be discreet about it, it would not even be an exaggeration to say that she had gone through a relationship with every single boy in Tristain Academy Of Magic with the exception of the newly arrived freshmen this year - she would find time to seduce those lads later.

The young Valliere pursed her lips, 'Damn it, why did I respond like that? Now I really need to summon something to beat Zerbst!'

She had done extensive research on the Springtime Familiar Summoning for nearly an entire week and so knew the theories inside-out: the best magic circle was a simple one with just the pentagram - as any other additional runes could skew the calculations, the magic was mostly performed by the magic circle itself and the caster only needed to feed it Willpower, the ritual would look for the best fit familiar that greatly represented the potential or need of their master, and so forth. Louise Francoise could easily recall any of these information within a moment's notice.

But, despite all her preparation, that did not necessarily mean that she was ready for it at all.

"Ah, here we are," the teacher, a middle-aged balding man that wore glasses, said as he turned around to face his following students with a smile, "Everybody knows what to do, correct?" They nodded. "Then the best of luck to all of you! Now then, Class, who would like to go first?"

Louise Francoise watched with growing nervousness, and a tinge of envy, as the number of waiting students dwindled and the number of master and familiar pairs increased. A majority of her classmates had called forth regular animals, such as cats, dogs, birds, or snakes, but a couple of them had summoned some more intriguing creatures - of particular note, Kirche had summoned a fire-attribute salamander and Tabitha, the academy's top student, had summoned a wind-attribute dragon.

Even though she was not competing with Tabitha, Louise Francoise couldn't help but panic inwardly, 'Oh Founder, she summoned - of all things - a dragon! How am I suppose to top that?!' She was under no delusion that she was going to summon anything as impressive as a dragon, manticore, or griffon; she was well aware that she would be extremely lucky to be able to summon anything at all.

Still, one could hope for success, couldn't they?

"Hmm," the teacher hummed as he finished up recording the previous runes that had appeared somewhere on the familiar's body after the contract; he was always fascinated by what kind of combination would occur. Why, just last year there was The King Of Swords, the year before that was The Grossly Incandescent One, and the years before those were The Hero Of Courage, The Bender Of Elements, The Diety Emperor Of The Imperial, The Warrior Of The North Star, The Bloodedge Black Beast... the list goes on quite far to the school's nearly four-hundred years of history; though despite the impressive names, the teacher never recalled anything famous being made out of majority of them. "Has everybody summoned their familiar?" he hummed some more as he rechecked the list.

The Valliere squeaked as she was suddenly pushed forward by her rival, "Not everybody, sir. Louise hasn't taken her turn yet," and shrunk as she became the center of attention.

"So it's the Zero's turn, eh?" the students haughtily gossiped with each other as they took several steps backward as a precaution. How big would her explosion be this time? Would she even succeed in a summoning a familiar? Who would like to make a bet?

"Ah, Miss Valliere, please start whenever you're ready," the teacher casually stated before he pulled out a pocketwatch from his robes and checked the time, 'Almost time for dinner to be served.' Summoning a familiar tended to be quite a taxing spell on young students, thus eating food would generally alleviate some of their stress and restore a bit of their Willpower as well.

Louise Francoise grimly strode toward an untainted spot of earth before she knelt down and carved a magic circle into the ground with her wand. She worked slowly and mechanically as the reality of her situation sunk in deeper: it was her turn to summon a familiar and failure was not an option. She wanted to avoid punishment from her mother and beat the smug look off her rival... but what she needed was proof that she was indeed a mage and not some child playing make-believe. If she could not summon a familiar then she had no right to call herself a Valliere Noble.

The results of today would determine the course of the rest of her life and that utterly frightened her.

"Miss Valliere, are you ready?" The voice of her teacher brought her back into the present.

"Y-Yes, Professor Colbert, I'm ready," she replied. The balding man merely nodded in affirmation.

The strawberry blond girl made one last check on her magic circle, 'Perfect,' she told herself, 'It's definitely perfect,' and stood up. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to relax her body and calm her nerves as she spread open her arms and waved her wand. She recited her self-created magic-verse in her head several times whilst she cleared her throat and licked her lips.

The girl mustered every single courage, confidence, and Willpower that she had and chanted as clearly as possible.

"Please, my servant that is somewhere in this world... The sacred, beautiful, and, above all-else, powerful familiar... I ask of you: hear and answer my call!"

The air stilled for a moment.

Then - without warning - suddenly exploded in a loud roar twice and veiled the field in smoke and dust. Even the students who were standing far back were touched and buffeted by the furious winds and rumbling earth; Louise Francoise herself - being closer to the epicenter - felt the very ground squirm as she fell flat onto her bottom.

Students coughed and swiped their hands at the dusty air, several of them sneered with annoyance, "That was by far the largest explosion yet, Zero."

"Hah! As expected of the Zero!" another added.

Kirche's voice rang clearly over the crowd with her own quip, "That was quite the explosion, Louise! I hope you didn't blow up your poor familiar as well; it would be such a shame you know?"

The girl in question though just ignored their taunts.

Perhaps it was her mind slowing starting itself back up or maybe she was just trying to convince herself that it was true? Whatever the case, there was a nagging feeling that tugged at Louise Francoise's mind: she had summoned something. She concentrated hard to peer into the dust cloud and looked for the tell-tale sign of anything that wasn't just uprooted earth wafting in the air.

And there she easily spotted it - whatever it was.

Louise Francoise could not make out the details of the mysterious life-form but the silhouette of her summoned familiar was large and bulky with some protrusions jutting out. What drew her attention however were the two whiteish-blue slits that seemed to glow with power. She stared at the lights as they slowly rose up and up and up and up; she had to crane her neck to keep them within her sights.

'Just what in the Name Of The Founder have I have summoned?!' Fear, but also excitement, tinged her thoughts.

A sudden gust of wind - courtesy of Tabitha - answered her question when it blew away the covering smoke: standing in a small crater was a fully armor-plated giant.

Louise Francoise's eyes quickly examined the dark figure.

The familiar stood and towered above their teacher and its presence easily overshadowed even some of the larger beasts that were summoned today. The thick armor was an obsidian-black color with sharp edges and appeared to be crusted in reddish earth that resembled the dry sands from the Sahara or the distant Rub Al Khali. The ragged red scarf and cloth that were wrapped and hung around the neck and waist were buckled by a viciously grinning face. On its left hip dangled a sheathless sword which length exceeded even the tallest man she could remember seeing in her life.

It was all frightening visual information to take in. Whoever, whatever, this person or thing was, they were clearly not dressed for ceremonial purposes. They were armed for battle. 'A soldier?' She could scarcely convince herself that the warrior before her was a human - she immediately assumed that it was a half-giant or something of the sort - but she greatly hoped that it wouldn't start swinging its massive blade in a fit of rage or confusion after being forcibly dragged here - she was too young to die.

"Are you alright, Miss Valliere?" The somewhat tense voice of her teacher snapped her out of her daze. She didn't know when he had started standing besides her but he had a quietly fierce look about him; the teacher's now intense eyes were completely focused on the half-giant.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine, Professor Colbert," she answered after some delay.

"That is good to hear, Miss Valliere. Now please pick yourself up and kindly back away," he stated in an oddly commanding but still gentle tone.

Louise Francoise nodded but then wryly frowned, "Um, Professor Colbert... I-I can't get up." Her trembling legs refused to support her off the ground.

The teacher cursed in his thoughts; this was a dangerous situation to be in. Jean de Colbert was once a soldier under a certain regiment of the Imperial Guards Of Tristain and had experienced many trials that could break even the most hardened of souls. He was no stranger to experiencing many deadly premonitions that forewarned him of being in a very dangerous situation.

