Author's note: Hello again everyone. This chapter update comes a bit sooner than expected since I have a lot of free time at the moment xD.
Now I would like to answer to my reviewers. Firstly allow me to thank you all for reading my work, and even wrote reviews for it, I'm very grateful. This is gonna be a bit long since there are many questions, but please bear with me.
I was asked whether Shirou is Gandalfr or Windalfr. My answer is that he's Gandalfr, and I'm very sorry for mistaking the rune's position, it should be on his left hand, not his right.
From now on, please assume that the rune was on his left from the start.
And there were some reviews stated that Rin broke up with Shirou is out of character. No it isn't. And for the "Why is that?", all I can say at the moment is: As the story go on, you will get to the answer, both about why Shirou was chased by the Enforcers, and his break up with Rin. I will reveal information on that matter bit by bit.
Also anything that's related to the Grail or Grail War up until now is just an assumption on Shirou's part. He may be right, or maybe wrong. It will all be revealed later in the story. At the moment, he just doubt that there was a mistake when the summoning ritual was performed. And yes, Servant is a kind of familiar too. But it's just Shirou's pride that made him want to be addressed as a "Servant" instead of a "familiar".
About the matter that Shirou saw Louise as "cute" after just falling out with Rin, I don't think there's a problem. It's just an impression he had on her at the moment, they just kissed, remember? That doesn't make him a blushing schoolboy in my opinion.
And finally there are some reviews that said my work is somehow similar to Gabriel blessing's Hill of Swords. Then yes, I admit that they resemble somewhat. But I assure you, this isn't a "copy, paste, with a little edition on my part" version of HoS.
I agree that Hos was my inspiration, that's why they got some resemblances at the start. Yes, only at the start. Since what really inspired me wasn't the story of HoS. But it was the fact that I couldn't stand Shirou's characterization in there. Truth is, I stopped reading at the part where ( HoS spoiler warning !)...Shirou chopped Wardes in half. While Gabriel is my favorite author, and I absolutely love his "Fate In Fight", I just couldn't stand to see Shirou as he is in HoS.
That being said, from this chapter on you will see how my work's different from HoS. From the timeline of events, to how I characterize Shirou and other characters. Although it's still sticking to canon at the moment, you will start to see diversion at the next chapter. But as I mentioned, important events of canon is being kept.
Now go on with the chapter itself: This chapter is intended for introducing characters, so it maybe a bit chatty, with a lot of conversations. At first I planned to include the duel with Guiche in here too, but it got a bit too long, so I decided that has to wait until Chapter 3. And this chapter is a bit longer than the last one, since I only treated Chapter 1 as a prologue. So from now on, each chapter's length will be around this much.
Finally, it's true that the pairing is still undecided, I was just taking the opportunity to develope potential heroines as much as I can. And since there aren't anyone else beside Louise at the moment, it's only natural that I will be focusing on her. ( Well we have Siesta at the end of this chapter too, so one more girl to work with.)
I would like to hear your ideas and suggestions on how the pairing should go, please give me your opinion on what couple do you think is the best xD.
And that concluded the "Author's note" for this chapter. Sorry for rambling too long. If you have any idea/ critique/ question/ etc... please feel free to post. They are much appreciated.
**Story begins**
I woke up, slowly opened my eyes to the unfamiliar scene around me. "Where am I?" I wondered for a moment, before realising that this is Louise's room.
"Ah, that's right, I was summoned here yesterday, wasn't I?" Sleepily mumbled, I rose up from my so called "bed", shook my head a bit from the sleepiness.
Well then, it's time to wake Louise up. I walked to the closet first, took out a set of uniform, placed them neatly beside the bed, and look at my Master. Her face while sleeping was so peaceful, almost made me regret having to bring back the other side of her personality by waking her up.
"Master, please wake up." I gently called out for her.
"Eh?...Who are you?" Asked Louise as she turned around and opened her eyes a little.
"It's me, Shirou. Please wake up, it's morning already."
"Ah...Okay..." She sat up, but still hasn't out of it yet.
"I have prepared your uniform here" I pointed to the neatly folded clothes "And I will be waiting outside for you to change."
