บท 8: A Pervert Named Osmond
Headmaster's Office, Tristain Academy
The Headmaster's Office was located on the topmost floor of the tower. Sir Osmond, the current Headmaster of Tristain Magic Academy, was sitting with his elbows propped on his elegantly built sequoia desk, looking unbearably bored as he shook his white beard and hair.
Idly plucking out nose hairs, he slowly murmured "hrm" and pulled open a desk drawer. From inside he procured a smoking pipe. Miss Longueville, the secretary who had been writing something at the other desk placed to the side of the room, waved her feather quill.
The pipe floated into the air and landed in Miss Longueville's palm. Sir Osmond muttered dejectedly, "Is it fun taking away an old man's little pleasures? Miss, um..."
"Managing your health is also part of my job, Old Osmond."
Sir Osmond stood up from his chair and walked up to the cool and collected Miss Longueville. Stopping behind the seated lady, he closed his eyes, his expression grave.
"If the days keep passing by so peacefully, figuring out how to spend time is going to become a rather big problem."
The wrinkles etched deeply on Osmond's face were only hints to the history of his life. People guessed him to be hundreds, even three hundred years old. But his true age no one really knew. It's possible he himself didn't remember anymore either.
"Old Osmond," Miss Longueville spoke up without taking her eyes off the feather quill that was scribbling away on the parchment.
"What is it? Miss..."
"Please stop saying you have nothing to do as an excuse to touch my bottom."
Sir Osmond opened his mouth slightly and began walking around in tottering steps.
"Please also refrain from pretending to be senile whenever a situation goes bad," Longueville added calmly. Sir Osmond sighed deeply. It was the sigh of a man bearing the weight of many troubles.
"Where do you think the ultimate truth may be? Haven't you ever wondered that? Miss..."
"Wherever it is, I assure you, it's not underneath my skirt, so please stop sneaking your mouse under the desk."
Sir Osmond's face fell, and he murmured sadly, "Mótsognir."
From under Miss Longueville's desk scurried out a little mouse. It dashed up Osmond's leg and perched on his shoulder, twitching its tiny head. He fished out some nuts from a pocket and held one out to the mouse.
"Chuchu," the mouse chittered, apparently pleased.
"You're my only truly trustworthy friend, Mótsognir."
The mouse began nibbling on the nut. It disappeared quickly, and the mouse chittered "chuchu" once more.
"Ah, yes, yes. You want more? Very well, I shall give you more. But first, I would ask that you report back, Mótsognir."
"Chuchu"
"I see. White and plain white too, hrm. But Miss Longueville should really stick to black. Wouldn't you agree, my cute Mótsognir?"
Miss Longueville's eyebrows twitched.
"Old Osmond."
"What is it?!
"The next time you do that, I'm reporting it to the palace."
"Kah! Do you think I could be Headmaster of this Academy if I was scared of the palace all the time?!"
Sir Osmond flashed his eyes wide and yelled angrily. It was an impressive display, completely unexpected of a frail-looking old man.
"Don't get all prissy just because I peeked at your underwear! At this rate, you'll never get married! Haa~~ To be young again~~ Miss..."
Old Osmond began stroking Miss Longueville's bottom without hesitation.
Miss Longueville stood up and wordlessly kicked her boss around.
"Sorry. Stop. Ow. I won't do it anymore. Really."
Old Osmond covered his head and cowered. Miss Longueville breathed heavily as she continued kicking Osmond.
"Ack! How can you! Treat a senior! In this way! Hey! Ouch!"
This "peaceful" moment was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door.
Quickly scampering to a somewhat presentable position, Old Osmond gestured for Miss Longueville to continue on with her duties, which she did after giving him one final glare.
With a wave of her quill, the door was opened allowing the pair to see the resident headache, Louise de la Valliere, who appeared to be mid way to knocking on the door again.
"Ah, Miss Valliere, what can I do for you?" Old Osmond asked with a grandfatherly tone he took with all the students in the school.
He assumed the girl had come to complain about her familiar or the lack of progress with her magic. Maybe even try to strong arm or bribe him into teaching her himself or whatever other kind of scheme noble brats like her liked to use. Well, it's not like he minded trying to help the girl for a little while. Anything to get away from the damned paperwork and monotony of the day. Plus who would say no to a good enough bribe?
"Good afternoon, headmaster. I wanted to speak with you about buying the contract of Siesta, one of the servants here at the school." Louise specified as she didn't expect the headmaster to remember the name of every single commoner employed in the school.
Osmond on the other hand was slightly bewildered as he hadn't expected that to be the reason the young girl showed up at his office directly.
"As long as you can afford it, I see no problem. But is there any particular reason you have for doing so?" Old Osmond asked with just a bit of curiosity. Even Miss Longueville stopped with her work to cast a curious glance towards the girl before shrugging and simply going to find the contract of the aforementioned servant. It wouldn't be the first time a student or other noble desired to buy a servant from the school. Normally, however, the buyers were men wanting exclusive rights to their favorite mistresses or secret lovers.