And right now Colbert's instincts were blaring like the searing heat of a thousand suns pressing onto him.

This giant was extremely dangerous and Colbert was positively certain that he would not be able to beat this entity in a fair fight; even if he used every trick up his sleeves and every ruthlessness in his bones, he wasn't entirely certainly that he would survive a fight against the familiar either. Colbert could easily tell that the only reason he and his students were still uninjured was because the warrior was not immediately aggressive - which he was quite grateful for.

The teacher tightly clenched his wooden staff when the gaze of the summoned being fell upon him.

'No, wait, it's looking at...'

[...]

The Overlord answered the call and calmly, yet curiously, walked into the portal.

Suddenly he felt a sensation of falling. No, he actually was falling. He pondered only for a moment until he realized that the teleportation was instantaneous and that he had already arrived in his new location.

Though why he was falling from the sky, he had no idea.

The distance was short and he impacted the ground with a loud boom. The fall broke large chunks of the solid red dirt off his armor and even more of the accumulated rust and earth on his person cracked and crumbled loose as he slowly stood up from his heavy collision.

He cracked his neck thoughtfully. He had felt and dealt with worst but he was a bit too old for shenanigans like this now; if this was his summoner's idea of a joke, well, the Overlord wasn't laughing.

This place, the Overlord could sense, was saturated in a pure rich magical sort of energy. A tingling sensation of rejuvenation slowly washed over his aged and tired body as the ambient mana circulated through his system; it was a good feeling, something he hadn't felt in ages. He breathed in, dusty as it was inside his helm, filling his lungs with air after so long and he enjoyed the clean atmosphere - it did not sting with every breath like that of the foul arid air of the Abyss.

He found this new location to be quite pleasant already.

The Overlord's view was blocked by smoke but that was quickly swept away by an unnatural wind - magic he sensed. He felt several intense gazes settled upon him but he easily ignored them since they clearly lacked the power to harm him. Instead, he chose to examine his surroundings.

The demi-god spotted children only some yards away dressed in white tops, black bottoms, with black cloaks as they stood looked upon him with fear and awe, meanwhile besides them were an assortment of creatures both normal and strange. There was nothing exceptionally unusual about these children, except for the fact that at least two of them had oddly colored hair - one blue and one red.

As for his environment, all around him there was short green grass and open blue skies; a short walk away was a forest and somewhat further out in the distance he could see a large structure that appeared to be either a castle or a fortress.

This area was definitely less gloomy than his own land of the Middle-Domains and certainly more welcoming than that of the Abyss. He found it to be a vibrantly colored place, to say the least.

The Overlord slowly turned his head and wondered which one of these people had summoned him. No not him, not her, no, not that one... Nobody from the crowd of children was it. He turned again to face the two people that were much closer in distance to him; there was a middle-aged man standing protectively over a fallen pink haired girl.

He definitely didn't know what was stranger: the blue hair or the pink hair. At least the color red was something he had seen on succubi before.

He paid the adult some attention. The balding man was strong - probably as magically powerful as the Overlord himself was back when he had defeated the Wizard - but was still not a major threat and the demi-god dismissed him quickly.

The young girl on the other hand was something of great interest to him. The child did not have much of a physical presence, for she was rather small, except for her vibrantly pink hair. However, unlike the others here who exuded an aura akin to an element like that of fire, water, earth, or wind, she had something else... The Overlord could not put a name to this mysterious energy but it was without a doubt the same one that had powered the portal that brought him here.

So, this little girl was the one who called for him? How amusing.

Now the question was: what exactly did she want from him?

He was here for that very answer.

[...]

Unable to move her legs Louise Francoise simply laid on the ground and once again examined her familiar.

Was he sacred? She wasn't sure about that since she couldn't recognize its - 'His,' she corrected herself - armor as belonging to any of the Halkeginian military so his actual status was unknown. And, while he did cut an impressive figure with size and looks, he did not bear himself with sense of regal or nobility but instead like that of a proud but aged warrior. There was also a possibility that his armor, despite its ancient looks, was quite common from wherever he hailed from - who could really say? For all she knew, he could be from a civilization of half-giants on the outer-borders of Germania or beyond Rub Al Khali; places beyond Halkeginia were hardly explored or mapped after all.

Was he beautiful? Not quite. Maybe he had a handsome face underneath, but for now his only beauty was in the fact that his armor - despite being encrusted in red-earth - was quite frighteningly effective at looking absolutely sinister. Compared to the gallant Griffin Knights, the regal Dragon Knights, and the commanding Manticore Knights, his armor seemed to hold a powerful and terrifying pressure in of itself that spoke of doom against all who would be foolish enough to challenge him.

Was he powerful? Well, he was quite big enough to wrestle with even some of the smaller dragons and she wouldn't be surprised if he actually did something like that daily. She couldn't see what laid beneath all of that heavy armor but she imagined it would be a very muscular body. So he was, at the minimal, physically powerful. At the very least, she knew that he would have no trouble squashing her like a bug if he so felt like it.

Regardless, all of that was good enough for Louise Francoise. She hadn't expected to summon anything at all, so this was an absolute god-send. 'Thank The Founder! I did it! I summoned a familiar!' she cheered in her thoughts.

It was then that the armored giant folded his arms; his posture was like a waiting guardian demanding to hear an answer.

It was a strange gestured that looked out of place. But, for one reason or another, she definitely had his attention now and she wasn't about to waste it. "I... I am..." her voice started low and then quickly picked up in volume, "I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere and I am your Master!" She gulped, almost in regret for blurting that statement out so suddenly without a hint of charisma or nobility and thus ruining her introduction, as she waited for the giant to respond.

The summoned-being almost seemed to have cocked his head and raised a brow, but there wasn't actually any movements on his part.

Louise Francoise's face almost became flustered at the non-response; even the most majestic of beasts instinctively knew that Mages - Nobles - were the superior one within the relationship. The fact that the armored giant - that she had summoned, no less - did not make any real physical or verbal reply was both inherently disrespectful and embarrassing to Louise.

"D-Did you not hear me?!" She piped out in slight anger, only to quickly turn away from the familiar's withering glance directed at her.

"Hah!" A boy's voice cried out from the side-line crowd, "Louise The Zero may have summoned something, but even the familiar can tell she isn't a good enough mage to be a master!" His comment spurred on more cheers and agreements from his fellow students.

Louise gritted her teeth. She needed to take charge, as the Rule Of Steel demanded, and show off her pride and status of Valliere Nobility; she could not back down and reveal weakness. 'By The Founder, I am a mage, a Noble, damn it!'

"By The Founder, I am a mage, a Noble, damn it!" The girl did not even realized she had repeated her thoughts aloud. Her body moved automatically as she swiftly stood up and pointed her wand threateningly toward the armored giant; amber-colored eyes staring adamantly against sharp glowing blue eyes. "I will not allow you to make a fool out of me!"

[...]

There was fire and drive in the young girl's eyes as she stared at the Overlord without fear of retribution. Fool-hardy, reckless, there were many words to describe her action of even daring to challenge the authority and might of the demi-god.

Luckily for the girl, he was a remarkably calm individual.

Instead, the Overlord found himself somewhat impressed - but mostly nostalgic - at the spirit behind her actions. It had truly been a long time since someone had dared talked back to him like that. Ah, he remembered good old Gnarl - that old brown minion - who was always so humorously snippy with him or even his wife, Rose - that fiery red head - making her not-so-subtle demands at him. It was truly nostalgic to the demi-god; he really missed those days.