"Eh...?"
"Please come out when you are done, Master." With that, I left the room before Louise started stripping in front of me like last night.
**Scene break**
Standing in the hallway, I started to look around. It was a refreshing morning, with the sunlight gently shine through the windows, light up the scenery before me. It's just like looking at a beautiful picture.
It's really strange, this world. Although I haven't been here for long, there are many things that got my interest as well as curiousity. "And I didn't have to worry about my pursuers here either, all the more reasons to remain here." I told myself.
"But how long is it gonna last?" Another voice in my head spoke up. Could I ever return home? There are many people that I cared about back in my world, Fuji-nee, Sakura, Issei... I knew that they are also worrying about me right now, as much as I am for them.
And there's Rin too... I could feel my heart ached at the thought of her...
I knew that as I'm now I will only bring danger to all of them. But no one can predict the future afterall. What if - just what if - I had a chance to return, freed of any crime that placed upon me, then what would I do? Continue to remain here with my Master, or sever the contract with Rule Breaker, leave her, and go back to my world?
"Bam!" The door to Louise's room bursted open, stopped my train of thoughts as I quickly looked up, suprised. And there stood my Master, she was shooting me glares, looking obviously angry.
"What's wr..." Just as I managed to open my mouth...
"What's wrong? You stupid familiar, who gave you the permission to leave the room?" She wasn't yelling, but her voice is irriated.
"Uhmm...I was supposed to leave so that you can change, wasn't I?"
"No you wasn't! As my familiar, your duty is to stay there and help to change your master's clothes."
Ughh...Sorry, what? Did she really just say that I was supposed to change her clothes? What is she? A doll?
"Now, please listen to me, Master. At least you can do that much yourself." My voice rose out of irriation without me realising. I could figure out that the kids here are somewhat spoiled. But to be THAT spoiled...
"And that's how you talk back to your master? After not completing your duty?" She snapped at me.
"You are being unreasonable, Master. You are at least awared that you just asked a guy to dress you up right?" I could feel the anger slipping slowly into my voice now.
"You are not a guy, you are familiar, a dog, nothing more. And I forbid you from talking back to me like that, your breakfast is cut off for today!" Now she's really yelling.
Later when I was already calmed down, I knew that I shouldn't have let anger taken over me. But still, if only I could think like that at this moment...
"Then I guess I won't need it either." I shook her off coldly, and then quickly turned around to get the hell out of here before she could yell at me again.
Well, at least that's what I planned to do, before the door right next to me flew open. I had to hit my emergency break to prevent my entire face from kissing it with full power of the dash.
From inside the room, appeared a girl with long flaming red hair. She was tall, almost the same height as me, and had a charming face. Her skin was tanned, her shirt unbuttoned the two top buttons, revealed an impressive cleavage. Her entire looks gave off the aura of wealth and natural beauty. Basically, she's the exact opposite of Louise when it comes to charming points.
"Good morning, Louise." Said the girl, with a big smile.
On the other hand, Louise just frowned. "Good morning...Kirche."
"You know, I was wondering, who would've made such loud noises in the hallway at this early hour." Kirche said jokingly.
"And what's your problem?"
"Oh no nothing, I'm just curious. Why did you end up agruing with your familiar anyway?"
"It's...It's not your business!" Louise snapped at her.
"Aha, I guess that's true." Said the red head as she threw a quick glance at me, and then back to Louise again. "But you know, eventhough it's hard to believe, I think it's just like you to summon a commoner as your familiar." Her smile got even bigger.
"That's..." Louise mumbled as her face flushed scarlet, but couldn't find out anything to say.
"Ahaha, don't worry about it. Now let me show you, if you are going to get a familiar, at least make it good like this. Flame!"
From behind her a large, dark-red lizard slithered out. I could feel a wave of heat hit me.
"A salamander?" My eyebrow shoot up as I said in amazment.
"Ohh... Despite being a commoner, he seems to know his stuffs." Kirche's look turned to me, her eyes full of suprise. "That's right! A salamander! See, look at the tail. A flame this vivid and large means it's without a doubt from the Fire Dragon Mountains! It's like a brand! Collectors can't even put a price on these!"