Of course, some girls wanted to poach some of the staff they had particularly grown attached to for one reason or another. Be it they somehow bonded with them, they learned a secret they shouldn't have, they were offended by the servants looks, or some other asinine reason.
It wouldn't be much trouble to fill in the position of the servant either since there were countless applicants lined up to get just about any position they could in the school. Be it teachers, cooks, servers or grounds keepers. Manpower was never a problem for the Academy. Plus they would have plenty of time to do so as typically, personal servants of students still worked around the academy due to students being preoccupied for most of the day, so they had at least until Louise graduated to have the position filled.
After the contract was bought, what the buyer did with the servant was none of their business.
"Ah! She…usually handles waking me up in the morning and might have heard something she shouldn't have." Louise explained vaguely. She still wasn't entirely sure what to do with the information Zero had given her.
A part of her fiercely fought against lying to respected authority figures. Her mother's rule of steel firmly implanted in her mind. The Rule of Steel meant she must: 'follow the rules' and not go against the right to rule given to monarchs by the Founder. Her mother hated rule-breakers more than anything. It was simple really and something she expected all of her family and her subordinates to abide by.
[A/N: Don't usually like to interrupt mid story but I felt the need to in this specific situation due to the amount of people that get the 'rule of steel' wrong in the fandom. I literally cringe every time it's used that way now. Karin's rule of steel has absolutely nothing to do with emotions. It would be idiotic to even think that considering how Louise and her family act during the entirety of the series. Heck even Karin was known as a hot headed, hair triggered badass in her younger years. She was very similar to canon Louise in that regard and would often attack first and ask questions later. The only situation it would have to do with emotions was if they had to put them aside to 'follow the rules'. So no, do not expect the rule of steel to be brought up every time Louise is sad or upset and about to cry. It has nothing to do with that and Louise is a well known crybaby at times. She has her pride but she doesn't believe in being emotionless and neither does Karin. Just wanted to get that out of the way so there are no misunderstandings later. What's stated above is all the rule entails. 'Follow the rules' and 'don't go against royalty'.]
But that is where Louise's current problems stemmed from. If Zero's claims were true, what did that mean for the princess? Was Zero not some kind of holy figure with the strongest blood relation to the founder? Did that not make her entitled to the throne? When the princess hasn't even been officially crowned yet, it was the worst time for a potential competitor to appear. What about her claims of being able to use Void magic? Hell what about her claims of Louise herself being able to use Void magic? If the church found out would they celebrate her as a Holy Maiden or would they promptly try to have her and anyone who knew about her executed?
She really should have asked Zero for proof of her claims but a part of her was afraid to do so. At this point she wasn't sure whether she wanted the claims to be true or not. Louise was only a 16 year old failure of a mage. She wasn't experienced enough to handle this kind of situation but she really didn't know who to turn to. She was beyond scared at the moment and felt like she would do something drastic unless she had some council.
Her first thought was her mother or the princess, but the both of them were off in Germania for the next week or two. Would she be able to keep the secret until then? No, she didn't think so. Heck she couldn't even prevent a common maid from over hearing about it and it was only day one! Granted even she didn't know about it then but it didn't feel good to already start with a negative like that.
She might get by if she just kept Zero locked in her room for the next week, but…in truth she felt very uncomfortable about ordering the girl around like a servant. If her claims were true, she very well could be the greatest and most important mage currently alive. What right did little Louise have to tell her what she can and can't do? The familiar contract? That was a joke. Louise was keenly aware that had Zero herself not been so susceptible to orders at the moment, there was absolutely nothing she could do to force the girl to act besides maybe annoying her to action.
What about turning to her father or her sisters? She firmly denied getting any of them involved for the time being. She really didn't know how her father would react, but she knew her eldest sister would probably try to have Zero killed so no trouble would befall their family without caring about the girl's identity. Her second sister on the other hand was incredibly ill and didn't need to worry about this kind of thing. Who knows, maybe Zero even had a way to cure her sister as well? It was a simple possibility but if she did, Louise couldn't allow Éléonore to get rid of Zero.
The next person she could think to turn to was Old Osmond himself. The man was rumored to be hundreds of years old and didn't seem to be the type that coveted power nor was he overly fond of the Church so he shouldn't kill them on the spot. He respected royalty and had held his position for several decades by now. She felt that out of everyone currently available to her, he was perhaps her only hope of figuring out what to do.
The last person she thought to turn to...was her fiancé, Viscount Wardes. Her discomfort aside, she trusted him implicitly to know what was best for her, her family and the crown. Really if she ever had any problems she should have gone to him first. It was the obvious thing to do after all. But...something prevented her from going to him first. She didn't know why but she felt that it wouldn't be good to bother him with this problem.
Louise sorely lacked people she could trust and depend on. It was one of the main reasons she was even buying Siesta's contract instead of finding some other way to silence the maid. Even if the maid didn't understand half the things she said, it would still be enough to have someone to vent to if nothing else. She didn't think it would be fair or wise to vent to Zero. Louise had the distinct impression it would cause the girl to cry if she thought she was causing Louise trouble.