The Overlord chuckled inwardly.

He who was known as the Master Of The Dark Tower, the Slayer Of The Seven Heroes, the Ruler Of The Middle-Domains, and lastly the Abyssal Lord... was summoned so that a child could demand for him to be their familiar? It would have been a laughable and outrageous idea to anybody back at the Middle-Domains.

Yet, this was truly happening and, although this situation was rather humorous and somewhat demeaning to the Overlord, it was something that the demi-god was willing to consider.

Yes, the demi-god could just simply walk away a free man and do whatever he wanted, that was certainly one possibility out of many. However, he was someone who knew gratitude; that was simply a part of his nature, to do good to others as he would expect in return and to do good for those who cannot help themselves. That noble characteristic of his was something that stuck with him even when the curse of death had made him lose his memories of his previous life so long ago...

But that was not all there was to it; no, there was definitely a little more to his consideration.

The Overlord was no master of the arcane-arts and his own personal repertoire of spells was actually quite small, but he was still someone who was quite familiarized with the fundamental ways of magic - overlord magic, but magic nonetheless - as he had spent a large portion of his imprisoned time within the Abyss to re-learn all the spells that he had lost when he was forcibly cut-off from the Dark Tower.

Though he was eventually able to reuse all of his old magic, the Overlord was never able to replicate the phenomenon of dimensional travel which the Forgotten God had once created. But, on the other hand, even the Overlord knew that it had taken the Forgotten God untold centuries to even reach a point where it could have attempted to do so.

That is why this little pink-haired girl had caught his caught attention.

She was young, yet was already capable of casting spells on par to that of a god. It was a simple coincidence that he was called but it was no accident that it had happened at all; indeed, the spell she had cast had done exactly what it was suppose to do: summon a familiar from somewhere. In doing so, her spell had fished him out from the Abyss, a place that should have been - by all means - completely sealed off.

With such a vast amount of potential hidden inside her, the girl could easily either become a savior or a destroyer.

Thus the Overlord had every intention to prevent the girl from falling toward the path of destruction as it was his belief that great power came with greater responsibility - and he, of course, still had power.

And so the Overlord made his decision.

[...]

Louise Francoise glared at the armored-giant; she would not and could not back down. By the Rule Of Steel that her mother taught her, once a person made their decision they could simply not go against it and must remain firm to it.

Ironically, that same Rule Of Steel also detested those who act impulsively, which the young Valliere had just done. However, such a small thing was lost to her because she was, right here and right now, staring down a being that could at least physically crush her like an insect.

While the girl had been brought up to believe that Mages reigned supreme against nearly everything, Louise Francoise herself knew that she was hardly what society called a proper mage because of her explosive but still fizzled spells; if she were to get herself into a real fight, she was unsure that she would able to handle five - let alone ten - Commoners when the average Dot-Class Mage could easily handle even thirty on a bad day.

The fact that her teacher stood battle-ready at her side was a small comfort for the young Valliere and she silently thanked him so.

Minutes that felt like hours to Louise Francoise and Jean de Colbert passed by before the warrior finally moved. Though his movement had a deliberate slowness to it, the act itself was still rather suddenly made; in response, the Valliere's muscles tensed up and Colbert tighten his grip around his wooden staff.

The two waited with bated breath as the half-giant slowly kneeled before the strawberry blond girl.

To Jean de Colbert this was an opportunity that could not be passed up. From his many years as an instructor for the Tristain Academy Of Magic he had made a particular observation regarding the Springtime Familiar Summoning: the runes that were embedded onto a familiar could tame even the most wild of beasts within a matter of moments. And even though the summoned warrior had yet to display any hostilities - it was, strangely enough, taking the current event fairly well - it was still better to be safe than sorry; the safety of his students was ranked at an undisputed top-class priority to Jean de Colbert.

"Miss Valliere," the teacher spoke quietly as if a louder voice might startle the half-giant into rage, "I suggest that you complete the ritual and form a contract with your familiar. Now." He prayed deeply for a miracle that the young Valliere would not cause an accidental explosion during the binding; the fact of the matter was that his student was already quite lucky that her previous threat was seemingly ignored by the warrior and Colbert did not need any more scare or trouble than of that level already.

"Y-Yes, Professor," Louise Francoise answered as she inquisitively looked at the warrior who was still taller than her even when he was kneeling. He was an oddity as far she knew, she had never heard of a human being summoned for a familiar - granted, perhaps the monster-half of his mixed-lineage accounted for something?

Well, a half-giant was certainly not as appealing as a griffon, dragon, or manticore, but such a half-blooded person would have to do. Louise Francoise had no plans to fail the Springtime Familiar Summoning after having come so far to this point and she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth now that she was given one to succeed.

"You," she started to address her soon-to-be-familiar but then realized that she didn't even know his name, "...Who are you?" When she received no answer, she continued her prodding, "Answer me... Why won't you speak? Can you not understand what I'm saying?"

"Miss Valliere," her teacher spoke up whilst keeping his impatient out of his voice, "The contract. Please."

The girl nodded and changed the conversation, "Take off your helmet," she told the half-giant. But when the warrior had remained still, Louise Francoise visibly frowned - even though the person was bowing down to her, he was still disrespecting her with his complete inaction.

She was just about ready to complain when Professor Colbert spoke up once again.

"Miss Valliere," this time a small bit of his impatient and anxiousness did leak out from his voice, "A kiss - while certainly the most traditional and easiest way to transfer Willpower into a familiar - is not the only method to form a contract with a familiar. Simply tap the summoning circle with your wand, Miss Valliere, and pour your Willpower into that instead."

"Right," Louise Francoise replied but, when she took a look at the ground, she blinked her eyes and became a bit confused on what to do next, "Um, Professor Colbert..."

Jean de Colbert immediately answered in a slightly exasperated voice, "What, Miss Valliere?" He was normally a truly patient man - being a teacher required that of him - but in the face of danger even his patience could run easily thin. His voice, however, caused her to flinch and so he promptly corrected himself, "Ahem," he cleared his throat, "Yes, Miss Valliere? Is there a problem?"

"I..." she stuttered "...well... the summoning circle... it's been destroyed."

'Oh for the love of...!' Colbert groaned inwardly; he would never say that the young Valliere was a problematic person but trouble always seemed to follow the girl around. "Kiss it," he said in a barely restrained tone through gritted teeth, "Kiss your familiar and complete the contract, Miss Valliere."

"On the-"

"On the helmet, indeed."

With her answered given so bluntly, Louise Francoise sighed and turned back to face the giant. She licked her lips and swallowed her saliva, with an exhaled breath she began her chant, "I hereby swear by the Oath Of Name, for I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, that my fate shall be entwined with thee and thy fate with my own," her wand danced with graceful movement, "O, Pentagon Of The Five Elemental Powers... I announce: bless this union of balance and fate!"

She moved closer to her kneeling familiar and placed her two hands onto his helm - the metal was surprisingly warm to touch. With a light brush of her hand she swept the forehead clean of dust and leaned forward. Her soft lips touched the unknown metal; the sensation was only mildly unpleasantly and it tasted somewhat gritty.

Louise Francoise's kiss maintained contact for a full second before she pulled away. She stepped back and wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve - she wanted to spit out the aftertaste but couldn't do so without ruining her aristocratic image - as she waited for the results of her spell.

Nothing happened.

But then suddenly - before anyone could speak - a bright light appeared from the ground.