"That's nice..." Louise said bitterly.
"Isn't it? And by the way, what's your name, familiar?"
"Emiya Shirou." Still irriated, I didn't even try to correct her about me being a Servant.
"Hmm... What a strange name."
"Is it really that strange?"
"Yes, yes it is. Look, I got to go now, and you should too if you don't want to be late for breakfast, Louise." Kirche said, stroke her flaming hair and disappeared down the staircase, the salamander quickly follow its master with a cute movement not suited for it at all.
And that left me alone with Louise, now that my anger has cooled down, I started to feel bad for her.
"Umm...Master?" I called her hesitantly.
"What do you want?" She snapped, glared at me. Her face burned up with anger as she remembered that we just had our first fight ever. And trust me, I don't think this will be the last.
"Um...Please don't feel too bad..." And right at the moment those words left my mouth, I realised that it was a stupid thing to say in my position, as I was the reason for her anger in the first place. And it looked like she was thinking the same.
"It's not your business. Look, that girl always get on my nerve, and now you too, eventhough you are my familiar. You just said you didn't need breakfast. right? And you were about to run off too. So go away." Louise was on verge of tear as she yelled at me, but somehow managed to held herself back. She dashed past me before turning around one more time "And don't follow me!". Then, she finally stormed off.
Looked at her, I let out a heavy sigh. What a troublesome girl.
**Scene break**
"Stupid Shirou!" Louise though as she tried to held back the tear, while going to the dinning hall. "You are my familiar, you are supposed to listen to my orders, not to talk back like that! And now that Kirche found another reason to make fun of me too..."
Actually, deep down inside, Louise knew that part of that was her fault too. If only she wasn't lose her cool and started yelling at her familiar in the first place... But then again, she was just too stubborn to admit it. Instead, she just made up reasons to cover for her true thoughts.
"Maybe it's because of me, I'm just Louise the Zero, not only I summoned a commoner as my familiar. But now that commoner doesn't listen to me as well..."
And that thought made her even sadder...
**Scene break**
"Ahh, Louise's really angry this time, isn't she?" I though while strolling around in front of the dinning hall. Actually, I was waiting for Louise to finish her breakfast, so I could apologize. I knew she told me not to follow her, but still...
That being said, now I have a bit of time to kill before my Master comes out. And since there were a lot of other familiars also gather here to wait for their masters, I decided to take a look at them.
There are so many kinds of familiar. From normal creatures like cats, owls, or ravens, plus some snakes creeping around over there. To some really strange ones, that huge mole for example, it had thick and glossy brown fur, a big nose, and two huge paws in front, I wondered who was its master. And after looking around some more, I though I caught a glimpse of a Basilisk. Finally, to my suprise when I turned around, and for God's sake, my heart almost leapt out of my mouth, a giant floating eyeball was...well...floating right behind me. Our faces, or my face and its eye to be exact, almost touched.
Quickly took several steps back to get away from the strange creature, I saw something flying, something really big. After awhile, when it actually got close enough for me to see clearly, my jaw dropped in shock as I finally figured out what it really is. That was a Dragon, a huge, blue, and most importantly, still alive Dragon was flying over my direction, and landed in front of me.
"Kyuruuu!" It made a sound and then stared at me. I stared back too, but that was mostly because of the shock that made me unable to even take my eyes of the creature.
A live Dragon! I wondered how many magus from my world nowaday can have a chance like this, maybe not even in their lifetime. But here I am, witnessing the impossible, well at least it's impossible in my world anyway. Where did it come from? Is it dangerous?...
"Kyruuru!" I snapped back into reallity as the creature made a second noise, and retreated several more steps away from it. What should I do if it really was dangerous?
Just as I was being troubled, the dinning hall's door openned, and someone came out. "Is that Louise?" I startled. "She needs to get her back inside right now, or else..."
But when that person spoke, I realised that wasn't my Master.
"Don't worry, Sylphid's my familiar." Her voice sounded calm. But even so, I still didn't take my eyes off of the Dragon.