"Miss Vallière? Is everything in order?" Louise was shaken from her thoughts by the voice of Miss Longueville who eyed her curiously.
Quickly getting her head back into working order, she quickly glanced over the contract and confirmed it was indeed Siesta of Tarbes. She made sure she knew where the girl lived before she got here just in case. Tarbes was pretty far away from the academy, about three days away by carriage according to Siesta.
Quickly confirming the contract, Louise and Miss Longueville spent a moment to go over Siesta's permissions and remaining duties in the academy along with collecting the severance for the contract and ensuring Louise had enough to continue paying the maid afterwards in an effort to at least appear to care about the maid's wellbeing. Louise unfortunately had to fork over just about everything she had on hand for the contract, but she would manage until her letter got to her father. It would leave her with just enough to get Zero a decent wardrobe at least and maybe a weapon or something so she wouldn't oust herself as a mage so easily.
As for Siesta, she could renegotiate the contract with the maid at a later time if it became a problem, but she highly doubted it would.
"Now if that is all, Miss Vallière," Old Osmond, having grown bored with the exchange, wanted to usher the girl out of his office so he could get back to teasing his green haired secretary. Just before he could however, the door was thrown open with a slam, and Colbert rushed inside.
"Old Osmond!"
"What is it?" Osmond said with his hands behind his back but a serious expression on his face drawing a very stark contrast.
"I-I-I have some big news!"
"There is no such thing as big news. Everything is but a collection of small events." Osmond said wisely while stroking his long white beard.
"P-P-Please take a look at this!" Colbert handed Osmond the book he had been reading. While he was doing so he noticed Louise getting ready to exit the room.
"Ah, Miss Vallière! Perfect timing, this has something to do with your familiar as well so you might want to stick around." Colbert said excitedly, not even remotely understanding the implications of what he found.
Louise on the other hand nearly froze in abject fear. She didn't know what Colbert had found but if it was anything about her familiar, about Zero, it couldn't be good. The thought to thank him for ordering the uniform completely thrown out of her mind. Rather than thank the man she even wanted to curse him instead.
Louise had to think quickly, faster than she ever had before in her life. Currently the only people not in the know about what Colbert found were herself and Miss Longueville who didn't seem to be paying any attention at all. It was already too late to prevent the two men in the room from asking more questions, but she might still be able to get the secretary out to try and contain any secrets.
"S-Sir, with all due respect, i-if it has anything to do with my familiar, I'd like it to remain as secret as possible. Would it not have been b-best to come to me first?" Louise tried to say as calmly as possible but unfortunately ended up stuttering. She was more afraid in this single moment than she had ever been in her entire life. Not even trumped by that time her mother caught her roughhousing with the princess when they were younger.
Louise was a girl raised to follow the rules and respect authority and yet here she was telling a well respected teacher many years her senior what was best. Louise was sure had she been in any other place she would have puked from the stress.
Colbert was understandably confused by the notion. Surely there was no need for such serious details. This was a momentous discovery that should be recorded and shared with the entire academy. Louise might even be able to revoke her status as a Zero with this. He supposed she had a point with it being brought to her attention first since it concerned her but the headmaster's authority superseded even that in his opinion.
He figured it must be because the girl didn't know what exactly it was he discovered. So he couldn't fault her for wanting to impede discovery. She simply didn't know any better.
Just as he was about to offer his wisdom, he was surprised when Old Osmond actually agreed with the girl!
"She's right you know, Mister, err…What was it again?" Old Osmond cocked his head.
"It's Colbert! You forgot?!"
"Right, right. Now I remember. It's just that you talked so fast I never really caught it. Anyway, Colby, it's not good to intrude on the privacy of another noble like that without their permission, even if they are still a minor. It's just bad manners. But since the damage is done, Miss Longueville, would you please excuse us for the moment?" Osmond requested his secretary without dropping his usual carefree act.
Miss Longueville simply stood up and left the room not giving the situation any additional thought. It didn't really matter to her if the little girl wanted her to know about her little pet or not. She admits she is a bit curious since it got Colbert up in a tizzy, but this was a proper excuse to take a break from that paperwork hell she had been forced into recently. Plus, anything to get away from that old pervert for a few minutes.
Osmond spoke only after he confirmed she was properly outside.
"This is "The Familiars of the Founder Brimir," is it not?" Old Osmond questioned causing Louise to freeze entirely in her place, her face paling significantly. Her heart suddenly thumped violently in her chest.
"Are you still going around digging up old literature like this? If you have time to do that, why don't you think up some better ways of collecting school fees from those slack nobles?" He grumbled aloud while looking over the book one more time.
"So, Colby, what is it about this book?"
"Please take a look at this also!"
Colbert then handed him the sketch of the runes on Zero's left hand.
The moment he saw that, Osmond's expression changed. His eyes took on a solemn light as he glanced over at the still Louise.
"Explain this to me with every detail, Mister Colbert..."
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