The fractured summoning circle, which should have no longer been able to function correctly, glimmered with radiant power and created a beautiful cascading aurora. Tendrils emerged from the mesmerizing scene and quickly attached themselves to the giant's left gauntlet, the phantom limbs greedily snaked through the armor and gathered themselves into the center of the left hand's back. Strange runic letters shone momentarily before they dimmed and faded away from prying eyes.

[...]

The Overlord slowly stood up as he examined and flexed his left hand into a tightly clenched fist.

Due to his physical status - even before becoming a demi-god during his entrapment of the Abyss - there were few who could even pose a remote challenge to the Overlord. Therefore, it was not unusual for his enemies who were hidden in the shadows to resort to dark curses to try and get rid of him. But, after the first few attempts on his life, the Overlord had developed a rudimentary immunity to curses and was even taught by Gnarl on how to defend himself from any that managed to linger on him.

However, the Overlord was no master of the arcane arts, his tactics against curses were essentially the magic equivalent of brute-forcing his way out of the problem.

The unknown runes that had burned themselves onto his flesh and imprinted themselves upon his soul were quite powerful - though not exactly a curse, the runes were close enough in nature to be one. If he were to chop off his hand then the runes would merely move elsewhere on his body; that was simply how much of a nuisance they were.

He could feel the somehow ancient roots of the runes trying to dig further into him in a complex manner, he could feel them trying to change him into something he was not.

With his strength of will the Overlord repelled the mental and spiritual invasion through sheer willpower alone.

His purge sent the roots slithering back to their source but, as expected, he could not destroy the core of the runes; it would take more time for him to annihilate the complex defense just through brute-force alone. For now, at least, he had it subdued and relatively dormant - that was alright, the Overlord would simply deal with the rest later.

The demi-god decided that this new world was slightly less pleasant that he had originally taken it for.

While he had no qualms with serving his little summoner, he certainly did not take kindly to others that tried to subvert his freewill. However, he would forgive her for this slight because he doubted that the girl would know exactly what those runes even did to their subject.

On the other hand, it seemed that the teacher knew quite well what the familiar contract had entailed. Perhaps the Overlord should have a quiet discussion with him later...

For now, he dusted off the dirt that still remained on his armor.

[...]

'Well now... that was certainly different,' Jean de Colbert thought as he watched the magic circle spring back to life and latched themselves onto the giant's left hand. 'Never seen that before in my all years here.' He assessed the new situation and calmed himself, 'Danger averted,' with a quick cough to clear his throat, the teacher turned to face his student.

He let out a breath of relief and spoke happily, he was quite proud of his student, "Well, Miss Valliere, in your time here you have failed to cast many spells... but, today, you have managed to properly cast Summon Servant and Contract Servant in but one try each," he smiled, "Good work and congratulations, Miss Valliere."

Louise Francoise nodded at her head, "T-Thank you, Professor Colbert."

Meanwhile the crowd of students were busily chatting with themselves.

"Ah, how dull," a male student commented, "So the Zero was able to contract a familiar after all."

"What a surprise," a nearby girl cut in with a snicker, "I didn't think she would have been to summon anything at all in the first place!"

"Heh, I had surely thought that the half-giant would have gone on a rampage," one of the boy's friends stated, "but I guess even a half-breed like that understands that it can't do anything in the presence of us Nobles."

In Halkeginia the Nobles right to rule is taught as the most natural law. For young noble children, they are brought up believing in their absolute superiority over nearly all forms of life and matter due to the fact that they could use magic. Even dangerous beasts such as griffons, manticores, and dragons could be brought to heel because they were mages - that was their logic. That is why these children - and, indeed, many adult mages as well - truly believe that only another user of the arcane could even pose a remote threat to them.

They easily and foolishly dismissed the Zero's Familiar as just another creature who had accepted their natural superiority.

"Hmmm~" Kirche hummed with a hand on her hip, "That is certainly an impressive-looking familiar; don't you think so, Tabby?" she asked her blue-haired friend affectionately.

Tabitha nodded her head quietly with a neutral expression, but to those who knew her quite well - which currently only consisted of Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst - they could tell that the girl was quite interested in Louise Francoise's large and armored familiar.

"Half-giant, huh?" The busty girl thought aloud, "I've seen some of them before - there are even a few in service of the Germanian Military - but I've never seen armor of that make before," she tapped her chin, "I don't see the Germanian Crest or any Military Insignia either. I don't believe he's from around here."

Tabitha nodded in agreement. Her blue eyes were focused on one peculiar spot on Louise Francoise's familiar: the left gauntlet. She could clearly see a smooth and round jewel-like surface embedded into it - something that was uncharacteristically far too different from the obviously war-designed armor. She could see no tactical reason to have such an item there... unless it was actually a magical tool of some sort; was it currently inactive or did it provide a passive effect?

A half-giant with a magic-orb and full-plated black armor; Tabitha would have surely heard about this peculiarity if the person in-question was truly from Halkeginia, thus she concluded that this familiar was summoned from beyond the lands of their nation. Whether the warrior was any more or any less than a half-giant had yet to be determined though, she would need to keep a close eye on Louise Francoise's Familiar to unravel this mystery.

"But, to think, a half-giant at school and summoned by a Valliere no less," Kirche sensually licked her lips with a sultry smile, "That would mean he's pretty big, wouldn't it, Tabby? I'm getting rather hot just thinking about how I should steal him from little Louise~"

The academy's top student almost rolled her eyes but instead chose to take a book out from out under her cloak. She flipped it open to the page she had last left off on and continued her reading of A King's Journey.

With the tension gone and a little of his own forgetfulness added to the situation, Jean de Colbert completely forgot that he needed to record Louise Francoise's Familiar's runes. The middle-aged man pulled out his pocketwatch as he felt a light shiver run down his spine, 'It's just getting late, is all,' he perfectly reasoned and took a look at the time, 'Ah, dinner is being served already...'

Putting his pocketwatch away, the teacher called out to his class, "Dinner is already being served, if you don't want to completely miss it - and I do recommend that you have yourself a light meal before going to bed - then let us make haste back to the school." He chanted a simple spell for levitation and gently floated in the air, "Right then, follow after me, Class."

Several students took after their Professor Colbert and cast Levitate on themselves and their familiars. Others rode on top of their beasts - either they flew back or ran back. A few of them taunted the Zero before they left.

Louise Francoise looked at them enviously before she faced her newly acquired familiar, "We're walking," she said somewhat dejectedly.

[...]

The sun was beginning to set as the Overlord walked slowly and kept pace with his small master toward the castle of stone that could be seen in the distance. He moved quietly despite the fact that his heavy steps flattened the grass beneath his armored boot.

The young Valliere mulled over some things in her head. Her familiar was an oddity: he was a human. Granted, he was apparently a half-giant, but she had never heard of any humanoids - let alone half-breeds - being called forth from the Springtime Familiar Summoning ritual from any of the stories or researched papers that she had read before; as far as she knew, every familiar before him had always been a true beast of sorts.

Louise let out a sigh and glanced at her familiar, "Do you have a name?"

The Overlord did not have a name - or, at least, he no longer went by the name that he was once known by before a certain incident - and was now only known by his title; now and forever. As far as he was concerned, his identity has always been and will continue to be: Overlord.

He knelt down and with a finger carved out the words into the ground for 'Overlord' in Mid-Domainic.

The pink-haired girl stared at her familiar and wondered why he was even bothering to write on the ground, 'Is he... mute?' Her lips turned downward slightly; while she was quite aware that she would have to just make do with the familiar she had summoned, it still bothered her that she had called forth something so different. Even a jibberish-blatherer would have been better than a mute, Louise couldn't see any advantages in being unable to speak and considered it an imperfection that made her warrior even less appealing than before.