Slowly, the girl walked pass me and get in front of the creature. She's short, only a bit taller than Louise. She had a small, petite figure, with short blue hair, glasses on her eyes. On one hand, she was holding a wooden staff, and a book in the other, which seemed to be the main object of her focus at the moment.
"Let's go, Sylphid." Said the girl as she walked away slowly, still reading her book, and the Dragon started to follow. Then the door to the dinning hall flew open again.
"Wait for me, Tabitha!" That was Kirche. She shouted and ran over to the blue girl.
"Oh, nice to see you again, Louise's commoner." Finally noticed me, the red head turned back and said with a smile. And before I was able to reply, she once again turned to her friend. "Let's go to class, Tabitha."
Didn't even look up, Tabitha gave her a small nod. Then the two walked away.
"So that was the Dragon's master eh?" My body started to relax now that I'm alone again. That Tabitha girl is amazing. Despite her small appearance, she managed to summon that kind of monster, she must be really strong.
That reminded me, had Louise come out yet? The encounter with a legendary creature made me almost forgot my intention of apologizing to her.
And there she is. I quickly walked over when a small figure with long strawberry-blonde hair appeared from the hall. But Louise's face clouded when she saw me.
"What do you want? Didn't I tell you not to follow me?"
"Yes, you said that, but..."
"Then what are you doing here? Disobey my order again?" She threw me a glare.
"Look, I just wanted to apologize for what happened this morning. I didn't mean to make you angry."
"Oh yeah? But that can't change the fact that you did. I don't want to see your face right now, so don't follow me again."
And there she stormed off again... Why is that girl so difficult to deal with? I shrugged and let out another big sigh. It couldn't be helped. For now, I should just wait until she's cooled down before trying to apologize again.
**Scene break**
It's lunchtime. When most of the students and their familiars gathered at the dinning hall, I found myself wandering around the courtyard, not doing anything in particular. The reason for me being here at this time mostly because of my Master's anger, I still hadn't tried to talk to her again yet since I'm afraid that she would just shrug me off one more time.
Beside it's nice to be here. Eventhough it was middle of the day, the sunlight wasn't too strong, and the wind gently blowing. It gave me a feeling of freedom when I stood here, all alone like this.
Oh wait, I wasn't exactly alone like I though. In the laundry area, there was a girl in maid uniform, holding a huge bucket of water that seemed to big for herself. Her steps were unsteady because of the weight.
"I should give her a hand." I though, approaching the girl.
"Excuse me?"
"Eepp!"
She startled, almost dropped the bucket on her feet.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you at all. Are you alright?
"No it's okay, I'm fine." The maid looked up, and seemed to recognize me, her eyes went wide in suprise. "Are you Miss Valliere's familiar? Mr...Umm..."
"I'm Shirou. Emiya Shirou." I told her. Now that we are standing closely, she's actually cute, short black hair and blue eyes. She gave off the aura of a nice and sweet girl. But most importantly, it's... something about her appearance that I found myself very familiar with. I just couldn't figure it out right away.
"Ah that's right. Mr. Shirou. I'm sorry." She said while bowing down.
"Oh no no, don't worry about it. Please lift your head." I hurrily told her. "You know about me?"
"Yes, there are a lot of rumors about you going on around here afterall. And my name is Siesta. I'm a maid at this Academy." Her face bright up with a cheerful smile.
Siesta's smile is so carefree. Just look at it make me feel happy too.
Wow, this is my first time seeing a real maid. But since there are a lot of noble kids here, I guess it was also reasonable to have maids to serve them.
"It's nice to meet you, Siesta." I said, pointed to the bucket she was carrying. "May I give you a hand with that? It seems heavy."
"Ah please, if you don't mind."
And so, I helped her carry the bucket over to the laundry area. And just when I was about to leave, a rumbling noise came from my stomach. Only then I realised that I hadn't eaten anything at all since yesterday. My mind was too occupied with Louise and the encounter with that Dragon. "Great, just great." My face started to heat up a little.
"Uhm...Are you hungry?"
"Yeah..." I admited, feeling a bit embarassing.
"Then please follow me this way." Said Siesta, smiled brightly.
**Scene break**
I followed the maid to the kitchen, located at the rear of the Dinning hall. Once stepped inside, I was suprised by the number of pots and ovens lined up. And a lot of cooks and maids were busy preparing the food.
"Please wait a moment, okay?"
After having me sit in a chair, Siesta hastily dissappeared into the back of the kitchen. But soon returned with a bowl full of warm stew.
"This is some stew made from the nobles' leftovers. I hope you don't mind."
"Really? Can I eat this?" I looked at her.
"Yes. Eventhough it's just staff meal..."
"Thank you very much." I was touched with her kindness. This's so different from how Louise treated me. But I guessed I shouldn't compare, she's my Master afterall...
I scooped a bit of the stew and bring it closer. It had wonderful smell, made me wonder how would it know, even in a situation like this, I still wanted to check my food carefully before eating them, since cooking is my hobby, as well as enjoy well cooked foods.
Finally I brought the spoon to my mouth. Yes, it was delicious.
"This is so good!" I couldn't help but voice my compliment for whoever made this.
"That's wonderful. Please take your time, and there's still plenty if you want a second."
I nodded, and then continue eating. Being able to eat good food like this, it was like a dream. Siesta stood beside me, smiled sweetly all the while.
"Weren't you given anything to eat?"
"My Master is angry at me, so..." I said bitterly.
"Oh no, you shouldn't make your Master angry. She's a noble and all..."
"Ah, about that, there's something that I've been wanting to ask since I first got here. Can you please explain to me what's 'noble'? And what is 'commoner'?" Those titles had annoyed me since yesterday.
"You don't know about that?" Siesta looked at me with curiousity, since I didn't even know that basic thing. It couldn't be helped, I came from another world afterall, but there's noway I'm telling her that now.
"Yeah, you see, my homeland is pretty far from here." I told her. That wasn't really a lie either.
"Ah I see." She beamed up once again. "Then allow me to explain to you. The main difference between us commoners and the nobles is that they can use magic, but we can't. And they are obviously from a higher class than us."
"Is that all?" I asked, and the maid gave me a small nod.
Ah now that I hear about it, it really made sense, right? So basically the nobles are like aristocrats, while the commoners are...well, commoners. And the difference between them was that one could use magic and one couldn't.
That was suprisingly simple.
"I got it now, thank you, Siesta."
"You are welcome, Mr. Shirou."
"Umm... can you please drop the 'Mr' thing? It's not like I dislike it or something. But it's just... well... too formal for me, you know..."
"Really? Then is it alright for me to call you just 'Shirou'?"
"Yeah, that would be good, thank you." I smiled at her. It wasn't really a big deal, I just wasn't used to being called formally like that.
And finally finishing the stew, I returned the empty bowl to her.
"Thank you very much, that was very tasty." I said to her with a small bow.
"I'm just glad you liked it, just feel free to visit us whenever you are hungry. I'd be happy to share."
I'm touched, really. She's such a good girl.
"Thank you again. Is there anything I can do to help you? I'd like to lend you a hand." She helped me afterall, so I wanted to do something to help her back. That aside, I found this more enjoyable than doing Louise's laundry...
"In that case, please help me serve the desserts after lunchtime." Siesta said with a smile.
"Sure, gladly." I nod, and smile back.
**Scene break**
Agreed to help Siesta, I walked out to the courtyard to serve dessert. There were a lot of cakes lined up on silver trays. And as I held the trays, Siesta was serving the nobles one by one.
That was when I saw him.
He was a boy with curly blond hair, dressed in what probably a customized unifrom, with frills over it. And there was even a rose stuck in his shirt pocket too. Around him, his friends seemed like they are having fun.
"So who are you dating now, Guiche?"
"Who's your lover, Guiche?"
Apparently his name's Guiche.
"Lover?" The boy spoke up, while putting a finger over his lips. "I have no one like that. As I'm a rose, was born for the pleasure of many."
Ughh... those lines are super cheesy, made me almost wanted to look a way. The only one who would say those line that I could think of is Matou Shinji. And speaking of which, their hairstyles were similar too.