When her familiar finally stood back up, she looked back to the writings on the ground.

While Louise was no expert in languages she could tell that the words were not written in the common style of Halkeginic, nor in her native Tristainic, and neither were they Germanic, Gallic, or Romalic. Her familiar's writing did bear a passing resemblance to them but were not quite the same.

If she were to try and decipher the unknown writing as they were right now, she would get something pronounced like 'Ophaedravid' in Halkeginic or a 'Suelzeilran' in Tristainic but both were quite meaningless as names.

Louise huffed out a breath of air from the side of her lips and somewhat glared at her knight, "I've no idea what you've written here, Familiar." She sighed, placed her hands on her hips, and then tapped her foot, "I suppose that means I'll need to come up a name for you then."

The young Valliere hummed as she thought, she wanted an impressive name for her familiar that would also sounded exotic but she didn't want to make one up. As she racked her brain, her mind went looking for names in Ancient Halkeginian lore.

Sigurd the dragon-slayer? Beowulf the grendel-hunter? Arngrim the berserker?

Sigwulfgrim? Beowarngurd? Arnigurulf?

...Alright, perhaps she was making-up names at this point. But, in her defense, she did not want to seem so uncreative or unsophisticated as to take a name from a legendary hero and then apply the name as-is onto her familiar.

Louise thought over her ideas and decided that she needed something less obvious.

Her familiar wore big black armor; in Tristainic that would be pronounced as 'grandei armunrei noitrei' or 'armatturamu omagna nigrumunovo' in Halkeginic. If she mixed them up she could get something like 'omagranadei areimattunramu noigrutreinovo,' if she furthered downsized it then she could get a more acceptable 'omgradei arematuramu noigovo,' mix and shorten that again into 'omgrarnitovo,' and then condense-blend that once more into 'Ortovogni.'

'Ortovogni...' Louise humored herself, 'It's not bad per-say but...' she looked at her familiar. She wondered if she should just give him a name that was more fitting for something like pet or object rather than give him a more human-esque name. Then something clicked, 'Ah, that's right, I can make a name that's half-real and half-fake!'

The young Valliere puffed her chest, "I've got it; I've figured out the perfect name for you, Familiar." She smiled, "Hence forth, from now on, your name shall be: Siegeinherd" she added on, "or Sieghart for short."

It certainly sounded nice, the Overlord mused.

Louise went on to explain the source of the name, "Sigurd is a legendary dragon-slayer who used the sword of wrath - Gram; hence 'Sig' and 'urd' for 'Sieg' and 'erd.' Meanwhile, Einherjar are the spirits of dead warriors that have been brought to Valhalla and prepare themselves for the end of the world - Ragnarok; hence 'Ein' and 'her' for 'ein' and 'herd.' Therefore: Siegeinherd." She puffed out her chest even more and gloated, "It definitely sounds like a legendary name doesn't it? It's a great name, if I do say so myself."

Well, a name that was based off of both a dragon-slayer and the warriors prepared for the end of the world was certainly a name that held a great amount of expectations from it. Yes, the Overlord decided, it was indeed a good name - while not quite as immediately impressive as the other titles that he held, it was somewhat refreshing to have a name instead of a title.

The Overlord nodded.

Louise cleared her throat and then brushed back her strawberry blond hair, it seems that she's cheered up somewhat, "Very well then, follow me, Sieghart."

The two continued their once again quiet and wordless walk together.

[...]

As the pair got closer to the large stone-walls, Louise spoke up, "That is the Tristain Academy Of Magic, the most prestigious academy for Nobles in all of Tristain and one of the most world-renowned school with plenty of foreign students attending more so than anywhere else." She was trying to impress to her more-than-likely-not-native-to-this-area familiar just how superior mages were; in her opinion, it didn't hurt to inform him of his status in relation to everything else.

Louise began to recite and tout the information that the Headmaster had used to describe just how safe the academy was from danger along with just how fine of an institute it was for children of nobles to attend.

"The Academy was designed and built entirely by a famous Square-Class Earth Mage known as Bilgames de Mesh; every single building here is constructed from a special rock-type called Urukanite which is stronger than any natural rock that can be found and has also been enchanted to withstand even the most devastating of cannon-fire or square-class spells." Louise smirked, "Stationed here are over one-hundred guards, more than two-hundred servants, and every teacher here are at a minimum of Triangle-Class," and then wagged her finger, "If the academy was to suddenly find itself under siege, it could survive a whole three-months without outside support."

Well, the Overlord would have been lying if said that he wasn't fairly impressed by it; the entire place seemed built more like a fortress than a castle - let alone a school. In a way, you could say that her explanation had left him speechless.

The outer-walls were so high that even if a Rock Giant were to stretch out its arm it would only be a third of the wall's size - the walls could easily keep out a horde of man-eating giants if those existed too. Once the Overlord passed through the open archway gates - and some scared guards - he could also see that the walls were almost as thick as having two rock giants squashed together.

This place was definitely built to last.

Now that he noticed it, the academy's outer-walls were built in the shape of a pentagon - five towers with differently colored roofs were the vital points that created the shape - and the school ground was large enough that the entirety of Heaven's Peak could fit inside with room to spare.

The Overlord's encompassing gaze then panned to the several structures that laid near the heart of the school.

The very center tower pierced the very skies and lorded over even the large outer-walls - its powerful visage reminded him of the Dark Tower and its grand glory. It was further evenly surrounded by three smaller towers that were even lesser in size than the five outside but still quite grand in of themselves because - while the three towers were not quite as high-scraping - they were fairly larger in their circumference.

Louise pointed a finger and continued her explanation.

"That is the Central Tower where the Headmaster can be found in the very top," she glossed over that segment rather swiftly and moved on. Louise took the lead and started to move toward the tower that was to the right-side of the stone-path they were walking on, "And these buildings are the student-dorm," she pointed to the area to the left and behind the Central Tower, "That one is for First-Years and that one over there is for the Third-Years. And this," she said as they passed through the dual-doors and two scared guards, "is the Second-Years' Dorm."

The ground-floor - a lobby of sorts - was quite bare. The Overlord could see that there was not much here except for a single administrative desk which sat opposite from the doors, behind the desk sat a person and behind them was a door leading elsewhere. To the sides of the lobby there were two stairways that led to the upper-floors and attached onto the walls were several torches.

The Overlord casually eyed the man who sat bored at his desk - his finger tapped the wooden desk in a repeated rhythm. The adult man was quite simple in appearance with no particular outstanding traits of mention. From what the Overlord could sense, the man was also a mage - though a far weaker one than that Professor Colbert.

The mage quirked a brow when he spotted Louise and the Overlord walk in; he had heard some gossips - by the students who had passed through earlier - talking about how 'the Zero summoned a half-giant.' This must be them, he figured - it was a curious sight for all of the five seconds that they held his attention.

"Greetings, Sir Shernen."

"Greetings, Miss... Valliere, was it?" Albert de Shernen replied back to the strawberry blond girl.

He was a new staff-member that was only recently hired to replace the last Dorm-Keeper who had just left. His total work-time only amounted to a week, so while he could vaguely recognize the one-hundred students who came in and out during his shift, he didn't really make any effort to knowing their names.

Shernen's job was merely to watch and make sure that students didn't bring in things they weren't suppose to nor take out things that they were not allowed to. It was a fairly simple but boring task that had him sitting behind a desk for the most part. But it paid quite well and being able to say that he had worked as a guard - technically not a lie - at the Tristain Academy Of Magic was also worth some reputation points.