Hmm? Something fell out of his pocket, a small bottle, with some kind of liquid inside.
"Hey, you dropped something." I called him. But no respond, was he ignoring me or just didn't hear what I said?
Passed the tray I was holding back to Siesta, I picked up the bottle, and placed it on his table.
"This fell out of your pocket." I told him.
Guiche looked at me. "No, you are wrong, it's not mine." And pushed the bottle away.
But some of his friends seem to recognize the bottle and said in a loud voice.
"Hey, isn't that Montmorency's unique perfume? If you have it in your pocket, does that mean you and her..."
Before he finished the sentence, and just as Guiche was about to say something in his defense. a cute girl with chestnut-colored hair approached him from behind.
"Guiche-sama... So it's true that you are dating Miss Montmorency..."
With that, she started to cry.
"No, no, it's a misunderstanding Katie. I only have you in my heart..."
But the girl called Katie slap him across the face as hard as she could. "Goodbye!" She then stormed off.
Somehow I found myself enjoying the scene before me. Yeah, that playboy deserve it.
And it wasn't over. Right after Katie left, a girl with tightly rolled hair stood up from her seat. With a severe expression, she stood in front of Guiche.
"Just as I thought, you were hitting on that first year, weren't you?"
Guiche flinched, cold sweats ran across his forehead "Please Montmorency, it's just a misunderstanding. Don't sadden your beautiful face with anger like that..."
Montmorency grabbed a bottle of wine on the table, and poured its entire content over poor Guiche's head.
"You liar!" She yelled and stormed off.
Silence fell upon the hall.
Well then, that was quite a show. Now there's nothing left to see here, time to get back to work...
"You there, stop!"
"Yes? What's the problem?" I turned around to face the playboy.
"It's because of you that two girl's reputation has been damaged. You must take responsibility."
"Really? I thought that was because you were two-timing. Was I wrong?" I answered in a fake-suprised tone.
Guiche's friends bursted out in laughter.
"It seems that you don't know the proper manner to address a noble." His face flushed with anger.
"Oh pardon me, it's just because we don't have 'nobles' back in my homeland." I said half jokingly. Some giggles could be heard from the crowd.
"That's... That's it, if Louise the Zero can't teach you any manner, then I will have to. I challenge you to a duel."
"Ohh..." Excited voice from around us could be heard.
A duel eh? So that's how the playboy was going to do it? Bullying a commoner just because he was angry, and he called himself a noble? I sighed. Unfortunatly for him, I'm not just some commoner that he could bully.
"Very well, I accept your challenge." I told him looking straight into his eyes. Our spectators grew even more excited with my reply.
"Then I will be waiting for you at Vestri Court. Don't run away." With that, Guiche walked away. I guess I would be off too, shouldn't keep him waiting.
But just when I was about to follow him, I noticed that beside me, Siesta was looking at me, half terrified, half worrying.
"You...you've angered a noble..." Her voice trembled.
"It wasn't my fault, that boy had it coming."
"You are gonna get killed." And the maid dashed off hurrily.
"What is that? Is the playboy that strong? Well, I guess I have to figure that out myself." It was a chance for me to test the power of this world's magus, how could I let it slide? Beside, that Guiche annoyed the hell out of me. "Let's just go then."
"SHIROU!"
Being called a second time, I turned around again.
"You stupid familiar, what are you doing? Accepting random duel without your Master's permission?" Ah, that was my little Master, alright. Her face flushed up, and she was walking to me as fast as she could.
Sorry Louise, it looked like I made you angry even more, but I just couldn't let this opportunity pass.
"Go apologize to him now, and he may still forgive you." Ordered Louise.
"Excuse me, what? Noway I'm apologizing to that playboy, Master." I said, suprised.
"Yes you are, now go with me." Louise took my hand and tried to drag me with her. But I shook her off.
"I'm sorry Master, I can't do it."
With that, I started making my way to Vestri Court. Let out an angry sound, my Master started ran after me as well.
"You stupid idiot familiar! Can't you listen to my order just once?" She angrily complained...
End of Chapter 2.