Louise nodded her head at the dorm-keeper and then turned back to her familiar - greeting Albert de Shernen was merely a formality that she upheld because she was a Valliere. "To the left are the female-dorms and to the right are the male-dorms," she said as she walked towards the left staircase.

The master and familiar pair continued up several flight of stairs and eventually arrived at - from what the Overlord counted - the sixth-floor. Just like every floor before it, besides the first bottom-floor, the sixth-floor was no different from the rest: it was comprised of a long hallway with five doors - two on one side and three on the other - and torches to light up the darkened passage.

"This is my room," Louise stated as she pulled out a key from her skirt-pocket and unlocked the middle-most door. She turned the golden-colored knob, opened the door, and walked in. Several seconds later she came back out of her room with a confused expression, "What are you waiting for, Sieghart? Your bed" which was just a stack of hay but, in her defense, she had expected to summon a more traditional familiar and it was already too late in the night to simply alter the sleeping arrangements, "is in here."

Well now, this was a constant problem for the Overlord.

The academy's archway gates were large enough for an army to march out in uniform order, the dual-doors to the dorm-tower were quite large that a dragon - by Halkeginian standard - could fit through, and the stairways had enough space so that a normal master and familiar could walk side-by-side with another master and familiar.

However, the single door to Louise's room - and by extension every other door in this dorm - were designed for a normal-sized person.

The Overlord could probably get into the room if he tucked himself in and worked his way in slowly, but that would make him look too nonsensical and he had a bit too much pride for that. Likewise, it would just be too much of a hassle for him to waddle day in and day out.

The young Valliere, of course, immediately noticed her familiar's dilemma and sighed, "...I see, you're too big fit through the door." While he was not necessarily as big as a dragon, griffon, manticore, or a pure-blooded giant, he was still fairly too large; standard protocol would therefore dictate that her familiar would have to sleep outside at the Austri Court along with the other huge familiars.

That, however, did not solve the particular problem that her familiar would need to remove his armor to sleep. It would not be strange if pieces of his armor had vanished during the dead of night.

On the other hand, her familiar wasn't exactly human. He was a half-giant, and if she remembered anything about their culture, they tended to be quite barbaric and warrior-like, so perhaps... "Sieghart," she called out, "do you, perhaps, prefer to sleep in your armor?"

As a matter of fact, the Overlord could sleep and even sit down on a chair with his armor on and feel absolutely no discomfort. His armor was quite comfortable for him to wear because it was designed and forged specifically for his use. That was also to not forget the fact that the Overlord's armor was made purely from Abyssuim, which far surpassed even the enchanted urukanite, and it was further enchanted by life-force - thousands and thousands of life-force - and could make even a elder dragon's fiery breath feel like a cool morning breeze. If he could help it, the Overlord would much prefer to keep his armor on at all times.

The demi-god nodded.

Louise's lips curled up slightly, "Good, that's one problem solved. Now then, would you prefer to sleep out here in the hallway or outside with all the other familiars at the Austri Court?"

While there were no explicit problems with sleeping outside - he highly doubted that his little master would be in any sort of danger even if he wasn't by her side, the Overlord found the stone floors and walls to be more welcoming of a spot - he was someone that was use to the cold comfort of a stone room.

The Overlord remained where he stood.

"The hallway then," Louise commented. As long as she did not throw out a hay-bed or provide him with an actual bed then there should be no problem with her familiar sleeping out in the hallway. "Very well," she nodded, "Good night, Sieghart."

She gave her familiar one last look; a hand of hers reached out and touched his warm black armor, as though she needed to confirm that the knight was not just a figment of her imagination. With that done, she walked back into her room and closed the door shut with a light thump and a click of the lock.

[...]

Night... the passage when the sun's light wanes and fades into dusk, the moment where darkness would descend and embrace all in its coldness, the realm where the moon and stars dominated for half of a world's time.

For many, the cycle of night was a phenomenon as natural as the expectation that the sun would always rise in the morning. They did not necessarily take it for granted but they did not necessarily savor such common events.

For the Overlord that had also once been true. But now the demi-god could appreciate the fall of the sun and the rise of the moon. In the Abyss there was no concept of night or day, nor any existence of any celestial bodies like the sun or moon, there was only heat that baked everything within that hell; it was a world that thrived in its own infernal and was more akin to an elemental plane of fire.

Therefore, this was the Overlord's first night in many unknown years.

A sense of nostalgia and longing coursed through the demi-god's body. He had already spent an untold amount of time asleep and forgotten in the Abyss, he felt that it would be such a waste for him to simply sleep this new night away.

Ten minutes passed by with naught an activity in the hallway. Thus the Overlord made his decision, he was - in a manner of speaking - too excited to simply fall asleep, he would explore the school as a way to pass the time and to slowly calm himself down.

The Overlord moved like a ghost; contrary to his large size, his footsteps only made soft thuds with the stone floor. His light steps' every noise was as similar to a quiet whisper - it reverberated amongst the dimly torch-lit halls as a phantom-weight that sent shivers to anyone who would hear it.

He traveled upward and eventually reached the twelfth-floor but a door impeded his path and actually prevented him from going any further. He could sense that someone lived on this floor but there was no value for him to break down the door just to see who it was.

He walked back down to lobby and found nobody there. The door behind the desk apparently led to the dorm-keeper's room as he could detect Albert de Shernen's magic signature there. Outside, even the two guards from before had simply vanished.

How sloppy, the Overlord shook his head.

Even though this was a school - and thus did not expect much danger - they were still aristocrats, were they not? At least, in the Middle-Domains, the typical aristocrat had plenty of enemies both seen and unseen and danger always lurked about.

He was not well-informed about how the guards did their rotation of duty or where they were assigned, but it had an unbelievable amount of openings that could be easily exploited even from the unskilled - such as the Overlord who was by far personally useless in the aspect of stealth.

He wasn't sure if they were peaceful idiots or if that was completely intentional by design.

Whatever the case, the Overlord continued his nightly exploration.

He traversed the vast grassy fields of the school grounds. To the back of the Central Tower there were the Servant Quarters and the Horse Stable. The area near the Servant Quarters was apparently the Austri Court as he could see the many larger familiars were gathered here. The areas to the immediate left and right of the court consisted of more grass but the space directly opposite of it contained several circular stone areas that appeared to be dueling platforms of sorts.

He rounded the perimeter once more and eventually entered the outer-tower that sat further behind the Central Tower.

Surprisingly, he found that the doors were not locked. Truly sloppy. Then again, even the dual-doors to the dorms where the students slept were not locked; such a thing should not surprise him anymore.

The Overlord strolled into the tower with barely any trouble at all. The lowest level was just like the lobby-area of the dorms, however was also just a bit different. Just like the before there were torches on the walls and two stairways to the left and right that led upward, but - instead of a desk - there was a third staircase.

His investigation of it proved fruitless though as it was surprisingly blocked by a locked door. It somewhat confused the demi-god how the main-building themselves did not seem to be locked yet certain areas inside of them were.

With a change of direction the Overlord made way to one of the other two stairways from the lobby. He moved up the building but ignored the the other set of stairs that would have lead him further upward, and instead took the closest exit which led him out into a long hallway.

He followed the long pathway and entered - from one of two doorways - into a large semi-circular room. To the Overlord's immediate left there was another administrative desk, beyond that the floor rose in an even-patterned layer with five wide wooden-desks and chairs positioned on each level - for a total of five raised layers with twenty-five desks and chairs - along with three windows that were currently covered by their curtains.

It was a rather curious design to the Overlord as he had never seen it before. Apparently the speaker would stand at the bottom while the audience would sit at the upper-rows. It was the exact opposite from his normal experience where the audience - such as him - would sit upon their throne surrounded by their aides - such as Gnarl and Rose - while they would look down upon the speaker.

As he furthered went upward he discovered two more rooms just like the previous one. But, as expected, he could not inspect anymore of the tower - the upper-floors were blocked to him and, likewise, the other half of the areas next to the semi-circular rooms were also beyond his reach. However, he could detect the presence of other - mostly non-magical - life in those undisclosed locations; it seemed that guards were highly concentrated at the outer-towers during the night.

With nothing left here for him to explore - that did not require him to break something down, the Overlord made his exit out of the tower.

The demi-god narrowed his eyes as he walked out onto the grassy field and stopped. A subtle but unnatural wind poked and prodded his armor and examined him with their gentle caress. Whoever was performing this spell was quite good; though he was able to sense magic, the amount of mana used to cast this spell was so little that it was hardly noticeable amongst the pure rich mana that filled the air around him.

He had almost not noticed the intrusion of his personal space. Almost.

Long, long ago - when the Overlord had fought against the Evil Wizard - he had all of his magic stolen from him, which had almost ripped out his entire soul as well. He had not noticed it at first - indeed, he had not figure it out until much later when Gnarl had pointed it out to him - but such an event had changed and scarred him: he had gained an increased sensitivity to the magic and mana around him, along with an unexpected growth to his own natural affinity to cast spells.

The Overlord snorted, he could feel the manipulated-mana all around him as though he was coated in a thin layer of silk, it was harmless but still a nuisance - he would not allow his stalker to think that they could touch him as they pleased. He began to purposely leak out his mana into the surrounding and the air burned up as a protective wave of magical heat enveloped him.

Unable to reach the demi-god, the unnatural winds abruptly stopped and then simply vanished.

After several moments, the Overlord released his spell and waited for another attempt but none had come.

It was unfortunate but the Overlord could not trace the magic-winds back to their source, that was simply beyond his skills. If he still had his Minions with him then he would have caught this stalker in no time...

With that one somber thought the Overlord decided that this was enough exploration for the night, it was time for him to return to his little master's side.

As the demi-god made his way back, he spotted a female kneeling down on both knees - her back faced him - as she hummed a peaceful tune and watered a section of the immense flower garden that encircled all around the Central Tower.

She did not wear the typical cloak and pendant that seemed to define all mages here nor did she wear the leather-ish armor that the guards used. She was clearly of a different occupation and class than the aforementioned two.

From his position the Overlord could determine that the young lady had short neck-length black hair and wore a long black-dress with folded white-cuffs, a white frilly-apron, brown boots, and a white headpiece that looked like a crown. He had seen that type of attire before at Heaven's Peak Castle and his Dark Tower as well - if he remembered correctly, Gnarl and Rose had called this a 'maid uniform' that was worn by female servants called 'maids.'

It was only mild curiosity that made him walk over to her.

The soft but undeniable crunch of the grass beneath the Overlord's boots foretold of his coming.

The maid paused in her activity and then stopped as she placed the watering-can besides her. She placed her hands on her knee and then stood up, she turned around and was about to call out to her unexpected guest but then clammed up when all she saw were the darkness all around and two glowing but towering eyes that just stared down at her.

Had she encountered a ghost? Was she about to be spirited away? Was she just about to become a helpless victim to the world of phantoms? The young woman's mind raced with the many horror stories she had heard when she but a tiny child - the outcomes were never pleasant.

In the sky a cloud slowly drifted away and her unknown guest was dramatically revealed piece-by-piece by the moonlight.

A giant of a person that was covered in black armor stood before the maid.

The servant squeaked; it was as though he had simply materialized right in front of her. It took a while for her to regain control. She gripped the hem of her apron and dress, she forced a smile onto her face and was the first to speak, "U-Um, excuse me," she said as politely as she could, "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but... perhaps you are... the half-giant warrior summoned by Miss Valliere, c-correct?"

The maid dreaded for her safety.

As far as she knew, half-giants were rather fierce with the women that caught their fancy and there was little to nothing the maid could do if one decided to take her. It was even worst with the case of a familiar half-giant because - as she was a servant to the academy - she would be required to service and fulfill the needs of the familiar or otherwise face the wrath of a Noble. She could, of course, always quit and leave but that wasn't possible if a half-giant simply forced the issue beforehand.

She truly dreaded for her safety.

Meanwhile, the Overlord got a better look at the female servant.

A small blue jewel was attached at the base of her neck - in front of her white collar - and had a orange-yellow cravat fastened underneath it. Her eyes appeared to be a shade of dark-blue that was very similar to almost being gray. The form of her body was fairly shapely and befitting of a young woman at or near the age of adulthood. Meanwhile, the shape and form of her face had a tinge of foreignness to it - though he was not exactly sure what it was that made her seem different.

In terms of beauty the maid would be slightly above average. In other words: she was not captivating to gaze upon but she not unpleasant to look at either.

It was quite awkward for the maid when Valliere's Familiar did not answer her at all and the silence continued on.

Once again, the female servant spoke up first, "I-I am Siesta of Tarbes and, as you can see, I am a maid in s-service to the school," she spoke with a twitching smile, "Is there anything I can d-do for you, um, Sir Knight?" Inside she hoped that the half-giant would just leave her alone already; she wanted to run away but such an act would probably excite - rather than incite - him.

Silence continued to reign between them, it was so quiet that the sound of the chirping insects and the snore of the nearby sleeping beasts could be easily heard.

Moonlight was wasting and Siesta still had duties to perform. 'Oh Founder, save me,' she prayed. Her choices came down to two: she could either risk the half-giant at night or risk the Nobles at morning. It was a difficult choice for Siesta, as that ultimately came down to whether she valued her purity or her job more.

The maid gulped.

With her family's current situation, money was an absolute necessity - it was the very reason she took up being a maid here and worked both a day and night shift. Likewise, Siesta could not afford to be fired or just quit from Tristain Academy Of Magic as information like that would forever shame her in the eyes of Nobles; an uppity-commoner would never be able to find a decent job again and there were very few Commoner-businesses that could pay her as well as this school did - if she could get in and work there, anyways.

'Oh dear Founder, protect me!'

Siesta bowed her head and spoke as smoothly as she could, "W-Well, if you don't need anything from me, Sir Knight, then please excuse me... I need to get back to work. Good night," sadly, her throat choked near the end and caused her to cough, "AAhemm...!" With a flustered expression the maid quickly knelt back down, picked up the watering can, and continued her current task of watering the garden.

She tried to hum a song but it was not quite as peaceful sounding like the one from before.

The Overlord chuckled in the inside, the girl's reaction was something he had experienced many times before. However, there was one notable difference: she continued to work diligently. Many of times the servants would merely excuse themselves and leave; this was the first time that someone had bothered to keeping working in his presence.

Siesta trembled, 'Why hasn't he left yet? Don't tell me?! Is... is he staring at my behind? Is... is he imagining about ripping off my clothes and then pushing his large self onto me?!' Wild scenarios ran through the maid's mind. Amusingly though, the products of her imagination were primarily based upon the many raunchy and risque novellas and novels that she often read in her free-time.

She squirmed yet grew warm under her own vivid imagery.

"U-Um...! T-The moons are b-beautiful today, a-a-aren't they?!"

She tried to start a conversation to push the direction of her thoughts elsewhere but she did not succeed as she simply imagined a deep and powerful baritone voice that could seduce her under the moonlight.

However, the Overlord paused as he singled out and dissected the maid's word.

He shifted his head upward looked into the sky but saw nothing. He then slowly turned around and a hint of blue entered the corner of his eyes, soon more and more blue filled his vision and eventually even red was within his sight. Every muscle within his body twitched at what he saw.

Up high in the night sky, amongst the brilliant stars, there were two moons - one red and one blue - side by side in orbit for all to see.

It was always a possibility, he knew, but this now confirmed it.

He subconsciously clenched his fists in discomfort.

The Overlord had been freed from the Abyss... but he was nowhere near home and this was not his world.

Author Notes

Hello there, readers!

To my new readers (of this story or otherwise), thank you for reading this story and I hope you'll enjoy it!

Now then, to my old and returning readers of Zero's Noble Overlord, I really have to apologize to you all. Zero's Noble Overlord was the first story I had ever posted on FanFiction and at around 125000 words, more than 250 Reviews, about 400 Favorites, and nearly 400 Follows, it was also one of my most biggest and most popular stories (in fact, ZNO has been getting Favs and Fols despite the lack of updates; which is a very pleasant surprise especially because around 200 Favs and 200 Fols have occurred since the last update).

However, Zero's Noble Overlord was also therefore my earliest experimental story in terms of, well, everything. As I wrote more stories, I eventually figured out what kind of writing style and narrative began to suit me best. Finally, I just began to hit the point were ZNO's style didn't come to me as naturally as it use to and writing a new chapter felt like I had to fake my old one just to match.

But I was always hesitant to label Zero's Noble Overlord as either in a Hiatus or Discontinued because I had yet to actually give up, become tired of the story, or truly become pulled away from it. So now while I'm quite sad to announce that - with the release of this reboot - ZNO is officially going under as Discontinued, I am also quite happy to announce that the reboot is (of course) finally here and the story of the little pinked-haired girl and her demi-god familiar has returned.

Once again, I really want to apologize to leaving you readers and this adventure for hanging so long until now. While I also would like to say that I'm back but I'm unfortunately a bit of a story-hopper...

Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and whatever else!

World Notes

This segment shall be dedicated to explaining the differences between Zero's Noble Overlord and Strawberry And Knight that I feel like pointing out (or has been requested by reviewers). It shall also be used to explain additional background stuff whenever I feel like it.

Loads of bonus information but not necessary to read to enjoy the main-story. Please feel free to skip.

[...]

Height: Originally, in Zero's Noble Overlord, I had placed the Overlord at around 12-feet tall because due to some camera angles he can end up easily more than twice the size of the average person in the Overlord game (how tall the average person is in the Middle-Domains is an entirely different matter too...). After a bit more reviewing, for Strawberry And Knight, I have decided to make the Overlord around 8'5-feet tall with his armor on (no, that's not inflated from his generally spiky helmet either), so he's still impressively taller - and not to forget also overall larger - than most people.

Comparatively, I'm going to say that the average Halkegenian Male is around 5'3ft tall and that Mages tend to be at least one-to-two inch taller than their Commoner counterpart at 5'5ft; further comparatively, the average Germanian Male is about one-to-two inch taller and their mages are around one-to-three inch taller (so 5'5ft to 5'8ft average). Meanwhile, Halkegenian Females tend to be around one-inch shorter than the average male (so 5'2ft to 5'4ft, with Germanian Females at 5'4ft to 5'7ft).

Basically, the Overlord is (if I'm not wrong) about 3-heads taller than the average Male Halkegenian and nearly 4-heads taller than the average Female Halkegenian and still - of course - too large to enter your typical Halkeginian household without damaging something.

However, just for fun, I want to mention that Louise (who is often called little) is canonically - at least according to the Familiar Of Zero Wikia - 5'4ft tall (165cm) which is actually fairly average for a female in the real world, Tabitha is about 4'7ft tall (142cm), and Kirche is about 5'6ft tall (171cm). But in Strawberry And Knight their respective heights are going to be 5ft, nearly 4'7ft, and 5'7ft (though exact measurements will probably never be given in the actual story).

[...]

Language: In terms of pronunciation and accents Tristainic is sorta French, Germanic is sorta German, Gallic is sorta Italian, Romalic is sorta Romanian, Albianic is sorta Welsh, and Halkeginic is sorta Latin. Mid-Domainic is sorta English (though the Overlord has no trouble understanding other languages because of magic).

In terms of writing, the lettering for Halkeginic is sorta Greek overall but especially true for Tristainic and Albianic. Germanic writing has some Macedonian, and Romalic has some Yiddish. Meanwhile, Mid-Domainic is sorta Russian with Serbian.

[...]

Mythology: In Strawberry And Knight, Ancient Halkeginia lore - before the times of the Founder - is primarily based from real-world Norse, however is also mixed with a few other real-world mythologies (such as Roman) when the Founder did appear and united the different (but then still tribal) countries.

[...]

Stones: There a large variety of real-life minerals, stones, and metals; however, I am no expert in them so I'll be using (mostly) fake variants if and when I need to name them.

[...]

Tristain Academy Of Magic: The Center Tower (Center-Dot) surrounded by the Dorms (Middle-Triangle) and then the Outer-Walls (Outer-Pentagon) was actually something I had originally designed for use in Zero's Noble Overlord (and any other future The Familiar Of Zero fics) as a way for me to comprehend the school's layout (and add extra extravagance and maybe perhaps a feeling of excessive decadence).

As far as I can tell, canonically, there's the outer-walls, the five towers that each represent an element (with four of them have bridges that are connected to the center tower), a servant's quarter, a stable, and the central tower.

The Headmaster's Office, the Artifact Vault, and the place where the Ball Of Frigg is held is apparently inside the Central Tower, meanwhile the classes are held inside the Five Towers. That of course leaves me rather confuse on where everything else, such as the large bath, the kitchen, the large dining room, dorms, etc.

The school - as far as I know - has canonically around 300 students (three tables that can seat 100 student each, each table is reserved for a single year), guess-work wise perhaps more than 12+ (I assume that there's one for all the elements except Void and one for each year, so 4+4+4) teachers along with at least 50-100 servants, but I don't recall ever seeing or reading about any normal guards. At a population of less than 500, it's hard to imagine most of them fitting inside the Central Tower for nearly everything (again, that includes their dorms and such).

Therefore, I am using this 'Pentagon to Triangle to Dot' design to divide things more easily.

I had originally not used this idea before because when I had drawn the designs I had also included all of the bridges (even for Void, which shouldn't have one). However, the bridges intersected with at least one of the dorm towers, but if I tried to rotate them while keeping the balanced aesthetic of a triangle then one of them would have been built directly on the path that led straight to the Central Tower.

So it was either: 'Don't use a bridge for Void' or 'Don't use this idea at all.'

This time I settled for the third option: 'Don't use bridges.'

[...]

Dorms: In Strawberry And Knight, there are 300 Students and 3 Dorms with the separation at 100 Students per year and per dorm. Therefore the Dorms are divided into 10 Floors (not including the bottom-floor or the two top-floor) with ten students living per floor, which is then further split in half between male and female. Because the students are nobles, they each get their own private room and each room is quite grand - their room consists of a personal-bathroom, a closet-room, a dedicated bedroom, and a sizable living room.

[...]

Moons: In Zero's Noble Overlord, I had chosen the color of the moons to be blue and green as I enjoyed the gentle atmosphere of it. However, this time, I chose the canonical red and blue due to the contrast of alien-ness between them.